Chapter 71 The Cradle Takes You Home
It was as dark as a moonless night, and I couldn't see my hand in front of me.
Looking up again, the beautiful white-haired boy was standing not far away. He turned his head and glanced in this direction, his eyes seemed to be filled with infinite sorrow.
Chang Xile saw him open his mouth and utter two words: "Goodbye."
She wanted to raise her hand, but her whole body seemed to be locked in a human-shaped shell and she couldn't move.
"Anping... Anping!" Chang Xile struggled for a long time. When she regained consciousness, she was already lying in Chang Leguan's guest room. As soon as she opened her eyes, she tried to get up, but was held down by the woman guarding her bedside.
"Don't move, be careful not to touch the wound." The woman's voice was cold, but very familiar.
"Aunt?" Chang Xile blinked, not even having time to think about why she was in Changleguan. She wanted to throw off the quilt and get out of bed. "Where's Anping? Where is Anping?"
Tang You frowned, a rare moment of anger. She raised her hand and placed a yellow talisman on Chang Xile's back. The girl, who had been clamoring to get out of bed, relaxed and fell backwards. Tang You reached out to support her back and carefully placed her on the bed.
"I don't want to control you either." Tang You carefully applied medicine to the wound on Chang Xile's face. She couldn't help but say, "But every time I see you, you make yourself so embarrassed."
God knows what Tang You felt when she opened the door and saw Chang Xile, covered in blood. Fortunately, Chang Xile's injuries only looked horrific; the scratches on her face weren't deep or long. It was just that she hadn't wiped them at the time, and the blood kept flowing, covering half her face.
The reason why Tang You did not send Chang Xile to the hospital but brought her back to Changleguan was to give her the best repair cream in the temple.
Chang Xile couldn't move at all, guessing it was the effect of the yellow talisman. The feeling was unbearable, like the sleep paralysis she'd felt earlier. She thought of Anping in her dream, wondering where he was now, if he was still abandoned in that small courtyard. Tears streamed down her face, washing away the ointment Tang You had just applied.
"...Okay, okay, stop crying. He was taken away by an old Taoist priest who said he was his teacher." Tang You couldn't bear to see her crying so hard. She had originally wanted to take Anping to the mountain with her, but she met an old Taoist priest with a beard on the way.
"That man said he knew Anping best, so I handed Anping over to him," said Tang You.
Upon hearing this, Chang Xile asked, "Is he an old Taoist with a mole on the corner of his mouth who likes to travel around the mountains?"
"Yes, you know him?" Tang You said, "The old Taoist said he has no fixed place to live, so I don't know where Anping is being taken to recuperate. You just need to know that he won't die so easily."
The person Tang You met was probably the old Taoist priest that Chang Xile saw in Xiaoyu Temple. Anping once said that this was his teacher, and all the information matched.
Chang Xile finally felt relieved and was in the mood to take care of other things: "Aunt, haven't you been busy all this time? Why did you come to Changle Mountain to see me?"
Tang You's expression changed, and before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door. The person knocking had a familiar tone, and without waiting for an answer, they pushed the door open and said, "Master, I've prepared the medicine. Is Xile awake...?"
Yang Guisi held the medicine and looked into the eyes of Chang Xile who was lying on the bed.
"Haha..." Yang Guisi smiled, "You're awake."
Tang You had just finished applying the medicine to Chang Xile. She stood up and said to Yang Guisi, "I still have things to do. You feed her the medicine."
Without waiting for the two girls to stop her, she hurried out the door, almost as if she was fleeing. Chang Xile looked at her from behind, and remembered that Tang You hadn't responded to her own question.
Chang Xile turned his gaze towards Yang Guisi and asked, "You call her...Master?"
"Isn't that what I call you, Master Kuxin?" Yang Guisi smiled. She also seemed to have something on her mind. She hurriedly avoided Chang Xile's question, picked up the bowl and scooped up the medicine with a spoon, and said to Chang Xile, "Come, I'll feed you the medicine."
Chang Xile blinked and asked her, "I'm under a spell and can't move. Can you help me take it off?"
Yang Guisi asked: "Then will you just run away?"
"Yes." Chang Xile confessed.
"...Drink this bowl of medicine first. How can you go down the mountain if you haven't recovered yet?" Yang Guisi helped Chang Xile up and leaned him against the pillow. While feeding Chang Xile the medicine, she slowly explained what happened.
That day, Yang Guisi was thinking about it over and over again, but she was still worried about Chang Xile, so she simply came to Changle Mountain to check, and happened to meet Tang You.
After hearing Yang Guisi's plan, Tang You immediately joined her in searching for Chang Xile. However, Changle Mountain was vast, and it would be difficult to search for a single individual just at the foot of the mountain near the river. Coincidentally, they encountered Li Chuanliu, an employee of the Abnormal Death Management Bureau, who was on a routine inspection of Changle Mountain.
A few days ago, Li Chuanliu had mentioned to Chang Xi that things had been going on at Changle Mountain lately. Worried, he submitted a request for approval and contacted the police, requesting a patrol officer to accompany him on patrol. While the higher-ups knew the request was to investigate unnatural incidents, the lower-level staff were kept in the dark. After all, patrols were about the streets and the mountains, so where was it?
