Chapter 343 - 336: The Accident and the Plum Blossom Print

Chapter 343: Chapter 336: The Accident and the Plum Blossom Print

Uncharacteristically, You Ye couldn’t get to sleep that night. He played a game but still felt restless.

With a SNAP, he closed his laptop. You Ye got out of bed, moving the chairs, stools, and miscellaneous junk in his room to clear out a large open space.

He stripped off his jeans, leaving him in just his underwear, then took off his jacket, leaving on only a T-shirt.

"Hah!"

He assumed an opening stance and went through a couple of moves from memory.

You Ye wanted to practice the martial arts routine he had learned as a child, but after the opening stance, he had no idea what came next. Having not practiced for so many years, he had completely forgotten it.

’Ah, forget it. I’ll just have to learn it all over again next time.’

But ending things there felt anticlimactic. Riding this wave of enthusiasm, You Ye did several sets of squats and push-ups before finally stopping.

He spent half the night consumed by a sudden interest in Martial Arts. He was either looking up information or practicing moves himself, so busy that he ignored his friends’ calls to team up for games.

The next morning at 6:30, You Yifeng was already up.

Last night, emboldened by drink, he had poured out his troubles to the elder he so rarely saw, unburdening himself of words he had suppressed for a long time. As a result, he had slept more soundly than he had in ages.

Waking up refreshed and clear-headed, You Yifeng was in a rare good mood.

Before washing up, he saw his son’s door was tightly shut. He immediately went over to open it and wake him.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!"

"Xiaoye, wake up! We have to help Grandpa Mo find that footage today."

When there was no response, he frowned and opened the door, only to find the room empty.

"Dad, what’s all the shouting? I’ve been up for a while. Have you sobered up?"

You Yifeng was taken aback. Normally when his son was home for the holidays, he wouldn’t go to bed until one or two in the morning and wouldn’t wake up until ten or eleven. ’What’s gotten into him today?’

Of course, nothing was wrong with You Ye; he was just buzzing with an excitement that was impossible to suppress, like an elementary school kid who’d just been told about a field trip the next day.

Perhaps because of last night’s workout, his legs felt a little unsteady, though they weren’t sore yet. He knew from his childhood Martial Arts training that the soreness would likely hit the next day; it would take a long period of re-acclimation to get back into the swing of things.

As if in a gesture of reciprocity, and with perfect timing, Elder Mo showed up with two large bags of breakfast just as You Yifeng finished washing up.

There were all sorts of things: flatbreads, fried dough sticks, steamed buns, soy milk, and egg rice balls.

"I didn’t bring any green onions—the ones you grow at home are better than what you can buy. I wasn’t sure what you guys liked, so I just got a little of everything. Come on, eat up!"

The elder, acting not at all like a guest, pulled out a table and stools and laid the breakfast out on the table.

You Yifeng didn’t stand on ceremony either; judging by the previous day, all this breakfast would be eaten.

Throughout breakfast, You Ye was constantly calling out "Grandpa Mo" this and "Grandpa Mo" that, so cloyingly affectionate it gave his own father goosebumps.

As breakfast was winding down, You Ye finally pulled out his phone.

"Grandpa Mo, that flying chopstick from last night... that was your handiwork, wasn’t it?"

Only then did You Yifeng realize, with a start, that such an incident had even occurred last night. He hadn’t noticed a thing.

As he carefully watched the video on his son’s phone, his expression grew serious. Unlike his son, he had formally practiced Martial Arts. In his younger days, he too had yearned for the higher realms of Martial Arts and had put in the hard work.

’How is a feat like this—throwing a chopstick—even possible?’

’The house is made of solid brick. What kind of force would that take?’

Elder Mo saw the video. ’Well now,’ he thought. ’Young people will be young people. He not only discovered it, but he even took photos and video.’

"Hahaha, this old man just got a bit carried away. A silly display, really."

"Not silly, not silly at all! Grandpa Mo, you’re amazing! That’s more powerful than a bullet! If my grandfather were still alive, would he have been able to do that too?"

Elder Mo considered this for a moment, then nodded.

"If your grandfather hadn’t been burdened by his old war injuries, which caused his health to fail later on, he probably could have held on long enough to achieve today’s breakthrough!"

’If You Xianquan were still alive, I would have recruited my old friend into Dawn long ago. It would be only natural for him to have such abilities.’

However, the You Family father and son heard a slightly different meaning in his words.

You Yifeng, in particular, felt his face flush. The elder’s display of skill was a clear slap in the face to him—a resoundingly loud one.

...

Xisheng TV Station was in Yuan City, over two hundred kilometers from Gao City. Since they couldn’t get suitable train tickets and there was no high-speed rail between the two cities, their best option was to go by car.

You Ye used a phone app to book a rideshare, and he, his dad, and Elder Mo set off.

Before leaving, he made sure to snap a photo and post it in his group chat, cheekily captioning it: "The Quest for the Family’s Secret Manual."

