Chapter 18 – Fingers Interlocked
Someone had caught him.
With their fingers interlocked.
Finger bones branding finger bones, palm lines meeting palm lines, fingertips searing the back of his hand, the palm boiling his still blood… In a daze, Chou Bodeng felt himself being held tightly, enveloped with force. The clear scent of medicine was overwhelming, like a net that would catch him no matter how high he fell from.
…Who was it?
He wanted to see the person’s face, to see what the person who embraced him with all their might looked like, but his vision was pitch black, his eyelids as heavy as a thousand pounds.
In the darkness, everything was blurred, leaving only the hand interlocked with his, as still as a mountain, wearing something equally cold.
That’s right.
He remembered it was a…
“Kui…”
“P-p-p-puppet? Where’s the puppet?”
Zuo Yuesheng, who had been dozing off with his head bobbing at the table, leaped up in a panic.
“What! Are there still more of those damn things?”
“The Kui Dragon Bracelet.”
“Oh, oh, not a puppet…” Zuo Yuesheng was still shaken. Ever since the entire city had been controlled by puppetry, he had become a bit paranoid, unable to bear hearing the word “puppet.” “Scared the hell out of me!” he said, and was about to pour some wine to calm his nerves when his outstretched hand realized something was wrong. He whipped his head around to look at the bed. “You, surnamed Chou, you’re awake? You’re not dead!”
“Are you very disappointed that I’m not dead?”
Chou Bodeng propped himself up unsteadily, covering his nose with a frown.
“Are you trying to murder me for my money? Throw all these wine jars out!”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Zuo Yuesheng’s eyes widened in disbelief, his expression one of deep hurt. “Young Master Chou, is this how you treat the person who painstakingly kept watch over you all night?”
“This young master isn’t dead yet, what the hell were you keeping watch for!”
Chou Bodeng’s temples throbbed.
The room he woke up in was vaguely familiar; it was the purification room in the Liu residence.
But at this moment, the room reeked of alcohol, with wine jars strewn about here and there. On the table, empty fruit and snack plates were piled precariously high. Lu Jing, now in a moon-white robe, was leaning against the leg of the table, fast asleep, still clutching a wine cup… If he weren’t so weak from just waking up, Chou Bodeng would have definitely shown these two idiots what the Four Voids truly meant.
The Four Voids, the Void of Death!
“What! Who’s dead?”
Lu Jing shot up like a reanimated corpse, forgetting where he was. With a thud, he slammed his head hard against the table.
“Ouch! Who hit this young master with a club!”
“…”
Chou Bodeng leaned back against the headboard and began to ponder what was the point of a world so full of idiots.
“It’s not that someone died! It’s that our great Young Master Chou, the scourge, will live for a thousand years!” Zuo Yuesheng replied.
“He’s not dead? Then did we buy the coffin for nothing?” Lu Jing stood up, clutching his head and swaying. As he became more lucid, he saw Chou Bodeng glaring at him coldly. He looked around at the mess on the floor and immediately feigned an “ouch.” “Fatty! You clean up first, I’ll go get something!”
“Hey!”
For once, Zuo Yuesheng was half a beat slower in fleeing the scene. He turned to see Chou Bodeng’s unfriendly gaze and resignedly began to clean up, opening the window and tossing out the wine jars one by one with a clatter.
Chou Bodeng tried hard to suppress his killing intent.
After calming down, Chou Bodeng touched his left wrist. It felt empty and a little strange. Before he lost consciousness, he seemed to have been in excruciating pain from the karmic backlash and was about to end it all with his sword when he was stopped. Someone had grabbed his wrist, and then… he had sunk into a deep sleep.
And the pain was gone.
He hadn’t seen who it was.
“How did I get here?” Chou Bodeng asked.
“How did you get here?” Hearing Chou Bodeng bring this up, Zuo Yuesheng’s guilt vanished. “That day, we were going to see if you had sacrificed yourself for the Dao. If you had, we could have given you a grand burial before you started to stink. But when we got to East Third Street, the old geezer was dead in two neat pieces, but you, you brat, were nowhere to be seen, not a body, not even a bone. Damn it, do you know how long the whole city spent rummaging through that pile of rubble?!”
“How long?”
“A day and a night!” Zuo Yuesheng angrily held out his broad, fleshy hand. “Look, look! The skin is all peeled off from digging.”
“Hmm,” Chou Bodeng let out a slow, single-syllable sound. “So where did you dig me out from? Did someone think I was already dead and buried me in a grave ahead of time?”
