Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Gu Mu Country of Qinling Mountain [2]

Translator: Xah

“Dad, what about my stomach?” Zhang Qiu looked down, then grinned at his dad and said, “I didn’t get fat, ah! I’m still your handsome son!”

Father Zhang’s eyes had a complicated expression after moving away from his son’s stomach. When he looked at his son’s sweet and naive face, he suddenly didn’t know what to talk about. The words he wanted to say was swallowed back. “Let’s get in the car first.”

Zhang Qiu spread out limply on the passenger seat once he got into the car, fastening the seat belt while slouching and releasing a yawn. He drowsily asked, “Mom?”

“Cooking for you at home.” Father Zhang answered stiffly and started the car. Seeing his son’s sullen eyes, he quietly asked: “Tell me interesting things at school.”

Hearing that, Zhang Qiu’s spirit returned and his mood was heavy ^[1]. Although there were bad memories in the ancient tomb, he couldn’t deny his curiosity of the tomb of the Gu Mu Country. He liked these strangely odd wonders, otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen archaeology.

“Dad, a while ago at Qinling, there was a discovery of ancient tombs from the Shang dynasty period, from 4,000 years ago. The news was very sensational. Have you seen it?”

When Father Zhang heard about the Shang dynasty, his eyelids jumped. “I haven’t seen it, tell me a bit about it.”

Zhang Qiu knew that his dad also liked these things. The bookcases at home were mostly books about feng shui. When he thought of the nine black pillars on the second layer of the main burial chamber, he was tempted to ask his dad more questions. So he talked about the details of the tomb and excluded the part about seeing the crimson eyed man.

“…Gu Mu Country was located in present-day Shandong, but that tomb is in Xi’an. Although the inscription on the stone tablet was the three characters of Gu Mu Country, there was no other information available and there was no tomb owner too. So it was difficult to judge the specific age……” Zhang Qiu talked vaguely about the owner of the tomb.

“I only took pictures of a small part of the nine pillars’ patterns. Dad, let’s research and discuss it together when we get home.”

“Only this bit, nothing else?”

“No.” Zhang Qiu looked confusedly at his father. “Dad, what’s wrong with you today?”

Zhang Qiu was an only child. He had a close relationship with his dad since he was a child. It was an usual thing for him to foolishly chat with his dad in a ‘show no respect for one’s elders’ manner ^[2]. When he came out of the station today, he found his dad’s mood was somewhat wrong; his dad was particularly serious.

“You tell me honestly, did anything strange happen in the tomb?” Father Zhang stopped the car and kept staring at his son’s face dead in the eyes. “Since you were small, you touch your nose when you’re lying. Tell me the truth or else be careful when I beat you.”

Zhang Qiu’s face flushed red. How should he say this kind of matter with his dad? He could see his dad was serious and he planted mushrooms for a half day ^[3] before he broke the jar ^[4] and said: “Really, I’m not sure as well, Dad! He stared at me with crimson eyes and then I fainted. After that, what happened, I wasn’t too clear. I woke up and was covered with that…”

He spilled everything in one breath. Father Zhang heard about the crimson eyes, his mind clicked at once. His face turned black, and Zhang Qiu knew that something was wrong.

“Dad, what’s going on?”

“You have that crimson-eyed demon’s fetus in your stomach.” Father Zhang saw his son’s face turning white, his heart felt heavy. He restarted the car. “According to what you said, the man may be a jiangshi for more than 3,000 years old.”

Zhang Qiu’s mind was filled with the news of him conceiving a jiangshi’s child. It kept flooding in his brain again and again. He felt like he was thunderstruck, his whole person was paralyzed until he entered the door and he was dizzy.

How could a man be pregnant?

Not to mention pregnant with a jiangshi’s—

Zhang Qiu stood at the entrance seemingly scared out of his wits. Father Zhang saw his son’s appearance and regretted saying it too clearly. He pressed his hand on his son’s shoulder, “This matter is not without a solution. First, let’s go in and eat. Don’t worry your mother.”

As soon as the door opened, Mother Zhang saw the father and son were back, said happily: “Finally, you’re back. Go wash your hand quickly and have a meal.” On seeing her son’s face was wrong; “What happened? Your face is so pale.”

Zhang Qiu gave a laugh and acted miserably when leaning on his mom’s shoulder, “I miss you.”

Mother Zhang was grinning happily from ear to ear, “Dear son, Mom made a lot of your favorites. Rest first. Is it motion sickness?”

Father Zhang was covering at the side and Mother Zhang did not doubt him, she thought her son was uncomfortable because of motion sickness.

Zhang Qiu washed his face and his spirit was better. When he saw that his favorite slightly spicy ^[5] foods on the dinner table, his appetite came at once. He was holding the rice bowl to eat like fighting a war. Mother Zhang now could put away her worries.

