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墨書 Inktalez
Thinking about it, I changed my clothes and tossed the blood-stained ones into the washing machine.
“How did it go? Did you explain everything clearly?” I asked Li Zhisheng with a forced smile, suppressing my inner worries. “I made myself clear, but whether she understood or not, I can’t say…” Hu Fang immediately retorted, having overheard Li Zhisheng: “I understood! I’m not that stupid!”
“Good to hear you understood, you’re the smartest…” I said while ruffling Hu Fang's hair. Then I turned to Meng Zhuang, who had been standing behind me, and asked, “Da Zhuang, didn’t you mention there was a powerful shaman in your village?”
Meng Zhuang looked dejected. “Yeah, but didn’t you say it wouldn’t work?”
“Well, we don’t have any other options now. Even if it’s a long shot, we should at least try; it’s better than having no plan at all.” I shifted my gaze back to Li Zhisheng, hoping to hear his thoughts.
Li Zhisheng didn’t refuse; instead, he changed his previously opposing stance: “Alright, let’s do it your way. If that doesn’t work, we’ll think of something else.”
Seeing his suggestion finally accepted, Meng Zhuang perked up with excitement. “Great! When do we leave?”
I chuckled helplessly. “You haven’t even told us where your village is. How can we leave?”
Meng Zhuang slapped his forehead. “Right! I forgot! That village is my hometown, in a mountain valley in Guizhou, Luodian County. It’s quite remote and the transportation isn’t very convenient…”
“What’s the name of the village? Let me look it up.” I sat down at the computer and opened a search page. “It’s called Xiangting Village, with ‘Xiang’ meaning ‘to believe’ and ‘ting’ referring to pavilions.”
After hearing this, I typed Xiangting Village into the map search bar and hit enter. I expected to see many villages with the same name but was surprised to find only two: one near Langfang and the other in Guizhou.
Following Meng Zhuang's direction, I selected the one in Guizhou and entered the name of my current city to try and find a route. The system surprisingly indicated that no corresponding route could be found.
I turned to Meng Zhuang. “How remote is your hometown that it can’t even find a route?” At that moment, Li Zhisheng interjected: “For some mountain villages, just being able to find their names is impressive. As long as we know roughly where it is, let’s have Meng Zhuang lead the way.”
“Exactly! Shen, just confirm the time with me later, and I’ll take you guys there; I’ll cover the travel expenses—heh heh.” Meng Zhuang said with a goofy grin.
Seeing that even Li Zhisheng was on board, I nodded in agreement: “Alright then. But Da Zhuang, make sure to tell me how much you spent on travel expenses so I can reimburse you… As for when we leave… let’s set it for later; better safe than sorry.”
Upon hearing this, Hu Fang asked in confusion: “If you’re worried about things dragging on too long, why wait until later? Wouldn’t it be better to go tomorrow?”
“My phone is broken; I need to buy a new one. If you can get Li Zhisheng to help fix my broken phone now, then we can go tomorrow…”
I hadn't finished speaking when Li Zhisheng interrupted, "There's no need to rush off. We should be prepared before we leave, right? Otherwise, what if something dangerous happens?"
Meng Zhuang thought Li Zhisheng was genuinely concerned about some danger, so he quickly explained, "Brother Li, don't worry. That's my hometown; what danger could there be? At most, a wild boar might wander out of the mountains occasionally..."
"It's getting late; you two should stop chatting and get some sleep," I said, ushering Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng back to their room. Only Meng Zhuang remained in the living room, staring at me blankly. "Shen, can I sleep too?"
Seeing that Meng Zhuang was still a bit timid from earlier, I smiled slightly. "You can sleep in my room; I still have some things to take care of." As soon as Meng Zhuang heard I had something to do, he quickly offered, "What else do you need? I can help!"
I grinned mischievously and pulled out the Ghost Oil that Death Apostle had given me. "I need to apply this stuff in every corner of the house. Do you want to help? This is made from the oil of dead people..." I deliberately lowered my voice to try to scare him.
To my surprise, Meng Zhuang snatched the Ghost Oil from my hand. "I'm afraid of dead people and ghosts, but if I don't see how this stuff is made with my own eyes, I won't be scared at all..."
"Wow, there's actually something you're not afraid of? I thought you were scared of everything..." I muttered. Meng Zhuang began applying the Ghost Oil to the corners while saying, "Of course! There are plenty of things I'm not afraid of..."
"Sure, sure, but there aren't as many things you're afraid of..."
We joked around as we used up an entire bottle of Ghost Oil. The room soon filled with a strong jasmine scent mixed with a faint fishy odor. Although the smell wasn't too overpowering, it could still become uncomfortable after a while.
"Do you still want to sleep on the sofa?" I asked Meng Zhuang. He shook his head repeatedly and said, "Shen, can I just sleep on the floor in your room?"
"Forget about sleeping on the floor; my bed is big enough for both of us," I replied.
