Chapter 46 Heart Gu
Cheng Ying remained calm. "I'm not angry. I just see a reflection of myself when I was a child in him."
A little boy was not liked by his relatives and the people in the village from a young age because of his personality. When his family died, people did not investigate the truth of the matter, but suspected that he had killed his family and wanted to punish him according to the village rules. If she were Long Buxi, the first thing she would do after crawling out of the Gu Pool alive would be to kill everyone in the village who wanted her dead!
Once that thought crossed her mind, she suddenly felt something was off. Long Buxi was a stranger to her. According to her personality, she wouldn't care much about someone she didn't know. Why was she now so eager to know about Long Buxi and even speaking up for Long Buxi when she was a child? This was very illogical.
Mei Shu noticed the fleeting look of confusion on Cheng Ying's face. She reached out and picked up the flower tea that Cheng Ying had placed on the table, handing it to Cheng Ying. "You must be thirsty after talking for so long. This tea is a new camellia tea I made this year. It has a very unique flavor. Try it."
Cheng Ying didn't take the tea, her face showing hesitation.
Mei Shu chuckled, "Did Arno tell you not to eat or drink anything given to you by other people in the village, or you might get cursed?"
Cheng Ying pursed her lips, remaining silent, her expression saying everything.
"You trust him that much?" Mei Shu rubbed her teacup with her thumb, her eyes playful. "Have you ever considered that he might also use a spell on you?"
Cheng Ying's pupils contracted, and she suddenly looked up at Mei Shu. She suddenly realized why she had been thinking about Long Buxi these past two days, wanting to know everything about him. Even though she wasn't curious about Long Buxi's affairs, she couldn't help but investigate his strange past behavior.
“You’re his aunt. You once used a Gu poison on my father. You must be a Gu master. Do you know what kind of Gu poison I was afflicted with?” Cheng Ying asked, her breathing rapid.
"You'll understand once you drink this bowl of tea." Mei Shu pushed the tea in her hand towards her.
Looking at the bowl of tea with a brightly colored camellia flower floating on top, Cheng Ying felt a mix of emotions.
She neither believed Long Buxi's words nor trusted that Mei Shu would be so kind as to give her a bowl of harmless flower tea.
But she desperately wanted to know if her unusual behavior was due to a curse.
She hesitated for a few seconds, gritted her teeth, picked up the bowl of tea, and drank it all in one gulp.
Mei Shu smiled, her bright red lips curving upwards. After watching her drink the flower tea, she asked with great interest, "How do you feel now that you've finished drinking it?"
Feelings? Cheng Ying thought carefully for a moment, "No."
Mei Shu frowned, extended her long, beautiful fingers, and tapped the table. "No rush, let's wait a bit longer."
A minute passed, and Cheng Ying did not respond.
Five minutes passed, and Cheng Ying still didn't respond.
Ten minutes later, Cheng Ying suddenly felt an itch in her chest and couldn't help but reach out and scratch it.
"Don't move!" Mei Shu shouted sharply, and suddenly reached out and forcefully tore open her clothes, revealing a small, blood-red, rice-grain-sized movable mark under the snow-white skin on her left chest.
Mei Shu muttered to herself, "Heart Gu, I haven't seen this thing in a long time."
Cheng Ying was horrified. "Aunt Mei, what is a Heart Gu? Why did Long Buxi put a Gu on me? When did he put it on me? Can this Gu be cured?"
Mei Shu said, "Heart Gu is a kind of Gu that can control people's hearts and change their thoughts and behaviors. It is usually used to make puppets. In ancient times, our Miao people used corpses and living people to make puppet armies to serve us, or to control people's thoughts and use people close to nobles to carry out assassinations."
