Chapter 58 The Grave
Alan flapped its wings and flew towards the woods behind the altar.
Cheng Ying hesitated for a moment and then followed.
Big Yellow was uneasy about the strong smell of blood around it. When it saw her about to leave, it bit her trouser leg with its teeth to stop her from going.
People, don't wander around, it's dangerous here!
Cheng Ying paused for a moment, then reached out to touch Da Huang's head. "Da Huang, let go. I need to find Long Buxi. Only after we find him to detoxify Wei Muchen can we leave."
Whether Dahuang understood or not, it kept making whimpering noises but wouldn't let go.
Alan's figure had already flown into the woods and disappeared from sight.
Cheng Ying had no choice but to laboriously drag Da Huang forward.
She soon arrived at the woods, where the trees were mostly fruit trees such as peach, plum, and pear. The trees were planted in rows, with straight trunks, and the rows of fruit trees were neatly arranged. Some of the fruit trees still had a few fruits hanging on them. There were no weeds under the fruit trees, just like the graves outside, which looked very eerie.
Cheng Ying dragged Dahuang into the woods and soon found a person kneeling facing a huge pear tree laden with pears.
Beside him stood an old man with gray hair, a wrinkled face, and wearing a black Miao costume with intricate embroidery. He looked to be at least eighty years old and was leaning on a cane, speaking to the kneeling man.
Standing next to him was a fair-skinned and beautiful Miao girl whom Cheng Ying had seen in the outer village before. She was the Miao girl who had been walking with Long Buxi last time, pulling Long Buxi down from the outer village and showing hostility towards her.
Today she was wearing a light purple Miao costume, a silver hat made of silver ornaments, and silver ornaments on her hands and neck. She was holding a bowl in her hand and listening silently to the old man singing.
Long Buxi stood beside the pear tree, looking away, lost in thought.
As soon as Cheng Ying appeared, he immediately turned his gaze to her, his originally dark eyes instantly brightening and filled with tenderness.
"Cheng Ying," Long Buxi called softly, gesturing for her to come over.
The old man and the young girl turned to look at Cheng Ying when they heard his voice, their faces looking very unpleasant.
Especially the old man, with his cloudy eyes, sharp gaze, like a sword staring at her, his eyes were very unfriendly.
Cheng Ying felt a slight tremor in her heart when she was looked at like that. She could feel the murderous aura that the other party could not hide, and she felt inexplicably guilty.
She had already guessed the identity of the white-haired old man. The only person who could command respect from Long Buxi was the village's old clan chief.
The Miao kings in these Miao villages have all seen human blood. They are not well-educated and have little legal knowledge. In their villages, they are local emperors who can decide the life and death of the Miao people.
She was an outsider who had trespassed into the forbidden area of their village. If the Miao king wanted to kill her, apart from Long Buxi, probably no one would stop him.
Cheng Ying nervously approached Long Buxi and whispered, "I'm leaving the village. Wei Muchen is still going crazy. I wanted to find you to give him an antidote so I could take him away from your village. But you weren't home, so I had to come to you. I didn't mean to trespass into your village..."
“Yes, I know.” Long Buxi pointed to Alan, who was leaning on his left shoulder. “From the moment you left, I knew you were coming to find me. Long Jin’s parents are still kneeling in front of you, begging you to plead for me, and Yalin is translating for you, right?”
"How did you know?" Cheng Ying asked in surprise.
Long Buxi looked at Long Jin, who was kneeling in front of the pear tree: "All the Gu worms in the village obey Alan. The Gu worms are everywhere. They can see your every move and will tell Alan what you are doing through a special means of communication. Alan will then relay it to me. If you get lost in the dense forest, I will send a butterfly to guide you."
Isn't this equivalent to setting up countless surveillance cameras in the village to monitor her every word and action?
For some reason, Cheng Ying got goosebumps all over her body and found Long Buxi terrifying.
How is this behavior any different from the perverted and abnormal behavior of following others in later generations?
Perhaps sensing what she was thinking, Long Buxi lowered his head, looked directly into her eyes, and said, "Don't be afraid, I won't do anything to hurt you. I just want to protect you from being hurt by the other people in the village. You have to believe me."
