Vol 1 Chapter 4.3 (2/2)
The discrepancy is so large, it’s practically record-breaking!
However, this abbot with a record-breaking discrepancy seems to be really effective… Thinking about the sword that Lu Yang had, Jiang Ziya felt that he must never judge someone based on their appearance in the future. After all, if there is already a mixed-blood model abbot, then what else could be possible?
“You can call him!” The elderly woman reminded him enthusiastically, “He will definitely pick up your call! If he doesn’t, then he’ll call back.”
Jiang Ziya was in a bind. It was precisely because he couldn’t get the call to go through that he came over! Now, he also couldn’t tell whether or not Lu Yang had lied and skipped cla.s.s. Although the possibility was low, Jiang Ziya didn’t want to—
At this moment, Fu Jun suddenly said, “Pa.s.s me my phone.”
Jiang Ziya searched for the phone in his backpack and handed it over to him, feeling a little relieved. He was slightly worried about losing such an expensive item, which would make him really want to cry. He still owed Yu Shu ten thousand and didn’t even know how to pay it back!
“Auntie, do you know where Lu Yang usually goes after cla.s.s?” Jiang Ziya decided that there was no harm in calling her by a younger address.
The old woman smiled and said, “You can call me Granny like Xiao Yang does! I’m his grandmother!”
So she’s Ah Yang’s grandma! Jiang Ziya quickly added on, “Granny!”
The woman smiled even brighter than when she had been called “Auntie” just now. The few elders sitting by the wall laughed as they said, “Xiao Chun-sǎo just likes to go around taking in grandsons.”
“It can’t be helped. She likes children a lot, but there’s only Xiao Yang at home!”
At this point, Fu Jun tugged on Jiang Ziya’s clothes and handed him the phone, saying, “I managed to call through to Lu Yang-gē’s phone.”
Jiang Ziya froze and took the phone. He tried saying, “Ah Yang?”
Over the phone, he heard Lu Yang exclaim in a shocked tone, “Ziya, it really is you? How did you manage to call through?”
“Why not? Are you in a place with poor reception—”
Jiang Ziya suddenly stopped. He remembered that when he had been trapped in the supermarket, he could not call through either. Adding that with Lu Yang skipping cla.s.s, he was momentarily struck with an ominous feeling. He immediately shouted, “Ah Yang, where are you? Could it be that you’ve encountered ‘that kind of thing,’ like I had?”
Over the phone, he heard a vague reply, “What are you talking about…”
Once he heard that vague tone, Jiang Ziya immediately made the judgment, “Lu Yang is trying to lie.” He threatened, “Don’t give me that bulls.h.i.+t, or else I’ll immediately reveal that you didn’t go to cla.s.s today and are currently in danger! I’m telling you, I’m at your house right now!”
At the side, Fu Jun shot a glance at him. When Jiang Ziya had shouted that loudly, all those present had heard him. It seems that he has already revealed him? Did he forget out of anxiety, or did he do it on purpose?
“You’re at my house?” Lu Yang sounded very surprised at that.
“Yeah! You didn’t come to cla.s.s, and your phone wouldn’t connect, so I came over.”
A deep intake of breath was heard over the phone. Lu Yang sounded very unwilling as he said, “Then, look for my grandpa, and tell him that I encountered a pract.i.tioner and have been trapped.”
“You’ve been trapped?” Jiang Ziya received a shock and promptly questioned, “Where?”
“Go find my grandpa and get him to listen.” Lu Yang said persistently, “Anyways, you wouldn’t be of any help!”
Jiang Ziya angrily shouted, “At least, I have a left eye that isn’t useless, okay?”
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to use your left eye to help me glare things to death… Anyways, I will… Don’t do anything silly…”
A large amount of static suddenly came over the phone, occasionally obscuring Lu Yang’s words. Jiang Ziya could only hear bits and pieces of it, and he could only quickly shout, “Ah Yang, I can’t hear what you are saying. Ah Yang?”
No matter how he shouted, the call still disconnected. Jiang Ziya could only follow Lu Yang’s instructions and rapidly inquire, “May I ask where Lu Yang’s grandpa is?”
Xiao Chun-sǎo seemed worried as she said, “My husband has been out since yesterday! Calls haven’t connected for a day already.”
All the elderly present shook their heads and said, “This pair of grandfather and grandson is sure similar!”
Ring, ring, ring—
“Ah Yang?” Jiang Ziya immediately picked up. Then, a sudden wave of white noise came over, the volume loud enough that he reflexively s.h.i.+fted the phone away. However, he quickly pulled the phone back to his ear and anxiously shouted, “Ah—”
“Bring that artifact demon over to exchange for him.”
This isn’t Lu Yang’s voice! It was a voice that was a little low and rough, and it sounded like the person had some years on him. Jiang Ziya was stunned and asked doubtfully, “Who are you?”
No answer came from the other person. He merely said coldly, “Bring over that artifact demon to exchange within an hour. Otherwise…”
The cold laughter that came over the phone made Jiang Ziya’s heart sink further and further. So the reason the person trapped Lu Yang is to obtain Xiao Xue?
“You’re the one who trapped me in the supermarket!” Jiang Ziya abruptly realized. What the death G.o.d and that masked man had said before was true. They really had not trapped him in there, and instead had saved Lin Zhixiang and made a door for them to escape.
What is most important is that—
The reason Lu Yang was captured is because of me!
If the person wanted Xiao Xue, why didn’t they come to catch me? Why capture Lu Yang?
“I’ll give you half an hour to trick the artifact demon into coming out. Half an hour later, I will inform you of the exchange point.”
