A Good-for-Nothing

295. Insatiably Greedy

Translator: Dragon Rider

Zhou Yang’s words were inexplicable. Before He Zheng could figure out what he meant, Zhou Yang smiled, “Let’s continue. Can you guess what happened next?”

Since this was a tragic story, eventually someone must fall prey to their avarice and repay the dragon’s goodwill with betrayal.

Unsurprisingly, what Zhou Yang told them next was not very different from their conjectures.

Every villager shed tears in their dream in which the dragon talked to them. They promised the dragon that they would preserve his body well, that they would not take a single scale from his body, but the first night after the dragon died, something unexpected happened.

First it was a family living near the entrance of the village, who owned a small business. They got on their knees in front of the dragon’s body and one of them said, “Dragon God, my son is going out to seek his fortune. Please give us one of your scales so that we can relax safe in the knowledge that he’s under your protection.”

After kowtowing to the dragon three times, the family who in their dreams had promised the dragon that they would preserve his body well took the biggest scale, but they were still in awe of the dragon, so they just glanced at the golden scale over the dragon’s chest but did not take it.

“Zhu, now that we’ve taken one scale already, we might as well take another one … Our daughter will reach school age next year. She’ll need a dragon scale to protect her as well.”

The man gave it some thought and, teeth clenched, inclined his head. “Dragon God will understand.”

Thus the family of four took eight dragon scales.

And then another two families showed up, kowtowed and took several dragon scales.

Over time more and more people came. Almost every villager paid a visit to the dragon. Some of them even came more than once. When it was light, the dragon’s body had bald patches here and there and did not look imposing at all.

The boy carried some snacks prepared by his mother to the riverbank to mourn for the dragon. After seeing what had happened to the dragon, he sat on the ground, hugging his knees, and cried for quite a while before he returned home and asked his mother, “Mom, doesn’t everybody respect the dragon very much? Why did they take his scales?”

The woman, her eyes red and swollen, stroked his head and kissed him but made no reply.

Another night passed. The next day, the dragon’s body bore more wounds and had even fewer scales. The dragon had died in a section of the river where the water was shallow. All passers-by could see the body, but nobody except for women and children shed tears at the sight of the dragon’s decaying body. Some even climbed onto the dragon’s body to get scales. The boy, wailing, ran up to them and asked them not to do that to the dragon. The boy’s father saw him and gave him a kick. “Go back and do what you’re supposed to do. Stay out of my business!”

The kick sent the boy plopping into the water, his tears soundlessly mixing with the river.

By the third night, all the dragon scales had been taken. Probably because the villagers were too embarrassed to do that kind of shameless thing in broad daylight, the golden scales over the dragon’s chest remained intact. The village head, following the instructions that the dragon had given him before death, took a golden scale from the body and dropped it into the water during daytime on a daily basis. Nobody touched the rest of the golden scales.

But everybody slid a sidelong glance at the golden scales when passing the dragon’s body.

Given that common scales could ensure their safety and peaceful life, the golden ones must have even more functions. Maybe they could cure all diseases.

Every villager thought so.

At night, someone stealthily went to the river only to find that someone was standing there. “Gouzi, you ungrateful bastard. You dare steal the golden scales! I’m going to break your legs!”

It was the village head! Eyes of the boy hiding behind a tree trunk lit up. The village head chucked away the villager. Another few showed up and the village head did the same thing to them.

The boy was filled with admiration for the village head. There were many people coming to get dragon scales, including the granny who gave him snacks from time to time and the youngster who was several years his senior and had once gifted him with a schoolbag. They were all good people, but the boy saw them coming under cover of night. The boy was very disappointed, but he was also very touched, because the village head drove them all away.

After midnight, nobody dared come to pluck the golden scales again, because they all knew that the village head was standing guard. The boy was just about to go out to thank the village head when he saw the village head, holding a torch, give a greedy smile as he muttered, “There’s no way I’m letting anybody take any of the golden scales. They’re mine.”

The golden scales over the dragon’s chest were pulled off one after another, blood splattering across the village head’s face. He had always been an affable man, but on this occasion he looked horrifying. Dragon blood dripped into the water and spread. Gradually the river was dyed red and appeared quite spooky.

The next morning, the villagers fetched water from their wells and made breakfast. The atmosphere in the village was as peaceful as always. There was no sign whatsoever of the atrocity that had been committed the night before. The boy lost his appetite. Terrified, he did not eat anything. He was still reliving the sorry sight of the dragon. Carrying his breakfast, the boy stumbled to the riverbank with the intention to mourn the dragon.

But he was greeted by the most cruel scene. His father and the other villagers were slicing meat off the dragon’s corpse. Even the horns had been cut off.

The dragon was now really dead.

In the end there was only a very very long skeleton left, which was pushed into deeper water by the villagers. The boy gazed at the dragon’s eyes, which had suddenly flown open and were full of sorrow.

So this was how the villagers he had protected for over a thousand years repaid him.

