No one cared about Xiu Zhu’s indignation.
No one saw the shadow that quietly flashed through his eyes.
Inside the room, Song Zang stared at his shredded bedsheets, cotton stuffing and strips of cloth floating everywhere, and the fish cleaver buried deep in the floor… and fell into thought.
Song Si had already cried himself completely exhausted. Like the man from the Zhang family, he rolled across the floor while violently slapping himself, until one moment of carelessness actually caused him to knock himself unconscious with his own hands.
When the two arrived, he was lying beside the cleaver with a red and swollen face, looking miserable, tears still covering his cheeks.
Thinking about what he himself had experienced the previous night, Song Zang could easily infer part of the truth. His elder brother Song Si had probably experienced some terrifying hallucination tonight too.
Yin Chen frowned deeply and folded his arms before commenting coldly, “Your names look incredibly unlucky when they’re placed together. One means ‘sent to death,’ the other ‘sent to burial.’ What exactly is that supposed to mean?
“Especially your brother. He’s been forced to carry enormous malice since birth. That name is practically a curse, almost as though someone deliberately didn’t want him to survive. Who named him?”
Elio’s Notes: This is a name pun that disappears in English. 宋嗣 (Sòng Sì), Song Si, sounds close to 送死 (sòng sǐ), “go to one’s death / send someone to die.” 宋葬 (Sòng Zàng), Song Zang, is pronounced exactly like 送葬 (sòng zàng), “to conduct or escort a funeral.” Yin Chen is absolutely not imagining how grim those names sound together.
Song Zang did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Great-Grandfather did. I heard it was because humble names make children easier to raise. The humbler the…”
“He’s mentally ill, or he had malicious intentions,” Yin Chen interrupted with a dark expression. While cleaning Song Zang’s destroyed room, he continued coldly, “There are plenty of humble names. Why specifically ‘go die’? Calling your brother Song Cockroach would still sound better.”
“…That makes a lot of sense.”
Song Zang followed behind him and tried helping pick up the scattered fabric and cotton, only to be cruelly rejected by Yin Chen on the grounds that he was “getting in the way.”
The attitude was terrible, but understandable.
Their wonderful opportunity to lie in bed kissing and cuddling had been abruptly interrupted. Yin Chen’s bad mood would inevitably last a while.
So pitiful. Fine. Better indulge him.
Yin Chen worked with a black expression, walking back and forth through Song Zang’s room, then abruptly spoke again. “And your name. Who exactly gave it to you? It’s unbelievably unlucky too!”
“My parents did,” Song Zang answered from the bedside while secretly clearing splinters from the gaps. “When the orphanage found me, my biological parents had left a note inside my swaddling clothes with my name and birth date.”
Yin Chen abruptly stopped moving.
He turned and looked down at Song Zang, slowly narrowing his phoenix eyes in scrutiny. “You remember even that much now? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you know lots of things too, and you refuse to tell me anything.”
Song Zang was not afraid of him. While replying leisurely, he deliberately raised a hand and touched the hickey along the side of his neck.
The delicate skin carried a faint pink flush. A thin, suggestive redness covered the visibly pulsing carotid artery, terribly tempting, but unfortunately all of that had now come to an abrupt end.
Song Zang was reminding him that this was part of the reward-and-punishment system. Once the opportunity expired, it was gone.
Yin Chen understood perfectly.
Yin Chen pursed his lips and was about to say something when Song Zang continued, “You’re doing it for my own good, which is why you can’t tell me everything, right?”
“Mm.”
“If I become stronger and stronger in the future until I’m afraid of nothing, will you be willing to tell me every truth?”
“Mm. Depending on the situation.”
“That’s enough. But I suggest you stop guarding your secrets quite so tightly. Otherwise… you’re forbidden from secretly kissing me again. Not even while I’m asleep.”
Yin Chen’s expression froze. “No.”
“That isn’t your decision. If you force me, I’ll cry incredibly loudly. I’ll cry hard enough to bring down the Great Wall.”
Elio’s Notes: The Great Wall joke evokes the legend of Meng Jiang Nü, whose grief for her dead husband was said to make part of the Great Wall collapse. Song Zang is threatening Yin Chen with historically catastrophic levels of crying. 😂
Song Zang smiled brightly and declared the conversation over. Yin Chen’s reluctance was irrelevant.
