The Tokyo Esoteric School: Extra
Japan, Mie Prefecture.
The moonlight was like frost, and white snow covered the mountain path. The stone steps below the grand shrine glowed with a pale, bluish light.
A figure with long, flowing hair and a white robe that trailed on the ground walked out of the snow. He passed through the torii gate, which was covered in icicles, and stepped onto the long, snow-covered approach to the shrine, entering the empty main hall.
In the grand hall, besides a faint, indistinct weeping sound, only the echo of his footsteps could be heard. Following the direction of the weeping, he slowly walked toward an altar deep within the shrine. Under the glow of a green lantern, he saw a red stone box inlaid with gold on the altar. Inside the box rested a long saber, two fingers wide and entirely black.
“Was it this weeping that summoned me?” the person murmured, reaching out to take the long saber from its golden rack.
At that very moment, the weeping stopped abruptly. Then, a fierce wind swept through the shrine!
The gale was overwhelming and vast, like a beast’s open maw ready to devour someone. The white-robed person’s sleeves and long hair were thrown up, but he didn’t even lift his head. He just gave a sharp flick of his hand!
With a whoosh, the strong wind vanished without a trace, leaving only a mournful wail that shrieked as if in unwilling protest. It then rushed out of the shrine and disappeared into the vastness of the night.
“—Your Highness Ming Wang.”
The voice suddenly sounded from behind the white-robed person. A man of about thirty or forty, but with white hair and a sinister appearance, appeared in the shrine. He bowed deeply to the white-robed person and said, “We meet again, Your Highness Mahamayuri.”
Maha turned to look, his eyes narrowing. The expression made the arc of his thick eyelashes seem even more like the sharp edge of a blade. “Who are you?”
The man did not straighten up, only slightly tilting his head to reveal his face.
“My humble name is Aida Yoshihide. I once had the honor of seeing Your Highness in the Demon-Sealing Grotto beneath the mainland of China. I have taken the liberty of setting up an altar and performing a ritual to summon Your Highness because I have a favor to ask. I am willing to offer this sword as a generous reward.”
Maha remembered the Demon-Sealing Grotto, but he had long forgotten an insignificant character like Aida Yoshihide. His incomparably beautiful eyes did not move as he said flatly, “Oh—then what is your business?”
His tone sounded completely normal, but those familiar with him would know that if he were to suddenly fly into a murderous rage, disemboweling and gouging out hearts in the next moment, he would sound just as normal beforehand.
Aida Yoshihide, however, showed no fear. “May I ask if Your Highness knows the name of the sword in your hand and why it weeps?”
“…”
As he had expected, Maha did not answer. Aida Yoshihide straightened up and looked directly at the Peacock Wisdom King on the high altar.
“—This sword is named ‘Ame-no-Murakumo’. It was the personal sword obtained by the third noble son of the great god Izanagi, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, when he slew the Yamata no Orochi during his exile in the human world. When Susanoo was born, he was enfeoffed by his father as the god of the sea. However, because he missed his mother in Yomi-no-kuni, he wept all day long, thus angering his father and being cast out of the sea that was his home…”
Maha’s expression shifted slightly.
“Later, the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was offered by Susanoo to the great goddess Amaterasu, and then passed down to her grandson, Ninigi-no-Mikoto. It has been passed down through generations of emperors and, along with the Yata Mirror and Yasakani Jewel, is known as one of our country’s Three Sacred Treasures, possessing the supernatural ability to summon wind and rain and subdue sea dragons.”
Aida Yoshihide paused and took a breath.
“My Tokyo Esoteric School has long been entrusted by the Ise Grand Shrine to secretly guard the heart of the sacred treasure, the Yata Mirror. However, a disciple of the school took advantage of the headmaster’s fall into demonhood and fled to a foreign country with the sacred treasure. It is now very difficult for the Esoteric School to separate the Yata Mirror from him. If Your Highness Ming Wang can help us retrieve the heart of the Yata Mirror, I am willing to offer eighty-eight living humans as a sacrifice and also present this incomparably precious divine sword, the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, to Your Highness…”
Maha smiled slightly and said, “The Yata Mirror.”
