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

“How can that be?”

The policeman at the desk frowned upon hearing his colleague’s words.

“That child was so big, but his eyes were gouged out, his stomach disemboweled, and he didn’t put up a struggle? A little old fellow who had been lying down for many years could be knocked down with one punch, right? To put it bluntly, in a hospital as big as the Central Hospital, how could the nurses allow a person lying in the vegetative state ward to run to another person’s room? And it caused such a big incident…..”

“Why else would I say this was nefarious?” 

The uniformed middle-aged man in the room wore a solemn expression.

“We also interrogated the nurses and the relevant personnel in the ward, and they all said they didn’t see anything wrong that day…..it’s like they just magically lost the ability to see. The nurse’s station wasn’t far from that ward, but neither the nurses on duty nor the caregivers hired by others in the ward heard the victim make a sound.”

“Oh, right, the strangest thing about this incident isn’t that the old person ate human entrails and eyeballs…..”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man clicked the mouse and played a security surveillance video on the computer screen.

The video displayed that the time was two o’clock in the morning, and the camera was pointed at what seemed to be a garden path. The lighting was very dim. There was no movement for a long time on this path surrounded by bushes and trees. Not even a wild nocturnal cat or dog could be seen.

Until suddenly, a white figure broke into the scene.

It was a boy, whose lower half was soaked in blood. His head was lowered, his legs swinging very stiffly as he walked somewhere extremely unsteadily.

“Hiss…..”

The people in front of the computer watching the footage together gasped involuntarily.

“W-what is this?”

“This is the nighttime surveillance footage of Qiming Secondary School,” the middle-aged policeman said quietly, his voice very tense.

“A nurse immediately called the police after discovering the incident at the Central Hospital, but when we arrived, there was no one in the ward aside from the elderly person whose mind had already regressed to the state of a toddler.”

The colleague whispered in disbelief: “But h-his eyes were eaten, ah? And his stomach was even cut open. How is this possible?”

The air conditioner in the office was an antiquated thing from who knew how many years ago, yellowed by cigarette smoke. In summer, everyone complained that the shabby air conditioner didn’t cool well enough.

But now, as they gathered together in front of the computer to look at the files and evidence, there was an insidious feeling in their hearts, and an inexplicable chill ran from the top of their heads to their chests.

“Right, so when we first got there, we searched the Central Hospital.” The policeman who spoke stared closely at the boy on the surveillance video, a bit of cold sweat on his forehead. “Who would expect a person to hike so far with such serious injuries? It can be considered that encountering such an attack and suffering huge mental trauma could cause abnormal behavior, b-but…..”

He couldn’t finish his sentence.

There was a brief silence in the office.

None of the people here were rookies with tofu in their heads. They all knew very well that people…..especially normal people, would find it difficult even if they were stimulated to inexplicably run several kilometers away from the Central Hospital to Qiming Secondary School under such circumstances.

Someone stared at the screen and couldn’t help but say: “The way he walks is a little strange.”

“Why does it look like someone is pulling him forward…..”

However, they could clearly see that Song Cheng was the only one in front of the camera.

“The tech department has analyzed this video. There are no traces of modification. No one is holding him up. If there is, then that person is someone we can’t see—”

The young policeman spoke tremblingly, and as he spoke, he couldn’t help but look around him.

Sure enough, he found that the faces of the colleagues around him were a little stiff.

“Why is it all so nefarious like the Xiao family back then, ah?”

It was unknown who inexplicably brought up that incident from many years ago.

All at once, the tragedy that shocked the country over a decade ago appeared in everyone’s minds. And even the experienced and knowledgeable police officers all shuddered when they heard the Xiao family spoken of.

“Set aside all those strange and confusing things in your minds,” the oldest police officer said sharply.

“Cough, Captain Zhang is right…..this case hasn’t been studied in detail yet. Won’t thinking about those things interfere with our train of thought?”

Someone immediately spoke as if relieved from a burden, glossing over the Xiao family.

“In addition to this Qiming student, there seems to be a teacher who has also inexplicably disappeared? Is there any connection between the two?” someone else asked.

“That’s right, the Qiming teacher who molested students.” Captain Zhang rubbed the bridge of his nose and said in a heavy voice, “In fact, the school has been looking for that male teacher. After meticulously inspecting the school surveillance, they discovered Song Cheng, the victim in our case.”

At this point, Captain Zhang stopped speaking.

What he didn’t say was that if it hadn’t been for this incident, it was likely that the school wouldn’t have even thought of checking the situation in the Xiao Family Haunted House.

And as for the body of the boy named Song Cheng, it might have been many days before anyone discovered it.

“I also heard that the boy’s posture was very strange when he was found.”

“En, he was kneeling toward the wall. It looked like……he was worshiping, but the direction wasn’t right.”

The police went through the files and found the photos of when Song Cheng’s body was first discovered.

In the photos, the body of the young man who had died due to excessive blood loss was stiff. But inexplicably, his extreme fear could be seen from the posture of the corpse.

Captain Zhang stared at the photo and couldn’t help but think: What was he afraid of?

He was so terrified that he didn’t dare to look back.

The middle-aged man glanced toward the corner of the photo. Behind Song Cheng’s body was just an ordinary wall.

The wall was covered by wallpaper that had long gone out of fashion, on which spots of mildew had arisen due to neglect. No matter how Captain Zhang looked, he couldn’t see any issues.

However, if it was the Xiao family…..

“Oh, right.”

After a short period of unnatural silence, the young policeman spoke again.

“For boys Song Cheng’s age, a cell phone is like an organ outside their body, and they’ll pretty much always carry them around. But no matter if it was at Song Cheng’s home, the hospital, or his place of death, we didn’t find his cell phone.”

“His phone was deliberately taken away.”

*

[Heh, A Xiu.]

[My A-Xiu, how do you cry so beautifully?]

Deep in a dilapidated urban village, inside an ancient illegally-built apartment.

In the shadows, a strange and sticky whisper sounded softly.

“Wu—”

Holding a yellow talisman, Li Xiu’s grandmother walked back and forth in front of this door several times.

But in the end, she didn’t dare actually walk into the room.

She could only stand stiffly in front of the door, her body shaking and trembling.

And the moment the sound came from the room, she suddenly raised a hand to press it hard against her mouth, forcing the frightened sob in her mouth back into her throat.

The old woman looked incomparably terrified. Her eyes were wide, very wide, and she backed away fearfully.

It was as if just behind the closed door existed some utterly terrible, absolutely twisted thing.

It wasn’t until she left the hallway that the grandmother staggered and half-fell to the floor.

Two lines of tears flowed from her cloudy eyes.

The old woman put her hands on the floor and half-crawled, half rolled toward the door. She just huddled at that door and sat there for a long time. Only then did her thin, withered face gain a little more color.

“Such a sin, ah…..” the grandmother murmured.

“Truly such a sin.”

Even as she didn’t dare enter the room due to fear, behind that wooden door was still just a room that Li Xiu was familiar with each day.

The floor was dusty, the lighting was dim, and there was cheap, useless junk everywhere.

But at this moment, there was something else going on under the bed where Li Xiu kept a bowl of uncooked rice every day.

Under the dusty bed was a cracked and bloodstained cell phone.

The screen was on, with a scene playing continuously.

It was exactly the scene from a few days prior, when Li Xiu was forcibly taken to the Xiao Family Haunted House, bullied and humiliated on the ground, and maliciously recorded.

However, if Li Xiu were to actually see this video, he would be extremely shocked. Because the scene recurring on the screen just now was completely different from what he and Fang Qian’an remembered.

[Wu…..]

In the dim room, a youth whimpered as thinly as a kitten.

There was no foul language, no collective bullying.

The tall, arrogant bullies just stood transfixed in front of the cell phone camera the whole time, heads bowed slightly.

They were motionless, as stiff as corpses nailed to the spot one by one.

And Li Xiu was huddled in the corner, surrounded by them.

The boy’s face was deathly pale, like someone who was trapped in a nightmare and couldn’t wake up. He raised his head slightly, eyes extremely unfocused. There was a constant faint twitch to his body.

Next to Li Xiu was Fang Qian’an.

Like a savage beast, the boy was on all fours in front of the thin, weak youth.

In the video, that strange, jerky, bizarre sound came from his throat.

[“A-Xiu. Mine…..”]

In the frame, Fang Qian’an was stroking the boy’s face, neck, and even his chest in an incredibly intimate way, with strange and awkward movements. Although Li Xiu was obviously not fully conscious, every time he was touched by “Fang Qian’an,” he would reflexively avoid it. In order to stay close to Li Xiu, “Fang Qian’an” had to adjust his posture slightly, and at certain angles, the camera would capture his profile.

That was to say, the eye on one side of his face was shown.

In the eye socket, two pupils were squeezed together.

The wicked, demonic double eyes quivered slightly, reflecting a bloody light under the setting sun.

*

Creak—

Huddled at the door with her back to the room, the grandmother suddenly heard the sound of a door opening.

She completely stopped moving, breathing so rapidly that she could almost die in the next second.

[“Grandmother, where is A-Xiu?]

Amidst her huffing and puffing, the grandmother seemed to hear a hoarse voice.

[“I’m hungry.”]

---

The Author Has Something to Say:

Gege: I also want to eat an Angus beef fish roe burger. QAQ

---

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Chapter 25 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 27

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

What was that? Bloody flesh? When had he ever eaten something like this…..

The boy stared down at the contents of the toilet and blinked. When he looked again, he found that the contents had changed into something else.

It was the bite of burger he hadn’t chewed at all, along with…..

Some small white particles?

They looked like undigested, uncooked rice. What the hell was this?!

Before Fang Qian’an could identify what he had vomited, the toilet made a whirring sound as the automatic flush activated, sluicing away his vomit.

The moment the flush sounded, Fang Qian’an’s nerves reflexively tensed. He took a big, uncontrolled step back and hit the door hard.

Very soon, the whirlpool in the toilet vanished, leaving only a puddle of clear water inside.

In the bathroom, the only sounds left were the boy’s heavy gasps and the sound of the toilet tank filling with water.

The white light on the ceiling flickered.

After a while, the cubicle door opened roughly and a stiff Fang Qian’an walked out with a tense face.

Turning on the faucet, Fang Qian’an splashed cold water on his face. It took him a long time to calm down. After doing this, the boy braced his hands on the sink and took a deep breath, staring at himself in the mirror.

