Bu Jincheng packed his belongings and, before leaving, tried to persuade Xin Hexue to go to the capital with him.
But Xin Hexue insisted on staying in the dilapidated temple. No matter how much Bu Jincheng pleaded and talked until his mouth went dry, it was completely useless.
Xin Hexue held onto his sleeve and softened his voice, “If you’re worried about me, then hurry and bring the monks from Taichu Temple back, and get rid of that snake demon as soon as possible.”
He was like a soft and flexible willow branch, swaying gently in the cool breeze. He leaned against Bu Jincheng’s side, helped smooth out Bu Jincheng’s wide sleeves and then tidied the subtle wrinkles around his collar.
It was just like…
Just like a wife sending her husband off on a long journey.
Except for the mismatch in gender, this scene completely matched with the harmonious family Bu Jincheng had once longed for and imagined. His brain was a mess, like a tangled ball of yarn being pawed at by a cat.
[Bu Jincheng Love Value +3]
Ignoring the young man’s pounding heart, Xin Hexue said, “I’ll be right here, waiting for your return.”
Bu Jincheng couldn’t let go of his worries. His expression was serious, and he said in a low voice, “This place is too close to Mount Buzhou. You must be more careful.”
Xin Hexue: “Mn, I’ll be more cautious.”
He told Bu Jincheng to rest assured.
However…
Were fish the staple food of snakes?
Xin Hexue furrowed his brows slightly and glanced at the fish in the water vat in the courtyard. The grass carp had previously been stabbed in the tail by Bu Jincheng with an iron fork. The wound had been treated by Xin Huexue using herbal medicine imbued with spiritual power, and had long since healed. It was now swimming around energetically in the water vat.
Xin Hexue lowered his hand, and his fingertips touched the cold water inside.
The grass carp had come into contact with his spiritual power and had already begun to develop basic spiritual awareness. When it saw Xin Hexue reaching in, it wagged its tail happily, blew bubbles and floated to the surface. Its mouth gently touched the white, jade-like fingertips.
The touch was cool and slightly ticklish.
With water dripping from his fingertips, Xin Hexue returned to the bedroom and added a new stroke to the tally mark on the wall, completing the fourth stroke of the “zheng” character. He also circled the fifth of October with special emphasis.
………
Mount Buzhou was steep and treacherous, with countless overlapping ranges, which was a perfect terrain that was easy to defend but hard to attack.
The trees were so tall and lush that the sun was blocked out, and everything was shrouded in layers of shadows. Everywhere the eye reached, it was a gloomy and ominous sight. Wind and snow passed through the forest, and the treetops swayed, producing eerie, sobbing sounds that chilled the soul and bones.
Hen Zhen had destroyed the original consciousness belonging to Dan Sheng and taken over this giant snake’s body.
Dan Sheng might have once been a formidable demon capable of stirring up floods and swallowing villages. But decades ago, he was defeated in the battle against the national monk Liao Yi and was suppressed beneath the depths of Dongting Lake. His strength was no longer the same as before.
It wasn’t until the beginning of this year, when the earth dragon stirred and the seas boiled and mountains crumbled, and unrest spread across the land, that Dan Sheng found his chance to break free from the seal at the bottom of the lake and re-emerge into the world.
Exhausted and powerless, Dan Sheng didn’t dare start with a flood to wreak havoc as that would immediately draw the attention of the court. Instead, he took a different approach and set his sights on the business at Huxin Tower, becoming a local tyrant. The small demons under him, especially weak ones like the osthmanthus tree demons who had transformed from trees had no choice but to offer human flesh as tribute in exchange for protection.
After gathering some initial resources, Dan Sheng grew bolder and went straight to Mount Buzhou, setting up a stronghold and becoming a mountain bandit.
The little snake demons under his command naturally also became part of the bandit gang.
When Dan Sheng went to Huxin Tower, there was no powerful demon guarding the mountain stronghold, and the small snake demons were all in a state of constant fear. Mount Buzhou was right next to the capital after all, this was blatantly stirring up trouble right under the fate of the emperor, with the constant risk of being wiped out by the high monks of Taichu Temple.
The young snake demons finally welcomed back their backbone, the “Grandpa Snake.”
However, they didn’t expect that the core of Dan Sheng had already been replaced by someone else. They only thought that after a trip out, his cultivation had skyrocketed, and his temperament had also changed drastically. The bloody and bone-chilling snake mouth opened and devoured two of the weakest small snakes in one bite.
