Three days had passed, and Wu Zhen still hadn’t found any trace of Cousin Pei. It was as if he had vanished into thin air, leaving no clues at the bottom of the cliff or on the nearby official roads. Too much time had elapsed since the incident, and many potential leads had disappeared. Wu Zhen’s search yielded no results, and even various tracking methods proved futile, leaving the situation at an impasse.
However, Wu Zhen didn’t appear particularly anxious about this. After all, as the saying goes, “Good people don’t live long, while scoundrels last a thousand years,” and Cousin Pei didn’t seem the type to die easily. Before leaving, she had given Cousin Pei a small gift that could turn him into a mouse, a state that would last for at least a few months. So perhaps he was now hiding in some mouse hole.
Wu Zhen had witnessed his ability to hide, and she realized that if he didn’t appear voluntarily, she might not be able to find him easily.
Compared to Wu Zhen, Mei Zhuyu seemed more agitated. Wu Zhen observed this for two days, and on this night, as they lay in bed, she decided to bring up the matter directly.
“My lord, are you hiding something from me?” Wu Zhen asked bluntly.
Mei Zhuyu looked at her, his mouth bitter from the pregnancy-stabilizing medicine he had just taken. He remained silent.
Wu Zhen knew his nature; when he didn’t want to speak, he would hold his tongue, and no amount of coaxing could pry a word from him. If their bodies hadn’t been swapped, she might have tried using her feminine charms, but now, in her husband’s body, how could she seduce him with his face? Better not to try.
“Ah, you really can’t tell me?” Wu Zhen persisted.
Mei Zhuyu finally spoke but still didn’t directly answer her question. He only said, “We need to leave this place soon.”
Seeing that she couldn’t get an answer, Wu Zhen didn’t give up easily. She had always been overly curious and liked to dig to the bottom of things. Since Mei Zhuyu wouldn’t speak, she probed further: “Last time, at the bottom of the cliff in the mountain stream, did you sense something?”
“Do you know what that thing was?”
“I rarely see you look so grave. I guess, do you know that thing? Is it a demon or something? Is it your enemy?”
Although Mei Zhuyu didn’t answer, his eyes told her everything. Wu Zhen raised her hand in understanding. “Alright, I get it.”
Mei Zhuyu helplessly grabbed her hand. “Let’s sleep. If we can’t find him tomorrow, we’ll try other methods. We will find him.”
Wu Zhen wasn’t tired. She was used to going out at night, and while she would usually fall asleep when exhausted, she wasn’t tired now. However, looking at the belly of her own body, Wu Zhen decided not to disturb her husband’s rest and lay there, lost in thought.
It wasn’t until midnight that Wu Zhen finally began to feel drowsy. Just as she was drifting off, she sensed the person beside her silently sitting up straight.
Wu Zhen instantly became alert. She was about to ask what was wrong when she sensed something amiss. She reached out to grab her husband’s hand, and their hands met halfway. They clasped hands, both sitting up and warily scanning the room.
They were in an inn within the city. Though not in a bustling area, one could usually hear dogs barking and night watchmen at this hour. But now, everything was eerily quiet, as if even the sound of the wind had disappeared.
Not only was it quiet, but it was also dark. Wu Zhen looked towards the window, where moonlight should have been casting shadows. She had been staring at those shadows before falling asleep, but now the moonlight had vanished, and everything was engulfed in darkness, deeper than the night itself.
Mei Zhuyu’s expression was cold as he tilted his head, listening intently. Wu Zhen noticed his expression with surprise. This cold, almost disgusted look was one she had never seen before.
Had something her husband despised arrived?
A tap-tap-tap sound echoed outside their door. It didn’t sound like human footsteps, but more like an animal’s hooves on the ground. Not the heavy, dull sound of ox hooves, but something more nimble.
Wu Zhen felt the oppressive presence of the approaching entity and even caught a faint whiff of decay.
A shadow appeared before their door. The tapping suddenly stopped. Wu Zhen saw two scaly hooves pass through the locked wooden door, followed by two mottled antlers… This thing passed through the wooden door as if emerging from a vortex. After the hooves and antlers, the front half of its body also appeared.
However, the half-body that appeared before them was far from normal, unlike the hooves and antlers. It was a rotting mass, revealing the white bones underneath.
It was grotesque.
It had thrust half its body into the room, with a large portion still outside the door. Wu Zhen noticed that its entire body was quite bloated, inconsistent with its nimble footsteps.
Silently, two glowing points of light lurked beneath the decaying flesh and bone, staring at Wu Zhen, or rather, at Wu Zhen in Mei Zhuyu’s body.
It spoke: “Found you.” The voice was muffled as if coming from beneath the earth.
Wu Zhen felt chills down her spine as those two points of light, presumably eyes, fixed on her. It was the first time she had felt such horror from someone’s gaze alone. However, she suppressed her fear. Her eyes flickered for a moment, and she suddenly leaned forward, trying to shield Mei Zhuyu.
