The edge of the sky was a dim yellow, and a torrential rain poured down in sheets.
Jiang Zhou held his knife with a single hand, expressionlessly casting down his eyes to look at Lin Wei who sat paralyzed on the ground.
That grey eyeball of his had long since shot out due to terror, rolling onto the ground along with the bean-sized raindrops. After bouncing up and down a few times, it was crushed underfoot by someone.
Hearing footsteps, Jiang Zhou implicitly assumed it was Lin Xiao who had gone to take the secret words to open the secret chamber. Without turning his head, he asked, “How is it?”
A familiar voice came from behind him, saying, “Not how.”
Jiang Zhou swung around abruptly, crossing his knife in front of his torso, blocking back that sword hacked toward him.
Ji Yunlang rotated the sword in his hand, looking at him across the rain curtain, “To think that even when seeking a revenge I could be stepped one step ahead by someone; I am quite unlucky.”
Jiang Zhou’s gaze fell onto his face.
Ji Yunlang was born handsome, and was fastidious on ordinary days, appearing good-looking at any time and any place. At this moment even if he came to seek revenge, dark spiritual energy surged all over his body to block the rain, not letting himself be rained on even a single bit.
In truth, it had only been a few days since they separated. When they didn’t meet, Jiang Zhou only missed him ordinarily; now that they met, Jiang Zhou changed into missing him completely.
He put away his knife, shifted a step to the side, exposing Lin Wei, “Please suit yourself.”
Ji Yunlang asked: “Yielding him to me?”
Jiang Zhou nodded.
A flash of lightning cut across, illuminating those purple eyes. Lin Wei saw Ji Yunlang clearly.
“You are… you…” His pupils contracted, both hands supporting on the ground as he desperately shifted to the side, his empty right eye socket looking as if it carried terror too.
Ji Yunlang didn’t speak extra nonsense with him, his target clear, the sword tip pointing straight at his left eye, heavily driving downward—
Lin Xiao ran out from the room, “Big brother! No way! Cannot open!”
Concurrently, Lin Wei shouted out in a complete collapse, “The secret chamber can only be opened by me!”
Jiang Zhou’s knife blade erupted abruptly, tightly pasting against Lin Wei’s eyelid to block that sword.
Ji Yunlang didn’t withdraw his sword, pressing downward, raised his eyebrows and asked, “Was it not spoken to yield him to me?”
Jiang Zhou uttered no words, contending strength with him, stiffly pushing his sword back.
Lin Wei hurriedly crawled behind Jiang Zhou, “Brother Hu! Drive him away, tell me the secret words, and I will immediately help you all open my dad’s secret chamber!”
A few fractions of rage had already surfaced in Ji Yunlang’s eyes.
Jiang Zhou put away his knife, saying to him, “Please return.”
Ji Yunlang pointed his sword toward him, “What if I say no?”
Jiang Zhou didn’t answer, casting down his eyes, and looking at his own hand.
Ji Yunlang thrust out his sword, and Jiang Zhou crossed moves with him with empty hands. Finding a vacancy, he grasped his hand to pull it close, his finger pad rubbing for a bit against that silver chain on his wrist. Amidst Ji Yunlang’s astonishment and suspicion, he encircled his waist to rotate in place, leaping onto the roof beams.
He was covered fully in rainwater, and at this moment entering into Ji Yunlang’s spiritual energy, outside was the rain curtain, while inside was the soaked him and the just-moistened Ji Yunlang.
His hand supported on Ji Yunlang’s waist, his palm slightly moving, taking a touch.
A suspicious numbness and itch spread from his lower waist to his entire body. Ji Yunlang was going to be angered to death, those purple eyes widening, the depths of his eyes carrying fiery rage, delivering a palm slap onto his chest.
The moment he was slapped away, Jiang Zhou cast a careless glance, catching sight of a corner of fabric falling out from his red robe’s lapel.
Pale pink, the exposed corner of cloth embroidered with flowers.
He dragged that pink cloth out, retreating to stand into the rain, raising his hand to look.
It was a small handkerchief, carrying a faint fragrance, letting Jiang Zhou think of those girls who spoke to him on the streets of Luxi City.
He was married, so he didn’t want the handkerchiefs of those few girls, not preparing to get acquainted with them.
