It was night, the moon was not dark, and the wind was not high, but Chu Changge had the impulse to kill and set fire on something. "What the hell with this darn thing?!" The piece of paper of divorce looked unusually fragile in Chu Changge's eyes, and he could crush it to pieces with even the slightest force.
However, even though the four people East, South, North and West, noticed that Chu Changge was angry, they acted like they didn't see it. Some of them lowered their heads as if they were singing praises to the earth, and some raised their heads to look up at the blue sky and did whatever action they should do.
"Playing dumb?!"
East, South, North and West shivered a few times at his growl. After exchanging a few glances, the East Guardian answered breezily, "You brought the letter of divorce back yourself, and even we don't know what the hell is going on."
Ugh. Chu Changge's expression stiffened. "I took it back?!" His voice became unusually shrill like someone was choking his throat.
The four people South, East, North and West, nodded heavily with the same intention, "Yes."
Chu Changge held his forehead and pondered for a long moment before calming down. "He had been looking for her?" He asked.
South, East, North and West blinked. "Who's been looking for who?"
"Don't play dumb!" His tone was a bit heavy.
South, East, North and West hastily put away their joking expression. East Guardian pondered for a moment, then said very seriously, "Yes, he went to look for Madam during the day."
Chu Changge: "Without any disguise?"
East Guardian: "No disguise."
Chu Changge's face changed abruptly at those words, and he immediately cursed, "Darn it!"
East, South, North and West's bodies shook with the rise and fall of these 'darn it' words. Experience had taught them that they could not avoid being the target for the Leader to take his anger on in this kind of situation. The lighter his grief was, the more serious would their injury be. Seeing the way the Leader was raging, they would hurt their bodies, even more, this time around......
Just as they expected, before they could even prepare themselves mentally, they heard Chu Changge say, "All of you go chop wood!"
Chopping wood! The four people in the South, East, North and West immediately paled. "Lea, Leader, can we change it?" North Guardian was the first one to beg for mercy. Please read this chapter at xinshou blogspot com.
Chu Changge: "Can you turn back the clock?"
"......" No.
So, with the solemness of a heroic man who would go away and never return, the four men from the South, East, North and West sharpened their swords as they moved towards the coffin store. What the Leader wanted was not just any firewood!
*
The following day, they walked from their home towards the coffin store.
"The four little brothers are here again? Is it a dead father or a dead mother this time?" As soon as the owner of the coffin store saw the four people appear, he immediately greeted them with a warm smile.
Four of them, South, East, North and West, had a dead fish face on. "Dead boss." West Guardian answered bitterly.
When the coffin store owner heard what he said, he wrinkled his eyebrows, which were long and dense on one side and short and thin on the other, as he asked curiously, "Didn't your boss already die once?"
West Guardian replied sullenly, "He didn't die thoroughly last time, so now he died again."
"......" The coffin store owner's face was full of black lines. "If he's dead, then he is dead. If he is not dead, then he is not dead. What do you mean that he was not thoroughly dead?"
"It means he was half dead." West Guardian walked into the coffin store with a depressed expression. He picked up a random axe, and his eyes began to wander among the various coloured coffins.
Seeing this, the owner of the coffin store immediately ran up in front of him and opened his arms to stop him, "These are the ones that will be out today, don't mess them around. If you want to cut wood, go to the backyard. There are many discarded coffins there."
West Guardian: "Our boss can't see the discarded ones."
Coffin store owner: "He's already dead. Where does he have any opinion on that!"
West Guardian: "Don't worry, even if he has lost his breath, he can still come back to life."
"......" Come back to life......can this be considered as something reassuring?
"Lil West, stop it." East Guardian said to the coffin store owner with a smile, "Our boss is short of firewood, so he sent us to cut some firewood back so that he can be cremated."
"Lack of firewood? I think that he is lacking a moral sense!" The coffin store owner stated.
East Guardian immediately looked excited when he heard this. "Yes, he is lacking a moral sense. He is born without one."
"......" Is such a thing should be said about one's own boss? Suddenly, the owner of the coffin store thought of his store assistant and looked over slyly. This guy isn't trying to tarnish my reputation outside, is he?
The coffin store assistant got goosebumps from his boss's look among the place that was full of corpses and copper smell, "B, b, boss has any order for me?"
"It's nothing." The coffin store owner withdrew his eyes. He cleared his throat and said to East Guardian, "Those abandoned coffins in the backyard, feel free to cut them down. But I suggest you buy a coffin before you cremate him. That way, even if he comes back to life, he can only do so inside the coffin. You will no longer have to worry about him running around and harming people."