Even though both of them understood perfectly well that a wolf that had tasted flesh and blood would never again be satisfied with ordinary grain.
Within the slightly strange atmosphere, the two fell silent together and began handling serious matters.
Song Zang pushed open the bedroom door and quickly soothed the little village dog that had almost awakened. Yin Chen grabbed Song Si, lifted him, and carried him back to his own room.
Their footsteps silently crossed the courtyard. Song Zang deliberately listened closely. Song Wei Yi’s snoring remained thunderously loud, while Great-Grandfather Song’s bedroom was exceptionally quiet.
Not one family member had been awakened.
Only Song Si and his wife lived in the western room. There were few miscellaneous belongings, and everything had been kept simple and clean.
The only debris left on the floor came from the bedroom door bar that Song Si had violently kicked apart.
Yin Chen placed Song Si back on the bed, then thoughtfully looked toward the still-solid wooden door.
Simple and violent. One kick only.
The obvious traces of movement made it clear that Song Si had not destroyed anything inside his own room, and his wife had not been disturbed or harmed at all.
She slept deeply, occasionally releasing soft snores beneath the blankets.
Song Si himself had stumbled out of bed, kicked down the door, rushed into the kitchen for a knife, then headed directly for Song Zang’s room, where he had spent the entire night chopping wildly.
Absurd. Even after personally experiencing something similar, Song Zang could not identify the trigger behind these hallucinations.
If they could not solve the problem quickly, who would suffer next?
Great-Grandfather Song, Song Wei Yi, or the most innocent Tian Yue Xiang?
Thinking this, Song Zang silently made a decision. Starting tomorrow, he absolutely had to sleep at home every night and personally keep watch, preventing an actual murder from occurring.
And he had to speed up the process of marrying Yin Chen into the family!
“He won’t die. There’s no ghost possessing him. Let’s go back and sleep.”
Yin Chen did not know what Song Zang was worrying about. He seriously repaired the door bar, then turned around, lifted Song Zang around the waist, hooked an arm beneath his knees, and lightly bounced him once.
“Sigh. If I hadn’t slept with you, I would’ve been the one he chopped to death,” Song Zang cooperatively buried his face against Yin Chen’s chest and complained theatrically, “So scary.”
Yin Chen nodded with understanding and thought aloud, “Don’t be afraid. I can help you chop him to death first…”
“NO. You cannot chop up my brother. That is my biological brother!”
Song Zang hurriedly covered Yin Chen’s lawless mouth and urged him to leave immediately.
Cicadas screamed. The night grew darker.
Only now did Song Zang finally have time to look at the group chat.
He had been about to report the hallucination his brother experienced when his typing abruptly stopped.
“Yin Chen, something seems to have happened to Yin Wu Xue.”
“That strange woman?”
Yin Chen raised an eyebrow and opened the system panel as well.
Dozens of frantic cries for help filled the screen before gradually falling silent.
The “female ghost” Yin Wu Xue had mentioned was now hiding inside the corpse and pretending to be dead, impossible to pull out.
Her own throat had suffered severe crushing injuries, although fortunately she would not die for now.
The officers who inexplicably fell unconscious were physically normal too, breathing steadily and very much alive.
The only problem was that no amount of shaking could wake them.
Worse, their unwakeable condition looked remarkably similar to Zhang Da Lang’s son, the child whose head had been gnawed by a wolf. The symptoms were exactly the same. It was unbelievably strange, yet the real cause remained impossible to investigate.
Yin Chen thought briefly and began planning their schedule.
“We don’t need to go over tonight. Sleep early. Tomorrow morning, after exchanging the banknote for official silver, we’ll stop by the Ning residence, meet everyone, eat, then go to the county government and speak with the magistrate. We need to find out what exactly is happening.
“I don’t think those officers were truly searching for rebels… They were searching for me.”
Song Zang froze. “Anning Town isn’t far from the village, so Emperor Yongjia must be behind it. He may genuinely be able to divine your approximate location and is investigating families suspected of having a claim to the throne one by one.”
“Exactly. The emperor is the most serious problem.”
