Fu Sang was sick again.
This time, he developed a high fever in the middle of the night. Whether it was trying to comfort him or torment him, while he was sleeping in a fever, his brain played many fragmented dreams for him.
In the dreams, it was sometimes hot and sometimes cold, as if one moment he were under the stifling sunlight of midsummer, and the next he was in an ice-cold lake in the depths of winter.
……
“Look at his eyes, they’re so weird. They’re different colors on each side. So ugly. What an ugly freak! Yo, yo, yo, he’s glaring at me too. How scary!”
“I know. He’s Uncle-Master Lin’s disciple! He was picked up! He’s not a member of our Zhuge family! That’s why he’s so strange!”
“Ugh…what a dirty outsider. Freak, freak!!”
……
“He came from Monan. The entire town was slaughtered by bandits, and he was the only one left alive. I heard he spent more than half a month with a town full of corpses before someone took him out. That’s so scary!”
“He could still survive that? What did he eat and drink? Is he even still a living person?”
“I don’t know. Could it be that he ate corpses or something…? So disgusting. Look at how creepy he is…”
“Stop talking. He’s glaring at you… What a freak!”
……
“Haha… You’re not even one of our family’s people, so what gives you the right to have the surname Zhuge? Hurry up and wash yourself clean in the lake. Get some of the Zhuge family’s scent on you! Maybe then we’ll acknowledge you?”
“Yeah, yeah! Poke him like that. Don’t let him come up! Let him soak for a while longer! Ahahaha…”
……
“He killed so many people in one night. The corpses are spread all over the mountains and plains. This is really… He killed them today, but tomorrow… could it be us? As the old saying goes, ‘Those who are not of my clan will have different hearts.’ We still need to be more careful.”
“Shh, keep your voice down. He’s coming…”
……
“What can you do… Kill me?! Kill me then!!”
In the darkness, Fu Sang suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed someone by the collar.
He pressed his forehead against that person’s shoulder, trembling and breathing heavily, as if he were furious:
“That’s right, General Qi. That’s exactly the kind of person I am…”
The person’s body stiffened. He did not respond to his words, only hesitantly and tentatively stroked his shoulder and back as if to comfort him.
“I want, I want…”
Fu Sang frowned in pain and instinctively buried his face in the crook of the person’s neck. For a long while, he could not get out a complete sentence.
“Fu Sang, what do you want?” the person asked softly, following his lead.
“I want… him to… pay the price…”
……
“Don’t be like this, Zhuge Fusang, don’t be like this. It isn’t worth it!” Someone was crying, haphazardly ruining the formation he had drawn with blood before rushing over and covering the knife wound in his abdomen, where blood kept pouring out:
“Please live well, I’m begging you. Let’s forget it. If you really hate him, then wait. In the future, there will always be… I’m begging you, please live well, okay?…”
……
Fu Sang kept his eyes tightly closed, pressed against the icy temperature of that person’s body, and gritted his teeth as he spoke, not knowing who he was saying it to:
“Shut up… I only want him dead…”
……
“Stop arguing. Forget it, Ah Li. It’s not worth it. Just live well…”
The scorching airflow breathed out by the flames struck his face. The familiar figure was right before his eyes, yet in the next instant, it was covered in blood.
An immense agony clenched his soul, and the person in the dream instinctively shut his eyes tightly.
……
“Ahhhhh…!!!”
Fu Sang covered his left eye and pushed away the person in front of him before collapsing onto the bed as if all his strength had left him.
Both his arms were covered in knife wounds that had not completely healed. His movements caused traces of blood to seep out again.
A slightly cool touch grasped his wrist and pulled his hand away, checking his left eye, which seemed to be suffering tremendous pain.
“It’s okay, Fu Sang. Look at me. Open your eyes…”
The slightly cool temperature of the person’s fingertips made the knife-cutting, burning pain in his left eye ease considerably. Fu Sang’s hair was even trembling as he tried his best to take large, deep breaths. He suddenly opened his eyes, the color of his left eye so intense it seemed as if blood would flow out of it the next instant.
He saw the face close to him and instinctively raised his hand to grab that person’s neck. It was a fierce, threatening gesture, yet he did not use much strength:
“I don’t want things you’ve given to other people. I don’t want things other people have had. I don’t want…”
Fu Sang’s hand gradually lost its strength and eventually fell limply, allowing his violent emotions to sink back into the darkness:
“Qi Changying, look carefully. I’m not…”
The chaotic dreams gradually dispersed. The world finally became quiet, and there were no longer any familiar or unfamiliar fragments of memories clamoring in his mind.
