First Meeting with Hei Xiazi
"Zhang Qiling, do you still remember me?"
Yu Zhi didn't hold out much hope. Heavenly Bestowal was like a seal on one's memories, which were then slowly unlocked bit by bit in response to familiar people or places. The memories that came back were only fragments, devoid of feeling, as though one were watching someone else's life. It was just like when he transmigrated into a target during a mission and forcibly read their memories, yet couldn't share their feelings.
That was what made Heavenly Bestowal so powerful. Only by blocking out emotion could one keep guarding the Ultimate and protecting its secrets. A tool didn't need too many feelings.
Yu Zhi now felt that Zhang Qiling's usual taciturn manner was the result of the torment he had suffered at the hands of the Zhang Family and Heavenly Bestowal.
Zhang Qiling looked back at Yu Zhi's face, studying it carefully, then gave a tiny shake of his head. He didn't remember this person, but he felt familiar and close. He could sense that closeness without having to fight him.
"Well, great. As things stand, none of the three of us knows either of the others. I was going to have Mute introduce us, but look how that turned out-he doesn't remember. So, Xiao Yu, how about giving your big brother the inside scoop?" Hei Xiazi seemed perfectly at ease, joking around in his usual carefree manner.
Yu Zhi wanted nothing more than to rub his face hard with both hands. No wonder, when he'd seen older people run into problems they couldn't solve, the first thing they did was scratch their heads and rub their faces. He wanted to do it too!
Hei Xiazi watched Yu Zhi's little display and chuckled weirdly beside him.
"Let's go home first. We can talk things over afterward. Will you come with us?" Yu Zhi had no intention of leaving Zhang Qiling in someone else's hands.
"Hey, hey, hold on. Yu Zhi, I don't think Mute will go with you. All these years, whenever it happened, Mute only went home with me. How about you come home with me too?" Blind Man said.
"Go home with you? Back to that rental of yours, so the Nine Gates can find us and have us captured for human experimentation again?"
Yu Zhi rolled his eyes so hard they nearly reached the sky and spoke in a sarcastic tone. It wasn't his fault he was wary of Hei Xiazi. The main thing was that, in the book, he was Wu Xie's master, Xie Yuhua's protector, and a faithful executor of the Nine Gates' plan. Without Hei Xiazi paving the way and providing protection for so many things, the plan could never have gone forward. For the moment, Yu Zhi couldn't pin down Hei Xiazi's intentions or his role in the scheme.
Hei Xiazi awkwardly adjusted his glasses, touched his nose, and scratched his hair. Sure enough, people were busiest when they were embarrassed.
"Then we'll go to your place. I'm coming too. I can't leave Mute without making sure he's all right," Hei Xiazi said bluntly. Now that things had been said so plainly, there was no need to keep beating around the bush.
"Fine. Let's go." The two of them discussed it right in front of Zhang Qiling, the amnesiac child, without any thought of asking his opinion.
Zhang Qiling listened silently to their discussion. He had actually wanted to say that this man felt close and familiar, and that he could trust him.
The man felt even more trustworthy than Blind Man. And when he heard the name and looked at that face, fragments flashed through his mind. There were also some things involving Hei Xiazi. He remembered that this man had picked him up and taken him home whenever he lost his memory before, but his memory loss had also left both men feeling like strangers again.
Yu Zhi gave him an address. Hei Xiazi went out and came back driving a beat-up pickup truck he'd gotten from who knew where. The three of them climbed in with one knife between them. The metal bars on the outside were rusted and peeling, and beneath the mottled surface, one could just make out that the truck was black. Yu Zhi and Zhang Qiling sat in the back, and the door closed with a bang like a piece of battered sheet metal hitting the ground.
Yu Zhi seriously doubted whether the truck could make it home. The engine sounded like an old-fashioned tractor when it turned over, and once it started, the horn was the only thing in the vehicle that didn't make a noise. Everything else rattled.
"Hey, Blind Man, you make so much money. Can't you get a better car? Will this thing hold up until we get there? I don't want to be fixing it halfway," Yu Zhi said.
