Fu Sang raised an eyebrow but did not immediately respond.
The smile at the corner of his lips faded slightly, and a faint trace of coldness appeared in his eyes. Unfortunately, Zhuge Heng did not notice.
“…Oh?”
After a moment, Fu Sang finally responded indifferently.
After a pause, he chuckled softly, “What Crimson Evil? I don’t know anything about that.”
“We’ve already come this far. I’ve shown this much sincerity, so you don’t need to play dumb anymore, right?”
A trace of displeasure flashed across Zhuge Heng’s face. He raised his eyes and stared straight at Fu Sang:
“Although the Seven-Watch Blood-Crying prison and the seventh-rank Crimson Evil are merely an unproven, mythologized legend to outsiders, they are a secret passed down from generation to generation among the core members of the main branch. I know that its main formation was buried at Qinxi Black Mountain Pass, and that hidden inside was the only seventh-rank Crimson Evil in the world, which our ancestors Qiyueban and Zhuge Yuxi joined forces to suppress a thousand years ago. But after you went there, the formation was destroyed, and the spirit inside disappeared without a trace.”
“You can imagine how serious this matter is. At the family meeting, everyone said that they had to bring you back and investigate to the end, but I suppressed the matter. Because I thought, there was no reason for the Crimson Evil to simply disappear. After being released, it did not cause even the slightest stir. Either the spirit had already been worn away by the formation until its soul dispersed, or it had already been controlled and could not easily cause trouble. Obviously, under these circumstances, rashly becoming your enemy would not be wise. So I said we shouldn’t alert the enemy, and that it would be best to secretly observe your movements first, then talk about once we had concrete evidence and understood the situation.”
“Until a few days ago, when the ancestor soul coins in the ancestral hall all rang out for an entire day and night, and the Shaosi pointed out the answer, saying that the Crimson Evil had appeared in the world. Coincidentally, the location was Subei Province, Buquan Town, where you were.”
“Although I don’t know how you managed to do it, the seventh-rank Crimson Evil really is in your hands and under your control. Fu Sang, I greatly admire your abilities, so I came here in the middle of the night with sincerity to discuss this deal. I hope you can also be honest with me.”
Fu Sang adjusted his sitting position, but no matter how he sat, he couldn’t get comfortable.
Seeing his movements and actions over the past few months completely exposed, he sighed. His attitude wasn’t particularly serious and even looked somewhat careless:
“That’s my pet. If you want my pet, you should at least tell me what you intend to use it for, right?”
“Of course.” Zhuge Heng nodded.
“But it’s the same issue. This matter involves the family’s secrets, so it isn’t very convenient to discuss it here. We can talk about it in detail after returning to the main branch.”
“I’m not in a hurry to get an answer from you right now. You can think about it first. After we return to the main branch, I’ll let you understand everything you need to know. You can also consider how you want to bargain with me. Then we’ll find a more spacious and well-lit place, sit down, and have a proper discussion.”
“…”
Fu Sang lowered his head.
The excessively long strands of hair over his forehead fell down, and the heavy shadows concealed his face, preventing the people opposite him from seeing his expression.
“…Sure.”
After a long while, Fu Sang finally nodded very lightly, his soft hair swaying along with the movement.
He raised his face again and narrowed his eyes slightly as the light stabbed at them:
“Then I’ll consider it.”
“Good.”
‘There was a chance.’
Zhuge Heng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He immediately instructed Zhuge Mingyun beside him:
“Go through the bail procedures. Make the calls that need to be made and find the people who need to be found. Move quickly. Within twenty minutes, I want to leave this place with Fu Sang and his friend without obstruction.”
“Yes, Father.”
Zhuge Mingyun lowered her head in acknowledgment and turned to leave the interrogation room.
Zhuge Heng looked at Liu Dongfeng, who was standing to the side:
“Officer Xiao Liu, please release him first.”
“…Yes.”
Liu Dongfeng took a key from his pocket and walked over to unlock Fu Sang’s hands from the small tabletop. When he happened to look up, he met Fu Sang’s slightly provocative eyes.
Afterward, Fu Sang stood up, moved his neck around, raised his arms, and slowly stretched in a long, leisurely yawn.
