Chapter: Hearts as One (同心)

Two days later, Ning Shu arrived at Lu Zheng's hospital room.

Lu Zheng was still sulking. He turned his head to one side, refusing to look at her.

"What are you here for again?"

"To save your life."

"There's no need to trouble yourself, Master Ning."

This guy was actually throwing a childish tantrum.

Ning Shu had already walked into the room on her own. She closed the windows, drew the curtains, and switched off the lights.

Watching her busy herself, Lu Zheng said irritably, "I didn't ask you to come, and I'm not going to pay you for your services."

"Lu Zheng, I'm saving you because you've treated me well. I'm not an ungrateful person."

Ning Shu gave Gouwa a meaningful glance. Gouwa immediately took candles, an incense burner, talisman paper, and a small box out of his schoolbag. He arranged the whole assortment of items on the table.

Lu Zheng watched the siblings work with a cold expression.

"So, once you've saved my life, we'll be even?"

"We won't be even. I need to plant a Heart-Linked Gu in your body."

Ning Shu lit the candles and incense.

"From now on, our hearts and minds will be connected. If anything dangerous happens to you, I'll be able to sense it."

"Our hearts and minds connected?" Lu Zheng looked up at her, a flicker of interest in his eyes. It sounded rather appealing.

"Don't you want to?"

"I do. Of course I do."

"Swallow this first."

Ning Shu opened the little velvet box. Inside lay two translucent white worms, resembling silkworms, resting quietly in the velvet lining.

"That's disgusting."

Ning Shu picked up one of the worms and swallowed it herself. Then she picked up the other and held it out to Lu Zheng.

Although he was repulsed by it, he didn't hesitate when Ning Shu offered it to him. He opened his mouth and swallowed it.

"Don't chew. Swallow it whole."

Lu Zheng could only hold his breath, suppress his disgust, and force the slippery white worm down in one gulp.

Ning Shu then took a silver dagger out of her bag and asked him, "Are you afraid of pain?"

Lu Zheng shook his head, then immediately nodded.

"I am."

"Then I'll recite a pain-relieving spell for you."

"Wouldn't it be better if you kissed me instead?"

Ning Shu couldn't be bothered to entertain him. She grabbed his hand, rolled back his sleeve, and drew a long cut across his left wrist with the dagger.

Blood immediately trickled out in thin, wriggling streams, like earthworms.

Lu Zheng hissed.

"You really don't hold back, do you?"

However, Ning Shu then rolled up her own sleeve and used the dagger to make an identical cut across her right wrist.

"Hey!" Lu Zheng immediately tried to stop her. "What are you doing?"

"The Heart-Linked Gu requires blood to merge with blood."

Ning Shu placed her wrist above his, allowing her blood to drip directly onto his wound.

Then Lu Zheng's blood began dripping onto her wrist as well.

Ning Shu pressed her index and middle fingers against his hand and murmured the incantation:

"First, stop the waters of Longquan. Second, let the seas run dry. Third, stop the blood beneath the blade. Fourth, let skin and bone join together.

"Let blood merge with blood, and let one heart exchange with another."

The moment she finished reciting the spell, the blood flowing from Lu Zheng's wound miraculously began to flow back into his body.

Gouwa exclaimed, "Wow! The bleeding has stopped already!"

Lu Zheng looked at his hand. Sure enough, the wound had completely healed, leaving behind only a tiny red spot resembling a beauty mark.

Ning Shu stopped her own bleeding as well, then explained to Lu Zheng, "Now that my blood is inside your body, ordinary evil spirits won't be able to approach you. If anything dangerous happens, I'll sense it immediately."

"Can you sense what I'm thinking right now?"

"Don't worry. I won't go probing around in your thoughts. That's your privacy."

Damn it.

Ning Shu really didn't want to sense all the inappropriate things going through Lu Zheng's head. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she said, "Stop letting your imagination run wild."

"Then let me see what you're thinking." With that, Lu Zheng closed his eyes.

Ning Shu immediately grabbed his wrist.