What about Ji Yunlang? Why did Ji Yunlang carry a girl’s handkerchief upon his body?
Did he not marry?
Ji Yunlang couldn’t see clearly what he had taken away, lifting his sword to attack again.
Jiang Zhou stood quietly without moving. The instant the long sword pressed close, he snatched down his sword and tossed it to one side, holding the handkerchief tightly grasped while capturing one of his wrists, a sudden reverse twist behind his back, bringing him into his embrace facing away.
“You”
Ji Yunlang struggled, his other hand condensing spiritual light. Before it could even be raised, it was grabbed and pressed against his side. Jiang Zhou’s finger pad gently rubbed that silver chain on his wrist, staring at this face that was close at hand in his embrace.
Truly good-looking, truly enticing.
A pink handkerchief, embroidered with small flowers, fragrant and beautiful, and he still stuffed it inside his lapel.
Over these five years, Jiang Zhou ate, slept, and lived in a complete daze inside that residence. Whenever he opened or closed his eyes, there was only Ji Yunlang. Ji Yunlang was great—kissing him and holding him every day at home, yet the moment he came out, he accepted someone else’s handkerchief.
Jiang Zhou had no handkerchief to give him, and even less knew how to embroider small flowers. A round of anger at being inferior in skill welled up at his heart, the strength with which he grabbed him tightening a few fractions.
He also couldn’t help but think: If that person’s mouth were even more fluid, not only knowing how to embroider flowers but also knowing how to speak some sweet-talking, affectionate words to coax Ji Yunlang, then I truly would lose.
Ji Yunlang’s attempts to break free met with no result. Calming down, he opened his mouth, “Do you know me?”
Jiang Zhou didn’t answer, staring at his side-neck. The rainwater had already soaked him, the raindrops sliding into his collar along with it.
He ought to take a bite, leaving a trace that couldn’t drop off. In this way, whoever looked at it would know he was already married, and nobody would ever hand him a handkerchief again.
He kept not making a sound. Ji Yunlang couldn’t probe through his temper, yet had already roughly known his strength. Fighting more was of no benefit, saying, “You loosen me, I leave.”
What responded to him was the sudden pain on his side-neck.
Jiang Zhou buried his head into his neck-hollow, biting down heavily.
“You! Mph—”
Ji Yunlang could no longer keep calm, his chest cavity violently undulating, his entire body shaking as if passing through electricity; he was going to go crazy.
He would prefer to die on the spot here rather than be completely devoid of the strength to strike back, forced to endure the licking and biting of a strange man.
The person in his embrace shook too fiercely. Unbeknownst to how much time passed, Jiang Zhou finally let go of his mouth, satisfiedly looking at that small piece of skin and flesh being imprinted with a bite mark, flushing red.
He loosened Ji Yunlang, giving a forward push, and said, “You leave ba.”
Ji Yunlang picked up his own sword, clutching his neck and turning his head to glare at him fiercely, “Pervert.”
Jiang Zhou held that handkerchief in his own palm, putting his hands behind his back and saying, “Mm.”
He supplemented, “Truly soft.”
Ji Yunlang truly was going to go crazy. He clutched his neck, his fists clenching until they creaked, with only his reason still driving him to maintain composure.
He stared dead at this strange man’s face. After several rounds of hidden tolerance, in the end he released a round of harsh words, saying, “You just wait for me.”
Ji Yunlang left, and Jiang Zhou lifted Lin Wei’s collar to bring him into the room.
He first asked Lin Xiao, “Cannot?”
Lin Xiao shook his head, pointing at this hidden secret door in front of his eyes. On top of it had already been arranged and combined out the words “Lifting head one sees not the moon”.
Lin Xiao said, “There is no problem with the secret words, it’s just that it cannot be opened.”
Jiang Zhou pushed Lin Wei forward, gesturing for him to go open. Seeing the secret words, Lin Wei rotated his eyeballs, about to talk conditions.
Jiang Zhou’s knife sliced open a piece of skin behind his ear, resting against it without moving, and saying, “I am very good at stripping skin.”
“Don’t… don’t… I open, I open.”
Clutching his own ear, Lin Wei bared his teeth and distorted his face as he raised his arm, printing his palm onto the empty wall beside the secret words, driving a heavy press downward, and the secret door automatically opened.
