Zhuge Mingyun was extremely thin, so thin that she looked almost withered. Standing there in such light clothing, she resembled two pieces of clothing hanging from a coat rack.
Now, a faint, dark-red shadow enveloped her, making her look like a vengeful ghost that had just crawled back into the world of the living through the Cui Xing Gate to claim a life.
“Father… you said that sacrificing everything for the family’s glory was worth it.”
Zhuge Mingyun murmured, her nearly unfocused eyes staring blankly in Zhuge Heng’s direction.
The loose hair on her forehead brushed across her brows and eyes, concealing the tiny, barely perceptible glimmer deep in her gaze.
“Then, for my daughter… how about I sacrifice you?”
Fu Sang gently swung his legs, seemingly in a good mood, with his arms braced behind him. His posture looked relaxed and at ease.
Liu Dongfeng looked up at him. For what must have been the nth time, he felt dazed by the realization that Zhuge Fusang… really didn’t seem human.
If he had to describe him, although it might sound a little clichéd, Fu Sang truly resembled a cold-hearted, cunning and manipulative demon. He had clearly been forced into the game, starting from a weak position, with everyone trying to take advantage of him. But in reality, the situation was exactly the opposite. Every person in the game, every step they took, every move they made, was under his control.
Choosing to stand on Fu Sang’s side and not make an enemy of him was an extremely wise decision.
…
“Do you think Zhuge Mingyun is very likely to be on Zhuge Lin’s side?”
That morning, after locking Zhuge Buyi in his own courtyard, Liu Dongfeng returned to Jiangchen Residence to ask Fu Sang for his next instructions.
To be honest, he was still completely confused.
Earlier, Fu Sang had let Zhuge Buyi hear so much and talked with him for so long. Liu Dongfeng originally thought Fu Sang intended to draw Zhuge Buyi into the game, which was why he had kept asking questions and making him stay.
Who would have expected that, just as Liu Dongfeng stood in the room, lost in thought, he would suddenly hear Fu Sang’s voice right beside his ear.
“Knock me unconscious. Then, by whatever means necessary, take him away and lock him up. Don’t let him run around.”
Liu Dongfeng froze for a moment and subconsciously looked at Fu Sang, only to see him talking to Zhuge Buyi without even glancing in his direction.
Only then did Liu Dongfeng realize that the voice he had heard was most likely a sound-transmission talisman spell that no one else could hear.
He didn’t know what Fu Sang intended to do, but he didn’t think there was any opportunity or need to ask.
Fu Sang must have his own plans. Since he had given the order, he only needed to listen carefully and carry it out.
So Liu Dongfeng completed the task with great efficiency. When he returned, Fu Sang had already woken up and was sitting by the bed, pouring himself a glass of water.
“Not ‘very likely.’” Fu Sang slowly drank from his cup, then coughed twice.
“…It’s certain.”
“Why?” Liu Dongfeng knew Fu Sang didn’t particularly like hearing this word, but he really couldn’t help asking.
“Her reaction was too calm.”
Fu Sang was in a fairly good mood and, for once, was willing to share the clues he had gathered.
“Zhuge Mingyun has remained indifferent to Zhuge Qianyi’s disappearance. She hasn’t shown much emotion or reaction, as though the missing person were a complete stranger. That doesn’t make sense, because she’s her mother.”
“Although I don’t know much about this, since everyone keeps praising the selflessness and greatness of maternal love, there must be a reason for it. So, there are only two possibilities now. Either the relationship between this mother and daughter is poor, and their feelings for each other have always been so weak that they’re like strangers, or Zhuge Mingyun knows that Zhuge Qianyi is currently safe and sound. Alternatively, she knows the whole story behind her disappearance. In fact, Zhuge Qianyi’s disappearance may have been part of her plan from the very beginning.”
Liu Dongfeng understood.
“So that’s why you specifically asked me to investigate Zhuge Mingyun’s reputation and her relationship with her daughter?”
“Mm.”
“Then you confirmed with other people that Zhuge Mingyun and Zhuge Qianyi are a mother and daughter who have a very good relationship. That rules out the first possibility, leaving only the latter. So Zhuge Mingyun definitely has a problem.”
“Mm.”
“…But Zhuge Mingyun is Zhuge Heng’s biological daughter. There’s no reason for her to help her uncle scheme against her own father, is there?”
“What if she’s doing it for her daughter?”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Zhuge Qianyi left home without saying a word because she discovered that every twenty years or so, a young girl from the family’s direct bloodline would die prematurely. This generation’s turn had just come around to her, and the timing and age matched.”
