Zhuge Lin was in Chuanning.
Actually, Zhuge Qianyi didn’t want to know this at all. She was just a pitiful, simple girl who had run away from home because she didn’t want to die and didn’t dare stay at home, traveling all the way from the capital to Subei.
But after merely going to a museum, meeting her good sister, and having lunch together, she had somehow become the boss of the famous Zhuge Fusang because of a piece of grilled-meat. Somehow, she had gotten into Huo Wei’s car as the client, and even though she had just made a travel plan for Xijiang, she was somehow getting closer and closer to Chuanning.
Fu Sang’s words sounded very nice. When telling his boss the purpose of this trip, he said that since it was Zhuge Lin who first reminded her about the “age of 21,” Zhuge Lin must know many things. Therefore, as the commissioned party, he first had to find Zhuge Lin for his boss and “politely” ask the person who knew the truth about the specific situation.
Previously, Zhuge Qianyi thought that the cold-faced, gloomy Fu Sang was very frightening. She had even thought that if this handsome guy could be a little gentler and have a little more of a smile, it would be nice. He would definitely look even better.
Later, she realized that she had thought too much.
This thing was even more frightening when he smiled.
He had a villainous aura to him, as if he was in a good mood while someone was about to have very bad luck.
For example, when he said the words above.
Zhuge Qianyi was somewhat troubled by this.
After all, it was Zhuge Lin who had reminded her back then and sparked her curiosity, allowing her to follow the vine and touch so many melons, instead of becoming a fool who knew nothing and inexplicably kicked the bucket in another year or two.
So, to a certain extent, Zhuge Lin could be considered to have done her a favor. If she brought someone who was obviously coming for his life straight to his lair, would that count as repaying kindness with resentment?
Zhuge Qianyi sat in the back seat, her heart pounding.
She was calculating the possibility of unilaterally breaking the agreement or directly jumping out of the car. After anxiously looking around, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that only one person in this car was in a good mood, while another person was also worrying about their future.
Ever since leaving Subei, Huo Wei had hardly spoken.
After realizing this, Zhuge Qianyi secretly stretched her neck and glanced at her several times through the rearview mirror. She saw that Huo Wei had been frowning slightly the entire time. Even though the car was playing her favorite heavy metal music, she hadn’t sung along or screamed randomly even once. It was obvious that she had something even heavier weighing on her mind, leaving her unable to spare any attention.
“…Okay, I can’t drive anymore. There are three people in this car and not a single one who can take a shift with me. Even the donkey in the production team isn’t used like this. How about we stay in Ganlan tonight, stop for one night, and continue tomorrow, okay?”
Huo Wei parked the car at a service area to rest and leaned against the car door as she asked Fu Sang for his opinion.
Fu Sang was sitting in the passenger seat, still holding the compass in his hand. Hearing this, he raised his eyes and glanced at her, calmly giving a place name:
“Chuanning Province, Jinguan City.”
“？” Huo Wei really wanted to slam the car door into his face.
“Fu San You, you really aren’t human! You’re treating me like a mule! You expect me to leave Chifeng Pass halfway through the afternoon and drive you straight to Jinguan overnight? Are you sick…”
“I only calculated something else and gave you a more precise destination.”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
“I didn’t tell you to take me there right this second. What are you getting anxious about?”
“……” Fine.
Huo Wei gritted her teeth and nodded.
“Then how many words of what I just said did you hear?”
“Fifty-four.”
Fu Sang lowered his head and blew the ashes out of the gap in the compass.
“Suit yourself. As the person responsible for sitting in the car, I have no opinion.”
‘Crazy bastard!’ Huo Wei slammed the car door shut with a “Bang!”
She called out, “Qianyi! Come on, let’s go to the bathroom!”
She said they were going to the bathroom, but Huo Wei dragged Zhuge Qianyi into the service area without even touching the edge of the restroom. Instead, she went straight into a corner, ordered two cups of hot milk tea, and sat down comfortably.
“Qianyi.” Huo Wei sat opposite Zhuge Qianyi, carefully choosing her words before speaking solemnly.
“Can you get in touch with your Uncle-Master Lin? If you can, hurry up and tell him to find somewhere else to hide. It doesn’t matter where he goes, the farther away the better. He should roll as far away as possible, not appear in front of Fu Sang anymore, and not give Fu Sang another chance to catch him.”
“I…” Zhuge Qianyi was close to tears.
“Uncle-Master Lin appears and disappears like a divine dragon all year round. The only time he shows his face is when the family head calls him back for a meeting. The rest of the time, it’s like he’s entered a spatial interlayer. He doesn’t answer calls, doesn’t reply to emails, and even spells can’t locate him. How could I possibly get in touch with him?”
