It was the voice of Li Shu. Zhang Qiubreathed a sigh of relief and thought of getting up but he was pressed back byLi Shu. The warmth and dryness of his body as well as the pain of his bellypulled back his memory and he quickly said: “Lao Er—”
“It’s coming out.” Li Shu soundedcalm. “You should lie down.”
Zhang Qiu didn’t dare to move any more. Hewas lying down and his thoughts were chaotic. When he gave birth to Xiao Jiang,he was asleep as Xiao Jiang came out. Right now, he was going to give birth toLao Er, so which part was going to be?
Feeling the belly getiing cold air, ZhangQiu felt Li Shu’s hand opened his clothes. His palm hot on his belly as itslowly went down. It was itchy yet warm, and the belly pain also alleviated alot. He was feeling comfortable. Suddenly, feeling a needle like pain, ZhangQiu did not hold to moan. He raised his head up and saw Li Shu’s hand drawingout crimson fog from his belly.
Along the extraction, the pain became moreand more intense, it was like someone cutting open their belly with a knife andpulling the contents out of it. Zhang Qiu gritted his teeth, endured with alayer of cold sweat on his forehead, and when he could not hold it, the pain inhis stomach all disappeared, only the smouldering itch lingered.
“Okay.”Li Shu held Zhang Qiu in one hand and put a cloud of crimson in his hand infront of Zhang Qiu. He kissed on Zhang Qiu’s forehead and said, “LaoEr.”
“A cloud offog?” Zhang Qiu was not surprised as he remembered the way Xiao Jiang wasborn, but it was really painful when he gave birth to Lao Er. He poked thecrimson fog, and as if it felt him, the fog wrapped around his finger, soft asmarshmallow.
Zhang Qiu hadall forgotten his bitter suffering and promptly said happily: “It’s sosoft. I don’t know when it’s going to grown into a small hand like its Gege did.”
As he wasspeaking, the apple-sized fog in the palm of his hand slowly dispersed to bothsides. Shocked, Zhang Qiu opened his eyes wide. Within the fog lay a mini smallperson, whose body was white glowing skin and head of long black hair whichcovered half the body that lay on its side. On the face were big eyes withcrimson pupils and long thick lashes, small exquisite nose and captivating redlips. The apricot-like eyes slightly raised and there was also a cinnabar moleunder the corner of the eye. Perhaps, it was sleepy, the eyes slightly closed.The tender and frail body attracted people to pamper it.
Zhang Qiu was soexcited. He had never seen such a beautiful child, like a little angel. Hepulled Li Shu’s hand and whispered, “Our daughter is so pretty.”
“Boy.”Li Shu said lightly.
Sky thunderingshock!
Zhang Qiu felt unbelievable that such abeautiful face turned out to be a boy. Was Li Shu playing him?!
Looking down, there really was a mini littleTintin. Zhang Qiu did not believe that, he still wanted to check it carefully.The little person in his palm shook his body shyly, and the crimson fogenveloped him again.
Zhang Qiu was shocked. What was this skillof Lao Er? He couldn’t help but look at Li Shu. “I thought Lao Er was likeXiao Jiang. When the fog opened up, he came out.”
“He is weak and needs this fog to protecthim.” Li Shu stared at Zhang Qiu, but Zhang Qiu was still immersed inhappiness that his family’s Lao Er was so beautiful, as expected of a childborn from him with his good genetic. In the end, the line of sight above himwas getting stronger and stronger, seeming as if to melt him. Zhang Qiu lookedup and bumped into Li Shu’s deep and gentle eyes. He was a little embarrassed.“What?”
Li Shu bowed his head and kissed Zhang Qiu’slips. “Song Bao, I won’t forget you anymore, I promise.”
“What forget——” Zhang Qiu was in adaze by Li Shu’s charm that his words were spoke all over his mouth. Suddenly,he realized and held Li Shu’s hand tightly. “Do you remember?”
“Yes.” Li Shu did not say thatwhen Zhang Qiu fell down the waterfall in that split second, all the memoriescame to his mind.
Zhang Qiu felt so happy that this trip wasnot a waste. His family’s Xiao Shushu had finally recovered his memory!
Zhang Qiu stared at him, feeling pain on hisface. “Why pinch me? I haven’t pinched you yet!”
“Lao Da Xiao Jiang was born by me andbed position could be change? Hmm?” Li Shu pinched Zhang Qiu’s soft faceand asked with a smile.
Zhang Qiu’s face was stiff. He had forgottenabout his previous boasting!
