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墨書 Inktalez
After hearing my words, Qiao Lianjiu fell silent for a long time, his face twisted with anger, his teeth clenched as if he wanted to swallow me whole. To be honest, I was scared by him.
Just as I was about to send Garlic Hero into action, Qiao Lianjiu erupted in a furious roar, "Damn Qi Zunshang! I'm in a hurry to take a shower and catch the high-speed train! You made me miss my ride!!!"
In the end, Qiao Lianjiu, still seething with anger, boarded the train with us to Chen Siyuan's house. Since her home was in a small city, there was no direct high-speed train.
However, it wasn't until we arrived at her house that I learned she didn't even live in the small city; we still had to take a local bus to the town and then ride a tricycle to her village. It was a very remote little countryside area. There, if an unmarried person died, they couldn't be buried in the ancestral grave and could only be hastily buried in a pit far from home.
When we finally reached our destination, we were told that Chen Siyuan's mother had already left home alone with her urn and hadn't taken anyone with her. No one knew where she had gone.
After some inquiries, I discovered that Chen Siyuan came from a single-parent family; she had never mentioned it before!
"Wheat, what should we do? I have a bad feeling that something might happen to Auntie..." Fang Xiaonan asked anxiously.
I felt the same way. A single mother who had worked hard to raise her daughter suddenly faced the loss of her child—who could bear that?
Siyuan's mother had been working away from home for years and rarely returned. She was also quite reclusive, so few people in the village were willing to associate with her. Therefore, no one knew where she intended to take her daughter's ashes.
The old lady next door slapped her thigh and exclaimed, "Oh dear, this is serious! Could it be that Ali took his daughter's ashes to the river? Fifteen years ago, their whole family drowned on their way back; only Ali survived with his three-year-old child. What a tough life..."
"Quick! To the river!" Su Anrong decisively shouted as she spotted an old tractor at the old lady's house. She jumped on and called out to us, "Get in!"
The old lady looked quite elderly—she must have been around seventy—but when she saw us getting into the tractor, she climbed aboard as well. "I'll go with you. Ali has had it tough too; he never remarried. Raising a child alone is hard enough; when he was sick with a high fever, he couldn't even afford to go to the hospital..."
Listening to the old lady recount stories about Siyuan's family made our hearts heavy with sorrow. We had shared a dormitory with Siyuan for a year but knew nothing about her struggles. We always thought she was the strongest among us, not realizing that she acted like a boy because she wanted to lessen her mother's burdens.
But I had never known any of this; I often asked her to bring me meals without paying her back.
The atmosphere was unusually somber as we traveled. I was surprised at how well Su Anrong handled driving this kind of vehicle; although my backside was nearly numb from bouncing around, just thinking about Siyuan's mother possibly throwing herself into the river made me wish I could fly there instantly.
I even thought about asking Su Anrong to teleport us there...
However, when we finally reached the riverbank after much effort, there was no sign of Siyuan's mother. The six of us searched along the riverbank for a long time but found no trace of her. We asked nearby residents but learned that no one had seen her come by.
Qiao Lianjiu remained silent throughout the journey, his expression serious until our throats were hoarse from calling out. Then he slowly said, "I have a connection with the ring..."
"Wow! Why didn't you say so earlier!" I shouted angrily, "We wasted half a day for nothing!"
"Exactly! Qiao Lianjiu, I think you did this on purpose!" Gao Lele looked at him with an air of superiority.
"Can you just let me finish?" Qiao Lianjiu said, slightly irritated by our comments. "Although I can sense things, it's hard to pinpoint the exact location. I need... I need to do something special."
Huh? Did that tall guy just blush?
I became even more curious. "What do you need to do?"
"I... we should... keep looking..."
Qiao Lianjiu stammered for a long time without saying anything, looking as if he was constipated. Watching him made me feel the same way. "What are we looking for? We've searched everywhere and found nothing. Time waits for no one! If you have any ideas, just say it! It's driving me crazy!"
