Chapter 61: Zhongshan Country [8]

The next morning, while Zhang Qiu was still asleep, he heard the knocking at the next door, particularly very anxious.

Xiao Jiang sat cross-legged on the bed with the head of the chicken nest, his sleepy face full of low pressure, apparently had just waking up. Zhang Qiu pulled his son's soft arm. “Go back to sleep, Daddy go take a look.”

“I'll go too.” Xiao Jiang said sleepily.

Zhang Qiu thought Xiao Jiang was curious, but then he heard Xiao Jiang crisply said, “I want to protect Daddy da!” For a split second Zhang Qiu didn't know what to say. He was so weak in his son's mind, he really had no face.

“Dear son, the next door is Er-bobo. They'll be fine.”

When Xiao Jiang listened, his soft body fell on the bed and drilled into the blanket and fell asleep. Zhang Qiu got out of bed with a complicated face. His son was so excellent yet also not so good. He had no dignity to be a father. Sigh.

Zhang Qiu opened the door and was shocked to see at the corridor, five bodyguards were standing at the door of Er-ge's room, dressed in rags and crying.

“… Master Zhang, we are wrong. Please help us.”

“Master Zhang, I want to buy talisman.”

“I want it too, I want it too, no matter how expensive it is.”

His Er-ge opened the door with a blank black face. His tone was very bad as if his X life was interrupted. “There's no discount now. A talisman is 18,000.”

“I'll buy it!”

“I want two!”

“I'll have three!”

Zhang Qiu touched his chin and stood there. Qi ZhiRong seemed to be rich. The bodyguards' salaries were very high; their eyes did not blink at a piece of talisman cost 18,000. Looking at his Er-ge's black face while some people were begging to send money to his door, Zhang Qiu could not help thinking that this business seemed to be quite popular?

While Zhang YuShui made a lot of money, Zhang Qiu learned from these bodyguards that the female ghosts came to seduce people again last night and they won the bid. If it were not for the two talismans that Ah Gui bought on the first day, their lives would have been completely delivered therein.

But because there were only two talismans, six people threw them back and forth but one of them had lost his fortune. Now he was seriously injured and was sent to the hospital. Except for Ah Gui to look a little better, the remaining four all turned weak with eyes casting shadows, looking near to death.

Five people looked at each other's faces and were shocked. Now they really realized the seriousness and rushed to Zhang YuShui for help without wearing their clothes properly.

“This Ah Gui is very loyal to his friends.” Zhang Qiu saw Pixian Hui w.a.n.g coming out of the room, looking not in good spirits. He said with a smile, “Er-sao didn't sleep well at night?”

Pixian Hui w.a.n.g stared at Zhang YuShui with a cold face. Zhang YuShui smiled dotingly, hugged Pixian Hui w.a.n.g's waist and whispered, “There's nothing to be done, need to make money for powdered milk.”

“That's what I meant?!” Pixian Hui w.a.n.g whispered with his teeth clenched, “I am a man, how can——” Seeing Zhang Qiu's smiling eyes, he had to endure his words and went downstairs to the restaurant with a cold sneer.

Zhang YuShui knocked Zhang Qiu on the head and said, “Let you enjoy watching a bustling scene!” Then he broke into a run and caught up with Pixian Hui w.a.n.g's figure.

Zhang Qiu was not unhappy when he was knocked on his head; he smiled and turned into his room, then held Xiao Jiang, who was soft on the bed. “Your Shenshen[1] is going to lay you a little Phoenix egg.”

[1 嬸嬸 shěn shen = wife of father's younger brother; aunt]

Xiao Jiang, who was sleeping in half conscious heard egg, licked his mouth. “It's delicious.”

“Hahaha, this can't be eaten.” Zhang Qiu saw it was not too early and he took the soft Xiao Jiang and waited on his son to dress, wash and then went to eat downstairs.

Everyone was here in the restaurant. Ling Dang was wearing an uncomplicated bear-like coat today. There's a bear tail behind his clothes in which Pei Qing's hand was pulling at it and never let go. Qi Xi pouted his mouth and said, “You two are too disgusting[2], hurt my eyes!”

