Chapter 36
The midday sun was shining brightly. An old elm wood table was set up in the middle of the courtyard. A copper pot was bubbling with red oil soup base, and the steaming heat blurred the human figure.
Four people sat around, using chopsticks to pick up the meatballs rolling in the pot.
Tang An had no appetite. He fiddled with the meatball in his bowl, which was pierced with countless small holes. He looked up at He Miao and said, "Master, is there anything we need to prepare in advance for the resurrection ceremony this afternoon?"
Bu Suanzi quickly grabbed a plump meatball and was about to put it into his own bowl when a thieving hand swooped by at lightning speed.
“!!!”
Bu Suanzi watched the meatballs fall into He Miao's bowl.
He Miao blew it proudly, but before he could bite it, Bu Suanzi grabbed the little tuft of hair on the back of his head.
"It hurts, it hurts! Let go, evil disciple!" He Miao cried out in pain.
Bu Suanzi continued to exert force, and said to Tang An sternly, "Master told you a fortune this morning, and the gist is that this ceremony is likely to fail."
"Failure?" Tang An's heart sank suddenly.
"Hmm." Ignoring his master's grinning face, Bu Suanzi continued, "The hexagram shows that what's lacking is 'harmony among people.'"
"Harmony among people?" Tang An was puzzled.
"It means exactly what it says. People are not on the same page, or someone is interfering." Bu Suanzi let go of He Miao's hand when he saw that he was about to burst into tears. He took the meatball that He Miao had bitten from his bowl and stuffed it into his mouth. He said vaguely, "Since it involves past and present lives, this person is likely to have a great connection with your past life. Think about it carefully. In your life with Chi Ying, is there such a person who has always... um, been entangled in your relationship?"
Tang An fell silent.
Emotional entanglement?
Between us...
Faces flashed through my mind rapidly, like the clicking of an old movie projector.
The chopsticks in his hand unconsciously poked the meatballs in the bowl hard, almost smashing them.
On the left, Shen Qi was immersed in the comfort of delicious food. He had just picked up a trembling piece of fat beef roll to dip it in the sauce when he was suddenly slapped on the back of his head.
“Pah.”
With a flick of the chopsticks, the precious piece of beef roll fell straight onto the greasy table.
“…” Shen Qi looked down, hesitated for only a second, then stretched out three fingers, calmly picked up the piece of meat, and stuffed it directly into his mouth without blowing it. While chewing, he looked at the culprit with a "what are you doing" look.
Tang An looked at him using Chi Ying's pretty face to make such rough and careless movements. His eyelids twitched violently, and he held his forehead and turned around: "...I'm sorry."
At that moment, he thought of Chi Ying.
The man who always behaves well and gracefully in front of outsiders, but in certain social situations, likes to release his damn hormones in front of the opposite sex like a peacock spreading its tail feathers, which has caused many quarrels between the two of them.
Chi Ying would always use his male friends to interrupt him by asking "What's going on between you and that guy", which made Tang An angry and aggrieved.
It was a completely subconscious action just now. I forgot that the person inside the shell was no longer Chi Ying, but the old dragon Shen Qi.
but……
Tang An's hand, which was blocking his forehead, moved down slightly to hide his flickering eyes.
If we were to say who has the deepest emotional entanglements with them recently, it would be the boss and Roy, and before that there was also Senior Su.
He put his hand down and said to Bu Suanzi with a stiff upper lip, "There are three people. One is the boss of my law firm, one is a ballet dancer I used to admire, and the other one..."
Shen Qi immediately pricked up his ears.
Tang An could feel the burning and inquiring gaze beside him. He took a deep breath and said with all his heart, "...it was my first love in college."
Shen Qi held the chopsticks in his mouth and tilted his head.
"Chu Lian?" He chewed on this unfamiliar word, his eyes full of pure confusion, "A close friend? Or..."
The reactions of the master and disciple opposite him instantly gave him the answer.
He Miao and Bu Suanzi's eyes lit up like light bulbs, and they even forgot to eat the hot pot. They simultaneously put their hands on their faces, leaned forward, and spoke in a rhythmic and winding tone:
"First love—ah—"
They sang these three words vividly like an aria, bringing out the charm of thirteen words.
Shen Qi understood instantly: “Is this what your beloved one meant?”
He Miao pinched his throat and said mischievously: "Four, four, four~"
Bu Suanzi nodded rapidly: "Yeah, yeah~"
The veins on Tang An's forehead were throbbing: "...you two, that's enough!"
Shen Qi said "Oh" and picked up the chopsticks again with a normal expression, as if he had just confirmed an academic term: "Do you have a photo? Let me see."
Tang An glared at him fiercely: "Are you joining in the fun too?!"
Shen Qi's face was frank, even with a bit of academic rigor: "I have no interest in such leisurely things, I just want to identify whether it is someone I know."
