Apologies for delay! This translation, uh, slipped my mind. I got really busy with school. Anyway here’s a drawing as an offering OTL

 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Xie Lian retreated his hand, completely silent. He realized that every time he saw or felt something frightening in the dark, it was always that something that screamed in fright, while he made no sound at all. Wasn’t he supposed to be the most frightened victim here?

The shrubs in this garden were tall and dense, and someone had hidden underneath it. Xie Lian had accidentally brushed against this person’s calf, which withdrew at the speed of lightning and caused the bush to rustle. A voice implored, “Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, it’s just me, brother sir!”

Xie Lian drew closer to see who it was, and to his surprise, it was the thick-browed, wide-eyed boy from before – Tian Sheng. When Tian Sheng realized that Xie Lian had recognized him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Xie Lian, however, did not breathe a sigh of relief; he grew more tense and alert. He raised an arm in front of the boy to stop him and asked, “ Aren’t you supposed to be back where we left you, with the rest of your party, to look after the wounded? Why are you here? Are you really Tian Sheng?”

In the context of this situation, the discovery of a familiar face was very likely a trap, some creature or thing with shapeshifting abilities. Tiang Sheng said in a panicked voice, “It’s me! It’s really me! And it’s not just me, two other Shushus* came with me! They’re right inside! If you don’t believe me, come look!” Tian Sheng pointed towards the palace.

Sure enough, within moments, three people ran out of the battered temple. They were most definitely three of the merchants from the caravan party. When they saw Xie Lian, they blanched together, and then looked quite awkward.

Xie Lian exhaled, and then he stood up, patting down his white coat and hem. He asked, “What is the matter with you people?”

The three merchants did not answer, silent in their embarrassment. After a while, Tian Sheng mumbled, “We hadn’t walked for long before Zhang-Bobo²’s poison flared up again. And it flared pretty badly, so we… didn’t know when you’d come back, or if you’d come back too late. Ah-Zhao said to follow this road to get to Ban Yue, and so that’s what we did. We thought if there were more people, we’d be able to find the herb more quickly, so we came…”

However it was said, in the end they were still regretful. They’d been afraid Xie Lian would run away with Ah-Zhao after finding the Shan Yue herb and keep it for themselves. So they’d followed.

Xie Lian could also very well imagine that Fu Yao, failing to convince them not to go, had easily given up and let them go, concluding that that it was a waste of effort to try stopping people who stubbornly chased death despite advice otherwise.

Xie Lian said, exasperated, “You all really are too brave. It’s not like you don’t know what’s in this city, and what could happen here. And yet, you still dared to come?”

It seemed that Tian Sheng understood that by following them, they were showing their mistrust, and he felt quite guilty and ashamed about that. He’d hidden in the bushes just now, too afraid to make a noise, and also felt quite awkward about the situation. He said, “I’m sorry, a life was at stake, so we panicked, and…”

It couldn’t be helped. This was human nature*. Moreover, to be able to sacrifice one’s safety in order to help another, to risk their lives to find the medicinal herb, was simply selfless sentiment. Xie Lian couldn’t say anything more against this, and so he just rubbed his temple. “The fact that you managed to enter this city without mishap is truly fortunate. Speaking of which, how did you know to come to the imperial palace area to find the Shan Yue herb?”

Tian Sheng scratched his head. “We didn’t really know where to go, actually. But the gege in the red coat said in his story that it was the queen who picked the Shan Yue plant, wasn’t it? Royalty aren’t allowed to wander in and out of the palace as they please. Based on that, we thought we’d come to the palace to test our luck.”

Xie Lian thought this kid did have some brains.

At that moment, beside them, San Lang said, “Found it.”

Xie Lian looked back, and San Lang raised his hand, which held a fistful of bluish-green leaves with the roots still intact.

The leaves were about the size of an infant’s hand, the roots extremely thin. They were shaped like peaches, the tails of the leaves tapered to a sharp point. Even without needing Ah-Zhao to confirm, Xie Lian’s intuition told him this was the rumoured Shan Yue plant.