The mirror reflected a boy with a pale face and empty eyes, and even Fang Qian’an himself had to admit that this guy looked as if he was at death’s door.

Fang Qian’an was instantly filled with an uncontrollable rage.

“Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium…..it was just an illusion, are you fucking scared?!”

He cursed himself viciously in the mirror, as if in this way, he could ignore the remaining fear inside him.

The reflection in the mirror still looked dark and gloomy, like an animal that had fallen into a trap, helpless and in dire straits. And for some reason, when Fang Qian’an looked at “himself,” he felt that his face looked a little strange.

Did his expression usually look so ghastly?

Fang Qian’an unconsciously leaned forward a bit, as if to inspect the reflection in the mirror more clearly.

It was at this moment that he saw the scene behind him in the mirror—behind his back, a cubicle door silently opened.

Through the crack in the door, Fang Qian’an directly met a prying eye.

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat. 

“Who is it?! Who’s pretending to be a ghost?! Get out!”

The boy’s voice was hoarse as he blurted out the angry rebuke.

“Y-Young Master Fang…..i-it’s me, ah.”

Behind Fang Qian’an, the toilet door was pushed open slowly. With a timid and uneasy mutter, a face slowly poked out from behind the toilet cubicle door.

“Sorry, Young Master Fang. I saw you weren’t feeling well, so I didn’t dare come out and disturb you.”

“Song Cheng, how is it you?”

Fang Qian’an couldn’t believe his good luck, because the person slowly walking out of the cubicle was just the person he was looking for.

Song Cheng, who had just been taken away by ambulance the day before, was now standing in front of Fang Qian’an.

In just one short day, the boy who was aggressive and looking for trouble the day before was now as ill-looking as a drug-addled smoker, the color of his lips and face blending into one. His eyes were also a bloodshot red with pupils that were dilated very wide. This made his eyes seem very dark, but his gaze was vacant.

This person was like a zombie wrapped in a school uniform, disturbingly thin and sallow.

Even someone like Fang Qian’an who didn’t care about the little shrimps around him at all was shocked when he saw Song Cheng’s current frail appearance. He couldn’t help but ask: “When were you discharged from the hospital? Why did you come to school all of a sudden?”

Song Cheng hesitated where he stood, then spoke in a dry voice.

“I-I didn’t dare stay in the hospital. Other than school, I…..I don’t want to stay anywhere else.” His throat rolled, and his voice was extremely slurred.

Seeing his appearance, Fang Qian’an suddenly understood.

The school bully crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his voice unconsciously.

“Have you encountered something too?” he asked.

Sure enough, even though Fang Qian’an hadn’t said much, Song Cheng’s entire body began to tremble.

“Y-Young Master Fang…..” The boy’s breathing was rapid, fear gradually leaking into his voice. “How do you know that…..that I…..”

How do you know that I met a ghost?

In fact, Song Cheng’s memory of the previous morning was rather vague.

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed he had gone to cause trouble for that cripple in the morning. The cripple ran away, and he…..

He couldn’t remember much after that.

When he regained consciousness, Song Cheng was already in the hospital.

He didn’t know at that time what he had vomited out at school, only that he was lying in the emergency room rest area at the hospital and his whole body was limp. There was an indescribable plastic taste in his throat, and it was when the nurse came to change the intravenous drip and dressings that Song Cheng realized he’d just had his stomach pumped.

Accompanying him was his mother’s life assistant — his mother had been keen on spiritual practices lately, and was currently studying the so-called theory of cosmology on a small island abroad. The well-maintained woman sighed on the cell phone screen and first asked Song Cheng what he had done. Song Cheng himself was still confused, so he naturally couldn’t answer. His mother’s expression changed. She muttered several curses, and Song Cheng was so annoyed that he just hung up the phone.

Song Cheng’s father had taken some time out of his busy day to have a look at his son. After all, he managed the hospital Song Cheng was sent to. It was a pity that the director of the Central Hospital was too busy now and had very important luncheons at noon and in the afternoon.

Once he learned that his son had suffered from food poisoning and was fine now, Father Song didn’t examine him carefully. Simply leaving his son to his subordinates, he hurried to catch his lunch meeting.

Of course, even though his parents weren’t around, Song Cheng didn’t have to worry about having no one to take care of him. As the director’s son, even if he only needed some water to balance his electrolytes and protect his stomach, he didn’t have to crowd into the infusion room with normal people. Somebody had organized an inpatient department ward for Song Cheng to lie down in. That ward was originally a senior ward, and was located at the end of a special hallway.

It was very quiet in the separate room. The furnishings were also quite comfortable, more like a suite in a high-end resort than a ward.

Lying on the comfortable hospital bed, Song Cheng could vaguely feel the nurses giving him strange looks every time they came in to change his dressings. But if he had to say what was wrong, he couldn’t.

He could only prick up his ears and listen to the occasional chatter of the nurses outside the door, only able to hear fragments of words he didn’t understand.

“Wow, you’re saying he really vomited…..”

“A plate full of maggots, many of them with wings…..I don’t know what children are thinking these days. It’s probably some sort of novelty challenge…..”

“I heard the nurses there all threw up.”

“It’s so crazy…..”

“It’s nothing surprising. Weren’t there people who were shoving eels into their stomachs before? Now it’s these people, ah. Tsk, tsk.”

What on earth were these nurses talking about?

Song Cheng didn’t understand, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that his mind was a ball of paste. Thinking and thinking, Song Cheng lay in bed and unknowingly fell asleep.

What woke him up again was the pain in his abdomen.

In the beginning, the pain was within a tolerable range, but it didn’t take long for it to become completely unbearable.

It hurts.

Song Cheng screamed in pain on the hospital bed.

In a daze, he tried to prop himself up with his arms and ring the call bell.

However, his body was so heavy that he couldn’t get up at all.

Was the quilt the nurse had put on him this heavy? Why…..why was it so heavy?

Enduring the pain, Song Cheng opened his eyes.

A dark shadow was reflected in them.

Song Cheng’s eyes widened in shock. Looking ahead in disbelief, he finally understood why his body was so heavy — an elderly person in a hospital gown was huddled on his stomach, crouching there steadily.

The person was so old that their age and gender could not be discerned, with only a thin layer of white hair.

The skin on their face was loose and folded together, facial features sunk deep into the wrinkles. The only part Song Cheng could see was the person’s grinning mouth.

Dry lips exposed crimson gums with a few yellow teeth, several pieces of sticky, dark red meat hanging from them.

Further down, Song Cheng saw the old person’s hands.

The old person’s nails were so long that they had curled up. Right now, those yellow-nailed hands were being used to carefully press Song Cheng’s belly.

Song Cheng saw that on his belly, a long incision had been made at some point.

And the old person…..was dragging something soft and red from that incision.

It was Song Cheng’s intestines.

As if noticing Song Cheng’s gaze, the old person suddenly turned their head and muttered illogically: “Hehe, delicious. This is delicious.”

“The noodles are delicious.”

“Hu….hu…..help…..help…..”

Song Cheng tried to call for help, but the extreme pain and fear utterly blocked his vocal cords, and he couldn’t shout a word.

He could feel his warm blood continuously gushing out.

The blood soaked through the bedding and even the mattress.

Drip, drip, drip, it fell to the floor, forming a small pool.

And at this moment, the old person suddenly moved closer to Song Cheng’s face.

Drool tripped continuously from the corners of their mouth.

“Sweet dumplings.” The old person’s turbid eyes stared straight into Song Cheng’s. “Sweet dumplings are also delicious…..they don’t let me eat…..sweet dumplings…..”

With a childishness completely inconsistent with their age, the old person shouted and rushed forward.

“I want to eat sweet dumplings!”

Only at this moment did Song Cheng suddenly remember that in the wards on this floor, there were actually many people who had completely lost the ability to take care of themselves. Even the elderly whose minds had been severely degraded by Alzheimer’s disease.

. . . . . . . 

“Ah, so you dreamed that your intestines were eaten like noodles, and your eyeballs were eaten as sweet dumplings? Fuck, that dream of yours is so disgusting.”

Inside the boys’ bathroom, Fang Qian’an was already a little impatient as he listened to Song Cheng retell his nightmare in detail.

After confirming that the other party had also begun to have nightmares because of the haunted house, what Fang Qian’an wanted to inquire about was “that incident” they had experienced together in the haunted house.

“About that day in the haunted house, when we…..we bullied Li Xiu together…..how much do you remember?” Fang Qian’an frowned, his expression extremely ugly. “Oh, right, the cell phone. You turned on the camera to record back then, right? Give me your phone.”

Fang Qian’an stretched his hand out toward Song Cheng.

After everything he had experienced in the past few days, Fang Qian’an was nearly driven crazy by hallucinations and nightmares. He no longer dared to trust his own memories, so the only thing that was credible now was probably the video Song Cheng took at that time. Fang Qian’an was determined to figure out how many people, or things, were in the haunted house that night.

When he heard Fang Qian’an’s urging, Song Cheng returned to his senses. He lowered his head and began to rummage through his pockets. “The phone, right. I took pictures and videos.”

“I remember my phone was just here.”

After a moment, Song Cheng’s voice grew panicked.

“It’s so strange, why can’t I find my cell phone? Didn’t I keep it in my pocket all this time, ah?”

“Why, why can’t I find it?”

While desperately searching for his phone, Song Cheng lowered his head and spoke to Fang Qian’an in a plaintive voice.

“Young Master Fang, please turn on the light a little brighter, I can’t see clearly…..”

Fang Qian’an silently raised his head to peer at the bright light in the bathroom.

His nerves were beginning to fray.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop suddenly, a moist chill seeping into Fang Qian’an’s skin little by little. He looked stiffly at the boy in front of him, whose head went lower and lower, his movements growing increasingly strange.

“W-why can’t you see clearly?” Fang Qian’an asked in an extremely dry voice.

Shlick, shlick.

There was a sound of bones rubbing against skin and flesh, making a wet and muffled sound.

As soon as Fang Qian’an finished speaking, he saw Song Cheng raise his head straight up in a very bizarre fashion.

He stared at Fang Qian’an, his voice becoming unfamiliar and hollow.

“Young Master Fang, it’s so weird, why can’t I see anything—”

On the boy’s face, where there should have been eyes, there were now only two holes gurgling blood.

