Sharing One Life with My Nemesis - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dingguo Duke Mansion was holding a funeral that day.

The deceased was Lu Xingzhou’s third uncle, a concubine-born lord who had never had much of a presence in the family records.

When the funeral cart entered through the side gate, the guard only lifted the white cloth for a quick look.

Xie Huaiyan lay there with his eyes closed, his face as pale as paper.

I lay beside him, silver needles clenched in my hand.

The guard muttered, “Why are there two bodies?”

The old man driving the cart gave a cough.

“A lonely ghost we picked up on the road. Might as well burn it along the way and earn some merit.”

The guard found it unlucky and waved us through at once.

Once inside the mansion, the old man stopped the cart behind the woodshed.

I lifted the white cloth and jumped down first.

Xie Huaiyan was a step slower.

The drug still hadn’t fully worn off. When he landed, he swayed.

I steadied him.

He lowered his gaze to my hand.

“Didn’t you say I wasn’t allowed to touch you?”

“You’re half-crippled right now.”

I let go.

“Humanitarian concern.”

He gave a soft laugh.

The entrance to the dungeon beneath Dingguo Duke Mansion was behind the Buddhist hall.

The mechanism marked on the partial map had not changed.

We avoided the night patrols and made our way to the Buddhist hall, only to find someone inside.

Lu Xingzhou was kneeling before the Buddha, wiping the wounds on his face.

Beside him stood Black Cloak.

Black Cloak’s voice was very hoarse.

“The Soulbound Gu has already entered the heart. Within three days, you must take the heart’s blood of one of them.”

Lu Xingzhou asked, “Whose?”

“If the Gu Master wants to live, take it from the Gu Slave.”

Xie Huaiyan and I exchanged a glance.

So between the two of us, one was the Gu Master and one was the Gu Slave.

Lu Xingzhou said in a low voice, “Who is the Gu Master?”

Black Cloak laughed.

“When you planted the gu, weren’t you the one who fed the primary gu to Xie Huaiyan?”

My mind went blank.

Xie Huaiyan was the Gu Master.

I was the Gu Slave.

In other words, if the gu was to be broken, the one who should die was me.

Xie Huaiyan suddenly clamped a hand around my wrist.

Very tightly.

As if afraid I would rush out in the next instant.

Lu Xingzhou was silent for a long time.

“It can’t be switched?”

Black Cloak said, “It can. Have the Gu Master willingly carve out his own heart and give his life to the Gu Slave.”

The candlelight in the Buddhist hall flickered.

Xie Huaiyan’s fingers grew even colder.

I whispered, “Don’t even think about it.”

He didn’t look at me.

Lu Xingzhou suddenly laughed.

“Xie Huaiyan will be willing.”

Black Cloak laughed as well.

“So that’s why you gave him the primary gu?”

Lu Xingzhou slowly wiped the blood from his face.

“In our last life, he already died once for Jiang Tingyun. If he dies again in this life, you could say he knows the way.”

I nearly bit hard enough to draw blood.

Xie Huaiyan held me back and said quietly, “The Draft Manuscript.”

I closed my eyes for a moment.

Right. We had to get the Draft Manuscript first.

The hidden door behind the Buddhist hall opened, and Lu Xingzhou and Black Cloak entered the dungeon.

We followed.

At the end of the dungeon was a stone chamber.

Ah Man was hanging inside, covered in blood, but still alive.

On the wall hung a parchment Draft Manuscript.

Xie Huaiyan’s gaze darkened.

“It’s real.”

I was about to go over when the ground suddenly collapsed.

Xie Huaiyan shoved me away, and half his body plunged into the trap.

Iron spikes pierced through his leg.

Agony shot through the same spot on my own leg, and I dropped to my knees.

The stone chamber door was shut from the outside.

Lu Xingzhou’s voice came through the door.

“Tingyun.”

“I told you. You can’t escape.”