“Yes, you.”
Fu Sang weakly lifted his chin toward him.
“Come here.”
“…?”
Zhuge Buyi looked nervous.
Although he hadn’t spent much time with Fu Sang, he had already been tricked, humiliated, and carried along while lying flat and letting Fu Sang do all the work. The oppressive presence of Zhuge Fusang had already taken root deep in his heart.
Under the circumstances, it was impossible for him not to be nervous.
Zhuge Buyi tried taking two steps forward.
Seeing that Fu Sang was still staring at him without any reaction, he reluctantly shuffled forward a little more.
During this time, he couldn’t help glancing at Liu Dongfeng several times.
If he remembered correctly, weren’t these two supposed to be an officer and a suspect? When did they make peace with each other? Could Huo Wei’s guess have been right after all? Was there really something else going on?
They had just tricked Huo Wei and Buhuo into going outside, but now they were sharing and discussing their secret plans right in front of him. Either they wanted to bring him into the plan, or… they were going to silence him.
Zhuge Buyi swallowed dryly, his thoughts a complete mess.
Finally, Fu Sang asked, “Are you close to your maternal aunt?”
“…My maternal aunt?” The topic was so unexpected that Zhuge Buyi froze for a moment.
“Zhuge Mingyun.” Fu Sang helpfully specified the person’s name.
“Oh, oh, we’re all right. I was in boarding school during junior and senior high school, so I didn’t come back to the main branch much. I went to university in another province, so I couldn’t come back even then. For several years in a row, I only saw her a few times during holidays and festivals, and even then, we didn’t talk much. I wouldn’t say I know her very well.”
Zhuge Buyi didn’t know what Fu Sang was planning, so he chose a relatively cautious answer.
“You don’t need to be nervous.” Fu Sang’s voice was a little hoarse and sounded weak.
To be fair, Zhuge Can’s half-baked curse was truly tormenting.
He swallowed, forcing down the successive waves of burning pain inside his body.
“I have no grudge against her and won’t do anything to her. I just want to ask what her relationship with Zhuge Qianyi is like.”
Hearing this, Zhuge Buyi felt somewhat reassured.
He breathed a sigh of relief and answered seriously.
“That’s great. Auntie loves Qianyi very much. She’s her only daughter and has always treated her as if she were afraid she’d break if she held her too tightly or melt if she put her in her mouth. Qianyi grew up spoiled by her, but she didn’t become arrogant or domineering. She has a very good personality. I’ve never seen the two of them lose their tempers or have a falling-out. My mother is very envious and always tells my brother and me that she should have given birth to two little padded jackets back then…”
“All right.” Fu Sang stopped him in time.
He wasn’t interested in Zhuge Buyi’s family gossip, so he changed the question.
“What about her and Zhuge Heng?”
“Her and the family head…?” Zhuge Buyi thought for a moment. “They’re all right too, I guess. Mainly because the family head lives in the mountain residence every day and is like a dragon who shows his head but not his tail. Auntie doesn’t go out much either, so it’s difficult for them to meet. They only see each other and talk during holidays and festivals. Their relationship is a little distant, but I don’t think it’s bad. After all, they’re father and daughter. Anyway, I’ve never heard of them having any conflicts.”
“Then after Zhuge Qianyi disappeared, how did Zhuge Heng and Zhuge Mingyun react?” Fu Sang continued asking.
At this question, Zhuge Buyi finally had something to say.
He had been studying in Shanghai before. After that exciting adventure in Mitou Village with Fu Sang and the others, he rushed straight from Yongfu to Shanghai in a ride-hailing car to make it back for exam week. After finally finishing all his exams and officially starting winter break, he thought he could finally return home and rest for a few days. But on the very night he returned to the Xuangu Mountain Range, Zhuge Qianyi ran away from home, and the main branch descended into chaos. He was forced to get caught up in the frantic search, either looking for her or on his way to look for her, and he had been busy ever since.
“Qianyi left secretly in the middle of the night, and someone discovered it early the next morning. Since no one had been on duty in the archives that day, they originally thought Qianyi had overslept. But then they couldn’t reach her by phone, and she wasn’t at home either. Several people spent the whole morning practically turning the main branch upside down without finding her. Only then did they realize she was missing, and they immediately reported it to the family head.”
“The family head was furious and punished a lot of people, blaming them for letting a young girl slip away right under his nose. When Auntie found out, she was worried and anxious and fell ill immediately. She had a fever, lost consciousness, and was vomiting and had diarrhea. It was only a few days ago that she began to recover a little. As soon as her health improved, she went with the family head to the branch office in Subei to look for you and Sister Huo Wei. Since that day, she hasn’t gone out for several days.”