*

At the same time, City A Police Department.

A stack of photos was placed on the desk.

“That Qiming student case?”

The young policeman in charge of the case unpreparedly picked up the photos and opened them while eating. In the next second, he couldn’t swallow the takeaway in his mouth.

“Damn, what is this……a perverted murderer?”

The policeman could be considered the experienced sort, but his tone was a little unstable at this moment.

The photos were a graphic report of the student’s body found in the abandoned Xiao Family Gardens. In the photos, this boy from a well-off family had hollow eye sockets, the eyes having long disappeared. There was a very crude incision in the abdominal cavity, where the skin collapsed inward because the internal organs that should have filled that entire cavity were gone.

“Forget it, I’d rather that there was a perverted murderer.”

The policeman to the side was slightly pale, and unconsciously lowered his voice.

“This case is particularly nefarious. The boy had food poisoning and was sent to the hospital. Isn’t his dad that, that Song Yidao? So the boy was sent to the senior ward, and guess what – an elderly person who had been in a vegetative state for over a decade suddenly regained consciousness and somehow entered the boy’s ward…..by the time anyone found out, the elderly person had already dug out the child’s eyes and eaten them.”

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Chapter 24 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 26

He Chuzhou walked He Xingxing and prepared breakfast when he returned. When he sat at the dining table, Pei Xi’s entire being didn’t feel right.

Not only had his bold behavior yesterday disgraced him in He Chuzhou’s eyes, more importantly, Pei Xi had to pretend not to remember anything.

Never had he thought that he would one day sit completely sober at a table with this person he’d despised in the past, calmly eating the breakfast made by the other party.

He didn’t know what sort of expression or attitude to use during such a situation, let alone the right thing to say.

His lost spirit was reflected in the way he became colder and haughtier than usual, and even more out of reach.

This look would normally fool a person, but in He Chuzhou’s eyes right then — he was an ill-tempered ragdoll cat who would ignore a person but still obediently drink warm milk.

Milk warmed by his own hands.

He didn’t directly start smoothing his fur, but instead adopted the most restrained behavior out of consideration for Pei Xi being in his right mind. But if that didn’t work, why not feed him before heading to the office?

As soon as Pei Xi put down the milk, a piece of toast meticulously covered with jam was placed in front of him.

The outside was toasted to a crispy brown, with only a thin layer of crispy texture in the middle, and the bright strawberry jam looked very pretty and appetizing. 

He couldn’t help being startled, and raised his eyes.

The other party wasn’t looking at him, and just continued to calmly spread jam on his toast, as if giving him a slice was just a perfectly normal thing to do.

It appeared he was in a fuss for no reason.

When his mind was confused, He Chuzhou’s care for him extended beyond just making him breakfast.

He quickly convinced himself with some careful logic, then picked up the toast and took a bite.

A better flavor than he could have imagined occupied his taste buds, and he didn’t realize that his process of acceptance was so fast that he didn’t even have time to struggle.

He didn’t even notice the corners of that person’s mouth silently rise when he saw him eating toast with a cold expression from the corner of his eye.

Pei Xi finally realized what was most glaringly wrong.

Only at the end of the meal did he notice that he hadn’t taken off the watch He Chuzhou had put on him last night.

There was no problem with Pei-calico wearing it, but it wouldn’t make sense for him to wear it now. Perhaps it might accidentally reveal that he didn’t lose his memories after waking up.

He was endlessly annoyed by this mistake, and quickly thought about whether He Chuzhou had noticed any abnormal behavior since he woke up.

But whether he had noticed or not, he needed to immediately mend the situation before it was too late.

“What is this?”

When he put down his cup, he pretended to have just discovered the watch on his wrist. He frowned slightly, trying to express his surprise with a dignified appearance.

However, He Chuzhou’s answer immediately turned his feigned surprise into reality.

“You won it by smashing the golden egg.”

He Chuzhou didn’t even pause to think about it, as if he had already decided on an answer to this problem.

Pei Xi: “…..Smashed the golden egg?”

“Yes, ah.” He Chuzhou spoke nonsense without a change of expression. “I took you with me to the real estate center after work yesterday. We saw the golden eggs sitting neatly inside, and I took you to smash them. Who knew you’d end up winning the grand prize with one hit?”

As he spoke, he didn’t neglect to give him a commendatory look: “President Pei is really lucky.”

Pei Xi: “……”

Pei Xi: “So you bought a house?”

He Chuzhou: “Bought what house?”

Pei Xi’s feelings were complicated: “The golden eggs in the real estate center can only be smashed after buying a house.”

“Really? That’s not true.”

He Chuzhou remained calm: “I gave their staff twenty yuan and they let me smash it.”

Pei Xi: “……”

He Chuzhou: “Maybe it was because I’m good-looking?”

Pei Xi: “……”

He Chuzhou didn’t doubt himself in the slightest: “It looks rather nice on you.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to wear it, just put it in a conspicuous place before going to bed. Your amnesiac self quite likes it. He’ll get angry with me if he can’t find it, and might not be lucky enough to smash another one out again.”

Pei Xi was silent. He put down his hand: “I’m done eating.”

He rubbed the well-made watch strap where He Chuzhou couldn’t see. However, he didn’t take it off.

He Chuzhou also put down his utensils: “Okay, I’m done too. Do you want to go to the company directly or go home?”

Pei Xi knew his intentions and didn’t refuse like last time. He just said two words smoothly: “The company.”

Both companies were located in the city center, so it was the convenient thing to do.

Since sitting in the backseat would presume that the other person was the chauffeur, Pei Xi stood by the car and hesitated for a second before opening the passenger door. 

Then he saw that little stuffed pig he’d laid in the passenger seat earlier.

Pei Xi: “……”

How could he forget about this?

The driver’s door also opened. He Chuzhou lowered his head and sat inside, then saw that he wasn’t moving: “What, did you forget something? Do you want me to go back and get it for you?”

Pei Xi gave a light “No need,” and while sitting down, he courteously grabbed the pig’s head and moved it aside without taking another look. “I don’t know who you are” was written all over him.

He Chuzhou watched this with laughter in his heart.

Yesterday he was so fond of it that he was reluctant to let it go, but when he caught sight of it today, he was disgusted.

But very soon, he realized that it was too soon to say that he was disgusted.

The person in the passenger seat kept peeking at the little pig.

From time to time, he would glance down and then look away.

Another glance, and away.

Another.

The movement was very quick, and the length short. If the rearview mirror wasn’t at the right angle, he wouldn’t have noticed.

His lips curved and he pretended to be oblivious. After bringing Pei Xi to the company, he spoke as Pei Xi was opening the door to get out of the car: “President Pei, this pig belongs to you. Won’t you consider taking it away?”

Pei Xi’s body stiffened almost invisibly, and he glanced back to give him a strange look.

“It’s true, it caught your eye at first sight in the claw machine yesterday, but my skills are limited. It took me an entire afternoon to catch this one.”

He Chuzhou shrugged. He was very good at discrediting himself: “Just think of it as cherishing the fruits of my hard work. Does President Pei not have the face to take away his reward?”

“……”

Pei Xi knew very well that he was being teased again. The hand holding the door handle tightened uncomfortably. He wanted to make him stop teasing him, but doing so would undoubtedly risk being exposed.

In a dilemma, he stared at the pig for a long moment. Only belatedly did he realize he could ignore him and not respond.

All in one go, he turned around and got out of the car without saying a word.

Little did he know that he had a silent look of hesitation on his face.

He Chuzhou saw this and was pleased as punch.

Just as he sighed with emotion over how the sober Pei-calico was so amusing, the car door opened from the outside again.

That amusing Pei-calico bent down, pulled the toy pig by its ears, and lifted it out of the passenger seat. Then he closed the door again and turned toward the company.

It was just a pig. 

Pei Xi raised a hand to touch his earlobe, thinking without emotion, It’s not like it won’t fit in the office.

*

*

[President Pei and President He are in love now, right?]

[You still doubt it?]

[President He sends President Pei to work every day, ah.]

[Sometimes he even provides a pick-up service after work!]

[Isn’t it well-known that President Pei doesn’t like to wear watches? But he wears one every day now. If that isn’t a gift from President He, I’ll bark like a dog.]

[Right, right. And President He also gave him a little stuffed animal.]

[I’ve seen it. President Pei placed it in a conspicuous spot on a cabinet. The contrast is so cute!]

[I gave my girlfriend a fucking ring on our anniversary, and she called me a poor and deceitful man. President He gave President Pei a stuffed animal, and you guys are like ahhh, so sweet, so good. Is this how you girls play?]

[A Life is like Thin Ice has been removed from the chat by the group owner.]

[Who brought that poor and deceitful man in?]

[So when will President He give President Pei a ring? Ahhhh, it’s so romantic to think about!]

[Can I go on their dates?]

[Can I take a photo of them kissing?]

[Can I watch them in bed?]

[Can I pop the champagne when they break up?]

[He Chuzhou is not worthy! ! ! My pure as jade, clear as ice President Pei. Damn, he doesn’t deserve him! ! !]

[Smooth-talker. President Pei, wake up! Don’t believe that dog man’s nonsense, ahhhhhhhhhhh!]

[Another crazy one. Take them away.]

[But my best friend who works at He Group said that President He is actually very nice, in all respects. Those rumors out there might be from people who are jealous.]

[I don’t know if they’re rumors or not, but President He is someone who looks like a caring person at first glance. He’ll take good care of my beautiful President Pei. Wuwu I’m so grateful!]

[The one next door is giving out sugar!]

[/Chat history]

[President He openly praised President Pei for being young, promising, and capable at a high-level meeting, which is just short of saying that his wife is the best in the world.]

[Envious. Enough said.]

[When will President Pei bite?]

[There’s no way. Who made President He a flirtatious devil? And our President Pei isn’t good at showing affection.]

[Mature people need to learn to dig for sugar on their own.]

[@Xiao Gu, Will Xiao Gu submit the project proposal? Come on, dig some out for us!]

Xiao Gu, standing at the door of the President’s office and about to knock on the door: “……”

Knock knock.

He knocked on the door and heard a call of “Come in” from inside. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open.

“President Pei, this is the final version of the plan for next quarter.” He set the documents on President Pei’s desk and stood two steps back.

Pei Xi gave a hum as he finished writing a reply email and clicked send. When he looked up, he found that this person hadn’t left yet: “Is there anything else?”

