Chapter 32

Chapter 32 : Past Live [10] 

Translator: Xah

1,800 corpses were all the trusted subordinates under Li Shu’s command. Over the next 4,000 years, he was repressed by his own trusted subordinates’ resentment, simply heart-wrenching!

The heart of the people who planned all these could be said to be vicious.

Zhang Qiu did not answer, but lowering his head to at his finger, lost in thought.

“Gou Wang? The grandson of Qiong Chan?!” Hua Ting spoke out.

Zhang Qiu’s ears moved involuntarily, but he did not look up.

He just listened to Hua Ting’s voice continued, “Gu Mu Country was a long time ago, and all were handed down ancient myths. This Gou Wang had even less records. As for his status in Gu Mu Country, I do not know. However, after the inheritance system of my family’s rule, maybe this Gou Wang was the monarch of Gu Mu Country.” After that, looking at Li Shu, he was curious about the history of Gu Mu Country, which was an age of myths of vicious beasts and God Vein.

Li Shu’s eyes moved to Zhang Qiu, who was hanging low his head and playing with his fingers, and his anger faded instantly. His tone was calm, as if he was not talking about his business, a few simple sentences, but made Zhang Qiu’s heart clutched. He lowered his eyes and his eyes turned red unconsciously after listening.

Gu Mu was a small country. When Gou Wang succeeded, the Shang Dynasty sent troops to attack and Li Shu accepted the battle. And yet, when he returned from the victory of war, he did not expect to be ambushed by his own people.

He was trapped alive in winter months –a world of ice and snow– to die.

After death, there were thousands of all kinds of resentment reached his ears. The 1,800 trusted high-rank military officers were filled in coffins alive, layer by layer, suffering the most painful torments. Thus, their resentment should be the most vicious.

The route back to the city, the specifications of the tomb and the status of the burial companions were not what ordinary people could scheme. In the whole Gu Mu Country, only Guo Wang could.

In Shang Dynasty, people were buried with companions, but the people who accompanied the dead were not called human beings but animals. They [the Shang] were lower than animals, but they never used officers and soldiers.

So great was one’s achievements as to make one’s superior felt uneasy or insecure.

Zhang Qiu’s head came up with such a sentence. He had read many history textbooks. Gou Wang had given the tomb’s specification of great ministers, dukes and kings rank, and he still was able to receive praises in front of outsiders. Gou Wang killed Li Shu’s trusted subordinates, fearing that someone would add rebellion to him.

Zhang Qiu could not help but look at Li Shu, and was caught in the other’s sight. Zhang Qiu quickly lowered his head and told himself not to think about it. What did Li Shu’s past have to do with him?

“… It’s not as simple as I thought before.” Li Shu said.

Zhang Qiu thought of the several tombs he had gone before; Phoenix Bead, Nine Palace Locks Immortal Array, and Jin LaoDa, who could not die. All these were conspiracies, which had been laid out more than 4,000 years ago.

He thought for a long time and could not think of a reason why, he might as well not think about it. Anyway, he had nothing to do with Li Shu. What was he going to do thinking about it?!

His chest felt itchy, Zhang Qiu looked down, and raised his eyebrows in anger. The little child in his arms was sticking his head to his chest, spitting bubbles in his mouth, then made sucking mouth, dilly-dallyingly rubbing his head on Zhang Qiu’s T-shirt.

Zhang Qiu, who had never looked after a child, saw the little child like that and knew what the other was doing!

Looking for breast milk!

It would be strange for a big man like him to have breast milk.

Zhang Qiu raised his eyebrows, especially fierce, he grabbed the little child. When he met the pair of big bright and round almond eyes dripping wet, suddenly, whatever profanity he wanted to curse could not be uttered.

He’s so angry!

The little child did not look at Zhang Qiu’s expression; he giggled nonstop, moving his small bright red mouth. With particularly great strength, he stuck his head into Zhang Qiu’s chest. He caught the attention of Pixian Hui Wang at the side. When Pixian Hui Wang saw it, he was happy. “The little guy is hungry and looking for milk ah!”

Zhang Qiu:…

His second brother’s wife must be retaliating against him! So petty!

Feeling eyes on him, Zhang Qiu had no way out of embarrassment. He stood up indignantly, scathingly went to Li Shu, and put the little child into Li Shu’s hands with a blank face. “Yours, I don’t care.”

Zhang Qiu turned around and left. At the back, the little child was crying ‘Baba’, Zhang Qiu was itching to plug his ears.

Because of this, the atmosphere was much better than before.

Li Shu held the little child in one hand, looked at Hua Ting and said, “You were involved in my affairs at that time, but today we broke this array. Later, I’ll try to find a way out of it.” It referred to the life span of Hua Ting.

