Ch70 - Dying old man

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor- PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie 

After explaining the details of the will to the four heirs, the lawyer suggested that they fulfill the conditions now. All of them went to the second floor to visit Chen Dafa, who was seriously ill.

No one objected.

So the housekeeper led the way, followed by the lawyer and the four heirs, as well as Wei Fuyuan, who was “Dai Bo Qian’s” boyfriend. They left the living room, crossed the long and complex corridor, and went to the master bedroom on the second floor.

For an ordinary mansion, the distance from the first floor to the second floor was usually just a staircase. 

However, for this mansion, they had to exit the dining room, walk through the left side of the “T” shaped corridor, and climb up the staircase in the middle to reach the second floor. Then they had to make a U-turn to another corridor, go downstairs again, turn to the right, and pass through a few twists and turns.  At last they had to climb up another set of stairs for the third time, and finally reached the master bedroom where Chen Dafa was residing.

Wei Fuyuan secretly clicked his tongue in his heart.

Last night, Bei Quan let out Guan Hu Su Ying to explore the mansion. Unfortunately,  the little fox met the scarecrow halfway and had to run back after being nearly scared to death. He failed to complete the task assigned by his master, but at least he ran around half the house.

Later, Bei Quan drew a map of the places where Guan Hu Su Ying had explored so that he could firmly remember it in his mind.

At that time, Wei Fuyuan felt that it was an exaggeration to say that 100% of the people who entered the house for the first time would be confused by the complex shape of the mansion and that it would take at least half a day to remember the complex structure of the house.

Now that Wei Fuyuan himself was witnessing how complex and large the mansion was inside, he felt that the internal structure of this mansion was even more like a maze than it had appeared to be on the map Bei Quan had drawn.

Wei Fuyuan glanced at Bei Quan.

There was no expression on Bei Quan’s face. It seemed that he was just simply following others forward. 

But somehow, Wei Fuyuan felt that although Bei Quan seemed careless, he was in fact concentrating on meticulously observing the surrounding environment, in order to not let go of any clues.

“Knock knock.”

The housekeeper stood outside the door and knocked respectfully.

A young woman in a nurse’s uniform opened the door. 

“We are here to see Mr. Chen.”

The lawyer asked the nurse who came to open the door,

“How is Mr. Chen today?”

“Mr. Chen woke up just two hours ago.” 

The nurse hustled them inside the room and answered, “He was awake for about twenty minutes, drank some water, ate a small bowl of oatmeal porridge, and then went to sleep again.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The master bedroom where Chen Dafa slept was said to be the largest room in the whole mansion.

Lbkfnfg, jrlvf ogbw atf reqqbgalcu yjatgbbw jcv afj gbbw, atf relaf kjr bcis jgbecv 25 rdejgf wfagfr lc rlhf, jcv la mbeiv tjgvis yf mbcrlvfgfv “iezeglber”.

Cmmbgvlcu ab atf abqbugjqtlm wjq atfs’v wjvf klat atf ilaaif obz’r tfiq, atlr gbbw rtbeiv yf ibmjafv lc atf wlvvif bo atf rfmbcv oibbg. Ktfgf kfgf mbgglvbgr jgbecv atf ogbca, ifoa jcv gluta rlvfr, jcv atf gfjg kjr jvpjmfca ab jcbatfg gbbw. Ktfgfobgf, atfgf kfgf cb klcvbkr bc jii rlvfr, jcv bcis jlg mbcvlalbclcu mbeiv yf erfv obg nfcalijalbc. 

As soon as Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan entered the door, their nostrils were assaulted by a strange smell.

The smell was not strong, but it was very clear and difficult to ignore.

If Wei Fuyuan had to describe it, it was a strange scent of external medications like disinfectants, alcohol, and human excreta mixed together in a poorly ventilated area. It wasn’t unbearably unpleasant, but it was never going to make people happy.

Sure enough, Daniel had raised his hand to cover his nose, while Huan took a step back as if frightened. Even Akihiko Yamamoto, whose expression had yet to change since they’d met, carried a frown. 

There was a hospital bed in the middle of the room.

It was not an ordinary big bed, but an advanced hospital bed with an air mattress, three movable sections, a guardrail, and an infusion stand.

From the angle they had while standing at the door, they could see a man lying on the bed.

“Mr. Chen asked about you all when he woke up just now.” 

The nurse closed the door with a smile, went to the bedside, and beckoned the people at the door to come over.

“When he wakes up, he will be very happy to know that you all have come to see him.”

There was a strange silence in the room.

Wei Fuyuan couldn’t tell why, but when he entered the room, he felt an indescribable discomfort. 

This feeling was very subtle, just like people’s instinctive rejection and uneasiness when they enter a funeral home knowing that they were about to come into close contact with death.

When he saw the man lying on the bed whose face he couldn’t see clearly, the prickly atmosphere intensified.

Obviously, the others also felt the same way.

Bei Quan looked around and saw that Daniel, Huan, and Akihiko Yamamoto seemed to have no plans to come forward, so he reached out and grabbed his assistant’s wrist and pulled him to the bedside. 

According to the information they got beforehand, Chen Dafa was 74 years old.

But the person sleeping on the hospital bed had to be at least a century old.

Perhaps he appeared so elderly because he had been afflicted by the illness for so long? Chen Dafa was quite skinny. He was so thin that he hardly looked to be anything more than a sliver of skin draped over a lifeless skeleton. The veins beneath the dry, cracked skin resembled a dehydrated orange, like a large tough web.

