Chapter 76

Chapter 76: The Silkworm Road [10]

Translator: Xah

The blood on the tip of his tongue dripped onto the Jade Bi in his hand, quietly flowing on the Jade Bi’s veined lines.

Perhaps hearing them coming, Yue QinCang quickened his movements and put the deep red-blooded Jade Bi on the coffin lid. Only the clicking sound was heard before the coffin lid was opened and Yue QinCang popped inside. Zhang Qiu’s scalp numbed. What if a zongzi jumped out of the coffin?!

Zhang Qiu was obviously worrying about nothing. Yue QinCang seemed to know what’s inside, but in a few seconds, Yue QinCang had come out of the coffin, wiped the blood from his mouth and stared at them. “You want to avenge that cheap Gao ZhiHao?”

Yue QinCang probably took them as paddling in Gao ZhiHao’s team.

However, that’s a lot to say. Although Gao ZhiHao paid them, they wanted even more to ferret out the people who manipulated the plot behind the scene.

There was obviously a problem with Yue QinCang in front of them. Li Shu had just moved and Yue QinCang had already flew and jumped down. His movement was quick as he launched a rope with his left hand to tie up at the bottom of the suspended coffin and fell fast into the mountainous region.

“It’s really troublesome.” Qi Xi muttered as he took off the clothes he had just worn, and in the next second, naked Qi Xi turned into his true form, roared loudly and rushed down into the mountainous region.

The mountain was hollowed out, with a stream dripping from the top, beating on the black coffin, and then flowing down.

Yue QinCang saw the true form of Qi Xi, and his eyes flashed with horror. He loosened the rope on his hand and jumped quickly to the side of the mountain wall, then quickly went down. Compared with Qi Xi’s large size, Yue QinCang appeared slim. He agilly avoided Qi Xi’s claws, making Qi Xi constantly roaring.

The figure of one person and one beast fell rapidly; Zhang Qiu could only see two black spots.

“Don’t have to help?” Zhang Qiu asked Li Shu.

Li Shu shook his head and said: “Erge and the other are outside, Yue QinCang can’t run.”

Zhang Qiu was about to ask Li Shu how would he know, when suddenly he heard a crow, which was Erge’s true form phoenix, and he relaxed. Li Shu let Pei Qing stay where he was and stuffed Lao Er into Zhang Qiu’s arms. Tiptooed a little and light-handed, he already climbed onto the huge black coffin hanging in the air.

At this moment, a hand popped out of the black coffin. As soon as Zhang Qiu saw it, his heart tightened and he shouted caution.

Li Shu avoided the hand and his whole person fell into the coffin. Zhang Qiu’s heart was suspended. He heard the sound of banging and slamming inside. Pei Qing had planned to turn into his true form to help, but then saw Li Shu flipped over and sat on the coffin wall, bending slightly and reaching out as if to pull out the things inside.

The next second, an arc streaked across from the black coffin and smashed directly on their side. Zhang Qiu pulled Xiao Jiang back two steps, and Pei Qing came forward and caught it.

The black coffin, which was suspended in the air, immediately fell down and Li Shu borrowed the force to vault ashore.

Bang bang boom—

The huge black coffin was smashed to pieces.

Zhang Qiu was relieved to see Li Shu in good condition. Pei Qing next to him opened his mouth and said, “Li Shu, this man seems to be alive.”

A living person?

Zhang Qiu looked at over. Li Shu had just thrown out a man from his coffin. Pei Qing laid down the man. Zhang Qiu saw the man was, as if fully plastered with black pieces of armor (shell) plating, with thin lips pursed tight, thick eyebrows above the long and narrow eyes opened, sweeping over them in sharp expression.

The atmosphere was somewhat strange. Obviously, the man in front of them was not a normal ordinary person. What could anything turn out of the coffin be human?!

Zhang Qiu thought the man might be about the same as Li Shu.

“What are you guys doing standing here foolishly?”

