Chapter 83: The Deep Forest at Night

“Jiang Lichun? Jiang Lichun…” My master’s name obviously had a different effect on Grandma Lingqing. She was originally a little unconscious, and her innocent face suddenly showed a thoughtful expression.

Could my master’s name stimulate Lingqing’s grandmother?

My breathing became a little heavy. After all these years, this was the first time I had seen one of them so clearly. If Grandma Lingqing was here, my master should be nearby? Or, maybe he was watching me from somewhere, just like Grandma Lingqing?

Thinking about this, I became very excited, and the most direct reaction was that my eyes became sore. If this is what Grandma Lingqing has become, then what will my master look like? Could it be that he is also 10 years old? If so, then I should repay him. As a disciple and a son, I must take care of him… just like the days when I was a child in the bamboo forest.

Will the lingering, warm scenes from that time become me, who has grown up, and my master, who has grown old, but suddenly become small?

“Ah… my head hurts. I can’t remember who Jiang Lichun is. I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about it. You’re a bad guy. You’re giving me a headache.” Under my expectant gaze, Grandma Lingqing’s expression became more and more painful, and in the end she even held her head and shouted like this.

She was probably only six or seven years old, not ten, and she couldn’t pretend to be anything.

I saw the pain in Ling Qing’s eyes, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain. In a sense, she was my master’s wife, and if my master was my father, she was also another mother to me. How could I not feel pain for her?

I forced myself to endure the feeling of a sore throat and a runny nose, and gently hugged Grandma Lingqing, patting her back like a child and whispering, “It’s okay, it’s okay, we don’t want to, we don’t want to.”

After a while, she said, “Big brother, will you take me to play? There are so many scary things in the forest, and I only dare to play and look for food in this area. The big monsters in other places are afraid of little flowers. I’ve always been alone, and sometimes I’m scared.”

Big brother? When did I become Ling Qing’s big brother? If Ru Xue and Ru Yue were here at this moment, looking at Ling Qing like this, they might call her sister. What would they think? As soon as this thought came to mind, I couldn’t help but rub my head against my sleeve, and then I could only hold her hand in a way that Ling Qing could accept, saying, “Okay, I won’t leave you. Let’s do it together.”

“Do you want to pinkie swear with me?” Grandma Lingqing looked at me with a look of innocence in her eyes. Her hand was in my hand, and it was obviously an old hand. Her face was dark and hard to see, but the traces of time were still there. But that look…

“Well, pinky swear.” My voice was very nasal, and I really couldn’t help it.

After we had hooked our thumbs, I turned around and rubbed my eyes vigorously on my shoulder.

She must still remember me, right? Otherwise, how could she still feel that sense of familiarity? How many years ago was it that I first met her in my hometown? She appeared so elegantly, so beautiful, with Yue Yue. Now she can never return to that time, can she?

I had so many emotions to digest that I could only sit quietly with Grandma Lingqing. Time passed by in a blur under such circumstances.

I don’t know how long it was before I remembered to look at my watch.

My watch is waterproof, and the time displayed on it was almost 8 o’clock in the evening, but in this strange world, it seemed that the sky was always blue and transparent, and there was no sign of it getting dark.

And just as the sky is always blue, the gray-eyed people are still shouting and screaming on the other side of the river, as if they are not willing to let me go. I can’t imagine what the fate of the other cultivators is.

The river was still calm. This calm made me believe that there was still a glimmer of hope for Ji Qing. Whether it was self-comforting or self-numbing, I really didn’t want him to die.

At least, we, the master and the disciple, should apologize to him. Although it is not our subjective intention, we have caused him to live in the shadow of his childhood and have always lived under this shadow.

This person has a strange personality, but I must admit that he is a real man.

My thoughts were in a mess, and the emotions of meeting Grandma Lingqing finally calmed down a little at this moment, and I could think about things rationally. Grandma Lingqing was probably tired, and she leaned on my shoulder and fell asleep very innocently. Perhaps she had been alone for a long time, and when she was sleeping, she tightly grabbed my collar and squeezed very hard.

