CH 59

Chapter 59 Changshui Town

Liu Zhongming opened his arms and hugged that person tightly.

As if being scalded by red-hot iron, Qu Chenzhou screamed, pushed him away, rolled backwards between the quilts, gasped for a moment, then finally realized that he was indeed on Liu Zhongming’s bed.

But when he wanted to climb down again with his weak hands and feet, one leg was stuck on the side of the bed.

Liu Zhongming set up his stance and did not intend to give him a chance to run again at all.

Qu Chenzhou slowly raised his eyes and looked at Liu Zhongming standing beside the bed. Staring at the half overcast, it was as if a prey was waiting to enter the hunter’s mouth. He took a few breaths, slowly knelt down on the bed, his face sinking like water, then his eyes lowered, looking at the bed.

D*mn it, Liu Zhongming cursed in his heart, he’s doing this again.

He really hated Qu Chenzhou, a dead pig who was not afraid of being scalded by boiling water.

“Awake?”

He was slanted and also half lying on the bed. With his long legs bent on the edge of the bed, he raised his eyebrows gently: “What? Haven’t kneeled enough in the yard?”

Qu Chenzhou lowered his head quietly. The old monk seemed to be in meditation, and made it clear that he would ignore him.

“Not speaking right?” Liu Zhongming gently twisted the letter in his arms with one hand and sneered, “It seems that I have no power and I have been too indulgent to you, making you forget your identity, Qu Chenzhou.”

He raised his sharp jaw with two fingers and asked, “I remember that when you were in Qisheng Building, you had rules, right?”

Qu Chenzhou trembled when he heard the word “rules “. For a moment, he slowed his breathing, his eyes still did not meet the person’s eyes, and he replied softly, “Yes.”

Liu Zhongming looked at his fingers that twitched convulsively, and his heart skipped a beat, his guess might be pretty close.

After this fever, the strange reaction of the person in front of him was more like the slave Qu Chenzhou than a little fox.

Thus, he tried to bring up the rules, a little test.

Regarding the rules and punishments, that is fear that slaves have etched into their bones since childhood and cannot be removed.

He was holding the letter, anxious and worried – let’s just be a villain.

If he doesn’t manage him, the little fox will follow along and be smashed into powder.

“Now that there are no rules, you are really lawless.”

Liu Zhongming’s palms actually seeped sweat.

He had never bought any other slaves, so he didn’t know if his approach would be effective, and he even had the urge to shake the little fox out of this body to give him advice.

“Listen carefully, from now on, I’ll set the rules for you. If you make one mistake, you will be whipped thirty times, do you hear?”

Qu Chenzhou closed his eyes and replied, “Yes.”

“First, it’s forbidden to refuse to answer.”

“…Yes.”

Qu Chenzhou frowned slightly, his face a little dazed, as if the familiar rules made him overwhelmed.

If it was before today, Liu Zhongming would definitely take the opportunity to ask Qu Chenzhou about the secrets he didn’t want to tell, but this time he only asked: “Then tell me, when I let you treat your face, why didn’t you go?”

“…” Qu Chenzhou’s eyelashes trembled, and he replied softly, “Replying Shizi, Doctor Qin said that the weather is hot and humid today, so it is not suitable for medical treatment. After autumn cools down, a month or so, then it would be good. It will be healed before Shizi enters officialdom next year. I won’t delay the affairs of Shizi.”

Liu Zhongming had a nameless fire in his heart.

He was kind enough to let the person heal, but Qu Chenzhou thought that he was afraid of delaying important matters. It turned out that in the heart of the other party, he was selfish and bad.

“Very good,” he gritted his teeth and smiled: “It seems that the first rule is remembered now. Second, it is forbidden to violate orders.”

“Yes…”

“Now take three steps forward.”

Qu Chenzhou finally opened his eyes, looked at the distance between himself and Liu Zhongming and showed some hesitation.

Liu Zhongming stared at him.

The bed was only this wide, if he took three steps forward, they would… be very close to each other.

Such a close distance made Qu Chenzhou’s normally calm eyes panic.

“Shizi…”

“What? Don’t you dare to come?” Liu Zhongming nodded at the space between his legs: “There will be many times when I will take you out in the future and they will be very rowdy. If you can’t even do this now, who are you planning to deceive?”

This was his overt reasoning and he didn’t want to distinguish if he was being selfish.

Qu Chenzhou’s eyes flickered. His tone softened three points: “Is there any other order from Shizi?”

“Three steps forward.” Liu Zhongming saw his flash of embarrassment passing by, and insisted on not changing his words.

Qu Chenzhou still returned silence to him, but after a few breaths, he slowly took a step forward on his knees, and then another step.

They were only one step away.

Liu Zhongming didn’t give anyone any time to hesitate, he pulled with one hand, pulling him back to his chest again.

After sleeping with the person in this position for a night, he can actually get close to a person so calmly and familiarly. This was something he had never thought about in the past ten years.

He liked it.

Perhaps, this was the source of his worries.