“Well, I was going to stimulate you tosee if you can remember.” Zhang Qiu talked nonsense without thinking.Being stared at by Li Shu as if he was going carry out the law on the spot, hequickly changed the topic and said, “What about the others?”
Only now that he found himself in a cavewith Li Shu’s jacket under him. He reached out and touched it. Under the jacketwas burnt-out ash. No wonder it was warm and not cold at all.
“Lost.”
Zhang Qiu remembered Xiao Jiang, who hadbeen thrown off on the mountain. He had woken up long enough but had not seenXiao Jiang, so he quickly asked, “Where is Xiao Jiang?”
Li Shu’s expression was looking somewhatbad. When he saw Zhang Qiu fall down, he didn’t think through and went tofollow down to find him. He didn’t care about his son at all.
Zhang Qiu saw Li Shu’s expression and knew thatXiao Jiang was lost. He said quickly, “Let’s look for the people first.Our son is so strong, he shouldn’t have any mishap.” He gave himselfreassurance but yet he could not rest. He put the crimson cloud child into thepocket of his jacket very cautiously before he quickly put it on him.
They were behind a windward slope, not farfrom the waterfall, but when Zhang Qiu looked up, he did not know that he hadfallen from such high. Fortunately, he had not fallen to death.
“Right, what about Yue QinCang?”
“What Yue QinCang?”
Zhang Qiu paused and looked at Li Shu.“You didn’t see Yue QinCang, Yue Donghui’s son, coming along with him.Yesterday, Yue QinCang lived in the village.”
“I only saw you when I arrived, no oneelse.” Li Shu frowned. “But the fire is new, so he should have been gone.”
Zhang Qiu thought about it for a while, buthe didn’t know what Yue QinCang was going to do. In any case, now it’s veryimportant to find Xiao Jiang. When he was worried about how to climb up, Li Shutook his waist and his whole body soared up. The sense of weightlessness madehim hold Li Shu’s waist tightly. He then remembered Lao Er in his pocket, andfreed a hand to cover it.
When he got used to it, Zhang Qiu found outthat Li Shu was not flying, but that his jumping ability was so good that hecould easily put his hand on the stone wall while the other hand held him. Theyreached the waterfall in a few moments.
“Xiao Jiang!” Zhang Qiu shouted,and suddenly heard a faint roar in the sky, “It’s Qi Xi.”
Before long, Qi Xi’s true form landed on theground with the huge golden wings flapping. The sight in front of Zhang Qiu wasblurry. Then a black shadow pounced on him. Before he could see it clearly,there was a small cannon ball put in his arms. The small cannon ball hungaround his neck with its soft, fat arms, big tearful eyes, and small reddenednose, while looking at him with grievance. The pitiful looking made Zhang Qiu’sheart ached.
Zhang Qiu held Xiao Jiang’s butt in one hand.The little guy had grown up again, he was so heavy.
“Daddy.” Xiao Jiang sniffed andlay obediently in Zhang Qiu’s arms, holding him tightly.
Zhang Qiu stroked his son’s back. He knewthat Xiao Jiang was frightened and felt insecure at this moment. He hurriedlycoaxed in low voice, “Daddy is here. Daddy is not good, making Xiao Jiangworried.”
“When I picked him up, the little guyalmost cried himself to suffocation.” Qi Xi calmly pulled out his clothesfrom his bag and put them on. No other way, he could not transform in a stateof light. He had to take off his clothes before each change.
Xiao Jiang cried too much before. Now thathe saw Daddy and was coaxed, he lay obediently on Zhang Qiu’s shoulder and fellasleep with tears on his face.
Li Shu was afraid that Zhang Qiu would betired and he wanted to take over. Xiao Jiang clutched Zhang Qiu’s clothestightly when he was asleep and when there was movement, he woke up with astart. Seeing this, Zhang Qiu could not bear and whispered, “I’ll justhold him. You put Lao Er properly.”
“Lao Er? You two shouldn’t have thrownaway your child to go wild, right?!” Qi Xi had put on his clothes and saidwith a smile.
When Li Shu heard it, he felt like beatingsomeone. When Zhang Qiu heard it, he felt angry. “It’s my family’s Lao Er;just born and warm soft Lao Er. What exactly is the structure of your brain?!”But when he thought about it, Lao Er had not named yet. He would think aboutwhat to call him when he returned home.
“What about Erge, Pei Qing and theothers?”
