Chapter 114

“Runsheng, eat and take a break.”

“Okay.”

Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng sat down together on a long strip of rock. Runsheng opened his hiking pack, took out food and water, and set them in front of them. Then he waved at the fool ahead of them and shouted:

“Come eat!”

The fool turned around and, grinning foolishly, copied a little swallow, darting left and right before finally “nesting” in front of Li Zhuiyuan and sitting down.

The whole way here, the fool had been happy and excited, constantly singing and dancing without seeming tired in the slightest.

Runsheng lit a “cigar,” then took out some compressed biscuits and ate them with great relish.

The fool watched him eat with intense curiosity and even started drooling.

Runsheng handed the cigar to him and asked, “Want a puff?”

The fool took it and copied Runsheng’s example, except he bit into the unlit end. After chewing twice, his face twisted in misery and the grin disappeared.

“Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey.”

He spat frantically and gagged at the same time.

Runsheng handed him a bottle of water. The fool took it, drank a mouthful, tilted his head back, and started rinsing his mouth—then forgot to spit it out and swallowed it instead.

That made his expression even more agonized.

Still, he had his own solution. He pulled some candy from his pocket, unwrapped two pieces, popped them into his mouth, and his sweet smile returned at once.

Runsheng suddenly sighed with emotion and asked, “Xiao Yuan, if my grandpa hadn’t picked me up back then, would I have ended up like him too, becoming a village guardian?”

In truth, Li Zhuiyuan had long suspected the truth about Runsheng’s origins. But for one thing, Grandpa Shan had clearly intended to take that secret to the grave. For another, Li Zhuiyuan felt that digging into the truth of it would be like studying chess just so he could beat Ah Li at a game—completely meaningless.

“Runsheng, you wouldn’t become a village guardian.” Li Zhuiyuan took a sip of water. “You’d become the top dog of your village.”

“Ah…” Hearing that, Runsheng scratched his head awkwardly.

The fool saw this and immediately copied him, scratching the bird’s-nest mess on top of his own head.

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes and began to doze. It was already afternoon. By his estimate, after another stretch of walking, they would be close to Zhengmen Village. It was, after all, a village under Min’an Town’s administration. However far the ruins were, it could not be outrageously far.

Runsheng, meanwhile, focused on eating. He knew this rest stop was time Xiao Yuan had deliberately left for him to refuel, so he needed to fill his stomach as quickly as possible.

Seeing Runsheng eat so much and so fast, the fool seemed to take it as a competition and started stuffing food into his own mouth nonstop.

In the end, Runsheng ate his fill, and the fool ate until his belly was round as a drum, sitting on the ground too stuffed to move.

But the moment he saw Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng pack up and stand, he scrambled to his feet as well and continued leading the way, though this time he no longer bounced and skipped.

They kept moving. A mountain fog appeared ahead, and the fool led the two of them into it.

Runsheng noticed that the fool seemed to be circling around inside the fog rather than walking in a straight line, but since Xiao Yuan said nothing, he did not ask.

As they walked, the sound of running water came from ahead. Although visibility was poor, they could still make out a river stretching across their path.

The fool stepped into the river. It was not very deep, only reaching his chest.

Runsheng crouched down and hoisted Li Zhuiyuan onto his back, then lifted both their packs over his head and followed the fool across.

But as he waded on, Runsheng noticed that the fool ahead had dipped his head into the river, his body tipping forward as he floated there motionless like a drifting corpse.

Runsheng stopped. Li Zhuiyuan’s voice came from beside his ear:

“Leave him alone. Keep moving.”

Runsheng kept moving.

The river was not very wide, and they soon reached the bank. The fog was also less dense here. Standing onshore and looking back toward the river, they could see the fool’s floating figure appearing and disappearing in the mist.

In another direction lay a river valley, and from there came what sounded like chickens crowing and dogs barking.

That should be Zhengmen Village.

But Li Zhuiyuan showed no intention of scouting it out in advance. Instead, he turned to Runsheng and said:

“Runsheng, take out the sleeping bag.”

“Okay.”

Runsheng pulled out a sleeping bag and spread it on the ground. Li Zhuiyuan climbed inside and closed his eyes.

But just as Runsheng needed to stay full, Li Zhuiyuan needed to seize every possible moment to recover as much energy as he could.

Runsheng sat down beside Li Zhuiyuan with the Yellow River Spade laid across his knees. In front of him were candies, incense, and compressed biscuits. While constantly scanning their surroundings, he kept putting bits of food into his mouth.

As for the fool, he just kept floating in the river without moving at all.

Gradually, the sky darkened. Runsheng saw vague flickering lights swaying above the river valley. They were not electric lights—more like bonfires.