The corners of the East Guardian's mouth twitched slightly. "Good suggestion. We'll think about it."
*
"You guys, why does the Leader insist us to cut down the coffin? No internal force is allowed, but we must still cut them down? That's a bit too strange!" North Guardian asked, sweating as he continued to chop with his axe.
West Guardian wiped the sweat from his forehead as he chopped down with his axe and said, "It's a sin."
"What kind of sins?"
"All kinds of sins."
"......"
As West Guardian and the North Guardian fought, East Guardian and the Southern Guardian also exchanged opinions. Both of them agreed that the reason why Chu Changge had asked them to cut the coffin back must have had another intention other than punishing them. Thinking of this, East Guardian immediately calmed the duo North and West and then silently observed the surroundings. As he had guessed, the locust tree forest of the coffin store backyard had obviously just been transplanted, and the soil where the roots were buried was still loose. The four of them walked toward the oldest tree. Unexpectedly, they started to spin around the tree after taking a few steps, and now they couldn't get themselves out of the woods.
LOCUST TREE / CHINESE SCHOLAR TREE
*
Meanwhile, Yun sat on the tree branch again, watching the woman next door.
"Where are the four of them?"
Yun dropped his eyes and asked alertly, "Who are you?"
"Huh? Well, I forgot to introduce myself." Li Wunai sighed and said, "My name is Li Wunai, your sworn brother."
Yun's black eyes slightly twitched while holding a sceptical attitude.
Li Wunai rolled his eyes. Did he look so unlike a good guy? "Ask South, East, North and West if you don't believe me."
"They're out."
Li Wunai frowned. "Where did they go?" What did those four guys think of leaving such a big sick man with outstanding martial arts skills at home?
"The coffin store."
"Coffin store? There's a dead man?" Li Wunai looked left and right. "Who died?"
Yun glanced at him coldly and didn't say anything.
Li Wunai thought that Yun was probably confused about the situation, so he didn't ask any more questions and changed the subject to tell him the purpose of his visit. "She will set up a barrier in the room tonight, so you should be careful."
Yun's long, narrow eyelashes moved, and he said in a cold voice, "Speak clearly."
"Brother, is this the tone you should take when you have a request......" Before the words were out of his mouth, Li Wunai only felt a pang of nausea in his throat, and his face began to pale.
"Are you satisfied with my current tone?" Yun's tone got a few more degrees colder, and a layer of frost formed under his eyes.
Li Wunai nodded desperately with a gurgling sound coming from his throat. [+]
Yun looked at him expressionlessly for a few seconds before letting go of his hand and spitting out one word coolly, "Speak."
Li Wunai bent down and exhaled heavily, "Brother Chu, when we first make our swear with each other, we made a vow to the Jade Emperor that we would not live on the same day of the same year and the same month, but that we would die on the same day of the same year and the same month. If you strangle me now, we won't be able to die together."
"I didn't take that kind of vow."
"How do you know?"
"I remember——" After the words came out, both men looked surprised at the same time.
Li Wunai asked incredulously, "You remember?"
Yun also had a shocked look on his face. It seemed......as if......an image had just flashed through——
I, Chu Changge, will become his sworn brother today. Henceforth, in times of trouble, we will bear it together. In times of blessing, we will enjoy it together. We will live together but not in death.
I, Li Wunai, will become his sworn brother today. Henceforth, in times of trouble, we will bear it together. In times of blessing, we will enjoy it together. We will live together but not in death.
After a long moment of contemplation, Yun suddenly asked, "Where is your hair?"
In a moment, the corner of Li Wunai's mouth twitched a few times as if it had a strike the reef, and he replied grumpily, "Shaved it."
Yun looked at him strangely. His eyes seemed to say, what's wrong with shaving your hair, but you somehow only partially shaved your hair......
Li Wunai left aside the issue with his head and spoke of something else to divert Chu Changge's attention, "You remember everything?"
"No." There was only a fragment of that moment in his brain, not even a memory.
Li Wunai: "But you remembered a little bit just now, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"If you can remember a little bit, it means you can still be saved." Li Wunai raised his hand and rubbed his chin for a moment, then suddenly, as if he thought of something, he called out, "You should quickly become Chu Changge. His brain is much better than yours."
"......"
Li Wunai, "Oh no, you and he are using the same brain."
"......"