Qi Xi’s voice came from behind. Qi Xi wore a big coat and was still muttering, “Every one of you so disliking my figure.”

Apparently Zhang YuShui threw his coat to Qi Xi, because he disliked Qi Xi being naked, which tainted Pixian Hui Wang’s eyes.

All three arrived, but only Yue QinCang was missing.

“What about the person?”

Qi Xi’s face showed he was unhappy. “Don’t mention it. That fellow got better all of a sudden. I kept chasing after him until below. He seemed to know the route as he ran out from the tunnel below. Zhang Yushui had followed closely and caught up with him. As a result, there was another woman took him away.” After that, he glanced to the ground and asked Zhang Qiu, “Who is this? All over his body like being stuck with herbal plaster.”

Suddenly the man on the ground opened his eyes and glanced sharply at Qi Xi who was talking.

Qi Xi felt a bit freaked out from being stared at, and his mouth talked cheap. “You still look at me. Believe it or not, I took your herbal plasters and sold it for money.”

“You don’t talk nonsense.” Zhang Qiu kicked Qi Xi and said the man was turned out of the coffin.

Zhang YuShui looked at him and tentatively called out, “Bie Ling?” (Bie= freshwater soft-shelled turtle| Ling=spirit)

Zhang Qiu saw the man’s eyes move, obviously there was a drama there, and he questioned in few words to get to the heart of the matter. The man’s eyes flashed fiercely, and probably because he disliked them continuously saying Bie Ling, he was too upset and finally said: “Gai Ming.” But the man’s pronunciation was strange. Zhang Qiu thought for a moment, patted his head and said, “Kai Ming? Bie Ling later became the monarch of Shu, also known as Kai Ming State.”

So the man’s name was Kai Ming.

“My good brother Kai Ming, can we get up and go out as soon as possible?” Qi Xi saw Kai Ming still lying on the ground, he shrugged as he said, “Or do you want us to send you back into the coffin? Oh, you can’t go back, the coffin has been broken. Otherwise, you should get up first. I’ll give you a chance to make a new one…”

Li Shu looked at Kai Ming’s legs. “He can’t walk any more.”

“It turned out to be disab——Er, brother Kai Ming don’t mind. I don’t mean to discriminate against you.” Qi Xi said quickly.

Kai Ming’s eyes flashed fiercely and said coldly, “That man took my Golden Bone.”

“Who?” Just as Qi Xi finished, he remembered, “Yue QinCang?”

“Yue QinCang.” Kai Ming read out the name sounded like he’s trying to peel Yue QinCang’s skin.

Zhang Qiu didn’t know what the Golden Bone was, but apparently Kai Ming couldn’t walk without his Golden Bone. Putting aside who had gotten angry, a fugitive must belong to some place that could provide clues. And Yue QinCang’s family lived in Chengdu.

The few of them apparently thought: regardless of Kai Ming wanted to take back his Golden Bone, Zhang Qiu and company still wanted to know the people behind the scene. They had been manipulated by the people behind scene from the very beginning to the present, especially Qi Xi, who wanted to avenge his father.

It was time to turn passive into active counterattack.

Back on the way, because Kai Ming’s legs were inconvenient to walk and the few of them could not really throw him here, Qi Xi carried him on his back in the end. When carrying him on the back, Zhang Qiu noticed that Kai Ming lacked a piece of armor plating on his lower back.

All over Kai Ming’s body was plastered with black pieces of armor plating, but there was only one place where his skin was exposed. He had not been under the sunshine for a long time that his skin was white.

When they came out, they found that the black slabs floating in the air had fallen, like the coffin, which could float because Kai Ming was inside; these things had lost their strength of support.

From then on, it could clearly be seen that this person Kai Ming was not simple.

Back inside the car, Zhang Qiu found that the other two cars had disappeared. It should be Gao ZhiHao’s hired thugs. Kai Ming was reclining on the seat, observing the car without a word or movement, and his eyes flashed with astonishment.

