Chapter 51 The Great Witch

Ru Yue is a girl who has been through thick and thin with me. She was a little girl who relied on me, and when she grew up, she called me her third older brother. She still felt attached to me, and it was not true to say that I had no feelings for her.

I not only have feelings for her, but very deep ones. But at this moment, in addition to anger, I also feel disappointed. I never thought that deception would happen to someone I value and am close to.

After the anger subsided, my tone turned cold, and I looked at Ruyue with the eyes of a stranger, asking only, “Where are they? Why did they deceive me?”

Under my rage, Ru Yue, who was only afraid and not crying, looked at me with a cold tone and gaze. She finally shed two tears, biting her lower lip and letting the tears flow. She only glared at me hatefully and then stubbornly turned her head away, not answering any of my questions.

At this moment, my relationship with Ru Yue was almost at a freezing point.

As if sensing the wrong atmosphere, Hui Gen, who had been hiding behind Ru Yue, ran over and held my somewhat cold hand with a small hand, saying, “Brother, Brother… don’t be angry, don’t be angry, okay?” It was rare that the kid didn’t speak Shaanxi dialect, but Mandarin, probably because he was also scared.

Hui Gen’er is such a little round egg that is so lovable. Looking at his innocent appearance, I thought that he was the same as me. His master was not around, and he was still young. He was going to stay in this Miao village. I felt a burst of sadness, and I picked up Hui Gen’er in my arms.

Then I said to Ru Yue in a slightly calmer tone, “It doesn’t matter if someone else lies to me. I’ve always treated you like a sister. If you lie to me, I’ll feel bad. But I believe that you must have your reasons for lying to me, so I’ll try to forgive you. Find someone to escort me out of the village. I’m going to find Su Rou and Qin Huai. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just go out on my own.”

Half a month is a time that cannot calm me down. In my opinion, every minute and every second, something might happen to Qin Huai and Su Rou, not to mention that it has been half a month already.

I was in a strange state of calmness that was not calmness. What was not calmness was that I had to risk my life to rescue Su Rou and Qin Huai. What was calmness was that after making this decision, my brain began to work at high speed, analyzing everything.

I received two different messages in Kunming early in the morning, both of which were intended to stop me from going to the village, but they also clearly told me that Su Rou and Qin Huai were in danger. From the current situation, it is very likely that what that person said is true. No, it should be true.

The answer is obvious. Su Rou and Qin Huai must be trapped in the Devil’s Village, and the Devil’s Village wants them for a simple reason: to make me appear.

As long as I show up, I will definitely find Su Rou and Qin Huai. After I find them, I don’t have a specific plan. All I can think of is two words: “Desperation.”

I don’t mind, I’ll use my body to attract the thunder, set up a deadly evil gathering formation, and fight to the death with that village. In a situation where I completely disregard myself, Taoist magic is not necessarily afraid of witchcraft!

So I said these words to Ruoyue, and then I put down Huigen, touched his round head, and said, “Be good in the village. After this winter vacation, it’s time to go to junior high school. Study hard.”

During our conversation on the way here, I learned that Huigen and the other children here all go to primary school outside the village and only return to the village during the winter vacation.

After saying this, I turned and left. If Ru Yue was willing to arrange for someone to send me away, someone should have found me before I left the village.

At this moment, Huigen suddenly jumped up and hung onto my back: “Brother, I want to go with you.”

I pulled him off me, not knowing what kind of nonsense Hui Gen was playing at this time. I was quite helpless with this child. From the moment I first met him, he had been inexplicably affectionate and inexplicably attached to me. I had never spent much time with him, and I didn’t know where this affection came from.

Apart from me, he is attached to Yue. Similarly, I don’t know why.

I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t have the mood. I just said with a frown, “Brother can’t take you with him. If you’re not good, Brother won’t talk to you anymore.”

Hui Gen immediately pouted with a pained expression, and tears welled up in her big eyes. I felt a little sad, so I simply ignored her and turned to leave.

But when I turned around, I discovered that Ling Ruyue was standing in front of me, saying, “I can’t arrange for someone to escort you out of the village, but I can go with you myself. You won’t be able to find it on your own. If you are taken by them, you will have no chance to rescue Su Rou and Qin Huai either.”

This made my heart warm, and the disappointment I had just felt towards her disappeared in an instant. When I was little, she was curious and used every trick in the book to get me and Su Rou to go to the Hungry Ghost Tomb, and then we experienced life and death.

This time, it was her who wanted to accompany me into the jaws of death. I think she knows the Devil’s Village better than I do, and she knows it better than I do. From some circumstances, it can be inferred that the entire Miao village of Yueyan probably knows about the Devil’s Village.

