“Look at you, just look at you. You can’t even say a few words without getting triggered. The moment someone tells the truth, you tell them to get lost. Who would still be willing to have a proper heart-to-heart with you?”
Huo Wei sat down to one side, shaking her head and sighing as though she were very sad and heartbroken. Only after putting on this act long enough did she reveal her true nature.
“I’m not leaving, just to spite you. What are you going to do, bite me?”
“That would chip my teeth.”
Fu Sang shook off the cinnabar beads that Zhuge Qi had dropped onto him, then asked:
“Did you come here for something?”
“Listen to you. Can’t I come and see you if I don’t have anything to do? Honestly, you’re something else. That night, you followed the young general into that gate without saying a word. You scared me to death! I really thought you were dead, you know? These past few days, I’ve been randomly getting sad, crying, and weeping bitter tears for you… You’re such an ungrateful person. Since you’re still alive, why didn’t you contact me earlier and let me know you were safe? Where have you been all this time?”
“It’s a long story.”
Fu Sang used his usual perfunctory answer, but Huo Wei wasn’t having it.
“However long it is, you still have to explain it to me! We have plenty of time today. I’m not leaving until you finish telling me. Don’t even think about brushing me off!”
“…I didn’t die, exactly, but I can’t really be considered alive either. Just think of it as having taken a trip to the underworld before forcibly turning back and returning to the human world.”
These matters were complicated. They spanned a long period of time and involved too many people and events. Fu Sang couldn’t explain every detail to Huo Wei, so he could only give her a vague summary.
“Got it. You’re an evil ghost that crawled out of hell, and this time you’re going to reclaim everything you lost?”
After saying that, Huo Wei let out a sharp sneer.
“Do you think I believe that?! Can you stop trying to fool me?!”
“?” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Then what if I say that all of this happened because I’m Qiyueban, I’m practically a god already, so I can’t die? I disappeared for seven days because I went to see Jiuzhangji, recovered the memories I’d lost, and figured out my origins. Would that still be a made-up story to brush you off?”
“You…”
Of course, when Huo Wei first heard that long string of words, she wanted to mock the lunatic Fu Sang for losing his mind so badly that he could come up with such a story. He was willing to throw away even his dignity just to fool her.
Tsk… But when she thought about it carefully…
It didn’t actually seem impossible.
Who was Qiyueban?
Whether in written records or unofficial historical legends, he was described as arrogant and unrestrained, ruthless, petty, and very vindictive. He also had extraordinary talent, and had developed so many deadly curses that they could not be counted on both hands.
If the name was erased from this description and all those keywords and characteristics were put in front of her, asking her to guess who it described, Huo Wei would identify Zhuge Fusang without hesitation.
“Actually, I’ve suspected for a long time that you might be a descendant of that ancestor… Uh, if you’re actually him, then everything suddenly makes a lot of sense. I’m serious… Wow, I can’t believe you’re really Qiyueban!”
“…”
Huo Wei didn’t even struggle with the absurd and unbelievable idea for long before smoothly accepting this explanation.
Fu Sang rolled his eyes slightly and couldn’t be bothered to waste more words on her.
He stood up, took a pair of trousers from the clothes rack, and prepared to change into them in the bathroom.
Huo Wei watched him.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“To the shop.”
“What for?”
“To open it and make money.”
“You’re not waiting for your substitute?”
Seeing that Fu Sang had already closed the bathroom door, she raised her voice.
“Buyi only gave him your address here. If you leave now, won’t your substitute come all the way here only to find nobody home?”
Fu Sang didn’t respond.
He changed into his trousers, walked to the entrance, put on his shoes, slipped his keys into his pocket, and prepared to leave. He clearly didn’t care about the possibility Huo Wei had mentioned.
Huo Wei hurriedly stood up from the sofa.
“You’re really leaving? Wait for me. I’ll come with you. I drove here.”
Fu Sang’s life was very simple. When he was in school, his three places to stay were the school, his rented apartment, and his shop, with him randomly appearing at one of them. Now that the winter break was not yet done, he didn’t even need to go to school. It was only natural that he wanted to return to Blind Cat Alley and look after his little shop, which barely earned him a couple of coins a year but was his only source of income.
“What happened to those people from the family in the end? Have they reached a conclusion?”
On the way, Fu Sang suddenly asked.