“I don’t know exactly what it was for. Perhaps it has something to do with some dirty, shameful secrets within the family. We already know that Zhuge Lin’s only daughter may also have died mysteriously because of this. So, a victim’s father joining forces with the mother of a potential victim to seek revenge makes perfect sense, right?”
Liu Dongfeng nodded.
After thinking for a moment, he seemed to suddenly realize something. He raised his eyes to look at Fu Sang, hesitating to speak.
“…Since you knew so much, why didn’t you tell me back in the interrogation room?”
“There was no need.” Fu Sang put down his glass of water.
“Hadn’t you already decided from the start that I was definitely the culprit? It’s not as if telling you all this would have immediately changed your opinion and made you believe I was innocent.”
“Maybe it would have?”
“Even then, I couldn’t be bothered to waste my breath on you. Could you really have kept my secrets? Once you knew, you might have gone around shouting about them and alerted the enemy. I didn’t want to take that risk.”
“…”
As the leader of the special task force, he did indeed have a duty to share the statements he obtained with his colleagues so they could analyze and handle them together.
Liu Dongfeng felt a little awkward and changed the subject.
“Then why did you ask me to lock Zhuge Buyi up?”
At this, Fu Sang raised his eyebrows slightly, a hint of interest flashing through his eyes.
“Do you think he’s an outsider to this situation?”
These words sent a chill down Liu Dongfeng’s back, raising goosebumps all over him.
“…Isn’t he?”
“I don’t know how much he’s involved in this or what role he’s playing, but he’s helping Zhuge Mingyun.”
Fu Sang’s tone was very certain.
Knowing Liu Dongfeng would definitely ask “why” again, he proactively pulled several file folders from under the bed and tossed them at Liu Dongfeng’s feet.
“He just said he wasn’t very familiar with Zhuge Mingyun. He said Zhuge Mingyun and Zhuge Qianyi had a good relationship, and that Zhuge Mingyun and Zhuge Heng weren’t on bad terms. Of those three statements, only one is true.
“That kid is clever and good at acting. He can lie without changing his expression and almost fooled me. Unfortunately, he lost because he didn’t know how much information I had.”
“…” Liu Dongfeng bent down to pick up the file folders and casually flipped through them. He was a little surprised.
“These are from the archives?”
“Mm. I paid them a visit a few days ago.”
Fu Sang spoke in a calm, unruffled manner.
“When Zhuge Mingya and her husband were young, they were responsible for coordinating with the Spirit Supervision Bureau, so they were very busy. The two brothers, Buhuo and Buyi, were raised by their maternal aunt, Zhuge Mingyun, but Zhuge Buyi said they weren’t familiar with each other.
“As for Zhuge Mingyun and Zhuge Heng, they had a major falling-out many years ago, the year Zhuge Mingyun’s husband died. Before that, their father-daughter relationship was very good. Zhuge Mingyun had always lived with Zhuge Heng at Yunling Mountain Residence. But afterward, she moved out of the mountain residence and lived alone, and she stopped spending time with Zhuge Heng.
“If Zhuge Buyi had no problem, he should have told me about these memorable turning points. But he concealed them. I think he could vaguely guess why I was asking these questions. However, to stop me from interfering and disrupting their plans, he chose to lie and mislead me.”
“…Their plans?”
“If you were a father as desperate as Zhuge Lin, and your daughter had died under mysterious circumstances more than twenty years ago, what would you most want to do after lying low for so many years, aside from taking revenge?”
Fu Sang did not explain immediately. Instead, he asked a question in return.
Liu Dongfeng thought about it, putting himself in that position.
“If she died under mysterious circumstances… then I’d definitely want to uncover the truth about what happened back then.”
“Exactly.” Fu Sang snapped his fingers.
“But the truth isn’t something you can uncover just by wanting to. The family has many secrets. If even someone at Zhuge Lin’s level, a core member of the family, doesn’t know them, that means only the family head of each generation is allowed to know.
“But it’s difficult to pry anything out of Zhuge Heng. Even threats might not work. They can only find a way to make Zhuge Heng willingly reveal everything. So under what circumstances would Zhuge Heng be willing to disclose the deepest secrets buried by the family? Only when facing his successor.”
“If the old man is shrewd, then take the roundabout route and start with the young one.”
“But the Zhuge family currently has no young family head. Zhuge Lin needs to apply pressure so that Zhuge Heng has no choice but to begin selecting his successor. Therefore, he would definitely create a major disturbance, making Zhuge Heng feel that the time has come, that Zhuge Lin is preparing to fight him to the death, and that his own life may be in danger.”