It seemed dawn was about to come, because when Fu Sang opened his eyes, he saw a little pale-blue light through the gap where the curtains were not completely closed.
Someone was beside his bed. The dark-red figure vaguely overlapped with a fleeting scene from his dream.
Fu Sang wanted to see who it was, but he could not overcome his instinctive drowsiness. He closed his eyes again, and when he regained consciousness, the light behind the curtains was brighter. This time, he finally saw the person sitting beside his bed.
It was Huo Wei.
“Ah! You’re finally awake!”
Seeing him open his eyes, Huo Wei let out a long sigh of relief.
She reached out and touched Fu Sang’s forehead to check his temperature:
“Thank goodness, your fever’s gone down.”
“…”
Fu Sang did not respond. He simply supported himself and sat up from the bed, closing his eyes to endure the dizziness from getting up too quickly.
“You were almost at thirty-nine degrees last night. If it weren’t for… uh, if I hadn’t noticed in time, you might already be on the road to the underworld, you know!”
Huo Wei hurriedly poured him a cup of warm water:
“Tell me, am I not indebted to you or something! To think I got stuck with such an unlucky kid like you, always torturing yourself to death all day long! And how did you manage to slash yourself up like this again? Look at your arms, look at your neck. Didn’t you use the Reversal Talisman after having your fun! What if you go out covered in wounds like this and scare people!”
Fu Sang listened to her without much reaction, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
After a moment, he glanced indifferently at the Snake-Bone Nail placed on the bedside table.
The long nail was still in its original position, and the seal wrapped in Ghost Blood Whip was still intact.
Those vague, fragmented scenes in his memories were probably really just fragments of a dream.
Collecting his thoughts, Fu Sang drank the medicine and water Huo Wei handed him. He put down the cup, lifted the blanket, and was about to get out of bed.
Seeing this, Huo Wei warily pressed him down:
“What are you doing?”
“Going to the city wall and the museum.”
“？？？Brother, you just got over a fever! Can’t you properly rest for two days?! Are you really that studious?!”
“I already bought the tickets. Two people, two attractions, four tickets in total.”
Fu Sang pulled a turtleneck sweater out of his suitcase and put it on. While keeping him warm, it also covered the wounds on his neck:
“Not going would be a waste.”
“…” Huo Wei was really defeated by him.
She compromised:
“Then let’s go quickly and come back quickly. If you fall sick again because you went outside and got blown by the cold wind, then don’t say anything. Just obediently go to the hospital! I don’t want to keep being a free nanny for a patient who keeps tormenting himself!”
“Mmm.”
Fu Sang responded, and it was unclear whether he agreed or not. He silently put on a thick coat.
Before leaving, he habitually took several strings of copper bells and weeping coins and tied them around his waist.
There was actually not much to see at the ruins of the city wall of Chifeng Pass. After all, it had been exposed to the wind and sun for too many years, and it had not been well protected before. By now, all that remained was a yellowish-brown sandstone wall that had been renovated and patched up.
A very tall marble sculpture stood in the small square beneath the city wall. Fu Sang stopped beneath the sculpture and looked up at the figure in armor and a cloak, glaring angrily and looking imposing.
Huo Wei had never been interested in attractions that required a bit of historical knowledge. She preferred shopping in modern cities. This time, she had come purely to accompany Fu Sang.
But Chifeng Pass was somewhat different from those other historical attractions. After all, she had actually seen the historical figure associated with this place. Now, walking around inside while looking at things and listening to the explanations, she always felt an awkward sensation of watching an acquaintance perform.
“Hey, since we’re already here, why don’t you let the Young General come out and take a look? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see himself turned into a check-in spot a thousand years later, with an imposing statue even erected here?”
Huo Wei held up her phone and took pictures of the sculpture of Qi Changying, who looked like a door god, laughing as she spoke.
Fu Sang did not respond.
Although she did not know what had happened between this person and this ghost, rationally, she knew that an outsider should not meddle too much. But emotionally, Huo Wei really did not want to watch Fu Sang continue tormenting himself like this.
She wanted to play mediator, so she braced herself and said:
“…Ah, well, he’s technically returning to his old home after a thousand years. There must be a lot of precious memories that belong to him here. Why do you have to lock him up? If he did something that upset you… even prisoners have a fixed time for going outside every day. Even if you’re keeping a pet, the owner can’t be too cruel and arbitrary.”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, his tone cold:
“He doesn’t want to come out.”
