Escape

On the way to Dragon-Carrying Village, with Old Hai's help, although we encountered some more wandering spirits, we were able to keep moving without fear. They simply stood frozen in place, as if they couldn't see us.

Only when we reached the location of Zhao Qian's feng shui Compass did we become fully alert. That was where the Yin soldiers had crossed.

"Well, isn't this your feng shui Compass, Zhao Qian? How did it end up over here?" Old Hai said with a chuckle, pointing at the Compass in the distance.

Zhao Qian was instantly mortified. She ran over and picked it up. "The Yin soldiers crossed through here. I barely made it out."

"Heh, it's no big deal. Those Yin soldiers weren't actually targeting you. They were merely ordered to guard this place. There may be a lot of them, but their numbers are still quite limited, so they're no problem for me." Old Hai grinned. He then pulled a thick stack of paper figures from his hiking pack. I had no idea how many there were.

Old Hai was extremely experienced. He had a clever way of dealing with Yin soldiers. He wrote several characters on each paper figure. Once he was satisfied, he swaggered straight toward the Yin soldiers.

"Watch this. I came all the way here from the Dead Town and ran into who knows how many squads of these Yin soldiers. I got past every one of them like this." Although he had concealed the yang energy on his body, a group of Yin soldiers still intended to question him about why a little ghost from the underworld was here.

Old Hai immediately scattered the paper figures into the river beside the cliff, then began chanting an incantation.

The Yin soldiers in the distance instantly mistook it for someone crossing the border illegally. The entire group rushed forward, completely ignoring Old Hai as they went down to the river to seize the paper figures.

I watched this strange technique with unbearable envy. I wondered whether I could ask Old Hai to teach me a few tricks. Then, whenever we encountered a powerful evil ghost, I could just throw out a paper figure and run for my life. But thinking about it, that was impossible. This was someone else's livelihood and life-saving skill. How could he simply pass it on?

"All right, let's hurry. This is exactly when yin and yang are changing places. The Yin soldiers can't think straight right now, so they won't bother with a few people like us who have concealed our yang energy." Old Hai waved us over.

None of us dared to linger. We took off running. Zhao He had been carrying Huo Dadong for so long, yet he didn't seem tired at all. He was still running incredibly fast.

Just like that, we made it out of Dragon-Carrying Village, and night had fallen.

"We thought that would be unbelievably difficult, but Uncle Hai solved it with just a few paper figures. He's amazing! He's way more capable than our dad!" Zhao He exclaimed, his face filled with admiration.

I felt profound respect for Old Hai. At the same time, I thought of how even such a formidable old man now had to flee the Dead Town like a stray dog. If I were to enter the Dead Town and break the Blood Cloud Coffin, what would happen to me?

I probably wouldn't even make it to the town before dying a hundred times.

"Zhao He, Zhao Qian, are you two going home or what? Oh, right, I don't think I ever asked what you went to Little Yi Village for." Old Hai asked.

"Back to the county town. We... were sent by the Household to invite Senior Zhou Xian, but then all this happened..." After Zhao Qian finished speaking, she glanced at me and asked, "Brother Yitian, are you going back to the county town, or do you have other plans? If you're going back, why don't you ride with us?"

"Your Household sent you?" Old Hai frowned. Since it seemed inconvenient to explain, he didn't ask any further.

Zhao Qian then pointed at a car parked in Dragon-Carrying Village.

It was an Audi Q7 SUV. To me, that counted as a luxury car—a massive vehicle worth several hundred thousand, even over a million.

I held my grandmother's leather suitcase and carried my travel bag as I stood in Dragon-Carrying Village at night. Staying here would be cheaper, but we still had to leave early for the county town tomorrow. The mountain roads wound all over the place, and transportation costs wouldn't be cheap. If we could get a ride, that would obviously be ideal.

Besides, Yu Xiaoxue's eyes had already lit up at the sight of the luxury car. She was just a student and normally had no opportunity to ride in such a car. If I asked her to come along, she probably wouldn't want to walk anymore.

I had no choice but to say, "We'll go to the county town too. Snow is still attending high school there, and with Little Yi Village in this state, who knows how long it'll be before anyone goes in to investigate what happened."

"Heh, they'll probably put up a sign at the entrance saying they're going to build some sort of waste-treatment plant or nuclear power station, and forbid anyone from entering." Old Hai spoke with great experience.

"Snow's father is probably in serious danger, and we don't even know where everyone's bodies went. Sigh, we can only see what the county town says." I sighed and looked at Yu Xiaoxue.

But I found that she had already gone over to admire the SUV, touching it here and there. She hadn't heard a word of our discussion.

I let out a sigh of relief. Perhaps this was a good thing too. People often said that no news was the best news.

Once I was capable of standing on my own, I would definitely take her back to Little Yi Village and investigate where the bodies had gone.

"That's great! Then let's go together." Zhao He was delighted and was about to pull me into the car. After hearing Old Hai's earlier story, he seemed to have changed his opinion of me considerably.

Zhao Qian counted the people and quickly realized there was one too many. "Brother, you drive Captain Huo's car. There isn't enough room for all of us."

Zhao He had originally planned to use the ride to get closer to me, but his own sister had sent him off to drive the police car instead. He was quite disgruntled, though he couldn't say anything. He could only carry Huo Dadong over and dump him into the police car.