Xiao Gao had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. He organized the words in his mind and mustered up some courage.

But when he looked into Pei Xi’s indifferent eyes, he was speechless and couldn’t spit out the words.

“N-no.”

He caught his breath and said: “I’ll get to work.” Then he left the office in despair.

[It didn’t work, ah, the aura of my family’s boss is too strong. This workplace rookie couldn’t withstand it.]

[I’m feeling a little unwell today, so I’ll leave first. If you want to dig out sugar, you’d better do it yourself.]

The gossip crew was abuzz with activity, soaring up to the point where they could raise the roof. But no one dared dance for joy in front of their idol himself.

When Pei Xi finished reading over the project, it was time to leave work. 

He closed the documents and habitually touched his cell phone to dial He Chuzhou.

And hung up quickly in the next second.

He almost got it mixed up again. He wasn’t brain-addled at the moment.

He packed up his things and left the company, drove all the way home, took a shower, cleaned, and relaxed, even making a casual dinner from the prepared ingredients in the fridge. 

But the flavors he was used to were becoming increasingly difficult to swallow.

His Adam’s apple rolled hard as he squeezed the food down. With a subconscious frown, he looked at the seat across from him.

Empty.

There was no one to talk to.

When he thought about it more clearly, he didn’t even know what he wanted to say.

An indescribable sensation of helplessness came over his heart, and he put down his chopsticks, appetite completely lost.

He wished he could split himself in half.

That he could draw a line between confusion and sanity, so they could act independently from each other. 

That once the side effects passed, he could easily discard the unnecessary part of himself without a trace.

But reality shattered his plans.

He Chuzhou had interceded too much in his life. All of his care and attention had an overwhelming and profound impact on Pei Xi.

In over half a month, he had become accustomed to either waking up in He Chuzhou’s arms or opening the door to a table of steaming breakfast.

He was accustomed to He Chuzhou taking him along everywhere by his side, accustomed to someone comforting him whenever he was upset, accustomed to reflexively asking for help when he encountered a problem. Accustomed to handing all the food he didn’t like after one bite to He Chuzhou.

There were even several times where, due to not changing from sober to confused, he adopted mannerisms that would only occur while brain-addled. Fortunately, he got through without revealing his secret.

But he didn’t like this kind of feeling.

This feeling of unconditional trust and subconscious dependence on another person. It was akin to giving up his initiative and handing it over to another, which made him feel very insecure. Perhaps he had been alone for too long, he thought.

He didn’t know how to spend time normally so close to someone, so only when another person broke inside was he at a loss, easily tossing his armor away.

He had no experience dealing with such a problem, and the only method he could think of was to appropriate something else to take up space in his brain.

And work was the simplest and most efficient way.

So just like every time before, he put away the worthless food, returned to his study, and took care of all the work he could, staying focused until exhaustion got the better of him.

But he didn’t realize that while this method produced immediate results, it also came with serious side effects.

So after masochistically running himself into the ground, he experienced the backlash of his body’s dissatisfaction and was instantly overwhelmed by fatigue.

He fell ill.

A high fever woke him up from his nightmares. He tried to seek out the arms around him, but found nothing.

Opening his eyes, he looked at the empty bed beside him. He sat up in bed and looked out the window at the nighttime scene. The tears made everything he saw blurry.

For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to those late nights when he waited for dawn with his eyes open. There was no one to rely on, and the long nights became increasingly difficult to endure.

Breathing unsteadily, he bent his legs and curled up into a ball. The coldness seeping into his body made him tremble, even when he tightly hugged the quilt.

After waiting silently for a long while with nobody coming in, he lost his patience and took out his cell phone to make a call.

At 2 o’clock in the morning, He Chuzhou was woken up by his vibrating phone. Half asleep and half awake, he swiped down to answer the call without looking at the caller, then closed his eyes and put the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” His deep voice was muffled by the drowsy muddledness of sleep.

“Chuzhou.”

A cool, hoarse voice sounded over the receiver, causing him to wake up instantly. He opened his eyes and sat up abruptly, then looked at the caller ID and put the phone to his ear again: “Xinxin?”

“Did you go buy a midnight snack? Why haven’t you come back in so long?”

Pei Xi’s voice was very low, and seemed particularly weak this quiet night: “I have a fever. I don’t feel good. I’m uncomfortable all over and my throat hurts.”

“Don’t buy anything too spicy.”

---

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Chapter 28 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 30

When Tang Mu and Dai Tingyu came over, they saw Liu Zhenqing sitting in the corridor outside the treatment room, facing toward the window. Holding a teapot in one hand and using a small fan with the other, he was murmuring continuously. Huo Fenglie’s periodic roars of pain could be heard, and the sound made Dai Tingyu tremble. He didn’t know what kind of pain could make the man who was half-dead on the battlefield without making a sound shout out.

But Liu Zhenqing’s soft voice was like a cool summer breeze drifting through the window, not stopping for any sound.

When they drew closer, they could hear a slight hoarseness in Liu Zhenqing’s voice: “So, ah, the Little Mermaid just…..huh? Why are you two here? Did you come to visit?”

The two of them were a bit confused by what Liu Zhenqing was saying before. Han Ye suddenly opened the window and stuck his head out, saying: “Why did you stop? How did she choose?”

Liu Zhenqing averted his eyes. “I’m not telling this story to you.”

“Master is also listening.”

“Can you focus on the treatment? If anything goes wrong with Er-gou, I’ll trash your business’s reputation!” Liu Zhenqing shot him a glare. “To be continued. Please look forward to next time.”

“Ai! What kind of storyteller are you!”

Tang Mu and Dai Tingyu looked on curiously. Depending on the angle where they stood, they could see inside a bit through the gap in the window. Red threads everywhere seemed to be tied to something, and the room smelled of blood and medicine.

Ignoring Han Ye, Liu Zhenqing called playfully to the voice that had just screamed inside: “Er-gou, I’ll be right back! Wait for me!” Having said this, he took Tang Mu and Dai Tingyu away to talk. He knew there must be a problem for these two to appear, and feared that problem would disturb Huo Fenglie.

Thus, the three of them went to the courtyard and sat down before starting to talk.

“Just now…..” Dai Tingyu said inquisitively.

“I was telling Fenglie a story to divert his attention. That way, the pain will be reduced.”

In fact, Dai Tingyu was even more curious about if the call of “Er-gou” just now was meant for Huo Fenglie.

When Liu Zhenqing finished speaking, he coughed slightly.

It seemed he had worn out his throat after talking for who knew how long.

“How is General Huo?”

“Everything is going well. It’s just that…..it’s painful.” Liu Zhenqing’s eyes were full of distress. 

In fact, Huo Fenglie had been silent at first, and Han Ye would come out occasionally to apprise Liu Zhenqing of the situation. Liu Zhenqing was worried that something had happened.

It wasn’t until Han Ye explained the reason for his silence that Liu Zhenqing understood why there was no noise.

Huo Fenglie was indeed in a lot of pain, but he would rather let his veins bulge and grind his teeth bloody than make any noise for Liu Zhenqing outside to hear.

Even when they lied to Huo Fenglie and said that Liu Zhenqing wasn’t outside, it was useless.

Because even though so many of Huo Fenglie’s senses were vanishing now and it was impossible for him to tell whether or not Liu Zhenqing was outside, he still seemed to know that he would be there.

So Liu Zhenqing simply came to the window and made it clear to Huo Fenglie that he was outside and would always be by his side, that he knew how painful this was for him, so he shouldn’t hold back. He had promised to tell him a story before, and took this opportunity to do so. 

Later, Liu Zhenqing continued to speak outside the window, rested when he got tired, and slept there when he was sleepy. In any case, the summer night weren’t cold, and with his master’s herbal ointments, the mosquitos didn’t swoop in and his throat didn’t wear out too quickly either. It had been going on like this for three days. And Huo Fenglie obediently didn’t hold back too much.

“As long as everything goes well,” Tang Mu said.

“What happened?” Liu Zhenqing asked directly.

Dai Tingyu’s expression brightened at once, and he said: “Something unexpected happened!”

Curious about Dai Tingyu’s expression, Liu Zhenqing glanced at Tang Mu.

Tang Mu said: “An Imperial edict came today, and General Huo and I were asked to receive it. We used the excuse that General Huo was out of the city for a private matter and we didn’t know how many days it would take for him to come back. I received the edict on his behalf for the time being, and the person who delivered the edict didn’t make things difficult for us.” With that, he handed the Imperial edict over for Liu Zhenqing to read. It was obvious that he had confidence in him.

Liu Zhenqing took it and opened it to take a look. His eyes eventually flashed in surprise.

“The King of Western Shu is a fake?” Liu Zhenqing was astonished.

The Imperial edict stated that the identity of the King of Western Shu was taken up before the real one discovered his heritage. Qiao An, the true heir to the Western Shu Kingdom, fled from persecution and traveled to the capital for help. 

After Huo Fenglie defeated the three southwest kingdoms, those kingdoms surrendered to Great Zhou and were one step away from becoming vassal states. To put it bluntly, if there were many princes back then, whoever gained the support of Great Zhou was most likely to be able to secure the throne. But there was one prince at the time, and he was deferential to Great Zhou, so the current King of Western Shu ascended to the throne.

It was just that the current King of Western Shu was restless and was involved with the rebels, which aroused Yuan Jue’s suspicion and dissatisfaction. Just at this time, someone sent the so-called “real” prince Qiao An to seek help from Great Zhou. He also vowed that as long as Great Zhou would help him regain the throne, Western Shu would sign a vassal state agreement. From then on, Great Zhou would be the master and Western Shu would be completely allegiant to it.

Yuan Jue had probably verified this prince’s words several times over and determined that he had the bloodline of the Western Shu royal family. Under the guise of helping Western Shu’s royal family return to legitimacy, he wanted to send Qiao An home in a mighty display. It was very likely that war could not be avoided, and the Imperial edict instructed Huo Fenglie to be ready to lead troops into the country.

In fact, the Great Zhou Dynasty generally didn’t interfere in the affairs of other nations. The pros and cons were almost equal, and whether they took action or not depended on the situation. However, Western Shu was first complicit with the rebels, and then pretended to be confused when Yuan Jue held them accountable. As the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, he could not tolerate this. Sending the prince home was just an excuse to teach them a lesson. It also served as a warning to the surrounding nations.

