“Why are you here?” Lou Xiaowu asked.
Before An Jiu could answer, Lou Xin’s voice came from inside, “Let’s get her settled first before talking.”
“Alright,” Lou Xiaowu responded cheerfully, eagerly leading the way for An Jiu.
Lou Xiaowu had an almost blind admiration for strong individuals. Being able to distinguish between friend and foe was already her limit. Her particular interest in An Jiu stemmed not only from her exceptional archery skills but also from the disparity between An Jiu’s spiritual power and inner force.
Others might not be able to gauge An Jiu’s true strength, but Lou Xiaowu could sense it. In this aspect, they were similar. Lou Xiaowu, born prematurely, had an inherently weak constitution. Though she had gradually improved, a serious illness a few years ago had damaged her foundation, leaving her spiritual power far exceeding her inner force.
Upon reaching the manor, Lou Xiaowu took it upon herself to arrange for An Jiu to stay in her courtyard.
“Isn’t the Lou Manor big enough for me to stay elsewhere?” An Jiu stared at Lou Xiaowu, who lingered in her room, growing dissatisfied with the arrangement. While her and Mei Jiu’s exchanges were no longer a complete secret, she preferred to keep it from those who didn’t need to know.
“Our family is mostly women, and we rarely have guests stay in the manor,” Lou Xiaowu said, feeling rejected and pouting. “Besides, everyone’s been poisoned. We don’t know if it’s contagious. There are many empty rooms, but we dare not arrange them for you randomly.”
An Jiu usually couldn’t resist weakness, but for some reason, she felt nothing for Lou Xiaowu’s pitiful expression. “If there’s nothing else, you can leave now.”
Having escaped death, not slept at the Konghe Army base, and rushed to Lou Manor right after returning to Meihua Lane, An Jiu was exhausted. She just wanted to find a place without people to take a nap.
“Alright,” Lou Xiaowu reluctantly stood up and moved to the door.
An Jiu closed the door and lay down on the soft couch fully clothed.
The faint crackling of the nearby fire slowly relaxed her tense muscles.
“Miss Lou is pitiful,” Mei Jiu couldn’t help murmuring.
“You think everyone’s like you!” An Jiu coldly rebuked, not allowing her to speak further. “Say another word and I’ll chop you up!”
This threat was empty, but Mei Jiu immediately cowered at An Jiu’s slight fierceness.
The Lou clan was on the brink of extinction, yet Lou Xiaowu managed affairs orderly. She was either carefree or very capable. An Jiu’s strong spiritual power gave her keen intuition. Lou Xiaowu appeared harmless, but in reality, her will was strong, far surpassing Mei Jiu’s.
The room was as warm as spring. An Jiu and Mei Jiu quickly fell asleep.
This was the deepest sleep An Jiu had in many years. The night was dark and dreamless. She didn’t know how long she slept before being awakened by urgent knocking.
Though the knocking wasn’t on her door, An Jiu got up and peered through the door crack.
A middle-aged woman stood anxiously at Lou Xiaowu’s door. When it opened, Lou Xiaowu rubbed her eyes and asked, “Aunt Ling, what’s wrong?”
“Young Miss, please go to the meeting hall quickly. Second Miss and the doctor have come out. They’ve rescued Sixth Elder,” Aunt Ling said.
“Really!” Lou Xiaowu’s sleepiness instantly vanished. She hurried out.
Aunt Ling quickly went in to fetch a fur coat and followed, “Young Miss, be careful not to catch a cold.”
Seeing them leave, An Jiu pondered for a moment before putting on her cloak and going out.
Lou Xiaowu and Aunt Ling were no longer visible ahead, but the faint light from the meeting hall guided her way.
The night wind whirled snow, and the twilight was hazy. The snow-covered, rugged mountain path was particularly difficult for someone without inner force. When An Jiu arrived, everyone was either standing or sitting with grave expressions. No one spoke, except for the sound of Mo Sigui tapping his folding fan against his palm.
Everyone looked up at the sound of footsteps. Mo Sigui, leaning against his chair, continued tapping his fan absent-mindedly. He glanced at An Jiu before lowering his gaze, lost in thought. Suddenly, he jumped up from his chair, staring at An Jiu, “Mei Fourteen! Why are you here?”
“Is there a problem?” An Jiu asked, “Or will my presence cause inconvenience?”
“It’s fine,” Lou Mingyue said softly. “Fourteen, please sit.”
An Jiu didn’t stand on ceremony and found a shaded spot to sit.
“Doctor Mo,” Lou Mingyue’s face was waxy yellow, her voice weak, “Is Sixth Elder really beyond saving?”
If Elder Qi were here, saving four or five more wouldn’t be an issue. But Mo Sigui had exhausted his true qi and couldn’t fully recover in a day or two.
Mo Sigui, temporarily unable to attend to An Jiu, sat back down and replied, “The light in the ice cellar was dim, and their blood was frozen. I couldn’t accurately determine the extent of their poisoning.”
He could only guess by observing their complexions, but after becoming ice statues, even their complexions were unusual and hard to discern.
If the Sixth Elder had stayed in the ice cellar for three more days, once Mo Sigui’s true qi recovered to 80%, he might have been able to save her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t accurately judge at the time.
Given the circumstances, even other doctors couldn’t have done better. Mo Sigui didn’t feel guilty; he was just dissatisfied that his medical skills weren’t refined enough.
“Then what about Sixth Elder?” Lou Xiaowu remembered Mo Sigui saying that corpses best nourished these plague worms, so they had to be dealt with while alive.
Everyone stared at Mo Sigui, waiting for an answer. He tapped his fan heavily against his left palm, then gripped it tightly. His thin lips uttered a few words, “It’s best to burn her alive.”
Lou Xiaowu’s body trembled. She turned to look at Lou Mingyue.
Lou Xin’s lips were pressed into a straight line, her brows knotted, also looked at Lou Mingyue with complex emotions.
They regarded her as the Lou clan’s new head, waiting for her decision.
However, even if this was inevitable, it was too cruel to make her say it herself. Moreover, only Mo Sigui had declared the Lou clan members unsalvageable. Whether to fully trust his word was still questionable.
The room fell into dead silence.
After a while, Lou Mingyue finally said, “Let me think about it.”
She slowly stood up and left.
Lou Xiaowu’s eyes reddened slightly. “Brother Mo, Aunt Ling probably knows the order in which people were infected. Could we try treating those with milder cases?”
“We can try,” Mo Sigui agreed verbally but knew the chances were slim. He paused, then said to Lou Xin, “The mystic ice can indeed suppress the toxin to some extent, but it’s not a long-term solution. Moreover, not everyone can withstand the harshness of ancient mystic ice. I’m certain some have frozen to death in the ice cellar. With corpses providing nutrients, even the ice cave won’t help.”
“If that’s the case…” Lou Xin thought for a moment. Those with insufficient inner force were mostly servants. “Doctor Mo, can you identify the dead? If so, we should cremate the corpses first.”
“I can try my best,” Mo Sigui, always eager for self-challenge, responded enthusiastically.
The excitement flickering in his eyes seemed particularly jarring to Lou Xin.