Chapter 177

When the tea gathering ended, they walked out of the hotel.

Xue Liangliang sat down by the flower bed, took out his cigarette case, and handed one to Tan Wenbin.

After taking it, Tan Wenbin pulled out his lighter and lit Xue Liangliang’s first, then said with a smile,

“Congratulations, Brother Liangliang.”

Xue Liangliang let out a sigh and exhaled a ring of smoke.

From the moment a major project is announced to the day it actually begins construction, there is often a long gap in between.

When a sealed project that once ran into trouble is restarted, it takes even more time and effort than starting from scratch. On top of that, Project 572 had already been sealed off twice in its history, and each time had involved serious and bizarre accidents.

So the preparation time needed before work could begin again would only be even longer.

The part Luo Gong was responsible for was just like during the Gaoyou Lake dragon-sucking-water incident before: leading a team to provide technical support in their field of expertise.

The teams responsible for the other parts also needed time to prepare and get organized.

By Luo Gong’s estimate, it would take at least another year.

As one of the preselected people slated to take charge of part of the project, Luo Gong had only received two pieces of information so far.

First, notice that the project was being restarted.

Second, orders to begin assembling the project team in advance.

Special projects had extremely high secrecy requirements, but that did not mean everyone involved had to be cut off from the world.

The top-tier leaders who could access the project core naturally had their own special standards to meet. But the people below them, the ones responsible for the large volume of specific subdivided work, did not face such harsh restrictions. In fact, the atmosphere for them could seem fairly relaxed.

After all, as long as duties were divided finely enough, even frontline participants in the project would still be like people standing inside the mountain, unable to see the true shape of Mount Lu.

The new team was required to be recruited from universities.

First, gathering people who had already entered the workforce, training them, and putting them on standby was neither realistic nor cost-effective, and the impact would be hard to control.

Second, considering talent cultivation and long-term development, rather than calling the old hands back together, it was better to start building the next generation directly.

The reason Tan Wenbin was congratulating Xue Liangliang was simple: Luo Gong had handed the job of building the new team to him.

It was like a young soldier longing for war in order to win merit.

Because in a special period, the path to promotion became much wider.

For the past two years, Xue Liangliang had been grinding out his seniority. Even though things had been going smoothly for him, he still had to go through the usual process.

Now that process had been drastically shortened, and he had been given a chance to leap ahead in a single step.

Of course, that only worked if your ability was solid enough to withstand the test. Otherwise, you would be unworthy of the position and take a very ugly fall.

At that moment, Xue Liangliang did not really feel joy or excitement over receiving such a valuable opportunity, nor was he especially nervous or uneasy.

He only knew that once he took on this new work, the frequency of his “going home” would have to drop sharply.

Before, he had been running around from one project site to another. It looked exhausting, but the work came in stages, so he still had plenty of chances to go back to Nantong.

But once this new job officially began, screening, evaluation, training, internships, field tempering, and all the rest would require his personal involvement.

A person with no sense of responsibility could take it easy. But if you did have a sense of responsibility, that almost meant an endless amount of work for the foreseeable future.

Because your time no longer belonged only to you. If you still wanted to seize chances to return to Nantong, you would have to bear the guilt that came with it.

“Brother Liangliang, this is a good thing. I’m sure your wife will support you too.”

Tan Wenbin patted Xue Liangliang on the shoulder. He knew what he was saying was meaningless nonsense, but at a moment like this, nonsense was about all he could offer.

Xue Liangliang nodded. “I’m heading back to Jinling. The team is tentatively set at thirty people. If it were just three, that’d be perfect.”

Three people—exactly the three in front of him: Little Yuan, Binbin, and Lin Shuyou.

Xue Liangliang believed that in all of Haihe University, there were no students more skilled than those three.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “If there’s anything you need help with, just say the word.”

Xue Liangliang smiled. “Of course. When have I ever been polite with you?”

With that, he waved, walked to the roadside, and got into the taxi that had been waiting there for passengers.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that before leaving Nantong, Brother Liangliang was probably going to jump into the river one more time.

For a very long time to come, Xue Liangliang would not be coming back here.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Let’s head back too.”

Lin Shuyou flagged down another taxi by the roadside.

On the way back, Li Zhuiyuan once again began calculating time in his head, but this time it was not the time it would take to get home.

Beneath the underground palace, he had once obtained a rotting bamboo slip from the masked man.

After it was technically restored and deciphered with the help of the old professors in the residential compound in Beijing, he had gotten nine major coordinates.

Those nine coordinates were scattered across different places:

the white mountains and black waters, the colorful south of the clouds, the northern grasslands beyond the frontier, the vast desert, the hundred-thousand great mountains, the lake of a thousand islands, the Tianfu Basin, the plateau glaciers, and the last one, out in the sea.

Of those, Li Zhuiyuan already had concrete guesses about three.

