Chapter 93 Dispute
It is neither a question nor a rhetorical question, but a very affirmative tone.
"How did you know I was with him?" Cheng Ying asked, then belatedly realized what she meant, her face turning pale. "Did you send your Gu worms to spy on me again?"
The last time she was injured and left Pucang Village, when she returned to her home in town, she found Long Buxi's butterflies fluttering on her courtyard wall, constantly monitoring her every move, which made her very uncomfortable.
Later, when the butterfly disappeared, she stopped arguing with Long Buxi.
Now that Long Buxi knows she's with Wei Muchen without anyone informing him, Cheng Ying feels a surge of anger rising within her.
She shoved away Long Buxi's hand that was pressing on her calf, suppressing her anger and gritting her teeth, she said, "You don't trust me at all? You actually sent your Gu worms to spy on me when I wasn't paying attention! Do you know that what you did is no different from that of a pervert who spyes and stalks! We're already engaged, and we've agreed to get married after the New Year, yet you distrust me so much, monitoring my every move, showing me absolutely no trust. What kind of person do you take me for!"
Long Buxi stood up. "I wasn't spying on you. I just sent a butterfly to watch over you and protect your safety. But you turned your back on me and hugged Wei Muchen."
His tone was unusually one of disappointment and accusation.
Cheng Ying was even angrier. "You've already given me two Gu worms and set up a Gu worm array in my yard. Whenever a stranger steps into the yard and tries to harm me, your Gu worms will attack them. Why did you send butterflies to guard me? This is clearly just sophistry!"
Long Buxi looked at her with a deep gaze and said, "You still haven't explained why you were hugging your ex."
Cheng Ying's temples throbbed with anger, but she still managed to explain, "He suddenly appeared and said he was going on a mission and might encounter danger, so he wanted to see me before he left. He said he wanted to hug me to settle things between us. He said if I didn't hug him, he would keep bothering me, but if I did, he would stop bothering me. It's not what you think between us."
Long Buxi remained silent.
The air seemed to freeze at that moment, and the living room was so quiet that you could hear the two of them breathing.
Long Buxi suddenly laughed, a mysterious and alluring smile. "Cheng Ying, you really liked your ex, didn't you? Otherwise, why would you agree to be with him, and then continue to hug him after the breakup?"
Cheng Ying was stunned by his smile, but for some reason, she felt a little scared because Long Buxi's reaction was really abnormal.
She patiently explained, "I told you, I did like him when we were together, but later I found out he was a scumbag, so I stopped liking him, broke up with him, and went back to my hometown. I hugged him not because I liked him, but because I wanted to get rid of his harassment!"
"You really did hug him, didn't you?" Long Buxi's narrow eyes locked onto her, his gaze filled with sadness. "You like him, but not me, right?"
"I like you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have gotten engaged to you or agreed to marry you."
"Since you like me, why don't you refuse that person's hug? Do you know that once we Miao people are sure of each other's feelings, we will not have any overly intimate behavior with other people?"
“I…” Cheng Ying was speechless.
His focus was entirely on her hugging Wei Muchen, and he wouldn't listen to her explanations at all, as if her hugging Wei Muchen was a betrayal of him, which gave Cheng Ying a headache.
Cheng Ying grabbed her hair in frustration, "Can't you just listen to what I'm saying? Don't just focus on what you want to hear."
Long Buxi lowered her eyes and said softly, "I shouldn't have let you leave the village. There are too many temptations in the outside world. You promised to be with me, so you can't have any physical contact with other men."
Cheng Ying: ?
She couldn't understand Long Buxi's thought process at all, and just felt that he was acting really strange.
She took a deep breath and said, "I don't want to waste my breath on you anymore. I came all this way from the mountains to see you, and I was in a good mood. But you were monitoring me with your Gu worms in a place I didn't know about. Monitoring me once is one thing, but you monitored me a second time, and you didn't even listen to my explanation. I'm very unhappy now, and I'm not eating. You can eat by yourself. Goodbye!"
She picked up her mailbag and prepared to leave.
Long Buxi's tall, slender figure blocked her way. "Have a meal before you go. I'll make you sour fish soup."
Cheng Ying was in a bad mood and couldn't eat. She walked around him and said, "I'm not eating."
Long Buxi: "If you're unhappy, I won't have to let the butterflies follow you anymore."
Cheng Ying paused, turned her head to look at him, "It's no use. Your Gu technique is very powerful, and you also have A-Lan to help you control the Gu worms. Even if you don't use the butterfly to monitor me, you will have other Gu worms monitor me, which makes me feel very uncomfortable."