Seeing that he looked serious and didn't seem to be joking, Tang An suppressed his anger and secretly cursed himself for being too sensitive.
He stroked his hair irritably, unlocked his phone, opened the photo album, and pushed it onto the table: "See for yourself."
He Miao was quick and grabbed the phone.
The moment the screen lit up, Tang An's pupils suddenly shrank and his head buzzed.
The album is filled with many private photos of him and Ji Ying taken when they were in love, which are definitely not suitable for children!
"Wait, wait!" He jumped up suddenly as if he was burned, and snatched the phone back in a flash. His cheeks instantly turned red, and even his ears were stained with blood. "I'll find it and send it to you!"
The three of them watched him rush to the side as if his butt was on fire, and looked at each other in confusion.
Is there anything that our valued VIPs cannot see?
After a while, Bu Suanzi's cell phone rang.
The three of them immediately gathered together and swiped their fingers across the screen.
The photos flashed by one by one, finally stopping at a young man wearing a camel wool coat and with a cool temperament.
He stood on the campus path covered with fallen sycamore leaves, his profile clean and sharp, giving him a kind of aloof handsomeness.
Shen Qi stared at the face for a few seconds, frowning slightly, then pointed at the screen with certainty and said to Tang An, who was still calming his heartbeat, "I know this person."
The person in the photo is Tang An’s college senior, Su He.
Tang An was stunned: "Do you know Senior Su He?"
Chen Qi was clearly unfamiliar with the term "senior." He was more familiar with another name: "His name is Su Chengyue, and he's Gu An's most favored disciple. His parents are both mortals without any spiritual roots. When he was young, his family was robbed by bandits, and his mother desperately managed to save him by stuffing him into a closet. Later, Gu An came across this place and, seeing his excellent aptitude, he took him in as his disciple."
Tang An grasped the key point: "Have you always been with Gu An?"
Otherwise, how could he know his disciples so well?
Chen Qi's eyes dimmed slightly, and he shook his head. "That's not the case. When Gu An was thirteen, we had a fierce argument. The child had grown up and his heart had become wild. I knew I couldn't keep him by force, so I let him go. Although he unilaterally announced his breakup with me, I always protected him from the shadows."
This conversation, which contained a huge amount of information, left He Miao and Bu Suanzi, who were listening, completely confused. They even forgot to pick up the meatballs.
Tang An raised his hand to cover his eyes, pressing his fingertips hard on his throbbing temples: "...This is someone I didn't expect at all."
According to Bu Suanzi, this "harmony among people" is the key to the failure of the ceremony.
If this person is really Su He...
His head began to ache again, as if it were being pricked by needles.
How could it be him?
On the other side, He Miao swallowed the meat in his mouth and finally interrupted: "Mr. Tang, can you get the birth date of your senior?"
Tang An rubbed his forehead and smiled bitterly: "How is that possible? He and I are not close enough to exchange birthday cards."
He Miao smacked his lips. "What about personal belongings? Like the accessories and clothes he often wears, or... his hair and fingernails?"
The corner of Tang Yan's mouth twitched: "...Master, I'm not a pervert."
He Miao spread his hands, picked up the colander and continued to scoop out the meat: "There's nothing we can do. Forget about this ceremony today. It's bound to fail."
Tang An was speechless for a moment, and unwillingly asked, "Master, suppose... just suppose, it was really Su He's fault, then what did he do to make the ritual fail?"
He Miao slowly stuffed two beef balls into his mouth, his cheeks puffed up like a hamster hoarding food.
He chewed and swallowed laboriously, then spoke slowly, "The rituals we perform here are magic. If he really gets involved, he'll definitely be using magic as well. I suspect he might have performed some kind of magic, or perhaps set some obstacles for you, like a concentric spell, a talisman, or something insidious like that."
These words sound like they were ripped out of a low-quality fantasy drama, filled with evil curses and the visual effect of bleeding from all seven orifices.
Tang An really couldn't connect them with the senior in his memory who always had a gentle smile and a temperament as cold as a green lotus in front of Buddha.
"But..." Tang An frowned and muttered, "Su He is indeed very interested in these metaphysical numerology."
Fragments of memory came flooding back.
Su He always wore a soft fox-shaped jade pendant around his neck; his wrists were always adorned with sandalwood beads or crystals of various materials. He would frequently share articles like "Introduction to Zi Wei Dou Shu" and "A Brief Discussion of Qi Men Dun Jia" on his WeChat Moments...
Thinking about it this way...
A hint of hesitation flashed across Tang An's eyes.
How could I have been so possessed in the first place that I found this kind of charlatan who was full of the aura of middle-aged and elderly people so fascinating?
He suddenly remembered that Chi Ying had complained about Su He in a sarcastic tone, saying that he was just like those pretentious people in middle school who thought they were profound and had seen through the world, but in fact they couldn't even understand trigonometric functions.
