Chapter 387

Tan Wenbin used one hand to support himself on the stone beneath his buttocks to keep from sliding off; he brought his other hand to his mouth, opened it, and bit down on his wrist.

Brother Xiaoyuan is right; I have to sit down first, otherwise, at this moment, I might really collapse onto the ground and get covered in thick mud.

The physiological fear is very obvious, even to the point of being nearly uncontrollable.

Even though I've long known that the "wave" of following my own Brother Xiaoyuan is much harder than the waves faced by others in the same period, in the grand scheme of things, it still follows the law of layer-by-layer progression.

During this time, although there was no lack of events like the trip to Fengdou, where we were drawn into a confrontation at the level of Bodhisattvas and Great Emperors, one could still find a way to survive in the cracks—provided you could find those cracks.

With Brother Xiaoyuan here, not only can we find the gaps early, but we can also actively dig those cracks wider and extract more benefits from within.

But this time is different. Brother Xiaoyuan's previous explanation was so that I could better convey it to A-You and Runsheng, but the final conclusion was quite concise and to the point.

The Great Turtle is going to come ashore from Qidong and land in Nantong.

There is no hesitation, no looking back; it is willing to pay a huge price for this, just to kill the person it wants to kill.

When such an existence stares fixedly at you and is crushing straight toward you, even if you want to lift your head slightly at this moment to take a look at the night sky, you can perceive that every inch of flesh and blood from your chest to your neck and then to your face seems to be pulling and stopping you tightly, as if looking up would mean suddenly meeting the gaze of those terrifying eyes in the night sky.

On the other hand, Tan Wenbin's wrist had already been bitten until it bled; some of the fresh blood dripped and mixed into the standing water on the ground, while some swirled in his lips, staining his teeth red.

This is psychological excitement.

The damn turtle is really coming!

I finally have a chance to get revenge.

Even though the probability of successfully getting revenge currently looks slim to none, Tan Wenbin still feels incomparably excited and agitated in his heart.

Because of Li Lan, Li Zhuiyuan has rich experience in being studied as a mental patient.

Therefore, Li Zhuiyuan has always known that Zheng Haiyang is not just a knot in Tan Wenbin's heart, but that after witnessing Zheng Haiyang's entire family die tragically before his eyes, Tan Wenbin had actually already developed a mental illness.

That night, Tan Wenbin chased after the tricycle, shouting, "Zhuangzhuang also wants to go back to Grandpa Li's house!"

It is less that Tan Wenbin is obsessed with avenging Zheng Haiyang, and more that Tan Wenbin is no longer able to continue living that ordinary life under the identity of "Tan Wenbin."

If he chooses the latter, then his final destination is the Jiuhua Mountain that Nantong people often talk about... there is a mental hospital there.

It's just that Tan Wenbin disguised it very well, or rather, he has always defined his own mental illness as an inseparable feeling of brotherhood for Zheng Haiyang.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up; the rain was gradually easing. He put away his umbrella and stood in place, waiting for Tan Wenbin.

Finally, Tan Wenbin sobered up a bit, and that physiological and psychological "spasm" subsided. He looked at the deep wound he had bitten into his wrist and the blood constantly overflowing, and looked at Li Zhuiyuan with some embarrassment, saying:

"Sorry, Brother Xiaoyuan, I've embarrassed you."

Li Zhuiyuan: "I envy you for having such intense emotional expression."

Tan Wenbin was made even more embarrassed and immediately stood up. Brother Xiaoyuan has already started comforting you about your mental problems; how could you still have the face to continue being pretentious?

Li Zhuiyuan turned and walked toward home, and Tan Wenbin followed.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, if this wave just crashes into Nantong and reaches our doorstep like this, then does that mean the people in the family... can have a reason to step in and help us?"

Li Zhuiyuan stopped his steps and looked back at the intersection of the road and the village path behind him.

"So, do you know now why Li Lan stood right there but didn't enter the village?"

Tan Wenbin: "So that's how it is. It seems that the Great Turtle's eyesight is really not good. Auntie didn't enter the village and didn't see the people and things in the village, so for that Great Turtle, when it arrives here... if it also merges with Auntie's memory, it means that the Siyuan Village in the Great Turtle's cognition is still the way it looked when Auntie brought her fiancé back many years ago."

Li Zhuiyuan: "The Heavenly Dao does not allow the forces behind the 'lamp-lighter' to provide subjective assistance after the lamp is lit; because of this, families and sects with a foundation all have a set of customs to treat the lamp-lighter of each generation."

Tan Wenbin: "Just like Zhao Yi and Chen Xiyuan before they lit their lamps—on one hand, they say that a married daughter is like spilled water, but on the other hand, they try their hardest to prepare the most generous dowry for the 'daughter'."

Li Zhuiyuan: "So, the simplest method is that we keep our mouths shut about the news of this wave. When that day truly arrives, we can even hide and not come out first.

This way, everyone in the village can spontaneously and normally step in to resist the evil spirits without worrying about karmic backlash.

