radiothebook Chapter 432 Hold Me Tightly to the Chest
Chapter 432 Hold Me Tightly to the Chest
After the sound of the tide outside the abandoned shipyard was cut off, the first thing Mo Chengyue did was not to look at the ship, but to push the small box in his arms into Manager Hu's hands and use the back of his sword with his left hand to push her back to the doorway.
Shopkeeper Hu hugged the small box. The light from the white paper lamp shone on the three talismans on the box lid. The edges of the talismans were curled by the black moisture outside. She was about to ask Ah Sui if she would be robbed again, but she swallowed the words back down.
Mo Chengyue looked down at his right arm. Blood was still dripping from the cuff of his sleeve. The bloodstains on his palm shone through the tattered cloth, as if someone was impatiently turning over inside.
Shopkeeper Hu stared at his hand and asked in a hoarse voice, "Can you still move it?"
Mo Chengyue changed his grip on the Rain Flower Sword with his left hand, and drew a line outward from the ash on the threshold with the tip of the sword. His tone still carried the smell of medicine residue and blood.
"The movable ones are on the left, and the immovable ones are on the right. Don't worry about them, just take care of the box."
Shopkeeper Hu tucked the small box into his bosom and held the white paper lantern even higher.
"Is A-Sui still inside?"
"exist."
"Will it be taken back?"
"If you start crying out the old name now, get it wet, and then stick the box out for it to inspect, then things might get complicated."
Manager Hu's lips moved, but in the end he only cursed him in a low voice.
"You have a really unpleasant way of speaking."
Mo Chengyue shook the talisman ash from the small pouch at his waist onto the back of his sword without looking up.
"The pleasing ones are all on the boat as lamp wicks, and the living have to make do with listening for now."
The black water outside the abandoned dock did not rush in, nor did it churn; it simply flowed quietly upwards along the rotten wooden beams. The unlit boat outside the door was already close enough, its hull half-hidden in the colorless mist, its bow empty, with no oars or oars in sight.
Manager Hu glanced at it, then immediately looked away.
"Is that a red-light boat?"
"no."
Mo Chengyue used the tip of his sword to pick off the talisman ash that had been soaked by the black water in front of the threshold, and then sprinkled another layer of Crimson Sun Powder.
"The red lantern boat's wick was just cut, its seventh eye was removed, and all its energy retreated to the bottom of the water. It dares not approach the shore now."
Manager Hu's throat tightened.
"What about this one?"
"Things that come after the Seven Lamps."
Mo Chengyue held the soul-protecting talisman between his left fingers, pressed the corner of the talisman down with the hilt of his sword, and stuck it to the lower edge of the threshold.
"The red-light boat is responsible for tricking you into boarding, this boat is responsible for settling accounts whether you board or not."
Shopkeeper Hu tightened her grip on the box, pressing the talisman on the lid with her fingertips until it creased. She immediately loosened her grip, but fearing that she wouldn't be able to protect it if she loosened her grip, she could only support it with both arms instead.
"What accounts are we set up?"
"You're being too polite."
Mo Chengyue raised the Yuhua sword, its spine brushing against the bottom of the white paper lamp, allowing the lamplight to shine through the blade and illuminate the doorway.
"It will take back what the Red Lantern Boat didn't take back, including Ah Sui's lingering soul, the famous stake I just pried loose, and you, a member of the Hu family, who are still standing on the shore."
Manager Hu's face turned pale, but he didn't back down.
"On what grounds?"
"Shameless as a ship."
Mo Chengyue looked at the black ship outside the door and frowned.
"And that's because the old river beneath your feet hasn't completely dried up yet."
Manager Hu immediately looked down at his feet.
Through the cracks in the wooden planks of the abandoned dock, the black water that was originally flowing towards the river was now climbing back into the dock in the opposite direction. The waterline bypassed the dock support formation that Mo Chengyue had just set up, passed under the rotten ship planks, and headed straight for the small box in Manager Hu's arms.
Shopkeeper Hu shone the white paper lantern on the ground, and the flame was swallowed by the water, causing the edges of the paper lantern to immediately turn black.
She gritted her teeth and asked, "Should we burn it?"
"Don't use a large fire."
Mo Chengyue used the tip of his sword to sever the water line, and the talisman ash was washed away by the water vapor and then stuck back to the ground.
"This boat doesn't follow the red line, nor is it afraid of lights, so don't feed it yet."
Manager Hu immediately sensed something was wrong.
"It doesn't connect to the red line?"
"Um."
Mo Chengyue affixed the soul-protecting talisman on his left hand to the outside of his right arm. As soon as the talisman's flame lit up, the red light in the blood-stained talisman in his palm was forced back under his skin.
