TSMITB Chapter27

The next morning, without Sheng Qixiao’s wake-up service, Shen Que slept almost until noon.

“He said something suddenly came up in the village, and he asked me to tell you.” Gang Zi leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest, looking completely unrested.

Shen Que’s voice was hoarse from just waking up. “Why did he tell you and not me?”

“At 4:30 AM Beijing time, he woke me up to light the fire and cook all your meals for the whole day.” Gang Zi rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Does that mean this food isn’t for you? Then don’t eat it.”

“Oh, I’ll still eat it.” Gang Zi immediately put on a playful, grinning expression, “I can’t let my effort be for nothing.”

The heavy fog stirred the daylight and twilight into a mess, making it impossible to distinguish between day and night.

Shen Que had felt inexplicably uneasy from the moment he woke up, and now, upon learning that Sheng Qixiao had gone out into the toxic fog, a heavy stone weighed down his heart.

His mind was restless while playing mahjong, he played the cards in a scattered, unstructured mess.

“That’s it, let’s call it quits, let’s not play. A forced melon isn’t sweet, and some people’s minds clearly aren’t on mahjong.” Gang Zi shook his head and swayed, speaking sarcastically.

Ah Chao scooted over, looking curious: “By the way, Young Master Shen, I’ve always wanted to ask, did you and that little poison mushroom really… get together?”

Shen Que turned his face to the side, pretending not to hear.

“Could I possibly lie to you? I saw it with my own eyes… Oh, actually, I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but the summary is…” Gang Zi lowered his voice while quietly pointed at Shen Que, then pointed at Sheng Qixiao’s door before loosely clenched one hand into a fist, and held up a ‘one’ with the other hand, then joined the two hands together, winking and grimacing. “Understand?”

“……” This was a typical example of deliberately touching on what others would rather avoid, utterly contemptible in its pettiness.

Yet, Shen Que couldn’t refute it. He always valued his reputation more than anything else. If these few people found out that he was the bottom one, he didn’t know how long they would tease him.

Although he was somewhat driven by lust and had intended to hook up with the other party, he had at least been restraining himself from making a move. Still, he ended up getting tripped up in a dark ditch…

The toxic fog seemed to have gained substance. Shen Que pushed the door open and felt like he was entering a world composed of extremely fine white powdery particles. As soon as a person stepped in, they vanished instantly.

“What are you doing? Sheng Qixiao specifically warned us not to open the door and go down.” Gang Zi was quick, he grabbed the back of Shen Que’s collar and yanked him back, the force so strong it almost choked him.

“Are you trying to manage me now?”

Old Qiu quickly stepped forward to smooth things over: “Ai, Young Master Shen, Gang Zi is right about this. This stuff is unlike ordinary fog.”

“Fine, I know; I was just looking.” Shen Que listlessly slumped back into the rattan chair.

Under Shen Que’s fixed gaze, the watch hands turned in endless circles until the hour hand finally reached two in the morning.

Sheng Qixiao still hadn’t returned.

The heavy and regular snoring of Old Qiu and the others filtered through the crack in the door, making the room exceptionally quiet.

Shen Que hadn’t lit a lamp, leaning back with the rear of his head resting against the chair. He was perplexed, unable to understand why Sheng Qixiao’s failure to return so late at night had stirred such worry in him.

This place was Sheng Qixiao’s native lair. Hadn’t he experienced this kind of ghastly weather since he was little? When it came to self-preservation, was it even his turn to worry?

But immediately after, the image of Sheng Qixiao being surrounded by a group of white-robed old men in the small ancestral hall, having his flesh cut and blood drained, floated into his mind again.

Compared to this toxic fog, perhaps those old guys wearing the skin of their own tribe were more dangerous.

The small building’s door was pulled open again. Shen Que stepped into the fog with one foot, and a surge of cold dampness crept up his trousers, like countless tiny insects nibbling at his skin. Though he knew the fog held nothing, his stomach still twisted violently.

Shen Que stood in place and gave himself a thorough psychological pep talk before fully immersing himself in the heavy fog. Without realizing it, he cast a glance back at the small building. The deep, secluded corridor lay in an unusually heavy darkness, and cut off by the night, the building already felt entirely severed from him.

In the murky haze, a dim yellow glow gradually flickered to life, and a tall, slender figure slowly made its way toward Shen Que.

Shen Que’s eyes brightened as he took a few quick steps forward, but the light went out without warning. Everything within sight was empty.

Fear gradually seeped through him. Shen Que turned back, only to find he could no longer locate the path he’d taken; though it had seemed just a few steps in his memory, he now couldn’t return to that spot no matter how he tried.

He pressed on a little farther with forced patience. Wet, drooping branches lashed against Shen Que’s face, scattering cold droplets across his skin. Only then did he realize that, without noticing, he seemed to have wandered into the forest, drifting farther and farther away from the small building.

The temperature in the mountains was naturally low, and Shen Que had rushed out wearing only a thin shirt, which was now soaked and clinging semi-transparently to his body.

“Sheng Qixiao!” Shen Que called Sheng Qixiao’s name into the void but was destined to get no response.

The prolonged silence amplified the spread of fear. Shen Que swallowed, his throat dry and tight as he gulped down saliva. He spun around in confusion where he stood, the gravel underfoot crunching. The surroundings had already sunk into a thick, indistinguishable gray-black. It was impossible to tell which direction was right, yet he did not dare remain still. He could only force himself onward, his heart pounding so loudly it seemed especially clear in that moment.

