Chapter 24
Chapter 24 To the Dream Land Again
An officer walked up to them and warmly greeted the trio . He escorted them to his police vehicle and ordered another officer to drive Old Guo’s car back . On their way back, Old Guo recounted the experiences in the air raid shelter to the officer . Of course, he tried to make it as scary as possible to frighten the officer . “Captain Zhang, here is a pair of undead fangs to prove that I’m not bullsh*ting,” said Old Guo . Then, he placed a pair of undead fangs onto Captain Zhang’s thighs . The captain trembled, as the fangs landed on his thighs; he did not even dare to look at them, “Take them away, take them away! No need for proof . I believe in you! When the money comes down, I’ll immediately send it to you!”
“I think 50 thousand Yuan is not enough though,” Old Guo tried to bargain for Ye Shaoyang’s sake, and he turned to give the latter a smile, “50 thousand was the price for a white-haired undead, but we also encountered two female spirits and two soulbound undead . Since we’re old buddies, I’ll give you a discount . Give me another 20 thousand, how’s that?”
Captain Zhang replied, “I can’t do that . Old Guo, you should know that all payments are given at a standard rate . Come on now, 50 thousand Yuan is a lot already … . ”
“Well, I won’t help next time then . Oh yeah, I just remembered I have a death worm here too . Do you want to have a look at it?” Old Guo acted as though he was looking for it in his bag, “But you have to be real careful with it . If it bites you, you will turn into an undead . ”
“No no no, I don’t want to look at it!” Captain Zhang almost jumped out of the car, “I believe you guys have done an amazing job in the shelter . Give me one week, and I’ll send you 70 thousand Yuan!”
“Hehe, you’re such an easygoing person, Captain Zhang,” Old Guo cheerfully replied .
Captain Zhang thought,What other replies could I have given? If I that thing bites me, I would be your target next time .
Captain Zhang drove them to a hotel and pa.s.sed them 10 thousand Yuan . Then, he quickly found an excuse to leave them . The trio rented three rooms and showered . Then, they headed to the hotel restaurant . They ordered a whole table of delicacies and one bottle of spirit alcohol to celebrate their first successful collaboration .
After the three of them had enjoyed the food and alcohol, Old Guo took out the 10 thousand Yuan that Captain Zhang had given him and pa.s.sed it to Ye Shaoyang, “Shaoyang, take this 10 thousand first . I’ll wire the 60 thousand to you when it arrives . ”
Ye Shaoyang stared at him blankly and asked, “What do you mean?What about your cut?”
Old Guo laughed and replied, “How can I take the money from our first cooperation? Moreover, you did most of the work, and I was just helping a bit . ”
“How can you say that? You gave me this opportunity to make money, so you should at least take 20 thousand . ”
Xiao Ma, who sat on the side, was starting to get annoyed . He tapped the table with his finger and asked, “Hey, you guys seem to be having a lot of fun pushing money around, but what about me? Where’s my cut of the share?”
Ye Shaoyang gave him a cursory glance and slowly stated, “Give us that gold ingot of yours and we’ll pay you your 3000 Yuan . ”
After he heard that, Xiao Ma quickly did some math in his head . His gold ingot was at least a 100 grams . Even though the price of gold had dropped recently, it was still 200 to 300 Yuan per gram . When he came to this conclusion, he smiled and said, “Don’t mind me, don’t mind me at all . You guys keep talking . ”
Then, Ye Shaoyang remembered the task that his master had given him before he came down from the mountain . Qing Yunzi had ordered him to search for his senior Dao Feng . So, he asked Old Guo, “My master told me that my senior Dao Feng came into Stone City too when he first came down . Did he visit you too?”
Old Guo nodded his head and said, “He did . I helped him with some things . Some pretty big things . That was when I made a name for myself and started my shop . What I have today is all thanks to Dao Feng . ”
Then, Ye Shaoyang asked, “So, where did he go?”