“Let me see your Lao Er first. It’s apity that I didn’t see Xiao Qiuqiu delivering a baby. It’s also the first timeI met a man delivering a baby——” Qi Xi saw Li Shu with a face comparableto that of Judge Bao[1] and quickly restored to deadpan and said.“I didn’t see Zhang Yushui ant the others, but did saw gutsy Gao ZhiHaodangled on the rope beside the mouth of the waterfall. Hahahaha, you don’t seehe was like sausage swaying in the wind gap.”
[1 = fictional nickname of Bao Zheng(999-1062), Northern Song officialrenowned for his honesty]
Zhang Qiu looked at Qi Xi and suddenlylaughed. Qi Xi felt that laugh was weird and said, “Don’t laugh. You lookas scary as Li Shu’s black face.”
“I heard that Divine Beasts inheriting DivineVein, all could bear children, regardless of gender.” Zhang Qiu hatefullyreturned with a grin. “If you like to see man delivering children, you’dbetter have one yourself.”
Qi Xi clicked his tongue and wanted to clapZhang Qiu on the shoulder but seeing Li Shu withdrawn his hand, he said,“Regardless, it won’t be me that give birth. Xiao Qiuqiu, stopdreaming.”
“That’s not true.” Zhang Qiurecalled that appearance of Qi Xi, who changed into a cub and shamelesslyrolling on someone’s knees, and here Qi Xi was thinking to be a Top?!
As the three men spoke, the found twobackpacks scattered in the forest. Li Shu and Qi Xi took them and then they walkedtowards the mouth of the waterfall. From a distance, They heard Gao ZhiHao’sscream like a pig on the slaughter. The three hurried over and right at thetime they saw the rope tied to Gao ZhiHao broken and he fell straight down.
“Really seek death.” Qi Xi saidso, but he still ran to save people. However, somebody moved faster than him.An azure dragon tail flew out of the water and rolled around the person beforethrown him aside.
Qi Xi had rushed past in his true form. Atfirst, the dragon’s tail wanted to throw the person aside, but because of Qi Xi,it made a hard bend and threw Gao ZhiHao into the waterfall.
Zhang Qiu:…
Pei Qing looked out of the water. “It’sall right. I’ll go see him.” He plunged into the water again and soon cameup and said, “He’s gone.”
“He was washed away?” Zhang Qiuthought to himself; Gao ZhiHao was really gutsy to die for the legendarySilkworm Road.
Pei Qing shook his head. “I wasobstructed, couldn’t rush down.”
“There is a secret point in thewaterfall.” Li Shu opened up. Pei Qing understood, said as he nodded,“I’m going to look.”
A moment later Pei Qing came up, “Thereis a small hole behind the waterfall, which a size of one person can passthrough, but no shadow of Gao ZhiHao was seen.”
It’s really strange. Zhang Qiu looked at LiShu and Li Shu decided to go there first. They did not go looking for ZhangYuShui and Pixian Hui Wang. Anyway, they both of them were a Phoenix and aZongzi that had been cultivating for thousands of years. Nothing would happento them. Zhang Qiu left signs and information at the obvious places. Pei Qing transformed.With a swat of the dragon’s tail, the whole waterfall was separated. Indeed,there was a hole as high as half a person.
Li Shu held Zhang Qiu in his arms. Qi Xi’strue form was too big to fly in, he could not pass through. He carried his packon his back and entered the waterfall swiftly, behind Pei Qing.
The entrance of the cave was damp and cold,but the nearer they were, the drier it was. There was even a faint heat. Ling Dangcame out of the spirit bead. Then he rummaged through his backpack, found atowel and handed it to Pei Qing. He also handed clothes, very much like a youngwife. At the back, Pei Qing groped and teased little Ling Dang until he blushed.
Zhang Qiu’s ears were full of Pei Qing’s obscenewhispers to Ling Dang, and he felt so uncomfortable.
Li Shu looked sideways at Zhang Qiu.“You want it too?”
“What the hell?”
Li Shu quickly kissed Zhang Qiu’s ear rootand said with a smile, “The red here is lovely.”
Fcuk, his family’s Xiao Shushu was going totease him to death.
Zhang Qiu was Xiao Jiang in his arms as he whisperedexpectantly, “When we return home.”
Li Shu’s curved lips rose a few points. Qi Xi,who was walking in front of them, rolled his eyes and said, “Big brothers,I don’t want to eat dog food. Can you spare me a life?”
“You can find one if you have theability! Single dogs have no human rights.” Zhang Qiu said with a broad grin.