He held the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi and looked toward the pale moonlight in the distant sky. He seemed to be pondering something. After a long while, he said leisurely,
“I have seen this sacred treasure during my travels through the six realms. Its mirror reflects both yin and yang, ever-changing and unpredictable. Therefore, the immense divine power it contains is difficult for a living person to wield. The person who wears the Yata Mirror must meet one condition: they must possess a soul of both yin and yang. Their yin soul must be one that was forged after a soul of extreme yang died and returned to the human world from the netherworld… This is equivalent to the dead returning to life, which is almost impossible.”
“No! Please listen to me!” Seeing that he was clearly unconvinced, Aida Yoshihide said urgently, “After the Yata Mirror was lost, I consulted our school’s secret scrolls and discovered that the Esoteric School had already found a method to refine a yin-yang soul over hundreds of years of cultivation, and the current wielder was personally refined by the previous old headmaster!”
Seeing that Maha still looked unconvinced, Aida Yoshihide said resolutely, “Our school now only wishes to retrieve the Yata Mirror. If there is a single word of deception to Your Highness, please feel free to kill me and take the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi. How about it?!”
Maha was silent for a long time, only staring at Aida Yoshihide, his gaze cold and unwavering.
“There’s no need,” he finally said after a long while. “I don’t think you mortals would dare.”
—The heart that had been hanging in Aida Yoshihide’s throat finally settled back into his chest. Only then did he feel the chill on his back, realizing that he had sweated through his heavy clothes in such a harsh winter.
“If you’re not lying, then prove it to me,” Maha said lazily. “As long as you bring that wielder here, I have a way to sever the connection between the sacred treasure and him, and then return it to you.”
Aida Yoshihide looked somewhat troubled upon hearing this. “But that person is now heavily protected in a foreign country. With our manpower, it’s already very difficult to get close to him. How can we bring him back to Japan?”
Maha stared at him motionlessly.
When the Peacock Wisdom King’s unparalleled face was expressionless, he was like a divine statue carved from ice. Even the subtle curve of every inch of his brows was quenched with the sharp cold light of a blade.
Under the immense pressure, Aida Yoshihide’s heart even stopped beating.
“Actually,” Maha finally said slowly, his tone calm and unruffled, “there is a very simple way…”
The next morning, at the hot spring hotel garden.
Yan Lanyu was stunned. “I… I was just saying. What does it have to do with me?!”
In the open-air restaurant of the hotel garden, a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old Chu He, dressed in a white shirt and jeans, sat at a breakfast table. His side profile was so pale it looked as if water could drip from it. His slender fingers held a coffee cup as he scrolled through his phone and said, “The fact is, it does have something to do with you.”
“—The Heavenly Dao Zhihu says that if a person who has accumulated a certain amount of merit has never made a wish before, a strong desire that suddenly arises from their heart has great ‘wish power’ and a high probability of being realized. If multiple wishes are made at once, the probability of realization is related to the difficulty of achieving the wishes.”
He flipped his phone over and showed Yan Lanyu the Heavenly Dao Zhihu page to prove he wasn’t talking nonsense.
“That is to say, the three wishes you made last night, from easiest to hardest, were: a discount at the hotel, me waking up, and for time and people to last forever. My sleep wasn’t that deep to begin with, so your wish power was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. As for the hotel discount, that should be no problem either… The last one is hard to say. The changes brought by time belong to the irresistible forces in the six realms.”
Chu He smiled slightly.
Yan Lanyu was dumbfounded. Suddenly, Zhou Hui’s voice came from outside the restaurant.
“Hahahaha, let me tell you something hilarious! The owner of this hotel has a crush on Li Hu and insists on chasing her, so he offered to give us a discount, hahahaha—”
Zhang Shun: “…”
“Actually, I said that just a discount doesn’t show enough sincerity. At the very least, it should be free. And then throwing in twenty of those four-hundred-yuan fruit platters would be about right. I think that owner looks quite presentable. He’s the type our little sister-in-law likes. Why don’t we leave our little sister-in-law here when we go back later? It’ll also save us from the risk of Vice Director Yu being caught for lavish spending on public funds, hahaha—”
On the steps of the garden restaurant, Zhou Hui forcefully slung an arm around Zhang Shun’s shoulder and laughed up at the sky. His laughter was boisterous and unrestrained, making one want to take off their shoe and slap it across his face.
