NHWSG chapter 35

Apart from the sudden heavy rain in Shanghai and the earthquake in Yunnan, there were also several inexplicable mudslides in the western part of Hunan Province.

These pieces of news didn’t seem significant separately, but when put together, they appeared highly abnormal.

Sheng Zhao spent the whole afternoon almost scouring the entire Huaxia region for extreme weather conditions, then eliminated some normal occurrences, and refined these pieces of news one by one.

From the timing of these occurrences, these abnormal situations all happened within the past day or two. Combined with what Zhang Jian said, it seemed like something had arranged to come out for a spring outing within these short two days.

Zhang Jian was already tight on time in Shanghai. Although Hu Huanyang was nominally a fox spirit of over a thousand years, in the eyes of that dragon, he was just a little kid. His help was very limited. At most, he could maintain some order. Trying to seal the dragon back was just wishful thinking.

According to what Zhang Jian told Xing Yingzhuo, he had already sent word back to Tianshi Mountain and called his fellow disciples to come down the mountain to help. They would first go to these places to check the situation. However, how to solve these matters specifically would probably still depend on Xing Yingzhuo.

Sheng Zhao felt this was reasonable. After all, in terms of age, Xing Yingzhuo was probably the oldest among the surviving monsters. Although he didn’t know if there were any effects on him after he turned from a dragon to a snake, it was definitely better than Zhang Jian, who had only been alive for twenty-something years in a human body.

Fortunately, after hearing the news this time, Xing Yingzhuo didn’t directly refuse, but hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

Zhang Jian couldn’t understand this monster’s character, so he immediately called back in a panic. This time, Sheng Zhao answered the call, comforted him for a bit, saying that since Xing Yingzhuo didn’t refuse, it meant he agreed. He told Zhang Jian not to worry and wait until Xing Yingzhuo finished his business in Suzhou before discussing it further.

Perhaps because they were both human, or perhaps because Zhang Jian trusted Sheng Zhao’s influence in front of Xing Yingzhuo, anyway, after hearing this, Zhang Jian felt much more at ease and didn’t say much more. He just instructed Sheng Zhao to be careful and stay in touch.

The rest of the afternoon, Sheng Zhao was busy collecting information. By the time the sun set, Xing Yingzhuo finally woke up from his nap. Sheng Zhao had already filled several pages of his notebook with notes.

Xing Yingzhuo first washed his face in the bathroom, took a quick shower, then came out barefoot and stood by Sheng Zhao’s bed, picking up his notebook.

Sheng Zhao was wearing earphones and writing, completely unaware that Xing Yingzhuo had woken up. He was startled when someone snatched his notebook away unexpectedly, leaving a long stroke on the paper with his pen.

“What’s this?” Xing Yingzhuo asked.

“A list,” Sheng Zhao said, “These are the places where extreme weather or natural disasters have occurred in the past few days. I showed it to Zhang Jian, and he marked a few places, leaving only these—wait, why aren’t you wearing shoes?”

There was a long water mark on the floor behind Xing Yingzhuo. He liked moisture and naturally didn’t feel cold.

But Sheng Zhao, like a “mother who feels cold for you”, subconsciously pushed his slippers down, climbed onto the bed, and said, “Put on your shoes quickly. It’s almost winter, be careful—”

Sheng Zhao wanted to say “be careful of catching a cold”, but before the words came out, he realized that the big monster in front of him had no legs at all.

“…Take care of your tail too,” Sheng Zhao squeezed out a slightly embarrassed smile and changed his words seriously, “After all, it’s all made of bones. There’s not much difference between leg bones and tail bones.”

Xing Yingzhuo raised an eyebrow and curled his lips. Sheng Zhao thought he was going to mock him again, but Xing Yingzhuo didn’t say anything and actually stepped on Sheng Zhao’s slipper face.

“What did Zhang Jian say?” Xing Yingzhuo asked.

“He said, if possible, he hopes you can visit these places one by one. It would be best if you can resolve the situation,” Sheng Zhao said.

Xing Yingzhuo frowned unhappily.

Seeing his expression, Sheng Zhao knew his answer was “no”, so he quickly added the next sentence.

“Of course, he said he doesn’t insist. If you’re unwilling, you can help find a solution instead,” Sheng Zhao said, “He said he’s inexperienced and has no way to deal with it. He can only ask for your help and hopes you won’t hold a grudge against him and lend him a hand.”

Of course, the latter part of the sentence was purely Sheng Zhao’s “polishing” to persuade Xing Yingzhuo, a friendly touch.

Zhang Jian in Shanghai sneezed twice in a row, inexplicably looked at Hu Huanyang beside him, and received a tissue with a green tea fragrance.

Xing Yingzhuo put down the notebook page in his hand, gently kicked Sheng Zhao’s leg hanging outside the bed, and said, “Stop blabbering, get up and get dressed, we’re leaving.”

Sheng Zhao climbed up from the bed in one go, sat on the bed looking up at Xing Yingzhuo, and inexplicably said, “Where are we going?”

“To the places you decided on this afternoon,” Xing Yingzhuo said.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

But that was a tourist attraction that closed at five in the afternoon—

This sentence turned in Sheng Zhao’s mind three times, but he didn’t say it out loud.

