Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Honestly, the little thing really was quite pretty.

Jiang Yunsui carefully tucked the Little Mushroom into her purse, then began looking forward to the others.

She had ordered a big mushroom, too.

“Why is your face so dirty?”

Ji Yan’an pinched Jiang Yunsui’s little chin and turned her face left and right, examining her for a moment.

“Did you go digging holes again? What kind of awful hobby is that?”

Ji Yan’an had been unable to sleep one night and gone out for a stroll in the courtyard. Jiang Yunsui, who had been crouching in a small pit, spotted him and called out. In that instant, Ji Yan’an had thought his grandfather and father had come to take him away.

Jiang Yunsui pouted and dodged his hand. “It’s not an awful hobby. You don’t understand.”

“I went to dig up mushrooms.”

Ji Yan’an also remembered the mushrooms that had sprouted in the courtyard.

Forget the Delicious Mushroom-how had the termite mushrooms grown there?

His gaze fell on Jiang Yunsui.

“Those mushrooms that grew here. They have something to do with you, don’t they?”

Mushrooms had first appeared in Cook Chen’s courtyard. Then Jiang Yunsui had come to his courtyard, and mushrooms had started growing here, too.

If anyone said it had nothing to do with her, Ji Yan’an would not believe a word of it.

Jiang Yunsui played dumb. “No. I don’t know anything.”

But she was not very good at it. Every thought in her head was written plainly across her face.

Ji Yan’an stared at her for a moment. “You wouldn’t really be some mushroom spirit that gained sentience, would you?”

This time, Jiang Yunsui was just a tiny bit smarter. She covered her face with both little hands and shook her head.

“No! Of course not!”

She looked so guilty it was practically a confession.

“Heh…”

Ji Yan’an did not continue questioning her.

There were indeed some strange things about Jiang Yunsui, but she was also foolish enough that she barely knew how to hide them. Ji Yan’an was not blind; of course he noticed.

“Come on. Let’s go dig up mushrooms.”

He could use a walk outside as well.

At his words, Jiang Yunsui happily followed behind him.

“Can we kill a chicken tomorrow? That termite mushroom is so delicious stewed with chicken.”

Ji Yan’an said, “We’ll see tomorrow.”

“There seem to be too many mushrooms. What if we can’t finish them all?”

Ji Yan’an said, “Impossible.”

There were so many people in the estate. How could they possibly fail to finish them?

There were plenty of mushrooms in the courtyard. After digging for a while, Ji Yan’an tossed aside the little hoe.

He clapped his hands, called a few guards over to dig, then went to look for Jiang Yunsui.

He refused to believe it. She was clearly in the courtyard-so why couldn’t he find her?

Jiang Yunsui crouched under the Peach Tree, covering her mouth as she secretly laughed while watching Ji Yan’an walk past.

Suddenly, Ji Yan’an, who had already walked ahead, backed up to the Peach Tree.

“Jiang Yunsui.”

Jiang Yunsui’s eyes widened. Like a startled rabbit, she shot to her feet.

“How did you find me?!”

That shouldn’t have happened.

Ji Yan’an smiled at her shocked little expression.

“Guess.”

Jiang Yunsui was far too curious, and she pestered him for an answer for a long time.

“Go wash yourself clean first, then come ask me.”

Jiang Yunsui looked down at herself. She really was dirty, covered in quite a bit of mud.

So she did not refuse. With hot water already prepared, Jiang Yunsui washed herself until she was perfectly clean, changed into a pale yellow dress, and then ran off to find Ji Yan’an.

It was already very late by then, and Ji Yan’an was preparing to rest.

“You still haven’t told me how you found me.”

Kicking off her shoes, Jiang Yunsui climbed onto the bed with practiced ease and even wriggled toward the inside.

Hugging a pillow, she looked at him with big, expectant eyes.

Ji Yan’an lay down and closed his eyes. “I didn’t find you. I was just tricking you.”

He tilted his head slightly. “Who told you to be so silly? Other than those few pits of yours, you barely hide anywhere else. And the moment I called your name, you popped out on your own.”
Jiang Yunsui: “…”

So mad!

“Sleep.”

He flicked the little girl on the forehead. Jiang Yunsui huffed and grumbled, then lay down too.

Mm. Little Mushroom had finally graduated from leaning against the bedside to having a place of her own on this big bed.

And she was especially domineering about it, too.

When Ji Yan’an woke in the early morning, he had been dreaming that an evil ghost was strangling him. The suffocating pressure startled him awake.

Feeling the chubby little arm pressed across his neck, he sighed.

He moved a certain Little Mushroom off himself.

Since he had slept well and was in a good mood, he would not hold it against a certain little maid who slept sprawled out in all directions.

Still, having a nightmare felt awful.

He got up and took a sip of tea. Nanshu brought over his clothes and helped him dress.

“Young Master, Eunuch Yu is here.”

Ji Yan’an gave a faint hum. “Let Mr. Shen in.”

After Shen Qingzhu entered, he studied Ji Yan’an for a moment.

“If Young Master can maintain your current condition, you may be able to hold on longer than I expected.”

At his words, Nanny Zhou and the others all showed delight.

If Uncle Li were here, he would probably be even happier to hear this news.

Ji Yan’an, however, remained calm. “Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Shen.”

Shen Qingzhu took out a pill. “Eat this, and the imperial physician’s examination will only make your condition seem worse. However… this is not medicine. It is gu. It depends on whether Young Master dares to take it.”

Nanshu immediately jumped out. “Th-this-this… How can you let Young Master eat something like that?!”

With all the commotion on their side, Jiang Yunsui woke up too.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, yawned, then flopped crookedly onto the bedding. Like a caterpillar, she wriggled around for quite a while before finally sitting up again with her hair in a mess.

She raised both little arms and stretched, then, hearing the noise outside, poked her head out curiously.

She could not see clearly, so she simply climbed out of bed and crept over.

Shen Qingzhu said, “Gu are like medicine and poison. They are not inherently right or wrong. What matters is the person using them.”

“Many gu insects were originally studied and developed because there was a need for them. It is only because some people used them for evil that everyone came to fear them.”

Nanshu stuck out his neck stubbornly. “Say all you want, but it’s still a bug. Putting that thing inside your body-what kind of freak puts bugs inside themselves?”

Shen Qingzhu’s voice turned faint and eerie. “Oh? Putting bugs inside one’s body makes someone a freak?”

He suddenly smiled, and the smile made Nanshu’s hair stand on end.

The next second, a tiny snake, bloodred all over and thinner than a pinky finger, crawled out of his mouth.

“Ahhh!”

Nanshu was so frightened he jumped straight up and latched onto Nanmo.

“Good heavens! What kind of doctor are you?!”

What decent doctor kept a snake in his mouth? If that was not freakish, what was?

Shen Qingzhu coiled the tiny snake around his fingertip.

“Heh… To you, this is something dangerous. But it can protect my life.”

Ji Yan’an had already had his suspicions. At this moment, Shen Qingzhu had practically laid his identity bare.

A gu master.

A rare kind of person who inspired fear and disgust.

But gu could harm people without anyone knowing, so those in power also “liked” them. Precisely because they were so often used to hurt others, gu, like witchcraft, was something that made people recoil in instinctive revulsion at the mere mention of it.

People were always afraid of what they did not understand.

He was just about to reach for the black pill Shen Qingzhu had placed on the table.

But a little hand was faster than him.

In the blink of an eye, that black “medicine” pill had landed in Jiang Yunsui’s hand.

“What’s this thing?”