The Tianfu Basin most likely referred to Fengdu Ghost City.

The white mountains and black waters most likely referred to the Goguryeo tomb in Ji’an.

The coordinate in the sea was probably where that giant sea turtle was.

When he had first obtained these nine coordinates, Li Zhuiyuan had thought they were all very far away from him.

But when Luo Gong had announced in front of him that the 572 civil defense project was going to restart, the boy suddenly realized that what was coming… was bound to arrive in the end.

He did not know whether he would have to visit all nine secret realms himself, but of the three currently known, all of them already had a direct connection to him.

So it turned out that from very early on, the river had already set him the final, ultimate exam question.

What was this called again… a nine-province mock exam.

After arriving home, Li Zhuiyuan did not hurry back to Taigong’s house. Instead, after letting Binbin and Ah You know, he went alone toward Uncle Beard’s house.

On the packed-earth yard there, Xiao Yingying was making paper effigies.

When she saw the boy coming, she first looked up. Seeing that he was not walking onto the yard itself, she lowered her head and went back to work.

Li Zhuiyuan headed straight for the peach grove.

Deep in the grove was a small ring of fencing. Inside it, the ground was covered with peach blossoms, and Benben was lying there, happily playing by himself.

When Benben saw Li Zhuiyuan, he let out a delighted little cackling laugh.

Li Zhuiyuan picked a peach tree nearby and sat down with his back against it.

He sat there like that until near dusk.

During that time, two unusual whirlwinds rose in the peach grove. Li Zhuiyuan noticed them, but he did not walk the shade.

After stretching lazily, Li Zhuiyuan stood up, walked out of the grove, and headed home.

A stronger wind rose in the peach grove, carrying with it a whistling sound.

Xiao Yingying put down the paper effigies, stepped off the yard, entered the grove, and picked up Benben.

Benben reached out his hands, trying to grab the wildly swirling peach blossoms in front of him. A child did not know fear. No matter what he encountered, he found it interesting.

But Xiao Yingying knew that one was very angry right now.

She did not know why it was angry. Had it talked with that boy about something?

What Xiao Yingying did not know was that it was angry because the boy had not talked to it at all. He had simply treated the place as nothing more than a peach grove where he could calm his mind.

…

“Woof! Woof, woof!”

Xiaohei barked furiously at Runsheng.

Back at the university, Xiaohei had always slept in the same room as Runsheng, and Runsheng had been the one who fed him every day. Their relationship, man and dog, had been extremely close.

But ever since they came back from Guizhou, whenever Runsheng tried to feed him, the moment he got close, Xiaohei would spring to his feet and drive him off with obvious hostility.

In the past, that would have been nearly unimaginable.

It was not just a sign of the bond between man and dog breaking down. Xiaohei had always been lazy to the point that, in Li Sanjiang’s words, if you used that dog to guard the house, and a thief came in and emptied the place out, he would only blame the thief for making too much noise and disturbing his sleep.

Since he was little, Xiaohei had barked only rarely. At first they had even thought he was a mute dog that could not bark at all.

“All right, move aside. I’ll feed him.”

Hearing the commotion, Yin Meng came out, took the bowl of broth from Runsheng, and placed the medicinal porridge in front of Xiaohei.

Xiaohei stopped barking, lowered his head, and began eating the tonics.

But even while eating, he kept a wary eye on Runsheng, afraid he might come closer.

Yin Meng said, “You ate that Gu child. Your aura is mixed now. He’s scared of you.”

Runsheng said, “He’s not scared of me.”

Yin Meng asked, “Then what is it?”

Runsheng replied, “He thinks someone else has taken over my body.”

“What’s the difference?”

“There is a difference. He’s thinking about me.”

Runsheng stepped closer again. Xiaohei stopped drinking the tonic and began barking wildly at him once more.

This time, Runsheng did not retreat like he had the past few days. Instead, he suddenly accelerated and reached Xiaohei in an instant.

“Woof!”

Xiaohei lunged at him, mouth open, trying to bite.

A five-black dog was already a creature brimming with yang energy to begin with, and on top of that, this dog had been raised on tonics since puppyhood. Even if he usually looked lazy, the ferocity in his bones was impossible to ignore.

Runsheng raised an arm in front of himself, and Xiaohei bit down on his wrist. Once he latched on, he refused to let go, even as his whole body was lifted into the air by Runsheng.

But instead of shaking him off, Runsheng crouched down, ignoring the pain of the bite, and settled Xiaohei onto his knee.

A low growl still rumbled in Xiaohei’s throat. Blood flowed from the wound on Runsheng’s wrist, staining Xiaohei’s white teeth red.

Runsheng lifted his other hand and gently stroked Xiaohei’s head.

Yin Meng asked worriedly, “When are you finally going to digest that thing completely?”

