No matter how dense the fog was, it couldn’t seep into houses. Ever since they entered Yi City, this was the only point in time were they could easily see one another’s faces, which set their minds at rest. Wei WuXian saw that they’d relaxed, and asked the old woman again, “Would it be possible for us to borrow your kitchen?”
The old woman almost glowered at the lamp, as if she disliked the presence of any light, “The kitchen is in the back. Use it as you please.” After her words, she dodged into another room as though she was avoiding the plague. She slammed the door so loud that a few even shivered.
Jin Ling exclaimed, “There’s definitely something wrong with the hag! You…”
Wei WuXian responded, “Okay. Hush. I need somebody to help me. Any volunteers?”
Lan SiZhui hurried, “I can come.”
Lan JingYi was still standing as straight as a stick, “Then what do I do?”
Wei WuXian, “Remain standing. Don’t move if I don’t tell you to.”
Lan SiZhui followed Wei WuXian to the kitchen in the back. As soon as they went in, they were overwhelmed by a foul stench. Lan SiZhui had never smelled such a terrible scent before. Although his head spun, he managed to stop himself from rushing back out. Jin Ling followed as well, but leapt outside again immediately after he entered. He fanned the air as fast as he could, “What in the world is this?!! What are you doing here instead of thinking up cures?!”
Wei WuXian, “Hmm? Perfect timing. How did you know that I was going to call you over? Lend me a hand.”
Jin Ling, “I’m not here to help! Urgh! Did somebody kill someone but forget to bury them?!”
Wei WuXian, “Young Mistress Jin, are you coming or not? If you’re coming, then come in and help; if you’re not coming, then go back and tell someone else to come over.”
Jin Ling raged, “Who are you calling Young Mistress Jin? Be careful what you say!” He pinched his nose for a while, debating with himself whether or not to stay or to leave, and finally humphed, “Well I want to see what on Earth you’re trying to do.” With this, he stormed inside. Yet, he didn’t expect that, with a bang, Wei WuXian opened a chest on the ground, which was where the stench came from. Within the chest, there were ham and chicken. Blotches of green dotted among the red meat, while white, coiling maggots dotted among the green.
Jin Ling was forced to exit the room again. Wei WuXian picked up the chest and passed it to him, “Throw it away. Anywhere works, as long as we don’t smell it.”
With a churning stomach and a head full of doubt, Jin Ling threw it out as he was told. He fiercely rubbed his fingers with a handkerchief, then threw it out as well. After he returned to the kitchen, Wei WuXian and Lan SiZhui fetched two buckets of water from the well in the backyard, and were currently cleaning the kitchen. Jin Ling demanded, “What are you doing?”
Lan SiZhui wiped around in diligence, “As you can see, we are cleaning the kitchen hearth.”
Jin Ling, “What’s the use of cleaning the hearth? We’re not making food or anything.”
Wei WuXian, “Who told you so? We are making food. You can sweep the dust. Get rid of all the cobwebs up there.”
His words sounded so natural, so assured that, with a broom stuck into his hands, Jin Ling somehow obeyed. The more he cleaned, the more he felt that something was off. Just as he was about to throw the duster at Wei WuXian’s head, Wei WuXian opened another box, scaring him to the point that he darted out again. Luckily, this time, there wasn’t any stench.
The three worked quickly. After a short while, the kitchen looked completely different. The house finally seemed a bit more lively, no longer haunted and long-abandoned. In a corner, there were some already-chopped firewood. They piled them into the hearth and set them alight using a fire talisman. They rested a large pot that they had already washed on the hearth and began to boil water. Wei WuXian poured some glutinous rice out of the second chest, washed all of it, and put it into the pot.
Jin Ling, “You’re making congee?”
Wei WuXian, “Uh-huh.”
Jin Ling hurled the cleaning rag onto the ground. Wei WuXian commented, “You see how you get mad after working for just a bit? Look at SiZhui. He worked the hardest and didn’t even say anything yet. What’s wrong with congee?”
Jin Ling, “What’s not wrong with congee? It’s so watery and tasteless! Wait… I’m not mad because there’s something wrong with congee!”
Wei WuXian, “It’s not for you anyways.”
Jin Ling was even more angered, “What did you say? I worked for so long, and I don’t even get any?!”
Lan SiZhui, “Young Master Mo, is it that congee can cure corpse poisoning?”
Wei WuXian smiled, “Yes, but it’s not the congee that can cure corpse poisoning—it’s the rice. This is folk medicine. Normally, you apply the glutinous rice to the scratched or bitten wound. In the future, if you ever find yourselves in such a situation again, you can try this. Although it’ll hurt a lot, it definitely works efficiently. But, since they swallowed corpse poisoning powder instead of being scratched or bitten, we can only make some rice congee for them to eat up.”
Lan SiZhui came to realization, “So that was why you intended to enter a house with someone inside. Only a house with someone living inside could have a kitchen. Only a kitchen could have glutinous rice.”
Jin Ling, “Who knows how long the rice has been here for? Can you still eat it? This kitchen hasn’t been used in at least a year. There’s dust everywhere and the meat’s even rotten. Don’t tell me that the hag hasn’t eaten for an entire year. It’s impossible that she has practiced inedia. How did she survive?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s either that nobody has been living here and that she really isn’t the shopkeeper at all, or that she simply doesn’t need to eat.”
Lan SiZhui lowered his voice, “If she does not need to eat, then she would be dead. But the old woman clearly breathes.”
Using a spatula, Wei WuXian nonchalantly stirred the pot of congee, mixing in ingredients from various bottles and jars, “Right. You haven’t finished explaining. Why did you come to Yi City together? It wasn’t just by chance that you ran into each other and then us, was it?”
The boys’ expressions immediately grew serious. Jin Ling replied, “I, the Lan Sect’s people, and the ones from other sects were all chasing after something. I came from the Qinghe area.”
Lan SiZhui also replied, “We came from Langya.”
Wei WuXian, “What was it?”
Lan SiZhui shook his head, “We do not know. It never showed its face. We don’t even know what or who… or which organization it was, exactly.”
Ever since a few days ago, after Jin Ling lied to his uncle and let Wei WuXian go, he had been worried that this time Jiang Cheng would really break his legs, so he decided to sneak out and disappear for a few days, not appearing in front of Jiang Cheng until his anger subsided. He ran away immediately after he passed Zidian to one of Jiang Cheng’s trusted subordinates. Having arrived at a city on the border of the Qinghe area, his journey paused. In search for the location for his next night-hunt, he took a short rest at a large inn. At night, when he was memorizing spells in his room, Fairy, who lay by his side, suddenly started barking at the door. It was already deep into the night. Jin Ling ordered the dog to stop, yet he immediately heard someone knocking on the door.