This Damned Thirst for Survival

Chapter 167 - Officer Lam's phone call

Sensing that Jiang Luo was thinking something, Monkey jumped to his feet in anger and pointed his finger at Jiang Luo's nose.

The monkey is the most hot-tempered of the twelve zodiac signs in the Ring of Yin and Yang, and he has a strong opinion of Jiang Luo because he did not summon him first. Jiang Luo was desperate when he saw him jumping to his feet.

The more he did this, the more angry Monkey became. He even plopped down on the ground and faced Jiang Luo with his buttocks and instead of tackling Lian Xue, he used both paws to frantically pick back at the snow on the ground, covering Jiang Luo's face with snow from the crack of his hind legs.

Jiang Luo: "......"

The next moment, Lian Xue's attack came after him. Jiang Luo narrowly avoided it, forcing a large gash in his down jacket.

This is not a good way to go on.

Jiang Luo had given up on Monkey and was about to come up with another idea when he saw Monkey, as if enraged, stand up and point at Lian Xue again and scream in anger, as if he was angry at Lian Xue for attacking Jiang Luo.

Lian Xue gave Monkey a faint look as she gently opened her hand and the snow on the ground flew up and around her, gradually turning into a snowball big enough to crush a man.

The snowball was lifted out of thin air by her hands, and a dark shadow enveloped Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo's right eyelid fluttered several times as he climbed up from the snow with Monkey in his arms and ran out with all his strength.

Lian Xue, expressionless, threw the snowball at Jiang Luo, who was frowning and struggling to move his feeble legs.

Seeing that he was about to be hit by a snowball, the monkey in his arms suddenly struggled and jumped out of Jiang Luo's embrace, crawling down Jiang Luo's thighs to the ground and hugging Jiang Luo's legs fiercely.

In the next instant, Jiang Luo and the monkey suddenly disappeared from their spot.

"There was a bang and the snowball hit the ground. Lian Xue tilted her head and looked at the spot where Jiang Luo had disappeared.

She walked over and moved the snowball out of the way, knelt down and reached up to gently sweep the snow off the ground to see a green, finger-thick branch of a vine emerging from the bitterly cold ground covered in layers of snow.

The vibrant vine touched Lian Xue's fingers, and it grew quickly, climbing upwards on Lian Xue's fingers.

Hilltop.

The predestined man opened his eyes and said thoughtfully, " Jiang Luo is indeed psychic with wood."

"At the last minute, he borrowed the vines underground to escape."

"It's just as well," sighed the fatalist, "the wood spirit isn't strong, but at least it won't worry me anymore."

Ji Yaozi used Yu Guang to look at Daoist Master Wei He's haunted expression and asked, "What are you worried about?"

The predestined man did not answer.

He looked out of the window and remembered Jiang Luo's threatening words in his interior.

At least there's nothing to worry about.

Jiang Luo would have prevented him from becoming a god.

"You were very different to Jiang Luo," Ji Yaozi said tentatively, "you once told me that God is fair and never favours the many."

The Predestined One once said that all things in the world were the same to him. A shovelful of earth or a human life makes no difference to him. He may love all beings, but he will not look at someone differently.

The indifference of God is revealed when such statements are traced to their root.

But the Fates were different from Jiang Luo, from the beginning to the end.

But is the preference of the false gods a blessing or a curse for Jiang Luo?

The predestined said, "He may be the next me."

Ji Yaozi was stunned.

The predestined man looked back at him, his light-coloured eyes seeming transparent in the light, and he laughed: "How can favouring a false god be confused with a human being?"

*

When Jiang Luo was dragged into the ground, he never imagined that his monkey would be an earth monkey that could take him to the ground.

On reaction, Jiang Luo immediately pulled out the ginseng spirit from his school bag. He thought of the delicate rose as big as a peony that the ginseng spirit had taken care of, and he could just use the tears of the ginseng spirit to stimulate the seeds of hibernation to fool the predestined.

The ginseng doll cries with resignation, tears dripping from her eyes, and the vine seeds soon sprout and grow, breaking through the soil.

