Chapter 65 Baby Crying: Why Aren't You Eating?
The bedroom was even colder and more gloomy than outside. Shen Zhenzhu lay on the bed, her face pale, but the temperature between her foreheads was unusually hot.
Chichi became even more excited as soon as it entered the house, anxiously moving its limbs, yet not daring to break free from the fragile leash, standing there anxiously, bleating incessantly.
"What's wrong with it?" Zhang Yue's worries were somewhat dispelled by Chi Chi's strange noises.
"It's alright, Madam Zhang, go outside and keep watch. I have a way to save her."
"Okay, okay." Zhang Yue trusted Jiang Yuzhi completely and nervously closed the door and left.
As soon as the door closed, Di Ting immediately activated the barrier. Jiang Yuzhi released Chi Chi, and Chi Chi excitedly pounced on Chen Zhenzhu's side, its little mouth wide open, almost twice the size of its head. It took a deep breath, and something was pulled out of Chen Zhenzhu's body.
Jiang Yuzhi quickly stopped the eating and swallowing, forcibly prying open the closed mouth and pulling out that last breath.
Chichi bleated loudly, clearly dissatisfied.
"Be good, once we find the owner of the aura, you can eat as much as you want."
He reluctantly accepted it, fuming.
As Shen Zhenzhu's complexion gradually returned to normal, Jiang Yuzhi felt relieved and turned to let Di Ting identify that trace of aura.
"It shares the same origin as the ones in the shop, perhaps because it's attached to a living person, its power has been amplified."
Indeed, the items in the shop were hidden in the corners of the brickwork, silent and unnoticed; you couldn't find them without prying up the bricks.
The aura attached to Shen Zhenzhu spread throughout the entire food stall.
Jiang Yuzhi held the constantly writhing wisp of breath in her hand.
Unable to break free, the breath tried to arch up and pierce her palm, but the golden thread on her wrist would not let it go, turning into energy of interlaced black and white light, slapping hard against the already weak breath.
Its arrogant demeanor was instantly suppressed, and it could only droop listlessly in Jiang Yuzhi's palm.
Di Ting stared dumbfounded at the interaction of the two beams of light, speechless for a long time. Jiang Yuzhi also fell silent.
Sensing its owner's ambiguous attitude, the golden thread silently withdrew its light and twisted itself into a crooked flower shape on the wrist.
Jiang Yuzhi: "...cough, thank you."
Jin Xian looked overjoyed and twisted out a few more flowers, convinced that Jiang Yuzhi would like them.
Jiang Yuzhi: "A-Ting, can you find the owner of this aura?"
Di Ting snapped out of his surprise and nodded.
Seeing that its owner was no longer looking at it, the golden thread maintained the shape of a few small flowers and stopped changing.
Jiang Yuzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhang Yue, who was guarding outside, didn't expect them to come out so quickly. She rushed forward, "Manager Jiang, my sister..."
“It’s alright now. Give her some water and food,” Jiang Yuzhi paused for a second, looking Zhang Yue up and down. “Also, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of Madam Chen.”
Zhang Yue nodded repeatedly, saying, "Okay, okay, I will, I will. Thank you so much, Manager Jiang. My sister and I owe you so much. Please don't hesitate to ask us for anything in the future. I won't see you off. May I go in and see her?"
Jiang Yuzhi: "Go ahead, go ahead."
Zhang Yue gave him a grateful look and quickly went inside.
Taking advantage of this lull, Jiang Yuzhi left silently, leading Diting and Chichi towards the direction of the aura's owner.
When Zhang Yue came out again, the heat outside had returned to normal.
Di Ting walked in the lead, following the lingering scent along the way, until it found a deserted house.
The doors of the neighboring houses were tightly shut, and passersby would rather avoid this house altogether.
In fact, Jiang Yuzhi's strange combination of a dog and a sheep made her an object of avoidance for pedestrians.
Just as Jiang Yuzhi was about to knock on the door, a neighbor was about to leave.
The tightly closed door creaked open, and a haggard-looking woman walked out, holding a child's hand and looking hurried.
Upon seeing Jiang Yuzhi and her group, the woman paused, a hint of wariness flashing in her eyes.
"Madam, has anything unusual happened to this household recently?" Jiang Yuzhi asked gently, trying to dispel the other party's hostility.
The woman hesitated for a moment, looked around, and seemed to have finally found someone to confide in. She lowered her voice and said, "Sigh, ever since this family moved in, I haven't had a good night's sleep. At night, I often hear crying and the sound of things being smashed. When I knock on the door to ask them to be quiet, the woman's face is as gloomy as a ghost. I only saw the man once when they moved in, with several people surrounding him. Sigh, I won't say anymore."
Jiang Yuzhi nodded, already having made up her mind: "Thank you."
The woman waved her hand dismissively, and after she left with the child, Jiang Yuzhi turned to look at Di Ting: "A Ting, are you ready?"
Di Ting nodded and took the lead, walking towards the tightly closed door. Jiang Yuzhi followed closely behind, holding Chi Chi's hand.
The door remained unmoved; after knocking twice, there was no answer.
Jiang Yuzhi and Di Ting exchanged a glance, and without tacitly, they extended a wisp of their ghostly power through the tight crack in the door. With Di Ting protecting them, they silently sneaked into the house.
Before long, that ghostly power returned.
Jiang Yuzhi's mind was filled with unfamiliar images.
The courtyard, which hadn't been cleaned in a long time, was desolate and empty, not like a place where anyone lived.
The room was unusually dark. Fortunately, Guili did not rely on sight to explore, and could vaguely see a figure lying behind the thick curtains. Guili cautiously peered inside.
