Corpse Retriever

Li Zhuiyuan truly did not know.

He did have an opening he could tell, but that opening involved his contest with the river water, and that was a taboo subject.

And as his struggle with the river water deepened, so too would the severity of that taboo.

Even when Tan Wenbin told Granny Liu about each wave of the journey, he would deliberately skip over that part and retell it as though it had followed the normal process of a river walk.

And without that part, Li Zhuiyuan really had nothing much to tell.

If he absolutely had to explain it, then he would have to turn the fact that he had deliberately dug channels to draw in the river water into a story about how he had been lured in by clues left by the river itself. Starting from the lion dance, he would have to say he came into contact with Boqi’s manifested spirit, the dream ghost, then got drawn into the existence of the hidden hand behind it all, and finally led the whole team to the amusement park.

And then, everything would just stop there.

He had a dream, took a nap, and when he woke up, the evil spirits and the hidden mastermind had all lined up in front of him and committed suicide.

From the boy’s perspective, that was the only kind of scattered, baffling story he could tell.

It was not the story Liu Yumei wanted to hear, and it did not deserve the high-level tea gathering she had specially prepared for it.Liu Yumei paused for a moment, then slowly raised a hand and frowned slightly.

She was not angry.

The old lady was not the sort of person who failed to understand what mattered.

She asked with concern, “Little Yuan, did something happen to you?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “Grandma, I don’t remember most of what happened on this trip.”

Liu Yumei stood up, walked over to the boy, and pressed her palm lightly to his forehead.

“Little Yuan, have you checked yourself? Was your memory sealed away?”

“I checked. It probably wasn’t sealed, and it doesn’t seem like my mind shut down from some kind of trauma either. Most likely, it was erased... or I forgot it on my own.”

“The bandit in this story had very unusual methods?” Liu Yumei withdrew her hand and deliberately pointed at her own forehead.

“Yes.” Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “And the bandit in this story had a very deep background.”

“Tell me a little more.”

“I was in a daze, like I’d slept through everything. Then when I opened my eyes, I saw that the bandit in the stronghold and the power backing it were both dead.”

“Only dead inside the stronghold?”

“So far, that’s all I’ve seen.”

Liu Yumei suddenly realized something: on this matter, she might actually know more than the boy in front of her.

“Wait a moment.”

Liu Yumei opened a cabinet and brought over a stack of letters, placing them in front of the boy. On top was a thick envelope filled with photographs.

Li Zhuiyuan looked through the photos one by one, and the more he saw, the graver his expression became.

The photos showed scenes of entire families wiped out.

The boy’s mind was quick. Since Liu Yumei had shown him these, it meant she believed they were connected to this wave of his journey.

So most likely, this was the hidden hand’s family.

The dozen or so gray-robed figures he had seen die in the amusement park were not the full extent of the incident.

In his original plan, he had intended to draw in the river water and identify the dream ghost as Boqi’s manifested spirit, setting off a chain reaction.

If he could cut off that hand, then the plan would have been a perfect success.

But now, after seeing these photographs, he suddenly realized that for all his self-proclaimed radicalism, he had actually been the conservative one.

Because this was no longer just cutting off a hand.

This was chopping the whole person to death.

Every photo had a time and address marked on the back. They were scattered all over the country, and they had happened almost simultaneously.

This wasn’t just wiping out a household registration book. It was erasing the entire clan genealogy.

Li Zhuiyuan’s breathing grew a little faster.

Even without any clear clue to guide him, he now had a vague feeling that in this incident, he had not been the only protagonist.

The style was very much like his, but he could not have pulled off something on this scale.

In that stretch of memory he had lost, he had still been himself. His logic and way of doing things would not have changed.

Limited by strength and many other factors, with his usual habits he would only have chosen to stop once he had achieved enough, making sure he could cut off one hand and leave it at that.

The greater the victory, the greater the risk it usually required. He would never take on extra risk unless...

Unless, in that missing stretch of memory, he had gained a much greater support.

A support so powerful that it had let him ignore risk assessment entirely and actively pursue the maximum possible result.

Was it The Great Emperor of Fengdu?

No.

It couldn’t be him.

He did have some connection to him, but in the end... they were not close.

At the very least, he would never stake the odds of an adventure on The Great Emperor of Fengdu’s choices or protection. And lately, the Great Emperor seemed to have quite a large opinion of him, and not in a good way.

So who could it have been?

Who could have given him such overwhelming support, and someone he would genuinely trust?