I don't want to live under someone else's surveillance, nor do I want you to see my every move. That would make me feel like I'm being imprisoned by you, completely losing my freedom and having no privacy whatsoever. I don't want to live that kind of life.
Long Buxi frowned. "My Gu worms were there to protect you. If you really don't like them, I can leave you alone and not ask what you did with them."
Cheng Ying pursed her lips, deciding not to dwell on the matter any further, and instead asked him, "Were you just trying to lock me up?"
Long Buxi did not deny it, "The old clan chief is dying soon, I don't have time to accompany you on your mail runs, and I don't know if you will be with another man when I can't see you."
You Han Chinese are the most fickle and the most prone to betraying others. Cheng Ying, I don't trust you.
When I'm away from you for a while, you hug your ex.
Right now, I really want to lock you up so you can never leave me for the rest of your life.
Cheng Ying's heart skipped a beat, and a sudden sense of fear welled up inside her. She retreated abruptly towards the door. "Long Buxi, what I hate most in my life is being illegally imprisoned against my will, having my freedom restricted, and making me wish I were dead! Don't do anything that will make me hate you!"
She had always known that Long Buxi was a paranoid and insane madman. Judging from his experiences since childhood, there was nothing he wouldn't do if he wanted to.
In her previous life, Cheng Ying was imprisoned by Wei Muchen for more than ten years, and from the bottom of her heart, she developed an indelible fear and shadow over the three words "locked up".
She had no doubt that at this very moment, Long Buxi wanted to lock her in the stilted house and make her stay there forever.
She was terrified, afraid that Long Buxi would lock her up, just like in her previous life, and she would live a life of darkness and despair, forever imprisoned in a narrow place, a nightmare from which she could not escape.
Carrying her mailbag, she cautiously avoided Long Buxi and fled downstairs like a gust of wind towards the stairs leading to the living room.
Long Buxi didn't stop her from leaving. He stood in the shadows by the living room door, watching her departing figure, and muttered to himself, "I'll give you one more chance. If you're with that man again, don't blame me for locking you up."
**
After returning to town, Cheng Ying was reluctant to go to Pucang Village to deliver mail for a long time, fearing that Long Buxi might lock her up if he was unhappy.
But she will have to go to Pucang Village sooner or later to have a serious talk with Long Buxi and re-examine their relationship.
However, she felt it wasn't safe to go directly to Long Buxi.
After much thought, she returned to the village, found her father Cheng Jiantong, and told him about her relationship with Long Buxi, asking him for advice or a solution.
Cheng Ying rarely confided in Cheng Jiantong or sought his advice. Cheng Jiantong thought she was still holding a grudge against him for his past actions and didn't want to say another word to him.
Upon hearing her words, Cheng Jiantong leaned excitedly against the headboard and thought about it seriously before saying, "The Miao people of Pucang Village have a strong possessive nature. Once they have chosen a partner, they will never allow others to get too close to the person they like. Otherwise, they will kill those who have designs on their partner."
I watched Long Buxi grow up. He has always been aloof and eccentric. His Gu techniques are incredibly advanced. If he wants to deal with someone or kill someone, no one can do anything about it.
Xiaoying, now that you're engaged to him, you need to keep your distance from other men and avoid having inappropriate contact with anyone. That way, Long Buxi won't be angry and won't harm the people around you.
However, if you're really worried that Long Buxi will imprison you and use Gu worms against you, Dad can ask an old comrade-in-arms to find you other powerful Gu masters among the Miao people, and give you some Gu worms that can fight against Long Buxi. That way, you won't have to worry about being trapped by Long Buxi."
After Cheng Jiantong finished speaking, he asked Cheng Ying to bring him paper and pen. He then wrote a letter to one of his old comrades-in-arms and asked Cheng Ying to take it to the post office to mail it.
Cheng Ying dropped the letter into the mailbox, feeling more confident. She was just waiting for her father's comrade to reply, so she could get the powerful Gu worm and have a proper 'talk' with Long Buxi.
However, before Cheng Jiantong's reply arrived, Old Man Cheng's seventieth birthday came.
The Cheng family said they were going to hold a birthday banquet, and Huang Cuizhi, contrary to her usual practice, asked the second branch of the family to help with the preparations. She specifically asked Cheng Ying to take a day off to help with the cooking at the Cheng family's house, and also invited the village secretary and some respected elders from the village to come to the house for a banquet.
