Chapter 73

Chapter 73: The Silkworm Road [7]

Translator: Xah

They obviously already had children, but this kiss made Zhang Qiu nervous no less than the first time. His heart was thumping.

Li Shu’s perfect face slowly enlarged and Zhang Qiu closed his eyes subconsciously. He felt slightly cool and soft on his lips. He stretched out the tip of his tongue and licked at it. He was thinking that this kind of unbecoming for his fresh and pure man set up, and could not help to retreat, but he was broiled warm and swallowed by Li Shu.

The kiss that was meant to be pure and unaffected eventually developed into a particularly salty wet one.

Zhang Qiu looked shy, licking the saliva on his lower lip. His eyes were watery because he was suffocated and could not breathe.

Invigorating!

As if a little brush tickled his heart, Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu eagerly and said, “Let’s go back to our room.”

“Okay.” Li Shu’s eyes could not hide the desire in it.

After checking out, they rushed to the hotel room, filled with the atmosphere of asking for papapa. As a result, when they reached the door of the room, the good guys were there. Little Ling Dang was walking in English style today. He dressed like a young gentleman and curiously said, “Your Excellency, why is your mouth so red? Did you eat too spicy food?”

Zhang Qiu was in no mood to explain. Looking at the situation presently, he knew that his fervent heart was doomed to be unsettled.

Sigh, why is it so hard to get papapa?

Li Shu’s face was not looking very good either. Zhang YuShui, holding Xiao Jiang in his arms, smiled as he said, “No other way, Gao ZhiHao urgently notified to set out today.”

Zhang Qiu felt that the smile on Erge’s face was very schadenfreude. He was absolutely revenging him for giving Xiao Jiang to ErSao.

The cars already parked at the entrance, just waiting for Zhang Qiu and Li Shu. With no other way, Zhang Qiu pressed the itch in his heart and resigned to pack a bag of clothes, which contained mostly Xiao Jiang’s, the brat who like to look good, and also his and Li Shu’s change of underwears.

Three black SUVs were parked at the entance. Gao ZhiHao was sitting in front. His face did not look very good. Upon seeing them coming out, he put on an insincere smile, “Can we finally go?”

“Boss Gao has been waiting for a long time, please excuse us.” Zhang YuShui said with a laugh. It was the old man who fished out the money (to pay them).

Gao ZhiHao had bad lucks in the past two days. The recruited Tame Head Master wasted all his energy for no reason and now the little ghosts in the family made a mess. The two promised partners turned head to cooperate with his arch-enemy, Lin Family and he was choking with blood. He spent so much money to recruit people but he had to wait at the door for half an hour for them.

In great abundance, currently Gao ZhiHao really was unable to give consideration for face, and he could not smile. Especially when he saw Zhang Qiu even holding a child in his arms, the veins on his forehead burst into flames. How did these people look like?! Where did they look like going down the pit, it’s clear that they took his money to sight-seeing!

“Why is the child here too?” Gao Zhihao murmured against Li Shu’s face.

Zhang YuShui first explained with a smile, “The child’s eyes are clean, it can be useful.”

Gao ZhiHao glanced suspiciously at the little chubby kid in Zhang Qiu’s embrace. Could the rumors about Li Shu’s awesomeness was because the child went down to be a bait?

This explanation was fine. In any case, it’s not his fault if something happened to the child. Then again, when Gao ZhiHao saw Qi Xi dressed up in beautiful fashion, he really couldn’t hold back. He pointed to Qi Xi, “What about this echanting looking man, are you guys planning to go on an outing?!”

The echanting looking Qi Xi:…

Zhang Qiu endured his laughter. Who made Qi Xi particularly flashy, looking like pop star walking on the red carpet, and became the most noticeable in their group of people. If it weren’t for the time already late and there were few people on the streets in late autumn, they would have been the people’s centre of attention.

“Jealous of my beauty. I know what I’m going to wear when getting into the pit.” Qi Xi pouted.

Zhang Qiu thought to himself: is it possible for the Zongzis to bite you less upon seeing you look good? Listen to Qixi talking nonsense.

Gao ZhiHao was angered until headache. Anyway, he had already given his money. He didn’t care whether more people died or lived. He said angrily, “Get on the cars and set out.”

The two leading SUVs were Gao ZhiHao’s, loaded with luggage, and the following after was theirs with Pei Qing driving. There were just enough seats and the trunk stored their own luggage. Taking advantage of the night scene, they took off out of the city onto the highway.

Zhang Qiu coaxed Xiao Jiang to sleep. Li Shu took over to hug him to let Zhang Qiu’s arms relax. Zhang Qiu leaned back in his seat, feeling a little carsick. His face looked a little white, while his stomach felt a little tight pain.

