mchenry-crisis.org Chapter 440 Don't even think about touching this rotten ship
Chapter 440 Don't even think about touching this rotten ship
As the seventh eye turned halfway to the small box, Manager Hu's hand, which was protecting the lamp, was pulling it towards the side of the box. The lamp paper brushed against her sleeve, and the flame was blocked back to the edge of the Soul-Sealing Talisman, so that the old silver light was not dragged out by the wet, dark vision.
Mo Chengyue pressed his left hand on his sword, while his right palm was still hanging outside the threshold by the blood-stained inscription. The blood patterns and black water were intertwined, and the skin and flesh at his wrist bone were made to shine with red. However, he first looked at the small box in Manager Hu's arms.
"Don't look into her eyes, look at the box lid."
Shopkeeper Hu pressed her teeth against her lips, swallowing back the words she was about to utter, and instead tucked the small box deeper into her chest.
"I didn't look in the box."
"Don't let her see it either."
"She looks at me with Ah Sui's eyes."
"So you absolutely cannot admit it."
The seventh eye lay by the wrecked boat, her red wedding dress soaking in the black mud. The eye on half of her face turned slightly, and the old wound at the corner of her eye gleamed silver in the lamplight. Black water slid down her wet, red eye socket.
"Sister, don't you even want my eyes anymore?"
The white paper lantern in Manager Hu's hand sank a little, and the shadow under her skirt was immediately torn apart by the black water outside the door. Mo Chengyue's sword, along with the talisman ash, was tucked into the hem of her clothes, and the dry leaf thread was tightened again.
"lamp."
Shopkeeper Hu lifted the lamp back to the side of the box, his throat feeling like it was blocked with grit, and every word he spoke was painful.
"Ah Sui, don't be afraid."
The Seventh Eye laughed, the girl's soft tone mixed with the cold, wet sound of water, making one's ears tingle.
"She called me; she recognized me."
Mo Chengyue looked at the still-forming wet black characters on the ship sign outside the door, his left fingertip rubbing against the blood-red ash on the sword hilt. He then used the Yin-Yang Qi Observation Technique to spread along the bottom of his eyes, breaking down the Qi around half of his eye into several layers in his field of vision.
"She called out for Ah Sui, not you."
The seventh eye pressed its face close to the edge of the boat. The silvery light in that half-eye was covered by black water, and it still searched for the chest of Manager Hu.
"Ah Sui's eyes are on my face, and the shore that Ah Sui once looked at is also here with me. If she doesn't recognize me, who else could she recognize?"
Shopkeeper Hu was about to retort when the Soul-Sealing Talisman in the box lit up slightly, forcibly suppressing her anger back into her chest. Only her fingertips remained, protecting the edge of the talisman through her sleeve.
"She recognizes the stove, the woodpile, and the sun that hasn't been flooded, but she doesn't recognize your rotten boat."
Mo Chengyue turned his head to look at her, the corner of his mouth tugged into an unsightly curve by the bloodstains.
"Remember this sentence, don't add 'sister'."
Shopkeeper Hu didn't look at him, but stared at the old silver gleam on the edge of the box lid.
"I haven't forgotten."
The seventh eye's half-eye spun even faster, the old wound at the corner of its eye was stretched open by the black water, silver and red lines intertwined under its eye, and the thin red lines pierced deep into the eye socket, connecting to the bottom of the wrecked ship.
Mo Chengyue's gaze lingered on the red line, and he pressed the Rain Flower Sword into the ashes of the threshold talisman with his left hand.
"Do you see that line under her eye?"
Shopkeeper Hu didn't dare to look at it for too long, only glancing at it out of the corner of his eye, while protecting the small box with his shoulder.
"I saw it."
"Don't touch your eyes."
"Where should we touch?"
"The red line is right now."
Shopkeeper Hu reached into her bosom, and when she touched the silver hairpin, the old silver glowed along the tip of the hairpin. She stopped and looked at Mo Chengyue's right hand, which was being pulled outside the door.
"If I touch the silver hairpin, will she see the box?"
"Silver hairpins match the thread, but don't look at each other; lamp stickers are placed in boxes, and sleeve talismans are used to cover them."
"What about your right hand?"
"His right hand is negotiating a price with another accountant."
"Can you tell me the truth?"
"The truth is, if you don't cut the line, she'll recognize you by that eye."
Shopkeeper Hu held the silver hairpin, its tip hidden in her sleeve. The old wound on the back of her hand was rubbed open by the fabric, but she didn't let the blood get on the hairpin. She simply wrapped her fingers with another piece of dry sleeve.
"What would happen if she acknowledged me?"
"Ah Sui's remnant soul will be dragged back into the eye path by her, and the seventh eye will be able to fill the gap."
"Where's Ah Sui?"
"The souls in the box will lose their ability to recognize people."
