Chapter 27: 26, Bone Thumb Ring, Ao Duoji

26, Bone Thumb Ring, Ao Duoji

Night fell.

Zhou Chang lay on a clumsy wooden bed.

Thick quilts pressed down on his body, and his frame trembled slightly beneath them.

Fine, pale-white translucent threads had stitched the Nian corpse's mouth and nose shut, preventing it from making any sound; within its brow, strands of Zhou Chang's blood-thought threads swam in an orderly fashion, some detaching from its shell, others re-piercing it.

—Zhou Chang was reorganizing the blood-thought threads within his body.

Following the arrangement of this shell's blood vessels, he wrapped every single blood-thought thread around the major vessels inside.

The ordinary thought threads he had accumulated today were insufficient to pierce the Nian corpse's flesh, so he temporarily used them to cover the surface of the body and the mouth and nose, thereby suppressing the Nian corpse's frantic struggles.

After returning home today, he had been seeking every opportunity to approach Miss Bai.

Perhaps because Miss Bai's emotional fluctuations were particularly great today, the number of thought threads he obtained was considerable; the thought threads gained just today were enough to cover two arms and the chest area.

Thought threads were his only reliance now, so naturally he would tend to them with care.

Zhou Chang's preliminary plan was to have the thought threads replace the Nian corpse's entire network of blood vessels; as the thought threads absorbed delusional-mycelium and grew stronger, he would attempt to twist them into steel bars and iron chains to replace the Nian corpse's bones, and ultimately fill the Nian corpse's flesh and blood entirely with thought threads!

Amidst the Nian corpse's trembling, Zhou Chang wrapped all the blood-thought threads around the blood vessels throughout his body.

He extended an arm from under the quilt and moved his joints.

—At present, he had not yet employed the ordinary thought threads covering his body surface; relying on this "thought-thread blood-vessel network" on his body, his control over this shell had increased significantly.

When he returned home from the winery, he could only make the shell walk simply; now, however, he was confident he was no different from an ordinary person!

"Seems I didn't take the wrong path..."

Zhou Chang smiled; the feedback this shell gave him made him understand that his move of replacing the body's entire blood-vessel network with blood-thought threads was indeed correct.

After moving his body around for a while, his gaze fell upon the red string on his right wrist—

Zhou Chang seemed to realize something, pulled his arm back, and fumbled around under his pillow for a while, finally retrieving a cylindrical object thicker than a thumb and more than one knuckle high.

That cylindrical object was made of bone, hollow, and polished into the shape of a thumb ring.

The bone thumb ring bore traces of yellowing from flames, and black cracked patterns covered its surface.

Among these numerous cracked patterns were seven holes dug out by human hands.

The seven holes were not completely drilled through; when Zhou Chang's gaze turned toward those holes, a strange feeling arose in his heart—his gaze seemed to be "absorbed" by the seven holes.

This bone thumb ring shared the same origin as the thought threads.

It was a funeral object he had obtained from the coffin before Yinsheng Laomu's grave.

Originally, the red string on his wrist had no interest at all in the delusional-mycelium in the wine cellar, so naturally he could not accumulate the red string's power within the wine cellar.

But when he emerged from the wine cellar and passed through the winery's main hall, he indeed saw many jars of wine packed to the brim.

So at that time, while the steward was conversing with Master Yang Rui and his disciple, he sent the red string out, probed into those wine jars, and drank its fill thoroughly, filling the red string with power.

Thus, it allowed him to drag the coffin of a deceased person named "Zhou Chang."

From the coffin, he obtained this bone thumb ring.

The red string fell silent thereafter, unknown when it would stir again.

On the thumb ring, the seven holes between the intersecting cracks stopped absorbing Zhou Chang's gaze.

Those seven holes were black and shiny.

Zhou Chang leaned in to look but saw no clue; however, he heard a desolate wind sound at his ear.

"Whoosh—"

The desolate wind sound issued sequentially from the seven holes, and within that wind sound was mixed the tender and anxious call of a boy.

"Ao Duoji!" the boy shouted from the first hole.

"Ao Bai Ma!" the boy called out the name of another mastiff from the second hole.

"Qiu Yangqie!"

"Dunzhu, Dunzhu!"

"Adeng!"

"Ao Niu, Da Niu!"

"Hu! Hu! Hu!"

Listening to the sounds issuing from those seven holes, Zhou Chang's expression changed.

This bone thumb ring seemed to be attached with the "thoughts" of a boy named Zhou Chang; his thoughts remained in the seven holes, constantly calling out to his seven beloved pets, or perhaps seven companions.

But what use was this bone thumb ring to him?

As Zhou Chang turned these thoughts over, the wind sound gradually ceased issuing from the bone thumb ring's holes, and the boy's calls stopped; everything returned to calm.

He waited a while, detected no further abnormal movement on the thumb ring, then put it on his left thumb, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.

Just as he was drowsy and about to fall asleep, the whimpering and food-begging sounds of a puppy entered his ears.

"Whimper, whimper~"

Zhou Chang suddenly opened his eyes wide and leaned his ear closer to the seven holes on the thumb ring.

That whimpering sound had vanished.

"Whoosh..."

The wind sound outside the house sounded very cold, so staying inside the house felt even more secure.

Bai Xiue curled her body close to the oil lamp, softly humming a nursery rhyme she had heard in her youth; between her ten fingers, transparent pale-white lotus threads swam, passing through tiny insects whose bodies were negligible in size, peeling off their shells completely.

The carapaces of the insects were being stitched together in her palm, growing from imperceptible to fingernail-sized, and continuing to assemble and expand.

She performed this needlework very seriously, her face beaming with a happy smile, feeling no fatigue at all.

Beside her were already stacked several layers of rat-skin goods, cloth woven from bird feathers, insect carapaces, and so on.

"A fate to be a beast of burden for others!"

At that moment, the 'Paper Face' reappeared on half of her cheek, sneering and mocking her.

On that seductive, affectionate face, there was now nothing but disgust.

Bai Xiue sighed upon hearing this; she put down her needlework, stared blankly at the flickering wisp of lamplight before her, and after a long while, hesitantly said, "I... I just wanted to repay them."

"Repay them?

When have we ever owed them anything?

If not for us, they would have long since died in that mass grave!" the Paper Face said, feigning shock.

Bai Xiue lowered her head and fell silent.

Just as the Paper Face had said, between her and the Zhou family grandfather and grandson, neither truly owed the other, so how could she speak of repaying them?

Where did this desire to repay them even come from?

Perhaps it was simply because here, she could be like a real person.

"A money-losing burden!"

Seeing Bai Xiue's expression, the Paper Face's look of disgust deepened.

Suddenly, her expression turned stern, and she said to Bai Xiue, "Your dead husband has come to find you."

Clang!

The moment the Paper Face finished speaking, the two papered windows, latched tightly shut, were blown open by a vicious gust of wind!

A biting, chilling wind instantly flooded Bai Xiue's bedroom!

There was no longer any sense of peace for her in this place!