Chapter 98 Zombie Shadow Guard (6)
The waiting people stood up.
Tao Xing walked straight towards Shen Shang and patted him on the shoulder: "Let's go."
The body trembled and turned around.
Tao Xing's face changed in shock, and she quickly hugged him and pulled him into her arms.
The zombie's body was too cold, not as obedient and docile as last time. Feeling that he wanted to struggle, Tao Xing pressed him hard and said to those people in a hurry: "Let's go. I'm going home directly and not going to the company."
The warmth of the close contact made Shen Shang's eyes flash, and the blood color in his eyes faded slightly.
Several people stared with their eyes wide open, completely confused. How come he just finished talking inside and came out to hug another person?
Someone asked: "Mr. Tao, about the project cooperation..."
"Don't sign for now. Wait for my reply." Tao Xing said this and walked forward quickly with his arms around Cang Shang. Fortunately, the person in his arms was obedient again. He could still feel the body trembling, but he could also follow his steps and move forward obediently.
The person behind him was shocked and blurted out: "You're not going to sign it? Didn't you reach an agreement? You're not in a relationship?"
"What kind of love are you talking about?" Tao Xing heard this and turned around and scolded, "Don't spread rumors."
The person behind him quickly covered his mouth: "Yes."
Tao Xing drove the car himself without asking the driver to follow. When he got in the car, he didn't start the car and put the person in the back seat: "What's wrong?"
Shen Shang's face was pale, and the veins on the back of his hands were bulging, as if he was trying hard to endure something.
080 checked the information and said, "He seems to want to bite someone."
"Bite?"
"Yeah, zombies are meant to bite people, but this one has been under control for thousands of years, but now... it may be out of control."
“Why did it get out of control?”
"I don't know, but there doesn't need to be a reason for this. If you can't suppress it, it will get out of control."
As he was speaking, he saw Shen Shang suddenly open his mouth and bared his teeth at him, then stepped back, raised his hand to pinch himself, and uttered a word hoarsely: "Master, please leave quickly, I will hurt you..."
Tao Xing grabbed his wrist and thought about how he regained some of his sanity when he pressed this man into his arms just now. Perhaps the warmth of a human being could help him suppress it.
Thinking of this, Tao Xing made a prompt decision and hugged Shen Shang in his arms again.
The body in his arms struggled violently: "I will hurt you, let me go..."
"It's okay." Tao Xing tied his hands tightly and held him down, preventing him from moving.
The person in his arms was unable to break free, and seemed to be trying hard to suppress himself, with low growls coming from his throat from time to time.
Tao Xing hugged him tightly, and when she felt him trembling, she increased her strength. When she felt him relax, she loosened her grip a little.
About half an hour later, Shen Shang began to calm down, his nails and fangs retracted, his face regained color, and his red eyes blinked.
As he gradually calmed down, Tao Xing laid him down flat and let him lie on the seat with his legs as a pillow. This position would be more comfortable.
So, when Shen Shang regained his consciousness, he blinked and met Tao Xing's lowered eyebrows with a smile.
He panicked and immediately stood up: "Subordinates..."
Tao Xing didn't let him get up. She pressed his shoulder and asked, "Are you feeling better?"
"Okay." Shen Shang was very nervous, "Master, please let me get up first. This is too offensive to you."
Tao Xing still didn't let him go. She lowered her eyebrows and looked at him, asking, "Why did you lose control?"
"I……"
"tell me."
It was already dusk, the curtains of the carriage were closed, and it was dark inside. Shen Shang seemed not to be fully clear-headed. He tilted his head and looked at Tao Xing quietly, as if he was thinking or in a trance.
After a moment, he looked away, his body tensed again: "I... don't know."
"Is there no reason, or is there a reason but you don't know it?" Tao Xing leaned forward a little and caught up with his gaze.
Shen Shang dodged again: "I don't know if there is a reason."
"...Okay." Tao Xing let go.
The man on his legs immediately stood up and knelt down: "I have offended you, master. Please grant me death... punishment." He remembered that he had died before and would not die again.
Tao Xing glanced at him and pulled him up: "If you kneel again, I will really punish you."
The hand being held shrank back, and Shen Shang said again: "I will definitely control myself in the future and will never hurt my master."
"It's okay." After pulling the man up and sitting him down, Tao Xing pinched his chin again and moved closer.
The shadow guard who had just sat down suddenly froze and widened his eyes.
