Chapter 54 Heartbeat
Everyone had never seen such a scene before, and they all stood there in a daze, but no one thought of trying to salvage her body.
When she came to her senses, her flesh and blood had already been eaten up, and her body had sunk to the bottom of the water. The carp, with its stomach filled, flew away leisurely, wagging its tail and blowing bubbles.
The murderer was dead, and the mess he left behind was thrown to Shi Qinglan, while Li Daoxuan carried the dazed Chen Qing into a room.
Perhaps because the Fourth Prince was in charge personally, his subordinates' work efficiency improved a lot. Not long after, they came with a bunch of things and information, and at the same time, they also brought information about Fourth Lady's life experience.
According to the head of the guild, several years ago, A Si Po and her husband opened a pork shop in Pingkangfang. The couple ran the business together, and although their life was not very comfortable, they could barely make ends meet.
But her husband had a bad habit of drinking, and he was a notorious drunkard in the neighborhood. More than ten years after their marriage, her husband died of alcoholism. At the same time, to make matters worse, her eight-year-old daughter was kidnapped by thieves on a dark and windy night.
From then on, Ah Si Po became crazy. The head maid felt sorry for her and took her in to work as a maid in the building.
She stayed like this for more than 20 years, during which time no one dared to talk to her or keep her company, simply because they had heard of her reputation for madness.
Although she occasionally went crazy, she never hurt anyone, so no one could have imagined that she would be the murderer, and in such a cruel way.
When the mother of the head of the group said this, she was heartbroken and regretful. She wished she could go back to more than 20 years ago and slap herself a few times.
Li Daoxuan held an old book in his hand, which he had found from under A Si Po's bed.
It is better to say that it is a pile of waste paper than a booklet, because a booklet is made by sewing a stack of thin papers together.
The paper was the cheapest and roughest hemp paper available, and the thread was the hemp thread that could be found everywhere and used to mend old clothes.
However, the words on the booklet were quite novel to the two of them. Li Daoxuan turned a page and saw only one sentence written on it:
"Life and death are neither things nor me, but fate. Wisdom is powerless to change it."
The handwriting is beautiful and neat, and one can vaguely glimpse a corner of the owner's spirit between the lines, but there is also an inexplicable sense of resentment.
It's really a contradiction.
Upon hearing this, Li Daoxuan snorted coldly, barely audible.
Turning to the second page, black handwriting densely covered the dry and yellowed hemp paper. At first glance, the handwriting was similar to that on the first page, but if you looked closely, you could see the difference.
The pen strokes are a bit duller and the arrangement of the characters is not as neat as on the first page.
The two words that appear most frequently in the poem are "Achou", and every word between the lines tells the story of her and Achou.
Most of them were useless daily records. Li Daoxuan wanted to turn the page, but a soft little hand pressed the back of his hand. The man's eyes did not leave the page and said, "Wait a minute."
She didn't want to miss any clues related to the Xisang monster.
She read every word so carefully that Chen Qing herself didn't even notice that at this moment, she was supporting herself with one hand on the back of Li Daoxuan's hand and the other hand across the back of the chair. The two of them were almost face to face. Just by slightly tilting their faces, the fine hairs between them were clearly visible.
Li Daoxuan's eyelashes trembled, and suddenly he grabbed Shen Qing's wrist and pulled it away, "We should keep a certain distance between us, Madam Shen."
Chen Qing was puzzled by his actions, but recalling what had just happened, she felt that his behavior was perfectly normal.
If her previous closeness was out of helplessness, it would be hard to say anything. But now, the two of them were getting along peacefully. They had even just transitioned from a tense relationship to a "cooperative relationship" and were in the process of adjusting to each other. She suddenly realized that her behavior was indeed inappropriate. She moved her lips for a long time before she uttered a word: "Oh."
This time Shen Qing knew her limits and deliberately stood a distance away from him. Rules were rules, but for some reason, Li Daoxuan still felt uncomfortable.
Therefore, the aura around him was not very strong. Chen Qing did not notice Li Daoxuan's changes at all and stared at the booklet.
"Now that Ah Chou is here, I am no longer alone."
"A Chou likes red dresses. I bought her one for her thirteenth birthday. She was very happy, but then the dress was snatched away by them. A Chou was very unhappy. I don't know what to do."
"The lotus seeds are ripe. Ah Chou saved up money to buy a boat and brought back a lot of lotus seeds. I made lotus seed soup for her."
"A Chou said she likes the lotus seed soup I make the most. I will make it for her every year from now on."
"I made lotus seed soup, but Ah Chou didn't come back. They said Ah Chou was dead."
"Achou's boat was smashed by them."
"I used my savings to buy the boat, and they stole it. She deserves to die."
"She died, and my boat is back. Now that Ah Chou is back, I don't have to worry about not having a boat to go picking lotus seeds."
"A Chou is not coming back."
"I'm alone now."
The writing suddenly broke off here, turning into a mess of ink, as if the owner had accidentally spilled it.
Turn the page, and there is a new paragraph.
"A Chou is back, and she said she wants to take me away."
There is nothing more after that.
After reading it, Chen Qing pondered for a long time, and suddenly laughed out loud.
She didn't know why she was laughing, she was just thinking that in her previous life, she had climbed mountains and climbed thousands of miles, just to find out the mystery of the Happy Funeral Demon's life experience. However, she never imagined that the thing that had troubled her for her short life was now hidden in Yuanchun Tower, which was just one block away from her home.
It's really ironic.
"We've finished reading, Madam Shen, should we talk about what you know, or what you want?" Li Daoxuan slowly put down the booklet, leaning back in an extremely relaxed posture, but his eyes were full of scrutiny.
Chen Qing looked at him without any hesitation, without any evasion in her eyes. She knew that since her rebirth, almost every step she took involved him, so this scene was inevitable.