For now, the intentions of those Imperial Preceptor Daoists could be set aside, but Emperor Yongjia himself was unquestionably a genuine lunatic.
He had chopped the limbs from ten of his own biological sons and pickled them in enormous vats purely to locate Yin Chen, who threatened his throne… It was utterly deranged.
The divination genuinely worked, and the emperor genuinely would never stop.
Eventually, he would pinpoint Yin Chen’s exact location. Before that happened, there was no telling how much longer this tyrant would continue slaughtering his own children.
As long as he kept enough consorts and fathered enough children, he would not run out of princes quickly. More innocent people would simply continue dying by the emperor’s hand.
Rebellion was inevitable. They should begin by manipulating public opinion.
It was time to expose and spread the emperor’s scandals throughout the realm. They could conveniently exploit the current drought too and dress it up with some “Heaven and Earth are merciless” rhetoric.
The two lay close together in bed, discussing rebellion for more than ten minutes. The atmosphere became extraordinarily harmonious and cheerful.
Song Zang lay on his side playing with the soft, glossy ends of Yin Chen’s black hair, braiding several tiny plaits. Yin Chen allowed him to do whatever he wanted, remarkably cooperative.
While playing, Song Zang casually asked, “Yin Wu Xue’s role gives her an advantage. She’s definitely better suited than any of us for the Faith-and-Incense Apotheosis Method. Should we teach it to her?”
“…Are you sure? She’s extremely strange.”
“Huh? Is she?” Song Zang immediately looked blank, though slightly guilty.
Yin Chen looked serious. “I find her extraordinarily suspicious. There’s a good chance she has secretly done something she feels guilty about toward me.”
Song Zang blinked. “Besides me, who would dare wrong you?”
“That makes sense. Then she’s simply an ordinary strange woman.”
No. She was actually a perfectly normal fanfic fangirl with an extremely active imagination, particularly fond of writing stories where someone had to crawl through fire to win back their lover…
She spent every day secretly writing Yin Chen suffering heartbreak and unbearable misery. Of course she would feel terribly guilty after suddenly meeting the man himself.
Song Zang knew she was not some twisted villain like Wang Shu. Even if she possessed a few private motives, cooperating amicably for a single instance was completely manageable.
But Yin Wu Xue’s Resistance was probably not especially high. Otherwise, something like tonight would never have happened, with emotion sweeping her away until she almost lost the ability to speak.
“We’ll see what condition she’s in tomorrow. I’m sleepy. Sleep, sleep.”
“All right. Good night.”
Yin Chen gently wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled Song Zang closer, his voice unnaturally tender.
“No secretly kissing me!” Song Zang suddenly pinched him.
“…I know.”
The oil lamp went dark. The rustle of shifting blankets drifted through the room, accompanied by soft words that sounded vaguely intimate.
No one noticed Xiu Zhu standing in the courtyard with the sleeping baby strapped to his back, motionless as a dead wooden post for a very long time.
The once clear innocence in his eyes gradually filled with strands of darkness beneath the pale moonlight.
＊
Before dawn the next morning, Yin Chen secretly transported the still-sleeping Song Zang back home.
The blankets and pillowcases inside the room had also been personally replaced by Yin Chen with completely new ones.
Song Zang only began waking when he heard sweeping.
He had not slept enough. Yawning, he curled sleepily beneath the blanket and secretly watched Yin Chen, admiring the beautiful line of his taut waist whenever he bent down, along with those long, exceptional legs. The more Song Zang looked, the more awake he became.
After stealing several looks, Song Zang abruptly became fully alert and lost every trace of drowsiness.
He seemed to have discovered a brand-new little hobby of Yin Chen’s.
Twice in a row now, Yin Chen had voluntarily cleaned a wrecked bedroom, not merely to eliminate evidence that might expose Song Zang, but because… he genuinely enjoyed the process of cleaning.
There was actually someone in this world who truly liked doing housework!
“You’re a huge pervert,” Song Zang declared in shock.
Yin Chen stopped moving and looked back at him with a half-smile. “What did I do to you this time?”
“Your hobbies are warped,” Song Zang said lazily, propping himself upright and exposing the loose white inner robe around his shoulders. “Unlike me. I only enjoy eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping…”
Yin Chen looked at his beautiful collarbones, his gaze deepening. “Song Zang, you’re slandering me.”