I even had a cold war with him for a week because of what Chi Ying said.
Looking back now.
Tang An felt a surge of heat rushing up his cheeks and ears, and he dug his toes into the ground in embarrassment.
But this was just a groundless guess after all. How could he make such malicious speculations about the person he once truly loved based on some hobbies and Shen Qi's one-sided words?
A strong sense of shame gripped Tang An.
He felt ashamed of the dark speculations that were growing in his heart.
The ear that was getting hotter and hotter was suddenly gently pinched by a cool hand.
Shen Qi moved closer, staring at his red earlobes like a curious baby: "What did you think of? Why are your ears so hot that they seem to be on fire?"
"No, nothing!" Tang An stood up suddenly like a cat whose tail was stepped on, and the movement was so big that the chair fell over.
Seeing his intense reaction, Shen Qi's curiosity grew stronger: "Did you think of something... um... something related to dual cultivation?"
Tang An's face instantly turned red: "...No!!!"
He just despised the dark and despicable person in his heart who wanted to destroy something if he couldn't get it!
At this moment of shame, anger and excitement, the scene he saw in his dream suddenly flashed through Tang An's mind.
The man who was imprisoned in a dark dungeon, covered in wounds.
'We are all one kind of people.'
'No matter how much you try to deny it.'
"I am your past life, your true self that cannot be washed away no matter how many times you reincarnate."
"Tang An..."
The courtyard hot pot and the human figure in front of me instantly distorted and faded, peeling off and disappearing.
The vision was replaced by a thick, indissoluble ink.
In the darkness, a slender and lonely figure slowly emerged. As the person turned around, a familiar yet unfamiliar face suddenly appeared in my mind.
Tang An's whole body was stiff and he couldn't move. He could only watch the man who looked exactly like him walking towards him.
Finally it stopped in front of me.
The closer you look, the clearer the other person's appearance becomes.
This strange feeling of having twins made Tang An want to escape.
The other person stared at him motionlessly for a long time, then the corners of his thin lips moved upwards very slowly, forming a cold smile.
"So this is what the world after death is like."
The man's voice rang directly in Tang An's mind, dry and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against bones.
Tang An's lips were trembling violently, and his throat seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand, making him unable to make a sound. He could only allow the other party's icy gaze to torture him from head to toe, inch by inch.
'Do you remember who I am?'
Gu An took a step forward, raised a hand that was so pale that it was almost transparent, and stroked Tang An's cheek.
The biting cold instantly penetrated the skin.
Tang An couldn't help but shiver violently.
'My name is Gu An.'
The cold fingertips tapped lightly on his cheekbone.
"I remember that."
Tang An finally squeezed out a broken breath from his throat: "You..."
Gu An seemed satisfied that he could finally make a sound and withdrew his hand, but that lifeless face approached again, so close that Tang An could see the dead silence and emptiness in his eyes.
'And you? '
The cold breath almost sprayed on Tang An's face.
'May I have your name? '
Tang An clenched his teeth tightly, his soul resisting answering, but his body and vocal cords were completely uncontrollable as he uttered word by word:
"Tang An."
"My name is Tang An."
This answer formed a strange and desperate mirror image with Gu An’s previous self-narration.
call--
A gust of cold and biting wind suddenly blew up without any warning.
The figure of Gu An in front of him was like sand blown away by the wind, blurring and disintegrating in an instant, disappearing without a trace.
The surrounding scene flickered and distorted violently, like an old TV with poor signal.
The flying eaves and brackets of the jade-like buildings, and the hazy outlines of the green mountains and green waters, sometimes clear, sometimes blurry, force their way into the field of vision.
Where is this?
Tang An had no time to think about the sudden change in the environment. A sharp pain from deep in his bone marrow suddenly broke out, as if tens of millions of red-hot steel needles were piercing his limbs and bones at the same time.
He groaned, unable to hold on any longer, and fell heavily to his knees, clutching his aching abdomen.
Cold sweat instantly soaked my back.
His fingers dug into the cold, hard ground so hard that his nails almost broke.
What's going on...
What the hell is going on?!
He bit his lower lip, and the sweet and fishy taste of rust filled his mouth. His consciousness, which had just recovered, quickly became blurred again in the excruciating pain and cold.
My vision began to darken, and snowflakes appeared on the edges.
Just a second before consciousness is about to sink completely into the dark abyss.
A rough, bark-textured dead branch suddenly stretched out with a bit of frivolity, and lifted up his chin which was covered with cold sweat.
Blurred vision struggles to focus.
A familiar face, with three parts of mockery and seven parts of impatience, gradually became clear in the swaying light and shadow.
"What a coincidence! I run into you, an unlucky thing, even when I'm out for a walk."
The voice was clear, but the words it uttered were full of familiar disgust.
"It's really unlucky."
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