“Then you didn’t ask. How do you know whether he wants to or not?”
“.” Fu Sang seemed to be annoyed by her.
He frowned, pulled the Snake-Bone Nail off his waist, and tossed it to her.
“Hey…” Huo Wei felt that this thing was almost too hot to hold.
She looked at the Ghost Blood Whip that was neatly tied yet somehow messy around the long nail, “How do you undo this?”
Fu Sang ignored her and walked away.
Huo Wei could only forcefully take it apart, hurriedly peeling away the blood threads on it. At the same time, she lit a Spirit Communication Talisman and whispered, “He’s gone. Come out!”
Qi Changying appeared when he heard her, but he sighed:
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
“?” Huo Wei bundled the Snake-Bone Nail and Ghost Blood Whip together and stuffed them into her bag. She really wanted to complain:
“Why are both of you like this? If you don’t try, how do you know whether he wants to or not!”
“…Because I understand why he’s angry with me now, but there’s no way for me to explain it, and no way for me to deal with it. It’s a problem that fundamentally cannot be solved.”
“Hm? What is it?”
Qi Changying lowered his eyes, thinking of the things Fu Sang had said while gripping his neck when his consciousness had been muddled late last night.
He said that he did not want things he had given to other people, nor things other people had had.
He told him to look carefully.
At the time, Qi Changying did not understand, but after carefully sorting through it afterward, he had more or less figured it out.
“He thinks I regard him as another person.”
Qi Changying sighed softly:
“But in fact, I… don’t remember anything.”
“？？？” The question marks over Huo Wei’s head were multiplying. Her brain short-circuited, and she simply blurted out whatever came to mind:
“So after all that, Zhuge Fusang is doing forced love, while you’re doing a substitute stand-in replacement meal. Why is this getting more and more dog-blooded, damn…”
“…What?” Qi Changying did not quite understand what she was talking about.
“Nothing… Just pretend I was talking nonsense after getting blown by the wind.” Huo Wei coughed lightly twice and changed the subject:
“Look, Chifeng Pass!”
Hearing those three words, Qi Changying was slightly stunned.
Only then did he remember to look up and see the environment he was in.
Looking around, he seemed somewhat uncertain:
“This is… Chifeng Pass?”
“Yeah.” Huo Wei emphasized:
“Chifeng Pass a thousand years later.”
“…It really is very different from a thousand years ago.” Qi Changying looked at the weathered city wall, then at the visitors dressed in all sorts of different clothes around him. It was difficult to overlap the scene before his eyes with the northwestern border pass he had once stayed at for many years a thousand years ago.
A tour guide was leading a group of visitors over. She raised one hand in gesture while holding a microphone in the other, explaining as the distorted, hoarse sound came from the loudspeaker:
“…Come, everyone, look over here. Does anyone know which historical figure this sculpture represents?”
“Qi Changying?” someone in the crowd answered softly.
“That’s right! It is Qi Changying, the youngest Grand Marshal in history, who led that famous Northern Expedition during the reign of Emperor Ai of the Li Dynasty.
“Qi Changying of the Li Dynasty and the two siblings Fang Nanchen and Fang Nansi of the Xuan Dynasty were collectively known as the Three Generals of Qingyun. They pacified bandits in the south and suppressed the Chaosu in the north, making great contributions to the stability of the realm and the expansion of its territory at the time. This sculpture depicts Qi Changying after the night raid on Chifeng Pass, when he sat on horseback and gazed into the distance at the retreating enemy troops with the spirited bearing of a victor, displaying his dashing and valiant posture…”
“Did you hear that? She’s talking about you. Do you have anything you want to correct?” Huo Wei asked with a quiet laugh.
Qi Changying smiled helplessly.
After thinking for a moment, he asked:
“Did she just mention the night raid on Chifeng Pass?”
“Yeah.”
“Perhaps later generations got the legend wrong? In reality, when Chaosu launched the night raid on Chifeng Pass back then, it was not as dangerous and difficult as modern depictions make it seem. That battle was not won by me either. A thousand years later, it somehow became my achievement. I wouldn’t dare accept the credit.”
“Hm? You didn’t win it?”
Huo Wei froze for a moment, genuinely somewhat surprised.
After all, the subject of the night raid on Red Beacon Pass had been repeatedly made into movies and television dramas countless times. A new version would come out every few years. Even she, a history illiterate, knew that this was the beginning of Qi Changying’s legend, the starting point of the Northern Expedition.
Yet when the actual person arrived, he overturned everything.