Li Wunai: "Besides, you can't transform during the day."
Yun's mouth twitched slightly. Transform......when did he become a werewolf?
"Forget it. I'm not good at this kind of thing. When Feng Cheng comes back from Wuhua (Flowerless) Valley, let him take a look at you. Maybe a few doses of medicine will bring you back to life."
"......" He wasn't dead yet.
"I still have things to do. I have to go now. You remember to tell your other part for me to act carefully at night and not to be too impulsive."
Yun frowned, "My other part has nothing to do at night."
"Huh?" Li Wunai flinched for a moment, then reacted and laughed, "Brother, you are overthinking it. I was referring to your second personality, not that word."
Yun was also stunned for a moment and then greatly embarrassed.
Seeing that someone was about to become annoyed, Li Wunai hastily slipped away, not forgetting to tease him a little before he left. "Brother Chu, you truly are a man. Forgetting about everything else but not forgetting the nature of a man. Hahahahaha......"
Yun frowned. He remembered that shaved head man should be a monk, right?
Wait, he remembered? Yun frowned more tightly, dazed, completely forgetting Li Wunai's reminder.
*
That night, the moon star was sparse. Chu Changge took the letter of divorce Murong Yunshu had left for Yun and went to the backyard of the Jiugua House. He should have made this trip last night, but he just had a temporary problem, so he put it off until tonight.
The light in Murong Yunshu's room was out, so she must have already gone to bed.
Chu Changge gently pushed open the window and leapt in. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he heard a click as the table and chairs in the room began to move.
"Sh*t!" Chu Changge cursed and turned around to leave, but as soon as he did, the room was instantly plunged into darkness and the windows were sealed tightly.
The room was pitch black and surprisingly quiet. But Chu Changge could feel the presence of another aura, a familiar aura, not far in front of him.
After a long moment of silence, Chu Changge hung his head and let out a low sigh. "You have found out about it after all."
In response, there was a dead silence.
After a while, he suddenly realised that something was wrong with the atmosphere and called out nervously, "Yunshu?"
Still, no one responded.
When Chu Changge was about to go forward to check, he heard an icy voice coming from the front——"Please call me Miss Murong."
Chu Changge's heart instantly felt a spasm of cold throughout his body.
It was night, the moon was not dark, and the wind was not high, but Chu Changge had the impulse to kill and set fire on something. "What the hell with this darn thing?!" The piece of paper of divorce looked unusually fragile in Chu Changge's eyes, and he could crush it to pieces with even the slightest force.
However, even though the four people East, South, North and West, noticed that Chu Changge was angry, they acted like they didn't see it. Some of them lowered their heads as if they were singing praises to the earth, and some raised their heads to look up at the blue sky and did whatever action they should do.
"Playing dumb?!"
East, South, North and West shivered a few times at his growl. After exchanging a few glances, the East Guardian answered breezily, "You brought the letter of divorce back yourself, and even we don't know what the hell is going on."
Ugh. Chu Changge's expression stiffened. "I took it back?!" His voice became unusually shrill like someone was choking his throat.
The four people South, East, North and West, nodded heavily with the same intention, "Yes."
Chu Changge held his forehead and pondered for a long moment before calming down. "He had been looking for her?" He asked.
South, East, North and West blinked. "Who's been looking for who?"
"Don't play dumb!" His tone was a bit heavy.
South, East, North and West hastily put away their joking expression. East Guardian pondered for a moment, then said very seriously, "Yes, he went to look for Madam during the day."
Chu Changge: "Without any disguise?"
East Guardian: "No disguise."
Chu Changge's face changed abruptly at those words, and he immediately cursed, "Darn it!"
East, South, North and West's bodies shook with the rise and fall of these 'darn it' words. Experience had taught them that they could not avoid being the target for the Leader to take his anger on in this kind of situation. The lighter his grief was, the more serious would their injury be. Seeing the way the Leader was raging, they would hurt their bodies, even more, this time around......
Just as they expected, before they could even prepare themselves mentally, they heard Chu Changge say, "All of you go chop wood!"
Chopping wood! The four people in the South, East, North and West immediately paled. "Lea, Leader, can we change it?" North Guardian was the first one to beg for mercy. Please read this chapter at xinshou blogspot com.
Chu Changge: "Can you turn back the clock?"
"......" No.
So, with the solemness of a heroic man who would go away and never return, the four men from the South, East, North and West sharpened their swords as they moved towards the coffin store. What the Leader wanted was not just any firewood!