“Uncomfortable?”

“It’s a little tight pain.” Zhang Qiu felt dizzy. His eyes could not open. A warm hand wiped off the sweat on his forehead. Zhang Qiu knew it was Li Shu’s. The window was opened and cold wind blew in which sobered him up. When he opened his eyes, there was cup of warm water against his lips.

Li Shu held the cup and fed Zhang Qiu drink water. “You go to sleep for a while.” He went to borrow a blanket from Qi Xi to cover up Zhang Qiu and then closed the open window with a small opening left.

Zhang Qiu didn’t know how long he had slept, he felt stiff all over his body. He opened his eyes only to realize the car had stopped and there was nobody in it.

Through the window, the campsite lights were very bright outside. Gao ZhiHao’s people were setting up tents. Zhang Qiu saw Li Shu was crouching -unknown to what he was doing- and he got out of the car wearing a blanket on his body. The cold wind made him shivered. Before approaching, Li Shu turned around and upon seeing him, said, “Good timing, have some congee.”

Only then Zhang Qiu saw Li Shu was cooking a pot of plain rice congee in a simple stove, which was boiling bubbles and emiting fragrance aroma. Xiao Jiang sat obediently at the side with a beef stick between his teeth and upon seeing him, cheerfully called out to Daddy.

“Where is this?”

“Leshan.” Li Shu filled a bowl of congee and handed it to Zhang Qiu. “Be careful not to get scalded.”

Zhang Qiu took the bowl of congee and sipped it. His lips drawn down because the taste was light, he could not eat. Li Shu saw Zhang Qiu’s action and knew that the taste was light. He put a small packet of pickles on the congee. Zhang Qiu immediately drank the congee happily before he asked, “Have you eaten?”

“Nn, I’ve eaten.” Li Shu pulled Zhang Qiu to sit in a small chair next to him.

After drinking congee, Zhang Qiu looked up and scanned the surrounding. “Where are Erge and the others?”

It was unknown which base in the mountain the camp was at, with pitch-black forest on all sides. They chose this flat terrain which was wide besides the weeds, and built small base of tents with lights up. In the middle of the base was Gao ZhiHao’s station. His subordinates were preparing to eat. Meanwhile, their tents were surrounding the base but Pei Qing, Qi Xi and ErSao were not there.

As soon as he finished his words, he heard Qi Xi’s giggling voice. Zhang Qiu looked at the direction of the voice. In the distant, the flashily dressed Qi Xi came out from the dark forest. Next to him were Pei Qing and Ling Dang. Qi Xi was carrying two gray rabbits and Pei Qing had three fishes in his hands.

“Yo, Xiao Qiuqiu has woken up? Good, I’ll give you snacks.” Being especially flirtatious, Qi Xi threw the two rabbits to the ground. Zhang Qiu saw the two rabbits trembling with fear, but none of them dared to run, only waiting for the fate of being slaughtered. They looked pitiful.

When Xiao Jiang saw the rabbits, his eyes were shining and he crouched while poking at the rabbit’s ear. “Daddy, it’s really cute.”

Zhang Qiu thought his son was very sympathetic. Then, he saw Xiao Jiang displayed his tiger’s teeth and said, “It looks really delicious at a glance.”

What misconceptions did he have towards this foodie?!

With Qi Xi here, there way of doing things was a lot. Although it was troublesome somehow, the mood was good. It felt really like an outing. After cleaning the rabbits and fishes, they were set on the fire. Qi Xi pulled out a lot of condiments from his LV luggage bag. Seeing this, Zhang Qiu’s eyelids jumped. There was no need for them to help because Qi Xi was full of zest running the show entirely, until the rosted rabbit’s fat to spurt out fragrance. Xiao Jiang crouched beside Qi Xi with worshipful eyes, like a small tail (follower).

“Pretty big brother, this rabbit is really delicious oh!”

Changing from uncle to big brother took only one rabbit’s leg to fix it. Zhang Qiu was deeply worried about his son’s future but he said delightedly, “I want it, too!”

Li Shu looked at the father and son whom were eating with greasy mouths, and his heart felt it being twisted. It seemed that he should learn culinary arts and techniques as soon as possible.

After the barbecue, Zhang Qiu had no more headache and tightness in his stomach. Feeling vigorously and lively, he helped to pick up the sleeping bags from the car and sort them out. He then made do with washing up before slipping into the sleeping bag. Not a while, Li Shu’s touch came in. Zhang Qiu put Xiao Jiang on the side. They were close together, their breathing intertwined.

