Un cœur pur dans un pot de jade

Chapitre 40

"No!" I stared intently at the skeleton masquerading as a savage and whispered to Xu Yi, "Have you ever played the 'Statue of the Rock' game before?"

"What wooden figure?"

I rolled my eyes. This doctor was so dull-witted it was infuriating. But in that brief moment of rolling my eyes—"It moved again!!" I yelled.

Xu Yi can't stand me; I suspect he's frowning furrowed when I can't see him.

“There’s a kind of zombie transformation,” I said solemnly, “It transforms, but only when you can’t see it. In other words, it deceives. To protect itself and become even more thoroughly zombied, it will only move when no one is watching. Within the sight of all people and animals, it’s just a corpse, or rather, it will pretend to be a corpse, and then when you can’t see it—ah!” I yelled, “I’ll eat you!!”

"Is that so?"

The doctor responded nonchalantly, then climbed out by stepping on my shoulders. He placed his foot on my head, but stopped halfway down, still pressing on my head. He calmly lowered his eyes and asked me, "How did you know?"

"It's from a horror movie!" I said, my head pressed down on his, gnashing my teeth. "Do you know how much I want to strangle you right now?!"

"Okay." The other person replied affirmatively, without any joking.

"Good heavens..." I was about to exclaim when I suddenly saw the bones I had thrown far away suddenly at my feet—"Xu Yi!!" I cried for help.

"What's wrong?" the other person asked me as they climbed out of the pit and turned back.

"Don't ask what's wrong!" I stared intently at the skeleton at my feet. "This time it's real, there really is a wooden figure. I can't look at you now, I have to keep my eyes glued to it, otherwise it'll move again!"

"Okay," the person on the embankment replied, "then I'm leaving."

"Wait!" I yelled. "Pull me up here now, do you want me to die?!"

Xu Yi was very obedient. Sometimes I really doubted that he didn't use his brain. He just did whatever others said. At this moment, his hands were scraped raw and he pulled me out of the pit. I closed my left eye, then switched to my right eye after three seconds. My eyes were watery, and I was still staring at the mummified corpse in the grave pit.

"Could it be that I'm being too sensitive?" I tried to turn my eyes away, and the next instant, the corpse's arm reached out of the pit.

"See that?!" I grabbed Xu Yi. "I'm not kidding, we've encountered a zombie apocalypse!"

This time, no one spoke. "Xu Yi!" I couldn't see him, so I called out again, "What are you doing?!"

“If it’s turning into a zombie,” he said, “then let’s hurry up and leave!”

"How do we get out of here?!" I said angrily. "We can't take our eyes off it; we have to keep our eyes glued to it, or it will pounce on us!"

"Sun Qingshan." Xu Yi called to me at that moment.

"What are you doing?"

He suddenly grabbed me and started running, his grip firm and his thin, withered hand holding me with undeniable strength. I had never seen Dr. Xu so manly before, and I'd heard he'd fractured both his legs before, so he absolutely shouldn't have been running forward with such exaggerated strides—

"Wait a minute!" I saw that his hair was all messed up and tried to grab him, but he pulled me so hard that I stumbled all the way.

Once he had finally run 800 meters away from the mass grave and was sure no wooden figures were chasing him, Xu Yi suddenly stopped, squatted on the ground, and began coughing like he was going to die.

"Are you alright?" I squatted down in front of him and carefully patted his back.

When he recovered, he suddenly raised his head. His eyes were not bright, but like amber with only a faint glow. He stared at me intently, then his voice was hoarse as he said each word in a deep voice, "Tomorrow I will take you to that village, Sun Qingshan. I will definitely save you!!"

Sichuan small village

I lay on the swaying, rattling wooden trolley, propped up by my arms and legs.

Xu Yi sat cross-legged next to me to give me more space to change positions.

The person pushing the cart was Xiao Chenchen, who was covered in sweat. "Thank you for your hard work." I winked at the beautiful woman, but Xu Yi turned his head and glanced at her without any expression.

The terrain sloped, and the car began to slowly climb the hill, marking its entry into the mountains.

The three of them were now traveling on the Shu Road. Although it was a wide open road, there were indeed sheer cliffs not far away, where one could easily fall and die.

After noon, the bright sun made people irritable.

"Divine Doctor, you really look quite ethereal in women's clothing." I complimented Xu Yi on his bright red robe, thinking that this guy was a bit crazy. He insisted on putting my bottle of Self-Tanning, which instantly turns you bronze, on his face. The beautiful Xiao Chenchen, pushing the cart, tried to defend him: "He's much more valuable than Shao Yanhe. He's the most wanted criminal with the highest bounty in the government in the last ten years."

“I know.” I waved my hand. “A peasant hero, like Wang…**? But I still think you should paint your face whiter, that would look more normal.”

"Do you think he's normal?" Xiao Chenchen seized the opportunity to ridicule him.

Xu Yi listened to the two women's back-and-forth banter, then turned his face away and remained silent.

"Miracle doctor," I pestered him, "please take my pulse and tell me what's wrong."

Xu Yi snapped out of his daze, stretched out two fingers, casually pressed them against my wrist, and said, "It's nothing."

"Don't lie to me!" I said, annoyed. "You've already tricked me into coming all this way."

Xiao Chenchen, who was pushing the cart, chimed in again: "Don't blame him. He's explained it to you at least ten times. You just can't remember."

"Then let's do it eleven more times."

"You still won't remember it even after twelve tries!"

“Miracle doctor,” I lamented, tugging at Xu Yi’s clothes, “Do you think I have Alzheimer’s? I don’t want to become an idiot.”

Xu Yi glanced at me sadly.