[2 disgusting as in too disgustingly in love or lovey-dovey]

“You are envious. If Xiao Rongrong wears a bear costume, I don't think you are any better than me.” Pei Qing kissed the restless Ling Dang. “Don't listen to him, the Xiezhi can't spit out ivory. You look best in this.”

Qi Xi thought of Xiao Rongrong dressing like this. After thinking a lot, he became so excited and thereupon his brain began a delusional mental journey.

“It's Qi ZhiRong.”

“Xiao Rongrong, you look great in this. You look even better without clothes.” whispered Qi Xi as he held his face and fell into a delusion.

Zhang Qiu saw Qi ZhiRong's face getting colder. He kicked Qi Xi under the table which Qi Xi then became angry. “Dog abuse is enough, but kicking me, be careful when I'm with my Xiao——” When he saw Qi ZhiRong standing next to him, Qi Xi's words turned a corner as he said with a grin, “Xiao Rongrong, are you here to find me?”

Qi ZhiRong still wore cold-faced mask. He didn't look at Qi Xi who was talking next to him; he looked directly at Zhang YuShui and said, “Mr. Zhang, I want to cooperate with you.”

“It's us.” Zhang YuShui said lightly.

Qi ZhiRong scanned everyone, looked quickly away from Qi Xi and nodded, “No problem, the price will follow your quote.”

“Since you want to cooperate, you have to talk about your circ.u.mstances. What exactly are you looking for?” Zhang YuShui said as he looked at Qi ZhiRong.

Qi ZhiRong sat down with his expression unchanged. Qi Xi looked at Ling Dang to change his seat. He then sat next to Qi ZhiRong, flirtingly propped up his chin and looked at Qi ZhiRong with an idiotic face. Zhang Qiu covered Xiao Jiang's eyes for him and kicked Qi Xi again.

“You don't overdo it ah! My Xiao Jiang is still here!”

Xiao Jiang grabbed Zhang Qiu's palm curiously and asked softly, “Daddy, is there something wrong with pretty uncle's eyes? It keep blinking and blinking.”

“Yes, don't learn from him and don't look at him. It can infect your IQ to be offline.” Zhang Qiu coaxed Xiao Jiang.

Qi Xi wanted to rebuke, but he had to endure it for his image in front of Qi ZhiRong.

Qi ZhiRong gulped before he said, “You ask me what I want, but I don't know it myself. From childhood to adulthood, I only know that I have a feeling in my heart that I'm looking for something. As I get older, this feeling becomes stronger and stronger. I don't want to be controlled by this sense of consciousness, so I chose to go abroad, but didn't expect when I went abroad, I caught a strange disease.”

“The last time I saw you have a heart pain?” Zhang Qiu thought of Qi ZhiRong rolling painfully.

Qi ZhiRong nodded. “I seek all the famous doctors but they couldn't see the problem. On the contrary, I was very healthy. As the duration of my illness became shorter and shorter, I knew that avoidance could not solve the problem.” With that, he took a piece of jade annulus from his pocket and put it on the table before pus.h.i.+ng it to the middle.

Jade Annulus/ Jade Bi

“I don't know what to look for; maybe it's people or objects. I hold all kinds of drinking party every other time, hoping to find something. Until that auction, when I saw this piece of jade annulus, I had a strong desire to win it.” Qi ZhiRong rubbed his forehead and pointed to the jade annulus with his index finger, “This is a map. Li Shu said it's also a key.”

Since the jade annulus was a map, why did Qi ZhiRong have to find someone to steal their map?

At this moment, it was possible that their thinking might have entered a misunderstanding. Zhang Qiu quickly asked, “Did you find someone to take the map in Lu Feng's house?”

“What map?”

Zhang Qiu kept staring at Qi ZhiRong when he asked. Qi ZhiRong's subconscious reaction didn't seem to be faked. The map in Senior Brother's study wasn't taken by Qi ZhiRong. So who was it?

