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墨書 Inktalez
"Dead?!" I had thought that finding the Blood Farmer might lead to a way to save Haoyang, but now I was being told that the person who might be the Blood Farmer was already dead. My heart sank.
"Yes, dead..." the old man replied firmly, still keeping his head down, seemingly unaware of Haoyang's condition.
At that moment, several bright red sprouts had already emerged from Haoyang's exposed arm, while his body sat motionless, like a soulless shell.
Li Zhisheng, unable to sit still any longer, stood up and anxiously looked at Haoyang. He asked the old man, "Old man, do you know anyone else who might be the Blood Farmer?"
Hearing this, the old man looked puzzled, not understanding why Li Zhisheng would ask such a question. He slowly raised his head and saw Haoyang sitting there like a vegetative state. This startled him as well; he hurried over to Haoyang's side, checking on him while asking me, "When did he become like this?!"
Seeing that the old man seemed to know how to save Haoyang, I quickly replied, "It happened early this morning!"
Without another word, the old man lifted Haoyang and rushed toward the inner room. Li Zhisheng and I exchanged glances; I secretly felt relieved—there seemed to be hope. We followed the old man into the inner room.
Once inside, the old man went straight to the bedside and placed the mud-covered Haoyang onto the bed. At that moment, the middle-aged woman was nowhere to be seen.
"Wife, come here for a moment..." the old man called out.
After a moment, the middle-aged woman pulled aside the curtain and walked in with slightly swollen eyes. She asked in a somewhat hoarse voice, "What happened?"
"Do we have any herbs for pulling out weeds? Hurry and find some for me..." The old man urged anxiously.
"Yes, I'll go get it!" The middle-aged woman quickly left the bedroom. After a short while, she returned with a basket filled with yellow-green leaves, each only about a quarter of the size of a palm.
"Here," she said as she handed the basket to the old man. He took it and selected a few leaves to stack in his palm before using his thumb from his other hand to crush them repeatedly.
As he crushed them, some yellow liquid began to ooze from the leaves. At that moment, the old man turned to us and said, "Come help me open his mouth."
I hurried forward and pinched Haoyang's mouth open. However, since he was like a corpse at that moment and most of his body had already stiffened, I had no choice but to grip his upper jaw with one hand and his lower jaw with the other, forcing his mouth open with all my strength.
At that moment, the old man quickly took the opportunity to pour the yellow juice from the leaf into Haoyang's mouth. Afterward, he let out a sigh of relief, clapped his hands, and tossed aside the crushed remnants of the leaves.
"Is that all it takes?!" I asked, bewildered, as I looked at Haoyang, who remained motionless before me.
"He won't be in danger for now; at least he'll survive through tonight. However, if we don't find the real antidote soon, even a deity won't be able to save him."
"Antidote? Wasn't what you just gave him an antidote?"
"No, that kind of medicine can only temporarily preserve his life. A seed has already been planted inside him. In other words, he has become a seed for the Blood Farmer..." The old man sighed and took out a cigarette to put between his lips.
"Will this child end up like our own?" The middle-aged woman beside us murmured as tears streamed down her face. Seeing this, the old man hurried over to support her and said as he walked outside, "I can only help your friend this much. Whether you can find the antidote depends on your own fortune..." With that, he left the house, not knowing where he went with the middle-aged woman.
Li Zhisheng and I stayed inside. By now, we had a rough understanding of the situation. It seemed that this couple's son had been planted with what they called a seed, and their inability to find an antidote had led to their loss.
"Do you have any good ideas?" Li Zhisheng asked with a worried expression as he looked at Haoyang lying on the bed.
"It's not about whether there are solutions right now; we must come up with one." I sat down beside him, wanting to smoke a cigarette to ease my emotions. But then I remembered that when we encountered the Mountain Flood, our clothes had been left in the collapsed cave. At this moment, I didn't even have a lighter.
Suddenly, something clicked in my mind. I hurriedly pulled Li Zhisheng closer and said, "I think we've been misled by that story earlier. Do you remember the story I told you after I got home?"
Li Zhisheng's eyes lit up with realization. "You mean the Blood Farmer isn't in this village but in the neighboring village?!"
"If I'm not mistaken, that's how it should be because the old man's partner once told me that all the rumors she heard came from the neighboring village."
"Now that we have a direction, solving this problem should be easier..." As he spoke, Li Zhisheng glanced at Haoyang again. His complexion had improved somewhat; the red branches on his arm were no longer growing, and the bright red leaves were slowly falling away.
Seeing that Haoyang was temporarily out of danger, Li Zhisheng continued, "Shall we go now?"
Although I wanted to set off immediately, we didn't know where the neighboring village was located. Therefore, we had no choice but to seek help from the old man once more.
"Old man? Are you still there?" I called out a few times towards the door. When no one responded, I decided to get up and go look for him, leaving Li Zhisheng inside to watch over Haoyang.
As soon as I lifted the curtain, the aroma of food wafted in again, and my stomach betrayed me with a loud growl. Despite that, I had no time to think about food; I was solely focused on finding the old man to ask about the location of the neighboring village.
I searched from the bedroom to the living room, then from the living room to the kitchen. Aside from a pot bubbling on the stove, there was no sign of the old man or the middle-aged woman.
"Strange, where did they go?" I muttered to myself at the bedroom door. At that moment, Li Zhisheng noticed I hadn't returned and decided to step outside to check.
He came out and saw me standing at the door, looking puzzled. He asked, "What are you doing here? Didn't find anyone?"
I glanced at him and replied, "It seems like they went out. There are only three rooms in this house, and I've looked around but didn't see anyone. They must have left..."
Just then, I faintly heard a low sobbing sound nearby. Although it was somewhat distant, I could still hear it clearly...
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