noveltune Chapter 406 Sister, my chapter is here!
Chapter 406 Sister, my chapter is here!
Old Zhou glanced outside the door.
Mo Chengyue placed the array plate on the table, and the array patterns crawled down the table legs to the ground, causing the flame of the oil lamp in the corner of the room to stand up.
"Now tell me."
Old Zhou gave a wry smile.
"You can't stop the ship's captain this time."
Mo Chengyue said.
"Just because it can't be blocked doesn't mean we can't charge for listening."
Xiao Liu hid behind Lao Zheng and asked in a low voice.
"Master, you can charge for this?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"If it makes it uncomfortable to listen to, then I've made a profit."
Old Zhou stared at him for a while.
"Why is everyone from the Hehuan Sect so preoccupied with nothing but debts?"
Mo Chengyue replied to him.
"The education provided by the sect is good."
Old Zheng couldn't help but interrupt.
"Uncle, stop talking nonsense, what do you even know?"
Old Zhou turned the old boat tag over. There were several fine marks engraved on the back, in groups of seven. When he got to the end, the marks were crooked, as if the engraver's hand could no longer hold the object steadily.
"All these years I've been guarding the watchtower, not waiting for the boats to leave, but counting the lights."
Manager Hu looked at the marks.
"Seven in a group."
Old Zhou nodded.
"Seven lights form a team."
Mo Chengyue continued.
"A single lamp serves as a guide."
Old Zhou looked up.
"Who told you that?"
Mo Chengyue pointed to his palm.
"The ship owner gave me a job offer; the pay was poor, but there was a lot of information."
Xiao Liu muttered to himself.
"Even the Red Lantern Boat would get lost after hearing the Immortal Master's words."
Old Zheng nudged him with his arm.
Old Zhou couldn't laugh.
"Seven lanterns form the procession, one lantern serves as the guide, three nights are spent testing the crossing, and the waning moon welcomes the bride."
The oil lamp inside the room flickered, and the river mist outside the door pressed against it, causing the talisman on the door panel to have blackened edges due to the moisture.
Manager Hu's face turned pale.
What does this sentence mean?
Old Zhou looked at her.
"The first night, we lit lamps to test the shore; the second night, we sent a letter to verify the blood oath; the third night, we paved the way to the door."
Mo Chengyue asked.
"What about the waning moon?"
Old Zhou answered.
"Welcoming the bride."
Old Zheng cursed.
"Whose wedding are we welcoming?"
Old Zhou looked at Mo Chengyue's palm.
"It's his now."
Xiao Liu almost lost the kitchen knife.
"Immortal Master, your peach blossom luck is too sinister."
Mo Chengyue placed his palm on the table, and the red patterns were pressed into a faint light by the array plate.
"Don't be envious, even if I gave it to you, you couldn't handle it."
Xiao Liu immediately shook his head.
"I'm not envious, I'm just unlucky."
Manager Hu stared at Old Zhou.
"Since you already knew, why are you only saying it now?"
Old Zhou picked up the cold tea, but didn't drink it; he just turned the bowl around.
"Who am I talking to?"
Old Zheng asked, his eyes red.
Tell me!
Old Zhou looked at him.
"What can you do after hearing that? Smash the boat with a pot, or jump into the river to rescue people?"
Old Zheng was speechless.
Old Zhou then looked at Manager Hu.
"Let me tell you, would you stay at the inn and survive, or would you take Shuang'er's old clothes and go to the riverbank?"
Shopkeeper Hu was about to retort, but her hand had already reached for the copper coins in her sleeve, and she swallowed her words back.
Mo Chengyue said.
"So you pretended to be crazy, making the demon ship think your soul was destroyed."
Old Zhou nodded.
"It searches for the names of the living, the blood of the living, the thoughts of the living; the madman is incomplete, and it finds that troublesome."
Xiao Liu couldn't help but ask.
"Then how did you manage to fool it?"
Old Zhou pointed to the side of his head.
"I tore my own thoughts apart and showed them to it."
Old Zheng's expression changed.
"uncle."
Old Zhou waved his hand.
Don't look at me like that, I'm not doing this for you.
Old Zheng gritted his teeth.
"You're still being stubborn."
Old Zhou pushed the boat sign toward Mo Chengyue.
"I heard those words from the bottom of the ship."
Mo Chengyue's eyes darkened.
"You've been on a ship?"
Manager Hu also moved closer to the table.
"Have you ever been on a red-light boat?"
Old Zhou didn't answer immediately. He pressed down on the old boat sign, as if that piece of wood would jump back into the river on its own.
"After Shuang'er's accident, your mother was taken away by the song outside the window. I chased after it to Fenglin Bay and saw a boat without oars moored in the reeds."
Shopkeeper Hu's lips moved slightly.
"My mother."
