Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 121 - 20: The Giant Stone Crushes the Chest

Chapter 121: Chapter 20: The Giant Stone Crushes the Chest

“Fine, aren’t you going home? Then we can keep each other company.”

Li Yan agreed, and seeing that night was falling, Qin pushed the door open to leave.

The door was halfway closed when Qin’s face popped out again.

“Don’t you sneak off, alright?”

“Don’t worry.”

Li Yan nodded.

The old man firmly closed the door from the outside.

After Qin had left, Li Yan collapsed on the bed and pretended to sleep for a while longer.

The image of Old Madam Deng with her face smeared in chicken blood flitted through his mind, shocking him into opening his eyes suddenly.

“…”

It had started since the daytime—he couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong but felt listless and constantly experienced a feeling of alarm.

As soon as he closed his eyes, all sorts of hideous scenes would emerge in his mind.

Was it the immense pressure since entering Yan Fu? Or, was it a sequelae from having his three hun souls severed?

Swallowing Thief, Foul Lung, Remove Filth.

Unable to sleep, Li Yan sighed. He had read through the comic books under his bed so many times they were worn, even Mr. Dong’s own copy of the yellowed “Dragon, Tiger, and Leopard” magazine hidden in the pillowcase—he’d thumbed through it over and over.

He thought about it and didn’t have the heart to disturb Lady Dan, so instead, he turned on his Walkman.

“What’s up, brother?”

“Liang, I’m going to rely on you for tonight’s task. Sing me a song first, something soothing, just don’t piss it up into a mudslide, alright?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Liang Ye agreed readily.

Li Yan placed the Walkman beside his pillow, hands clasped behind his head.

He didn’t hold much hope for Liang Ye, just looking to relieve the boredom of the night; Li Yan had even prepared himself for getting his hopes soiled once again.

Liang Ye cleared his throat, and the sound of crisp, rhythmic drumming began, accompanied by the jingling of sand bells with the evening breeze rustling the leaves under the bright moonlight.

In that moment, Liang Ye’s voice became crystal clear:

The Fisher King still wants~ to continue being the Fisher King

But the harbor has disappeared, unknowing where it went

The obese city, offers him

A traditional method, to quell the panic

Sell off weapons, storms, vocal cords

In exchange for food~

In the midst of the lingering trumpet sounds, Li Yan’s furrowed brow smoothed out.

The singing continued, and in this moment, the destitute middle-aged man actually sang with the voice of a young man:

Rigid moments, rivers flowing backward

The obese city

Drives away~ all who refuse to sink

That mad song rings out once again

The guitar strums, the synthesizer repeating its tune. Like a quiet and lost young man whispering by my ear, leaning against a concrete pipe, surrounded by beer cans, iron bridges, and the neon lights of the night:

When the lights~ go out, stars move, clay oxen into the sea

The dark~ feels like, a huge~ stone, pressing on the chest~

A one-legged~ thief, a millionaire~ struggling and scrambling

The dark~ feels like, a huge~ stone, pressing on the chest~

The song ended amidst the endlessly reverberating sounds of the trumpet and alternating saxophone.

Li Yan lay there with his eyes open, the word “severed” next to the three hun souls on his status bar, faded much more.

“This song’s kinda depressing.”

Lying on the bed, Li Yan savored the song’s essence and chuckled to himself, “Liang Ye, you really do have some skills, damn it.”

It was probably over twenty minutes that had passed when Li Yan looked at the clock, which precisely pointed to half-past eleven.

“Please arrive at Dongbei Wang Farm before midnight.”

“Dongbei Wang?”

“Dongbei Wang? I’m familiar with it.”

Liang Ye said loudly.

Dongbei Wang, a famous music village in the nineties, once hosted many well-known and unknown bands.

Shu Village, along with Dongbei Wang and Xisanqi, gathered many young people from all over the country passionate about pop music at that time.

At the same time, it also boasted the busiest temple fair in Yan Capital City.

Li Yan stretched and felt invigorated.

“Let’s go.”

…

Dongjiao Min Alley.

Yunhu’s eyes watched the streetlamp, seemingly lifeless.