Once he said that, he immediately hung up. Although Jiang Ziya wanted to redial, he was unable to do so because there was no caller ID.
He was at a complete loss as to what to do. At this time, Fu Jun shook his hand and shouted, “Ziya-gē.”
When he looked up, he immediately saw the unblinking gazes of the elders, which were all so sharp that the elders didn’t feel like old people at all. Jiang Ziya could only meekly answer, “Lu Yang has been trapped. The other person told me to bring… to bring…”
He didn’t know how to explain the “ransom” to them. He couldn’t possibly say that the kidnapper wanted him to bring his niece over to exchange for Lu Yang, right? It would be weird if they didn’t suspect anything!
An elder sitting by the wall sighed. “That foolish child. Master Ah Lu already taught him a long time ago that demons and spirits are no match for corrupt human hearts. In the end, he was still tricked! That is simply foolis.h.!.+”
“That is not the case.” Another elder disagreed, “Although Xiao Yang is a little simple-minded, he usually does a good job!”
“Foolish?” Xiao Chun-sǎo manically shrieked at those present, “How foolish do you think my Xiao Yang is? One says that he’s foolish, and another says that he’s simple-minded. How dumb do you think he is, tell me!”
“Please excuse us! Xiao Chun-sǎo, we don’t mean it like that!” Everyone quickly apologized.
Jiang Ziya was so anxious that he almost could not keep listening. If it weren’t for the fact that they were all elders, he would have most likely grabbed their collars and demanded them to quickly think of something. Instead, he asked, “Please, don’t you all have a way to help Lu Yang?”
The elderly all shook their heads, sighing, “Although Xiao Yang is foolish—”
“Foolish?!” Xiao Chun-sǎo’s shriek pierced through the entire temple.
The others all fell into a coughing fit one by one, as though they had suddenly gotten a serious disease.
Jiang Ziya felt despair at this situation. What’s going on with these elders! Lu Yang is in danger, but they still have the time to quarrel here!
Most likely, Jiang Ziya’s expression had simply looked so awful that one of them sighed and said, “Xiao Yang is truly skilled. If he is unable to break through, then we wouldn’t be able to either! Unless his grandpa is the one going. However, Master Ah Lu isn’t here. Even if he were, he would not care about Xiao Yang. If he knew that his grandson had been tricked by someone, it would already be good if he didn’t curse him to ‘go die!’”
“How could he curse Lu Yang like that?” Jiang Ziya simply found it hard to believe that a grandfather would actually curse his grandson to die.
“My husband used to live by the motto, ‘It’s every man for himself.’ He, Xiao Yang’s mother, and Xiao Yang, all three generations are similar in that way.” Xiao Chun-sǎo deeply sighed as she lamented, “This is fate! Young man, do not be troubled. Xiao Yang is really very skilled, and can resolve the issue on his own. There won’t be any problems!”
Jiang Ziya said in frustration, “If he could resolve the issue on his own, then he would have come to cla.s.s and wouldn’t have stayed trapped even now. He has already been trapped there since morning. Is this called resolving the issue on his own? Forget it, I won’t depend on you all anymore. I’ll think of something myself!”
He turned to leave, completely ignoring the person shouting behind him, “Wait up, you’re mistaken, young man—”
Fu Jun turned his head back to look, but realized that Jiang Ziya was moving ahead at lightning speed. He quickly ran over to catch up. Only when the two had run past the temple door for quite a distance did he shout, “Ziya-gē!”
Jiang Ziya then remembered that Fu Jun was still following him, and he had forgotten to think of him. He quickly stopped in his tracks and returned to Fu Jun’s side. The latter was panting a little from trying to catch up to him, and when he saw that, he felt even more that he was in the wrong.
He picked up Fu Jun, and the two jumped onto the motorbike. On the way, Jiang Ziya rapidly snaked through the traffic and even ran a red light when there were no vehicles. This made Fu Jun very shocked, for he knew that Jiang Ziya usually kept to traffic rules and wouldn’t miss signaling even once—that was because he did not want to be fined.
About mid-way, Jiang Ziya decided to drop off Fu Jun.
“Xiao Jun, go and buy the chicken wings for Boss. Be careful on the way, and don’t follow strangers, got it?”
The way back from the chicken wing store to Jiu Ge was rather bright, and it wasn’t far away. Since it wasn’t too late yet, and Fu Jun was more mature than his age, Jiang Ziya felt it was okay to let him go back on his own.
He had to go home immediately. One hour is simply too short!
Fu Jun waved his hand to bid him farewell and said, “Bye, Ziya-gē! Remember to leave the phone on!”
Jiang Ziya then remembered that Fu Jun’s phone had once again come back to his possession. He hesitated for a moment, and then recalled that the person mentioned calling again in half an hour’s time. Most likely, he would be calling this phone, so he would not be able to return the phone yet. Moreover, only this phone could call through to Lu Yang, even though he didn’t know why. There were also times he could not get the call to connect, but at least there was hope.
“Let me borrow this for a few more days.” Jiang Ziya said, feeling apologetic.
Fu Jun nodded and replied, “I was originally intending to lend it to Ziya-gē anyways! Didn’t I tell you not to return it to me within these next few days?”
Jiang Ziya shot him a smile of grat.i.tude. Before he closed the door, Fu Jun suddenly called to him.
“Ziya-gē.”
He looked back at Fu Jun, feeling confused.
“Keep the phone on you at all times! I’ll give you a call.” Fu Jun said seriously, “I will call you using Taiyi’s phone. No matter what, you must pick up the call. You must.”
“… Okay.”
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