Chapter 32 The Death of Xie Yin
The stinging sensation in her fingers brought Lin Mumu back to her senses slightly. She turned her head slightly and whispered to the servant, "Let him go."
In fact, Ji Shi also felt that those words were a bit harsh, but once the words were spoken, they were hard to take back. After being released, he did not leave, and the two of them stood there in silence without saying a word.
After an unknown amount of time, Ji Shi finally raised his head slightly and said to Lin Mumu, "I'm sorry, that's not what I meant..."
Lin Mumu did kill someone, but ultimately he didn't know the details. He couldn't just condemn her like that. Besides, she hadn't really hurt him; maybe it was just a joke.
Lin Mumu didn't react much, only gave a soft "hmm," and then said to him, "As long as you don't run around and stay here obediently, I won't hurt you."
After saying that, she dismissed the servants and turned to leave alone. Seeing that she was about to leave, Ji Shi called out anxiously, "Where are you going?"
"It has nothing to do with you."
Ji Shi felt that something was wrong with her, so he secretly followed Lin Mumu when she left. Anyway, she hadn't left the place, so it shouldn't count as wandering around.
Following Lin Mumu, Ji Shi arrived at a magnificent hall. Halfway there, Lin Mumu seemed to sense something and looked back twice. Ji Shi was so startled that he suddenly squatted down and used the bushes by the roadside to hide himself.
But when he squatted down, he used too much force and his knee hit a sharp pebble, almost making him cry out in pain.
Lin Mumu couldn't help but smile. She had noticed that Ji Shi had followed her long ago, but for some reason, she didn't want to expose his clumsy hiding skills.
As he got closer to the main hall, Ji Shi could finally make out the two large characters "Ancestral Hall" on the plaque. He was somewhat puzzled; why build such a magnificent ancestral hall, capable of holding hundreds of people?
Ji Shi hid outside the door and watched Lin Mumu walk in. He also walked closer and saw a horrifying scene.
Inside the ancestral hall, countless memorial tablets were arranged in layers, seemingly without end. The candles swaying beside the tablets illuminated the originally dark hall as if it were daytime, making Lin Mumu appear so small as he stood there.
Each memorial tablet represents a human life. Ji Shi was right; there were indeed hundreds of people here.
Lin Mumu took three incense sticks, lit them, and kowtowed three times to the memorial tablet at the front. She knelt on the cushion and looked up at the countless wronged souls.
They were like vengeful ghosts in Lin Mumu's heart, howling in every sleepless night, demanding that Lin Mumu avenge them, that they die in peace.
"Come in..."
Lin Mumu suddenly spoke up.
Ji Shi paused for a moment, then tiptoed into the ancestral hall. As soon as he entered, he was choked by the thick smell of smoke and couldn't help but cough twice.
Ji Shi glanced at Lin Mumu kneeling on the ground, then turned to look at the magnificent scene before him: "These are all..."
"Um."
Lin Mumu continued the conversation for him: "They are all my family."
Ji Shi had some doubts: "But apart from your uncle's lineage, there shouldn't be so many Lin family members left."
Lin Mumu stood up and met Shang Jishi's gaze: "Not everyone who is related by blood can be called family, and not everyone who is not related by blood is not family."
She turned to face the countless memorial tablets and began to recall the past: "As far back as I can remember, my father has been taking in homeless children and elderly women without anyone to care for them in Qingyao City, and taking care of them in a village. When I was little, I often went back there to play."
“There, I was not the young city lord, and they were not homeless children. There would be old women who would make us delicious osmanthus-flavored lotus root. In my heart, they had long been my family.”
So that means the entire village is gone. Ji Shi frowned slightly, because he thought of a certain place.
"Zhangjia Village in the western suburbs?"
Lin Mumu nodded slightly and explained, "They had no descendants, so I took it upon myself to change their surname and put them in my Lin Clan Ancestral Hall. They had no descendants, so I set up a memorial tablet for them and made offerings to them."
"But... wasn't what happened in Zhangjia Village the work of remnants of the demon race?"
He couldn't possibly have misremembered this incident, which caused quite a stir back then. He didn't understand why Lin Mumu would transfer her hatred for the demon race onto his uncle.
"Heh, the demon race?" Lin Mumu sneered. "They can blame everything on the demon race, but they manage to absolve themselves of all responsibility."
Ji Shi frowned slightly: "Not a demon? Then why did he destroy that village?"
Lin Mumu asked, "Do you still remember Xie Yin?"
Ji Shi asked, "You know him?"
In his previous letter to them, Bai Qianfan only mentioned that Xie Yin's death was suspicious. Now that Lin Mumu has asked about Xie Yin, it seems that his death is also related to all of this.
"Xie Yin was injured and rescued by the people of Zhangjia Village. A few days later, the village was wiped out, but from beginning to end, no remnants of the demon race ever appeared."
Ji Shi's eyes widened instantly as he tried to sort out his thoughts and guess: "So... that means someone used the demons as a front?"
Lin Mumu nodded and said succinctly, "It was Lin Wei who joined forces with Linyi Sect."
Ji Shi was so shocked that he couldn't speak. This matter seemed to have exceeded his expectations. He never thought that Xie Yin's death could involve so many people.
"etc!"
Ji Shi suddenly realized: "You've been telling me all this, you wouldn't be going to..."
Explaining everything to him is just a way to silence him and make him die knowing why, isn't it? That's how it's written in storybooks!
Lin Mumu was so angry she almost laughed. Was this guy an idiot?! She turned away, too lazy to look at him, and tried her best to suppress her anger as she earnestly explained, "You are all from Changjin Mountain, so naturally you want to avenge Xie Yin. I'm telling you all this so that we can cooperate!"