“Mm.”
“Then who did?”
“……” Qi Changying was slightly stunned, then smiled and shook his head:
“I don’t really remember.”
“Okay.” Huo Wei blinked.
Actually, even if Qi Changying really gave her a name, she might not know who it was. She had only asked casually and was not genuinely interested in this.
So she let the subject go, then suddenly realized:
“Hey! Where’s San You? Where did he go in just this short time?”
Qi Changying followed Huo Wei’s gaze.
People were coming and going, and Fu Sang’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
Fu Sang walked alone ahead. He paid an additional fifty yuan for his ticket and climbed onto the city wall of Red Beacon Pass.
Red flags used as decorations were planted along the city wall, their surfaces fluttering in the dry northwestern wind.
He stood facing the wind, which sent his hair flying wildly.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and gazed into the distance.
In that direction, there should have been an endless expanse of the white snow covered Gobi desert, but modern high-rise buildings blocked the horizon. The forests of steel and concrete stood in the distance. Presumably, the scenery visible here was quite different from what could be seen a thousand years ago.
Fu Sang lowered his eyes and coughed dully twice before turning to look down from the city wall.
It was a working day, so there were not many people at the attraction.
Fu Sang spotted Qi Changying beneath the marble statue at a glance.
The ghost was looking up at the statue, and Fu Sang did not know what was so interesting about that ugly thing that looked nothing like him.
He was actually willing to come out.
Fu Sang thought that after experiencing such an intense humiliation and argument, this ghost would hide inside the nail for a long time without showing himself.
Of course, it was also possible that because he was not nearby and he did not have to face him, he had taken the opportunity to come out and get some fresh air.
Fu Sang did not care about any of this.
He withdrew his gaze, took out his phone from his pocket, and began taking pictures of the materials he could use in his research-report.
Fu Sang was not particular about taking photos. He photographed whatever he saw, holding up his phone and taking pictures for a long time without moving his feet. He mechanically pressed the shutter, and it was uncertain whether his eyes were even looking at the phone screen while he took them.
After taking a round of pictures, he coughed and lowered his head to check his work.
The usable-shot rate was extremely low, while the deletion rate was extremely high.
After quickly checking the last photo, he found another useless shot.
When he took this picture, the angle at which he held his phone was slightly tilted, so only half of the marble sculpture beneath the city wall was captured. The other half of the empty frame contained the tourists gathered beneath the sculpture listening to the explanation, as well as a solitary ghost beside the crowd.
The ghost was still standing in the same spot, but he was no longer looking at the sculpture in front of him. Instead, he had turned his head and was looking toward where he was.
This was probably not a coincidence, because Qi Changying’s gaze was looking straight into the camera, as though this photograph had originally been born for him.
“…”
Fu Sang frowned.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the ghost who should not have been captured in the photo, then decisively pressed the delete button in the corner.
A pop-up asking whether to delete it appeared. Fu Sang habitually moved to press confirm, but his fingertip stopped in front of the screen and did not fall.
After a long while, he simply pressed the lock-screen button and turned to descend the city wall.
The Red Beacon Pass Museum was not far from the city wall and could be reached directly by taking the sightseeing vehicle.
When Fu Sang met up with Huo Wei, Qi Changying had disappeared again. He probably did not want to see him, so he had hidden back inside the nail.
The long nail and Ghost Blood Whip were both with Huo Wei. Huo Wei did not return them, and he did not ask for them either. After entering the museum, he went ahead on his own, separating himself from the two-person team and taking the materials he needed by himself.
Ninety percent of the exhibits in the Red Beacon Pass Museum were related to the Qi Family Army. There was all sorts of miscellaneous stuff: a piece of torn cloth from the military camp back then, a tiger-skin blanket dug out of the ground, rusty weapons, damaged armor, Chaosu wine jars that had been captured… The text on the display boards, together with the exhibits, gave everyone a detailed introduction to Qi Changying’s legendary Northern Expedition back then.
Fu Sang was already very familiar with these things. Although he had never come here in person, he had seen many of them online over the years. He basically knew what was displayed in each exhibition area, so he moved through the museum quickly, taking a few pictures for the record before leaving.
Under the dim lights of the museum, he was somewhat absent-minded when facing these old objects that had endured that test of time for over a thousand years.
He was recalling what caused him to suddenly start paying attention to someone who had only appeared briefly for twenty-two years within the five thousand years of history, and from then on, plunged headfirst into that period of history, drifting and sinking through it for years.