It was midsummer. Although the central air conditioner was turned on, the room was still a little stuffy. 

The nurse had only covered Chen Dafa with a thin quilt.

Several tubes were inserted in various directions where the patient was exposed, from the hollow of his nose to the back of his feet. They were thick and thin, and of varying lengths. Others were attached to an infusion bag, some to a urine storage bag, and some were connected to places they were not sure about.

The elderly guy dozed off, but his eyeballs protruded from the significant weight loss, making it impossible for his eyelids to close firmly. Under his eyelids, the white of his eyes could be seen. His visage did not fit a guy who exuded “kindness” or “benevolence”. Instead, he resembled a zombie from a Hong Kong movie from 20 or 30 years ago, with sallow skin.

“He’s dying… Er… I mean, Mr. Chen, he…” 

Daniel stood half a metre away from the hospital bed and said dryly, “He’s really… Very ill, isn’t he?”

After a pause, Daniel spoke again, “Anyway, he’s asleep now. We’ll just have to visit him, right?”

The lawyer turned his head to look at Daniel, but didn’t show a disdainful expression, just nodded and replied with a business attitude, “Yes, that’s all.”

—————————–

After they “visited” Chen Dafa, they went back to their rooms.

Bei Quan was making the final preparations in the room he shared with Wei Fuyuan. 

He had originally intended to complete all of the preparations yesterday. Regrettably, he was injured. After casting a spell on his assistant’s back, his blood, spirit, and body were drained. He was terrified that if he tried to cast the magic again, he would have to spew blood in front of Wei Fuyuan.

So Bei Quan had to hope that the other master, who didn’t appear to have noticed him yet, wouldn’t make any further moves.

Fortunately, they were lucky.

The opponent was clearly unable to discover them. So they didn’t hurry things like last night, and Bei Quan was able to put his second insurance measure in place. 

Wei Fuyuan stood there watching his boss take out various unusual items from his bag and get busy in the room.

Bei Quan began by nailing six long nails in each of the four corners of the room, then wrapped a bizarre pattern around the 24 nails with thin red lines, as if he was doing some type of large-scale hand weaving. Then, he connected various bells and strange bones to the criss crossing red lines.

When he finished, he summoned the Qingguang Vientiane Brush, used his blood as ink, wrote several symbols on yellow paper, and pasted them on the corresponding directions in the room one by one.

“What are you doing?” 

Wei Fuyuan asked with a comical expression.

“Making a safe house.”

As soon as Bei Quan raised his hand, a talisman stretched straight, flew out and with a “pa” stuck to the lintel.

“So, if something occurs that you and I can’t handle for the time being, just rush inside the room and shut the door, okay?” 

Wei Fuyuan: “What happens if even you have to come in?”

“Of course, I’ll have to come up with a new plan then.”

Bei Quan smiled, “The spell in this room should be able to hold up for a while. It can be regarded as something that’ll  buy us time.”

Wei Fuyuan said, “Oh, so, the opponent is very powerful this time?” 

His eyes looked back and forth between Bei Quan and the pattern he had laid out, “It’s the first time I’ve seen you prepare so much in advance.”

Bei Quan smiled and thought, after all, this time was different from the past: his physical condition was not in an optimal condition, and his abilities, thus, were also limited. It was better to be cautious.

“It’s hard to say whether the opponent is strong or not. And, it is precisely because we don’t know his strength, we can’t be careless.”

After that, he confirmed with Wei Fuyuan again, “Do you remember what I taught you last night?” 

“Of course!” Wei Fuyuan answered, “I can even recite it backwards!”

Bei Quan was relieved at last.

He used the most basic blinding technique that was not difficult and roughly concealed the red line that pulled down the entire room.

It was time for dinner. 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan left the room and walked towards the dining room.

If we exclude the brunch, which was rather unremarkable to Chinese people, this was Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan’s first real supper in Chen Dafa’s mansion.

Only five people were sitting on the long table: Bei Quan, Wei Fuyuan, Daniel, Akihiko Yamamoto, as well as the lawyer who was also staying here for a week to supervise them in performing their task for the inheritance.

The housekeeper told them that Huan said he seemed to have a headache and would not be coming down to have dinner with them. 

Even if one person was missing, the seating arrangement for the four was still the same as it had been earlier in the day.

Bei Quan also seemed to have made up his mind to annoy the homophobic guy, Daniel and sat next to Wei Fuyuan on purpose. They rubbed up to each other. Just like the morning, they both were feeding each other and acted clingy, just like a genuine couple in love.

However, unlike during the day, Daniel did not care about them.

It was as if he suddenly became a broad minded guy and didn’t care that a pair of men were being affectionate and expressing their love in front of him. 

——No, it’s not right.

Bei Quan took a piece of deshelled lobster meat from Wei Fuyuan’s fork and his gaze subtly swept across Daniel from the corner of his eye.

——His attention was on something else.

Although Daniel tried his best to hide it, his face had a constant restless look from the moment he came to the table. 

The handsome man with a beard hardly took a few bites of the food on the dinner plate but drank a lot of chilled water. He also looked down at his mobile phone every two or three minutes, as if waiting for someone to contact him.

Bei Quan frowned slightly.

Just as he was thinking whether he should open his mouth to test Daniel, he suddenly heard a dull “bang” outside.