Chapter 177 Troubled
"Really? You already know about this..."
Next to the destroyed wooden house, Zenitsu, without saying a word, took a prosthetic limb he found from the ruins and carefully helped Grandpa Kuwashima put it on, while Kuwashima had a look of loss on his face and whispered to the wolf.
After learning that Akaza had already told Kuwashima and the others about Gyotake's betrayal, Lang did not hide the truth and told Kuwashima that Gyotake was not dead, but was beaten and crippled by Akaza and was rescued by Lang.
Zenitsu, who had just stood up after helping Grandpa Kuwashima put on his prosthetic limbs, changed his expression slightly after hearing Wolf's words. He didn't expect that Xuanya, who was looking around and didn't care about Gion at all, immediately noticed that something was wrong with him.
What's wrong with this guy?
A trace of hesitation flashed across Kuwashima's sad face, but it was immediately replaced by worry the next moment. He stood up and ran down the mountain. Zenitsu on the side wanted to catch up with him, but he could not take a step.
Finally, Xuan Mi looked at Zenitsu with a puzzled look, and then quickly chased after him to prevent the old man from having any accidents on the snowy mountain at night.
Suddenly, only Wolf and Zenitsu were left on the open space on the top of the mountain.
Glancing at the broken wooden house behind him, Wolf recalled what old man Sangdao had just described to him. Wolf roughly guessed that the other party was coming for him.
After thinking about it, he thought that the wooden house was damaged because of him. Thinking of this, the wolf slowly walked towards the peach forest, and Zenitsu hesitated for a moment, but finally followed.
By the time Zenitsu caught up with the wolf, the other party had already cut several peach trees in half, cut off some of them and whittled them into stakes, which were piled aside, ready to repair the collapsed house for the two of them.
Shanyi naturally knew the intention and didn't say much. He just sat aside, picked up the piece of wood cut by the wolf, took out the small knife the wolf gave him for carving, and started carving silently.
But no matter how hard he carved, the block of wood in his hand could never be carved into the shape he wanted. From time to time, his eyes looked in the direction where Xiyue was being eaten by the "dead", and the expression on his face became more and more conflicted.
Finally, Zenitsu, who could no longer bear the restlessness in his heart, dropped the carving knife and the block of wood in his hands, and shouted to the wolf who was chopping a tree with a wagimaru.
"Xiao Yue! He has already...already been...killed by me..."
After saying this, he knelt on the ground like a deflated balloon, tears dripping from his eyes, and he gradually curled up into a ball and trembled.
The wolf who was chopping trees nearby stopped what he was doing after hearing this, turned his head slightly to look at Zenitsu beside him, opened his mouth slightly, then turned back and continued chopping trees.
“…Is that so…What a pity…”
After hearing the wolf's words, Zenitsu's voice became even lower than before, as if he wanted to burrow into the mud. He didn't dare to raise his head, but just whispered in a crying voice.
"Why...why...why would he hate Grandpa so much...Grandpa...has always regarded him as his pride!"
The wolf remained silent as he whittled the wood, and Zenitsu's inferiority complex, which had been hidden beneath his previous rage, was now exposed, and he lowered his head and continued speaking.
"I couldn't stand it... everything he did to Grandpa... so I deliberately didn't save him when he was attacked by the monster... But Grandpa would definitely be sad because of Xiao Yue's death... Was what I did right..."
With that, Zenitsu curled up on the ground, avoiding everything in front of him, and Wolf, after learning that Zenitsu didn't do it himself, turned his attention to the other party again.
After staring for a long time, Wolf sighed lightly, put the wedge pill in his hand back into his waist, walked in front of Zenitsu, and spoke to him slowly.
“…You didn’t kill him.”
And Zenitsu continued to refute with his head down and crying.
"…I was just running away…"
"Tsk...Xiao Yue...where is he now..."
Hearing the question, Zenitsu raised his head and looked blankly at the wolf in front of him with a frown on his brows.
A moment later, the two came to Gion, who was left with only a skeleton. Wolf picked up the magatama decoration next to him and threw it into Zenitsu's arms.
Just as Zenitsu hurriedly caught the decoration and looked at the magatama in his hand with a conflicted look on his face, Wolf crushed the opponent's skeleton with one foot, and then kicked the bone residue into a pit that had been dug at some unknown time.
Watching the wolf doing all this, Zenitsu was completely stunned, as if he was struck by lightning, leaving him burnt on the outside and tender on the inside.
When he came to his senses, the wolf had already started filling the pit nearby.
"What the hell are you doing all of a sudden!!!"
With a loud shout, the startled Zenitsu opened his mouth wide, stuck out his tongue, and his eyes bulged out. He stood up and pounced on the wolf.
The wolf dodged sideways, calmly stepped on the big hole in the ground, and said to Zenitsu who fell to the ground.
"… Now that things have come to this… the most important thing is not to make Mr. Kuwashima sad…"
Getting up from the ground, the dusty Zenitsu listened to Wolf's explanation and for a moment he didn't know how to refute. Looking at the magatama decoration of Inoue in his hand, Zenitsu and Wolf stood in the fine snow for a long time.
Until the traces of concealment on the ground were covered by snow, at this time, Grandpa Kuwashima's anxious call and Xuanmi's helpless cry came from the bottom of the mountain.
Hearing his grandfather's voice, Zenitsu immediately got up from the ground, shook off the snow on his body, and after looking at the wolf, he shouted in the direction where the two voices came from with an unnatural look.
"We are here!"
A moment later, Grandpa Kuwashima stood in front of Zenitsu, took the magatama handed to him with trembling hands, looked at Zenitsu who lowered his head, and said in a trembling voice.
"You mean, that kid Xiao Yue has been here before... and because Wu Yan continued to stay in the sect... he went down the mountain on his own..."
Listening to his grandfather's question, Zenitsu nodded slightly and agreed silently.
"Um…"
Grandpa Kuwashima turned his head and looked at the expressionless wolf beside him, his face full of questions, and the wolf naturally nodded silently in acknowledgment.
Xuan Mi, who was standing by, looked at the three people with an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?" Then, Wolf looked at them with a look that said, "Mind your own business," and pulled Xuan Mi over to join him in cutting wood.
Seeing this, Kuwashima let out a long breath, with mixed emotions in his eyes.
He was not a fool. He could see through such a clumsy lie. He thought that Xiao Yue was in great danger... But...
Looking at Zenitsu in front of him, Kuwashima gently placed his hand on Zenitsu's lowered head and forced a smile at the corner of his mouth.
"That's it...then I'll feel relieved..."
Zenitsu reached out and held Grandpa Kuwashima's rough hand, looked up and looked at his grandfather, his eyes full of determination, and said seriously.
"Grandpa, I will definitely work hard to become your pride in the future."
As soon as he finished speaking, the fine snow stopped falling from the sky, and the thick cumulus clouds in the sky dispersed. A ray of sunlight shone through the scattered clouds, landing in the devastated peach forest and illuminating the master and disciple.
Gently patting Zenitsu's head, tears welled up in Grandpa Kuwashima's eyes.
"Grandpa believes in you."