Chapter 37#

Hua Jinian gritted his teeth and closed his eyes in the secret room, waiting for death, when he suddenly felt the wooden platform beneath him move. Purple poisonous smoke spewed out again, and the faint swishing sound of arrows being fired seemed to come from outside the secret room. Before he had time to be surprised, he felt the wooden platform carrying him sink rapidly downwards, falling into endless darkness.

Hua Jinian was woken up by the sound of birds. He smelled the fragrance of flowers, the dew-stained air in the morning light, generously provided for breathing. Soft green grass hung low, touching his cheeks as if nothing had happened. Hua Jinian opened his eyes abruptly and saw such a heavenly scenery.

Overhead was a sky as blue as if washed, clouds as white and soft as cotton. A stream full of pink petals flowed gurglingly by his side. Beside the stream was a huge ancient tree, thick enough for ten people to embrace, covered with繁 flowers. Falling petals were colorful, and the fragrance drifted for ten miles.

Where is this? Hua Jinian touched his head and tried to sit up halfway.

Where is father?

The young man’s face was full of confusion, and he stood up unsteadily. He remembered that he had been abandoned not long ago, thinking that parting meant life and death. He was still gritting his teeth, forcing himself not to cry, not to tremble, not to resent. But he was sent into a brightness that seemed like a lifetime away.

In this instant, his mind was blank. He didn’t know what identity he existed in this scenery, he didn’t know where he was going, what to do. Until the man’s habitual half-mocking and half-self-mocking smile flashed through his mind, he vaguely understood what that smile meant. For a person who was ready to face death, this sudden survival should be joyful, but he was not happy at all.

More than unhappy. Hua Jinian stood there in a trance, then squatted down, half-kneeling on the ground, scratching the soil on the ground with his hands, seeming to want to dig out the exit that was sealed after he came out. He dug subconsciously like this, scratching, even forgetting to use some internal force, the strength on his hands increasing bit by bit. Until his fingernails broke, he still refused to stop.

Thin streams of blood flowed into the soil along his scarred fingers. The soil layer originally covered with lush grass under his feet was dug open in a disorderly manner, but the layer under the soil was actually a hideous and hard rock layer. Digging further down, there were probably heavy artificial stone slabs. Even with gunpowder, it would be difficult to blast a gap on it.

Hua Jinian knelt in the mud. His originally spotless clothes were covered with brown mud marks and light green grass juice. His hair was scattered messily on his pale face, his eyes unable to find focus. He looked silently like this for a long time, then laughed softly to himself and said: “Father… you must think I’m terrible, describing you like that…”

When he said these words, the sentences were chaotic and upside down, and even his voice was choked with sobs, seeming to be on the verge of collapse. He panted and laughed for a long time before continuing in a low voice: “I’m terrible, right? That’s right, I actually never thought of sacrificing myself to save you. I was just saying it, to make you think I’m filial, to make you think you didn’t jump down in vain, and then treat me better… I actually wanted to live with you, live together, die together… But if I knew it would become like this, I… I… what’s the point of me living?”

When he said “live together, die together”, he choked so much that he could hardly speak. He clutched his chest tightly with one hand, seeming to want to dig out that painful thing. He thought he would wail loudly, but he didn’t. His eyes were dry. After taking a deep breath for a while, he gradually calmed down.

He looked up blankly for a while, seeing the Huanhua Creek flowing quietly in front of him. Scenes of them together by the creek in the past flashed through his mind. He laughed softly again: “I seem to have never understood what you were thinking.” As he spoke, a faint blush actually appeared on his pale face: “Even so, I remember everything we did together. It’s so good that I became your son, otherwise how would you even look at me…”

The more he spoke, the more confused his words became, almost like the ravings of a fool. He looked back blankly at the pit he had dug, then blushed slightly and whispered: “Wait for me, I’m coming to find you right away.” As he spoke, he saw a large stone by the creek, so he stumbled over, tied his feet with his belt, then tore a long strip of cloth from his hem with force, tied the stone firmly, tied a dead knot, and then with difficulty tied the other end of the cloth to his hands. Hua Jinian panted for a while, looked at the stream full of petals, and repeated with a sigh: “Father, father… Jinian is coming to find you…”

He said with a sigh, and jumped forward. The stone was pulled and fell into the water with him. After a huge splash, the young man quickly sank to the bottom of the creek. Pink petals slowly rose in the dark stream water, pale robes and hair swaying softly in the water, strings of bubbles swimming upwards. Mouthfuls of ice water poured into the young man’s mouth. Hua Jinian struggled subconsciously for a while, but soon, his limbs gradually began to stretch from curling up. The petal-covered stream water quickly covered all traces—

Just then, footsteps came from a distance, getting louder and louder, until they reached the creek side, then stopped. Then, a female voice extremely familiar to the young man came vaguely through the cold water: “All dead, haha, dead, they are all dead…”

“Miss, Miss, did you see? Before I could say anything to them, they all died—tell me, should I save them, tell them the truth, or continue to hide the secret in my stomach… Miss, Cui’er is also going crazy from holding it in. If I don’t say it, Cui’er will go crazy. Cui’er will go save them!”

