Chapter 52: The old gentleman greeted us.
Don't provoke it? The problem is, I didn't do anything, Su Zhenzhen thought, feeling depressed as she thought about the blow to the back of her head.
The black monkey bared its teeth and looked menacing. Forget about provoking it; just make sure it doesn't hurt anyone first.
"Sizzle—"
The black monkey stopped its leaping motion and looked at Su Zhenzhen with an exasperated expression.
No, I really didn't do anything to you. I haven't even held a grudge against you for hitting me.
The black monkey lunged straight at Su Zhenzhen's face, its speed making Su Zhenzhen suspect that it had also drunk the gene-optimization fluid.
Su Zhenzhen didn't want those claws, which had been hiding in black mud for decades, to slap her, so she took off running.
But the monkey seemed to be possessed, resenting that the person standing nearby didn't attack it, and kept chasing after it.
Hensheng was still trying to reason with him, saying, "Senior, it was wrong of us to disturb your peaceful cultivation. Please forgive us for our rudeness. We will leave right away."
Su Zhenzhen felt like a chick caught in a game of tag, running around Hensheng like a monkey in a tug-of-war. If they ran too far, the flashlight wouldn't reach them, and Hensheng, this naive and gullible guy, always wanted to be reasonable. If a dangerous creature actually showed up, wouldn't that be a complete waste?
The live chat was still buzzing with excitement.
[I was just having a late-night snack, how did I end up watching Animal World again?]
Hey, female lead, you can't even outrun a monkey, can you? Throw him some bananas!
These words reminded Su Zhenzhen, who quickly ordered a bunch of bananas from the system shop and threw them to the monkey.
After getting the banana, the monkey stopped chasing Su Zhenzhen and ate it standing up like a human.
General Huo's expression turned grave. "Something's wrong with this monkey."
Su Zhenzhen supported Hensheng, absorbing the true dragon energy from his body, and said irritably, "Nonsense, there's no point in him chasing you if you're a ghost. Why doesn't he chase Hensheng? He's so sexist."
General Huo didn't speak. He looked at the monkey, then glanced around the dense forest. Finally, a look of joy appeared on his face. "One-Eyed, is that you? It's me, Little Yue!"
"Rustle—" A sound came from the woods, and soon an old man with a hunched back and a full head of white hair walked unsteadily to the group.
Su Zhenzhen was almost frightened by his appearance. General Huo's ghost was already scary enough, but this old man's right eye had grown together, he was all wrinkled, his face was covered with knife scars, and the exposed flesh had long since scabbed over. His face looked like a dehydrated orange peel.
The one-eyed old man first glanced up and down at Su Zhenzhen and Hensheng, then turned to look at General Huo's ghost. His remaining left eye welled up with turbid tears, but the words he spoke were dry and revealed a fierce edge.
"I never expected you to die such a gruesome death."
General Huo's eyes also welled up with tears, but unfortunately ghosts don't have tears. His eyes stung for a long time but not a single drop fell. "I thought you were long dead."
The one-eyed old man snorted through his nose, "On the battlefield, swords and spears will avoid me. I'm over ninety years old this year, and I'm going to live to be a hundred."
After the black monkey finished eating the banana, it looked like it was about to bare its teeth again when the one-eyed old man waved at it.
The monkey immediately jumped in front of the old man and affectionately patted his head, just like it would its own child.
General Huo looked at the black monkey in a friendly manner and said to the one-eyed old man, "This must be your father, right?"
Su Zhenzhen's eyes widened in disbelief. How could there be interspecies hybridization in this world?
The one-eyed old man leaned against the black monkey's chest, pursed his lips, and said, "At least you, General, have some eyesight. What kind of eyes do you have, little girl? What rare thing could you have seen?"
Su Zhenzhen adjusted her facial expression and sincerely apologized, "I'm sorry, I was just a little shocked, I didn't mean to offend you."
An elderly person of such advanced age should be respected and honored. If this monkey is his father, then he must be even older.
It's understandable that old people have some quirks, so Su Zhenzhen forgave the monkey for hitting her on the back of the head for no reason.
The one-eyed old man proudly raised his chin, "You're quite sensible."
General Huo explained to Su Zhenzhen on his behalf, "When One-Eyed was born, he was abandoned in the mountains. This black monkey raised him. His eye was injured when he was picking wild fruit in the forest as a child and was pecked by a wild beast. I can't remember which year it was when I led my troops to pursue the barbarians and accidentally entered the deep mountains and met him. He joined the Northwest Army after my persuasion. On the battlefield, he is as agile as a monkey. The barbarians have to go around him when they see him."
Upon hearing this, Hensheng immediately bowed to the old man with the courtesy due to a junior, saying, "Greetings, sir."
The one-eyed old man narrowed his remaining eye. "I hate this 'sir' stuff the most, but for some reason, it sounds really good coming from your mouth."
Su Zhenzhen was speechless. It was one thing for the Wang sisters in the live stream to like Hensheng, and it was another for them not to smash Hensheng, but how could an old woman like her be so biased towards him?
Why? I was sincerely apologizing, okay?
General Huo didn't hide anything, "This is the last emperor's only prince. I plan to help him overthrow the country. I'm heading north because I sensed that there are still 500 remnants of the Huo family army."
General Huo then pointed at Su Zhenzhen, "Don't underestimate this girl. She is a messenger from the underworld. After I died, my soul was trapped in chaos, and she was the one who summoned me out."
The one-eyed old man then began to take Su Zhenzhen seriously. "Her eyes are clear and bright, and she seems to have a righteous air about her."
Su Zhenzhen smiled, pursing her lips.
"Few people venture into this dense forest. My father mistook you for an intruder, not targeting you intentionally, young lady." The one-eyed old man said indifferently, seemingly without the slightest reverence for the underworld officials.
That's true. We've lived to this age, what haven't we seen? We're all in the thick of things, why should we be afraid of life and death?
General Huo then seemed to remember something, "Didn't you and your father live in the woods of Bianzhou? Why did you come to Huzhou?"
The one-eyed old man rolled his eyes with his remaining eye, annoyed. "You, the great general, got stabbed to death on the battlefield. How much better off could we lowly soldiers be? I'm not one of those stubborn fools who knowingly rush to their deaths. I took those who were willing to listen to me and hid in the mountains to see what the court planned. Damn it, the later emperor pulled this stunt of paying tribute and making peace. They made peace, but what about us fallen brothers? They even sent a new general to garrison the area. I wasn't going to put up with their wrath, so I led my men through the mountains to Huzhou. Didn't you say there was a great general here? We thought we'd go and join him. Who knew that old guy would die so young, only in his eighties? These people are leaderless, nobody listens to anyone else, so the brothers just scattered and lived in this area. My father likes places with lots of trees, so I brought him here to this forest."
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