Now that the cooperative relationship has been established, she must be relatively honest.
But the matter of rebirth must not be revealed, so if she wants to fight against the Red and White Evils with him, she must come up with a reasonable reason.
After thinking it through, Shen Qing smiled lightly and said, "Your Highness must have heard of my master's name."
"The renowned Xuanji Pavilion Master, Senior Qian Zimo, is renowned throughout the world for his divination skills. Everyone in Chang'an knows him."
"Yes, my master died in grief because of the poison of Xiang Yao. But before he passed away, he calculated a small Liuren hexagram for me and my senior brother respectively." She paused.
Li Daoxuan raised his eyes and motioned for her to continue.
"When my senior brother was making his choice, he mentioned 'helping the poor and needy'. Master calculated it as a sign of 'great peace', so I won't elaborate further."
It is easy to understand. It means that as long as Liu Jiuyue follows the procedures in exorcising demons and saving the world, and nothing unexpected happens, he will not encounter any major disasters in his life. His life will be quite smooth and easy. It is a very good fortune.
"As for me, I don't have such grand wishes. I just hope that the people I care about can live in peace and that I can live a happy life. So I said, 'I want to know what my life will be like in the future.' However, the word "life" is too general and cannot be summarized by one single thing. So, Master used physiognomy."
Physiognomy is an act of peeping into the sky and exploring one's destiny. Naturally, the backlash is extremely severe. It can be said to be a gamble with one's life. A person can only use it once in his lifetime. Unless it is absolutely necessary, even the most powerful person will not use it easily.
Perhaps Mr. Qian Zimo felt that his time was up and that it would be a worthy death if he could tell his disciple's fortune before his death, so he exhausted all his cultivation to tell Shen Qing's fortune.
As Shen Qing thought about this, a vague and kind face flashed through her mind. Tears welled up in her eyes. Shen Qing spoke word by word, "The hexagram indicates: great misfortune."
"Li Daoxuan, the hexagram shows that I won't live past the age of nineteen."
"Before that, my parents and my friends will all die because of me." She smiled and said so, with tears in her eyes, she seemed to be very sad that she had lost all hope.
It is often said that there are eight kinds of suffering in the world. In addition to the suffering of old age, she suffered seven kinds of suffering in the 19 years of her previous life: birth, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, meeting with enemies, failure to obtain what one desires, and the burning of the five aggregates. Whenever she recalled the circumstances of her previous life in her dreams, her heart was like a raging fire, and she was in great torment.
Even when she woke up, she was afraid that this was just a dream. When she woke up, Ye Niang, Li Yu, Cui Ya and her senior brother would look back at her and disappear into thin air, leaving her there heartbroken and suffering.
In her previous life, she died the day before her twentieth birthday.
People say that we should avoid prophecies to prevent what we say from coming true, but Chen Qing has already experienced this and she no longer cares about things like prophecies coming true.
She held up the yellowed old hemp paper booklet and read the words on the first page: "Life and death are not things or me, but fate. Wisdom cannot help it. Li Daoxuan, do you agree with this statement?" Chen Qing asked with her head tilted.
Li Daoxuan sneered, his eyes full of arrogance. "Fate?" He shook his head. "I don't believe it."
"There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world, nor is there any way to get stuck in the mud and wait for death. My life has always been in my own hands. If I want something, I have to fight for it myself. Fate is nothing." He said disdainfully.
To put it bluntly, my destiny is in my own hands.
Chen Qing also agreed with Li Daoxuan's view that God helps those who help themselves. After hearing his arrogant words, Chen Qing felt his blood boiling and wanted to applaud.
Your destiny is determined by yourself, how can it be determined by God?
She looked at the high-spirited young man and felt only pity in her heart.
The two have similar ideas and personalities.
If he hadn't killed her in her previous life, the two of them wouldn't be so hostile in this life. Chen Qing even felt that she felt that she had met him too late. Putting everything aside, perhaps they could become friends.
Unfortunately, she is sentimental and vindictive.
"So after Master calculated my future destiny, he also calculated a solution for me."
"The biggest disaster in my life happened when I was seventeen, and the hexagram showed that the turning point of my life's disaster was two big monsters. And the noble person who can help me survive this disaster is you." Chen Qing said nonsense without blinking.
Li Daoxuan's fingertips, which were tapping the table rhythmically, froze in mid-air after hearing these words.
He couldn't believe what she had just said and repeated it in his mind. He was her... benefactor?
Li Daoxuan recounted in detail the days since the two of them met, when they had been arguing openly and covertly, Chen Qing's attitude of hating to suffer even the slightest loss, and the countless competitions between the two. In the end, thousands of words gathered in his throat along with the indescribable mood, and he expressed his attitude with a mocking chuckle.
"Oh."
Seeing this, Chen Qing didn't rush to explain, but said, "Whether Your Highness believes it or not, everything I did before was just to find the two great demons that Master mentioned."
"Only by getting rid of them can I feel at ease. However, my strength alone is too weak, and this matter also involves the person behind the big monster. My senior brother is a straightforward person, who can only eliminate monsters blindly and does not understand the twists and turns involved. Therefore, Youan has no choice but to let Your Highness get involved. I hope Your Highness will forgive my previous disrespectful behavior towards Your Highness." She bowed politely.
At this moment, she finally had the demeanor of a lady from a noble family.
But Li Daoxuan felt that this kind of deep love no longer seemed like deep love.
In my impression, she was bad, naughty, and eccentric, but not the one who had become meek and humble in order to ask for help, like a bird with its wings plucked.
Li Daoxuan was suddenly filled with inexplicable anger, but soon he woke up with a start. This anger came from nowhere. Why was he angry? What was he angry about?
There was a rare hint of confusion in his eyes.
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