PCA Chapter 158

Su Cen stood frozen in the courtyard. After a long moment, he finally found his voice: “What happened?”

 

The old man shook his head, “He was already dead when I found him.”

 

“How could this happen?” Su Cen stood rooted to the spot in disbelief, murmuring: “How could this happen?!”

 

The child who had been laughing and talking with them just yesterday now had pale lips and closed eyes, his features still showing the fear and pain of his final moments. A large hole in his chest had drained him of all blood.

 

“This child must have accidentally discovered the underground passage and mistaken it for a way out of the village,” the old man said, lowering his gaze to Lu Xiaojiu’s body. “When I found him, he had a small bundle beside him containing two changes of clothes and a few pieces of silver.”

 

Su Cen pursed his lips, “I gave those to him.”

 

Lu Xiaojiu had pretended not to understand the value of silver during the day, but now it seemed he had known all along. This escape had been premeditated.

 

The white-haired old woman cradled Lu Xiaojiu in her arms. Perhaps from having not spoken for too long, she could only make guttural croaking sounds from deep in her throat. Her eyes, long dried up and unable to produce tears, stared hollowly with a deathly emptiness.

 

Before Su Cen could step forward to comfort her, the old woman suddenly raised her head and glared at him fiercely. In the next instant, she sprang up from the ground, her withered hands clawing wildly at Su Cen.

 

Su Cen couldn’t dodge in time and stood frozen as the old woman’s whimpers turned into beast-like howls. Qu Ling’er reacted quickly, rushing forward to restrain her, but not before her sharp nails had scratched a bloody line across Su Cen’s face.

 

“Brother Su…” Qu Ling’er held the frenzied old woman, frowning as he looked at Su Cen.

 

Su Cen came back to his senses, raising his hand to touch the stinging wound on his face, his fingertips coming away with traces of blood.

 

“Let her go,” Su Cen said softly.

 

If he hadn’t told Lu Xiaojiu so much about the outside world, if he hadn’t come to stir up this murky pond, Lu Xiaojiu wouldn’t have been so desperate to leave the village and wouldn’t have died alone in that cold underground passage.

 

“Brother Su…” Qu Ling’er looked at Su Cen with hesitation, but unable to resist Su Cen’s determined will, he slowly released his hold.

 

The old woman had exhausted all her strength. She collapsed to the ground, her mouth open but silent, until finally she let out a shrill, prolonged howl filled with boundless grief and despair.

 

She must have known that Lu Xiaojiu was different from her—the village couldn’t contain her grandson. If she didn’t vent her anger on Su Cen, she didn’t know how else to express it.

 

Su Cen crouched before the old woman and, though he knew she couldn’t hear, solemnly said: “I will avenge Little Nine.”

 

As the long night came to an end and daylight fully broke, the old woman finally rose from the ground, muttering to herself: “Little Six is gone, and now Little Nine is gone too…” Step by step, she walked toward the still-dark main hall.

 

A moment later, there was a thud. When Su Cen and the others rushed in, the old woman had already fallen to the ground with a shiny pair of scissors embedded in her chest.

 

Su Cen attended to the bodies of Lu Xiaojiu and his grandmother, burying them in the graveyard they had passed through earlier.

 

Looking at the rows of unmarked graves, Su Cen suddenly understood why the people here no longer erected tombstones. If it were him, he too would prefer to be a nameless wandering ghost rather than remain trapped here.

 

After burying the two, Su Cen led Qu Ling’er to the old man’s cottage and respectfully bowed to him: “Senior, you said last night you could help us leave. Does that still stand?”

 

The old man looked up from his pipe, studying Su Cen: “Want to leave now?”

 

Su Cen replied: “I’d like to trouble you to help Ling’er leave.”

 

Qu Ling’er: “?!”

 

The old man asked: “You’re not leaving?”

 

Su Cen nodded: “I’m staying.”

 

“Then I’m staying too!” Qu Ling’er said urgently. “Brother Su, I’ll stay with you, I won’t leave!”