"The Red Lantern Boat uses red thread to tie names, blood, and thoughts. This boat is too clean; it doesn't even have a lantern, which means it doesn't rely on these things to identify people."
Manager Hu looked out the door. The black water in front of the bow of the boat was even darker than the night. When the white paper lamp shone on it, it could only illuminate a wet, black signboard on the bow.
"Then what does it rely on?"
Mo Chengyue didn't reply immediately. He used the back of his sword to nudge the shadow at Manager Hu's feet. The shadow was stretched on the ground by the lamplight. It should have been close to her, but the edge was drawn long and thin by the black boat outside the door, and it was sliding out from the crack in the wooden planks.
Manager Hu saw it too, and his breathing became erratic.
"Mo Chengyue, my shadow is moving."
"Don't step in the water."
"I didn't step on it."
"Then don't let your shadow step on it."
Shopkeeper Hu moved the white paper lantern closer to him, trying to push the shadow back under his feet.
The shadow did not return immediately; instead, it was silently stretched out by the bow of the ship, like a black ribbon being pulled out from under her heels.
She asked in a low voice, "Does it catch the shadow?"
Mo Chengyue planted the Rain Flower Sword on the dry wooden board at her feet. The ash on the sword was illuminated by the lamplight, temporarily blocking the slipping edge of her shadow.
"Now you know why it doesn't have a light."
Manager Hu's voice was strained.
"Without the light, no one can see it."
"wrong."
Mo Chengyue patted a calming talisman on the hilt of his sword with his left hand. The talisman's pattern crawled down the blade, pinning the edge of Manager Hu's shadow to the ground.
"Without a light, it doesn't need to shine on others; it waits for others to cast their own shadows."
Shopkeeper Hu looked at the white paper lantern in his hand and slowed down his movements.
"Should I turn off the light?"
"Don't extinguish it."
Mo Chengyue looked at the small box in her arms.
"When the light goes out, Ah Sui's old silver aura will also weaken. What the Black Ship wants is not your light, but the shadow cast by the light. If you raise the light high now, the shadow will be long; if you lower the light, the shadow will run around, which is the worst."
Manager Hu felt a tightness in his chest from being tangled up with him.
"Then how do we lift it?"
"Put it to your chest, look into the box, not your feet."
Shopkeeper Hu immediately did as instructed, placing the white paper lamp in front of the small box, its flame covering the talisman paper on the box lid, preventing it from falling straight to the ground.
The elongated shadow on the ground did indeed recede a little, but at that moment, the wet, black signboard on the bow of the boat revealed its characters.
There were no engravings on the black wooden plaque. Water droplets dripped down the surface of the plaque, and four characters gradually emerged from the wet texture.
Borrowing eyes to return to the boat.
As Shopkeeper Hu read the third word, Mo Chengyue's sword sheath was already blocking her lips.
"Don't finish reading."
Manager Hu swallowed the remaining word, his face turning even uglier.
"Is it talking about Ah Sui?"
"It's talking about the seventh eye."
Mo Chengyue stared at the ship's nameplate, his left hand pressing on the hilt of his sword to prevent the talismanic ash on the sword from breaking off.
"When the Red Lantern Boat lost its eye, it came to take it back; when the Seventh Eye was destroyed, it took back whatever could watch the shore for the Seventh Eye."
Manager Hu looked down at the small box, his voice hoarse.
"Ah Sui only has this little bit of soul light left, is that even considered an eye?"
"For them, even having a breath left is enough to settle the debt."
"And what about me?"
"You are more expensive."
Mo Chengyue glanced at the shadow that was still being pulled at her feet.
"The Hu family blood, the old inn, the soul-suppressing money, twenty years of longing, just now you used a silver hairpin to pick someone out of the lamp wick, you are more conspicuous than her in this ledger."
Shopkeeper Hu gave a bitter smile, but no tears fell; instead, the white paper lamp swayed violently.
"Should I be glad I'm valuable now?"
"Don't be happy, valuable people are easily kidnapped."
As soon as Mo Chengyue finished speaking, a small cracking sound came from his right arm, and the blood-stained red lines crawled from his palm to his wrist.
Shopkeeper Hu immediately asked, "Is Yu Lin Hong still moving?"
"They were cursing in there."
Mo Chengyue hid his right arm to his side, and pressed the tip of his sword with his left hand against the ground line, preventing the black water outside the door from crossing the talisman ash.
"But she doesn't dare to come out now. When the ships without lights come, the red-light ships have to shut up completely."
Manager Hu became even more uneasy.
"Even she's afraid?"
"It's not fear."
Mo Chengyue looked at the sign that read "Borrowing Eyes to Return to the Ship," and his voice was a little lower than before.
"The accountant is here; all the actors in front must shut up."