When he heard that they were looking for Chang Xile, Li Chuanliu took out a compass and pointed it towards the place with the heaviest yin energy on the mountain, but the needle kept shaking and refused to point out the clearest direction.
"This means that there are several places on this mountain where Yin energy is concentrated, and the number is evenly matched." Li Chuanliu said, "One is on the mountain, and the other is at the foot of the mountain. Let's choose a direction."
Tang You chose the direction of the foot of the mountain without hesitation. Her reason was: "We are close to the foot of the mountain, and it will be faster to go down." When they arrived at the wooden house, they happened to see Chen Moxin holding a knife to hurt Chang Xile.
With both witnesses and evidence now in hand, Chen Moxin was immediately taken to the police station. Li Chuanliu, investigating the strong negative energy surrounding the area, discovered that the land surrounding the wooden house, extending outwards for a radius of 20 to 30 meters, was filled with cat remains.
For some reason, their souls gathered here and refused to disperse, causing the yin energy in this area to be much heavier than other places.
I heard that Li Chuanliu stood in front of the wooden fox statue in the cabin for a long time, and then said goodbye to go and take care of Chen Moxin's case as a witness.
Chang Xile was silent for a moment, then said to Yang Guisi, "Help me remove the talisman. I will drink the medicine."
Seeing her determined look, Yang Guisi took off the yellow talisman that was holding her body in place. Chang Xile took the bowl and drank the medicine in it. Then she huddled herself under the quilt and lay down obediently.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to go down the mountain?" Yang Guisi was a little surprised, but she quickly changed her tone and said, "Yes, yes, it's a good thing that you want to rest. It's already late, and you're injured. You can go down the mountain tomorrow, right?"
But Chang Xile endured the pain, pressed her lower abdomen, and asked Yang Guisi: "I have something I must do. Would you like to help keep an eye on me?"
"Of course I'm willing to help you. But...what do you mean by looking at your body?" Yang Guisi didn't understand.
"There's no time to explain. Anyway, my soul will leave my body in a moment. My body will lose temperature and breathing, but I will be back before dawn." Chang Xile said, then closed his eyes and instructed her, "If I don't come back before dawn, go find my aunt and call for help!"
"Ah?" Yang Guisi widened her eyes. She tentatively poked Chang Xile's body and was surprised to find that her body temperature was indeed slightly lower than that of ordinary people, and was showing signs of getting lower.
After Chang Xile's soul emerged from her shell, the pain from her injuries completely vanished. While she felt a sense of wonder, she could also see Yang Guisi's shocked expression. For Yang Guisi, who was usually so cool and seemingly unperturbed by the mundane world, this was a truly rare display.
But Chang Xile didn't have time to observe her friend's reaction. She quickly walked through the guest room door and headed down the mountain. As the night deepened, she didn't notice that Chang Xile was a little too quiet tonight.
When Chang Xile arrived at the wooden house in the afternoon, she saw some kittens with glowing souls in the area mentioned by Yang Guisi.
During the day, their bodies cannot withstand the scorching sun, so at night, these ghosts slowly emerge.
Chang Xile realized that all the cats were no longer alive. Although the impermanence did not need to breathe and walked silently, Chang Xile still stepped and breathed very lightly, for fear of disturbing them.
"Xiao Jia, is Xiao Jia here?" Chang Xile slowly approached the group of ghosts, carefully observing the reactions of each cat. Most of the souls were very indifferent and did not react to any disturbance from the outside world.
Chang Xile called out for a long time before finally seeing a kitten move its ears.
She floated towards the little cat soul and tentatively called out, "Xiao Jia?"
The kitten turned its head and meowed a few times.
Chang Xile was almost crying with joy. She understood the meaning of the words. It said, "It's me. What's wrong?"
"Your owner is Yang Shu." Chang Xile squatted down and said to it, "She misses you very much. Can I take you to see her?"
"Really?" Xiao Jia's eyes lit up immediately. He jumped twice excitedly, then stopped and turned back hesitantly, saying, "But... I can't leave here."
"Why?" Chang Xile asked.
"There's a big guy that wants to eat us all." Xiao Jia's body began to tremble. "Yesterday it was Shuang Ge, and in a few days it will be our turn."
All the cat souls here came from the cats killed by Chen Moxin. However, the number of souls was far less than the number of bones found by Li Chuanliu. After listening to Xiao Jia's words, Chang Xile understood why.
She is impermanent and can take her soul with her when she reincarnates. But if even her soul is crushed to pieces, wouldn't there be nothing left?
Chang Xile trembled slightly. She held back her tears and said to Xiao Jia in the most gentle voice, "It won't dare. I will protect you. I will let everyone come with me, okay?"
Xiao Jia looked at her. Even though she had been tortured by so-called humans once, she still naturally wanted to trust Chang Xile. This ghost rubbed against Chang Xile's calf obediently and said softly, "Okay."
Chang Xile breathed a sigh of relief. She had originally only planned to take Xiaojia to see Yang Shu. But now, she couldn't bear to leave any of the cat spirits alone. Everywhere she looked, some cats, having been dead for so long, had gradually lost their intelligence and stood silently in their places.
She raised her hand, and the soul-catching rope in her hand wove a large red net, gently gathering these souls like a cradle woven by a mother.
"Come on, I'll take you home," she said.
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