Nan Xian suddenly opened her eyes and subconsciously touched her throat.
A faint, metallic taste lingered in my throat, but the painful, suffocating sensation had vanished.
She regained feeling in her limbs and sat up, supporting herself on the bed. Two hard objects slid from inside her clothes onto the bedsheet as she moved.
She paused, picked them up, and used her phone's light to illuminate them.
It was a jade pendant broken into two pieces, with the little fox's face split open right in the middle.
Nan Xian was shocked, and her hands holding the shards trembled involuntarily.
She had heard a saying that after a protective treasure shields its owner from disaster, its own energy is exhausted, causing it to shatter or become dull.
Just minutes before, she had experienced sleep paralysis firsthand. Even though her consciousness was hazy, she now understood that she had just walked through the gates of hell.
And it seems that it was this jade pendant that saved his life.
She sat blankly on the edge of the bed for a long time, her mind in turmoil as if she were trapped in a maze, when suddenly a sharp pain came from her palm.
He opened his hand, revealing two cuts where he had been clutching the jade pendant fragment, from which blood was slowly seeping out.
The blood was a glaringly red.
"My little snake says...you have their favorite scent!"
"You'd better watch out, they've got their eyes on you."
"Sister, this is my most precious thing, I'm giving it to you..."
Ah Jiao's voice rang clearly in her mind again. Nan Xian suddenly closed her eyes, quickly got up, put on her clothes, rushed out the door, and scooped a ladle of water from the well.
Just as she was about to wash the blood off her palm, her wrist suddenly went numb, and the water ladle crashed to the ground, splashing her with icy well water.
"Oh dear!" A soft exclamation, tinged with surprise and guilt, came from behind her.
Nan Xian turned around, and the flashlight beam revealed the figure hiding behind the kitchen.
It was the "mop addict" who was spying on her in the woods that morning.
Upon being discovered, the "mop spirit" panicked, covered its mouth, and shrank back, its eyes darting around towards the direction of the back mountain.
Nan Xian realized she was trying to slip away, and quickly said, "Wait! I won't hurt you, don't be afraid!"
He then took out a small knife from his pocket, threw it on the ground, and opened his arms to her.
"Look, I have no weapons."
Upon hearing this, the "mop spirit" stopped what she was doing. She looked at the knife with a puzzled expression, tilted her head, and seemed not to understand what it was.
Nan Xian said, "I just want to ask you a few questions. Who are you? Why are you following me? And why did you stop me from using the well water just now?"
The "mop spirit" blinked but didn't say anything.
Nan Xian tentatively took a small step forward. "You—can you speak human language?"
She pondered for a few seconds and then shook her head, a few blades of grass falling from her messy, dry yellow hair.
"But you can understand, right?" Nan Xian's eyes lit up, and she quickly took a few steps closer. "Then I'll ask you a question. If it's yes, you nod; if it's no, you shake your head, okay?"
She didn't answer, but stared intently at Nan Xian, a conflicted look flashing in her amber eyes, her fingers twisting together.
Nan Xian wondered if she was unwilling to answer the question. Just as she was about to try to coax her a little more, she was surprised when the woman suddenly took a few steps forward and grabbed her wrist.
Her hands were cold and rough, covered with wrinkles like tree bark. Nan Xian was startled and instinctively tried to break free.
Who would have thought that this "mop spirit," who looked frighteningly thin, as if a gust of wind could blow it away, actually had ridiculously great strength.
Nan Xian stumbled as she was pulled, and before she knew it, everything blurred before her eyes. Then, it felt as if she had stepped onto a whirlwind, and the mountain path rushed past her feet. The cold wind made it impossible for her to even open her eyes.
Half a minute later, the "mop devil" let go, and Nan Xian, still dazed, came to her senses. When she opened her eyes again, the scenery before her had completely changed—
She actually went from the Qiao family's courtyard to the woods behind the mountain!
The reason she could see her surroundings clearly was because there was a kind of bioluminescent plant floating in the air.
They resemble miniature dandelions, their stems emitting a fluorescent green or indigo light. Their fluffy, soft tips sway gently to control their direction, and upon seeing a stranger, they all gather towards Nan Xian like playful children.
Nan Xian looked at them in surprise. Just as she was about to ask a question, she suddenly felt a churning in her stomach. She quickly turned around, grabbed the nearest big tree, bent over, and dry-heaved a few times.
The tree crown shook, and the exposed roots where Nan Xian stood sprang up from the ground, disdainfully avoiding her.
Nan Xian almost thought she was hallucinating. She blinked, made sure she wasn't seeing things, and felt her scalp tingle. She quickly stepped back.
"This tree is...alive?" she asked in astonishment, pointing at the large tree. "Mop spirit."
The tree paused in its shaking of its crown, then began to shake even more violently, its two thick roots slamming into the ground.
Nan Xian's eyelids twitched; her intuition told her that the tree seemed to be angry because of what she had said.
Seeing this, the "mop spirit" covered her mouth and giggled. After laughing enough, she reached out and patted the trunk of the big tree, whispering something to it in a strange language.
The tree, which had been quite agitated, gradually stopped shaking upon hearing this. Its roots returned to the soil one by one, and finally, a long branch reached down to pull the upturned soil back into place.
Nan Xian watched this scene with such astonishment that she didn't want to blink.
These must be the creatures from the other world that Situ Ting was talking about.
Based on Situ Ting's description at the time, Nan Xian thought that most creatures in the other world were ferocious or terrifying, or as chilling as the black snake in her dream.
Unexpectedly, they could be so cute and lively...
As Nan Xian sighed silently, the "mop spirit" had already swiftly climbed up the tree and quickly came down carrying a tattered piece of animal skin.
She unfolded the animal hide in front of Nan Xian. Nan Xian raised her hand and gathered a few glowing dandelions in front of her eyes. Looking down carefully, she saw that the animal hide was painted with many patterns, mostly of people and animals, using some kind of black dye.
"Mop spirit" pointed at one of the long-haired women and mumbled something.
Nan Xian naturally didn't understand, so she asked, "Do you know this person?"
"Mop Spirit" shook her head. She desperately wanted to express herself, but the language barrier left her scratching her head in frustration.
Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of Nan Xian's hand out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Nan Xian's hand that had been cut by the broken jade pendant. Her sharp nails slashed at the still unhealed wound, and blood instantly seeped out.
Nan Xian hissed in pain, but then she dipped her fingertip in a drop of her own blood and smeared it on the hair of the woman in the painting.
Nan Xian was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized—
"Are you trying to say that the woman in this painting also has red hair?"
The "mop expert" nodded vigorously.
Nan Xian seemed to realize something, and her expression changed slightly.
"She...is my past life?"
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