Jiang Luo listened with bated breath to the commotion outside, and after a few moments the ginseng spirit rubbed his whiskers against him and said tearfully, "Daddy, there's no one up there."

Jiang Luo marvelled, "You can hear the sound from above?"

The snow absorbs the sound of walking footsteps and Jiang Luo hears nothing, but the ginseng doll does.

"I'm a five hundred year old ginseng spirit," said the ginseng doll rightfully, "I've been buried under the ground for five hundred years and can hear movements on the ground for miles around! If your master hadn't been so cunning, I wouldn't have been caught by him ......"

It huffed and puffed and started cursing Feng Li again.

Jiang Luo, accustomed to his fat guts, struggled to crawl out of the cramped hole beneath the ground once he knew the ground was clear. Monkey jumped out after him, crouched disdainfully with his arms around his chest and sat on Jiang Luo's head, grunting several times.

Jiang Luo didn't dare to stop and ran straight down the mountain, not forgetting to praise Monkey with his mouth. All the way to the foot of the mountain, Monkey was finally pleased by his compliments and returned happily to the Yin Yang Ring himself.

After descending from the mountain, Jiang Luo did not return to the Lian family's ancestral home, but walked on foot towards the wilderness.

The Lian family's ancestral home is deep in the woods, and not many cars come and go on a single panoramic road in a day. Jiang Luo was going to call Lu Youyi when he could get a mobile phone signal and ask him to come and pick him up. But Jiang Luo had only been walking for an hour when he came across a familiar car.

The car pulled up beside him, the window opened and Zhuo Zhongqiu looked at him in surprise, "You've come down the mountain?"

"No, why are you in this state? Did you fall off the mountain?"

Jiang Luo was caught off guard by the sight of them and remembered the dream last night in which their cheeks were deformed and they were dazed, and his face changed slightly as he feigned composure, "There's been a problem, nothing serious. The trial is in a couple of days, so I'll go down and get ready. What brings you here?"

Even the distance between their home and the city centre is long, and the drive takes four or five hours. Looking at them like this, they should have rushed over as soon as they woke up in the morning.

"We are here to look for you ......" Zhuo Zhongqiu said in one word, "Last night in a dream ...... hmm ...... Forget it, you can get in the car first."

When they woke up early this morning, they looked at each other, all of them still remembering clearly the last scene in their dream. Once they were sure that they had seen each other correctly, they rushed to Jiang Luo's house in a frenzy.

Didn't we break up? Why are you kissing again?

Jiang Luo had already guessed what Zhuo Zhongqiu was going to say. He touched his nose and got into the car with a little embarrassment and shame.

Apart from Zhuo Zhongqiu, Wen Renlian and Ye Xun were among those who came to see Jiang Luo. Ye Xun had a lot to say to Jiang Luo, but when he saw the state of Jiang Luo, he kindly swallowed his words and handed Jiang Luo a wet towel to wipe his hands.

Jiang Luo slowly wiped his hands clean and briefly tidied his hair. Every now and then, Jiang Luo felt the eyes of the other three people, one after the other, making him fidget a little.

The atmosphere was subtly weird, and Wen Renlian, sitting on the passenger side, couldn't hold back a laugh for a while and excused Jiang Luo, "Okay, okay, let's not talk about anything else. Jiang Luo, you and Ye Xun should get some sleep. It will take us more than four hours to get back. Zhong Qiu, when we get to the next service station, I'll switch with you?"

Zhuo Zhongqiu retracted his eyes from the rearview mirror, peering at Jiang Luo, and coughed twice, "Okay."

Jiang Luo takes the steps Wen Renlian hands him and leans sideways against the window, closing his eyes and pretending to rest.

Without realising it, he literally fell asleep as the car window wobbled. When he woke up again, it was the noise of the crowd outside the window that woke him up.

Jiang Luo opened his eyes slowly and took a moment to look out at the lively traffic jam and the crowds of people shopping on both sides of the road. He picked up his mobile phone, which had been vibrating since a while ago.

Since connecting to the signal, the full stream of messages came up and the phone was stuck for ten seconds or so.

