After returning to town, Li Mai and Zhou Quan went to a teahouse for tea.
A teahouse is a microcosm of the martial arts world, where you can hear many interesting stories about the martial arts world.
Li Mai had seen documentaries that said the same thing before, and she really wanted to experience it for herself. Well, here comes the opportunity!
To experience the true hustle and bustle, the two found a small table in a corner on the first floor, ordered a pot of tea, a plate of snacks, and a plate of melon seeds, and slowly began to enjoy themselves.
This was Zhou Quan's first time in a teahouse, and he found it quite novel. After pouring a cup of tea for Li Mai and himself, he looked around the entire teahouse, eager to broaden his horizons.
He felt he had broadened his horizons a lot by going out with Li Mai these past few days.
Although he used to travel frequently, the people he interacted with were all manual laborers. He had never really squeezed into the world of the wealthy.
Looking at Li Mai's calm demeanor in the face of these things, as if she had witnessed them before, he admired Li Mai's competence and composure from the bottom of his heart.
But then he thought, this amazing girl is his wife, and he felt a surge of joy.
Li Mai took a sip of tea, looked at Zhou Quan who had a smile on his face, and asked, "What's wrong? Why are you smiling so happily?"
"This is my first time in a teahouse!" Zhou Quan leaned closer to her and whispered.
Li Mai understood. In the past, when he went out to work, he earned hard-earned money and would definitely not be willing to go to teahouses or restaurants.
"It's alright, I'll show you more things in the future," Li Mai said with a smile.
“Okay!” Zhou Quan’s eyes shone brightly as he looked at her, and he quietly took her hand under the table.
Li Mai smiled and didn't say anything. The two continued to drink tea and listen to the storyteller's lively narration, as well as the surrounding people's discussions about what was happening in the town and the martial arts world.
"By the way, have you heard about the strange things that happened at the Yang residence last night?" The voices of several young people at the next table came over.
"The Yang family, that Miss Yang's family?" someone asked.
"Yes, Miss Yang hosted a poetry gathering the other day at her house."
"What strange thing happened at her house?"
"I heard that a servant boy and a maid died in her household last night. Normally, that wouldn't be anything unusual. What's unusual is the strange way they died. This morning, the coroner at the yamen told me that after they died, all their internal organs were gone. The coroner found it strange, so he cut open their stomachs and found that their bellies were empty. Their internal organs were gone—their hearts, livers, lungs, intestines, and stomachs were all gone. Yet, the expressions of the deceased were very peaceful, as if they had not suffered any pain when they died."
"Huh? That's terrifying?" The others turned pale upon hearing this; the manner of the death was frightening and horrifying.
"Did the coroner say what the cause of death was?" someone else asked.
The man said, "With no intestines left, what else could be the cause of death? Something must have crawled into your body and eaten it, right?"
When Zhou Quan heard about this, he frowned slightly and looked at Li Mai. He was afraid that Li Mai would be scared if she heard it, but he found that Li Mai was staring blankly at the teacup. He was not sure if Li Mai had heard what those people said.
“Xiaomai, you heard that too?” Zhou Quan leaned closer to her and asked.
“Yes, I heard you.” Li Mai looked at him and nodded.
"What do you think is going on?" Zhou Quan asked in a low voice.
Li Mai said softly, "The deceased had a peaceful expression, as if they had not suffered before death. There is only one possibility: they died naturally in their sleep, and their internal organs were lost after death."
"Then how do you think those two men's internal organs were lost, Madam?" At this moment, a man who was sitting at another table next to them, drinking tea, sat down next to Li Mai with a teacup and teapot and asked curiously.
Li Mai glanced at the other person. He was well-dressed, around thirty years old, and had thin calluses on his hands, so he must be a martial artist. It was no surprise that he had overheard her and Zhou Quan's conversation.
At this moment, the young men who were talking about this also heard what the man said and immediately surrounded him. "Did you hear what we were saying? What does the lady think is going on? This has been the talk of the town all morning."
Li Mai glanced around at the crowd gathered in the small corner. "I'm not a professional coroner, and I've never seen a corpse before, so I don't know the specifics. But I think the peaceful facial expression, without any sign of pain, means the person must have died in their sleep. Removing internal organs is incredibly painful, and the human face is full of nerves. If a person dies alive from the pain of having their internal organs removed, it's impossible for their face to remain expressionless. I think the coroner should understand this as well."
"As for how the internal organs were missing, we need to carefully examine the body. If we can't find any wounds or signs of being cut open on the body, then there is only one possibility, just as that young master guessed: insects entered the body through the nostrils or anus and ate away the internal organs."
"However, ordinary insects don't have the ability to eat a person's internal organs overnight, so it's very likely that it's a Gu worm. It's said that some sects secretly raise Gu worms to control disobedient disciples. Of course, it's not impossible that they also raise Gu worms to deal with enemies."
After Li Mai finished speaking, everyone seemed to be deep in thought.
In fact, Li Mai had also seen this kind of insect during the apocalypse, except that it was a mutated gluttonous insect, the size of a fingernail, which could eat a person's flesh in an hour without changing its size.
"So, Madam knows which sect has Gu worms?" At this moment, the man in brocade robes who came over with a teapot asked, looking at Li Mai expectantly.
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