Chapter 57, Forbidden Area of Lizhai
"Why do you want to know about Long Buxi? Do you like her?" Ren Qing put down her pen and asked with a smile.
Cheng Ying frowned. This was the second person to ask her why she wanted to know about Long Buxi.
The first time, it was because she was cursed with a Gu poison, and the Gu worm was causing her to become curious about Long Buxi.
So what was the reason this time?
Seeing that she remained silent, Ren Qing put the letter he had written into an envelope, carefully sealed it with glue, and slowly said, "I've been married into Pucang Village for eight years now. I don't know much about Long Buxi's affairs, nor do I know much about the village. However, there are indeed quite a few people in the village who look down on Long Buxi, but not everyone is hostile towards her. At least, as far as I know, about half of the people in the village respect and admire Long Buxi."
She handed the sealed letter to Cheng Ying: "I used to be quite curious about what kind of person Long Buxi was. I asked my husband about him, and he said that the reason some people in the village looked down on Long Buxi and were his enemies was all because of his two-headed freak brother. Before he died, his brother was a complete monster. Not only was he strange in appearance and personality, but even his speech and actions were so strange that they made people's hair stand on end."
His brother would often run to the homes of some people in the village in the middle of the night, hanging upside down in front of their wooden windows like a scorpion monster, watching the family eat, sleep, bathe and talk. He often frightened the people, who would beat and scold him.
If someone scolds or beats him, or speaks ill of him, he will find an opportunity to go to that family's house and bite all their chickens, ducks, geese, and livestock to death. Many times, he will even swallow mouthfuls of the poultry's blood in front of them, like he is possessed by a ghost, which is terrifying to watch.
His parents were also an odd couple. Both of them were skilled at making Gu poison in the village, and they were also cousins who had married close relatives. If anyone came to complain or seek justice for that two-headed monster, the two of them would not only not apologize or compensate for the loss, but they would also directly use Gu poison to torment all those who had spoken ill of their eldest son.
Over time, the entire village became so resentful of this family that they felt unlucky to even see them and would simply take a detour.
In contrast, Long Buxi was much more normal than his parents and brother. He never did bad things, never scared people, and never used witchcraft on others. Apart from being a bit eccentric and withdrawn and unwilling to play or communicate with other children his age in the village, Long Buxi was no different from the other children in the village.
But when Long Buxi was ten years old, his fourteen-year-old twin brother woke up a child by peeping at a family sleeping at night.
The family beat and scolded him, trying to curse him and kill him.
His brother wanted to bite the family's poultry and drink their blood in revenge, but the family had already killed all their chickens and ducks. So, when the adults of the family were not around, he kidnapped the family's child, hid in a grove of trees, bit open the child's throat, drank the child's blood, and ate the child's flesh. Then he was discovered, and a huge incident ensued...
Perhaps because of this incident, even though Long Buxi's brother and parents have been dead for many years, they still believe that Long Buxi inherited his parents' bloodline and, like his brother, is a bloodthirsty, man-eating monster.
Especially since he survived the Gu pool and even cultivated a Gu King, the people of the village both respected and feared him. Some disliked him and had always wanted to kill him and his Gu worms, replacing him as the future clan leader. Over the years, they had made numerous attempts to harm Long Buxi, but all had failed.
Ren Qing took out 50 cents and handed it to Cheng Ying, asking her to help buy stamps to put on the envelope. Finally, he said to Cheng Ying, "My husband said that only Long Buxi can protect the whole village from being bullied by those outsiders who are full of malice towards our village. Our whole family supports Long Buxi as the clan chief. Miao people have always respected the strong, and Long Buxi's Gu worm strength is beyond doubt in the village."
Cheng Ying carefully put the money and envelope into the parcel. "Thank you for telling me this."
As she turned to leave, a question suddenly came to mind: "Excuse me, Comrade Ren, did you marry your husband willingly back then?"
Ren Qing was a government-sponsored worker sent to Pucang Village to promote literacy. She was beautiful and a public servant. Logically, having seen the prosperity of the outside world, she shouldn't have been willing to marry into this Miao village deep in the mountains.
Ren Qing chuckled, "What are you thinking? You don't actually think that my husband put a love potion on me, or some other kind of Gu worm, and that he forcibly kept me in the village, do you?"
Cheng Ying asked suspiciously, "Isn't that right?"
“No.” Ren Qing shook her head with a smile. “I stayed in Pucang Village voluntarily. My husband and I fell in love at first sight. I was attracted to his handsome face. I was the one who fell for him first and made the first move. Most of the men and women in Pucang Village are good-looking, much better looking than those Han Chinese who are malnourished and thin. I love my husband, and he treats me very well, so I am willing to stay here.”