Pei Qing started the car and it slowly went onto the mountain road. Kai Ming leaned close onto the back seat and said slowly, “Azure Dragon, Xiezhi, Phoenix, in addition of two undeads and one that just awakened Divine Bloodline.”

The two undeads referred to Pixian Hui Wang and Xiao Jiang. The awakened Divine Bloodline was Li Shu.

“So what are you?” Li Shu retorted.

Kai Ming looked out of the window, frowned and said, “After death, there’s armor plating appeared on my body. I don’t know what I am.”

After death should refer to priorly being drifting along the upstream river, and later arrived at Chengdu, the land of Shu and was rescued by Du Yu.

Kai Ming stared at the black plating on his arm. Qi Xi was very curious. He pointed and asked, “What’s the use of all this? A protective shield? How are you taking a bath?”

“Once in a thousand years was when Golden Bone came into being.” Every time he was the weakest, he was awaked for less than a quarter of an hour, and could not open the eyelids, before he fell into endless sleep. When Kai Ming mentioned Golden Bone, he recalled it being stolen by that Yue QinCang fellow and his eyes harboring fierceness.

Kai Ming spoke slowly, might be because it was too long of not speaking or not accustomed to their pronunciation, he tried to mimic, yet it was still a bit weird, but everyone could understand. It could clearly be seen that he had a valiant innate skill.

“Obviously someone has figured out when the Golden Bone will appear.” Li Shu looked at Kai Ming. “Who built the tomb?”

Kai Ming’s train of thought went far, then shook his head and said, “At that time, I was covered with armor plating, my strength retreated and I lost consciousness.”

Another dead end.

It’s getting late. When they got back to the village where they had stayed the night before, they parked the car and got out. Zhang Qiu pulled Li Shu’s clothes out of his luggage. Kai Ming’s whole body was covered in black armour plating and fortunately it was winter, he could still hide it in a high-collar sweater. As for his hair, casually tied it up and put on a hat, would do.

“Now I really want to shoot that Yue QinCang fellow. He ran away after the whole thing and made me clean up the mess for him.” Qi Xi said indignantly, but his hand helped Kai Ming to dress up and get him out of the car.

Zhang Qiu twisted his head and said, “Get a move on! We haven’t had a meal.”

“There’s food to eat!” Qi Xi licked his mouth, carried Kaiming and walked to the yard, saying: “you’re lucky, brother. The bacon in this house is delicious, and there’s a big Mantou——” his footsteps paused and his words stopped.

Zhang Qiu stood awkwardly in place. As soon as he entered the yard, he saw Qi ZhiRong sitting on a chair under the shed, looking out of place with nobility and indifferent. Before he could speak, Qi Xi followed him in.

The atmosphere seemed to have solidified.

Qi ZhiRong’s indifferent look swept towards Qi Xi, and his eyes moved to the person in Qi Xi’s arms.

Qi Xi’s hands that carried Kai Ming stirred and his eyes shook but only a flash. Then, he quickly gained ground and said as though there were nobody else present, “I’ll send him back to the room first.”

Zhang Qiu looked at Qi ZhiRong subconsciously. Qi ZhiRong dropped his eyes and his expression couldn’t be seen clearly. “That was——” He wanted to explain something, but Qi ZhiRong had stood up and entered his room.

What the hell was going on here?

Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu. Li Shu held Xiao Jiang calmly and said, “Wash up and then eat, aren’t you hungry?”

Nevertheless, Qi Xi and Qi ZhiRong both had gaps in their hearts. Outsiders couldn’t get to stick their hand in, but could only be watching on the two.

When Zhang Qiu came out, Qi Xi also came out, sat under the shed and glanced at the room at the opposite. Pei Qing, who had just parked the car in the backyard, said, “Don’t look, I just saw him go away.”

Qi Xi’s clenced his fists and sneered before he said, “What does he have to do with me?”

“You even know who before I say the name?” Pei Qing saw Qi Xi’s mouth not match with his heart, but at thought of the elder Xiezhi in Zhongshan Country, he said nothing more.