"If you keep messing around, I'll break the spell!"

Seeing her flushed cheeks, Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow.

"All right, I won't think about anything inappropriate."

Ever since Ning Shu planted the Heart-Linked Gu in Lu Zheng, things had indeed been peaceful. Lu Zheng stopped having accidents, and his health gradually improved.

However, the Gu also had its inconveniences. Their hearts and minds were connected. Although they couldn't necessarily know exactly what the other person was thinking, they could sense each other's emotions and even influence one another's feelings.

During the day, Ning Shu studied. At night, she would settle her mind and enter a meditative state before sleeping, keeping her heart as still as water.

Even so, she simply couldn't withstand Lu Zheng's disruptions.

For instance, whenever she was meditating and Lu Zheng was outside speeding around on his motorcycle, her heart would race and her adrenaline would surge. She couldn't calm her mind at all.

It was seriously infuriating.

One day, she finally couldn't take it anymore and called him.

"Young Master Lu, could you please settle down for once?"

On the other end of the phone, the howling wind roared. Lu Zheng was racing along a mountain road on his motorcycle, shouting loudly.

"What did you say?! I can't hear you!"

"I said, get your ass home right now! Wash up and go to sleep!"

"So you're saying you miss me? I miss you too!"

"You bastard!"

"All right, give me a kiss!"

Ning Shu angrily hung up.

Half an hour later, Lu Zheng finally settled down. His heartbeat returned to normal, and Ning Shu soon entered a state of complete meditative absorption, forgetting both herself and the outside world.

Let blood merge with blood, and let one heart exchange with another.

Lu Zheng's emotions and physical state could influence Ning Shu's own. Naturally, Lu Zheng could also sense her emotions. However, Ning Shu was calm most of the time, which helped stabilize Lu Zheng's temperament as well.

By the time summer vacation arrived, the renovations on the family home were almost complete. Ning Shu's uncle and aunt moved out of their workplace dormitory and into the new house, and Ning Shu and Gouwa moved in with them.

The house was close to their school, so the siblings would no longer need to live in the school dormitories.

Fu Nansheng also lived in the same residential complex, directly opposite Ning Shu's home. According to him, living right across from her allowed him to borrow her auspicious influence and avoid disasters.

The first time Ning Shu and Gouwa visited Fu Nansheng's home, she immediately noticed that the furniture and decorations had all been arranged according to specific principles.

When constructing a residence, one must establish its entrance, for the doorway channels the energy of the entire home. Fu Nansheng had used a technique known as diverting paths and dividing rooms: he had built a partition wall and opened a doorway so that his bedroom door directly faced Ning Shu's room.

This allowed him to draw in auspicious energy while keeping misfortune at bay.

He really was borrowing Ning Shu's auspicious influence.

Fu Nansheng told her, "Of course, I won't borrow your influence for nothing. If you ever need anything in the future, just give me the word. I'll do whatever you ask."

"All right."

Ning Shu didn't particularly mind. Fu Nansheng could borrow her good fortune and live a better life without causing her any loss. Since they were friends, helping him was only natural.

Fu Nansheng was different from Lu Zheng. Although Lu Zheng was destined to die young, the Lu family was wealthy enough to hire a practitioner like Lin Pingqing to alter his fate.

Fu Nansheng was different. No one was going to change his unlucky fate for him. He could only rely on himself.

Sometimes, Ning Shu had wondered about his misfortune. It didn't seem to be something he had been born with. She had examined his palm lines, and they clearly indicated great fortune and an entire lifetime free from calamity.

Someone had tampered with his destiny, forcibly changing a blessed fate into an unlucky one. And the interference had begun when he was still a child.

Fu Nansheng brought out steaming tea and refreshments to entertain Ning Shu and her younger brother. Then he explained, "You're right. Someone did alter my fate."

Ning Shu asked, "What kind of grudge could someone have against you to commit something so cruel and unnatural?"

Fu Nansheng shook his head.