“I’d really have to burn incense and thank that hero,” Zuo Yuesheng said through gritted teeth. “We were just about to buy you a coffin and make a cenotaph. But since we couldn’t even find your clothes, we were discussing just using the quilt you’d used. But when we came back here, we found you sleeping more soundly than anyone!!!”
“Who brought me back?” Chou Bodeng pressed.
“You’re asking me? I want to ask you!” Zuo Yuesheng rolled his eyes, then jutted his chin. “We didn’t see anyone, but they did cover you with a cloak. You haven’t noticed it all this time?”
Chou Bodeng looked down and only then realized there was indeed a cloak on top of the quilt.
It was pure black, with faint dark patterns.
Zuo Yuesheng fanned the air, probably thinking it was ventilated enough. Seeing Chou Bodeng examining the cloak, he walked back over. “I thought you were joking before, but I didn’t expect it to be true.”
“What joke?”
Chou Bodeng, while thinking that the person who had grabbed his wrist had also worn black sleeves, pulled the cloak up. As expected, he smelled a faint, cold medicinal scent.
“That with a face like yours, there would be at least ten or eight powerful figures willing to protect you in secret,” Zuo Yuesheng looked at him suspiciously. “Chou Bodeng, Young Master Chou, we’re life-and-death friends now. It’s not right for you to keep playing dumb.”
Chou Bodeng’s hand slipped on the cloak, and he looked up in shock. “Wait a minute, who’s your life-and-death friend? When did this happen?”
In his past life, the Chou family was large and powerful. Even though Young Master Chou was known for his bad temper, there were still at least a thousand, if not eight hundred, people who tirelessly tried to get close to him and call him brother.
Young Master Chou’s criteria for choosing friends were not many, just two:
First, their looks couldn’t be low. They had to be at least one-tenth as good-looking as him, otherwise they would be an eyesore to the young master.
Second, they had to be well-versed in everything from astronomy to geography.
For the former, Chou Bodeng believed that if all the beauty in the world were a stone, he alone would possess ninety-nine percent of it, with the rest of the world sharing the remaining one percent—setting aside how much of this deduction was based on Young Master Chou’s personal arrogance for a moment. As for the latter, people who knew everything from astronomy to geography were not non-existent, but most were pillars of the state, the elite of their families, and not the same kind of dissolute profligate as Chou Bodeng.
With these two conditions combined, there was no one in the world worthy of being Chou Bodeng’s friend.
Who would have thought that after a single nap, someone had not only skipped “friend” but had been promoted to his “life-and-death friend”?!
The problem was… this self-proclaimed “life-and-death friend” didn’t even come close to meeting Chou Bodeng’s two golden rules of friendship.
“Of course it was…”
Zuo Yuesheng cleared his throat, about to launch into a grand speech, when he heard Lu Jing’s shrill voice echo across the entire courtyard.
“Here it is! Here it is!”
Lu Jing came in with a medicine pot, taking small, hurried steps.
Thump.
The medicine pot was placed solemnly on the table. Lu Jing gathered his qi and, with great ceremony, lifted the lid. “The secret recipe of Medicine Valley, bringing the dead to life and growing flesh on white bones, a secret formula to nourish the spirit and calm the soul. It took me a whole night, using all the best medicinal herbs in Fu City, to brew this medicine. Young Master Chou, please!”
Chou Bodeng was surprised to find that this bowl of medicine gave him a stronger sense of danger than facing the Myriad Phenomena Eight Cycles Subduing Clarity Formation.
Eleventh Master of Miraculous Healing indeed lived up to his name.
Zuo Yuesheng gave Lu Jing a look. Lu Jing immediately went to close the door, not only locking it from the inside but also moving a stool to block it, preventing anyone from bursting in from the outside. Zuo Yuesheng took out a jade bowl and poured a large bowl of the bubbling, strangely colored substance that could charitably be called “medicine.”
“A shallow, ridged glass bowl, emerald green,” Zuo Yuesheng even specifically explained. “The bowl you requested, am I right?”
“You’re so considerate,” Chou Bodeng praised.
“Then it’s settled,” Zuo Yuesheng considerately handed him the bowl. “Come on, it’s a token of Brother Lu’s kindness. Drink it while it’s hot.”
“…Zuo Yueban, Little Jingzi, if you want to slay demons and defend the Dao, you can just say so,” Chou Bodeng said slowly, staring at the not-quite-black, not-quite-red substance. “There’s no need for such a troublesome method.”
