Chapter 60: Great City-Burning Calamity!

Du Shanü also didn't know why she would use the two words "corpse bones".

However, she always felt this time wasn't that simple.

The fire was so huge, rather than saying it was a fire, it was more like a city-burning.

When a county experiences a city-burning incident, the acting county magistrate, Afang......?

Du Shanü didn't dare continue thinking, she just walked through the mountains and forests while hurrying, and directly asked Chinu:

"When you returned home from the county town, was everything still as usual?"

Heaven and earth were misty, making it hard to discern the traces of ghosts and monsters.

Du Shanü couldn't see Chinu's complexion clearly, but she could hear his voice, slightly obscure:

"...... As usual."

"When I came back, I even ransacked Afang's house from top to bottom, taking all his savings of two taels, three qian, four fen of silver."

Du Shanü: "......"

Even though the timing was wrong, upon hearing those words Du Shanü still felt like laughing.

How could this be Chinu?

This is clearly an ancestor!

She could even picture Afang angering Chinu, after which Chinu, furious, would rob.

However, this could also indicate...

"You two really are close friends."

Du Shanü's feet didn't stop, her voice already a little short of breath:

"I previously thought that the so-called 'close friends' and 'old acquaintances' among scholar-officials actually also had another meaning: 'enemies'."

Otherwise, when Chen Weifang earlier gave her advice, how could she open her mouth by telling her to sleep with Chinu?

Of course, it's also not excluded that Chen Weifang and Chinu are exactly that kind of staunch yet harmful friends.

Thank goodness she previously thought, given Chinu's temperament...

"Even ants have sincerity."

Chinu's voice, gloomy like a ghost's, sounded together with the clatter of stones under Du Shanü's feet.

Du Shanü involuntarily paused; by the time she came to her senses, it was already too late—Chinu had already noticed her abnormality.

Chinu let out a snort of laughter:

"People often say, ants are insignificant, born in the morning and dead by evening, they see profit and forget righteousness, committing all kinds of evil..."

"But ants also have ant friends, ant morality."

He met Chen Weifang in humble circumstances.

He was a minister who plotted talent for the world.

Chen Weifang, meanwhile, held up a memorial, trying to recommend himself as a subject of the Wise Lord.

There was no mutual admiration of loyal ministers and good generals as recorded in histories, sharing drinks and conversation.

When the two first met, they actually both saw that the other was not a good person.

But they had never before felt so deeply that they both ought to be pitiful people.

Because Chen Weifang saw that his robes were no different from those of other eunuchs, and saw the mask on his face used to conceal his identity.

And he saw the patched seams on Chen Weifang's robes, his frostbitten fingers, and the cracked edges of his shoes.

Pitiful people under heaven are many, many.

But heaven, however, never shows pity to any one of them.

No matter how he tells others he has no name, his lifelong struggle and resentment over just the two words "Chinu"...

Others also won't understand.

They will only say, the Young Emperor treats you well, and you are high-ranking among the five ministers—what do you have to resent?

No matter how Chen Weifang feels inferior due to his family's poverty in youth, hindered by his parents' inability to be buried, hindered by lacking a decent pair of shoes on rainy days—only able to study with wet feet, hindered by the onset of severe cold when he still has to sew with needle and thread, shivering in his books...

Others also won't understand.

They will only tell Chen Weifang that past suffering is merely tempering; a true man should have lofty ambition, not adopt a woman's manner, not be wistful and petty.

But what good is a bright future afterward?

Isn't the past suffering still present?

The other four ministers, for no apparent reason, are wholeheartedly loyal to the person who trained them into death-warriors.

Chen Weifang's relatives, who had not visited his door for decades, all came rushing out after he passed the imperial exam, urging him to let go of the past matter of being unable to bury his parents due to lack of borrowed silver...

Yes.

Those people, each and every one, are true men.

One is more loyal in protecting the lord than another, and their words are more lofty than the next.

But what about those who were originally not so upright—how should they act?

Ants embracing each other for warmth is the right way.

Among ants, they won't care what kind of person their companion appears to be in others' eyes; even if today's companion has done a tremendous evil, they can speak frankly when facing each other, without fear of blame.

Even if they know they are defying a great taboo of the world, they will still speak up in defense and rush to rescue.

Just as, just as a criminal sentenced to immediate execution.

The criminal already bears guilt; to others his sin is unforgivable, yet some relatives will still run about for him.

This is not laughable.

This is, their way of living.

"Sorry."

Du Shanü tried to calm her wildly pounding chest from shock, pondering how to defend herself.

"I just......"

Miscalculated.

Indeed, it was a miscalculation.

Earlier, observing Chinu and Yu Baobao's interaction, she always felt Chinu was just that kind of awkward person.

However, she had never considered that Yu Baobao's kindness might, for certain people, be more like 【death by a thousand cuts】.

Some are born in darkness; though they yearn for light, they may not be able to stand in the sunshine.

They don't only have the option of friends radiant with glory under the sun; they also have true kindred spirits... or put another way, friends who are colluding in wickedness.

Getting along with the former, Chinu would certainly find it laborious and stifled.

But if it were with the latter...

"No need to say these useless things."

Chinu's voice remained faint, without a hint of emotion:

"Go see if Chen Weifang is dead; if not, drag him back and raise him again."

"If he's dead, then check whether he still has any hidden cash, live in his house, spend his money."

Du Shanü: "........"

This truly lives up to being a toxic friend.

This sort of spiteful attitude is really to my taste.

The distant firelight of the county town, as they chatted, had unknowingly drawn near; Du Shanü wiped the sweat that had seeped from her face from rushing, and finally asked:

"One last question: why didn't you all go to the northern border together back then?"

Upon hearing this today, the relationship between Chinu and Afang...

... probably only then can be considered a true friend in the universal sense.

If one leaves, how could the other not have followed back then?

In response, Chinu's voice, rare in carrying a hint of gloom:

"You haven't seen Chen Weifang's parents yet; once you do, you'll understand."

"What, what? Chen Weifang's parents?"

"Just now you said Chen Weifang's parents were already dead!?"

"Where is she supposed to go see them!"

"Surely we can't go to the Underworld, right?!"

Du Shanü was bewildered, but soon she no longer had the leisure to think about Chen Weifang's parents.

Because, Du Shanü saw Cang Cheng ablaze in the firelight—

Earlier today, the streets and lanes of this county town were still bustling with voices, peddlers' cries and shopkeepers' calls never ceasing, the gray bricks and black tiles full of life.

But now, the entire county town is engulfed in blazing fire, the wooden beams of houses crackling in the flames, thick smoke like a black dragon coiling upward, dyeing the night sky pitch black, even the moonlight obscured.

The city city's gate had already been blackened by the fire, countless townsfolk fearful, supporting the elderly and carrying the young as they fled outside, wails, shouts, and screams mingling with the crackling of flames, thrown into chaos.

Some held infants in swaddling, some bore the elderly on their backs, still others clutched the few remaining garments, fleeing heedless of the road, not even noticing when stones beneath their feet bruised their soles, only hoarsely shouting:

"Bandits, bandits are looting!!!"

?? One big, one small, two bitter gourds......