XH 198 - Miss Bai, you can count on us men!
As soon as they stepped out of the prison and bathed by sunlight, they greedily inhaled the fresh, clean air. Without them knowing, they found themselves sweating and when the wind gently blows over, they unconsciously shivered.
The lost in thought Doctor Shen mumbled in a revered tone, "Dual elements."
It was not rare for a cultivator to be able to use two elements, but what Doctor Bai had displayed earlier was something only a master of elements could do! It takes great effort, and maybe some talent, to be able to be two-element master! Not to mention that legendary blue flames! The number of fire element masters could produce blue flame was lesser than the number of fingers!
"We must find the water source." Lord Xiang wiped his sweating forehead with his sleeves.
"The water source is in the south direction." Doctor Shen pointed at the direction behind the prison building. As the head doctor of the prison, naturally, he knew the blueprint of this place well.
"Will trouble Doctor Shen to lead the way," Lord Xiang said.
Without wasting time, they started running. Xiao Hua was surprised when she could easily outrun them if she wanted to. All this time, she was surrounded by people with stronger cultivation so her changes in strength were not noticeable.
She glanced at Da Bei that easily keep up with her pace beside her. Da Bei happened to be looking at her and caught her stare. He quickly averted his eyes, guilt coloring his eyes.
"Sorry."
"Huh?" Xiao Hua stared at Da Bei blankly. "Why are you apologizing? Because you pour the tea on the corpse?"
Da Bei nodded, looking just like a kid that was caught doing what he was not supposed to do. Xiao Hua's hands itched to rub his head at how adorable he was!
"You actually helped us when you do that. Now we know how to kill those bugs!" Xiao Hua expressed her gratitude as much as she could and much to her delight, Da Bei no longer looked downcast.
His eyes were so expressive, making it easy for Xiao Hua to gauge his mood!
"I poured the tea to test the bugs' reaction," Da Bei explained his action like a student that was picked by the teacher to answer the question on the board.
Once Doctor Bai had confirmed that Xiao Hua's tea would be good to improve Da Bei and Da An's health, she started to brew them a bottle every day. Da An usually drank it all in one go every morning, but Da Bei would carry the bottle around, finishing it slowly throughout the day.
Xiao Hua narrowed her eyes, her mind running wild, leaving her body in auto-drive to follow behind Doctor Shen and Lord Xiang. "Because Liu Chu Chu is involved with the dead spy?"
Da Bei blinked, his eyes showed his confusion. He had poured the tea just to test Xiao Hua's tea on the bugs. The thought of Liu Chu Chu has something to do with the bugs had never popped up in his thoughts even once.
But Xiao Hua did not notice his expressive eyes, too excited with building the new speculation.
"Liu Chu Chu would have shown off her spring water to get Gu Dan to agree to have a partnership with her! Hmm, it could also be because she's a beauty and the king falls in love with her at first sight! Wait, he could also have the same taste as Duke Heng and Second Prince, liking dangerous woman."
Da Bei stared at Xiao Hua blankly but she took it as his agreement to her words. Hyped, she continues on. "Liu Chu Chu got burned when she drinks the tea and if the bugs somehow got upgraded by her, it won't be surprising if they got burned too from the tea! Well, if the spring water is the cause of the tea's violent reaction."
Would the Second Prince get burned too if he drinks the tea? Among the other supporting male leads, he was the one that had drank the spring water before.
"Oh no! Da Bei! Would my eyes burn as well?!" Xiao Hua caressed her eyelids in fear. After all, her eyesight was cured of the heroine's spring water!
"Fifth Miss Liu is working with Gu Dan?" Lord Xiang asked grimly, jolting Xiao Hua back from her overly active imagination.
On the other hand, Doctor Shen was concerned with something else. "That little girl is a fraud! I'm always suspicious of her way of treating the patients privately without letting anyone seeing it! She even refused to let a doctor witness her treatment! Using demonic arts to pretend to cure people, such a wicked girl!"