“…”
Huo Wei took a deep breath and covered her face with both hands.
In other words, the only person who might be able to contact Zhuge Lin was the Zhuge family head. But even if she used every connection she had, she couldn’t get to the family head, much less tell him about the arrangements Zhuge Lin had made.
There was no solution to this situation.
“…What’s wrong?” Zhuge Qianyi asked cautiously.
“I’ve seen you worrying the whole way. You don’t want Fu Sang to find Uncle-Master Lin? His state is so strange. You’re also afraid he’ll do something bad to Uncle-Master Lin, right?”
“Whether Zhuge Lin lives or dies has nothing to do with me…” If possible, Huo Wei wished this person could disappear on the spot.
She really felt like crying.
“You don’t know. The only reason San You has been able to live properly until now is because Zhuge Lin hid himself well. If he finds Zhuge Lin, he’ll definitely kill him in the most brutal way…”
“There’s nothing worth feeling sorry for about Zhuge Lin. He deserves what he gets. Whatever ending he gets is well deserved given how he treated Sanyou. But if Sanyou decides that ending, definitely incur a very heavy karma. I’m worried he’ll just disregard everything and die together with him… Back then, he stabbed himself three times to cast that curse and almost couldn’t be saved. I finally managed to raise him this far. I can’t let Zhuge Lin destroy everything…”
“What do you mean?”
Before Huo Wei could finish speaking, another voice interrupted.
Huo Wei froze for a moment before realizing that she had been carrying Fu Sang’s snake-bone nail in her bag the entire time, and the Spirit Communication Spell she had activated earlier to communicate with Qi Changying had also never been dispelled.
This meant that what had happened earlier, as well as what she had just said, had all been heard by Qi Changying.
Realizing this, Huo Wei quickly covered Zhuge Qianyi’s mouth before she could scream in shock, so she wouldn’t frighten all the people coming and going in the service area.
Qi Changying knew that Zhuge Qianyi was afraid of him, but he had no choice but to come out. The only thing he could do was keep as far away from her as possible.
So he avoided Zhuge Qianyi and quietly condensed beside Huo Wei like smoke, frowning slightly.
“The Zhuge Lin you were talking about…is he the person Miss Huo mentioned earlier, the one who locked Fu Sang up for seven years?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Qi Changying had no idea about what Fu Sang had experienced.
Last night, when he heard Huo Wei say that Fu Sang had once been locked in a small black room for seven years, he hadn’t asked about it immediately. After all, he had just experienced an argument and a struggle, and his mood and feelings were so low he didn’t have the energy to talk to Huo Wei.
Now, hearing Huo Wei talk about Fu Sang’s hatred and revenge, he suddenly realized that seven years was truly a very long time.
He knew that Fu Sang really hated the idea of “karma”. He wasn’t willing to become involved with it even in the slightest, which was why he usually hated meddling in other people’s business. If he was unwillingly dragged into something, he would definitely calculate the karma clearly and resolve it completely. Sometimes, when he encountered trouble, even if he really wanted to use some rather dishonorable and brutal methods to resolve it, he would think about the karma and let it go.
So what kind of deep-seated grudge and hatred could drive Fu Sang to bear such heavy karma than let the other party pay the price?
And what exactly had he experienced to develop such a prickly personality?
“Well… it’s a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short.”
Huo Wei felt there was no need to hide Fu Sang’s story from Qi Changying.
Qi Changying himself possessed exceptionally good character and a good temperament. Leaving aside whatever relationship might exist between him and Fu Sang, if Huo Wei were to choose, without any personal feelings, the person who was most likely to change Fu Sang besides herself could only be Qi Changying.
Over the time it took to drink a cup of milk tea, Huo Wei quickly told Qi Changying and Zhuge Qianyi about the old history between Fu Sang and Zhuge Lin, including the curse Fu Sang had failed to successfully cast over Zhuge Lin’s nine clans.
After hearing the entire story, Zhuge Qianyi sucked in a cold breath.
“…Uncle-Master Lin’s nine clans. I should be included too, right?”
Zhuge Qianyi pointed at herself, still frightened.
“My god, so you saved my whole family’s lives back then, Weiwei! You’re practically a superhero!”
“Uh, it really wasn’t that great. To put it bluntly, at the time I just felt that what Fu Sang was doing wasn’t worth it…”
Huo Wei drank the last mouthful of milk tea.