Splash… splash…

A disturbance came from the river.

Gripping the Yellow River Spade, Runsheng stood up and softly called, “Xiao Yuan.”

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes from sleep, rolled over inside the sleeping bag, and looked toward the river. Not only did he not hurry to get up, he actually closed his eyes again.

The fog had not dispersed with the coming of night. Instead, on top of the darkness, it seemed to lay down another thick veil.

The sound of splashing drew closer and closer. Runsheng shone his flashlight toward it.

Suddenly, he saw the fool, who had been floating there motionless for ages, vanish into the fog.

Then the fool emerged again. He was still floating, but this time there were two people and a bag behind him.

Runsheng recognized one of them. It was Tan Wenbin.

Li Zhuiyuan blinked and climbed out of the sleeping bag. “Runsheng, go bring them in.”

“Xiao Yuan, be careful onshore.”

Runsheng stepped into the river, biting the flashlight strap between his teeth. When he reached midstream, he saw that the fool who had been towing the two people along was slowly sinking under the water.

Runsheng instinctively wanted to pull him, but then Xiao Yuan’s earlier words rang in his head: “Leave him alone.”

Pressing his lips together, Runsheng dragged Tan Wenbin, the woman, and the hiking pack over to himself and brought them back to this bank.

Li Zhuiyuan first walked over and crouched beside Tan Wenbin. Tan Wenbin was still unconscious. The veins all over his body bulged prominently, and there were burn marks in many places as well. His face, once handsome and roguishly carefree, now looked twisted and savage.

Li Zhuiyuan flipped open Tan Wenbin’s eyelids and checked several other details.

“Xiao Yuan, Binbin, he…”

“The evil qi has penetrated too deeply. I need to draw out the poison. Get me the gray jar from the bag.”

Runsheng immediately took out the jar, twisted off the lid, and handed it to the boy.

Inside the jar was incense ash, the kind sold in temples. Li Zhuiyuan had also mixed in quite a bit of Ah Li’s discarded crafting material—namely the Qin family ancestral tablets. That was top-grade Thunderstrike Wood.

He grabbed a handful of incense ash, smeared it over his hands, and began massaging Tan Wenbin.

Very quickly, dark purplish-black patches surfaced all over Tan Wenbin’s body. Everywhere the incense ash touched turned the same color.

Back when Li Zhuiyuan had been afflicted by Little Oriole, Blind Liu had used this very method to pull the poison and malign influence from his body.

As he kept adding incense ash and massaging, the blackish-purple color gradually seeped out through the skin, forming dense beadlike droplets of blood. In many places, it even started bubbling.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up, let out a breath, and said to Runsheng, “Runsheng, wherever it’s bubbling, focus your pressure there and keep massaging.”

“Got it.”

Runsheng took Li Zhuiyuan’s place. His hands were stronger and broader, and before long, little jets of blood were spurting from Tan Wenbin’s body.

Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, walked over to Zeng Yinyin. The woman’s head had already been bandaged, and she still appeared to be unconscious.

“You’re awake. Stop pretending.”

Zeng Yinyin did not move.

Li Zhuiyuan ignored her after that. Her hands and feet were all tied up using the corpse retriever’s method for binding a dead sinker. There was no point in faking unconsciousness, because there was no way she could break free from those knots anyway.

Over there, while still squeezing blood out, Runsheng asked, “Xiao Yuan, who is she?”

“No idea. Either surnamed Zheng or Zeng. Binbin did even better this time than I expected.”

“Xiao Yuan, Binbin looks like he’s about to wake up.”

Li Zhuiyuan looked over. The thick blackish-purple color on Tan Wenbin’s body had vanished, and his breathing had grown steady and strong.

However, blood had begun flowing from the back of Tan Wenbin’s neck, gradually soaking the ground beneath him red.

Runsheng turned Tan Wenbin over. There was a wound there, both old and fresh at the same time. Just as Runsheng was about to bandage it, Li Zhuiyuan said:

“No rush, Runsheng. Yin Meng… they’re here.”

He had already done what he could, but the more meticulous cleanup still had to be handled by Yin Meng.

Runsheng got to his feet. “I’ll go meet them.”

“No need. They’re walking over themselves.” The thick fog could obscure sight, but not hearing.

The fool’s figure appeared again, face-down and motionless in the water.

As Yin Meng and Zheng Jiayi were about to move over to help him, they heard a voice from the shore:

“Don’t mind him. Come over here.”

Yin Meng immediately grabbed Zheng Jiayi’s hand and waded ashore.

The moment they stepped onto land, Li Zhuiyuan saw the fool who had been floating there slowly straighten upright.