His eyes were very clear, like a crystal-clear pool of water. Apart from a trace of inexplicable burning emotion, they were clean and pure, without a trace of impurity.
Feeling uncomfortable under his gaze, Cheng Ying looked away and temporarily believed him.
"What are you doing bringing Long Jin here? Are you going to deal with him?" she asked.
Long Buxi looked at her with a strange gaze. "Are you really going to plead for him? He planted a heart-cursing Gu on you. If it weren't for Alan being nearby, and the heart-cursing Gu being afraid of its presence and not being implanted into your heart, you would have already become his puppet, losing your own consciousness and thoughts, acting like a piece of wood, living a life worse than death."
His expression didn't seem like he was joking.
When Cheng Ying realized how terrifying the Heart Gu was, she couldn't help but gasp.
She glanced at Long Jin kneeling under the tree and was startled. Several black snakes, thicker than his thighs, were wrapped around Long Jin's body, forcing him to kneel on the ground, unable to move.
When the snakes saw her looking at them, they all raised their heads and hissed at her, seemingly threatening her to stay away.
The imagery was so powerful, like a hallucination from a dream, that it was almost unbearable to look at.
Cheng Ying glanced at him and then turned away decisively. "Long Jin did use a heart-cursing Gu on me, but I've already had your aunt help me remove the Gu worm. I'm alive and kicking now, and I'm fine. You can punish him if you want, but don't kill him, or I won't be able to explain it to his parents."
Long Jin snorted when he heard her words.
His face was covered in slap marks, and a trace of blood clung to the corner of his mouth. He looked at Cheng Ying and said in broken Mandarin, "Stop pretending. I don't need it."
"I'd rather pretend to be sympathetic. Who told you to use the Heart-Soothing Poison on me? You deserve to be in this state today!"
Cheng Ying said irritably, "But your parents are very pitiful. They are old, and your mother is in poor health. They knelt in front of me, kowtowing to me, a junior, begging me to plead for you and not let your son die. If I didn't feel sorry for them and think that you are a filial child who has been buying Han Chinese medicine for your mother to treat her illness, I wouldn't bother with you."
Long Jin thought of his parents and fell silent.
Long Buxi smiled faintly and said to Cheng Ying, "See? Your kindness is wasted. You can be nice to others, but they may not appreciate it."
Long Jin glared at him angrily and said in Miao language, "Long Buxi, don't pretend to be so high-sounding! You know very well why I used the Heart Gu on her! Even if your freak brother had died, it wouldn't make up for my mother's pain of losing her daughter! My mother's illness came from excessive grief after losing my sister! Your brother is a monster, and you're no better. How can a monster like you be worthy of being the future chief of our village? A monster like you should die!"
"Slap—!" The Miao girl, Sailan, raised her hand and slapped him across the face. Her beautiful face was full of anger. "How dare you talk to Brother Arno like that? You're the monster, your whole family are monsters!"
Long Jin's head was turned to one side by her slap. He slowly turned his head back, and a mocking smile appeared on his handsome face, which was beginning to swell from the slap. "You're a monster too. You're his cousin. Your whole family are beasts!"
"Slap—!" Long Sailan slapped him again, angrily saying, "Don't forget, you also believe in dragons! In our village, eight out of ten households are related by marriage. We are of the same lineage from the bottom of our hearts. If Brother Arno and I are monsters, then you are monsters too!"
"I'm not like you!" Long Jin roared, clenching his fists. "I don't bite, I don't drink human blood, I don't eat human flesh! Long Buxi's freak brother did these heinous things, and sooner or later he'll do the same thing as his brother! I'm doing this to rid the people of a scourge, so why did you arrest me and bring me to the Forest of the Dead! I did nothing wrong! Clan leader, are you really getting senile and can't tell right from wrong anymore?!"
"You!" Seran was speechless with anger.
She was about to say something when the old clan chief stopped her, looking at Long Jin with a deep gaze and saying, "Put your dissatisfaction with Long Buxi aside for now. You have committed a serious crime by privately refining Heart Gu and using it on others, especially outsiders! According to the village rules, whatever kind of forbidden Gu you used on others, you will have to bear the corresponding Gu punishment. No matter how you try to argue, it will be useless."
