Tang Rou woke abruptly. As soon as she sat up and found herself in an unfamiliar bed, her fragmented memory gradually recovered. All of the blood in her face receded in an instant, leaving only tears glimmering in her eyes. 

Her mother’s persuading from the previous night still echoed in her ears. After drinking tea, her whole body became hot, her consciousness blurred. Then she was delivered here by her mother herself and stripped of her clothes, a lamb to the slaughter. She was abandoned here without concern for her dignity or reputation. 

She had lived as Tang Mu for over a decade. One moment she was working conscientiously for Nangfeng City, and the next, she received such deplorable treatment by her mother. That contrast tormented her more than any humiliation. 

Just when Tang Mu was breaking down, there was a knock on the door. Then Liu Zhenqing’s voice sounded: “Brother Tang, are you awake? It’s me and General Huo.”

Tang Rou’s head was muddled. She remembered that Liu Zhenqing was here the night before. She knew she hadn’t been bullied and that Liu Zhenqing gave her medicine, which made her feel much better…..so……she’d been found out.

Reason and despair yanked her back and forth.

But now that she was Tang Mu, ah, she had to grit her teeth and endure all the humiliation, forcing herself to deal with it calmly.

“Please wait…..” Tang Mu said with feigned serenity. In the blink of an eye, she saw a set of neat and tidy men’s clothes beside the bed. Her heart seemed to catch a sense of warmth, and she felt slightly reassured.

Once Tang Rou tidied up, she called them in.

Liu Zhenqing and Huo Fenglie entered.

Liu Zhenqing looked over and found that although Tang Rou’s eyes were distinctly lifeless, she was putting on a brave face. He couldn’t help but feel some sympathy. Just as he was about to say a few words of concern, Huo Fenglie suddenly took half a step forward to block his line of sight.

“Tang-chengzhu, please take a seat,” Huo Fenglie said coolly, still treating Tang Rou with the same attitude as before. 

Liu Zhenqing was drawn by Huo Fenglie to sit down. Tang Rou, however, did not sit. Rather, she saluted the two of them: “Apologies for causing the two of you trouble last night.”

“Please get up, I have something to say,” Liu Zhenqing said hurriedly.

Tang Rou straightened and sat down, her expression still endlessly ugly.

Liu Zhenqing smiled dryly and dove right in: “You’re Tang Rou?”

Tang Rou trembled all over. Although she knew she had to face it, she still panicked when the moment came. 

Liu Zhenqing absolutely couldn’t bear to see this, and immediately said: “You…..don’t need to worry so much. The only ones who know are me and Fenglie, and we won’t tell anyone. Do you remember what happened last night?”

Tang Rou said: “I don’t remember too much.”

Liu Zhenqing gave a simple overview of the previous night’s events.

He also particularly emphasized, “I discovered your secret when I heard your higher voice. It was the same with Fenglie later.”

He had also convinced Huo Fenglie of this last night. Although Huo Fenglie didn’t really believe him, Liu Zhenqing had many ways to deal with a disobedient Er-gou who dared to question him. He’d kissed him until his mouth softened, his heart fluttered, and his imposing manner deflated. In the end, Huo Fenglie could only say that he believed him, and didn’t dare to provoke Liu Zhenqing again.

The two of them didn’t do anything at all about the unconscious Tang Rou. After all, she was only wearing her undergarments and it wasn’t safe to send her back. It was too late at night, and Huo Fenglie had spent the day fighting, so the two of them went back to Liu Zhenqing’s room to rest.

Hearing the special emphasis Liu Zhenqing placed on his words, Huo Fenglie glanced at him noncommittally. 

Liu Zhenqing smiled at him and winked, his eyes full of ambiguity. This made Huo Fenglie feel the lingering fear of the past, when he’d become increasingly unable to resist Qing-ge’s kisses. 

In fact, Tang Rou remembered that she had lost control and embraced Liu Zhenqing, but seeing Liu Zhenqing avoid it like this, whether it was out of respect for her or because he feared the person next to him would be jealous, Tang Mu went along with it. 

“Both of you are…..good people! I’m so fortunate. Otherwise, I’d be…..” As Tang Rou spoke, she took out the willow leaf jade pendant. 

Tang Rou did this to comfort herself, but it caused the two people opposite her to fall into a strange, awkward atmosphere.

It turned out that the person who admired Liu Zhenqing back then was not Tang Mu, but Tang Rou. This was reasonable. Liu Zhenqing touched his chin in discomfort. So he had gifted the jade pendant to Tang Rou? 

Huo Fenglie looked at such a Liu Zhenqing and knew that he must have unintentionally flirted with the young girl. After all, she’d even called him Xiting. His eyes darkened and he said directly: “Why did you pretend?”

The corners of Liu Zhenqing’s lips twitched and he gave Huo Fenglie a glance. So straightforward? 

Tang Rou was no ordinary woman. When faced with this question, she took a deep breath and said, still using Tang Mu’s voice: “The original City Lord was my elder brother, until something happened to Prime Minister Liu.”

Liu Zhenqing was taken aback. How was this related to him?

Tang Rou said: “When something happened to Prime Minister Liu, the entire Great Zhou Dynasty was collecting evidence of his crimes, and his deeds in Nanfeng City became a top priority. But the truth isn’t what they said. Prime Minister Liu was actually……benevolent to our Tang family.

“……Benevolent?” Huo Fenglie looked sideways at Liu Zhenqing.

“One of you knew Prime Minister Liu for many years, and the other is his kin. Would you like to hear the truth behind those rumors?”

“Please do.”

Liu Zhenqing looked at Tang Rou with a sigh. Back then, he’d said to never mention the truth to anyone. This was their due.

But no matter how complicated Liu Zhenqing’s mood was, Tang Rou opposite them seemed to have been waiting for this day, waiting to tell others the truth.

At the same time, in the military camp, a person was seized and dragged to Dai Tingyu.

Dai Tingyu regarded the captured man with puzzlement.

“This man was smuggled in from the Western Shu Kingdom. Some subordinates saw him sneaking around, and he seemed to be hiding something.”

Dai Tingyu was happy to directly give him a beating, but the man spoke tremulously. Someone had bribed him to tell the people of Nanfeng City the truth of Nanfeng City’s fall over a decade ago.

“Does he intend to orchestrate internal chaos within our ranks?” Dai Tingyu mocked, “Can’t your King of Western Shu do something more impressive?”

The newcomer no longer dared to lie. He could only certify that it was true he was bribed, but that the truth he spread was also the genuine truth.

Because the truth of back then was known most clearly by the Western Shu Kingdom, which had been deceived.

Everyone back then knew that there were external and internal troubles within the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they all wanted to step on it and get a piece of the pie. Thus, the King of Western Shu invaded Nanfeng City. It was said that Tang-chengzhu  and the city’s defenders were struggling to hold their own while waiting for rescue. As a result, Prime Minister Liu killed the old City Lord not long after he arrived and offered his head to appease Western Shu, intending to negotiate peace talks that involved ceding Nanfeng City. In the end, the new City Lord Tang Mu led a counterattack and saved the day. Therefore, the people of Nanfeng City were grateful to the Tang family and resented Prime Minister Liu.

Most of Dai Tingyu’s subordinates were locals from Nanfeng City, and naturally knew all about this. Because of their veiled attitudes toward Liu Zhenqing, Dai Tingu had always thought that Huo Fenglie and Tang Mu must know the inside story. When he heard the other party’s words, and it was the King of Western Shu who sent him to spread the news, he sensed something fishy and had his trusted aides remain while he questioned the man personally.

“Let’s see how your story goes!” Dai Tingyu’s subordinates were naturally skeptical, and spat out this sentence.

The prisoner trembled, saying: “In fact, our king bribed the Old City Lord back then, and the reason your city’s defenders constantly lost battles was because the old city lord kept funneling information to us in order to help us besiege Nanfeng City. The beautiful concubine at his side at the time was a spy sent by our Western Shu Kingdom. The old city lord agreed to flee Nanfeng City for Western Shu, and also provided us with a map of the city defenses.” 

As soon as he spoke these words, he was punched and kicked by the others. That the hero in their hearts could be slandered with such empty words was simply ridiculous and insulting to their intelligence! How could they possibly endure it?

The prisoner was beaten until he shouted: “I’m really not lying! Think about it, wasn’t there suddenly a beautiful woman at the Old City Lord’s side back then whom he loved and cherished very much? Do any of you know that beauty’s origin? In order to make the Old City Lord prove his resoluteness, our king also told him to kill his wife and children to prove that he truly intended to leave. Wasn’t there a fire in your City Lord’s manor? The Old City Lord’s wife and children were nearly burned to death, and even accused us of sending people to do it when in fact, it was your own Old City Lord demonstrating his loyalty to our king.”

A few people were moved. They were still young back then and naturally wouldn’t have much knowledge. But there had indeed been a beauty at the Old City Lord’s side, and the man and his wife had quarreled over it for days. This gossip had reached their ears, and as for the fire, it had been witnessed by everyone in the city.

Burn his wife and children to death? Then Tang Mu also…..no wonder Tang Mu never missed having his father there. Even when others praised his father, he always scoffed. Dai Tingyu gradually became inclined to believe this confession, and his expression turned ugly.

“It was just that…..he didn’t expect Tang Mu to escape and meet Prime Minister Liu, who had arrived with reinforcements. After working together to rescue everyone in the Tang family from the fire, they discovered something strange about the blaze and realized that the Old City Lord had colluded with our Western Shu. So they killed the Old City Lord, then used the trick of offering his head to deceive the military officials of Western Shu and fought them together. Only then did the crisis in Nanfeng City end.”

The others could no longer listen when the prisoner said this. “You’re talking nonsense, how could it be possible for Prime Minister Liu to…..the lies you speak are unreasonable. Since the person your people bribed was killed, how could you still be fooled into coming to Nanfeng City?!”

He must be lying. The Old City Lord was good, and the treacherous Prime Minister Liu was bad. This was just a lie to confuse them. Some of them were already so agitated that they wanted to take out their swords and kill this prisoner.

They heard the prisoner hastily shout out an explanation: “Because at that time, didn’t you all hear that he was a traitor? Our Western Shu Kingdom also believed it to be true. A treacherous official is easy to bribe, and would be more effective than the Old City Lord. Our kingdom thought that he wanted to replace the Old City Lord when it came to making a deal with us, and we were naturally happy to do so. But we didn’t expect that everything was fabricated. It was our king who was deceived by Prime Minister Liu and set himself up as an easy target. At that time, the Western Shu Kingdom suffered heavy losses. It was rumored that our king said that as long as Prime Minister Liu was still in power, there could be no thoughts of taking advantage of Great Zhou, so we gave up attacking it.”

When the prisoner said this, he saw everyone regarding him with dark expressions and said quickly: “I’m telling the truth. I’m not lying to you. How else could the few remaining brats of the Tang family lead people to kill our general, ah? In fact, it was all due to Prime Minister Liu.”

Other than Dai Tingyu, the expressions of everyone present changed drastically. What they had just heard…..how could they believe it?

How could it be possible that the person they had criticized for over a decade and the person they had been grateful to for over a decade could be wrong?

“No evidence…..you have no evidence!”

Although much of the logic was correct, they couldn’t believe anything without evidence.

“It’s definitely not true, ah. How is it possible that the Old City Lord could be like this? He was a person of the Great Zhou Dynasty and our beloved City Lord,” one person argued.

“Right, the Tang family has guarded Nanfeng City for generations. Not only the Old City Lord, but even previous generations, firm and unyielding…..”

The prisoner could only explain: “Our king originally promised the Old City Lord that if he came to the Western Shu Kingdom, he would be a nobleman. A noble in our kingdom was assigned many manor lands and thousands of slaves, which was much better than being a city lord who may be attacked by us at any time. How much is the salary of your city lords?”

This sentence angered everyone, but…..they couldn’t refute for a moment. Even a tiger doesn’t eat its cubs, but the Old City Lord did love the beautiful concubine at that time. Perhaps some people really could abandon everything for wealth and glory. 

They dared not think it. But someone had another thought.

“It’s still not right. If the Old City Lord really betrayed Nanfeng City, it would be a serious crime. The treacherous minister…..why would a person as lofty and powerful as Prime Minister Liu allow rumors to slander him, then support the current city lord’s ascent to power…..”

This time, Dai Tingyu spoke before the prisoner could: “Because the Great Zhou Dynasty was suffering from internal and external troubles at that time. Nanfeng City is a border fortress, and the morale of the army and the common people could not be disturbed, nor their resentment aroused. As long as ‘Tang-chengzhu performed a meritorious service and the Old City Lord died with honor and glory,’ the reputation of the Tang family would be ironclad. Like this, the stability of Nanfeng City would continue, and the enemy would not be given the chance to wantonly harass Great Zhou.”

It was just a bad reputation. Didn’t Prime Minister Liu already have a bad reputation? He wouldn’t have cared at all.

As long as Prime Minister Liu took on this notoriety, the people of Nanfeng City would band together with weapons pointing outward to build the strongest city wall.

This was the result Prime Minister Liu wanted. It was also his benevolence to the Tang family.

What Dai Tingyu heard was that Tang Mu’s involvement in the arrest of the Old City Lord should be due to his righteousness in holding a family member accountable. Faced with a father who wanted to personally exterminate them and commit treason, as a loyal official of the Tang family, he would not be merciful. Thus, Prime Minister Liu chose to support him in his rise to power.

. . . . . . .

“My brother was very clever. He had long discovered that something was wrong with our father, and was killed before he had time to dissuade him. If he hadn’t run into Prime Minister Liu, the entire family would have died in that fire. Father was so vicious. He was tired of being a city lord. He wanted to take his beauty to Western Shu and live happily as a slave owner. I don’t know when he became such a person, forgetting the honor of the Tang family and Grandfather’s teachings. In the end, my elder brother and Prime Minister Liu jointly garroted father and devised a strategy to completely resolve future problems with Western Shu. In order to stabilize Nanfeng City, Prime Minister Liu did not disclose the truth to the public. Instead of pursuing charges against our Tang family, he supported my brother to ascend to the position of City Lord and left with infamy on his shoulders.”

Tang Rou paused for a long moment after speaking, holding the jade willow leaf pendant tightly in her hand as if only then she could bear the pain of hiding the truth all this time and enjoying honor by sucking the blood of the one she adored.

Liu Zhenqing didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he did. After all, he was already a traitor at the time, and glad to be one, so he naturally wanted to make good use of his reputation. Otherwise, the Western Shu Kingdom wouldn’t have been so easily deceived. What was wrong with additional infamy in the name of protecting the remaining loyal and patriotic Tang family members? In any case, Liu Zhenqing didn’t like entire families being punished for the crimes of one person. 

Just as he was musing, he felt someone suddenly hold his hand tightly under the table. Liu Zhenqing was taken aback for a moment, somewhat amused at the knowledge that Er-gou was feeling sorry for him in his own way. Since he took the initiative, Liu Zhenqing naturally wanted to tease him. So he simply clasped hands with Er-gou, then gently stroked the back of his hand with his index finger. Sure enough, Huo Fenglie was provoked and tried to extricate his hand after a moment. How could Liu Zhenqing let him off so easily?

Huo Fenglie coughed. “What happened after that?”

Tang Rou returned to her senses and said: “Before he left, Prime Minister Liu vowed to treat this matter as the rumors said and never reveal the truth. Only in this way would our family be stable. We…..were also greedy for life and afraid of death, and cared about the reputation of the Tang family, so we dared not speak up. After all, deceiving the emperor is a crime. But our benefactor…..died.”

Tang Rou took a deep breath and said: “After his death, he was scorned and slandered by everyone in the country. We didn’t know anything else about him, but we couldn’t let our benefactor bear the blame for Nanfeng City, even if…..the crimes of our Tang family were made public. So my brother discussed it with me and asked me to pretend to be the city lord while he went to the capital to clear Prime Minister Liu’s name.

Liu Zhenqing was slightly stunned to hear this, and had no intention of teasing Huo Fenglie anymore. He said helplessly: “You two…..why did you do that?”

Tang Rou shook her head and said: “If we didn’t, how could our consciences be at ease? But we didn’t accomplish anything. Not long after, I found my brother’s body on the mountain road not far from Nanfeng City. There was no telling if it was an accident or murder.

The expressions of Huo Fenglie and Liu Zhenqing shifted slightly.

Back then, anyone who wanted to clear Liu Zhenqing’s name had encountered an accident.

Tang Mu had become one of them.

Liu Zhenqing lamented inwardly. Such a good man had died for such a thing. In Liu Zhenqing’s opinion, it wasn’t worth the cost, nor was it what an intelligent person would do.

But he was still grateful.

“Anyway, that’s how my brother left. Prime Minister Liu had just passed away at that time, and other countries were beginning to take action once again. We had no choice. Because there were very few people in the know, and few who could be trusted, I could only continue to pretend to be my elder brother, stabilize people’s hearts, and assume the position of City Lord…..when things were stable later, I didn’t want to retire. Firstly, I feel that I should handle my brother’s job now that he is gone. Secondly, I have no desire at all to marry. It’s great to be able to dedicate my life to Nanfeng City like this. After all, this is the city that my elder brother and Prime Minister Liu protected together.”

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Chapter One Hundred Eleven << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Thirteen

Li Xiu froze.