Outside, there was a clap of thunderbolt sounding. Erge had arranged formation and as long as something evil came into the base, it would sound out. Gao ZhiHao’s subordinates and Pei Qing were on guard for the first half of the night, and Li Shu was in the second half of the night.

Zhang Qiu knew propriety and they exchanged kisses.

“Sleep.” Li Shu kissed Zhang Qiu on the forehead.

Zhang Qiu eyes his closed and very quickly fell asleep. A very thick cloud of crimson fog was wrapping on something. He could vaguely hear the soft calls for Daddy. Slowly, the crimson fog peeled off one by one, revealing a small and delicate child, smaller than Xiao Jiang when he was born. Zhang Qiu was very excited; it was Lao Er. This was Lao Er.

Bang.

Zhang Qiu barely reached out to hug when it was black before his eyes. The whole thick crimson fog turned into a thick black. He heard Lao Er’s soft cries for Daddy, and the voice became smaller and smaller…

“Lao Er!”

In his sleep, Zhang Qiu woke up and sat up. He was stunned for a few seconds before he realized that he was dreaming. He touched his stomach; it was as quiet as before. Nothing changed.

The light outside the tent penetrated in. Zhang Qiu looked beside him. Xiao Jiang was sleeping soundly and Li Shu should have gone out to watch the night.

It was extremely quiet all around. Though quiet, the wind blow could still be heard. Zhang Qiu’s eyelids jumped, as he felt it was too quiet. He lifted the corner of the tent. There was no one outside and he could not help but feel his heart constrict. Where did Li Shu go?

Grabbing a jacket randomly, Zhang Qiu held the dagger in his hand to defend himself. He heard footsteps behind him and looked back only to see Qi Xi.

“It’s you ah!” Zhang Qiu breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you feel that something is wrong? Li Shu is missing. It’s very quiet here, too.”

“It seems that something is wrong.” Qi Xi looked in a certain direction and pointed out, “There seems to be a figure there. Let’s go and see it.”

Zhang Qiu looked in the direction Qi Xi pointed to; there was nothing but black. However, Qi Xi already went over and Zhang Qiu followed after. Two steps ahead, as if mad, Qi Xi ran ahead. Zhang Qiu followed him and even shouted, “Qi Xi, Qi Xi!”

But he had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Qiu thought for a moment, before grinding his teeth to go back and planned to wake everyone up to find Qi Xi.

As a result, after half a day’s walking, Zhang Qiu was unable to get close even when the camp was in right front of him. Zhang Qiu’s mind was muddled. The tents in the base were calmly flashing lights. The originally missing Li Shu was sitting in front of the fire to watch the night, beside two of Gao ZhiHao’s hired thugs.

“Li Shu.” Zhang Qiu shouted vigorously, but Li Shu did not seem to have heard at all.

Zhang Qiu stood in his place, sweating all over his head. What the hell happened?

He felt anxious. He heard something moving in front of him. He followed the noise with dagger in hand. Suddenly, a figure jumped out of the dark forest. A cold tip of a dagger was on his neck. Zhang Qiu was stiff and frightened.

Zhang Qiu looked up only to see Li Shu. However, when he remembered seeing Li Shu at the camp standing vigil, he stepped back two steps and said, “Who on earth are you?”

“Song Bao, it’s me.”

Li Shu wiped the blood off his face casually and calmly inserted the dagger into the scabbard before pinning it to his waist. “It’s really me. Follow me to go back to camp first.”

Zhang Qiu, with his eyes still on guard, stepped back two steps and pointed his dagger at his opponent. “Say the balance of your bank card!” They dated yesterday and after the meal, he even checked Li Shu’s account.

In front of him, Li Shu reported a series of numbers. The zeros were in complete order. Zhang Qiu listened with relief and went up to him.

“I also know what colour of underwear you’re wearing today.” Li Shu touched Zhang Qiu’s face and said with a smile.

What’s this ‘I also know what color you’re wearing today’? No, this was not the time.

Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu. “Are you hurt? What the hell is going on? Moreover, Qi Xi suddenly disappeared.”

“It’s not my blood. Let’s go back first. I don’t know if they are affected.” Li Shu held Zhang Qiu’s hand, and the two quickly shuttled through the woods. Zhang Qiu found that the way back was the opposite of what he just did. They walked only a few hundred meters and reached in front of the camp.

The fire was extinguishing and all the hired thugs, whom had been on vigilante, were absent.

Zhang Qiu went back to his tent first and only relieved when he saw Xiao Jiang sleeping soundly. Li Shu had woken up the people in the tents one by one. Pei Qing, Ling Dang and Qi Xi were all absent. Zhang Yushui and Pixian Hui Wang came out and saw Li Shu’s state. They were both surprised.