Old Guo thought for a bit and replied, “I remember he said that he needed to go to Sichuan for a dangerous job . He said he didn’t want to bring me along because of the nature of that job . I think he also went back to Maoshan Sect before he left . He said that he wanted to borrow the Tai Yi Horsetail Whisk from your master . After that, I lost contact with him . ”
Ye Shaoyang bitterly smiled, as he recalled that his master did not loan the Tai Yi Horsetail Whisk to Dao Feng . Instead, his senior had just stolen it . He remembered that when he was still young, Dao Feng had returned to the mountain and given him a few sticks of Tanghulu . Then, his senior had asked him to keep watch . This event led to his master punishing Ye Shaoyang for half a month . Later, Qing Yunzhi released Ye Shaoyang because he needed someone to cook and do the laundry . Every time he recalled this, he would feel very ashamed . A few sticks of Tanghulu for one of the treasures of Maoshan Sect .
“Oh yeah, there is also something else . When Dao Feng got to Sichuan, it was around the Dragon Boat Festival period . So, he sent me some Zongzi . But when I opened the Zongzi, there was a map on the leaf drawn in cinnabar ink . It was numbered too . So, I copied it down onto a piece of paper . It’s in the shop . I’ll show it you when we get back . ”
This puzzled Ye Shaoyang, and he asked “Map? What area was it?”
“I don’t know . How would I know? I couldn’t even understand it . ”
Then, Ye Shaoyang thought to himself, The reason he used the Zongzi to send a message is quite obvious . After all, the glutinous rice in Zongzi has the ability to ward off evil . As such, he was trying to prevent evil beings from seeing this so-called map but why?
“Other than the map, was there anything else?” Ye Shaoyang asked .
Old Guo shook his head and said, “Nothing more, just the map . ”
Ye Shaoyang thought of all of the possible reasons . Then, he came to a conclusion . Dao Feng must have found a secret place, probably a nest of angry spirits or an undead king’s lair . He must have entered to fight the monsters, but he still wanted others to know where he went, just in case something unfortunate happened . However, the part that puzzled Ye Shaoyang the most was the fact that he sent the map to Old Guo . Why not just send the map to master if it was that dangerous? In all likelihood, Old Guo would be able to do nothing about it . Something was very strange about this matter . As there were too little clues, Ye Shaoyang decided to first obtain the map and conduct some research .
“Brother Guo, I also need you to help me with something . I came down from the mountain without bringing any of my essentials . So, can you please get me some and deduct it from my pay?”
Ye Shaoyang looked up after he finished speaking and saw that Old Guo was staring blankly at something behind him . He immediately turned his head around but saw nothing behind him . He let out a sigh of relief and said, “Brother Guo, you scared me . ”
Old Guo squinted his eyes and said, “No, no . I’m looking at that picture on the wall . Why does it seem like the person in the picture is moving?”
“Maybe it’s just a fly . You must be tired,” Ye Shaoyang drank a mouthful of alcohol and looked back . When he saw the picture on the wall, he immediately spat out the alcohol in shock . It was a painting of a cliff, and there was a small and winding road along it . And at the top of the cliff, there was a small Chinese pavilion . The man that Old Guo had mentioned was walking around the pavilion . From afar, it really seemed like a fly on a painting . As they watched and pondered, a great crack began to form at the bottom of the cliff . The crack grew bigger and closer to the top . If it continued, it would eventually reach the top, and the person at the top would fall into the valley .
“Wow, that can’t be a drawing right? Is it an LED screen showing an animation?” Old Guo asked with shock . Ye Shaoyang quickly approached Xiao Ma . He was holding his gold ingot, as he laid on the sofa . Ye Shaoyang was so busy chatting with Old Guo that he totally forgot about this fellow . Xiao Ma’s face was very green, and he seemed to be in great pain . Moreover, his forehead was sweaty, and he occasionally trembled!
He had entered a dream! Right under Ye Shaoyang’s nose, Xiao Ma had entered into a dream! Xiao Ma’s soul was the person walking around in the pavilion!