Chapter 13: 12. Nian Yi

12. Nian Yi

"Old Duan Gong, I didn't see your household rise for the fifth watch yesterday?"

Under the gloomy, pallid sky, a neighbor from across the Zhou family's courtyard came walking toward them and spoke to Zhou Sanji and Zhou Chang. Zhou Chang heard his voice warm and friendly, yet could not make out his face.

"Last night I was busy digging up graves in the burial mound, wasn't home.

Couldn't make it back by the fifth watch either." Zhou Sanji grinned and told it straight. At the same time he lifted the horse lantern in his hand slightly; its glow lit up the visitor's face—a gaunt, horse-long face that held not a trace of the smile his voice carried. Right now those eyes were wide open, fixed intently on Zhou Chang beside Zhou Sanji, as if trying to dig some secret out of Zhou Chang's expression!

The horse-faced middle-aged man's eyes were threaded with blood. Within those wide-stretched sockets, his pupils looked extremely small.

He was dazzled by the lantern Zhou Sanji had lifted. Raising a hand to shield against the light, the unsettling expression on his face abruptly shifted into a warm, friendly smile: "Oh, oh! So that's how it is~

I was saying yesterday why I didn't see anyone at your place. This miss is quite pretty—is she a relative of yours, Old Duan Gong?"

"I dug her out of a coffin. Want to come inspect her?

Asking so many questions, what's it got to do with you!

Go on home and grind your bastard son's tofu!" Zhou Sanji's face suddenly turned vicious, and he opened his mouth to curse the horse-faced man a few times.

Though the horse-faced man had clearly gotten plenty of bizarre, uncanny information from Zhou Sanji, his expression now eased a little. He nodded repeatedly and laughed: "Alright then, I'll head back and grind the tofu, and bring your old patriarch a bowl later."

After speaking, the horse-faced man turned and went back into the two-story wooden building across the street.

Zhou Chang saw a banner hung in front of that wooden building, on which the three characters "Lü Tofu" were faintly written.

At this moment, the people lingering around pretending to chat but in truth all pricking up their ears to eavesdrop on Zhou Sanji and the horse-faced man's exchange suddenly dispersed one by one. The prying gazes Zhou Chang had felt vanished along with them.

"Eat the tofu you give away for free? Pfft—" Zhou Sanji watched the man's retreating back, let out a few cold laughs, then turned back to Zhou Chang and said, "These people are just overthinking. You can't give them a chance to pry, but you also have to find a way to dispel their suspicions.

Once their paranoia kicks in, they can torment a living person to death.

But if you go along with them and answer everything, their questions will never have an end—so just do it like me: when they ask you one thing, answer one if you can, and if you can't, curse them back and give them a question to chew on.

Let them make up their own wild guesses—better that than letting them dig to the bottom and force you to death."

"Alright." Zhou Chang nodded.

He could sense that these people's mental state was extremely unstable right now—a pathological condition formed after long-term exposure to a high-pressure environment with no outlet for their spirits.

Each person's heart was a powder keg; a single spark could make it blow up entirely.

Too much contact with these people could easily set fire to oneself.

Among these psychologically unstable people, Old Duan Gong actually seemed far more normal.

The people on the street gradually returned home. Zhou Chang, supported by Zhou Sanji and Bai Xiue, also made his way back into the courtyard and sat down.

It was already past the fifth watch now, but there was no going back to bed to catch up on sleep. Zhou Chang sat in the courtyard, waiting while Zhou Sanji and Bai Xiue busied themselves in the woodshed and brought out three bowls of vegetable porridge and a small dish of pickled radish.

"Times are bad, we don't have much grain left at home. Now there's another mouth to feed, and I don't know how long our food will last. Let's just make do with this for now." Zhou Sanji sighed as he spoke, pushing the thickest bowl of porridge toward Zhou Chang.

His words carried a barb. Bai Xiue, sitting in the corner of the small table, heard them and for a moment didn't know what to do. She nervously lowered her head, looked at the porridge bowl in front of her, and said in a small voice: "I-I can't eat that much...

Just half a bowl is enough..."

"Where's your home? Staying here with us all the time isn't a solution.

Tell me where your home is, and I'll find someone to send you back. You've been away from home so long—your family must be worried sick." Zhou Sanji looked at Bai Xiue as he spoke, and at the same time used Zhou Chang's chopsticks to pick a few drops of sesame oil from a small bottle on the table, dotting them onto Zhou Chang's bowl of porridge.

The fragrance of the sesame oil suddenly wafted out, making one's mouth water.