After all, he had never been someone who found it easy to trust others.

When Li Zhuiyuan finished flipping through the photos, Liu Yumei reminded him, “Read the letter from the Yu Family of Luoyang first.”

“Alright.”

Li Zhuiyuan opened the letter and read through the part explaining that the source of the whole affair lay in Fengdu.

That did not surprise him. If anything, it gave him a feeling of course that’s how it was.

The boy said, “Then this family should be the power backing the bandit.”

Liu Yumei said, “Don’t worry. When someone’s sick, you finish them off. Several families have already joined forces, and our family helped too. We did our best to sweep up every last fish that might have slipped through the net.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I think... there probably aren’t any fish left that slipped through.”

Since The Great Emperor of Fengdu had indeed stepped in, if there were still survivors left behind, wouldn’t that be a slap in the Great Emperor’s face?

Liu Yumei smiled. “There are always collateral branches, disciples, and the like. Not blood relatives, perhaps, but still connected.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “I understand.”

The old lady wanted to wipe out their inheritance.

The boy understood that very well. After all, they were the ones who had struck first. What was happening now was only being returned in kind.

As for the matter of him having sent Qin Li and Liu Ting to dig up the enemy ancestors’ graves, Liu Yumei did not go into detail. No matter what, she was an elder. Talking about that too specifically in front of a child would only make her seem childish herself.

Still, she knew that tonight’s tea gathering was doomed to go nowhere.

Liu Yumei picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said:

“Given your situation, there are only two possibilities for why the memory is gone.

“One, someone forcibly erased it.

“Two, that memory involved too much. It couldn’t be brought back with you, so it could only be forgotten.

“In truth, the two overlap. Whoever had the ability to forcibly erase your memory should also have had the power to erase you as well. But they didn’t. So they were probably doing it for your own good.

“That leaves only the second possibility.

“That is, the you right now cannot bear the pressure of that piece of memory.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. He once again thought of The Great Emperor of Fengdu’s ‘return home to honor the ancestors.’ Clearly, the Great Emperor knew about these matters.

Yet even someone like the Great Emperor had needed to use deception to get him to Fengdu. That alone showed how sensitive this matter was.

When it involved an existence on that level, then even if it had only been a dream, it was not strange at all that he had been forced to forget that stretch of dream-memory.

Liu Yumei picked up a walnut pastry and took a light bite.

“But with your temperament, you’ll definitely be set on recovering that missing piece of memory. Grandma won’t oppose you in that. After all, memory is like a part of a person’s life. You may waste it, but it must not be gouged out by force.

“I only want to remind you of one thing. As you try to get that memory back, don’t be impatient and don’t rush for quick results. Be steady. Take it slowly.”

“I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Grandma.”

“Alright then. You’ve only just come back, and you must be tired. Once you recover that memory in the future, sort it out properly yourself and then decide whether it’s suitable to tell me. Go downstairs and keep Ah Li company.”

“Okay, Grandma.”

Li Zhuiyuan stood up, preparing to leave.

Then Liu Yumei spoke again. “Little Yuan, thank you.”

Li Zhuiyuan paused for a moment and said, “We’re family. You’re being too polite.”

Liu Yumei leaned back in her chair and smiled. “Even parents, when they see their child grow up and become the pillar of the family, will say thank you and it wasn’t easy. So for Grandma to say it, that’s not being distant.”

“I’m not grown yet. This family still needs you to keep holding it up, Grandma.”

Liu Yumei shook her head. “Laugh if you want, but I truly don’t like being the head of the family. Even now, I still find myself remembering those carefree, reckless days of my youth. And today, I got to feel that again.”

Hearing her say that, Li Zhuiyuan followed her lead and tried to comfort her.

“Grandma, you were born blessed. A natural young lady’s fate. Other people can only envy it.”

“Heh, smooth talker.” Liu Yumei pointed at the snacks on the table. “Take some downstairs with you. Treat them as a makeshift meal, or if you get hungry later tonight, come up and get some more yourself.”

“Alright, Grandma.”

Li Zhuiyuan went downstairs and entered Ah Li’s study.

Ah Li had put on a pair of emerald embroidered shoes, and over her white sleeping clothes she wore a red lotus-leaf jacket.

The girl was drawing, designing clothes.

Leaning against the doorframe, Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Ah Li, are you hungry?”

Although he had eaten some pastries at Granny Liu’s place, when people were tired, they craved the comfort of something warm and soupy.

