Feasibility of Mermaids Infiltrating Qilin

After intense discussions between Su Xingze and the Zhang family, the following contract terms were agreed upon:

First, Zhang Shenglin will succeed as the head of the Zhang family. After assuming the position, he must amend some unreasonable family rules.

Second, all members of the Zhang family must be loyal to the clan leader and must not do anything that threatens the clan leader's life.

Third, the Zhang family members must not question or disobey the clan leader's reasonable orders.

Fourth, the clan will no longer restrict the freedom of its members, but members should conceal their identities when traveling outside and must not expose the secrets of the Zhang family to outsiders.

Fifth, no matter where the Zhang family members are, they must always prioritize fulfilling the clan leader's orders whenever they receive them.

VI. The Zhang family does not belong to the clan leader alone. Every clan member should make efforts for the continuation of the Zhang family.

VII. The descendants of those who sign the contract will also automatically abide by its contents.

……

There were also some detailed terms. Su Xingze was certain that the Zhang family he inherited would not be an empty shell, so he asked the Zhang family members present to come up one by one to sign the contract.

With the guarantee of the contract, Su Xingze no longer obstructed the little Qilin's clan leader succession ceremony.

To become the clan leader, the little Qilin needs to enter a room alone, take a bowl of secret medicine, and then lie down in a pre-prepared coffin, where he will be led into the ancient building by his clansmen.

Zhang Shenglin left with the clan elder, glancing back at Su Xingze. Su Xingze winked at him, reassuring him.

He lowered his eyes with relief and followed the clan elder to the back of a dilapidated temple. There was an old temple building there, where a reclusive elder of the Zhang clan lived.

The clan elder who had led him there stopped in front of the back mountain, allowing him to enter the house alone.

Here, he lost his name and took on the responsibility of being the Zhang family's spirit bearer.

Turning around and walking out of the temple, the huge coffin was parked in the middle of the courtyard. Someone handed him a glass of red wine, which Zhang Shenglin drank without hesitation.

Afterwards, Zhang Shenglin entered the coffin, lay down quietly, closed his eyes, and the coffin lid closed, plunging him into darkness.

The coffin beneath him slowly rose, and he heard the sound of the withered branches and the barely audible footsteps of the Zhang family members.

He could feel a deep sleepiness welling up from the bottom of his heart, and the few memories he had left in his mind were dissipating like sand in an hourglass, impossible to grasp.

In the last blank space of his mind, only the white-haired, green-eyed boy smiling at him remained.

"Aze..." he uttered the name softly, but he didn't know why he was calling it that.

"I'm here."

A soft voice accompanied the sudden appearance of a warm body beside him, and the boy's slender body nestled gently in his arms.

"Aze." Zhang Shenglin wrapped his arms around the person on top of him, feeling the weight in his arms. The emptiness in his heart was instantly filled, and he stopped resisting and fell into a deep sleep.

The space inside the coffin was large enough that Su Xingze lay on Zhang Shenglin's chest, his ear pressed against his chest, listening to his increasingly slow heartbeat.

The coffin was still moving. He and the little Qilin nestled together as the silent members of the Zhang family carried them into the Zhang family's ancient building, which served as their burial site.

The coffin stopped, and Su Xingze heard the Zhang family's footsteps as they left.

In the endless silence, he leaned against the little Qilin, waiting for it to awaken.

After an unknown amount of time, the little Qilin's heartbeat gradually returned to normal. He slowly opened his eyes and met a pair of light green pupils.

“Aze…” Zhang Shenglin tightened his arms around the boy. No, it should be Zhang Qiling. He held him very tightly, as if he were holding the only thing he could have.

Su Xingze didn't move, letting him hold him, to ease his anxiety about losing his memory again.

His lack of resistance effectively appeased Zhang Qiling, who finally took action.

Zhang Qiling opened the coffin lid and sat up from inside the coffin. As he did so, one hand still tightly gripped Su Xingze's wrist.

The coffin was very large, over 1.5 meters tall.

Zhang Qiling pulled Su Xingze into his arms with force, lifted him up horizontally, and jumped down from the coffin.

Su Xingze finally got a clear look at the interior of the Zhang Family Ancient Building.

This is a very large space with four huge pillars standing in the middle of the hall, each carved with a qilin.

The entire hall was empty, with no stairs leading upstairs in sight.

Just as Su Xingze was wondering how to go up and down the ancient building, Zhang Qiling carried him to one of the pillars.

She released Su Xingze with one hand, but still supported him with the other, holding him like a child.

Su Xingze didn't resist, wrapping his arms around his neck and quietly watching him extend his slender fingers.

The Zhang family members all have long fingers, but not abnormally long; their fingers are slender with clearly defined joints, and faint blue veins are visible on the back of their hands.

This is a hand that is like a work of art, beautiful yet powerful, capable of easily crushing a person's throat.

He curled his fingers and tapped the pillars rhythmically a few times, then moved on to the next pillar and repeated the action.

It's worth mentioning that the order in which he chose the pillars was also deliberate, not following the usual order of distance. Even the number of times he struck the pillars, the rhythm, and the position were all different.

After knocking on all four pillars once, Zhang Qiling didn't stop. He continued knocking on the pillars, knocking on all four pillars three times.

The two clearly heard a 'click' sound, followed by the sound of the mechanism being activated.

The floor between the four pillars suddenly sank, and after the mechanism stopped, a staircase leading to the underground appeared in the center of the first-floor hall.

Without hesitation, Zhang Qiling picked up Su Xingze and walked down the stairs.

The staircase was long and dimly lit.

Su Xingze wrapped his arms around the little Qilin's neck, acting as a well-behaved accessory. He leaned against the little Qilin's shoulder, curiously looking at the bottomless staircase.

"Ah Lin, how did you know how to open the mechanism?"

Zhang Qiling's voice was calm, "You'll know when you see it."

Su Xingze nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that the Zhang family's patriarchal succession was more mysterious than he had imagined.

The crisp sound of footsteps echoed in the deep stairwell. If it were an ordinary person, walking on this seemingly endless staircase, they would have long since collapsed under the mental pressure.

Zhang Qiling remained calm throughout, his steps neither hurried nor slow.

Even seemingly endless staircases eventually come to an end. After an unknown amount of time, they finally saw a stone door.

Go down the stairs and step through the stone gate.

It was a long corridor, with countless silk threads running from both ends, and countless hexagonal bronze bells hanging from the threads.

Zhang Qiling took out a bronze bell and hung it on his waist. As he walked, the clear sound of the bell echoed in the corridor.

The hexagonal bells, arranged in a net-like pattern, move automatically even without wind, playing a mysterious and ancient melody.

Su Xingze leaned on the little Qilin's shoulder, closed his eyes, and hummed softly. The mermaid's song and the bell sound created a strange resonance.

In the secret room on the lowest floor of the Zhang Family Ancient Building, the new clan leader stepped into the ancient chamber, which held ancient secrets, amidst a grand welcoming ceremony.