“Zhuge Lin has at least one sixth-rank underworld spirit, an artifact that might be able to control and guide an underworld spirit’s thoughts and actions, and knowledge of the secrets of Cui Xing Gate. Zhuge Heng is not confident that he can emerge from this unscathed. For the sake of the Zhuge family, he will definitely select a successor before the great battle and reveal everything that needs to be passed down.”
“Zhuge Heng thinks Zhuge Lin wants his life, but Zhuge Lin’s real goal is the ‘truth.’ Zhuge Heng has been guarding against the wrong thing from the very beginning, so naturally, he’ll be guarding against the wrong person too.”
“So, who is Zhuge Heng’s preferred successor? It’s obvious. I’m afraid even you, an outsider, can see it, can’t you? Of course, it’s Zhuge Buyi.”
“That’s the second reason I’m certain Zhuge Buyi is helping Zhuge Mingyun.”
“As the most important part of the entire plan, who knows where Zhuge Heng will reveal the secrets to the young family head? Who can guarantee that Zhuge Lin and Zhuge Mingyun will be able to stake out that exact spot in advance and listen in? Even if they manage to get the location right and arrange to eavesdrop beforehand, who can guarantee that Zhuge Heng won’t become so suspicious that he uses an artifact to isolate the space and prevent the secrets from leaking out?”
“The only person who can perfectly avoid all these risks is the prospective young family head himself.”
“There are too many variables in this. Even the slightest discrepancy would prevent Zhuge Lin from getting the result he wants. But if the person listening to these secrets belongs to their side, then naturally, none of the above will be a problem.”
“A desperate father, an angry mother, a daughter in danger, a kind and righteous cousin, and an old man being thoroughly manipulated… Everyone is in exactly the position they’re supposed to be in.”
With each sentence Fu Sang spoke, the situation gradually became clearer.
By this point, Liu Dongfeng was completely dumbfounded.
He never imagined that Fu Sang could deduce so much in such a short time from scattered bits of information.
“Then why did you ask me to knock you unconscious in front of Buyi and lock him up?”
“He wants to hide him away, and naturally, I want to hide myself away too. Their big show has already been arranged, and I’d better not cause trouble. After all, I can’t let them think I’ve become an unpredictable variable and start watching me closely or changing their plans at the last minute, can I?”
Fu Sang curled his lips slightly, but there was no real smile on his face.
“I have to make them believe that I no longer have any influence on or pose any threat to their plans. From Zhuge Buyi’s perspective, there were originally three sides involved in this affair: Zhuge Heng, them, and you and me. But now, you’ve staged a betrayal, and I’ve fallen into a trap. After the situation is reshuffled, only two sides remain: them, and you together with Zhuge Heng. No one will pay attention to me anymore.”
“As for why I locked him up, that has nothing to do with the main matter.”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
“I’m simply returning cause and effect to him.”
Now that he had explained everything that needed explaining, Liu Dongfeng was no fool. The situation had become clear to him as well.
“Go and give my artifacts to Zhuge Heng. Show him your sincerity and tell him I’m trying to win you over. To gain your trust and help, I also told you that Zhuge Lin is planning a major operation tonight, and I’ll coordinate with him from the inside and outside to turn the entire Xuangu Mountain Range upside down.”
“Tell him to make preparations early. Don’t say a single word more than that. Afterward, just follow his instructions.”
As he spoke, Fu Sang suddenly paused, then gave an ambiguous chuckle.
“I think Zhuge Heng has threatened you or tried to win you over too, right? Zhuge Can poisoned me and wanted my life, but that idiot was merely a target pushed out into the open. The person truly hidden in the shadows and tasked with killing me… Let me think… That should be you, Officer Liu, shouldn’t it?”
As he said this, Fu Sang raised his eyes and glanced at him indifferently.
This look sent a chill through Liu Dongfeng’s entire body. A prickling sensation shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
There was no way he could lie with an unchanged expression under such pressure.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The reason was rather ridiculous.
“…I was afraid you’d overthink it.”
Liu Dongfeng genuinely felt that if Fu Sang knew he had taken on the role of a double agent, Fu Sang might strike first to prevent him from betraying him, or might stop trusting him so much.
But now, it seemed that he was just being clever. There was no way any of this could escape the young man’s eyes.
“I wouldn’t.” Fu Sang smiled again. This time, there was a little genuine warmth in his smile.
“If you trust someone, don’t doubt them. If you doubt them, don’t use them.”