At the very worst, just like in that wave of the Yu family, didn't those elders also step in?

Although many elders like Xu Fengzhi chose not to take treatment after that battle and chose to die to be clean, the two from the Long Wang family just went into seclusion and cut themselves off from worldly affairs after returning.

This wave of the Great Turtle is too straight, and this water is coming too fiercely. It is heading straight for this village in Nantong, and we didn't just hide here temporarily to seek shelter; we have always lived here.

This, in itself, provides us with huge room for maneuver."

Tan Wenbin didn't reply, just silently pulled out his cigarette case, took out a cigarette that had been soaked in the car, bit it in his mouth, then took out a piece of yellow paper, flicked it to ignite it, and held it under the cigarette to roast it.

In the blink of an eye, the entire cigarette was burned to ash.

Tan Wenbin muttered to himself: I actually really believed in "nimble fingers and practice makes perfect."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Additionally, there is good news I can tell you—Li Lan told me this—and that is the completion goal for the next wave."

Tan Wenbin was stunned for a moment and said: "Auntie leaked the questions?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "What she leaked wasn't just the questions; it was the answers."

Leaking the questions refers to what the specific opponent and difficulty you ultimately need to solve in a wave are.

Leaking the answers means how many points you need to achieve at a minimum for this wave to be considered completed, although the proportion of Heavenly Dao merit you receive after the wave won't be very high.

Tan Wenbin knew that when facing an existence at the level of the Great Turtle, if it were a "life or death" situation, Brother Xiaoyuan wouldn't even mention it.

Bringing it up means that beneath this, there is still a minimum passing score.

Anyone who has been to college knows that the difficulty and effort required to get a high score for a scholarship versus just wanting to pass and not fail are worlds apart.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Li Lan asked me today to act as mother and son with her for 24 hours. I agreed. Guess why the car broke down?"

Tan Wenbin: "Was it because I was driving too fast?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Hmm. In the end, she and I held an umbrella and walked slowly together. When we reached the village entrance, our performance time this time was exactly twelve hours.

Then, she turned and left.

The play must definitely be finished.

Those remaining twelve hours are the time limit for the Great Turtle to reach the village entrance and be able to make a move on me."

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, was this how you two communicated when you were at home in the past?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "She nagged a lot today and reminded me many times. Maybe she thinks she's gotten stupid after her illness recovered, or maybe she thinks my condition is under control and I've gotten stupid."

Tan Wenbin: "So, we just need to find a way to avoid the Great Turtle's twelve-hour pursuit, and this wave, this crisis, will be over?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "It has already gone all out, but after all, it cannot pay an infinitely large price. However, even so, our odds of winning... no, it should be called survival rate, are still very low.

This is the wave with the highest difficulty and lowest survival rate we have experienced so far."

Tan Wenbin took out another wet cigarette and bit it in his mouth, purely to satisfy his psychological craving.

"Haha, Brother Xiaoyuan, actually, if you think about it from another angle, the moment that Great Turtle decided to come ashore, it was bound to pay a huge price. Regardless of whether I survived in the end or not, I can consider Haiyang's revenge avenged!"

Li Zhuiyuan: "For now, that's all. You talk to the two of them later and remind them to keep it confidential."

Tan Wenbin: "Runsheng definitely won't have a problem. As for A-You, others might see some clues, but it won't be a big problem. Even Zhao Yi couldn't possibly see that this wave could be exaggerated to such a degree."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded, took out a piece of yellow paper, helped Tan Wenbin roast the cigarette dry, and lit it.

Tan Wenbin held the drifting yellow paper with both hands, waiting for it to land and scatter, treating it as a ritualistic way of using his hands to block the wind for someone lighting his cigarette.

Li Zhuiyuan left the village path and turned into a small trail.

Tan Wenbin stood in place with his hands on his hips, taking two more puffs of the cigarette.

He knows Brother Xiaoyuan very well. Brother Xiaoyuan asking him to notify Runsheng and Lin Shu You about this was something that should be done, but Tan Wenbin feels that the confidentiality Brother Xiaoyuan requested is not for the sake of more conveniently borrowing the power of these "people" living in the village later.

Admittedly, Auntie chose a place she considered safe for her son.

But Brother Xiaoyuan probably doesn't want the last bit of firewood of the Qin and Liu families to be burned here for his sake.

Tan Wenbin took one last hard drag of the cigarette, exhaled from his nose, threw the butt into a puddle on the ground, but habitually stretched out his foot to step on it, making a "squelch" sound and splashing mud up his pant leg.

"Brother Xiaoyuan didn't even tell me this bit..."

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the courtyard at home, looked up, and saw A-Li still sitting there on the second-floor balcony.

She was in a green dress, holding a white floral paper umbrella.

Since he left the house this morning, A-Li has been sitting here, waiting for him to return.

Li Zhuiyuan walked upstairs and came before A-Li.

A-Li put down the umbrella and looked down at the boy's hands.

