Chapter 64: Liu Shuqiang's Notebook

  That night, Liu Yi and Wang Dachuan finished their argument and returned home at midnight.

  He didn't sleep, but sat in his father's study, staring at the photo of his father on the wall, who looked vigorous and determined, young and full of vitality, just like himself now.

  He looked at it for a while, smiled, and pulled out his father's notebook from his inside pocket.

  The notebook was very thick, with about a hundred pages. Liu Yi had thought that it must be his father's "Adventure Diary", filled with writing, and he even made time to read it in private. But who would have thought, there was only one page with words on it.

  Liu Yifei quickly flipped through it from cover to cover twice, no mistake, only the first page had words on it. He was very dissatisfied in his heart, his father was even stingy when writing a diary.

  The note has no title, and the main text is written directly. The following content is handwritten by Liu Yi's father, Liu Shuqiang, in a casual script that is pleasant to read. The page numbers are not old, and the black font is still clear, so it should have been written in recent years:

  October 26, 1989. On this day, our whole family fell into an inexplicable panic. Father's condition was getting worse and worse. Unexpectedly, in just two short months, he went from having a slight nosebleed to vomiting two large bowls of fresh blood every day.

  The doctor from the medical school came, and the village witch came too. They all shook their heads and told me to prepare for the worst. They didn't diagnose what disease my father had, but his body was like an oil lamp that was about to run out of oil, anyone could see that he didn't have many days left.

  That night, four-year-old Liu Yi cried out for his grandfather to tell him a story. This bear of a child, isn't he being troublesome? I couldn't help but lose my temper and slapped him on the buttocks twice.

  He wailed loudly and woke up his sleeping father. His father called me into the bedroom, coughing while instructing me not to hit kids. He said a father who hits kids is not a good father.

  But I was beaten up by my father since childhood, and the affection between generations is really not fake.

  I nodded and handed him a white towel to wipe his mouth, the bloody smell on the towel hit me in the face.

  My father told me that this illness is incurable, and my grandfather also died from it. When my grandfather passed away, he gave me a crystal sheep's head, saying that all the secrets of our family were on it, and following it might lead to finding a solution to our family's genetic disease. At that time, I was young and strong, so I didn't believe in any nonsense about genetic diseases, and besides, I was busy participating in the war against Japan, so I put this matter aside. Later, my body remained healthy, not even getting a minor illness, so I didn't pay attention to it anymore. Two months ago, suddenly, symptoms of nosebleeds appeared, but after going to the hospital, nothing was found, and I didn't think much of it, but unexpectedly, it got more and more severe...

  The rest is up to you, just don't let Liu Yi this kid continue the family's sorrow.

  After he finished speaking, it seemed that all his strength had been exhausted. He struggled to get up from the wall, took out a black box from behind a painting and handed it to me, saying "The rest is up to you".

  The day he handed me the crystal sheep's head, he passed away that night. When he died, I was dozing off by his bedside. When I woke up, my entire upper body was stained with fresh blood, my eyes were bloodshot and bulging, a terrifying sight to behold.

  His eyes widened and refused to close, making me decide to follow the crystal sheep's head.

  My dear father, you left in such a hurry, alas, impermanence, impermanence! Wuuu...

  ……

  Liu Yi felt an inexplicable sense of fear after reading the notes for the first time. He recalled his three unexplained nosebleeds and wondered if this was some kind of hereditary disease as described in the notes. According to the records, his grandfather had passed away just two months after falling ill. If that were the case, then he himself didn't have much time left. The thought sent a chill down his spine, and the autumn wind blowing through the window made him break out in goosebumps.

  Then Liu Yi read the diary again, word by word, ten times, for fear of missing every detail, even punctuation marks had to be stared at for half a day, in order to find out what metaphors were hidden inside. He was disappointed, this was just an ordinary diary after all. But careful him discovered that the middle page of the next page after the first page seemed to have been deliberately torn off, if not carefully observed, it would not be possible to see any tear marks. He suspected that the torn-off page contained extremely important information, and then the image of Lu Zonghan immediately appeared in his mind: "Liu Yi, I saw that it should be your father's notebook, so I didn't look at it much..."

  Is it him?

  Liu Yi hadn't come to a conclusion, but he had already made up his mind that it was him. Suddenly, he became vigilant towards this guy and cursed: "Damn it!" Then he thought: The crystal sheep head mentioned in Father's email earlier, which is related to whether our family can continue, should be referring to this genetic disease!

  He paced back and forth in the study, muttering to himself: "It seems that Father must have been searching for a 'cure' all along. If I am a descendant of Liu Heng, then this illness must have been passed down from him. In that case, finding the tomb of General Hu Qiang Liu Heng might hold the answer. But where is his tomb?"

  He nodded to himself and muttered, "Since he and Gu Qiang Da Shi Bi Qiang Mu Zhu walked very close together, could it be that the nine peaks of Tian Gong are their joint burial site? Ah, since Father left behind the crystal sheep head and sheep skin map, this makes things much clearer."