As he spoke, he looked at Seran and said, "The time has come. Execute him."
Sailan responded, picked up the bowl containing the Gu worm and Miao medicinal wine, walked to Long Jin's side, pinched Long Jin's chin with her left hand, and poured the medicinal wine into Long Jin's mouth with her right hand.
Long Jin struggled desperately, but his feet were bound by the giant snake and he couldn't move.
As he struggled, the snakes coiled around him even tighter. He couldn't resist; he could only clench his teeth, close his lips, and shake his head frantically, refusing to drink.
"You better behave yourself!" Sailan slapped him twice more in a fit of temper, then grabbed his lower hand and forced the medicinal wine containing the Gu worm into his mouth.
Cheng Ying couldn't understand Miao language, but she could vaguely guess what Long Jin and the others were saying from their actions and expressions.
Seeing Sailan's actions, she said with some reluctance, "Long Buxi, please let them let Long Jin go. I've forgiven him. His parents are waiting for him to come home, he..."
Long Buxi reached out and covered her lips, lowered his head, and whispered in her ear, "Don't speak. This is a forbidden area in our village. You, an outsider, have already displeased the old clan chief by trespassing here. If you keep talking and making a lot of noise here, you will wake up our ancestors and spirits, anger the gods, and incur divine punishment. The clan chief will not let you off the hook."
His hands were very cold, carrying a medicinal and bloody smell, and when he pressed them against Cheng Ying's lips, they felt icy cold.
This was the first time the two had been so close, and their posture was too ambiguous. Cheng Ying could smell a faint, pleasant scent of fir on Long Buxi's body, and her heart skipped a beat, leaving her speechless.
Sailan quickly finished the wine in his hand, threw the bowl on the ground, and smashed it to pieces.
Soon, Long Jin's screams echoed through the woods, startling Da Huang into barking loudly.
From the moment they entered the woods, Da Huang was unusually quiet, keeping its tail between its legs and cowering behind Cheng Ying.
It must have sensed that something was wrong with Lizhai, that many things it feared were hidden there, and instinctively moved closer to Cheng Ying.
Hearing Long Jin's screams, it was terrified and started screaming incessantly as well.
The moment Long Jin let out a scream, Long Buxi moved her slender left hand, which was covering Cheng Ying's lips, upwards to cover her eyes, and whispered in her ear, "Don't look."
Hearing Da Huang's cries, Cheng Ying asked uneasily, "What exactly did you do to him? Why is he screaming so pitifully?"
"It's nothing, he just cast some kind of spell on you, and according to the village rules, we'll use that same spell to punish him. But..."
As he said this, he covered Cheng Ying's eyes with one hand and pushed her back forward with the other, "The Heart Gu I've refined is no ordinary Heart Gu. If he dares to touch you, he should be prepared to be tortured by that Heart Gu to the point of wishing he were dead."
His tone was icy, carrying a strong sense of murderous intent.
Cheng Ying was pushed forward passively by him. Hearing the tone of his voice, she was startled and said with some worry, "He won't die, will he? His parents..."
Before she could finish speaking, Long Buxi interrupted her, "Don't worry, it will only cause him pain, it won't kill him."
The two walked for more than ten minutes until Long Jin's voice could no longer be heard. Only then did Long Buxi let go of her hand, no longer covering her eyes, but instead holding her hand and saying, "Since you're here, come with me to see my father's and mother's graves."
Cheng Ying, having regained her sight, was a little unaccustomed to the light and squinted slightly. Without thinking, she refused, "I won't go. I have work to do and need to rush back to the post office to finish my work. You should hurry up and detoxify Wei Muchen. I'll come and accompany you to pay respects to your parents when I have time later."
"Oh, I see. Well then, forget it. I was thinking that since you've already stumbled into Lizhai, this is a rare opportunity, so you could stop by and visit my parents."
Long Buxi's eyes were filled with sadness. "When you were little, my parents loved you very much. My father knew you liked to eat meat, so he cooked a lot of meat for you the day you came. You ate it with great relish and kept praising my father's cooking skills. My mother even promised to let you be my wife..."
