The Aftermath

Clop, clop, clop. The iron shoes struck the ground in a steady, crisp rhythm.

Behind them, the wooden wheels of the cart slowly rolled over the hoofprints. Above those came the broad, heavy footprints of Gao Zhijian.

The group followed the cart along the path, continuing forward.

Everyone looked preoccupied. From time to time, they would steal glances at Li Huowang, who led them.

In their eyes, Li Huowang had clearly been dead. Even if the flies hadn't gathered on him, they had checked him repeatedly and confirmed he was absolutely, definitively gone.

But then, inexplicably, he had come back to life. The whole thing was far too strange.

Of course, the strangeness didn't stop there. His body had suddenly appeared outside the grave mound, he had babbled something about the world going mad, and then he had passed out again.

It had all happened too fast. Far too fast for them to process.

If it weren't for the fact that Li-shixiong was still the same familiar person he had always been, they might have thought something else had taken over his body.

The only comfort was that, after sitting in a daze for a while, the newly awakened Li-shixiong had gone back to his old self.

When they asked him what had happened, the only answer they got was, "It's all over."

He said it was over. So it was over. No one dared to ask further. He was alive. That was enough.

"Time to rest. Dinner." Li Huowang's words brought the cart to a halt.

Some went to fetch water, others to gather firewood, and a few to pick wild vegetables. After so many days, their coordination was seamless.

Li Huowang did nothing. He sat down and, by the fading light of the setting sun, opened the translation of the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments.

Yingzi's handwriting gradually appeared before his eyes. With Danyangzi's death, the cognition Li Huowang had lost was slowly returning. He was no longer illiterate. He could now fully understand what was written on the page.

This, in a way, proved that Danyangzi was truly dead, not just pretending to be gone as he had before.

Yingzi had used characters to annotate the pronunciation of the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments. Through the translation, Li Huowang gradually grasped how to use this strange book, wrapped in wax.

It wasn't easy to learn, though. The text stated that when performing its techniques, one must harbor a heart of compassion.

Casting a technique required stirring up an emotion. This was something Li Huowang had not expected.

As he murmured the indistinct incantations, the white wax on the book began to melt and slowly coalesce into a single mass.

But Li Huowang's practice was soon interrupted.

"Li-shixiong! Heh heh… Li-shixiong? Busy?" Gouwa, a few dry branches tucked under his arm, sidled over with a fawning grin.

He glanced around, and seeing that Bai Lingmiao, who had gone to pick wild vegetables, wasn't back yet, he leaned in close and deliberately lowered his voice. "Li-shixiong, to show my respect, I took the liberty, while Bai-shimei wasn't around, of burning two paper women for you at your grave! Female ones!"

"Mm?"

Seeing Li Huowang's brow furrow, Gouwa looked around furtively and pressed on. "Li-shixiong, did you… receive those two women over there or not?"

Li Huowang was at a complete loss for words. "I wasn't dead at all."

"I know you're alive now, but you were dead before, right? I was thinking, if you got them, I might burn a few more women for myself, to keep on standby."

"I wasn't dead before. There's no 'receiving' or 'not receiving' anything."

"But you didn't have any breath at all back then! We even kept you for three days before burying you! What, did Ox-Head and Horse-Face not drag you down to the underworld for your report? Hey, what's the underworld like?"

Li Huowang scrutinized him with undisguised impatience, trying to think how to quickly end this pointless drivel. "I received them."

"Oh! That's wonderful!" Gouwa's face lit up with joy. He clapped his hands, practically hopping with glee, and started mentally calculating something.

"Received what?" The female voice from behind made Gouwa jump.

He turned and saw Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman returning with their foraged wild vegetables. He quickly broke into a broad, placating smile. "Nothing, nothing! I was just shooting the breeze with Li-shixiong."

Dinner that night was flour dumplings. The dish was simple to make and easy to eat.

All he had to do was mix the flour with cold water, knead it into a semi-dry dough, squeeze it out from between the thumb and forefinger into the pot.

Once the dumplings floated to the surface, Bai Lingmiao took the lard jar, scooped out a large spoonful, and dropped it into the black iron pot. Finally, she added the tender green wild vegetables, which cooked the fastest.

Before long, the white dumplings and green vegetables were tumbling through the boiling water.

At the sight, and with the rising aroma, everyone couldn't help but swallow. After the long journey, they all needed to replenish their strength.

"Hey, who would have thought that I, Cao Cao, would get to eat white flour every day? Try and explain that one!" Gouwa said smugly, tapping his chopsticks.

The steaming first bowl was, naturally, Li Huowang's.

Bai Lingmiao brought it to him and set it down. When he took it with both hands and began to eat ravenously, a joyful smile spread across her face.

Her Li-shixiong hadn't lied to her. That severed hand had really grown back.

"What are you staring at me for? Aren't you going to eat?"

Bai Lingmiao nodded, ladled a bowl for herself, and crouched obediently beside Li Huowang, beginning to eat.

There weren't many people in this group, but with Gao Zhijian and Bai Lingmiao, both big eaters, the entire pot of dumplings was devoured down to the last drop of soup.

After washing the pot, bowls, and chopsticks, the sky had darkened. There was nothing else to do for the night, so they quickly lit a campfire and settled in to sleep.

Gao Zhijian was on watch duty tonight, and with Mantou's keen sense of smell, Li Huowang had little to worry about. He washed up by the river and then lay down in the cart for an early rest.

He had only just closed his eyes when he felt a soft body slip under the blanket from one corner.

Li Huowang, eyes still shut, reached out and gently pulled her into his arms.

Soon, he felt her arms wrap around him, holding tighter and tighter, as if trying to bury herself inside him. Before long, he felt his chest become damp, and heard a pitiful, choked sob.

"What are you crying about?" Li Huowang asked, stroking the long hair cascading down Bai Lingmiao's back.

"When I was a girl, my mother always taught me that a good wife should be diligent, good at managing the household, generous, know how to speak well, and never meddle in her husband's affairs."

"But you know… I'm really scared. I'm scared that one day, you'll just vanish again like you did that day. And this time, you won't wake up…"

The inside of the cart fell silent. Li Huowang could feel the genuine depth of her feelings for him.

Bai Lingmiao's voice grew thick with tears.

"Li-shixiong, why do you always carry everything on your own? Why won't you tell me? Am I really nothing in your heart?"

"Because I don't want to see you get hurt. But since it's all over now, I'll tell you everything."

Li Huowang lowered his head and kissed her hair, then let out a soft sigh as he began to recount the whole story to her, from beginning to end.

He told her everything, rambling on, from the Qingfeng Temple all the way to the final Mao Gate.

Then, he suddenly came to a halt.

"And then? What happened next? Did Danyangzi die? How did you get back?" Hearing him stop at the critical moment, Bai Lingmiao's heart tightened.

Li Huowang's expression twisted. Bulging veins pulsed across his forehead, and he involuntarily clutched his head.

"Those… those… things!! I… I don't know how to describe them! I can't put it into words!!"