The afternoon sun always felt a bit sweltering, but I really enjoyed lying on the lounge chair and sunbathing. Even if my skin burned painfully, I was unwilling to go back inside to the air conditioning.
It had been seven days since I left Qingfeng Mountain. I'd had a fever on and off since returning. It eased during the day but returned with high intensity at night, only improving two days ago.
Having not eaten or drunk for days, relying on glucose drips for survival, I had lost a considerable amount of weight. Looking in the mirror, my eyes were sunken, with large dark circles underneath. If I wore a black and white striped outfit, I wouldn't even need makeup to lie in the zoo and no one would suspect I was a human "disguised" as a giant panda.
As I was dozing off from the sun, the courtyard gate was pushed open from the outside.
With half-closed eyes, I saw Zhang Dabiao walking in from outside the courtyard, carrying two large bags. Before he even reached me, his loud voice carried over.
"Why are you sunbathing here again? Aren't you afraid of getting your skin peeled off?" He grumbled at me while rubbing his head against my arm, as if wiping sweat.
I smiled silently. "I used to find the sun so annoying, always making me perspire. Now I don't think that way anymore. Even if I sunbathed my whole life and became as dark as a native, I'd still be willing to be sunbathed like this."
Zhang Dabiao shook his head helplessly and carried the bags into the house. "Alright, that's enough sun. If you faint from the heat later, I won't be calling an ambulance for you..."
I smiled, stood up, and turned to go inside. The house wasn't air-conditioned, and I felt a bit cold away from the sunlight. This was a lingering effect of my Xuan Yang Qi being completely depleted.
I had thought I was surely going to die if I stayed in the cave. But I never expected Zhang Dabiao to find Fang Huixin and then turn back to look for me, though that was half a day later.
By the time he found me, I had only a breath left. The massive loss of Xuan Yang Qi, coupled with the damp and dark environment of the cave, meant that surviving was nothing short of a miracle, thanks to the protection of my ancestors. According to Zhang Dabiao, if he had arrived half a day later, he would have been digging a grave to bury me, even saving the trouble of collecting the body.
However, I knew he was just speaking out of frustration. Even if I had truly died in the cave, he would have definitely brought my ashes back north. After all, it's about returning to one's roots.
"Why is it dog meat again? Aren't you afraid of getting nosebleeds eating it in this hot weather?"
Zhang Dabiao gave me a big eye-roll. "What do you know? Dog meat is warm. Paired with yellow wine, it aids blood circulation and has a warming and tonifying effect. This is prepared for you. Do you know how much effort I put into getting it..."
"I know. I'll eat a lot and make sure Brother Zhang's efforts aren't in vain..."
"That's the spirit."
One reason was to recover quickly, and the other was to go home sooner, so I ate with exceptional gusto.
After just a few bites, I heard the door open again. The person hadn't entered, but their voice came from outside.
"What smells so good?"
"Oh my, you're eating fragrant meat! Why didn't you call to let me know? That's not very considerate!"
Upon entering, he didn't stand on ceremony, grabbing chopsticks and a bowl, then picking up a piece of dog meat and eating it with relish.
"Delicious, truly delicious. No wonder people say that three rolls of fragrant meat will make even an immortal lose his footing!" With that, he unceremoniously grabbed a beer, poured himself a glass, and drank it down.
"Refreshing..."
Zhang Dabiao pursed his lips. "Alright, you've eaten and drunk. Any good news? If not, I'm going to charge you."
Xu Yi didn't seem to mind. After eating two more pieces, he put down his chopsticks and said, "Everything has been arranged. You can set off tomorrow. Yesterday, Longhu Mountain sent someone to pick up Daoist Fang. As for the Li family, they've been implicated by Li Zuoquan, and it's a case of the tree falling and the monkeys scattering. They've fled with their families, leaving only the old, the young, the sick, and the disabled."
This answer was within my expectations. Li Zuoquan had almost killed Daoist Fang, the Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain. It was already generous of Longhu Mountain not to uproot the Li family. If Daoist Fang had died on Qingfeng Mountain, then not many people from the Li family would have survived.
"What about Li Rui?"
"Don't know. Before Longhu Mountain sent people, Li Rui had already disappeared. No one knows where he went."
I wasn't surprised by Li Rui's disappearance. I figured the guy must have been thinking about how to escape as soon as he heard that we had returned unharmed from Qingfeng Mountain.
Perhaps the Li family wouldn't believe what I said, but given the friendship between Fang Huixin and the Li family, if it were revealed that Li Zuoquan was shot and killed by Li Rui, not only Longhu Mountain but the Li family themselves wouldn't let him go.
Zhang Dabiao put down his chopsticks, his expression a little anxious. "What about Zhao Defu? Any news of him?"
Xu Yi shook his head. "No. The moment we came down the mountain, I arranged for people to seal off all major transportation routes, but we couldn't find that guy." Sudan Novel Network
Bang—
Zhang Dabiao slammed the table. "Damn it, we were played by that grave robber."
This wasn't Zhang Dabiao's fault for being angry. Our purpose for going up the mountain was to find Zhao Defu and learn more about what happened ten years ago. We hadn't held out much hope of finding Zhao Defu.
But we didn't expect that Fang Huixin, Little Li, Zhao Defu, Fang the Old Daoist, and Kang the Fatty were all held captive together. Fang Huixin had only fainted, while the other two were so starved they were barely alive.
So, the two of them woke up Fang Huixin and Little Li, and the four of them staggered down the mountain with Fang the Old Daoist and the other two. Xu Yi was left to look after them, while Zhang Dabiao went back up the mountain to find me.
When they brought me down the mountain, they were told that Zhao Defu had woken up at some point and left on his own.
"Brother Zhang, calm down. Zhao Defu isn't an ordinary grave robber. We'll meet him again eventually."
After calming Zhang Dabiao down, I asked again, "What about Sun Chuang? Any news of him?"
"There are some clues about that, but I can't be sure if the information is accurate."
"Tell me."
"Three days ago, someone saw him leaving in a car with a woman. As for where they went, I don't know."
A woman?
I was a bit confused. There were only two of us when we arrived, so how could someone be taken away when we left? Who was this woman?
Actually, I didn't really care about Sun Chuang's life or death. After all, he was a distant relative of my master and also my intermediary. If I returned alone and abandoned him, the intermediary, how could I face my master?
However, now that I knew he had left, it had nothing to do with me. Once I returned and explained the whole story to my master, how he wanted to handle it would be his business.
"Oh, right. Boss Fang wants you to go over tonight. He said there's something important to discuss."
"Do you know what it is?"
"I don't know, but I suspect it's good news."
"Mm!"