SES Chapter 179 Part 2

Qingmu said, “It’s not worth it—for a woman.”

Luo Ren’s face was expressionless. “I think it is.”

Qingmu sneered. “More worth it than your brothers?”

He pressed relentlessly. “Back then, you said it yourself—why did we save you? Your heart already died in the Philippines.”

Luo Ren fell silent.

“But after you came back, it’s like you forgot everything. Your heart came back to life. You forgot everything that happened in the Philippines.”

Luo Ren looked up at Qingmu. “I know. You bore everything. You stayed in the Philippines.”

Qingmu’s gaze turned cold. “No. After learning that Leopard was still alive, I went back to Japan and broke off my engagement.”

“With Yukiko—the one who used to sing pillow songs for you?”

Qingmu slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo on his arm: Snow fills a silver bowl; a white horse enters the reeds.

Yukiko loved Zen, loved haiku. After they made love, she would nestle gently in his arms and sing pillow songs to the sound of the small waves along the shore.

—Oh pillow, oh pillow, say nothing at all. Tell no one about the relationship between that lovely person and me…

“I told her I was going to do something extremely dangerous,” Qingmu said. “That I’d resolved myself to death. I asked her to forget me.”

There was something in Qingmu’s nature that Luo Ren found hard to understand—a tragic, resolute streak. Once he decided to do something, he would burn his bridges and sever every tie.

“You shouldn’t bury your love with Yukiko as a sacrifice to your hatred of Leopard,” Luo Ren said.

The veins on Qingmu’s forehead bulged. “Luo! They’re all dead!”

Luo Ren looked at him. “Yes, they’re dead. Like a massive fire that burned a huge part of my life to the ground. But Qingmu, I won’t let it burn down my entire life. If I stop living and loving from this point on, Leopard would be thrilled. She stabbed me once—and I’d be the one handing her my own head.”

Qingmu’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his fists clenched tight, as Luo Ren continued, “She destroyed your brothers, and you followed by sacrificing your love and your life. Qingmu—why should we do something that hurts ourselves and benefits no one?”

At that moment, the video call connected. Luo Ren tapped the screen and said, “If you’re still alive, go get Yukiko back. Good women are rare in this world—and worth it.”

The caregiver was dark-skinned and heavyset, with the typical features of a tropical woman. Her name was Ligaya. She spoke fluent English, and because the pay back then had been extremely high, she remembered her time caring for Leopard’s great-grandfather very clearly.

“His mental state wasn’t normal, common for the elderly. But he wasn’t violent or insane. He just kept saying he wanted to go home.”

“Did he say which home?”

“No.” Ligaya smiled, then added, “But it should be in China.”

Luo Ren’s heart stirred. “How do you know?”

“There was a map in the house—a map of China. When the old gentleman smoked and got emotional, he would burn a spot on the map with his cigarette and say he wanted to go home.”

“Was it in Zhejiang?”

Ligaya wasn’t familiar with Chinese provinces. “I don’t know what Zhejiang is. I only know that judging by the location, it was in the east, near the sea.”

The general area seemed about right. Luo Ren pondered for a moment. “Anything else worth noting?”

Ligaya suddenly remembered something and grinned. “Mr. Luo, there was something else interesting about that map.”

“The old gentleman often rubbed several spots on it. He never burned those with cigarettes, but he rubbed them so much that the paper wore away. From a distance, they looked like white dots—curving and winding across the map.”

Several points on the map, curving and winding across it?

Luo Ren suddenly thought of something. “Wait a moment.”

He quickly grabbed paper and pen, sketched the outline of China, then drew the Big Dipper across it horizontally, with the final star, Alkaid, landing within Zhejiang.

Then he flipped the paper toward the camera. “Was it like this?”

Ligaya smiled. “Yes, Mr. Luo. That looks very similar—like a crooked, bent spoon.”

…

The call ended. Luo Ren’s hand dropped to his side, fingers clenched tightly around the sketch.

Qingmu found it strange. “Luo?”

Luo Ren didn’t answer. His chest rose and fell sharply.

He was almost certain now that Leopard carried a fierce slip.

—Leopard was a skilled fighter, yes. But with Mu Dai’s abilities, she wouldn’t have conceded so quickly. For her to say, “Luo Xiaodao, I might not be able to beat her,” after just a few exchanges meant she had sensed something shocking—some kind of reaction speed or control mechanism in Leopard. And that kind of ability could only come from a fierce slip.

—He was certain the damage he’d inflicted back then had been devastating. He had even believed Leopard was dead. For her to move normally again after such severe injuries had to be due to some mysterious power.

—On Leopard’s great-grandfather’s map was a horizontal Big Dipper. And he himself had once connected the possible locations of fierce slips into a Big Dipper as well—except one pointed east, the other south…

—Qingmu had mentioned that Leopard entered the country only recently, while her subordinates had arrived months earlier and traveled to several remote places, including a small town in Zhejiang. On the stone bridge in that town was a tread-painting even more complete than the underwater mural in Wuzhu Village. Could it be that Leopard had been gravely injured, and her confidants, guided by her great-grandfather, had come to China to search for the fierce slip?

Luo Ren’s heart thundered. He immediately called Shenguai.

It took a while for the call to connect. Shenguai sounded extremely impatient—downright angry. “What do you want?”

Luo Ren had completely forgotten how he’d offended him earlier. “About the fierce slips—you mentioned the Chi Song Temple Four Archways, and then said—”

Shenguai cut him off. “Now you come asking me? What were you doing earlier? You little radish, you burn bridges after crossing them—no manners at all. You use people when you need them and toss them aside when you don’t. I’m telling you, unless you apologize—”

“I apologize.”

Huh? This little radish—where did his principles go? His backbone?

Shenguai paused. “And you have to buy me six months of KFC family buckets—”

“I’ll buy them.”

“And six months of internet fees—”

“I’ll buy that too.”

Really? Shenguai suddenly felt that Luo Ren was actually a pretty great guy—generous and decisive.

He tried to keep a stern face, but couldn’t help smiling. “So… what was it you wanted to ask?”