Phi-Fic Chapter 248 Together
Chapter 248 Together
After a fumbled conversation in a broken, unintelligible language, Bai Zhi learned the name of the place—Sanhoudi. She wasn't sure if it was the name of a tribe or a place, but the women called themselves Sanhoudi. Sanhoudi was mostly women; men were few and far between. The men all surrounded Gu Yan, asking him all sorts of questions, their faces full of curiosity.
Gu Yan woke up in the vat just like Bai Zhi. He didn't know a word of the local language, but he adapted quickly and communicated with gestures using his two hands. He was more at ease and relaxed than ever before.
Bai Zhi, on the other hand, was somewhat dejected and sat silently on the wasteland.
Her wooden box is missing.
I searched the wasteland several times, but there wasn't a trace of it. It's highly likely that it fell somewhere while fleeing for its life.
From the first day she entered Salam, her possessions gradually dwindled until now, and finally, at this moment, she truly had nothing left.
She covered her face and sighed, feeling more exhausted than ever before, not wanting to do anything or even move.
Suddenly, someone patted her on the shoulder. Bai Zhi silently looked up and saw a sprightly old woman. She handed Bai Zhi a strange glass of water and said a string of words, of which Bai Zhi could only understand one word: "happy".
Bai Zhi took a sip; the water had a rich floral fragrance. She took a deep breath, tilted her head back, and drank the entire glass of water.
Seeing her straightforwardness, the old woman patted her a few times with delight. This unexpected turn of events dispelled the gloom in Bai Zhi's heart.
"Food," Bai Zhi said in a foreign language, "Eat?"
The old woman said in a foreign language, "Eat."
Bai Zhi stood up with renewed vigor and said, "Let's eat!"
The world is vast, and as long as she is alive, everything will come back.
The food in Sanhoudi was similar to that in Taka, consisting of wheat-colored staples and soups whose names she couldn't recall, all with an equally cloyingly salty taste. After finishing her meal, Baizhi asked in the barbarian language, "Water, me, water, what?" She pointed to the cave and gestured with her arms outstretched to indicate the shallow vat where she was lying.
The women laughed a few times, then took her arm and led her to the other side of the mountain. It was a very secluded place. One of the women went among some trees, parted the dense branches, and revealed the entrance to a cave.
The cave wasn't deep. After walking a few steps inside, you could see a row of small jars, much smaller than the one used to soak angelica root, about the height of a two-year-old child.
The women pointed to their bellies, then to the jar, and rattled off a single word—"Tilo." One of the more outgoing women simply lifted the lid of the jar, and Bai Zhi leaned closer to look, her skin crawling with horrified horror—soaking in the jar was clearly a baby!
The baby was completely immersed in a small tub, occasionally moving slightly.
Bai Zhi swallowed hard, too afraid to move for a moment.
What kind of evil thing is this? Is it a curse used on children? Have I been cursed myself?
The eldest sister put the lid back on, and they smiled at each other as they ushered Bai Zhi, whose face was stiff, out of the house.
She ran all the way to Gu Yan's side, pulled him away from the crowd, and said succinctly, "I'm leaving, are you coming or not?"
Gu Yan straightened his wrinkled sleeves: "Go? Where to?"
“There’s a cave over there, and there’s a baby soaking in a vat inside. They even used that water to bathe us. It’s so creepy, don’t you think it’s creepy?” Bai Zhi whispered. “If you don’t leave, I’m leaving.”
Gu Yan asked incredulously, "A baby?"
“If you don’t believe me, go and see for yourself,” Bai Zhi said. “But I didn’t sense any malice from them. It’s more like a custom. But what if their custom is to use witchcraft on guests from afar? Who could stand that?”
"..." Gu Yan gave a wry smile, "Where are you going? Back to Great Yan?"
"In short, head towards the Great Yan first, and you'll eventually get there."
Gu Yan leaned back casually against the mountain: "You can go, I'm not leaving."
Bai Zhi was quite surprised: "Really?"
“I did something detrimental to Chu Yunchuan, and he won’t keep me when I go back,” Gu Yan said. “Isn’t this place good? Even if he really puts a curse on me, I’ll die in the mountains, with clear skies above and vast land below, a place I can rest in peace.”
"Weren't you very afraid of death before? Why are you so fearless now?" Bai Zhi raised her eyebrows slightly. "What did you do?"
Gu Yan didn't answer, only smiled: "Go back and ask him yourself."
Finally, Bai Zhi bid farewell to the people of Sanhoudi. She had nothing to repay these saviors with, so she could only bow deeply to them.
Guided by the sun, Bai Zhi embarked on her journey home alone.
After trekking for several hours, the sky gradually turned dusky. Bai Zhi's throat was dry and sticky, and her stomach was empty. She had a strange feeling that her stomach, unable to eat anything, was squeaking and trying to devour her.
She used the sun to determine her direction and kept walking north, but the scenery was exactly the same all the way, and she couldn't see a single village. She almost wondered if she was just starving and going around in circles.
What's going on? Does nobody live in these mountains?
After sunset, she couldn't wander around in the mountains anymore. The barren mountains didn't even have a cave, and she couldn't very well eat tree bark under the open sky.
Bai Zhi sighed and made up her mind to go back. At least she would go back to Sanhoudi to get some food. The Gu might not kill her, but she could starve to death.
Turning around, she saw a row of torches slowly moving forward. Bai Zhi suddenly crouched down, hiding among the sparse low bushes.
The barbarian group was not far from her; they probably just didn't notice her because of the darkness.
She could vaguely hear a few words of the Great Yan language—these were Ge Zhen's men. These men seemed to be searching for something, perhaps on Ge Zhen's orders to find her.
The barbarians were walking diagonally along the route she had come from. If she hid well, could she make these barbarians pass by her...?
No.
It was only dusk, not yet nightfall. The bushes couldn't hide her. The barbarian group consisted of about thirty people, and if even one of them glanced this way, they could easily spot someone hiding there.
Cold sweat slowly trickled down Bai Zhi's forehead.
Once captured, Wushamon will surely exchange her for the city, and there will be several more years of unrest thereafter.
She slowly lay down, pressing her whole body against the ground, slowing her breathing, and inching her way to the side.
Suddenly, a startled bird cried out from the horizon.
A dozen or so people appeared out of thin air, infiltrating the barbarian ranks like ghosts. They attacked with incredible speed, each move a deadly strike, and the barbarians' screams exploded like blasts of gunpowder.
Bai Zhi dared not move a muscle, her heart pounding wildly.
What's going on? Is it infighting among the barbarians?
The surrounding area quickly returned to silence. Bai Zhi swallowed hard, parted the bushes slightly to look over, and saw that only the men in black were still standing there. One of them looked somewhat familiar from behind.
Immediately afterwards, she heard the person say, "No need to pack up, continue the search."
Chu Yunchuan.
Bai Zhi gasped for breath.
She braced herself against the ground, stiffly standing up, her voice so soft it was as if she were afraid of waking her from a dream: "Chu Yunchuan?"
The familiar figure paused, then suddenly turned around.
They gaze at each other from afar.
The clouds were burning fiercely on the horizon.