Without Xiao Hua noticing, Doctor Shen and Lord Xiang had slowed down, their ears straining in her direction. They were very interested in what she had to say!
Xiao Hua's heart spasmed, feeling like a heart attack coming. But she was able to form a calm expression and sincerely said, "I am someone with the habit to speak out what I'm thinking, even if the content often got me into trouble. Those are just my speculation from my wild imagination and not the truth, so please calm your anger."
However, her effort was immediately destroyed by Da Bei.
"Gu Dan lost their knowledge in re-creating their strongest weapon after the war four years ago."
Lord Xiang's eyes widen in realization and rubbed his aching temple. "Four years ago, reports had written that our troops were attacked by a swarm of strange flies. Could it be they were not flies, but bugs just like those infested in the patients' body?"
Truthfully, there was only a small number of people that knew what really happened to the troops the Four Kingdom had sent out to suppress the Gu Dan country. Those that were able to witness the horror of Gu Dan's cruelty and remained alive ended up insane or severely injured before departing from the world not long after.
Lord Xiang has gotten his hand on some of the information because he was the Minister of Justice four years ago before he gave up the position to his son-in-law, Minister Qin, and settled to be his assistant.
"Go, go!" Doctor Shen started running again when they had unknowingly stopped and the rest quickly followed. They have important tasks to do, even if they wanted to discuss more.
"At that time, I'm able to stay out from joining the war with Gu Dan to take care of my ill wife," Doctor Shen said, his breath a little haggard from the running. "But I've heard about moving corpse that killed our troops."
Lord Xiang eyed Da Bei with a gleam of suspicion. "Only us in the top position have the chance to know a little deeper about our war with Gu Dan. How did you know so much of this?"
"My mother knows many things," Da Bei said but did not explain how An Jing gets to know about it.
"Da Bei, what do you think?" Xiao Hua asked. "Do they finally found out the way to recreate their strongest weapon and decided to attack Guilin?"
"Liu Chu Chu helped Gu Dan to recreate Mother Gu bug." Da Bei did not bother omitting Liu Chu Chu's involvement as they already have proved that she was involved with Gu Dan. But he does not know what Gu Dan and Liu Chu Chu were planning, so he only said what he believed to be the truth from Xiao Hua's speculation.
An introvert child that does not like speaking would never know that his half baked words would lead to great misunderstanding!
"We've arrived!" Doctor Shen ran to the brick well that was fortunately filled with water. "After we survive this, I will tell the Emperor how traitorous his future daughter-in-law is!"
"I think this incident is experimentation for something bigger. If they choose to attack us, they would have openly spread the bugs instead of a controlled area," Lord Xiang said as they quicken their pace to follow Doctor Shen.
Xiao Hua sighed. "You may be right, sir."
Lord Xiang laughed, which immediately stopped to cough momentarily. To run at this face pace when he was not used to, it was natural for him to feel uncomfortable all over. "I remember I've yet to introduce myself. My surname is Xiang."
"Greetings, Sir Xiang. I would express greater politeness but we don't have much time. I also need to apologize in advance for being impolite, but I will need help in carrying the water buckets to the treatment tent after I'm done brewing," Xiao Hua said towards the elderly males grimly, a little out of place on her delicate and young face.
Lord Xiang smiled. "No need for that, Miss Bai. Just order us so that we can help you to stop those bugs."
Doctor Shen rubbed his chin that had already grown out baby beard after skipping shaving for one day. "Miss Bai, you can count on us men! We may not have the strength of a cultivator, but we still have the strength of a man!"
Showing a smile like a blooming sunflower, Xiao Hua bowed in gratitude. "Thank you!" She had been worried that they would not listen to a child's words and dismissed her.
Discarding her politeness, Xiao Hua barked out orders. "Now, find as much bucket as you can! No matter how small it is, bring it over to me! But make sure you can still carry it along with water in it to the treatment tent!"