Mei Shu extended her index finger and gently pointed to the mark on her chest, saying, "Heart Gu is not allowed to be refined in our village now, nor is it allowed to be used on any outsiders. This is because Heart Gu is extremely difficult to refine and is extremely insidious. The old clan chief was afraid that the people in the village would refine Heart Gu and do illegal and disorderly things, which would attract outsiders, namely your Han Chinese police, to come to our village to investigate. Therefore, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was explicitly forbidden for everyone in the village to refine Heart Gu."
She loosened her fingers and examined the mark carefully. "Whether Arno cast the spell on you is still uncertain. I did witness the horrific deaths of my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew back then. Arno was standing next to their bodies, covered in blood, holding a blood-stained axe. But I'm not sure if he killed them."
His father and mother were first cousins, and their marriage was based on inbreeding. Their first child, Arno's older brother, was a deformed freak with two heads and two brains.
His brother was extremely strange in both thought and behavior, and was also very fierce, violent and cruel. He once bit a child in the village to death.
According to our clan rules, Arno's brother was born a freak and should have been executed. However, his mother risked her life to protect him, even using the blood curse she had created to fight against the entire village.
His mother was the most skilled Gu practitioner in our tribe, even the old chief's Gu worms couldn't defeat hers. Seeing that her blood Gu was about to wipe out the entire village, the old chief had no choice but to compromise, allowing her to leave the child behind, and making a three-point agreement with her: she had to raise and educate the child properly, and the child was not allowed to leave the village.
They also forbade the couple from having any more children, lest they give birth to a second freak and frighten others.
Unexpectedly, five years later, they had a normal son, Arnold.
Arno's birth was an accident. His mother had considered not having him and tried several methods to abort him, but to no avail. She felt that heaven had not forsaken this child, and she wanted to give birth to him.
To prevent her tribe from discovering her pregnancy, she hid and concealed it until she gave birth to Arno at full term. Arno was a healthy and normal child, and only then did Arno's mother openly bring Arno to the public eye.
Arno disliked his brother from a young age and didn't want to be with him. The main reason was that his brother was a freak. The children his age in the village always made fun of him by talking about his brother, calling his brother a big monster and him a little monster.
He had no close friends to play with, so he could only play with the Gu worms that his mother made. Gradually, he learned his mother's Gu-making skills and made his own Gu at a young age.
The year his parents had their accident, I had already been married for many years and lived in this dense forest. I have a bad temper and don't usually have close contact with his family.
When I saw the horrific state of my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, I asked him who killed them, but he didn't answer me.
I asked him again why he was holding a bloodstained axe, and whether he had killed his brother. He only replied that the axe was not his.
Everyone believed he had killed his family and wanted to send him to the Gu Pool to be bitten to death by the Gu worms. He didn't struggle or defend himself; he simply walked into the Gu Pool, covered in blood.
Mei Shu sighed deeply at this point and continued, "Later, Arno not only survived being bitten to death by the Gu worms, but he also refined the Gu worms in the Gu pool into his own Gu worms. The old clan chief felt that he had inherited his mother's talent for refining Gu worms and that his life was not meant to end. He overruled all objections and raised him by his side. After Arno came of age, he was made the young clan chief. He and I, his aunt, didn't have much contact and there was no kinship between us. Although we were aunt and nephew, we were practically strangers."
She looked up at Cheng Ying and said, "Although the Heart Gu is difficult to cultivate, it's possible that others in the village besides Arno are also secretly cultivating it. Your Heart Gu hasn't been implanted for long, and something has been interfering with it, preventing it from implanting in your heart. It's been hovering under your skin, looking for an opportunity to enter your heart. It's not difficult to remove a Heart Gu that hasn't been successfully implanted, but you'll have to endure some hardship and agree to one condition before I can remove the Gu for you."
"What conditions? As long as it's within my power, and doesn't involve killing or breaking the law, I can do it." Cheng Ying didn't want to be controlled by some inexplicable Gu worm.
Mei Shu smiled and said, "The condition is simple. Come closer and I'll tell you."
An hour later, Cheng Ying, pale-faced and clutching her chest, left Meng Wang's house.
