booktalesy Chapter 5 The Li Family
Chapter 5 The Li Family
"Young man, wake up!"
A rough male voice sounded in my ear, accompanied by a gentle patting.
"Father, he's not making a sound, is he gone?" A clearer but obviously timid female voice followed.
"Don't talk nonsense! He's still breathing. His body is warm, but the heat is a bit strange. Could he have a fever?"
"Father, let's hurry up and leave. The thing lying here so early in the morning can't be a normal living person. It might be a mountain spirit in human skin."
The intermittent conversation acted like a hook, gradually pulling Chen Qian's scattered consciousness back from the depths of chaos.
With great effort, I opened a crack, and sunlight streamed in through my eyelids.
Chen Qian groaned instinctively and shielded his eyes from the glaring light with his hand.
"Dad! He's awake! He's awake!" the girl exclaimed, as if she had breathed a sigh of relief.
A rough, strong hand helped Chen Qian sit up.
"Young man, how are you feeling? Can you breathe?"
Chen Qian shook his throbbing, dizzy head vigorously until his vision gradually focused.
A middle-aged man with dark skin and a weathered face was squatting in front of him, his eyes sharp as an eagle in the mountains, warily sizing him up.
Beside the man, a pretty girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old, with her hair in two buns and wearing a patched gray cloth dress, peeked out, both frightened and curious.
Chen Qian looked around.
They were no longer in that tree hole.
The location seemed to be on a small path.
Beneath him, a ring of grayish-white powder was scattered, forming a prison-like enclosure that completely protected him.
The powder was not ordinary lime; it had a peculiar smell, somewhat like the burnt smell of incense and candles, mixed with a very faint trace of blood.
[Smell recognition experience points +1]
"Who are you?" Chen Qian asked in a hoarse voice, a warning bell ringing in his mind.
Last night's experience is enough to make anyone wary of any living creature that appears in Montenegro.
"We are hunters who went into the mountains. My son and I went into the mountains at dawn to look for some mountain produce, and we found you lying here like a mud-covered monkey. If it weren't for the fact that your chest was still warm, we would have thought you were a 'night corpse' in the mountains."
"Overnight corpse?" Chen Qian caught the strange word and was surprised.
"Hmm," the girl interjected, then explained, "My father said that no living person can survive the night in the Black Mountain. Anyone who can stay in the mountains overnight without being eaten is either a powerful being or already dead."
Chen Qian subconsciously pressed his chest to check his entire body.
Aside from his hardened, muddy exterior, his body was brimming with energy and blood, and his body temperature was abnormal, yet he felt incredibly energetic.
The weakness I felt last night from being seriously injured and on the verge of death has almost completely disappeared, and even the excruciating pain from my wounds has been greatly relieved.
The medicinal effects of that Blood-Veined Ginseng are far more potent than imagined.
Memories return.
The final image was the pale paper face pasted on the crack in the tree hole, and the sound of a gong that terrified him.
After that, he lost consciousness.
What happened in the end?
The paper figure didn't kill him; instead, it moved him here?
"Brother, what time is it now?" Chen Qian suppressed the turmoil in his heart and looked up to ask.
Seeing that his eyes were clear and not possessed, the middle-aged hunter lowered his wood-chopping knife slightly and said in a deep voice:
"The sun is high in the sky, it's almost dawn. Young man, you've got some nerve sleeping here."
Chen Qian's mind raced, and after a moment's thought, he recounted in detail how he had encountered the strange man in the flowery coat in the forest the previous night, and how he had seen the paper figure carrying a lantern and banging a gong while patrolling the mountain.
As for the part about consuming Blood-Veined Ginseng, it is omitted from the discussion.
The girl's pouting lips froze, and she instinctively shrank behind her father, her face turning deathly pale.
"Father, a flowery jacket, upside down. Isn't that what the older generation calls 'upside-down mother'?"
The middle-aged hunter did not scold his daughter; his face was even more pale than hers, and a hint of fear even flashed in the depths of his eyes.
He didn't doubt that Chen Qian was making up a story. The details he described were too realistic because only someone who had seen the horrors of the Black Mountain could describe them so vividly and realistically.
Especially when he heard "paper figure with lantern" and "Li character lantern", the hunter suddenly lowered his head and stared intently at the grayish-white powder under Chen Qian, his memory being pulled back to the past.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
"The Li family patrols at night, drawing a circle on the ground as their prison."
The hunter muttered to himself.
When he looked at Chen Qian again, the wariness in his eyes had turned into a deep sense of fear, and even a hint of awe.
It wasn't out of reverence for Chen Qian, but rather out of reverence for the meaning represented by that paper figure.
"What a tragedy..."
The hunter, who had been hurrying away, suddenly stopped.
He turned around and looked at Chen Qian, who was standing in the circle of gray powder. The fear in his eyes turned into deep pity in an instant, as if he were looking at a dead man who had already been buried.
"When you get back, if there are any unfulfilled wishes at home, you should tell them as soon as possible."
The hunter sighed and shook his head: "You're so young, you don't know the taboos of the mountains, and you haven't learned how to avoid danger. How could you be so reckless?"
