Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Heartbeat, Banquet

RUSTLE...

With the activation of [Yao Ling], it was as if a switch had been flipped, and countless sounds instantly flooded in.

The sound of wind, of cards being played, of footsteps, of snoring, of conversations, of water being poured...

Fu Juemin filtered out the shallow and obvious background noises one by one, his Perception gradually focusing on the wing where Li Tong was staying.

His mind was like a tuning knob, slowly turning. As the reception grew more precise and delicate, a blurry scene began to unfold in Fu Juemin’s mind’s eye.

The sound of wood expanding and cracking, the rustle of a centipede crawling in a wall seam, the click of a pocket watch’s hands, the splash of a water droplet falling from the towel rack...

Countless minute sound sources were like intermittent Ink Lines, sketching out the contours of the entire room bit by bit.

Fu Juemin listened quietly, the layout of the room’s interior growing clearer and clearer in his mind.

He could even "see" a hardwood frame bed on the east side of the room, a pair of cloth shoes with layered soles beside it, a set of short black cloth robes hanging on a nearby beechwood rack, and a teacup with a blue-patterned white porcelain base resting on a stool next to a silver-cased pocket watch...

He could "see" many things with perfect clarity, yet he couldn’t find a single trace of Li Tong.

’Not in the room?’

Just as Fu Juemin was wondering if Li Tong had gotten up in the night to use the lavatory, suddenly—

THUMP—

A steady, powerful sound, like the beat of a war drum, suddenly echoed.

It was like a drop of water landing gently on a calm surface in extreme slow motion, the splash rising and sending out ripple after ripple.

Li Tong’s figure finally appeared within Fu Juemin’s Perception.

He was lying on his side on the very same hardwood frame bed Fu Juemin had just scanned, his eyes closed, sleeping soundly.

Only then did Fu Juemin "find" the sound of Li Tong’s breathing.

His breath was so long and drawn-out it was like a wisp of wind. After flowing from his nostrils, it blended so naturally into the circulating air of the room that to Fu Juemin’s previous Perception, it was as if the Li Tong on the bed didn’t exist at all.

THUMP—

Another slow, but steady, heartbeat.

’Something’s not right!’

Fu Juemin’s brow suddenly furrowed.

That heartbeat was too slow!

Fu Juemin tried counting silently. In one minute, Li Tong’s heart had only beaten six times.

The frequency was barely one-twentieth of a normal person’s!

’Even for a Great Martial Family expert who has broken the Blood Barrier, whose heart and lungs are far stronger than an ordinary person’s, and whose heart rate would be slower and lower—how could it possibly be as low as six beats per minute?!’

Fu Juemin found it incredible.

After Blood Refining, his own heart rate had also decreased, to about forty to fifty beats per minute while at rest.

Li Tong was much stronger than him, so his number was bound to be lower, but it shouldn’t be *this* low. ’Was he even human?...’

Just as Fu Juemin was lost in astonishment, the abnormally slow heartbeat suddenly vanished.

A sudden, inexplicable sense of alarm rose in his heart.

SWOOSH—

On the second-floor terrace, Fu Juemin’s eyes snapped open, and he subconsciously took half a step back.

CRASH—

A pot of orchids on a nearby flower stand was brushed by the corner of his clothes, falling to the ground and shattering to pieces.

"Who’s there?!"

A servant’s slightly nervous voice came from behind. Fu Juemin waved his hand dismissively with a blank expression, and the person tactfully and silently withdrew.

Fu Juemin looked down. The area below was still shrouded in the deep of night. The brief nightly commotion of the Fu Family’s servants and Nursing Home staff faintly drifted up from the darkness.

He gave Li Tong’s wing a deep look, then turned and disappeared from the terrace.

What he didn’t see was that Li Tong was standing in the darkness less than twenty meters away, watching his retreating back with his hands clasped behind him. His expression was calm, his thoughts unknown.

....

Back in the bedroom, the servant had already finished cleaning up and left.

Fu Juemin stood alone in the room, thinking quietly for a moment. Then he sat down and began to assume a series of strange postures.