"I don't know. I've told you before that I grew up without parents, wandering the world alone. Later, I became a disciple of a master. It was only under his protection that I managed to grow up safely."

"Have you ever thought about changing your own fate?"

"Change my own fate? Are you kidding me?"

Changing fate was an act of defying Heaven. A person couldn't change their own destiny.

Take Lu Zheng, for example. His fate had been altered by Lin Pingqing, the Yin-Yang practitioner employed by his family. This was an act against the natural order, and it would inevitably bring consequences. Those consequences would eventually fall upon Lin Pingqing himself.

If retribution was inevitable, why was Lin Pingqing still willing to do it?

Naturally, there were two reasons: fame and profit. Very few people in this world could resist those two temptations.

Lin Pingqing had earned enough money from the Lu family to ensure a comfortable life for himself. Even if something unfortunate happened to him after a hundred years, he didn't particularly care.

That was the nature of changing fate: an arrangement in which both parties were willing participants.

If Fu Nansheng tried to change his own fate, he too would inevitably suffer the consequences. There would be no point in doing it.

"You came to me to obtain those two Heart-Linked Gu worms and planted one in Lu Zheng, didn't you?" Fu Nansheng asked Ning Shu as he sipped his tea.

"I did."

"The Heart-Linked Gu connects two hearts. Unless he willingly breaks the bond, the two of you will remain connected for the rest of your lives."

"Once I find out who's trying to harm him and put an end to their scheme, I can break the bond."

Fu Nansheng glanced at Gouwa, who was playing video games in front of the flat-screen television, then lowered his voice.

"Do you like Lu Zheng?"

Ning Shu immediately replied, "No."

"I don't believe you." Fu Nansheng smiled. "You haven't known him for very long, yet you're helping him so much. You even used a Heart-Linked Gu on him. If that's not love, what is it?"

"You might not believe me if I told you this, but I've known Lu Zheng for a very long time. Longer than I've known you. It's as though… we knew each other in a previous life. In that life, he treated me well, but he also treated me badly…"

Ning Shu didn't know how to explain it. The entanglement between her and Lu Zheng was far too complicated.

"Anyway, whatever the reason, I can't just stand by and do nothing. I don't want him to die."

"That boy really is lucky," Fu Nansheng said enviously.

Just then, a sleek black cat strolled elegantly over to the windowsill before suddenly leaping into the living room and trotting over to Fu Nansheng's feet.

"Oh my goodness!" Gouwa jumped in fright. "Where did that cat come from?"

The black cat spoke.

"From opening your Heavenly Eye to developing a Daoist bone, you've accomplished all this in just a few short years. Little Friend Ning, your future is boundless."

Gouwa pointed at the cat.

"You're the guardian messenger who watches over the boundary between Yin and Yang!"

"Long time no see," Ning Shu said. "Mr. Cat."

It was the black cat they had encountered when they broke into the boundary between Yin and Yang—the guardian who protected that realm.

Fu Nansheng's pale hand settled on the black cat's head, gently stroking it.

"His name is Dahua. He's a good friend of mine."

"Dahua?" Gouwa asked incredulously. "Hadn't you already accumulated enough merit to become a deity?"

"I was supposed to attain the Dao, but I couldn't bear to leave this hopeless friend of mine behind." The black cat, Dahua, glanced at Fu Nansheng. "I have to keep an eye on him."

Ning Shu understood now. No wonder Fu Nansheng had managed to escape danger so many times. It turned out that, besides his master, he also had this black cat who had attained the Dao protecting him.

Lu Zheng had a benefactor watching over him, and Fu Nansheng had one too.

No—not a benefactor. A benefactor cat.

Dahua had given up the opportunity to become a deity to remain beside an ordinary human and keep him safe. These two clearly shared a deep bond.

Gouwa sighed in amazement.

"It's a small world after all! How did you two even meet? You liked him so much that you gave up becoming a deity?"

Fu Nansheng smiled.

"But later, he turned out to have greater potential than me. He actually succeeded in cultivating the Dao."