Black Crow's first reaction wasn't to ask why the woman seemed to know the way but insisted she didn't know. Instead, he asked, "What's the Ten Thousand Poison Cave?"
The woman studied the bones in her hand as she explained, "The Ten Thousand Poison Cave is the Ten Thousand Poison Cave. I heard it's where poisonous insects are raised. So this is the source of those poisons!"
Black Crow couldn't help but sigh in the darkness. He regretted tying up the girl. He should have kept one of the strong men. "...If I had known earlier, I shouldn't have chosen you."
The woman didn't get angry when she heard that. She just smiled and said, "No, you should be thankful that you have me."
After saying that, the woman threw the bone in her hand with all her strength, and it happened to hit the wall. After being hit, the wall seemed to come alive, and suddenly there was a rustling sound. After a while, the sound passed through the wall and quickly approached the two of them.
Hei Ya thought to himself that something was wrong. Just when they were at their wit's end, the rustling sound only surrounded them. The poisonous insects did not come over, as if they were afraid of something.
“……!”
The woman stepped forward and gently patted Black Crow's shoulder. She said, "You know martial arts, right? Jumping up shouldn't be a problem, right? I remember there wasn't any muscle softening powder in your meal, just no oil or water."
"Hold me tight," the woman said before she could finish her words. Black Crow had already guessed what these poisonous insects were afraid of, picked her up and jumped on her.
After leaving the Ten Thousand Poison Cave, Black Crow was no longer anxious to find an exit. Instead, he slowly sat down at the corner of the wall and said, "I'm very curious about your origins."
After the woman sat down next to Black Crow, she also said, "I'm curious too. You give me an inexplicable sense of familiarity. I feel like we are the same kind of people."
Black Crow smiled faintly: "...Since we can't leave anyway, why not sit down and rest for a while?"
"good."
The woman said she had no name. Everyone called her the Medicine Woman. There was no hidden meaning; it was the literal meaning. As far as she could remember, she had been born in this boundless darkness. In her memory, there was only a single light, the light people called a candle.
She was blind, but it wasn't a congenital defect. When she was little, she was surrounded by many children of similar height, weight, and build, both boys and girls.
Day after day, everyone drank various unknown medicines. All medicines were poisonous, and it was hard to tell which was poisonous and which was effective. Over time, everyone developed various health problems. At first, it was just toothaches and stomachaches; gradually, these pains caused her friends around her to collapse one by one.
The person who fed her the medicine had mentioned that those who fell were thrown into the Poison Cave. So, when she found the skeleton, she wasn't shocked, but delighted. It was like meeting an old friend.
She didn't know how many others, like herself, were called "drug masters" back then, but she was undoubtedly the only one who persevered. The price of her survival was that fate had long since taken away everything she saw, leaving only a faint light in her memory. Years of exposure to drugs had made her body resistant to nearly every poison in the world, and even venomous insects, snakes, and pythons wouldn't dare approach her.
In exchange, Black Crow briefly recounted his past, a mixture of truth and lies. From her words, Black Crow had already grasped this woman's character. Though intelligent and calm, her mind was almost childlike, almost as naive.
"I thought you were an emotionless person, but now it seems that you can still have such a temperament under such circumstances. I really admire you."
The woman heard this but said nonchalantly, "Maybe to others, I'm in purgatory. But I've been in that environment since I can remember. I'm still wondering if you're in an environment that makes me curious."
Black Crow smiled. Yes, the world they lived in, in a sense, was not as simple as her purgatory. "If we can still get out, I'll take you to see someone. You two, in a sense, are very similar."
The woman asked curiously, "Who?"
Black Crow thought for a moment and said, "My sister."
The woman seemed to be hearing this name for the first time. She felt a little curious and expectant. "Sister? What a strange name, but it sounds nice. In that case, let's leave together."
Before Black Crow could react and realize he had been tricked by this young woman, she stood up on her own, gently brushing off the dust on her body as she explained, "Even though you've told me so much, you just want to know how to leave. But I can sense you have no ill intentions."
As she spoke, the woman sighed softly. "Alas, I don't want to be here anymore. I still remember the windmills and bamboo horses, the milk fans and candied haws, and the chicks and ducklings my friends used to talk about. I've never seen any of them. The world is so big, I want to see it. I don't know when, but I've been gradually forgotten in this world. Until recently, maybe they thought I was just like these deaf-mute people, so they assigned me a job."
The question that Black Crow originally wanted to ask was swallowed back: "What about the people who 'took care' of you before?"
The woman said lightly: "Maybe he was poisoned by the medicine. I'm not sure. They always think of all kinds of weird ways to test the medicine." In her opinion, life and death have long been nothing new.
"Well, thank you for your help, young lady."
Just as the woman raised her foot to lead the black crow to the "exit" she had stumbled upon, she seemed to have thought of something and retracted her foot: "No, we can't leave yet."
"......" Hei Ya thought to himself that this was not good. Could it be that this person suddenly changed his attitude and wanted to go back on his word?
The woman said playfully, "Hey, you're the first person to talk to me so much, how about you give me a name?"
Hei Ya was slightly stunned, "This, this is not appropriate."
The woman said, "As long as it sounds nice and is easy to remember, I'm not picky."
Black Crow thought for a while, but couldn't come up with a good name. Finally, he decided to borrow the name of a famous person. After much deliberation, he found a suitable option: "Xihe, how about it? 'Xi' means bright and brilliant; 'He' means gentle. And Xihe is a goddess, so in a sense, she's free and unfettered."
"Xihe? Hmm, that sounds nice. From now on I will be called Xihe." The woman was illiterate and no one had ever told her any mythological stories. She just felt that these two words were easy to pronounce, and she felt good after listening to what he just said.
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