Unspoken Understanding

It was not until the evening of the third day that a travel-worn Hei Xiazi pushed open the gate to the little courtyard.

The courtyard he saw was empty. Fortunately, the food he had prepared showed signs of having been touched.

"Mute, I'm back! Something very serious has happened. Come out, quickly!"

Hei Xiazi had brought back a very important piece of news this time. There was definitely more to it than met the eye; he just didn't know whether it had anything to do with Mute and Xiao Yu.

"Mute, I'm back! I've got something big to tell you." Hei Xiazi raised his voice and shouted again from outside their door.

He reached out and put a hand on the door, then hesitated. He had intended to push straight in, but the thought of what he had seen last time made his poor little heart feel like it couldn't take another shock. Better to announce himself. What if, just what if, he saw Mute molesting Xiao Yu's body again? He'd better pretend he hadn't seen it.

"Come in. Close the door." The voice reached his ears through the door and sounded perfectly normal. But normal was the biggest abnormality of all!

"Mute, you remember now?" The room looked all right, perfectly normal. The Jade Cocoon lay on the inner side of the bed, though he couldn't see it clearly. Zhang Qiling sat on the outer side, staring into space? In any case, his eyes were fixed on the view outside the window, and he was as motionless as a statue.

"Blind Man brought some tails back. There are probably four or five people around the courtyard. How about you two go outside to talk? Otherwise, that bunch won't be able to hear you. Put on a convincing act in a bit, and don't give the game away," Yu Zhi instructed him in his sea of consciousness.

"Outside." Zhang Qiling stood up, picked up the Jade Cocoon, and went straight out.

"I mean, Mute, are you fucking messing with me? If you were going outside, why did you tell me to come in and close the door?" Blind Man's eyes had practically rolled up to the heavens. If he could beat him, he'd definitely give him a thrashing. Damn, he was angry. He had to hurry up and cultivate so he could crush him with sheer strength!

"What is it?" Zhang Qiling's reply was as brief and abrupt a change of subject as ever.

"Zhang Qishan has something wrong with his body. I saw him from a distance. His hair has grown as long as a woman's, his nails are long too, and unless my nose was mistaken, there was a strange fragrance on him." Hei Xiazi recalled the sight and described it, then paused for two seconds, weighing the possibilities. "I think it definitely has something to do with the Longevity Pill Wu Sansheng and the others brought back. What do you think, Mute?"

"Oh? It's taken effect that quickly? Is it because his physical condition was so poor?" Yu Zhi gloated. This really was good news.

Hearing voices in his ears and his sea of consciousness at the same time, Zhang Qiling nodded instinctively. His brain froze up for a moment. Fortunately, Blind Man's words didn't need an answer, so he discussed it with Yu Zhi instead. "Probably. The Corpse Bug Pill's transformation takes time. People with stronger constitutions take longer to show symptoms. Zhang Qishan's oil had run out and his lamp was flickering; that's why he changed so quickly."

Seeing Zhang Qiling actually nod in response, Hei Xiazi thought there was hope. Mute was definitely getting better, little by little.

"There's one more thing. Wu Xie was born prematurely."

"What day?" Yu Zhi asked in the sea of consciousness.

"What day?" This time, Zhang Qiling repeated Yu Zhi's question after hearing it.

"In August, just a few days ago. I didn't ask exactly which day. Hehe, I knew you'd care about that." Hei Xiazi's tail was practically sticking up in the air.

Yu Zhi was stunned. So the False Queen Mother of the West's reincarnation meant she was born as soon as she went in? "A few days ago? Then wasn't that when we... when Qi Yu went over, he was born right away?"

"Probably, to avoid complications." He agreed with that explanation.

Zhang Qiling and Yu Zhi began another round of conversation in their minds.

Watching Zhang Qiling stop responding again, Hei Xiazi was used to it by now and continued on his own. "A whole bunch of tails followed me back. They were probably trying to find out how you're doing. I shook off a group of them, but I probably didn't lose them all. Listen, Mute, what on earth happened to Xiao Yu? Tell me the truth. I'm worried. Whatever it is, we can solve it together."

"I told you, he isn't dead. He's just asleep. He's just asleep!" Zhang Qiling suddenly shouted, his voice full of anger, giving Hei Xiazi a fright. Yet his expression was calm, and his eyes gestured toward the outside.

He hasn't developed a split personality, has he?

The sudden shout and the look in his eyes gave him a vague sense that something wasn't right. The tacit understanding they had built over so many years made him go along with Zhang Qiling and keep up the act.

"I'm doing this for your own good! You carry a dead man around every day. How long are you going to keep holding him? Let him rest in peace in the ground!" Hei Xiazi roared back with unusual anger, sounding as if his good intentions had been fed to a donkey as liver and lungs.