As she spoke, a shy yet happy smile appeared on her well-maintained, beautiful face: "Even if I stay here, I can still go in and out of the Miao village at any time to see my parents, visit my friends, travel around, write letters to pen pals, do anything I want, and buy anything I want. To fulfill all my wishes, my husband, besides farming and working, often goes into the mountains to find delicacies and rare herbs, which he then carries to the town's purchasing station to exchange for money. Many people don't understand why I would leave the city to marry into Pucang Village in the mountains; they don't know how good my husband is to me."
Cheng Ying gave a noncommittal "hmm," saying she would deliver her letter to the post office mailbox on time. She then turned and, carrying her mailbag, called Da Huang and left.
As she walked down from Ren Qing's stilted house, a man in his thirties carrying a basket on his back and holding a sickle walked towards her.
This man had striking features: sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, a high nose, thin lips, dark skin, and a tall stature. He was dressed in a blue Miao costume and looked every bit the handsome man, still quite striking even in his middle age.
Even though Cheng Ying had seen many handsome men, she was still taken aback when she saw this man. She thought to herself, Ren Qing was right after all; there were indeed many handsome men and beautiful women in Pucang Village.
The man, carrying a full basket of herbs, saw Cheng Ying coming downstairs and asked in somewhat broken Mandarin, "You, Ren Qing, are delivering a message?"
Cheng Ying had already guessed that he must be Ren Qing's husband, and nodded, "Yes, Ren Qing had a letter, and I delivered it to her."
The man asked again, "Whose letter is this?"
"I don't know, there's no signature on it," Cheng Ying said, shaking her head.
In fact, even if the envelope is signed, she will not disclose the recipient's privacy to anyone without their consent, even if the recipient is her husband; this is her professional ethics.
The man pursed his lips, furrowed his thick brows, and walked past Cheng Ying with a gloomy expression.
When he reached the wooden door of the lobby on the first floor, he took out a bunch of bright wildflowers from his basket, forced a smile on his face, pushed open the wooden door and went inside.
Soon, the sounds of children calling for their father and Ren Qing's surprised and coquettish voices filled the room.
When Cheng Ying saw the man's actions and heard Ren Qing's voice, and recalled Ren Qing's repeated emphasis on how good her husband was to her, how much she loved him, and that she had stayed in Pucang Village voluntarily, she felt something was off.
After leaving Ren Qing's house, Cheng Ying walked back along the pebbled path, intending to find Long Buxi to ask him to detoxify Wei Muchen. She was going to return home and would take Wei Muchen with her to avoid him staying here and causing unnecessary trouble.
Just as she reached the edge of the stilted house, a middle-aged couple in their fifties ran towards her, chattering in Miao language. They then rushed up to her and, with a thud, began to kowtow repeatedly, startling her.
"Get up, get up! What are you doing? Why are you kneeling before me?" Cheng Ying hurriedly went to help the couple up.
The couple refused to get up, tears streaming down their faces, talking in Miao language and pointing in a certain direction, gesturing as they spoke.
Cheng Ying was completely confused and didn't know what to do when Ya Lin appeared.
She was wearing a light pink Miao dress, carrying a basket filled with flowers, humming a Miao folk song, and swaying her pleated skirt happily as she walked towards the suspension bridge like a fairy.
Cheng Ying quickly called out to her, "Yalin, you've come at the right time. Can you listen to what's going on with these two people? I don't know them. As soon as they saw me, they knelt down in front of me and kowtowed to me. It scared me."
"Hello Cheng Ying, we meet again." Ya Lin walked over with a smile.
Upon seeing her, the couple immediately spoke to her excitedly in Miao language.
Yalin's expression changed, and she turned to Cheng Ying: "They said their son was taken away by Brother Arno. Their son has realized his mistake and shouldn't have used the Heart Gu on you. Please be magnanimous and go to Brother Arno to plead for his release."
After translating, she gritted her teeth and scolded them in Miao language, then translated it again for Cheng Ying, "In our village, it is strictly forbidden for people to privately practice Heart Gu, let alone use Heart Gu on others. Their son actually dared to use Heart Gu on you. With Brother Anuo's protective temper, I'm afraid their son is in grave danger."
Cheng Ying was taken aback. "Long Buxi found the person who cast the curse on me? It's their son? Why would their son cast a curse on me?"
Yalin pointed around the village, "All the Gu worms in the village are under the control of my brother Anuo's Gu King, Alan, including the Heart Gu. As long as the Heart Gu is removed, Alan can quickly find the corresponding Gu worm refiner by smelling the blood dripped by the Gu refiner. If anyone dares to touch you, Brother Anuo will definitely make that person suffer to death. I think their son is probably not going to survive!"