“Slandering you?”
Song Zang did not argue. As though he could not care less, he opened both arms and ordered imperiously, “Hug me. Dress me too, and do my hair.”
Yin Chen was not angry. He set down the broom, cleaned his hands, then sat beside the bed and obediently wrapped his arms around Song Zang before dressing him and arranging his hair.
Song Zang’s lips curved. He seized the opportunity to prove himself right. “Look at what you’re doing now. Isn’t this warped?
“Liking housework is one thing. You also like treating me as a dress-up doll. What a pervert.”
“No. Other people’s dolls willingly let themselves be kissed. You have too many ideas of your own. You aren’t that kind of toy,” Yin Chen casually countered while concentrating on his hair. “You’re objectifying yourself. You’re the more twisted one.”
…That made sense. Yin Chen was being extraordinarily reasonable today.
Song Zang thought about it. “Then we’re both huge perverts. Is that acceptable?”
“Mm. Birds of a feather.”
“Hiss… You pulled my hair!”
The two stayed close at the bedside for quite a while until sounds of Tian Yue Xiang waking and washing herself drifted over.
Yin Chen was in no hurry. Admiring the long hair he had arranged for Song Zang, he suddenly produced a Polaroid camera completely incompatible with the era and switched it on.
Song Zang: ???
“I want photographs of you for my collection,” Yin Chen said calmly.
His attitude was utterly shameless and composed. He forced Song Zang to pose for several pictures and only then climbed out the window in satisfaction.
Song Zang got out of bed to wash with the numb exhaustion of someone whose body and soul had been hollowed out.
If one absolutely had to decide which of them was the greater pervert, it really was Yin Chen after all.
…
Because they needed to exchange money in town, breakfast that morning was very simple: one pot of millet porridge with fish jelly mixed in, plus two plates of leftover pickles from last night.
Song Zang was not picky. To make Tian Yue Xiang happy, he buried his head in the food and ate with obvious enthusiasm.
His elder brother, however, had no appetite. Several times he picked up his chopsticks only to put them down again, and his gaze looked strange.
Dark shadows sat beneath his eyes, and an inexplicable uneasiness showed on his face.
Tian Yue Xiang urged him to eat more, but he ignored her. He stared directly at the bowl of porridge in front of him and occasionally glanced subtly toward Song Zang.
Strange. It looked like lingering trauma from the nightmare.
Tian Yue Xiang noticed first and asked with concern, “Da Lang, do you want to go into town too? Then go with Erlang. Mother will give you money. Buy your wife some pretty hair ornaments, and a few chi of brightly colored fabric too.”
His sister-in-law immediately blushed. “Mother, I don’t need jewelry.”
“How could that be? A young woman should dress herself beautifully before having children. If you look pretty every day, forget that fool Da Lang, even Mother will be happy just looking at you.” Tian Yue Xiang laughed and teased her.
People always longed for what they never had. Tian Yue Xiang had never been destined to have a daughter, so she genuinely treated her daughter-in-law like one, showing her even more warmth than she showed Song Si.
At that moment, Song Si seemed to awaken from a dream. He abruptly looked up, shot to his feet, and hurriedly stammered a refusal.
“No. I’m not going. Not going…”
Tian Yue Xiang slapped him across the back. “Then don’t go! Why are you flipping the bowls like you’re starting a rebellion?! Idiot, bring your mother the mop!”
Without looking back, Song Si ran toward the storage room and did not return for a long time.
There had been fear in his eyes. Song Zang saw it clearly.
Song Zang frowned, quickly finished the remaining millet porridge, and followed.
Painful, struggling breaths could faintly be heard inside the storage room. Fingernails repeatedly scraped across the dirt floor while the breathing gradually weakened.
Song Zang hurriedly pushed open the door. A mass of familiar yet unfamiliar black threadlike matter abruptly entered his vision.
Layer upon layer wrapped around Song Si’s body, tightening little by little into a cocoon.
It was the hair monster that had secretly licked Song Zang’s face!
Song Zang widened his eyes, immediately grabbed the iron hoe beside him, thrust it deep into the mass of hair without hesitation, and violently levered upward.