Zhang Shun’s facial muscles twitched strangely. He gritted his teeth and pushed Zhou Hui away. “No, no, no, sister-in-law Zhou, I still think this is a bit inappropriate. At the very least, we should give Li Hu the power to choose for herself…”
Zhou Hui said, “Aiya, what’s there to choose! Li Hu likes this type: generous, straightforward, and spends money freely! Big brother tells you, Li Hu doesn’t even need to choose. This is her favorite type. I guarantee that once she knows, she’ll volunteer to stay and date the hotel owner, hahahaha—!!!”
Chu He: “………………”
Yan Lanyu: “………………”
The expression on Zhang Shun’s face was hard to describe. He seemed to want to swat Zhou Hui away with a fly swatter, but also wanted to pull himself away by his own hair.
After a long moment, he finally grabbed the hand Zhou Hui had forcefully draped over him and pushed it off his shoulder, inch by inch. Although his face was twisted into a smile, his voice sounded as if it was being squeezed out from between his teeth, word by word.
“By the way, Brother Zhou, I suddenly remembered that we’ve known each other for so long, but I haven’t treated everyone to a meal yet. I’m really embarrassed…”
“No, no, you’re too kind! We’re so close, how could I let you treat me!”
“No, no, I must treat you, I must. You see, we’re all family now. Why not today? There’s no better time than the present…”
“Aiya, what are you doing, what are you doing? Being so formal makes it seem like us brothers are forcing you to treat us!”
“Listen to me, listen to me… Brother Zhou!” In the midst of their pushing and shoving, Zhang Shun finally grabbed Zhou Hui’s hand and said righteously, “Don’t say anything else. How can I not treat everyone to such a meaningful first meal of the new year? If there’s a discount, would that still show my sincerity? Anyone who dares to mention a discount to me is my enemy! I’ll cover everyone’s expenses at this hotel from last night to today. Brother Zhou, would you like to order two more bottles of wine? Put it all on my tab!”
Zhou Hui hurriedly refused, but Zhang Shun would not be denied. He pushed him away and ran toward the hotel’s front desk.
“Brother-in-law—!” Zhou Hui called out in vain from behind, his voice trailing off with nine twists and eighteen bends, carried away by the wind, moving the heart and soul.
In the next second, Zhou Hui turned around, humming a little tune, and walked into the restaurant. He stopped a waiter and said, “Do you serve lobster sashimi in the morning? A one-kilogram lobster, just bring two. Two dozen abalones, I’ll take them to go. Thanks!”
At the table, the expression on Yan Lanyu’s face was simply indescribable. Chu He took a sip of coffee and looked at him sympathetically. “I heard your Tokyo Esoteric School particularly fears and reveres Zhou Hui… Is that so?”
From Yan Lanyu’s expression, it was clear he was having an intense internal struggle: he really didn’t want to lose face, but for a moment, he couldn’t bring himself to lie.
“Idol complexes always shatter,” Chu He patted his hand and said with great experience.
“Darling, how’s breakfast?” Zhou Hui sauntered through the restaurant and came over. Under the strange gazes of the other guests nearby, he leaned down and kissed Chu He’s cheek.
Chu He looked up and shared a brief kiss with Zhou Hui. “I was talking to little brother Yan about his wish for me to wake up.”
The phoenix’s human form was now at the age of thirteen or fourteen, the most difficult age to distinguish. His hair had not yet grown long, just covering his ears, revealing a pure cyan stone stud on his earlobe. His dark, thick eyelashes naturally drooped, and his snow-white cheek almost melted in the morning light.
Zhou Hui met his gaze, his eyes full of tenderness, completely unaware that in the eyes of the other guests, he had already become a perverted pedophile.