“Not yet. Now that the family has fallen from power, all those shady people inside have to be dealt with one by one, right? Anyway, Zhuge Mingyun definitely won’t get away. As one of the masterminds, she joined forces with Zhuge Lin to let high-ranking underworld spirits in and caused so many deaths. She’ll be spending the rest of her life behind bars. But she’s quite relieved. She thinks it was worth it because she managed to protect Qianyi, and Zhuge Heng is dead too. No one will try to take Qianyi’s life again. Sigh… Qianyi was quite upset when she learned the truth. She’s been crying these past few days.”
“Also, Buyi’s illness finally improved a little today. He’s different from Buyi and Aunt Mingya. He grew up with Zhuge Heng, so he isn’t indifferent toward him. They were quite close, and this incident hit him hard. He’ll probably need some more time to recover.”
“This incident exposed so many shameful secrets about the Zhuge family. All those old men and women from the mountain residence have also been taken to the Spirit Supervision Bureau for questioning. I doubt any of them are clean. They’ll all be finished. Hey… I think the Spirit Supervision Bureau has been quite ruthless this time too. It’s almost as if they were deliberately waiting for an opportunity to kick the Zhuge family while they were down. In the past, they acted as though they had such close ties with the Zhuge family. The Zhuge family also relied on its status in the Nether Path and its connections with the Spirit Supervision Bureau to throw its weight around. But now that something has happened, the Spirit Supervision Bureau isn’t showing them any consideration at all. It doesn’t look like they have any intention of helping the Zhuge family clean up the mess or cover anything up. Instead, they seem determined to use this opportunity to dig up something so damaging that the family will never be able to recover.”
“And you’ll never guess who is leading the Spirit Supervision Bureau’s investigation into the family this time. It’s Aunt Mingya. Uh, that’s Buyi and Buhuo’s mother. Isn’t this a case of putting righteousness before family? Her own father just died, and all those relatives, both close and distant, who held positions in the mountain residence have been taken away. The family’s leadership has temporarily fallen into Aunt Mingya’s hands. Normally, something like this happening to her family should have dealt her a heavy blow, right? Just look at Qianyi and Buyi. But Aunt Mingya seems completely unaffected. She’s still decisive and acts as soon as she gives an order. Her efficiency is incredible.”
Huo Wei was like a gossip container. Once the lid was opened and everything started pouring out, she couldn’t stop.
“The Zhuge family has dominated the Nether Path for years. They’ve been arrogant for so long that they’ve become local tyrants. The higher-ups were already dissatisfied with them, but they had never found an opportunity to act. They were also wary of the Zhuge family’s deep foundations and didn’t want to fall out with them. Now that something like this has finally happened, it’s only natural that they’d take the opportunity to deal with them.”
“Zhuge Mingya is unusually clear-headed. With her actively cooperating and keeping both sides in check, the Spirit Supervision Bureau will take her feelings into consideration and won’t go too far.”
As he spoke, Fu Sang looked out of the window. Something seemed to catch his eye, and he suddenly said:
“Stop here.”
“Why?” Huo Wei looked out of the window.
“Isn’t this a commercial district? Do you want to buy something? Where am I supposed to stop?”
“Anywhere.”
That one word, “anywhere,” nearly drove Huo Wei mad.
She struggled to find a parking lot in the busiest commercial district in the capital. After driving around twice, she finally found an empty space and parked.
She got out of the car and followed Fu Sang, inwardly cursing him. She wanted to see exactly what kind of astonishing purchase Zhuge Fusang, this miserly miser who took green-seat hard seats on trains, ate meals by joining group orders with online strangers, and wore polyester clothes costing less than a hundred yuan, intended to make in this high-end money-burning paradise.
Then she watched in shock as Fu Sang walked straight into a high-end brand-name mobile phone store without the slightest hesitation.
“?”
Huo Wei hurried after him in her skyhigh heels, her footsteps going “clack, clack, clack.”
“You’re buying a phone?!”
“Mm.” Fu Sang’s expression didn’t change.
“Has the sun risen in the west? The phone you’re holding is still that secondhand one you bought five years ago, isn’t it? A while ago, when I asked you about it, you said its 98 percent storage capacity didn’t affect its use at all and that it could last another few years. Why are you suddenly replacing it? And you’re not even replacing it with another secondhand one. You’re buying a brand-new phone from an official store! Why are you suddenly treating yourself so well? What happened? Did you discover you’re Qiyueban and decide that a knockoff phone is no longer worthy of your status, so you’re going to reward yourself with something big all at once?”
Fu Sang glanced at her.
“Why do you have so much to say?”
“What, did you only meet me today? Don’t you know that people surnamed Huo are naturally talkative?”
Huo Wei folded her arms and generously declared:
“All right, all right. To reward you for finally learning to love yourself, everything you buy today is on Sister Huo! Pick whatever you like. Whatever model catches your eye, buy it. Put it on Sister Huo’s card!”