Jiang Zhou took the lead to lift his steps to enter, and Lin Xiao followed him inside. Having just walked a few steps, he heard the sound of the door closing coming from behind him. He violently swung his body around, “Not right! Lin Wei”
Jiang Zhou dragged him back.
Lin Xiao anxiously pointed at the closed secret chamber door, “Acted foolishly, big brother. How could we enter first ah? He wants to lock us up!”
Jiang Zhou: You this…
He extracted paper and brush: Have you cultivated as an immortal for so many years in vain?
Lin Xiao let out a sigh, “I am a lackey, big brother, carrying bags and buying meals for the young masters. What I did most was also just helping them write schoolwork; where did I have an opportunity to learn some proper and useful cultivation methods?”
Jiang Zhou nodded, indicating understanding.
Again wrote: Take the things first.
The secret chamber passage was very long, yet the room at the end was exceptionally empty. Only in the center sat a long table, on top of which was placed a delicate wooden box.
The wooden box wasn’t locked. Lin Xiao went over to open it, extracting a thick scroll from within.
He held that scroll without opening it, turning his body minutely, his gaze somewhat hesitantly looking at the Jiang Zhou not far behind him.
Seeing he had obtained it, Jiang Zhou said, “Come over.”
Lin Xiao walked to front of him, asking, “Big Brother Hu, do you want to open it to look?”
Jiang Zhou: “Mm.”
He turned his body toward the outside, returning along the original path of the passage, “Look after exiting.”
Lin Xiao held the scroll, following beside him, “My dad’s things in truth, once I took it I ought to put it away and not let anyone look at it, and it’s best if even I myself don’t open it. After all, only by knowing less can one live longer.”
Jiang Zhou: “Mm.”
Lin Xiao’s vision shifted onto that knife of his. Not long ago it had the skin of Lin Wei, and the knife tip still carried a bit of dark red blood.
He swallowed his saliva, “But I again reversed my thoughts a person must always learn to adapt, and must possess one more portion of curiosity toward this world. Therefore, once we go out, let’s find a bright place to thoroughly study this thing, is it fine, Big Brother Hu?”
Jiang Zhou: “Fine.”
The communication with Lin Xiao was very harmonious. Lin Xiao would first toss his words out, and it was fine as long as he answered “Fine or not fine” or “Good or not good”. Jiang Zhou increasingly felt this person was truly not bad.
Before the two even walked to the exit, they were enveloped by the rolling thick toxic smoke drifting from ahead.
Lin Wei’s successful loud laughter came from outside: “Haha-haha-ha! The thunderbolt invincible grand toxic smoke bought with heavy funds—the two of you just choke to death inside for me! Still daring to intimidate this Family Head, ah? Stripping my skin? I’ll strip your seventh maternal uncle’s old gentleman’s grand dog skin!”
“Roar”
Before his voice dropped, the door of the secret chamber was violently smashed open from the inside, and a massive black tiger pounced out, roaring loudly as it pressed him under its claws.
Jiang Zhou emerged carrying his knife, walking close in his terrified eyes, the knife tip neither light nor heavy smoothing along the outline of his ear to hoist up a layer of skin.
Lin Xiao followed closely behind Jiang Zhou out. Seeing the situation, he tightened the scroll in his hand, not looking at that out-of-nowhere large tiger either, saying, “Big Brother Hu, I’ll go outside to wait for you bei?”
Jiang Zhou: “Mm.”
Lin Xiao squatted at the doorway, the scroll clamped between his stomach and legs, both hands raised covering his ears to isolate the miserable cries inside.
His legs grew numb from squatting, the door opened, and a dense fishy stench of blood came from the room.
He rose immediately to hold the scroll well.
Jiang Zhou had already put his knife back on his back, his hand looking as if it held a tightly grasped item, saying to him, “Go.”
A tavern box-room.
Lin Xiao lit several lamp candles, making the room bright, and then spread the scroll open.
Such a thick and long grand scroll was densely packed completely with small characters.
Looking closely most didn’t make any damn sense, or casually jumbled a word. He scratched his head with puzzlement, “What is this?”
From the very front of the scroll, Jiang Zhou read through word by word, and said, “A roster.”
“A roster?” Lin Xiao almost pasted his eyeballs onto it to look, “What kind of person takes this kind of name… then on this, how many characters separated can count as a person’s name?”