Cheng Ying felt a lump in her throat; her feet, which she wanted to leave immediately, wouldn't budge.
She had no recollection of Long Buxi's parents, and she wasn't sure if it was true that Long Buxi had lost her memory when she was ten.
Ke Longbuxi looks pitiful now, like a stray dog that has been abandoned. He has no parents or family and is living a lonely life all by himself.
He only asked her to visit his parents' graves on her way, and didn't ask her to do anything excessive, so why did she so heartlessly refuse?
After a few seconds of silence, Cheng Ying relented, "Okay, I'll go with you to take a look."
Long Buxi became happy and pointed to a pear tree next to her, saying, "Wait a minute, I'll have my Gu worms climb the tree and pick a few pears to offer to my father and mother."
He pulled a small, finger-length bone flute from his pocket and played a strange tune. A rustling sound came from the woods, and three thick, wrist-sized venomous snakes, blending into the earth's color, crawled from the ground in the distance, coiled and snaked up the tree, opened their mouths, and bit into the pears on the tree. They then crawled to Long Buxi, put the pears down, and quietly slithered away.
Upon witnessing this scene, Cheng Ying stared wide-eyed in disbelief, her unwavering belief in science and atheism crumbling little by little.
She had only ever seen cold-blooded animals working on television in her later years; seeing it with her own eyes now felt like a dream.
Sailan helped the old clan chief walk past her, and the two of them looked at Cheng Ying with strange eyes.
The old clan chief's eyes were cold and strange. He opened his withered lips with few teeth and said a few words in Miao language to Cheng Ying, then slowly left, leaning on his cane.
Sailan did not go with him, but walked up to Cheng Ying and whispered to her, "After you leave the village, I will wait for you at the entrance. I have something to tell you."
She left before she could refuse.
Cheng Ying frowned, watching her departing figure, pondering what she wanted to say to her.
Long Buxi walked over with three pears in her hand. "What did Sailan say to you?"
"It's nothing," Cheng Ying shook her head. "She told me to leave as soon as possible."
Long Buxi stared at her, his eyes sharp, without saying a word.
Cheng Ying felt uncomfortable under his gaze and changed the subject, saying, "What did your clan chief just say to me? Could you translate it for me? I don't understand what he was saying."
Long Buxi withdrew his gaze and said casually, "He is warning you that Lizhai is not a place for outsiders to enter. He will let you go this time, but if you break into Lizhai again next time, he will deal with you according to the clan rules."
Cheng Ying pursed her lips. "Don't worry, I won't come again next time."
“It’s alright, you can come whenever you want. That old geezer won’t live much longer.” Long Buxi walked forward carrying a pear, a wicked smile appearing on her androgynous beautiful face, her voice full of sarcasm and coldness: “From now on, I’m in charge of Pucang Village. My rules are the rules. I’m letting you into the village, and no one can say anything.”
Cheng Ying was taken aback, feeling that Long Buxi was quite different from her usual gentle self.
Long Buxi led her to the rows of graves, and they walked past one after another until they finally arrived at the grave on the very edge, near the river.
The wooden plaque in front of the grave has two names written in the Miao language; this is the grave of Long Bu Xi's parents.
Long Buxi placed three green pears, each larger than a fist, under the wooden plaque. He then turned and pulled Cheng Ying, who was standing behind him, to the grave. Looking at the tombstone, he said, "Father, Mother, I've come to see you. Look who I've brought to visit you!"
His hands were so cold, unlike the temperature a living person should have. Holding Cheng Ying's hand made her very uncomfortable, and she subconsciously tried to pull her hand away.
"Don't move." Long Buxi gripped her hand tightly and said firmly, "My mother died because of you. You'd better show her some respect at her grave."
Long Buxi has very high brow bones and a pair of narrow, deep, and cold eyes. When she is not smiling, she gives people a cold and unapproachable feeling.
Cheng Ying had never seen him like this before, and feeling uneasy, she struggled and said, "Let go of my hand!"
"Cheng Ying, I'll say it again, you'd better show some respect to my parents!" Long Buxi's eyes flashed with malice as she spoke each word clearly, grabbing Cheng Ying's hand with such force that it felt like she wanted to break her palm.