In Huo Wei’s experience, Fu Sang would certainly accept her offer to be the sucker paying the bill this time.
But something strange happened…
“No need.”
Fu Sang calmly rejected her offer.
“?”
Huo Wei stared at him wide-eyed as though she had never met this person before.
She watched him try out the phones. She watched him make his decision without the slightest hesitation or indecision. She watched him wave his hand and pay the full price for the latest model!
“Did you take a trip to the underworld and came back with a completely different soul inside? Did some old ancestor possess you?”
After repeatedly confirming that she wasn’t dreaming, Huo Wei exclaimed:
“Other than buying Qi Changying merchandise, when have you, Zhuge Fusang, ever been this willing to spend money?!”
“Then let me open your eyes today.”
After paying and collecting his things, Fu Sang walked away expressionlessly, leaving Huo Wei with nothing but his cold retreating figure.
After leaving the phone shop, Fu Sang took several turns and found a service center. He went inside and got a new number.
This series of actions left Huo Wei even more confused.
“Why are you suddenly getting a new number? Aren’t you going to use your old one anymore?”
“Backup.”
“…?” Huo Wei raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.
“What kind of busy business do you have that you need a brand-name, top-of-the-line, brand-new phone as a backup for a five-year-old knockoff phone you bought secondhand after haggling the price down to rock bottom? You’re an interesting funeral-industry boss.”
But nothing Zhuge Fusang did was particularly surprising anymore and Huo Wei dropped the subject. When she saw Fu Sang put the new SIM card into his new phone, she hurriedly took out her own phone.
“What was your new number again? Let me save it. Did you get a new WeChat account too? Give me your WeChat ID. I’ll add you.”
“No need.”
Fu Sang rejected her enthusiasm once again.
“Why?” Looking at his cold expression, Huo Wei felt a little disappointed.
She clutched her chest.
“Has a crack finally appeared in our mother-son relationship?”
“Get lost.”
Fu Sang put the SIM card tray back, tossed aside the other useless accessories, then bundled up the phone and charging cable and casually stuffed them into his coat pocket.
“Tsk, it’s not like I particularly want to add you. Do you really think you’re some kind of treasure, that everyone wants your phone number and WeChat? I’d be worried about wasting my phone’s storage just by adding you. Zhuge Fusang, do you have any idea how far the people in this great capital who want to add my WeChat would line up? All the way to France!…”
Huo Wei kept chattering beside him. She talked all the way until they were back in the car, and even after the car was in gear and pulling away, she still hadn’t stopped.
His head was aching from all the noise and Fu Sang was just about to think of a way to shut this woman up and stop her from tormenting him when another voice interrupted before he could do anything.
It was Huo Wei’s phone ringtone.
Her phone was mounted on the dashboard holder, and the caller ID showed Zhuge Buhuo’s name, which both of them saw.
Only then did Huo Wei finally shut up.
It was inconvenient for her to answer while driving. She first glanced at Fu Sang and thinking that they all knew each other, she reached out, swiped to answer, and casually turned on the speakerphone.
“Hello? Buhuo, what’s up?”
“Nothing. I was just asking where you are.” Zhuge Buhuo’s voice came through the phone, slightly distorted by the speaker.
“Me? I’m with San You. I came to check on him. He’s still alive, but I keep feeling like I’m dreaming.”
“Oh, all right… By the way, have you two figured out that Zhuge Qi situation? Why does he look exactly like Fu Sang’s Crimson Evil? What’s their relationship?”
“Ahaha.” At the mention of that, Huo Wei gave a couple of dry laughs first.
“I don’t know. Anyway, Zhuge Fusang has already started eating his substitute meal. I don’t think he cares much about the secrets behind it.”
“Ah??? He’s already eating him???”
Clearly, Zhuge Buhuo was shocked too.
“Isn’t that way too fast???”
“Haha.”
Huo Wei didn’t say anything else. She simply laughed.
“Oh… Well, in that case, there’s something I might need to let him know.”
Zhuge Buhuo cleared his throat twice.
“I heard Zhuge Qi was taken to the Spirit Supervision Bureau.”
“What?”
On hearing this, Huo Wei instinctively glanced at Fu Sang. Sure enough, Fu Sang, who had been looking down and fiddling with his new phone, frowned and raised his eyes toward her phone screen.
Huo Wei hurriedly asked:
“What do you mean? When did that happen? Why did they arrest Zhuge Qi?”
“It just happened. He went out with some people this morning, and they arrested him on his way back.”