  He picked up the phone to call Professor Zhou Tao, asking him to check some information about Liu Heng. As he looked at the 01:25 displayed on his mobile screen, he let out a sigh and fell asleep, leaning back onto the bed.

  The next morning, Liu Yi was still fast asleep when he was woken up by a phone call from Professor Zhou Tao: "You rascal, you've gotten me into trouble, come and rescue me quickly!"

  The usually gentle and elegant Professor Zhou Tao unexpectedly cursed a sentence of "son of a bitch", and added the last sentence "save him", making Liu Yi Zai Er and Shang Mo not understand: "What's wrong, professor?"

  "What's wrong now? Have you forgotten our agreement? Don't tell my daughter about going to Death Valley! Now look, I'm locked up!"

  "...Liu Yi suddenly felt a headache: "Uh, I just simply mentioned it..."

  "You didn't tell her the whole process, did you? Well, I've been outsmarted by this little girl!" Professor Zhou said with a chuckle on the other end of the phone, seemingly impressed that his daughter was clever and resourceful. After laughing, he continued, "You hurry over here, I collected some information about Jiuding Mountain yesterday, it might be very helpful for our trip!"

  Liu Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, and hastily put on his coat, heading towards the door: "Wait for me, I'll call a locksmith to come and rescue you. Whatever you do, don't try to climb down using the bed sheets, your old bones can't take that kind of strain..."

  When he opened the door, he was suddenly stunned. He saw Zhou Bingbing wearing outdoor gear, holding a copy of Qilu Evening News in her right hand and slapping it against the palm of her left hand with a mischievous look on her face.

  It seems Zhou Bingbing had been waiting outside the door and overheard his words. All she said in a cold voice was, "Whose old bones can't withstand this tossing about?"

  Liu Yi awkwardly hung up the phone: "That......"

  "Hmph!" Zhou Bingbing said: "My father is this old, with yellow earth buried up to his neck, and you are still his most beloved student, yet you take him to dangerous places every day... You, do you not know how to respect your teacher and the way?"

  Liu Yi thought, what's going on here? Is Professor Zhou Tao pushing all the responsibility for going to Death Valley onto himself? I didn't think Professor Zhou was so afraid of his own daughter!

  He didn't know what to say, so he simply turned around and walked into the house, plopping himself down on the sofa. Zhou Bingbing followed him in: "I heard you guys are going to Jiuding Mountain Tian Gong next, right?"

  Liu Yi heard this and didn't make a sound, lifting his head to stare at the ceiling, pretending to ignore him.

  Zhou Bingbing walked over and threw the newspaper in her hand directly at him, saying: "Don't pretend to be dead, I'm asking you a question!"

  Liu Yi grabbed the newspaper and frowned: "Yes, what's wrong? If Professor Zhou doesn't go, there's a lot of information we can't decipher, so we need him. Don't worry, I'll take good care of him."

  "Hmph... " Zhou Bingbing sneered as usual: "You foolish kid, you don't even know what that place is, yet you go there to seek death. You're just a clay Bodhisattva crossing the river, how can you protect others? Who can you protect?"

  Liu Yi was shocked upon hearing this and asked: "How did you know what that place is?"

  Jing Jing smiled slightly and said: "That's natural. I sneaked a peek at the data my father researched last night, I can tell you, but you have to promise me one condition!"

  "You said, as long as it's not about last week's professor! What conditions I can agree to!" Liu Yi still had a guilty conscience.

  Zhou Bingbing said, "You've given up on that idea. My condition is, I'll go in place of my father to explore this so-called Jiuding Mountain Tian Gong!" Her words were bold and unrestrained, somewhat reminiscent of Hua Mulan taking her father's place in the army.

  Liu Yi stood up and circled Zhou Bingbing three times, sizing her up as he said: "You're just a young girl, going mountain climbing and tomb raiding, are you looking for thrills or something?"

  Zhou Bingbing glanced at him and nodded slightly, saying lightly: "That's right, it's just for the thrill!"

  "Are you so brave that your family knows about it?" Liu Yi said with a bit of sarcasm.

  "Shut up!" Zhou Bingbing burst out laughing: "I'm going for a reason, Father is obsessed with that ancient Qiang culture research, and the place you're going to is related to the ancient Qiang, so if he doesn't go, he'll definitely be itching with anxiety. If I go in his place, then Father will naturally feel like he's gone himself!"

  Liu Yi didn't expect no one to give her a pole, but she herself erected a pole and climbed up. Obviously two years younger than herself, yet still calling her "sister"? Zhou Bingbing saw his strange expression and stared at him with wide eyes: "What's wrong? Sister orders you to call Master!"

  Liu Yi reluctantly agreed, and immediately called Professor Zhou Tao to ask for his opinion. The other party on the phone sighed and hesitated for a while before agreeing very unwillingly.

  Since Professor Zhou Tao agreed, Liu Yi naturally wouldn't refuse Zhou Bingbing out of politeness, so the matter was settled like this.

  Note: Looking for excitement - has the meaning of looking for trouble in Northern dialects