Chapter 167 Totem
Even if it weren't for the need to find Mr. Wu, Xiao Qing would still have to make a trip out of the mountains.
The reason is that Fu Mingyi has fallen into a coma again for unknown reasons.
Perhaps it was because he saw Xiao Qing wake up, or perhaps it was because he had already explained everything that needed to be explained.
In short, after a brief period of consciousness, he fell back into a low-grade fever and coma.
But Xiao Qing had no medicine left.
Xiao Qing could certainly stay by Fu Mingyi's side, but even Xiao Qing herself didn't believe that simply being there would make Fu Mingyi recover.
She felt she couldn't just sit and wait to die.
So after she felt that her injury was no longer a problem, she asked the old woman to take care of Fu Mingyi for the time being and feed him some thin porridge every day, and decided to go out of the mountains to seek help herself.
If she could get in touch with Mr. Wu, she would feel at ease.
The mother and son didn't know what was going on, but the reality was that they didn't have any advanced medical skills and didn't have enough herbs at home.
In their minds, Fu Mingyi was seriously injured and ill, and to treat him, they had to find a doctor and buy medicine for him.
However, this mother and child seemed to genuinely not know the way out of the mountains, nor how to get out.
Xiao Qing remembered that cave.
She inquired about the hole and quickly received a response.
According to the boy named Xiaoyuan, he discovered the hole by accident. He initially found it because of the small yellow flowers that were now drying in the yard.
And those little yellow flowers, just as Xiao Qing had suspected, did indeed have hallucinogenic and mesmerizing effects.
Xiao Yuan's mother told Xiao Qing that this flower seemed to only grow in this place, and they didn't know its name, but every year people would come here to collect the dried yellow flowers.
They had no idea how the other had gotten into the valley.
Xiao Qing then thought of the black-clad men hanging down from ropes.
Do they seem to have given up looking for them?
Xiao Qing inquired about the valley in detail and learned that it was sparsely populated and that each household seemed to live quite far apart. They knew that there was another household three miles away, but they did not interact with each other.
After listening to a lot of information, she finally deduced that if those people outside came to collect the yellow flowers every year, they must have come in through some kind of secret passage if they didn't come down from the cliff.
She decided to go back into that cave to take another look.
It's probably just a gut feeling.
Xiao Qing told herself this.
Although Xiao Yuan and his family live in seclusion, they are sincere and warm-hearted people.
Therefore, the objective condition is that Xiao Qing must leave the mountain. Xiao Yuan's mother asked Xiao Yuan to accompany her. If she can really leave the mountain, she will also accompany her to get the medicine.
After careful consideration, Xiao Qing decided to go out dressed as a woman.
She didn't need to confront Mr. Wu directly. All Fu Mingyi asked her to do was find a shop and leave the message there discreetly. She didn't know if the men in black might reappear on the street, so she decided to boldly go out in her true form.
She thanked Xiaoyuan for her companionship, which gave her more courage.
After making some preparations, the two quickly returned to the cave.
When Xiao Qing returned to the cave, he was momentarily dazed.
Time was of the essence, so Xiao Qing and Xiao Yuan went down into the cave together and began to look around.
In order to find that plant, Xiao Yuan visited many places and learned how to protect them.
He prepared a medicine pack for both Xiao Qing and himself to hang around their necks. Strangely enough, Xiao Qing never experienced dizziness or drowsiness again.
Xiao Qing focused on finding any possible clues, while Xiao Yuan would occasionally steal glances at her.
He thought to himself: This girl is really strange. She's bold, decisive, and also very... well, filial to her older brother?
He had lived in the mountains for two years and had never seen a girl like this.
Xiao Qing was completely unaware of his thoughts.
She discovered that if she went past the spot where Xiao Yuan had smashed it, there was another hole in the ground.
She felt that a more accurate name would be Stone Chamber.
Xiao Yuan said, "There's still a lot over there, but I've dug up all the grass there. This grass grows strangely; it only grows here, and only at this time of year."
Xiao Qing looked through each room one by one, examining every detail. Her efforts paid off, and she finally found a wall that seemed to be hollow.
She reached out and tapped on that spot, and Xiao Yuan quickly came over. "This place should be empty."
He was very experienced in this kind of thing, and he raised the hoe he carried with him to smash it.
"Wait a minute." Xiao Qing looked at it carefully again.
There must have been a purpose in someone building such a large number of stone chambers underground.
Although this place looks like it has been abandoned for a long time, if it was used before, what was it used for?
Xiao Qing wasn't as simple as Xiao Yuan thought. She wondered if there might be some kind of trap inside. Would it be dangerous to break it rashly?
So she went back and looked around the empty wall again to see if there was a switch or something.
As it turned out, Xiao Qing's caution was correct.
She actually found an unusual colored brick on the ground near the wall.
Originally, due to long-term neglect, the color of this brick had faded and it even had some cracks. However, the observant Xiao Qing still noticed that it was different from the others.
Xiao Yuan squatted down curiously and asked, "What is this?"
The colored brick appears to be painted with a flower.
Xiao Qing looked at it for a long time and thought that the flower looked quite similar to the flower that Xiao Yuan's family had dried in the yard.
"What do the people who come to collect the flowers look like?" Xiao Qing suddenly asked.
Xiao Yuan scratched his head, trying hard to remember.
"He looks rather strange."
Xiao Yuan gestured, "His head was wrapped in a cloth, and it was colorful. His eyes were small, his nose was small, his mouth was small, and he wasn't very tall, probably about the same height as me. No, I mean he looked about the same height as me that year, but I've grown taller this year."
As Xiao Yuan thought and talked, she unconsciously talked more and more.
Xiao Qing then extracted useful information from his many words.
"Oh, right, he always carries a flute and plays it every time he comes, so we know he's here to collect the flowers. He doesn't like to talk, he just likes to play the flute."
"Then what will you use to exchange?"
"Usually it's grain, but sometimes he brings some novel things..." Xiao Yuan thought for a moment and pulled a small whistle out of his sleeve.
"He gave this to me last time. He said that when you blow this whistle, even the fiercest lion won't dare to come near. I've tried it, and it really works."
Xiao Qing took the whistle and looked at it. There was also a flower on it. This flower was very small and very finely carved, exactly the same as the flower on the colored brick.
Xiao Qing understood; this must be a totem. It was a symbol of their faith.
Unfortunately, she didn't know which ethnic group or religion it belonged to.
"Is there anything else special about him? For example, besides the flute, what else did he carry with him, or the way he walked?"
Xiao Yuan suddenly remembered, "He taught me a game with nine squares, and the sum of each row and column is fifteen!"
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