"You may have survived, but you're no longer truly yours."
Chen Qian's heart skipped a beat.
Having survived a near-death experience, and with her body just reborn thanks to the Blood-Veined Ginseng, she hadn't even had time to celebrate.
This sudden blow sent chills down his spine. Does that make you nervous?
[Observe carefully and read between the lines +1...+2]
The hunter's face showed a genuine and unfeigned compassion, mixed with a sense of powerlessness in the face of an inevitable tragedy.
Judging from his words and expressions, the hunter was not lying.
"Bro!"
Chen Qian suddenly stood up, disregarding the mud and grime on his body, and solemnly cupped his hands in the direction of the hunter, his tone urgent and earnest.
"Please enlighten me, brother! What does this mean? I am deeply grateful for your life-saving grace in bringing me back to consciousness, and I beg you to guide me and save me!"
Looking at his sincere appearance, a struggle flashed in the hunter's eyes. He seemed to have thought of something, but in the end, his heart softened.
He looked around warily, listened carefully to the sounds coming from the forest, then took two steps closer, lowered his voice, and spoke as softly as a whisper.
"The Li family patrolled at night, and all directions were silent."
"There's always been a rumor in the mountains that a family called 'Li' lives deep in these Black Mountains. Thanks to them, the village at the foot of the mountain hasn't been completely ravaged by things from the mountains over the years."
"But there is also a rule that has been passed down."
"Anyone saved by the Li family's paper figures in the Black Mountain at night is an 'object' chosen by the Li family. This circle of gray protects you for the night, but it also means you have entrusted your life to the Li family."
Chen Qian felt a chill wind blow from the forest, making his neck go cold, and his voice tightened: "The object?"
"Don't believe me?" the hunter asked in a low voice. "Look at your own chest."
Chen Qian's heart tightened. Ignoring the cold wind, he quickly opened his shirt and looked down.
Upon seeing this, his pupils suddenly contracted.
On his originally fair chest, a dark red mark had indeed appeared near his heart.
The mark was only the size of a thumb, and it wasn't a tattoo; it was actually the shape of a flickering candle flame.
"What is this?" Chen Qian's voice was dry.
"This is the mark of the Li family."
The hunter stared at the mark, a flicker of despair in his eyes, a sense of "I knew it!"
"I reckon it's no different from when we catch a live deer in the mountains, tie a red ribbon on it as a marker, and that's it."
"Once this seal is applied, everything inside and outside the mountains will understand. You are a 'goods' of the Li family. Whether they protect you or harm you, they'll have to think twice."
The hunter slowly recited a prophecy that had long circulated at the foot of Black Mountain:
"Li, holding a candle, wanders the mountains at night; ask neither of the living nor of the immortals."
"Within ten days, the coffin carrying the soul will arrive, and the soul will be carried into the deep mansion where the sky will never be seen again."
After reading it, he looked at Chen Qian with a complicated expression.
"Those captured by the Li family only have ten days to live. At midnight that night, a paper sedan chair will come to pick them up."
"Those who were taken away have never been seen to come back."
"Your life, from the moment it was circled last night, is no longer recorded in the King of Hell's book. It belongs to the Li family."
Chen Qian frowned as he listened. If it were the old him, he certainly wouldn't have believed such a fantastical claim.
Having experienced this bizarre turn of events, he had no choice but to accept it. With a sliver of hope, he asked, "Perhaps this is just a rural rumor? Even if I enter the Li family's house, it might not be a dead end. Perhaps I'm just going to work to pay for my life? Maybe I'm really never going back?"
"Rumors?" The hunter suddenly grinned, but the smile was more like a grimace, filled with bitterness.
"Fifteen years ago, my father also encountered danger in the mountains and was saved by that paper figure."
"Back then, he was just like you, thinking he had been given a second chance at life and didn't believe in such superstitions."
"But that night..."
The hunter's voice began to tremble uncontrollably, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the woodcutter's knife bulged, as if he had returned to that nightmarish night.
"A paper sedan chair and four paper figures appeared out of thin air in the courtyard. The fog was very thick that night, and I watched my father, as if he had lost his soul, laugh as he got in. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the fog."
"He hasn't come back yet."
He gave Chen Qian, who was standing there stunned, a long look, and finally advised, "Go home quickly. Talk to your family."
"Thank you for your guidance, brother."
Chen Qian took a deep breath and cupped his hands in greeting again.
This time, his eyes held less fear and more composure.
Knowing who the enemy is and when you will die is always better than dying in ignorance.
There is still time.
It's only the first day, and his life is still in his own hands.
Seeing that he hadn't broken down, the hunter's eyes flashed with surprise, then he nodded: "You're a sensible man. If you want to survive, you might try your luck at the Taoist temples and monasteries in the county. Although it's probably useless, it'll still be something to look forward to."
That's all I have to say. I'm leaving.
This time, the hunter didn't linger. He grabbed his bewildered and frightened daughter and strode away, disappearing at the end of the mountain path.
Only Chen Qian remained, standing amidst the circle of grayish-white powder.
A mountain breeze blew by, stirring up a few specks of dust.