Chapter 158: I Have Quite a Tough Life

I noticed Liu Dong turn his head to glance at me. By this time, I was already covered in sweat, gritting my teeth to endure the agony. Feeling a metallic, salty taste in my mouth, I figured I must have bitten through my tongue.

"Boss, are you alright? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

I shook my head forcefully. I felt Guo Fan bring the car to a halt, and then both of them rushed to the back seat, asking how I was doing. I simply didn't have the strength to answer them. Pain—heart-wrenching pain—seemed to have penetrated every fiber of my body. My head began to swell, reaching a point where I could no longer think.

While enduring the agony, I was also feeling a strange sense of fortune. It was actually good that I could still feel pain; what I feared most was feeling nothing at all, which would mean sudden death. The elders in our clan used to say that when the curse finally strikes its final phase, there is no pain and no warning—just that kind of sudden death. Now that I was in pain, although it was pushing the absolute limits of my endurance, it meant I wouldn't die just yet. This was truly a blessing in disguise amidst such misfortune.

Just as I was about to lose consciousness, I forced myself to utter an address, and then everything went pitch black as I lost all perception.

I do not know how much time passed, but when I woke up, I found myself lying in a very clean bed. Feeling somewhat exhausted, I dozed for a little while longer. When I finally managed to open my eyes again, I saw Lin Ziqing looking at me with a gaze full of concern. This girl, whom I had not seen for a year, still had a smile just as comforting to look at as before. Although our time together had been brief, I knew she was an immensely kindhearted person.

"You're finally awake. Thank goodness, thank goodness." With those words, she smiled happily while picking up a bowl filled with congee.

I was indeed quite hungry. I didn't wait for her to feed me; having regained a bit of strength, I took the bowl myself and quickly polished off every last drop.

Lin Ziqing watched me with a gentle smile and said, "You guys really gave me a fright. It was the middle of the night when you came banging loudly on the door; I almost called the police. But then your friend carried you right inside, and once I saw it was you, I didn't make the call."

The address I had spoken in the car last night was Lin Ziqing's flower shop. Since she knew our secret, she naturally wouldn't panic too much, and she likely had a way to handle it. It was far better to avoid hospitals for this kind of condition. First, the hospital would certainly have no way to resolve it; second, I was terrified of more people finding out about this matter.

Sure enough, Lin Ziqing did have some methods, though they amounted to little more than acupuncture and the like—skills she had learned up in the mountains. Because of her special constitution, she was able to suppress and delay the reach of the curse, allowing her to live peacefully in the county town without having to return deep into the mountains. Coupled with the fact that she frequently purchased supplies and traveled back to the mountain settlements, she had picked up several useful skills.

She used acupuncture to alleviate my pain and fed me some brewed herbal medicine. While these remedies could not eradicate the Gu poison, they temporarily eased the agonizing torment.

I asked her where Guo Fan and the other guy were. Lin Ziqing smiled and told me, "The two of them stayed by your side all night and are resting now. There's an inn right across from my shop, so I got them settled in there."

As it turned out, Guo Fan and Liu Dong had been too worried to leave me alone last night, refusing to budge and standing guard right beside me. Only later, when they saw that Lin Ziqing was indeed reliable, did they go off to get some rest.

Lin Ziqing asked me what my plans were. I told her I was going back to Dalong Mountain. Her expression dimmed slightly, and she nodded. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me, "Two months ago, a middle-aged man also went to Dalong Mountain. He was also a clansman who had escaped out into the world. He died just a few days after returning to the mountains. He told the people in the clan that he simply wanted to be buried on the mountain, which was why he came back. He was only forty years old."

At this, both Lin Ziqing and I fell silent. That man had left the mountain when he was thirty, and his only reason for leaving was to see the outside world. Yet in just seven years, he had died, having suffered immensely along the way.

At this thought, Lin Ziqing couldn't help but glance at me, but quickly recovered her smile as she said, "Fortunately, your curse has flared up. Although it was terribly painful, it wasn't fatal. I truly hope that the next time it happens, it's just this kind of pain."

The next time would be this kind of pain again. Hearing these words, I offered a bitter smile. I understood what she meant: as long as there was still pain, it meant I wouldn't die. This was the tragedy of our existence. Did I want to suffer? Of course not. But not to suffer meant death—what a agonizing dilemma. Remembering the torment of the previous night, I really wanted to end my life right then and there. Those who have never experienced it firsthand can hardly comprehend that soul-piercing agony, which felt as though tens of thousands of ants were chewing through one's flesh and bones. People often say that breaking a drug addiction is difficult, and while I have no idea what drug withdrawal feels like, the torment we endured was truly beyond human endurance.

At noon, the few of us ate something together. Since Lin Ziqing happened to be heading back to the mountain to deliver supplies soon, we decided to make the trip together. Liu Dong and Guo Fan were outsiders and had no way of entering the mountain settlement, so I left them behind in the county town, telling them to wait there for my news. I also left them a sum of money and told them to get some good rest.

And so, after staying in Xilin County for a day, early the next morning Lin Ziqing secured a small pickup truck loaded with supplies and brought me back to Dalong Mountain. Because the tomb-guarding clan on Dalong Mountain was extremely sensitive to outsiders, Lin Ziqing drove the truck herself. It was hard to imagine that such a young girl drove with such fierce determination.

Though Lin Ziqing looked gentle and frail, not only did she drive aggressively, but she also possessed genuine martial arts skills. I had even sparred with her before; she could easily be considered a true expert—the kind against whom ordinary, burly men would find themselves helpless in numbers of five or six.

After driving for over two hours, we arrived at the foot of Dalong Mountain. Before long, members of the tomb-guarding clan came down to meet us. Leading them was Zhang Zifeng, followed by five young men from the village. The moment they saw me, their faces lit up with immense joy—a joy that held far more of the warmth of family than anything else.

That was simply how things were here. Although I had not grown up here, and though I had only ever returned once before, they never treated me as an outsider. Instead, they treated me as family—true family, with bonds that rivaled those of blood.

Zhang Zifeng stepped forward and gave me a bear hug, saying happily, "How did you end up here? This is wonderful! I was really afraid that you... you... well, it doesn't matter now, everyone hurry up and help unload the supplies!"

I laughed and punched him lightly in the arm, asking, "Were you afraid I was dead? Don't worry, I've still got a hard head."

As we unloaded the goods, we exchanged jokes. Although the truck was packed with cargo, each of us shouldered loads weighing well over a hundred pounds, carrying them all the way back up the mountain. They were already completely accustomed to this routine, and my physical stamina was hardly inferior to theirs. When I was a child, I had often climbed mountains carrying heavy loads with my father, so the pressure was not too great.