But all of these coincidences made Liu Zhenqing uneasy.

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but he kept feeling like they were being led somewhere. 

The existence of this battle was somewhat deliberate.

But Liu Zhenqing didn’t know much about the battlefield. Perhaps it was something only those who fought could understand.

Who wouldn’t feel uneasy in the face of impending war? Even Dai Tingyu cursed.

Tang Mu said: “The edict says for General Huo to lead the troops escorting Qiao An, but…..”

“Even if he’s cured in two days, he still needs to rest. It’s too soon,” Liu Zhenqing said.

“I said I would go!” said Dai Tingyu.

Liu Zhenqing considered for a moment before saying: ““If we don’t take action, or have you go on Fenglie’s behalf, he’ll be suspected of violating the Imperial edict, so the current plan can only be delayed.

Tang Mu said with a nod: “I think so too. We just received that prince Qiao An on an emergency basis and have not yet met him formally. I wanted to invite you to accompany us to see him.

Liu Zhenqing saw no problem with this, so he accompanied them to the guest house where the prince was currently being entertained.

As a result, they heard the sound of something being smashed just as they arrived at the door.

“Are you looking down on me, giving me such poor things? I was given the very best in Great Zhou’s Imperial Palace. Don’t you know who I am? I’m the legitimate king of Western Shu. If you hold me in contempt like this, I will notify your City Lord to turn you all into the lowest of slaves.”

The three of them paused. Dai Tingyu pointed inside with a dark face and asked them: “Do we really have to help this piece of work? If this guy takes over the throne, he’ll be a tyrant.”

“From a certain perspective, he’s indeed just like a member of the Western Shu royal family,” Tang Mu scoffed.

“It’s not difficult to see what kind of prince he is when he sold his entire country for the throne,” Liu Zhenqing said with a smile.

The servants of the City Lord’s Manor were treated well by Tang Mu, and had never suffered such humiliation. They were out to handle their work, not to be humiliated and scolded by an outsider. When they were reprimanded like this, their eyes reddened in anger as they stood stiffly aside. 

The result was that Qiao An cursed them even more viciously. Just at this moment, the three people stepped inside.

Qiao An shifted his expression the moment he saw them. He donned a noble air and said: “Tang-chengzhu, is this the way your Zhou Dynasty treats its guests? These servants are useless, I suggest you kill them all.”

Standing at the rear, Liu Zhenqing looked around. Young in age, Qiao An looked pretty and harmless, with delicate features. But when he became fierce, those features distorted to reveal what he actually was deep down. 

“Since the service is poor, you can all leave. There is no need to come and serve him.” When Tang Mu finished speaking, gestured for everyone to go away. 

Qiao An was somewhat mollified for a moment, but then he heard Tang Mu say: “The group just now are the best servants in my residence. Since His Highness the Crown Prince is not satisfied, I will trouble the prince to take care of himself during this period. Please tell us if you need anything, and we will provide it.”

When these words came out, Liu Zhenqing almost couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“You!” Qiao Jin instantly leaped up in anger and pointed a finger at Tang Mu. “You are presumptuous!”

Although Tang Mu looked gentle, he was actually not easy to control. “His Royal Highness is truly making things difficult for me. You didn’t want those people, so I drove them away, but it is impossible for me to conjure up more palatable servants in Nanfeng City. No matter who I find, you will be angry and dissatisfied. I really don’t know how to entertain the prince. Asking the prince to give me advice.”

Qiao An, who had wanted to show off in front of Tang Mu, was hit back hard.

In fact, there was a blood feud between Nanfeng City and the Western Shu Kingdom, especially when it came to the Tang family. How could they bow and scrape to serve him?

Qiao An was at a disadvantage and immediately looked around for a helping hand. It was as if he changed faces. Looking toward Dai Tingyu, who was watching the show, the little guy leaned toward Dai Tingyu like a weak willow facing the wind and said: “Commander Dai, what kind of City Lord is this, ah? He’s clearly trying to make things difficult for me. You must take responsibility!”

This shocked the three of them. Was this the prince’s love routine?

Dai Tingyu was not a participant in male homosexuality, and was so frightened that he took three steps back, wishing that he could seek shelter behind Tang Mu.

“The prince need not ask me. I listen to Chengzhu. Chengzhu is my god. His word is law and I can’t be responsible for anyone.”

When Qiao An saw that nobody was protecting him, his face immediately reddened and he directed a fierce look at Dai Tingyu, who didn’t know how to favor him.

At this time, the person who could smooth things over appeared.

Liu Zhenqing stepped forward and said: “I think Chengzhu might have misunderstood. Perhaps it is due to the two countries having different degrees of service, and that is why the prince grew angry. He’s not being unreasonable. After all, doesn’t he belong to a royal family?”

“Really?” Tang Mu looked at Qiao An and said, “You’re really not trying to embarrass me?”

Qiao An was stifled by these words. The stalemate just now was not in his favor, and there was nobody on his side. Now someone had offered him a way to step down, and he could only follow it: “Yes. Yes, ah, how could I deliberately seek trouble?”

Liu Zhenqing raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: “So, Chengzhu, you’ll give the prince time to follow the local people’s customs, won’t you? When another batch comes over, the prince will understand that this is how we do things in Great Zhou, which is different from the customs of Western Shu. Although the prince wishes for the services of Western Shu, there’s really no way. I believe a noble person like the prince will understand.”

Qiao An suddenly felt as if he was being put in a difficult situation, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to refute.

Tang Mu nodded and smiled, then commenced apologizing to Qiao An.

After this series of attacks fell, Qiao An could only constrain his temper and cooperate in a well-behaved manner.

After calming down, Qiao An gave Liu Zhenqing a suspicious look and asked, “Who are you?”

Liu Zhenqing cupped his hands in a salute: “This one is…..General Huo’s military advisor.”

“General Huo. General Huo Fenglie? Is he back?” Qiao An’s eyes lit up. “Then why hasn’t he come to see me?”

Liu Zhenqing said: “The general has already heard about the Imperial edict, and has gone to inspect the area near the Western Shu Kingdom.”

Qiao An said ruthlessly: “What is there to investigate? By virtue of General Huo’s ability, he should escort me back! General Huo should strike that counterfeit down and kill anyone who dares to oppose me!” 

Liu Zhenqing’s expression remained unchanged, but there was a chill in his eyes. Did he think his Er-gou was a weapon he could use however he wanted?

“Hurry up and tell him to come back and organize the troops,” Qiao An said anxiously.

Dai Tingyu could only say: “It’s not that easy.”

“Why not? The fact that you can’t do it doesn’t mean Genera Huo can’t!” Qiao An retorted at once.

Dai Tingyu’s liver ached from Qiao An’s abrupt changes in attitude. He found it difficult to say another word, so he simply shut up.

Liu Zhenqing and Tang Mu exchanged glances, and Tang Mu said: “That’s right. According to regulations, we should first explain the situation to Western Shu and negotiate for the two of you to confront each other face to face, so that the other party can return your identity to you through peaceful means.”

“How can that be done?!” Qiao An asked anxiously.

Tang Mu raised his hands to appease him and said: “This is the regulation. It is impossible to fight immediately. When the other party responds, or if there is no response or a direct counterattack, we will see how to fight based on the specific situation at that time.”

“Could it be that you’re being perfunctory with me?!” Qiao An clearly didn’t have the patience.

Liu Zhenqing said: “Your Highness, if we don’t take peaceful measures before using force, a direct attack may cause the entire country of Western Shu to fight against us. By the time you seize the throne, the country will be no more. You should know that General Huo is capable of conquering the Western Shu Kingdom.”

As soon as these words were spoken, Qiao An’s expression froze as if there was lingering fear in his heart.

Liu Zhenqing said with a smile: “Since we’ve received an Imperial edict, we will definitely complete the task. Your Highness, please be patient.”

After Qiao An finished his tantrum, he had no choice but to go along with their arrangements.

Taking advantage of this, Liu Zhenqing asked Qiao An about his previous experiences. 

What Qiao An said was pretty much the same as the Imperial edict. His eyes even reddened in front of them, and he said with an attitude of misery that lacked any royal bearing at all: “At that time, I was almost killed. Fortunately, I got lucky and escaped along the river. But I knew that I didn’t have the ability to take the throne by myself, so I had to seek help. I suffered a lot along the way until I finally found the emperor of Great Zhou. His Majesty was willing to help me, and I am truly grateful. As long as I can take back everything that belongs to me, I am willing to pay any amount. I cannot let my ancestors’ inheritance fall into the hands of an outsider.”

“Who helped you meet the emperor?” Liu Zhenqing asked curiously.

“I beat the drum in front of the government office, then met many officials and was sent to the palace,” Qiao An said. “His Majesty saw that I was carrying treasures Great Zhou had given to the Western Shu Kingdom, as well as the mark on my body that is imprinted on every child of royal birth. Only then did he believe my words.”

As Qiao An spoke, he revealed a lotus mark on his wrist.

Liu Zhenqing had indeed heard of it, but had never seen it. It was likely that Yuan Jue had a way to verify its authenticity.

“Then the fake king also has this mark?” Liu Zhenqing asked.

“He made it himself.” Qiao An said with resentment: “But there was a difference between old and new, so he deliberately injured his wrist to remove half of the mark and cover up the truth.”

The three of them finally understood something.

When the three people went out, Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but complain, “What’s going on with this prince? I get goosebumps just looking at him. It’s so hard to bear.”

Tang Mu said awkwardly: “He seems to like men.”

Dai Tingyu trembled.

“But he’s easy to control and won’t cause us any trouble. Then it’s up to us to go at our own pace.” Tang Mu breathed a sigh of relief.

Dai Tingu clasped his fist and said with a smile: “Yes, this way we can use the strategy of negotiation before violence so that Brother Huo can heal up well. It can also be regarded as giving the Western Shu Kingdom the opportunity for civil strife. Perhaps people with their own agendas will overthrow the false king’s regime before we take action and save us the trouble.”

The two of them chatted enthusiastically, but felt that Liu Zhenqing had been quiet the whole time.

Tang Mu asked curiously: “What is it? Brother Liu?”

Liu Zhenqing frowned slightly. “How strange, ah.”

“What’s strange?” said Tang Mu.