She paused, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "The child that Arno's brother bit to death back then was this couple's child, a girl. The person who cast the curse on you was that girl's brother."
Cheng Ying was astonished. She remembered that Mei Shu had told her before that Arno's brother had almost bitten a child to death, but why did it become that Ren Qing and Ya Lin bit the child to death and drank the child's blood?
The incident of Long Buxi's brother biting people happened when Long Buxi was ten years old. According to Long Buxi, when she was ten, she came to Pucang Village with her father and saw something she shouldn't have seen, which drove her crazy. In order to make her forget that memory and live a good life, her mother used a curse to erase her memories of Pucang Village.
Could it be that what she saw back then that she shouldn't have seen was the scene of Long Buxi's two-headed brother biting the couple's daughter?
Cheng Ying's mind was in turmoil. She felt that the person who had cast the Heart Gu on her was completely disregarding her life as an outsider and wanted to control her with the Gu to use her to take revenge on Long Buxi. This was going too far and she deserved to be punished by Long Buxi!
She also felt that since this was a society governed by law, no matter how outrageous the person's actions were, Long Buxi shouldn't have killed him without her consent. Since the person's parents had come to her door asking for her help, she had to go and see what was going on.
That's right, she felt in her heart that if that person dared to use a curse on her and was caught by Long Buxi, Long Buxi would definitely kill him.
This is probably why she has always been wary of Long Buxi. She felt that although Long Buxi was good-looking, there was always an unsettling, cold aura about him. Subconsciously, she felt that Long Buxi might not be a good person.
Cheng Ying said, "I can help you plead with Long Buxi, but I can't guarantee whether Long Buxi will listen to me. Besides, their son used a Gu poison on me, and it took a lot of suffering for me to remove the Gu worm. This matter can't just be left like this; I have to settle the score."
Yalin relayed what she had said to the middle-aged couple in Miao language.
The middle-aged woman, with a sallow complexion and a fairly decent appearance but looking thin and frail, excitedly said something to Ya Lin, then pulled her husband and knelt down in front of Cheng Ying, kowtowing three times.
Yalin said, "Aunt Yinhua said that they only have Longjin left. If you can help them plead with Brother Anuo and rescue their son, they will go to the mountains to find many rare medicinal herbs for you to sell in town, because money is what you Han people lack most. If you don't want the herbs, they can also work like slaves for you and fulfill all your requests to atone for their son's sins."
Was the person who poisoned her heart with the curse Long Jin?
Cheng Ying pictured a young man with deep-set eyes, bronze skin, and a handsome, somewhat serious and mature face.
No wonder the middle-aged couple looked familiar to her; it turned out they were Long Jin's parents.
The last time she delivered mail to Long Jin, she saw Yin Hua standing on the second-floor corridor downstairs at Long Jin's house, and she had a vague impression of her.
I never expected that it was Long Jin who put the curse on her. No wonder Long Jin talked to her a lot that day. Maybe he was looking for an opportunity to put the curse on her.
Cheng Ying thought to herself, "This Long Jin, when I see him, I'll definitely slap him twice to vent my anger and make him cast a spell on me!"
Under the expectant gazes of Yin Hua and her husband, she crossed the suspension bridge and went to Long Buxi's stilted house to find him, only to discover that he was not home.
She recalled what Yalin had said to her meaningfully before she left: "If Brother Arno isn't home, he must have gone to the inner village. Anyone in our village who breaks the village rules will be taken to the inner village for punishment. Normally, we can't enter the inner village without the summons of the chief and Brother Arno. You're an outsider, and a postman. If you accidentally wander into the inner village, the old chief might be angry, but he won't do anything to you."
After she finished speaking, she gave Cheng Ying two packets of medicine powder, saying that if she encountered poisonous snakes, insects or other poisonous creatures, she could sprinkle the medicine powder on the creatures and they would leave on their own when they smelled it.
Holding the medicine powder given to her by Ya Lin, Cheng Ying hesitated whether to go to Lizhai to find Long Buxi.
Her rational mind told her that she was an outsider and shouldn't meddle in other people's business, nor should she trespass on a place that was taboo for the Miao people and cause trouble. She should leave as soon as possible and go back to the post office.
The reality is that she promised Yin Hua and her husband she would help them, and Wei Muchen is still imprisoned and needs to find Long Buxi to cure his poison. Even if it weren't for Long Jin's matter, she would still go to find Long Buxi.
After thinking for a moment, she gripped the military dagger in her hand and decided to go to Lizhai.
She descended from the stilted house and walked along the stone path by the river into the dense forest that separated the inner and outer villages.
The sun was shining brightly, but the dense forest was shrouded in mist all year round. Cheng Ying plunged into the forest. At first, she could only see about five meters in radius. But the further she went, the thicker the mist became, making it impossible for her to tell which way to go. Even Da Huang didn't know which way to go. She felt that something was wrong.