With that, I led Meng Zhuang to my room and took another blanket from the closet for him. After tidying up a bit, we both lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, as soon as I woke up, I heard Meng Zhuang snoring beside me. It seemed he really hadn't rested well lately. I tiptoed out of bed and left the room.
Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng were already up and had even finished breakfast. They were sitting on the sofa watching a drama and discussing the plot.
Noticing they hadn't seen me yet, I walked over and greeted them, "Good morning! Why are you up so early?" Li Zhisheng was engrossed in the show and didn't turn around; instead, he lifted a box and said, "Here, this is for you." Hu Fang chimed in beside him, "This is something Li Zhisheng and I picked out for you together. Let’s see if you like it."
I took the box and opened it to find a brand new phone inside. "Wow! You really bought this? How much was it? Shouldn't I pay you back?" I felt a bit embarrassed.
Li Zhisheng casually replied, "It's no big deal; it was free with a top-up."
"And they even threw in two phone cases!" Hu Fang added as he tossed two cases into my arms.
"You guys tell me which company is giving away iPhone 7s with phone top-ups; I'll go get one too..." Upon hearing this, Li Zhisheng turned around and said, "I promised you yesterday; just accept it. Consider it compensation for what happened yesterday."
At the same time, Hu Fang pulled out a brand new phone from his pocket and waved it in front of me.
"Alright, since that's the case, I won't be polite," I said, then asked, "Oh right, is there any breakfast to eat?"
Hu Fang turned back to look at me with a surprised expression. "We just finished lunch... what do you mean breakfast? Are you still half asleep?"
I checked the time and realized it was already three in the afternoon. "Did you all stay up all night?" Li Zhisheng asked.
I thought for a moment. "Yeah, probably. We must have stayed up too late last night..."
With that, I went to the fridge and grabbed some food to fill my stomach. As I was eating, Meng Zhuang stretched and walked out of his room, greeting me with a "Good morning, Shen..."
"Morning! Come over and have something to eat..." I offered him some bread from the table. Meng Zhuang took a bite and said, "I'm going out to buy tickets soon. Are we leaving in the morning or the afternoon?"
"Well..." I pondered for a moment before replying, "If there's no rush, let's leave in the afternoon. I'm afraid I'll oversleep."
"Okay!" Meng Zhuang agreed, finishing off his bread in a few bites before getting up to change clothes and prepare to go out.
Before he left, he asked, "Are we all going?" I nodded in affirmation, and Meng Zhuang replied before heading out on his own.
After I finished eating, I turned to Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng. "We're going pretty far this time; aren't you two preparing anything?" They both pointed at two backpacks next to the sofa in unison and said, "We've been ready!"
"Well then, I'm the only one unprepared..." I muttered quietly as I went back to my room to find a dark green canvas backpack. Holding it in my hand, I thought, "Even though Meng Zhuang won't be in danger this time, just in case, I'll bring Jiang Ling along. Even if I can't use it, it might scare someone."
With that thought in mind, I stuffed Jiang Ling into the backpack first and casually tossed in a pouch containing two talismans as well. Just then, I noticed the cane standing in the corner of the room—it was Death Apostle's cane.
"I'll find a chance to return this later..." With that thought, I placed the cane inside the wardrobe.
After that, I packed a few daily necessities and considered my packing done. Just then, Meng Zhuang returned after buying tickets. As soon as he walked in, he waved four tickets in his hand. "Tickets are easy to get when it's not a holiday..."
I stepped forward to take a look at his tickets. "Train tickets? And not even high-speed rail? How long is this going to take?" I asked. Meng Zhuang thought I was blaming him and scratched his head while mumbling, "Well, there weren't many options for tickets back then..."
Li Zhisheng stepped in to mediate, saying, "Don't blame him too much. At that time, you didn't want to buy any tickets yourself. Since you've bought them, just think of it as a trip."
"I'm not blaming him; I'm just worried..." I suddenly remembered that Li Zhisheng's mood had just turned around. If he got upset again, it would be troublesome. I quickly changed my tone, "You're right, let's treat it as a trip..." I glanced at the ticket prices—over two hundred each, nearly a thousand for four.
I pulled out my wallet and counted out ten red bills, slapping them down on Meng Zhuang's hand. "You take this. Don't argue with me; I'm the boss, and you're the employee. It doesn't make sense for an employee to pay."
Meng Zhuang opened his mouth to refuse but was afraid I would scold him, so he nodded and stuffed the money into his pocket.
At that moment, seeing that it was nearing dusk, I said to everyone, "Since we're setting off tomorrow, let's go out for a nice meal tonight. It's on me..."
Hu Fang jumped up excitedly and asked, "Can I order? Can I order?!"
"Of course! You can order as much as you want..."
With that, the four of us headed to the restaurant together.
We enjoyed our meal until well into the night before finally heading home to wash up. With tomorrow's journey ahead of us, we all went to bed early.
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