Because Qi ZhiRong suddenly appeared and left again, no one was in the mood to crack jokes at dinner. Contrariwise, Kai Ming was eating every dish and porridge with extraordinary conscientious. After dinner, Zhang Qiu sent Kai Ming back to his room. Qi Xi looked a little fidgety and went out; it was unkown what he was going to do.

Back in the room, Zhang Qiu sighed. Li Shu saw it and without asking why, he smiled as he went near and kissed Zhang Qiu’s lips tenderly.

“Still sighing?”

Zhang Qiu was pleased by the kiss. He put his arms around Li Shu’s neck and heavily nodded his head. “Still sighing.”

Lips and lips inseparably closed and fitted, rolling and sucking. Zhang Qiu was out of breath from the kiss that his legs turned soft and hung on Li Shu’s body. The mood between the two people all of a sudden became sticky and they dared not look at each other, as if a little bit more and they would be burn. However, right now the small room was obviously not suitable for them to express their longing after so long.

There was knocking at the door.

Xiao Jiang shouted for Daddy from outside.

Zhang Qiu’s face was red and his legs were still soft, sitting on the stool. Therefore, Li Shu went to open the door.

“Daddy, why is your mouth so red like hot? Do you eat chili?!” Xiao Jiang poked at his mouth and asked.

Zhang Qiu unconsciously licked his lower lip, which was still scorching. He felt the heated line of sight above his head as if it could melt people. He knew it was Li Shu. He quickly changed the topic. Otherwise, it would be bad for two Daddies to do shy things in front of the children.

“What’s in your hand?”

Xiao Jiang held a file bag in his hand and put it down before he said, “I went to pee pee and Uncle Qi gave it to me. It was the Uncle Qi, with ice-cold face.”

Qi ZhiRong? Didn’t he just leave? He was back again?

Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu. Li Shu took the bag in Xiao Jiang’s hand and glanced at it. Then he handed it to Zhang Qiu as he said, “Qi ZhiRong had found something. Su Zhicai had contacted this person. The previous maps and Jade Bis were revealed to various companies under this person’s name.”

“The person behind the scene?!” Zhang Qiu suddenly thought so. He flipped over the information in his hand, which had an English name, Christine D. “It’s this woman?”

The above information was intricate. If it hadn’t been for the enormous expenditure of energy, it would have been impossible to make a painstaking investigation to find this person. It looked like the once familiar maps and Jade Bis had passed through dozens of people before they came out. Based on these, Qi ZhiRong could finally find out about this Christine person and the connection with Su Zhicai, who just happened to come to Beijing once ten years ago and once in May this year.

At the same time, there were several businessmen who have dealings with Christine. Zhang Qiu had no impression on them. Li Shu reminded him that they were probably wearing borrowed skins. But unexpectedly at the end, he saw Yue Donghui’s and Yue QinCang’s names with astonishment.

“Does Yue QinCang know this person behind the scene?”

Zhang Qiu recalled about Yue QinCang’s face. He felt that it was unlike Yue QinCang, who was young and vigorous with clear and stubborn eyes, and more like being exploited.

“Whether he knew or being used, we’ll know after we go back and investigate.” Li Shu said.

At night, Zhang Qiu gave Qi Xi the information. Perhaps, Qi ZhiRong came here to give Qi Xi the information.

Back in the room, Zhang Qiu took Li Shu in his arms and enjoyed the moment of intimacy. At the side, Xiao Jiang ran bouncingly while holding a cloud of crimson fog in his hand, and asked with dimples out, “Daddy, what is this? Can it be eaten?”

Zhang Qiu was jump frightened as soon as he saw it. He was busy all the way and had no time to introduce Er Baozi to Xiao Jiang. (baozi=steamed stuffed bun)

“Xiao Jiang, this is——” As he was saying, the cloud of crimson fog in Xiao Jiang’s hand slowly dispersed to both sides. Zhang Qiu saw Xiao Jiang’s eyes were staring with great surprise, looking at the cloud of fog in his hands with rounded eyes. His small face was stretched tautly and he replaced his hand with both to cup it. After looking at it for a long time, he very cautiously raised his head and said, “Daddy, Meimei is really beautiful, soft and fragrant.” (Meimei=little sis)

Good son, this is your little brother!