He used almost eighty percent of his strength. Song Si’s head immediately lolled to one side as he lost consciousness.
The iron hoe head could not withstand the force and shattered. Wood splinters flew everywhere from the impact, while the eerie black-hair cocoon simultaneously cracked inch by inch and broke apart into several clumps of ordinary black hair scattered across the ground.
“AAAAH!”
Another shrill scream, neither male nor female, erupted. The black-hair monster nimbly separated its body and tried fleeing in every direction, burrowing into cracks and holes throughout the storage room.
Song Zang did not waste strength chasing it. He first crouched and patted the unconscious Song Si.
Good. Not dead. Breathing steadily.
Song Zang relaxed, picked up several clumps of black hair lying on the floor like dead things, and stored them temporarily inside the system inventory.
Later, he would let Yin Chen examine them too and see exactly what kind of strange thing this was.
As for who would take the blame for wrecking the storage room… They could blame Big Brother for now.
Song Zang had things to do. He needed to reach town early and meet the other players.
Tian Yue Xiang was indeed furious. She cursed repeatedly and suspected Song Si had secretly drunk Great-Grandfather’s rice wine.
His sister-in-law did not know whether to laugh or cry as she soothed her. “It’s fine, Mother. I’ll clean it.”
“No. Leave it for now! Erlang, where’s your father? Don’t delay your departure!”
“Coming, coming! The ox cart is outside,” Song Wei Yi hurriedly answered.
Ever since a wild boar destroyed his fertility, Song Wei Yi had become increasingly quiet and withdrawn. He depended heavily upon his wife and listened obediently to Tian Yue Xiang.
Today he had not even eaten breakfast. Before dawn, he had gone outside beneath the faint morning light and brought back the ox cart rented in advance.
Tian Yue Xiang loaded bag after bag of travel food and stuffed everything into Song Wei Yi’s bundle, repeatedly reminding him not to let the child go hungry.
Song Wei Yi nodded meekly, shouldered the bundle honestly, and carefully checked the fifty-tael banknote sewn into his sleeve.
“Erlang, time to go.”
“Coming!”
Song Zang pretended nothing had happened, climbed cheerfully onto the ox cart, and swayed slowly toward Anning Town.
Every time he looked back, he could see Yin Chen somewhere.
Sometimes he stood in a tree near the ox cart. Sometimes he sat at a roadside tea stall. Sometimes he was standing in line buying tofu… exactly like a perverted stalker.
Forget it. As long as Yin Chen was happy.
Anning Town was prosperous. One broad stone-paved road ran through the settlement, with blue-brick, tiled houses packed tightly along both sides. There was not a single shabby thatched hut.
Today happened to be a small market day. Carts and horses crowded the road, while temporary snack stalls and pastry shops lined the streets. There were not many varieties of food, but everything smelled tempting.
“Erlang, want steamed buns? Go buy two meat ones.”
Song Wei Yi felt through his pocket and produced two copper coins.
Song Zang accepted them readily, jumped off the ox cart, chose the two prettiest buns, and brought them back. “Father, you eat them. You didn’t touch breakfast this morning.”
“Father isn’t hungry. We brought travel food too.”
As if that could possibly be true.
Song Zang shoved the buns into his arms without allowing an argument and said tyrannically, “Father, eat the buns! If you don’t, I’ll make a scene.”
“You child…”
Left with no choice, Song Wei Yi shook his head and took a large bite.
The thin-skinned meat bun packed with filling tasted too delicious. Steam rose from it, and Song Wei Yi’s tears immediately began falling too.
“Erlang, I know you’re a filial child. Listen to your father. After you marry, you still have to study properly. You can’t drown yourself in the pleasures of married life. You have the temper of a young master, and being spoiled normally doesn’t matter, but you have to learn independence and become a man worth relying upon!
“If you truly love her, you must earn her an imperial title through your achievements. Don’t become like your father… Wuwu…”
Song Wei Yi began crying, louder and louder.
He ate the meat bun while sobbing and rambled about how he had failed Tian Yue Xiang and his two sons. Ever since losing his vitality and spirit, he had become useless at everything.
Even the old ox pulling the cart became impatient. Song Zang simply rested his chin on one hand and continued listening patiently.
