STOTTD | Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The peach blossom demon said, “Only those who beg in hardship can see this red thread.”

“So that’s how it is...”
Zhou Xin touched her chin， teased, “No wonder Shen Shaoqing refused Madam Shen’s matchmaking. So he already had someone in his heart!”

Shen Jibai: “...”

This guy had always been cold-hearted and hard-faced, and he actually fell in love too?
Which young lady was so amazing, able to warm up this block of ice?

She could not help but feel very curious, leaned closer to Shen Jibai, tilted her head to look at him, her eyes smiling yet not quite smiling. “Which family’s little lady is she?”

Shen Jibai: “...”

She bumped his shoulder. “Say it already! Satisfy this gossip-loving crowd’s curiosity!”

Shen Jibai: “...”

Seeing that he remained silent the whole time, Zhou Xin began to coax him patiently. “Is it because there has not been much progress yet, so it is hard to say? Do you want Zhou Xin to help you come up with an idea? Zhou Xin has been through many battles, and I’m quite experienced in this area, you know!”

Shen Jibai glanced at her and said, “Shen Jibai will go back to the book repository first.”

Zhou Xin pointed at him with her index finger and said to the peach blossom demon, “Look, this person really cannot take a joke.”

The peach blossom demon covered its mouth and laughed foolishly.

＊

After returning to the quiet chamber, Shen Jibai first went to the latrine, then returned to the book repository to consult ancient texts.

He gathered a stack of books recording strange demons and uncanny creatures, sat in the innermost part of the room, leaned his back against the antique shelf, rested his head against the wall, and lowered his eyes to read quietly.

Zhou Xin flipped through several books and noticed that the spirits recorded in them were all born of heaven and earth, cultivating the way of heaven and earth. If they did not do evil, they had no demonic aura. In a sense, they had the same kind of cultivation method as daoist practitioners.

She could not help thinking of the thing in Shen Jibai’s belly, which was like a ball of cotton, and could sense qi. Maybe that was also a spirit.

So, Zhou Xin searched around in the room for a while and found some books related to spirits, piling them into a small mountain, then sat behind the pile and read them one by one.

Time slowly slipped by, and the room remained quiet throughout. Neither of them had any intention of speaking.

Only when the sunlight slanted in from the west and landed on Zhou Xin’s face did she stretch and say, “Shen Shaoqing, it looks like we may not be able to find any clues today. Do you plan to stay here and keep searching, or go back and wait?”

No one answered.

She poked her head out from behind the book mountain, and saw the person leaning against the antique shelf reading seriously, head lowered, already asleep.

Zhou Xin quietly stood up and walked over to him, then crouched in front of him.

He must have been having some bad dream. Shen Jibai’s brows were faintly furrowed, his eyelashes trembling lightly, and her eyes, as sharp as hawks, were gently closed. The coldness that kept people at a distance had weakened a little, and instead he looked somewhat rare and gentle.

He looked pretty handsome, but his temper was terrible.
Zhou Xin thought to herself.

This face could even fight its way through the entertainment circle. If his love life was going badly, it was probably because of his awkward, twisty personality.

Thinking this, she leaned in another inch. Seeing that pair of sword-like brows slanting into his temples wrinkle even more, and that his face had also turned slightly red, even his breath was getting hot.

Zhou Xin thought to herself, could it be a fever?

She raised her hand to feel his forehead, but before her fingertips could reach his face, she felt her wrist tighten.

Then Shen Jibai opened his eyes, and those ice-cold eyes stared at her without moving.

Her voice was icy. “What do you want to do?”

Zhou Xin leaned even closer, close enough to smell the faint osmanthus fragrance on Shen Jibai’s body.

She lifted her brows and asked back, “What do you think I want to do?”

“Lingyun Jun, some things can happen once, can happen twice, but not a third time!”

He forcefully shook off her hand. Zhou Xin’s body swayed and tilted toward the wall.

The instant her palm touched the wall, the white wall suddenly disappeared. With the force of momentum, she kept falling downward and landed flat on the floor.

Zhou Xin raised her head and met a pair of cold eyes watching from the sidelines.
His expression was indifferent, with not the slightest intention of helping her up.

“Really heartless.” She sat up and dusted off her hands.

“Already heartless, so where would the heartlessness come from?”

Shen Jibai looked away and swept his gaze around the secret room hidden behind the wall.

From the layout and furnishings, this was also a book repository, only it had been forcibly split into two halves by a barrier.