Runsheng shook his head. “If I digest it completely, then wouldn’t I have eaten it for nothing?”

Yin Meng pointed at him. “You’re keeping it on purpose?”

Runsheng did not answer, which was answer enough.

“Runsheng, do you even know how dangerous it is to keep something like that inside your body?”

“I only know that because of it, I’ll become even more dangerous too.”

“All of you people… every last one of you is crazy.”

She was including Tan Wenbin and Lin Shuyou in that judgment too.

Tan Wenbin was still gloomy and heavy even now, yet still unwilling to let Brother Yuan help tune him up.

As for Lin Shuyou, he spent all day thinking about how to overdraw and squeeze the potential from his body so that he could extend the duration of White Crane Child’s descent.

Wave after wave, they had all started caring less and less about their own bodies. It was as if they all felt their lives had been picked up off the ground anyway, and once you had picked them back up too many times, you stopped treasuring them quite so much.

Runsheng looked at Yin Meng without speaking.

Truthfully, out of everyone here, the one most like a madman was probably her.

Yin Meng crouched down beside him and opened her palm. That Gu insect crawled out at once, like some on-call toy, and she idly rolled it around in her hand like a walnut.

“Say, should I give it a name too?”

Runsheng said, “No need.”

“Why not?”

“If it doesn’t have a name, it won’t hurt as much when it dies.”

Yin Meng froze for a moment. Not only was she not angry, she even nodded in deep agreement.

“That makes sense.”

The Gu insect in her palm suddenly crawled faster.

Time passed slowly.

Xiaohei bit for a long time, and Runsheng stroked him for just as long.

Gradually, the anger in Xiaohei’s eyes faded, and little by little he loosened his jaw. Then he stuck out his tongue and licked the wound on Runsheng’s wrist that he himself had made.

He had confirmed it now. The man in front of him had not had his body taken away.

Runsheng picked up the half bowl of tonic Xiaohei had left earlier and held it in front of him. Xiaohei drank it all, then, unusually, even licked the bowl.

Normally, when he was pampered with good food and good drink every day, he would never have done such a thing.

Runsheng pointed toward the doghouse.

Xiaohei turned around, walked in, lay down, and began to sleep.

He had barked so many times today and even bitten someone. For him, that counted as a once-in-a-lifetime major exertion. He needed proper rest to recover his vitality.

Yin Meng said, “Let me help treat your wound.”

“No need. Xiaohei’s clean. I’ll just rinse it with well water.”

Runsheng went to the well, drew some water, and washed the wound.

Once the red blood on the surface had been washed away, the deep grooves of the bite could be seen, and inside them was a scorched black color.

That was caused by the clash between the constitution of the five-black dog and the aura inside his body. In other words, the evil aura within him was now very heavy.

Runsheng took out a talisman Little Yuan had drawn, stuck it over the wound, and though the talisman paper did not turn completely black, it did turn gray.

His fingertips brushed over the wound, and Runsheng let out a sigh.

Looks like he still had to trouble Little Yuan after all.

He had never cared whether he was some kind of freak. Back when he was little, because of his habit of eating incense, he had been called a freak so often by the other children in the village that he had long since gotten used to it.

What he did care about was this: if the aura on him became too strong, it might cause misunderstandings and affect Little Yuan’s next river walk.

Just then, Li Zhuiyuan came back from Uncle Beard’s house.

“Little Yuan.”

“Brother Runsheng?”

Runsheng raised his bitten wrist. Li Zhuiyuan took one look and smiled.

“Brother Runsheng, go wait for me in the workshop.”

“All right.”

Runsheng headed behind the house.

Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, was about to go upstairs when he ran into Yin Meng on the way.

“Brother Yuan, Runsheng, he…”

“It’s fine. I have a way.”

Yin Meng nodded. “That’s good, that’s good. I was worried to death.”

“Oh, right. Where are Binbin and Ah You?”

“The two of them got called by Li Daye this afternoon to help clear up tables and chairs.”

Li Zhuiyuan suddenly felt that he should have brought the two of them along to sit in the peach grove earlier. If he had, then the moment they got home they would not have been roped in by his great-grandpa to grind away at work.

Truthfully, Li Zhuiyuan understood what his companions were thinking.

In the beginning, their growth paths had all been designed personally by him.

But now, they had developed initiative of their own.

Though sometimes even Li Zhuiyuan felt the things they were doing were dangerous, he had no real way to stop them.

No one wanted to be dead weight on the team. They all wanted to play a greater role during the river walk.

And besides team interests, there was also the matter of their own personal growth.

They were people, not tools in his eyes. Sometimes what he thought was best was actually not what suited them best.

He went up to the second floor and entered his room. Ah Li was inside painting.

That painting was already finished with Lin Shuyou and Yin Meng’s parts, and she was currently working on Tan Wenbin’s section.

Li Zhuiyuan glanced at the half memorial tablet still left in the room.