Tao Xing looked at his eyes and mouth carefully, making sure that the zombie features had been retracted: "You are really okay, then I will go drive."
The man in front of him lowered his eyes and said, "Yes, thank you for your concern, I am fine now."
"Yeah." Tao Xing let go and got out of the car.
It was not until the car door opened again that the people in the back seat dared to look up, with panic flashing in their eyes.
In the following days, Shen Shang did not show any abnormal behavior and he was still as taciturn as before.
The manager asked several more times about the cooperation with Boss Wang, and Tao Xing replied with certainty: "No signing, no cooperation."
The manager was very surprised and said that this cooperation could bring great benefits to the group, and that the preliminary projects had already been discussed, so it would not be a wise move to withdraw now.
Tao Xing said, "I suspect his business is not clean, so don't bring trouble to the Tao family."
The other party was shocked, and after a while, he replied: "Then...how about I ask someone to find out?"
"Can."
Nothing for now.
Out of boredom, Shen Shang followed him around all day without saying a word or smiling.
Yes, before, if you asked him to laugh, he would laugh twice, but now he doesn't laugh at all. If you order him with an imperial decree, he will just bow his head and apologize: "Master, please forgive me."
In order to make him laugh, Tao Xing decided to take him out to play.
They didn't walk far, but strolled around this small Jiangnan city to see the famous local scenery, eat the famous food, pavilions, towers, bridges, flowing water, long streets and alleys, and local customs and practices.
It was hard to tell whether Shen Shang was interested or not. He always had no expression on his face. He mostly protected Tao Xing and the words he said most often were: "Master, be careful."
This stop was the museum. Originally, Tao Xing had not planned to go there, but when Can Shang passed by, he stopped and took a look, so Tao Xing also stopped and took a look. As he did so, he found that the notice at the door read that the newly unearthed items from the Emperor Xing’s tomb had been stored in the museum.
The things in his own mausoleum felt a bit magical. Tao Xing smiled and said to the people around him, "Do you want to go in and take a look?"
Shen Shang immediately lowered his head and said, "It's up to the master to decide."
"Then let's go and take a look."
The two walked in and saw a separate exhibition hall where his tomb items were placed. There were two half-damaged coffins, one placed vertically inside and the other placed horizontally outside. According to the on-site explanation, the placement of the coffins was completely in accordance with the orientation of the tomb, and the burial coffin outside served as a guard.
Guarding in life, guarding in death. Tao Xing smiled, walked over, and saw an ancient totem on the coffin lid. It was a painting of stars with the words "Shang" engraved on both sides.
Behind the glass next to it, there was a bright yellow dress and a crown. They were well preserved, but had lost their bright colors. The dress was nailed vertically in proportion to the height of the person, and at first glance, it looked as if it was still being worn by someone.
The person who once wore him was now standing outside the glass, facing the person from a thousand years ago through a barrier.
In addition to the coffin and clothes, there were also some scattered burial objects. Tao Xing walked past them one by one and looked at them bit by bit. There was a label next to each item, including the porcelain cup he drank from, the inkstone he used, the jade pendant he hung...
Memories emerged with the passage of time, but... after looking at all the exhibits, I didn't see anything related to Shen Shang, except for that coffin.
Originally, he would have at least a piece of armor and a sword, also hanging there upright, but the person in the coffin climbed up and took them away.
There was nothing left of his in the tomb.
No shadow when alive, no trace after death.
Tao Xing sighed silently, turned around and gently held Shen Shang's hand.
The shadow guard trembled noticeably, bent his legs and wanted to kneel down and apologize for the offense, but there were so many people here, and he now knew not to attract attention in front of everyone, so he let himself be led, said nothing, but his steps forward became much stiffer.
The tour guide answered the tourists' questions with a loud speaker and a resonant voice: "The remains of the person buried with the deceased... experts now tend to believe that they may have been lost in previous dynasties and are difficult to find. The current investigation focuses on confirming their identity, but no useful information has been found so far."
"Oh, Emperor Xing died in the twenty-second year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, at the first quarter of the morning. This has been verified."
The hand in his palm moved suddenly. Tao Xing was slightly startled. He turned around and saw that Shen Shang had a tense expression and was staring at the commentator.
The narrator continued: "Emperor Xing died on the battlefield, with thousands of arrows piercing his heart. Not a single part of his body was intact. His body was then taken away by the enemy. When it was returned, it was in pieces and could not be put into a coffin, so a cenotaph was built for him."