The girl nodded.

“Then let’s cook something.”

The girl shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” Li Zhuiyuan asked, puzzled, as he turned and walked toward the kitchen. He did not usually cook, but making noodles or wontons was no problem.

But when he reached the kitchen door, he saw it was plastered all over with seals.

He placed his hand against the door. He did not even need to examine it closely. A deeply unpleasant, nauseating sensation was already coming through.

What exactly had Aunt Liu left behind in that kitchen?

After thinking it over, Li Zhuiyuan understood a little.

Granny Liu and the others had obviously realized that this time he had run into the hidden mastermind. They had also been preparing for the possibility that something might happen to him.

Either to receive him or to avenge him. In any case, they had already decided they were willing to risk everything.

That feeling of being protected and backed up really was quite nice.

Ah Li had followed him out as well and now stood beside him, looking at him.

Li Zhuiyuan was capable of tearing open those seals, but once he did, he would still have to deal with whatever was inside the kitchen. And after that, he would still need to use the pots and bowls in there to cook. By the time everything was finished, dawn would probably be breaking.

“Ah Li, shall we go out and eat instead?”

The girl nodded.

Li Zhuiyuan led Ah Li into her room, opened the wardrobe, picked out a set of clothes, and laid them on the bed.

Then he went up to the third floor to pay respects to the ancestors of the Qin and Liu families.

His original intent had just been to find something to do while Ah Li changed clothes and he respectfully avoided the room, but to his surprise, even the door to the room where the ancestral tablets were kept was covered in seals.

And the strength of these seals far exceeded the ones on the first-floor kitchen.

Li Zhuiyuan placed his hand on the door again. At that touch, it seemed that several consciousnesses inside the room awakened and responded with warnings.

Even in his current state, he still felt a slight pressure in his chest under that oppressive force.

The things inside the room were already under seal, yet their aura and gaze could still pass through their own seal, then through the room’s seal, and reach his consciousness clearly.

They had to be a group of terrifyingly fierce entities.

By rights, such things should not have been here. If even one escaped, it could cause enormous disaster. They had obviously been moved here only temporarily.

And the only place capable of producing so many fearsome monsters at once would be the Qin family or Liu family ancestral residence.

Generation after generation, Dragon Kings had walked the jianghu suppressing evil entities. There had to be quite a few such monsters that had been captured and taken back to the ancestral residence for eternal suppression.

This time, the old lady had truly brought out the family’s full reserves.

There were few people in the household, so they were making up the numbers with evil spirits.

If they really took this group of evil things to the enemy’s home, broke the seals, or completed a transaction in advance, it would undoubtedly bring a massive shock to the enemy family, perhaps even a disaster.

And Liu Yumei herself would be burdened with enormous karmic consequences. In the name of the Dragon King’s clan, to privately unleash evil spirits to wreak havoc like this would not only enrage heaven itself, it would also ruin the Dragon King family’s good name.

Only now did Li Zhuiyuan truly understand just how heavy that earlier “thank you” from the old lady really was.

Perhaps sensing that the boy outside, with his hand against the sealed door, had let his attention drift, the fierce entities inside stirred all at once, trying to use the opportunity to crush his spirit.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed it. His gaze sharpened as he stared ahead.

As he was now, compared to the great vicious things inside, he was still not qualified to stand against them. But for some reason, when his own momentum rose, an immense confidence naturally rose in his heart as well.

As though there were a figure standing behind him.

At that moment, the pressure from both sides unexpectedly reached a balance, and the boy was not suppressed.

Gradually, the things inside quieted down. Their seals were too firm. Though they had many methods at their disposal, they could not use them. Since intimidation by sheer force of presence did not work, they could not be bothered to keep wasting the effort.

That could also be counted as a form of acknowledgment. Ever since they had been moved here, they had tested every person who entered or left this house.

Even Ah Li had been disturbed by them to the point that she could not calmly play the zither.

Li Zhuiyuan withdrew his hand, turned around, and looked at the empty space behind him.

Just now, he had clearly caught that feeling.

Who had once stood behind him?

He had only lost two days of memory. So who, in just those two days, could have made him develop the feeling that he had someone at his back?

When he went downstairs, Ah Li had already changed her clothes. Li Zhuiyuan had her sit at the dressing table, then picked up a comb and helped her comb her hair.

No need for any elaborate bun. A simple comb-through was enough.

Then the boy took the girl’s hand and led her out of the house.