“What’s a Little Jingzi?” Lu Jing was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage. “What slaying demons and defending the Dao? This is a secret recipe from Medicine Valley, used to alleviate the…”
“Cough, cough, cough, cough!” Zuo Yuesheng coughed like he had tuberculosis.
Lu Jing stopped talking.
Zuo Yuesheng took out a jade tablet and infused it with spiritual energy. The faint, fragmented sounds from outside instantly disappeared. The entire room seemed to lose contact with the outside world.
Chou Bodeng glanced thoughtfully at the jade tablet and draped the black cloak over his shoulders.
“Alright,” Zuo Yuesheng said. “Now we can ask.”
“What’s the deal with all that karmic obstruction of yours?” Lu Jing interjected, adding for emphasis, “That medicine of mine is really a secret recipe from Medicine Valley, for alleviating the backlash from karmic obstruction!”
“Oh, that…” Chou Bodeng began slowly.
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing held their breath in unison.
“Why should I tell you?”
Chou Bodeng smiled brilliantly, but the smile vanished in an instant. His pure black eyes looked at them coldly.
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing hadn’t seen him fight the old City Diviner, nor had they seen him up close when he was covered in karmic obstruction. They had no concrete understanding of “that Chou fellow’s karmic obstruction” until this moment—Chou Bodeng’s face was mostly shrouded in shadow, his skin cold and white, his lips crimson, his eyes icy, as if he were a sword turning in the darkness, with blood crawling over its edge, giving off a dangerous and oppressive feeling.
“Who are you to me?” Chou Bodeng asked softly.
The expressions on Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing’s faces froze.
…It was as if they had been punched in the face out of nowhere.
“It’s over, this guy is going to kill us to silence us,” Zuo Yuesheng forced a smile and nudged Lu Jing. “This kid is truly heartless.”
“You, you, you… we were so afraid someone would find out, we personally guarded your door for days!” Eleventh Master Lu’s flimsy “martial world” suddenly shattered with a crash.
The expressions on these two were too ugly.
So ugly it was hard to look at.
“I don’t know,” Chou Bodeng decided to spare his own eyes and leaned back against the headboard. “It just appeared out of nowhere.”
“…If you don’t want to say it, then don’t.” Lu Jing stood up abruptly, about to leave. “This young master isn’t interested in knowing anyway.”
His kindness had been taken for granted. Smothering a fire of frustration from his martial world aspirations being dashed, he didn’t want to stay here for another second.
Zuo Yuesheng forcefully tugged at his sleeve.
“You damn fatty, you want to keep trying…” Lu Jing cursed angrily, but when he turned his head, he was suddenly stunned.
Chou Bodeng had his eyelashes lowered, quietly looking at his hands. He was still sitting in the shadows, but the feeling he gave off was completely different from before. His voice was calm, as if he were talking about someone else, anyone but himself: “Who knows? I was living a baffling life to begin with, so what’s a bit of karmic obstruction now? Maybe I really am some world-destroying evil spirit, destined to be slain and defended against sooner or later.”
Lu Jing thought, What nonsense is this guy talking about.
How could anyone live a baffling life?
Zuo Yuesheng tugged at his sleeve again, forcefully.
Lu Jing glanced sideways and saw Zuo Yuesheng dip his finger in wine and write a few sprawling characters on the table:
This guy! No dad, no mom!!!
Lu Jing was stunned for a moment.
He had always been the Eleventh Master Lu, focused on romance and pleasure. He knew exactly which wine pavilion’s zither music was the clearest and which flower house’s tunes were the most melodious. As for everything else… he only heard bits and pieces. Regarding Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor, the most he had heard was how much trouble he could cause. He had never imagined that this person was an orphan.
He, Zuo Yuesheng, and Chou Bodeng might all be the same kind of people in others’ eyes, but in the end, he and Fatty Zuo were watched over by their parents. Whether it was disappointment or forced feeding, there were always one or two people who wished for them to live long and peacefully. But Chou Bodeng was just Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor. The people of Taiyi had provided for him for so many years, but had anyone ever advised or stopped him when he did wrong?
He had never heard of it.
In this world, besides one’s parents, who would care how you lived? Whether it was good or bad, whether you went far or just had a moment of glory.
Lu Jing subconsciously touched the Yin-Yang Pendant at his waist. While saying, “You damn fatty, you stepped on my robe,” he slowly and uncomfortably sat back down.