"Cooperation?" Ji Shi was somewhat skeptical, squinting at her: "Then why did you ask Chu Jianshan and the others to find some relics for you?"
Lin Mumu raised an eyebrow: "I have to see your sincerity, don't I?"
Ji Shi pursed his lips and reluctantly believed his nonsense.
I wonder how things are going with Chu Jianshan. We only have seven days to meet. I wonder if they will be able to return safely.
In the water city, Chu Jianshan did not sleep well at night. Strange sounds kept coming from all around him. He couldn't tell what they were, but they sounded like something striking a rock.
Chu Jianshan was so annoyed by the noise that he could only sit up, sigh, and then go next door and bang on the door to wake Cheng Yuan up.
Seeing Cheng Yuan, still sleepy-eyed and leaning against the door with a resentful look on his face, asking him what he wanted to do, Chu Jianshan felt a sense of satisfaction at having successfully pulled off a prank.
Seeing the barely concealed smile on Chu Jianshan's face, Cheng Yuan took a deep breath and said, "You'd better have something important to say."
Upon hearing this, Chu Jianshan immediately became serious and solemnly said, "Indeed, there is something very important."
Cheng Yuan leaned against the door frame with one hand, looking down at Chu Jianshan, raising an eyebrow slightly: "If asking me to go out and chat with you is considered a serious matter, then I refuse."
Oh no, this person can read minds?
Chu Jianshan winked at him guiltily, still holding the two lanterns he had brought out of the room. The faint light shone on Chu Jianshan's profile, and the shadows swayed and shrank with the flickering flames.
"If you really don't want to go, then I'll..."
"Let's go together," Cheng Yuan interrupted him.
"What?" Chu Jianshan looked up at him abruptly. He had just meant to say that he went alone.
"Hurry up and go, I can get some sleep when I get back."
Before he could react, Chu Jianshan was pulled away by Cheng Yuan, who also took the lantern from his hand.
The farce of Huaimin not sleeping ended, and Chu Jianshan and Cheng Yuan sat on the roof watching the stars.
No, this is underwater. There are no stars, only endless blackness.
Cheng Yuan leaned back, supporting himself with one hand, while placing the other hand behind Chu Jianshan's back, asking, "What's there to see here?"
It was terrifyingly dark all around, and you couldn't see anything at all except for Chu Jianshan next to you.
Chu Jianshan grinned foolishly and nudged Cheng Yuan next to him with his elbow: "Since there's nothing to see, why don't you tell me about your master's story?"
To be honest, he was quite curious about what he meant to Cheng Yuan, what his importance was to him, whether he was rigid and strict, or gentle and understanding.
But to everyone's surprise, Cheng Yuan's eyes darkened, and he said in a muffled voice, "What is there for him to say?"
Chu Jianshan frowned slightly and asked, "But didn't you come down the mountain to find him?"
He couldn't believe that Cheng Yuan didn't care about him, since he had gone down the mountain to find him despite everyone's objections.
Cheng Yuan said, "I just want an answer. I want to ask him myself why..."
He stopped abruptly, looked down and exhaled, his voice a little hoarse: "Why don't you want me anymore?"
A silence fell between them. Chu Jianshan turned his head away guiltily, his eyes welling up with tears. He tried to defend himself: "Perhaps, he doesn't not want you. He just has more important things to do."
Cheng Yuan nodded: "Yes, anything, anything is more important than me."
Chu Jianshan opened his mouth and then slowly closed it. He wanted to say no, in his heart, the most important thing has always been you. He only wants you to be well, whether you have a master or not, you can be well.
But he is Chu Jianshan, and he cannot speak on behalf of Chu Qingyuan.
Cheng Yuan continued, recalling, "Actually, when he first saved me, I didn't believe him. I stubbornly stayed in that dilapidated house and refused to go with him, waiting for my father and mother to come back."
“He would come over every day, bringing me all sorts of snacks. He wouldn’t say anything, just sit next to me and wait with me. Gradually, I started to look forward to it.”
"I hope he can come again tomorrow, I hope he can bring me some snacks, and I hope he can say it again and ask me to go back with him."
"On the thirty-seventh time, I agreed. I didn't want my father and mother anymore; I only wanted him."
After they finished speaking, the two fell silent again. It wasn't that Chu Jianshan didn't want to talk, but his throat was tight and his nose was sore. If he opened his mouth, Cheng Yuan would definitely notice.
"Chu Jianshan," Cheng Yuan suddenly called out to him.
"Um?"
Chu Jianshan tried his best to make his voice sound normal: "Why did you suddenly call me?"
Cheng Yuan turned to look at him. The candle in the lantern was almost burned out, and the last bit of light illuminated half of his face. His eyes flickered with a mixture of tears and firelight, making it hard to tell.
"Actually, I've always..."
Chu Jianshan raised his eyebrows in confusion, not understanding why he only said half of what he meant.
After a long pause, Cheng Yuan seemed to give up on something, lowered his head and gave a bitter smile, then continued, "Actually, I've always wanted to thank you."
Chu Jianshan smiled and said, "There's no need for thanks between us."
As soon as the words were spoken, the last glimmer of light from the lantern went out, leaving the two of them staring at each other in the endless darkness.
Perhaps it was the darkness that gave those in the shadows a bit of courage, for Cheng Yuan slowly reached out his hand, trying to grasp the light in his eyes.
"Wait! There are people down below!"
Chu Jianshan suddenly turned around, inadvertently avoiding Cheng Yuan's hand. He pressed Cheng Yuan's body down to prevent the people below from noticing.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