It was already late at night. Not only had the school cafeteria long since closed, but the shops outside the school had also all shut down. Even if one or two places were still open, they would only be street stalls, and those were not suitable places to take Ah Li.

Fortunately, he still had a little nest of his own on campus.

The campus was quiet at this hour, and there was almost no one on the road. But even if there had been, with the boy holding her hand beside her, the girl would not have felt afraid.

When they reached the Bargain Shop, the door was still open. After they went in, they saw Lu Yi cooking a huge pot of something, steam billowing up.

“Prodigy bro, perfect timing. I’m cooking for them anyway. You should eat with us too.”

“What are you cooking?”

“Pickled cabbage stewed with big bones. Eat as much as you want. I guarantee once you’ve had a bite, you won’t make a sound.”

Li Zhuiyuan stepped closer and took a look. The aroma of the pickled cabbage was appetizing, and the large bones rolling in the boiling broth looked genuinely mouthwatering. There were also quite a few dried ingredients cooking in the pot as well.

“A lot of good stuff.”

Lu Yi gave a grunt of agreement. “Yeah, all sent from home.”

“Isn’t that a bit too extravagant?”

“Ah, what’s extravagant about this? Good things only taste good when everybody shares them.

“My parents used to work at that little local meat-packing plant, and business was terrible. They could barely pay wages, so people got paid in goods instead.

“A couple months ago, my dad signed an agreement with the town and basically took over half the plant on contract. Who would’ve thought the orders would suddenly start coming in? The first month stopped the losses, and the second month actually turned a profit.

“There’s still a lot of unpaid wages owed to everyone, but at least now there’s hope.

“I honestly don’t know how my dad, who’s been an honest man all his life, found the nerve to do something like that. My mom’s always been cautious too, but she actually agreed, and even went with him to borrow the contract deposit from relatives all over the place.

“They didn’t tell me beforehand. I only found out recently myself.”

“Congratulations.”

These days, a lot of people really did get rich through enterprise restructuring, but those were the ones who had gotten the meat. Far more of them ended in failure and losses.

Lu Yi said, “It’s just small money, small money. There’s still a big hole in the books. We’ll have to pay it back slowly.”

“But at least you can go home for New Year’s this year.”

Lu Yi had not gone home over the summer vacation either. He had stayed behind doing tutoring to earn money.

“That’s true.”

Lu Yi rested the large ladle against the rim of the pot and spotted Ah Li. He was just about to say that he had seen this impossibly pretty little girl before, when she had come into the shop to buy a can of Jianlibao.

But then he noticed that she and Prodigy Bro were holding hands, and his enthusiastic urge to greet her immediately died down. He only gave Ah Li a simple smile.

Then he began slicing blood sausage into the pot.

Ah Li had seen Lu Yi before as well. Back then, Lu Yi had looked like a long red snake made up of segment after segment.

Of course he did not now, but the way he sliced the blood sausage still struck Ah Li as a little amusing, and without thinking she lightly curled a finger around the boy’s hand.

No matter how smart Li Zhuiyuan was, there was no way he could guess that Ah Li was currently imagining a red sausage snake cutting itself up and jumping into the pot.

The boy only assumed Ah Li was hungry too, so he smiled and said, “We’ll eat in a moment. Let’s go check on them first.”

Lu Yi hurriedly said, “The doctor’s already here. Down below. Prodigy Bro, the blood sausage just needs to cook a little longer. I’ll serve some out for you first, then I’ll take the rest down to them.”

“No rush, Brother Lu Yi. Go ahead and do your thing. I’ll head down and take a look.”

“Alright. Let it simmer a bit longer and the flavor will really soak in.”

Li Zhuiyuan led Ah Li by the hand toward the basement.

Fan Shulin, having already treated the wounds of the three men, was now sitting by Tan Wenbin’s bed, smoking with him.

“Mengmeng’s from Mountain City, right?”

“Mengmeng?” Tan Wenbin blew out a smoke ring. “She told you to call her that?”

“I just think it sounds more affectionate that way.”

Tan Wenbin looked Fan Shulin up and down and said, “Brother Fan, take some advice from me. You’re a miracle-working surgeon. Her field doesn’t match yours.”

“Brother, what do you mean by that? You’re saying I don’t even have the slightest chance to make something happen? She already has a boyfriend?”

“Not yet.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Fan Shulin patted his white coat. “My salary may be a bit low, my work may be a bit busy, and my career path may be a bit narrow...”