Ch.196: Man in Abyss Receives a Bamboo Hat in the Rain
Xie Lian rebuked forcefully, “I know no one will come, but it’s none of your shitty business.”
White No-Face languidly asked, “Then why did you poke a hole to lay yourself in? Are you piquing someone? No one will cry over you right now.”
Xie Lian countered, “I’m doing this because I want to. It’s none of your shitty business.”
“If someone does come to help you, what will you do? And if no one comes to help you, what will you do?”
“…”
Xie Lian started cursing, “WHY ARE YOU SO FULL OF BULLSHIT??? I’M GONNA THROW UP! IT’S NONE OF YOUR SHITTY BUSINESS, NONE OF YOUR SHITTY BUSINESS!!!”
His words were becoming more and more vulgar and rude, his tone more and more aggravated, but as much as he swore, he only knew so many words. White No-Face seemed to be very amused as he laughed out loud, then he sighed, “Silly child.”
He turned around, “Just as well. Either way, there is only one day left. Letting you foolishly struggle a bit is fine. Either way, no one will come give you a single cup of water, or help you pull out the black sword. Remember–”
White No-Face reminded him again: “Tomorrow at sunset, if you still haven’t unleashed the human face disease, the curse will fall upon you.”
Xie Lian listened quietly, moving not a limb.
The third day, Xie Lian still laid there in that deep human shaped pit in the middle of the intersection; not even his posture had changed.
The crowd today wasn’t too different than the crowd from the day before. They all detoured far away from him, going about their way. Although the incident with a strange man falling from the sky had been reported to the authorities, when the other party heard it could be the God of Misfortune that wasn’t really causing any trouble, just lying there like a dead body, they didn’t want to deal with it, and placated the affair with a vague “We’ll observe for a few days”. Who knows what would happen in a few days.
Several curious children came running over, squatting by the edge of the pit to look at this man, and they picked up a tree branch, secretly poking at him, but Xie Lian was like a dead fish without any reactions. They were amazed and wanted to throw something at him to see if that would elicit anything, but they were discovered by their parents and were harshly lectured before getting grounded at home.
The water merchant from the day before was also still glancing in his direction. Xie Lian hadn’t taken a single drop of water for a day and a night, and a layer of dried and withered dead skin formed on his lips. That little merchant felt sorry and ladled a bowl of water, seeming to want to deliver it, but his wife elbowed him, making him topple the bowl, and so he had to relent.
Who knows if the heavens also wanted to join in on the fun, and after midday, drizzling rain began to fall from the sky.
The vendors on the streets hurriedly packed up their stalls, and the pedestrians also shouted at each other to hurry home, and they all left hastily. After a while, that rain came pouring down harder and harder, and Xie Lian’s face was scoured, appearing even more pale, and his entire body was soaked through.
Soundlessly, the shadow of a white clothed man appeared next to Xie Lian.
No one else on the street seemed to have noticed this peculiar figure. White No-Face looked down condescendingly at him, “The sun is about to set.”
Xie Lian was silent.
“You aren’t the God of Misfortune, but they would rather believe that you are, unwilling to believe you aren’t.” White No-Face said, “Once upon a time you defied the heavens and created rain for YongAn, yet now they wouldn’t even donate a cup of water to you. To pierce you with a hundred swords might have been done out of desperation, but now, they’re not even willing to do something simple like helping you pull out a sword, they all found the task too difficult.”
He said piteously, “I’ve told you this before. No one will come help you.”
There was a voice screaming hysterically in Xie Lian’s heart:
Admit it. What he said is right. There isn’t, there isn’t, there isn’t! There really isn’t. There isn’t a single person!
As if he had heard this desperate cry in Xie Lian’s heart, White No-Face seemed to have smiled a bit, reached out, and gripped the hilt of that black sword, “But, it’s alright. They won’t help you, but I will help you.”
Then, he exerted some force, lifted his hand, and pulled that black sword from Xie Lian’s abdomen, tossing it aside next to Xie Lian with a soundly clang.
Soon after, that touch of shadow of white cloth in the rain laughed lightly as if he had succeeded, then he backed away, leaving Xie Lian to his own devices, and vanished.
After having that black sword pulled out, Xie Lian’s wound was exposed without cover, and to be battered by the rain, the already numbed pain started spreading once again. However, this was the only thing he could clearly feel at this moment.
Splash sploosh, splash sploosh, the sound of a series of wild footsteps stomping on water came, like there was a pedestrian who was rushing over in the rain. However, Xie Lian wasn’t secretly hopeful like before.
He sat up slowly, yet unexpectedly, just as he got up, there was a loud “AH!!!” yell, and a man fell heavily next to him.
That man carried a large basket on his back and wore a bamboo hat for shielding against the rain. It was probably due to the pouring rain that he hadn’t seen there was someone in the pit on the road, and only when he had gotten closer and Xie Lian suddenly sat up did he notice. Plus, this man was running really fast, and to so forcibly stop, this tripping fall was quite heavy. As he tumbled and laid sprawled next to that human shaped pit, he instantly started loudly swearing on the spot, “WHAT THE FUCK!!!”