Cheng Ying returned to Long Buxi's house and, while he was away, carefully observed his home from the first floor to the third floor.
She had been staying at Long Buxi's house for the past two days. Considering that Long Buxi was a Miao person and also the host, she hadn't felt comfortable wandering around his house.
The first floor of Long Buxi's house has always been closed off. The stairs in his house lead directly to the living room on the second floor. She once asked Long Buxi why no one lived on the first floor. Long Buxi vaguely said that the first floor was filled with his parents' old things and miscellaneous items. He did not want outsiders to see it, so she did not force him to go.
With Long Buxi not around, Cheng Ying used the lock-picking skills she learned in the army. She used the tip of her military dagger to fiddle with the lock and quickly opened it.
The first floor is the same as the third floor, with three large rooms. The first room is nothing special except for some old wardrobes and beds, and the second room is similar.
However, the third room had no windows and was very dark. When you went in, there was a strong smell of dust and a faint smell of blood. It was clear that no one had lived there for a long time.
Cheng Ying went inside and looked around. The room was filled with all sorts of things, including broken pots and pans, mattresses and chairs. The most eye-catching thing was a black coffin placed in the middle.
While the rest of the room was covered in dust and cobwebs, the coffin in the middle was the only one without a speck of dust or cobwebs. The entire coffin was shiny black, wide and large enough for two or three people to lie down in.
Cheng Ying's brow twitched. She had a feeling that Long Buxi must come to this room often and touch that coffin, which was why the coffin was so shiny.
What's inside the coffin? A dead person, or...?
Cheng Ying decided to push the coffin open to take a look.
However, as soon as she approached the coffin, she heard the barking of the dog that she had specifically asked Big Yellow to guard the door.
She was startled, thinking, "Has Long Buxi returned?" She quickly went out to check.
She went outside and saw that she didn't see Long Buxi, but instead saw the dark blue insect she had seen in the dense forest before, which was lying next to the wooden door lock, staring at her and Dahuang with its tiny, pinhole-sized eyes.
Big Yellow stared at it, barking incessantly, and occasionally leaping onto the door, trying to bite it.
But it was on the doorknob, slowly and leisurely grooming its fluffy fur with its two bee-like front claws, looking quite disdainful.
Although it was clearly an insect, Cheng Ying could see its expression and sense what it wanted to say.
Cheng Ying felt very strange. She was certain that this insect was a Gu worm raised by Long Buxi.
From the moment she went to the dense forest until now, when she returned here, the insect seemed to have been following her the whole time.
Could it be that since Long Buxi isn't here, they sent this insect to spy on her?
Thinking of this, Cheng Ying felt a chill run down her spine.
She didn't know if Long Buxi had used a heart-cursing spell on her. She really wanted to confront Long Buxi, but he was her savior after all. If she confronted him and suspected him of having ulterior motives, she didn't know what he would think.
Only then did she decide to check his house to see if what Mei Shu and the others in the village had said about him was true before making a judgment.
Now that she saw the dark blue insect, she suddenly lost interest in investigating it.
What kind of person is Long Buxi? What is his past, and what is his relationship with her?
Regardless of whether he had cast the curse on her or not, he saved her life, and Mei Shu had already removed the curse from her. She didn't want to get entangled in these matters any further; she just wanted to leave as soon as possible.
She was a postwoman, and she had more important things to do. No matter what Long Buxi's purpose was, she was unwilling to stay in Pucang Village any longer.
It's time to leave.
With this idea in mind, Cheng Ying locked the door on the first floor again and returned to her room.
She planned to stay another night until Long Buxi returned so she could thank him in person before leaving.
That night, she locked the door as usual and let Da Huang sleep at the foot of the bed.
Perhaps because she was preoccupied with her own thoughts, she was wide awake and her eyes unconsciously drifted to the window.