By a simple assessment, his father was probably a good person too.
Only when they reached Haining Bank did Song Wei Yi finally manage to stop crying.
According to Ning Ran, Haining Bank was the largest and most powerful banking house for many li around, rumored to have an imperial uncle behind it, meaning no one dared provoke them.
The bank staff followed strict rules as well. Their exchange and pawning rates were very fair.
Song Wei Yi felt slightly embarrassed.
He handed the ox cart to an attendant, wiped his face, straightened his clothes, and tried to make himself look a little more respectable.
“Fifty taels in official silver, correct? Sir, please come this way. Have some hot tea and inspect everything slowly for shortages. Once you leave the bank, there are no returns or exchanges.”
The manager was very polite. After confirming the banknote was genuine, he immediately had servants bring tea.
Perfectly rounded silver ingots were stacked neatly inside a wooden chest. When the lid opened, dazzling silver light reflected beneath the sun.
Song Wei Yi had never seen so much money in his life.
His hand trembled as he touched the ingots again and again, even beginning to stammer. “N-no shortage. Please help me carry it onto the ox cart. Thank you.”
The attendants exchanged glances and simultaneously produced professional smiles. “Certainly, sir. Please come again!”
“Y-yes, yes…”
Exchanging the money went smoothly, but after climbing back onto the ox cart, Song Wei Yi remained visibly uneasy.
He hid the wooden chest deep beneath the fodder and covered it completely, terrified robbers might suddenly attack on the road and steal all fifty precious taels of silver.
Song Zang was not worried at all. He dragged his father around buying large quantities of daily necessities, bolts of cloth and silk required for the betrothal gifts, boxes of dried fruits, pretty hairpins for his mother and sister-in-law, plus one jar of moisturizing vanishing cream that could be used by men or women.
Great-Grandfather Song was paying, so Song Zang felt no pain spending the money. Song Wei Yi had no ability to control him anyway.
The heavily loaded ox cart slowly stopped near the entrance to Anning Town.
Song Zang jumped down again. “Father, go back first. I still need to buy some study supplies and spend the day with my classmates.”
Song Wei Yi had never been a strict father. The role of “father” had always possessed very little authority inside the Song household.
When Song Zang said he needed study supplies, Song Wei Yi did not understand enough to object and could only ask, “Erlang, when are you coming home?”
“By dinner.”
“All right. Don’t waste money.”
“I know. You stay safe too~”
Song Zang vanished in an instant. Back home, meanwhile, Song Wei Yi was grabbed by the ear and thoroughly scolded by Tian Yue Xiang for returning without him.
But she quickly accepted it. “Erlang will be formally engaged soon. It really is time for him to grow up… Matchmaker Wang is coming tomorrow, so we have to prepare properly too. Where did you throw that long gown of yours? It was expensive. Remember to find it and wear it. You’ll look respectable.”
Song Wei Yi smiled. “All right. I’ll find it now.”
＊
At the same time, Song Zang was touring the Ning residence.
This lavish estate in Anning Town was merely a secondary residence, purchased specifically so the young masters would have somewhere to stay while studying. It was outrageously extravagant.
Song Zang dragged Yin Chen along while he explored. Along the way, he mentioned the black-hair monster and took out the severed hair he had collected.
Yin Wu Xue casually glanced over, then immediately took a second, much more serious look. Her expression turned grave.
“That’s an evil monster. It’s filthy! Song Song, why are you holding it?! Throw it away, throw it away!”
“An evil monster?”
Song Zang froze, and Yin Chen immediately snatched the clump of hair away.
He pinched the strands between his fingers and lowered his eyes to inspect them, but he could not identify many abnormal details.
“Have you heard of the Flying-Head Art?”
Yin Wu Xue quietly backed two steps away as she explained.
“This hair came from a woman whose attempt to practice the Flying-Head Art failed. Her severed head was preserved after death and slowly became a flesh-body Buddha. It can grow new hair by itself. It isn’t alive, but it’s almost as though it were!”
Song Zang listened in complete confusion, then asked suspiciously, “Even Yin Chen can’t see what’s wrong. How did you identify it immediately?”
“…I don’t know either.” Yin Wu Xue scratched her hair in confusion. “But somehow… I just know.”