Something seeped into his nerves, isolating his mind from his body. Li Xiu felt as if he had turned into some kind of animal, such as a frog in the grass or a cat accidentally running into the road. Once illuminated by a flashlight or the headlights of a car, he was completely frozen in place and unable to move. There was something lodged in his throat, a scream stuck in his vocal cords, but in reality, Li Xiu couldn’t even whimper.

His eyes were open wide as he stared helplessly at the “thing” next to him in the mirror.

It was definitely not the face of a living person.

This was evident at just a glance.

Fortunately, it wasn’t bloated and nauseating like the ghosts that had appeared in Li Xiu’s nightmare. The dead face belonged to a young man.

That cold, sinister, gloomy temperament seemed a little familiar.

Li Xiu stared at the mirror, his thoughts in utmost chaos.

His mind was a complete mess. The thing was practically plastered to him, and Li Xiu could even smell the scent emanating from it. It was a cold and gloomy scent, the odor of earth, dust, and corpses mixed together.

Beads of sweat rolled down his temples. The cheeks of the immobilized youth were wet from either the sweat or his tears of fright.

“Fang…..Fang…..”

Time seemed to stretch infinitely.

Li Xiu’s deathly pale lips were closed, and it exhausted nearly all of his strength to push a breathy sound from his throat.

Fang Qian’an, save me…..

However, before the cry for help could come out, the “thing” in the mirror suddenly raised its hand to press the index finger to Li Xiu’s lips in a silencing gesture.

There were no fingernails on its hand.

Then it reached its fingers downward inch by inch, climbing from Li Xiu’s arm to his palm. In absolute terror, Li Xiu felt a slight chill in his palm, as if something had fallen into his hand.

Whoosh—

At this moment, a breeze suddenly gusted up and the airflow slammed into the haunted house room like an invisible giant. The window screens opened with a bang, blown hard against the walls.

Slam! The door behind Li Xiu also blew shut with a loud bang.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh—”

As if suddenly waking up from a nightmare, Li Xiu suddenly had strength.

The moment he finally screamed, the feeling like sleep paralysis dissipated at once. Li Xiu reflexively shook his hand and threw away the extra thing in his palm. He backpedaled as he screamed, falling heavily to the floor.

The thing he threw caught on the mirror of the dressing table, and fell to the floor again after smashing a crack into the mirror.

Li Xiu braced his hands against the floor, panting heavily as he stared blankly at that thing.

It was a very ordinary key.

It had dropped not far from Li Xiu, but he didn’t have the courage to go forward and investigate.

“F-Fang Qian’an, did you see that?”

The youth suppressed the sob in his tone and called out shakily to his companion.

But Fang Qian’an’s response didn’t come.

“Fang Qian’an?”

Li Xiu turned around and looked behind him.

He saw the salt and glutinous rice that Fang Qian’an had scattered everywhere before. There was a cell phone lying crookedly on the floor, still playing the Rebirth Mantra that was pulled from an unknown website.

However, apart from Li Xiu, there was nobody to be seen in the bedroom haunted by that repeating mantra.

“Fang Qian’an! Where are you?!”

Li Xiu raised his arm and wiped his face with it. It felt like something was stuck in his throat, and his voice was hoarse as he shouted.

The blood drained from his face as he stood up from the floor, his entire body trembling. Looking around, Li Xiu pinched his thigh hard. The stinging pain in his flesh made him realize in desperation that this time, he wasn’t having a nightmare.

For a moment, he even wished he was.

Because Fang Qian’an, who was behind him just now, had indeed vanished.

The scenes from horror movies and novels he had encountered before came to his mind one after another. A chill continued to seep from Li Xiu’s bone marrow, making him weaker and more afraid than ever before.

Li Xiu even felt that something was still watching right behind him.

His hair was standing on end and he was sweating, but he didn’t dare look back at the dressing table.

Li Xiu picked up the phone on the ground and turned the sound off. 

In a split second, silence engulfed the room.

No matter what, Li Xiu didn’t dare stay in the bedroom. With Fang Qian’an’s cell phone in hand, he staggered out helplessly.

The second floor of the Xiao family villa remained cold and quiet. Every step Li Xiu took, he could hear the creaking sound of his weight on the old flooring.

“Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony……”

The pale-faced Li Xiu tried very hard to calm down.

After reciting the core values of socialism once, Li Xiu balanced himself to stand more firmly, then mustered up the courage to shout again from the second floor: “Fang Qian’an, where are you?”

Thump thump thump—

There was suddenly a fierce knock on a door.

Immediately afterward, Fang Qian’an’s tragic cry for help sounded from the deepest part of the second floor corridor.

“A-Xiu! Save me! A-Xiu, ahhhhh, wuwuwuwu—s-save me—I’m in here! I’m in here, ah, let me out! Let me out, ahhhhhh, A-Xiu—!”

“Fang Qian’an?!”

Li Xiu sucked in a deep breath and limped in the direction of the sound. Fang Qian’an’s voice was coming from the room at the end of the corridor. When Li Xiu got closer, he could hear Fang Qian’an crying.

“Let me out! A-Xiu! Let me out wuwuwuwu……”

Li Xiu didn’t know why Fang Qian’an was in this room. He pressed his hand to the door handle without thinking, but no matter how he twisted it, the door wouldn’t budge.

“Fang Qian’an, the door is locked! Just wait, I’m right outside the door, I’ll get you out!”

The door to the room was indeed locked.

So how had Fang Qian’an gotten in?

Li Xiu had no time to think about all of this, because as he stood there looking at the door helplessly, Fang Qian’an’s cries from inside became increasingly bleak and shrill.

Li Xiu didn’t dare think about what was happening to Fang Qian’an inside that room.

He tried to hit the door with his shoulder, but half his body went numb and the door was still locked.

“A-Xiu, A-Xiu ahhhhhhh…..”

The tone of Fang Qian’an’s voice changed.

“Fang Qian’an! Wait! Wait for me!”

Breathing heavily, Li Xiu called out unconsciously amidst Fang Qian’an’s cries.

A terrible intuition struck him. If he couldn’t open the door in time, Fang Qian’an……

Fang Qian’an might die right here.

However, with his body, it was impossible to break open the door with brute force. The door was locked so tightly that he wouldn’t be able to open it without a key.

Wait. A key?

Li Xiu abruptly recalled what that gray-faced “young man” had placed in his palm.

The key he threw on the floor!

“Fang Qian’an, just hold on! I’m going to find the key, I’ll come rescue you right away—”

Li Xiu swore he had never run so fast before. Although his right foot hurt like crazy and he seemed to have fallen several times on the way back, he didn’t remember much about it. He was almost out of his mind with fear.

His chest hurt, and he gasped for air.

Li Xiu was filled with dread when he went back to that room. He feared that when he returned, the key on the floor would be gone, just like the ghost he had seen in the mirror.

Thank goodness, the seemingly ordinary key was still on the floor when he got there.

Li Xiu grabbed it and rushed back to the room at the end of the corridor.

When he fitted the key into the keyhole, Li Xiu’s hand slipped several times due to his blurred vision and shaking hands.

But at this moment, Fang Qian’an’s wailing inside the room suddenly cut off. A kind of deathly sensation suddenly fell over him.

Li Xiu’s face paled, and he sobbed: “Fang Qian’an, what’s wrong! Don’t scare me! Answer me!”

At last, the key aligned with the keyhole, and there was a dry sound as the tongue of the lock unlatched.

The door finally opened.

The room was dim.

It was also very cramped. The only windows were two narrow transoms above the wall, which provided a severely lacking light and a musty kind of moisture. There were several pieces of artwork taped to the wall, using torn paper from texts. Most of the paintings were images of a child and a woman holding hands. Compared to ordinary children’s paintings, the colors used were very few, only red and black, as if the artist only had these two colors.

In the corners of the paintings, very large, childish characters could be seen.

“Mama and me.”

The edges of the paper were stained with mold.

A child’s mattress was crammed in a corner of the room, messy quilts and coverings piled up on it. Most likely, nobody had touched them since the tragedy over ten years ago. Now, clumps of mold had grown on the long-outdated cartoon prints.

Behind the mattress was a chamber pot — if he hadn’t grown up in a shantytown with harsh living conditions, even Li Xiu wouldn’t know what that was.

With these things in place, there was almost nowhere to stand in the whole room.

And Fang Qian’an’s large body was curled up into a ball. He had his back turned to the door as he crouched at a corner of the mattress with his head in his hands, muttering incoherently.

“Wuwuwu…..wuwu…..it’s so dark in here…..I’m so scared…..let me out…..please let me out…..”

Li Xiu heard Fang Qian’an’s terrified cries.

“Fang Qian’an, it’s okay.”

With no time to think, Li Xiu rushed into the room and hugged Fang Qian’an.

“Let’s go, let’s get out of this damn place right now. It’ll be fine once we get out. Fang Qian’an, calm down! I can’t carry you…..”

As Li Xiu hugged Fang Qian’an, his arms couldn’t even reach around the big dummy’s shoulders.

Even under normal circumstances, a boy who was naturally smaller than other people wouldn’t be able to drag someone as large as Fang Qian’an. Not to mention that at this time, Li Xiu was so frightened that he had lost all strength.

But the unnatural coldness and terror in the haunted house was so distinct.

Li Xiu could almost feel it, that intangible and twisted thing approaching him little by little.

Not to mention Fang Qian’an, Li Xiu himself was unconsciously crying as he called out.

“Let’s leave right away, Fang Qian’an, right away…..”

Just as Li Xiu fell into despair, a burst of heavy footsteps sounded, and a frustrated voice came immediately from outside the door.

“A-Xiu? Fuck, where the hell did you go? Do you realize I was going crazy looking for you?!”

Li Xiu turned around at once, staring at the tall figure approaching outside the door.

Fang Qian’an didn’t have any of the arrogance and unruliness of the former school bully.

The 1.9 meter tall young man currently had a bloodless face and white lips. He was breathing heavily, as if he had undergone intense exercise.

At this moment, he was standing in the corridor, panting. Only at this moment did Fang Qian’an realize that something was wrong.

“W-wait a minute. A-Xu, who were you talking to just now?”

Li Xiu’s pupils suddenly constricted.

“Heh…..”

The “Fang Qian’an” held tightly in his arms nestled into him and let out a long, contented chuckle.

Little by little, Li Xiu lowered his head in terror.

He saw that face again, those bloodshot, crimson eyes, the cheeks of a corpse stiffly pulled apart with open lips.

It stared at Li Xiu greedily and contentedly, softly holding the youth’s cheeks with bone-exposed knuckles.

“So obedient,” Li Xiu heard the thing whisper softly. Dry flesh fell on his forehead, leaving a kiss that smelled of rotten flesh and blood.

“I like A-Xiu the most. My A-Xiu is so good, ah……”

In a trance, Li Xiu seemed to hear a roar from Fang Qian’an, telling someone to let go of him?

It seemed that someone had burst into the room, endeavoring to tear him out of a monster’s slimy, cold embrace.

But for Li Xiu, it was all blurry, chaotic, and distant.

The youth’s exhausted body went completely limp. Everything in front of him distorted into a wriggling, squirming expansion of black smoke.

That black smoke enveloped his entire consciousness.

Li Xiu passed out.

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Chapter 30 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 32

Qiao Jin looked at the headless corpse that had been brought back, and his expression gradually turned ugly.

There were also words engraved on the corpse: Invaders will be struck down without mercy. The King of Western Shu is welcome to confront us.

“Our army…..had no great losses. Only a hundred people.”

“The other side?”

“On the other side…..no one was harmed.” The person below reported tremblingly, as if trying to make excuses for himself, “They were despicable, and used the dense forest to directly bypass the rear and intercept and kill the general. It was as if they knew that the general was hiding in the rear. I think…..someone must have informed them.”

“Informed them?” Qiao Jin wore a dark smile. “Troop deployment methods have not changed for hundreds of years. Those greedy for life and fearful of death hide behind the slaves. Even though there are no longer slaves, it is still all the same. Does this need to be reported?”

Qiao Jin just hadn’t expected that the dignified general who guards the country would be so bold yet cautious, daring to take the risk to attack and face ten thousand enemies with one hundred people. Sure enough…..this was a person of the Huo family! Their habit of doing what was least expected made it impossible for people to use common sense to deal with them.

What’s more, Qiao Jin hadn’t expected this bastard to be so useless. He did expect that Tan Fong would be defeated, but he was captured just half a day after attacking. Not to mention testing the depths of the situation in Nanfeng City, even his “misdirection” was probably ineffective.

This humiliation hit the young King of Western Shu hard in the face, nearly ashaming him into a rage. After scolding them, he sent the other military commanders to take over the remaining troops and told them to not invade rashly.

“What are you so angry about? The Huo family has been made up of famous generals for generations. Isn’t it normal that you can’t beat them?” Liu Qiao walked out of the darkness.

Although Qiao Jin was angry, he was not in a mindless rage. “Yes, ah, I can’t beat him. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have other ways to stir them up.”

“What are you going to do?” Liu Qiao knew Qiao Jin very well, and the second he saw the smile on Qiao Jin’s face, he knew that this kid must be keeping in reserve a lethal trick.

“We’ll do something you’ve always wanted to do,” Qiao Jin sneered.

At this time, Nanfeng City at night was even more lively than its busiest times in the past. The battle of one hundred against ten thousand had left the enemy leaderless, and that army of ten thousand was forced back dozens of li without a fight. It seemed like such a statement could only be heard in legends, but now the people of Nanfeng City had seen it with their own eyes.

When they watched Huo Fenglie riding his black horse with the enemy general’s head in hand, everyone’s spirits were lifted by this easily-won battle. It was as if as long as this powerful man was here, any number of dangers would be eliminated before they began. Everyone spontaneously went to the streets to greet their hero and cheer. It seemed that the previous haze of anxiety had been swept away.

As Liu Zhenqing stood in front of the City Lord’s manor and watched the troops slowly returning from a distance, there was suddenly a strange feeling in his heart.

Huo Fenglie had started going to war at the age of fifteen. After returning victorious, Huo Feihan greeted him at the border, and Li Xingruo also welcomed him back at the capital. He recalled that due to being busy with government affairs, he had never welcomed the young general back home.

Now he stood here watching as Huo Fenglie gradually appeared in his field of vision, and his heart helplessly surged.

Their eyes seemed to meet, and driven by his master, Chen Jiangyue accelerated at once and took Huo Fenglie away from the contingent, straight toward Liu Zhenqing. Huo Fenglie’s long hair and cloak danced wildly in the night wind. When he was almost there, Huo Fenglie flew up and landed in front of Liu Zhenqing with more urgency than ever before.

The two gazed at each other for a moment, neither of them speaking.

Because Huo Fenglie was also in thought. He had gone to countless battlefields, and every time he returned, he would see people waiting for his subordinates, watch them embrace each other in joy for the victory, watch them cry with joy at being reunited. But Huo Fenglie had never seen the person he most wanted to see in the crowd.

Regardless of whether Qing-ge was alive at the time, he never saw him.

And today, he did.

“I’m back,” Huo Fenglie said abruptly. He looked at Liu Zhenqing intently, an unconscious childish expectation in his eyes. But this expectation quickly vanished, as if the general who guards the country no longer needed the fantasies of his youth at this moment. As long as Qing-ge welcomed him back, that was enough. 

Liu Zhenqing looked at Huo Fenglie, who seemed to be in a trance, and said with a smile: “Welcome back.”

Just as Huo Fenglie nodded, the person in front of him suddenly threw himself into his arms and hugged him tightly in front of all those soldiers and common people.

In a flash, it was as if his heart was struck. Huo Fenglie couldn’t react, and even thought for a moment that he was fantasizing again.

After all, a battle like this did not require such a warm welcome.

But Liu Zhenqing seemed to feel that this wasn’t enough, and deliberately acted out a coquettish scene. “I was so worried that you would be injured, but you’ve come back safely, ah. You’re amazing! You won such a huge victory!”

It sounded like he was talking without rhyme or reason, but he seemed to be trying to make up for what he had failed to do in the past.

Huo Fenglie let his fantasy become reality bit by bit, and in the end, he could only hold this person tightly in his arms. The two people behaving as if there was no one else around caused an uproar. It was rumored that the general who guards the country had no one by his side, so what was this?

Setting aside everyone’s shock, Qiao An, who was about to step forward to congratulate him, didn’t look very good. He hadn’t expected Huo Fenglie to be so capable, capable enough that he didn’t even care how rude Huo Fenglie was to him before. If he could use this person, there would be no need for him to be controlled by others anymore. Besides, where did this man who called himself a military adviser look more beautiful and gentle than him? Since Huo Fenglie liked men, he should find that he, a genuine prince, was certainly better than the military advisor.

On the other side, Tang-furen, who had come out with Tang Mu, had already heard about the battle. For those who had experienced the near-destruction of the city, the security given by Huo Fenglie was indescribable. Seeing the two embracing, Tang-furen was so unwilling that her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys twisted up. Her own child was incomparable. She wouldn’t give up easily, and must continue her efforts to get Huo Fenglie to marry her child.

When they returned to the City Lord’s manor, the four of them sat down and began to discuss the war. 

Huo Fenglie briefly explained what he had done, and Dai Tingyu’s jaw dropped in shock. “You haven’t fought them many times, ah, but you wrapped it up so quickly?”

Huo Fenglie said: “Judgements can also be made by observing the smoke rising from the cooking fires. The upper class of Western Shu, whether they are generals or not, live relatively extravagant lives, and it is impossible for them to change very much in a short period of time. The place where the smoke is thickest is naturally where the most people are being served, and a judgment can be made using this.”