His bamboo hat had flown off, the basket on his back was toppled, all that white rice spilled all over the ground. That man sat on the ground and screamed in frustration, slapping down at the ground, and that wet mud and rice splattered on Xie Lian’s face. The man was outraged, jumping three feet in the air and pointed at Xie Lian squarely in the face, “WHAT THE HELL?!
THIS ANCESTOR WORKED HIS ASS OFF TO EARN A BIT OF MONEY TO BUY A BIT OF RICE AND NOW IT’S ALL GONE JUST LIKE THAT, HOW MANY LIFETIME’S WORTH OF BLOODY BAD LUCK IS THIS?? PAY ME BACK!! DON’T SIT THERE PRETENDING TO BE DEAD, PAY ME BACK!!!”
Xie Lian didn’t bother to spare him a look at all and planned to ignore him. However, that man was unrelenting, and he grabbed Xie Lian up by the collar, “ARE YOU ASKING FOR YOUR DEATH? HUH? I’M TALKING TO YOU!”
“Yes.” Xie Lian replied coldly.
That man clicked his tongue, “WELL IF YOU WANNA FUCKING DIE GO SCAMPER OFF TO THE SIDE AND DIE ON YOUR OWN QUIETLY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BLOCKING PEOPLE’S WAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD? CAN’T EVEN DIE IN PEACE, WHAT A NUISANCE!!!”
Xie Lian let himself be shaken wildly by the collar, stoic and expressionless, exceedingly numb.
Cuss. Cuss all you want. Nothing matters anymore, so just cuss however you want.
Either way, everything will soon disappear.
The sun is about to set.
That man gripped the wooden Xie Lian, pressing to have Xie Lian pay him back, and when Xie Lian didn’t respond he cussed to his heart’s content but still wasn’t appeased, and only after having pushed and shoved for a long while did he pick up his bamboo hat on the ground, put it over his head, and walked away grumbling. Xie Lian was thrown back into the pit with a dull thud, and gradually, he began to hear a clamouring noise louder than the sound of rain.
It was the shrieking of millions of the souls of the dead sealed within the black sword.
Along with the setting sun sinking bit by bit down the west, they started hollering and wailing like mad inside Xie Lian’s head, cheering and rejoicing for the coming arrival of their freedom and revenge.
Xie Lian raised a hand and covered his face.
Just as his other hand was shakily reaching out to grab hold of that black sword on the ground, he suddenly noticed something strange.
The rain seemed to have stopped.
No.
The rain didn’t stop. It was something that was placed over his head, helping him block off that pouring rain!
Xie Lian whipped his head up to look, and saw someone crouched before him, pressing that bamboo hat that was on his own head on Xie Lian’s head.
…It was that man who was just cussing loudly at him!
He glared at the other and the other also glared back at him, “What are you looking at me like that for? What, it was just some cussin’ and you really wanna go die over it?” He spat on the ground as he spoke, “Looking so miserable like you’re crying for the dead, how unlucky!”
“…”
That man was savage and aggressive earlier, and now he seemed to feel a little guilty thinking back on it, and after grumbling, he started trying to explain himself, “Alright alright, it was my bad earlier. But you deserved all that scolding. Who told you to go all mental? Besides, who’s never been cussed at before?”
Xie Lian’s eyes were round and bulging, unable to speak.
Then, that man grew impatient, “Fine fine fine fine, it’s my bad luck today, you don’t have to pay back that rice. What are you doing still lying around here for? You’re a grown man, not a child, are you waiting for your ma and pa to pick you up? Get up get up get up get up.”
He urged as he pulled and yanked, pulling Xie Lian up, and forcefully slapped him twice on the back, “Stand up. Go home now!”
And so Xie Lian was pulled out of this human shaped pit just like that, and almost tumbled to the ground by those two slaps, feeling dumbfounded. When he snapped out of it, that man had already gone.
What remained was only that bamboo hat still on his head, reminding him, he was just pulled out by someone, it wasn’t a hallucination.
Who knows how much time had past, and White No-Face reappeared behind him.
This time, he didn’t smile, and his voice wasn’t that easy and carefree anymore, but rather vaguely displeased and worried, “What are you doing?”
The rain was still pouring down, but Xie lian was wearing a bamboo hat given to him by someone, so while his body was already drenched, at least his head and face were now spared.
But, still, his cheeks were wet.
Seeing that Xie Lian wasn’t answering, White No-Face added darkly, “The sun is about to set. Take up your sword, otherwise, you know what will happen.”
Xie Lian didn’t turn his head back, and only said softly, “Fuck you.”
“What did you say?” White No-Face’s voice carried a trace of frost.
Xie Lian turned to him and said calmly, “Did you not hear me? Then I’ll say it again.”
Suddenly, his leg flew out violently, kicking out thunderously, sending White No-Face flying meters away!
His foot landed, Xie Lian held his wound with a hand while his other pointed at the direction White No-Face had gone, and used his loudest voice, giving everything he’s got to yell, “I SAID FUCK YOU!!! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TO DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THIS?? I AM THE CROWN PRINCE!!!”
Upon his face, two lines of tears were already streaming down from his eyes.
One person. Just one.
Really.
Just one person was enough!
——–
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