“There’s something I have to tell you in advance. From now until Zhuge Lin is completely dealt with, you must stay at the main branch. You can’t leave Xuangu Mountain Range, or even take a single step outside the gates. Because I still can’t find Zhuge Lin’s whereabouts. There’s no guarantee that he isn’t secretly observing our movements. If he notices something and temporarily changes his plans, or continues lying low and waits for another opportunity, it will only make things more difficult.”
“So, publicly, I’ll say that I’ve transferred you from the Spirit Supervision Bureau back to the main branch for detention and personal interrogation. But don’t worry. You’ll only have the title of a prisoner at the main branch. The core members of the main branch all know that I intend to cooperate with you, so they won’t make things too difficult for you. But this matter is extremely important, and the fewer people who know, the safer it is. So during the day, you’ll have to put up with a little inconvenience and make a proper show of being a prisoner. After curfew at night, you can wander around the entire main branch as you please, and no one will stop you.”
He made it sound so nice, but wasn’t this just moving him to another prison?
He said he was letting him out and giving him a chance to properly consider the deal and bargain, but in reality, wasn’t he just finding an excuse to bring him under his nose?
After laying down so much nonsense, he hadn’t mentioned anything about his freedom to come and go or his freedom to accept or refuse. Fu Sang couldn’t see much sincerity in him.
By then, with him already being kept in their hands, how much say would he really have in whether this deal was made or not?
Fu Sang was truly sick of the Zhuge family’s shrewd calculations of thinking ten steps ahead for every one step they took, while putting on such a hypocritical appearance.
He didn’t even bother hiding his impatience. He gave Zhuge Heng a faint eye-roll and said lazily:
“Fine.”
Having power and influence really did make things efficient. Zhuge Mingyun soon returned with the documents and told Zhuge Heng that they could leave.
But the Spirit Supervision Bureau had its own rules. Until his innocence was completely restored, even if Fu Sang and Huo Wei had been bailed out at Zhuge Heng’s discretion, there still had to be someone from the Spirit Supervision Bureau supervising and accompanying them. And as luck would have it, the person chosen was Liu Dongfeng, the main person in charge of this case.
Liu Dongfeng was actually in a difficult position.
He was a member of the Zhuge family. He was admitted to the Spirit Supervision Bureau before he was even twenty, worked his way up through the branch bureau for many years before entering the headquarters, and was now forty-two. He could truly be said to have spent more than half his life fighting for his convictions.
He wanted to do everything he could to maintain social peace and stability and preserve the order of the Nether Path. But in reality, many times, rules were not the only standard for handling matters. The person standing at the top and holding the greatest authority was. The so-called justice and so-called rules were simply not worth mentioning to them.
Just like this time, he stayed up several nights for this case, working around the clock with the special task force for nearly half a month. Today, he finally arrested the suspects and brought them to justice, only to have to respectfully escort them out himself less than half a day later. And when the powerful person shielding them talked about exchanging two human lives for a fierce ghost, he even said it openly and directly in front of him and the surveillance cameras, without bothering to avoid anyone.
But Liu Dongfeng had no way around it.
He was just an ordinary civil servant who couldn’t afford to offend anyone. He had no family background or connections and couldn’t protect his own sense of justice. He could only choose silence, pretending not to hear or see anything, pretending he knew nothing, and turning a blind eye as he accompanied them in acting out this grand drama.
“I hope we can get along pleasantly over the next few days, Officer Liu.”
Fu Sang put on the monitoring bracelet Liu Dongfeng handed him.
This was mandatory for every suspect whose suspicions had not been completely cleared but who was allowed to regain freedom. It was mainly used to allow their assigned monitor to know their condition and location at any time, avoiding some unnecessary trouble.
“I hope this isn’t the prelude to your retaliation against me.” Liu Dongfeng made a cold joke.
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly but didn’t respond.
“…San You! Are you okay?”
Huo Wei hurried over from the other end of the corridor.
She was transferred to a temporary detention room at the branch bureau the previous night. To be honest, the environment there was actually quite good. It was clean and had no strange smells, the bed and quilt were soft and fluffy, and there was even hot water available twenty-four hours a day.
But Huo Wei was in no mood to drink hot water or sleep soundly. She spent the whole night worrying, with her mind full of thoughts about what would happen to Fu Sang.