Dai Tingyu’s eyes widened in disbelief. He likely hadn’t expected to be able to flexibly determine information from this angle.

Tang Mu said: “This great victory also dealt a heavy blow to the Western Shu Kingdom. They shouldn’t provoke us in the short term, but they may not respond to our request for a parlay. If they don’t retreat, do we really want to lead our troops in?”

“It’s not cost-effective to waste our troops on their small country!” Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but express his dissatisfaction. “They might talk nicely and agree to be a vassal state, but I think that Qiao An is a master at treachery.”

Huo Fenglie didn’t care about this. Due to Liu Qiao’s existence, he didn’t really want a direct confrontation with the King of Western Shu. He was worried that Liu Zhenqing would be upset, so he said: “Respond to ever-changing situations with constancy.”

They briefly discussed the follow-up arrangements and then departed. Because the troops of the Western Shu Kingdom had been taken under leadership again, relevant news came one after another. Huo Fenglie simply rested for a while, then returned to the military camp with Dai Tingyu to make further arrangements.

Huo Fenglie returned late at night. On the courtyard path that was supposed to be still in the dead of night, he met an unexpected person head-on.

“General Huo has returned, ah. Thank you for your hard work. You’ve worked very hard.”

Huo Fenglie was uncertain how a woman like her could intercept him on the path, and said: “Tang-furen, what can I do for you?”

“I’m just happy that the general won a great victory. It’s the time for celebration. Mu’er originally wanted to treat you to a drink, but who knew you would be busy again?” Tang-furen said with an apologetic smile.

Huo Fenglie didn’t waste time, saying directly: “Tang-furen, go back and rest early. I’ll take my leave.”

Tang-furen didn’t stop him, and only smiled strangely. After Huo Fenglie left, she immediately told several servants to stand guard outside Huo Fenglie’s courtyard.

And when Huo Fenglie went to the courtyard, he sensed that something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the room. There were extra people here. Huo Fenglie quickly strode to the inner room, where the bed curtain was down. Qing-ge usually slept here. Since Huo Fenglie’s recovery, they had been sleeping in the same bed. His eyes filled with murderous intent. It didn’t matter if he was ambushed, but if they’d hurt Qing-ge because of this…..as he stepped forward, someone suddenly pounced from behind.

The sweet, greasy fragrance that followed caused his expression to change. This smell was obviously a drug. 

Huo Fenglie ducked out of the way. The person who pounced missed, and before he could come to a stop, he felt a cold touch on his neck. It was the scabbard of a sword. Because the visitor had no killing intent, Huo Fenglie hadn’t drawn his weapon.

But when he got a good look at this person, his face darkened.

Under the moonlight, he saw Qiao An’s snow-white body wrapped in only a single layer of gauze. His hair was disheveled, and he was dressed in an unusually seductive manner.

“General…..” As if enticing him, Qiao An stretched out his slender fingers and gently touched the scabbard with charming eyes that seduced the soul.

But in the next second, a flick of the scabbard caused Qiao An to fall down in disarray.

“Scram,” Huo Fenglie said coldly, not showing any mercy.

Qiao An was shocked. He was already like this, and ordinarily, good-looking men would want to pounce on him when they saw him. His demureness should make him soft-hearted, so why was this Huo Fenglie’s heart still so cold, ah?

“General Huo…..I really am sincere. I admire you. I don’t ask for anything else, just a spring night. Don’t worry, no third party will know about this.” 

As Qiao An spoke, he crawled toward Huo Fenglie on his knees, doing his utmost to pose as endearingly as possible.

He had taken the initiative to throw himself into the other’s arms like this, and didn’t believe that Huo Fenglie wouldn’t eat the meat that was brought to his mouth.

But as Qiao An waited for an answer, there was the sound of a sword being drawn.

Qiao An was reaching for his belt, and instantly froze. His eyes widened in disbelief, and he said: “What….what are you doing?”

But before Qiao An could say another word, the sword was completely unsheathed. Qiao An was so terrified that he crawled and rolled away on the floor. 

Once he drove Qiao An away, Huo Fenglie’s anger still did not subside.

There was still another person!

Huo Fenglie approached the bed warily, sword in hand. As soon as the bed curtain opened, he stared blankly for a moment.

There were two people on the bed. One was an embarrassed-looking Liu Zhenqing, and the other was Tang Mu, who was lying down asleep with a reddened face. He was only wearing his underclothes.

“Qing…..Qing-ge? You…..you…..”

Before Huo Fenglie could speak, Liu Zhenqing reached out and covered Tang Mu with the quilt.

Huo Fenglie’s expression changed several times as he stared fixedly at Liu Zhenqing. He could no longer understand the current situation. Why were Qing-ge and Tang Mu in bed, all disheveled, and why had Qiao An been outside to intercept him?

In fact, Liu Zhenqing was also quite upset with the current situation.

Outsiders were aware that Liu Zhenqing and Huo Fenglie stayed in the same courtyard, but that due to medical treatment, Liu Zhenqing stayed in a different room. Later, when Huo Fenglie was cured, he had shamelessly come to steal half the bed. Perhaps the fact that they carried out daily activities in the original room caused a misunderstanding, making people think that they were still sleeping in separate rooms.

As a result, Liu Zhenqing had bathed in his own room tonight, and when he came to Huo Fenglie’s room to wait for him to go to bed, he opened the bed curtains and found a drugged Tang Mu.

At that time, Tang Mu was already curled up unconscious on the bed. As soon as he touched Tang Mu, the man tried to pounce on him. He could only feed Tang Mu detoxification pills and wait for the drugs to wear off. 

But while they were waiting for detoxification, an additional person snuck in. When he saw the person clearly, Liu Zhenqing was speechless for a while. Never mind targeting Er-gou, but this was twice in one night. In this situation, Liu Zhenqing naturally couldn’t allow the other to discover Tang Mu’s presence, so he could only wait for an opportunity.

And at this moment, Er-gou returned.

Liu Zhenqing spoke succinctly, wanting to complain to Huo Fenglie about the fight that shocked that person with wicked intentions. Perhaps their public embrace still hadn’t discouraged him, and Qiao An feared he would be robbed if he tried too late? 

But Huo Fenglie said with a grave expression: “You have long spoken about Tang-chengzhu’s traditional medicine. When you were close to him, did you ever…..”

Liu Zhenqing said hurriedly: “What are you thinking about!”

Huo Fenglie regarded him suspiciously, as if he could see Liu Zhenqing’s guilty conscience. 

Liu Zhenqing’s back was sweating. In fact, when Tang Mu embraced him, he’d pushed him away in shock. 

And it was indeed a shock, because he’d discovered an incredible secret.

Liu Zhenqing scratched his head and ears, not knowing what to say for some time.

And at this moment, Tang Mu murmured softly on the bed. His voice was sweet and moving, with a tearful tone.

This was not the point. The point was that it was clearly a woman’s voice.

Although Tang Mu’s voice was usually soft and delicate, it was still low. But now it was clear and bright.

Dumbfounded, Huo Fenglie looked toward Liu Zhenqing. Seeing that the other was so uncomfortable, he came to a realization.

“Xiting-ge…..Xiting…..”

The two of them looked over to see Tang Mu holding the willow leaf jade tightly in her hand.

Without waiting for Liu Zhenqing to say anything, Huo Fenglie’s first reaction was to reach over, grab Liu Zhenqing’s arm, and pull hard.

Liu Zhenqing was pulled into the air by Huo Fenglie before he could react, flying out of the bed into Huo Fenglie’s solid embrace. 

He looked at Huo Fenglie in astonishment.

Huo Fenglie’s expression was extremely ugly. It was as if he couldn’t tolerate Liu Zhenqing staying in bed with Tang Mu for one more second. 

“What is going on?” Huo Fenglie’s deep voice sounded dangerously. “Did you know before?”

“That’s an unjust accusation. I found out just now too.”

“How did you know?”

“Eh……”

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Chapter One Hundred Ten << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Twelve

Scree—

The rusty door made a harsh sound.

The small storage room door was locked tightly and wouldn’t open.

Only then did Fang Qian’an react, breaking out in a cold sweat. “Fuck, A-Xiu, what are you doing?!”

Li Xiu also retracted his hand from the door handle as if he had been burned.

“Sorry.” Li Xiu took a few steps away to get farther from the door. “I wasn’t paying attention and suddenly reached for the door.”

“I wasn’t thinking,” the youth whispered hurriedly.

“En, it’s fine,” Fang Qian’an responded dryly, but both people present sensed something that couldn’t be put into words.

Thud thud thud—

And as they were looking at each other, the two heard the very clear sound of footsteps coming from the ceiling.

It sounded exactly like somebody running.

From far to near, and then quickly away again.

On the second floor…..someone was running?

Wait, was it human?

As this question flashed through his mind, Li Xiu could only hold his breath. He looked toward Fang Qian’an, who was staring with a tense jaw at the peeling and mottled ceiling.

When the footsteps vanished after a brief moment, the entire villa was as silent as a graveyard.

After a long while, Li Xiu heard himself say shakily: “Did you hear that?”

Fang Qian’an was breathing heavily. “En.” The boy nodded with a pale face. “…..Wanna go to the second floor?”

Li Xiu hesitated for some time.

To be honest, he was so terrified at the moment that his legs were weak.

However, when he unexpectedly spoke, it was as quietly as a mosquito: “L-let’s go.”

They hadn’t found anything useful on the first floor.

If they didn’t go to the second floor to have a look, wouldn’t they continue to encounter ghosts and have nightmares?

It would be impossible to prepare for the university entrance exam in such a state, wouldn’t it?

Li Xiu used countless excuses to convince himself. However, as he and Fang Qian’an tremblingly climbed up to the second floor like turtles, he was still so nervous that he couldn’t breathe.

The second floor appeared much cleaner and tidier than the first floor.

The smooth teak floor was covered in a layer of dust. Most of the rooms were locked, and the remaining furniture in the communal areas were covered in white cloth.

Li Xiu stared at the floor for a long moment.

There were no footprints.

Because of this, the eerie feeling grew – if there were no footprints on the floor, then who made the footsteps he and Fang Qian’an had heard just now?

“Let’s go on?” Fang Qian’an said.

“En.” 

Li Xiu rubbed his arms and felt goosebumps under his hands. And Fang Qian’an didn’t look any better than him.

Now, there was no more unfamiliarity or estrangement between the two. They were practically hugging each other as they went.

Trembling in fear, Li Xiu and Fang Qian’an began to investigate the situation on the second floor.

It was uncertain whether it was luck or misfortune, but the second story seemed to have been earnestly renovated by the school. All of the places where the wallpaper had fallen off had been scraped and repainted. But every now and again in some corners, they could see some objects that were incompatible with the surrounding environment — gourds made of copper, evil-warding swords, and some unexplainable artifacts.

Fang Qian’an looked at those things when he noticed the direction of Li Xiu’s gaze. After a moment of shock, he cursed.

“Fuck—”

Then the boy clung to Li Xiu’s shoulders with even greater strength, and Li Xiu felt a trembling hand reach into his school uniform.

“What are you doing?” Li Xiu grabbed Fang Qian’an’s hand with a frown.

“That salt and glutinous rice you’re carrying with you, sh-share some with me.”

Fang Qian’an seemed like he was about to cry.

Li Xiu didn’t know what he was doing at first, but then what Fang Qian’an said made him start to feel terrified.

“Where those objects are placed, t-there may have been corpses lying there before.”

……

The massacre of the Xiao family was so famous not only because the deceased were the richest family in City A, but also because it was extremely abnormal and nefarious. 

After they made several investment decisions with astonishing results, once-prosperous family in City A selected the most capable and high-profile second-generation leader. And as expected, the famously decisive and skilled young family head led the entire Xiao family to greater glory.

But such a man at the pinnacle of his life, on an extremely ordinary day, lost his mind.

“……He used the security system to seal off the entire villa. First, he strangled his wife to death on the bed, then he put the semi-paralysed Old Mr. Xiao into a large warm fish tank and drowned him…..cut the younger brother’s family to pieces…..and slaughtered all of the staff.”

Likely due to fear, Fang Qian’an’s voice was hoarse as he drew closer and closer to Li Xiu.

“The most terrifying thing is that the family massacre wasn’t completed in a short amount of time. Xiao Weisi had announced that the family was on vacation, so almost half a month passed before people figured out something was wrong. And in that half month, he even held several online meetings. The families and friends of the deceased even received messages from their friends and relatives…..”

But judging from the investigation after the incident, at the time they received the messages, those people had long been dead.

“I heard that when the police came to the door, the old man’s skeleton in the fish tank had pretty much been eaten. Mrs. Xiao’s body was also extremely decomposed. But the younger brother and his family were still sitting upright at the dining table, and there was even food in their stomachs…..”

However, that food was their own flesh.

From the hall to the stairs, those who tried to escape were killed one by one, their bodies scattered throughout the villa.

And as for Xiao Weisi…..

“But they were never able to find Xiao Weisi,” Fang Qian’an said in a hoarse voice.

“Although a self-filmed video of him swallowing a bullet to commit suicide was found in the study, no body was found no matter how hard they searched. So—”

“Stop talking!”

Li Xiu interrupted Fang Qian’an.

He was shaking.

In fact, Li Xiu was not the type of timid person who would scream in fear upon hearing a horror story. But this time, he was so frightened by Fang Qian’an’s words that his heart beat wildly and his whole body trembled.

Fang Qian’an seemed to realize that this was inappropriate for the occasion. He wondered if he had become tipsy after drinking half a bottle of alcohol. The place the two of them were standing was simply not suitable for him to tell those stories — yet he still told them uncontrollably.

They held each other for a while like this, and Li Xiu recovered a little bit.

“That’s not right.” He suddenly frowned, thinking back. “Why haven’t I heard about this before?”

The story of the Xiao Family Haunted House was so famous that Li Xiu had pretty much grown up hearing about it, but he had never heard the version Fang Qian’an just spoke of. The most widely-circulated theory in City A was that Xiao Weisi went crazy in the middle of the night and killed his entire family before committing suicide. But with such great commotion, even the neighbors who went to work in their gardens every day didn’t notice any signs — it turned out that everyone had been dead for less than half a month, and a shocked neighbor said that he had greeted the lady of the house just the morning before. 

The family could even be seen eating neatly around the dinner table every day.

“Ah?”

Fang Qian’an was also a little surprised when he heard Li Xiu say this.

“But what I always heard before was…..”

Wait, who had told him those things? Fang Qian’an was in a daze for a moment, and found that he could no longer remember.

Li Xiu gave him a puzzled look and didn’t continue to badger him. Fang Qian’an came from an extraordinary family, and might have learned from an elder the details that weren’t allowed to be published.

“Let’s look around the second floor. Regardless of if we find anything or not, we have to do it.” Li Xiu frankly admitted that he was indeed frightened. “…..I feel so uncomfortable here.”

He gave Fang Qian’an some glutinous rice and salt. Holding the rest in his hands, he held his breath and trembled as they walked deeper into the second floor.

Many rooms on the second floor were locked.

However, whether it was the negligence of the workers who maintained the home or something else, the door to the master bedroom was not completely locked and could be opened with a slight push.

Unlike the first floor, this room had surprisingly good lighting, with at least four floor-to-ceiling lattice windows in the hexagonal room. One of them likely had a problem with it, since it wasn’t closed tightly and a large gap remained.

A cool breeze blew slowly into the room from the outside world, and the translucent window screenings billowed, making the whole room look bright and dreamy.

“Cough, cough, the dust is so heavy…..”

Yet Fang Qian’an covered his nose and coughed the second he entered the room.

It was true that because the windows weren’t all closed, the dust in the room was heavier than elsewhere.

The grand bed of yesteryear sat firmly in the middle of the room, the white cloth covering now a light gray.

A beautifully-carved European dressing table was not spared either. The originally white cloth was blown up by the breeze, and the exposed wood had long become deformed and faded.

Li Xiu’s reaction was not as big as Fang Qian’an’s. After all, the place he grew up may not even be as clean as this.

However…..

“This is the master bedroom.”

Fang Qian’an took a few steps forward as he spoke and tossed out the glutinous rice and salt in his hands.

“Why did you do that?” Li Xiu asked in surprise.

“Exorcism,” Fang Qian’an replied solemnly. Then he took out his cell phone and began to play the Rebirth Mantra.

The tall boy clasped his hands together and muttered desperately.

“Mr. Xiao and Mrs. Xiao, we didn’t mean to disturb your rest. You adults have a lot of experience and don’t need to follow students like us to study. Don’t trouble us anymore, and I will burn paper money for you when I go back…..”

Li Xiu: “……”

After chanting briefly, Fang Qian’an noticed Li Xiu’s silence and quickly stopped, gesturing to him again.

“Come here,” Fang Qian’an said nervously. “Don’t stand alone at the door. In ghost movies, people like you are the easiest to be dragged away.”

Li Xiu’s body went stiff.

Then he shuffled a few steps closer to Fang Qian’an.

After entering the room, Li Xiu frowned and pursed his lips. He found that he didn’t like the smell in the room.

After more than ten years of wind and rain, there was still a faint, lingering rancid smell all over the room. But the smell was very light, so light that it quickly dissipated after a careful sniff.

Li Xiu even suspected that he had such an olfactory hallucination simply because he was frightened over what Fang Qian’an just said.

As Fang Qian’an prayed desperately, Li Xiu didn’t speak (after all, Fang Qian’an looked really stupid right now). He just stayed close to Fang Qian’an and looked around automatically at the room where the richest man had lived in the past. 