“What happened?” Zhang YuShui frowned. It was strange that they both slept so soundly.

“B-boss, we lost two people here.”

Being woken up, Gao ZhiHao was a little angry and said impatiently, “Did they go to piss? Look for them. Don’t make a fuss.”

“Don’t run around first.” Li Shu said coldly.

Gao ZhiHao felt ashamed by the rebuke, but when he swept a glance at the bloodstains on Li Shu’s face, he felt immediately tensed. “What happened?”

Zhang Qiu didn’t know what was going on, so he said what happened after he woke up.

Zhang Yushui checked the formation; everything was fine. It shouldn’t be ghosts or evil things.

“It’s an illusion.” Li Shu looked around and put out the fire. Next to it was the unburned rabbit’s skin. “It should be something we eat in the evening; the fish and rabbits. Moreover, the remains of this burnt rabbit’s skin can make people hallucinate.”

So, they all ran out on their own.

“But why nothing happened to Erge, Ersao and Xiao Jiang?”

Pixian Hui Wang said, “We didn’t eat the fish.”

Zhang Qiu then remembered that ErSao felt unwell after he smelled the fish, and Erge accompanied him to take fresh air. Xiao Jiang disliked too much fishbone and did not take a bite. The rest of them ate it.

“The blood on me belongs to a wild monkey. The monkeys here are very powerful, unlike ordinary monkeys.” Li Shu held a dagger and looked at Zhang YuShui. “You stay and watch them. I’ll go out and find the people.”

Zhang Qiu was worried about Li Shu, but he also knew that if he went out too, he would have to make Li Shu protect him. He might as well stay in the camp, especially since his dream. He was afraid something happened to Lao Er.

“Be careful.” Zhang Qiu said uneasily. At the side, Zhang YuShui made Pixian Hui Wang stay behind to help looking after the others while he went out to look for people.

No one felt sleepy. They dared not lighted up the fire again. They looked around the woods with flashlights, keeping guard.

When the sky lightened up, Li Shu and Zhang YuShui finally came back with Pei Qing, Qi Xi and Ling Dang. Qi Xi’s clothes were messy and dirty while his face was scratched and grimaced in pain. These were all done by the wild monkeys.

Pei Qing and Ling Dang were alright, only that their clothes were in a mess. When Zhang Qiu saw Erge’s smiling face and Ling Dang red face, he thought the two (PQ&LD) were up to no good.

“Gege pulled me out to show me a good thing, and I went out in a daze, and then…” Ling Dang blushed as he spoke, but he couldn’t go on.

Pei Qing also had an embarrassed face. Who would have expected that in the middle of his fantasy of outdoor battlefield with Ling Dang, they were surrounded by a group of wild monkeys. If Li Shu and Zhang Yushui hadn’t arrived in time, he would have to fight with the monkeys in bare buttocks. The group of monkeys was too good-for-nothing, throwing their clothes everywhere.

“Qi Xi, what did you see last night? I was calling you from the back but no reply, you just went like crazy.” When Zhang Qiu saw Pei Qing’s expression, he could guess something and quickly diverged from the topic.

When asked, Qi Xi’s expression flashed, and his grimaced face turned a little colder. “I saw nothing.”

Not many people could make Qi Xi’s look turned bad. Zhang Qiu didn’t ask again.

After a while, the two missing bodyguards also came back with bare buttocks and bloodstained. They were caught by wild monkeys. One looked at the two awkward’s appearance, knew what they had done in the middle of the illusion last night. Their pants were even gone.

After everyone gathered, they packed up their tents. In the early morning, Gao ZhiHao studied the carved map under the flashlight alone. He guarded it very tightly.

Li Shu asked how to get there. Gao ZhiHao hesitated, looking around the mountains and could not give accurate information.

“Give it.” Li Shu said coldly.

Gao ZhiHao was reluctant, but in the cold eyes of Li Shu, he inexplicably handed out the map in his hand before he regretted it. Just now, he was like being given hallucinogen. Fortunately, he gave the copy.

Li Shu scanned the map then swept a glance all around the terrain and returned it to Gao ZhiHao, saying, “This thing is useless.”

“How could it be useless? The map clearly said it is here in Leshan. Look at it.” Gao ZhiHao, holding the map, had to stuff it into Li Shu’s hand.

Zhang YuShui glanced around. “Look at it yourself, boss Gao. It’s really opposite of the mountain terrain here.”