He can’t be your little sister just because he is beautiful ah, your little brother have tingting.

Zhang Qiu came closed. Xiao Jiang looked curiously and excitedly at his “meimei” in his palms. Er Baozi woke up and stretched out in a daze. His hazy eyes were brimming with mist, which made people having a tender affection for him and wanting to protect him. His long hair slid down to cover his body and as soon as he saw two big heads coming near, he blinked his eyes curiously and stared.

By being stared at, the father and son had their hearts beat wildly.

My son is so pretty, so beautiful, and so Susu ah! (susu= idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character)

My Meimei is so pretty, so beautiful, I want to protect Meimei ah!

Li Shu had his lips rose slightly as he saw the same expression on the father and son and then he too came closer. Three big faces then looked at Er Baozi in the cloud of fog. After a while, Zhang Qiu found a problem. Lao Er was born with a smaller physique than Xiao Jiang and had obviously slept in the fog for almost a day, but soon his white face showed a little sleepiness. Looking at the little one appeared sleepy and wanted to close his eyes yet tried hard to be awake, made Zhang Qiu’s heart ached.

“Dear son, go to sleep if you’re sleepy.” After Zhang Qiu finished talking, he remembered that his son had not eaten for a day. Seeing Er Baozi’s weak appearance, he could not help but soften his voice and asked Li Shu, “What is Lao Er going to eat?”

Xiao Jiang previously would have both milk powder and blood. Right now, where to find milk powder? Zhang Qiu had not thought about it, nor did he have the principle when he had Xiao Jiang. He reached out a dagger to prick his finger, but was stopped by Li Shu.

“I’ll do it.” As soon as Li Shu finished saying, a soybean-sized blood bead came out from the pad of his finger, and he fed it to Lao Er’s mouth. Lao Er’s sleepy eyes were in daze as he moved his small mouth. Perhaps, he could perceive the smell, his mouth sucked hard. Just like that, Lao Er sucked up tiny beads of blood untill he was full and sleepy, and then went to sleep in a cute manner.

Zhang Qiu said worriedly, “Such a small appetite!”

Xiao Jiang frowned beside him and said like a small adult, “Meimei eats too little and won’t grow tall.”

“He’s too young to eat too much and properly digest.” Li Shu embraced Zhang Qi and pointed to Xiao Jiang as he said, “Xiao Jiang didn’t eat for a day after he was born.” Later, Xiao Jiang hugged his finger and ate to fill his stomach to bursting point and still would not let go, but did only after he weeded him off. Anyway, it was not necessary to tell Zhang Qiu these.

Zhang Qiu also thought that it was right. He could not let the child eat to bursting point, but his family’s Lao Er was too thin.

“It’s fine to raise him until he grows up; look at Xiao Jiang.” Li Shu even compared Xiao Jiang.

Zhang Qiu recalled Xiao Jiang, who had been in his pocket at the beginning. Looking at the lovely fat boy with round face, Zhang Qiu thought that it was reasonable. He carefully thought about the parenting manual, put his worry out and said confidently, “Lao Er is so beautiful, we must think of a resounding name, just as resounding as Xiao Jiang.”

Li Shu glanced at Xiao Jiang in silence. Is his name very resounding?

Xiao Jiang proudly raised his chest and nooded his head like a chick pecking rice, as he echoing Daddy’s words.

“Meimei’s name should be as nice as Xiao Jiang’s name.”

“Dear son, this is a Didi, not a Meimei.” (didi=little bro)

“No, Daddy lies. It’s Meimei. Meimei looks nice.”

“It’s really Didi——Argh, forget it. You’ll know once you see his tintin later.”