Old Zhou looked at her.
"She didn't go up; Shuang'er is at the bow of the boat."
Manager Hu's hand gripped the corner of the table, causing the cold tea on the table to slosh and spill water.
"What did you say?"
Old Zhou closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were red from the light.
"Shuang'er wasn't taken away by the ship."
Old Zheng asked urgently.
"Then why didn't she come back?"
Old Zhou's voice was hoarse.
"She boarded the ship herself, saving your mother's life."
The room quieted down, with only the soft rustling of steam clinging to the talisman outside the door.
Manager Hu stared at Old Zhou, as if he hadn't understood what he was saying, or as if he had been afraid to hear it for a long time.
"You're talking nonsense."
Old Zhou looked down at the teacup.
"I also hope I'm talking nonsense."
Shopkeeper Hu's fingertips touched the copper coin, then he pulled them back as if he had been burned.
"Shuang'er was only seventeen years old at the time. She was afraid of the dark and water, and she didn't even dare to go near the well in the backyard of the inn."
Old Zhou said.
"So she went up crying."
Manager Hu swayed slightly on her shoulder. Old Zheng tried to help her up, but she raised her hand to stop him.
Why did she want to replace my mother?
Old Zhou looked at her.
"Because the woman on the boat said that the Hu family owed a life debt, and tonight they must take away a Hu family girl who can sing old wedding songs."
Manager Hu caught his breath, and the white paper lantern outside the door swayed wildly in the wind.
"There are two women from the Hu family who can sing old wedding songs."
Old Zhou nodded.
"Your mother can do it, and so can your sister."
Mo Chengyue suddenly asked.
"And you, why did you come back alive?"
The lamplight deepened the wrinkles on Old Zhou's face.
"Shuang'er begged me to go back and tell her sister not to look for her."
Shopkeeper Hu's eyes were red.
"She told you to tell me, but you've been pretending to be crazy for twenty years?"
Old Zhou raised his head.
"When I returned to the ferry crossing, I wanted to say this."
Manager Hu sneered.
"and then?"
Old Zhou pointed to his neck, where there was a faint red line, an old scar.
"As soon as I called out Shuang'er's name, the thread around my neck tightened."
Old Zheng looked down.
"How come I've never seen this before?"
Old Zhou said.
"Crazy people are dirty, nobody wants to watch them."
Mo Chengyue reached out and pointed at the old mark from a distance. The Yin-Yang True Essence circled along the red line of the old mark, but was forced back by a cold aura.
"No-talk line".
Old Zhou looked at him.
"You understand?"
Mo Chengyue withdrew his hand.
"I know a little about this; it's common in shady shops that don't allow complaints about debts."
Just as Xiao Liu was about to smile, the fog outside the door pressed against the crack, and he quickly suppressed his laughter.
Shopkeeper Hu asked in a hoarse voice.
"Then how can you say that now?"
Old Zhou looked at Mo Chengyue's palm.
"Because the ship owner changed targets, the censorship line was loosened."
Mo Chengyue raised his hand.
"Thank you for your kind offer, but I don't want to take on the problems left by my ex."
Old Zhou didn't laugh.
"You've already answered."
"Manager Hu asked."
"Where is Shuang'er now?"
Old Zhou's hand reached for the old ship's license plate again, and this time he finally pressed it down.
"on board."
Manager Hu pressed for details.
"Is she still alive?"
Old Zhou's lips trembled, and he tapped the rim of the cold teacup with a soft sound.
"I don't know if that counts as living."
Mo Chengyue said.
"Be specific."
Old Zhou stared at the array patterns on the table.
"That night, someone was calling out numbers from the bottom of the boat. Before Shuang'er pushed me into the water, I saw her standing behind the red light, her eyes illuminated by the light. The boat owner told her to look at the names of the people on the shore."
Shopkeeper Hu's breathing became erratic. She reached out and grabbed the edge of the table, a splinter piercing her palm, but she didn't let go.
"Looking at the name?"
Old Zhou said.
"The red-light boat doesn't know who everyone is; it needs to have eyes."
Mo Chengyue continued.
"Shuang'er became that eye."
Old Zhou nodded, his voice even lower than before.
"She became the ship owner's eyes."
As soon as he finished speaking, a patch of the array pattern on the table suddenly darkened, and the flame of the oil lamp outside the door bent towards the room, as if someone was standing at the door and gently blowing a breath.
Xiao Liu's kitchen knife hit the door frame.
"Who?"
Old Zheng pulled him back.
"Don't answer!"
Manager Hu stood by the table, his originally tense shoulders slowly slumping, as if that sentence had taken away his support.
A woman's soft voice came from outside the door, carrying the sweet scent of osmanthus sugar from the old inn's backyard through the damp mist.
"Sister, I'm back."