The bedroom was very big. In addition to the sleeping area, there was also a small, private reception space. There were also two white double doors on both sides of the room. Li Xiu could probably guess that they were the bathroom and the cloakroom.

And just the sleeping area was almost as big as Li Xiu’s entire home.

After so many years of abandonment, it still looked so spacious, comfortable, and luxurious.

However, the owner of this room…..

Whoosh—

Another gust of wind blew through the window.

The white cloth hanging in front of the dressing table swished and shook, drooping a little more in the breeze.

From the corner of his eye, Li Xiu happened to see something on the dressing table.

“Fang Qian’an, what’s that?”

He nudged Fang Qian’an and walked toward the dressing table.

After that tragedy, the vanity had long been emptied, but there was now a picture frame upside down on it.

Li Xiu righted it and found that there was a photo embedded in the frame — it looked a bit like a family portrait.

However, in such an environment, the photo frame had long become deformed, the photo inside faded and yellow.

The color photo taken at that time now looked like a black and white photo from many years ago.

A family dressed in formal wear stood neatly on the lawn of the villa, smiling as they looked at the camera.

The first thing Li Xiu noticed was their smiles.

The moneyed and privileged family members who lived like royalty all seemed to have similar temperaments. Even their smiles looked exactly the same — their lips were open slightly to reveal a bit of teeth, the apples of their lips pushed upward by the corners of their mouths. Their eyes were all narrowed, turning into two thin slits right beneath their eyebrows.

There were two light pupils in those slits, glinting faintly.

The dead people in the photo simply smiled like this at Li Xiu.

A familiar chill spread throughout his body again.

Li Xiu stared blankly at the photo, his eyes fixed on the familiar face in the corner.

Although he looked much younger ten years ago than the person Li Xiu knew, and the face in the photo was incredibly blurry, Li Xiu recognized that face at just one glance.

“F-Fang Qian’an,” he said with difficulty.

Fang Qian’an leaned over and rested his chin on Li Xiu’s shoulder. In order to see the photo, he directly covered Li Xiu’s back.

“Isn’t this person…..Teacher Ouyang?” Li Xiu asked, at a loss. “Why is he in this photo?”

The moment he saw Ouyang in the photo, Li Xiu’s mind was in chaos.

He thought of the young teacher who had been hanged in his nightmare, and the rumors in reality that he had committed suicide due to his crimes.

Although he hadn’t fully figured it out yet, Li Xiu’s intuition made him feel extremely uneasy.

Rather than saying that he was asking Fang Qian’an, it was better to say that he was asking himself.

And Fang Qian’an didn’t answer him. 

Whoosh—

The wind blew the white cloth on the dressing table.

Li Xiu looked up, and his eyes fell on the mottled, blurry mirror.

An unfamiliar blue-gray face had its neck stretched out, pressing tightly against Li Xiu’s cheek.

[A-Xiu, ah…..]

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The Author Has Something to Say:

Gege: Hugging A-Xiu（ヽ(°▽°)ノ)

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Chapter 29 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 31

Li Xiu actually didn’t know why Fang Qian’an was telling him this.

The youth stood there and looked at Fang Qian’an for a few seconds, then bit the bullet and replied: “I still can’t tell by looking at you.”

Li Xiu said this very earnestly. After all, judging by Fang Qian’an’s current physique, this guy seemed to be able to kill ten cows with one punch. It was really difficult to imagine that just over ten years ago, this behemoth named Fang Qian’an was a critically ill patient who needed a kidney transplant.

Seeing Li Xiu’s bewildered look, Fang Qian’an shook himself and came to his senses.

Damn, what was wrong with him…..

Fang Qian’an rarely mentioned his private details to outsiders. Not even his best friend (if he actually had such a thing) would know what he went through when he was young. Fang Qian’an secretly felt that it was shameful to talk about such an old event everywhere, but at present, he couldn’t help but tell Li Xiu all about his past.

No wonder Li Xiu was wearing an “I don’t know what expression to use with you” look on his face.

Fang Qian’an experienced extreme regret for a moment, before Li Xiu’s somewhat clumsy response reached his ears.

“You look very healthy now, and you don’t seem to have any side effects. That’s great.”

Fang Qian’an licked his lips and started to become uncontrollably chatty. “En, isn’t that right? Every time I’ve gone to the hospital for a checkup over the years, people look at me and exclaim that I’m a medical miracle…..”

As they spoke, a wall appeared before their eyes.

When he saw the wall that separated the Xiao Family Haunted House from Qiming Secondary School, Fang Qian’an’s voice cut off abruptly.

It was currently still class time, so the campus was extremely quiet.

The workers responsible for installing the barbed wire fence were not there at this time. The iron door was unlocked and slightly open, and the footpath led directly into the depths of the lush trees — and the Xiao Family Haunted House.

Li Xiu didn’t know if Fang Qian’an had used any special means to send away the workers responsible for blocking the back door, and didn’t ask.

Pursing his lips, he walked forward with Fang Qian’an in silence. A few minutes later, the two of them stood directly before the Xiao Family Haunted House.

Under the midday sun, this nationally famous haunted house looked like any other abandoned villa.

…..But that strange, dark and eerie atmosphere could not be imitated by any other.

When the two of them saw the Xiao Family Haunted House, they paused for a minute.

The door of the villa was open. The porch was a bit of a mess, and the flower beds had been trampled into disarray. These should be the traces left when the police led people to carry Song Cheng’s body out in the morning.

Babump—

Li Xiu bit his lip, feeling his heart beat a little faster.

It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t nervous, he thought as he glanced to the side.

Fang Qian’an was normally very afraid of ghosts, but now he didn’t seem to have any expression on his face. Li Xiu even felt that the other boy might be calmer than himself.

There seemed to be a voice whispering in Li Xiu’s mind.

I must be crazy to go into a haunted house with this guy.

Then Fang Qian’an held his hand again.

It was only then that the 1.9 meter tall man next to Li Xiu turned his head little by little. His face would always look a little sinister and cold when he was expressionless, but now it was embedded with a pair of eyes filled with tears and terror.

“I…..I’ll bring you in so you don’t get scared,” Fang Qian’an stammered.

Li Xiu: ……

The youth’s forehead twitched slightly, but Li Xiu ultimately didn’t let go of Fang Qian’an’s hand.

Just like that, they both took in a deep breath and quickly rushed onto the porch.

It was strange. The sun was clearly shining brightly outside, but once they entered the house, they couldn’t help but feel that it was very dark.

Although there were floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere, Li Xiu felt that the light seemed to be intercepted by something the human eye couldn’t glimpse, unable to penetrate into the house.

An abandoned house in disrepair seemed much colder than a normal house.

As soon as he entered, Li Xiu couldn’t help but shiver.

He also unconsciously clenched Fang Qian’an’s hand. 

Li Xiu’s pulse was very fast due to the tension, and Fang Qian’an’s was equally rapid.

“Are you cold? How about you wear my school uniform?”

Because they were holding hands, Fang Qian’an immediately noticed Li Xiu’s trembling and asked this at once. Li Xiu shook his head, frowning as he looked toward the other end of the corridor.

“No need. Let’s go check out that room first.”

Following the messy footsteps left by the visitors during the day, Fang Qian’an and Li Xiu arrived at a familiar room — the place where Li Xiu was dragged to be bullied that day.

There was a heavy layer of dust on the floor, and shoe prints were superimposed upon one another, giving it a disorderly look.

In the center of the room, dark red marks could be faintly seen.

When he saw those red marks, Li Xiu couldn’t help but stop and lean into Fang Qian’an’s side.

If his guess was correct, Song Cheng’s body…..was lying there during the day…..

No matter how calmly he usually behaved, an uncontrollable chill came over Li Xiu at this moment.

“This…..this is it, right?”

Li Xiu’s throat was a little dry.

“It’s right here.”

Fang Qian’an’s voice was also shaking.

“After we came here, we started…..running into…..”

He couldn’t even say the word.

With great difficulty, Li Xiu twisted his neck to look at the wall from his memory.

In his mind, he could almost imagine what that wall looked like now — it should be just like in that nightmare, filthy, turbid and disgusting mildew stains all over, densely covered in talismans that seemed to be dripping blood, with a small scarlet door embedded in the wall.

And if you listened carefully, you should hear scratching sounds coming from behind that red door.

But when he worked up the courage to look over, what he saw was a wall painted white.

“Huh?”

Li Xiu couldn’t help but stare blankly.

Breathing heavily as he stood beside him, Fang Qina’an spoke stammeringly after a long moment: “The school must have done this.”

Indeed, the wall was newly painted, and upon closer inspection, there were messy, crude paint stains on the floor.

It could be seen that the workers who painted the wall were not very careful. But in any case, after a coat of cheap white paint, this wall didn’t look so scary anymore.

Fang Qian’an mustered up the courage to walk around the room twice, carefully avoiding the spots where Song Cheng’s blood remained. He had spoken of coming here to gain some understanding, but when he actually entered the haunted house, Fang Qian’an didn’t find anything worth studying.

No talismans. No strange incantations. Not even ghosts.

After more than ten minutes, Li Xiu’s nerves gradually began to settle. He watched Fang Qian’an pace in circles, and said in a low voice: “What should we do next?”

Fang Qian’an swallowed and replied very softly: “I-I want to go look at other areas.”

“A-Xiu, you’ll come with me, right?”

He looked expectantly toward where Li Xiu was leaning at the door. The wet sheen in his eyes made Li Xiu feel strangely uncomfortable.

“I will,” Li Xiu said.

The two of them held hands as they carefully walked around the other areas on the first floor of the haunted house.

Just like the previous room, they didn’t find anything special.

The only things to be found were empty instant noodle cups that hadn’t been taken away, along with some cigarette butts from who knows when.

Oh, and a variety of used condoms.

The haunted house was previously used as a staff dormitory by the school, and there were still mattresses in the rooms that hadn’t been cleaned out. While Li Xiu was investigating, he almost tripped on one and fell.

Fortunately, Fang Qian’an ended up grabbing him and he didn’t fall onto the floor, but onto the mattress. For some reason, Fang Qian’an suddenly felt his strength drain, and he unknowingly slipped and fell directly toward Li Xiu. He was thankfully able to adjust his posture at the last moment and didn’t fall right onto him. His bent knees pressed against the mattress, and he placed his hands right next to Li Xiu’s ears to stabilize his body.

The mattress bounced up and down due to the impact, making creak, creaking sounds one after another.

That sound fell into Fang Qian’an’s ears, and his face suddenly felt hot.

Li Xiu was now right under his chest. This position caused Fang Qian’an to realize like never before how slender Li Xiu was. The youth’s eyes were open slightly in shock. He’d taken a deep breath when Fang Qian’an fell down just now, which actually sounded somewhat like a gasp. Fang Qian’an could help but stare at Li Xiu, who was looking back at him. Dark, smooth hair was spread over the mattress, and Li Xiu’s creamy white neck was exposed outside the collar.

Fang Qian’an smelled Li Xiu’s scent.

A sweet, warm fragrance that seemed to have its own temperature. The aroma of human skin.

Fang Qian’an’s eyes went blank for a moment.

“Fang Qian’an?”

Li Xiu gave him a strange look. “What are you doing?!”

“……”

After being stunned for a moment, Fang Qian’an realized how odd their current posture was. The young man was stimulated and suddenly raised his waist, straightening up quickly with a hint of panic.

Then he pulled Li Xiu up.

“Are you okay?” Fang Qian’an asked uncomfortably.

“I’m fine, just a little nauseous. And…..” Li Xiu didn’t notice Fang Qian’an’s moment of unnaturalness. His face looked a little green as he eyed the things on the ground, and he muttered, “I just can’t imagine people coming here to do that.”

“In a place like this…..can you really get it up?”

When thinking about this matter, Li Xiu suddenly felt that the whole haunted house wasn’t so scary.

“Cough…..”

The youth’s disbelieving whisper fell into Fang Qian’an’s ears, and the tall boy’s eyes wandered for a moment. He unconsciously let out a dry cough, then looked away.

At this moment, Fang Qian’an suddenly caught of glimpse of something—

“Huh?”

Li Xiu heard an exclamation from beside him.

“Fang Qian’an?”

“A-Xiu, look—”

Fang Qian’an abruptly stepped forward and dragged the mattress away, walking toward the corner of the room.

The room they were currently in was an independent suite next to a large kitchen — according to Fang Qian’an’s explanation, this was supposed to be the housekeeping room where the housekeeping staff did their daily work. 

And in an inconspicuous corner of that room, Fang Qian’an spied a small door. Li Xiu followed Fang Qian’an’s gesture and looked over, frowning after just a glance.

The door was only half a person tall, the gray panel almost blending into the wall.

…..Fortunately, it wasn’t the bright red color from the nightmare.

Strictly speaking, there was nothing weird or scary about the door they were looking at.

However, Li Xiu felt very ill at ease the second he saw it.

But he also didn’t understand why Fang Qian’an suddenly cared so much about this door.

“Is there a problem with this door?”

“Didn’t I say? According to my experience, this is where the housekeepers worked daily, and this door should be the utility room where they storedtheir cleaning tools. The strange thing is this right here.”

Fang Qian’an’s fingers slowly moved up from the gilded door handle to land on the iron bolt above it.

A heavy iron lock currently hung from the bolt.

“This bolt must have been added later.”

Li Xiu was still a bit puzzled: “So?”

“It’s so ugly.” Fang Qian’an’s eyes were wide open as he tried to explain, “What I mean is, this lock is too out of place. Look—”

Fang Qian’an turned and motioned for Li Xiu to look in the direction they had come from.

“Couldn’t we see it as we walked just now? Although this place is dilapidated, when it wasn’t abandoned, all of the decorations and furnishings were the most fashionable and luxurious. And there should be nothing valuable at all in this kind of storage room, so there is no need for an iron lock and bolt — and it’s even such an ugly one.”

The young man’s voice grew increasingly lower.

“It’s like they were afraid that something would escape from inside, so they added a special lock — A-Xiu?!”

Fang Qian’an couldn’t help but shout when he saw what Li Xiu was doing.

Because while he was fretfully analyzing, Li Xiu had already put his hand on the door handle and yanked it with force.

---

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Chapter 28 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 30

At 2 o’clock in the morning, He Chuzhou had no time to change clothes, and simply put a jacket on over his pajamas before rushing out.

There was very little traffic along the way. When he passed by a 24-hour supermarket, he stopped and bought a portion of seafood porridge and preserved egg and lean meat porridge. Fearing that it would be too bland, he also bought some clear soup oden and then got into the car and drove to Pei Xi’s residence.

He entered the password and opened the door. The living room was dark and quiet. Walking farther in, it was the same with the bedroom. There was no light coming through the crack in the door.

He couldn’t have passed out from the fever, could he?

This conjecture gave him a shock, and he strode quickly toward the room while carrying the two portions of porridge. If the hallway wasn’t so short, he probably would have been running.

The door to the bedroom was unlocked. Pushing it open, he groped around for the switch and turned on the lights. Cold white light poured down from above, instantly filling the room.

There was no human figure as far as the eye could see, only a slight ripple under the quilt. This person was covered so tightly that not even the top of his head was exposed.

“Silly, do you mean to suffocate yourself after you pass out from the fever?”

He set down the packaging bag and bent over to bed to fish out this fainted ostrich.

Before he even saw him, the temperature his hands touched had already made him frown: “So hot.”

Pei Xi vaguely sensed that someone was there and tried to open his eyes, but his pupils couldn’t adapt to the bright light. After several attempts, he could only catch a complete figure through slitted eyes.

But it was enough for him to recognize him.

“Chuzhou.”

His voice was already hoarse from the coldness bearing down on him, and sounded even more pitiful in person than it had on the phone. 

It upset He Chuzhou to hear this. Why did illness have to hit at his weakest moment? It saw the weak Pei-calico and bullied him, right?

Why couldn’t it have been him who caught a cold?

He recovered from illness quickly. Even if his fever reached 40 degrees, he could drive himself to the hospital. He was a hard-to-kill patient, saving time, effort, and worry.

“It’s me, it’s okay. Let’s go to the hospital now.”

He reached out to pick this person up, but Pei Xi shrunk back in resistance and refused: “I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

“If you don’t go to the hospital, you’ll be burned out by the fever in a while. I’m with you, so what’s there to be afraid of?”

He approached again, but Pei Xi still stubborning shook his head and shrank inward.

He Chuzhou clicked his tongue and raised his voice a bit: “Pei Xinxin, behave yourself!”

Pei Xi: “Chuzhou, I’m too cold.”

The two spoke nearly at the same time, but Pei Xi’s voice was so soft. He Chuzhou was taken back for a second and subconsciously lowered his voice again: “Cold? Is it very cold?”

“Very cold. My whole body is cold.”

Pei Xi reached a hand out from the side and grabbed the fabric on He Chuzhou’s arm. His half-opened eyes seemed to be covered in a sheen of mist, struggling to focus: “Chuzhou, hug me.”

“Hug me and keep me warm.”

The expected hug didn’t come after he spoke. Pei Xi’s eyelashes trembled, and he relaxed his fingertips in disappointment. 

In the room where one could hear a pin drop, there was a helpless sigh.

In the next second, the spot next to him sank and a corner of the quilt was lifted. Before the cold air could sneak in, a warm body pressed against him first. 

Long arms wrapped around his waist, and he fell into a strong, broad embrace. The familiar clean smell put him very much at ease.