“The prince is very strange.” Liu Zhenqing raised his eyes and said: “Did you two notice? His hands, his exposed skin, his whole appearance, and his attitude toward people……”

The two of them couldn’t think of anything strange aside from the prince’s preference for men.

Liu Zhenqing’s face darkened as he said: “How could a person who was persecuted and unaccounted for since childhood, who was exiled to our country, have such tender flesh? There are no scars at all. He said that he just met the emperor with difficulty not long ago, but he doesn’t look at all like he had a hard time. Even if he recovered in Great Zhou’s Imperial Palace, he should not have recovered so quickly. And going by his attitude toward servants and some of his mannerisms, although he is arrogant and unreasonable, he is obviously used to a life of pampering and privilege. It isn’t that he suddenly gained power and wants to show it off. And some habits only appear in those who have been cultivated by the customs of Western Shu.”

---

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

“Li Xiu? What’s wrong with you, you look weird.”

When Li Xiu returned to the classroom that day, his expression had changed so much that even the classmates he had a distant relationship with couldn’t help but inquire.

“……That one didn’t do anything to you, right?”

Li Xiu felt a few gazes lingering on the parts of his body exposed outside of his school uniform. It was clear that Fang Qian’an dragging him out in front of everyone today had given many classmates a very bad association.

The young man took a deep breath and forced a smile: “I’m fine.”

What came to mind was the embarrassing and nerve-wracking scene when he came out of the lounge. Xu Luren didn’t seem to be the very bright type, and everything he was thinking was pretty much revealed on his face.

In fact, it was just a matter of a few words to explain. However, in the face of Xu Luren’s panicked apologies, what Fang Qian’an said was—

“If you dare to tell anyone about what you saw today, you’re dead.”

Li Xiu, who was standing next to Fang Qian’an at the time: “Fang Qian’an?!”

Noticing Li Xiu’s shocked and condemning eyes, Fang Qian’an seemed to have figured out that something was wrong, and added: “Me and A-Xiu didn’t do anything at all! Remember that!”

Xu Luren’s face paled, and he nodded quickly. He didn’t hesitate to swear that he hadn’t seen anything, and of course he wouldn’t speak a word of it. 

“That’s enough…..”

. . . . . .

Not long after he returned to his seat, morning classes began.

Li Xiu sat upright at his desk, but his eyes were still a little vacant.

The empty desk dragged over by Fang Qian’an was still there, but with no one in the seat — of course, Fang Qian’an wanted to stay with Li Xiu every moment of the day, but Li Xiu firmly refused.

The first reason was that as long as Fang Qian’an was around, it was impossible for him to pay good attention to the lecture. The second reason was……

[“Don’t you have a psychological shadow?]

With last night’s nightmare, Li Xiu really didn’t want to challenge himself and recreate that scene again.

Against Li Xiu’s cold eyes, Fang Qian’an was defeated in despair. After agreeing to contact each other by phone any time or anywhere, he left dejectedly.

“Phew…..”

However, Li Xiu had to admit that even without Fang Qian’an’s interference, he wasn’t able to study in earnest at all.

He had driven Fang Qian’an away simply…..to just escape for a little bit.

Ghosts.

As the teacher was still lecturing seriously at the podium, Li Xiu unconsciously wrote this word down on paper.

Li Xiu stared at this word for a long time. The tips of his fingers were chilled, and the palm holding the pen was covered in cold sweat.

There was a strange, unexplainable fear in his heart.

It was as if Fang Qian’an didn’t realize he had been in the Xiao Family Haunted House until today. They had already shared a room once with many supernatural beings. And Li Xiu also realized dimly that he seemed to have overlooked many things.

A lot of things that were…..amiss.

A breeze blew through the window, and the paper slogans and learning materials on the walls fluttered in the air.

The wall clock moved forward regularly, kacha, kacha, and the teacher’s sonorous and powerful teaching voice echoed in the quiet classroom.

It was clearly a sunny morning, and the classroom contained many normal humans, but Li Xiu found that he was involuntarily shivering.

Due to not sleeping well, the heaviness of his body became extremely evident.

He couldn’t help but think, So cold…..

Had his low fever not gone away yet? Why was it that after several days, his shoulders still felt too heavy to lift and his whole body began to get chills from time to time?

Just as Li Xiu was distracted by his physical problems, a siren outside the window abruptly pierced through his trance.

Although the siren quickly stopped within a few seconds, the students sitting by the window suddenly realized that something was amiss on campus — police cars had arrived at the school.

Even during class, peoples’ curious nature could not be restrained.

Noticing the unusual goings-on downstairs, even as the teacher said “listen carefully,” she couldn’t help but lean toward the window to take a peek.

The location of Class A1 was just at the right spot to catch a glimpse of the back door at the junction of the Xiao Family Haunted House and the campus.

That door, which connected the two locations, was a heavy iron door with an iron lock that had been fastened for many years. It had never been opened by anyone. 

In addition, the wall between the haunted house and the campus was not very high, and if the students of Qiming wanted to go to the haunted house, they would choose to climb over it directly. This back door was out of sight most of the time.

But presently, there were several police cars parked there. Someone got out of a car and stood beside the old janitor, waiting for the old man to shakily go through his keys one by one to open the door.

“God, what’s going on?”

“There must have been an accident over there at the haunted house…..”

Uneasy whispers began to spread throughout the class.

And very soon, even more bizarre gossip spread virally on everyone’s cell phones.

Some students happened to have free time during this class. Although they were blocked from getting closer, they all watched from a distance as someone carried a person out of the Xiao Family Haunted House.

And that person was carried out under a shroud.

[Holy shit, has the haunted house shown off its power again?]

[I hear that every year, several people die there without explanation.]

[I wonder which unlucky guy it is. It couldn’t be someone from our school, right?]

[Haha, maybe it’s Ouyang?]

The messages originally flooding the screen paused for a moment when Ouyang was mentioned.

After all, many people had seen the pictures that were posted in the group before.

He was a living person, and moreover, a popular male teacher in the school just a day ago. Yet it was very possible that he had filmed the entire process of hanging himself and posted it to the group chat…..

Not everyone could bear the impact of this.

Thinking back to the terrifying rumors about the Xiao Family Haunted House, the lawless students with severe chuunibyou elements were also more or less frightened.

[How annoying. Don’t come on here and talk about things without evidence.]

[Laughing to death. Does anyone really believe those kinds of ghost stories?]

[Maybe a homeless person went inside? There are security guards patrolling the school, after all, so maybe they didn’t dare rest in the school and went to the haunted house instead. Homeless people have so many underlying diseases, it’s normal for one to kick the bucket.]

[But I heard that the school has lost contact with a sophomore student…..]

[Ah, so annoying. Stop talking.]

Throughout the next classes, the students were a little distracted and absent-minded.

In the presence of these people, even Li Xiu’s inattentiveness became less obvious.

After waiting until class was finally over, this group of people rushed to the window to keep watching.

“Fuck, what happened?”

“What the hell…..”

His classmates’ words caused Li Xiu to reflexively walk to the window. Lowering his head, he glanced in the direction of the haunted house. Right afterward, his brow furrowed.

The police cars had already left after the first class, or the school had realized something was wrong and had the police cars move to a different location.

The back door to the haunted house was still open, and there were several more school staff at the wall. Every one of them was busy, climbing up and down to add railings and barbed wire to the original fence.

Judging by the small fraction of work that had been completed, the school seemed to intend to simply raise the wall to a point where even monkeys couldn’t climb over it.

Of course, if that was all it was, the school’s action of sending maintenance workers to heighten the fence boiled down to the normal behavior of stopping further losses since something had happened in the haunted house.

However…..

There were a few who looked like logistics staff doing something extremely strange.

They were tying red cloth to the large trees and bushes near the fence.

Each strip of cloth was a dazzling red color. They were impatiently tying them all over the foliage, which looked indescribably bizarre.

“What is the school doing? Isn’t that too unsightly?”

“People don’t normally go into the haunted house, right? Do they need to make such a grand gesture?”

“Damn, the more I think about it, the more scared I get. So they really did carry someone out of the haunted house?”

As Li Xiu listened to the chattering of his classmates, the chill in his body became increasingly obvious.

And before the bell rang, there was an announcement.

The panic in his official tone could not be hidden as the dean announced to the students as calmly as possible on the intercom that from today onwards, the school would strictly prohibit students from entering the Xiao Family Gardens. Once discovered, they would be punished with a demerit and expulsion from school.

As for the red cloth on the trees, according to the school leaders, it turned out that the school was preparing the trees in advance to protect them from the cold.

“…..Please take good care of the campus environment and respect the fruits of the staff’s labor. Do not take off or damage the cloth strips on the branches when passing by. We will also send people to patrol the area regularly. If a student is caught not following discipline and damaging the environment, they will be dealt with severely.”

“Pfft, do these school people think we’re idiots? Who would protect trees by tying strips of red cloth to them at the end of summer? Are they sick in the head?”

Unlike the well-behaved Class A1, a boy in another classroom simply laughed after hearing the campus announcement.

He leaned against the window and craned his neck to look in the direction of the haunted house. Seeing that chaotic and mindless scene, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Young Master Fang, don’t you think so?”

He turned around eagerly to look at the tall boy in the classroom who was playing on his cell phone with his head down.

It was unknown why, when a rare bit of fun was happening outside, the young master of the Fang family still refused to raise his head and look out, and wouldn’t even go near the window today.

The former prince exuded an aura of alienation and alertness all over his body today, and the way he stared at them put people on pins and needles.

Sure enough, when the boy bravely spoke to him, Fang Qian’an ignored him entirely.

The other went silent in embarrassment and looked at the others awkwardly.

[Hey, you guys, can someone tell me why Young Master Fang is acting so strange today?]

The boy gave a light cough, pretending to play on his phone as he secretly messaged the others.

[I heard that some moron interrupted his personal affairs this morning.]

[Affairs? What affairs? Wait, this affair can’t be the one I’m thinking of, right?]

[But didn’t Young Master Fang go to Class A1 to snatch that person this morning?]

[Shh, don’t talk nonsense. You’re dead if someone hears.]

[Wait, you’re not talking about that one this morning…..]

[I think I might know what’s going on, but I’m afraid to say it.]

All at once, rumors about what had happened with the prince of the Fang family spread among this group of idle playboys, the importance of which even outweighed the strange things happening at school.

