"This deal is very simple. I will help you fulfill your wish, and in exchange you will lend me your five senses. Each time you make a wish, you will change your sense for ten days. During this period, you will lose the corresponding sense, and after ten days, I will return this sense to you. In other words, you will have many opportunities to make a wish to me."
The method proposed by He Simu was the best result she obtained after carefully studying the spell in the pearl.
Naturally, she also wanted to use a method that would solve the problem once and for all, but borrowing a feeling for ten days at a time was the limit that a mortal's body could endure. If she borrowed more, her body would soon collapse. To solve the problem once and for all would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Even if she used the method she was suggesting now, the more times Duan Xu lent her his five senses, the more his senses would fade. If not, how could Mingzhu have taken three hundred years to find someone like Duan Xu who could withstand this spell
He Simu informed Duan Xu of this danger in a concise and clear manner, and said, "Let me make it clear first, wishes also have limits, and cannot affect the world too much. For example, you can wish for me to save your life on the battlefield, but you cannot wish for me to help you win the war, do you understand?"
She was ready to bargain with Duan Xu, but Duan Xu listened to her carefully and pointed at himself innocently and said to her: "Do we have to talk like this?"
Duan Xu was still lying on his back on the bed, while He Simu sat on his waist and pressed his neck. If someone pushed the door open, they would first be frightened by this charming and strange posture, and then by He Simu's pale face. Fortunately, He Simu had withdrawn his ghostly aura, and now his eyes were clearly black and white, otherwise he would have to scare people for the third time.
He Simu didn't seem to think it was wrong, and said calmly: "What's wrong with this posture?"
Duan Xu sighed tactfully: "Your body is not light, and it is very cold."
In the cold winter weather, her body was no different from the ice cube outside, maybe just a little softer. He had just been injured and lost a lot of blood, and was afraid of the cold at the moment, and he felt shivering just because of her coldness.
He Simu glanced at him, then got off him lightly and sat on the bed. The place where she had just been was cold to the touch.
Duan Xu sat up. His clothes had been messed up by He Simu. At this moment, he looked a bit like a playboy in Nandu. He said calmly, "So, His Majesty the Ghost King has no five senses? No taste, no smell, no color, no sound, no touch. Then what about pain? Does he have none of them?"
Of course, that is not the case. Pain exists to allow living people to avoid the risk of death. For example, if a person is burned by fire, he will not touch the fire. If a dead person is dead, what is the point of pain
In addition, the mattress wrapped in cotton cloth under her palms should be called "soft" in the eyes of living people, but in her hands, it felt no different from the legs of tables, chairs or benches - it was just not easy to pinch and deform.
"Obviously the dead don't need these things."
"What a pity." Duan Xu sighed.
He Simu kindly comforted him, "It's nothing to regret. It will be the same when you die."
Duan Xu changed the subject and said, "I am doing this for myself. It's a pity that after thinking for a long time, I can't think of any wish to make. Your Highness the Ghost King, I never make a wish."
The boy? He spoke very sincerely, but He Simu just felt that he was talking nonsense.
She has borrowed bodies, eaten soul fire, and made deals with countless living people over the past few hundred years, but no one has ever said, "Thank you, I live well and die peacefully, I don't want anything." People living in the world always have desires, and monks and Taoists who are naturally free from all desires may be free from desires, but Duan Xu does not look like a person who is free from all desires.
"If I hadn't saved you today, you might have died at the hands of the Huchi. The battlefield is a place where one can survive a near-death experience. Are you sure that without my help, you can still survive?"
There was a subtle smile in Duan Xu's eyes. He propped up his legs and rested his chin on them, saying leisurely, "No matter what, I thank His Majesty the Ghost King for your help today."
His "no matter what" has a bit of the meaning of "even if you don't save me, I can escape by myself." He Simu narrowed her eyes slightly and looked at him for a long time. She approached Duan Xu and looked into his bright and deep eyes at a very close distance. This time, her pale face was finally reflected in his eyes.
She smiled softly and said, "Young General, you are still too young. You must know that fate is unpredictable and makes all things crawl. It is beyond the power of ordinary people."
Duan Xu blinked and repeated: "Fate is unpredictable, and it makes all things crawl."
Then he smiled, with a hint of contempt and recklessness in his eyes: "But I am also impermanent."
I am also impermanent.
Am I also impermanent
He Simu thought, okay, this kid is too arrogant, there is no hope, whoever wants to teach him can teach him, there will always be a time when he will fall. When he really becomes an evil ghost one day, she will not be as good-tempered as she is now.
She stood up from the bed with a wave of her sleeves, pretending that she didn't want to talk anymore and was about to leave, but she was met with resistance as soon as she took a step. She looked back and saw Duan Xu holding her sleeve. His white fingers were very obvious on the rust-red sleeve, which was black in her eyes. He smiled brightly: "Your Highness the Ghost King's clothes are so gorgeous, not ordinary."
This statement was once again far off topic, and was said very subtly. Nowadays, the girls in Nandu all wear narrow-sleeved shirts and skirts. If He Simu walked on the streets of Nandu, this three-layer dress with curved hems would look like something that had just been unearthed from an ancient tomb.
He Simu smiled slightly and said, "If the young general is interested, I'll dig up a few tombs from three hundred years ago and I guarantee you'll have enough to see."
Duan Xu smiled, but slowly used some strength to grab her sleeve. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't stop her, but this little strength vaguely revealed a hint of begging for mercy.
