Chapter 7 Two-Finger Probing

When Zhang Qishan finished talking and started walking away from the station, Qi Tiezui had a sudden realization. Holding the gong was something used to scare the horse. Any changes in the coffin after the Zhang family’s people put their fingers into the coffin hole were often accompanied by corpse poisoning, which would invade the whole body. So, before performing their special skill, the Zhang family’s people often placed pipa shears right up against the coffin hole. These pipa shears were then attached to a horse’s bridle, and a gong would be placed seven paces behind the horse’s ears. If anything unusual happened in the coffin, someone would immediately hit the gong and the horse would leap forward, pulling the rope attached to the pipa shears. The shears would instantly cut off the person’s arm, which could save their life.

Holding the gong was a very important task, and the consequences were huge if the sound was wrong or came too late. If Zhang Qishan was letting Qi Tiezui hold the gong, then this was a warning to him to think very carefully about whether his judgment was correct. This wasn’t something that could be judged lightly. Qi Tiezui suddenly calmed down and understood that what he had said just now was the wrong thing.

“Fo Ye, Fo Ye,” He chased after him. Once he caught up, he couldn’t help feeling upset for a little while. He had been hoping to see the Zhang family use their two-finger probing skill, but many of the experienced people that the Zhang family had brought from the northeast had already died on the battlefield, and they were lacking manpower. The Zhang family was closely related by blood, and they were all brothers who had fought for their lives. It was really inappropriate for him to speak so frivolously while the Zhang family was at risk of losing their arms and their lives.

“Fo Ye, Old Ba said something wrong, and inconsiderately made light of the Zhang family in front of the brothers.” Qi Tiezui said. Zhang Qishan turned and kept walking while waving his arm to his lieutenants several times to make them move. He asked Qi Tiezui, “What’s the matter? Are you afraid to hold the gong?”

“Old Ba was just spouting nonsense. Fo Ye can rip my mouth off lest I say something wrong again.” Qi Tiezui was ashamed and knew he had to admit his mistake.

Zhang Qishan stopped to look at Qi Tiezui. His eyes were blazing, but there wasn’t any anger: “Old Ba, I want you to think about it very carefully. What you are talking about is a family matter. If you are even sixty percent sure, you will hold the gong. No matter what happens, no one in the Zhang family will blame you.”

Qi Tiezui nodded: “Fo Ye, I mean what I said. It’s really what I think. Every sentence has a basis.”

Zhang Qishan turned to move on and said to Lieutenant, “Did you hear what Ba Ye said? Let’s go back to the house.”

Qi Tiezui continued to trail after him: “But Fo Ye, I’m nervous. What if I’m so nervous that I break wind and scare the horse and it chops off the brother’s arm?”

Lieutenant Zhang was happily following after him: “Ba Ye, they’re all war horses. They won’t even be shocked by the sound of gunfire. They should only respond to the gong, so does that mean your farts are that loud? If that’s the case, you don’t have to hold the gong, just fart. I’ll go and prepare some sweet potatoes for you (1).”

“What do you know? Maybe the horse will run away because my fart stinks.” Just as Qi Tiezui was feeling ridiculed and depressed, he saw a group of people running past with various crowbars, hemp ropes, and logs. He was very surprised. By this point, the three of them had already passed through the waiting room and reached the road, where they saw a military truck waiting with its tailgate down. The railway station was surrounded by canvas curtains to prevent any onlookers from seeing anything.

“Fo Ye, I told you this coffin can’t be moved. It has to stay on the train. But looking at this truck, do you mean to move it back to your house? The things inside can’t be moved.” Qi Tiezui was covered in a cold sweat.

Zhang Qishan walked up to the jeep, sighed, and patted Qi Tiezui: “Fortune teller, it’s already been on the train, so what’s wrong with a truck? Can you not be so superstitious?”