Before he could speak a word, San Lang had already come over and grabbed his wounded hand.

When his hand had first been bitten, the swelling had been quite terrifying to behold. After San Lang had tried to suck out the poison as much as he could, while the remaining poison was still very potent in his body, the swelling had reduced significantly in size. At this moment, San Lang took Xie Lian’s injured hand in one of his, the Shan Yue leaves in the other. Using an unknown amount of force, San Lang tightened the latter into a fist, before opening it to reveal that the leaves had been turned into a pile of crust dust. San Lang applied the pile to the back of Xie Lian’s hand, and within moments, a gentle coolness spread outwards from the wound.

Xie Lian said, “Much thanks, San Lang.”

As expected, San Lang didn’t reply. After he finished applying the herb, San Lang let go of his hand.

There was this weird mood between the two of them again. Xie Lian kept feeling like there was something odd here, but he didn’t know how to ask without sounding weird.

The people around them obviously couldn’t perceive this subtle mood shift. Tian Sheng asked impatiently, “Gege, do you feel any better? Is this plant effective?”

Xie Lian turned to answer him. “A lot better. This should be the right one.”

Hearing this, everybody grew excited. “Hurry, let’s find some.”

Not long afterwards, Ah-Zhao raised a fistful of bluish-green leaves and said, “I found some too.”

The leaves in his hand were much fatter and larger than the pathetic and wispy little things that San Lang had found. Seeing this, everybody rushed over to inspect the leaves. Confirming that the shape and overall appearance of the leaves were correct, they began grabbing the leaves in a great rush.

“There’s a shit tonne of it here!”

“So much!”

“Hurry, grab as much as you can.”

“If we take too much, could we sell it?”

As they were busy picking the Shan Yue plants, Xie Lian turned back to look at his hand, and tried to make conversation with San Lang. “Didn’t you already search around that area before? You didn’t find anything that time?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Lian felt that what he said was kind of stupid. San Lang simply shook his head and said, “You don’t want to use the plants over there.”

Xie Lian was puzzled. “Why?”

Who knew that at that moment, before San Lang could open his mouth to answer, there came a blood-curdling scream. “Move!”

Everybody halted, shocked by the sound.

They mumbled, “Who screamed?”

“It wasn’t me!”

“It wasn’t me either…”

The same voice spoke again, this time rather mournfully. “Move, you’ve stepped on me…”

They then realized that the voice came from under their feet!

In an instant, everybody who was in the field picking the Shan Yue leaves scattered. Xie Lian was long used to going up* during situations like this; when everybody moved aside, he went up*. In a few moments, he walked up to the place where the screaming voice was heard, and slowly, pushed aside the tall grass. A number of people held their breaths.

Shockingly enough, buried in the grass amidst the dirt, was a man’s face.

There was an entire, living human being buried in this dirt, with only a face exposed!

This scene was certainly too strange and creepy. Many of the merchants grabbed each other and yelled in fright.

Xie Lian, with the utmost calm and chill, said in a gentle voice, “Don’t worry. Everybody, calm down. It’s just a face. It’s not a big deal. We all have faces, yeah?”

The face laughed. “Did I scare you all? Man… I scare myself a lot too.”

Xie Lian did a semi-squat to inspect the face more closely.

It was definitely a man’s face, and when it wasn’t laughing, it was quite flat and smooth. But when it laughed, it was covered in wrinkles. One couldn’t say if it was old or young, or ugly or beautiful. After looking at it for a good long while and still unable to tell who or what it was, Xie Lian asked directly, “Who are you?”

The buried face said, “And who are you all?”

Xie Lian answered, “A passing caravan.”

The face said, “Oh man. Passing caravans. I used to be part of a passing caravan too. But that was fifty or sixty years ago.”

That made the scene even more bizarre.