"I'll ride in the police car too. That one can run red lights. Faster, haha." Old Hai chuckled, but he gave me a meaningful look, then glanced at Zhao Qian. I had no idea what he meant. I only thought that he might be old, but his heart certainly wasn't. Otherwise, he wouldn't be running all over the place with a hiking pack like a young man.

After he got into the car, I discovered that he had even taken out a tablet computer. My impression of him warmed considerably. It seemed he was still quite up to date.

That left only Zhao Qian, Yu Xiaoxue, and me in the Audi SUV.

"Brother Yitian, can you drive? I'm not very used to driving on mountain roads." Zhao Qian asked me politely.

Actually, compared with the carefree, naturally spacey Yu Xiaoxue, Zhao Qian had the refinement unique to someone from a large family. She tried to keep everything orderly. She was probably considering my dignity. After all, what kind of situation was it for a woman to drive while a man lounged comfortably?

I felt that whoever married a woman like her would have a much easier life.

"I can. I used to drive a minibus in the city." I smiled, implying that I had never driven a luxury car.

"Oh, I see. But I think someone who can drive a minibus must have pretty good skills. Why don't you drive?" Zhao Qian said with a smile, without the slightest hint of mockery.

"My skills are average. This car is automatic, right? I may not know how to drive it. You should do it." I declined. The car cost over a million. How could I dare touch it carelessly? If I bumped or scratched it, I couldn't afford to pay for it.

Thinking about it, apart from transportation costs, I had only a little over fifteen hundred yuan left in my bank account. Yu Xiaoxue's family was poor too, and after this trip her pockets were probably empty. Since we were neighbors, I would have to support her in the county town.

"Uh... all right, I'll drive." Zhao Qian's brows curved slightly, and she looked a little troubled. But after I insisted several times, she got into the car.

The moment Yu Xiaoxue saw the luxurious interior of the back seat, she immediately climbed in and began touching everything.

I had originally wanted to sit in the back with Yu Xiaoxue, but in the blink of an eye, she had fallen asleep stretched across the seats. She looked completely at peace. After staying awake for two full days and nights, she must have been exhausted.

I could only sit in the passenger seat and watch Zhao Qian drive.

Then, on the winding mountain road, Zhao Qian nearly scared me to death. Was that really what she called driving?

Even when there was a huge rock in the road, she simply drove right over it. The car leaped high into the air, and my heart jumped straight into my throat.

There were cliffs all along the roadside. If this hadn't been an SUV, we would probably have gone down the mountain for tea. No wonder Old Hai had been unable to outrun them earlier.

In the end, I hurriedly called Zhao Qian over to the passenger seat.

Zhao Qian was extremely embarrassed. Her face was flushed as she patted both cheeks, finally letting out a sigh of relief. "Actually... I bought my driver's license. I don't drive much normally. My brother is usually the driver."

"I could tell." I rubbed my forehead, speechless. Women really were terrifying. She had bought her license and still dared to drive on the road, without even blinking.

But there was someone even more impressive in the back. She could sleep like a dead pig through all this bumping and jolting.

"Brother Yitian, may I ask you something?" Zhao Qian began after seeing that I was driving steadily.

"Go ahead." I was curious too about why Zhao Qian had come looking for my grandmother.

After all, my grandmother disliked meddling in other people's affairs and didn't do this sort of work for money. She wouldn't casually reach into the county town. A county with hundreds of thousands of people also had highly skilled practitioners, and crossing the line wouldn't end well.

"May I ask what you do for work?" Zhao Qian asked.

"Don't keep calling me 'you.' I'm not much older than you, so you don't need to be so polite. Just call me Brother Tian. If that feels awkward, you can call me Yitian too. I don't mind." I smiled. This girl had too many rules. People who were overly polite made me feel uncomfortable.

"Oh, all right, Brother Tian." Zhao Qian's face flushed again.

I was speechless. She really had called me that. But what she called me was her freedom. Seeing how polite she was, her personality was actually quite good. Before this, I had assumed that children from large families were all arrogant and overbearing.

"Actually, I'm unemployed right now. I was just fired by my boss, and I'm already worried I won't be able to get by. After I finish mourning, I'm planning to find some work in the county town, like sweeping floors or serving dishes. Then I'll figure out a way to investigate what happened in Little Yi Village." I mocked myself.

"Huh? You were just fired by your boss? That's wonderful!"

I never expected Zhao Qian to clap excitedly. I was even more speechless. What was wrong with this girl? Why was she saying it was good that I had been fired?

Could spending half a day with Yu Xiaoxue have infected her with that naturally spacey illness?

Seeing my displeased expression, Zhao Qian realized she had said the wrong thing. "No... I meant that being dismissed wasn't a good thing..."

I no longer intended to pay her any attention. I simply focused on driving.

"Then, Brother Tian, are you short of money?" Zhao Qian asked again.

"Just say what you want. Why beat around the bush?" I felt that this girl had probably lost her soul, judging by all the pointless questions she was asking. "Does your Household want to hire a long-term laborer?"

Zhao Qian froze. She thought about what "long-term laborer" meant, then came back to herself and earnestly nodded at me. "Mm-hmm."

I raised my brows and grinned. Teasing her, I asked, "Do you want me to wash dishes at your house or carry bricks?"