Si Teng (Rattan) – CH 060

Chapter 60

The next night, Qin Fang was peeling back the plastic wrap on his instant noodles when he heard movement in the bedroom.

Qin Fang, delighted, rushed in. Si Teng was lying on the bed with a strange look on her face. She told him, “Pull up the quilt for me.”

He had a bad feeling; this didn’t seem like a sign of recovery.

Sure enough, when the quilt was lifted, her lower body was already showing signs of vine-like growth.

The last time a similar situation occurred, Yan Furui was with her. Qin Fang had never experienced this before and was so shocked that he was speechless. After a long while, he stammered, “Si… Si Teng, are you going to transform back?”

This situation was exactly what Si Teng expected. After all, she had already prepared: if she couldn’t recover after two days of rest, the worst that could happen was to bury her again.

However, Qin Fang’s words “transform back” were truly ridiculous. She glanced at him and said lazily, “Yes.”

She added, “It’s very difficult for us monsters to transform back to our original forms and then cultivate into human forms. It will take at least a hundred years. I’m going to transform back into a vine. Qin Fang, take care and look after yourself.”

Qin Fang was anxious. “Then what about your… fifth thing?”

He really took it seriously. Si Teng was a little amused, but her face didn’t show any emotion. “I’m about to reveal my original form, so why bother with the fifth and sixth things? Is that a thing?”

After saying this, her face darkened. “Now that I’m transforming into a vine, I can’t control you anymore. You won’t harbor vengeance and burn me to death, will you?”

Qin Fang was silent for a long time, then shook his head gently. “No.”

After a pause, he said earnestly, “There’s a courtyard on the first floor. Si Teng, after you return to your original form, I’ll bury you… or plant you there, okay?”

“Bury” sounded inauspicious, and “plant” felt peculiar. No matter which word he used, the words would sound awkward.

Si Teng hummed, “Okay.”

Her reaction was so indifferent that Qin Fang felt both disappointed and upset. For a monster, returning to their original form might be common, and a hundred years might be a short time, but he was different. After a hundred years, he would be long gone.

Something seemed to be blocking his heart, and nothing he said felt right. Finally, he whispered, “I’ll water you.”

Water? He watered her? Si Teng couldn’t help but laugh, completely forgetting she’d diverted the conversation. Lying on the bed, she almost cried with laughter, saying, “How can someone be so foolish?”

Qin Fang was initially baffled by her laughter, but then he finally realized he’d been tricked. He was so angry he wanted to turn around and leave. Si Teng finished laughing and asked, “What time is it?”

Qin Fang replied angrily, “A little after ten.”

“Bury me now, while the moon is still dark and the wind is high.”

Qin Fang was practically asking, “Why?”

Si Teng leered at him again. “If you ask me why, then you’re dumber than Yan Furui.”

***

Lacking any handy tools at home, Qin Fang drove to a hardware store to buy a shovel. The owner simply asked, “What are you going to use it for?” Qin Fang’s heart raced as if he had been robbing and stealing goods. He stammered, “Plant…plant flowers.”

On the way home, he secretly thanked Si Teng for not coming along. If she had seen his embarrassment, she’d have laughed at his pettiness.

It was past eleven o’clock when he got home. Most of the neighbors had gone to bed, so he started digging in the ground-floor backyard. He felt a little nervous while digging, unable to help but glance around. Si Teng sat nearby, watching, and after a few times, she grew impatient. “Qin Fang, just think of it as planting flowers. Why are you so anxious?”

Planting flowers! Who would choose to plant flowers at eleven or twelve o’clock at night and dig a hole the size of a coffin?

As he carried Si Teng in, he felt like he was burying her alive. Si Teng urged him to fill the soil, but he was too embarrassed to actually use the shovel. He used his hands to push the excavated dirt over her. Just as he pushed the last handful over, about to cover her face, Qin Fang asked her, “You really don’t want to water it?”

Watering, watering—how much does this man love watering?

Si Teng grumbled. “No, not even fertilizer. And don’t wander around here if you have nothing to do. You’re blocking my sun.”

The two glared at each other, and then, without warning, Qin Fang suddenly pushed the handful of dirt down. Si Teng seemed to choke and coughed.

Of course, Qin Fang’s playful gloating was quickly shattered by the worry that followed: given Si Teng’s meticulousness, she would definitely “repay” him double when she returned.

He patted the loosened soil down with his hands. As he did so, his heart suddenly shuddered as he looked over the spot he was looking at.

The light in the room shone from behind, and next to his squatting figure, there was another standing figure that was infinitely stretched.

The moment Qin Fang realized that something was wrong, he felt the blood in his body freeze. Behind him, he heard a man’s familiar sneer.

“Still in the Miao village? Damn it! I’ve been hunting geese for years, and I almost got tricked by a goose chick.”

***

Zhou Wandong was furious.

With his own martial arts skills and experience, he was actually deceived by a young boy. It was a great shame and a laughingstock.

Qin Fang had replied, “Still in the Miao village.” He truly hadn’t doubted it. He even told Jia Guizhi, “Don’t worry, this place is still very backward. The hotel didn’t have ID card scanning and registration. He just needed to pretend to check in and flip through each guest register. He’d eventually find Qin Fang.”

He was right, and his plan was correct. The key point was that when he found the name “Qin Fang,” there were two words clearly marked behind it. “Cleared.”

When asked about it, the innkeeper rolled his eyes and said, “He’s gone. He left early yesterday morning. That’s how guests are, coming and going. How can they possibly stay here?”