The creature moved almost simultaneously with Wu Zhen, its speed incredible, appearing at the bedside in an instant.
However, Mei Zhuyu was the fastest. As if anticipating both their movements, he stopped Wu Zhen with one hand, pushing her behind him, while his other hand formed a mudra, thrusting it towards the creature’s throat, between its antlers.
Everything happened in a flash. Wu Zhen, caught off guard by Mei Zhuyu, was thrown onto the bed. She saw her husband insert his hand into the creature’s ‘throat’ and tear viciously, sending rotting flesh flying before her eyes.
However, the creature showed no sign of injury. It merely opened a dark hole wide, swallowing Mei Zhuyu whole.
Wu Zhen’s pupils constricted. She pushed herself up quickly, reaching out to grab, but caught only air, her face splattered with flying bits of flesh.
After swallowing Mei Zhuyu, the creature quickly disappeared, its form fading away.
Wu Zhen heard it speak to her again in that indistinguishable, muffled voice: “Young Mei, you know what to exchange for this person. I’ll be waiting where you first killed me.”
Wu Zhen watched helplessly as it vanished, unable to hold back a curse.
This thing had no eyes. ‘Young Mei’? The one named Mei had just been kidnapped, leaving behind only Mei’s wife.
Wu Zhen didn’t know how to react to this sudden development. The creature seemed to be asking her to exchange something for the person, but what was she supposed to exchange? Only her husband knew, and she knew nothing. Even if she was willing to make the exchange, she didn’t know what to use or where to go.
Wu Zhen pulled the blanket to wipe the blood from her hands, feeling that her own body would have been more useful. If she had been in her own body, she would have been faster than the creature and wouldn’t have let it disappear like that.
There was no use in thinking further; her husband had been taken.
Wu Zhen sat on the edge of the bed, massaging her temples, considering what to do next.
Should she find this creature’s lair and storm in? Or seek help? Or perhaps… quickly find Cousin Pei and have him switch her and her husband back?
Wu Zhen decided on the last option. No matter what, she felt more comfortable being the one ‘kidnapped’.
Abandoning her previous composure, Wu Zhen, with a dark expression, directed a group of summoned minor demons. “Find him for me. Not just in this city, but search farther afield. I refuse to believe we can’t find one Pei Jiya!”
Wu Zhen also set out to search, but before she could find the person she was looking for, someone else found her.
A young man in Taoist robes, following a paper bird, appeared before Wu Zhen. He smiled at her and bowed respectfully, saying, “Little Uncle, I’ve finally found you.”
Wu Zhen thought: Who is this?
The young Taoist, with delicate features like a young girl, seemed quite steady. Seeing his ‘Little Uncle’ remain silent, he explained, “The Ancestral Master said Little Uncle would face a calamity these days and sent this disciple to find you. He requests Little Uncle to return to the mountain to see him.”
Wu Zhen thought: Oh, another case of mistaken identity.
The young Taoist, not hearing Wu Zhen speak, didn’t seem to find anything amiss. Instead, he appeared quite accustomed to this and smiled with relief, saying, “I was worried that the delay on the road might have caused something to happen to Little Uncle. Now that I see Little Uncle is fine, I’m reassured. Little Uncle, shall we return to the mountain now? The Ancestral Master is already waiting for you.”
Wu Zhen sized him up, still unsure of his identity, and suddenly asked, “Has Shuangjiang returned to the temple?”
The young Taoist found it strange that she would suddenly ask about Taoist Shuangjiang, but he obediently replied, “Senior Brother Shuangjiang has been gone for a long time and hasn’t returned. He was supposed to come back after going to Chang’an some time ago, but he seemed to have encountered some trouble on the way and changed his route. He still hasn’t returned.”
Hearing the young Taoist call Shuangjiang “Senior Brother” and remembering that Taoist Shuangjiang had called her husband “Little Uncle Guyu,” Wu Zhen probed further, “Xiaoxue?”
The young Taoist replied, “Junior Brother Xiaoxue is still on the mountain.”
Oh, now she knew his name.
Wu Zhen: “Lidong.” Judging by the names, he was indeed a fellow disciple from Changxi Temple.
The young Taoist indeed smiled and said, “Does Little Uncle have any instructions?”
Wu Zhen suddenly raised her hand and put it on Taoist Lidong’s shoulder, smiling at him. Under his startled and bewildered gaze, she said frankly, “Actually, I’m not your Little Uncle.”
“To be honest, I’m your Little Uncle’s wife.”
Taoist Lidong, still not recovered from the shock of seeing his Little Uncle smile, shuddered upon hearing these words. After a long moment, he said with some amazement, “I didn’t expect that after descending the mountain, Little Uncle would learn to joke too. Master was right; the mortal world below the mountain indeed changes people easily.”