“Okay. I understand.” Fu Sang lowered his eyes as he listened and nodded, as though thinking about something.
“…Is there a problem?” Of the few tasks Fu Sang had assigned, this was the one Liu Dongfeng understood the least.
After standing there listening for so long, he still couldn’t understand what Zhuge Mingyun had to do with whatever Fu Sang was planning.
“Nothing.”
It seemed Fu Sang didn’t want to explain it to him.
Liu Dongfeng was sensible enough not to ask any further questions.
“You two can leave. I’m fine. There’s no point in staying here. Stop bothering me.”
Fu Sang propped himself up and sat upright, then reached out to wrap his arms around Qi Changying’s waist. He leaned against him, buried his face in the crook of his neck, and closed his eyes to recover for a moment before tilting his head up to seek the corner of his lips.
He lingered against him, reluctant to part from the cool temperature of his body. Only after a while did he push him away.
“You should go back too.”
“…”
Qi Changying didn’t answer. He only sighed softly and pressed his cheek against Fu Sang’s as if to comfort him, then vanished like smoke.
Fu Sang lowered his head and took a moment to calm down before slowly removing the ghost-blood whip from his finger, finding the snake-bone nail buried beneath the covers, and carefully tying the ghost-blood whip around it.
Watching the way he tied the knot, Zhuge Buyi was somewhat surprised.
“You sealed him away?”
“Mm.”
“Why?” Zhuge Buyi actually had no desire to discuss the subtle relationship between the person and the ghost in front of him, especially after what he had just witnessed.
But he was really curious. How could they have been so intimate just a moment ago, only for Fu Sang to turn around and lock the other person so thoroughly inside a container?
Hearing his question, Fu Sang scoffed.
“What the fuck is it to…”
But before he could finish, his voice abruptly stopped, and his body went limp, slumping to one side.
“…?”
Faced with this sudden turn of events, Zhuge Buyi’s eyes widened. He slowly turned to look at Liu Dongfeng beside him…
This man had suddenly struck Fu Sang unconscious with a knife-hand blow while he was weak and off guard.
…No, wait a minute?
Weren’t these two acting like accomplices just now?
What is going on now??
Zhuge Buyi had experienced far too many twists and turns in the space of half an hour. He fell into a brief state of confusion once again, simply staring as Liu Dongfeng pushed Fu Sang back onto the bed and covered him with a blanket. Liu Dongfeng then rummaged through all sorts of strange nooks and crannies around the room, from beneath the small table to under the bed, gathering up all the miscellaneous magical artifacts Fu Sang carried with him and stuffing them into his own bag.
“???”
Zhuge Buyi grabbed his wrist, trying to stop him.
“You…”
But Liu Dongfeng caught his hand in return and dragged him toward the door.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
Before leaving, Zhuge Buyi took one last look at Fu Sang lying in the dim little room.
Early that morning, red lanterns hung everywhere in the main branch, and Spring Festival couplets and the character for good fortune had been pasted up. Birds sang melodiously in the valley, their echoes traveling a long way to reach them.
Then, with a loud bang, an abrupt noise shattered the tranquility. The door to the little room slammed shut, followed by the rattling of chains. Fu Sang was the only one locked away in the old, dark room.
“…How dare you?”
After a long moment, Zhuge Buyi took a deep breath and finally regained his composure.
He looked at Liu Dongfeng, his gaze as certain as his tone.
“Don’t you understand him? …If you do this, he’ll definitely take revenge on you when he wakes up.”
“I know.” Liu Dongfeng curled his lips coldly.
“But I have no choice.”
As he spoke, Liu Dongfeng wound the chains around the door several times and attached two large brass padlocks. He then yanked hard on the locks twice to make sure that even an elephant trapped inside could not break the door open. After that, he straightened his shoulder bag and grabbed Zhuge Buyi, who was trying to run away, with one hand.
“You. Come with me.”
…
Amid the shifting darkness and dreams, Fu Sang seemed to return to an especially cold winter more than ten years ago.
Back then, he was walking alone from Jingguan Pavilion to his residence, carrying several books in his arms.
If he remembered correctly, those were all books Zhuge Lin had specifically asked him to bring back. They contained basic incantations suitable for beginners to study.
Jingguan Pavilion wasn’t particularly close to his residence. If he took the small path, he would pass a lake along the way.
The lake had been dug artificially. They said that putting a body of water there would gather wealth and qi.
The lake also had a very elegant name: Pure Heart Lake.
Fu Sang had little interest in lakes. It was nothing more than a boring pool of dead water created by human hands. He simply wanted to hurry home along the path.