He hurried back at lightning speed. The pain in his arm seemed to intensify. Jia Guizhi’s gaze seemed to hold a certain irony. Zhou Wandong was furious. “Qin Fang, Qin Fang, don’t fall into my hands!”

***

Qin Fang slowly stood up and turned to look at Zhou Wandong. He was a tall, wiry man, his beard brimming with rage. His expression was even more menacing, and his arms, bulging with tendons, were unaffected by the bandages on one arm.

Zhou Wandong made no secret of his intention to give him a beating. He swung one arm menacingly, the other clenched into a fist with a crackling sound.

Qin Fang, surprisingly unfazed, asked, “Have we met somewhere before?”

Zhou Wandong laughed heartily. “Isn’t it a little late to try and claim kinship with me now?”

Before he finished his words, he launched a fierce punch.

As a seasoned fighter, he was incredibly quick with his moves. He’d guessed where Qin Fang would dodge, and his punch landed at a wicked angle, catching him off guard and sending him careening to the ground.

His jaw burned, and the taste of blood welled up in his mouth. Qin Fang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, swallowed his bloody saliva, raised his head, and glared coldly at Zhou Wandong, repeating, “We’ve definitely met before.”

He had definitely seen this man somewhere before. At the very least, he’d definitely heard his voice before.

Zhou Wandong approached with a sinister grin and stepped on his chest. “Maybe. I’ve done so many evil things. Maybe I’ve even killed your whole family…”

He paused, his gaze darting to the newly filled dirt patch beside Qin Fang. He was so familiar with this, having done so many evil things. For a moment, he looked at Qin Fang with awe. “I never thought, brother, you act so refined and polite, yet you’d do this? Who are you burying?”

As he spoke, he freed his foot, kicked up the shovel, grasped it, and dug deep.

Qin Fang’s blood rushed to his head. He roared and rushed over, gripping the edge of the shovel with both hands. He hadn’t realized how sharp the metal was before, and it sliced ​​deeply into his flesh.

Zhou Wandong also got angry and raised his foot to kick the man down, but Qin Fang was desperate and fought him to the death with bloodshot eyes. Zhou Wandong wanted to kill him and raised his knee to hit Qin Fang’s chest hard, almost making him vomit blood before he pushed him away. After pushing him away, he spat on the ground and shoveled away the dirt with a shovel.

He stared into the pit for a long moment, then turned to Qin Fang and said, “I really don’t understand. You city folk are so artistic, digging up flowers and seeds in the middle of the night.”

With that, he threw the shovel away, lit a cigarette, and took a leisurely puff before his expression suddenly turned sarcastic and stern. “Damn it? I only dug up one of your trees, and you’re acting like I’ve dug up your entire family’s ancestral graves. Is that a big deal?”

Qin Fang was stunned for a moment, subconsciously glancing at the pit behind Zhou Wandong.

At first glance, it contained nothing but ordinary vine roots and vines. Qin Fang sighed deeply, his thoughts finally coming to a head. “You just mentioned the Miao village. You were the one who broke into Shan Zhigang’s house, right? You’ve been looking for me; why?”

Zhou Wandong smiled strangely and sinisterly, reached out to untie the wire ring hanging from his waist, and took out a pair of pliers from his trouser pocket.

This was also his usual method. He never used the troublesome ropes to tie things up. He would just tighten the iron ring and twist the pliers. It was simple and crude but crisp and effective.

Qin Fang said nothing. He saw behind Zhou Wandong, under the dim light, a dense vine stretched out.

This scene was actually quite terrifying. The lights were dim, and there was silence. The vines were surrounding him from behind, as if ready to strike. The tips of the vines were sharp, like the tips of sharp spears, reminding people of the soft tentacles of the alien attack. At the command, thousands of arrows pierced his heart.

Qin Fang’s eyes grew hot. He felt Si Teng was protecting him.

Just then, Zhou Wandong’s phone rang. He picked it up impatiently and said a few words at first. The gist of it was that he understood and would bring people back soon. He said that he hadn’t been discovered and that he wasn’t afraid even if he was discovered. Later, his voice suddenly rose an octave, and he was obviously angry. “What, Nangqian? You never mentioned going to Nangqian in the beginning!”

Nangqian!

In a flash, Qin Fang suddenly remembered why he felt the man before him looked familiar.

In Nangqian, on the night he fell off the cliff, through the car window, I vaguely saw his outline and heard his voice. I still remember every word clearly.

—”Hey, look at this selfless act, acting like it’s all for show.”

—”We were watching that room 24/7. There’s no one else but you… I’ll give you one more chance. Where is it?”

It was him who assaulted An Man that night and then signaled to kick him and his car off the cliff!

Qin Fang gritted his teeth. For a moment, he even harbored the thought of revenge, a shared death. But the next moment, his impulse and anger were suppressed. He saw the vines behind Zhou Wandong’s back silently withdraw almost as soon as he finished speaking.

Yes, how could he have forgotten? Nangqian also had a profound connection with Si Teng. She once asked a question.

—”Who was it that traveled thousands of miles to bury me in Nangqian?”

A sudden surge of fear welled up in Qin Fang’s heart.

Nangqian—the place where he had wanted to kowtow to his ancestors on a whim, the unfortunate place where, after leaving, he secretly felt lucky that he would never have to return, the place that had been left behind and gradually blurred—was suddenly brought up again and infinitely magnified, with every frame appearing before his eyes with incredible clarity.

Could it be that he, Si Teng, and all these seemingly unrelated people and events all originated in Nangqian?

Qin Fang had a premonition.

He originally thought that Nangqian was the starting point of all current stories.

Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps Nangqian would be the end.