“Shizi!” Qu Chenzhou struggled to stand up, but his back was pressed by a pair of legs, so he could only put his hands on the bed on both sides, trying to keep them from sticking together.

Seeing that this little face was flushed red and he was resisting being in close contact with him so much, he didn’t know why but he felt a little sad and moved his legs away.

“Do you hate me that much?” he asked.

This person called his name several times when he was unconscious and he once guessed their relationship, but such a cold and repulsive attitude made him think he was thinking too much.

Qu Chenzhou’s body froze for a moment. He felt the force on his back withdraw, but he didn’t get up for a while.

“No…”

The answer was low, but Liu Zhongming heard it clearly.

He doesn’t hate him…the answer is he doesn’t hate him

His hand involuntarily placed on top of Qu Chenzhou’s head, but he didn’t expect that the other party’s body would be that weak. His expression was in a trance and this lightly placed hand was like a heavy weight, causing Qu Chenzhou to lie down on his chest.

The two were stunned at the same time, looked at each other for a moment, then turned away at the same time.

Liu Zhongming bluntly changed the topic: “Shiyan just sent me news that something happened to Pan He, did you already know?”

Qu Chenzhou finally reacted and struggled to sit up. On the left and right were Liu Zhongming’s legs that refused to retract and he could only kneel between them.

“Panhe…” he muttered to himself.

There were too many people from the previous life. He usually can distinguish clearly, but for some reason, he passed out this time in a coma and he dreamed of the day and night he was trapped in Jinxiuying.

The dream was very chaotic. At first, it seemed that his ears were filled with his own screams and wailing, then he dreamed that Zhongming was calling him.

“Pan He…” He remembered that Pan He had not died in this life, but if he counted the time, he was not far from his decapitation: “Jingshan’s iron ore?” 

With such a simple question, Liu Zhongming immediately understood. Having him sell the Jingshan Iron mine to Pan He, the ultimate goal was actually there.

It’s no wonder that he didn’t want to tell himself directly at the beginning, if he knew what would happen now, he would definitely not do it.

But in Shi Yan’s news, Pan He’s life was already insignificant, it was just a trivial introduction to the countless lives that followed behind.

“Then do you know what happened at the iron mine in Jingshan?”

The shock in his heart at this time was no less than yesterday, but it was much more complicated, he didn’t know what to say.

The current situation between the three Wang Ye’s was laid out bit by bit after Qu Chenzhou had a secret glimpse of it.

But Pan He was different. Since he rescued the person from Pan He, Qu Chenzhou had never seen Pan He again. This calculation was entirely because he knew enough about Pan He.

——Because Pan He was greedy enough.

Because of greed, he thought of buying slaves who didn’t care about life or death to start mining and even though he had repeatedly emphasized when he handed over the land deed that the slags after refining could not be dumped into the river nearby, Pan He still did not follow his instructions in the end.

He never expected that because of greed, Pan He wouldn’t be able to see the terrible consequences, and didn’t sincerely follow his orders from the beginning.

Not only was the slag dumped into the river, but the slaves who died of exhaustion who had nowhere to be buried, were also thrown into the river together.

If it was in previous years, it was fine, but it happened this year.

Under the torrential rain, the river swelled, and the downstream dyke piled up with many dead people, and finally the dyke burst.

Even though the people downstream of the dam struggled to save it, three or four villages and towns turned into a sea overnight.

The snow-like book was handed up, and although Pan He went around everywhere to suppress a lot of the information, there was still a book that was sent to the desk of the imperial study.

Before Bai Shiyan gave him the news, he was under orders to arrest Pan He. It seemed that even Yu Gonggong couldn’t save this godson, let alone anyone else.

Qu Chenzhou was silent for a long time under his gaze, then he raised his eyes and asked calmly, “Does Shizi want to punish me for my sins?”

“You…” Only then did Liu Zhongming understand why Qu Chenzhou asked himself for a map before, and the map was so densely drawn that it even had to be redrawn several times.

“Sure enough, it’s you.”

If Qu Chenzhou took hundreds of lives just to kill a vengeful Pan He, he might really scold the other party for disregarding the lives of the common people.

But when he learned what happened later in Shi Yan’s letter, he didn’t have the stance of scolding the person – in the face of bloody reality, only then did he know what it means to be successful.

He was very confused for a while, whether he was too naive, or reality should be this cruel.

“Qu Chenzhou, did you know where the first submerged town was after the river burst its banks?”

Qu Chenzhou’s throat slid and he cast his eyes aside.

Of course he knew, it was the decision he finally made after staying up for several days and nights – Changshui Town.

It was the only place that once supported him and the place where he once tried his best to escape.

He even naively thought that if his parents were willing to take him back, even if it was only for one day, half a day, or even an hour, to let him have a home, even if he dissipated in the next moment, he would die without regret.

But now it was destroyed by his own hands.

All ruined.

It was right for his parents and the villagers to fear and dislike him. He was originally an evil spirit crawling out of h*ll, with blood on his hands and hideous eyes.

