Chapter 13
Mr. Li looked somewhat devastated, and that expression said it all.
"...You wouldn't have cooked that rice for us, would you?" Mr. Li asked, clinging to his last shred of hope. "That rice was contaminated with pesticides, you wouldn't do that, would you?"
But as soon as he asked the question, the other end of the phone suddenly fell silent.
Mr. Li took a deep breath and told himself to stay calm, but two seconds later, he couldn't help but speak.
"Mom, are you crazy? You dare to feed us rice that's been sprayed with pesticides? Aren't you afraid we'll die from eating it?" he questioned.
The main thing is that she not only cooked for them, but also ate it herself. She was the first person in their family to have nightmares and suffer from vomiting and diarrhea.
"Oh dear." The old mother was clearly displeased by her son's words. She said, "It's just some pesticide, it's nothing serious. The rice was washed with water before cooking, it was clean, what could possibly happen?"
Mr. Li was furious: "If it were really okay, how could our whole family be vomiting and having diarrhea?"
The old mother said, "Didn't we already say that we're possessed by an evil spirit? All we need to do is find a master to exorcise it for us!"
Mr. Li: "Go and throw away the rest of the rice right now..."
"Such a big vat of rice!" The old mother's voice was tinged with reluctance. "Didn't we wash the rice before cooking it? Even if there were pesticides, we washed them all off. What could possibly be wrong with it?"
Mr. Li's lips twitched slightly, and he couldn't help but say, "Our whole family has been vomiting and having diarrhea, and you call that no problem?"
The elderly mother said, "Didn't we say it was possession by an evil spirit?"
Mr. Li: Well, we've come full circle.
"...Wait for me to come back and I'll tell you." Mr. Li said this and hung up the phone.
He turned to look at Xu Gui behind the fortune-telling stall, then plopped down on the folding stool in front of the stall.
"Master, you are truly amazing!" he said with surprise and excitement. "You predicted everything perfectly! My mother really did put pesticide in the rice jar!"
Before making the call, he thought Xu Gui was making things up and talking nonsense. But after making the call, he became: Master, please accept my bow!
I got praised!
Xu Gui's lips curled up, and she raised her head high, saying proudly, "Of course, I'm a diviner. Whatever you want to know, I can calculate it for you!"
Mr. Li exclaimed, "I really thought my family was possessed by an evil spirit, but I never imagined that it was just my mom who accidentally spilled pesticide in the rice jar..."
The viewers in the live stream couldn't help but discuss Mr. Li's words:
[Wow, just as I suspected, judging from Mr. Li's reaction, Xu Gui was right again. It seems she really does have something on her.]
[Pesticides poured into a rice bin... Why does this story sound so familiar? Where have I heard it before? Did I travel through time?]
[What the hell? This sounds familiar because a similar incident made the news before, but that old lady put rat poison in her rice bin, which not only resulted in her whole family being hospitalized, but also caused the entire village to have a day trip to the hospital.]
[I know this news!! When I first saw it, I thought it was fake news, but after checking, I found it was true. So, this is the fundamental reason why AI can't replace humans, since who can be more abstract than humans?]
So, is this the pesticide version of the rat poison story?
Hmm, I'm starting to sense something subtle here. Not sure, I'll keep checking.
*
Mr. Li chatted with Xu Gui for a few minutes, then rushed home to deal with the rice in the rice jar—judging from his mother's tone, he was genuinely worried she wouldn't be willing to throw it away, and might end up hurting the family again.
"...Can I go with you?" Xu Gui suddenly asked.
Mr. Li: "Huh?"
He glanced at the paparazzi next to Xu Gui and suddenly realized, "Oh, I know! Master, you think my family's situation is newsworthy and that's why you want to film it, is that right?"
Xu Gui opened her mouth, as if to say that she didn't mean it that way, but she said, "I just thought that you might need my help later..."
"I understand!" Mr. Li said with an expression that said, "I understand perfectly, you don't need to explain further."
Xu Gui was troubled: ...What do you know?
Mr. Li continued, "I certainly wouldn't allow it from anyone else, but Master, you're no ordinary person. If you hadn't reminded me, I would have thought our whole family had been cursed. So Master, you can take pictures however you want!"
Xu Gui: "...Never mind, whatever makes you happy."
“But these days, even fortune tellers like you are doing live streaming, following the latest trends?” Mr. Li said with great interest, giving Xu Gui a thumbs up. “Master, your profession is keeping up with the times and is very trendy.”
Seeing his silly expression, Xu Gui remained silent: ...Let's just leave it at that.
She packed up her stall, skillfully asked the old man to watch it for her, and then called the photographer and Mr. Li to leave.
Old man: ...No, why are you asking me to watch your stall again?
*
Mr. Li lived nearby, and he led Xu and Gui home, talking to Xu as they walked.
“I genuinely thought my family members were possessed by evil spirits, and I never considered the possibility of poisoning…” Mr. Li said. “My mother has never been this careless before. Perhaps she has been in a bad mood lately, which is why this accident happened.”
Xu Gui casually asked, "Has your mother been in a bad mood lately?"
"Yes," Mr. Li nodded, "Although she didn't say it, I'm not blind, how could I not see it?"