“Using such coquettishness to deal with me, you must’ve been sure I’d bite!”

He Chuzhou gritted his teeth, but his movements were the exact opposite, as if he feared that a heavier touch would make him crumble.

“This is the last time. It won’t work next time, you know? How can I go along with you like this all the time? Do you want me to have any face left?”

Pei Xi’s muffled voice came from the direction of his chest: “Why do you care about having face with a child?”

He Chuzhou: “……”

The choked silence made Pei Xi’s lips curve uncontrollably. He lowered his head to bury himself deeper.

He said there would be no next time.

After all this time, he had never seen that “next time” where it didn’t work.

A warm bed was fine, but he also had to go to the hospital.

He Chuzhou waited until the body in his arms stopped shaking so violently, and when his resistance was as strong as before, he swiftly carried this person downstairs and rushed to the hospital. 

There were not many patients at this point in time. They went upstairs from the outpatient reception room and a doctor took Pei Xi’s temperature. With a high temperature of 39 degrees, it was no wonder this person couldn’t quite wake up from his fever. 

“The change in seasonal temperature is great this year, and more people are catching colds. You should pay attention to keeping warm and exercising.”

“In addition, a balance between work and rest is essential. The patient is largely overworked, which gave the virus the opportunity to take advantage. When you go home, make sure the patient rests well and drinks more warm water. Remember to open a window for ventilation…..”

He Chuzhou noted down the doctor’s every order and returned to the ward to accompany Pei Xi for an intravenous injection.

Pei Xi was surprisingly obedient during his injection. He didn’t resist or struggle, and only winced when the needle pierced the back of his hand. The rest of the time, he tilted his head to look unblinkingly at He Chuzhou.

He Chuzhou asked him in a low voice if he was hungry, and he shook his head. He asked if he was thirsty or sleepy, and he also shook his head.

He didn’t speak, only looked, occasionally moving his fingers to hook the cuff of He Chuzhou’s shirt or his little finger. His long eyelashes cast a shadow on the porcelain-white skin under his eyes.

Those small movements melted He Chuzhou’s heart, so he placed the other’s hand into his palm and covered it, telling him many jokes He Aiyue had made since childhood.

Once the IV was finished and the fever had subsided, he took this person home with some medicine.

The sick Pei-calico was not only good, but also twice as clingy as usual.

He seemed to have turned into a small animal that was unfamiliar with everything. Only in its infancy could it feel safe, and only by lying on the shoulders of a great beast was it free to observe the world.

In other words, he basically couldn’t be away from He Chuzhou.

He Chuzhou carried him out of the car and back to the bedroom. When he was leaving to heat up the porridge for him to eat, Pei Xi immediately sat up in bed and moved to follow.

There was nothing He Chuzhou could do, so he came up with an idea on the spur of a moment.

He downloaded a children’s stopwatch on his cell phone and pointed at the colorful balls on it, saying to Pei Xi: “I’ll be back before the 300th ball drops. If I’m not back by then, will you come and find me in the kitchen?”

300 balls. 300 seconds. It was more than enough time to heat up a serving of seafood porridge.

Seeing Pei Xi lay back and start counting silently, he picked up the bag and turned toward the kitchen. Pouring the porridge into a bowl and putting it in the microwave, he set the time to two minutes. As soon as the beep sounded, he immediately took the bowl back to the bedroom all in one go.

“234, 257, 289…..”

As soon as he approached the door, he heard such a burst of chanting. Choked with emotion, He Chuzhou quickened his steps.

Counting aloud instead of silently, it was obvious that someone was truly impatient.

On the 300 mark, he stepped into the room. Unsurprisingly, he earned himself some disdain: “Chuzhou, you’re so slow.”

He Chuzhou accepted this without question: “Yes, yes, I’m slow. Slower than the tortoise in the square fountain pool.”

As he spoke, he walked over and sat at the bedside: “Come on, it’s been a long night. Eat something and go to sleep.”

For fear of burning him, he fed him the porridge very carefully, turning the spoon back and forth to cool it down and blowing on it a few times before each mouthful. He also asked Pei Xi how it tasted and whether it was too bland and unappetizing.

When Pei Xi said he couldn’t eat anymore, there was less than half left in the bowl. He Chuzhou set aside the bowl after eating two or three mouthfuls and turned around to see Pei Xi looking at him intently.

“What is it?” he asked. “Are you sleepy?”

Pei Xi shook his head. Then he leaned forward and hugged him hard.

Having been pounced on, He Chuzhou subconsciously hugged him back. He felt Pei Xi rub his forehead against the side of his neck, his nose brushing the tip of his ear.

A familiar tingling feeling soon spread throughout his whole body. This coquettish Pei-calico was so sweet that he couldn’t resist, unable to move his hands and push him away. He could only pull back stiffly.

Until he heard a murmur in his ear: “It turns out this is how it feels to have someone take care of you when you’re sick. No wonder……”

He Chuzhou shifted: “What?”

Pei Xi lowered his head, saying: “No wonder he always liked to say he was feeling uncomfortable or sick. Even if he bumped into the corner of a table, he would make a fuss for half a day.”

He Chuzhou didn’t understand, but placed a palm on his back and rubbed it comfortingly: “Xinxin, who made a fuss?”

“Pei Zhen.” Pei Xi tilted his head to rest it on his shoulder: “He made a huge fuss. It obviously didn’t hurt, and the place he hit it wasn’t even red.”

“But Dad would still believe him. He would show care for him and put down his work to coax him for a long time.”

“He never took care of me when I was sick. When I called for him, he would just say he was busy, that Pei Zhen wasn’t feeling well and he couldn’t spare the time. He would tell me to go to the hospital by myself.”

“I didn’t have the energy to go to the hospital, so I could only find some medicine in that house and lay down after taking it. I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t sleep, so I could only count the seconds with my eyes open until dawn.”

“Every time. Every time, it was like this. When I ultimately felt so unwell that I couldn’t hold on anymore, I would go to the hospital alone. When the blood flowed back as I slept while being given an IV, only the nurse would notice.”

“He left me there alone, without a care for whether or not I was doing well. Regardless of if I was getting by well or not, he only cared about whether Pei Zhen would go crazy when he saw me, and if his mental condition could be improved.”

“But why?”

“Aren’t we the same?”

“In a family, are the adults more willing to love someone younger, or the one whose love is more fulfilling to them? Was I not enough, so they didn’t love me?”

He Chuzhou often thought that Pei-calico’s spirit resided in an imaginary world. Everything about him was incompatible with Pei Xi, such as complaining that he didn’t like to get up early, or acting spoiled when he was sick.

Another example was right now. He didn’t know if the younger brother Pei Xi spoke of even existed, nor if those nights of silent suffering while ill had actually happened.

But so what?

Pei-calico was so simple and kind, unable to lie. He was just speaking of what he knew.

So even if it was fake, that didn’t prevent him from feeling sorry for Pei-calico at this moment. He would condemn anyone who made him unhappy.

“Xinxin, you are good enough. Don’t judge yourself based on the opinions of those around you.”

He rubbed the back of Pei Xi’s head and gently taught him how to be self-confident: “Those who don’t love you just don’t know your true value. And if they don’t know your value, why should you heed their opinions?”

Pei Xi was silent for a couple of seconds, then raised his head to look at He Chuzhou. He said uncertainly: “But…..am I really good enough?”

“Of course!” 

He Chuzhou didn’t hesitate: “You are more than good enough. Only a good person will feel that he’s not good enough.”

“But I’m not a good older brother.”

Pei Xi bit his lip: “I don’t like Pei Zhen, just as he doesn’t like me. I didn’t do my best…..”

He Chuzhou: “Who created the rule that an older brother must like his younger brother? Shouldn’t it depend on whether the younger brother is lovable or not?”

“You can do everything well except liking him, so the one who should reflect on himself is not you, but him.”

“Besides, what reason can someone have not to love a child? It’s a natural instinct to dote on them unconditionally. If you have to be the best to be worthy of love, is that love or them taking advantage of you?”

“It’s a common problem among many failed Chinese families that the one who is loved the most is always the most useless one. What is the explanation for this?”

What was the explanation?

Pei Xi shook his head blankly. He had never thought about it. He didn’t know.

He Chuzhou: “The explanation is that there is no reason to be partial. This kind of love isn’t worth much. Throw it on the ground, crush it, and don’t pick it back up. We don’t care about it.”

“Don’t compete with trash for favor, and don’t beg for a defective product. You’re no longer on their level. Those pieces of work aren’t worthy of your consideration.”

This was an argument Pei Xi had never heard before. He was somewhat unable to react, and his expression and red-rimmed eyes looked a bit obedient and foolish.

He Chuzhou hugged his waist and waited for him to digest this. Suddenly, he remembered another thing and narrowed his eyes: “Wait, so this is the reason you don’t want to call me gege?”

Pei Xi’s digestion process was disrupted by him. His eyes widened slightly and he looked even more stunned: “Who said…..didn’t you say you don’t like it?”

He Chuzhou promptly took in a deep breath.

How many days had it been!

He’d finally found the opportunity to talk about this matter that was constantly stuck in his throat!

“I don’t like it?”

“I absolutely love it, okay?”

“You call it so nicely. I wish I could shrink you down and put you on my shoulder so you could call me that every day. How could I not like it?”

Pei Xi: “But that day, you told me not to address you that way……”

He Chuzhou: “I just spoke nonsense to save face. Who knew you would take it seriously?”

Pei Xi: “Then that’s not the case anymore?”

“Right.”

He Chuzhou didn’t even pause to think: “What’s the use of face? If you save so much of it, can you go to the supermarket and exchange it for another one? Or when zombies siege the city, can you bake it in a pot to sate your hunger?”

“It’s not important. A hundred faces aren’t as important as you calling me gege.”

Pei Xi’s eyes shone. Lips pursed, his expression seemed a little embarrassed, but his eyes still curved as he obediently called him Gege.

He Chuzhou nearly cried with joy. He wanted to go downstairs and run 800 laps around the Third Ring Road.

But he was endlessly greedy. Before running, he pinched Pei Xi’s earlobe and coaxed: “Call me that again?”

“Gege.”

Pei Xi laughed.

Hugging his neck, he pressed their foreheads together, their straight noses touching.

Then he closed his eyes and nuzzled He Chuzhou like a kitten: “Gege.”

*

*

The days were growing increasingly short in Wancheng, and dawn came later and later.

It was nearly morning, and the sky above was still full of stars.

There was no heat in the bathroom where he had just showered. He Chuzhou wiped the cold water from his body and came out. The person he had just put in bed to sleep was still breathing deeply.

Wu Qing’s phone call came out of nowhere. Taking his cell phone, he walked out of the room before answering it: “It’s so early in the morning. Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Wu Qing: “What’s with your disgruntled tone? Besides, my biological clock won’t let me sleep at this time.”

He Chuzhou: “If you have something to say, say it.”

Wu Qing: “Someone saw you walking around the hospital late at night. I’m calling out of concern for you. What’s the matter?”

He Chuzhou: “Pei…..President Pei has a fever, so I took him to get an IV. Where did you get such a capable spy?”

Wu Qing said: “It couldn’t be helped, I have friends all over the world. But your voice doesn’t sound like you just woke up. Is the fever so serious? You haven’t slept all night.”

“No, it’s going down.”

He Chuzhou paused for a second or two after speaking. Putting his hands on his hips, he glanced back toward the bedroom and said abruptly: “I want to ask you something.”

Wu Qing: “Go ahead.”

“Why does my state seem to be a little abnormal^[1] recently?”

Wu Qing: “ ? ”

Wu Qing: “Abnormal?”

He Chuzhou: “Is this normal?”

Wu Qing: “You’re abnormal???”

Wu Qing: “Brother, please, you ate pork and forgot that pigs can run? You already have a boyfriend. What’s not normal is not being abnormal after holding it in for so many years, right?!”

He Chuzhou didn’t pay close attention to what he said about pigs running. But after he said the word “boyfriend,” the corners of his mouth escaped his control for some reason.

When he realized soon after, he suppressed them with a frown: “That’s not what I said.”

“Forget it, you know nothing.”

Wu Qing: “? ? ? ? ?”

---

[1] Okay, so this joke was impossible for me to convert  to English, but the abnormal (变态) used here can also mean perverted or horny. Substitute “abnormal” for “horny” and it will all make sense. ⮐

---

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Chapter 29 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 31

Huo Fenglie had just recovered from his serious illness and was exhausted. No matter how mischievous Liu Zhenqing was, he couldn’t bully the other person at this time, so he just cuddled with him and slowly wrote to him about recent events.

So many things had happened these days. He initially thought that Huo Fenglie would be shocked, but when Liu Zhenqing finished writing, he was very calm.

Liu Zhenqing inquired in confusion, and Huo Fenglie said that it was not difficult to attack Western Shu. Fifty thousand Huo family troops could be mobilized from the west. The emphasis was on the time.

What does that mean?

Two months later is the Longevity Festival.

Liu Zhenqing was suddenly taken aback. Two months later, it would be…..Yuan Jue’s birthday.

He instantly understood Huo Fenglie’s meaning. According to previous conventions, unless he was unable to leave the battlefield, Huo Fenglie must return to the capital. It wasn’t that he returned to celebrate a certain person’s birthday, but because during the Longevity Festival, hundreds of civil and military officials, relatives of the emperor, and foreign envoys gathered at the capital’s Imperial Palace. The uneasy factors were more than during the Spring Plowing Ceremony. For the safety of the emperor, as the general who guards the country, how could he not leave this region behind and guard the safety of the capital?

But currently, the source of the rebellion was hidden in the capital. They were stuck here because of this matter. Coupled with Liu Zhenqing’s various speculations about the real and fake kings of Western Shu, Huo Fenglie naturally thought of the Longevity Festival.

And what role did Yuan Jue play in this? Did he really not notice anything strange, or was he taking advantage of the situation to loosen the reins in order to grasp them better? 

Liu Zhenqing was pondering this when he heard a hoarse voice: “The King of Western Shu’s……guard.”

Startled, Liu Zhenqing looked up at Huo Fenglie and said in surprise: “You can speak? Can you hear me?”

Huo Fenglie nodded: “Somewhat…..”

Liu Zhenqing immediately smiled and leaned toward Huo Fenglie’s ear: “What do you want to say?”

“That day…..he was very familiar with my moves when we fought.”

The smile on Liu Zhenqing’s lips instantly froze. This was an unexpected shock. He looked up at Huo Fenglie and said: “You think……”

“He has the internal strength of royal orthodox martial arts, as well as the Huo family’s external strength mixed with the tricks of several masters in the capital. And those masters have all taught me. Not many can reach these conditions.” Huo Fenglie looked at Liu Zhenqing with a heavy gaze.

Liu Zhenqing’s eyes flashed. In the end, he took a deep breath. “You think it’s Liu Qiao, don’t you?”

“He seems……very familiar.”

Huo Fenglie knew that Liu Qiao was very important to Liu Zhenqing, and that it would be the most troublesome situation if they were hostile.

But Huo Fenglie was very sure that that person was Liu Qiao. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in eight or nine years, and both of their martial arts had improved, that person was once the one he was most jealous of.

Because Huo Fenglie had always wanted to be Liu Zhenqing’s bodyguard when he was a child, he was also aware that he was very talented in martial arts, and it seemed that there was no one more qualified than him for this role. But in the end, Liu Qiao was picked up.

Although he soon decided to enter the battlefield and help Liu Zhenqing from another angle, he still felt that no one was more suitable than him to protect this dream.

But Liu Qiao’s martial arts were not ordinary at all. He’d started later than him, but actually became a master in a short period of time but was unable to defeat him in a duel. He challenged him every time and failed every time. He watched Liu Zhenqing give him a sword, watched Liu Zhenqing praise him. The memory was quite profound. In order to win against him, Huo Fenglie practiced his martial arts diligently and didn’t slack off even when he went out to lead troops in battle.

So even when Liu Qiao was in disguise, Huo Fenglie could recognize him just by his moves. But at that time, he had internal injuries and couldn’t tell Liu Zhenqing right away.

And he also had some scruples. After all, Liu Qiao was supporting the king of Western Shu.

Liu Zhenqing was in a daze for a good while. “You probably…..aren’t wrong about his identity.”

Huo Fenglie gave Liu Zhenqing a worried look. His vision was currently recovering.

But Liu Zhenqing suddenly said out of the blue: “What do you think about that King of Western Shu?”

Huo Fenglie was a bit puzzled, but said: “His martial arts skills are very similar to the guard’s, but a little more immature and rough. It seems that he learned all of it from the other person, so his skills are not bad, but not perfect.”

“I’m asking about his appearance, not his martial arts. How do you think he looks?” Liu Zhenqing asked speciously. 

“It was over quickly and I didn’t get a good look. Does Qing-ge think he looks like someone? Could it be someone you know?” Huo Fenglie looked in confusion at Liu Zhenqing beside him.

Liu Zhenqing gave a dry smile and said: “I mean that he’s pretty good-looking, much more pleasing to the eye than that Qiao An.”

There had been many situations where Liu Zhenqing had said impractical things, so Huo Fenglie didn’t think too deeply about it. He was not willing to speak with Liu Zhenqing about the appearance of the man who sent flowers to flirt with him.

But after Liu Zhenqing spoke, he felt that Liu Zhenqing was not in a cheerful mood, and was in fact a bit sad. Because he couldn’t see clearly, it was impossible to accurately determine the look on Liu Zhenqing’s face at the moment, but his mood was indeed low. Was it because Liu Qiao was with the King of Western Shu?

