Departure

Chapter 224: Departure

“Lion dance?” Li Huowang’s mind couldn’t seem to turn the corner. The thing slowly approaching in the distance didn’t look anything like the lion dances he remembered.

First of all, in his memory, the festive lion dance was never draped in a large, filthy-looking piece of white cloth. And this so-called lion dance didn’t even have a head!

There was a hazy white light source inside the propped-up white cloth, illuminating everything around it through the bottom edge. The light he had seen just now was coming from below.

If it were just a glowing white sheet, Li Huowang wouldn’t have thought it was a malevolent spirit. What was truly unnerving were the dry, shrunken palm prints projected onto the white cloth.

Under the light, the entire cloth became somewhat translucent, clearly presenting the handprints of various sizes before Li Huowang’s eyes.

As the lion dance drew closer, Li Huowang saw more details on the cloth. There were many white tassels on it, just like the white tassels on the spirit banners carried during funeral processions.

Li Huowang’s gaze gradually moved down to the lion’s feet beneath the cloth. What came into view were some bare, mud-caked feet.

If there was anything that could connect this to a lion dance, it was that the feet under the cloth and the hands holding it up seemed to be moving in a coordinated rhythm. They were, indeed, dancing.

With every movement and shake, the sound of wooden poles knocking against each other came from within the large cloth, as if providing accompaniment.

“Senior Brother Li, don’t worry. I’ve seen this kind of thing since I was a kid. I was scared to tears back then too, but after seeing it a few more times, I got used to it.” Sun Baolu tried to ease Li Huowang’s concerns.

Li Huowang warily tugged at the copper coin mask on his face, covering as much of it as possible.

“Things you’re used to aren’t necessarily safe. Also, why doesn’t that lion have a head?”

“Because they haven’t graduated yet. They’re still just apprentices. Only a master dancer is qualified to put on a lion head. These kids are just practicing at night when no one’s around.”

After explaining to Li Huowang, Sun Baolu looked up and shouted something at the passing lion dance. From his tone, it sounded like words of encouragement.

But the headless lion dance didn’t respond to Sun Baolu’s call. Like a giant elephant already lying dead on the ground, it slowly passed by Li Huowang with a strange, rhythmic movement.

After a while, the lion dance finally moved on, leaving Li Huowang with a receding silhouette. It hadn’t reacted to Li Huowang at all.

“See, Senior Brother Li? Qingqiu is different from other places. We have the protection of the Eternal Heaven. Those evil spirits don’t dare to act recklessly here.”

Li Huowang, still wary, glanced at him, then turned and walked back into the inn.

“Is your Eternal Heaven so stingy? It only protects this one spot?”

“Well, that’s what my people say, anyway.”

“Are these lion dancers all passed down from master to apprentice, generation after generation?”

“No, they have formal traditions. There’s a group in Qingqiu that specializes in teaching the lion dance. I think it’s called the Lion Dance Palace.”

“Lion Dance Palace?” Li Huowang repeated the word to himself. He felt like he’d heard it somewhere before, but try as he might, he couldn’t remember where.

Suddenly, as Li Huowang was struggling to think about this, the monk hallucination beside him, who had been counting on his fingers, stomped his foot anxiously and blurted out, “Something’s not right, Daoist! That lion dance group is wrong!”

“Huh?” Li Huowang looked at the hallucination of the monk beside him in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

“You weren’t counting just now! The numbers don’t add up! There are way more hands holding up the cloth than there are feet underneath! More hands, fewer feet—it doesn’t match! Those people are definitely trouble!”

“Wait!” As Li Huowang recalled the scene he had just seen, a chill ran through his body.

If the monk hadn’t pointed it out, he might have missed it. Why were there more hands than feet in that lion dance?

“Senior Brother Li?” Seeing Li Huowang talking to himself, Sun Baolu took a few cautious steps back.

Just as Sun Baolu was about to run back and get the others to bring chains if the man started babbling nonsense again, he saw Senior Brother Li pick up his crutch and limp back inside the inn.

“Baolu, don’t sleep tonight. The two of us are keeping watch!”

“Huh? Right! Yes, yes!” Although he didn’t understand why they needed to stand watch inside an inn, Sun Baolu complied anyway.

That night, at the third watch, Sun Baolu saw Senior Brother Li, who hadn’t blinked all night, suddenly stand up and tell the others to start traveling right then and there.

Though some were puzzled about traveling at night, they still complied.

They spent some silver and added a few bags of highland barley and several dozen sheep to their cart.

“I’m good at this! I’m good at this! When I was a kid begging for food, I herded sheep for a rich landlord for two years!”

With Lü Zhuangyuan volunteering, he temporarily took on the role of shepherd.

Under the moonlight, they left Woman Mountain. Li Huowang, who kept looking back, had an unusually grim expression. Coupled with the exhaustion from a sleepless night, his face was a terrible sight.

Seeing his face, everyone felt that something was wrong. No one had the heart to think about anything else, and the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.

Perplexed, Chun Xiaoman walked over to Sun Baolu with her sword and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong with Senior Brother Li? Wasn’t he with you the whole time? He was fine earlier, even taking Junior Sister Bai out for some fun. What happened to him after one night?”

Sun Baolu hesitated for a moment before finally whispering to Chun Xiaoman. “I don’t know either. Nothing happened. Maybe…”

Lowering his voice even further until it was barely audible, he continued.

“Maybe Senior Brother Li is having another episode… Hasn’t he always said people are trying to harm him?”

Xiaoman glanced at the jittery Li Huowang again before turning and walking over to Bai Lingmiao to find out what was happening.

But even by the time they stopped to rest by the river, Chun Xiaoman was still completely in the dark, having no idea what was going on.

“Set up the pot! Light a fire with the collected sheep dung!”

A few of them scattered to dig for wild vegetables.

Gouwa’s eyes lit up. He pounced with both hands, catching two grasshoppers tangled together. Carefully, he broke off their legs and wings with his fingers and put them in a pouch at his waist.

“The soil in Qingqiu is really rich. I’ve already got a proper dish in no time.”

After tightening the pouch, he crouched back down and continued searching through the grass.

Soon, his attention fell on a small clump of thorny vines. With a thumbnail caked in grime, he pinched off a tender shoot, peeled off the spiny outer skin, and revealed the emerald-green core inside.

He popped the green core into his mouth and chewed. A satisfied expression appeared on Gouwa’s face. He’d eaten this wild vegetable before, and it tasted pretty good, a bit like crispy celery.

Just as he was about to take all the tender shoots, a basket suddenly appeared in front of him, giving him a fright.

He looked up and saw Chun Xiaoman’s basket. After putting it down, the woman turned and walked towards Li Huowang, who was sitting cross-legged a short distance away.

“Take it back with you when you go.”