“—Ah right, I was just saying!” Zhou Hui, completely oblivious to the strange gazes from all directions, clapped Yan Lanyu’s shoulder forcefully. “You’re too honest, kid. A birthday wish is such a rare opportunity, you should have used it for yourself. And you were even thinking of our little Phoenix! Aiya, I don’t even know how to thank you. It’s not easy to accumulate wish power. I’ve accumulated merit for so many years, and I’ve never won the lottery…”
Chu He said helplessly, “You don’t even have this thing called ‘merit’, do you?”
Yan Lanyu realized that in the eyes of everyone, he had already become an accomplice to a pedophile. He hurriedly got up and retreated, but Zhou Hui wouldn’t let him go. “Aiya, you’re such a good kid. How can you be so obedient and sensible? If my son were half as good as you, I’d be so happy—it’s a pity you’re a boy. If you were a girl, I’d adopt you as my daughter and give you half of my property to inherit… It’s really a pity. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know how to thank you!”
Zhou Hui had a regretful look on his face, as if he wanted to beat Yan Lanyu to death on the spot so he could reincarnate as his daughter. This sent a chill down Yan Lanyu’s spine. “No… no, no, no, Mr. Zhou, I’m still more used to being a boy…”
“How did Vice Director Yu get so lucky to find you? Aiya, I don’t have anything good to thank you with.” Zhou Hui said kindly and, without giving him a chance to refuse, pulled out several yellow paper bundles from his pocket. When unfolded, they were revealed to be talismans with scribbles like an elementary school student’s graffiti. He stuffed them into Yan Lanyu’s hand.
“These are protective talismans I drew. The original price is 8,888,888 yuan each, with an extra 2% handling fee for card payments. To show my gratitude, I’m giving them to you for free now. Don’t be too moved!”
Yan Lanyu: “…”
Yan Lanyu looked at the few yellow paper bundles in his hand, unable to process it for a long time.
When he finally came to his senses and wanted to refuse, he looked up and saw Zhou Hui had scooped up the little Phoenix and walked away like the wind. Looking at that arrogant and domineering back, he was probably completely immersed in his persona of a handsome, gentle, rich, and good lover in a lolita-raising scenario, completely unaware that the reason people were secretly taking his picture was not because they thought he was a movie star, but because they were going to expose this terrifying, perverted strange uncle on Weibo.
·
The news of the Phoenix’s nirvana and return spread through the entire Special Department in an instant. Led by Yu Jingzhong, Wu Bei, Situ, and the Nine-Tailed Fox all came to visit one after another. Shen Wan hugged Chu He and refused to let go, and was thrown down the stairs by Zhou Hui, who held him by the back of his neck.
Jia Louluo also came. He ran into his father in the corridor before entering the room. Zhou Hui looked him up and down with a strange expression and asked, “…Why did you come dressed like this?”
“Is it wrong?” Jia Louluo was baffled. He looked down at his semi-new black hoodie, the off-brand jeans he bought on sale at a department store, and the twenty-yuan fake Li-Ning sneakers he bought on Taobao, and didn’t think there was anything wrong.
Did he have to dress up formally to see his own mother? Compared to Maha, it was already quite an achievement for him to be neat and clean, okay?
“No, no, no, no, no, it’s so wrong!” Zhou Hui grabbed Jia Louluo and, despite his resistance, dragged his son into his own room across the corridor, locked the door with a click, and pulled out a messy pile of clothes from the wardrobe, throwing them at Jia Louluo’s face. “Change! From now on, when you go to see your mother, you must be sleek and stylishly dressed. If you dare to complain even a single word, I’ll skin you and feed you to the Nine-Tailed Fox!”
“…” Jia Louluo looked at his father wordlessly. His father stared back at him righteously.
A vein twitched on Jia Louluo’s temple. After a long moment, he finally gave in. “Okay… okay.”
Ten minutes later, Jia Louluo stood before Chu He, dressed in designer clothes, looking nervous, like a village boy entering the city for the first time.
Chu He put down The Child Holding a Corpse and asked strangely, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you sitting down?”
Jia Louluo, under the scorching gaze of Zhou Hui from the corner of the room, braced himself and said, “No… no, I’ll just stay for ten minutes and then leave. Mom, how have you been lately? Do you need anything?”