Thinking of the words “risking life and limb,” my heart trembled. I felt sorry for Ruoyue, who had just shed tears, and couldn’t help but say in a gentle tone, “If you’re willing to take the risk with me, why are you lying to me?”

Ruyue looked at me and said, “As you said, there are unavoidable reasons. Wait for me at the entrance of the village, I’ll bring something and come find you.”

“Mm,” I nodded. I also had to go get my luggage because it contained my magic tools.

Ruyue and I decided to meet at the entrance of the village, and then we were going to do our own thing. But then, Huigen started to make a fuss: “You have to take me with you. I’m very powerful. I can transform into a vajra, and I know several kinds of magic seals. You have to take me with you…”

Ru Yue and I looked at each other, probably both speechless. We thought we were geniuses in our respective fields, but who knew that the real genius was this little guy?

The transformation into a Vajra, the Vajra Seal, all these are the means of the great Buddha, this little guy! I don’t dare to think about it…

Ruyue gritted her teeth and said, “Take him with you.”

I agreed, and then we each went our separate ways. When we were young, we impulsively explored the Hungry Ghost Tomb together. Now that we’ve grown up, we’re once again impulsively rushing into the Devil’s Village to save someone.

Ru Yue took Hui Gen to pack up, and I returned to the stilted house. I had only just arrived here, and I had not even had time to unpack my luggage, so I just left it here.

When I entered the small building, it was very quiet, as if Ling Ruxue was not here. I didn’t bother to find out if she was here or not, and I just carried my luggage and left. The terrain of this Miao village is complicated, with crisscrossing roads, but the road down the mountain was not difficult to find. Coupled with my amazing memory, the journey down the mountain was smooth.

But as I walked along, I couldn’t help but mock myself. It’s always like this. I impulsively brought Brother Sheng into the deserted village that year, and this year, I’m still impulsively going to save Su Rou and Qin Huai.

I can hear the words I said to my master that year ringing in my head: “I won’t let go.”

Yes, I won’t let go. I can’t let go of some feelings. Some people put their lives above their feelings, and some people put their feelings above their lives. I am the latter type. Although I also cherish my life, I cannot break free from the fate controlled by my feelings.

I am like this, and so is Yue… I should be like this too.

It took forty minutes to walk up the mountain, but it was much faster going down. In less than twenty minutes, I had already arrived at the entrance to the village, in the middle of the fertile fields of the valley. Then I found a clean place and sat down to smoke and wait for Ruoyue.

Perhaps I was not so calm inside, so I kept smoking. When I had smoked my third cigarette, I saw Ru Yue walking over with Hui Gen, who was carrying a small school bag.

I was overjoyed, and I walked up to them in two or three steps and asked, “Is everything ready?”

Ruyue nodded and then said to me with a smile, “Only we two lunatics would make such a decision, right? Maybe only we two lunatics would bring this little round egg along.”

I laughed and said, “Not just the two of us. Do you believe that if Su Rou and Qin Huai were here, they would be just as crazy?”

Ruyue took me by the arm without any hesitation and said, “You are such a person, so your friends are also such people.”

Yes, people are drawn to similar things, and people gather in groups.

I don’t know why, but this risky and unreliable action somehow made me feel inexplicably relaxed and excited. This was the first time I had felt so liberated after so long of being suppressed.

It was as if we weren’t going on an adventure, but on a trip, full of laughter and joy.

I even felt that we weren’t acting on impulse. In the years before, in different places, my young master, Master Hui, and Grandma Lingqing didn’t do the same thing? The three of them went on a mission together.

What was so different about the three of us?

In a state of excitement, we walked through the fertile fields and entered the green grassland. Yueyan Lake was right in front of us. As long as we crossed Yueyan Lake, we would be able to leave the village successfully.

Ru Yue held my arm and said and laughed all the way, very happy. But when we got here, the girl couldn’t help but worry and said, “Third brother, I always feel that we’re leaving like this, it’s too easy.”

I said, “What’s so smooth about it? We’re not doing anything to anyone, and no one is stopping us. Your village isn’t a prison.”

But as soon as I finished speaking, I noticed that Ruyue had stopped walking…

At this point, we had already reached the edge of Yueyan Lake, and the beautiful pavilion was right in front of us. The wind blew the light gauze around the pavilion, and I could clearly see two people standing inside, looking at us.

One was Ling Ruxue, looking calm and composed, and the other was a skinny old man, who was being supported by Ling Ruxue. He looked a bit scary because he was so thin, and had a unique hairstyle for a Hmong man, with only a tuft of gray hair in the middle of his head.

He smiled at me, as if the skin of an orange had split open.

Ru Yue, who was standing next to me, suddenly grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear, “Third brother, it’s bad. He’s our great shaman. It was him who stopped us from telling you about Qin Huai and the crispy meat.”