Although Sheng Zhao understood that Xing Yingzhuo’s “liking” was probably just a literal meaning, he couldn’t help but feel delighted from the ambiguous words.
After all, ever since his grandparents passed away, it had been a long time since anyone treated him as a special treasure.
“Stay with me, live in my building,” Xing Yingzhu’s tone was gentle, almost seductive, as he said, “Work with me to manage those little tax evading rascals until the end of your life.”
Xing Yingzhu paused, making sure Sheng Zhao was listening attentively before finally asking, “Do you want to?”
For a moment, Sheng Zhao could only nod.
He didn’t know what to say. Clearly, Xing Yingzhu was a demon who had lived for tens of millions of years, and a hundred years of human life was but a moment for him. However, when he asked the question so seriously, it made Sheng Zhao feel like he wasn’t just a passing fancy.
He was serious, Sheng Zhao thought. Regardless of whether Xing Yingzhuo himself would admit it or not, at least in this moment, in this lifetime, he was serious about him.
However, every time Sheng felt touched, his thoughts would strangely divert to some odd tangent.
With a heart full of enthusiasm, Sheng Zhao looked at Xing Yingzhu tearfully for a moment and asked, “So, does that mean I have a permanent employment position now?”
Xing Yingzhu: “…”
—Is that the main point here?
Xing Yingzhuo was teased to impatience by him. Sheng Zhao’s reflexive crisis response instantly overshadowed his overwhelmed feelings, and his alertness regained dominance.
“Whether there’s a position or not, I’m willing!” Sheng Zhao hastily said, “I do, I do, very much so!”
Xing Yingzhu: “…”
Xing Yingzhuo was almost amused by him.
He even felt that if Sheng Zhao’s infuriating talent continued to develop limitlessly, he would soon be able to eliminate evils for the people in another way.
By then, Mount Longhu would surely award him a huge banner with the words “Light of Humanity” written on it.
The big snake twisted its body and slipped into the water for a moment. Sheng Zhao wiped the water droplets off his face and found that the snake had finally transformed back into a handsome man.
This visual effect was much stronger than before. Sheng Zhao hesitated for a moment, but couldn’t resist the desire in his heart. He leaned towards Xing Yingzhu and kissed him.
Xing Yingzhu pushed his shoulder with a look of disdain and said, “Get off, you’ll annoy me to death.”
“That won’t do,” Sheng Zhao said, “If you die of annoyance, I’ll become a widow.”
Xing Yingzhu: “…”
This shameless little thing!
They had been out for quite a while, playing around with each other, and their clothes were thoroughly wet. Xing Yingzhu didn’t mind, as his clothes dried almost instantly once he got out of the water. However, as an ordinary mortal, Sheng Zhao’s clothes were not only wet but also torn apart. In the end, he had to borrow Xing Yingzhuo’s coat temporarily.
Xing Yingzhu brought him to Qingyun Waterfall behind Tianmen Mountain. There were no villages or shops nearby, and the cliff was seven to eight hundred meters high. Fortunately, Xing Yingzhuo didn’t make Sheng Zhao walk back due to his stubbornness but kindly gave him a ride.
However, despite having Xing Yingzhu’s escort, Sheng Zhao’s soaked appearance still stood out. Besides providing him with some shelter from the wind and rain, the coat from Xing Yingzhu served almost no other purpose than to suggest that the two of them had been up to no good.
In such a situation, Sheng Zhao couldn’t bring himself to flaunt it, so he awkwardly accompanied Xing Yingzhu along a deserted mountain path, circling back to their lodging from the back of the mountain.
Fortunately, Zhang Chengde, knowing that Xing Yingzhu was with him, managed to play dumb for half a day, effectively preventing Zhang Jian and Hu Huanyang from coming out to find them, barely saving face.
Sheng Zhao and Xing Yingzhu disappeared for most of the day until dinner time when Hu Huanyang finally saw his missing relative again.
“Why are you staring at me?” Sheng Zhao returned to the table with his bowl, giving Hu Huanyang a strange look.
Xing Yingzhu and Zhang Chengde were not eating in this room. They were acting mysteriously, and in the late afternoon, around four o’clock, Zhang Chengde sent a disciple to fetch Xing Yingzhu.
Initially, Sheng Zhao didn’t want Xing Yingzhu to go out due to the injury on his tail, but Xing Yingzhu’s “good boy” made him relent. Helplessly, Sheng Zhao could only play the role of a good and virtuous boyfriend—after all, he was the one who said it, and losing face wouldn’t be good.
“Master Zhang said you went to contemplate the true meaning of life this afternoon,” Hu Huanyang said, shaking his head and swinging his chopsticks, “So Xiao Zhao, what did you contemplate?”
Sheng Zhao thought to himself, How would I know what I contemplated? Zhang Chengde just casually made up that story, and you actually believed it.
“Nothing much, just thought about things from my past life,” Sheng Zhao said, pushing a plate of green beans towards Hu Huanyang and leaving himself an empty space for his bowl, sitting down and picking up a pair of chopsticks.
Hu Huanyang, the gossip enthusiast, didn’t stop. Hearing this, he blinked expectantly and curiously asked Sheng Zhao, “So, did you remember things from your past life?”
“Mhh,” Sheng Zhao said.
