[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 109
When it came to breaking down doors, Li Xuanci had never been one for subtlety.
He didn’t even bother doing it himself. A single glance, and Jin Zhan, well-versed in all sorts of misdeeds, nodded, drew his sword, and sliced through the door crack. The door creaked open, and Li Xuanci was the first to step inside.
The dog inside was startled into barking, but after just a couple of barks, its owner shouted it down, leaving only a low growl rumbling in its throat.
The main house door slowly opened a crack. Shiliu, half her body hidden behind Li Xuanci, stood on tiptoe to peer out. But the sliver of lamplight escaping from the house was dim, making it hard to see anyone clearly. Instead, shadows stretched long, incompletely spread on the ground.
Shiliu reached out a finger and poked Li Xuanci in the small of his back, whispering in his ear, “Should we go take a look?”
Li Xuanci didn’t even turn his head, merely adding a jab, “Aren’t you a Taoist? Shouldn’t you be taking the lead now?”
She was a Taoist, but that didn’t mean she had to be brave in every situation. Shiliu sighed and resigned herself to taking point. Just as she passed Li Xuanci, she felt a sharp pain on her head. The tail of her tied-up hair had been yanked, nearly making her bend backwards into a backbend on the spot.
“Stay put.”
After teasing her, Li Xuanci let go and stepped forward himself. Shiliu was left behind, clumsily re-tightening her hair.
He Chong and Jin Zhan silently exchanged a glance, deciding to observe from the sidelines and not get involved. Silence was golden.
The closer they got, the stranger it felt. The door was open a crack, letting the night wind seep in, making the dim yellow light flicker unsteadily. The shadows on the ground lengthened and shortened intermittently, like tidewater washing over the tips of Li Xuanci’s boots.
The shadows swelled and receded before him. Li Xuanci’s expression didn’t flicker in the slightest. His slender fingertips grasped the door and pried open the narrow gap.
But there was nothing in sight, only the swaying lamplight.
Looking down, he finally noticed a pair of bluish-white eyes floating in the low gloom, bulging like a dead goldfish’s, protruding from their sockets, staring fixedly up at him, motionless.
He didn’t even twitch an eyebrow, continuing to open the door fully. More light poured out, completely outlining the figure in the low space.
It was a short, old woman. The wrinkles on her face spread out like the remnant roots of a great withered tree deeply embedded in the soil in the yard, carved into her skin. Her turbid eyeballs were covered in bloodshot veins, like a spider’s web.
“Who’s there?” she spoke, her hoarse voice like a broken bellows, scraping against their eardrums.
Although her voice was somewhat eerie, it didn’t seem like that of ghosts or monsters. Shiliu also curiously moved closer, resting her chin on Li Xuanci’s arm, secretly observing.
Before Li Xuanci could answer, she mustered her courage and replied, “Old mother, we’re not bad people.”
Shiliu, with her round head and face, spoke kindly and amiably. But her words, paired with the evil emanating from Li Xuanci’s very eyebrows and hair tips, lost quite a bit of their persuasiveness.
He Chong stepped forward and took over the conversation, saying, “Old mother, we’re passing through and would like to ask for a place to rest temporarily. I wonder if it’s convenient? We can discuss payment.”
He had more experience in these matters and wanted to relax the homeowner’s guard, get inside first before talking.
But the old woman remained expressionless, her deeply sunken eye sockets slowly turning. Her turbid eyes looked at him, pulling at her dried lips. From her mouth, missing a tooth, she said in a flat voice, “Go, leave quickly.”
Just as He Chong was about to persuade further, Li Xuanci directly cut him off. His sharp sword lightly pierced an inch into the door panel, forcing it wide open, and he strode straight in.
His eyes ignored everyone else entirely. He just glanced back at Shiliu. “Enough dawdling. Come here.”
Inside, a single lamp cast bean-sized light, throwing shifting light and shadow across his profile. Shiliu was momentarily stunned, blinked lightly, and then followed him inside just like that.
Jin Zhan and He Chong looked at each other. Thus, the strategy of “courtesy before force,” meant to avoid alerting the enemy, completely failed. The four of them had simply barged in.
Fortunately, although the old woman had told them to leave, now that they were inside, she didn’t react much. Instead, she woodenly closed the door and silently returned to the room.
Once inside, they surveyed the small house. It was truly dilapidated and bleak. Tattered cobwebs hung in the corners, half-heartedly dangling down. The table was covered in dust. A faint, unpleasant smell came from one corner of the room. The kitchen connected to the west side had piles of less-than-fresh vegetables. An old dog crouched by the bed, watching them with drooping eyelids.
Now that they were inside, there was no need to pretend humility and amiability anymore. Although their pretext was seeking lodging, Li Xuanci clearly had no intention of even touching a bench.
It was He Chong who stepped in to smooth things over, asking, “Old mother, may I ask who lives in the side room?”
But the old woman acted as if she hadn’t heard, picking up a bowl of leftover rice from a nearby stand and placing it in front of the old dog, watching it eat.
He Chong asked a few more times but received no response. The old woman continued with her own tasks as if they didn’t exist.
“Is the madman your son or your grandson?” Li Xuanci, however, was too lazy for these niceties and spoke directly, laying it bare.
This sentence finally pried open her mouth.
That wrinkled face turned towards them, as if some real emotion had been pried open from beneath the aged skin, with difficulty mobilizing her wrinkles, leaking a bit of human emotion.
“He’s not mad. He was harmed.” The aged voice held undulation for the first time.
At that moment, low, deep roars came from outside the house, as if dying cries were trapped within a body, about to burst through flesh and blood.