Chapter 503: Parents Are Most Likely at Mirror Lake Manor
"Go on."
Jiang Xinghai lit a cigarette, his expression impassive, but his heart was a maelstrom of emotions.
Arhat, however, sighed, his eyes welling up with tears.
It was impossible to know if they were tears of remorse or tears of fear for his own impending death.
"Perhaps it wasn’t my time to die. Not long after I was buried alive, a stray dog actually dug me out of the dirt... Heh heh. Even with my Dantian destroyed, I could still handle a stray dog."
"That very night, I fled to my old home in Yun Province. But I knew that in the eyes of those people, I was already a dead man. If I showed up alive, it would surely bring disaster upon my family. So, I could only secretly transfer my life’s savings to my family’s name. I didn’t even dare to see them once. Since then, I’ve been here, just barely scraping by."
Arhat hesitated for a moment, then quickened the pace of his brass carving.
One could vaguely make out that he was carving the shape of a phoenix.
"Of course, I won’t deny that for the past five years, I’ve wanted to return to the Dragon Country to find their descendants..."
As Arhat spoke, he glanced up at Jiang Xinghai before lowering his head to continue carving. "But I didn’t have the courage. I didn’t dare return. It’s not that I was afraid of death, but I was worried about endangering my family... It’s been five years. I felt my time was running out, so I had to start planning how to get word of my existence to their descendants..."
Hearing this, both Jiang Xinghai’s and Nightingale’s pupils contracted. They exchanged a look.
So Arhat had been the one to leak the news about himself.
"If that’s the case, weren’t you worried that the men in black from back then would track you down? Or your family?" Nightingale’s question was the very one on Jiang Xinghai’s mind.
It just didn’t add up, logically or emotionally.
Was it simply that a dying man’s words are true?
The two of them didn’t think so.
"Of course I’m not that foolish. When I revealed my location, I had already sent my family away. They’ve left the Dragon Country..." Arhat looked up at the sky, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "As for me..."
A self-mocking look returned to his eyes. "Whether the Jiang Family’s descendants found me first or those masked men found me first, there was no escaping death for me. As a dying man, do you think I’d still care?"
"So you’re saying if I’d been one step too late, I never would have gotten the answers I want?" Jiang Xinghai was clearly furious. Arhat’s words were infuriating. ’What an utterly irresponsible bastard!’
Arhat just shook his head with a bitter smile. "I’m not that foolish, of course. Think about it. In the eyes of those masked men, I’ve been dead for years. They wouldn’t keep tabs on a dead man. The Jiang Family’s descendants, however, are a different story."
"You’re too confident," Jiang Xinghai said angrily.
"Perhaps. Otherwise, how could I have become a traitor back then?" Arhat continued to mock his past sins. "Actually, I had a backup plan. If the Jiang Family’s descendants were still looking for me after a year, my family members abroad would have sought them out to explain everything and atone on my behalf."
At this point in his story, Arhat finished carving a perfect phoenix head into the brass.
"What do you think? Is it satisfactory?"
He held up the two pieces of brass, now carved into the shapes of a dragon and a phoenix, toward Jiang Xinghai.
"Continue," Jiang Xinghai said, his word carrying a double meaning.
He knew what Arhat was doing, but he needed the man to finish telling the story of what happened back then.
Because he still didn’t know his parents’ whereabouts!
Arhat took back the brass pieces and began carving characters in clerical script beneath the dragon’s head: Jiang Wendong.
"Back then, when those masked men ambushed the three of us, I faintly heard three words: ’Mirror Lake Manor.’ So, I have reason to believe those masked men were from Mirror Lake Manor." Arhat glanced at Jiang Xinghai and continued carving.
"Mirror Lake Manor!"
Jiang Xinghai was completely stunned. ’So his parents were ultimately taken by Mirror Lake Manor!’
"Unfortunately, I’ve investigated it over the years, but I’ve found no information on the place," Arhat said as he carved.
Jiang Xinghai looked at Nightingale.
Nightingale shook her head. "However, General Zhong can obtain its location through official channels."
"Perhaps that’s the only way."
Jiang Xinghai knew that the Dragon Country was vast and abundant. To find a place no one had ever heard of, one would almost certainly need to use a satellite system.
And his Second Senior Sister, Zhong Yunman, a Three-star General, had precisely that privilege.
"However, I suggest you start your investigation in Shanghai," Arhat said. He set down the dragon-head seal and picked up the phoenix-head seal, beginning to carve two words: Ji Qingya.
"Shanghai?"
Jiang Xinghai had never set foot in Shanghai before.
The city hadn’t been part of his plans, either.
Five minutes passed in silence.
Arhat took out a sandalwood box, placed the dragon and phoenix seals inside, and pushed it in front of Jiang Xinghai. "I’m sorry."
Before the words had even faded, Arhat’s head drooped, and his eyes fell listlessly shut.
"He’s dead," Nightingale said, checking for his breath.
Jiang Xinghai moved to examine him. Arhat’s Dantian had been destroyed for five years, his Dao Foundation had long since collapsed, and his body was riddled with terminal illness. Even if Jiang Xinghai himself had intervened, the chances of survival would have been slim to none.