Book 1: Chapter 185


    As Iy on the dry ground, I heard Bai Haotian let out an exmation and ck sses say, "Don''t panic. Its normal that you wouldnt be able to tell."


    I listened to Bai Haotian move as if she were cowering in the cornershe must have been very confusedand Liu Sang cried out, "What are you doing?"


    ck sses said, "You all have probably heard some things about Wu Xie back in the day. In fact, when he came back that year, the Wu family always suspected that the one who returned wasnt really Wu Xie. They believe he was switched with a fake."


    "Does the Wu family eat shit? How could they possibly get this wrong?" Liu Sang asked. "But even if the Wu family made such a mistake, Little Brother is a member of the Zhang family. Hes very familiar with bone contraction, so do you honestly think he would make such a mistake? What kind of trick are you trying to pull? Stop messing around."


    ck sses paused for a few minutes and then said, "Well, you''re right. I''ll tell you the truth. The two of us are being coerced. We''re blocking people froming into this valley and killing however many show up. We must kill everyone except for Wu Xie."


    <em>ck sses is really good at bullshitting</em>, I thought to myself. <em>Since he uses the same tone when hes telling the truth and lying, it really makes people second-guess themselves.</em>


    But Liu Sang didn''t seem to believe him at all. "Then why bother saving us? If you had just left us alone, we wouldve died faster."


    "The person threatening us hasn''t contacted us for a long time. We dont know whats going on and are just waiting for his next instructions. I need to know if he sent you here to give us some news," ck sses said very sternly. Now, we need to check our code phrases to see if they match. If they do, you''ll know what Ive said isnt a lie and you can tell us what our next instructions are. If the codes dont match, then I''ll take care of you right away. You two are no match for me, so sorry in advance.


    Liu Sang didn''t answer. I couldn''t see his expression, but I figured he had to have a puzzled expression on his face.


    Then, ck sses suddenly said, "She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet (1). Please give the counter verse."


    Liu Sang still remained silent, so ck sses turned to face Bai Haotian in the corner, "Friends in the corner are also allowed to answer first. Our secret code has a total of eleven verses, so any one of them can be used for authentication."


    Still silence.


    ck sses said quietly, "Ill count down from three. Threewhen I reach one, Ill start killing so dont me me if youre innocenttwo"


    At this time, I didnt believe that ck sses'' words would actually work. First, I still trusted these two people a lot. Although they both had problems, it wasnt like they were big problems. Second, ck sses tone wasn''t serious at all, so no normal person would fall for it.


    But before ck sses said the next word, Liu Sang unexpectedly said in English, "But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears."


    ck sses pped his hands together, "Sure enough, why didn''t you say it from the start? Whats the situation right now? Weve been guarding this ce for so long. Why did it take you such a long time toe here?"


    "I wasnt aware that you two were also pieces in the game, Liu Sang said. But I didn''t expect you to be able to say the code phrase."


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) This was spoken in English and taken from the poem Down By the Salley Gardens. Link here.