“I think it’s entirely possible that it’s because you, you brat, are too much of a scoundrel,” Zuo Yuesheng analyzed with a straight face. “Didn’t I just beat you up and make you cry when we were kids? You turned around and instigated my dad to dock my monthly allowance. That’s too despicable and sinister! And that time, when the old man suddenly confiscated my flying boat, did you have something to do with it? And that time I was exiled to Mist City, and that time… Damn it, you, surnamed Chou, you haven’t done a single decent thing in all these years. If you’re not entangled in karmic obstruction, who would be? This is what you call the heavens having eyes.”
“Wait,” Lu Jing keenly caught the key point. “He cried?”
“Yeah, he cried so loudly,” Zuo Yuesheng replied quickly.
“Then what right did he have to tell me not to wail that day, and even say he’d whip me if I did?” Lu Jing asked in disbelief.
Chou Bodeng: …
He realized he might have made a mistake.
“I can be even more of a scoundrel now,” Chou Bodeng threatened, forcefully interrupting Zuo Yuesheng’s list. “What’s the situation outside? What about the ancient Fu tree?”
Just as Lu Jing was about to answer, Zuo Yuesheng pulled him back again.
“You should see for yourself,” Zuo Yuesheng said with a straight face. “You saved the tree, you should see it with your own eyes to be at ease, right?”
Lu Jing caught on and quickly agreed, “Right, right, you have to see it with your own eyes.”
Chou Bodeng narrowed his eyes and stared at the two of them for a while.
The two of them stood their ground.
After a moment, Chou Bodeng got up and walked to the door, kicked the stool away, and pulled the door open. The moment he appeared at the doorway, he felt as if a silver river were pouring down on him… The perfectly fine silver Fu tree in the courtyard suddenly shed countless leaves, burying him in a deluge.
“…What kind of hopelessly stupid tree is this?!”
Chou Bodeng vigorously brushed off the silver Fu leaves covering him, unable to believe he had jumped off a flying boat and unfastened his Kui Dragon Bracelet just to save this thing.
Behind him, earth-shattering laughter erupted. It seemed the two of them had already received such a warm thank you and had been holding back their mischief, waiting for him to get his turn.
Chou Bodeng took a deep breath and spun around.
***
East Courtyard of the Liu Residence.
Lou Jiang was writing furiously, reporting the events of Fu City to the Pavilion Master.
He had been swamped with work these past few days.
For one, Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor was unconscious, and Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing had volunteered to take care of Chou Bodeng. To be honest, having those two in charge of his care was what truly made Lou Jiang anxious. For another, Fu City had suffered a great calamity, and many houses had collapsed. As the leading Immortal Sect of the various cities in Qing Province, the Mountain Sea Pavilion needed to help rebuild the city. It was currently the Miasma Moon, so trade routes were closed, and Lou Jiang, who was still in Fu City, had to take charge.
…Damn it! The one who should have been handling these matters, Young Pavilion Master Zuo Yuesheng, was just spending his days drinking and arguing with Young Master Lu from Medicine Valley!
“The matter of Fu City is concluded, but the matter of the Soul Threads is still full of doubts. There are three puzzles: First, where did Ge Qing learn the method of Refining a God into a Spirit? Second, is the Heavenly Works Mansion involved in this matter? Third, the source of the Soul Threads needs to be traced back three hundred years… There is another matter, the one who killed Ge Qing, Elder Chou of Taiyi, I don’t know…”
As he was writing, Lou Jiang heard Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing shouting from the west courtyard.
“Young Master Chou! Grandfather Chou! Dear Grandfather! Put down the Taiyi Sword! Let’s talk this out!”
“For the sake of our life-and-death friendship!”
“…”
With a crack, Lou Jiang snapped the brush in his hand for the thirty-seventh time. He skillfully and numbly replaced it with a new one and continued to write furiously.
“…After returning to the Pavilion, I request a transfer to the Undying City. I hope the Pavilion Master will grant my wish!”
***
“Ancient Fu, ever green, its life ever long.”
“Ancient Fu, ever green, its fortune ever prosperous.”
“Ancient Fu, ever green…”
Chou Bodeng, who had come out to look for his Kui Dragon Bracelet, was draped in a black cloak and holding a jar of wine, standing under the eaves, watching the people of Fu City clear away the collapsed houses. They moved the charred beams, swept away the broken tiles, and filled in the scarred ground, their movements skilled and calm.
It seemed like numbness.