“Fuck your mother, I’m telling you, if you have the guts, kill me today, if you don’t kill me, you’re my grandson.”

The fat man tied to the ground cursed with a fierce exterior but fearful inside. Yunhu shifted his gaze to him, still with that lifeless look in his eyes.

The fat man swallowed spit, the back of his neck drenched in cold sweat, his ears perking up at the sound of footsteps.

A man with a sharp gaze and a sturdy physique approached from down the street, casting a long shadow.

“Help! Somebody help! There’s a lunatic here, he’s killing people! He’s killing people!”

The fat man jolted, and started yelling.

The man took a small step back and frowned deeply.

He stared at Yunhu, extra cautious, but secretly focused his attention on the fat man who was calling for help, his mind racing.

Yunhu let out a laugh:

“You don’t need to think so much. This isn’t a double act. He isn’t my summoned creature or an incarnation of my power, and as for being tied up, he’s your opponent, not me. I’m more like a smoke bomb in your plans, which you can also let off.”

“My inheritance is Kui, not deception.”

The man pursed his lips and asked Yunhu, “What do you mean by bringing an ordinary person here?”

Yunhu put on his brass knuckles, the lenses covering his eyes: “At nightfall, the things my body touches get dragged into the boiling midnight, even if it’s a living person.”

“Once I’ve killed you, I still need to hurry up and take him somewhere.”

The man let out a cold chuckle: “Kid, you’re pretty cocky.”

In the shadow, Yunhu’s white chin was visible.

“…Ha.”

…

Li Yan scratched his head, his eyebrows twitching repeatedly.

He had followed the map in his mind part of the way when Liang Ye insisted he was going too far and led him to take a detour.

“I’m telling you, do you even know where you’re going?”

“I remember it’s this way. Take the 118 bus after passing Three Flags, and we’ll be close.”

“It’s so late, where am I supposed to find a bus?”

“Right, at this hour you can catch the last bus, I’ve done it many times.”

Li Yan glanced at the intersection, and, just like Liang Ye said, a bus was slowly approaching. With the roar of the engine, the doors opened, the driver with a cold expression on his face.

Li Yan hesitated for a moment, recalling a widely circulated story of a supernatural incident on a night bus in his own world…

“It’s not nightfall yet, shouldn’t be any trouble. Even if there is, heh.”

Li Yan stepped inside the bus,

holding onto the handrail, his eyes sweeping over rows of empty seats until the end.

The light was dim; in the corner of the bus, by the window, two people snuggled together, their ages indiscernible.

Li Yan frowned hard, took a closer look, and quickly turned away after gasping a breath of cold air.

…

“I’m on the bus, disgusting.”

“What’s there to be afraid of at this hour?”

Qin lowered his voice, his old face blooming like a joyful chrysanthemum.

Suddenly, he looked up and saw someone standing in the quiet bus, back facing him, tall and lean.

Without changing from his work clothes, how could Qin not recognize him? He almost died of fright and went stiff.

The woman seemed coy, but when the Qin beside her didn’t move for a long time, she opened her eyes in confusion.

It was Mr. Wang, whom Li Yan had met before.

She hadn’t seen Li Yan many times, but she recognized the man standing ahead as familiar, grabbing Qin’s clothes. She asked anxiously:

“Qin, look at the man in front, isn’t he that new guy from our school…”

“Cough, cough.”

Li Yan suddenly coughed loudly, affecting a higher-pitched voice than usual.

“Comrade driver, let me tell you, the seats of Yan Capital’s public buses, they are made too poorly, you know? Sitting like this for long, I fear one might get hemorrhoids.”

The driver’s gaze shifted slightly: “You should take that up with the company, it’s not something I manage.”

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“Oh my, it really is,”

Li Yan rambled on a bit, then stopped talking.

“No, it’s not him, you can tell by his accent.”

Qin hurried to reassure her.

Mr. Wang breathed a sigh of relief, speaking in a delicate tone, “That’s good, you scared me there.”

Li Yan, without turning his head, stood like that all the way to Dongbei Wang Village, his heart filled with a sense of admiration for Qin, past his fifties.