Little Pink Starfish

Lingdang was afraid of light and sat in the back seat. Pei Qing started the car, his ears tuned to the conversation in the back. When he heard Lingdang say she would study hard from now on, his smile nearly reached his ears.

Zhang Qiu felt blinded by those two and waved for little Jiangshi to come over—stop clinging to Xiapi Prince.

Little Jiangshi obediently sat in Zhang Qiu’s arms. Xiapi Prince’s expression relaxed a little. Zhang Qiu knew that even though Second Sister-in-law was fond of Little Jiang, he wasn’t someone used to taking care of kids. Keeping a child entertained all the time was tiring.

“Daddy, are we going to Flower Brother’s house?”

“Mm.” Zhang Qiu hugged his soft, cool-bodied son—a perfect summer cooling tool. Little Jiangshi sat sweetly, letting Daddy squish him, excited to see Flower Brother. He had a gift to give him.

Before long, they arrived at Lu Feng’s house. Hua Ting had already been discharged. Probably due to breaking the formation and receiving Li Shu’s blood, he looked even healthier than last time. Lu Feng was in a good mood. Everyone exchanged greetings, and Hua Ting noticed the child in Li Shu’s arms. Surprised, he asked, “Little Jiang? He’s grown so much all of a sudden!”

Zhang Qiu nodded—he really didn’t know how to explain Little Jiang growing so fast. After coming out of Jin Hui Emperor’s tomb in Luoyang, he had asked about it. Little Jiang, speaking clumsily, said he seemed to have encountered something in the illusion and turned like this. Li Shu had checked and said there was nothing wrong.

Little Jiang loved hearing people say he had grown up. He puffed his chest, showing his little tiger teeth and happily said, “Uncle, where’s Flower Brother?”

“In the room, playing with Yangbao.”

Little Jiang looked pitifully up at Zhang Qiu, who nodded. Little Jiang softly said to Li Shu, “Big Daddy, I’m going to find Brother to play!”

Li Shu put him down. Little Jiang ran upstairs with his little short legs, confidently heading to Flower’s room.

“Let the kids play. I’ve got something to talk to you about.” Hua Ting also told the housekeeper to bring juice and cake upstairs for the children, then went to the living room. He handed out a stack of documents. “This is what I translated from the coffin in the Shandong general’s tomb. Don’t know if it’ll help.”

Hua Ting didn’t have memories of a past life, so to him, the Shandong general’s tomb was just a stranger’s grave. But when he translated the text, he felt a deep empathy, as if sharing the fear the general felt before death.

“The general was buried alive. The king at the time—Juwang—was there. He heard something and left it on the coffin. But the writing is messy, and the latter parts have no order. It’s clear the general was nearing his limit.” Hua Ting paused. “I followed the clues and looked up some materials. Here’s what I found.”

Li Shu and Xiapi Prince still weren’t fully used to simplified Chinese, so Hua Ting explained the content.

“In ancient times, there was a belief: the longer a body was preserved without decaying into bones, the more energy it contained. Eating it could prolong life. Juwang already had this idea back then. He also collected ancient divine bloodline beasts, hoping to escape the need to eat spiritual flesh for longevity. But I don’t know how he planned to use them.”

Zhang Qiu couldn’t help but think of Jin Laoda and Su Wanting. If living a few more years meant turning into some human-ghost monster, it’d be better to just die.

Actually, Li Shu and the others had already guessed most of this, but Hua Ting’s words helped confirm it.

“If this method really does extend life, then could the person behind everything be this Juwang?” Pei Qing suddenly asked.

“No way, it’s been almost 4,000 years—” Zhang Qiu started, but then thought of Li Shu, and realized—maybe it was possible.

Once the idea that Juwang might be the mastermind arose, the mood in the room sank. Lingdang cautiously glanced at the group and asked quietly, “Are you talking about Su Wanting’s father?”

“No, not him.” Pei Qing’s cold expression softened a little. He rubbed Lingdang’s head. “It’s someone else.”

Zhang Qiu suddenly said, “Lingdang’s point reminds me—Su Wanting and Jin Laoda were both sent by the one behind all this. Jin Laoda said he met that person seven years ago in Mongolia. But Su Wanting was only about eleven then, and judging by her actions, she’d known the person even earlier—maybe since she was eight or nine. Even if she was unusually mature, her guardian should’ve noticed something was wrong.”

“Let’s go ask Su Zhichai,” Xiapi Prince said immediately.

Su Zhichai was staying in Beijing to build connections. After the last auction, he handed out lots of business cards—Lu Feng had one. Hearing Xiapi Prince’s suggestion, he went inside to fetch the card and dialed. No answer.

He called again. This time, after a few rings, someone picked up. Lu Feng turned on speakerphone.