She understood this person far too well. He was rebellious to the bone. The more you questioned him, the less he would say. He also enjoyed pain, so using torture simply wouldn’t achieve the effect of forcing information out of him. It would only make him feel good. But obviously, in other people’s eyes, that would turn into a provocation, causing them to use harsher methods. Fu Sang would feel even better and provoke them even more, creating a vicious cycle.
Huo Wei was worried that she would open her eyes the next morning and hear news of his death, so she didn’t dare close them at all. But who would have expected that instead of news of his death, the only news that came was the good news of her regained freedom.
Huo Wei even specifically confirmed whether only she was free or everyone was free, and was told that she and Fu Sang had been bailed out by people from the family.
She immediately felt that something was wrong, feeling that these people from the main branch definitely had bad intentions and must be planning to move them back to the family and to torture them for confessions. She was extremely worried. After coming out and seeing that the person who had come from the main branch was none other than the family head himself, the scale of this whole operation showed how seriously the main branch regarded them.
Her only thought was, ‘It’s over.’
But to her surprise, things didn’t seem as bad as she imagined.
Because Zhuge Heng seemed quite amicable toward Fu Sang, completely unlike someone who intended to torture him and refuse to stop until he got his granddaughter back.
“Don’t worry. He’s fine. After we return, I’ll ask the best doctor to treat his injuries.”
Zhuge Heng condescended to answer Huo Wei’s question on Fu Sang’s behalf.
As a result, even more question marks appeared above Huo Wei’s head.
Taking advantage of Zhuge Heng not noticing, she silently mouthed:
“What’s going on?”
It was a long story, and Fu Sang was too lazy to explain. He simply said:
“Going back to the main branch to serve prison time.”
“???”
With Zhuge Heng’s status and position, he usually never left Xuangu Mountain Range, and even if he did, he had no need to take public transportation.
Now, wherever he wanted to go was only a matter of saying the word. Although Nether Path spirit masters did not possess the ability to cross thousands of miles, there were such extraordinary people on the Spirit Path.
The core families and sects of the Nether and Spirit Paths had maintained long-term cooperation, and exchanging resources and talents was perfectly normal. For example, the current senior disciple of Buwangzhou on the Spirit Path possessed extremely top-tier spatial abilities. Not only was his ability unrestricted by distance, he could also accurately open a spatial rift from afar and send a target person to their destination.
This ability was extremely rare and precious, and highly practical. It could play a key role in countless difficult and complicated cases. Unfortunately, this person was in poor health, so he couldn’t use his abilities too frequently. The entire Spirit Path treated him like a giant panda, and requests for his assistance in handling cases had to go through layer upon layer of applications and approvals. But Zhuge Heng, by showing a little face, could directly use him as transportation.
Over here, Zhuge Heng only made a sound, and in less than half a minute, a spatial rift unfolded before them. On the other side were the two imposing Mount Tai stone gates of the main branch residence.
“…Wow.”
Huo Wei had only seen Yu Du take Fu Sang through this kind of spatial rift before. She did not experience it herself.
Now she had also crossed one hundred and eighty thousand miles in a single step. One second she was in Subei, and the next she was back at the main branch. This novel experience made her unable to resist letting out a small exclamation.
“Much more convenient than any high-speed train or airplane, right? That kid from Bu Wangzhou really does have some ability. The main branch has always had some ties with them. As long as you agree, Fu Sang, this is only one of the countless conveniences you can have.”
Zhuge Heng raised his chin as he spoke, then tapped the ground with his dragon-headed cane.
He really was showing off every moment he could.
Fu Sang ignored him.
As it happened, he wasn’t waiting for Fu Sang’s response either.
The tapping of the cane seemed to be some kind of signal. Soon, the stone gates in front of them were forcefully pushed open. When the people inside saw who had arrived, they immediately bowed respectfully:
“Family Head.”
“Mm.” Zhuge Heng nodded and, supported by Zhuge Mingyun, walked inside while giving orders:
“Have someone prepare two guest rooms, and clean up Jiangchen Residence as well.”
The person froze for a moment, then quickly glanced at Fu Sang behind him, who was wearing a monitoring bracelet and handcuffs:
“Oh, oh, okay…”
Hearing the words “Jiangchen Residence,” Fu Sang raised his eyebrows and looked thoughtfully at Zhuge Heng’s back.
