Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

He Jianxi thought that he had his own philosophy of survival. For so many years, he had a clear conscience. Although the world was full of unhappiness and unfairness, the little world in his heart had never been invaded or shaken. In addition, his greatest confidence was that he had never met any bad guys doing bad things that he didn’t see coming.

As a result, this world couldn’t scare him.

Unfortunately, this confidence was destroyed in a moment. Ever since he had met Zhang Haiyan, he had been unable to foresee any of this series of illogical incidents. Plus, the way things were developing kept getting more and more absurd. He didn’t know what he would see the next time he opened his eyes.

His grievances and fear rushed at him like water breaking a dam, and he started to cry. He wasn’t wailing, but crying in a low voice because he was so scared.

Zhang Haiyan was exhausted, so he lay in the bathtub and rested for a while. Then, he slowly stood up and turned on the hot water so the sound would mask He Jianxi’s sobbing.

Zhang Haiyan stepped out of the bathtub, grabbed a clean towel, and wiped himself clean.

Steven’s dinner had been placed on the side of the sofa, untouched. There was borscht soup and bread, which Zhang Haiyan used to dip into the soup. He took a few bites and thought for a while before drinking the rest of the soup. He left only two slices of bread for He Jianxi, but after thinking about it again, he ate another slice, leaving only one left.

Next, he dragged Steven out of the bathtub, tore off his bath towel, and used it to tie him to a chair. Then, he put a hand towel in Steven’s mouth.

Ordinary people were capable of spitting out hand towels, but Zhang Haiyan was very experienced. He pressed the towel firmly to Steven’s throat and tongue, and then tied a bath towel around his face so that he could only make a noise that sounded like a mosquito.

He Jianxi watched it all silently. He turned off the faucet when the water was about to overflow and then continued sitting there, staring off into space.

Zhang Haiyan walked over and threw Steven’s pants at him before leaning against the wall and peeking out the window.

It was pitch black outside, and nothing could be seen. The group of killers definitely wouldn’t dare go to the first-class cabin. In addition, they had probably discovered by now that the trap they had set up had been thrown into the sea, so things might be getting chaotic on their side.

Zhang Haiyan closed the window and turned off the light before tying the lamp cord to the window handle and putting a chair against the door.

He Jianxi had just put on the pants when he saw a bath towel lying nearby. He silently took off his shirt, wrung out the water, and then set it aside. After he had dried his body with the towel, Zhang Haiyan came up and pinched his neck, causing him to pass out in an instant. Zhang Haiyan caught him and then threw him onto the bed.

He wrapped himself in a bathrobe and also lay down. Spring bed! Oh my god!

Zhang Haiyan listened to the sound of the waves and thought that the previous day was like a dream. This moment was what the original plan should have been like.

Zhang Haixia. Ah, Zhang Haixia. It isn’t easy trying to save you.

He slowly fell asleep. In his dream, he returned to his childhood when he was in Xiamen. There he had learned the basics of making masks and putting on disguises, which was essentially drawing.

“Zhang Hailou, what is this?”

“Godmother, this is a Chinese Huamei (1). I drew this for you.”

“Why did you draw a Chinese Huamei?”

“Because it’s beautiful?”

“Zhang Haixia, what happened to your eyebrows?”

“Zhang Hailou did this.”

“Godmother, since I was drawing a Chinese Huamei, of course I had to paint the eyebrows. I painted his for practice.”

“Zhang Haixia, go and wash your eyebrows.”

“Ok,” Zhang Haixia said. As he turned around to wash his face, their godmother quickly drew a giant snake beside the Chinese Huamei.

Zhang Haiyan asked, “What’s this?”

“This is your true form.” His godmother said. “You have to overcome it.”

****

TN Notes:

(1) The Chinese hwamei or melodious laughingthrush is a passerine bird of eastern Asia. The name “hwamei” comes from the Chinese 画眉 (huà-méi) and means “painted eyebrow”, which refers to the distinctive marking around the bird's eyes. Wiki link here