novelinnhs Chapter 403 Don't Call Me By My Name
Chapter 403 Don't Call Me By My Name
Shopkeeper Hu carried a white paper lantern, the light shining on the last bone needle. Two newly engraved characters were pasted on the needle tip with red thread, so clean it was chilling.
Old Zheng stared at those two words, the wooden stick in his hand scraping softly against the floor, and it took him a while to finally squeeze out a sentence.
"Chengyue".
Manager Hu looked at Mo Chengyue, his wrist hidden in his sleeve, the paper of the white paper lantern showing a dark ring of dampness in the room.
"It has already sewn you inside."
Mo Chengyue did not enter the house, but used the array hook to suppress the talisman light by the threshold, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the seven bone needles.
"Don't put it that way."
Old Zheng looked up anxiously.
"They even engraved your name on it, isn't that awful?"
Mo Chengyue used the array hook to tug at the outer hem of the wedding dress, and the red thread was pulled open, with six old needles making a soft sloshing sound in the seam.
"What's worse is that they didn't even ask me for my size, yet they still wanted me to buy it."
Shopkeeper Hu pronounced the words clearly.
"Young Master Mo, this is no joke."
Mo Chengyue turned his head to look at her.
"I'm not joking; I need to check the accounts before taking over."
Old Zheng glanced out the door, then looked at the red wedding dress.
"Master, how about we burn these clothes right now?"
Manager Hu immediately spoke up.
"no."
Old Zheng got anxious.
"You just said we can't stay."
Shopkeeper Hu tightened her grip on the lantern, and a bit of old paint was rubbed off the handle by her fingertips.
"It cannot be kept, nor can it be destroyed indiscriminately."
Old Zheng's face turned blue from holding it in.
"So, can it be moved at all?"
Mo Chengyue took over the conversation.
"Be able to move, but not like a brute."
Old Zheng picked up the wooden stick, then silently put it down again.
"Just tell me directly."
Mo Chengyue looked at the old name tucked into the seam of his clothes.
"Six old needles mark the way, and one new needle mends it. Once the wedding dress is complete, the boat won't need to call for help across the river anymore. It can pull me into the cabin by following the lines on the wedding dress and the red lines on my palm."
Manager Hu's voice was strained.
"A night with a waning moon."
Mo Chengyue nodded.
"Yes, a night with a waning moon."
Old Zheng swallowed hard.
"Then why don't you destroy it?"
Mo Chengyue tapped the threshold with the array hook. The talisman light dimmed due to the moisture, but he replenished it with a touch of Yin-Yang True Essence from his fingertip.
"It's easy to destroy a needle, but destroying it in the wrong place is like cutting the ribbon for it."
Old Zheng didn't understand.
"What should I cut?"
Manager Hu explained on his behalf.
"He means that the Red Lantern Boat deliberately displayed the needles, waiting for people to be scared and to make a move, so that they might be responsible for the consequences of this wedding dress."
Old Zheng looked at Mo Chengyue.
"Then why were you adjusting the hem of your clothes just now?"
Mo Chengyue replied with righteous indignation.
"I chose the outer fabric, and didn't cross the line. There's a difference between professional work and courting death."
Old Zheng looked down at his wooden stick.
"So I'm responsible for being unprofessional?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"Your job of not touching it is already a huge help."
Manager Hu stared at the name on the new needle and suddenly asked.
Why isn't its full name engraved on it?
Mo Chengyue did not answer immediately. Instead, he took out the Crimson Sun Powder from his sleeve and then pulled out three Soul Protection Talismans. The edges of the talismans were curled up by the dampness in the room.
"Because my full name is required."
Old Zheng shrugged upon hearing this.
"Should it be what?"
Mo Chengyue used the Red Sun Powder to draw a thin half-circle line outside the threshold.
"It calls me, I answer, and then my name is complete."
Manager Hu's face grew increasingly grim.
"So it's only occupied half the post so far."
Mo Chengyue said.
"Even half a debt is troublesome enough. If you owe only half a debt, the creditors will still come knocking on your door."
Old Zheng muttered to himself.
"You monks really know how to talk in a frightening way."
Mo Chengyue affixed the soul-protecting talismans to both sides of the door frame, and then folded the third one into a narrow strip and clipped it to the front of the array hook.
"Old Zheng, stand still, and don't call my name."
Old Zheng immediately shut up, but couldn't help asking again.
"Then what should I call you?"
Mo Chengyue thought for a moment.
"Call me Immortal Master."
Old Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.
"This is safe."
Manager Hu reminded him in a low voice.
"Don't call me by my name either."
Old Zheng held back again and turned to look at her.
"Can't I even call him 'shopkeeper'?"
Manager Hu looked at the wedding dress on the bed.
"Tonight, names that are even remotely related to the past are rarely mentioned."
Old Zheng had a bitter face.
