Arriving home under the cover of night, I was inevitably bombarded with a barrage of questions. Fortunately, after our last conversation, my grandparents weren't too worried about me anymore. Otherwise, I would have had to explain everything all over again.
With nothing else to do in the darkness, I cleaned up and went to bed. Before drifting off, I practiced a bit and then joined YunQingYue in tending to our spiritual sprouts.
I woke up to bright daylight, with my parents having already made breakfast. After eating, I took out my textbooks and began reviewing my lessons. I had barely attended any classes this week, so I needed to catch up quickly.
As I read, I couldn't help feeling anxious and restless, as if something were missing. It wasn't until midday that I suddenly remembered what it was.
Bai Xinghua had left home to seek shelter the last time I saw her. Now, it had been seven days, and I didn't know if she had returned.
Realizing this, I quickly finished my lunch and rushed out the door.
"YiHeng, where are you going now?" My mom stopped me, seeing how hurried I was.
"I'm going to check on Sister-in-Law Bai," I replied without hesitation.
Hearing my words, my parents frowned in disapproval and said, "What are you going to do there? Is she all you think about?"
"You don't have to worry about these things. Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Sister-in-Law Bai is a respectable person, so please don't jump to conclusions," I reassured them before leaving.
My parents sighed helplessly at my departure and didn't say anything more.
I was pleased with this situation, as they had learned to let go. That was a good sign.
I ran all the way to Bai Xinghua's house and saw that the door was unlocked. This made me excited because it meant that she had returned.
"Sister-in-Law, Sister-in-Law!" I pushed the door open and called out loudly.
"YiHeng?" Bai Xinghua was cooking in the kitchen and came out when she heard me.
"Sister-in-Law, you're back! Are you okay?" I ran up to her, feeling a bit awkward and nervous.
"I'm fine. What could happen to me?" Bai Xinghua smiled at me, turned around, and headed back to the kitchen. "Have you eaten lunch yet? I'm cooking now. Let's eat together later."
"Not yet," I replied and followed her into the kitchen. We sat down on a pile of grass to eat together.
"You still have some oil stains on the corners of your mouth, and you say you haven't eaten. I've noticed that you're becoming less honest," said Bai Xinghua, glancing at me with a reproachful tone, but her face was full of smiles.
I chuckled awkwardly and quickly wiped the corners of my mouth, looking at her and saying, "Sister-in-law, what happened a few days ago? Can you tell me now?"
"Not yet," Bai Xinghua smiled slightly and then said, "By the way, I'll be leaving for a trip in a few days, and it may be a while before I come back. Your birthday is in three days, so I'll celebrate with you in advance. I don't have any other gifts, just a bowl of longevity noodles, which is my goodwill."
"Oh, is my birthday coming up so soon?" With her reminder, I realized that time had slipped away, and my birthday was approaching. After this birthday, I would be fourteen.
Strangely enough, the meal Bai Xinghua made for lunch was exactly noodles, as if she had predicted that I would come.
Soon, the meal was ready, and we went into the main room to eat.
During the meal, I asked Bai Xinghua why she had to go on a trip again.
She didn't answer me directly, just looked me up and down and said, "Something strange happened a few days ago. Although everything is fine now, I have to take precautions."
I knew she was talking about the "Gu-keeping Technique" book incident, but I pretended not to know and nodded, saying, "Is there any danger? If there is, please tell me. I can help you."
"No need. There is no danger for the time being," she smiled and watched me finish my noodles. Then she got up and walked to the inner room, saying to me, "Wait a moment, I have something else to give you."
"Another gift? Didn't you say it was just a bowl of longevity noodles?" I asked happily.
"Are you kidding? Am I that stingy?" Bai Xinghua smiled coyly, her demeanor pure and charming, although she was a widow, she exuded the lovely fragrance of a young girl.
"What kind of treasure is it?"
Soon, I saw Bai Xinghua come out of the inner room and I went up to meet her.
She smiled and tidied up the stray hair around her ears with her hand, looking a bit shy. After a moment of hesitation, she handed me a small sachet and said, "I embroidered this myself, and inside are some mugwort leaves. If you wear it for a long time, it can repel mosquitoes."
I took the mugwort sachet and looked at it. It was dark green and black all over, with strange runes embroidered in gold thread, and a silver-red tassel below. Overall, it was very delicate and intricate, and I couldn't help but like it very much. I quickly hung the sachet on my waistband, turned around and looked at Bai Xinghua, asking, "Is this how I wear it?"
"In ancient times, it was like this. If you wear it like this now, you'll be laughed at. You can tie it to your keychain instead," said Baixinghua to me.
"Okay, then I'll hang it on my keychain. Thank you, sister-in-law," I picked up the sachet and sniffed it carefully in front of my nose. Soon, I realized that the scent was not just the fragrance of mugwort. Baixinghua must have added something else to it.
I carefully recalled the contents of the Gu cultivation technique and quickly understood the true function of this sachet.
It was a sachet for repelling gu. If nothing unexpected happened, it should contain a substance called "gu-repelling incense."
According to the Gu cultivation technique, the so-called gu-repelling incense was not a specific spice. Its main ingredient was actually the corpses of gu worms. Generally speaking, to make this kind of incense, one would fry ordinary spices and gu worms together, crush them after drying, and make gu-repelling incense.
The principle of repelling gu using gu-repelling incense was also very simple. It used the smell of gu worm corpses to scare off those gu worms that wanted to attack one's own gu.
It should be noted that gu worms were very intelligent. If they smelled the odor of the same kind of corpses before attacking and knew that the object they were going to attack had the ability to exterminate gu, they would naturally hesitate and not dare to attack that person again.
Of course, because of these reasons, gu-repelling incense also had some flaws. It could only drive away gu worms that were of similar or lower levels than those of the dead gu worms used to make the incense.
I didn't know what level the gu-repelling incense that Baixinghua gave me was, but it shouldn't be too low.
Of course, at this point, what I really cared about was not the gu-repelling incense, but where Baixinghua got the corpses of the gu worms from.
Could it be that she killed her own gu worms?