Liu Dongfeng was even a little moved by those words, until Fu Sang added the next second:
“I don’t think you actually have the ability to kill me, nor do I think you have the guts to stab me in the back. And I certainly don’t think anyone in this world could be stupid enough to believe Zhuge Heng is more worthy of their trust and allegiance than I am.”
“…”
Every word was true, but Liu Dongfeng still felt uncomfortable hearing them.
He raised a hand to wipe away his cold sweat and returned to the main topic.
“Then how can you be sure Zhuge Lin’s plan will take place tonight?”
“Because today is an auspicious day.”
Fu Sang told a cold joke before continuing.
“There’s a formation underground beneath the Zhuge family. Its purpose is to prevent underworld spirits from invading. The formation is enormous and ancient. It was probably already there when the family’s residence was first built. The person who set it up certainly had some ability. With this formation in place, underworld spirits below the rank of Crimson Evil cannot enter the Xuangu Mountain Range without restrictions.”
“I visited the main branch once a few months ago. Back then, the formation’s power was still completely intact and abundant. But this time, when I came back, its aura had clearly weakened, and it was continuing to dissipate. Today, the formation has completely collapsed, and it happens to be New Year’s Eve, such an auspicious day… So what will happen tonight? That’s hard to guess.”
Liu Dongfeng understood what he meant, but…
“How do you know?”
Something as intangible as the power of a formation…how could Fu Sang see it? Not to mention that the formation wasn’t even in front of them, and most people didn’t even know it existed.
“A feeling.” Fu Sang answered briefly.
“A kind of talent.”
“…”
“I think someone has been destroying the formation’s major and minor nodes from the inside, bit by bit, like ants carrying away their nest. Zhuge Buyi couldn’t have done something like that. As for Zhuge Mingyun, she ‘fell ill’ after Zhuge Qianyi disappeared, giving her a perfectly good reason not to appear in public. Whether she’s actually recovering or secretly doing something else in private… Who knows?”
“Can you guess Zhuge Lin’s specific plans for tonight? How far can he go?” Liu Dongfeng frowned slightly.
“To prevent innocent people from being dragged into this and suffering, I think I need to do something.”
“The formation that protects against underworld spirits was deliberately destroyed. What do you think he intends to do?” Fu Sang’s tone turned somewhat cold as the conversation moved into territory he disliked.
“I don’t care what professional dedication or KPIs you have when it comes to saving lives, helping the injured, and maintaining world peace and stability. I’m not interested in whether your ‘innocent masses’ suffer or not. Do whatever you want, but I’m warning you not to get in my way. The people I hate must die. The people who annoy me by wandering around in front of me must die. And those who covet or harm my ghost must die too.”
“I know. This is what we agreed on. I won’t break my word.”
Liu Dongfeng nodded.
“I more or less understand what you want me to do. What about you? Before your wonderful show begins, what else do you need to do? Is there anything I can help with?”
“Go to sleep.” After saying this, Fu Sang paused and added, “If Zhuge Heng doesn’t bring it up, remember to send Zhuge Can a message before midnight. Tell him I’m being tormented by the poison curse and am nearly dead. He sent me a bowl of soup, so I should return the favor.”
“Okay…” Liu Dongfeng nodded, hesitating as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.
After confirming that Fu Sang had no further arrangements, he left Jiangchen Residence.
Fu Sang tossed the file folders Liu Dongfeng had organized back under the bed as if they were trash.
He stood up and slowly paced around the room. Finally, his gaze settled on the dark-colored door of the small room.
He walked to the door, examined the door panel, bit through his thumb, and used the blood on his fingertip to draw something along the patterns in the wood.
It looked like a string of extremely complicated incantations.
By the time he finished the final stroke, the blood from the first stroke had already dried on the door panel. Its color blended into the black walnut wood, making it impossible to distinguish one from the other in such dim light.
After finishing, Fu Sang stood still and quietly waited for all the blood on the door to dry completely.
Then he raised his hand and placed his thumb against his lips again.
This time, however, he didn’t bite it. Instead, he slowly licked the wound and bloodstains clean with the tip of his tongue.
On the door, hidden in the dark color, the blood incantations had already formed a completed formation. They imitated the profound pain and resentment of someone who had died a miserable death. Like a delicious meal laid out here, they quietly attracted the guests’ attention, waiting for them to arrive.
The crackling sound of firecrackers rang out in the distance.
Fu Sang slowly curved his lips into a smile.
A trace of crimson, the color unique to blood, stained his lips.