“Does it sound familiar?” Zhuge Heng seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, as though he knew Fu Sang was looking at him:
“After you left, I ordered someone to tear down the walls around Jiangchen Residence. All these years, the place has remained vacant. No one has lived there.”
“The family doesn’t have a dedicated prison. When juniors make mistakes, they are confined to their homes to reflect. Huo Wei isn’t a member of the family nor is she the mastermind of the case, so there’s no need to detain and monitor her specifically. She can stay in a guest room. As for you, since you’ve returned, just continue living in your Jiangchen Residence. Although it’s a little small and a little dark, for a prisoner, it’s already a rare good treatment.”
Walking through the main branch, where many people could see and hear them, Zhuge Heng naturally didn’t give Fu Sang the pleasant expression he had shown him in the Spirit Supervision Bureau interrogation room. It was impossible to tell whether he was putting on an act or revealing his true feelings.
“Whatever.”
Fu Sang didn’t have any objections.
As long as he could lie down and sleep, he wouldn’t mind even living in a toilet.
Zhuge Heng didn’t deliberately conceal the purpose of this trip, so along the way, many people heard the news and gathered nearby to poke their heads out and watch the excitement.
Among them were two familiar faces. Fu Sang saw Zhuge Buhuo and Zhuge Buyi standing not far away, looking at them with complicated expressions. They looked like they wanted to speak but hesitated because of Zhuge Heng, and they didn’t dare to come forward.
Fu Sang glanced at them.
Only one glance.
His gaze didn’t linger on them for even a second.
Jiangchen Residence was still just as Fu Sang remembered it, a small detached building with only one door and one small window.
Calling it a small building was already flattering it. It looked more like a storage room or woodshed.
After entering the room, Fu Sang sat directly on the bed and looked up at the room where he had been confined for seven years.
There wasn’t much change. Even the heavy, long chain used to lock him up was still hanging in midair from the ceiling.
When he left the family back then, all his belongings had been cleared out as well. The room was now completely empty, with only a simple dusting having been done and a new set of bedding placed inside. It wasn’t a problem to temporarily accommodate someone.
“You can stay here for now. To avoid arousing suspicion, I’m afraid your wrists will have to remain cuffed for now.”
Zhuge Heng stood at the doorway and instructed Liu Dongfeng to replace Fu Sang’s handcuffs with a slightly looser pair.
This version of the handcuffs had a chain between the two wrists about the length of an adult’s arm. It didn’t restrict his movements as much and at least gave him a certain amount of freedom.
“Fine.” Fu Sang always lived in such a perfunctory and casual manner.
“Someone will deliver your three meals on time each day. Curfew is after ten at night. I’ll come find you when I have time. If I don’t, you can wander around by yourself if you feel like it. You can enter Jingguan Pavilion and the archives as you please. Mingyun, give him your ID card,” Zhuge Heng instructed.
“Okay.” Zhuge Mingyun took a thin card from her pocket and placed it on the table beside him.
Afterward, she reminded him softly:
“The Shaosi is still waiting for you at the ancestral hall, Father.”
“Okay, then if there’s nothing else, I’ll leave first. We’ll see each other later.” With that, Zhuge Heng nodded and was about to leave when he suddenly heard Fu Sang ask from behind:
“What kind of person is Shaosi Zhuge Qi?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Heng’s cane struck the floor with a dull sound.
After a moment of silence, he turned to look at Fu Sang:
“…This is something I cannot reveal before you formally become a core member of the Zhuge family.”
Fu Sang shrugged, indicating that it was fine.
It seemed he was just asking casually and wasn’t particularly insistent on knowing the answer.
Zhuge Heng gave him a deep look.
Afterward, he left with Zhuge Mingyun, leaving only Fu Sang and Liu Dongfeng in Jiangchen Residence for the moment.
The room became quiet again. Liu Dongfeng lowered his head to confirm that Fu Sang’s handcuffs and monitoring bracelet were still secure. Then he reached into his pocket and returned all the artifacts confiscated from him:
“According to the family head’s request, these are returned to their original owner.”
“You really listen to him.”
Fu Sang gave a light snort.
“It can’t be helped.” Liu Dongfeng’s tone was indifferent and perfunctory, clearly not in the mood to continue the topic.