“Whoever he is, he should be here, perhaps waiting for us in Moon Bay.” Zhang YuShui said.

Qi ZhiRong was stunned. “How do you know I'm going to Moon Bay?”

“When you got sick, and the place where the female ghosts attracted the bodyguards to, we made a wild guess.” And apparently they guessed right.

Qi ZhiRong nodded and resumed his indifference. “This time, I just want to find out who is in charge of my body and my will, and then deal it,” he said.

“What if it's you?” When Zhang Qiu saw Qi ZhiRong did not understand, he said frankly, “I mean if it's related to your past life kind of.”

“All I know is that the current me is me.”

Zhang Qiu understood Qi ZhiRong's meaning. Even if there was a relation between the past and the present self, it could still be the life of two (different) people, especially those like Qi ZhiRong. It could be seen that he was very demanding for independence, for complete independence, and was unwilling to have his freedom to be controlled by anyone.

After that, Qi ZhiRong left, and the jade annulus on the table was not taken away. He left it for them to study it, trusting the newly established partners.h.i.+p.

Zhang Qiu held it carefully in his hand. His fingers warmed up. It was a good piece of jade with very fine decorative motif and patterns were engraved on it. It was still distinct even after thousands of years. However beautiful it was, they could not see a shadow of the map on it at all.

“Find a magnifying gla.s.s.” Zhang YuShui said.

After looking at it again, they could see clues from the veined lines of the jade annulus. Zhang Qiu had followed Senior Brother to study map for several days. The palm-sized jade annulus in his hand was much clearer and more detailed than the simple map he studied. Although the ancient and modern geographical location was changeable, the setting of the large mountains, rivers and the overall plan was still in place.

In the afternoon, Zhang Qiu followed Zhang YuShui to buy supplies. According to Zhang YuShui, this time, the probability of Yin Qi of the wraiths was higher than that of zongzis in the pit. Zongzis were at least solid. In their current situation, even if they encounter fierce zongzis, they could all retreat, but the wraiths were not necessarily the same.

This thing had no reality.

Zhang Qiu was a little afraid of ghosts. Just as his Er-ge had said; this thing could not be grasped and see. Of course, this sort of lose the ghost's face Ling Dang was not counted.

Black dog's blood, rooster's blood, glutinous rice, yellow paper, cinnabar…

“Give me your hand.” Zhang YuShui said.

Zhang Qiu dully handed over his hand. The next second, his Er-ge held a knife in his hand and cut his index finger sharply and accurately.

The nerves of the fingertips were linked with the heart. The in pain Zhang Qiu wanted to swear. His Er-ge still didn't think it was enough and squeezed hard his finger onto the saucer for a long time. Zhang Qiu cried and asked, “Er-ge, mine's not black dog's blood or rooster's blood.”

“Do you think you are still a human?”

“You use my blood, still want to curse me.” His whole face was not happy, he wanted to fight ah!

After Zhang YuShui had squeezed a lot of blood, only then he was satisfied and let go. Then he said, “Li Shu's spiritual soul has been given to you for so long, and it's almost fused. Your blood is more important than black dog's blood and rooster's blood.”

“Wait a minute. Li Shu ought to need this spiritual soul thing, kindly suck it back.” Zhang Qiu asked quickly.

Zhang YuShui looked sideways at Zhang Qiu and snapped, “Kindly suck it back? When you were in the Queen's pit, you were almost sucked dry into the array. If you hadn't had the spiritual soul, you would not have been here now. Li Shu really cared for you.”

“Li Shu loves me, I know. But Senior brother is an ordinary person too, why is he okay?”

“Firstly, he had Lu Feng's daily irrigation, and secondly he had no little bun baking in his stomach.” Zhang Yushui deadpanned, saying quite a dirty matter. “Now your body needs a lot of nutrients. If it weren't for the spiritual soul, would you be able to go around like everybody else?”

