Thousands Of People Thought Of Him - Chapter 26
Lies
Meanwhile, the person that Ying Shouchuan kept thinking about was walking in the opposite direction to him.
After Fang Baiyu stepped out of the snow cave with Ying Shouchuan, the moment he turned his back, the worry and anxiety on his face instantly vanished without a trace. Realizing that he could finally get rid of this annoying deadweight, he couldn’t help but show a satisfied smile.
He didn’t look for any tools to rescue Ying Shouchuan. Without hesitation, Fang Baiyu strode in a certain direction. Thinking about the scene he might soon witness, Fang Baiyu felt great and his steps became light.
Yes, he had known all along that an avalanche would suddenly occur on this mountain today.
—That was precisely his goal.
There were many ways for a trial by ordeal to fail, but the cleanest and most decisive one was to cause an early “death” — the body dies, the soul breaks, and it doesn’t enter reincarnation. Because of the huge uncertainties, descending to the mortal world for a trial was almost a near-death experience for immortals.
When that time came, Fang Baiyu would collect a few remnants of Ying Fusang’s soul and make a puppet of him, keeping it by his side forever.
The previous kidnapping incident, which he had pushed forward, had been a success. Unfortunately, he didn’t know which link went wrong, but in the end, Ying Fusang had miraculously survived.
But that didn’t matter. As long as there were no annoying people like Qi Xingwen intervening, Ying Fusang, now an ordinary human, could not always be so lucky to escape.
For example, this time he was very confident that Ying Fusang absolutely wouldn’t survive—
The smile on Fang Baiyu’s lips suddenly stiffened.
How was this possible?!
Standing in front of the rock Ying Fusang had hidden behind, all the countless death scenarios he had imagined for the other person had completely fallen through.
Fang Baiyu searched the surrounding area again in disbelief but still found no trace of Ying Fusang’s body or presence. His disbelief gradually turned into furious humiliation. After taking several deep breaths, a black bell suddenly appeared out of nowhere in his hand.
“Ding—”
The bell swung in the air, producing a dull and heavy sound, exuding an ominous aura.
After waiting for a while, Fang Baiyu frowned in displeasure, “Really slow.”
Just as he raised his wrist to shake the bell again, the space in front of him suddenly rippled!
The pressure was so great that Fang Baiyu’s current human body was shaken uncomfortably; a slight amount of bl00d seeped from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.
The ripple quickly settled, and a “person” wearing a black robe and hood that covered most of his face appeared before Fang Baiyu.
The person didn’t say a word, silently standing there.
“Check right now, where exactly is Ying Fusang!” Fang Baiyu wiped the few drops of bl00d dripping from his nose and spoke harshly.
The other person still didn’t speak, only stretched out his left hand, palm facing down, hanging in midair. From the center of the palm, a force spread outward like ripples on water, creating layers of waves. This gesture revealed the identity ring worn on his left thumb.
“How is it?” Fang Baiyu’s patience was about to run out.
The black-robed man withdrew his hand and finally spoke slowly: “You don’t have the right to know.” It was an adult male voice, steady, with no emotion.
“Haha, you were the one who actively sought me out and said you wanted to help me, so what’s the meaning of this now?” Fang Baiyu laughed angrily.
“The help I provide is at my discretion; you have no right to demand,” the man said calmly and declaratively, without anger or joy.
Having wasted a lot of time, Fang Baiyu knew this plan was another failure. So he stopped rushing and suddenly prepared to settle accounts with the other party.
He took off his sunglasses and sneered contemptuously: “Hmph, don’t tell me you think I can’t guess your purpose?”
“Unconditionally helping me? Aren’t you just using me as a tool to kill someone else? When all is said and done, if Ying Fusang disappears, you’re the one who benefits the most, aren’t you?”
Fang Baiyu, as the head of the Four Great Judges, felt that the other person’s official status was not even worthy of calling him senior. If Ying Fusang hadn’t resolutely nurtured and promoted him, the other person wouldn’t have had the qualification to talk to him like this.
The black-robed man neither denied nor admitted anything; he said nothing and simply disappeared.
Like a punch hitting cotton, Fang Baiyu was full of rage but had nowhere to vent. Angry as he was, since Ying Fusang was still alive, he still had to use his current identity. It was getting late, so to save his own life, he decided to leave the mountain first.
…
Ying Fusang did not have as complicated thoughts as Ying Shouchuan; he only felt that after throwing down the rope for a long time, the other party still didn’t move — maybe they were out of their mind.
As if sensing his mood, a mountain sparrow fluttered out from the bushes and perched on Ying Fusang’s shoulder, looking down with him, purely watching the spectacle.
“Don’t want to come up?”
Ying Fusang wasn’t joking and was about to let go in the next second.
At this moment, the person inside the snow cave finally snapped out of their doubts and suspicions, setting them aside and accepting the fact that the one rescuing them was Ying Fusang.
“You… can’t pull me up like this.”
Not thinking much about where the rope came from, Ying Fusang was slim but looked a bit weak. His arm seemed to have no strength, and now he was half-squatting at the cave entrance; it was estimated he would be pulled down directly.
Ying Fusang pressed his lips, wondering why this person was nagging and hesitating.
He paused for a moment, then tilted his head and coldly said to the bird on his shoulder, “If you fall, figure out how to fly out yourself.”
“Chirp chirp.” The mountain sparrow still refused to leave.
Ying Fusang ignored it, and coldly told the person below, “Grab the rope.”