A gust of wind blew in and out of the window, causing the bamboo branches and leaves to sway and rustle. The swaying branches cast indistinct, distorted shadows on the window, creating an eerie, ghostly atmosphere.
Cheng Ying felt inexplicably uneasy when she thought of Long Buxi's parents and brother who had died tragically in this stilted house. She got up, put on her shoes, went to the window, closed it, and locked the sheath from the inside before returning to bed to sleep.
Hearing her footsteps, Da Huang looked up and barked softly, as if asking, "Human, what's wrong? I think I can smell something uneasy about you."
Cheng Ying's uneasy heart suddenly calmed down after hearing Da Huang's bark.
That feeling is like being in a strange, eerie place, at a loss, when suddenly a tall, mighty, and extremely loyal dog is there to protect you, giving you the confidence to withstand all the unsettling factors.
Cheng Ying reached out and patted the big yellow dog's head, saying softly, "It's okay, it's about to rain outside, I'll close the window to prevent the rain from getting into the house."
Big Yellow barked and gently licked the back of her hand.
Don't be afraid, I will protect you.
Cheng Ying felt a warmth in her heart, stroked its head a few more times, lay back down on the bed, and forced herself to fall asleep.
Not long after, it started to rain outside. The raindrops pattered on the ground and hit the window, making a soft, pattering sound.
As Cheng Ying listened to the sound of rain, drowsiness gradually crept in. Before falling asleep, she thought, "Pucang Village is really strange. Not only is there a lot of rain, but why does it stop thundering when it rains down at the foot of the mountain?"
She didn't know how much time had passed, but in a half-dream, half-awake state, Cheng Ying heard Da Huang barking and felt Da Huang biting her wrist.
She woke up with a start and found that Da Huang had jumped onto the bed and was pawing at her chest with his front paws, looking very anxious.
"What's wrong, Da Huang?" Cheng Ying asked, puzzled.
When Dahuang saw that she was awake, it stopped digging at her, looked out the window, and barked loudly.
Cheng Ying looked in the direction it was looking, and apart from the still faint shadows on the window and the familiar pattering of rain, there was nothing strange about it.
The next second, she realized something was wrong, because those indistinct shadows were clearly not bamboo branches and leaves.
Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the outside of the window was covered with many strange insects, flying ants, and even snakes, densely packed together, wriggling incessantly and making a rustling sound similar to rain.
The same noises were coming from her tightly closed door, and even more strange insects crawled in through the crack in the door, reaching the foot of her bed.
No wonder Dahuang kept barking; it turns out some bugs had gotten into the room.
Cheng Ying felt a chill run down her spine. She quickly grabbed the mailbag and crossbody bag from the bed, fumbled for the old-fashioned diesel lighter in the crossbody bag, pressed the gear, lit the lighter, and looked around the room by the light.
She was shocked to find that the room was filled with tens of thousands of insects of different sizes and shapes. There were common creatures such as spiders, scorpions, mantises, and fire ants, as well as many beetles and other insects that she did not recognize.
Their colors were mostly black or brownish-red, clearly indicating poison, and they formed an encirclement, eyeing her menacingly.
For some unknown reason, just like the snakes and insects in the dense forest before, they stopped about two meters away from her and started circling around her bed.
Stared at by so many insects, Cheng Ying felt her scalp tingle. Scientific theories and socialist ideology were all forgotten at that moment.
All she wanted to know was where these ghostly things came from and what they wanted to do.
Cheng Ying recalled that when Mei Shu showed her the Heart Gu, she had told her that the Heart Gu seemed to be wary of something, and that Mei Shu could only remove the Gu from her body if the Gu was not successfully implanted.
At the time, she wondered what the Heart Gu could possibly be wary of.
Now, recalling the snakes and insects in the dense forest, and the way the insects in the house reacted to her, she was almost certain that they were wary of the brocade pouch that Zhuo Zuilan had given her.