Xu Gui then asked, "Did you ask her why she was in a bad mood?"
“Yes,” Mr. Li nodded again. “But she wouldn’t say. When I asked her, she said she wasn’t in a bad mood and that I was overthinking it… But the way she looked clearly showed that she was in a bad mood.”
Mr. Li lamented, "Maybe it's because I'm getting old, or maybe I'm going through menopause?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Gui's eyes flickered, and he pointed out a fact: "Mr. Li, you and your mother seem to have a very good relationship."
Mr. Li smiled and said matter-of-factly, "My mother raised me from a young age, so of course we have a good relationship. You don't know, when I was a child, I would get sick in the middle of the night, and she would carry me from the village to the town to seek medical treatment. She really sacrificed a lot for me!"
In the end, Mr. Li's tone was quite emotional.
Xu Gui seemed to be thinking, "I see..."
The three arrived at Mr. Li's apartment complex without incident. Mr. Li lived on the top floor, which had a large terrace. Upon hearing this, the paparazzi couldn't help but ask, "...Do you guys feed yourselves on the balcony?"
Mr. Li looked puzzled and said, "No...why do you ask that?"
"Nothing!" The cameraman chuckled dryly, determined not to explain why he had asked such a question.
He thought to himself, "Isn't this because you're afraid that if your family raises chickens, your mother will turn around and feed them rice that's been contaminated with pesticides, causing your family to be wiped out again? After all, this actually happened before."
...Clearly, the person filming was someone who had watched the news carefully.
Xu Gui and the others followed Mr. Li to his home. Mr. Li opened the door with his fingerprint and stepped aside to invite Xu Gui and the others in: "...This is my home, Master, please come in."
As he spoke, he called into the house, "Dad, Mom! Wife... I'm home."
Xu Gui and the others took two steps inside, then stopped abruptly.
Because Mr. Li and his family of four had all eaten rice that had been sprayed with pesticides, the whole family was vomiting and had diarrhea, and their faces were green. So when Xu Guihe went in to film, he was met with three other pale green faces.
Xu Gui: "..."
“…Goodness,” the cameraman muttered, “anyone who didn’t know better would think they had some kind of green light on their license.”
When the guests arrived, the Li family, despite feeling unwell, still managed to stand up and greet them: "Hello, please have a seat!"
Mr. Li's mother, a woman with gentle eyes and a tired expression, looked at Mr. Li and asked him expectantly, "Ah Jun, have you found a master to exorcise the evil spirits for us?"
Mr. Li was speechless for two seconds before saying, "You're still talking about this? Didn't I already say we're not possessed by evil spirits, we're poisoned... How could you cook rice that's been sprayed with pesticides for us to eat?"
"...What rice was sprayed with pesticides?" Mr. Li's wife caught the key point and looked at Mr. Li's mother: "Mom, what did you cook for us?"
Li's mother looked embarrassed and guilty, and dared not look at her.
Mr. Li also asked, "Xiao An, what did you mean by what you just said? What's the deal with the rice that was sprayed with pesticides?"
Li's mother dared not speak. Mr. Li glanced at her and could only tell her what his mother had done. After he finished speaking, the Li family's living room fell silent.
"So, we've been possessed by evil spirits these past two days, and you've been cooking rice for us with medicine in it?" Father Li laughed angrily.
Mr. Li's wife, Ms. He, murmured, "It's my fault. I only thought that the vegetables in the refrigerator might cause us food poisoning. I never thought that the rice might also be the problem!"
Who would have thought that the rice at home could cause health problems?
Hearing this, Li's mother stubbornly retorted, "We're still not sure whether we're poisoned or possessed."
Miss He didn't speak, only kept sneering.
Mr. Li felt a chill run down his spine and hurriedly said, "Mom, let's get rid of that rice quickly... He Yun, find a bag, let's empty the rice from the rice jar and throw it away."
He Yun responded and went to the cabinet to find the bag of rice.
Li's mother followed him into the kitchen, saying reluctantly, "So much rice, how much money is going to be wasted..."
Their family has a habit of hoarding food. They usually buy a few bags of rice and put them in a rice container to eat slowly, which has resulted in a lot of rice being stored in the container. Now all of this rice has to be thrown away.
“How could it be poisoning?” Li’s mother said. “I always wash the rice thoroughly before cooking, it’s definitely clean. Ah Jun, why don’t you find a master to take a look?”
Mr. Li, who was rummaging through the rice bin, stood up and said, "Didn't I already invite the master here? My family members are poisoned, not possessed. It was the master who told me this. Look, that's the master outside."
Li's mother turned her head to look behind her.
"Oh my, you must be the master!" She strode over, her figure passing Xu Gui who was standing there, and walked straight up to the paparazzi. Then she grabbed the paparazzi's free hand and said enthusiastically, "Master, you really look well-maintained and young and accomplished!"
Cameraman: ? ? Ah, are you calling me?
"Mom, this isn't the master!" Mr. Li hurriedly stepped forward to stop his mother, pointing somewhat awkwardly at Xu Gui and saying, "This is the master I found."
Li's mother looked at Xu Gui blankly, her face saying: ...Ah, her?
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