Father Zhang looked at his son who was eating like a pig. He knew that his son’s heart felt heavy, but he didn’t think it was this heavy!

Zhang Qiu looked up from the rice bowl and saw disdain in his dad’s eyes, he stayed silent. What could he do? He was also very sad and desperate ah!

Turning around, he smiled and said: “Mom, your cooking is getting better and better!”

Mother Zhang became even happier.

In the evening, his mother went to the plaza with her sisters. Zhang Qiu faced his father.

“Dad—”

“Sleep early tonight and go with me somewhere tomorrow.”

Zhang Qiu still wanted to ask, but his dad entered the study and closed the door.

The sun hadn’t even risen yet, Zhang Qiu was picked up by his dad and was thrown directly onto the passenger seat. His dad drove all the way to the train station. Zhang Qiu leaned his head to sleep and drooled. When they reached the destination, he was knocked on the head by his dad. He rubbed his head with a grieving look.

“Dad, where are we going?” he asked. “Have you talked to Mom?”

Zhang Dad heard that and the back of his eyelid twitched, not quite naturally saying: “I left a note.” And then without venting off his anger he thumped Zhang Qiu’s head. “Get on the train first.”

Zhang Qiu, even though confused, could imagine how his mother would be like seeing the letter.

The train’s destination was a small county in Jiangsu. Zhang Qiu had never heard of this place before. Because it was summer, there were many people on the train. Zhang Qiu sat down with his dad after finding a seat. Based on the time, it would take eight hours.

Opposite of them were two female college students, rubbing their sleepy eyes, until they saw Zhang Qiu sat down, and all of a sudden became spirited. They did not expect to meet handsome guy on this train, wondering how to talk to him along the journey.

The girls did not hide their mild excitement. At least, Zhang Qiu saw it. Right now he was not in a mood to chat with these little sisters ^[6]. Besides, there was still his dad next to him and he did not dare to mess with the girls. Only giving the girls the chance to look at his handsome young face was enough to please him. So he turned his face, giving a side face angle that was considered handsome and sure enough he heard the two girls inhaled and whispered “so handsome, so beautiful, so brilliant,” and so on.

Zhang Qiu’s beautiful heart quickly bubbled.

He closed his eyes slowly and changed position. Sure enough the two little sisters became more excited and happy.

“It’s even better than a celebrity!”

“Very good temperament. You see he has long hair, but did not look like a woman at all!”

“Ah! He looked over. What to do, what to do? Aren’t we too loud, but he’s really handsome!”

Zhang Qiu: Wait, what long hair?! And his eyes are still closed!

Realizing that they were not talking about himself, Zhang Qiu was a little irritated. He thought about the big gentleman with long hair, he wanted to see how handsome that person was!

The messy-haired handsome Zhang Qiu opened his eyes and they were met with the other’s eyes across the aisle.

Long narrow cold eyes.

Zhang Qiu suddenly felt his hair raising. The other person’s stare felt like transfixing him in place, and he couldn’t move away his sight. On his seat, he still heard the girls excited whispering of praises, but at this moment, Zhang Qiu was no longer thinking about who was more handsome. He just felt how cold this person’s eyes were.

Cold sweating, Zhang Qiu’s face slowly turned white, the other person finally removed his eye sight.

He could not help but secretly released a relieved sigh, quickly turning his head and no longer having the guts to look back, but he felt like there were a pair of eyes staring at his back.

Zhang Qiu quickly pretended to sleep. He touched his forehead and felt cold sweat. In his head, he was thinking about the eyes. Why did they feel so familiar, as if he had seen it?

He did not noticed that next to him, Father Zhang was looking at the black bag in the hands of several people across the aisle. His brows wrinkled and his ears moved. He could hear the sound of rustling metal in the bag.

Father Zhang moved his line of sight away and with both arms folded, he closed his eyes.

The Zhang Qiu who originally pretended to sleep really fell asleep, and dreamed of the crimson eyes in the tomb. Only this time the eyes stared at him as closely as the poisonous tongue, as if had he made a move, it would pounce on him.

Suddenly awakened, Zhang Qiu was gasping and panting. Still badly shaken, he saw the next seat was empty. He did not know where his dad had gone.

“The person next to you just went to the toilet.” said the girl at the opposite.

Zhang Qiu nodded and looked around a little dazed. As a result, he saw the man on the aisle diagonally opposite from him. That person really stood out. He had never seen such a beautiful man since he grew up.

His black long hair was simple and his skin was very white. When the light from the couch’s window penetrated through, his white skin looked translucent. The side view of his face was perfect. As if sensing his sight, that person turned over. The two of them just looked at each other.