Thick fog surrounded her from all sides, obscuring even the shadows of trees. With no landmarks to move around in, even with her extensive wilderness survival training, it would be difficult for her to navigate through the fog.
Cheng Ying's heart sank, and a sense of unease began to spread within her.
She's now caught in a dilemma, unable to move forward or backward.
In the thick fog, there were also many rustling sounds, the sounds of snakes, insects, and rodents moving about, accompanied by the howls of some animals. If a wild beast were to attack her, she wouldn't know where to hide.
Just as she was at a loss, a butterfly that gradually turned red and blue flew over from the thick fog.
The butterfly was about the size of a palm, reddish-blue overall, with many purple spots on its back. It fluttered its wings and flew over in the thick white fog, looking particularly beautiful.
Cheng Ying was unconsciously drawn to the butterfly, her gaze fixed on it. She wondered where such a beautiful butterfly came from in this dense, misty forest.
Soon, the butterfly flew to her, circled in front of her, and landed on the fingers of her outstretched hand.
Cheng Ying raised her left hand and examined it closely. She could see that the butterfly's forewings were black with white spots, and underneath was a slightly gradient dark blue, making it look even more beautiful.
This was the first time Cheng Ying had ever seen such a beautiful butterfly, and she felt a strong urge to catch it, make it into a specimen, and admire it properly.
Just as she had this thought, the butterfly suddenly took flight and flew towards the thick fog ahead.
It flew for a short while, but instead of flying away immediately, it hovered in mid-air, seemingly waiting for Cheng Ying to catch up with it.
Could this butterfly be there to guide her?
Cheng Ying tried to keep up with it, but it turned around and continued flying forward.
If she stops and doesn't move, it stops again and continues to flutter its wings in mid-air, waiting for her to catch up.
Now Cheng Ying was certain that it was indeed leading the way for her. Considering the many strange creatures and Gu worms in Pucang Village, she wasn't sure whether the butterfly was leading her with good intentions or bad intentions. She was already in the dense forest and fog, unable to distinguish east from west, so she could only grit her teeth and try her luck, following the butterfly.
Half an hour later, she heard the sound of flowing water.
She followed the butterflies out of the dense forest, and suddenly the view opened up before her.
The dense forest disappeared, and in front of them stood two towering mountain ranges that reached into the clouds, flanking a narrow valley. In the middle of the valley flowed a wide river that meandered and disappeared from sight.
On the steep cliffs along the river, stilted houses are built at varying heights and in layers. Stone steps connect the houses, and each stilted house is spacious and magnificent. A thin mist hangs over the stilted houses, making them look ethereal and mysterious.
Cheng Ying's location was quite a distance from those stilted houses, and in between was a large expanse of flat land.
On the left side of the land, a huge, square altar was built, surrounded by four stone-paved roads arranged in a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) pattern, leading to the altar.
In the center of the altar was a large cauldron, its exterior covered with dark red, dried stains. Around it stood several wooden shelves, each with a wooden table upon which were placed human and animal skulls, such as those of cattle and sheep. It was clear that the altar was used by the people of Pucang Village for various sacrificial ceremonies.
To the right of the altar was a large area of neatly maintained graves, each with a carved wooden plaque in front of it. There were so many that it looked like there were five or six hundred graves.
There wasn't a single weed around the altar and the tomb, and behind the altar was a large, dense forest. Under the shadow of the towering Ayishan Mountains on both sides, it gave people an eerie and sinister feeling.
Seeing this scene, Cheng Ying felt a little scared. The inner village of Pucang Village was full of eeriness, and it was not a good thing for her to trespass into their forbidden area.
Regardless of what she was thinking, the butterfly continued to flutter her wings and fly forward.
Cheng Ying followed the butterfly forward, walking along a stone path leading to the altar. As she passed the altar, Cheng Ying smelled a strong, fresh scent of blood, and frowned, peering at the huge cauldron in the center of the altar.
With such a strong smell of blood, and a human skull on the table, could Long Jin have been killed by Long Buxi in that altar?
She stopped, hesitating whether to look ahead.
The big yellow dog smelled the blood and kept barking anxiously beside her, even biting her trouser leg, trying to drag her away.
Suddenly, a faint flapping sound came from the sky. Jin Alan's small, dark blue figure flew out from the woods behind the altar, flew to Cheng Ying, and squeaked.
After it appeared, the butterfly that had guided Cheng Ying flew away and disappeared without a trace.
Cheng Ying reached out and gently tapped Alan's little head, asking, "Alan, is your master here? Did he send you to find me?"
"Squeak!" Alan nodded.
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