When Dan Sheng returned, the small snake demons had naively thought they could peacefully hibernate this year.
However, Hen Zhen established a dictatorship in this snake den that was more brutal than a tyrant’s.
He sat on a rosewood armchair. Wind crashed through the bamboo curtain, and the candle flames flickered.
With a “thump”, a small snake demon fell to its knees at the threshold, trembling as it reported, “M-master, we’ve caught the poor scholar you mentioned. From the household documents found in his bamboo scroll case, his name is Zhou Shanheng, a native of Xuzhou, Jiangzhou…”
Hen Zhen’s face was half-hidden in the shadows. The shifting light from the candle beside him revealed the sharp outline beneath his heavy brow.
A pair of red vertical pupils glowed in the darkness. As the kneeling subordinate trembled like a sieve, Hen Zhen’s brows suddenly relaxed, and he let out a low chuckle, “Not bad.”
But the small snake demon only felt an even colder down his spine, as if he would be the next to end up in the snake’s belly.
Hen Zhen said indifferently, “Lock Zhou Shanheng up. As for the two scholars caught earlier, since one has already escaped… release the other one now. Make it look convincing.”
The small snake demon tried to guess Hen Zhen’s meaning…probably to pretend the prisoner had escaped accidentally.
But…
Why?
Once that scholar was released, he would definitely report to Taichu Temple. When the high monks of Taichu Temple came to wipe them out, aside from their master whose cultivation had soared, the rest of them were nothing and just a pile of loose sand.
The small snake demon retreated outside the door. Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him like a flint, and an alarming thought rose in his heart…
Could it be… their master didn’t care about the stronghold at all? Even if it were wiped out, it wouldn’t matter?
The thought made his skin crawl, like his neck and head were resting beneath the executioner’s blade.
N-No, that can’t be.
The small snake demon tried to comfort himself and passed down Hen Zhen’s orders. The newly captured scholar from Jiangzhou was thrown into the water dungeon beneath the mountain stronghold.
………
Hen Zhen felt his guess was correct.
The snake pupils silently observed from within the bamboo forest. The newly wounded poor scholar picked up his bundle of documents and fled the stronghold during the night. Along the way, he could only stop to rest at the dilapidated temple. Sure enough, Xin Hexue fussed over him, warmed him, treated his wounds, and even gave him travel funds and a bag.
Previously, when Hen Zhen’s soul had resided in Du Zhi’s body, he not only learned Du Zhi’s memories but naturally used his eyes to observe everything.
This koi demon lost his memory every seven days, but still remembered to repay the kindness, only forgetting the benefactor’s name. Thus, he cast a wide net among all the poor scholars traveling this year to take the exam.
What a grateful little Bodhisattva fish…
He watched the scholar, who had escaped death and rested in the dilapidated temple overnight, held Xin Hexue’s arms with endless gratitude as Xin Hexue saw him off, and looked like he wanted to confess…
Hen Zhen narrowed his eyes deeply, his face cold and sharp as a blade.
He stared at the hand that was touching Xin Hexue. The snake eyes were bloodshot and in an attacking state, which was chilling to the bone.
“Crack!” The clear sound of a bone breaking rang out, making one’s heart tremble.
The dense red soon twisted into ink black. Hen Zhen’s face remained expressionless, and his fractured right arm drooped slightly without support.
After the scholar left, he staggered out from the bamboo forest with one deep step and one shallow step, appearing severely injured.
He collapsed in front of the dilapidated temple.
When Xin Hexue stepped forward and pushed his shoulder, the unforgettable, enticing cold fragrance lingered around him. Hen Zhen’s nostrils twitched, but the movement was so small that it was hardly noticeable, and he kept up the pretense of being unconscious.
………
Xin Hexue rescued yet another poor scholar.
His calm gaze swept over the man lying on the bed. His hair was tinged with brown and he had sword-like brows and phoenix eyes. His facial features were deep and sharp, almost like those of a foreigner. He was so tall that when lying down, his feet almost touched the footboard of the narrow bed.
He had already helped bandage the fractured right arm.
If he counted from Bu Jincheng, this would be the third poor scholar to suffer from mountain bandits.
Three was a magical number, appearing in sayings like “things don’t happen more than three times” and “once, twice, then again and again.” Xin Hexue’s inner alertness had already risen and he suspected this was a fish-killing plate.
However, while treating the wound, he still hadn’t found any inhuman features on the man’s body that would belong to a snake demon.
