This Damned Thirst for Survival
chapter-28

Isn’t that a load of crap?

The other two disciples looked at him speechlessly.

If there’s nothing sinister going on, what are they doing here?

But Feng Li nodded without changing his face, “You’re absolutely right.”

He finished his compliment to Jiang Luo and walked inside.

Wang Santan The two men looked at each other in disbelief.

Mr. Feng seldom compliments people, but now, Mr. Feng is complimenting Jiang Luo.

They made eye contact for a moment, did Feng turn out to like that response?

The young man led them to the living room where a mother and daughter were sitting on the sofa.

Huang Yulan and her daughter, whose eyes were red from crying, saw them enter, took out a handkerchief to wipe their tears, and got up with a forced smile, “Mr. Feng, please sit down.

Feng Li is sitting on the sofa, Jiang Luo is standing behind him with two other people.

“Go ahead,” Feng Li said gently, “what’s the matter with me.”

Feng Li, as the Feng family’s Heavenly Master, would not easily go out to deal with such trivial matters. But this time he happened to be in Yun Nan, and the old master was acquainted with Huang Yulan, which is why he was asked to help out.

Huang Yulan couldn’t stop her tears again when she heard the words. Her son, Ke Hetang, was busy saying, “It’s my father who has had an accident.”

“Half a month ago, my father began to become wrong, his temper is more and more irritable, the slightest thing does not go his way will lose his temper. He ate insects that he would never eat before,” Ke Hetang said with difficulty, “insects that crawl in the ground, ants, nymphs, cockroaches …… and then eat them, but we found that he secretly ate them raw when we weren’t looking. We found that he had secretly swallowed these insects when we were not looking.”

Jiang Luo hears the sounds of two men around him swallowing hard.

Swallowed raw, indeed.

The world is a big place and some people have strange sexual . Some people have strange fetishes, some people have strange food fetishes.

But if this is all there is, it is not enough to invite the Master of Heaven.

Sure enough, Ke Hetang continued, “Not only that, but he kept scratching his own skin, scratching his front and back, and he wouldn’t stop even though he was bleeding. When we asked him if it hurt, he said he didn’t feel anything.”

Huang Yulan grabbed her handkerchief, “Mr. Feng, can’t you see the wounds on his body from his own scratching, which are to the point of going for stitches. Does he really still not feel any pain? I feel …… like he’s possessed.”

Feng Li listened quietly and when they had finished, stood up and said, “I see.”

“You guys come with me.” Feng Li looked sideways at Jiang Luo’s three men.

The mansion is so large that Feng Li showed them the ground floor and then the first floor.

Huang Yulan, mother and son, followed behind them and watched eagerly as they arrived at the study on the first floor, and before they even entered, Jiang Luo sensed a chilling aura blowing in.

Feng Li must have sensed it too, and he stepped straight into the study without wandering for a moment.

The study is large, with two full walls of books. A custom mahogany desk sits in front of the bookcase and a tiger skin patterned rug covers the central floor.

At first glance it looks calm and majestic, but on closer inspection the design is slightly ostentatious and extravagant. As Jiang Luo walks around, he feels that this family must have suddenly become rich and prosperous.

The study is decorated with a number of green plants that have a good meaning. A painting hangs on the left wall and a brass ornament sits on the desk.

Jiang Luo’s gaze returns to the painting after looking around.

The painting shows the back of a full-length portrait of a man wearing a very dated blouse, plunged into darkness from the waist down. At the bottom of the painting, next to the man’s feet, there is a stereotypical stiff shadow, which is slightly heavier than the dark undertones, and only upon closer inspection can one see that the shadow appears to be divided into three vaguely defined sections.

This painting does not give Jiang Luo a good feeling.

Feng Li asked, “What do you see?”

Learning from his experience, Wang Santan said cautiously, “There must be something wrong here.”

Another brother followed closely, “The problem must still be not small.”

Feng Li said disappointedly, “Useless empty talk.”

He looked again at Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo was still looking at the painting, “This painting, it seems to be alive?”

Feng Li had a subtle flicker of a smile on his face as he looked to the three of them, “When did you buy this painting back?”

Ke Hetang said cautiously, “My father bought this at an auction half a month ago, Mr Feng, is there something wrong with this painting?”

