Chapter Five
It was almost midnight, and Fuxia Village had fallen into a deep sleep. Apart from the rustling of the wind through the treetops, the only sounds were the occasional snores of the villagers.
Baozhu crossed her arms, gazed at the moon in the sky, and waited impatiently.
She was a fox spirit, and fox spirits weren't exactly patient monsters. If what she wanted didn't happen tonight, she would vent all her anger on Li Zhi.
Baozhu turned around and looked at Li Zhi, who was fast asleep on the floor of the main room.
His long eyelashes lay obediently beneath his eyes, and his defenseless appearance was utterly endearing.
Baozhu stared at it for a long time before finally looking away.
It's not that I necessarily want to take my anger out on Li Zhi...
However, this village of Fuxia is indeed somewhat strange.
Baozhu naturally knew about everything that happened at Li Qing's house during the day, and she still had a vague impression of Zhang Yuniang, who had a long tongue.
In his previous life, Li Qing asked Li Zhi to repair the ancestral hall. As a female relative, Zhang Yuniang naturally came to the backyard to meet Baozhu. She was an ordinary village woman, illiterate, but with a natural cunning in her eyes—that is to say—
She could clearly live peacefully for many more years!
Baozhu racked her brains for a moment, then suddenly felt dizzy and her head was throbbing. She slumped into a chair and muttered to herself, "Why am I wasting my time?"
Lying in the chair, she looked up at the moon in the sky and watched it slowly rise to its highest point.
It's midnight.
Suddenly, a cool wind howled outside the courtyard.
A plaintive female voice rang out from outside the door: "Young master, please save me."
Just as I expected!
Baozhu leaped up, rolling up her sleeves as she walked. When she reached the gate, she flung it open and met the eyes of the woman with ten eyes and three mouths standing there.
"Save you?"
Baozhu tilted her head and punched one of the woman's ten eyes, smashing her head through with a "thud".
The woman screamed and quickly pulled her head out of Baozhu's hand, flicking her long tongue as she frantically drifted towards the village.
Baozhu snorted and followed, grabbing her long tongue from behind, and floating along with the woman whose brain had been punched like a dog.
In a short while, the woman led Baozhu to the old locust tree in the village. She lunged forward and instantly disappeared into the rough trunk of the old locust tree.
Baozhu couldn't stop her and watched helplessly as the ten-eyed woman merged into the old locust tree.
Could it be that the old locust tree has become a spirit and transformed into the Ten-Eyed Woman?
She slowly raised her head and looked at the tall, lush tree, whose age was unknown.
The silver poria flowers in front of every household in the village greatly influenced Baozhu, making her completely unaware of the secret hidden in the old locust tree.
Baozhu circled the old locust tree many times, trying to catch the Ten-Eyed Woman again.
Unfortunately, the Ten-Eyed Woman did not reappear. Instead, the geese in the neighboring villager's house heard the commotion and started honking again.
Seeing that a goose was about to wake up the village dogs, Baozhu was furious. Recalling the last time, it seemed that this goose had cawed first. She was so angry that she went into the yard of this house, wanting to fight it.
The family's goose was spreading its wings, head held high, and honking loudly when suddenly a figure appeared, reached out and pinched its beak, and the goose's honking stopped abruptly.
The goose stood frozen in place.
Baozhu snorted coldly, grabbed the goose's long beak and shook it up and down and side to side, and muttered, "Serves you right for being so loud."
The goose was so dizzy from being shaken that it could only barely flap its wings to maintain its balance.
The two little creatures' commotion in the yard naturally alerted the homeowner. An old woman with white hair picked up an oil lamp, shakily pushed open the door, and peeked into the yard.
There was nothing in the yard except her goose, which seemed disoriented, flapping its wings and spinning in circles.
The old woman looked around, and although the yard was calm, she did not go back into the house.
Holding an oil lamp in her wrinkled hands, she slowly walked from inside the house into the courtyard.
In her yard, you can see the old locust tree as soon as you look up. Even though she has just gotten out of bed, the old woman's white hair is still perfectly in place. She stands in the yard for a long time, listening to the soft sound of the wind blowing through the treetops.
She silently looked up at the old locust tree.
After a long while, the old woman lowered her head and slowly returned to the house, just as she had come.
Before she closed the door, Baozhu, who was perched on the courtyard wall, saw the two memorial tablets enshrined in the main room.
They are her husband and daughter.
Something felt off, but Baozhu couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Unable to find the Ten-Eyed Woman, Baozhu quietly drifted back to Li Zhi's house.
Li Zhi was still fast asleep.
Baozhu carefully stepped forward and gently sniffed his face.
Suddenly, her eyes widened, as if she had smelled something.
It was a faint, resentful malice that lingered in Li Zhi's eyes, trying to penetrate deeper into his body.
Baozhu took a deep breath, just like yesterday, and wiped the resentment from Li Zhi's eyes.
In an instant, the barely perceptible gloom on Li Zhi's face vanished.
"well."
After doing all this, Baozhu was already quite tired.
The little fox slumped to the ground, completely losing his composure, and muttered to himself, "I wonder what your aunt will do tomorrow?"
After resting for a while, Baozhu moved to Li Zhi's side, propped herself up to look at his face, and whispered, "What did you do to offend your uncle's family that made her risk her life to cast such a vicious curse on you?"
As she spoke, she gently tapped Li Zhi's face with her finger.
But Li Zhi was immersed in the dream that Baozhu had created for him using secret magic, so he naturally couldn't answer her.
Moreover, this secret technique seems to have backfired.
Baozhu felt sleepy, and in her hazy state, just like in her previous life, she rested her head on Li Zhi's shoulder, curled up, and quietly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, before dawn, Li Zhi opened his eyes.