If Zhang YuShui did not mention it, Zhang Qiu himself wouldn't think about it. When he was pregnant with Xiao Jiang, he felt uncomfortable. Now he was pregnant with number two (Lao Ni), but felt like everybody else. When he recalled about the event of being sucked dry in the Queen's pit, Zhang Qiu felt afraid for a while and anxiously asked, “Wouldn't all kinds of inactivity of my family's Lao Ni meant it was hurt at that time?” After all, being sucked and mended again and so on.

“Xiao Jiang is a zongzi. There is quite spa.r.s.e of blood inheritance of Divine Vein flowing in his blood vessels. If Lao Ni has the spiritual soul, then it should be all right. You don't worry blindly. You should keep your mentality of eating and drinking properly as before.” Zhang YuShui also dared not decide whether this one in his younger brother's stomach had been affected. At this time, he could only appease him first.

Zhang Qiu's heart sank when he heard this. He could not help blaming himself when he remembered the days before. Lao Ni was in his stomach while he was worried about Li Shu. He didn't eat well and had no good rest at all. When he was pregnant with Xiao Jiang, he gave birth approximately after three months. After calculation, his due was soon now, but Lao Ni was still quiet and not making a stir at all. If it hadn't been for today, he would have forgotten that he had a Lao Ni in his stomach.

When Zhang YuShui saw his younger brother's expression, he knew he was talking too much. He quickly said, “Don't think too much. It's the most important thing to keep your mind at ease.” After he said that, he knew he said in vain seeing Zhang Qiu's expression.

Zhang Qiu himself did not know how he got out of Zhang YuShui's room and unwittingly swayed to the door of Li Shui's room on the second floor.

The door was opened and Li Shu was standing in the room. Zhang Qiu couldn't resist falling into Li Shu's arms and cried.

Li Shu stiffened when he felt wet in front of his chest. His face turned cold and his eyebrows were frowning slightly. He stood straight and opened his mouth lightly. “Somebody bullied you?”

“It's my own pot.” Zhang Qiu breathed out, and at the thought of number two, he felt pain. “I didn't take good care of Lao Ni. What if something happened to Lao Ni? I really didn't mean to hic, blame you, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

Li Shu's expression looked cold as he held Zhang Qiu's arm to push him aside. Once he saw the man in his arms was with tears and runny nose, he felt a pain in his head and his heart softened. The original words of “don't take him as a subst.i.tute” that he wanted to say were swallowed back and he held Zhang Qiu in his arms again.

“It's all right. I'm here.”

Li Shu's voice was still cold, but yet it made Zhang Qiu felt confident that Lao Ni would have no problem, and he nodded seriously, “Lao Ni definitely will be all right.”

So who exactly is Lao Ni? Li Shu frowned and seeing Zhang Qiu like this, he still could not bear asking.

In the afternoon, Li Shu caught Pixian Hui w.a.n.g and the others without Zhang Qiu and asked who Lao Ni was. Qi Xi looked confused and wondered if Li Shu had any problems today.

Zhang YuShui said with a dark face, “You will know when the time comes.” He nearly unmade Li Shu's evil scheme.

The next day was rarely a good day. Li Shu with a cold face told the time was up. Zhang Qiu knew that it was time to go to Moon Bay. When the bodyguards behind Qi ZhiRong also arrived, he just knew it was the right time, place and people. Zhang Qiu was a little tense sitting on the backseat, and making him stay behind in the hotel also would not rest a.s.suring him. Now he felt a little out of sorts.

Moon Bay was said to be a bay, but in fact it was a flat land surrounded by hills. Some said that when the moon rose at night, the flat land in the middle would be s.h.i.+ning with silver, which was very beautiful. During this period, some people had seen the moonlight flowing like a current on the ground, and it faintly rose with fog, like a fairyland.

But the local people within the area of the county would not go there. The hills around here were the graveyards of the local people. Before the anything happened here, there were some bold people who bet to stay here for the night. In the end, who knew what did the people see when they went into the middle of the Moon Bay confusedly. The next day, they lay naked on the small hill graveyard and went back trembling not because of madness but a bout of serious illness. Then, five years ago, the female ghosts haunted the people. The locals never dared to come here again. Some people once thought to move their ancestral graves to other places. But everything would be interrupted. The graves on the hills seemed to be rooted. n.o.body dared to move them at all. All the grave mounds were like guarding the Moon Bay in the middle.