“Don’t be superstitious?! Don’t be superstitious?! Then what do you want me to do?!” Qi Tiezui was pushed into the vehicle, only to find that Lieutenant Zhang didn’t get in with him. Instead, Lieutenant turned around, took off his coat, and walked back into the railway station. Qi Tiezui looked out the window and saw that Lieutenant was untying the bandage from around his hand. But before he could see what Lieutenant wanted to do, the car had already started up and drove off.

They drove slowly through the throng of people preparing to leave, and finally arrived at Zhang Qishan’s residence. The Zhang residence was where the defense headquarters was located, and Zhang Qishan had been living there since he became a defense officer in order to conserve their forces.

Qi Tiezui felt that he had already endured a lot considering he had gone from feeling extremely nervous to being absolutely terrified, so he ate some lunch and drank a little wine to calm down. It wasn’t until sunset that the coffin was finally transported to the yard.

They used wooden rollers to place the outer coffin in the courtyard, immediately drew a curtain around it, and closed the courtyard gate. Lieutenant Zhang’s head was covered in sweat and he was shouting at the guards to go to their posts and strengthen the guard.

Qi Tiezui saw several bloodstains on the outer coffin that were smeared along the cracks, and didn’t know where they had come from. Before the curtain was completely closed, he could see that the setting sun illuminated the outer coffin’s mottled cast iron surface, which was very ugly.

The pipa shears and gong had already been prepared, and Qi Tiezui very awkwardly approached the horse while holding the gong. This was the first time he had seen the pipa shears at such a close distance. He had initially thought that the horse would have to run for a long time to get the blades to cut, but it turned out that the blades would immediately move as long as the horse ran forward. It was a very clever setup.

“Horse, we’ll be working closely together. Please cooperate.” Qi Tiezui touched the horse’s neck with a slightly trembling hand. The horse became restless and pulled the pipa shears behind him, causing them to shake.

Qi Tiezui immediately let go and looked around. All the Zhang family soldiers were looking at him coldly, and he finally started feeling nervous again. He noticed one of the Zhang family’s soldiers was already shirtless and smearing his left hand with alcohol. Zhang Qishan walked around the outer coffin several times, as if he were estimating the size of the sarcophagus inside.

After the Zhang solider smeared the alcohol evenly, he jumped to the outer coffin, went up to the hole, and turned his head to look back at Qi Tiezui.

When Qi Tiezui turned his back to him, the soldier glanced at Zhang Qishan. Lieutenant Zhang stepped forward: “Ba Ye, you’ve got it wrong. You have to watch.”

“Oh, I see, I see.” Qi Tiezui turned around and looked at the soldier, a little awed. The child was very young— probably only sixteen or seventeen years old—and he couldn’t help but think that the Zhang family was really dying out. Fo Ye, if you don’t give birth to twenty or thirty children, who will you pass your skills to in the future?

Zhang Qishan went over and stretched his hand out, and the soldier leaned over and let Zhang Qishan stroke his head.

“Don’t be afraid. Be careful.” Zhang Qishan said. He then sat down where the child had just sat, took off his coat, exposed one arm, and poured the alcohol on it. Qi Tiezui knew that this was to tell everyone that if the child failed, Zhang Qishan would do it himself. His scalp tingled and the sweat on his hands dripped onto the gong.

The child looked at Zhang Qishan and his eyes became very firm. He took a deep breath and slowly put his hand into the hole above the coffin.

<Chapter 6> <Table of Contents><Chapter 8> 

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TN Notes:

(1) I don’t eat sweet potatoes, but apparently they make you gassy lol.

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Welp, I had an absolute shit day, but I hope everyone else’s was better lol. I was going to bail but felt bad for only giving you Tiffany’s giant chapter yesterday (I’ll admit, I spent more time trying to find those photos than I should have lol) so I at least got 1 chapter out for you guys today. It’s at least something （＾v＾）If you all need a pick-me-up like I do, here’s the iron triangle’s song from Reboot I’ve been jamming to lol

Tiffany’s extras (from yesterday and today):

• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 30 Zombies and Monsters
• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 31 The People I’ve Encountered