That was not enough.

Ah Li put down her brush and prepared to head out. She had understood what the boy meant.

The tacit understanding between them had long since reached the point where words were unnecessary and a glance was enough. Well, Ah Li could not speak anyway.

Still, even though everyone was already used to Ah Li using memorial tablets as materials, Li Zhuiyuan still felt too embarrassed to send her off to do it with just a look.

This time it was something he directly needed himself. Since that was only right, he had to speak with his own mouth.

A person could pretend not to understand while fully understanding, but could not knowingly pretend confusion on purpose.

He took Ah Li’s hand, led her downstairs, and entered the east room.

Liu Yumei was inside, holding a brush and designing clothing. One drawing beside her was of Ah Li, while the one she was currently working on was men’s clothing for the boy.

Aunt Liu had just come in from the storeroom carrying memorial tablets and was restocking the ancestors who were low on inventory.

Just then, two young customers entered the shop.

Liu Yumei looked a little surprised. “What’s this?”

Li Zhuiyuan said to her, “Granny Liu.”

Then the boy’s eyes shifted toward the memorial tablets on the offering table.

Though this restocking had come a little urgently, Liu Yumei was already used to it by now. She just waved a hand, indicating that he could help himself.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the offering table and bowed to the memorial tablets on it.

“This junior’s attendant, Runsheng, has run into some trouble. I need to make wooden nails to suppress it. I ask for the help of all you seniors.”

He kept his voice extremely low as he said this.

The moment the boy began to speak, a warning suddenly rose in Liu Yumei’s heart, and she immediately shut off her own perception.

Aunt Liu, on the other hand, had been standing nearby, thinking she would enjoy watching the two children choose. But the instant she heard those words, sweetness rose in her throat.

It was the first time in her life that eating sunflower seeds had ended with her coughing up blood.

Aunt Liu’s reaction left even Li Zhuiyuan puzzled.

Aunt Liu hurriedly waved her hand to indicate she was fine.

Once the boy had finished speaking, Ah Li began flipping through her ancestors’ plaques.

She knew that Runsheng had sixteen Qi Gates, so he needed sixteen large wooden nails.

But memorial tablets had a fixed shape after all—the base was thick, the upper part narrow.

In the past, using them to plane out curled wood shavings had already been the most efficient use possible.

But this time, one memorial tablet could only make one large wooden nail, and the rest would all be scrap. So Ah Li selected sixteen memorial tablets.

She could not carry them all by herself, so Li Zhuiyuan took them from the side.

Back when he used to accompany the girl during meals, Li Zhuiyuan had already noticed that she had always had obsessive tendencies. That was why every time she picked memorial tablets, she always chose the old ones first.

In a sense, that was fairness too. No ancestor would receive special “abuse,” and no ancestor would receive any special favor from the girl either.

After the two of them walked out carrying the memorial tablets, Liu Yumei looked at the now-sparse row of ancestral tablets, her eyes thoughtful.

Aunt Liu pulled out a handkerchief and spat the blood from her mouth into it. She could hardly believe it.

“Mistress, why is this happening?”

Liu Yumei said, “I don’t know the reason either. The karmic taboo on this child has suddenly become much heavier—so heavy that even I feel wary of it.”

Aunt Liu said, “Ah Li was never like this before.”

Outside, Uncle Qin had just returned from delivering paper effigies. As was his usual habit, he came to the east room to make a report.

But the moment he reached the doorway and heard that sentence, he immediately thought about withdrawing and going to the fields to see if there was any work to do.

Unfortunately, he could not just spring away on the spot. Moving at the speed of an ordinary person, he would definitely be slower than sound.

Liu Yumei said, “Ah Li’s river walk is not something that can serve as a reference.”

It did not feel nearly as painful as he had imagined. Uncle Qin felt he had grown used to it. He picked up a hoe.

Aunt Liu said, “Then…”

Liu Yumei said, “I have seen people who succeeded in the river walk before, but even during their process, they never showed signs this early like Little Yuan does.

“Our Little Yuan is truly too special. It’s as though he has received more of the river’s…”

Liu Yumei wanted to say “care,” but no matter how she tried, she simply could not bring herself to use that word.

What care was there in any of this?

But if she were to start speaking ill of the river now, that did not feel appropriate either.

Liu Yumei looked at Aunt Liu and asked, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Mm.” Liu Yumei once again turned her gaze to the ancestral memorial tablets and smiled. “By the way, when ordering memorial tablets in the future, get more rare materials of every kind.”

“Mistress, you mean?”

When it came to ancestral memorial tablets, Aunt Liu did not dare improvise.

“I mean that within a single full set of memorial tablets, there can be all kinds of different materials. Don’t limit it to premium Thunderstrike Wood.”

“I understand.”

“And also, the designs can be made more varied.”

“Designs?”