Chu He started to laugh. “I don’t need anything. Your father and I are planning to go to Buzhou Mountain to sort out our things there. If you need anything, I can bring it back from hell. You look well? Are you used to staying in the human world? Is Maha okay?”
An unconcealed cold light flashed in Zhou Hui’s eyes.
Jia Louluo’s tone immediately took a turn. “Maha is great! I’m great too! I eat twenty snakes every day! I’ve never been short of money!”
Chu He: “………………”
Chu He stared at his son. Jia Louluo innocently pinched the corner of his clothes.
“Just eating snakes is not a balanced diet,” Chu He said after a long moment, completely flustered. “You… you should take some vitamins when you have time.”
Ten minutes later, Jia Louluo walked out stiffly. Chu He had an indescribable expression on his face and couldn’t help but ask, “Why do I feel like this child’s style is a bit strange?”
Zhou Hui, using Chu He’s lap as a pillow, was playing Candy Crush and said shamelessly, “It’s normal! —Adolescent children are rebellious and sensitive. Parents shouldn’t ask too many questions and should respect their personal privacy! To avoid them growing up psychologically twisted into a people-eating monster like the Peacock Great Demon King…”
Chu He deeply felt that something was wrong. It seemed something had happened when he was still a little phoenix, but seeing Zhou Hui’s completely normal expression, he had to let it go for the time being.
·
The Special Department of National Security, like a swarm of locusts, finally set off on their way back after ruthlessly fleecing Zhang Shun.
There was still a week left of the Spring Festival holiday. The romantic soul poet Wu Bei planned to go to Nepal to climb Mount Everest. Shen Wan went with him back to his hometown in Tibet to visit relatives. Situ Yingzhi invited the Nine-Tailed Fox to go shopping in Hong Kong. Zhang Shun, for some unknown reason, suddenly expressed his desire to go too.
After the Phoenix awoke, Zhang Shun had been avoiding him for some reason. Of course, Chu He didn’t know his brother was just feeling guilty. He thought that after the true Buddha had returned to his place, he would no longer treat him as the brother he relied on with all his heart as he had in his previous life. Therefore, although he was a little disappointed, he could understand and didn’t take the initiative to show more concern for the Second Young Master Zhang.
Therefore, he also missed the most crucial piece of information—
When Zhang Shun stayed in a hotel in Hong Kong, he booked a room with the Nine-Tailed Fox.
Of course, the Nine-Tailed Fox wouldn’t take the initiative to tell him either. What a joke, was he eager to be skinned by the Phoenix Ming Wang?
Zhou Hui took Chu He to Buzhou Mountain in hell for a honeymoon, and to sort out their things on the side, letting the Phoenix Ming Wang, who was eager to see his child, go to the sea of blood to see his child. His little brother-in-law and little sister-in-law enthusiastically agreed, almost waving handkerchiefs to send them off. This made Chu He a little sad, and he asked Zhou Hui, “Are they annoyed with me? Why didn’t they ask me to go out and play with them?”
At this moment, Zhou Hui showed a rare side of kindness. He said, “The children have grown up. They have their own world. We must respect their personal privacy…”
·
Zhou Hui and Chu He would be in hell for at least half a month before they could come back. The Special Department couldn’t be left without someone in charge, so Yu Jingzhong went straight back to Beijing.
Speaking of which, everyone was heading off on vacation with songs and laughter, while he was the only one who had to go back to Unit 547 to be on duty. It was quite depressing. Fortunately, he was not alone. Yan Lanyu was also in the same car back to Beijing.
—Yan Lanyu had a driver’s license and could drive, but he didn’t have a car. He usually commuted with Yu Jingzhong. Even when they went out for a late-night snack, Yu Jingzhong was habitually the driver. It was extremely convenient and easy.
The drive from the suburbs back to their home, with all the stop-and-go traffic, took a full three or four hours. Old songs by Teresa Teng played on a loop in the car. Yu Jingzhong had his side window open and kept smoking amidst the lyrics “As time rushes by, I only care about you—”, seemingly with something on his mind.
When they reached the building downstairs, Yu Jingzhong braked and turned off the engine, but did not open the car door.