However, this time, the other person’s eyes were no longer as terrible as they were before. Although indifferent, they were not aggressive.

The other party nodded his head like a greeting, Zhang Qiu suddenly felt flattered. He immediately smiled and nodded. The other person had already turned his head and closed his eyes.

Zhang Qiu: What a great look! I am also very handsome! Humph!

Then he moved his head to look at the bare landscape outside the window.

The train soon arrived at the station and his dad also came back. Zhang Qiu stood up to go, his dad pressed him back to the seat.

“Wait until the train stops.”

Zhang Qiu found that the six people on the opposite side of the aisle also stood up and walked away. The other five people were carrying big bags. The long-haired man walking at the back did not bring anything. However, it could be seen they were together because the person walking in front of the long-haired man called him Li Shu (离殊).

The name was very strange, he did not know what characters^[7]  were used in it.

Zhang Qiu felt apprehensive in his heart and was pulled up by his father. “Getting off.”

Because it was a small county and there were not many people getting off the train, Zhang Qiu and his dad soon met with the six people. Among them, a tall muscular man gave them a fierce look. Zhang Qiu was confused and thought that this person had problems.

“Old fellow, watch way you look, be careful with your eyes.”

Zhang Qiu at once cursed. “You’re sick ah! Who’s looking at you?!”

The other party was angered and approached Zhang Qiu directly with imposing manner. One of them automatically shouted: “Lao San, don’t make trouble. Let’s go quickly.”

Zhang Qiu saw the other party wanted to make trouble, taking a look at the person’s stature, he suddenly swallowed, but he also could not let his dad be irritated by petty annoyances. He blocked in the front, whispered: “Dad, you quickly run to the police, I can handle it.”

Father Zhang thought that his son was muddle-headed back to back, but was also filial. He had been inactive for so long. Today was a chance to exercise his hands skill.

The opponent was big and tall. He stood towering above Zhang Qiu like looking down at a small chick. His eyes were full of laughter. The wave of his fist made a gust of chilling air, his fist was bigger than Zhang Qiu’s face.

Father Zhang grasped Zhang Qiu’s back collar like grasping a chick. He didn’t make a move because he saw the opponent’s fist was blocked.

“Go.”

The voice was cold, brief and to the point, Zhang Qiu saw the long-haired man. White translucent arm was under that Lao San’s arm. The man was white and slender, but that Lao San’s face changed, his mouth moved like he wanted to swear. At last, he resentfully loosen his hand, turned around and left.

Zhang Qiu looked up to thank him and he saw the other person had already walked away.

 

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Note made by the Editor:

[1] originally, it said ‘heart heavy’, but the paragraph doesn’t seem to indicate that Zhang Qiu has negative feeling about archaeology nor the tomb (other than ‘that’) so I thought about changing it to ‘ecstatic’ or the like, but (again) the phrase ‘heavy-hearted’ was used rather properly a little later in the chapter, so I just put this here. If anyone have better suggestion, this puny editor wants to hear about it!

[2] impolite

[3] means that QiuQiu is stalling, he doesn’t explain anything for a long while before finally [4] spilling the beans

[5] 偏痲偏辣; piān má piān là; ‘pian’ means ‘partial, lean, inclined to one side, bias, etc,’ while ‘ma’ (‘numb’, but also means ‘hemp, linen’) and ‘la’ (‘hot’) are two different kinds of spiciness in the ‘mala’ concept in Sichuan cuisine (you may have heard of ‘mala hotpot’), the character 麻 is the one usually used instead of 痲, but the latter is a variant of it. Of course, knowing this doesn’t stop the phrase from turning my brain into mush as the whole phrase means ‘slightly spicy’ but ‘pian la’ alone means ‘spicy’ (and ‘pian ma’ means ‘hemp’ apparently? _(꒪ཀ꒪」∠)_). Again, if any of you have suggestion, please let me know.

[6] It doesn’t mean they’re his literal sisters, I’m sure you know, but let me explain anyway. Some Asian countries have the tendency to address other, even strangers, with familial terms. For example; a woman drops her purse. To get her attention, say, an American would probably call her ‘ma’am’ or ‘miss’, but we usually use ‘sis’ or ‘auntie’.

[7] Originally ‘This name was very strange, he did not know the two characters.’ Which I think could mean that ‘he feels the name is strange because the characters in the name is not something he recognizes’ or ‘although he feels the name is strange, he doesn’t even know what character is used for the name so he can’t say for sure’. I leaned towards the latter because, of boy, have you seen pinyin? Sometimes when someone is introducing themselves, they make clear of what characters in their name are because one syllable (a.k.a one word) could be written in dozen ways with dozen different meanings.

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