The Chronicles of the Gods wrote of immortals and heroes, often describing them as “sword in hand, soaring a thousand miles, leaving at one watch, returning at the next,” so carefree and grand, making one yearn for it. But for the vast majority of people who actually lived in this world of immortals and heroes, “immortals” and “heroes” were another matter entirely. The world-shaking, heaven-shattering events belonged to the powerful. They were used to the ruins left behind after the grand and ethereal had passed, used to the fact that at any moment, a conspiracy could unfold, and their lives would no longer be their own.
Just like this incident in Fu City. Before the old City Diviner made his move, who among the people of Fu City knew that their lives no longer belonged to them?
One day everything was normal, the next day the world was turned upside down. Back and forth, their life and death had nothing to do with them.
Chou Bodeng felt that perhaps he had been unconscious for so long that his mind had become a little less muddled.
Otherwise, why would he be thinking about these things? When did he, a profligate wastrel, start caring about the suffering of the world?
“Ancient Fu, ever green—”
An old man moved a broken pillar from his house and saw a broken branch of the Divine Fu Tree underneath. He fell to his knees with a thud, and the song of praise he was singing suddenly took on a mournful tone. The old man stretched out his withered hands, and together with his grandson, lifted the broken branch of the Divine Fu Tree with more reverence and solemnity than they would their own ancestral tablet.
The little grandson was six or seven years old, at the age where naughty children are carefree. Just a moment ago, while digging through the ruins of his own courtyard, he had picked up a broken piece of wood and was waving it around with a whoosh, making “swoosh swoosh” sounds. Now, big tears were rolling down his face.
They fell onto the broken branch of the Fu tree.
Chou Bodeng’s hand, which was shaking the wine jar, paused slightly.
They weren’t numb, not used to it.
They just felt that if their houses collapsed, they could be rebuilt. If people were gone, it was just the uncertainty of life and death. As long as the Divine Fu Tree was alive, that was the best thing.
Ancient Fu, ever green, its life ever long.
Ancient Fu, ever green, its fortune ever prosperous.
Ever green.
This city…
The city is the tree, the tree is the city.
Chou Bodeng continued to shake the wine jar with a splash.
He looked up. Although his view was still blocked by many Fu trees, the sky was now visible, unlike when he first arrived, when the daylight could only barely leak through the gaps in the branches and leaves. According to Zuo Yuesheng, the people of Fu City had been controlled and used their blood as a sacrifice, so they should have been seriously ill for dozens of days, but…
“…Hey! You brat, you passed out at the wrong time,” Zuo Yuesheng described with gestures. “That night, silver Fu leaves fell all over the city, like flying snow. Whoever they landed on became as strong as an ox.”
“You’ve gone bald, you’ve gotten ugly.”
Chou Bodeng said softly to the Divine Fu Tree.
“Was it worth it?”
The Divine Fu Tree moved without wind, its remaining silver leaves rustling.
…You saved a city of people, and afterwards you’ll be hunted by all sorts of immortals and heroes. Is it worth it?
Probably not, since what’s more terrifying than immortals and heroes is suddenly having a few “life-and-death friends” who don’t meet the standards at all.
Was it worth it? Was it not worth it?
Chou Bodeng flicked the ceramic jar with his finger, making a tapping sound. He thought about just going back. After the Kui Dragon Bracelet split in two, it had flown off into the air. Who knew which corner it had fallen into? Fu City was so big, how was he supposed to find a needle in a haystack? It was just that the bracelet had managed to fly back on its own last time. Had it exceeded the auto-return distance this time?
After a token effort of searching, Chou Bodeng decided to head back to the Liu residence to tell Lou Jiang to have everyone keep an eye out while clearing the rubble.
To see if anyone found something and turned it in.
He had decided to look for it himself quickly, and he gave up on not doing it himself just as quickly. He hadn’t even finished strolling down the street before he was heading back. But just as he got up, a clap of thunder echoed in the sky, followed by a downpour.
“…”
Chou Bodeng stood under the eaves, watching the heavy rain fall in a line from the gray bell-shaped tiles, wondering if he should brave the rain and go back, or wait and see if Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing, those two idiots, would realize they should come find him.
Probably not.
Chou Bodeng sighed helplessly, picked up the wine jar, and prepared to take a walk in the rain.
The pouring rain formed a vast, continuous sheet, as if the heavens were helping the people of Fu City vigorously wash away the blood and misfortune of the past few days. Oil-paper umbrellas opened up in the rain, tilting this way and that as they moved forward or backward.