Yan Lanyu knew he was finally about to say it, so he turned his head to look at him.
However, Yu Jingzhong kept fiddling with the Zippo lighter in his hand, rolling a cigarette between his fingers, but not lighting it. After at least three or four minutes of this hesitation, he finally coughed. “That… Lanyu.”
Yan Lanyu adopted a posture of listening attentively, but his eyes were fixed on the lighter.
It was said that when Yu Jingzhong had just joined the army, he had won the first prize in the all-army shooting competition. The old commander was so happy that he took it out of his pocket and gave it to him. The significance of how the old commander had obtained this lighter was even more extraordinary. It was a trophy captured from a Soviet prisoner during the Sino-Vietnamese War in ’79.
The old commander had a mentor-like relationship with Yu Jingzhong and they had always been on good terms. However, few people knew that after Yu Jingzhong was transferred to National Security, the old commander had once wanted to introduce his granddaughter to him, but Yu Jingzhong had politely declined on the grounds that his work was dangerous and his life was precarious.
Just as Yan Lanyu thought the lighter might catch fire if he kept playing with it, Yu Jingzhong finally coughed again and said haltingly,
“That… Lanyu, what do you think of me as a person?”
Yan Lanyu was stunned.
Yu Jingzhong stared at a utility pole in the distance and said, “I’m not on the front lines anymore, so I can be a little more stable. Although I’m on a fixed salary, I have savings and no mortgage. I don’t have any expensive hobbies. If something happens in the future, the state provides a pension. Before you turned eighteen, I felt it was a bit inappropriate to say these things to you. Now… I’m just saying. Don’t feel any… psychological pressure.”
Yu Jingzhong paused and suddenly realized he was habitually being timid in front of Yan Lanyu again. “No, no, what I mean is, you should seriously consider this… this possibility between us. You see, we’ve lived together for so long, and we get along well in all aspects. It would be good to continue like this, right? That is, I’m not saying you can’t continue to live here if you reject me. Even if you reject me, you can still continue to live here… Of course, I’m not encouraging you to reject me. I just hope you will… seriously consider it.”
Poor Yu Jingzhong, he almost wanted to kneel before his own expressive ability. He could hold his own when giving a report to a group of heavyweight old men in the Military Commission, but now, confessing to the eighteen-year-old Yan Lanyu, he was a complete mess.
Yan Lanyu sat quietly in the passenger seat. At first, his mind went blank. Then, a mixed and indescribable feeling slowly welled up.
“Actually…”
“Anyway, that’s it,” Yu Jingzhong hurriedly interrupted him. “I’m not in a hurry. You think about it carefully. You don’t have to give me an answer right away. That, I’ll go up and cook first. You, you, you can come up when you’ve thought it through.”
Vice Director Yu opened the car door and fled in disarray. Halfway through, he realized he had left his Zippo in the car and instinctively wanted to go back for it. Then his steps faltered. He remembered he definitely had a spare lighter at home, so he turned around with a clean drift and rushed into the building.
—As expected of a former special agent head, even Liu Xiang would die of shame seeing his hundred-meter dash speed.
Yan Lanyu watched his back through the car window, not blinking.
The young man’s profile was as if frozen. Even the curve of his hair falling at the corner of his eye was completely still. After an unknown amount of time, he finally moved and let out an almost silent sigh.
“I am willing,” he said with a bitter smile.
“…I really want to be willing…”
Author’s note:
To avoid controversy, I’m marking this in advance:
The main CP line’s conclusion, Maha’s divinity, and the Yu-Yan CP are all in the Tokyo Arc extra.
According to the outline, in the Tokyo Arc, little brother Yan’s plot takes up 40%, the Yu-Yan CP takes up 20%, and the Zhou-Chu CP takes up 40%.
To say it in advance, those who don’t mind the side CP can subscribe. Those who do mind the side CP can skip according to the chapter summaries, thus avoiding the controversy from the National Security Turmoil Arc.
Also, Yu Jingzhong is really a fit and capable uncle in his thirties. He’s just habitually timid in front of Yan Lanyu because he feels he’s in the wrong!
He really doesn’t have a beer belly, nor is he bald. He has abs!!