“It’s impossible. Yue Donghui that old guy’s treasure is complete like this. It can’t be faked.” Gao ZhiHao didn’t believe it, but he knew in his heart that he was really wrong. He was sweating so hard. He looked at the map carefully and murmured, “This the exact way to the Silkworm Road, absolutely right.”

It’s the Silkworm Road again.

“Don’t be too persistent, Boss Gao. The Silkworm Road is legend from the first monarch of the Shu State. It’s all legend. Even if you find the Silkworm Road, after so many years, nothing is left behind.” Zhang Qiu persuaded. From the poem <The Difficulty of the Shu Road by Li Bai>, everyone knew about Can Cong^[1] and the Yu Fu, the legendary monarchs of the founding of the Shu State.

[1 Can Cong, legendary creator of silk and sericulture. Can mean silkworm, Cong means cluster]

Unexpectedly, Gao ZhiHao suddenly raised his head and said, “What do you know? This is not the usual road, it is the road to immortality——”

“Road to immortality?!”

At the question, Gao ZhiHao shut up.

“After thousands of years, the landscape is changeable, especially after the earthquake and landslide. The map in your hand may be true, but now you know in your heart that the map is useless.” Zhang YuShui looked all around and cooly said, “Let’s wrap up and go home.”

Gao ZhiHao was anxious. He paid so much money. Did he really take these people out for an outing?

“On the street, it says Li Shu is very famous, is that a deceptive fame?” Gao ZhiHao pointed directly at Li Shu, face red with angry. “I paid so much money, is that how you guys played with me?!”

Li Shu’s imposing manner chilled as his eyes sharply swept towards Gao ZhiHao, whose shoulders shook in horror and looked back with reluctance.

“There is no map. How did you want us to find it?” Zhang YuShui laughed. “If I see the tomb, I can still measure the FengShui’s location. Now you’re talking about the Silkworm Road, which is an ancient myth. Then again, we don’t know what it is, even if I want to locate it, I couldn’t.”

Gao ZhiHao turned over his backpack, pulled out a cowhide book from it, then looked through it in a hurry before pointed somewhere to them. “The river, it’s the river.”

The handwriting on the book was straightforward and elegant, which was not at all like Gao ZhiHao’s.

Zhang Qiu looked carefully; on it was written about the myth of Bie Ling. Legend said that after Bie Ling died, his corpse was floating in the river and drifted for three days and nights from the river to the current Chengdu. Afterwards, he was dredged up by Du Yu, the incumbent monarch of Shu. Little did one know that he was alive all of a sudden and was later made Prime Minister of Shu. Then Du Yu abdicated and Bie Ling became the monarch of Shu.

After taking the detailed notes, combined with the map on the Jade Bi to deduce the mountain in which they were located, the changes of sun and moon, and the flow of rivers, there should be a river near here.

Finally, the red note heavily wrote——to guard.

What were you guarding? Who was the owner of this note?

Zhang Qiu thought of Yue QinCang. Gao ZhiHao had blurted out ‘Yue Donghui’, it should be the father of Yue QinCang. In combination with Yue QinCang’s missing Jade Bi, it seemed that Gao ZhiHao not only robbed them of the Jade Bi, but also took their research materials.

“Do you remember the fish you ate last night?” Li Shu faintly uttered.

Right! Fish!

Zhang Qiu looked at Pei Qing and Qi Xi, and Pei Qing laughed awkwardly. “It might be a little far from here.”

The unrestrained Qi Xi couldn’t hold back being in the deep mountains and behaved atrociously. Wielded with wings, he egged on Pei Qing to go unrestrained. Pei Qing also wanted act cool and mighty in front of Ling Dang, and he carried little Ling Dang into the air. When he saw a river, he went down and caught two fat fishes while Qi Xi easily caught two stunned gray rabbits.

They had been there for less than an hour. Now that they were asked, how could they say that they went over a mountain and another at this moment?! [the place was far away, they gone in short time because they fly, but aside from ZQ’s group, no one else knew about it]

Qi Xi whistled and looked up at the sky. In his mind, Pei Qing ruthlessly spat and cursing Qi Xi for his lack of loyalty. Next time, if he followed Qi Xi to go unrestrained again, he was not surnamed Pei!

“Hahaha, this is not important. Even if I said, you won’t understand. I’ll just drive you guys there.” Pei Qing laughed.

Having heard that, Gao ZhiHao gained confidence then internally sighed in relief and hurriedly put away his notebook. “Let’s get going, don’t delay.” His face even told that the earlier they embarked, the sooner they arrived.

Zhang Qiu knew the inside story and immediately got a headache. Who knew if they could arrive tonight?

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