Chapter 30: Wildfire Cannot Burn It All Away

When he ran to the door of the study, he opened the door and saw that the room was empty and quiet. Only Cao Meng was sleeping peacefully on the bed, even letting out faint snores from time to time.

Seeing this, Li Si breathed out, and his whole body relaxed.

Then he took the Eight Trigrams Mirror from his clothes and looked all around the room, discovering that he could not see that thing anywhere in the entire room either.

That strange thing was not here. Thinking this, Li Si prepared to return to his room and sleep. However, halfway there, his footsteps stopped. He seemed to have thought of something, and he turned around, walked to the desk, and lit the candle with the fire striker.

Then he sat down on the chair, casually took a book from the bookshelf behind him, and began reading by candlelight. Xiaoduan and Xiaoyu were also released by him. Instantly, the hot air in the room no longer felt dry and sweltering, but instead became somewhat comfortable and cool.

Cao Meng, who was sleeping on the bed, had still been tossing and turning from time to time before, but after the air cooled, he slept extremely soundly and did not want to move at all.

”Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!” A loud rooster’s cry rang out in the faintly glowing early morning, followed by even more rooster cries.

“Mm?!” Cao Meng, who was sleeping on the bed, rubbed his drowsy eyes and looked toward the study, just in time to see Li Si practicing calligraphy at the desk.

“Awake?” When Li Si heard movement from the bed, he stopped writing and turned his head to look at Cao Meng. “I brought you tofu pudding. It’s on the table outside in the main hall.”

Cao Meng was stunned. He had not expected Teacher to get up so early, and even bring him tofu pudding.

So he did not hesitate either. He immediately got up and put on his clothes, while hurriedly saying, “Thank you, Teacher. What time is it now?”

“It has just reached the Mao hour. When you eat breakfast later, remember to wash up first. I put the washing tools beside the water vat,” Li Si instructed Cao Meng, then continued practicing calligraphy at the desk.

When Cao Meng walked out the door, he could not help curiously looking toward the rice paper on the desk. He saw that the characters on the paper were firm and elegant, their force seeming to penetrate the paper, and he could not help inwardly praising them.

But he was afraid Li Si would not like someone watching from the side while he practiced calligraphy, so he turned back every few steps and reluctantly walked out of the study.

“Wildfire cannot burn it all away. When spring winds blow, it grows again.” After Cao Meng had left for a short while, the brush in Li Si’s hand stopped, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

In his previous life, he had practiced calligraphy, but could only be said to have entered the basics. However, the original owner was extremely proficient in calligraphy. Since Li Si had inherited the original owner’s memories in this regard, he had naturally also inherited his calligraphy.

From last night until this morning, Li Si had been thinking about what that strange thing was. This made him recall the dream he had in the Zhang Residence, of a person with exactly the same appearance as himself gnawing on human bones beneath the bed.

That person was the original owner!!!

That was also a person whose parents had arranged a ghost marriage for him, using his future in exchange for their own wealth and honour.

No matter how well his parents treated him, it could not change the vicious fact of what they had done.

As for his parents going to find that strange thing to dissolve the marriage arrangement, that had indeed happened. But dissolving an agreement with a strange thing was something anyone would know was impossible.

From the original owner’s memories, Li Si knew that dissolving the marriage arrangement had not been the goal his parents wanted to achieve.

Their true goal was merely to use it to demand more money.

In other words, from beginning to end, he had been sold by his parents!

A person like that, even if he were normally peaceful, would still feel hatred.

So he hated them deeply. He hated his parents, hated the Nie family that had arranged the marriage with him, and hated himself even more.

That was why, when the autumn provincial examination was approaching, the original owner had gone to the temple. As for whether he had gone to seek an expert or to burn incense and pray for Bodhisattva to show divine power, Li Si could not quite remember. The memories he had obtained from the original owner were already incomplete, so naturally, they could not cover every detail.

But one thing was already very clear. The original owner was already dead, and after his death, he had been under the bed where Li Si slept all along.

Moreover, Li Si understood very clearly that the original owner no longer had his sanity. He had completely become a ghost creature, and he liked eating living things very much. From the hunger he had felt in the dream, Li Si could tell that such hunger was simply not something human reason could resist.

Perhaps before, he could only eat small animals. Later, he might really begin eating children, just as in the dream.

Thinking this, Li Si felt somewhat sorrowful. He had obtained some of the original owner’s memories, so naturally, he understood the original owner very well. Although he held resentment toward his parents, he had always remained himself and had not abandoned himself because of what his parents had done.

If not, how could he have taught the nearby children and been widely respected by the people nearby?

But such a good person could still become a man-eating evil ghost after death!

“I must find him,” Li Si murmured in a low voice.

He could not possibly allow this evil ghost to cause trouble outside. Moreover, this was also partly his fault. If he had discovered this ghost creature earlier, it would not have run out.

Thinking this, Li Si could hardly restrain himself and wanted to go out searching. But he immediately calmed down. Searching aimlessly like this would be of no use at all.

Judging from the previous situation, the original owner still had an obsession with this house. That was why he had rather hidden under the bed before than go elsewhere.

And judging from the bones under the bed, perhaps because of his strength, he could only eat animals.

So what he needed to do now was wait for him in this house, and inform the nearby children and their parents to be careful of danger. This was what Li Si needed to do at present.

Thinking this, Li Si put down the writing brush and walked out of the study. At this moment, he saw that Cao Meng had already finished the tofu pudding and was getting up to wash the bowl.

“Cao Meng, wait a moment.” Li Si called out to Cao Meng. At the same time, he walked into the bedroom and carried out two jars one after another, then said helplessly to Cao Meng, “I need to transport the things in these two jars to the Feng River. It is inconvenient for me to carry them alone. Come help me carry one.”

Each of these two jars was about 10 kg (~22 lb). It was still fine for one person to carry one, but carrying two in his arms would be inconvenient. This was also why Li Si had called Cao Meng to help him move them.

“All right, Teacher.” When Cao Meng saw Li Si calling him to do something, he happily ran over and picked up one jar.

Seeing Cao Meng so lively, Li Si secretly shook his head and smiled. Although this child was relatively precocious, he was still a seven or eight-year-old child after all.

Afterward, the two walked out the door and headed toward South Gate Street. Two li outside the southern city gate, about 1 km (~0.62 miles), there was a large river named Feng River, and that was the river Li Si wanted to go to.

On the way to Feng River, those who saw Li Si would greet him. This was the effect created by the original owner’s previous reputation combined with Li Si’s recent reputation for subduing demons and eliminating ghosts.

Li Si also politely returned their greetings. At the same time, he sighed inwardly. What these people did not know was that the gentle Scholar Li had already become a man-eating ghost creature and might commit murder at any moment.

After leaving the city gate, the two walked for about twenty minutes and arrived at Feng River. At this time, Li Si felt his arms were somewhat tired, while Cao Meng beside him seemed completely fine.

Li Si secretly marvelled at Cao Meng’s physical constitution, and at the same time felt somewhat ashamed of his own stamina. But he immediately threw that shame aside.

This body had not been his before, so what did its weakness have to do with him?

“Put the jar by the side,” Li Si said to Cao Meng. Then he walked alone to the riverbank.