Hua Jinian was extremely surprised to hear this in the water. It was like seeing a glimmer of dawn after being blind for a long time. All confusion, grief, hunger, and fatigue were soothed, and the will to survive and hope were ignited again. He couldn’t let her go! Thinking this, he also began to struggle hard in the water. But the lack of oxygen made his head split with pain, his limbs weak. He only regretted now that he had tied his hands and feet so tightly. His internal force was already discounted due to damaged martial arts, and was exhausted due to continuous physical exertion. The young man could only force himself to try to break free from these sturdy cloths.

Hua Jinian exerted force with his hands and feet one by one, letting out hoarse moans. Strings of bubbles escaped from his mouth and rushed to the water surface. Red marks a finger high were quickly strangled on his hands. He gritted his silver teeth, kicked the big stone hard with his legs, and pulled upwards with his hands at the same time, hoping to tear the cloth, but only deepened the strangle marks on his wrists again and again. The last breath in his chest was quickly exhausted. The young man’s head was buzzing, his lungs felt like they were going to explode. This pain made him open his mouth unconsciously, wanting to breathe a mouthful of fresh air, but choked on mouthfuls of bone-chilling stream water.

Cold water poured in from his nose, an extremely uncomfortable taste. The experience of drowning six years ago lingered in front of his eyes. Struggling was futile, dying soon. Hua Jinian seemed to feel the breath of death kissing his throat. Living unclearly, dying unwillingly, ending his life like this? He was unwilling. He didn’t care about any facts or truth. At this moment, the only persistence beating in his heart roared and cried with a deafening voice: Then, like that person saved him, use these hands to save that hateful man—

Hua Jinian whimpered in a low voice, his neck leaning back. A few traces of blood overflowed from under his skin, slowly diffusing into the water, staining it a faint red. A muffled sound of tearing silk finally rang out. As soon as his hands were free, he tore off the restraints on his feet in a sorry state, and stood up unsteadily from the water. Tianxiang obviously didn’t expect someone to be in this petal-covered creek. The crazy laughter in her mouth stopped abruptly, her face turned pale instantly, and she stumbled back, seeming to want to escape something.

“Don’t go.” Hua Jinian panted heavily, reaching out to her soaked all over, wailing: “Don’t go, Sister Tianxiang, save him, please save him.”

The woman shouted with a pale face: “You’re not dead! Go away! Go away!”

“Who is Miss? My mother? That’s right… I heard that you were her little maid.” Hua Jinian stumbled towards the shore, trying to pull the woman’s hand. His hair was stained with crystal water droplets, and his cheeks were frozen with a layer of faint crimson: “Since she is my mother, how could she stop you from saving my father.”

“How is it impossible! What do you know?” Tianxiang roared hoarsely. She took another step back, stepped on her long skirt, and fell to the ground in a sorry state. She moved backward with her elbows, trying her best to stay away from the young man, but was firmly grabbed by the equally crazy young man. “Save him…” the young man begged desperately and persistently.

Tianxiang looked at the young man distractedly with a hoarse voice, muttering non-stop: Miss won’t agree, Miss won’t agree. Seeming to find some strength from this sentence, after an unknown amount of time, Tianxiang’s expression gradually calmed down, looking at the young man with a creepy gentle gaze: “How could I bear not to agree to you, but before that, you have to listen to me finish three reasons why you can’t save him. After you listen, if you still insist on saving him, I will tell you a way to ensure you can return to this underground palace.”

Hua Jinian was first ecstatic, then hesitated: “Three reasons? But father can’t wait anymore.”

Tianxiang stood up unhappily, flicking her sleeves, and sneered: “Then you don’t have to listen, go find the way out yourself.” She looked at the young man’s pale face, suddenly smiled charmingly again, and mocked: “Don’t worry, that man has been playing hide-and-seek in this underground palace since he was six years old… He remembers the secret passages and mechanisms inside better than anyone else. Even if it’s a sea of fire and a mountain of knives, he has a way to survive.”