“Qing-ge, if it’s really Liu Qiao, are you going to recognize him?” Huo Fenglie asked.

Although he was currently with the King of Western Shu, Liu Qiao didn’t have many conceptions in this area. It may have something to do with his background. He was not loyal to the Great Zhou Dynasty, only to Liu Zhenqing. So now that he was with the King of Western Shu, it couldn’t be said that he was betraying Great Zhou. According to Liu Qiao’s character, as long as Qing-ge spoke the words, Liu Qiao would return. It was impossible for him to be their enemy. When the time came, they would help him change his identity and become Liu Qiao of Great Zhou. 

Therefore, Huo Fenglie felt that as long as Liu Zhenqing confirmed Liu Qiao’s identity, he would definitely…..

“I’m…..not sure.”

Huo Fenglie was somewhat dumbfounded. “Are you afraid that his heart has changed after so long?”

Liu Zhenqing shook his head lightly: “How could that blockhead change? I made him leave in the first place, and in fact, I gave him his freedom. I’m not sure if he’s following that person of his own volition now, or…..”

If he was still bound to Liu Zhenqing.

“I want him to live well. It may not be a good thing for him if we recognize each other.”

And if he intended to recognize Liu Qiao, it would inevitably involve the other person. And if they were with each other for the long term, their friendship must be very deep. He…..

Huo Fenglie abruptly grasped Liu Zhenqing’s hand. “Qin-ge, don’t worry. If you don’t recognize one another, I won’t give him difficulty on the battlefield. I will never let anything happen to the people you care about again. And since his martial arts skills are so high, ordinary people won’t be able to give him difficulty, right?”

Liu Zhenqing’s heart moved, but he didn’t quite dare to look at Huo Fenglie.

This guy trusted and liked him so much. If he knew that the things he had done back then might have even led to the current situation, would Er-gou be disappointed in his Qing-ge, ah?

Liu Zhenqing had a clear conscience for so many previous crimes, so in the face of Huo Fenglie’s trust, he would certainly not be moved to feel guilty.

But now…..he felt guilty.

He didn’t dare say it, and even hoped that everything they’d analyzed was a coincidence, that that person was not Liu Qiao. That Liu Qiao was living happily elsewhere, and the person he was following wasn’t…..

. . . . . . . .

On the other side. Western Shu Kingdom.

The news about the true and false kings of Western Shu had been deliberately spread by Nanfeng City. Everyone in Western Shu had now heard about it, but the whole nation wasn’t in turmoil because of it. Firstly because Qiao Jin had been king for several years, and his gradually deepening prestige could not be provoked. Secondly, it was impossible for any nation to send someone to say that he was a prince and ask them to recognize him as king, so the mood of resistance across the country was still relatively strong.

But there were also some with doubts.

“It’s better to go to the common border and confront them as they wish, so as to calm the hearts of our people in Western Shu. 

“You’re making me laugh to death. They’re just speaking arbitrarily. Can we allow our king to be treated like this? This is simply Great Zhou looking down on us and insulting us. If they want to fight, we’ll fight. I still don’t believe they can force a false king on us.” The ranks of Western Shu’s military commanders were relatively bolstered now, because under Qiao Jin’s command, they had successfully annexed the lands of neighboring countries. They were continuously winning battles, but now it was somewhat up in the air. 

“General, don’t forget who is leading the troops on the other side.” The person said in an insidious voice: “And how do we know that the person being pushed over is a fake…..”

Before he could finish speaking, there was a pop, and blood splattered three feet. 

Everyone present were as quiet as chickens for a moment, heads lowered as they didn’t dare to look at the person wielding a sword in front of them.

“Those who don’t believe it can verify it for themselves, but for those who make false claims in front of me, this will be their fate.” Qiao Jin swung his sword and blood splashed onto the faces of everyone present, causing them to bow down more forcefully.

“King, I will catch that imposter for you!” A military official stepped forward. 

“Oh? You’re not afraid of Huo Fenglie?” said Qiao Jin.

“I have never faced him before. I don’t believe the myth that he’s truly invincible!” The military official had a large belly, and seemed like a person who was fearless out of ignorance.

Qiao Jin regarded him with a smile, then nodded and ordered him to lead his troops directly to Nanfeng City and tell Tang-chengzhu their answer.

Once everyone dispersed, Liu Qiao came down and said: “You sent him?”

Qiao Jin said with a sneer: “It’s rather appropriate for a useless person to lead the charge, paralyze the other side, and test the opponent’s strength.”

Liu Qiao couldn’t understand this, and asked directly: “This is how you plan to follow the wishes of the people in the capital?”

Qiao Jin: “It’s not harmful to me, ah, as long as Huo Fenglie doesn’t go crazy and conquer the Western Shu Kingdom.”

Liu Qiao frowned.

Qiao Jin looked at him and said: “I can’t defeat him. So until this war is over, you can’t leave my side, not even if the deadline is reached. Understand?”

Liu Qiao was somewhat impatient. “You want to fight for so long? Is this also what the people in the capital intend?”

Looking at Liu Qiao’s expression, Qiao Jin suddenly became irritable and said: “I just don’t get it. You can’t wait to leave me, but where can you go? What can you do?”

Liu Qiao was slightly stunned, and seemed to not know how to answer. He just carried out everything he was supposed to do step by step, and didn’t think about much else.

Qiao Jin reached out to grasp Liu Qiao’s wrist, saying: “You have no place to go. Is it so difficult to take refuge with me?”

Liu Qiao stared blankly. The man before him looked rather fierce on the surface, but he still seemed to see in those eyes the fragility of when he was young and afraid of being left behind, and felt a bit dazed for a moment. 

As ever, when faced with a troublesome problem, Liu Qiao didn’t dwell on it overmuch and simply avoided it. “You are not where I belong.” Having said this, he vanished.

The angry Qiao Jin cursed furiously: “Blockhead! You blockhead!”

A few days later, 10,000 Western Shu troops pressed on to the border and sent people to shout in front of Nanfeng City. The gist of it was that they didn’t believe that the person inside was a real prince, and felt that Great Zhou simply wanted to interfere with their politics. That being the case, they were not afraid of trouble. They could still exist peacefully if the false prince was handed over to them, but if their king was humiliated, their troops would certainly come to the city walls.

From the perspective of the Western Shu Kingdom’s propaganda, the morally reprehensible party seemed to be Great Zhou.

For a time, the land of peace and prosperity vanished, replaced by a gloomy atmosphere full of uncertain factors.

Although Dai Tingyu had deployed the defenses in advance to ensure the safety of Nanfeng City, but having gone through bloody battles in the early years, the common people of the city still feared that it would be the same as ten years ago, the city and its people practically abandoned.

It wasn’t until the current morning that news came out that the General Who Guards the Country had returned, and then everyone seemed to be a little more at ease.

In fact, Huo Fenglie had completely recovered. Wearing silver armor and black civil and military robes, he stood at the city gate. The guards couldn’t help but hold their heads higher and higher to ingratiate themselves to this man, who looked majestic simply standing there.

Huo Fenglie was touring around for an inspection. Seeing the rising smoke past the dense forest in the distance, he knew that the army was stationed there.

“There are currently 5,000 defenders within the city, and they have brought 10,000 troops. It isn’t suitable to make the first move for the time being,” Dai Tingyu analyzed.

Huo Fenglie’s transfer order had only been delegated not long before, and it would take time for the army to arrive.

Huo Fenglie said calmly: “Send someone to shout that if they dare step into the forest, we will consider it an active attack and respond in kind.”

The dense forest was considered a common zone, and generally neither party would step foot in it so as to avoid disputes. And now Huo Fenglie was saying so forcefully that they treated the forest as their own territory, and stepping into it would be an infringement of territory.

Dai Tingyu knew that this was to protect the face of the Great Zhou Dynasty. After all, the enemy was pressing in at the border, and if they failed to react at all, that would give them the opportunity to press farther. But it was 10,000 against 5,000, so wouldn’t defending the city be a little too perilous? But at the thought that this was an order from Brother Huo, there was nothing for him to question, and he immediately sent someone to do it.

Just as they were speaking, there was a sound on the stairs by the city gate. The two looked over to see several people coming up.

Huo Fenglie’s eyes naturally locked onto Liu Zhenqing’s form.

Liu Zhenqing directed a wink at him and smiled.

And standing next to Liu Zhenqing was Qiao An, who was finally meeting Huo Fenglie. He had previously heard that Huo Fenglie was back, but hadn’t come to see him, a prince. This very much displeased him. When he learned that he was here, he rushed over in a commotion and finally glimpsed the actual person. 

Just one glance at that tall, handsome, majestic image made Qiao An blush. His legs were even a little weak as he walked with urgent quickness in Huo Fenglie’s direction. His form looked as if it was about to collapse.

“I am the real prince of the Western Shu Kingdom. You’re General Huo. You’re finally back. I’ve been humiliated like this, so General Huo must take charge of me, ah.”

After witnessing Qiao An’s behavior toward Dai Tingyu before, the group of people were already used to this, but his tone seemed softer than last time, like a spoiled child.

Looking at him, he seemed to have really dressed up today. Beneath the splendor, there was a sense of vulnerability that could make a man extremely protective, along with red powder at the tips of his eyes. He really knew how to grasp the psychology of men. Was this prince planning to seek power by taming many underlings through seduction?

Seeing that Qiao An’s footing was unstable and he was about to fall toward Huo Fenglie, Liu Zhenqing watched Huo Fenglie’s reaction in amusement.

In the end, he didn’t see how Huo Fenglie dodged. He just felt that Huo Fenglie passed by Qiao An straight to Liu Zhenqing, and Qiao An fell to the ground with a thud.

Everyone watched on, dumbfounded. But Huo Fenglie turned a deaf ear and came to Liu Zhenqing, saying: “It’s still dangerous at the city gate. Don’t come up here during the day.”

Liu Zhenqing nodded in acquiescence. 

At this time, Qiao An’s eyes were red with anger as he was helped to his feet. “General Huo doesn’t take this prince seriously.”

Others may have to be courteous when facing Qiao An, but Huo Fenglie had higher status. Not to mention that Qiao An was currently not king, even if he was the King of Western Shu, he must obediently bow before Huo Fenglie according to his status. This Qiao An was truly ignorant.

Huo Fenglie gave him a cold glance, and the prince who was so arrogant just now felt as if he was being strangled by the throat. How could this little prince withstand Huo Fenglie’s cutting gaze? He was unable to speak a word.

“If the prince doesn’t want to die, I suggest he remain at the City Lord’s manor. It’s best to not go near the city gate in the future,” Huo Fenglie said frostily, completely different from the manner in which he’d told Liu Zhenqing not to come up here.

Unexpectedly, Qiao An was so angry that he began to cry on the spot. Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but complain again. “Are we really going to reposition this piece of work?”

Tang Mu looked over the bleak city and sighed. “Looking at the current situation, the Kingdom of Western Shu seems to be as guilty as a thief. War is inevitable.” Such a person was also not worthy of those going to the battlefield.

Qiao An was still making a fuss when suddenly, a long-range spear shot through the air straight toward the city gate.

Although such attacks were more about intimidation than actual killing, it instantly triggered an instinctive reaction from everyone present.

Huo Fenglie took Liu Zhenqing into his arms and shielded him firmly. Dai Tingyu also stood in front of Tang Mu.

The other guards were vigilant, but Qiao An, who was making a fuss just now, saw the spear pass in front of him and fell to the ground in fright. He crawled toward Huo Fenglie’s feet as if he knew it was safe there, then proceeded to wail until he was out of breath.

And the spear that was driven into a building by the city gate had words of humiliation hanging from it.

This was obviously the response they received after sending someone to shout. The other party had chosen to directly provoke them.

It was unknown if the other party was overconfident and wanted to challenge them, or if they seized the opportunity because they knew that reinforcements had not yet arrived at Nanfeng City.

Immediately after, undercover sentries from their own army came back with a message. The other side’s army had entered the dense forest. Such impatience.

“Brother Huo!” Dai Tingyu immediately looked toward Huo Fenglie.

Huo Fenglie nodded and said: “You defend the city. Give me one hundred cavalry, the fastest ones! We depart immediately.”

Faced with a military order, Dai Tingyu unquestioningly went ahead.

“One hundred versus ten thousand?” Tang Mu said in shock.

Liu Zhenqing also couldn’t help frowning, but seeing Huo Fenglie’s tranquil appearance, he must have a method. He gave Tang Mu a reassuring look.

But he had no chance to see it. Because Huo Fenglie would not allow them to remain on a dangerous battlefield, when he set off on Chen Jiangyue, he told Liu Zhenqing and Tang Mu to take the weeping Qiao An back to the City Lord’s manor to wait for news.

It was already noon when Huo Fenglie set out. Liu Zhenqing estimated that no matter what Huo Fenglie was going to do, it would take at least a day or two.

But as soon as night fell, Nanfeng City was boiling over.

Liu Zhenqing and Tang Mu were chatting when they saw some soldiers rush up and say, “General Huo has returned victorious!”

---

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Chapter One Hundred Nine << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Eleven

Li Xiu didn’t know why he was so bothered over that short, silent voice message.

To put it plainly, that “help me” might have just been a simple software bug. Fang Qian’an was still standing in front of him. He didn’t need to be so tense. But even thinking this way, Li Xiu still felt that subtle chill surrounding him and seeping into his body little by little.

“I’m really scared,” he heard Fang Qian’an repeat anxiously.

“The thing in the Xiao Family Haunted House is really targeting us. It won’t let us go…..”

The boy’s voice gradually became muffled and strange.

“Calm down a little. M-maybe it’s not that serious.”

Li Xiu could only bite the bullet and reassure the tall boy in front of him, but he really wasn’t the type to comfort others. His words were not only unconvincing, but also sounded particularly weak.

Fang Qian’an lowered his head and said softly: “I can’t calm down.”

Suddenly, he opened his mouth and said: “A-Xiu, I want to take a look at the Xiao Family Haunted House.”

“What?”

Li Xiu looked at Fang Qian’an in astonishment.

Although he knew in his heart that the strange events they’d encountered during this period were closely related to the Xiao Family Haunted House, he hadn’t expected that Fang Qian’an, who had already been frightened to tears, would actually take the initiative to mention going there.

“You’re not afraid of ghosts anymore?” Li Xiu asked dryly.

Fang Qian’an was silent for a long while, then opened his bloodshot eyes and murmured: “Wang Rongfa can’t be contacted. And Song Cheng…..Song Cheng is dead.”

“What? Song Cheng is dead?!”

Li Xiu stared at Fang Qian’an in disbelief. The latter looked straight at him. His face was pallid, and his eyes seemed particularly hollow.

“En. It’s already spread among the group. Song Cheng really is dead.”

“……”

“We’re probably next,” Fang Qian’an said.

Li Xiu said nothing for a long time.

He was still greatly impacted. He, who had always only lurked in various class groups, now had to force himself to buck up and capture a few words from the school group that was continuously scrolling.

When he confirmed that the body taken away from the Xiao Family Haunted House this morning was Song Cheng, Li Xiu’s wrist suddenly lost strength and his cell phone almost fell to the floor.

Fang Qian’an swiftly reached out, grabbed the phone, and handed it to him.

“A-Xiu, if I really have to die, I also want to understand the ghosts. I feel like we can only find a solution to all of this by going to the haunted house.”

Perhaps because of his great fear, Fang Qian’an grabbed Li Xiu’s hand again as he spoke.

“But…..”

“A-Xiu, let’s go.”

“……”

“I can’t take it anymore, A-Xiu, I really can’t take it…..I’m so scared…..”

The boy lowered his head and kept repeating similar words. His voice became weaker and weaker, but his grip on Li Xiu grew increasingly strong.

Li Xiu let out a pained sound: “Fang Qian’an, let go, you’re hurting me!”

“A-Xiu…..please…..I’m begging you…..”

Staring at the top of Fang Qian’an’s head, Li Xiu bit his lip.

“I used to think that people who ran into haunted houses even though they knew there were ghosts were mentally ill,” the boy said as if to himself.

“A-Xiu—”

“Okay, let go of me!” Li Xiu shook off Fang Qian’an’s hand, then picked up the phone and began to send a message.

Fang Qian’an looked at such a Li Xiu, and after holding back for a few seconds, he asked with uncontrollable trepidation: “What are you doing?”

Li Xiu’s expression went very tight. He glanced at the boy beside him, took a deep breath, and then said softly: “I’m asking the teacher for leave.”

“Ah?”

“Didn’t you say we have to go to the Xiao Family Haunted House?” Li Xiu said irritably, with a hint of self-abasement, “In any case, we’ll have to go sooner or later. If we procrastinate, the school will probably have the barbed wire put up, and it’ll be a lot more troublesome to go then rather than now, won’t it?”

“A-Xiu…..”

“Besides, due to this nonsense, I haven’t been able to concentrate on my studies for several days. Continuing like this will delay things too much.”

As he spoke, Li Xiu got up and walked down the stairs.

“So. Let’s go to the haunted house.”

Fang Qian’an suddenly reached out and grasped the corner of Li Xiu’s clothes.

Li Xiu turned his head to look at him in bewilderment: “What are you doing?”

Fang Qian’an’s pupils were a bit like a cat’s. At this time, they looked big, round, and dark, with only the edges still inlaid with a thin layer of gold.

“A-Xiu, thank you,” the tall boy said word by word.