Thinking that Long Buxi was bullying Cheng Ying, Da Huang, disregarding its fear, barked and jumped up to bite Long Buxi's hand that was holding Cheng Ying.
Long Buxi winced in pain, but didn't let go. She frowned and called out, "Ah Lan!"
"Squeak!" Alan, who was perched on his shoulder, squealed, flapped its wings, and flew up, landing on Big Yellow and taking a bite out of it.
Big Yellow let out a scream and fell straight to the ground, its limbs twitching uncontrollably.
"Dahuang!" Cheng Ying exclaimed, wanting to check on Dahuang, but was pulled back to him by Long Buxi's hand.
"He's just passed out; he'll wake up soon," he said expressionlessly.
When Cheng Ying saw his gloomy and terrifying appearance, she was terrified and suddenly realized why everyone in the village was afraid of him.
It turns out that Long Buxi's usual gentle and harmless demeanor was all an act! This is his true nature.
Ruthless, vicious, and barbaric, he does whatever he wants without any regard for others' opinions!
"Aren't you going to ask me how my parents died?" Long Buxi asked her gently when she stopped struggling.
Cheng Ying remained silent for a long while before asking, "Why?"
Long Buxi turned his head to look at the grave, as if recalling, "Back then, you and your father came to Pucang Village. You saw me downstairs at our house. You thought I was very good-looking and were very curious about me. Despite your father's objections, you insisted on following me to my house to play."
My parents treated you warmly because you were the daughter of a postman. My brother didn't come home for dinner, so after dinner, my parents went to look for him, and you volunteered to go with them.
Your dad didn't agree to you going and took you away, but you secretly ran away when he wasn't looking.
You wandered aimlessly through the village alone, and eventually, at Zuo Wulin's place, you witnessed the cruel scene of my brother biting Long Jin's sister to death, drinking her blood, and eating her flesh. At such a young age, you couldn't bear the shock and went insane from fright.
My mother couldn't bear to see you become a little madwoman, so she used forbidden Gu magic, using her own blood as a catalyst, to create a Gu worm that could erase people's memories, thus erasing your memories of Pucang Village. After doing all this, her body became extremely weak.
After you and your father left our village, my monster brother escaped from the village where he was imprisoned and tried to take revenge on the villagers who captured him.
When my parents found out he had escaped, fearing he would hurt people, they forcibly brought him back home, intending to lock him up and put a curse on him so he couldn't harm anyone anymore.
Who knew he would go berserk and bite my mother to death, then attack my father. My father witnessed my mother's death and, heartbroken and furious, killed him with an axe. Unable to face the pangs of conscience for killing his own child, he chose to punish him.
At that time, I was half asleep when I heard a noise and got up. I saw my dad kill my brother and then prepare to commit suicide.
My father told me what happened, told me to live well, and then resolutely took his own life, his blood splattering all over my face...
After that, my aunt appeared. She saw me holding my father's axe and thought I had killed my parents...
The grave was silent; there was no chirping of insects, calls of birds, or sounds of wild animals nearby. The only sounds were the wind and the faint murmur of the flowing water by the river.
Long Buxi held Cheng Ying's hand tightly, and hot tears dripped onto the back of Cheng Ying's hand.
Cheng Ying's heart skipped a beat; she hadn't expected Long Buxi to cry.
It makes sense when you think about it. At such a young age, Long Buxi witnessed the tragic deaths of his parents and brother. He was also misunderstood by his own aunt and treated as a murderer. He was sent to the Gu Pool by the villagers to fend for himself. He suffered countless hardships and injustices before finally becoming the Gu King and crawling out of that man-eating Gu Pool. In the end, he was adopted by the old clan chief.
If she hadn't come to Pucang Village and insisted on going to his house, meeting his parents, and ignoring their objections to go find Long Buxi's brother, causing more trouble than she intended, Long Buxi's mother wouldn't have softened and erased her memory. She wouldn't have been bitten to death by his brother while she was physically weak, leading to a series of tragedies.
For some reason, Cheng Ying felt extremely guilty and felt even more sympathy for Long Buxi.
She stopped struggling, stood obediently beside him, and whispered, "I'm sorry."
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