Lu Feng was very grateful to Li Shu, even when he knew that the other was not human. Just after Hua Ting was shot in the chest, his hands were cold when he was giving the first aid. His lover’s life was saved by Li Shu’s blood. It healed at a speed visible to the naked eye and saved his lover’s life before he could get the bullet out.

He didn’t care much about past life. Hua Ting’s life in this cycle, he would spare no effort to maintain it.

Because Lu Feng was looking at Li Shu, Li Shu knew what Lu Feng thought even before he opened his mouth. This man had moral integrity. “If there’s news, I’ll let you know.”

–

When the tomb matter was dealt with, before leaving, Pixian Hui Wang walked down to Jin LaoDa, who had fainted, and kicked him, “It’s a real hassle that this fellow can’t die.”

“The array was broken.” Li Shu speculated that Jin LaoDa should be afraid of this array, and now it should not be functioning. “Wake him up first, there’s something to ask him.”

Jin LaoDa knew a lot. Pixian Hui Wang stabbed Jin LaoDa in the thigh with a knife. Jin LaoDa, who had just fainted, woke up in an instant. He shouted and when he saw the person clearly, he endured the pain. “What do you want to do?”

“Who is the master behind you? Where? Talk!” Pixian Hui Wang held a dagger against Jin LaoDa’s face.

Jin LaoDa laughed, the point of the knife penetrated into the flesh a centimetre, he suddenly hissing in pain. He firmly said, “You can’t kill me, I won’t tell you anything.”

“It seems that you want to stay in this main tomb forever.” Li Shu coldly said.

Jin LaoDa’s face suddenly changed. When the array was broken down, Jin LaoDa had fainted. He could not see that the array was broken. He shook all over, “Even if I told you, you would not be the Master’s opponent.”

“Throw him in the coffin and seal it up.” Li Shu coldly said.

Pixian Hui Wang was about to start, Jin LaoDa’s face went white, “Wait.” Pixian Hui Wang stopped but the knife didn’t move away. There was plenty of Jin LaoDa’s nonsense and he was immediately cut off, and then was thrown into the coffin.

“Seven years ago, I went to clean up goods in Mongolia and had a chance meeting with Master. Since then, I have been with him till now. He can guarantee that I will not die. Even if I die, I just need to change a skin.” Jin LaoDa said with a vague look in his eyes. He had clearly seen Master’s appearance, but now he could not think of it at all.

Pixian Hui Wang wasn’t interested in these things and asked, “Where is the God Vein you mentioned last time?”

“You, how do you know God Vein?!” Jin LaoDa’s lips trembled, he refused to say anything. When he saw Pixian Hui Wang pulling him up and about to seal him in the coffin, he quickly shouted, “I really don’t know where it is, but I can collect all the bits to make a whole map to find the God Vein. At that time, I can live forever, without the painful skin exchange and zongzi eating. Completely live forever.” When the words finished, Jin LaoDa’s eyes were full of madness.

After that, no matter what they asked, Jin LaoDa was always in a state of insanity. Li Shu saw, without asking anything he hit Jin LaoDa until Jin LaoDa lose consciousness and threw him into the coffin to be seal.

“Wait, there’s a word on the coffin.” Hua Ting suddenly found out, he took a quick photograph and stone rubbed to copy the inscription on paper.

The coffin lid was sealed layer upon layer and a regular thudding sounded suddenly in the originally quiet coffin.

It seemed very strange in the tomb room. Obviously Jin LaoDa had just fainted, and even if he was awake, he could not be able to shout loudly. Only the sound of thudding was like the pounding of the heart. Zhang Qiu felt hairy by the sound, and he always felt that there was a gloomy wind in the tomb. He quickly kept pace with Pixian Hui Wang.

When he passed by Li Shu, he did not even glance sideways.

The little child in Li Shu’s arm was very happy to see Zhang Qiu and shouted ‘Baba’ excitedly.

Zhang Qiu just pretended not hearing it, quickened his footsteps and nearly ran into Pixian Hui Wang in front of him.

“Baba, hungry!” The little guy cracked words in his mouth.

Hungry, you go to the bastard Li Shu! Zhang Qiu’s argue in his mind.

“Drink milk!” The tender voice was bright and accurate.

Zhang Qiu stumbled under his feet and almost fell flat on his face. He was supported by Li Shu, who came up behind him. The little Jiangshi in Li Shu’s arm stared at Zhang Qiu excitedly and giggled. He kept shouting ‘milk’ and ‘drink’.

The place he was held was like ice and in a split second, Zhang Qiu felt chilled and fiercely shook Li Shu away in fear. He did not even turn his head and quickly caught up with Pixian Hui Wang.

“You don’t seem afraid of me?”

“You’re my second brother’s wife. Why am I afraid you?” Zhang Qiu’s tone was somewhat low, he didn’t know it himself.

