Extra Chapter: My First Meeting with Little Shen Laoye (1)
The late autumn wind blew the dead leaves, swirling in the cemetery, making a whimpering sound.
Shen Qing squatted in front of the lonely tombstone, his knees already soaked by the cold soil.
But he seemed to be unaware of anything and just stared at the four words "Tomb of My Mentor" on the tombstone.
The edge of the stone tablet was covered with dark green moss, and some places had peeled off, revealing the grayish-white stone underneath.
It looks very much like the lifeless eyes of the old master before he died.
He held a sharp folding knife in his hand, the blade gleaming coldly in the bleak light.
The handle of the knife was heated by his palm.
But my fingertips were as cold as ice, and even my knuckles were bluish-white.
Shen Qingze's eyes were terribly empty.
There was no shadow of the tombstone reflected in the pupils, nor the dead leaves flying in the sky, only a dead and desolate silence.
It was as if most of the soul had been taken away with the departure of the master.
“Master…”
His voice was hoarse as if it was squeezed out of a rusty iron pipe, and the tail end was torn to pieces by the wind.
"You said that there is hope only when we are alive... But why do I feel that all the light in this world has gone with you?"
He slowly lifted the blade, and the cold touch touched the skin on the inside of his wrist.
The blood vessels there are clearly visible, like blue earthworms.
Pulsating softly beneath the pale skin.
Shen Qingze's Adam's apple rolled, and his cracked lips opened slightly, but no sound came out.
He thought, that's it.
Anyway, there is nothing else worth lingering on in this world except this tombstone.
The old master is gone, and his biological parents, whom he had never met, have probably long forgotten that they had such a child.
But when the blade was about to cut his skin, his wrist suddenly stopped.
The tip of the knife only left a shallow white mark, without even a drop of blood coming out.
Shen Qing was stunned, and a trace of confusion flashed in his empty eyes——
What was he waiting for? Waiting for an impossible miracle?
Or wait for that "I'm sorry" that comes more than 20 years late?
The wind suddenly stopped, and the dead leaves around me hung in the air, as if held in place by an invisible force.
A chill ran down the back of Shen Qingze's neck.
He looked up suddenly and saw a thick black fog slowly drifting out from the cypress forest not far away.
The black fog rolled and moved like a living thing.
Wherever it passed, even the air seemed to freeze into ice.
"Are you hesitating?"
A hoarse voice came from the black fog, neither male nor female.
It was like the voices of countless people superimposed on each other, making the eardrums hurt.
Shen Qing tightened his grip on the knife but did not step back.
He watched as the black mist slowly gathered and eventually turned into a vague human figure.
No facial features, no limbs, just a constantly twisting shadow.
"Want to see him again?"
The ghost's voice has a seductive magnetism.
"Your master, and those people you want to see, can appear before you at any time as long as they sign a contract with me."
Shen Qingze's heart skipped a beat, and a faint light instantly ignited in his empty eyes.
He remembered that the old master grabbed his hand before he died and said, "Qingze, live well";
Thinking of the blurry faces of my parents that I had seen countless times in my dreams,
These thoughts entangled with his mind like vines, making it difficult for him to breathe.
"Anyway... there's nothing to lose."
He whispered, with a tone of resolute determination.
Rather than living in this empty world, it is better to grasp this last straw.
He looked at the ghost and nodded slowly.
Almost at the moment he nodded, a dazzling golden light suddenly burst out from around the ghost.
Intertwined with the thick black fog, it was like two fighting pythons, instantly surrounding Shen Qingze.
He only felt a scorching force suddenly penetrate into his limbs and bones.
The skin felt like it was burning in a raging fire, but there was a piercing coldness in the cracks between the bones.
The two extreme feelings tore at his nerves, causing him to groan in pain.
It felt like something in my body was about to burst out.
What is it? Is it a soul? He couldn't tell, he just felt his consciousness blurring rapidly.
There was a buzzing sound in my ears, as if countless bees were hovering around me.
"You and I have signed a contract..."
The ghostly voice rang out in the chaos, carrying an ancient and solemn echo.
"From now on, you will be my slave for eternity..."
Shen Qing felt like he was thrown into a bottomless ice cellar.
It was pitch dark all around, and a cold air penetrated into the bones through the pores.
He wanted to struggle, but he didn't even have the strength to move a finger. He could only let the force carry him down.
Is this what death feels like? he wondered dreamily.
After all the twists and turns, it will eventually return to darkness...
A second before his consciousness completely sank into chaos, he seemed to hear the voice of the master calling his name from afar, as gentle as the humming before bedtime when he was a child.
But the voice became farther and farther away, and was finally completely swallowed up by the boundless coldness.
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The biting cold suddenly penetrated into the collar.
Shen Qing twitched in the chaos and suddenly opened his eyes like a fish out of water.
The cold water trickled down his hair.
The pain of ice chips dripping onto his nose completely extinguished his last bit of sleepiness.
He coughed and tilted his head, his chin resting on his collarbone.
I could feel the wet fabric sticking to my back, and the chill running down my spine into my bones.
"hiss--"
He tried to sit up by supporting himself on the ground, but as soon as he exerted force on his elbow, he gasped in pain.
My whole body seemed to be disassembled and reassembled, and every bone was protesting.
Especially at the back of the head, the dull pain came and went, as if someone had hit me hard with a blunt object.
Shen Qing raised his hand and pressed it against his forehead, feeling a sticky, wet and cold sensation with his fingertips.
Can't tell if it's cold water or something else.
He finally managed to sit up, leaning his back against the cold stone wall, and was able to see his surroundings clearly.
It's terribly dark here.
There was only a faint light coming through a hole somewhere above his head, barely enough to illuminate a three-foot radius.
The air was filled with an indescribable stench, like rotting meat mixed with damp mold.
The sharp stimulation when it entered his nasal cavity made him frown.
Suddenly, I felt a warm touch on my wrist.
Shen Qing looked down and saw a talisman mark on the inside of his wrist, which was emitting a faint golden light.
The light was not bright, but it was particularly conspicuous in the pitch-black darkness.
Like a tiny spark, it made his pale skin glow with a strange luster.
It was only then that he noticed the clothes he was wearing.
The shirt he was wearing was gone, replaced by a ragged piece of coarse cloth.
The fabric was as rough as sandpaper, with crooked patches on the edges.
There are even holes in some places, which can barely cover the body and cannot keep out the cold at all.
Shen Qingze frowned even tighter——
Who changed his clothes?!
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