Out of consideration for the village secretary and elders, no matter how unwilling Wan Shuhui was to take care of Old Man Cheng's birthday banquet, she had no choice but to let the Cheng sisters, Cheng Ying and Cheng Xue, help with the cooking so that the villagers wouldn't gossip about her two daughters.
Cheng Ying originally didn't want to deal with the Cheng family. Huang Cuizhi was clearly up to no good. The two families had fallen out, and Huang Cuizhi was trying to get the second branch of the family to host a birthday banquet for no reason. She was either trying to swindle money from the second branch or had some other ulterior motive.
Unfortunately, her father was blindly filial, and her mother was also a person who cared about her reputation. She didn't want the villagers to say that the second branch of the family was unfilial. Her mother had agreed to help with the banquet, so she had to help even if she didn't want to.
After they left, Huang Cuizhi did mention it, asking the second branch of the family to contribute money and grain to host the birthday banquet.
The second branch of the family was unwilling to contribute money, so they only contributed some grain. Huang Cuizhi muttered a few words, but then said nothing more. She simply asked the Cheng Ying and Cheng Xue sisters to help wash and serve the vegetables.
Seeing the lavish banquet and the abundance of drinks for the guests, and noticing the presence of several unfamiliar faces in the courtyard, Cheng Ying suspected something was amiss with Huang Cuizhi's sudden extravagant spending on the banquet and remained wary of her.
But nothing happened until the birthday banquet ended, and Cheng Ying's tense heart finally relaxed.
However, her father had been drinking with some of his peers and got quite drunk, vomiting all over the place. Her mother complained as she helped him home, changed his clothes, and made him a hangover soup.
The guests left, all tipsy, and it was getting dark. Huang Cuizhi called on the women of her household to clean up the messy courtyard.
After cleaning up, Huang Cuizhi took two large bowls filled with leftover food and handed them to Cheng Ying and Cheng Xue, saying, "There are a lot of leftovers today. Considering that your family has been busy helping out all day, these two bowls of leftover meat and vegetables are for you. Take them home and eat them as soon as possible, so that people don't go around saying that I'm being stingy with you."
In those two large bowls were several pieces of braised pork, meatballs, and chicken legs, each larger than a fist, along with some large bones with meat on them. They looked quite delicious.
Holding a bowl of leftovers, Cheng Xue followed Cheng Ying home, looking puzzled. "Sister, don't you think Grandma's acting really strange today? She gave us these two big bowls of meat, just like that. Before we separated from the family, if we wanted a piece of meat, it was like she was asking for our lives. She'd bang on our chopsticks and wouldn't let us eat any. Has the sun risen in the west today?"
"It's quite unusual. I wonder what she's up to. We should all be careful lately." Cheng Ying looked down at the leftover food in her bowl. There seemed to be nothing wrong with it, so she and Cheng Xue took the food into the cabinet in her kitchen.
Because Cheng Jiantong was drunk and kept talking nonsense and occasionally causing trouble, Cheng Ying was worried that Wan Shuhui and Cheng Xue would not be able to handle Cheng Jiantong, so she stayed at home and slept in the same room with Cheng Xue.
The night passed peacefully.
The next morning, Wan Shuhui got up early to cook.
She reheated the leftovers that Cheng Ying and her sister had brought back yesterday, steamed a pot of rice, and the family ate it with the leftovers.
Unexpectedly, after the family finished eating, they all felt dizzy and wanted to collapse to the ground.
Cheng Ying sensed something was wrong and was about to bite her tongue to stay awake when everything went black and she collapsed to the ground.
Before losing consciousness, she heard Liu Guifen's distinctive shrill voice say, "Mom, I told you, if you just drugged them directly, with Cheng Ying's vigilance, you definitely wouldn't be able to drug her. But if you throw a birthday banquet and give her leftovers laced with sleeping potion, she'll definitely fall for it! After all, these days, who doesn't love to eat meat!"
"You think you're so smart? I spent so much money on this birthday banquet to trick this brat. It hurts me to death. Hurry up and tie her up with ropes and send her to Young Master Wei. I'm going to swindle him out of a lot of money to make up for my losses!" Huang Cuizhi's slightly aged voice rang out, followed by the sound of two people coming over and tying ropes around Cheng Ying's neck.
It turns out that Huang Cuizhi's sudden extravagant birthday banquet was actually a ploy to drug Cheng Ying and send her to Wei Muchen.
Cheng Ying felt a chill in her heart, completely lost consciousness, and fainted.
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