*
The following day, they walked from their home towards the coffin store.
"The four little brothers are here again? Is it a dead father or a dead mother this time?" As soon as the owner of the coffin store saw the four people appear, he immediately greeted them with a warm smile.
Four of them, South, East, North and West, had a dead fish face on. "Dead boss." West Guardian answered bitterly.
When the coffin store owner heard what he said, he wrinkled his eyebrows, which were long and dense on one side and short and thin on the other, as he asked curiously, "Didn't your boss already die once?"
West Guardian replied sullenly, "He didn't die thoroughly last time, so now he died again."
"......" The coffin store owner's face was full of black lines. "If he's dead, then he is dead. If he is not dead, then he is not dead. What do you mean that he was not thoroughly dead?"
"It means he was half dead." West Guardian walked into the coffin store with a depressed expression. He picked up a random axe, and his eyes began to wander among the various coloured coffins.
Seeing this, the owner of the coffin store immediately ran up in front of him and opened his arms to stop him, "These are the ones that will be out today, don't mess them around. If you want to cut wood, go to the backyard. There are many discarded coffins there."
West Guardian: "Our boss can't see the discarded ones."
Coffin store owner: "He's already dead. Where does he have any opinion on that!"
West Guardian: "Don't worry, even if he has lost his breath, he can still come back to life."
"......" Come back to life......can this be considered as something reassuring?
"Lil West, stop it." East Guardian said to the coffin store owner with a smile, "Our boss is short of firewood, so he sent us to cut some firewood back so that he can be cremated."
"Lack of firewood? I think that he is lacking a moral sense!" The coffin store owner stated.
East Guardian immediately looked excited when he heard this. "Yes, he is lacking a moral sense. He is born without one."
"......" Is such a thing should be said about one's own boss? Suddenly, the owner of the coffin store thought of his store assistant and looked over slyly. This guy isn't trying to tarnish my reputation outside, is he?
The coffin store assistant got goosebumps from his boss's look among the place that was full of corpses and copper smell, "B, b, boss has any order for me?"
"It's nothing." The coffin store owner withdrew his eyes. He cleared his throat and said to East Guardian, "Those abandoned coffins in the backyard, feel free to cut them down. But I suggest you buy a coffin before you cremate him. That way, even if he comes back to life, he can only do so inside the coffin. You will no longer have to worry about him running around and harming people."
The corners of the East Guardian's mouth twitched slightly. "Good suggestion. We'll think about it."
*
"You guys, why does the Leader insist us to cut down the coffin? No internal force is allowed, but we must still cut them down? That's a bit too strange!" North Guardian asked, sweating as he continued to chop with his axe.
West Guardian wiped the sweat from his forehead as he chopped down with his axe and said, "It's a sin."
"What kind of sins?"
"All kinds of sins."
"......"
As West Guardian and the North Guardian fought, East Guardian and the Southern Guardian also exchanged opinions. Both of them agreed that the reason why Chu Changge had asked them to cut the coffin back must have had another intention other than punishing them. Thinking of this, East Guardian immediately calmed the duo North and West and then silently observed the surroundings. As he had guessed, the locust tree forest of the coffin store backyard had obviously just been transplanted, and the soil where the roots were buried was still loose. The four of them walked toward the oldest tree. Unexpectedly, they started to spin around the tree after taking a few steps, and now they couldn't get themselves out of the woods.
LOCUST TREE / CHINESE SCHOLAR TREE
*
Meanwhile, Yun sat on the tree branch again, watching the woman next door.
"Where are the four of them?"
Yun dropped his eyes and asked alertly, "Who are you?"
"Huh? Well, I forgot to introduce myself." Li Wunai sighed and said, "My name is Li Wunai, your sworn brother."
Yun's black eyes slightly twitched while holding a sceptical attitude.
Li Wunai rolled his eyes. Did he look so unlike a good guy? "Ask South, East, North and West if you don't believe me."
"They're out."
Li Wunai frowned. "Where did they go?" What did those four guys think of leaving such a big sick man with outstanding martial arts skills at home?
"The coffin store."
"Coffin store? There's a dead man?" Li Wunai looked left and right. "Who died?"
Yun glanced at him coldly and didn't say anything.
Li Wunai thought that Yun was probably confused about the situation, so he didn't ask any more questions and changed the subject to tell him the purpose of his visit. "She will set up a barrier in the room tonight, so you should be careful."