Xin Hexue could only assume the best and guess this was just another unlucky scholar who had run into bandits.
When the man woke up, he didn’t show any signs of strangeness. He thanked him, and his explanation about Mount Buzhou bandits coincided with what Bu Jincheng and the previous scholar had said.
Xin Hexue said to him, “It’s getting dark outside, and you’re still injured. Just rest here for the night and you can go to the capital to report the case tomorrow.”
The man did not show any sign of resistance and was completely obedient to the arrangement.
Xin Hexue asked, “What’s your name?”
“Hen Zhen.” His thin lips curled slightly. He stared intently at Xin Hexue and repeated, “My name is Hen Zhen.”
Since Hen Zhen had injured the right arm, which was his dominant hand, he couldn’t cook.
Xin Hexue pretended to go make dinner and went into the kitchen at the back hall to busy himself.
Hen Zhen remained in the monk’s quarters.
The wooden kitchen door was left half-open by Xin Hexue. He stood at the stove, [K.]
K: […Please don’t ask the examiner to cook.]
Xin Hexue replied: [Cooking isn’t part of the evaluation criteria, right?]
K: [Correct.]
Xin Hexue’s eyes flowed with amusement, and he smiled, [Then you can stop being an examiner for a while. Okay? Gege?]
Little cats that act coquettish have the best lives, and little cats who don’t act coquettish also have the best lives.
Only K was hurt in this small world.
The transparent and useless husband had no choice but to show up and prepare a warm meal for the host, and there was even a third party holding love-number tag six waiting.
When Hen Zhen came toward the back hall, K immediately dispersed his form. Xin Hexue took over smoothly, scooped the stir-fried pork with green beans from the wok, and plated it.
It seemed K’s cooking skills had improved a little.
Xin Hexue turned his face slightly and looked at the food he had scooped up, and said to Hen Zhen, “Can you bring the rice over?”
After speaking, he carried the dish back to the main hall first.
Hen Zhen did not come over until Hexue had set the plates down, slowly bringing in two bowls of rice. His right arm was suspended in front of his chest with gauze, which made it somewhat difficult to hold the bowls steadily.
Xin Hexue had just sat down when he seemed to have thought of something. “You start eating first. I forgot to get the wine.”
Before Hen Zhen could say anything, he quickly returned to the back hall. With a glance, he saw that the water vat beneath the eaves in the courtyard was completely empty.
The greedy snake had really eaten the grass carp he was raising.
Xin Hexue took out a jar of realgar wine from the wooden cupboard in the kitchen. After Bu Jincheng left, Xin Hexue had quietly made a trip to the capital and bought realgar wine.
Actually, when Hen Zhen spoke his name, Xin Hexue already knew he wasn’t some poor scholar.
When he went to the capital, he had taken the chance to sneak into the Ministry of Rites’ archive pavilion where they stored documents. He also searched the study of the Ministry of Rites Assistant Minister who was the chief examiner of this year’s spring exam, and had read through the recommendation lists of provincial scholars from various regions.
There was no one called “Hen Zhen.”
Xin Hexue poured him a cup of wine. His brows and eyes curved slightly, and he spoke gently, “Have some wine. It’ll loosen your muscles and activate your blood.”
Hen Zhen met his gaze and his thin lips lifted into a barely noticeable curve. He picked up a piece of stir-fried pork and green beans for Xin Hexue with his chopsticks, “You’ve worked hard. Eat more.”
In the moment their eyes met, both were already well aware of each other’s hidden motives.
The oil-glazed green beans were held between the chopsticks. Xin Hexue brought them to his lips, opened his mouth and took them in, chewing slowly and leisurely.
Hen Zhen raised the wine cup to his lips and downed it in one gulp. The wine splashed down his throat, hot and fiery as it rolled into his esophagus and stomach.
Xin Hexue knew that realgar wine had no effect on such a snake demon. Otherwise, with the courtyard inside and out covered in realgar powder that night, Hen Zhen wouldn’t have been able to sneak into his room.
Hen Zhen already sensed that Xin Hexue was testing him.
He(Hen Zhen) had not added anything into the green beans, but he knew Xin Hexue would play along willingly…
For that poor scholar.
The gauze suspending Hen Zhen’s right arm loosened and drifted to the ground. He held the young man who was pretending to be unconscious with both hands, lifting him with one arm around the waist and the other under the knees.
Fine then.
Let’s see just how far this grateful koi demon is willing to go for his benefactor?
Can it reach the point of getting eaten into his stomach?