There were dozens of missed calls, and in addition to the missed calls from Lu Youyi and the others, there were a dozen calls from Inspector Lin, the latest of which was yesterday.

Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow and dialled back, and within seconds, the other party picked up.

"Is that Mr. Jiang?" Officer Lin's tone didn't sound very anxious.

Jiang Luo's voice was still slightly muffled from his nap, "It's me, Officer Lin, you need to see me?"

"There is something going on," said Officer Lin, "Jiang, I want to thank you for pointing us in the right direction to identify the blood eels. You are right, the blood eel matter is related to the Chi family, and it has a lot to do with it. After this month or so of hard work, we've gathered a lot of evidence, and now we're just waiting for the court hearing at the Xuan Ling Joint Office to be over before we can arrest them."

Jiang Luo couldn't help but smile as he relaxed back in his seat, his dark hair on the verge of curling up in his duvet, "Congratulations."

"It's thanks to you," Officer Lin suddenly lowered his voice, "Jiang, is it convenient for you to talk over there?"

Jiang Luo swept past his fellow passengers in the car, yawned lazily and said, "Convenient."

Inspector Lin sighed with relief and his voice returned to normal, "It's like this. When we were investigating the blood eel case, we incidentally found out a lot of things about corruption in the upper echelons of the metaphysical world. The state has never been able to intervene much in matters of the occult world, but this investigation has opened our eyes and the state is now aware of these matters. The upper echelons of the hierarchy want to investigate and deal with the occult community, but we can't find the right place to intervene. At this time, I remembered you, Jiang. You took the initiative to provide me with information even at the risk of your own initiative, and you have a good file, so you are a good comrade! So I recommended you to my superiors. I'm here to ask you, Jiang, do you have any ideas for cooperation with us?"

Jiang Luo frowned and sat up, "Cooperation?"

Officer Lin said, "It's not convenient to say exactly how to cooperate over the phone. If it's convenient, Jiang, can you find time to meet with us after your trial is over?"

Jiang Luo was silent for a moment and glanced at Ye Xun, who was listening to the conversation with his ears pricked up. Their hearing and vision were higher than those of ordinary people, and Jiang Luo had not made any special effort to conceal them, so they must have heard what Officer Lin said.

Jiang Luo thought of the way they had died in their sleep last night, the opposite of the peaceful and safe world outside the car window. He paused for a long moment and whispered back, "Yes. But when the time comes, can I bring some friends with me?"

Jiang Luo's and Chi You's aims partly overlap, as he wants to protect those he wants to protect, but also doesn't want to let go of the Qi and Chi families who frequently set him up, and also wants to try to brainwash him to take advantage of his predestined people.

Jiang Luo is not a good man, but he is not an evil spirit either. He will not use ghostly means, so let's use human means.

Officer Lam said, "Is it a friend you can trust?"

Jiang Luo laughed, "Right."

"Then we welcome it! Very welcome!" Officer Lin was overjoyed, "We were afraid we wouldn't have enough people and no one to work with us!"

Hanging up the phone, Jiang Luo turned to him and asked, "Did you hear that?"

The three men nodded silently.

Jiang Luo looks over at Zhuo Zhongqiu.

Of the three, only Zhuo Zhongqiu had the deepest involvement with the six families. Zhuo Zhongqiu saw his eyes in the rear-view mirror, and she thought deeply for a moment, "Our family is the one with the shallowest roots among the six great families. There aren't even many disciples, and I still need to attend twelve colleges to pull in talent, I know what kind of person my father is, our family is absolutely peaceful, even if we are strictly investigated, we are not afraid."

She rubbed her chin and made a decisive decision, " Jiang Luo, don't worry, I won't tell my father about this. But when you go to meet with them, you have to bring me along."

Jiang Luo smiled and winked at her, "That's what I thought."

On his way to the deli, Wen Renlian got out of his car to buy some food. On his way back to Lu Youyi's flat, Jiang Luo entered the door and before he could even take off his shoes, he was stopped in his tracks by a pair of stares.

Lu Youyi said anxiously in a loud voice, " Jiang Luo, I saw you and Chi You kissing in my dream last night, what's going on with you two, getting back together?"