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墨書 Inktalez
Just as I was deep in thought, a flurry of footsteps echoed from outside the house, sounding like three or four people were hastily approaching our location.
Hearing this, I cursed under my breath, thinking, "Could it be that they have already realized we are hiding here?" With that thought in mind, I quickly devised a plan and said to Yao Long and the woman, "In that case, let's do this: my friend and I will hide downstairs while you stay here alone. If anything happens, just shout loudly, and we will come to rescue you."
The woman appeared somewhat worried, but since there was no better option at the moment, she nodded in agreement. Immediately, Yao Long and I slipped into the cabinet and pulled the door shut behind us.
Hiding inside the cabinet, we pressed ourselves against the door, listening intently to every sound outside. At that moment, Yao Long said, "Why did you leave her alone outside? Isn't that very dangerous?"
His voice was low enough that I had to strain to hear him, but I managed to grasp his meaning and whispered back, "Don't you understand? That woman knows those bandits. If she is outside, she can easily come up with various excuses—like saying she came here to chase us. But if we are outside, it would be much harder to explain. Plus, with those people you killed earlier, they would definitely become suspicious. We would be caught in a fierce fight."
After hearing this, Yao Long finally understood my intention. He nodded knowingly and said, "You want her to distract those people..."
Before he could finish his sentence, I interjected, "Exactly. But it's not just that; I also want to test whether she truly intends to harm us. In this situation, if she has any malicious intent, she might take the opportunity to inform the approaching bandits about our hiding place..."
Just then, we heard voices outside the cabinet. I quickly stopped talking and listened carefully. "What are you doing here?" a heavily accented man asked from outside. Judging by his voice, it was likely the Bearded Man we encountered in the forest.
"The two people we brought earlier escaped, so I chased after them..." the woman replied. At that moment, my heart raced with anxiety; I feared she would reveal our hiding spot to the bandits.
But then came a loud slap followed by her startled scream and a thud as she fell to the ground.
Suddenly, I felt Yao Long tense beside me as if he wanted to push the door open and help her. Seeing this, I quickly grabbed him tightly and whispered one word: "Endure!"
"You useless fool! You can't even keep an eye on two people! What if they escape and leak our whereabouts?!" the man shouted angrily.
At that moment, the woman softly replied, "They just ran off not long ago; you can still catch up if you hurry..."
"Which way did they go?!"
"They ran towards the back of the village..." The woman spoke calmly, without a hint of fear in her voice, as if she had grown accustomed to such situations.
As soon as she finished speaking, I heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside the cabinet again. When the noise gradually faded away, and I felt they had left the house, I slowly pushed the cabinet door open a crack and looked outside.
In the dim light of the moon, I saw the woman lying on her side on the ground, her already tattered clothes now covered in dust. She craned her neck to glance outside, and when she saw no one was around, she slowly got up from the ground. Rubbing her slightly swollen cheek, she whispered to us inside the cabinet, "They've gone; you can come out now..."
Hearing this, I cautiously opened the cabinet door and looked around to confirm that no one was present before stepping out with Yao Long. Approaching her, I bent down to help her up and asked, "Are you alright?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine; I've gotten used to it."
"Can you tell us what happened in this village? Why were the villagers slaughtered?" I inquired.
Upon hearing my question, the woman pulled three chairs from a dark corner and gestured for Yao Long and me to sit down while she took a seat across from us. "This village was once inhabited by a group of Miao people who lived deep in the mountains. I'm not entirely sure why they chose to hide away; it's said they were trying to escape from enemies. Although they spent their days brewing poisons and crafting gu (a type of poison), they never intended to harm anyone. For some unknown reason, this secluded mountain village attracted disaster..."
As she spoke, tears glimmered in her eyes, yet I couldn't detect any sadness in her expression—perhaps it was due to the dim light of the moon.
She continued, "Ever since a gang of bandits arrived in the village, many have died or fled; soon there were hardly any villagers left. The bandits took over our village, likely intending to use it as a base to expand their power. They then thought of using our Miao family's Gu Technique."
"At first, they captured several people skilled in Gu Technique. However, those individuals refused to obey them and were brutally killed. As for me, I've always been timid and feared persecution by them; I reluctantly agreed to their demands and began assisting them with these harmful deeds."
The woman fell silent, slowly lowering her head. For some reason, as I watched her bow slightly, I felt something was off, though I couldn't tell if it was just my imagination or something else.
At that moment, Yao Long, sitting beside me, suddenly became alert. He gripped the Azure Spirit tightly with one hand and turned his head to fixate on the door, as if sensing something approaching.
"What's wrong? Are they back again?" I asked Yao Long.
As soon as I spoke, Yao Long sprang to his feet and kicked the chair he had been sitting on. In that instant, I saw limbs of insects emerging from the chair, slowly crawling toward us.
Alarmed, I quickly glanced at the stool I was sitting on, only to find that insect limbs were also sprouting from beneath me, inching toward my body.
"You dare..." I hurriedly stood up and kicked my stool away, pointing at the woman who remained seated before us. "I knew it! You really do want to harm us..."
The woman remained motionless, still with her head bowed. However, from her body came an eerie and aged laughter that echoed throughout the empty room, sending chills down my spine.
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