Suddenly, the dense fog was broken by a gap of light that abruptly appeared ahead. The candlelight wavered unsteadily. Having learned from the earlier lesson, Shen Que would pause after taking a few steps to check, only daring to move again once he was certain the light had not vanished into thin air.

Shen Que stumbled forward unsteadily, following a path that led who knew where. The faint pool of candlelight kept hovering just ahead, never too far away, yet he could never quite reach it.

Just then, the sound of wind suddenly rushed past his ears, and a dark shadow rapidly brushed past his shoulder before sprinting towards the back. Shen Que involuntarily gasped, and a lingering scent in the wind unexpectedly hit his nostrils—it was the smell on Sheng Qixiao.

“Sheng Qixiao!” Shen Que quickly turned around and shouted instinctively.

But the outline of the shadow was clearly wrong. It was thin like a bamboo pole bent by the wind, at least a thousand miles away from Sheng Qixiao’s tall and straight figure.

With no time to think, Shen Que chased in the direction the shadow had vanished. The path under his feet became increasingly difficult. The gravel stones pricked the soles of his feet painfully, and he nearly fell several times.

The scent grew stronger and increasingly less like Sheng Qixiao.

Sheng Qixiao’s scent always contained a hint of coldness, but this particular aroma, right now, was sickeningly sweet, like overcooked honey, so thick it could stick to a person’s breath.

Shen Que’s brain, which had been dull from being steeped in the heavy fog, finally turned a corner. Alarm bells exploded in his mind. Shen Que suddenly stopped, intending to retreat in the opposite direction, but in his panic, he stepped on a protrusion. His ankle twisted, and he instantly lost his balance.

“F*ck—!”

The feeling of weightlessness was like an invisible hand, gripping his waist and dragging him into the abyss. The already blurry light and shadow before Shen Que’s eyes instantly flipped, leaving only rapidly rushing darkness. In his ears was his own startled cry, shattered by the air.

The fall lasted for an unknown amount of time until a muffled sound of “thud” entered his ears. Shen Que was then violently caught by an uneven patch of ground, and cold sweat immediately broke out.

Shen Que lay diagonally on the ground, not daring to move. His features were screwed up, and the moan that rolled out of his throat was fiercely bitten back between his teeth, turning into suppressed grunts. He gripped his trousers tightly, his knuckles white from the exertion. Intense pain was like a large net, tightening suddenly from all his limbs and bones, instantly wrapping him up completely, the pain seeping even through the marrow of his bones.

The small lamp he had grabbed casually when he left was thrown somewhere. The scent of blood seeped through the increasingly thick, damp darkness, spreading without limit as it blended with the heavy humidity in the air, slowly forcing its way into Shen Que’s nostrils.

Shen Que slowly moved his fingers. His palm ground against the broken stones beneath him. The rough impact briefly jolted his senses into clarity. The sharp pain radiating from his leg made him instantly suck in a breath, nearly forcing the last of the air from his lungs.

This leg had truly suffered a great deal alongside him, Shen Que forced out a smile that looked even uglier than crying itself, attempting to console himself..

It felt like an eternity had passed before Shen Que managed to prop up his upper body and weakly asked the surrounding, dark void, “Is anyone there? Sheng Qixiao…”

The sound struck the rock wall and didn’t even produce a proper echo, only scattering into a few faint wisps of air before dissolving into the bottomless darkness around him.

Shen Que tried to raise his arm, only to be met with another burst of sharp pain. “Damn it.” Cold sweat slid down his temples into his collar, sticking to his skin with a chilling dampness.

Time silently slipped away. Shen Que could no longer tell how long he had been falling.

At first, he could faintly hear the rustling of wind passing through the tree branches and leaves overhead, but later, even the sound of the wind was gone, leaving only his own heavy breathing and heartbeat.

Then, from somewhere in the darkness came the “drip-drop” of water striking stone; steady and rhythmic, like a ticking countdown clock.

For the first time, Shen Que truly realized that prolonged pain eventually numbs a person. Blood seeped through his trousers, already pooling beneath him in a thick, warm, viscous patch.

Shen Que looked down, feeling his body temperature gradually dropping with the loss of blood. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

It was only then that he belatedly began to regret. What did Sheng Qixiao’s safety have to do with him? Even if something really happened to him, it wouldn’t affect Shen Que in the slightest.

Why had he impulsively come out to look for him and put himself in danger?

“You damn Sheng Qixiao, you’ve killed me.”

Shen Que cursed intermittently, sometimes thinking that he hadn’t written a will and other times feeling that dying in this state was too ugly and might affect his appearance in the next life.

……

The cold air at the bottom of the cave slowly drilled into his flesh and blood, almost freezing the last bit of Shen Que’s conscious will.

Perhaps sensing his dire situation, the “atonement gift” Sheng Qixiao had hung around his neck; that kitten pendant that didn’t look like a kitten at all, began to glow faintly with a blue light. Before Shen Que even noticed, it silently split into two halves. From the broken shell, a luminous butterfly emerged, its translucent wings fluttering as it plunged into the boundless darkness.

Shen Que tilted his head, his eyes wide yet empty. Suddenly, he thought that falling asleep might not be so bad after all; at least he wouldn’t have to endure the pain and cold anymore, nor listen to that damned dripping of water.

Just as his consciousness was about to be completely swallowed, a voice penetrated the darkness without warning.

It was very faint, sounding as if it came from a great distance with a slight, indistinct echo, yet it clearly reached Shen Que’s ears.

The voice was calling: “Shen Que!”