Nearly everyone maintained a subtle silence, but their eyes all fell on Fang Qian’an.

The result of this observation was that everyone discovered that Fang Qian’an’s expression was very bad at the moment.

This wasn’t caused by a bad temper…..instead, it seemed like he was completely drained of energy.

The strong, healthy boy who could beat people fiercely like a human weapon had a slightly gray face today. The bruises under his eyes were so thick that they were black, and there was no color to his lips at all.

Everyone exchanged glances, and the atmosphere was incredibly solemn.

Nobody dared to speak.

Nobody even dared to type their guesses on their phones.

Fortunately, at this anxious moment, a companion came through the door carrying takeout from an expensive burger restaurant outside the school.

According to convention, this person chose the most expensive one and handed it to Fang Qian’an.

“Angus beef and fish roe bacon burger. Young Master Fang, I remember you liked the taste of this last time.”

“Right, and here’s the iced americano you wanted.”

When the cold coffee cup touched his fingertips, Fang Qian’an abruptly shivered and drew his attention from his cell phone. 

He took a deep breath and hesitated for a second on the lines of text on his phone, then hit the pause button on the screen fiercely.

Fang Qian’an didn’t have much of an appetite.

His stomach felt heavy due to the news he had just received, and his chest felt tight. 

But Fang Qian’an soon recalled that he hadn’t eaten anything since the day before.

Although he wasn’t hungry, it seemed like a very bad idea to continue to starve.

Fang Qian’an didn’t refuse the hamburger offered by his follower. But after just one bite of the burger…..

“Bleh…..”

A strong fishy taste spurted up from deep inside his body.

Fang Qian’an ignored the panic of the others and rushed to the toilet as he gagged.

When he opened his mouth, the burger he had just eaten suddenly gushed out.

His stomach was churning. Fang Qian’an felt as if he had turned into a high-pressure water gun as he sprayed vomit into the toilet.

The fishy smell spread throughout the toilet cubicle. Even for a big, strong person like Fang Qian’an, his stomach cramped like crazy and he felt dizzy after vomiting.

With great difficulty, Fang Qian’an stopped spewing his stomach contents.

He wiped away the vomit-induced tears, sniffled, and was about to flush……

He suddenly stopped moving. 

The toilet was full of the things he had spit out.

Pieces of flesh big and small, with the teeth marks still remaining, sank into the water dyed crimson with blood.

There were gray-white fingers that had been chewed to the point of losing their shape mixed in with the viscera-like pieces of meat.

Those were clearly human fingers.

---

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Chapter 23 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 25

“Don’t worry about me!” At the critical moment, Liu Zhenqing stepped back so as not to cause trouble for Huo Fenglie.

Huo Fenglie took a quick glance to make sure Liu Zhenqing was fine, then immediately grabbed Qiao Jin and stepped aside.

Dai Tingyu shielded Tang Mu and withdrew. He saw a figure flash by so quickly that his eyes couldn’t follow it.

When he was able to see clearly, the newcomer had already begun to fight with Huo Fenglie.

After a handful of moves, Qiao Jin found an opening and swiftly broke away while the other dealt with Huo Fenglie.

Dai Tingyu immediately jumped into the fighting ring to assist.

Tang Mu quickly approached Liu Zhenqing and asked, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Liu Zhenqing shook his head and then regarded the new arrival. This person should be Qiao Jin’s bodyguard. He wore a comical street mask, and although there were no distinguishing features, Liu Zhenqing somehow felt that he was familiar. 

Qiao Jin and the bodyguard worked well together, especially since the bodyguard was extremely skilled in martial arts.

In an instant, Huo Fenglie and Dai Tinyu were at a disadvantage. 

Qiao Jin rushed forward at once, as if he intended to kill Huo Fenglie with a final move.

This was outright seeking death. Huo Fenglie promptly slapped him.

Before Qiao Jin could react, he was kicked away by the bodyguard, who met Huo Fenglie’s blow with his own palm.

Internal strength leaked out as the two palms met, instantly knocking away the surrounding tables and chairs.

Liu Zhenqing’s expression shifted slightly. Huo Fenglie’s treatment was still ongoing, and it wasn’t appropriate for him to use his internal strength. He had to stay back no matter what, so Liu Zhenqing shouted: “Stop!”

Huo Fenglie retreated at once with Dai Tingyu to protect Liu Zhenqing.

The guard also stood in front of Qiao Jin, regarding Huo Fenglie warily. Qiao Jin touched his neck where it had been gripped and said to the guard: “He shouted stop, so you stopped? In the end, who do you listen to?”

He actually lost his temper at his own guard?

The guard turned his head to look back at Qiao Jin.

Qiao Jin gritted his teeth, then said to everyone: “Today was a learning experience. Till we meet again.”

Having said this, the two leaped up and away.

Dai Tingyu immediately glanced at Tang Mu and said: “What should we do? Close the city?”

Tang Mu frowned and shook his head: “With their speed, we won’t be able to catch up.”

“Who was he?” Dai Tingyu asked.

“He should be…..the king of Western Shu.”

Shocked, Dai Tingyu looked askance at Huo Fenglie.

Liu Zhenqing quickly stepped forward to support Huo Fenglie, saying to the two of them: “The carriage!”

Only then did the two realize there was something wrong with Huo Fenglie’s expression. The carriage took them back to the City Lord’s manor. By the time Huo Fenglie returned to the courtyard, he had already started to vomit blood.

“Master!” Liu Zhenqing shouted anxiously.

The master and Han Ye immediately rushed out and saw the situation. They were instantly furious, but it wasn’t the right time to be angry. They quickly helped this person into the house and began treatment.

With an ugly expression, Liu Zhenqing sat down to wait in the courtyard.

Out of courtesy, Dai Tingyu and Tang Mu usually wouldn’t step inside their courtyard.

This time, the two followed them inside. Seeing this, Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but say: “What’s wrong with Brother Huo, ah? Although the man just now had great skill in martial arts, the internal force of that strike shouldn’t have been enough to hurt Brother Huo.”

Liu Zhenqing had to say, “Didn’t you participate in the fight against the alliance of the three small nations with Huo Fenglie before? Do you recall why they attacked?”

Dai Tingyu was taken aback, then heard Tang Mu say: “Because everyone heard that Huo Fenglie was injured and would soon be dead, so they decided to try their chances.”

“Yes, it was because of his injury at that time. He is still undergoing treatment. The guard just now originally couldn’t have hurt Huo Fenglie, but because his internal injuries have yet to heal, it’s not suitable for him to fight against a master. So…..” As he spoke, Liu Zhenqing couldn’t help but bring his fist down on the table. “It’s all my fault.”

Tang Mu quickly spoke: “How can it be your fault? It was they who took the initiative to provoke us, and it was only a matter of time before we met. No one could have known he had such a capable guard. Before, General Huo would have been more than enough to deal with the King of Western Shu.”

Dai Tingyu immediately nodded in agreement: “Back then, Brother Huo went into battle injured, then was injured even further. He was fine then, and this time there are miracle doctors here, so he’ll definitely be okay. Brother Huo has the strongest willpower of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Liu Zhenqing’s lips twitched: “Yes, ah, he has great fortitude.” Though he knew this, such an incident was still aggravating. “Hmph, if I ever catch the King of Western Shu and that guard, I’ll definitely make them pay.”

Just as he was speaking, he saw Han Ye come out and rushed up to question him.

Han Ye said to Liu Zhenqing snappily: “There’s good news and bad news.”

Liu Zhenqing said speechlessly: “Who taught you to talk like this? I just want to know that Fenglie is alright!”

Han Ye rolled his eyes. “Now you worry. You should be more careful, ah. I think you just want to shorten our lives. The good news is that he’s fine, and it was a blessing in disguise that the blockage opened up. There’s no need to delay treatment for another month or two. Just five days will do, and he won’t have further trouble from then on.”

Liu Zhenqing frowned slightly: “And the bad news is……”

“The process of the treatment is extremely painful, and he won’t be able to come out during those five days,” Han Ye said.

Liu Zhenqing asked at once: “What level of extreme pain, like when Master…..”

“It will hurt twice as much as the previous time.” Han Ye said, “But according to his character, he’ll definitely be fine. Master told me to come out and tell you not to worry. We’ll just get it over with and he’ll be okay. You don’t need to stay here for these five days, stay farther away.”

Liu Zhenqing’s face paled. The time before had been the most painful thing, and Huo Fenglie had called out to him for a whole day, ah. Now his master was telling him to stay far away. Wasn’t this because he feared that Liu Zhenqing would hear something and be frightened?

His expression distorted in distress. Han Ye saw this and said: “Don’t worry so much. Instead of spending a month or two in uncertainty, now it will be over in five days. This is a good thing as far as us doctors are concerned.”

Liu Zhenqing regarded Han Ye with complicated emotions. “I won’t leave.”

Han Ye said: “Are you certain he wants you to stay?”

Of course Er-gou wouldn’t be happy, but Liu Zhenqing also had grounds to forestall him. 

“If I’m not there and the news spreads, others will know that Huo Fenglie is receiving treatment,” Liu Zhenqing said gravely.

“It’s up to you.” Han Ye didn’t bother to dissuade him.

Dai Tingyu couldn’t help but step forward to ask about Huo Fenglie’s injuries. Han Ye wasn’t very willing to pay attention to him and glanced away, his sight falling on Tang Mu.

Tang Mu was also somewhat anxious, but according to the relationship he had with Huo Fenglie, it wasn’t easy for him to inquire.

Unexpectedly, Han Ye’s gaze lingered strangely on Tang Mu’s face. But he didn’t say anything, and looked away as he explained.

“You two have heard everything. We won’t be going out after this, and if something happens outside…..”

Tang Mu understood thoroughly, and said: “Don’t worry, if something serious happens, we won’t bother you. Just treat him in peace.”

Liu Zhenqing nodded and gave thanks. The two people said their farewells and left.

Walking outside the courtyard, Han Ye ordered the servants to not come and serve them for the next five days.

“Tsk, I don’t understand.” Dai Tingyu scratched his head fretfully. 

“What is it?” Tang Mu asked.

“This ailment has been going on for so long. It can obviously be cured, so why didn’t Brother Huo have it done back then, ah?”

Tang Mu smiled helplessly: “There must be a reason, ah. For example, perhaps there was not a good treatment for it at that time, or the injury wasn’t as serious then. It can’t be that he didn’t cooperate with the treatment.”