Hua Jinian frowned in endurance. He intuitively felt the gloomy murderous aura on this woman, and knew even more that she was saying the opposite to provoke him, but he was unwilling to give up the last chance, so he gritted his teeth and smiled bitterly: “It’s a deal. You speak, I listen.”

Tianxiang sat down again with a smile, and laughed slowly in a low voice: “The first reason is that you shouldn’t save him.”

Hua Jinian smiled bitterly: “He is my father, you say I shouldn’t save him?”

This woman seemed to be deliberately stalling for time. Every word had to be carefully considered in her mouth before being spat out slowly: “You only remember your father, have you forgotten that you also have a mother? Miss she, and Hua Qianjue, have an irreconcilable hatred. Do you remember her name? She was called Fang Hongyi, the Hongyi of the Fang family, the daughter of Hall Master Fang of the Iron Goose Hall in Qingzhou…”

Tianxiang said, smiling charmingly with red eyes: “You’ve heard of it, right? You’ve heard of this matter, the Iron Goose Hall in Qingzhou—”

Hua Jinian was stunned for a long time, suddenly shaking off Tianxiang’s sleeve in horror like touching something dirty, falling backwards, looking at the woman with a deathly pale face. Hua Qianjue’s casual threats from a few years ago gradually surfaced in his memory: Jinian, do you know what happened to the last person who didn’t want to see me? That time, the Qingzhou branch was in turmoil. After I quelled the internal strife, the original old Hall Master Fang of the Iron Goose Hall refused to see me just like you, staring at a pillar. I had someone set up a pot of oil behind him. When the oil boiled, I had someone cut off his nose and throw it into the pot to cook. Afterwards, I had someone cut open the corners of his mouth all the way to his ears, and then stuffed his cooked nose into his mouth. I asked him: ‘Is it delicious? How does it taste?’… And his daughters, one I awarded to the servants on the spot, the other I brought back to the fortress…

Tianxiang stared at the young man’s expression with great interest, her face slightly twisted, seeming to be tasting the pain of memory and the bliss of bloodlust at the same time. She smiled and said softly: “Master was wronged. He was upright all his life, but Hua Qianjue just indiscriminately… cruelly… killed him. I was kneeling there at the time, watching helplessly as Master was torn apart bit by bit. Miss Hongyi was also there. We were all kneeling there. Second Miss was outside the hall, Master was inside the hall… Hee hee, Master was dismembered alive inside the hall, Second Miss was… by countless people outside the hall… Miss and I knelt in the central hall, listening to the sounds in front and behind us. In front and behind were blood, hell… Hee hee, Cui’er didn’t dare to look at the time, but I had to look, had to remember it firmly.”

Tianxiang bit her sleeve with her white teeth, her shoulders trembling non-stop from her charming laughter. She smiled and said: “At that time, Miss told me, she said, Cui’er, we want revenge—”

It took Hua Jinian a long time to find his voice: “And then?”

Tianxiang raised her head, tilting it to stare at the young man for a long time. Her eyes must have been very beautiful in the past, especially the faint smile filled with tears, but it made people feel terrible and sorrowful. She smiled and said: “Do you really think you should save him? For his fickleness and your casual favor? That person is an evil ghost returned from hell. The people he has killed are enough to dye a river red. You only know you have a father, but do you know that thousands of people also have a father? But their fathers have all become souls under the knife. Those people cried their eyes blind, but couldn’t bring back their relatives wandering in the Department of Unjust Deaths day and night—”

Tianxiang asked him word by word: “Jinian, tell me, should a devil like him be saved? Think about your mother who died covered in blood, think about those people whose families were destroyed overnight. Do you know how many people in Luoying Valley are pierced by random arrows at this moment? Think about who these deceased people died because of. Jinian, Little Young Master… don’t let those evil thoughts blind your eyes. You are kinder than anyone else, you are kinder than anyone else… how can you bear to sit and watch these tragedies repeat?”

Hua Jinian trembled, and it took a long time to find his voice. He pretended not to care and forced a laugh: “You are really ridiculous. I am kind? Do you think my hands are clean? The weak are killed, the strong kill. You’d better finish all your reasons at once… If someone really has to bear the fault for these crimes, it’s better for the son to pay for the father’s debts.”

Tianxiang seemed to have expected his refusal, and laughed in a low voice: “The second reason is that you cannot save him.”