Shopkeeper Hu stopped moving beside the box, the lamplight illuminating half of her face, tears welling up in her eyes but not falling.
"Will she forget me?"
Mo Chengyue did not answer immediately. The blood-stained talisman on his right palm was pulled out a bit by the black water outside the door. Yu Linhong's lingering spirit stirred within the red patterns, trying to use the chaos to send his hand to the half-eye on the seventh eye's face.
He braced his right wrist with the hilt of his sword with his left hand, a dull thud coming from his knuckles, yet he still managed to finish his sentence steadily.
"If you ruin her eyes, she'll need you too."
Shopkeeper Hu looked down at the small box in her arms. The old silver light inside the Soul-Sealing Talisman slowly adhered to the core of the talisman under the lamp. She used the back of her sleeve to hold back the tears that were about to fall.
"So we can't destroy it, and we can't let her take the ship back."
"right."
"So you want me to cut the threads and peel the eye off the seventh eye's face?"
"First, cut off her ability to recognize people by their eyes."
"And then what?"
We'll figure it out later.
Manager Hu looked up at him, his eyes filled with the red of someone driven to the extreme.
"We'll settle it later" sounds like a guest owes money for the room.
"At least it's not a case of defaulting on a debt."
"If you dare to renege on Ah Sui's debt, I'll hang you out to dry at the entrance of the inn."
"We'll schedule this after we leave."
The seventh eye watched the two of them talking and answering, and a wet, dark laugh was dragged out from the bottom of the broken boat. Half of her red wedding dress was pushed open by the water, and half of her eye suddenly lit up as she looked at the silver hairpin hidden in the sleeve of Manager Hu's hand.
"You're pointing a hairpin at me?"
Shopkeeper Hu hid the hairpin tip even deeper, half-concealing the white paper lantern on the side of the box, and steadily called out that childhood name.
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
The laughter of the Seventh Eye ended in the water. The silvery light in half of its eye was stirred by this nickname, and darker water seeped from the old wound at the corner of its eye.
"She can't hear."
Manager Hu didn't look at her face, but only at the light on the edge of the small box.
"Ah Sui, don't recognize the boat, don't recognize the lamp, don't recognize that dirty-eyed road."
"Sister, I'm here."
"Ah Sui, when I used to call you by the stove, you complained that the hairpin was too heavy and insisted on putting it in my hair."
"Sister, look at me."
"Ah Sui, you are in the box, the lamp is on the shore, and the hairpin is in my hand."
The seventh eye's half-eye began to turn red, and the thin line under its eye was worn out by its childhood name. The red line squeezed water from its skin and flesh, and twitched along with the black mud under the broken boat.
Mo Chengyue used the Yin-Yang Qi Observation Technique to stare at the line, and extended the tip of his sword forward with his left hand, but did not touch it. He only pushed the talisman ash outside the threshold into a narrow path.
"Manager Hu, wait until the red thread under her eyes comes out."
"And now?"
"Not enough."
"She's looking at the box."
"Cover it with your sleeve."
Shopkeeper Hu turned the small box to his chest, his shoulder and the lampshade holding the soul-sealing talisman. The seventh eye, the half-eye, could only see the old silver aura at the edge of the box lid. The silver aura blocked the eye's path.
The seventh eye's lips cracked, the girl's soft tone dissipated, and her deep, cold voice emerged.
"Mo Chengyue, are you really going to cut off this eye?"
Mo Chengyue's right palm was pulled toward her by the blood-stained plaque. A red and black line of energy connected the red pattern on his palm and the half-eye. Yu Linhong's lingering spirit took advantage of the situation and pushed outward, trying to make him reach the eye path first.
"What's your hurry?"
The seventh eye stared at his right hand, half of his face pressed against the edge of the broken boat, the black mud bulging out from under his red wedding dress.
"You want me in your right hand too."
"I occasionally have problems with taste in my right hand."
"Yu Lin Hong is pushing you; she's more honest than you are."
"She owes blood, you owe eyes, if the two of you get together, the accountant will save on paper."
Outside the door, on the blank space of the unlit boat sign, intermittent wet black strokes emerged. The words "examine eyes" sank into the wood grain, but the new characters were not finished, as if they were blocked by the old silver aura in that half-eye.
Shopkeeper Hu bit the corner of his sleeve and slowly presented the silver hairpin, the tip of which touched the outer edge of the lamplight, neither too close to the box nor too far over the threshold.
"Mo Chengyue, the thread is out."
"I'll wait for her to steal me away."
Shopkeeper Hu's hand stopped halfway, the old silver on the tip of the hairpin darkened by the black water vapor.
"Are you using yourself as bait again?"
"Right now, she wants two things most: your box and my invitation."
Which one will she grab first?
"See how expensive my performance is."
"You're still acting at a time like this?"
"Boats like to snatch the expensive ones."