Chapter 220: Market (Second Part)

Chapter 220: The Market (Part 2)

Looking at the human skull Mantou had brought and dropped on the ground, Li Huowang immediately realized that the other bone Mantou had fetched earlier must also be human bone.

"Could it be that Mantou has been fed my human skin so much that he has started to like eating people?"

Li Huowang, filled with deep regret, looked at Mantou squatting there with an extremely ugly expression.

"Wu?" Seeing no reaction from his master, the puzzled Mantou tilted his head, and again used his black nose to blindly nudge the skull toward Li Huowang's foot.

Li Huowang reached out his hand, stroking Mantou's head over and over again.

"Shua!" A dagger was raised by Li Huowang, who swiftly cut a small piece of flesh and skin from himself and flung it before Mantou.

Immediately after, Li Huowang held that bloodied dagger, always aiming it at Mantou's neck.

If the dog made any move attracted by that flesh, he would stab down in an instant.

Although living together day and night, he had developed feelings for this dog, but it was absolutely impossible to keep a dog that loved eating human flesh by his side; this was not only for himself but also for others.

When he saw Mantou, tongue lolling, still immersed in his stroking and not attracted by that piece of flesh and skin in the slightest, Li Huowang slowly put the dagger away.

Mantou had not become a mad dog that liked eating people; he merely liked fetching things from everywhere to curry favor with him.

Mantou was just a beast; compared to him, there was clearly a person who was even more suspicious.

Clearly it was human bone, yet Sun Baolu claimed it was horse bone; this was obviously problematic.

"Why did that boy lie to me?" Li Huowang's brows gradually furrowed; now all their contact with the Qingqiu people was through that boy's hands; if he truly had issues, the problem could be quite big.

"Senior Brother Li, what's wrong? Why have you stopped speaking? Do you feel a bit annoyed? If you feel a bit annoyed, then let's go back." Bai Lingmiao, sensing the atmosphere was somewhat off, said understandingly.

"No, it's just that Mantou just fetched a donkey hoof over; it's right in front of you, if you don't believe me, you can touch its head."

When Bai Lingmiao touched Mantou's familiar head, a hint of a smile surfaced on her face again. "So it really is Mantou; I've noticed he recently really likes fetching things back, don't know where he learned it from."

When he saw Mantou about to lick Bai Lingmiao's hand with his tongue, Li Huowang pulled Bai Lingmiao's hand away.

"This is indeed a bad habit; Mantou, let's go, let's continue strolling." Li Huowang kicked away that half-skull with one foot and said to the young girl beside him.

This small interlude did not interrupt Li Huowang's enthusiasm for taking Bai Lingmiao around to play. They continued to stroll through the entire market.

Tomorrow they would be on the road; he could not let some trivial matters disrupt Bai Lingmiao's good mood.

As for that suspicion regarding Sun Baolu, it was similarly hidden away.

To avoid Bai Lingmiao secretly seeing those chilling things, Li Huowang subsequently tried his best to take Bai Lingmiao far away from those places; however, precisely because of this, the route the two of them walked through the entire market was very limited.

Subsequently, many Qingqiu people watched this lame man leading a blind person, strolling through repeated places over and over again within the market, yet the words from that lame man's mouth were never the same.

Under Li Huowang's vivid description, Bai Lingmiao, without eyes, saw a market far more interesting than reality.

The two of them strolled like this for a whole day; when the sun gradually set, the sky grew dark, and the temperature began to turn cold, "Miaomiao, the sky is almost dark, it's about time we went back." Li Huowang reached out and removed the ribbon from Bai Lingmiao's face.

Bai Lingmiao's long white eyelashes blinked; she looked around with a bit of expectation, but she disappointedly discovered that none of the vivid splendor from Li Huowang's mouth had been seen.

"The sky is already dark; it's normal for others to pack up their stalls, so let's go back too." Li Huowang gently explained to the side.

Bai Lingmiao looked up at the sky, nodding in agreement. "That's true, then forget it, let's go, today was really interesting."

Looking at the smile overflowing on Bai Lingmiao's face, Li Huowang felt a trace of heartache; was she satisfied with just this?

"Senior Brother Li, look, Mantou is following us."

Li Huowang, seeing Bai Lingmiao scratching Mantou's chin with her hand, said: "Stop touching him, dogs are very dirty."

"No, Mantou is very clean; every time there is a river, he jumps in to wash himself."

Looking at Bai Lingmiao who knew nothing, and Mantou who similarly knew nothing, Li Huowang ultimately said nothing at all, leaning on his cane and limping back.

Seeing this, Bai Lingmiao hurriedly put down Mantou, helped Li Huowang up again, leaned against him, and shared part of the weight for him.

"Wang!" Mantou barked once, tongue lolling, lightly wagging his tail, circling around Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao.

The quiet atmosphere did not last long; Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao soon saw a familiar face on the cold street, it was Sun Baolu herding several dozen sheep.

When he saw Li Huowang, he was obviously very happy, herding the sheep as he came up to meet them.

"Senior Brother Li, look at these sheep, how good and strong! I picked all day, only finally managing to pick such good sheep."

"By the way, Senior Sister Bai, this is the silver left over from me buying the sheep."

Li Huowang looked over Sun Baolu again, who still showed no abnormality, and spoke calmly as if he had discovered nothing: "Since that's the case, herd the sheep back; tomorrow we can hit the road; walk faster, and you can reunite with your family sooner."

"Mm!!" Sun Baolu did not notice Li Huowang's expression was somewhat off, turned around, and began herding the sheep.

No words were spoken along the way; when they arrived at the tent inn, Sun Baolu seized the time to carefully herd these sheep to the side of the ox cart.

He launched into a bout of boasting to Zhao Wu who was watching the cart, about how well he had picked his sheep, and how he had bargained down to the lowest price.

"Old Sun, isn't it just that we're almost home, is it necessary to be this happy?" Zhao Wu, holding and gnawing on a yellow cake, looked strangely at the exuberant Sun Baolu before him; in his impression, he was not like this.

"I'm really puzzled; you are different from us, you don't have any illness, so why did that Leprosy Head catch you?"

Sun Baolu's expression stiffened, he pulled his sleeve slightly closer, "There is no reason for Leprosy Head to catch people; the sheep are all here, count them; this is our food for later, be careful."

With Zhao Wu's full agreement, Sun Baolu turned and left the cart, walking towards his lodging.

Just as an overflowing smile hung involuntarily on his face, and he began to imagine meeting his family again after many days apart. His light steps suddenly stopped.

Sun Baolu looked at Li Huowang before him, leaning against a wooden pillar. The other party's eyes looking at him were somewhat off.

(End of Chapter)