False evidence

Chapter 176 Dismemberment
Seeing Lu Zelin nod, both Pidan and Xiao Shensan showed expressions of disbelief.

"Is this really you, kid?" Pidan blurted out in surprise, "They say girls change a lot as they grow up... You're a boy, you can't grow up to be this ugly, can you?"

Seeing that Lu Zelin's eyes were brimming with tears, but he was clenching his teeth, I said, "No matter what your purpose is in coming here, please help clean up this yard first."

I say this because I can tell he is still deeply grieving.

In this state, it's difficult to make things clear.

After the four of them cleaned the courtyard and watered the flowers, Lu Zelin had calmed down considerably when they entered the main room.

While Pidan went to boil water for tea, Xiao Shensan anxiously asked Lu Zelin, "What exactly happened?"

Lu Zelin closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and said:

"My master has always forbade me from drinking alcohol; it's a rule of the Hidden Yin lineage. Now that the Hidden Yin lineage no longer exists, I... could you give me some wine?"

I picked up a bottle of Sanliangye liquor that was less than a third full on the cabinet—that must have been what Uncle Cheng had left over before Fang Ling's accident.

Lu Zelin took a sip from the bottle and immediately choked, coughing repeatedly and tears streaming down his face.

When he took his second sip, his face flushed red to the roots of his neck, but he had already begun to calm down, I asked him, "Why have you become like this?"

Lu Zelin said, "Human traffickers."

"Damn it!" Xiao Shen slammed his fist on the table.

I told him not to get excited, took a glass, poured half a glass of wine for Lu Zelin, and told him to speak slowly.

As Lu Zelin drank, he recounted his past.

However, firstly, he is not good at speaking, and secondly, after drinking, his speech became somewhat disordered.

I listened carefully and finally understood the whole story.

Every industry has its traditions and traditions.

It's like the saying, "Of the three unfilial acts, the greatest is having no offspring."

It would be a great loss if a unique craft were to die out with the passing of a craftsman.

The Hidden Yin lineage is a rather unique branch within the tomb raiding profession.

By the time of Zang Zhiqiang's generation, it had become the sole successor of the craft.

Zang Zhiqiang also took on apprentices, and to learn the skills of the Hidden Yin lineage, one must begin training from a very young age.

Lu Zelin was adopted by Zang Zhiqiang when he was young. Zang Zhiqiang was both his apprentice and his adopted son.

On one occasion, Zang Zhiqiang was about to travel to the Shaanxi-Gansu area to rob tombs.

He entrusted the young Lu Zelin to the care of someone he trusted.

That time, because the tomb's mechanisms were too intricate and tricky, Zang Zhiqiang, despite his skill in exploring hidden places, still triggered the mechanisms and was seriously injured.

As a result, he was delayed for half a year just to recover from his injury.

When he returned, the person he had entrusted to take care of Lu Zelin knelt down before him with his entire family upon seeing him.

They repeatedly cried and said that they treated Lu Zelin like their own child, but one day, Lu Zelin went out to play with two other children from the same family. In the evening, the girl from the same family returned, but Lu Zelin and the other boy did not.

Zang Zhiqiang has been recovering from his injuries for six months, and his family has been searching for his two children for four months, but to no avail.

By this time, Zang Zhiqiang realized that the two children had most likely been abducted. So he began searching for his children, a search that lasted three years, taking him all over the country.

However, when he returned to this 'friend's' house, he discovered that the boy from the same family who had been abducted, as the other party had mentioned, was still there!
Seeing that he had been caught red-handed and knowing his methods, the other party had no choice but to confess:

They did show favoritism at the time, but what kind of family would treat outsiders better than their own children?

In short, Lu Zelin was practically "free-range" during that period.

Of those who were abducted, only Lu Zelin was involved.

The family claimed that both children had disappeared because they feared Zang Zhiqiang would retaliate in his anger.

Zang Zhiqiang didn't say anything at the time, and turned to leave.

The next day, the male head of the household, who was Zang Zhiqiang's "friend," woke up to find himself paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

Zang Zhiqiang really doted on his apprentice Lu Zelin, or rather, he deeply loved this son.

He never gave up searching for Lu Zelin.

Several years ago, he finally found Lu Zelin.

At that time, Lu Zelin was dressed in tattered and filthy clothes. He was crawling on a wooden cart that was being pulled over, holding a biscuit box in one hand and scraping the ground with the other, begging along the street.

Lu Zelin was unrecognizable by then, but Zang Zhiqiang still recognized his child at a glance.

He did not acknowledge Lu Zelin at that time.

But the very next day, six new disabled men and women appeared on the busiest street in the area, and their disabilities were beyond treatment.

……

"Harvesting and mutilating!" Xiao Shen said through gritted teeth.

Pidan only heard the second half, but he huddled next to me, trembling uncontrollably.

Lu Zelin wasn't used to drinking, and with a third of the wine still in his glass, his eyes had already turned bloodshot.

“I was abducted, and they planned to sell me, but I was old enough to remember things by then, and no one wanted to buy me. So, they broke one of my legs and one of my arms, forcing me to beg and earn money for them.”

Those kidnappers only cared about money. They thought I hadn't gotten enough money, so they made faces at me. It was basically just an iron cage that was strapped to my head.

After I was abducted, I was never full. But for six months after I put on the "ghost face," I ate boiled eggs and drank milk every day. I grew taller and fatter. The "ghost face" remained the same..."

"Stop talking!" Pidan cried, tears streaming down his face. "Those inhuman bastards should all be shot! Shot!"

The room fell silent for a moment. Lu Zelin picked up his wine glass and drank it all in one gulp: "Dad... Master found me and had all those people killed. But they were sent to a welfare institution."

Later... Master did some things. Of the six men and women, five were admitted to a mental hospital, and one committed suicide. Master sought doctors and various methods to heal my hands and feet, but he couldn't heal my deformed face.

Later, he took me to see Master Jinghai and also Master Xu. Master Jinghai said I was beyond cure. After Master Xu touched my face… Master Xu couldn't speak, so Aunt Yun spoke for him: 'This cannot be changed by the power of the mortal realm.'

"My second brother never told me about this." There was still hatred in Shen San's eyes.

Lu Zelin shook his head: "Back then, Master said he was willing to stay one more night at the inn, just in exchange for me living a normal life. It was Aunt Yun who relayed Second Master's meaning: 'That would ruin him. It's better to let him go and explore.'"

Master and Second Master originally had a good relationship, but that time, he fell out with Second Master, saying that Second Master had no children and didn't know how to think about the future of his children!
Second Master didn't speak, but Aunt Yun was angry. Outside the inn, the Yazi Taotie roared furiously into the sky... I was knocked unconscious by the shockwave, and when I woke up, I was already out of the inn.

(End of this chapter)