He was born to bring disaster to men.

From a few months ago, he had been waiting for this day. Tormented day and night, trying to struggle to survive in the torment of sin, all the high dams were vulnerable to the surge of this moment.

After a long time, he took a deep breath. His eyes were red and he forced a smile: “So Shizi doesn’t know yet? It’s a long…”

A palm was behind his head, pressing his head lightly against his chest. Without the gaze of his eyes, he flattened his mouth, and his eyes flushed instantly, but he held back and did not make a sound.

“Chenzhou, it’s Changshui Town.”

Liu Zhongming not only knew where, but also the reason.

Because of Jiang Xingzhi.

After noticing Qu Chenzhou, he and Jiang Xingzhi sent people to Changshui Town and once he entered an official position, he would gradually walk towards the center of the whirlpool, and maybe others would gradually pay attention to Qu Chenzhou.

After all, it had been less than ten years since Qu Chenzhou’s fortune-telling brand was taken off.

He had also thought about how to prevent the loud noise of this untimely bomb, but he did not expect Qu Chenzhou to be faster and act more decisively than him.

If there was still a little doubt in the past, then he now completely believes that the person in front of him was indeed resurrected from the dead, a person who had truly walked through blood and fire. 

But at the moment when he saw that smile, his terrifying worry rose to a certain point and he hugged the person fiercely in his arms.

He didn’t know if it was for Qu Chenzhou, or for the soul in this body, or at that fragile moment, the two truly became one.

That smile that was supposed to look sarcastic was full of world-weary exhaustion. It was like standing alone for too long, not only forgetting how to ask for help, but even losing the strength to cry out.

The person in his arms did not leave immediately, but pressed against his chest for a moment before he seemed to wake up suddenly. His eyes raised frantically and he desperately struggled to push him away.

“Let go of me!”

Liu Zhongming’s hand tightened: “Don’t run away, this is the rule!”

Their bodies were pressed together, and they could feel the temperature coming through the thin shirts, which seemed to be poured on by a scoop of oil. The word “rule” on his body could not make Qu Chenzhou quiet at all, and he even suddenly became furious because he was restrained.

“Let go!” He seemed to be drying a dying fish under the scorching sun, “Let me go! Let me go!”

Liu Zhongming refused to let go and knew that he could not let go. Once he let go, the person in front of him would be scattered on the ground into fragments.

It was the first time he was so close to him when he was awake, and the wild cat in his arms seemed to be greatly frightened. His hands were scratching hysterically behind him, and he didn’t know if he was scratched, he just felt a scorching pain.

“Where are you going?”

“Where…” Qu Chenzhou gasped for a moment and out of control, bit his chest: “Let me go home! Please let me go home!”

“Don’t go, be obedient, be obedient! “

Liu Zhongming’s body hurt and his heart felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly by a knife. Tears streamed down his face, one hand was stuck in Qu Chenzhou’s hair, and he pressed him against himself.

“Cry for a while, be obedient,” he heard his choked voice: “If you feel uncomfortable, cry for a while.” 

The previous worry turned out to be true.

In this body, Qu Chenzhou was the little fox, and the little fox was also Qu Chenzhou, they have become one.

He didn’t care whether Qu Chenzhou was still alive, but the fierce reaction in front of him made him wonder about sharing one body with two souls, what would happen to the other when one person collapsed?

Who is the person struggling in his arms now?

Qu Chenzhou tried his best and couldn’t break free. He was exhausted very quickly. He rested his head on his chest and gasped heavily, as if he didn’t hear his statement, and only cried and begged repeatedly.

“Let go! You let go!”

“I’ll be obedient! Please let me go home!”

“I’ll give you the money back, please let me go home!”

Liu Zhongming frowned, not letting himself cry too ugly. The palm of his hand slowly moved down, and he rubbed a few times on his back waist and Qu Chenzhou suddenly collapsed softly.

“Don’t make trouble,” he firmly held the person in his arms, trying to stop the trembling in his voice, then ordered: “Sleep and be obedient.”

Under his palm, his tense back trembled slightly.

“Be obedient in the future,” he hugged the body that could break free at any time, firm and gentle: “I am your master, I will restrain you, and I will take care of you.”

“This is your home and I am your family.”

“The matter of murdering others, hand it over to me in the future. Perhaps, I can do it more beautifully than you.”

“From now on, don’t go on a rampage alone.”

“No matter what, there’s always me, Chenzhou. I will protect you, let me protect you.”

“Don’t be afraid.”

He held a medicine between his fingers, and the prescription prescribed by Dr. Qin had always been effective: “Open your mouth.”

Qu Chenzhou was powerless to resist, so he let him stuffed the medicine in his mouth, and after a while, he fell asleep in his strong arms, moistening Liu Zhongming’s front.

The author has something to say: Xiao Qu’s obsession in the first half of his life was to go home, and in the second half of his life, he was obsessed with Zhongming. Later, Zhongming promised to give him a home, but later both disappeared.