Ying Shouchuan felt the other party was stubborn again. He was about to say something but was stunned by the other’s gaze. He swallowed his words subconsciously and obediently complied.
The moment he grabbed the rope, Ying Fusang, like fishing, stood up and swiftly swung Ying Shouchuan up along the rope; the whole process took less than three seconds.
Bam! Ying Shouchuan fell and sat on the ground, still not reacting to what had just happened, with a “?”
Ying Fusang, completely unfazed by his own seemingly unscientific action, didn’t spare the other even an extra glance and immediately turned to leave.
Ignoring his own disheveled and dirty appearance, Ying Shouchuan hurriedly got up and limped to keep up with the other’s pace. He looked at Ying Fusang’s profile and opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.
The atmosphere seemed like it needed some words to ease the tension, but after many years, the habitual attitude wasn’t something that could be changed in one go. It was impossible for him to suddenly drop his pride and thank the other.
Having completely come back to his senses from the fear of death, Ying Shouchuan shifted his gaze to the bird on Ying Fusang’s shoulder and frowned: “Where did this bird come from?” Saying so, he reached out to shoo it away.
Just as his fingers were about to touch the sparrow’s feathers, Ying Fusang, who was concentrating on walking, suddenly dodged sharply.
Embarrassment washed over Ying Shouchuan, and his hand froze in midair, feeling a bit awkward.
Ying Fusang frowned slightly, unable to understand his own almost reflexive reaction. Still ignoring Ying Shouchuan, he continued walking toward the exit.
The mountain sparrow puffed up its chest and proudly spread one wing.
Being ignored only increased the awkwardness. Ying Shouchuan even felt contempt from a bird’s face?!
Sensing that the other didn’t want to talk, Ying Shouchuan didn’t embarrass himself further and fell silent for the rest of the way. After walking for a while, he suddenly remembered something important, stopped, and said solemnly, “I have to find Baiyu.”
His phone signal had recovered but he still couldn’t reach him.
Hearing this, Ying Fusang turned his head and looked at him as if he were a fool with too many things on his mind. He raised his hand and pointed toward a nearby exit, “Right there.”
What?
Ying Shouchuan stared blankly and happened to make eye contact with that person. Fang Baiyu widened his eyes, quickly told the rescue personnel something, and then rushed toward them.
“My goodness, you’re all safe, that’s wonderful!” Even though he had prepared himself, seeing Ying Fusang intact still caused a crack in his expression.
Noticing the burning gaze of the other person present, Fang Baiyu cursed silently in his heart for forgetting about Ying Shouchuan, the fool.
Ying Shouchuan unusually didn’t ask about the other first but instead asked in a deep voice, “Where did you go?”
Fang Baiyu’s mind raced quickly; his expression and actions showed he had been urgently looking for tools and, after great difficulty, found them and immediately returned to find Ying Shouchuan but didn’t see him. So he guessed that Ying Shouchuan had already left, and he waited at the entrance to regroup.
Hearing this, Ying Shouchuan’s tense facial muscles slowly relaxed. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the other hadn’t abandoned him, and all previous doubts were cleared.
“You sound so rushed, but not only are your sleeves dry, your shoes don’t look wet either.” Ying Fusang suddenly spoke.
Fang Baiyu’s expression stiffened, instinctively betting that they didn’t remember, and casually said, “These are my freshly changed dry clothes, just very similar to the ones I wore this afternoon…”
But Ying Fusang suddenly took a button from his pocket and interrupted, “I found this at the snow cave entrance. It’s from the same jacket you’re wearing now, right?”
What?
Unexpectedly, the lie was directly exposed. Fang Baiyu instinctively looked at his sleeve and saw that the left cuff really had a button missing—exactly the same as the one in Ying Fusang’s hand.
Hearing this, Ying Shouchuan’s heart sank again. He didn’t understand why the other lied. Could it be that he had calmly and leisurely walked to the exit and had no intention of saving him at all?
Fang Baiyu barely maintained his smile, “Xiao Sang, what exactly do you want to say?”
“There’s also a trail of footprints beside this button, leading westward without changing direction.”
Fang Baiyu flatly denied it: “Impossible, I definitely walked north. I was heading north to find tools.”
“But then where next?”
“Back the way I came, and because I couldn’t find you, I went toward the exit.”
Ying Fusang parried effortlessly, “But if you had these three segments of the route, at a steady walking pace, you couldn’t have arrived here before or even ahead of us at this time.”
With the previous context of the button, Fang Baiyu couldn’t even make up an excuse that he was running.
“How did you calculate that?” He was not a precise calculating machine, so how could the other judge his distance and time?
Ying Fusang blinked, “Because I walked the route you said.”
By this point, Fang Baiyu was flustered and could only change his story: “I got the direction wrong and accidentally walked toward the exit, then halfway through couldn’t find tools, so I turned back.”
“How do you prove that?” Ying Fusang calmly asked.
Suddenly inspired, Fang Baiyu said, “The footprints you saw were left by me when I was walking back!”
“But—” Ying Fusang’s tone abruptly changed.
“I didn’t see any footprints at all.” He smiled, “It’s snowing so heavily, footprints wouldn’t last long.”
Ying Fusang’s words stunned both men present.
He stopped pressing further and lazily yawned, “I’m going back to sleep first. You guys keep talking.”
Watching his figure walk away, Ying Shouchuan shifted his gaze back to Fang Baiyu’s pale face, his fingers slowly clenching into fists, expression complicated.