Chapter 111: Hand Rope
Qu Xingxuan sniffed all the way toward Xiao Zhao. When he got close, he pinched his nose and quickly retreated three steps, with a pained expression on his face.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Xiao Zhao’s face flushed red in an instant, and he hurriedly explained, “I don’t have body odor!”
Just those few short words, yet he shouted them with a cracked voice.
Among those present, probably only Huang Ke could vouch for him.
Because Xiao Zhao had followed him for a while.
However, the others hadn’t smelled any stench either, so after glancing at Xiao Zhao, they looked at Qu Xingxuan again.
They didn’t know how he had smelled it.
Pinching his nose, Qu Xingxuan said, “Who said you have body odor?”
“!!!”
Xiao Zhao’s face turned from red to black.
Not body odor, but still saying he stank—that was even worse than saying he had body odor!
Xiao Zhao was extremely indignant. He paid great attention to personal hygiene! He bathed frequently, changed clothes often, washed his clothes regularly—how could he stink!?
But Qu Xingxuan still wouldn’t let go of his nose, insisting that he stank unbearably.
He even turned to Xuan Xia and asked, “Can’t you smell it?”
Xuan Xia sniffed carefully, then gave him a look.
She couldn’t smell it.
Seeing that Qu Xingxuan was about to ask Li Xinze, Xuan Xia cut him off directly, “What kind of stench is it?”
Qu Xingxuan thought for a moment and said, “Hard to describe, like the smell of moldy old paper and candles, or like rotting stench.” It even carried a bit of that indescribable smell after burning a rotting corpse.
Xiao Zhao turned pale upon hearing this.
The earlier part was one thing, but what was this rotting, rotting stench?
Xiao Zhao couldn’t help but lower his head and sniff himself, but he couldn’t smell anything at all.
After hearing this, Xuan Xia didn’t even ponder. She directly pushed Qu Xingxuan’s back, shoving him toward Xiao Zhao, “You smell it carefully.”
Qu Xingxuan yelped, feeling that Xuan Xia’s behavior was no different from attempted murder.
He wanted to run back, but Xuan Xia had switched from pushing to grabbing, firmly controlling his escape route.
The others watching the two shove each other: “…”
Ji Ziyao even thought, should he stop them? Was this appropriate?
However, not only did Huang Ke not think the two were fooling around, he looked tense, his gaze fixed tightly on them.
“That’s right, that’s right, he stinks.” Having been forced to smell it several times, Qu Xingxuan couldn’t take it anymore and shouted, “What thing do you have hidden on you!”
The eyes of everyone in the house focused on Xiao Zhao again.
Xiao Zhao: “…”
Xuan Xia gave Li Xinze a look.
Li Xinze immediately understood, strode up to Xiao Zhao, said “sorry” and began frisking him.
Xiao Zhao wanted to refuse, but Li Xinze looked intimidating, so he didn’t dare resist.
With the current temperature, no one wore too many layers, so frisking was just patting pockets.
However, there was nothing in Xiao Zhao’s clothes pockets. Instead, on his wrist under his long-sleeved jacket, there was an odd-looking five-colored hand rope, with a small bell without a mouth hanging from the bottom end.
Li Xinze looked at the hand rope and immediately raised that arm of his.
Xuan Xia had intended to go take a look herself, but forgot she was still grabbing Qu Xingxuan, so she dragged him along too.
As soon as they got close, Qu Xingxuan started shouting “damn damn.”
“It’s the smell of this thing!” Qu Xingxuan turned to Xuan Xia and said.
Xuan Xia let go of Qu Xingxuan at once—mainly because his voice was too loud and hurt her ears.
“Brother Zhao, trouble you to take off the hand rope.”
Seeing Xiao Zhao’s expression, he still wanted to refuse, but Li Xinze didn’t give him the chance and started removing it himself.
After the hand rope was removed, Xuan Xia said to Li Xinze, “Brother Li, hold it and stand farther away.”
Once Li Xinze was far enough away, Xuan Xia asked Qu Xingxuan, “Still stinky?”
Qu Xingxuan: “…”
He could tell she was using him like a police dog.
But Qu Xingxuan still obediently sniffed forward and said, “No smell anymore. I told you, it’s the smell of that thing.”
Xuan Xia hummed, then called Li Xinze back.
As soon as Li Xinze approached, Qu Xingxuan ran far away.
Xuan Xia glanced at the others, then walked over to Yang Wanxiu, took her bag, pulled out a sheet of yellow talisman paper from it, and had Li Xinze place the hand rope on it.
Once the hand rope lay on the yellow talisman paper, she examined it closely while asking, “Brother Zhao, where did you get this?”
The hand rope was woven from five strands of thread, but the weaving pattern was unlike any Xuan Xia had seen, and even the knots were uniquely tied. Then there was the small bell hanging in the middle of the hand rope.
It was called a small bell, but its mouth was sealed, and it probably had no clapper either—shaking it lightly produced no sound.
As for the bell, it was intricately engraved with patterns, but the small bell was too tiny, the patterns all blurred together, hard to make out without a magnifying glass.
Xuan Xia had studied it all around, but still no response from Xiao Zhao, so she couldn’t help looking up at him.
She saw Xiao Zhao with a conflicted expression.
Xuan Xia didn’t know what he was conflicted about.
Huang Ke couldn’t wait any longer and said gravely, “Xiao Zhao, she’s asking you. What can’t you say?”
Qu Xingxuan chimed in from afar, “What else is there to ask? That’s woven with the Rakshasa Cycle Knot—it’s no good thing.”
Xuan Xia had to look at Qu Xingxuan again. He knew quite a lot.
And he always knew all sorts of strange and obscure things.
“What is the Rakshasa Cycle Knot?”
Xiao Zhao finally spoke, “I specially sought this from a master. The master said it’s a consecrated secret knot rope, personally blessed by the right master—most efficacious of all.”
Qu Xingxuan had wanted to explain, but upon hearing this, he spat from afar, “Consecrated? Blessed? Ah yes yes yes, scams get consecrated, curses get blessed.”
“Which master?” Xuan Xia asked again.
“Tell us!” Huang Ke urged.
Through all this, Huang Ke already had a vague premonition that the previous incidents were likely connected to Xiao Zhao.
Of course he wanted Xiao Zhao to explain clearly.
Xiao Zhao first glanced at Huang Ke, then began to recount slowly.
……
Not long after joining Xiangyun, Xiao Zhao started following Huang Ke.
He knew Huang Ke firmly believed in Feng Shui and metaphysics, so he wanted to cater to his interests.
Of course, he also thought, what if it really worked? Then he could get promoted, raise his salary, and reach the peak of his life.
But as everyone knew, Yanjing City had many capable people, and even more charlatans.
So he had been searching for a master with real skills, and ideally not one Huang Ke already knew— that would just be following along. He wanted to discover one Huang Ke hadn’t contacted but who had true ability; that would be his own merit.
At that time, someone introduced him to a master.
He felt that master was efficacious because after contacting him, Huang Ke’s attitude toward him improved, and he even assigned him to Lu Mindan as executive agent.
Anyway, up until this moment, Xiao Zhao had thought the master had real skills—spiritual!
……
“Who introduced you to the master? What was that master’s title?” Xuan Xia asked.
Then Xiao Zhao fell silent again.
Seeing his hesitant manner, Huang Ke grew furious.
Xiao Zhao glanced at Huang Ke again, then stammered, “Lu Mindan introduced him.”
Just over an hour until the new year! Wishing myself a surge of literary inspiration and sudden wealth next year! Hahaha. Finally can watch the New Year’s Gala. See you all next year!