He passed it as usual, but when he followed the small path to the lakeside, someone suddenly rushed out from the side and shoved him hard.
Caught off guard, he stumbled and nearly fell. All the pages of the books in his hands went flying into the lake with a rustling sound, instantly soaked through by the water.
“Well, well, isn’t this the little bastard who lives on the back mountain? What ugly, frightening eyes! Who’s ever seen eyes that color?”
“Tsk, tsk. What a freak!”
“Hey, you’re not even a member of our Zhuge family. What gives you the right to have the surname Zhuge? What gives you the right to live in the main branch?!”
By now, Zhuge Can’s face had become rather blurry in Fu Sang’s memories. He only remembered that the person’s features had been hideously twisted and ugly, that he had a terrible temper and extraordinary strength. When his round of mockery failed to provoke the reaction he wanted, he flew into a rage, grabbed Fu Sang by the hair, and tried to force his head underwater.
Fu Sang had lived with Zhuge Lin for as long as he could remember. Everything concerning his food, clothing, daily life, and movements had to be supervised and approved by Zhuge Lin. He had never attended the group lessons for the children of the main branch. Instead, Zhuge Lin had always kept him locked in his room and taught him alone.
Under such strict supervision, he naturally had few opportunities to meet the other children of the main branch.
So, to the young Fu Sang, the malice coming from this stranger was really inexplicable.
Zhuge Can was tall and strong, and three years older than Fu Sang. Five-year-old Fu Sang naturally had no ability to fight back against him.
Zhuge Can grabbed him by the hair and threw him into the icy lake. He and his companions stood on the shore, laughing at him and using bamboo poles to push him farther away.
They wouldn’t let him reach the shore. They laughed at him, calling him a freak and a bastard, saying his eyes were ugly and calling him a monster. They told him to wash himself clean in the lake before coming back out.
The lake water was bone-chillingly cold, leaving Fu Sang on the verge of hypothermia.
The children stood on the shore, taking in every humiliating moment of his desperate struggle.
Fu Sang neither cried nor shouted. He merely gritted his teeth, struggled toward the shore, grabbed the rocks along the bank, and tried desperately to climb out.
The hard, jagged edges of the rocks cut his fingers, staining their surfaces red with blood.
Water droplets trembled on his eyelashes, obstructing his vision. When they finally fell and his sight cleared again, Fu Sang saw someone standing behind the distant shadows of the trees.
Zhuge Lin stood in the shadows cast where the corner of the wall met the trees, watching everything that was happening with an expressionless, cold gaze.
He didn’t seem to intend to show himself, intervene, or stop any of it.
In that case…
Fu Sang struggled to hold on to the rocks and haul himself out of the water.
…In that case, what happened next would no longer be up to him.
The memory was filled with a coldness that seemed ready to seep into his bones and blood, yet Fu Sang felt a scorching fire burning inside his body.
Time raced forward.
Over the years, he experienced many things and met many people. To Fu Sang, Zhuge Can had become nothing more than a tiny speck of ink that had fallen into his life. It might have been a little irritating when he happened to notice it, but it wasn’t worth taking special care to wash it away, because most of the time, he couldn’t even remember that such a thing was there.
He had long since cast everything related to Zhuge Can far away. Now, more than ten years later, all that remained was that bowl of chicken soup with oil floating on the surface.
The chicken soup really tasted good. Fu Sang drank it slowly and carefully. He was very satisfied with that dinner, but the ghost in the room clearly disagreed.
“You knew it was poisoned. Why did you drink it anyway?”
After the poison took effect, Fu Sang curled up on the bed while Qi Changying held him. Tears fell from Qi Changying’s eyes like ink beads from a broken string, continuously striking Fu Sang’s body.
Although he made almost no sound, Fu Sang could feel it.
Fu Sang really hated it when he cried.
Every time this happened, Fu Sang became particularly displeased and irritated.
“I won’t die…” Fu Sang opened his mouth and bit Qi Changying’s shoulder. He had little strength, so the bite was neither painful nor particularly noticeable.
“He insisted on provoking me and making me uncomfortable. Why shouldn’t I make things easier for him? This is my own business. It has nothing to do with you either way. Stop talking nonsense.”
“…No matter what happens, your first thought is always to hurt yourself.”
“So what?”
“Fu Sang…”
“Mm.”
“…Can this be the last time? Can you be a little kinder to yourself from now on?”
Qi Changying’s voice was filled with a profound sense of helplessness.
Whenever he was with Fu Sang, he often found himself sighing.
Fu Sang didn’t answer. After remaining silent for a moment, he continued speaking to himself.