Anyway,Xing Yingzhuo’s reputation as an outlaw was already established. One more or one less break-in didn’t make much of a difference. Thirty-six hours ago, Sheng Zhao was still a law-abiding young man. Now, his Schrödinger’s sentence had accumulated to six months of detention, and one more or one less break-in didn’t matter much.

Thinking of this, even Sheng Zhao himself was shocked by his own thought process—he could be described as abnormal in his acceptance. Not only did he follow a monster boss around like a shadow, but now he was even about to be assimilated by him.

This won’t do, this won’t do, he shook his head, thinking that Xing Yingzhuo could ignore human laws, but he couldn’t, so he should be careful.

The place Sheng Zhao randomly picked in the afternoon was a Taoist temple on a lively commercial street in Suzhou.

They left the house after eight o’clock in the evening. The street was still brightly lit and bustling. Although Xing Yingzhuo didn’t care about breaking and entering, he cared about showing his face in front of humans. So he impatiently dragged Sheng Zhao around the streets several times to kill time.

However, to be honest, although Xing Yingzhuo was handsome, he looked like he was in debt, which was quite alarming. He emitted a signal of “bad mood” all over his body, to the extent that pedestrians subconsciously walked two steps farther when they saw him, except for Sheng Zhao, who persistently walked beside him despite the freezing low pressure.

They wandered around for a full three hours before all the shops on the street closed.

“But that’s a Taoist temple.” Sheng Zhao said worriedly, “I checked online, this Taoist temple has been here for many years. Is it safe for you to go in?”

Xing Yingzhuo gave him a disdainful look, said nothing, and pulled him into the side entrance.

The main halls of the Taoist temple that required tickets were already locked. Sheng Zhao looked around nervously, afraid that a security guard might suddenly appear and catch them red-handed.

But who knew that Xing Yingzhuo didn’t do any outlaw activities this time. He circled around the main hall of the Taoist temple, looking like he had no intention of going in but instead led Sheng Zhao to the back.

Apart from several main halls for worshiping gods, the rest of the Taoist temple was mostly open to visitors, and there were no guards at night. Sheng Zhao breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Xing Yingzhuo didn’t intend to pick the lock. He felt a bit strange in his heart, not knowing if it was disappointment or what.

Xing Yingzhuo’s steps finally stopped beside a stone statue of a tortoise and camel in the backyard. The stone statue was located at a corner behind the main hall, surrounded by ankle-high weeds, and looked like it was rarely attended to.

“What is this?” Sheng Zhao asked.

“You’re asking about this sculpture?” Xing Yingzhuo said, “It’s a bixi.”

Sheng Zhao scrutinized the piece of stone for a while but couldn’t see anything special about it.

“Is there anything special about it?” he asked again.

This time Xing Yingzhuo didn’t answer. He glanced around privately to make sure there was no one nearby before reaching out his hand and patting the stone monument skillfully.

From Sheng Zhao’s perspective, it didn’t look like he was patting a cold stone sculpture, but rather the shoulder of an old friend.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

I have a guess, Sheng Zhao thought numbly.

Before he could answer his own question in his mind, his guess came true.

Suddenly, the stone monument under Xing Yingzhuo’s hand vibrated without warning. It was clearly a heavy solid stone, but it trembled in place, causing the surrounding land to shake violently.

Sheng Zhao lost his balance and couldn’t maintain his footing, staggering backward, but Xing Yingzhuo caught him in one go.

“Eat more calcium tablets.” Xing Yingzhuo said, “You’re so weak at such a young age.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

You’re weak, your whole family is weak!

While Sheng Zhao was mentally complaining, Xing Yingzhuo had already “lifted” him back to the ground and helped him stand by pressing on his shoulders.

In that instant, Sheng Zhao noticed that the dull gray stone sculpture suddenly emitted a layer of milky-white fluorescence without warning. After a moment, the light seemed to peel off like a film, floating down from the stone sculpture and forming a slender human figure in mid-air.

This way of appearing was obviously much more subtle than Sheng Zhao had imagined, so besides being shocked, he didn’t feel any fear.

Of course, it might also be because Xing Yingzhuo was standing behind him, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

The halo quickly integrated into the appearance of a young man, with a gentle and jade-like face, wearing an extremely retro long gown, and smiling, forming a sharp contrast with Xing Yingzhuo’s expression.

“Um… Mr. Bixi.” Sheng Zhao tried to soften Xing Yingzhuo’s attitude, “Hello.”

“I’m not Bixi, just temporarily staying in this stone statue.” The young man said kindly, “I’m just a tortoise, Mr, you can call me Chenwu.”

It was the first time in Sheng Zhao’s life that he had been formally addressed as Mr. He felt a bit floaty, unable to really distinguish what was what, and could only tug at Xing Yingzhuo’s clothes from behind, gesturing for him to speak quickly.

Chenwu finished responding politely to Sheng Zhao’s words, then patted his sleeve, gracefully stepped back, bowed to Xing Yingzhuo, and said, “Long time no see, you’re still as splendid as ever.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

What’s this, he thought the guy was quite elegant just now, turns out he’s also a rainbow fart reserve.