When they arrived at Moon Bay, it had been pa.s.sed eleven o'clock and the sun was everywhere. As a result, the closer they came, the darker the sky became, not to mention the hills. They looked up at the middle area, where huge clouds rolled and were so low that they could not breathe.

Zhang YuShui held a feng shui compa.s.s and the needle on it wiggled wildly at here and didn't stop at all.

“More difficult than I thought.” With a calm face, Zhang YuShui reached out and pulled out a small bronze mirror from his bag. There were red gems behind the bronze mirror. The pattern was simple and beautiful. At first glance, it was an antique good. But n.o.body paid attention to it. Zhang Yushui stuck the bronze mirror handle on the top of the compa.s.s. His hands quickly turned over twice, and then he whispered something in his mouth. Zhang Qiu was close enough to hear cryptic words like sky hacking, earth harmony and so on.

“Calm!”

Zhang YuShui suddenly shouted loudly, and the compa.s.s needle that had just been wildly swinging really settled down, while the mirror on the compa.s.s showed a form of dense ma.s.s of black gas, rolling back and forth like clouds.

A bodyguard at the back took a look, and his lips shook with fear. He pointed to the mirror and stammered, “Great—Great Master, there is a ghost in it!”

“Don't look.” Zhang YuShui said lightly.

Zhang Qiu thought there was some taboo, so he quickly turned his head away and then heard his Er-ge said, “I'm afraid before you guys even walk, you'll be too frightened that your legs won't move.”

All of Qi ZhiRong's bodyguards were here except the one lying in the hospital. There were thirteen people, making a circle and guard Qi ZhiRong in the middle. Qi Xi took the opportunity to squeeze in, pulled Qi Zhi Rong's hand, but then was shaken off. He persevered and said in deadpan, “We are teammates now. I am more reliable to protect you. You are considered a target now. When the time comes to go in, those things will rush at you. These bodyguards are ordinary people, they can't protect you.”

In order to chase after a husband, Qi Xi also risked it all; the information that he was not an ordinary person had been leaked out. Zhang Qiu looked in his eyes, and did not expect that Qi ZhiRong did not really refuse Qi Xi's hand anymore. It seemed that as long as one wanted to chase after a husband, any bad means should be tried. Maybe that would do.

Zhang Yushui, Pixian Hui w.a.n.g and Li Shu were leading and at the back were Pei Qing and Ling Dang. When they arrived at a place, Ling Dang panicked and drilled into the spirit bead. Now there was only Pei Qing, with Qi ZhiRong and bodyguards in the middle. Zhang Qiu thought that Pei Qing alone in the back was too weak. He somehow went over to add a number then heard Li Shu saying, “You come here, Qi Xi go at the back.”

Qi Xi, who had just open and aboveboard pulled hands for less than two minutes, wanted to refuse, but he still bear it under Qi ZhiRong's eyes.

“I'm looking at you from the back.” Qi Xi blew kisses at Qi ZhiRong, especially flashy. Seeing this, Zhang Qiu wanted to hit someone.

Before going in, Zhang YuShui took out a body s.h.i.+eld talismans. “Take it close to you. If you feel the heat burning, look for me immediately.” At Qi ZhiRong's turn, Zhang Qiu's blood painted talisman was handed over. “Keep up with the team, don't leave alone.”

Qi ZhiRong nodded; expression calm with a trace of urgency.

Zhang Qiu happened to look back at this moment and felt that Qi ZhiRong looked strange, but it should be normal for someone who wanted to be rid of years of manipulation.

Xiao Jiang pulled Daddy's hand and said happily, “Don't be afraid, Daddy. There's Xiao Jiang!” Yet he could not conceal the “many tasty things yo!” face.

Zhang Qiu:…

Dear son, wipe your saliva first, will you?

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