“There’s no way I could go back there without you.”

Li Xiu didn’t know if he could either. He frowned unconsciously.

He kept feeling that Fang Qian’an was a little strange today, but if he had to say what was strange, he also couldn’t tell.

Fortunately, at this awkward moment, Fang Qian’an’s cell phone buzzed.

They were sympathy messages from others.

[Young Master Fang, are you really okay? You looked terrible when you left.]

[I asked, and the incident with Song Cheng seems to have been an accident. Young Master Fang, there’s no need for you to take it to heart.]

[I’m sorry, Boss. Next time I bring you something, I’ll check into it carefully…..]

Fang Qian’an stared at the screen with his head tilted for a while, but didn’t reply to anyone’s messages.

*

In the lounge, the boys who were unrepentantly skipping class put down their phones and sighed simultaneously.

“Young Master Fang hasn’t replied…..”

“Isn’t he always like this? Doesn’t he normally not reply to our messages?”

“Why do I feel like he was really frightened by Song Cheng’s death?”

“No way…..”

In the midst of the complicated and meaningless discussion, a boy suddenly noticed something strange about Jiang Jun.

He asked tentatively out of habit: “Jiang Jun, are you okay? Why are you so preoccupied?” He sent a curious glance at the cell phone in the boy’s hand. “Ah, speaking of which, it seems like you haven’t said anything in the group? What’s wrong? Was Young Master Fang offended?”

Jiang Jun was startled. As if waking up from a dream, and abruptly shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing. I just think Young Master Fang must not like us disturbing him,” Jiang Jun said a little stiffly. Finally, he added as if talking to himself, “Speaking of which, did you think Young Master Fang’s smile was a little strange in the restroom today?”

“What smile?” the companion asked in confusion.

Jiang Jun recalled the smile he had seen when he passed Fang Qian’an, and immediately broke into a cold sweat once more.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” Jiang Jun whispered softly.

He only knew that he…..was afraid of such a Fang Qian’an.

He had clearly seemed shocked by the news of Song Cheng’s death, but why did that person look subtly ecstatic?

*

While walking side by side down the stairs, Li Xiu suddenly stopped the person beside him and asked: “Wait a minute. Fang Qian’an, I’ve heard that you can order takeout during school hours?”

“Ah, right, we can. What is it?” Fang Qian’an responded.

Li Xiu had been holding his cell phone this whole time, clicking away endlessly. “Great. Then I’ll have you buy these few things.”

Fang Qian’an’s phone chimed. He clicked on the list sent by Li Xiu, and his eyes flashed slightly.

“Glutinous rice? Salt? What is this for?”

“It’s something to ward off evil spirits,” Li Xiu said mildly.

Fang Qian’an raised his eyebrows slightly: “Is this something your grandma taught you?”

Li Xiu gave a crisp shake of his head: “No, I just researched online.” He added after a pause, “My grandmother doesn’t like me to come in contact with this kind of stuff. She always…..”

[“A-Xiu, what are you doing all this for?”]

[“Our A-Xiu, ah, you don’t need to do anything or be afraid. Your gege will protect you.”]

[“Grandma didn’t lie to you. As long as you serve your gege properly, nothing in this world can hurt you.”]

Li Xiu lowered his eyes, hiding the trace of unhappiness that flashed through them.

Thankfully, Fang Qian’an didn’t seem to want to ask further questions. Not long after receiving Li Xiu’s silly list, he got a package from a delivery boy.

Fang Qian’an handed the bag to Li Xiu, watching as he took out the iodine-free sea salt and glutinous rice and put them in his arms with a stiff face. His expression seemed a bit strange.

Once Li Qiu finished collecting those things, he took out another item that wasn’t on the list. A bottle of liquor.

“Alcohol?”

Li Xiu examined the clear liquor bottle. Fang Qian’an took the liquor from his hand, unscrewed the cap, and drank it in front of him. But after drinking half the bottle, Fang Qian’an stared blankly as he stood in place for dozens of seconds, stiff as a board. Li Xiu was a little alarmed, and quickly went over to take a look. The other party suddenly trembled, then let out a long, slow breath through his mouth.

“Haaa—”

Fang Qian’an released a low sigh.

“As expected of Erguotou. I instantly feel clear-headed.”

Li Xiu stared at Fang Qian’an’s rosy face, hesitating before saying: “…..Minors shouldn’t drink alcohol.”

“Drinking can get my courage up. And if I don’t drink, I’ll freeze to death, my body is so cold. You don’t know, but my mind was numb when I was talking to you just now.” The boy finally added in a mutter, “Besides, who says I’m underage?”

“Ah?”

Fang Qian’an suddenly grinned at Li Xiu. “I just celebrated my eighteenth birthday a week ago.”

Li Xiu gave an “oh,” and immediately after, felt Fang Qian’an’s warm body drawing close to him.

“What, what’s with this expression? Ah, right, speaking of which, shouldn’t you call me Gege, A-Xiu?”

Li Xiu frowned and leaned away from Fang Qian’an’s alcohol-reeking mouth.

“Scram,” the youth said expressionlessly to the other boy. “I was just thinking that you’re so old.”

Li Xiu’s words had no other meaning.

Eighteen was indeed a bit old for a sophomore in high school.

“Hey, how is that old? Eighteen can’t be considered old…..” Fang Qian’an rubbed his nose and glanced at Li Xiu covertly. “I have a reason for this, okay?”

Fang Qian’an didn’t know why he suddenly wanted to explain this to Li Xiu.

“I was in bad health when I was a child, and was hospitalized for many years, so I went to school much later,” he explained uncomfortably.

When he finished speaking, Li Xiu still appeared indifferent. Fang Qian’an simply picked up the hem of his clothes and exposed his tight, muscled abdomen directly in front of the youth: “Come on, take a look, you must not have looked carefully just now, right? This scar right here—”

Fang Qian’an pointed to the scar on his waist and said, “Do you know what this is?”

Li Xiu’s footsteps paused, and he gave Fang Qian’an a helpless look: “What is it?”

Fang Qian’an put down his shirt and said word by word: “This is a scar from a kidney transplant.”

---

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Chapter 27 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 29

At Qiming Secondary School, a group of people gathered in front of a certain men’s restroom.

The boys, who usually considered themselves to be superior people, stood in front of the public restroom with awkward expressions. They exchanged glances filled with dislike, but none of them dared to leave voluntarily. After all, Young Master Fang was in such discomfort. It would seem too indifferent and unconcerned if the younger brothers left at this time.

Seeing as the school bell had rung and the public areas on campus were becoming increasingly empty and quiet, Jiang Jun crossed his arms and said with a frown: “Boss, what’s going on?”

“How about one of us come in to take a look?” he suggested.

“If you want to go, then go.” Another person noticed his small plot and muttered, “Who would want others to see them all messed up? What if Young Master Fang gets angry?”

Jiang Jun remained silent.

“But hasn’t he been in there too long?”

“En, wasn’t there the sound of flushing just now? Why hasn’t he come out yet…..”

As the group discussed this in low voices, someone holding a cell phone suddenly gave a panicked cry.

“Fuck—”

Everyone was given a shock by this guy and couldn’t help but roll their eyes. “Damn it, can you stop being so flustered? What happened, ah? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

The one who had cried out raised his head with an extremely unsightly expression, looking at his companions: “S-Song Cheng…..”

“Song Cheng?”

“Song Cheng, he, he’s dead,” the boy stammered in a tremulous voice. “The one who was carried out of the haunted house today w-was Song Cheng.”

As soon as these words fell, there was silence outside the restroom.

Everyone stood there foolishly, completely unable to recover.

Even in a small group, these people and Song Cheng could not be called close friends, but regardless, he was still a person who hung out with them. The living person who had been calling them brothers just a few days ago was a corpse today.

When the young men heard this news, they felt an indescribable sense of unreality.

“Is it true? That guy Song Cheng was just alive and kicking, so why is he…..”

Just as someone spoke, a loud noise abruptly sounded in the restroom.

The already nervous boys were given a fright. When they were able to react, several had already run into the restroom first.

“Young Master Fang?!”

“Boss, are you okay?”

“What happened?”

But when everyone rushed in, they found that nothing had happened to Fang Qian’an. The tall boy simply stood motionless in front of the sink, his head hanging down.

The light was dim inside the restroom. An exploded light had left a crooked, snake-like black burn mark on the snow white ceiling. 

Naturally, there were no large windows in the public restroom. Once the light exploded, the only source of light was the few small ventilation windows in the corners. It was currently very dark, and the dark shadows covered Fang Qian’an’s body as if to engulf him.

Fang Qian’an didn’t seem to notice at all that he was “worrying” his companions, and naturally ignored the others’ inquiries.

He shook his head slightly in the dim light, then passed through the crowd and went straight outside.

“Young Master Fang?”

“Um, Young Master Fang, what are you doing…..”

Fang Qian’an suddenly spoke, his voice dim and dull: “Song Cheng. He’s dead.”

He seemed to be immersed in his own world as he muttered faintly: “I need to find A-Xiu…..Song Cheng is dead……I need to find…..A-Xiu…..”

“Wait, Young Master Fang, you know too? That Song Cheng is…..”

Jiang Jun was closest to Fang Qian’an, and happend to hear his muttered words. Just when he was going to use this excuse to talk more with Fang Qian’an, Jiang Jun inadvertently met the other’s eyes.

They were incomparably hollow.

Jiang Jun’s heart constricted, and all of his words stuck in his throat.

He was in shock for a moment, then realized that Fang Qian’an had already passed him and left the restroom.

*

Someone was watching him.

In Class A1, Li Xiu suddenly shivered and came to this realization.

The extremely intense gaze fell upon him as if it had a physical form, and goosebumps appeared on Li Xiu’s arms.

Li Xiu raised his head from his textbook and subconsciously looked in the direction of that gaze.

Just like a traditional school, every classroom in Qiming had two doors, front and back. There were also long strips of glass windows on the doors, allowing the outside world to see inside the classroom. This was convenient for the patrol teacher to stand outside and check on the status of each class.

But now, looking outside the window, there was a tall, strong shadow. Due to the characteristics of the glass itself and the backlighting, it was difficult for Li Xiu to see Fang Qian’an’s face clearly from this angle. But he knew that it was Fang Qian’an watching him.

Through the window, Fang Qian’an’s face was as white as a paper cutout. His eyes were clearly light-colored, but now his black pupils were dilated as round as a cat’s, as if two black pebbles were embedded in the eye sockets. Both of his hands were pressed to the glass of the observation window. Perhaps because he was so tall, in order to have a clear view of the person inside the classroom, Fang Qian’an had his head tilted in an awkward manner to press his face to the window and peek at Li Xiu.

With Fang Qian’an staring at him in such a way, Li Xiu didn’t feel too good.

He even experienced some self-doubt. Could it be that his concentration was too poor? Otherwise, why didn’t anyone else notice Fang Qian’an at the back door? Yet he was sitting here on pins and needles, restless all over.

He recalled that before coming to class today, he emphasized to this guy several times that he was not to disturb him during class time. Li Xiu’s brow was practically knitted together.

After a few minutes of being at an impasse, Li Xiu, the very model of a well-behaved student, made an exception and took out his phone to send a text.

[Fang Qian’an, what in the world are you doing?]

The message was sent.

In the next second, he received a reply.

[Voice message: 4 seconds]

Li Xiu: …..

The youth sucked in a breath and glanced at the teacher.

In the classroom, the teacher was still focused on lecturing and didn’t notice good student Li Xiu going AWOL.

Li Xiu looked at Fang Qian’an, who was still leaning against the observation window, and reluctantly pressed the “convert to text” function to check the voice message.

[Help me]

The brief words on the screen immediately caused Li Xiu’s pupils to constrict.

Li Xiu turned his head to look at the other party in disbelief, then realized that the boy’s strange posture may not have been Fang Qian’an’s intention.

Behind Fang Qian’an loomed a dark shadow.

As if noticing Li Xiu’s gaze, as soon as he looked at Fang Qian’an, a pair of emaciated gray hands that definitely didn’t belong to a living person stuck out from behind Fang Qian’an’s shoulders little by little.

Fang Qian’an’s eyes were blood-red as he looked straight at Li Xiu. And behind him, the shadow became more and more distinct.

Bang—

A loud noise cut through the orderly lecture.

“Classmate Li Xiu?”

The startled teacher and classmates all turned to look at the pale-faced, panic-stricken boy in the back row of the classroom.

Holding the textbook with both hands, Li Xiu met the teacher’s puzzled gaze.

“S-sorry, Teacher.” Li Xiu’s voice shook a bit as he spoke. He felt as if his hands and feet were immersed in ice water, extremely cold. His heartbeat was incredibly rapid. “I don’t feel well. I need to go to the infirmary.”

Having said this, Li Xiu didn’t even wait for the teacher’s response before rushing out of the classroom.

However, once he rushed out, there was nobody at the back door — the boy who was clinging to the door just moments ago had vanished.

Li Xiu abruptly went still. Breathing was suddenly very difficult.

At the discovery that Fang Qian’an was missing, he was at once overwhelmed by an extremely ominous premonition.

He quickly dialed Fang Qian’an’s cell phone.

Beep……beep…..beep…..

A long, drawn-out electronic sound came from the microphone, but Fang Qian’an didn’t answer.

Li Xiu’s phone was old, and even the tone had some strange inflections.

Beep……beep…..ssss…..beep…..ss…..

The boy held his phone in one hand and the railing with the other, walking forward at a loss down the hallway as he automatically looked for Fang Qian’an.

However, it was during class time, so the hallway was empty except for him.

The sound of teachers lecturing in the nearby classrooms could be heard from time to time, but the more this was so, the more Li Xiu felt that his surroundings were scarily quiet.

He swallowed dryly. His throat felt dry and bitter, and he kept thinking about the shadow he’d seen behind Fang Qian’an at the last moment. 

That “thing” seemed to have had one eye exposed.

It peered at Li Xiu over Fang Qian’an’s shoulder. 

That gaze was terrifying.

So terrifying that when Li Xiu recalled the scene now, he had chills all over. He couldn’t say how he felt, but he knew that he was so scared that his legs were beginning to feel weak.

Li Xiu lowered his head as if to hide. He put down the still-dialing cell phone and murmured unconsciously: “Fang Qian’an…..where the hell are you?”

And the moment he spoke these words, a terrible suspicion suddenly appeared in his mind.

Was what he’d seen outside the door just now a living Fang Qian’an, or was he…..actually……

Just as Li Xiu was frightened to the point of his legs giving out because of his conjecture, a faint ringtone sounded from the end of the corridor.

There were spacious stair landings at the end of each hallway in the teaching building, somewhat similar to a public space in a high-end apartment. Outdoor tables and chairs were also set up here, allowing students with comfortable lives to have activity spaces to chat and relax between classes.

“Good luck, wishing you good luck…..”

The ringtone overlapped with the dial tone of Li Xiu’s phone. It was clearly extremely upbeat music, but in such an environment, it gave off a strange and eerie feeling.

Li Xiu’s heart palpitated. He couldn’t help but pick up his pace, staggering in the direction the sound was coming from. 

Then, at a glance, he spied the tall boy sitting motionless on a bench, back hunched and head drooping down. A constantly ringing cell phone lay in Fang Qian’an’s hand.

Li Xiu was certain that Fang Qian’an must hear the sound, because the boy’s strong, developed back muscles were continuously jumping.

But Fang Qian’an didn’t answer the phone.

“Fang…..”

Li Xiu stopped, staring at Fang Qian’an’s back. He hesitated for several seconds before summoning the courage to call out the other’s name.

“Fang Qian’an?”

He walked up to Fang Qian’an shakily and waved a hand in front of him.

Little by little, Fang Qian’an raised his head.

It must be said that Li Xiu was shocked by the current state of Fang Qian’an.

The boy’s eyes were bloodshot, his face full of fear and despair.

“What happened–ahhhhhh!”

Li Xiu hadn’t fully asked a question before it turned into an exclamation.

It was like being attacked like a wild beast. Li Xiu was caught off guard as Fang Qian’an directly threw his arms around him.

The boy’s body was as frigid as a corpse, but his arms were as strong as a predatory anaconda, tightly constricting Li Xiu’s body.

“Fang Qian’an, let go —”

“A-Xiu…..A-Xiu……wuwuwu…..”

Fang Qian’an ignored Li Xiu’s struggle and buried his face right in the young man’s neck.

“I’m so scared, so scared, so scared, wuwuwuwuwu……”

Then, as Fang Qian’an hugged the alarmed Li Xiu, he burst into tears.

*

It was not until more than ten minutes later that Li Xiu, with difficulty, tore the obviously frightened and nearly unconscious Fang Qian’an from his body.

His neck and shoulder were now wet and sticky, and felt chilled when the wind blew. With a numb expression, Li Xiu gave up thinking about whether it was Fang Qian’an’s tears or snot.

In short, he was speechless.

“So, you refuse to move because…..”

“I don’t dare. I’ve already run into a ghost like this, and I’m afraid that if I answer the phone, some kind of strange noise will come out.”

The tall boy looked terribly pitiful and weak right now. He sat in front of Li Xiu with his hands and feet tucked in, his nose still red.

“I was so afraid, so I wanted to find you, but you told me not to disturb you…..”

Fang Qian’an’s voice became increasingly small and weak.

“I waited at your door for a while, but the classroom is also really scary, because I always think of that dream. So I hid here to wait and planned to find you after class.”

Li Xiu rubbed his forehead.