At the back, Ling Dang was the first to beembarrassed. He whispered 'understood'as he blushed, and persuaded Pei Qing towait until they were home. Pei Qing took the opportunity to make many shy-worthyrequests. Little Ling Dang nodded shyly as he agreed. Pei Qing was very satisfied.
Qi Xi was fed a whole mouthful of dog foodand had nothing to say.
Zhang Qiu felt that little Ling Dang was asoftie, totally making people want to bully him.
The entrance of the cave was not long. Afterwalking for about ten minutes, they suddenly come to a wide clearing. In thelate autumn in the mountain, the grass and trees withered and dried up toyellow, even if the breed was originally dark green lustre. However, thescenery ahead made them unable to hide their exclamation of amazement.
Fresh, tender greenery and flowers all overthe mountain.
A mountain within mountains.
Zhang Qiu didn’t know it came to be, but thefact was true. There was only a narrow bridge 100 meters away between the twomountains. But the strange thing was that the bridge was not connected by anychains. It was floating in the air. The black stone slabs abriged led to themountain with flowers all over the field. The sound of the rippling riverflowing went through their ears. Looking from the side, a clear brook slowlyflowed down from mountain wall, leading to the foot of the mountain somewhere,and disappeared after its convergence.
“Is this the Silkworm Road?” Qi Xipointed to the bridge ahead.
“Maybe so.” Zhang Qiu also thoughtalike. This place was too mysterious. It’s more mythical and magical than thetombs built by men. This place was like being cut off from the rest of theworld. It’s really two worlds out there.
Qi Xi raised his eyebrows and took the leadin stepping on the black slabs floating in the air. Zhang Qiu was really scaredand sweating all over. It was unknown how long this thing had been and if itwas a decoration that couldn’t bear people. He hadn’t spoken yet but Qi Xi hadstood on it, waved back at them, and said with a grin, “What are youdoing, looking stunt? We want to live forever!”
Zhang Qiu showed an old father’s smile. Hereally felt that he had adopted Qi Xi as his son. Sometimes Qi Xi was more worrisomethan Xiao Jiang.
Anyway, Qi Xi only did as he pleased becausehe had wings to rely on. When Li Shu wanted to take over Xiao Jiang in ZhangQiu’s arms, Xiao Jiang rubbed his eyes, about to wake up. Then he looked aroundin a hurry and once he saw Zhang Qiu’s face, he was a little relieved. Thistime, it really had frightened Xiao Jiang.
Zhang Qiu stroked his son’s head.“Daddy is here.”
Xiao Jiang lay on Zhang Qiu’s shoulder andwith some shyness smacked his lips onto Zhang Qiu’s face. At the side, Li Shu’sface was black. He held Xiao Jiang into his bosom with one hand. Xiao Jiangkicked back and forth on his two short legs, making a noise about coming downand walking by himself. He disliked losing face this way.
Zhang Qiu was not reassured while Li Shu wasvery reassured. He let Xiao Jiang and Zhang Qiu walk in front of him, while hiseyesight was fixed only onto the father and son.
Although the slabs were floating, they werevery stable. Zhang Qiu stood on it and couldn’t help looking down. His legs weretrembling. It’s too high. There were no handrails on either side. The slabsbecame narrower, barely enough for two feet. A block connected to anotherblock. Qi Xi had gone far. Xiao Jiang was skipping behind him, as if it wasfun. Zhang Qiu’s face was white with fear. He gritted his teeth, dared not lookdown. He was angry with himself. He thought to himself that it was granted tobe outdone by his son, but to be outdone by that branless Qi Xi meant losingface.
It was undoubtedly a 100 meter distance butZhang Qiu felt that he had been walking for a long time. Because the slabs weresmall and connected block by block, it was like there was no end, and whenlooking at the people behind, it was all blurry. The smell of flowers was gettingstronger and stronger. They were almost there, but how did he know the smell sowell?
Before he could think about it, Xiao Jiangstepped on empty air and Zhang Qiu shouted in horror, “XIAO JIANG!”He himself suddenly lost his weight and fell down at great speed. Next second,Li Shu held him tightly. There was a roar in the air and the wind whispering inears before they fell straight on the golden wings.
“Xiao Qiuqiu, you and your man arereally heavy. Lose weight quickly!” Qi Xi roasted.
“Xiao Jiang?” Zhang Qiu lookeddown from the wings and heard Xiao Jiang’s voice calling Daddy from the top ofthe slab. Zhang Qiu was stunned. He just saw Xiao Jiang fall down.
Li Shu touched Zhang Qiu’s face and said,“The smell of flowers has a hallucinating effect.”
