"Medicine Person"
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was the same stone door that the kite had moved. When she saw us, she wasn't surprised. She nodded slightly to Lan Feiyu, but ignored me. Then she stepped aside and made a small opening.
I had to squeeze past her, and suddenly Yuanzi lowered her head and whispered in my ear, "Zhao Xi!"
"Huh?" I stopped in my tracks, staring back at Yuanzi. The dark green in her eyes seemed to have brightened even more.
The sound startled Lan Feiyu, who was in front of us. She turned her head in confusion, her gaze sweeping from me to Yuanzi. Yuanzi pushed me inside and said indifferently, "It's nothing, come in."
I was a little confused, but once I entered the cave, my attention was drawn away, and I had no time to think about the kite's unusual behavior.
Looking ahead, I saw Sister Muqing kneeling on the ground with her back to the cave, her shoulders visibly trembling. I called out to her, but she seemed not to hear me. Yuanzi, who was beside me, said, "Her sister is dead."
I uttered an "ah" stuck in my throat. Although I didn't know Sister Muqing's sister, I had just escaped death these past two days and was still shaken. I felt how fragile human life is, and how a slight misfortune could mean the end of a loved one.
Thinking about it this way, my heart felt heavy. I tiptoed toward Sister Muqing, and when I got closer, I realized that she wasn't lying directly on the ground, but rather weeping over a body.
As my gaze fell upon the body, Iris's calm, unchanging voice came from behind me: "Master, she was killed by the 'Medicine Man'."
Then I saw clearly the body of Mu Qing's sister—or rather, her sister's corpse. It was so shocking that I quickly covered my mouth with my hand to stop myself from screaming.
It was vaguely human-shaped, but there was no trace of human features left. Apart from the tattered clothes on the corpse, every exposed part was like a purplish-black honeycomb, pitted and densely packed. When I accidentally glanced at what was originally the "face," I couldn't help but feel my scalp tingle. The facial features were completely indistinguishable, and it looked like a ghost or demon crawling out of the underworld.
"This...this..." My knees went weak and I almost fell to the ground. I turned around sharply and saw Lan Feiyu had also come forward. She was just as pale as I was, probably just as frightened as I was.
The exceptionally talented Iris remained calm and said, "When I found her, she was already like this."
Lan Feiyu licked her lips, her voice trembling uncontrollably: "Didn't you see that 'drug man'?"
Iris shook her head: "No. Didn't you say he didn't succeed?"
I couldn't help but interject: "'Medicine People' exactly? And... are all the people killed by 'Medicine People' dying in such horrific ways? Oh, and how do you know that this is Sister Mu Qing's sister?"
The one who answered me wasn't Yuanzi, but Sister Muqing herself. She finally straightened up from her grief over the corpse and choked out, "I can still recognize my sister's clothes... Why? Why did this child die so tragically!"
She clutched her head and screamed at the top of her lungs. After a short while, as if trying to relieve the unbearable pain, she clawed at her face with both hands, tearing bloody streaks in the process.
While I stood there dumbfounded, it was still Yuanzi who stepped forward, pulled up Sister Muqing, and with a palm raised like a knife, chopped down on the back of Muqing's neck. Muqing's eyes rolled back, and her body went limp as she fell into Yuanzi's arms.
Yuanzi picked up Mu Qing and walked into the cave. The fire was no longer burning inside, and no light penetrated the cave. Although it was daytime outside, it was dark inside. The girls huddled together, and Yuanzi gently placed Mu Qing next to them, saying simply, "Please look after her."
She waved to Lan Feiyu and me, signaling us to come with her to the cave entrance.
“We can’t stay here long. There are too many people, and we don’t know how long this hunt will last. It will be even harder for us to get food.” Iris got straight to the point. “I have to get them away quickly.”
"At night?" Lan Feiyu asked with a worried look. "But that 'drug man'..."
For a moment, even Iris fell silent. After a while, she pouted and asked, "Didn't you hear a single word about this beforehand?"
"No. And even if he knew, he would never have imagined that Asa would be so heartless as to use it in the hunting grounds. Wasn't he worried about being discovered by the Eastern Chu people?"
Yuanzi stared at Lan Feiyu, coldly snorted, and mocked, "You can't find out anything, yet you still want to stay by that bastard's side? Besides, Eastern Chu people, ha, isn't the one next to you an Eastern Chu person?"
Having said all that, I, a native of Dongchu, could no longer remain silent. I couldn't hold back any longer and cried out in a low voice, "Can I ask what happened? What is this 'medicine man' all about? What exactly is Prince Asa trying to do? Will my elder brother be in danger?... Tell me!"
Lan Feiyu and Yuanzi exchanged a glance, and Lan Feiyu said, "Let me talk to Xi'er."
Iris glanced at me, then without a word, brushed past me and walked into the cave.
When it was just Lan Feiyu and me left, I waited quietly for Lan Feiyu to speak, but she lowered her head and didn't say anything for a long time. My legs were aching from standing, and the wounds in my chest and abdomen seemed to be burning as the effects of the medicine weakened, so I simply knelt down and continued to wait.
Seeing this, Lan Feiyu sat down cross-legged beside me. She looked at me, hesitated several times before finally asking, "Xi'er, I can tell you all my plans and what's happening now, but you have to promise me that even if you don't want to have anything to do with me after hearing this and insist on returning to your Eastern Chu Prince's side, you absolutely cannot tell anyone anything I tell you this time, no matter who you tell it to."
I nodded and asked cautiously, "How do you want me to swear an oath? In my mother's name, is that alright?"
“No,” Lan Feiyu smiled at me, but the smile was more sad than happy. “You just need to promise me.”
“Yu’er,” I called out, feeling a flush rise to my cheeks. It was a little awkward to say, but there was a strangely sweet feeling in it. “You haven’t forgotten that we became sworn siblings, have you? I’m serious.”
Lan Feiyu's smile vanished after hearing my heartfelt words. I watched her swallow hard, mutter "This is different," and then suddenly raised her head, staring at me intently. "Didn't you want to know about the 'Medicine People' the most? Then let's start with the 'Medicine People'."
As I listened to Lan Feiyu's account, I became increasingly horrified. It turned out that the beggar I had seen die violently at the clinic that day was the work of the Second Prince, Xian Asa.
And this "drug person" is inextricably linked to that "black-hearted" person.
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