He was a bit hesitant to bring up the “thing” he’d seen behind Fang Qian’an before.

After a moment’s hesitation, Li Xiu asked tentatively: “Did you feel something, so you sent me a message to call for help?”

As a result, he received an extremely puzzled response from Fang Qian’an.

“When did I send you a message calling for help?”

Li Xiu took out his phone and, in front of Fang Qian’an, clicked on the voice message sent to him in class.

However, after clicking on it, the voice message displayed as “Help me” after conversion to text was just a short, meaningless rustling sound.

Fang Qian’an stared at his cell phone. After a moment of silence, he said softly: “I might have pressed something accidentally.”

But Li Xiu’s expression didn’t relax.

Because even now, those two words were still present on the screen.

[Help me]

---

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Chapter 26 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 28

As Liu Zhenqing narrated, the expressions of the two listeners gradually changed.

“He’s the fake?” Dai Tingyu asked in surprise.

Tang Mu spoke with a frown: “He should be genuine, but the inside story he told the emperor must be false. His identity should have been known to others before, and they supported him well, waiting for the right time to release him and cause trouble. And he himself is knowingly a participant, so he should have his own purpose.”

“What purpose? Making Great Zhou go to war with Western Shu? What good will that do him?” Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but say: “Could it be that he doesn’t have the ability to be king, so he used the fake king to help him rise to power, but secretly hid for fear of death? As a result, the fake king had other intentions and betrayed him, so he was forced to come out and seek help from the emperor.”

Tang Mu said: “But would a normal person risk being replaced by making such a dangerous decision? He was careless and got completely replaced. Even if Great Zhou helped him, the sacrifice in exchange would be huge. What if the emperor didn’t believe him or was unwilling to help him? Wouldn’t that be making wedding clothes for others? It’s honestly unreasonable.”

“Then why?” Dai Tingyu asked restlessly.

Tang Mu also shook his head in annoyance. He felt that none of this was right, and could only look toward Liu Zhenqing.

Liu Zhenqing said: “I think the most unreasonable thing is that Qiao An was able to come to Great Zhou alive.

The two of them were stupefied for a moment.

Liu Zhenqing said softly: “You also met the fake king last time. Such a wolf cub was able to ruthlessly attack the entire upper class of Western Shu in order to gain the upper hand, and there is a martial arts master guarding him. No matter how he came to be, there is absolutely no reason to allow such a prince, such a person who endangered his existence, to slip away from his hands. Even if he escaped, he would be pursued for thousands of li. How could Qiao An have escaped at this level? Anyone who could make such a mistake would have never become the king of Western Shu. Therefore, the possibility of Qiao An reaching Great Zhou unharmed is very low……I’m partial to the belief that they’re on the same team.”

When Liu Zhenqing spoke such a bold guess, Tang Mu and Dai Tingyu felt chills run down their spines.

“They’re working together?” Tang Mu said in astonishment: “How is that possible?!”

“If they’re together, then why are they…..I understand. They joined forces to deal with Brother Huo, right? They want to make Brother Huo fight and take the opportunity to kill him.” Dai Tingyu was immediately filled with indignation.

Tang Mu also looked at Dai Tingyu with some fear, as if he had the same suspicion.

But Liu Zhenqing still shook his head.

“Even if they’re really working together, how could a small nation like Western Shu trap Huo Fenglie? He and his cavalry are capable of utterly defeating Western Shu, so this isn’t the case. Unless they’re both insane.” Liu Zhenqing added: “This is just an analysis of the trends, and in fact, the possibility is very low. If they’re really working together, things will become troublesome. It would prove that there is someone behind the scenes with complete control over the real and fake kings, making them act together. The purpose of this is still unknown.”

As Liu Zhenqing said this, he saw the spooked looks on the faces of the other two and stopped talking.

There was one thing, the most important thing, which he couldn’t say to anyone else.

Yuan Jue…..had instructed him.

In this world, there were few people who could beat him when it came to strategy. He was trained as a qualified emperor. What Liu Zhenqing could easily discover, how could Yuan Jue not discover the same things after living in the palace for a few days in close contact with Qiao An?

So the question was, Yuan Jue knew Qiao An was lying, so…..why did he go on to cooperate with him?

What were his intentions?

It was so complex. Like a blind man walking through a dense forest, even if he groped around carefully, he couldn’t tell which direction the wind was blowing. He only knew that there were dangers everywhere.

His Er-gou…..was either a knife in someone’s hand or someone’s target.

In short, he was the most important piece in this game of chess.

Liu Zhenqing’s face darkened slightly. If his Er-gou was hurt, be careful of him overturning the chess board! 

The general trend was that they could only sail downstream with the current. Leaving the challenge to Tang Mu and Dai Tingyu, he continued to tell fairy tales under the window sill for Huo Fenglie.

Huo Fenglie’s voice was hoarse, but he still called out a soft “Qing-ge.”

Two days later, the door opened. Liu Zhenqing rushed in like a breeze to see Huo Fenglie lying silently in bed. He had lost weight all over, his face had no color to it at all, and his lips were covered in freshly scabbed-over wounds. The blue veins on his forehead, neck, and arms had bulged for so long and could only heal very slowly.

Seeing Huo Fenglie like this, Liu Zhenqing truly felt distressed.

Walking over, he leaned down and kissed Huo Fenglie’s forehead. “Er-gou, you’ve worked hard.”

“Cough, cough, cough.” His master was displeased.

Liu Zhenqing hastily knelt down and kowtowed to his master.

The master quickly signaled for Han Ye to help him up, saying with displeasure: “What are you doing?”

He wanted to make Liu Zhenqing thank him for his hard work, not kowtow to publicly express his gratitude.

“Thank you, Master and Xiao Ye. Thank you.” It was rare for Liu Zhenqing to express his sincere thanks, and the two people felt uncomfortable. “Please tell me if there is anything I should pay attention to.”

“Tell you? It’s impossible for you to do it well, so we’ll be the ones keeping an eye on him,” Han Ye showed no mercy.

Liu Zhenqing shook his head and said: “That won’t work, there will be war soon. The situation is unpredictable. The location of Medical Valley is inaccessible to normal people, and it’s the safest place. You should leave as soon as possible.”

The two of them were bewildered. They had only been in seclusion for five days, so why was there suddenly a war?

The two inquired, and Liu Zhenqing gave them a brief explanation. Then he said: “Once the matter is over, I will go with Fenglie to visit you.”

Seeing that his master was silent, Han Ye could only say: “Now that there’s war, why are you joining in? Even before, you were still a civil servant. In any case, Huo Fenglie is fine now, so how about you return to Medical Valley with us to wait for him?”

The master regarded Liu Zhenqing with a sullen face. He seemed to have the same intention.

Liu Zhenqing shook his head. Looking at Huo Fenglie on the bed, he said: “I promised to never leave him alone again.”

Han Ye wanted to say more, that it would only be a temporary farewell. But the master sighed and seemed to give up on persuading him. Although Han Ye was angry, he could only roll his eyes and glare resentfully.

They originally intended to rest for the day before leaving, but Dai Tingyu brought news. Although the Western Shu Kingdom had not responded as of yet, they had already mobilized their troops, obviously planning to fight to the death.

It could be seen that Dai Tingyu was rather excited and not afraid at all. Liu Zhenqing was relieved. After seeing off his master and apprentice, he concentrated on staying by Huo Fenglie’s side and looking after his health.

Perhaps they had moved around too much, because Qiao An couldn’t help but sneak out to peek at them and was caught by Liu Zhenqing.

Qiao An just asked, all high and mighty: “Is General Huo back?”

Liu Zhenqing looked at Qiao An and wondered, was the smell of rouge on him heavier these days?

He smiled and said: “Not yet.”

Qiao An said: “I see that Commander Dai is dispatching troops. Is the person pretending to be me unwilling to compromise and preparing for war?”

“Your Highness, did you think the other party would compromise?” Liu Zhenqing said with a smile.

Qiao An was taken aback and didn’t know how to answer.

“His Highness should know that person quite well.”

Qiao An immediately felt like a cat whose tail had been stepped on: “How could I know him, ah! What are you talking about?”

Liu Zhenqing’s eyes flashed. He smiled: “Didn’t Your Highness say it yourself? He kidnapped you and got so much information from you. You must have been together for a long time, so you would naturally understand him.”

Qiao An’s face colored at once. He feigned calmness and said: “I was coerced. I naturally could never understand such an evil person. Stop talking nonsense. You still haven’t answered the question I asked you.”

“No matter what, everything we do is for you, Your Highness,” Liu Zhenqing said. “I want to continue working on your behalf, so I won’t accompany you.”

Qiao An wanted to say something else, but Liu Zhenqing had already left.

Qiao An hurried to follow him, but was stopped by a guard outside the courtyard gate.

Without the master and Han Ye, Dai Tingyu had arranged for trusted guards to stand watch in the courtyard. Other than Liu Zhenqing, Tang Mu, and Dai Tingyu, no one else was allowed to enter or exit without permission.

Even when Qiao An made a fuss outside, it was all in vain. The guards were unyielding, and wouldn’t let this person through.

Liu Zhenqing glanced back a few times when he heard the commotion. He touched his chin and couldn’t help but think that they might as well tie him up and torture him severely. He looked like he wouldn’t be able to bear it, and they could ask him a lot. 

But after some thought, if his guess was wrong, he was the King of Western Shu. If Liu Zhenqing really tried to block him from taking the throne due to political reasons, he would be doomed. Forget it, he would put such dangerous ideas aside for now.

Just as he was thinking, there was movement in the room.

Pleasant surprise immediately filled Liu Zhenqing’s face. After all, Huo Fenglie had been unconscious all day.

Liu Zhenqing rushed in and saw Huo Fenglie holding the Chunjun Sword, trying to push himself out of bed. His eyes were empty, he was covered in sweat, and every muscle in his face was tense. His mind seemed to be greatly strained, and his face was full of uneasiness and a touch of unconcealable fear.

Liu Zhenqing’s heart constricted slightly. He stepped forward, but the person on the bed didn’t respond. 

Then Liu Zhenqing sat on the bed, and the bed board shook a little. Huo Fenglie jolted as if he had been startled, but still maintained his composure on the surface. His muscles only tensed as he tightened his grip on the Chunjun Sword, and it seemed he would take action if the situation was unfavorable.

Liu Zhenqing stretched out a finger and tapped the back of his sword-wielding hand.

Huo Fenglie froze, then immediately moved his fingers.

Liu Zhenqing poked him again and again, and Huo Fenglie abruptly grabbed Liu Zhenqing’s hand.

Liu Zhenqing chuckled, but Huo Fenglie still didn’t respond.

Taking Huo Fenglie’s hand, Liu Zhenqing pressed it to his face. Huo Fenglie’s stiff movements finally changed as he began to slowly touch Liu Zhenqing’s face. When he touched his lips, Liu Zhenqing deliberately turned his head to kiss his palm.

Such behavior couldn’t be more familiar.

The Chunjun Sword was released. Huo Fenglie grabbed onto Liu Zhenqing with both hands, a look of unprotected vulnerability on his face. Liu Zhenqing wrote on his palm: Don’t be afraid. I’m here.

Huo Fenglie’s face finally showed hints of relaxing.

Using this method, Liu Zhenqing slowly explained the situation.

In fact, this was just a short-term side effect after being cured.

During the treatment, Huo Fenglie’s five senses had gradually faded away. His body had reached its limit and was now recovering.

So Huo Fenglie currently couldn’t see, hear, smell, or even make a sound, and had minimal strength.

Just now, it was as if he existed in a complete void, sensing nothing. Even the God of War would be uneasy and frightened. Fortunately, there was still touch.

Huo Fenglie got it after a while, and at last fully relaxed. He took hold of Liu Zhenqing’s hand and wrote: Don’t worry. I understand.

The solemn look on Huo Fenglie’s face really amused Liu Zhenqing.

Just as he was about to tell Huo Fenglie about the outside world, Huo Fenglie suddenly revealed a hint of embarrassment and wrote on Liu Zhenqing’s hand: I need to relieve myself. Qing-ge, will you step out for a moment?

Liu Zhenqing’s eyes suddenly brightened. He couldn’t hold it any longer? Otherwise, with Huo Fenglie’s character, he would never mention it.

“If you only need to urinate and you can’t go to the cleanroom, I can get you a pot?”

Huo Fenglie truly didn’t have the strength to get out of bed and walk around, so he could only agree to this proposal with embarrassment. He’d drunk so much soup and medicine that he really couldn’t hold it.

Liu Zhenqing handed over the pot. Huo Fenglie took it and wrote on the back of Liu Zhenqing’s hand: Go out.

Liu Zhenqing gave him an okay.

Huo Fenglie felt movement at the bedside. It seemed Liu Zhenqing had gotten up and left, but he couldn’t hear the footsteps, breathing, or the door closing and was unable to judge. He could only believe that Qing-ge wouldn’t deceive him to this extent.

But according to Qing-ge’s character…..Huo Fenglie thought for a moment, then reached up with difficulty to lower the bed curtains and block the view. 

Then he commenced relieving himself with some discomfort. When he was done, he tidied up and was about to put the pot on the bed when another hand blocked his and took the pot.

Huo Fenglie felt the bed board move, and his face instantly went red. Qing-ge was on the bed…..he had never left!

Liu Zhenqing quickly took care of it and returned with medicine and hot towels. 

It was a bit funny seeing Er-gou sitting on the bed with his head lowered, sulking.

He stepped forward to touch Huo Fenglie’s hand, but Huo Fenglie evaded it.

Liu Zhenqing raised his eyebrows. It seemed he had gone too far and made Er-gou angry.

He smiled helplessly. Fine, he could admit that he’d played with him a bit too much. He hadn’t meant to bully the other person at all, and was just worried that Huo Fenglie would have trouble because he couldn’t sense anything by himself.

Liu Zhenqing reached out again to grab Huo Fenglie’s hand.

This time, there was no avoiding it.

He had energy, but not much.

With a sweet feeling in his heart, Liu Zhenqing gave Huo Fenglie the medicine to drink.

Huo Fenglie finished drinking the medicine as he sulked. As soon as he handed back the bowl, he felt someone tugging at his belt.

Huo Fenglie panicked and swiftly grabbed Liu Zhenqing’s hand. Although he couldn’t see him, he still faced Liu Zhenqing with a shocked expression.

Liu Zhenqing: “You’ve been asleep all day and you’re sweating. It’s inconvenient for you to bathe, so you need to be wiped down and given a change of clothes. You don’t have much strength, so I’ll do it.”

Huo Fenglie still didn’t release his grip: I’ll do it.

Liu Zhenqing saw that he did seem to have regained some strength, so he didn’t force the issue.

After fumbling for the water basin and handkerchief, he paused and seemed to be looking in Liu Zhenqing’s direction.

Liu Zhenqing felt that he still intended to drive him away.

The thing was, he might not be obedient.

In the end, Huo Fenglie paused for just a moment. With a frown of considerable annoyance, he wrung out the handkerchief and began to take off his clothes, as if giving up.

Liu Zhenqing’s eyes lit up. Er-gou was enlightened, ah. Since there was no way to tell if he was there or not, he simply smashed the cracked pot.

So Liu Zhenqing watched the close-range performance of a handsome man wiping down his body. Holding the snow-white handkerchief in his big palm, he wiped it across his wheat-colored skin, following the lines of texture. Everywhere it touched, a layer of light steam rose. The beautiful scenery was the pinnacle of attractiveness, especially with that shy look still on his face. The contrast was so cute that Liu Zhenqing’s body heated up and he was almost dizzy.

Although he was greedy for Huo Fenglie’s body, he wasn’t that greedy, ah.

Was Er-gou really not trying to seduce him? He wanted to pounce on him.

When he put on his fresh clothes, Huo Fenglie’s expression looked numb, likely because he was so embarrassed. 

After all, when he was unable to sense anything, his imagination would expand infinitely.

Huo Fenglie cleaned up. He thought Liu Zhenqing would show up to startle and tease him again, but he didn’t. Huo Fenglie couldn’t help but wonder, had Qing-ge left earlier? He turned around uneasily and knocked on the bed board. After waiting for a while, nobody came to touch his hand.

He knocked again. Still nothing.

In fact, when he couldn’t sense anything, it was extremely frightening not to be able to touch Liu Zhenqing.

Huo Fenglie experienced a moment of slight panic. He didn’t know where Liu Zhenqing had gone. If he had known……if he had known earlier, he would have taken the initiative to ask Qing-ge to stay. He could do whatever he wanted, just as long as he was here…..

Just as the flustered Huo Fenglie tried to get out of bed with difficulty, he suddenly felt an approaching breath. Before he could react, his lips were already being kissed.

Huo Fenglie was stunned. His heart that had fallen away into the distance drifted back up again.

Huo Fenglie’s eyelashes trembled slightly. If it were normal times, he might stop him or evade it, but now he was afraid. What if he evaded and couldn’t touch Qing-ge again?

So Huo Fenglie chose not to move and allowed Liu Zhenqing to push him back incrementally. When the lengthy kiss ended, the two of them were already cuddled together in bed. Huo Fenglie seemed to be able to smell the fragrance of Liu Zhenqing’s body. The fragrance was reassuring, like the past few days of agony were just a dream.

It seemed that only then could he feel happiness in the aftermath of disaster. He, Huo Fenglie, was truly cured. There was no need to worry about not having enough time to spend with the person in his arms for the rest of his life.

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Chapter One Hundred Eight << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Ten