“He was trapped for twelve years… He finally obtained freedom, but before he could feel even the slightest bit of happiness, he was going to throw his life away to take revenge on other people… It was just not worth it. Over the years, I felt that he was becoming more and more like a normal person. I was quite relieved and thought he had finally let go. Who would have thought that he had actually never forgotten… but that’s expected too. If he had forgotten, he wouldn’t be Fu Sang.”
As she spoke, she let out a long sigh and rested her face in her hand as she looked at Zhuge Qianyi.
“So, dear Miss Zhuge Qianyi, are you willing to bear the risk of being hated by Fu Sang, unilaterally break the agreement, cancel the commission, so that he can avoid this karma and thereby give up his pursuit of Zhuge Lin?”
“Uh…” Zhuge Qianyi was very honest.
“I’m afraid that if I do that, I’ll become the person he wants to kill. You know I don’t have the slightest ability to fight back, right?”
Huo Wei wailed, “But his talent is too terrifying! He can actually find Zhuge Lin himself, down to the exact person, using just one piece of paper!!”
“Oh… I understand now. You suggested staying in Ganlan tonight to delay time too, right?” Seeing her devastated appearance, Zhuge Qianyi suddenly had a flash of insight.
“Of course. Otherwise what? Step on the gas and send Zhuge Fu Sang off to finish himself?” Huo Wei threw the empty milk tea cup into the trash can.
“…Forget it, let’s go. We’ve delayed long enough. He’ll get unhappy again in a while.”
As she stood up, before leaving, Huo Wei looked toward the final savior.
“Young General, perhaps you could help me persuade him?”
“…Me?”
Qi Changying froze slightly, then lightly raised the corners of his lips, his smile carrying a hint of self-mockery.
“…But he hates me.
“He won’t listen to me.”
…
By nightfall, the group arrived in Ganlan City.
Huo Wei said they would stay here for one night. On one hand, she really didn’t want to drive at this hour. On the other, she genuinely couldn’t drive anymore.
She and Fu Sang had gotten up early in the morning, visited the city wall and museum, and after eating, hurriedly returned to the hotel to pack their luggage before setting off to deal with Fu Sang’s temporarily accepted “big job” worth one grilled meat. She was also the only driver, with no one else to take turns driving with.
Of course, Huo Wei could simply quit, but she was afraid that Fu Sang would immediately take a high-speed train or fly away. Fu Sang was not stingy at all when it came to seeking revenge. If he went to take Zhuge Lin’s life, he might even be in the mood to sit in first class. At that point, this person could speedrun Zhuge Lin’s head in three hours. Who could withstand that?
Huo Wei had already done her best to delay things, but Ganlan wasn’t far from Jinguan, where Zhuge Lin was. No matter what, she could drive there tomorrow. She could only delay things by one day at most.
She only hoped that Zhuge Lin would observe the stars tonight, discover that his life was not long, and wisely and quickly flash to the South Pole, hiding somewhere Fu Sang could never find him.
Fu Sang wasn’t unaware of what Huo Wei had been thinking along the way.
He understood what Huo Wei was worried about and knew perfectly well that she was deliberately delaying things, but he didn’t expose her. It wasn’t that he was indulging Huo Wei’s little schemes. He simply couldn’t be bothered to spend time and energy arguing back and forth after exposing the truth.
What he wanted to do wouldn’t change because of anyone. So he simply let Huo Wei rack her brains to drag things out. Forget one day, even if she delayed him for another month, with Zhuge Lin’s talisman and blood in his hands, he could find Zhuge Lin even if he fled to the ends of the earth.
There was only one thing.
“Huo Wei.”
When they arrived at the hotel and finished checking in, Fu Sang called out to Huo Wei as they went to their respective rooms.
He noticed Huo Wei’s back stiffen subtly, but he didn’t bother with it, simply saying:
“My nail.”
“Oh…!” Huo Wei seemed to have only just remembered this matter. She hurriedly took it out of her bag and handed it to Fu Sang.
“Your precious was still with me? I almost forgot!”
Fu Sang didn’t say anything. He took the long nail and looked at the ghost-blood whip on it, which had been pulled loose, then swiped his card to enter the room.
“Come out.”
After closing the door, Fu Sang completely untied the ghost-blood whip and threw it together with the snake-bone nail onto the bed.
After a moment, a strand of smoke emerged from the long nail. It slowly drifted to the other side of the room and condensed into a form. He tilted his face slightly, lowered his eyes, and said nothing.
Fu Sang didn’t bother with his deliberate silence and avoidance.
Anyway, he didn’t particularly want to see him being an eyesore up close either.
The sudden illness had made him cough all day, leaving his voice hoarse.
He asked coldly:
“Do you have any memories of that set of chime bells in the museum today?”