"Just you watch. This truck might look a little weathered, but it's got experience. Besides, I don't have any money. Otherwise, I wouldn't be renting a place to live." Hei Xiazi's tone shifted as he spoke, as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
"All right, all right, you're the boss. I'll shut up. Just focus on driving." Yu Zhi stopped bickering with Hei Xiazi. He could see that not a single serious word came out of the man's mouth. He also wondered how a mute like Zhang Qiling could be such good friends with the ever-flippant Hei Xiazi.
Zhang Qiling sat in the truck, gazing out the window and listening to the two bicker. A trace of amusement slowly crept into his eyes.
Although Yu Zhi had the notebook, he couldn't take it out for Zhang Qiling to see now. He didn't even have a bag, so where would he pull a notebook from? Was he Doraemon? Did he really think Hei Xiazi was an idiot? He could only calm himself and wait until they got home to find a chance to show Zhang Qiling and help him recover his memories.
In the book, Hei Xiazi was Zhang Qiling's good friend, bound to him by a friendship forged through life-and-death trials. But that was seen through Wu Xie's eyes. Yu Zhi had to be on guard, for his own safety as well.
And so, listening to Hei Xiazi hum an unfamiliar tune all the way, they traveled in fits and starts and finally reached Yu Zhi's courtyard house on the third day.
"Whoa, Xiao Yu, this courtyard house of yours is nice. A lot roomier than my place," Blind Man said, as irreverent as ever.
"Cut the nonsense, Blind Man." Yu Zhi felt too sick to banter with Hei Xiazi and swore he would never ride in his car again. If he hadn't forced it down, he would probably have thrown up the whole way. Even cultivation couldn't do anything about motion sickness.
"You still need practice. Look at Mute-he's perfectly fine," Hei Xiazi said with a laugh.
Zhang Qiling saw the flames of war spread to him but gave no response, walking straight inside. He had already remembered the place when they reached the entrance. He didn't know why his memories were returning so quickly after losing them this time.
Yu Zhi gave Hei Xiazi an enormous eye roll. Ignoring whatever Hei Xiazi said, he covered his ears and walked inside, saying, "The room in the middle is mine, and the one on the left is Zhang Qiling's. Pick whichever you like from the rest and clean it yourself." Without waiting for Hei Xiazi's reaction, he followed Zhang Qiling into the room on the left.
"Hey, hey, Xiao Yu, you went into the wrong room! Yours is the one in the middle," Hei Xiazi shouted.
"Shut up." Yu Zhi slammed the door.
"Forget it. The two of them all lovey-dovey, two men alone together, in broad daylight. The world's morals aren't what they used to be, tsk, tsk." Hei Xiazi talked nonsense, deliberately making his way toward Mute's door as he spoke. He was afraid the two of them might be in danger alone together. Right now, Mute was an amnesiac, feeble-minded child. What if he got bullied? Ah, he was born to worry.
Yu Zhi heard Hei Xiazi coming over and thought that he really was keeping a close watch, afraid something would happen to Mute. Without concealing it from Zhang Qiling, he took the notebook straight out of his space and handed it to him. "Read this first. Once you finish, you'll know what's going on."
Then he turned and opened the door. Looking at Hei Xiazi, who was just about to push it open, he said, "What is it, Blind Man? Want to join in? Fine by me. One isn't too few, and two isn't too many. You can join in too. After all, you're here to join this family!" Then he walked out and shut the door, all in one smooth motion, paying no mind to Hei Xia standing there dumbstruck.
It was the first time Blind Man had encountered someone so shameless. He'd thought Yu Zhi was thin-skinned, only to run into a steel plate and have his words bounce back and slap him in the face.
"Don't be mad, don't be mad. I'll admit I've got a filthy mouth. I'll go clean my room." With that, he dashed into the room to the left of Zhang Qiling's.
"Tch." When it came to a filthy mouth, Yu Zhi could hold his own too.
Listening to the two of them clown around outside, Zhang Qiling gradually recovered from the shock of seeing Yu Zhi conjure a notebook out of thin air.
He looked at the familiar symbols on the cover. This was his. Then he opened it solemnly.