“How did Lingyun Jun break the barrier?”

Zhou Xin stood up and looked down at him, “Want to know?”

She looked up at her, and did not answer.

“I just won’t tell you!”

Zhou Xin put her hands behind her back and leisurely examined the secret room.

Three of the walls in this room were all bookshelves. Only the center of the wall directly facing her had been left empty for two shelves, with a painting of an old Daoist burning incense. On the offering table below were sacrifices, and the incense burner was full of ashes. At a glance, it was obvious that Linghe daoist master often came in to worship.

The bookshelves held all kinds of books, as well as sealed spirit vessels with sealing talismans pasted on them.

She could not help but mutter to herself.

They were all books, so why hide them specially?

It had been quiet behind her the whole time. When she turned back, she found the book repository empty, and Shen Jibai had somehow already left.

This guy was carrying a spiritual fetus in his belly, yet he was not anxious at all!

Taking her gaze back, she casually opened one book, and what met her eyes was a picture of a talisman, which looked somewhat familiar.

After narrowing her eyes and thinking for a while, she finally remembered what talisman it was, and suddenly understood. “No wonder this half of the room was hidden. The books here are probably all forbidden books!”

Zhou Xin simply sat cross-legged on the floor and read them carefully.

A faint sound of footsteps rang out in the room. Shen Jibai had just entered when he stopped, held his belly for a moment, then turned around and walked back out.

Zhou Xin ignored him and continued reading with her head down.

After a while, footsteps rang out again. Shen Jibai entered the secret room with a cold face, searched along the rows of bookshelves, picked up a book, and sat back down in front of the antique shelf.

The quiet atmosphere did not last long. She stood up again and walked out.

Zhou Xin slowly raised her head and said, “Shen Shaoqing.”

He turned back to look at her.

“Frequent trips to the latrine, increased appetite, sleepiness, all are symptoms of pregnancy.”

“Lingyun Jun means...” His gaze moved slightly, and he said in disbelief, “Impossible. How can a man bear a child?”

Zhou Xin said, “Whether it can or cannot, it is already there. If these are the only symptoms, then that is still manageable. What I fear is that there may be other stronger reactions.”

Before she even finished speaking, Shen Jibai stumbled and fell against the nearby antique shelf, making a loud “thud!”

Zhou Xin: “?”
No way.
It really came as soon as it was said?

Leaning against the antique shelf and recovering for a moment, Shen Jibai stood straight again, then went to the latrine once more.

After he returned, he walked up to Zhou Xin and said, “Lingyun Jun’s analysis is very thorough, do you have any leads?”

Zhou Xin narrowed her eyes. “Is Shen Shaoqing always like this?”

Shen Jibai: “?”

Zhou Xin smiled slyly. “Using people when they are needed, and tossing them aside when they are not.”

That sounded a bit harsh. Shen Jibai’s expression changed slightly, and he pressed his lips together.

Zhou Xin ignored him, lowered her head and continued reading. “There is indeed some clue, but I do not know if it is what Shen Shaoqing wants to hear.”

Shen Jibai immediately said, “I would like to hear the details.”

She turned the book in her hands to a certain page and pointed at the talisman on it, saying softly, “Does Shen Shaoqing recognize this talisman?”

Shen Jibai lowered his eyes. After a moment, he replied, “It is the substitute talisman on the paper cutout person.”

“Correct.” Zhou Xin said, “But this talisman has two uses. One is to use one’s own cultivation to control the paper cutout person carrying the talisman, letting you see what the paper person sees and feel what the paper person feels. Therefore, if the paper person is damaged, the controller’s cultivation is damaged too.”

“And the other?”

“The other is ‘spirit-controlling art’, which can transfer a demon, a wandering soul, or a living person’s spiritual awareness onto a paper person. This transfer can be temporary or permanent, and the longer the transfer lasts, the higher the cultivation required of the caster.”

Zhou Xin said, “After the transfer, they continue to exist in the form of paper people, obeying the caster’s orders. The caster can still see what it sees and feel what it feels, but will not be affected by its destruction.”

Shen Jibai said, “Lingyun Jun means...”

In fact, by the time she got here, Zhou Xin already felt a flash of understanding, and one problem that had puzzled her for a long time was answered.

No wonder there was no sinister aura near Changfeng Tavern, yet the paper person had somehow produced sinister aura out of nowhere to attack the hamster demon!