Dai Tingyu thought for a while, and his expression became inexplicably strange. 

Tang Mu didn’t think too much about it, but he was curious.

The battle that year was not close to Nanfeng City, so Tang Mu only heard about it and sent supplies to the front. When he heard Dai Tingyu bring up the events at that time, he couldn’t help but wonder: “In the battle back then, rumors said that once the God of War arrived, he was invincible. It turns out things were so difficult?”

Dai Tingyu hurriedly nodded, saying: “Exactly. When Brother Huo arrived, his face was still pale. At that time, we only thought that he was majestic and untouchable. We had no idea that he was recovering from a serious injury. It’s all because we were useless and couldn’t help shoulder the burden. He took over the worst situation as soon as he came. I remember that in the following battles, he rode Chen Jiangyue with a high fever and led everyone to fight. The enemy didn’t notice. Only when he returned to the military camp did he collapse and receive urgent treatment from the military doctors.”

Tang Mu was shocked to hear this: “There was actually this sort of danger, and those of us at the rear had no clue.”

“Not many people knew about his condition. Because I was also injured and couldn’t go to the battlefield, I applied to personally care for Brother Huo. At that time, I didn’t dare to sleep at night for fear that something would happen to Brother Huo, who was seriously injured. But not only did nothing happen to him, each day when the drums sounded, he stood up as if nothing was wrong and put on his armor and red tassel, continuing to fight on horseback. The hard armor rubbed against his body and pressed on the wound. Blood oozed out, but there was no expression on his face.”

Dai Tingyu spoke as if in a trance: “Back then, I wasn’t familiar with Brother Huo. I only felt that his majesty was terrifying, just like a cold Imperial blade, completely disregarding life and death. That he was an emotionless person. But one night, I discovered a secret. I never thought about him in such a way again.”

“What was it?” Tang Mu asked curiously.

“It was just as you guessed,” Dai Tingyu said directly, not hiding anything.

Tang Mu’s expression became somewhat unnatural. He said: “It was because General Huo admired…..that person?”

Dai Tingyu nodded and said: “I found that when Brother Huo was muddleheaded, he would keep repeating the name ‘Qing-ge.’ There was also a tattoo that gradually appeared on his body due to the fever.”

“A tattoo?” Tang Mu was taken aback.

“En, it has something to do with that person. Anyway, all signs indicated that Brother Huo had feelings for that person. It was at that point that I felt Brother Huo was human too. Regardless of whether his love interest was the right person or not, Brother Huo was an infatuated kid. Because the object of his infatuation was already dead, Brother Huo really looked like he was half-dead too. But he still stuck to his job, which really made people sympathetic. So what I’m seeing now really surprises me. It feels like Brother Huo has come back to life. Although……he still has the same majesty, but he seems completely different than before.”

Tang Mu said with a sigh: “The credit goes to Brother Liu.”

Dai Tingyu also couldn’t help but sigh, saying: “I didn’t expect that the dignified general who guards the country would be influenced by a love affair. I really didn’t expect it. In fact, I was originally worried that with the two of them so close, an intelligent person like Young Master Liu would see the tattoo and make some connections. But seeing how good their relationship is now, I figure there isn’t a problem.”

“What kind of tattoo is it?” Tang Mu asked curiously.

“Liu…..”

Which character Liu?^[1] 

Liu Zhenqing stood behind the wall, pressing up against it. But whether Dai Tingyu couldn’t explain it clearly or it wasn’t convenient to continue, the two went quiet for a moment and then changed the subject.

Liu Zhenqing was frustrated for a while. It would be no good for him to show up suddenly and ask, because they already regarded him as a substitute and definitely wouldn’t tell him.

But his first reaction was that the tattoo was a name. Was it Liu Zhenqing or Liu Xiting? It seemed to make sense that he was too embarrassed to show him his tattoo because it was Liu Zhenqing’s name, but Er-gou didn’t mind showing it to others? Rumors painted them as having a hostile relationship, and if others saw it, there would be a strange scandal. But he’d never heard of one, ah. Or perhaps he took a smarter approach and the tattoo only appeared with heat, so the only ones with a chance to see it included people like Dai Tingyu.

Liu Zhenqing didn’t dwell overly much on the tattoo. After all, he already knew Huo Fenglie liked him, and this was just a bit of fun, the icing on the cake. It was just that after hearing about Huo Fenglie’s situation a few years back, he was in a very low mood.

Huo Fenglie had only touched on it lightly before.

Although he knew that the process must have been more serious than Huo Fenglie described, he hadn’t thought it was this bad.

Liu Zhenqing had just remembered that there was something he needed to say to them, so he chased after them when they left. He didn’t expect to hear such a conversation, so he listened carefully in secret, and now his chest hurt.

After kneading it for a moment, he went out to meet them.

There was a pond outside, and dozens of weeping willows could be seen. There were also a lot of willows at the City Lord’s manor.

When Liu Zhenqing walked out, he heard them talking about the matter of the Western Shu Kingdom.

“What on earth is the king of Western Shu thinking? Why did he sneak into Nanfeng City just to meet Brother Huo?” Dai Tingyu asked in puzzlement.

“Seeing his behavior today, it was indeed consistent with Brother Liu’s analysis. He is not a very calm person, he is impatient and radical, and his heart might be loftier than the sky. He is fearless, so he wanted to try and test the God of War,” Tang Mu speculated.

As soon as they saw Liu Zhenqing arrive, the two froze. They seemed to be worried that Liu Zhenqing had overheard something he shouldn’t hear. 

Liu Zhenqing got straight to the point: “I forgot to tell you something. Since the King of Western Shu dared to come and provoke him, that proves he has the intention to attack. And according to the mentality he showcased before, he might be eager to compete with Fenglie. Although the timeframe is unknown, we must be prepared. He doesn’t have a friendly attitude toward Great Zhou, so I suggest you prepare for battle.”

“Prepare for battle?!” Dai Tingyu said in shock: “Is this really necessary?”

“The preparation should be slow,” Liu Zhenqing said. “With the goal of not alerting the enemy, carry on as usual while adjusting strategy materials, weapons, and tools. If my guess is right, we’ll be ready, and if it’s wrong, it won’t be a big loss. In any case, people should be sent to keep an eye on Western Shu’s troops and generals closest to here.”

Dai Tingyu stared at Liu Zhenqing, then nodded gravely and said: “I understand.”

Tang Mu said: “I will also do my utmost to cooperate and maintain a good appearance.”

Liu Zhenqing smiled. It was rather gratifying that these two respected his opinions. After he explained the matter, the two went about their own business. 

At this time, Qiao Jin and his guard had returned to Western Shu and met up with his entourage.

When everyone saw their master returning, they all knelt down and shouted ‘long live the King of Western Shu.’

Qiao Jin walked into the tent, and when the guard followed him inside, he finally couldn’t help but say in a fury: “You went easy on him!”

“I said I wouldn’t hurt him.” The guard removed his mask expressionlessly, revealing a face that wasn’t handsome, but was good enough looking. 

“But he hurt me! You didn’t come out to protect me right away! You don’t care about me!”

The guard looked at him with a slight frown.

Qiao Jin was enraged. “Don’t look at me like I’m making trouble for no good reason!”

“Yuan Jin…..”

Qiao Jin’s expression changed drastically. “I told you not to call me Yuan Jin. Call me Qiao Jin outside! Qiao! Like Liu Qiao!”

Liu Qiao gave the man a strange look. “What exactly are you angry about?”

Qiao Jin stepped forward and said in one breath: “I’m angry that you treated an outsider better than me when you keep saying you’ll protect me!”

“You were too close to him right then. General Huo is a master in martial arts, and there wasn’t enough time,” Liu Qiao said matter-of-factly. “Why did you go forward and provoke him?”

Qiao Jin glared at Liu Qiao. “Because I bought flowers and someone didn’t want them. Why shouldn’t I give them away?”

Liu Qiao looked at him like he couldn’t understand him. This man had tried to give the flowers to him, but he didn’t want them, as they would hinder his movements. Qiao Jin had suddenly become unhappy, and Liu Zhenqing didn’t know why. The temperament of this kind of superior was always unpredictable. His master was still better. 

“What are you thinking about! I’m talking to you!”

“I’m thinking about my master,” Liu Qiao said bluntly. Seeing Huo Fenglie had indeed reminded him of his master.

Qiao Jin almost fainted in anger. “Y-y-you! Then you ought to take action against Huo Fenglie even more! Didn’t he dig up the grave and burn the corpse? You don’t even have a grave to pay homage to.”

Liu Qiao said with a frown: “That’s not the case. He liked Master and was good to him.”

“You!” Jin Qiao laughed in anger, then said abruptly: “He liked him, but isn’t there another man with him now? And he also seems to be from the Liu family. His infatuation with your master wasn’t enough for him not to change his mind the moment he saw something different.”

Liu Qiao thought for a moment, then said: “Master also didn’t say he liked him. I don’t think there is a problem with him protecting this person like jade.”

Qiao Jin was short of breath, and could only say: “Okay, then Huo Fenglie can at best be regarded as Liu Zhenqing’s friend, right? Let me just ask, if we have a conflict, who will you help? Don’t…..don’t you forget, you and Liu Zhenqing were only together for three years, but you and I have been together for almost nine years. We’re…..we’re together.”

“You insist on having a conflict with him? What on earth do you intend to do?” Liu Qiao asked in confusion. 

Qiao Jin’s eyes suddenly darkened as he looked at Liu Qiao. Suddenly, a report came from outside the camp.

The message quickly reached Qiao Jin.

His expression changed slightly as he took a glance. Handing the report to Liu Qiao, he said with a sneer: “See, just as I thought. We’ve been forced into conflict.”

Liu Qiao took a look. His expression seemed a little complicated, but he soon recovered his calm, unperturbed appearance. “They did it without our consent. Are they trying to guard against you?”

“It’s reasonable for you to think of me. It would be like killing two birds with one stone.” After speaking, he crushed the secret message. His face was blatantly cold. “I want to see who the oriole is.” 

Three days later, the City Lord’s manor not only received an Imperial edict, but also an unexpected guest.

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[1] Reminder: The first character of Liu Zhenqing’s name (柳) is also the character for the willow tree. #fnref-1

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Chapter One Hundred Six << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Eight