Chapter 111
Chapter 111
I waved away the rabbit Bai Su’s and fox Huihui’s gratitude.
“No need to thank me. It was nothing.”
I badly wanted to ask my questions immediately, but she had just endured a major operation performed with my unprofessional, crude methods. She had not yet recovered her strength.
Questioning her right away would have been rather heartless.
I decided to let her rest while I returned home, then come back tomorrow with my questions.
Even if an accident occurred, I would not truly lose anything. I had done all this mainly to satisfy my curiosity.
“See? I really am a great philanthropist! Master told me to follow my heart, so I chose to do a good deed. Master has excellent judgment.”
I shamelessly praised myself inwardly.
I had praised both Master and myself–a double compliment, as they say… Ahem.
Bai Su did not give me the chance to leave.
As soon as she caught her breath, she said weakly, “Mr. Wu, ask whatever you wish to know. Bai Su will conceal nothing.”
All right!
Since she had volunteered, I was happy to accept. I nodded and asked, “Why does Huihui possess such intelligence when he’s still so young? His mind is comparable to a seven- or eight-year-old boy’s, and his glamour spell matches that of an old spirit that awakened intelligence more than ten years ago.”
“And Miss Bai, how old are you? How long ago did you awaken intelligence, and how advanced is your cultivation?”
Although I had used plenty of question marks, those were the core issues.
Huihui also looked surprised by my words.
His thin fox face formed an extraordinarily human expression, as though the thought had only just occurred to him.
He smacked his head with a furry paw and yipped. In my mind, his words sounded like this:
“Huh? I only realized it after Brother Wu Zhong pointed it out.”
He turned toward Bai Su.
“You’re right, Susu! The other animals I play with are all stupid. None of them understands anything I say. So I’m the abnormal one? Good grief! It was me all along?”
I could not restrain myself after hearing that.
I burst out laughing.
Bai Su gave Huihui a speechless glance, then explained, “Your insight is extraordinary, Mr. Wu. Huihui was indeed born less than two years ago. By an ordinary fox’s lifespan, he only recently reached adulthood.”
Exactly!
Just as I had guessed, the little fox truly was young.
I remained silent and listened as Bai Su continued…
She began with her own story.
Bai Su was born in 1985.
She had never been an ordinary rabbit. She was the pet of a highly skilled feng shui master in Bishui County, which bordered Fubei County.
The feng shui master adored her. From childhood, he fed her medicinal herbs with powerful properties and took her to live in auspicious places with exceptional feng shui.
Only two or three years after her birth, Bai Su awakened intelligence. She learned to understand human speech and communicate normally with the feng shui master.
Naturally, he was delighted and taught her several cultivation methods suitable for animal spirits.
Thus, although Bai Su was only a small rabbit, she could already fight a stray dog from the next street to a draw.
The feng shui master was extraordinarily famous throughout Bishui County.
Even influential people from the city would have their drivers bring them to Bishui County specifically to seek his help selecting auspicious sites and reading feng shui…
The master carried Bai Su in his arms wherever he went.
She naturally heard his conversations with those clients, all of whom respectfully addressed her master as Mr. Bai. That was why Bai Su adopted his surname.
Around the winter of 1995, when Bai Su was ten, a strange person visited Mr. Bai’s home.
The visitor wore a hood and a long black robe that concealed their entire body and face.
They radiated an extremely cold, terrifying aura.
Bai Su felt uncomfortable all over.
In a rare departure from habit, Mr. Bai ordered her to stay away. He sent her straight into the bedroom, preventing her from hearing their conversation.
Bai Su remembered only that the discussion lasted a long time.
It was still daylight when Mr. Bai sent her into the room, but night had fallen by the time he let her out.
Her usually cheerful, optimistic master looked deeply troubled that day.
He sat at the dining table, silently drinking without speaking to her.
Bai Su hopped into his lap and silently kept him company.
Only after a long time, when Mr. Bai had become thoroughly drunk, did he begin rambling to her.
At one moment, he muttered something about how hiding in a small county for so long had still not been enough to escape. At another, he said fate had ordained it and that if he had known, he would have risked everything in one attempt.
His words came in broken fragments. Bai Su remembered them clearly, but because they lacked context and remained incomplete, she still did not understand what her master meant.
Beginning that year, Mr. Bai traveled frequently.
Someone always drove him away. He remained gone for days at a time and sometimes did not return for half a month.
Strangest of all, he did not take Bai Su with him.
In the past, Mr. Bai had brought her everywhere, whether he was reading feng shui and constructing a living residence for an influential client or selecting a burial site.
But there now seemed to be one matter he refused to let her witness.
Confused, Bai Su asked her master what was happening.
Mr. Bai merely sighed and said she did not need to know.
After she questioned him repeatedly, however, he finally revealed that he was traveling to Lianghe Town in neighboring Fubei County to undertake something extremely dangerous!
Bai Su had lived with her master for ten years and possessed awakened intelligence as a white rabbit spirit for seven or eight. She had also acquired a rudimentary understanding of feng shui.
As she understood the profession, reading feng shui posed little danger to the practitioner as long as they did not violate natural harmony or use corrupt feng shui arts to harm others.
After all, feng shui masters practiced the safest and most respectable profession among folk arcane lineages.
They rarely fought demons, ghosts, or evil beings, and the chance of facing direct danger was low. Why would her master call this undertaking extremely dangerous?
Bai Su continued asking, but Mr. Bai refused to answer again.
When she pressed too hard, he even lost his temper, which was rare, and sent her back to her room.