Could this also be attributed to the kind of fate he hated most…?
“Come, everyone, this way! As we arrive at the final exhibition area of our museum, I can’t help but say that coming early is not as good as coming at the right time. Why do I say that? Because the main exhibit in this exhibition area only completed the procedures and was delivered to our museum for visitors to see half a month ago. It directly became our museum’s treasure, and many people have come here just to catch a glimpse of it…”
A group of tourists passed by him. Fu Sang came back to his senses and followed them forward.
The lights inside the display cases illuminated him little by little as he passed, then faded with his footsteps.
Finally passing the exhibition wall that blocked his view, Fu Sang casually raised his eyes and walked into the final exhibition area.
The next moment, his footsteps stopped.
At the center of the exhibition area before him stood a huge free standing glass display case. The vertical glass was a full five meters high, and by a rough estimate, the display case covered an area of about one hundred square meters.
The size of the display case naturally depended on the exhibit placed inside it, but this exhibit seemed somewhat out of place in the Red Beacon Pass Museum, which was related to war. Even looking throughout the entire museum, there was nothing comparable to it…
It was a set of chime bells.
The largest and most complete surviving set of chime bells was Marquis Yi of Zeng’s chime bells from the Warring States period. Fu Sang had visited a museum with his school on an educational trip during his second year of university and had indeed found it very impressive.
The Marquis Yi of Zeng’s chime bells had three rows and was already enormous, but the set of chime bells before him had four rows, making it look even larger than the Marquis Yi of Zeng’s chime bells.
It was just a pity that this set of chime bells had not been well preserved. Every bell on it was damaged. Not even a single one remained intact, and the missing parts of the large and small bells had to be filled in with white plaster.
“This set of chime bells was discovered in a valley forty kilometers north of the Red Beacon Pass city wall. When it was discovered, it was already in pieces. As everyone can see, there are many places on the chime bells that have been bonded and completed with white plaster. This restoration was completed by our archaeologists after spending a great deal of effort and time, allowing us to simulate its original appearance.
“So this set of chime bells also has a very romantic name: ‘The Lost Echoes of the Northern Desert.’
“Now, everyone is probably wondering: chime bells are musical instruments. Shouldn’t such gorgeous and heavy instruments have been placed in the homes of kings, nobles, and aristocrats for them to admire and enjoy? Why did they appear in a northwestern border region? Good question. The answer is, we don’t know either.”
“Why did chime bells appear in an uninhabited valley? How did the ancients manage to transport such a huge, heavy object here and there? And what were they trying to do by bringing it here… Some say it was for sacrifices, some say it was for burial, and some say it was used to perform songs for the soldiers stationed at the border, and so on. There are many theories, but none can be confirmed. So even today, the appearance and purpose of this set of bells remains a mystery.”
As the tour guide’s explanation reached his ears, Fu Sang frowned slightly, staring at the set of chime bells displayed inside the thick glass case.
Without even realizing it himself, the hand hanging at his side slowly curled into a fist.
“…Holy crap! chime bells?!”
Huo Wei found him and, at some point, had come to stand beside him. She whispered in surprise:
“Why are there chime bells here? They are so big and beautiful!”
“These are ritual tools.”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly and said with certainty.
“Ritual…” Huo Wei widened her eyes. After glancing around and making sure there was no one else nearby, she asked quietly, “Ritual tools? The kind of ritual tools we know?”
“Yes.” Fu Sang narrowed his eyes slightly:
“At least the copper coins hanging beneath the wooden beam on the top row are not decorations. They are Soul Weeping Coins.”
“Soul Weeping Coins? Are you sure? Then these really are something used by the ancestors of our Nether Path. I just don’t know which ancestor from a thousand years ago they belonged to. How domineering. Carrying such a huge thing around everywhere… Hey, but how do you think this thing was used? You just hit it directly? It’s so high. Could our ancestors even reach it? Could they hit them all? What if they finish hitting one note and the underworld spirit runs away before they’ve even reached the next one? Hahaha…”
Huo Wei amused herself with her own words, but Fu Sang could not laugh at all.
A ritual tool of such a large size must also have a very significant purpose.
The fact that something like this was unearthed outside Red Beacon Pass could hardly be considered good news.
It was difficult for him not to associate it with Qi Changying’s death.
Regarding Qi Changying’s death, the version recorded in the history books was that he was caught off guard at the time and fallen for the enemy’s scheme, dying in an enemy ambush and taking thirty thousand elite soldiers of the Qi Family Army to their graves with him.