This person had been buried in the earth, in this ancient, abandoned city, for more than fifty or sixty years. Was it even still human?

One of the merchats said, trembling from visible fear, “Then… then how come you, good sir… came to be here…?”

The face coughed. It scrunched up its face and said, “I… I got caught by Ban Yue soldiers. I accidentally entered the city, got captured, and they buried me in the dirt. Turned me into fertilizer for the Shan Yue plants.”

These plants had been grown from live humans as fertilizers; no wonder they looked so fat and large!

The ones who had grabbed the Shan Yue leaves from before threw their pickings quickly to the ground, feeling suddenly as though they had been picking corpses. Xie Lian also couldn’t help looking down at his hand. Then he heard San Lang say, “The plants over there are no problem.”

It seemed as though San Lang had encountered the buried face when he’d been searching that particular area, and guessed correctly that the Shan Yue that grew here fed on human fertilizer. Thus, he’d ignored the plants here and turned away to look elsewhere. He’d searched until he’d found the plants in more remote areas of the city. Those he knew were clean and grew naturally, and so he’d picked those instead to apply onto Xie Lian.

Xie Lian said, “San Lang, you’re so considerate. Truly, much thanks.”

San Lang simply shook his head, still looking calm and steady as ever.

Ever since Xie Lian had been stung by the scorpion-tailed snake before entering the city, San Lang had been in this taciturn mood. When it had just been the two of them before this trip, San Lang had been cheerfully calling him “gege!” here and there. Now, he didn’t utter a single word to him. Moreover, aside from draining the poison from his hand and applying the Shan Yue leaves to his wound, San Lang seemed not to want to touch him as much as possible. Xie Lian felt this extremely odd. He couldn’t comprehend this sudden change in attitude, and felt a little uneasy about it too.

The face in the dirt spoke again. “It’s been hella long since I’d last seen a live human. Would you all… would you all come stand closer, so I can see you better?”

Everyone looked at each other in dismay and unanimously agreed that it was probably better not to do as it said. After a while, seeing that no one had responded, the face muttered, “What, none of you want to? Well damn… that’s a pity…”

Xie Lian turned around. “What’s a pity?”

The buried face said, “Since you entered this place, there’s been a matter on my mind. I’ve wanted to confirm with my own two eyes before telling you what it is, which is why I asked you all to come closer, so I can inspect you one by one.”

Xie Lian asked, “What matter?”

The buried face smiled uncannily. “Don’t freak out, okay… among you, there is one person that I’ve met before, about fifty years ago.”

Everyone felt their hair rise.

If someone amont their group had met this face fifty years ago, they had to be at least sixty or seventy by now. However, nobody here was older than forty at most. How could this be possible?

Unless… this person wasn’t human!

Xie Lian swept his eyes over every face, starting from Ah-Zhao, all the way to Tian Sheng. Bewildered, panicked, frightened, flabbergasted – they all had natural, expected reactions. If one had to point out who wasn’t reacting accordingly, it would be San Lang. However, for someone of San Lang’s particular character, no reaction was probably the normal reaction.

Xie Lian turned back to the face. “And who is this person?”

The face twitched a few times, a sinister smile on its face, but looked as though it were trying its best to put on a more reliable, solemn expression and hide its amusement. He whispered, “You… you come closer, and I’ll tell you.”

When he’d first heard the face tell them to come closer, Xie Lian had mostly believed him. Now, his trust dropped several notches.

How was one to know if this wasn’t trap, to lure a bait closer before suddenly rising to attack?

Xie Lian was certainly not going to listen to him, and moved away. The buried face spoke impatiently, “You really don’t want to know who it is? He’s going to kill you all, just like he killed all of us!”

 

1. Shushu – technically a term meaning “paternal uncle”. However, shushu can be used on any men who are much older than you. It is a polite term that means “mister” when used on unrelated men.
2. Bobo is another term for “uncle”, but a more familiar term than shushu

 

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