“This isn’t,” Jiang Zhou stagnated, his finger pad lightly tapping on the scroll, smoothing along to shift and check the words on it, creating the words for a moment before supplementing, “Ought to ask your dad?”
Jiang Zhou spoke slowly, and word by word, carrying quite a bit of depth. Hearing this profoundly deep phrasing of his, Lin Xiao gave a violent start, a bold guess surfacing in his heart in an instant.
Judging from the current situation, the Lin family that was in imminent danger… the father whose words carried words… the Sixth Uncle’s secret chamber… the mysterious scroll…
Could it be that his dad, while appearing to be a completely ordinary lackey, actually occupied an important post within a certain organization, being a formidable figure who awed a region?
The finger Jiang Zhou pointed on the scroll stopped suddenly.
Lin Xiao happened to squeeze over to look, giving a start when he saw the character he pointed to, “Jiang Zhou?”
This indeed was a person’s name.
He was puzzled, “So exactly what roster is this?”
Jiang Zhou fell silent for a moment, saying, “You go out first.”
Lin Xiao understood, in a single instant putting away all his puzzles—the less one knows, the longer one lives.
He walked toward the doorway, saying, “Then I’ll go downstairs to eat a meal; big brother, you look slowly.”
The box-room door was closed, and Jiang Zhou stood in front of the table, staring at this long scroll of people’s names.
What other roster could it be? The roster of everyone inside the Bafang Region.
It was merely an old roster from over a hundred years ago.
So that’s why there were so many bizarrely shaped word-combinations serving as names.
Someone was called “Large Tree Root”, someone was called “Guala”, and someone else was called “Hulonglong”. The Bafang Region’s people taking names in the past was just like this—possessing no surnames, and not understanding character shapes or character meanings either, as long as there was an appellation it was fine.
Everyone casually gave themselves a name, and also casually addressed other people.
Jiang Zhou used to have a very casual name too, but he had long since stopped remembering it, because someone gave him a new name, possessing a surname, and also possessing character shapes and character meanings. They said the Immortal Continent’s people all took names like this, representing the beautiful wishes of elders toward the child.
In the Bafang Region in the past, once one had a name one had to report it to the moon, casually finding a tall mountaintop, and shouting it out loudly toward the moon.
Those who didn’t take a name or who had a name yet didn’t report it—the moon didn’t recognize them. When it arrived at the Day of Moon Hiding they met with disaster.
Other people were all affected by the weather, their strength becoming large, and their killing intent breaking out; yet they were exactly the same as ordinary days, their strength unchanged and their killing intent unchanged. This was no different from allowing themselves to be slaughtered.
At that time nobody knew that the reported names would all be filled into this kind of scroll roster.
Like raising a flock of pigs, you wrote a serial number for each pig, yet didn’t want to spend all your thoughts to statistics which serial number corresponded to which pig; hence you played some methods, letting the pigs roar it out to you themselves.
And also self-titled “Bafang Region’s people”, addressing the newly arrived as “lambs”. If they wanted to preserve their lives, they had to start from “lambs” to diligently slaughter, changing themselves into the relatively noble “Bafang Region’s people”.
The truth was that inside the Bafang Region there simply didn’t exist “people”.
All possessed illnesses, all were fools, all hadn’t grown brains.
All were “lambs”.
Jiang Zhou put away the scroll, taking it in his hand, intending to go out the door.
Just after going out, he ran into Lin Xiao who sat at the doorway.
Lin Xiao originally was nestling close to falling asleep. Hearing the sound, he raised his head. Looking at this posture of his, he knew this scroll was the thing he wanted. Falling silent for a moment, he again nestled himself back, closing his eyes to feign being asleep, using his breathing sound to tell him: “Hurry up and take it to leave, big brother; I’ll just take it as if I didn’t see.”
Yet Jiang Zhou didn’t leave anymore, nudging him, and handing him a piece of paper: Did you not go to eat food?
Lin Xiao opened his eyes, pointing downstairs and saying, “The moment I just went down, I ran into Ji Yunlang down at the base.”
Jiang Zhou: So coincidental.
Lin Xiao: “Is it not so.”
Lin Xiao knew he was going to be impulsive again.
As expected by the narrative, the moment the words dropped, he lifted his steps and went downstairs.