Without saying a word, she took out the brocade pouch from her pocket and held it out in front of the many insects swarming around her under the bed. The insects immediately retreated in a circle, like a tide.
They were indeed afraid of the brocade pouch made by Zhuo Zuilan!
Zhuo Zuilan once said that this brocade pouch might save her life in a critical moment, and it seems that it was true.
Having confirmed her thoughts, Cheng Ying felt much more at ease. However, in less than three seconds, the insects swarmed around her again, along with some venomous scorpions that waved their pincers, seemingly poised to charge forward.
Cheng Ying: ......
Zhuo Zuilan's brocade pouch probably won't last long either.
Cheng Ying didn't know where these insects came from, but judging from their encirclement, she knew they wanted to bite her and Da Huang to death and devour their flesh.
Logically speaking, Cheng Ying should be panicked and scared, but she has lived two lives and is a retired female soldier. She has experienced all kinds of situations.
Faced with being surrounded by insects, she calmly took out her dagger, holding it in one hand and a lighter in the other, pondering how to escape from the swarm of insects.
Big Yellow sensed danger. Seeing how calm she was, it also calmed down, stopped barking, and sat quietly beside her.
A man and his dog stood facing off against the swarm of insects.
Time ticked by, and Da Huang couldn't sit still any longer. Just as he was about to jump off the bed and fight the swarm of insects, the insects at the door suddenly seemed startled and scurried around the room.
Cheng Ying sensed the insects' unusual movement, lit a lighter, and looked towards the door in the light. She saw a dark blue insect fly in through the crack in the door.
From the moment it flew in, the insects in the room seemed to have seen something terrifying, and they scrambled out in a panic, many of them crashing into each other.
The room was filled with rustling sounds, all from the rapid crawling and flying of insects.
In less than five minutes, all the insects that had swarmed inside the room disappeared, and even the snakes and insects that had been clinging to the window were gone. There were no more rustling sounds outside, and the room was extremely quiet.
The lighter was burning hot from the flame, so Cheng Ying had to turn it off temporarily. Once the lighter tip wasn't so hot anymore, she lit it again and aimed the flame at the eerie blue insect flying on the bedside table.
As if it knew she was watching it, the insect raised its head and looked at her with two tiny, pinhole-sized eyes, while making soft squeaking noises, as if it were talking to her.
For a moment, Cheng Ying felt like she might be going crazy.
It's normal that Dahuang is an intelligent dog and she can understand what Dahuang is trying to say most of the time.
But for an insect, especially a strange one she'd never seen before, to be able to understand what it was saying was truly unbelievable.
Thinking this, she tentatively asked the insect, "Are you a Gu worm raised by Long Buxi?"
The insect stared at her with its dark eyes, but didn't react.
Cheng Ying thought for a moment and then asked in a different way: "If you can understand me, nod or flap your wings."
Then he asked again, "Are you Long Buxi's Gu worm?"
This time, the insect reacted. It neither nodded nor flapped its wings; it simply squeaked.
As expected, they were Long Buxi's Gu worms. Cheng Ying wasn't surprised at all and continued to ask, "Did Long Buxi send you to monitor me, or to stay by my side to protect me? And what about those worms just now?"
With so many questions, the insect clearly couldn't answer them.
It squeaked twice at Cheng Ying, seemingly rolling its eyes, with a look of utter exasperation that said, "How am I supposed to answer your question?"
Before Cheng Ying could ask anything else, it covered its head with its wings, its chubby little body lying stiffly on the bedside table, as if to say, "I'm going to sleep, don't talk and disturb my sleep." Cheng Ying swallowed the words she was about to say.
Cheng Ying stared at the insect in the darkness for a long time. Seeing that it didn't move and seemed to have really fallen asleep, and that the insects that had appeared in the room before hadn't appeared again, and that it was only about three o'clock in the morning, she was so sleepy that she simply stopped worrying about what had happened before, hugged Da Huang in her arms, lay back on the bed, and continued to sleep.
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