After his death, his father Qi Huaizhong took command of the army, but Qi Huaizhong was already old and, having suffered the grief of losing his son, had long since lost the desire for military affairs. He resigned from office and retired only a few years later.
From then on, there was no one else in the Qi family capable of taking power and commanding troops. The once-famous Qi Family Army scattered and disappeared, and an illustrious military family and a divine army completely vanished into the long river of history.
The version Fu Sang himself had discovered was that Qi Changying’s death had been a complete conspiracy. Someone coveted his destiny and had therefore set up a scheme to trap and harm him, with the purpose of stealing his fate and claiming it for themselves.
The formation used to steal fate was called Seven Watches Crying Blood, and its creator was the ancestor of their Nether Path.
Now, another set of bells related to the Nether Path had been unearthed at the border.
What connection did this have with all of the above?
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly and wanted to move closer to take a careful look, but when he lowered his eyes, he noticed a familiar figure standing beside the glass display case.
Qi Changying stood outside the glass display case, quietly looking at the set of bells inside that had been shattered and then restored.
From this angle, Fu Sang could clearly see his face.
He was frowning slightly, his expression complicated. It was impossible to tell exactly what emotion he was feeling, much less what he was thinking.
Fu Sang simply hated this expression of his, as if he were looking at an old object and recalling something.
A subtle displeasure spread from the bottom of Fu Sang’s heart. His interest instantly disappeared, and he stepped forward to leave.
The next moment, however, he suddenly heard a cry of surprise.
The other people in the exhibition area were also drawn by the sound. Following everyone’s gaze toward its source, Fu Sang saw that the person who had cried out was a petite young woman.
The girl was wearing a mask and a scarf, wrapped up very tightly. She was standing beside the glass display case, staring somewhere as she repeatedly backed away…
She was facing the place where Qi Changying stood.
She could see ghosts.
Qi Changying’s identity was special, and there would be trouble if anyone saw him. If that girl had an unusual identity or ability…
Realizing this, Fu Sang immediately walked quickly toward her.
The girl caught sight of someone approaching from the corner of her eye. Feeling that the person had hostile intentions, she turned around and ran toward the exhibition hall exit.
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly and immediately chased after her.
The exit of the final exhibition hall led directly to the museum entrance. The visitors inside the museum looked in surprise at the young man and woman chasing each other. A security guard shouted a warning, but neither of them listened.
The girl ran out of the museum as if her life depended on it, heading toward the northern exit of the park, where there were fewer tourists.
The girl’s small body had enormous energy, and she moved very quickly. Unfortunately, Fu Sang had been hospitalized and suffered a high fever these past two days. He had not yet made peace with his body, and he ran out of strength after running a few steps.
It felt as though a mouthful of blood was stuck in his throat. Seeing the distance between them gradually grow, Fu Sang instinctively reached for the Ghost Blood Whip, only to come up empty-handed before remembering that they were still with Huo Wei.
He clicked his tongue irritably.
Coughing dully, he stopped, bent down, picked up a pebble from the lawn, raised his hand, and threw it.
The stone flew straight toward the girl’s ankle. Just as it was about to hit her, the girl’s body tilted. Someone pulled her to the side, and she stumbled, dodging the stone’s attack.
The stone slammed hard into the paved ground with a “bang,” leaving a white mark where it struck.
The girl was startled. She instinctively turned her head to see who had pulled her, only to look up and meet a face painted with a blood-red rube.
She screamed again, her legs going weak as she fell to her knees.
“I beg you, handsome ghost brother, and handsome human brother, I’ve been afraid of ghosts since I was little. I just happened to turn around and suddenly saw a ghost face right beside me and got scared… There were so many people around there, everyone saw me. Don’t silence me, okay? I won’t say a single word about what happened today. I can swear a blood oath. I’ll follow whatever oath you need, really…”
When Fu Sang staggered closer, the girl was kneeling on the ground with weak legs, lowering her head and clasping her hands together as she muttered fragmented words toward someone.
“Which family?” he asked hoarsely after coughing twice, interrupting the girl’s muttering.
“I, I’m from the Zhuge family…”
The girl cautiously raised her head and glanced at Fu Sang. After getting a clear look at his appearance, her eyes widened slightly:
“You are…?”
“San You, what is going on…”
Huo Wei arrived late in a pair of sky-high heels. As she approached, she was just about to ask Fu Sang what was going on when she looked up and saw the girl, and immediately became dumbfounded:
“Wait, isn’t this… Qianyi?!”