“Hello, who’s this?”

It was a young man’s voice. Lu Feng checked—he hadn’t dialed the wrong number. He asked for Su Zhichai.

“My dad’s not here. What’s it about? I can pass it on.”

Wait! Su Zhichai’s son was already dead. Zhang Qiu’s mind went blank. Su Wanting herself had said she did it. Who was this person answering the phone?

The living room fell silent. Something felt off.

Rustling sounds came through. They heard someone say, “Dad, someone’s looking for you—your phone’s ringing.” Then the sound of the phone being passed, followed by an old man’s voice: “Who’s looking for me?”

Lu Feng gave his name. The man paused, as if he didn’t know who Lu Feng was.

It had only been a little over ten days since the auction—how could he forget that quickly? Zhang Qiu felt something was wrong and looked at Lu Feng. Lu Feng brought up the auction. The man paused, like he didn’t know what that was.

“Then your daughter, Su Wanting—?”

“Sorry, you must have the wrong number. I don’t have a daughter. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The call ended.

Lu Feng looked at everyone. “You heard it.”

Zhang Qiu remembered people at the auction flattering Su Zhichai and praising Su Wanting. He even looked pleased. Now, just ten days later, he acted like a completely different person—forgot Su Wanting, and his supposedly dead son had reappeared.

Zhang Qiu suddenly thought of that servant brought back from Changsha, and Hua Ting’s earlier mention of eating spiritual flesh. At first, he thought it was for Su Wanting. But now it seemed something else was going on. Su Zhichai must know more than he let on.

Li Shu said, “We need to find time to visit this Su Zhichai.”

It was getting late. After the adults finished talking, Little Jiangshi came downstairs with Flower and Yangbao, shouting that he was hungry. Hua Ting said, “Let’s eat first.”

After dinner, Lu Feng had to walk Yangbao home. Little Jiang didn’t want to part, and Zhang Qiu figured it was a good time to walk off the meal, so their little family of three took on the mission.

Yangbao was outgoing and not shy. His home was in a nearby villa. He and Little Jiang walked ahead, while Li Shu and Zhang Qiu strolled behind, listening to the two kids chat.

Yangbao babbled on about kindergarten friends. Little Jiang looked like a country bumpkin, asking what kindergarten was. When he heard it had many kids, his eyes sparkled.

Zhang Qiu elbowed Li Shu. “Should Little Jiang be in kindergarten already?”

“As long as you’re happy.” Li Shu didn’t care much about it.

“What kind of dad are you?!” Zhang Qiu complained. But seeing how Little Jiang still looked tiny like a bean sprout, he decided to wait and enroll him next spring. There was a kindergarten near their school anyway…

They soon reached Yangbao’s house. Zhang Qiu saw Yangbao call out to a handsome man, “Dad!” and felt reassured. But then he saw his son staring at Yangbao’s dad with puppy eyes—practically drooling. Zhang Qiu wanted to cover his face. Did I look like this when staring at Li Shu?!

Can’t even look.

After politely declining an invitation for tea, Zhang Qiu, Li Shu, and Little Jiang started heading back. In the distance, a flashy red sports car zoomed toward them. Zhang Qiu stepped aside, but the car screeched to a stop right beside them.

The window rolled down, revealing a stunningly androgynous face. He winked.

Zhang Qiu had never seen such a flamboyant-looking man. The guy whistled, flirtatious as hell, propping his chin lazily on the window. “Beautiful long-haired one—how about giving me your number?”

!!!

Zhang Qiu froze for a moment, then realized this guy was hitting on Li Shu. It was his first time seeing someone try this. He wasn’t angry—more like impressed. He too had once been seduced by Li Shu’s looks but never had the guts to flirt like that.

Still, admiration was one thing—he pointed at Li Shu and grinned. “This person’s already taken.”

The guy looked at both of them and shrugged. “All the good-looking ones always have boyfriends.”

Zhang Qiu was thrilled at those words. See, see? In the eyes of outsiders, my position is impressive.

“I’m Qi Xi. I live nearby. Come hang out sometime.” The man smiled devilishly, blew a kiss at Little Jiangshi in Li Shu’s arms, and said, “Little cutie, bye~”

The car roared off.

What a weirdo. But a weirdo with charm. Zhang Qiu walked a few steps and suddenly realized, “Qi Xi? That’s the guy we saw at the airport—the one called ‘Seven Up’?”

Li Shu nodded indifferently. Zhang Qiu remembered how Qi Xi’s fans giggled and shouted “Heeheeheehee”—he couldn’t stop laughing. That joke alone could keep him entertained for a year.

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Pinky sings out of tune: I did not knoooow that I skipped a whole chapteeeer~