It started to rain. The boy raised his head only to find that the rain was red, and his eyes stung terribly when some rainwater dripped into them.

When the rain stopped, all villagers except for the boy died. They had eaten breakfast which contained the dragon’s blood mingled with his resentment and curse.

The boy shed no more tears. He sat beside the river. A golden carp jumped up to the bank. The boy, eyes swimming with tears, sent the carp back into the river.

In a dreamy state, the boy felt that he saw the dragon blink at him.

With that the carp disappeared into the water and the boy was blinded.

…

Zhou Yang’s story came to an end. He did not mention what had happened to the boy or the villagers. But after hearing this tale, all the couple of people present lapsed into silence.

A blinded boy, a dragon whose scales and meat had been taken away after his death, a bunch of avaricious villagers … This was a story bordering on the absurd, but they all knew that it was the truth.

The truth was what had really happened, no matter how unbelievable it sounded, and nobody could change it.

Zhou Yang’s hand had been on his walking stick from start to finish. He rose and said to Li Zong, “That dragon should be your father, which is why all my fellow villagers owe you a debt, one that must be repaid. Come with me, Li Zong.”

Li Zong’s lips were pressed tightly together. In some sense that dragon had indeed been his father. There were people who were merciful but greedy, and there were Yōkai who fed on blood but were selfless. Some kind of unpleasant emotion was bubbling inside Li Zong, and he had an urge to vent it.

Someone gently held his hand. He Zheng looked at Li Zong with very bright eyes and said, “I’ll be here waiting for you.”

An inscrutable expression appeared in Li Zong’s eyes which had turned golden and with that he impassively nodded. “I see.”

Zhou Yang led him into a secret room, which was spacious and empty.

“Previously, with some luck I got a chance to learn kung fu in Mount Kongming. In front of Shuixie Pavilion, I met that golden carp again. I put it back into the water and it gave me this.”

Zhou Yang opened his hand, revealing a very shiny, crystal-clear bead.

The bead was emanating an air that struck Li Zong as quite familiar.

“This is Dingshui Bead … It’s also the dragon’s Inner Core. Most fabled beasts had Inner Cores inside them. For common people like me, this bead is only something that could prolong life and enhance powers. I’ve lived long enough. But for you, this bead has special meanings, and it could be of far greater use to you than it is to me.”

Li Zong did not turn down the offer. When the bead came into contact with Li Zong’s palm, it turned into water which then disappeared into Li Zong’s skin without a trace.

But something strange happened. Li Zong’s eyes became thoroughly dual-pupiled, with a golden pupil overlapping a black one. He looked like a divinely charming deity. What with the many previous rebirths, Li Zong’s powers had been greatly weakened. On top of that, during the past few years when he had been working for SMB, he had sustained quite some internal injuries many of which had not healed completely. Afterward he had had a Gu named Mutual Abandonment planted inside him. People of Zhang Jingqiu’s caliber were unable to sense it, but Zhou Yang, the moment he clapped eyes on Li Zong, had perceived that Li Zong was now far less powerful than he used to be.

This was why He Zheng had been the first to sense danger when the attackers approached them on the expressway. Actually He Zheng might stand a better chance of winning if he and Li Zong had a fight.

But now things were different. Nobody could understand how beneficial the bead was to Li Zong. Because of the blood bond, Li Zong benefited a lot from the bead. He felt the foulness in his chest being expelled with his breath. At the same time, many of the dragon’s memories flooded into his head.

Some of them were about the fabled beasts thriving in the time of Mofa, and some were about the villagers brutally skinning him and slicing meat off his body. Various kinds of images emerged in his mind’s eye and turned into a deafening dragon shout.

Zhou Yang abruptly slumped to his knees and heavily kowtowed to Li Zong thrice. A look of surprise flashed across Li Zong’s eyes and with that he reached out a hand, intending to support the old man to his feet, but Zhou Yang refused to stand up. “I owe the Dragon God three kowtows. He saved my life, but I failed to keep his body intact.”

After hearing this, Li Zong paused and allowed Zhou Yang to finished the three kowtows.

Having finished kowtowing, Zhou Yang did not get to his feet right away. In a tired and senile voice, he said, “I’ve lived too long in this incarnation. I’ve been through vicissitudes and witnessed a lot of life-or-death junctures. In my whole life I made only two mistakes. The first one was that I failed to protect the Dragon God, and now I’ve atoned for it in front of you.

There’s, in addition, another thing.

“In that year when the government launched a campaign to rid the society of superstition and psychics, I was nearly thrown into prison. A youngster offered me some help and I promised him I’d do something for him to return the favor. Yesterday he came to me and besought me to stall you, and I agreed.”

Li Zong’s left eyebrow lifted. The gaze from his golden-pupiled eyes struck people as rather aloof. “He asked you to stall me? What did he want to do?”

Zhou Yang’s head hung so low he was almost prostrate, and his whole body was trembling. “He … is a junior bearing the same surname as mine. His full name is … Zhou Congzhi.

He implored me to stall you and the other six chairpersons.”