One umbrella crossed the crowd and the heavy rain, heading straight for him.
The lines of rain were cut off by the tilted surface of the umbrella. The person holding it stopped in front of Chou Bodeng.
The right hand holding the umbrella was long and slender, with distinct knuckles. Beneath the cuff of the sleeve, a dark golden Kui Dragon Bracelet was revealed.
“Next time you want to look at me, just look. I never said there’s a fee.”
Chou Bodeng swayed the wine jar. The black cloak was a bit big for him, wrapping him from shoulder to foot, not revealing a hint of red. Otherwise, the busy people of Fu City would have noticed this little immortal from Taiyi huddled in a corner of the long street.
“I can feel it when someone is watching me in secret, no matter how well they hide.”
The heavy rain separated this line of eaves from the rest of the world. Everything in the distance blurred into an ink-wash shadow in the white mist.
“Cat got your tongue?” Chou Bodeng asked softly. “A Luo? Or is that not your real name?”
“Shi Wuluo, that’s what they call me,” the young man in black said, closing his umbrella. “But A Luo is my name.”
A Luo, or rather, Shi Wuluo, stepped under the same line of gray-tiled eaves. He was tall and slender, quite a bit taller than Chou Bodeng. When they stood together under the eaves, the already spacious area suddenly felt a bit small.
Perhaps outside of Fu City, those who hated and feared this Head of the Ten Shamans to the bone would be so shocked by this scene that they would doubt whether they had gone mad or the world had. Shi Wuluo, a madman who had charged into the strongholds of major powers with his saber, fought his way in alone, and fought his way out alone, a man whose Scarlet Saber could not be stopped for a moment, no matter if he was offered great treasures or threatened with power, was actually explaining something to someone.
Not only was he explaining, he was also apologizing.
“I didn’t mean to deceive you.”
Shi Wuluo lowered his head slightly, meeting Chou Bodeng’s gaze quietly.
Actually, his true appearance was very… how to put it, very unlike a good person? Although his features were handsome, the lines were too cold and sharp. Dressed in black, he was as pale as a ghost, not a human. Even just holding an umbrella, he looked as if he were holding a saber. He was worlds away from being “easy to bully” or “obedient.”
But such a person, who seemed as if he could draw his saber at any moment and carve out a sea of blood, then leave indifferently, was very seriously saying, “I didn’t deceive you.”
Truly very serious.
His long eyelashes drooped, casting a clear shadow in his silver-gray eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin line, revealing a kind of awkwardness, as if he were poor with words.
“I won’t deceive you.”
He couldn’t even coax people properly, only repeat himself softly.
Listen, who would believe this was the Shi Wuluo of legend?
Chou Bodeng seriously examined this model figure who ranked first on Zuo Yuesheng’s “Enemy of Gods and Ghosts” list in Becoming the World’s Richest Overnight. Perhaps it was because the man’s eyes were a very light silver-gray that it made one feel that his current cold and sharp appearance suited him… so he probably wasn’t wearing any disguise.
It could also be a stereotype.
“Come closer,” Chou Bodeng felt he still needed to verify.
Shi Wuluo stepped closer, not understanding why.
The space under the eaves was already small. As he approached, the last bit of gap disappeared, and he could clearly feel the other person’s warmth. It was raining heavily outside, which made this warmth even more distinct. Shi Wuluo’s body suddenly stiffened.
“Lower.”
Shi Wuluo paused for a long time before slowly bending down at Chou Bodeng’s second urging.
A soft breath, like a swan’s feather, landed on his face. The sound of the rain suddenly receded, and the world receded with it.
Chou Bodeng grabbed the young man’s face. The man’s body temperature was very low, more like a cold statue than a living person. Chou Bodeng used some force, squeezed, and then pulled outwards. Actually, Young Master Chou knew that even if there was a disguise, it couldn’t be tested in such a simple way.
He just suddenly remembered that his wrist had been reddened by this person’s grip last time.
So he unreasonably decided to settle the score now.
After a few tugs, Chou Bodeng let go and found that Shi Wuluo’s skin might be unusually thick. Not only was it not red, but there wasn’t even a mark left.
“…”
Chou Bodeng looked at Shi Wuluo’s face, fell silent for a few seconds, and changed the subject.
“Never mind, I was just wondering if you remembered…”
The rest of his words suddenly vanished.
The hand he was about to withdraw was tightly gripped, and Chou Bodeng was completely covered by the other person’s shadow.