"Get out."

"Fine, fine, fine! I won't bother with you anymore. You're on your own!" With that, he took off his sunglasses, winked at Zhang Qiling, then angrily pushed open the door and left the courtyard.

Blind Man thought there was definitely something up with Mute. He absolutely hadn't lost his memory. That guy had been playing him.

"Well, Master Hei, fancy seeing you here!"

"Who are you?" Hei Xiazi kept up his angry act, looking at the newcomer with a stern face and speaking in an unfriendly tone.

It seemed this was the tail Mute wanted. Sure enough, he couldn't keep his cool and had taken the bait.

He would see who had sent this man.

That night, a dark figure quietly slipped into the courtyard house, gently pushed open the door, and darted inside without making a sound.

"Mute, what's going on? Hurry up and tell me." Hei Xiazi stared straight at Zhang Qiling with eyes as wide as a bull's, looking ready to throw himself on the ground and make a scene the next moment if he didn't get an answer.

"Bring him into the space. Stick to what we discussed before, and don't give the game away. Make your expression more serious," Yu Zhi said to Zhang Qiling in his sea of consciousness.

"Don't move." Zhang Qiling stepped forward and grabbed Blind Man's shoulder. With a thought, the two of them... no, the three of them entered the space. Zhang Qiling was still holding one in his arms.

"Mute, you got your hands on so many good things behind my back. Blind Man's heart is hurting so badly." Hei Xiazi looked ready to cry, make a fuss, and threaten to hang himself.

He knew Yu Zhi had a space for storing things, but he hadn't expected Mute's to be so amazing that they could even come inside.

The result was that the other man paid him no attention at all.

"Poor Blind Man here has been so worried about you these past few days that I couldn't eat or sleep. I even made a long trip to find out what was going on for you, and this is how you treat me? You even put on an act to fool me!"

When Hei Xiazi pulled a handkerchief out of who knew where, sat on the ground, and began sniffling and pretending to cry as he wiped away his tears, even Yu Zhi's soul was starting to become unstable.

"Stop teasing him and carry on. He's making my head ache." The main thing was that Yu Zhi had no mouth right now and couldn't curse him out, leaving him feeling stifled.

"I haven't lost my memory." Zhang Qiling was as obedient as could be; whatever his wife said went.

"Then what happened to Xiao Yu? What did you two run into?" Hei Xiazi turned serious for a second.

"He really is dead, Blind Man. We ran into the False Queen Mother of the West. The Queen Mother of the West drew Yu Zhi's soul out, and he's been reincarnated as Wu Xie now." When Zhang Qiling acted, he was at the level of a best actor, making those who heard him grieve and bringing them to tears.

"What the hell? Are you fucking taking me for an idiot?" Hei Xiazi couldn't hold back the outburst, but those sincere eyes met his without flinching, full of hatred and heartache, and the Jade Cocoon in his arms was motionless too. He became a little uncertain again.

"I don't believe Xiao Yu is dead. Let me see the Jade Cocoon. I'll only believe it when I've seen him."

"Five seconds."

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."

Hei Xiazi believed it now. After checking again and again, he confirmed that it really was a corpse, only it was inside the Jade Cocoon, where vitality was abundant.

"I still don't believe it. And my intuition can't be wrong. I went to see that Wu Xie, and he's definitely not Xiao Yu, definitely not." Hei Xiazi overturned his earlier guess. Then inspiration struck, and he knew.

"Mute, your acting really is good. Even I was almost taken in. But you forgot one very important thing. Even if he really had become Wu Xie, you definitely wouldn't just stay with his body. Knowing you, you'd take the body with you and stay by Wu Xie's side."

"Let me guess. You ran into the False Queen Mother of the West, and that really was how things stood at first, but Xiao Yu used some method, didn't he? You also used Blind Man to gather information, which means there's an unknown enemy, and you want to draw out whoever's behind this. You still need me to act next. You put on that falling-out today, and someone's going to come try to recruit me, right?" Though he phrased it as a question, the triumphant look in his eyes, so sure he had guessed everything, practically said: Mute is still too green. Your big brother is an old hand!

Zhang Qiling remained unmoved by the eight winds, revealing not the slightest flaw, neither denying nor confirming it.

"All right, since you're so pitiful, Blind Man will take this job. But let's get one thing straight first: don't shortchange me! Oh, and tell Xiao Yu to get me a space too next time. I'll use it to store rice topped with stir-fried shredded pork and green peppers."

"Blind Man will throw in another piece of good news for free. Someone really did come up and talk to me. Once I sound him out some more, I'll tell you!"

As their conversation reached this point, the two understood each other without another word.

Yu Zhi also found the way the two communicated novel. It truly was one of a kind. No wonder they had become brothers!