As he said this, the Lost Soul suddenly froze, then muttered under his breath, "Who is Ge Junma? Why do I feel like I've seen this person before…"
Sun Tiecheng said, "Let's not talk about Ge Junma yet, let's talk about you first. Are you the toad or not?"
The Lost Soul's expression went slack in waves, and he mumbled, "I'm not the toad, Ge Junma is the toad. I'm most afraid of Ge Junma."
His voice changed, no longer like Zhang Gunli's. It turned sharp and piercing, with a bit of a jumpy tone.
Sun Tiecheng said, "Why're you afraid of him, we're good friends. If he bullies you, we'll beat him up together!"
"Can't beat him, we can't take him," the Lost Soul turned his face to look at Sun Tiecheng. "Who are you again?"
Sun Tiecheng said, "I'm your good friend, your good friend from a bitter background!"
"Good friend from a bitter background," the Lost Soul fell into thought. "Do I even have friends? Don't you all look down on me?"
"I think highly of you, I really treat you as a friend!"
"You treating me as a friend is useless," the Lost Soul kept shaking his head. "I'm one of the Lower clan people, I'll be Lower clan people my whole life."
Gui Jianchou stared, so stunned he forgot what he was supposed to be doing.
In the blink of an eye this Lost Soul had become another person, from Zhang Gunli into someone with an unknown identity.
Zhang Gunli was born poor, went from herding sheep to lending money, and people who knew him always teased him about that.
But now he was saying he was one of the Lower clan people.
"Lower clan" is how they say it in the Inner State. How did he suddenly become one of the Inner State People?
Sun Tiecheng kept on casually chatting with the Lost Soul. The two of them were talking heart to heart, like they really were friends from a past life.
"What's wrong with being Lower clan people?" Sun Tiecheng punched the Lost Soul. "I'm Lower clan people too, I don't feel like I live lowly."
"You don't feel that way?" The Lost Soul snorted. "What good is that? Do the Upper Clan give you a proper look?"
Sun Tiecheng said, unconvinced, "You think I'm dying for them to look at me properly?"
"You're not dying for it, I am! I'm the best fighter among my peers, why should I let them look down on me? I'm going to become Upper Clan! I have to!"
Sun Tiecheng snorted coldly. "You're gonna become Upper Clan? You can change your Bloodline or what?"
"I can, I changed it, you don't know, do you!" The Lost Soul looked at Sun Tiecheng. "I've already changed my Bloodline. I'm not called Huang Zenan anymore, I'm not that grasshopper anymore, my name is Huang Zenan! I'm Upper Clan now!"
"Tsk tsk tsk!" Sun Tiecheng looked at the Lost Soul with disdain. "You change a name and that makes you Upper Clan?"
The Lost Soul shook his head over and over, leaned in close to Sun Tiecheng, and said very earnestly, "It's not changing the name, it's changing the stock. I changed my Bloodline!"
"Bloodline can be changed?"
"It can! But you have to do something big. If you can't get this big thing done, they'll have to change me back."
"What big thing?"
The Lost Soul lowered his head and said, "I can't tell you."
Sun Tiecheng hooked both hands into his sleeves and squatted down next to the Lost Soul. "Aren't we childhood buddies? As close as real Brothers? I only got my start because you lent me three hundred Ocean Dollars!"
The Lost Soul stared blankly at Sun Tiecheng as two strands of memory churned over and over in his mind.
There had originally been a clear Boundary between those two strands of memory, but it was as if Sun Tiecheng had taken a spoon and slowly stirred them together.
"We really are good friends?" The Lost Soul looked at Sun Tiecheng. His tone changed again, not as steady as Zhang Gunli's, but not that jumpy either.
"Yeah, you herd sheep, I hunt!" Sun Tiecheng nodded repeatedly.
"Mm, we're good friends." The Lost Soul also kept nodding. The two strands of memory fused together within a reasonable range.
Sun Tiecheng said, "If you've become Upper Clan, shouldn't you pull me up too? What exactly did they have you do? Point me to a path too!"
The Lost Soul's voice started getting jumpy again. He spoke mysteriously, "I'll tell you just this one thing, you mustn't tell anyone else. If you want to become Upper Clan, first you have to put your body into a furnace and burn it."
Sun Tiecheng listened carefully. "And after it's burned?"
"After it's burned, it turns into water, then gets recast."
"And after it's recast?"
"After it's recast, you become different, you become another person. Then you burn the Soul again just like the body.
I passed out from the pain. When I woke up, I had become another person, I had become Zhang Gunli. I remembered everything about him, really remembered, just like it was my own life."
Sun Tiecheng asked again, "Then your own stuff, do you still remember it?"
"At first I still remembered. Later an Upper Clan person came, named Luo Shigang.
You know the Luo Family people, they're Upper Clan, their status is really high. He gave me medicine. After I took the medicine, I couldn't remember anymore, I couldn't even recall what my own name was."
"And then?"
"Then I remembered again that my name was Zhang Gunli, I was a moneylender, I was from Puluo State.
At first I thought People of Puluo State lived low, but later I felt it wasn't low, because I was People of Puluo State, I had been since I was little.
I went out to lend money on interest, counting my IOUs one by one, making them pay me back.
Other people's money wasn't the main thing, I had to think of a way to get Feng Chongli's money back, I had to get his money back."
The Lost Soul's tone began to steady, as if he had become Zhang Gunli again.
Sun Tiecheng said, "What's so special about his money?"
The Lost Soul said very seriously, "Special, his money is the most special. If he can't pay it back, he has to introduce me into Snowflake Beach.
Once I get into Snowflake Beach, the big job is half done. Then I'll figure out all the intel on Snowflake Beach, and bring our people in to wipe Snowflake Beach out. That'll count as me earning great Gong. After that, I'll be Upper Clan!"