On the bed was a thin man with hair like withered straw, cracked lips, and his hands and feet were tied up.
Soon, a woman entered, humming a little tune and walking briskly. Her hair was neatly tied up, and she was dressed like a respectable young lady. Her slender waist swayed unconsciously as she walked, and she was carrying a bowl of rice soup in her hand.
"Deng Lang, come and eat."
The man on the bed frowned, struggled to open his eyes, his face was bloodshot, and kept making threatening "scare scare scare" sounds, but his limbs were tied up.
The woman tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, walked to the bedside, and gently stroked the man's face. "What's the rush? I'm pregnant and I still have to take care of you. You should be understanding. Come on, Deng Lang, let me feed you."
A white porcelain spoon attempted to be inserted into the man's tightly closed mouth.
The man gritted his teeth and refused to cooperate.
"Why aren't you eating? Eat up, I made this especially for you."
The woman, who was originally gentle and kind, suddenly went crazy and pried open the man's mouth, forcibly pouring rice soup into his mouth.
The scene ends here.
Deng Lang? Jiang Yuzhi immediately thought of Deng Laosan.
Deng Laosan learned the Xue family's brewing skills and took away the Xue family's existing wealth. He shouldn't be living like this.
She was somewhat puzzled.
The woman with Deng Laosan was probably the one who had asked the sorcerer to suppress Xue Yi.
The woman's stomach was flat and her waist was slender, so she didn't look pregnant, although it's possible she was still in the early stages of pregnancy.
Recalling what the woman next door and Zhang Yue had said, Deng Laosan had been controlled by the woman before he moved here.
The source of the sounds of smashing and crying every night is unknown.
There's no point in standing outside daydreaming, and it's not appropriate to trespass on someone else's property in broad daylight.
Jiang Yuzhi led Diting and Chichi around to a small alley between two houses. Looking around to make sure no one else was passing by, she whispered to Diting, "Ating, I'll go through the wall. You find a way to get Chichi over there."
Having said that, he walked through the sturdy old wall as if it were nothing.
Di Ting felt that Jiang Yuzhi's demands were becoming more and more unreasonable. It was not difficult to enter the courtyard, but she also wanted to bring the food in.
Left with no other choice, Di Ting transformed into its original form, its four limbs and claws braced against the two walls of the alley.
If it were him, he could simply conceal his presence and leap in, but Chichi is different.
The Di Ting is too big to fit in the alley, and if it gets smaller, it can't carry the food.
It could only prop itself up on the wall, trying to reach for the food with its mouth and its tail, but the wall was too high and it couldn't reach it no matter what it did.
Chichi was frantically pacing around downstairs when her meal ticket suddenly disappeared!
Dogs have a harder time catching sheep that are wandering around.
After a stalemate that lasted for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, Jiang Yuzhi couldn't wait any longer and poked her head out from behind the wall. "Why haven't you come in yet?"
A white beast was stuck on the top of the wall, trying its best to keep its body low, while a little lamb was bleating and circling on the ground.
Jiang Yuzhi was embarrassed. "What...are you doing?"
Di Ting: "Find a way to bring the stupid sheep in."
Jiang Yuzhi: "Add a trick to it, make it come in from a wider area."
Di Ting: "..." I've been living a life of ease for too long, my brain can't even function properly anymore.
So, Di Ting transformed back into a white dog, concealed its form, created an illusion for Chi Chi, grabbed Chi Chi's leash, and led it out of the alley.
After seeing Jiang Yuzhi, Chichi stopped making a fuss and obediently walked behind Diting.
The situation in the courtyard was worse than Jiang Yuzhi had imagined.
The stench of various things rotting together assaulted my senses.
The keen-nosed Diting and Chichi couldn't stand it any longer, but they suppressed their instinct to leave and cautiously stayed by Jiang Yuzhi's side.
The small courtyard was neglected and overgrown with weeds, with unidentified small flying insects flying around.
The woman and Deng Laosan are probably still arguing inside the house.
Jiang Yuzhi followed the smell of decay to the kitchen.
Meat and vegetables that had been sitting inside for who knows how long were piled up on the stove and on the floor.
Flies and mosquitoes were flying everywhere.
Jiang Yuzhi almost vomited, not to mention the two strange beasts.
The ghost and two beasts quickly left the kitchen, only to turn around and encounter the woman who was coming out.
Jiang Yuzhi had no time to dodge and was penetrated by the woman's soul, causing both of them to shiver involuntarily.
The woman muttered softly, "Why did it suddenly get cold?"
The golden thread on Jiang Yuzhi's wrist was enraged. It pulled back the soul that was slowly gathering at the edge of the soul body, scrutinizing every single detail, while also trying to teach that woman a lesson.
Jiang Yuzhi miraculously understood the meaning of the gold thread and touched it reassuringly.
Actually, it's not a big deal if a living person passes through your soul. It's not like you've been maliciously attacked. The little bit of soul that's leaked out will come back on its own in no time.
The woman placed the porcelain bowl on the stove without any hesitation, casually picked out a piece of rotten meat from the pile, and hummed the same little tune as before, seemingly preparing to cook.
The sharp cleaver clattered on the cutting board, making a "thud" sound that blended harmoniously with an unknown melody, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Having come all this way, Jiang Yuzhi certainly didn't want to leave empty-handed.
No one saw them come in, so it wouldn't hurt to do something.
She looked at her empty palms; the lingering presence was long gone and could no longer be understood.
It's obvious that it has returned to its original form.
It is a state that mortals cannot see, but their voices can be heard.
Chichi was muted to prevent him from alerting the enemy.
Jiang Yuzhi and Diting exchanged a knowing glance.
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Author's Note: This is to make up for yesterday's update; there will be another chapter later.
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