He Simu raised his eyebrows and moved his eyes to his hands: "There are no calluses on your hands, and the wound is new."
At first she was deceived by these hands and thought he was a well-behaved scholar.
"Ah..." Duan Xu's eyes fell on his hands. He said calmly, "There were calluses and scars before, but they were removed with medicine later. The places that others can see on weekdays are all cleaned up."
“When did you go?”
"Fourteen."
Duan Xu answered very fluently and naturally, but he was so often mysterious that it was hard to tell whether this seemingly sincere conversation was real or fake.
He pulled her sleeve and said, "Your Highness the Ghost King, aren't you curious about the many things that have happened during this period of time? What exactly is going on with Han Lingqiu? What exactly is going on with the traitor?"
He Simu looked at him for a long while, revealing a fake smile. She simply waved her sleeves to shake off his hand, but sat on his bed. She turned over, took off her shoes, and rolled into his bed, pulling his quilt and half-lying beside him.
Now it was Duan Xu's turn to look at her with wide eyes in surprise. He Simu stretched out her hand and untied the hairband on her head. With a snap of her fingers, the hairband turned into smoke and disappeared, and her long black hair fell all over the floor. Her pale skin was like white snow covering the black branches of red plums, so gorgeous that it was breathtaking.
"Young General, aren't you reluctant to let me go? Then I'll stay and listen carefully. I'm really interested in it." He Simu pointed to the bed under him: "I'll sleep here tonight."
Duan Xu rarely froze, his eyes flickered slightly. An ordinary "decent person", and a "decent person" who had read the "Four Books and Five Classics", would have said something like "men and women should not touch each other, it is disrespectful to society".
But Duan Xu was obviously not a serious person. He just sighed helplessly and said, "Then I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight."
"Tell me, what's wrong with Han Lingqiu?" He Simu didn't care who would be unable to sleep.
"Han Lingqiu has not shown his true strength. I have seen him compete in the military training ground before. Perhaps to thank Wu Shengliu for his kindness, or perhaps for some other reason, he deliberately concealed his skills and was repeatedly defeated by Wu Shengliu. Today, when he drew his sword and put it on my neck, his reaction was many times faster than when he competed in the military training ground. He came from Danzhi. Does His Highness the Ghost King know that there is a secret organization under the Danzhi Royal Court called 'Heaven Knows'?"
"I don't care about most of the messy things in the world. But since it's a secret, how did you know it?" He Simu said leisurely, "What's your relationship with the Danzhi Royal Court?"
Duan Xu smiled and did not answer He Simu's question. He just continued, "Tian Zhixiao has always been mysterious. He specializes in training loyal warriors for the Danzhi Royal Court. These warriors often use their full potential and are very powerful. Moreover, they only train one person every year. I guess Han Lingqiu must have been a member of Tian Zhixiao before he lost his memory."
Guess? He is so modest. He Simu thought that this was not something that could be easily guessed. She followed Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu and listened to their conversation. Duan Xu had probably seen Han Lingqiu before and should be very familiar with him.
"So? You think he didn't really lose his memory? You suspect he's the traitor?"
Logically speaking, the ambush when he went to Shuozhou to pick her up, the fire in the granary, and the siege during the grain robbery were all related to Han Lingqiu. However, his identity as a Danzhi and his claim of amnesia were both suspicious.
When they were surrounded during the grain robbery, the Huqi people wanted to keep Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu alive. Duan Xu was the commander, needless to say, and Han Lingqiu was just a little-known lieutenant. Why did the Danzhi want to capture him alive
If Han Lingqiu was a spy, then it would explain why the Huqi people ordered not to harm him.
Duan Xu frowned, and he folded his hands, interlaced his fingers carelessly, and then released them. "We can't be sure now, but we should be able to be sure soon. His Majesty the Ghost King will definitely have a good show to watch."
He Simu thought, this is really a good talk, but it’s almost like saying nothing? Nonsense.
Duan Xu ended the topic neatly with a sigh, took off his outer clothes and left only his single clothes, then threw off the quilt and lay on the bed. He looked at He Simu for a while and said, "Do you want me to share half of my pillow with you?"
He Simu rested his head on his arm and said calmly, "In the middle of the night, an evil ghost is lying on your bed. Aren't you afraid? I am a cannibal."
"Fighting for land means the fields are filled with slaughter; fighting for city means the city is filled with slaughter. This is what is called leading the land and eating human flesh. From this perspective, we are in the same boat." Duan Xu said with a smile.
Fighting for land means the fields are filled with slaughter; fighting for cities means the cities are filled with slaughter. This is what is called ruling over the land and eating human flesh.
Duan Xu was quite good at reciting the Four Books and Five Classics, so it was obvious that he had earned the second place in the imperial examination. However, although Mencius did not like war, he would not compare a general with a demon.
However, in this world, birth, aging, sickness and death, wars, rise and fall, which one does not devour countless lives? Perhaps the evil ghosts cannibalizing people seems insignificant in comparison
He Simu watched Duan Xu slowly close his eyes. His face turned pale due to blood loss and fatigue, reflected in the dim candlelight. His breathing was steady, slightly blowing the scattered hair on his face.
She put her fingers under his nose but felt nothing.
The rumored feeling of breath blowing on hands, the warm feeling, nothing happened.
She can see the wind between heaven and earth and predict the smallest changes in climate, but she cannot feel it.
Even so, Duan Xu was not awakened by her and slept soundly. He Simu whispered, "None of your words are true, this little fox."