Zhang Qiu was plunged into giving Lao Er a special name as resounding as Lao Da. Xiao Jiang echoed with excitement all the way around. At the side, Li Shu felt complicated and not easy to express succinctly. He was worried about Lao Er, but when he saw Zhang Qiu looked adorable as he was muttering and overturning names, he let it be, as long as Zhang Qiu was happy. Anyway, it was not for him.

Early the next morning.

Zhang YuShui looked at Li Shu with a shocked face. “Can’t you care about it? With that name, your family’s Lao Er might kill you when he grows up.”

Pixian Hui Wang couldn’t help laughing, even Kai Ming in the primitive myth at the side showed a subtle expression.

Li XiaoHong(little red), Li XiaoMei(little beauty), Li XiaoXiao(very little)…

Zhang Qiu put away his little book of a night’s thinking. Seeing that everyone said so, he could help showed a bad expression. Li Shu touched his head and said with a gentle smile, “Not bad. There are several resounding ones.”

“Daddy, that’s right!” Xiao Jiang nodded his head.

Pei Qing, who was driving in the front seat, almost drove the car down the ditch. He laughed as he said, “You guys are really out of expectation.”

With everybody being this way, Zhang Qiu fell into self-doubt. Li Shu pinched Zhang Qiu’s bulging cheeks, which looked like Xiao Jiang’s cheeks.

Xiao Jiang propped up his face and was puzzled. Daddy’s names for Meimei were clearly very pleasant.

Qi Xi was sitting in the back corner all the while not speaking. He was holding the list (of names) given by Qi ZhiRong. If it was previously, he would be the first one to laugh annoyingly at Zhang Qiu when he heard the names. But now his mind was full of Qi ZhiRong’s expression of last night.

He seems somewhat broken-hearted?

Impossible, that man has no heart.

It was not until evening that the car arrived in Chengdu and approached the street of Lin Household’s hotel. It was very jam packed at the front. Zhang Qiu looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 11 o’clock. It was not the rush hour after work. Moreover, the street was not very busy because the Lin Household’s hotel was quiet in the bustle.

Pei Qing went down to take a look and came back soon. He said, “There was an accident ahead. The traffic police are arranging access.”

Sure enough, after another ten minutes of waiting, the traffic slowly moved forward. Pei Qing drove at a very slow speed. Passing through the accident area, they saw a big car had crushed into a small car with blood flowed across the ground, and white cloth covered three bodies.

Xiao Jiang leaned over the window and looked out. Zhang Qiu covered his son’s eyes, only to hear his son said while pointing out, “Big brother Xiao Ling.”

As sson as Zhang YuShui heard Xiao Ling’s name, he opened his eyes and looked out. He saw a familiar figure. Zhang YuShui frowned. “It’s really Xiao Ling.”

“Xiao Ling did not go to be reincarnated?” Zhang Qiu had personally saw Xiao Ling go to report in the Underworld.

It was not proper to stop the car here as the traffic police directed to go forward. Once they arrived at the hotel, as soon as the car parked and without enough time to take out their luggage, they went straight to the site of the accident. The road had been enclosed, the vehicles had evacuated, the family members of victims came crying and wailing. Then, they saw two men dressed in formal clothes next to the corpse, holding tablet computers in hands which were constantly writing something.

The white-faced man pointed and said, “After you have recorded it, go back. Life and death are ruled by fate. What are you feeling sad about?”

The tall, big man with red eyes said, “Boss Bai, this wife was about to give birth, that’s why I’m sad.”

The two men were talking without regard for others. The police and the victims’ family members seemed as if they had not seen anybody.

Suddenly the white-faced man raised his head and looked up at them, frowned with downturned lips. In the end, he patted the tall man on the shoulder, pointed to them as he said, “Looking for you.”

The tall man rubbed his nose, raised his head to look over and was stunned. Then, he waved happily at them.

Foolish, crybaby, soft-hearted, thick and solid man of 1.8 something meter.

Certainly Zhang Qiu had an impression. This TMD was precisely Xiao Ling ah. (TMD=curse word)

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