The Tale Never Ends Chapter 137 Wile For A Weasel

My life was nearly lost during an avalanche when I was thrown off a cliff and Edelweiss leaped into certain death after me. Thanks to G.o.dmother's magic, we were both alive although G.o.dmother was initially perturbed when she found out I was the progeny of Murong Hai after saving us.

Fortunately, all's well that ends well was true. G.o.dmother eventually joined us in the rescue of Aunt Ulan. What was more, the avalanche had also broken the ice between Edelweiss and I that we were now lovers.

In a conversation with G.o.dmother, I later discovered the true reason Father had refused his ascension into the Heavens: it was the disappearance of the Dragon-slaying Blade which was once possessed by Bian Dashou! Additionally, another shocking revelation—one which had eluded me for almost two decades—then dawned upon me: my mother was a demoness!

We then encountered two of the Six Terrors of the Frontier—renowned pract.i.tioners of sorcery and arcane magic who once were comrades with Father—Shang Pei and Zhu Mei who helped us in saving Aunt Ulan. From Shang Pei, we found out the story behind Chongxi's teacher and surrogate father, Old Man Chen's blindness. We were treated kindly and warmly by Shang Pei, who was deeply indebted to the Blind Master Chen for his sacrifice, and the time we spent with them remained a memorable experience to us.

It was nearing fall of the year when we finally made it back to Wu Zhong. Lin Feng and I planned to help Chongxi by arranging a get-together between his teacher and his girlfriend's mother. Yuan Chongxi was hesitant to take their relations.h.i.+p to another level because of his relatively modest background, as his girlfriend was from a wealthy household. Even with his girlfriend, Xiao Yu, and her mother's eagerness, he was still very doubtful. Since we did not require the money—the sum of one million yuan that we received during our fight against the Creed of the Eight Trigrams—both Lin Feng and I decided that we would give them all to Chongxi, hoping that the money would bolster his confidence in the meeting between Xiao Yu's parent and his foster father.

At the same time, Chongxi had agreed to a request of his girlfriend's mother to help an acquaintance of hers to deal with the menace of a weasel demon. We would know for sure if his plan worked the following day when we visit the acquaintance's farm.

During the dinner at the hot pot restaurant, Chongxi confessed to us his childhood over seemingly-endless rounds of liquor that all of us were already terribly inebriated by the time our meal came to an end. I had no idea how did I get home that night, although a news headline I saw the second day saying "Phantom Driver: Driverless Vehicle Roaming Wu Zhong During Midnight" gave me a hunch.

I woke up the second morning with my head still heavy and stoned. What a terrible shock it was when I found Edelweiss sitting by the window beside my bed! She had been staying up all night! Why did you not sleep, I asked her. "You've had too much to drink last night. I was worried that you might need anything, so I stayed up the night." A warm tenderness enveloped me. Edelweiss might be a better drinker than I was, but she too, had drunk a lot last night. Knowing she must be terribly tired and intoxicated herself, I said to her, "You must be tired, aren't you? For the entire night, you've not slept at all." She shook her head and told me about how she used to stay up whenever Aunt Ulan got herself wasted on liquor too.

Even though she has retained the fieriness and aggressiveness of the horse bandit she once was, the Edelweiss now and today was nevertheless the gorgeous young la.s.s who had continually sought to do her best to love me and provide me with affection and pa.s.sion.

I flipped myself off my bed and got myself dressed. It was eight in the morning. I tucked Edelweiss into bed and went to the living hall. Mother was sitting alone, enjoying her usual bout of television as usual. Do you need breakfast, she called at me while keeping her eyes still glued to the screen and I declined, stepping out of the door. My stomach was still full of the liquor I had had last night!

I walked out of my house and started my car, heading back to the De Chang Center for Paranormal Studies. I arrived to find both Lin Feng and Chongxi laughing their heads off at the sofa. "What's going on?" I asked as I snapped my lighter and held it to my cigarette, waiting until its tip glowed burning red. Chongxi gnawed on his Chinese breadstick and answered, "The farmer from our weasel case just called moments ago. The bricks and tiles have all vanished and in their place is mule dung! He is extremely happy, speaking to us on his phone while pulling his plow by car to flip the manure into the soil! Hahaha! That vile weasel demon is hoodwinked by me with just a simple trick!"

We spent the rest of the morning talking and idling until the phone rang again during lunchtime. It was the farmer. His work was done, said the man, and he was asking about the payment for our help. I instructed Chongxi to postpone the matter of payment, knowing that the weasel demon would surely not give up. It would be more prudent for us to have a look at his farm later. It would surely come back for retaliation, especially when it discovered that it had been deceived.

Later when we were thinking about lunch, Lin Feng said suddenly, "Food will be delivered here later. There's no need to go out for lunch, boys!" "Yuanyuan is having an off day, is she?" I guessed aloud. "Yeah! You're a smart one, aren't you?" Lin Feng smiled and nodded, but I scowled at him. "Your gleeful expression has already betrayed you," I almost blurted. Not long afterward, Yuanyuan pushed through the door of the Center with a friend in tow. They were carrying large plastic bags filled with our food.

As always, Chongxi was most eager and enthusiastic when it came to food, having the table and chairs already prepared...

Yuanyuan's friend introduced herself during the meal. She was from the same village as Yuanyuan at their hometown, a small town called Linnancangzhen Town to the west of Wu Zhong County.

Due to Yuanyuan's relations.h.i.+p with Lin Feng, the friend was aware of what we did for a living. Hence, our subject unavoidably delved into the paranormal as we chatted. "Have you ever heard of a lake that used to be just beside the town of Linnancangzhen? There used to be stories; creepy stories about strange things at the lake. It began a long long time ago, but till this day, no one knows for sure if there was really anything spooky lurking about there!" I merely chuckled. "Come on, even if there was, that could only be a thing of the past. The lake's not even there now. The whole area's now filled with industrial plants and factories. There are no ghosts there but the din of machines and steel." Yuanyuan was biting on her chopstick like she would with a toothpick. "There might not be anything there now," she interjected, "But there was, so said my grandma years ago!"

Tens of years ago, the lake was so large that six separating hamlets skirted along its banks. There was a legend that a gigantic Ao, a mythological tortoise from old wives' tales, fell from the sky. It hit the earth and its tremendous impact created a huge crater. A heavy deluge came not long after the mythical beast's fall from the sky and filled up the crater with water, becoming the lake that people saw afterward. Until one day, a fisherman was spreading his nets into the waters of the lake, only to haul up a long iron chain. But it was strange to him. For many times, the fisherman had been to the lake but never had he ever seen such an iron chain.

With the urge of curiosity getting the better of him, the fisherman began pulling at the chains, thinking of keeping it himself. But the chain was so long that he never saw the end of it. The more he pulled, the heavier it grew and he felt the waterline on the hull of his boat slowly rising. Fearing his boat might not be able to bear the weight, he relented and returned the chain back into the water.

He went back to his village and enlisted the help of several able-bodied men. They sailed to the same spot where he found the chain only to realize that the chain was no more. They returned empty-handed, and many people began chiding the fisherman, claiming that he was lying. The matter was soon forgotten, although tales of the chain's discovery routinely resurfaced, proving the fisherman's innocence.

Decades later, the lake gradually dried up, entirely quas.h.i.+ng all rumors of any mythical Aos residing in the lake. The site was reclaimed and an industrial area built over it now, thus ended the legend of the mythical beast.

During the meal, I asked Yuanyuan and her friend, "The three of us will be going out later on an errand. Would you like to sit around here and help us man the Center while we're away?"