"Ah!" I exclaimed, "I forgot to leave a note for the savage!"

At this moment, the doctor, who hadn't spoken for a long time, finally said: "You left, and you left a lot."

"I'm relieved..." I nodded, then asked, "What's Shao Yanhe's last name again?"

"His surname is Shao."

"oh."

Xiao Chenchen pushed the cart halfway before finally glaring at me, "You're faking it!"

“If you’re going to pretend, you don’t have to pretend to be an idiot,” I said earnestly. “You’ll just get bullied.”

"Don't bully her," Xu Yi said, turning to Xiao Chenchen.

“He’s taking revenge,” I said to Xiao Chenchen, pointing at Xu Yi.

...

After overcoming numerous difficulties, the three of us entered the mountain valley. I was already dreaming of playing a game where we would enter the small village of Jigu, and first we would have to cross the Ziwu Valley. I now know that this is the road into Sichuan. Taking the Ziwu Valley post road can lead to Chang'an, but recently the popular route is from Chengdu to Jiaozhou, through Xufu (Yibin), down to Chongqing, into the Yangtze River, and then straight to Jiangnan. Very few people go to Chang'an anymore.

I hope that one day I can be embraced by a wild man and walk down the road to Chongqing, where the cries of monkeys on both banks never cease. I want to travel through the Three Gorges with a wild man and pass by Baidi City. Actually, I'm just thinking about that person.

I don't know where he's gone now. He's too wild; he ran away without a word. Where am I supposed to find him?

The winding path leads to a secluded spot; turning a corner in a narrow crevice between two mountain walls, you arrive at the small village that Xu Yi mentioned, a village that doesn't even have a name.

The road into the village is at a high point, so from the village entrance, you can see a panoramic view of the village where children are running around.

At this time of year, the dominant color is green, the mountains are cool, and there are tree-lined ponds, making it like a summer resort.

"Are you sure there's something wrong with this village?" I asked.

"Do you really think I'm qualified for the Forget-Me-Not Pill?" Xu Yi retorted. "What kind of elixir can make one forget the mortal world?"

"If that's the case, then I..."

“Many years ago I got lost while gathering herbs,” he replied. “Here I met an old friend, and he gave me that pill.”

"so what?"

"Things aren't that simple. I can only say that you might be poisoned."

"Then aren't you getting me into trouble!" I glared at him. "How can you do this?"

"I'm sorry." Xu Yi looked away.

"See that!" I pointed at Xu Yi and said to Xiao Chenchen, "This guy acts like a savage. He doesn't dare to look people in the eye after doing something bad, he's so guilty!"

Xiao Chenchen laughed, "He has too many things he feels guilty about, that's why he lives such a tiring life."

So, are we going into the village now?

...

Along the narrow path between the fields, I wondered, "Why is nobody paying attention to us?"

"Be careful." Xu Yi grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side. I turned around and saw more than a dozen men in plain clothes lined up in a row on the narrow path behind us, passing straight past the three of us.

"Wearing straw hats all the time?" Xiao Chenchen asked curiously.

"I guess you're afraid of getting sunburned," I said.

"But they're wearing way too much."

"Maybe it's because I'm afraid of getting sunburned all over."

Just then, a little girl who looked about ten years old, with her hair in pigtails sticking up, ran into the long, single-file formation, breaking the originally neat and uniform formation into pieces.

"Father..." the little girl cried out, tugging at the sleeves of each man, clearly looking for someone.

The group of men dressed in simple cloth shirts stood still, even slower than Xu Yi, letting others push and shove them around. No one pushed them back, and no one stepped forward to drive the little girl away.

“Father…” The little girl stood on tiptoe to try to take off one of the men’s straw hats, and the man leading the group at the front finally turned around.

But one of the straw hats ended up on the ground.

"So white!" I exclaimed.

The man facing me looked horrified, as if he never expected anyone to remove his straw hat. He quickly covered his face with his sleeve, and then the little girl went berserk, crying and screaming. One after another, she knocked the straw hat off the man.

"Are they all monks?" Xiao Chenchen pointed out a problem I hadn't noticed.

"Yes, they're all bald—ah! The little girl got pushed over!"

As two or three men gathered around the little girl, a sharp, childish voice cried out, "Don't come any closer!!!" With a scream, the men retreated, put their straw hats back on, lined up, and walked away in unison.

Only the little girl in the flowery clothes, sitting alone on the ground as if she had been terrified, remained, her eyes red, trembling for a long time.

"What village is this?" I looked down at Xu Yi's hand. "Why are you holding my hand?"

"Don't you find it strange?" Xu Yi asked me.

"Nonsense! Of course it's strange!" I turned to look around. It wasn't particularly unusual for monks to line up and walk in the street, but the children were still chasing each other, and the passersby were still passing by. A little girl was being bullied in public, and no one was going to help her. That was a bit suspicious.

“There are many Buddhist temples here,” Xu Yi said.

“There is a Buddhist shrine every three households,” Xiao Chenchen said.

“But it’s strange,” Xu Yi raised his hand and pointed to me and Xiao Chenchen, “there are many Buddhist halls, but no one goes near them, and the monks are not chanting or reciting scriptures inside. Instead, they are all standing at the door, as if they are… monitoring the people in this village.”

"No way," I shuddered, "Xu Yi, haven't you been here before? What exactly is this village for?"

"I don't remember," the person replied matter-of-factly.

“You can do it.” I nodded and then said, “The pond is the same. On such a hot day, children should love playing in the water. I remember when we went to the countryside, there were little boys with their bottoms all naked wherever there was water. But here, no one goes near the pond. It’s very strange.”