He tilted his head and, from within the water, looked at Li Zhuiyuan on the shore.

Though fog lay between them, both could keenly sense the other.

The fool raised both hands and waved. At this moment, he seemed very quiet.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand and waved back too.

The fool had led them here. Now he was going back.

Li Zhuiyuan did not ask him to stay, nor did he hope the fool would accompany the three of them into Zhengmen Village. He had already done more than enough.

Everyone had their own specialty. What came next depended on their side.

Once everything here was resolved, when they headed back, they could stay in Min’an Town another couple of days. Then he could have a proper talk with the fool again.

By then, maybe he would no longer be foolish. Or maybe he would be even more foolish.

It was only because building shrines and temples was no longer in fashion now. In fact, many of the little local shrines found across the country had originally been established for people like the fool—those with spiritual sensitivity.

“Brother Xiao Yuan.” Yin Meng pulled Zheng Jiayi over in front of Li Zhuiyuan, waiting to be scolded.

“Brother Xiao Yuan…?” Zheng Jiayi smiled. She thought the boy was really, really handsome and suddenly had the urge to hug him and squish his face.

Li Zhuiyuan asked Zheng Jiayi, “What’s your surname?”

“My surname’s Zheng. My name is Zheng Jiayi. Ah, Xiao Yuan, don’t tell me your surname is Li and your name is Li Zhuiyuan?”

“That’s me.” Then the woman Binbin had brought, the one still pretending to be unconscious, should be surnamed Zeng.

“Aha! I’ve heard our Pangpang mention you before. Provincial top scorer, child prodigy and all!”

From just that brief exchange, Li Zhuiyuan confirmed that Zheng Jiayi was the kind of person who was innocent, bright, and in love with life. She was like a little sun, someone who could sincerely give emotional warmth to the people around her.

“Brother Xiao Yuan, I’ll make her—”

Yin Meng had not even finished speaking before Li Zhuiyuan cut her off. He showed her a faint smile. It was strained and brief, but it was already the best he could manage.

“Mengmeng, you did very well this time.”

For a moment, Yin Meng thought water must have gotten into her ears while crossing the river and made her hear things.

“Brother Xiao Yuan?”

“Binbin got hit with malignant poison. I already gave him a rough cleaning. Go do the finishing work and try to get him back around faster.”

“Okay, I’m going right now.”

Li Zhuiyuan beckoned to Zheng Jiayi, signaling for her to come with him.

He had come himself carrying Xue Liangliang’s blood, but he had not placed much hope on his other two companions.

First, they each had their own particular situations to deal with. Second, they might not even have had any way of obtaining that information at all.

But they had brought him a pleasant surprise.

The big fish’s goal was to wipe out the three surnamed families and sever the blood bowls of those three lines. On his side, the necessary conditions had now effectively been gathered once more. With the help of the original sealing system, he could reinforce the seal on the dead sinker inside Zhengmen Village.

What Li Zhuiyuan actually wanted was to suppress and kill it completely, but he certainly would not reject a guaranteed fallback handed right to him.

Li Zhuiyuan took out his tools from the bag and said, “I need to draw a little of your blood.”

Zheng Jiayi did not understand, but she still held out her hand. “Here, Xiao Yuan… Brother.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded and began drawing blood.

Zheng Jiayi was very obedient.

But Li Zhuiyuan could not help suspecting whether Zheng Jiayi’s obedience had been influenced by something.

For instance, in the past, when his great-grandfather encountered danger, his fortune would affect him and make him become inexplicably muddleheaded.

As the river pushed the dead sinker toward him, were those blossoming waves merely natural, or were they deliberately embellishing the scene?

Three lines led directly here.

There was no need to say anything about Xue Liangliang’s line. If Brother Liangliang spoke up or got into trouble, Li Zhuiyuan would never ignore it.

But Tan Wenbin had carried Runsheng or Lin Shuyou to the infirmary time and again, and every single time Doctor Fan performed surgery. Tan Wenbin’s glib tongue had certainly played a big role in that, but had there also been a little push from the river?

Dazed and muddleheaded, wanting to refuse but somehow accepting anyway, and only afterward, when thinking back on it, feeling that the whole thing had been absurd.

As for Zheng Jiayi, because Wu Pangpang’s image was so distinctive, Li Zhuiyuan had long ago predicted that she would be the key trigger point on this line.

So then, was her tact, enthusiasm, and sweet obedience now also being amplified by the river?

Fate is a pair of invisible hands. Many people have had the same question at some point: if, when crossing the street today, they had delayed a few extra seconds, or yawned one more time, would their life’s path have shifted into a chain reaction because of it?

Perhaps even each sudden sneeze you have may be tugging on the will of heaven.

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