Although Zhang Chengde said it was his “privacy,” Sheng Zhao didn’t think much of it. After some thought, he simply told Hu Huanyang the story of “Wen Sheng” as if it were just a tale.
Moreover, on the way back from Qingyun Waterfall, Xing Yingzhuo didn’t tease him anymore and filled in the missing part of the story.
Wen Sheng had compiled a list back then, but according to Xing Yingzhuo, demons also had their own rules. There were good and bad demons, and at that time, Mount Longhu indiscriminately imprisoned all demons together, causing resentment to accumulate in the mountains. If not sorted out in time, thunder would strike in a hundred years.
By then, no one would be spared.
So, Wen Sheng compiled the list back then, which was equivalent to removing the rotten flesh for the demon race. Saving the lives of those demons wasn’t wrong.
“Besides, every realm has its rules,” Xing Yingzhu said lightly at the time. “There are demons in the demon realm who don’t want to harm people. When you woke up Mount Longhu with one blow, it was also intermittently establishing rules for the demon race. Otherwise, it would probably take another hundred or two hundred years for humans and demons to reach a consensus for peaceful coexistence.”
“Moreover, you don’t need to worry.” Xing Yingzhu said, “I can sense that there are still hundreds of prisoners left in Mount Longhu’s Demonic Lock Tower. The list from your past life probably only included those with blood on their hands.”
Sheng Zhao originally thought what he did was unfair, but hearing Xing Yingzhu’s words made him feel much better.
Although it was indeed painful to rot, rotting was necessary for healing, and killing to pay for one’s life was reasonable.
Sheng Zhao was revitalized by Xing Yingzhuo’s words, and when he mentioned this matter again, he felt much more confident.
Although Hu Huanyang was a demon, it seemed that he had the same mindset as Xing Yingzhu. After hearing the story from beginning to end, he nodded convincingly and clapped his hands twice while holding chopsticks.
“Right, you did the right thing,” Hu Huanyang said. “Xiao Zhao, I really didn’t expect that you have been a friend of the demon race since your past life.”
Sheng Zhao: “…”
Why does this sound so strange? It feels like something a neighborhood auntie would say.
“No wonder I feel so close to you whenever I see you,” Hu Huanyang said. “Look, all the demons in our building like you. I used to wonder why, but now I understand. You’ve got a ‘Friend of the Demon Race’ buff stacked on you.”
“But speaking of this,” Sheng Zhao said with his head tilted, “Will things from my past life affect me?”
“Of course,” Hu Huanyang said seriously. “Fate is determined by your soul, not your physical body, so it accumulates. For example, all the unforgettable people you meet in this life must have had some connection with you in the past life, but whether the fate is good or bad, deep or shallow, is uncertain… That’s how karma works.”
Sheng Zhao’s thoughts stirred slightly.
“So, in this life, if I encounter something with deep fate, could it potentially guide me subconsciously to meet certain people again in the next life?” Sheng Zhao asked.
“That’s the principle,” Hu Huanyang nodded and said, “This is governed by rules. For example, your biological parents, who have a deep connection, must have had some fate with you in the past life, but your friends you meet in this life may not necessarily.”
“Well…”
“What?” Hu Huanyang asked.
Sheng Zhao originally wanted to ask about his lover, but after some thought, he decided not to say it.
Xing Yingzhu was a great demon, unlike him. Sheng Zhao didn’t want to make himself appear like a naive teenager who couldn’t get out once he fell in love. So he swallowed the words and didn’t say them.
“Nothing,” Sheng Zhao said, “Let’s eat.”
Across the table, Zhang Jian glanced at him but said nothing.
However, at this moment, in the courtyard of Mount Longhu, inside a simple room, Zhang Chengde had just opened an ancient cabinet and took out a wooden box.
Xing Yingzhu leaned against the door, holding his arms, watching as Zhang Chengde took out a palm-sized piece of dark wood from inside.
The wood was about the length of a finger, rounded on top and square at the bottom, with a formation drawn in cinnabar on the back. This thing seemed to have been left untouched for a long time, with even the patterns on it fading.
“Is this it?” Xing Yingzhu asked.
Zhang Chengde wiped off the dust on the wood and handed it to Xing Yingzhu.
“This is indeed the item,” Zhang Chengde said. “To use it, the user needs to take a strand of hair and a drop of blood, dripping them together in the plate. In this way, even if the person reincarnates, they will be drawn back by the reincarnation plate.”
Xing Yingzhu rubbed the piece of wood for a moment, then smiled mysteriously.
“What, you didn’t want to give it to me earlier, but now you’ve changed your mind after just an afternoon?” Xing Yingzhu asked.
“In the end, it depends on Xiao Zhao’s own opinion,” Zhang Chengde said ambiguously. “If he is willing to agree, then I have no position to intervene.”
Xing Yingzhu didn’t comment on this answer. He casually tossed the wood into the air, then put it in his pocket, without saying whether he would use it or not, and then walked away.
Watching his back, Zhang Chengde felt unusually puzzled.
He didn’t tell Xing Yingzhu the truth.
The reason he changed his mind was actually because he had cast another fate reading for Sheng Zhao in the afternoon.
In the eyes of people like them, the fate of ordinary people’s fortunes was as clear as silk threads. But Sheng Zhao’s fortune changed within just two hours, becoming unclear and uncertain. The clear path of life that was once visible had now become obscured, and Zhang Chengde couldn’t see it clearly anymore.