Feng Li nodded lightly, went forward and touched the paper, pondered for a moment, and said to the disciples, “Come and feel the material of this painting.”

Jiang Luo and the three of them went up to touch it one by one. The canvas was so smooth and flexible that it was easy to feel addicted to it. When they had finished, Feng Li said, “Can you tell what kind of material it is?

Jiang Luo shook his head along with the others.

In all his years of studying design, he had never seen paper like this.

Feng Li said, “This is human skin paper.”

The crowd froze, and Huang Yulan murmured with shaking hands, “Human skin drawing paper?”

Mother and son were pale and trembling with fear. They couldn’t believe that they had a painting made of human skin hanging in their house!

Feng Li looked again at a coin that had been enshrined on his desk, “When was this coin placed there?”

“Two or two months ago,” Ke Hetang’s face was like gold paper, and he said with trepidation, “I brought this back. My father has always loved things like antique paintings and calligraphy, and we usually make a conscious effort to buy these things back to the house.”

Feng Li walked over to the table, looked down at the coins and spoke in a cold tone, “If the coins are handed down from the family, they can naturally be placed out and have the effect of calming the house. But if the coins are of unknown origin, they will be easily contaminated with dirt.”

He reached down and picked up the coin, looked at it for a moment and said, “This is a coin taken from the mouth of a dead man.”

Ke Hetang could not speak, he was sweating profusely, and only after a moment did he say, “Mr Feng, I didn’t know it was a copper coin from a dead man’s mouth.”

“The Yin energy on the coins is extremely heavy,” Feng Li put the coins down and took out his handkerchief to wipe his palm, “Yin energy nourishes the human skin painting paper and feeds the fatal energy, if it were half a month later, the owner of this study would have died.”

Huang Yulan hurriedly and eagerly pursued the question, “Mr. Feng, what about now, is it too late to find out about this?”

“In time,” Feng Li said, “but I want to meet your husband.”

With life and death at stake, half an hour later, Wong Yu Lan’s husband, Ke Wang Wei, rushed back to the mansion.

Ke Wangwei walked in with a stern face, a circle of darkness lingering around his seal, his temples bulging, a fierce, fierce look on his face. Such a face often appears on the face of a butcher, and with this one look, Jiang Luo did not see how rich and powerful the study owner was, but rather that he was a vicious and unpleasant man.

Mr Ke was impatient when he first came in, but was stunned when he saw Feng Li. He obviously knew Feng Li and immediately put away his impatience and said with a smile on his face, “Mr Feng? What brings you to my home?”

In today’s society, the higher the status, the more superstitious people are, and Ke Wangwei believes in this too. Anyone with a bit of access knows Feng Li’s reputation, but very few people are able to ask Feng Li to do it.

He was surprised and delighted to see Feng Li in his own home, and the discomfort he had been feeling for days suddenly diminished.

“What do you want to tell me when you come to my home, Mr Feng?”

Feng Li looked at him for a few moments and pointed to the painting in the study and said, “Does Mr. Ke know this painting?”

Ke Wangwei was odd in his heart, but he still replied, “This is a painting I bought back half a month ago, I must know it.”

“No,” Feng Li said, “I mean, do you know the person in the painting?”

Ke Wangwei was puzzled as he looked towards the painting.

In fact, it was because of the familiarity he felt at first glance after seeing the painting that Ke Wangwei bought it. But he couldn’t recognise the man’s back in the painting, and now that he was looking at it, he couldn’t see anything. Ke Wangwei’s eyes hurt from looking at it, and he was about to look away when an eerie feeling suddenly came over him.

Ke Wangwei’s face went white, “How is that possible!”

Feng Li said without a ripple, “You recognise the man in the painting?”

Beads of sweat slid down Ko Wang Wei’s forehead and he stammered, “I, I don’t know ……”

Feng Li turned around and was about to leave with his disciples.

Huang Yulan said in panic, “Mr. Feng, don’t go!”

She indignantly pulled Ke Wangwei’s clothes, “What do you know and why don’t you say it? Do you know that if Mr. Feng doesn’t do something, you’ll be dead in another half month!”

Ke Wangwei Yu Guang glanced over the painting, drenched in cold sweat as he gritted his teeth and exclaimed, “I say, I say! Mr Feng, please help me!”