After Zhang Jixin and the others left, Zheng Qing finally stopped bustling about.
Fei Rui leaned his little head farther forward.
He was immensely curious about what the young publicly funded student was up to.
Then he saw Zheng Qing select a small rosewood chest from the pile of boxes that had fallen into the snow and open it directly. From within, he lifted out stack after stack of Yellow Skin Paper talismans. Each stack contained roughly a hundred talismans, tied neatly with cords twisted from ice silkworm silk. They looked pleasingly orderly.
Zheng Qing turned around and glanced behind him.
The pitch-black Silent Forest was like a dreadful gaping maw, swallowing vast stretches of the world. The bone-white snow lay flat within that mouth, like the greedy tongue of ghosts and monsters, sending chills through his heart.
The cold winter wind sighed through the trees, deepening that chill.
Noticing the young publicly funded student's gaze, Xiao Xiao, who had been sitting behind him all along, patted the notebook in his arms and said softly, "They've all gone far away... Just handle the rest as you see fit."
"You shouldn't have stayed." After scanning the surroundings and nodding in relief, Zheng Qing finally withdrew his gaze and looked at Xiao Xiao.
At that moment, the You Zui Hunting Team's diviner was staring intently at a Crystal Ball before him, so focused that nothing happening outside seemed capable of disturbing him. Yet the black notebook spread across his knees, glowing with faint light, seemed to suggest another possibility.
"Actually, no one should have left." Without looking up, Xiao Xiao spoke meaningfully. "The last time you did this, I was already 'dead'... but I remember everyone gave you quite a beating afterward."
Zheng Qing knew Xiao Xiao was referring to what had