Li Zhuiyuan spread his palms open and presented them to the girl for inspection.

A-Li raised her eyes, looked at the boy, and two small dimples appeared on her face.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out to hold the girl's hand and touched the girl's face; it had been too long in the wind and rain here, and it was very cold.

Liu Yumei now lives at Liu Jinxia's house.

Qin Shu won't go upstairs without permission to face A-Li alone.

And the only thing Liu Yi can do is probably to send her an umbrella when it rains; it's also impossible for her to persuade A-Li to come down.

A-Li squatted down and picked up two cans of Jianlibao from under the rattan chair.

A layer of water had accumulated on the beverage cans, and leaves were also stuck to the cans.

A-Li first picked off the leaves, poured out the water at the mouth of the cans, and took out her own handkerchief to wipe them.

Li Zhuiyuan: "At a time like this, shouldn't we drink some ginger soup to warm up?"

The movement in A-Li's hands stopped, and then she looked at the kitchen below.

Seeing this, Li Zhuiyuan immediately said: "I don't like drinking that, and I happen to be hungry. Let's go make some small wontons to eat."

Everyone has things they are good at and things they are not; A-Li cannot cook.

If he let her go down to make ginger soup, Li Zhuiyuan was also worried that the girl would serve him a big bowl later, with water stewed from several whole pieces of old ginger floating on top.

By then, he would still have to drink it with a smiling and enjoying face.

In life, there's no need to suffer if you don't have to.

Li Zhuiyuan took A-Li downstairs and happened to run into Tan Wenbin calling Runsheng and A-You up from their coffins.

Both of them participated in the renovation of the Daoist arena today, and the consumption was very high.

Runsheng: "Let A-You sleep, I'll go push the car."

Runsheng also went out with Xiaoyuan in the morning and didn't do a full day's work.

Lin Shu You nodded and took the opportunity to lie back down.

Not to mention a small pickup truck, even a locomotive, Runsheng could pull it back by himself.

Before he could finish lying down, Lin Shu You was lifted up again by Tan Wenbin.

"Brother Bin..."

"Go."

"Understood!"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'll cook you some late-night snacks."

Tan Wenbin: "No need, I'll take them to eat fried skewers at the school gate in Shigang Town first. After we're full, we'll push the car back to help digestion."

At this hour, only the shops near the middle school in town are still open.

After entering the kitchen, Li Zhuiyuan first poured water into the pot and lit the stove, then poured oil into the pot next to it to prepare to fry a few sunny-side-up eggs.

A-Li stood by the stove, seriously watching the process.

Li Zhuiyuan: "A-Li, you just sit there and wait."

The girl gripped the corner of her skirt with her fingertips, half-lowered her head, and didn't move.

"Then I'll go tend the fire. When the water boils, you put this whole plate of small wontons in."

A-Li nodded.

After taking out the fried eggs, Li Zhuiyuan sat behind the stove; the fire in the stove was sufficient, so it didn't actually need tending.

Through the hollow space specially chiseled out between the two stoves, he could see A-Li standing in front of the pot, holding the plate of small wontons, seriously watching the small bubbles under the water surface.

This scene was very much like the way he used to try drawing talismans.

However, in terms of cooking, it depends on who you compare her to; even if A-Li cannot cook, her cooking is much better than Yin Meng's.

Thinking of Yin Meng, the portrait of the Great Emperor of Fengdou torn by the wind on the front car window earlier appeared in Li Zhuiyuan's mind.

The east room where Qin Shu and Liu Yi live is next to the kitchen.

At this time, Qin Shu was lying on the bed, his back covered in blood, and a wooden basin was placed under the bed, filled with the stagnant blood that Liu Yi had just extracted from his body using blood-sucking leeches.

After the life-centipede on Qin Shu's body began to transform into a dragon, the balance between his original body and the seal was constantly broken, which made Liu Yi have to help him with conditioning every once in a while.

Qin Shu: "You go to the kitchen and prepare late-night snacks for Xiaoyuan and A-Li."

Liu Yi: "Heh, you really are a block of wood."

The small wontons were cooked.

Two bowls were placed on the small dining table in the kitchen.

Just as the two sat face to face and were about to start eating, a white, ghost-like figure suddenly appeared behind the boy.

This is a starving ghost.

Chen Xiyuan: "I'm hungry~"

Li Zhuiyuan gave his bowl to her and then went to cook more wontons.

The stove fire hadn't gone out, the water in the pot was still boiling, and Li Zhuiyuan put all the small wontons that Liu Yi had wrapped in advance into it, board by board.

Chen Xiyuan: "Delicious, this taste is exactly the same as what Big Sister makes."

Li Zhuiyuan: "It was wrapped by Liu Yi."

Chen Xiyuan: "I'm referring to the seasonings; they are exactly the same."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Are they?"

Chen Xiyuan: "Please trust my mouth."

Li Zhuiyuan: "In the middle of the night, don't run around like this; it's easy to scare people."