Because that paper cutout person was transformed from a wandering soul. The wandering soul itself carried sinister aura, and after it attacked the hamster demon it ran off. By the time Zhou Xin arrived much later, of course she could not detect any sinister aura!

“Zhou Xin does not really mean anything. I was just wondering why daoist master never mentioned spirit-controlling art? Could it be that he was more inclined to believe the evil cultivator used a substitute talisman?”

Shen Jibai shook his head. “It is still unknown.”

He took the book and looked through it carefully, while Zhou Xin stood up and continued selecting books about spirits and uncanny beings. “As for the thing in Shen Shaoqing’s belly, Zhou Xin suspects it is a spirit. As for what kind of spirit it is, there are still no clues.”

Shen Jibai raised his eyes. “Why do you suspect that?”

“Demonic and evil beings all have demonic aura. Only spirits are nurtured by heaven and earth. If they do not do evil, they are not easy to notice. Also, most spirits are benevolent spirits, cultivating the way of heaven and earth, and do not make enemies with people, so they can sense the Qi of cultivators.” Zhou Xin roughly flipped through the books on the shelf, sorting out which ones could be used according to the catalog.

Shen Jibai said, “So that is how it is.”

He closed the book. “Find all the books that record spirits, compare them one by one, and we will surely find clues.”

Zhou Xin nodded. “Great minds think alike.”

The two divided the work and cooperated, one searching the secret room, the other checking the book repository.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the open window, and the light in the book repository grew much dimmer than it had been in the daytime.

Shen Jibai turned back to look at the secret room.

The secret room was enclosed by walls on three sides, with no light coming through. Only two ever-burning lamps cast a little brightness.

Earlier, when they could still borrow sunlight from the book repository, he had not felt anything. Now that even the book repository had grown dim, the secret room became even darker, and even carried a bit of a sinister feeling.

It reminded him of the scene a few days ago, after getting off duty and going home, when the wind blew out the candle flame and he fell into a stretch of darkness.

Shen Jibai carried a few books back to the main hall, lit the row of candle holders on both sides of the hall, which were about one zhang long, and then held two small lamps into the secret room. He placed one of them beside Zhou Xin, then quietly withdrew.

The light suddenly became brighter. Zhou Xin turned her head and saw a paper lamp added to the bookshelf behind her.

Her lips curved slightly. She tilted her body and poked her head out to see that person standing with his back to her at a row of bookshelves, searching for books according to the illustrations.

Three bell tolls rang, reminding the daoist practitioners in the temple that the dining hall had opened.

Zhou Xin carried a stack of books and walked out. “Shen Shaoqing, it is time for dinner.”

She shook her head. “Not hungry.”

“Then Zhou Xin will go first!”

When she walked back to the main hall, Zhou Xin discovered that the table beside the candle racks was already piled full of books.

After placing the books on the floor beside it, she went straight to the dining hall.

She had come a bit early, so there were not many people in line. Before long, it was her turn. Dinner was plain porridge and side dishes with steamed buns. Zhou Xin asked for two extra buns, and after eating, she borrowed a knife from the cook, cut the buns open, stuffed in some side dishes like making a meat夹馍, wrapped them in oiled paper, and brought them back to the quiet chamber.

The moment she entered, she saw Shen Jibai lying on the desk asleep.

He still had that uneasy look, brows slightly furrowed, eyelashes trembling, cheeks faintly red, and she did not know what exactly he was dreaming about.

Zhou Xin rested her chin in her hand and looked down at him, thinking to herself, I have only seen him sleeping all day. Could he wake up in the middle of the night and keep burning the midnight oil with lamps on?

His lips moved faintly, and his throat bobbed up and down. Muffled muttering broke the silence of the room.

She could not hear clearly what he was saying, so she lowered her head and leaned closer to him.

The breath that rushed toward her was hot and burning, carrying the faint osmanthus fragrance, very pleasant.

Zhou Xin looked up. By the candlelight, she could clearly see the tiny down on Shen Jibai’s skin, which was as smooth and lustrous as jade.

How could a grown man’s skin be this good?
She thought to herself.

A head poked out from the doorway. Seeing the two people inside leaning so close together that even their breaths were mingling, it quickly covered its eyes, but the middle and ring fingers of its right hand were not pressed together, leaving a crack.

After looking for a while, he let out a soft laugh.

“Who is it!” Zhou Xin looked up.

At the same time, Shen Jibai, who was asleep, suddenly opened his eyes. Those ink-jade eyes fixed tightly on the face right in front of him, and he immediately held his breath and clenched his fists.