Su Anrong stepped forward to explain for him: "He needs to become a bit more feminine to sense the ring's presence, and the more feminine, the better."
The three of us—me, Gao Lele, and Fang Xiaonan—thought we misheard him and stood frozen in place. Asking Qiao Lianjiu, a complete straight man, to become feminine? Was this some kind of joke?
However, the old lady didn’t see anything wrong with it and quickly said, "Don't worry, there are three girls here. It will be easy to turn this young man into a girl. You all need to hurry up; don’t dawdle! Otherwise, Ali will be in danger!"
It was summer, and all three of us were wearing skirts. We didn’t have any clothes to lend Qiao Lianjiu. Even if we did take them off, he definitely wouldn’t fit into them. There were some local residents nearby; those larger women’s clothes should fit Qiao Lianjiu.
I gestured for Su Anrong to lower his head and whispered, "Quickly borrow a woman's dress, something larger and taller. Use a little bit of teleportation magic—don’t go too fast… um!"
Before I could finish my sentence, Su Anrong disappeared right in front of me. Damn it! I told him not to go too fast! How am I supposed to explain this to them now?
Sure enough, they weren’t oblivious; Gao Lele immediately noticed that Su Anrong was gone. "Huh? Wheat, where's your husband?"
"Um... he went to... take care of something," I said awkwardly.
Gao Lele blushed but didn’t ask further.
In no time at all, Su Anrong returned with several dresses in hand.
I quickly asked, "How did you manage to borrow so many?"
Su Anrong winked at me. "Your husband is quite handsome; she only wanted one dress but insisted on giving me all these. — Come on, Xiaoqiao, try them on and pick whichever you like." He emphasized the name Xiaoqiao, clearly trying to provoke Qiao Lianjiu.
Qiao Lianjiu frowned and asked, "Which one do you like?"
Su Anrong was taken aback for a moment, then seriously pondered before gleefully saying, "I think they all look good! The key is that it has to suit you. Look at this polka dot one; wearing it makes you look like a spotted dog. This striped one resembles a zebra, and this floral one could make you as enchanting as the women by the Seine River, haha! This one is nice, graceful and particularly feminine; it will definitely help you feel good."
I wanted to stop Su Anrong because the fire in Qiao Lianjiu's eyes could ignite a powder keg, but I also felt that Su Anrong had a point. Besides, he spoke too quickly for me to intervene.
Fang Xiaonan was covering her mouth and laughing on the side, while Gao Lele enthusiastically helped Qiao Lianjiu pick another dress to use as a scarf. "We don't have any wigs, so we can only wrap your head up for now; this looks more realistic! Hahaha!" By the end of her sentence, she couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.
"Young man, they are right! Hurry up and try it on; don't waste time!" The old lady was truly a great support, voicing what I dared not say at that moment. I wanted to give her thirty-two thumbs up!
After all, she was an elder, and no matter how displeased Qiao Lianjiu was, he couldn't show her a sour face. Reluctantly, he went to try on the dress.
Surprisingly, it fit quite well. A robust man like Qiao Lianjiu looked utterly transformed in that floral dress, with Gao Lele's specially made scarf tied around him—he resembled a lively country woman! The femininity was undeniable!
"After this incident, just pretend nothing happened today!" Qiao Lianjiu threatened with a flushed face, creating a stark contrast to his usual image. I was holding back laughter so hard I felt like I might burst.
Su Anrong was the best at pretending; there wasn't a hint of amusement on his face as he said seriously, "Alright, hurry up and sense the ring!"
Qiao Lianjiu didn't say anything further. He first drew an eight-trigram symbol in the grass with a stick, then sat cross-legged in the center. He bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall at each of the eight positions of the trigram. Finally, he pressed his palms together in front of his chest and murmured, "Qiao Ancestor has spirits; I beseech my ancestors to guide me..."
I couldn't hear clearly what he muttered afterward; I only gradually noticed a gray shadow appearing before him...
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