The rideshare was a Buick minivan. It passed through Gao City and stopped at a plaza in the city center to wait for them.

Besides the driver, the van already held two couples and the driver’s border collie mix.

When the driver saw them approaching, he gave a deliberate honk of the horn.

The passengers made brief introductions to get acquainted. It was a journey of several hours, so conversation was inevitable.

"Sir, you have a really impressive aura."

"Yeah, like a grandmaster."

As the other passengers started chatting, Elder Mo merely smiled.

You Ye, for his part, was tempted to brag a little on the elder’s behalf, but seeing that the old man didn’t want to talk, he guided the conversation in another direction.

Two hours into the drive, the van was winding along a mountain road.

The driver was a middle-aged man who was hitting it off with You Yifeng, but then the cars up ahead suddenly began to slow.

"BEEP... BEEP..."

The sound of car horns echoed intermittently, but traffic continued to slow until, eventually, it came to a complete halt.

The driver, Uncle Zhou, got out of the car and ran ahead to the cars at the front of the jam to get some information.

"Hey, buddy, what’s going on? We’re stuck out here on the mountain, in the middle of nowhere."

The other drivers looked just as disgruntled.

"Tell me about it. I hear there was a big accident up ahead and the police are on the scene."

"Did they say when it might be cleared?"

Uncle Zhou was getting anxious. Being stuck for half the day would really screw up his schedule.

Just then, a driver came running back from further up the road, shouting as he went.

"It’s bad! It’s really bad! About a kilometer up the road, it’s not just traffic cops, the military is there! I don’t know if they’re hunting a fugitive or what, but a heavy-duty truck and a tanker truck are overturned. There are plums spilled all over the road from the truck, and the tanker is leaking fuel. We’re not getting through here anytime soon!"

"Holy shit! That bad? What happened? Was anyone hurt?"

Uncle Zhou asked, shocked.

"I couldn’t get a clear look, I just saw it from a distance. But half of that truck is smashed into the mountainside. Ugh! The driver’s probably in bad shape. An auxiliary officer waved me away, but we’re not going anywhere for at least another hour or two!"

The surrounding drivers all wore expressions of frustration mixed with sympathy.

You Ye and the others waited in the van, and after about ten or fifteen minutes, Uncle Zhou returned.

"How’s it look, Old Zhou? What’s the situation?"

Shaking his head helplessly, Uncle Zhou relayed the news he’d gathered, concluding with a summary.

"Making it to Yuan City for lunch is out of the question. Everyone should just make do with whatever snacks you have. We won’t be moving for a while. Forget the truck—cleaning up that fuel is going to take time."

Everyone in the van sighed in frustration.

Since they were stuck there anyway, the driver decided to take his dog out for a walk.

"Whimper... whimper..."

The border collie whimpered softly. The normally energetic dog was now refusing to leave the van.

Elder Mo’s brow furrowed. Animals had the sharpest instincts. Sometimes, an animal with a keen Spirit could sense things that even an Evolver’s Perception might miss.

...

A kilometer and a half ahead, two heavy vehicles lay overturned on the side of the road. The gash in the tanker had been temporarily plugged, and a newly-dispatched tanker was offloading the remaining fuel. A small suction vehicle used a special disc to soak up the spill from the asphalt, while behind it, firefighters wearing full gear sprayed a chemical agent to break down the oil.

The tanker driver had been sent for medical treatment, but the driver of the other truck was nowhere to be found. Ominously, several large claw marks were discovered on the truck’s door.

In addition to traffic police and firefighters, there were indeed soldiers on scene—and a significant number of them. Not only were they all armed, but they were carrying live ammunition.

Some of them had already dispersed into the surrounding mountains in squad-sized units.

Several people in special uniforms, along with a few military Officers and police, stood together on the mountainside next to the wrecked truck.

One of the agents placed his hand over a peculiar footprint on the slope.

It was a paw print, belonging to a large feline.

He compared it to his hand; the print was nearly the same size as his palm.

"A footprint this big... could it be from a large tiger?"

A forest ranger looked down at the print and thought for a moment.

"There shouldn’t be any wild tigers in the Taihang Region. It might be a leopard, but this footprint is absurdly large!"

Several nearby Officers looked grim. This area was under their jurisdiction; they couldn’t escape responsibility if something had happened on their watch.

Seeing their expressions, the agent offered a word of comfort.

"Manpower is tight right now. It’s already difficult enough for you to control a hundred-kilometer area with just a regiment, and that’s mostly for surveillance. Your superiors aren’t likely to come down too hard on you. The important thing is to find the ’culprit’!"

In areas off-limits to tourists, they had set up "deterrent nets"—brightly colored, obviously artificial barriers that were regularly sprayed with scent markers to warn wildlife away.

Most wild animals actively avoid any trace of humans, but this one was clearly an exception.

Of course, the agents from the Special Security Team did not rule out the possibility that this was a mutated monster from the Otherworld.