“I’ll tell you how you fell sofoolishly.” Qi Xi took a sniff and said, “Anyway, this smell like I’dsmelled it somewhere.”
“Su WanTing.”
After Li Shu said that, Zhang Qiu alsoremembered that it smelled like this when they were in Changsha water, but SuWanling’s smell was too sweet and flirty. It was lighter here, but also verysimilar.
“Even the smell of others, youremembered.” Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu.
Li Shu laughed. “I remember more deeplythe smell of you, from head to toe.”
Shameless Xiao Shushu. Zhang Qiu snorted.
Qi Xi, who was carrying them, could not bearit. With a roar that could break the eardrum of people, he rushed quickly tothe level slope of the flowery mountain. Xiao Jiang was already there. Once hesaw Zhang Qiu, he rushed over to hold Zhang Qiu’s thigh in his arms and neverlet go with his dead grip.
Zhang Qiu picked up his son and Li Shu’slips suddenly came up to kiss him. At first he wanted to be aloof and push LiShu away because they were in public view. As a result, the kiss deepenednaturally.
“My eyes are going blind.” Qi Xicovered his eyes as he said.
Li Shu let go of Zhang Qiu and stroked ZhangQiu’s reddened lips. He said solemnly, “Now, you won’t be affected by thesmell of flowers.”
In fact, Zhang Qiu shouldn’t be affected tomuch as he had the Divine Soul within his body. At that time, he felt dizzy afterlooking at the slabs for a long time and adding to have smell the fragrance of theflowers, he was somewhat affected, which had influenced him so quickly that hefall. That Li Shu’s kiss could be said to be carrying personal goods(intention). However, right now Zhang Qiu was in a pile of flowers and his mindwas clear-headed and unaffected. He really thought Li Shu’s saliva worked.
The last Pei Qing and Ling Dang also cameover.
“How do we get there now?” ZhangQiu very seriously asked with a teasing eye to Qi Xi and Pei Qing.
Above was a stream outlet, below which astream of water disappeared somewhere. In addition, there was a stone slableading halfway to the mountainside. Thre were three paths; up, middle and down.
“Do you remember eating the fish that givehallucination?” Li Shu pointed to the top, “What should there be? Itshould be irrigated by streams and converged into rivers outside. The fish havebeen nourished in the water for a long time, and people will havehallucinations when they eat it.”
Li Shu’s eyes swept a glance at the beautifulflowers on the mountain, where the streams flowed to the most brightly-coloredarea.
“Up.”
Qi Xi also was too lazy to wear clothes andundress again. Just now, the situation needed him to transform hurriedly and sohis clothes had already become rags and drifted down with the wind. Now, he carriedseveral people directly to the top of the mountain and flying around the peak untilthey found a stream outlet.
“Wait a minute. It’s Gao ZhiHao.”
Zhang Qiu pointed to a place and Qi Xi wentover. Gao ZhiHao was kneeling on the ground with a dagger in his chest, bloodall over his body, and a happy and exciting smile on his face. Zhang Qiurecognized at first sight that the dagger in Gao ZhiHao’s chest was the one hehad thrown away.
Zhang Qiu thought that it was unlikely. Thenhe heard Qi Xi shouted, “You guys come here, there’s a stone door here.”
Looking past, both sides of the stone doorwere open, and the patterns carved on them were all eroded and mottled. Li Shuhugged Zhang Qiu’s waist and threw his windbreaker to Qi Xi. Qi Xi took thewindbreaker and said, “This brother’s figure is so good. A lot of peoplewant to look at this but could not. Your family’s Xiao Shushu has the rarechance of seeing this beautiful body.”
“Thank you very much. I’m afraid to geta sty.” Zhang Qiu answered back.
Li Shu held Zhang Qiu’s hand. “Go inand have a look.”
Inside the stone door was a wide tunnel. Afterseveral meters of walking, there was another stone door. The door was carvedwith patterns. It was of a vigorous and heroic man’s face with handsomefeatures, slender stature with a lump bulging behind his back, as if he wascarrying a shell on his back. It was really funny for such a vigorous andheroic face to look like that.
“It’s Bie Ling.”
Li Shu reached out and pushed open the stonedoor. There was sound of 'dingding-dongdong'inside, like what the river washitting on something. The stone door opened slowly and Zhang Qiu looked onwarily. He saw a figure on the black sarcophagus floating in the air. Probablyhaving heard them moving, the figure turned to look.
Yue QinCang.
Yue QinCang, with blood flowing from his mouth, was smiling.