His body became as flexible as noodles, his movements constantly shifting in ways that defied normal comprehension.

At a certain moment, his body would suddenly freeze, his muscles and bones tensing like iron.

CRACK CRACK CRACK—

Following a series of soft bone cracks that sounded like firecrackers, Fu Juemin let out a long breath and slowly relaxed his posture.

The fifth movement of the "Pharmacist Master Purification Diagram."

Finally, he’d done it!

.....

「The next day, at dusk.」

The last rays of the setting sun shone through the glazed window panes, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow on the floor.

Fu Juemin had a fine white cotton cloth draped over him. He was leaning back in a curved-back armchair with his eyes closed. Behind him, a slender man of about fifty was concentrating on his work around Fu Juemin’s head.

The only sounds in the quiet room were the crisp, soft SNIP, SNIP of scissors chewing through hair.

After a while, the scissors were exchanged for a razor, which rasped across his cheeks... SCRAPE, SCRAPE...

"All done."

Hearing the warm, deep male voice from behind him, Fu Juemin opened his eyes. A servant at his side immediately brought over a basin of clean water and a hot towel, carefully wiping the stray hairs from his neck and face.

Looking at his much neater and sharper reflection in the mirror, Fu Juemin nodded in satisfaction.

"Next time, please have Master Song come again."

"As long as Young Master Fu is satisfied."

The slender man in the long grey cloth gown clasped his hands in a fist-and-palm salute to Fu Juemin, picked up his barber’s case, and was led away by a servant to collect his reward.

Fu Juemin glanced at the butler, Uncle Chen, and asked with a hint of resignation, "Uncle Chen, do I really have to go to this banquet?"

"Young Master, you were recognized for eliminating the bandits last time. And for the disturbance on Datong Road a few days ago, you were the one who sent someone to report it first... County Magistrate Hu will most likely commend you in person at tonight’s banquet.

The Master said it would be best not to slight him..."

"Fine, I understand."

Fu Juemin waved his hand, dismissing Uncle Chen and the others.

He walked to the window and looked down, just in time to see his old man, Fu Guosheng, by the fountain, helping his stepmother, Lin Wanrong, and his two younger sisters into the car.

Before leaving, his father seemed to have deliberately glanced up in the direction of his room.

Fu Juemin shook his head, knowing there was no getting out of tonight’s banquet.

He put on his leather shoes, slipped on the vest given to him by Fu Guoping, and from a drawer full of watches from the Western World, he selected and put on one with a face studded with fiery red diamond chips. Then, carrying his suit jacket, he walked to the mirror and looked at himself—a man almost unrecognizable from the person he was a month ago.

As the newly tailored dark cyan suit jacket was buttoned over the broad shoulders and back encased in the white poplin shirt, all the overt, powerful lines of his muscles were immediately contained. They transformed into a restrained and steady presence.

It made him appear all the more dashing and noble.

Like a priceless Ancient Blade being slowly sheathed in sharkskin, beneath the splendor lay a cold, sharp edge that one could not dare to meet head-on.

Fu Juemin went downstairs. A group of people was already waiting by the car.

With Cao Tian, Qian Fei, and the others accompanying him, he got into the car. After a quiet greeting, the car slowly drove out of the estate.

Hu Fulai’s banquet was held at his own residence. His mansion was located opposite the County Yamen and had been the official residence of the previous dynasty’s County Magistrate.

By the time Fu Juemin arrived, night was just beginning to fall.

On the street between the Hu Mansion and the County Government, carriages rumbled by. Two massive gas lamps illuminated the open space before the two doors of the Vermilion Gate, making it as bright as day.

Rickshaws, horse-drawn carriages, and automobiles were guided by the running servants and gatekeepers of the Hu Family, parking in an orderly fashion on both sides of the open space.

When Cao Tian opened the car door for Fu Juemin, Fu Juemin stepped out in his crisp suit, attracting many curious gazes.

This was mainly because, even for an occasion like this, people who could arrive by automobile were few and far between. The vast majority of guests came only by horse-drawn carriage.