His voice was very low, murmuring as though he were talking to himself.
“Fu Sang, I’m sorry. I really… have no way to change you.”
‘Why was he apologizing again?’
Fu Sang found it a little laughable.
He was already very good… No, he had always been good.
He didn’t need to change anything.
He certainly didn’t need to be changed by anyone or anything.
But Qi Changying always inexplicably found faults that Fu Sang considered completely insignificant, then kept taking responsibility for them.
For example, whenever Fu Sang was hurt, it was always Qi Changying who had done it. Fu Sang himself thought it was perfectly normal and didn’t care in the slightest. Yet Qi Changying believed it shouldn’t be that way, thought everything was his fault, and kept trying to wear himself down to make amends and compensate for it.
There was no helping it. Qi Changying was simply an incurable great sage with a saintly heart.
He was the same with everyone.
He could cry for him(Fu Sang), but he could also cry for others.
He could die for him, but he could also die for others.
Splash!
A bowl of cold water was thrown into Fu Sang’s face, interrupting his dream and forcibly bringing his consciousness back. He opened his eyes.
Looking around, he was still in his little room. At some point, the bedside lamp had been switched on, and its dim yellow light illuminated another figure in the room.
“Awake?”
The man’s voice was as grating as a novice dragging a bow across a violin, producing a hoarse, harsh noise that was unbearable to hear.
Fu Sang propped himself up and sat upright, following the voice toward the light.
In the middle of the little room stood a wheelchair, with a gaunt, twisted man sitting in it.
Zhuge Can was only three years older than Fu Sang. He wasn’t even thirty yet, but he looked like he was the same age as the two old men, Zhuge Heng and Zhuge Lin.
His hair was sparse, like dead grass in winter. His skin and flesh sagged loosely, and hideous scars crawled over the left half of his face. His flesh seemed to have melted away, leaving only a thin, wrinkled layer of skin clinging to his skull, barely retaining a human shape.
If Fu Sang remembered correctly, the curse he had placed on Zhuge Can back then was called Withering Bone Injury. It was meant to gradually devour a person’s vitality and flesh until, in the end, only a skeleton and a layer of skin remained.
Unfortunately, the curse had been lifted halfway through its course by the combined efforts of the meddlesome old men and women of the family. Fu Sang had once felt a little regretful about that, but now, looking at Zhuge Can, he realized that forcing him to bear such an ugly, half-human, half-ghost appearance, with only half of his body intact, had left him unable to stand, live independently, or even endure exposure to sunlight. Being a useless wreck like this seemed to be a torment deeper and crueler than death.
Heaven had its own arrangements.
Everything was arranged for the best.
“Long time no see.”
Looking at his appearance, Fu Sang smiled at him in a good mood.
“Happy New Year’s Eve.”
“…Seeing me like this, you must be very pleased, right?”
Zhuge Can’s mouth twitched, making it impossible to tell what kind of expression he was wearing.
“It’s all right.” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, his tone indifferent.
“I was young back then, so the curse I placed wasn’t perfect and had a lot of flaws and oversights. You’ve really had a hard time. If I’d had the ability to shorten its duration to the absolute minimum back then, you wouldn’t have had to live so miserably and so hideously for all these years.”
“You’re still pretending in front of me?!”
Zhuge Can swept everything off the table in one motion, sending it clattering to the floor in a noisy crash.
Fu Sang waited for the irritating noise to subside before speaking.
“Mm-hmm. What can you do to me?”
“What can I do to you?” Zhuge Can sneered. He was probably so furious that the half of his remaining nostril trembled with each breath.
“You’re still carrying my curse. What do you think I can do to you? Your life is in my hands, Zhuge Fusang. Here’s what you’ll do: get down on your knees right now, kowtow, and apologize. If you manage to put me in a good mood, I might even give you half a chance to live.”
“Why only half?”
Fu Sang asked sincerely.
“Is it because only half of you looks human, so you can only give people half a chance to live?”
If possible, Fu Sang really wanted to record Zhuge Can’s expression at that moment and turn it into bedtime reading material, so he could look at it over and over every night.
“More than ten years have passed. The cause and effect from back then should have been settled back then. I’d already forgotten you long ago. If you hadn’t taken the initiative to jump in front of me this time, I’d have had neither the interest nor the reason to do anything to you.”
“But tell me, some people are bad enough as it is, yet they just have to be stupid too. Being both stupid and bad is already pitiful enough. I really feel embarrassed to bully you any further. Since you hate me so much, I can’t let you down, can I? I have to give you a chance to enjoy yourself too, right?”
Fu Sang leaned lazily against the side of the bed.
“Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Now I can put a perfect full stop to what I regretted not finishing back then and have a good New Year.”
Zhuge Can didn’t really understand what Fu Sang was saying.
He thought Fu Sang was bluffing.
After all, he was the one in power now. Zhuge Fusang had been hit by his curse, and his life was in his hands. What reason did Fu Sang have not to bow his head?
This person had always been arrogant and unwilling to admit defeat. He was simply trying to scare him one last time before dying.
Zhuge Can had already checked. There were no talismans or magical artifacts in the room. His curse was firmly attached to Fu Sang, and its effects were even more perfect than in the countless rehearsals he had conducted before.
There was absolutely no way Fu Sang could have another trick up his sleeve.
Yet, even though Fu Sang seemed to have no advantage at all, he remained so composed, as though he were the one in control of the entire situation.
Zhuge Can glanced at the time and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Fusang: “It’s almost twelve. Let’s leave this year’s business in this year. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll give you seven seconds. Kowtow and apologize to me, and I’ll be generous enough to add another half to what you’ve got, giving you a whole chance to live.”
“You…” Zhuge Can gritted his teeth.
But in the instant he hesitated, Fu Sang had already started counting on his own.
“Seven.”
“…”
What did he mean by that?
“Six.”
…He was bluffing.
He was definitely still playing tricks on him!
“Five.”
Zhuge Fusang was nothing but a useless trash who couldn’t even see underworld spirits. What tricks could he possibly have…?!
“Four.”
So what if he had talent? So what if he had always been arrogant and looked down on everyone? Wasn’t he a prisoner now? Even the family head wouldn’t protect him, having thrown him over to do as he pleased!
Hadn’t the family head specifically sent someone to tell him because he was biased in his favor and wanted to give him a chance to fulfill his long-held wish? If he was still frightened by Fu Sang now, wouldn’t he be letting the family head down and becoming a laughingstock for the entire Zhuge family?!
“Three.”
He would take revenge with his own hands. Zhuge Fusang had ruined his entire life, and he would personally bring him to his end!
He had waited more than ten years for this revenge. He had spent decades practicing the evil curse mixed with poison against ancient texts, suffering countless failures before finally perfecting it. Even the family head had praised him for it. By now, he had mastered this technique and could use it with ease. There was absolutely no way anyone could break it!
“Two.”
Soon, Fu Sang would realize that his bluff wouldn’t work, lower his head, burst into tears, and beg him to remove the curse. All he had to do was show even more confidence and composure than his opponent…
“One.”
No matter how much Zhuge Can had thought through in his mind, when the final number fell, his heartbeat still stopped for an instant, and the muscles throughout his body stiffened.
Then, the next second, he heard a very soft sigh.
To Zhuge Can, that sigh sounded almost like a trumpet announcing victory.
So after his brief stiffness, overwhelming delight surged into his heart.
“What? Did you really think your Empty City Strategy could scare me? Zhuge Fusang, you’re finished! The power of this curse will be fully unleashed at midnight. Even if you regret it now and kowtow to apologize, it’s too late. Just wait until you turn into a charred lump of rotten flesh! Hahaha! You still want to have a good New Year? Dream on! I’m telling you, you’ll never…”
“Dong!”
The great bell in the Xuangu Mountain Range suddenly rang, its sound carrying for miles until it reached their ears.
Fu Sang knew the bell would ring twelve times in total.
When the final chime fell, it would mark the end of the day and the beginning of a new one.
At the same time, the window of the little room suddenly shattered. A torrent of yin energy roared in like a storm. An unfamiliar underworld spirit let out a piercing, shrill laugh and pounced on Zhuge Can in his wheelchair, slamming him and the wheelchair to the ground.
Fu Sang sat at the edge of the bed, watching coldly.
Then, amid the echoing bell chimes, he stood up. His earlier weakness had already eased considerably.
“Did you really think your half-baked curse could hurt me if I hadn’t deliberately allowed it?”
Zhuge Can’s screams overlapped with Fu Sang’s indifferent voice.
One was fierce, the other calm; one was in motion, the other still.
Blood sprayed before his eyes. The unfamiliar underworld spirit that had broken into the room was doing everything it could to torment the pitiful human in its grasp, greedily feasting on his suffering and resentment.
His eyes reflected ugliness and blood, but Fu Sang remained expressionless. He even curled his lips into the faintest smile.
Only after the final bell of the New Year had rung and its echo had completely faded into the mountains did the world finally fall silent.
Fu Sang took two steps forward and lowered his eyes to the pile of red and white minced flesh at his feet as though he were looking at garbage. Then he spoke, though it was unclear who he was addressing.
“Happy New Year.”