“Everything is here. If there’s no problem, I’ll leave first. If you need anything, you can call me through the bracelet. You’re a suspect in a major case, so I’ll be on standby at all times.”
“Thank you.” Fu Sang was strangely polite.
He stared at Liu Dongfeng and raised his chin:
“Officer, before you leave, could you please untie the rope on that nail for me?”
Perhaps Liu Dongfeng also felt that his attitude was somewhat strange, because he hesitated for a moment before reaching out to touch the long nail. Afterward, he quickly untied the ghost-blood thread wrapped around it.
While untying the rope, he felt that it seemed like some kind of sealing method. It was just that the technique was rough and the lines were irregular, making it impossible to see anything special, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.
“You don’t need to worry about me retaliating against you, Officer. Although I’m rather vengeful, your electricity made me very happy. I was very satisfied with your service. I should be thanking you, so there’s really no reason for me to retaliate. So, I think you can sleep soundly now.”
Fu Sang suddenly spoke while Liu Dongfeng was fiddling with the long nail.
“Thay would be best.” Liu Dongfeng clearly didn’t trust his words very much.
He felt that Fu Sang’s “sleep soundly” sounded more like the kind where you closed your eyes and never woke up again.
Fu Sang shrugged, lowered his eyes to look at the bracelet on his wrist, and asked:
“Besides calling you, what else can this thing do?”
“Not much.” Liu Dongfeng explained simply:
“Monitor vital signs, listen in, locate, track. And electrocute.”
He really wasn’t hiding anything from him.
“Listen in?” Fu Sang seemed to suddenly think of something interesting:
“Can it detect making love too?”
“?” The question left Liu Dongfeng’s mind blank for a moment.
Perhaps he hadn’t expected the conversation to turn like that.
His brain short-circuited, and he blurted out:
“There’s only you here. Who are you planning to do it with?”
“I was just proposing a niche possibility.”
“…”
“Oh right, Officer, after spending the whole night with me yesterday, did you figure out where my ghost is?” Fu Sang’s thoughts jumped around a lot, and he suddenly changed the subject again.
“You’ll tell me?”
“You can take a guess.”
“I don’t know. And I don’t want to waste time and energy on something so boring.”
Liu Dongfeng felt that this person might really be a lunatic.
He shook his head, organized the long nail and the untied ghost-blood thread, put them back on the table, then walked out of Jiangchen Residence. Before leaving, he even dutifully locked the door.
However, he had barely taken two steps away when he suddenly heard a strange sound through his earpiece.
His earpiece was connected to the monitoring bracelet. The bracelet came as a primary and secondary pair. As long as the two were separated by a certain distance, the primary bracelet would automatically activate its listening function for the secondary bracelet.
This meant that what he was hearing through his earpiece now was the sound coming from Fu Sang’s side.
Liu Dongfeng wasn’t some inexperienced young man. Naturally, he could tell that it was the sound of kissing.
And it sounded quite intense.
This was too bizarre.
Liu Dongfeng frowned and went around to the only window of Jiangchen Residence to take a look at what exactly that person was up to.
But when he saw the scene inside through the glass, he froze…
In the dim room, there was an extra person at some point.
Or rather, a ghost.
The ghost that everyone in the special task force had worked overnight without finding even the slightest trace of; the ghost whose whereabouts he had spent most of the night trying to pry out of Fu Sang without success; the ghost they knew existed but could never find even a shred of evidence for…had simply appeared out of nowhere in the room he himself had stepped out of less than half a minute ago.
This meant that the ghost was beside Fu Sang the entire time, yet no one, including Zhuge Heng, had discovered it.
At this moment, Fu Sang was sitting on the bed in an extremely lazy posture, supporting himself with one hand while his other hand gripped the long hair at the back of the Crimson Evil’s head. The black-haired, red-clothed ghost had its back to the window, blocking most of Fu Sang’s body. One person and one ghost were kissing passionately, unwilling to part.
Liu Dongfeng hurriedly fumbled to manually turn off the listening function on the bracelet.
It was also then that Fu Sang seemed to sense something. While kissing, he suddenly raised his eyes and stared straight at him outside the window.
When he saw him there, Fu Sang did not seem surprised at all. He even slightly curved his eyes.
An extremely provocative and arrogant smile briefly flashed in his eyes.