Yun's long, narrow eyelashes moved, and he said in a cold voice, "Speak clearly."
"Brother, is this the tone you should take when you have a request......" Before the words were out of his mouth, Li Wunai only felt a pang of nausea in his throat, and his face began to pale.
"Are you satisfied with my current tone?" Yun's tone got a few more degrees colder, and a layer of frost formed under his eyes.
Li Wunai nodded desperately with a gurgling sound coming from his throat. [+]
Yun looked at him expressionlessly for a few seconds before letting go of his hand and spitting out one word coolly, "Speak."
Li Wunai bent down and exhaled heavily, "Brother Chu, when we first make our swear with each other, we made a vow to the Jade Emperor that we would not live on the same day of the same year and the same month, but that we would die on the same day of the same year and the same month. If you strangle me now, we won't be able to die together."
"I didn't take that kind of vow."
"How do you know?"
"I remember——" After the words came out, both men looked surprised at the same time.
Li Wunai asked incredulously, "You remember?"
Yun also had a shocked look on his face. It seemed......as if......an image had just flashed through——
I, Chu Changge, will become his sworn brother today. Henceforth, in times of trouble, we will bear it together. In times of blessing, we will enjoy it together. We will live together but not in death.
I, Li Wunai, will become his sworn brother today. Henceforth, in times of trouble, we will bear it together. In times of blessing, we will enjoy it together. We will live together but not in death.
After a long moment of contemplation, Yun suddenly asked, "Where is your hair?"
In a moment, the corner of Li Wunai's mouth twitched a few times as if it had a strike the reef, and he replied grumpily, "Shaved it."
Yun looked at him strangely. His eyes seemed to say, what's wrong with shaving your hair, but you somehow only partially shaved your hair......
Li Wunai left aside the issue with his head and spoke of something else to divert Chu Changge's attention, "You remember everything?"
"No." There was only a fragment of that moment in his brain, not even a memory.
Li Wunai: "But you remembered a little bit just now, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"If you can remember a little bit, it means you can still be saved." Li Wunai raised his hand and rubbed his chin for a moment, then suddenly, as if he thought of something, he called out, "You should quickly become Chu Changge. His brain is much better than yours."
"......"
Li Wunai, "Oh no, you and he are using the same brain."
"......"
Li Wunai: "Besides, you can't transform during the day."
Yun's mouth twitched slightly. Transform......when did he become a werewolf?
"Forget it. I'm not good at this kind of thing. When Feng Cheng comes back from Wuhua (Flowerless) Valley, let him take a look at you. Maybe a few doses of medicine will bring you back to life."
"......" He wasn't dead yet.
"I still have things to do. I have to go now. You remember to tell your other part for me to act carefully at night and not to be too impulsive."
Yun frowned, "My other part has nothing to do at night."
"Huh?" Li Wunai flinched for a moment, then reacted and laughed, "Brother, you are overthinking it. I was referring to your second personality, not that word."
Yun was also stunned for a moment and then greatly embarrassed.
Seeing that someone was about to become annoyed, Li Wunai hastily slipped away, not forgetting to tease him a little before he left. "Brother Chu, you truly are a man. Forgetting about everything else but not forgetting the nature of a man. Hahahahaha......"
Yun frowned. He remembered that shaved head man should be a monk, right?
Wait, he remembered? Yun frowned more tightly, dazed, completely forgetting Li Wunai's reminder.
*
That night, the moon star was sparse. Chu Changge took the letter of divorce Murong Yunshu had left for Yun and went to the backyard of the Jiugua House. He should have made this trip last night, but he just had a temporary problem, so he put it off until tonight.
The light in Murong Yunshu's room was out, so she must have already gone to bed.
Chu Changge gently pushed open the window and leapt in. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he heard a click as the table and chairs in the room began to move.
"Sh*t!" Chu Changge cursed and turned around to leave, but as soon as he did, the room was instantly plunged into darkness and the windows were sealed tightly.
The room was pitch black and surprisingly quiet. But Chu Changge could feel the presence of another aura, a familiar aura, not far in front of him.
After a long moment of silence, Chu Changge hung his head and let out a low sigh. "You have found out about it after all."
In response, there was a dead silence.
After a while, he suddenly realised that something was wrong with the atmosphere and called out nervously, "Yunshu?"
Still, no one responded.
When Chu Changge was about to go forward to check, he heard an icy voice coming from the front——"Please call me Miss Murong."
Chu Changge's heart instantly felt a spasm of cold throughout his body.