Bai Xiue lowered her head, not looking at the humble food on the table, but couldn't help taking small, careful breaths to hold onto the scent of sesame oil at her nostrils. She shook her head, looking wooden and dazed: "I don't remember where my home is..."

Zhou Sanji frowned tightly at her words. He had long seen it—this woman was deliberately playing dumb with him. He wanted to keep probing her sideways, but unexpectedly Zhou Chang at this moment reached out and picked up the chopsticks beside the porridge bowl, while his other hand smoothly grabbed the sesame oil bottle on the table.

He used the chopsticks to pick out a few drops of sesame oil, dotted them into Zhou Sanji's and Bai Xiue's porridge bowls respectively, and then said: "Eat."

Zhou Sanji stared at this sudden move, eyes wide. He didn't even care that Zhou Chang had casually shared such a precious seasoning with outsiders, and asked Zhou Chang directly: "You can move again?!"

"Both arms can move now.

But the rest of the body and legs still don't have much strength." Zhou Chang answered Zhou Sanji while stirring the sesame oil into his bowl.

Watching his trembling, unsteady movements, Zhou Sanji looked thoughtful: "Those little kids who've had a fright, whose life-souls left the body—after we used the 'Soul-Recall Method' to bring their souls back, at first their bodies were all clumsy too, but after two or three days of rest, they'd recover..."

Zhou Chang held the bowl and slurped the porridge, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Zhou Sanji's words.

He knew exactly what his own situation was—it was completely different from an infant losing its soul from fright—this was just Zhou Sanji's wishful guess.

The truth was that the 'Nian-Si' existing within his thoughts had, in this short while, sprouted another dozen or so strands for no apparent reason.

With these dozen-plus strands of Nian-Si, he could barely manage things like lifting a bowl and eating with both arms, but he absolutely couldn't exert strength or do heavy work.

How exactly did Nian-Si grow? Zhou Chang still had no clue.

But he was now certain of one thing—the newly grown Nian-Si in his thoughts must be connected to Bai Xiue beside him.

He had stayed the night with Zhou Sanji, trying again and again, and couldn't make Nian-Si increase by a fraction. But the moment he stepped out and came face to face with Bai Xiue, Nian-Si grew by one strand, and thereafter, as long as Bai Xiue was nearby, every so often Nian-Si would keep growing by another strand.

Therefore, 'Nian-Si' could not possibly be unrelated to Bai Xiue.

But why would the Ming-wu Nian Yi obtained from 'Zhou Chang's coffin' be connected to Bai Xiue?

In no time at all, Zhou Chang had already drunk down most of a bowl of vegetable porridge.

The porridge must have been cooked by Zhou Sanji long ago, kept warm over the stove fire; brought out to eat now, the temperature was just right.

At the table, Zhou Sanji had already started eating with his chopsticks. Only Bai Xiue remained, head lowered in the corner, at a loss.

At this moment, Zhou Chang reached out and pushed the last remaining bowl of porridge on the table toward Bai Xiue, and said again: "Eat."

Zhou Sanji glared at him at the words, but in the end said nothing.

Bai Xiue obediently picked up that bowl of porridge, lowered her head, and said softly: "I-I can't eat this much, just half a bowl is fine."

"There are only two meals a day. Once you eat this morning meal, you have to last until dusk. Eat a bit more."

"Alright, thank you..."

After the meal, Bai Xiue took the initiative to wash the bowls, chopsticks, and pots, then said goodbye to the grandfather and grandson and went back to her own dwelling first.

"Think it over carefully, girl!

Figure out where your home is as soon as possible, so I can send you back!

"If you truly can't recall, it doesn't matter. I'll ask around for you in Qingyi Town. If your family lives nearby, someone must know them..." Zhou Sanji trailed after Bai Xiue, nagging a few more words. Watching her go inside and shut the door without even turning back to acknowledge him, he shook his head, turned around, and saw Zhou Chang staring fixedly at the door of the side room where Bai Xiue lived.

Crack!

Zhou Sanji, furious, raised his hand and slapped Zhou Chang on the head: "What are you still looking at?!

You put on a show to make her your Lady, and now you really treat her like your own wife?

Do you know—?"

At that moment, Zhou Sanji suddenly lowered his voice, leaning close to Zhou Chang's ear: "There's a 'Paper Face' attached to her! Even if she isn't a Thought Demon, she's at least a ghost on the verge of becoming one!

Do not have contact with such things; it won't do you any good!

Once I find out where her family lives, I'll send her away!"

Zhou Chang opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.

The thought-threads within his thoughts ceased to grow after Bai Xiue moved away from him.

The reason his thought-threads were able to grow might well be the doing of the 'Paper Face' attached to Bai Xiue.

How could he let such a person go so easily?