Book 1: Chapter 96


    I hooked my arm around Ha Zong''s shoulder, feeling that what he said just now was a bit too heavy. I could actually tell when he was bullshitting and when he was telling the truth. I had just told him that he couldn''t say he didn''t know, so he made up something to scare me.


    Lying on arge scale required either a very high level of intelligence or a very long time. The key to lying was to make sure that the logic was smooth and the description wasplex. It made people instinctively feel that this kind of correct and wless information had to be true. Ha Zong wasnt a very intelligent person, so I turned on my cell phone and pulled up the stopwatch app while saying, "I dont want to listen to a story. Ill give you three minutes to think about it. Then, youll have one minute to finish telling me about pi tong."


    "If I admit my mistakes, will you stop messing with me like this?" Ha Zong grabbed my hand, but I squeezed his fingers until he reflexively let go.


    The human body always learned pain quickly, after all.


    I pressed the start button on the stopwatch app. Ha Zong didn''t bother dying and started talking, "I already made it clear that this thinges in pairs. In the past, when people went to the wilderness or explored deep in caves, they were afraid that they wouldnt make it back, so they used paper to make zhi tong. But zhi tong broke easily, so they used pi tong (1) instead. But these are all just legends, which arent credible. I think these two bugs usually live in pairs and can smell each other from far away. But because theyre so rare, the legends passed down by those in this underworld have be more and more incredible.


    A minute had gone by. He immediately inhaled and continued, "Rumor had it that the pi tong used to raise these insects could still function after the insects had died. If a pair of pi tong had raised more than seven generations of insect, they could rece the insects. There was an ancient book from the Tang Dynasty that mentioned"


    I interrupted him and said, "If you can''t pronounce the name of the ancient book, then its definitely a lie."


    He immediately changed his tune, "I''m sorry, its habit. Im lying, theres no ancient book. But I have seen Taoist priests use pi tong to practice sorcery before. I just dont know how it works. All I know is that if theres one pi tong, then there should be another toplete the set. If you take this one, youll probably find the other one."


    Not only did Taoist priests use pi tong, but they could take one to find the other one?


    I suddenly remembered the murals in the South Sea Kings tomb and how Uncle Three had left this leather figurine woman in the waterway.


    For Uncle Three, that waterway was the only way for him to get out. He knew that if he left the female figurine there, it would be discovered by whoever cameter.


    But that wasnt necessarily the case in the main tomb chamber, where there were too many leather figurines.


    So, he threw the leather figurine woman into the waterway in order to let others find her and take her away.


    But that wasnt how it happened. I wasnt the one who took the leather figurine woman away, she was the one who was following me the whole time.


    Ha Zong stopped my stopwatch and I looked at him. He wiped the cold sweat off his face and said, "Take your time."


    "Are there really bugs in my body?" I asked him.


    After I spoke, I pressed the stopwatch again. Ha Zong took a deep breath, "That was me talking nonsense. Of course, it <em>is</em> possible that there are bugs in your body, but its more likely that you touched another pi tong at some point. Maybe thats why this pi tong was attracted to you."


    I frowned. Ha Zong immediately stopped the stopwatch again.


    I pressed it again and Ha Zong jumped up. "Little Master Three, this is just a kind of guide. I really dont know the rest. Youre so smart, you can figure it out yourself."


    After thinking about it, I remembered the Song Dynasty tomb murals in Yang Daguangs family tomb.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Zhi tong= paper bird. Pi tong=skin/leather bird


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    <strong><em>Ok, this is really it tonight guys lol. I''m KO''d after my little spree</em></strong>