Zhuge Buhuo spoke casually.
“If they didn’t arrest him, who else would they arrest? All those old men and women from the family’s mountain residence are either dead or have been taken in. He’s the only one still wandering around outside. I heard he’s a very strange person. There’s no record of him in the files, and he doesn’t have a birth certificate, household registration, or ID card. Aren’t all those bizarre secrets about the family we’ve been hearing these past few days connected to him? According to my aunt and Buyi, weren’t all those young girls who died before sacrificed to extend his life? It’s perfectly normal for the Spirit Supervision Bureau to investigate him, isn’t it?”
“?”
…
Tap, tap, tap…
The room was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop, making the ticking of the clock’s hands exceptionally clear.
Zhuge Qi was confined to a small interrogation chair. His hands were handcuffed, his body bound with ropes, and a glaring white light shone down from above. Three Spirit Supervision Bureau officers sat behind a table not far in front of him, staring at him with stern expressions.
“As the Shaosi of the Zhuge family, what do you normally do? What exactly are you? Why did you instigate successive family heads to use the Soul-Transferring Lamp to extend your life? Why did you specifically target daughters from the main family line? I advise you not to lie. Tell us the truth. If you cooperate, you may still receive a lighter sentence.”
“I…”
Zhuge Qi had been sitting here for a long time. The people questioning him had already changed several times. Each group asked more or less the same questions, but he couldn’t understand a single one.
What Soul-Transferring Lamp? What extending his life? What young girls?
“I don’t know. I don’t really remember. Sorry.”
“Don’t play dumb with me!”
The man opposite him slammed his hand on the table, producing a loud bang.
The people interrogating Zhuge Qi had already changed twice. The first two groups had failed to get anything useful out of him. They had only confirmed one thing: this person had lost his memory.
It didn’t look like an act. They had also questioned the guards who accompanied Zhuge Qi, other members of the family, and the people who had interacted with him over the past two days. Their accounts were more or less the same. They all said that the Shaosi had always mysteriously hidden himself away in the ancestral shrine and never come out. He only regained consciousness after appearing yesterday, and seemed to have lost his memory. Ever since waking up, he had been asking everyone about himself.
It was simply unfortunate that, as one of the main suspects in this case, he couldn’t remember anything and couldn’t provide even the slightest useful information.
But the man refused to believe it.
“You don’t know? You don’t remember? I don’t care what methods you’ve used. Do you think you can escape responsibility for your crimes this way?!”
“If I really am guilty, I won’t run away. I’ll take full responsibility for everything.” Zhuge Qi remained very calm.
“But I’m really not pretending to be confused. I genuinely don’t remember anything. I’m sorry.”
“Who are you putting on that pitiful, innocent act for? Nobody here is interested in watching your performance.” The man sneered.
“Don’t think I don’t know. On the night Cui Xing Gate was destroyed, you were in the back mountain the entire time. You weren’t involved, so you couldn’t have been affected by that disaster. I don’t believe anyone would suddenly lose their memory for no reason. If you can’t remember, I don’t mind using a few methods to help you recall.”
As he spoke, the man asked his colleague beside him:
“Has the application been approved?”
The other person nodded, picked up a large briefcase from beside his feet, and handed it to the man.
The man opened it in front of Zhuge Qi, selected a small object from inside, and extended it until it was about the length of his forearm. Holding it, he walked toward Zhuge Qi.
As if to threaten him, the man pressed the switch on the long rod twice as he approached, and a crackling electric current came from its end.
It was a stun baton.
“After hearing that sound, do you still remember nothing?” the man asked.
“I’m not lying.” Zhuge Qi sighed softly.
“I really don’t remember.”
The man sneered.
The grating crackle of electricity drew closer. Zhuge Qi frowned slightly and turned his face away, intending to close his eyes and endure whatever was coming. But just then, he heard a commotion outside the interrogation room.
The man’s movements also paused because of the noise.
The next second, with a loud bang, someone kicked the interrogation room door open from the outside.
Zhuge Qi instinctively raised his eyes to look, only to see someone he hadn’t expected.
Fu Sang stood in the doorway, in a place the cold white light couldn’t reach, making him appear even more sinister.
He looked to be in a terrible mood. His cold eyes were fixed on the man standing beside Zhuge Qi, who was holding a stun baton and preparing to grab Zhuge Qi by the hair.
Everyone in the room was stunned, and all eyes fell on him. They watched him narrow his eyes in a threatening manner, then raise an eyebrow in displeasure. When he spoke, his voice was fierce and cold, and he said only two words:
“Get lost.”