I wanted to make her sleep more comfortably, so I tried to break her hand, but I found that it was impossible to break it easily.

However, this action of mine woke her up. She woke up with sleepy eyes and looked at me with confusion. I was afraid that she would be upset, so I was about to comfort her, but she suddenly smiled and said to me, “Big brother, are you hungry? Little Flower must have found something to eat.”

Xiao Hua found food? I said something was wrong, and it turned out that the bee-like bug had disappeared without a trace.

Grandma Lingqing didn’t explain anything, but jumped up and started looking around in the forest. There were many fallen leaves in the forest, piled up in layers, some places were full of bushes, and some places were full of strange rocks… But Grandma Lingqing’s footsteps were very fast, and I, a young man, had to follow her attentively in order not to lose her.

But even so, I fell several times, and my clothes were torn by the bushes, and I was only able to catch up in a flustered manner… Thinking about this, I felt a little sad. From the level of familiarity, how long has Lingqing Grandmother lived here? How did she reach this level? Has she always been alone? Where are Master and the others? Why don’t they care about her?

But unlike me, Grandma Lingqing seemed very happy. From time to time, she would bring me a mushroom or a small fruit, muttering, “This mushroom is not poisonous, you can eat it. This fruit is sweet…” and so on.

Even if she has regressed to the mentality of such a little girl, but as a female demon for many years, her skills have become her instincts. Identifying poisons and the like is simply a piece of cake for her. It is also with this, and the little flower, that should be the life-giving demon? That is why she is still alive here.

Actually, I vaguely remember something about this little flower. When I was fighting the King of the Hungry Ghosts in the Hungry Ghost Tomb, didn’t I see a colorful bug fly by before I fainted? Could it be this little flower? Suddenly, I felt a sense of familiarity with this bug.

It’s really good to be able to find my elders like this.

Soon, Grandma Lingqing found a small pile of mushrooms, pots, wild vegetables and other things, and handed them to me with complete trust, asking me to carry them in my clothes… When I felt that I was almost there, she suddenly jumped up in place, clapped her hands again, and then shouted happily, “Xiao Hua found meat to eat, Xiao Hua found meat to eat.”

After saying this, she suddenly ran in one direction like a rabbit, and I quickly followed.

After running around in the forest for about ten minutes, I had almost forgotten the way I came, and she only stopped at one place, waving a snake that looked black and was not small, probably about two meters long, in her hand and happily beckoning to me.

I quickly ran over and Granny Lingqing pointed at the snake and said to me, “You can’t eat the head of a snake that has been bitten by a flower. You can only eat the body. If you eat the meat, it won’t get cold for a long time.”

I looked at her and was about to take the snake and help her take care of it when she found a sharp-looking stone and snapped the snake’s head off. She handed me the half-dead snake.

“Eat, eat…” she said generously, swallowing her saliva.

I looked at the bloody snake body, not feeling sick, but an indescribable sadness exploded in my heart again. It doesn’t matter if I’m sentimental or emotionally sensitive, I just can’t accept why Grandma Lingqing has to live such a hard life here and why she has to be like this.

For a moment, I was speechless again, but she misunderstood my meaning and picked up the bloody snake body and wanted to eat it, not caring about the dirt or anything.

I couldn’t stand it anymore, and grabbed the snake away from her… She wasn’t angry, but just looked at me strangely and said, “You want to eat it again?”

I endured the sadness in my heart and forced a smile on my face. I said to her, “I can make this into a delicious dish. Really! I’ll make it for you every day, okay?”

“Yes, yes…” Grandma Ling Qing seemed to have infinite trust in me, and she cheered again happily. Little Flower stopped on her shoulder, as if the worm was also sad.

At this time, a mist slowly rose in the dense forest, accompanied by a throat-choking sound that I couldn’t identify. There was no night, but at this moment, I felt as if the night had suddenly descended.