After the moment of confusion disappeared, he felt a heavy weight on his shoulder, and a warm, living thing was leaning against him, breathing.
Her breath brushed against his neck, sending shivers down his spine.
An indescribable feeling welled up in Li Zhi's heart. Afraid of waking the person beside him, he stiffly remained in his original posture, not daring to move.
After an unknown amount of time, the outside world grew brighter, and Li Zhi felt the pearl move slightly.
So he closed his eyes, pretending to still be asleep. When Baozhu woke up beside him, she first gasped, then whispered in annoyance, "How did I fall asleep..."
Li Zhi felt a lightness on his shoulder as Baozhu silently disappeared from his side.
After a while, Li Zhi slowly opened his eyes.
He sat up from the hard ground, stretched his somewhat stiff body, and as if he had just woken up, naturally greeted Baozhu, who had already come to the main room, with a "good morning."
Baozhu carefully observed Li Zhi and, seeing that he seemed unaware that she had accidentally fallen asleep leaning against him last night, breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Zhi pretended not to know.
He frankly asked Baozhu if she slept well last night, and then suggested that he could take Baozhu to find Li Qing.
"I suppose my uncle is the most composed person, and he is probably already capable of handling affairs today."
Baozhu responded, her eyes darting around. She turned and took a small bundle from the inner room, then followed Li Zhi toward Li Qing's house.
This is the time when the villagers begin their day's work.
Along the way, Li Zhi and Baozhu arrived at Li Qing's house, facing countless overt and covert surveillance.
Li Zhi stepped forward and knocked on the door.
A moment later, Li Yao opened the door with a dark face. When he saw that it was Li Zhi, he had no intention of welcoming him. Instead, he became even more unhappy and stood in the doorway, muttering, "You scholar are utterly useless. My mother is even worse today than yesterday."
Upon hearing this, Li Zhi's expression remained unchanged; he simply cupped his hands and said, "I've come to find my uncle."
As he spoke, he stepped aside, revealing the precious pearl behind him that was covering his nose—the smell in Li Qing's house was too strong, and the fox demon really couldn't stand it.
"I met this young lady by chance on the mountain today. She was all alone and had lost her servants. I heard that she went to Xia Village to find her relatives, so I brought her here to ask my uncle for information."
Li Yao didn't listen to a word Li Zhi said. He stared straight at Baozhu's face, his displeasure vanishing and replaced by a silly grin.
“Miss…” Li Yao chuckled, completely leaving his mother behind.
Li Zhi frowned and then hid the pearl behind him again.
This completely enraged Li Yao. He glared at Li Zhi with his wide-open eyes, and opened his mouth to shout insults.
"Master..." Seeing that Li Yao seemed to be losing control, a timid female voice came from inside the room, "Father wants my cousin to go to the study."
The curses stuck in Li Yao's throat. He stood there comically, scratching his head in bewilderment.
Li Zhi took a step forward, pushed Li Yao aside from the doorway, and protected Baozhu behind him as they walked towards the study.
Baozhu covered her nose, enduring the extremely strong floral fragrance, and glanced back.
Not far away, a thin, white-haired old woman watched them quietly through the thick trunk of the old locust tree.
Baozhu turned around, and Li Yao slammed the door shut, cutting off that view from outside.
But Baozhu's strange feeling grew stronger.
In the study, Li Qing examined the travel permit that Baozhu handed him with suspicion, and then squinted to carefully scrutinize Baozhu's face.
After looking him over and over again and finding nothing wrong, Li Qing relaxed a bit and asked, "What is your relative's name?"
Baozhu said, "They are my mother's relatives."
She described the white-haired old woman she had seen the previous night.
Li Qing frowned, uttered an "oh," and tightly gripped the precious pearl's travel permit in his hand, seemingly lost in thought.
Baozhu was naturally not afraid. The travel permit was genuine and belonged to the mortal lady whose identity she had impersonated. That lady had indeed been murdered by villains on her way to find her relatives, and her body was already cold. No one could expose her.
After a moment of silence in the study, he came to his senses and explained, "You must be talking about Sister-in-law Wang. She lives under the old locust tree, the one that raises geese."
Baozhu responded, covered her nose, and retreated behind Li Zhi.
Li Qing glanced at Li Zhi, paused for a moment, and said, "Your aunt is in even worse shape than yesterday."
Li Zhi said with concern, "Since you're here, I'll go and visit you..."
Li Qing interrupted him, saying, "No need. She has pterygium in her eyes; it's really unsightly."
Upon hearing this, Baozhu, who was inhaling through her mouth, secretly pursed her lips, fully understanding the reason for the long shadow in her eyes.
“This.” Li Zhi, standing in front of Baozhu, wore a heavy expression. “Alas, what should we do?”
“This is her fate, our family’s fate.” Li Qing’s body slumped, and he picked up his teacup. “We all accept our fate.”
Since his uncle didn't want to talk about it anymore, Li Zhi led Baozhu away from Li Qing's house. As soon as they stepped out of Li Qing's house, Baozhu walked straight in one direction.
Li Zhi was puzzled and followed behind Baozhu.
Baozhu gracefully carried a bundle and calmly knocked on the door of a house under the old locust tree where geese were honking.
The door had barely opened a crack when Baozhu squeezed inside.
"Aunt, I am Baozhu."
The white-haired old woman was taken aback. Just as she was about to retort, her vision suddenly blurred.
Baozhu blinked, took the old woman's hand, and heard her say in a daze, "It's Baozhu."
"yes."
Baozhu agreed, then turned back and smiled at Li Zhi.
"Young master, thank you for these past two days. I have found my aunt and am staying at her house."
"Good, that's a good thing."
Li Zhi smiled gently, his hands clenched into fists behind his back.
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