 

Su Cen turned to smile at Qu Ling’er, “If you don’t leave, who will get reinforcements?”

 

“Re-reinforcements?” Qu Ling’er was taken aback. “What reinforcements?”

 

“Silly Ling’er,” Su Cen smiled helplessly, “These people were able to slaughter over two hundred villagers and had the power to build such an elaborate game board underground. Do you really think they’re just ordinary people?”

 

Qu Ling’er’s face paled: “The Secret Door?!”

 

“Liubo chess corresponds to the Taiji Eight Trigrams, and the Eight Trigrams correspond to the eight gates of the Secret Door. I had suspicions when I first figured out the game board,” Su Cen explained. “The stolen silver from Xuzhou—600,000 taels—isn’t a small amount. Several heavy boxes traveling on the road would be too conspicuous. I suspected the Secret Door must have a base in Xuzhou to store the official silver before transferring it elsewhere. And this isolated Lu Family Village is the perfect place.”

 

Su Cen paused before continuing: “Remember back in Yangzhou, He Xiao mentioned a Master Lu from the Secret Door who wanted to capture me. Later, during the Heaven Sacrifice case, the white phosphorus that Shen Yugui had also came from this Master Lu. If I’m not mistaken, this Master Lu they speak of should be the same person as the one in the big mansion.”

 

“But…” Qu Ling’er frowned, “Brother Su, why won’t you leave with me?”

 

Su Cen replied: “I still have things to do.”

 

Qu Ling’er frowned: “What things?”

 

Su Cen smiled gently at him: “I’m going to enter the big mansion.”

 

After seeing off the reluctant Qu Ling’er, Su Cen sat across from the old man at the table. The old man held his pipe and eyed Su Cen, “You say you want to enter the big mansion?”

 

Su Cen nodded: “Yes.”

 

“How will you get in?”

 

Su Cen dipped his index finger in water and drew a liubo chess diagram on the table. “If the entire chess board is Lu Family Village,” Su Cen pointed to the small frame in the middle, “then the ‘water’ position in the center is the big mansion. With its high walls and thick barriers, I naturally can’t enter the mansion above ground, so I can only enter through the game, from the underground chess board.”

 

The old man stared at the chess diagram under Su Cen’s hand for a while, then asked: “You understand liubo chess?”

 

Su Cen humbly replied: “I know a little bit.”

 

The old man gave a cold laugh, “With just a little knowledge you dare to enter the game? If it weren’t for me last night, you would have been killed on the periphery. How can you think of entering the inner circle?”

 

“Last night we were schemed against,” Su Cen said, lowering his eyes. “I originally just wanted to probe and see how this chess game actually operates. I didn’t expect the other side to let someone else enter the game, making our toss of the rods invalid.”

 

The old man said: “Then how can you guarantee that the other side won’t interfere this time?”

 

“That’s why I need your help, Senior,” Su Cen said. “According to the rules, each side can only choose one ‘Zhang’ position as the entrance, and other pieces must enter from this position. I want you to guard that entrance for me. As long as there’s no interference from others, I can enter the inner circle.”

 

The old man snorted: “There’s no ‘Zhang’ position in the inner circle; you can’t retreat whenever you want. And in the worst case…”

 

“In the worst case, the opponent might have six groups simultaneously attacking me alone. I’ve already considered that,” Su Cen’s eyes were calm as water. “But the fairness of liubo chess lies in the character ‘bo’ (to gamble). I want to take this gamble to see whether heaven’s principles favor evil or the great way.”

 

The old man narrowed his eyes, examining the person in front of him. The sharpness in his eyes was eventually melted, transformed, and defeated by Su Cen’s solitary courage. He sighed lightly, “Do you know what the prerequisite is for entering the inner circle?”

 

Su Cen’s expression brightened, and he nodded: “Transforming into the eagle.”

 

 

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(advanced chapters available on kofi)