"Then I'll have to speak in a very convoluted way."
Mo Chengyue probed the array hook into the room.
"If you can maneuver well, you can live longer."
Suddenly, the wedding dress billowed up, and the sleeves slid down from the edge of the bed, with red thread fluttering inside the cuffs, as if an unseen hand was about to hand the dress to someone outside the door.
Old Zheng quickly looked away.
"It moved; it's trying to hand you clothes."
Mo Chengyue said.
"Don't accept the offer. Red Lantern Boat has terrible after-sales service; you can't return it once you've worn it."
Shopkeeper Hu watched as the true energy at his fingertips split into black and white, drilling along the array hooks into the seams of his clothes, and the tense light in his eyes slowly subsided.
"You want to seal the old needle?"
Mo Chengyue hummed in agreement.
"Seal off the six old needles first, so that they don't connect the old path to me."
Old Zheng couldn't help but ask.
"What is the old road?"
Mo Chengyue stared at the first bone needle.
"The road Old Wu was called away, the road night watchman Zhou Ping was called away, the road Chen San boarded the boat, the road Liu Po opened the window, the road Qian Axiu turned back, and the road Xu Liulang kept his appointment."
Old Zheng's expression changed.
"Does each of them have a path?"
Manager Hu replied softly.
"The name has been called, the blood has been recorded, the water veins have been traversed once, and the path has been left behind."
Mo Chengyue glanced at her.
"The shopkeeper knows a lot."
Manager Hu did not dodge.
"I've lived for twenty years, and I'll die without understanding anything."
Mo Chengyue flicked the Crimson Sun Powder next to the first bone needle. The powder reacted with the black water and emitted white steam. The two characters "Old Wu" on the bone needle twisted and distorted, as if they were about to crawl away from the needle tip.
Old Zheng gripped the wooden stick tightly.
"Is Old Wu still around?"
Mo Chengyue did not look up.
"It's not in this needle."
Old Zheng gritted his teeth.
"Then what is this?"
Mo Chengyue pressed down the narrow strip of the soul-protecting talisman, and the talisman's light adhered to the bone needle.
"It's the nameplate left after the name was stolen."
Old Zheng's eyes reddened as he listened.
"Does making house numbers really come at the cost of lives?"
"That's what Manager Hu said."
"Red Light Boats never treat people like human beings."
The red thread inside the wedding dress began to tighten, and the six old needles simultaneously became soaked. A muffled thud came from under the bed, as if someone was turning over inside.
Old Zheng stepped back, pressing his back against the wall.
What's under the bed?
Mo Chengyue raised his hand to signal him to shut up.
"Never mind that, just seal the needles first."
Manager Hu moved the white paper lamp closer to the door.
"Are there enough lights?"
Mo Chengyue looked at the lights.
"Enough, but don't let it shine on your collar."
Manager Hu immediately lowered the lamp, so that the light only fell on the seams of the clothes and the foot of the bed.
Old Zheng asked cautiously.
"What's wrong with your collar?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"I want to wear it after looking at it for a while."
Old Zheng's face turned green.
"Then let me look at your heels."
Mo Chengyue ignored him, pressed his fingertip, and the Yin-Yang True Essence followed the array hook to the first bone needle. The heat from the red yang powder flowed along the needle, and the golden light of the soul-protecting talisman sealed the needle with thin paper, pressing the words "Old Wu" back into the needle tip.
Manager Hu stared at this scene.
"Is it sealed off?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"temporary."
Old Zheng pressed for an answer.
"For how long?"
Mo Chengyue switched to the second needle.
"Enough for us to boil the water in the pot several times."
Old Zheng almost cursed out loud, but he held back.
"Is that enough?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"The fact that the red-light boats can now be counted by the round already indicates that their performance tonight was poor."
When the characters "Zhou Ping" on the second bone needle were covered by the talisman light, a creaking sound of damp wooden planks suddenly came from the stairs outside.
Old Zheng immediately raised his stick.
"Who?"
Manager Hu did not turn around.
Don't ask.
Mo Chengyue didn't turn around.
"Most of the people in the inn who can answer you are not alive."
Old Zheng shut his mouth, but raised the stick even higher.
After the third of Chen Sanzhen's needles was sealed, the wedding dress suddenly slid a bit towards the door, the wet red hem brushing against the water stains on the ground, almost crossing the threshold.
Mo Chengyue pushed the threshold talisman forward with his toes.
"go back."
The wedding dress stopped in front of the talismanic thread, and several red threads emerged from the cuffs, tentatively touching the array hook.
Old Zheng asked.
"Should we cut it?"
Mo Chengyue said.
"If I cut it, it'll stick to your hand."
Old Zheng immediately took the wooden stick back.
"Then it knows how to be cunning."
Manager Hu stared at the red line.
"It's dragging you down."
Mo Chengyue said.
"It drags me, and I drag it too."