Pixian Hui Wang was choked up. “Li Shu is a zongzi for more than 4,000 years. I’ve been for more than 3,000 years. Don’t be favoring one and discriminating against the other.”

“It’s nothing to do with that.” Zhang Qiu blurted out unconsciously and met Pixian Hui Wang’s pointed eyes. He became even more dried inside, “I also don’t know.”

After that, he did not talk. When he came out of the tomb, Zhang Qiu cheekily squeezed into Hua Ting’s and Lu Feng’s car. Pixian Hui Wang looked at Li Shu’s face. He laughed inside. It was a real pleasure that Xiao Qiuqiu seek death by himself!

Zhang Qiu sat in the car and closed the door, avoiding Li Shu’s view, but he turned his head back unconsciously the next second. Who would have known that Li Shu did not even turn his head, and hardly seemed reluctance, he departed with the little Jiangshi.

All of a sudden Zhang Qiu panted with rage, his whole person wanted to blow up.

Slag man!

Discarded (kick away) after having made use of!

Unmerciful!

Sure enough, he’s a cold-blooded Zongzi!

Zhang Qiu felt an indescribable grievance for a second, and he was irritated that there was something wrong with him. Originally, he had planned to draw a line with Li Shu, but now he was ignored by the other—

Huh, had better be happy!

He sat in the backseat, sulking. When they returned to the city, Hua Ting asked him what he had planned. He looked out of the window absently. There was no shadow in the street under the hot weather. He was somewhat depressed and said casually, “I’m going back to Xi’an.”

“We’re going back to Beijing. Are you going back to the hotel or directly to the airport? We’ll give you a ride.”

“No, I’ll take a taxi myself.”

“I’ll still give you—” Before Hua Ting finished, Lu Feng interrupted with a laugh, “Then Zhang Qiu, see you in Xi’an. Be careful and be safe on the way.”

Zhang Qiu nodded and got out of the car.

In the car, Hua Ting reprimanded Lu Feng, “On this hot day, sending him also quite by the way. What if my little Junior brother gets sunburn?”

“He hesitated to go back directly to Xi’an. What’s more, Li Shu is unlikely to let him go.” Lu Feng said confidently. Hua Ting thought of Li Shu’s guardianship of Zhang Qiu in the tomb, and felt that Lu Feng’s statement was reasonable.

–

Zhang Qiu walked for a while. His head was a little dizzy under the sun. He took a taxi. Where would he know he had reached the place, and at first glance, he had actually gone back to the door of the hotel?

“How did I get here?”

“Sir, you said you were going to the hotel.”

What did he say? Zhang Qiu did not have any impression. He was probably dizzy under the sun. Forget it. Since he had arrived exactly at the hotel and he had his luggage, he took the money out of his pocket to pay the fare. He went into the hotel and pushed the room open in the same manner as he walked. He sorted out his document into the knapsack, and sat down for a while. It was unknown what he was waiting for.

The telephone rang in the room.

Zhang Qiu was woken up with a start by the front-desk sister who asked him if he wanted to renew his fee.

It’s two o’clock in the afternoon when he looked at his cellphone. The room charge just ended today.

“No.”

When Zhang Qiu stepped out of the hotel with his luggage on his back, he thought it was really over. He and Li Shu were not the same kind of people. He returned to Xi’an to continue to be a student.

But there was an inexplicable loss in his heart.

–

When the plane landed at Xianyang Airport at 8 p.m., Zhang Qiu took a taxi directly to the entrance of the small building opposite the school. There were a row of small restaurants downstairs. When Zhang Qiu, who was not hungry, smelled the fragrant aroma, his stomach rumbling with hunger, he ordered a bottle of cold Ice Peak^[1] and took a big gulp on the hot day.

“Refreshing!” As if the chest pressure became air and also spit out, he felt joyous and asked the boss for a bowl of flat rice noodle.

After he finished eating, he went home with his schoolbag on the back. The neighborhood he rented at was an old community. The street lamp was damaged for a month and nobody repaired it. However, the greenery was very good. Their school was in Chang’an District, near the foot of the mountain; the green air was very good. Normally, in this community, the most common was the nearby college students. Now it was still early to go back school. The community was quiet and there was no shadow. The trees on both sides of the street were not pruned and wildly extending to both sides. By the faint moonlight passing through, it looked somewhat eerie.

Zhang Qiu had went down several tombs in succession and felt braver than before, but at the moment he felt that someone was following him. He looked back suspiciously and saw nothing. He quickened his pace. At last, as he ran, the feeling of being followed by others was even worse. Soon, he immediately arrived at the bottom of the building, and suddenly stumbled under his feet. A cold wind rushed up from behind—.

“AAAHHH!!! What’s on my shoulder?!”

---

Footnote:

[1] Xi’an brand of sweet orange-flavored soda

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