There was a sigh of regret from the crowd, and Tao Xing felt that the hand he was holding was shaking even more violently.
This shudder... isn't right.
He thought of the last time when Shen Shang lost control and revealed his zombie form, and his body was like this.
He seemed to want to go towards the commentator.
Tao Xing immediately pulled the man to his side, walked him out quickly, and drove home as fast as possible.
Can Shang did not dare to go against his wishes and got into the car obediently. However, he felt very uneasy throughout the whole journey, and his nails made a squeaking sound as they rubbed against the window.
As soon as he entered the room, he suddenly fell to the ground, frantically looking for something, without a clear target, as if he was at a loss. Finally, he stared at Tao Xing and said, "The master is not dead. The master will not die."
He gasped for breath and went forward to hug Tao Xing's legs: "Master can't die, no, it's impossible..."
Sooner or later, I will have to explain this to him. Tao Xing leaned over and said, "I am dead."
The man suddenly raised his eyes, and he could no longer see any color in his eyes, only red.
"I died, but I am alive again, living in this era a thousand years later." Tao Xing gently held his face, "I am still me."
Shan Shang was stunned, as if he was digesting these words. After a while, he spoke, his voice suddenly hoarse, as if he had swallowed glass shards: "Thousands of arrows pierce my heart, chopped into pieces..." He muttered, and suddenly a line of blood and tears rolled out of his turbid eyes.
Tao Xing was astonished: "Life and death are commonplace, no one really lives forever. You were buried with me, so you have witnessed my death, right? Why is it still so hard for you to accept it?" He reached out to wipe away the tears, and blood stained his fingers.
Shen Shang seemed not to hear and held his legs tightly: "In the 22nd year of Emperor Xing, on the seventh day of the seventh month, the coffin was closed at the hour of Chen, and the dead were buried, and the emperor was born. Why... did you die at the moment of Chen..."
His body began to shake violently again: "Why..."
As he muttered, the nails on his tightly clenched fingers grew longer in shock, and his sharp teeth were exposed at the corners of his mouth, flashing a cold light under the lamp.
Tao Xing frowned and hugged him in her arms.
He kept struggling and sobbing in his arms. Tao Xing sat on the ground, hugged him tightly, and then pulled 080 out: "Use your program to check what it means to lead the funeral."
080 quickly opened the program to search.
After a while, Tao Xing asked, "Can't find it?"
"Still searching. This should not be a common noun. It will take some time to find it." 080 said, and heard the reminder, "Oh, I found it. It is indeed not a common word. It was invented by Tao Chao specifically for you."
"Tell me more."
"At that time, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau observed and surveyed the stars and found that you would not live long. You would die at the hour of Chen in the twenty-second year. Host, they are quite capable. They determined your fate to be to die at that time. However, you were delayed for a while, and died at the moment of Chen. The research of the archaeologists was correct."
"Well, go on."
"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau has calculated when you will die, so they will try to stop you. Leading the burial is their method. They will find someone to enter the imperial mausoleum in advance, bury you in the coffin according to your scheduled time of death, and die for you. They say that they can block your path to the afterlife. This person is called a lead burial person. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau has the power to do this, so they don't need to tell you. In their opinion, saving the emperor's life is their job, and it must be done."
The system flipped through the pages again and said, "Host, it's not your fault that you don't remember. There really was no burial system in that dynasty. Cang Shang was not a burial companion, but a burial leader. He used his own death to exchange for your life, but... after sleeping for a thousand years, he suddenly realized that you didn't live. You died a quarter of an hour later, and your death was miserable. It must be hard for you to accept it."
"His death in exchange for my life." Tao Xing closed his eyes and hugged the person tightly in his arms.
No wonder when they first met, Shen Shang kept emphasizing that his master would not die. At that time, I thought it was a compliment, but I didn't expect that Shen Shang really believed that he would not die.
Moreover, he was not buried with Tao Xing, but was buried as the leader. He died before Tao Xing and he really didn't know that Tao Xing also died later.
Tao Xing recalled the sudden sadness he had felt on the battlefield at that time. It was that inexplicable sadness that made him leave a moment later, and then gave birth to this derivative world.
It turned out that at that time, when Shen Shang was closing his coffin, he actually... still sensed it.
The directions are arranged according to the stars, and the two words "Shang" on the coffin lid indeed imply "never meeting each other". One dies and one lives, but they never meet each other. This is the only way it can be considered successful.
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