Chapter 118: Hua Feifei

The winter rain was always fine and continuous, and the entire bamboo forest was shrouded in a mist of rain. The mountains looked hazy and indistinct.

On the long corridor of the Bamboo Cottage, Ling Ruyue and I sat facing each other at a table, staring at one another with wide eyes. The atmosphere was extremely tense.

“I am saying this one last time. Are you going to eat it or not? If you do not, I will not care about you anymore.” I felt like I was going insane. Master and the others had left early in the morning for the Hungry Ghost Tomb, leaving only me and Ling Ruyue behind. Before leaving, Master told me to take good care of her, and I did not dare disobey.

Taking care of her meant cooking for her and keeping an eye on her. If Master and the others took a long time, I would also have to do her laundry.

Although I thought it was just a tomb and they would not be gone long, staying with this little girl was unbearable. I had worked hard to cook lunch, but she only took one bite and looked completely disgusted. She refused to eat.

Ling Ruyue looked at me and said, “I am not eating. Compared to what Grandma makes, your cooking is terrible. Even Granny Jin cooks better than you by a hundred times.”

“Fine, do not eat then.” I could not be bothered with her. Where did this little girl even come from, acting like some rich young lady?

Is the food really that bad? I thought it was already quite good. Winter bamboo shoot and wild chicken soup, stir-fried small greens, and pea shoots with cured meat. Moreover, that wild chicken had been caught by my Master and he had not been willing to eat it. Wild chickens were getting harder and harder to catch these days. If not for this girl coming, Master would not have specially prepared it this morning for me to stew into soup for her.

And she still complained.

I ate big mouthfuls of food and drank the soup. I had already decided that if she refused to eat, then she could starve. It was not as if I was not feeding her. She simply would not eat.

Moreover, I was not afraid of her at all now. When Ling Qing left, she had already confiscated all the strange things on this little girl, so I was not worried about her using any weird tricks on me anymore.

Seeing me eating happily, Ling Ruyue swallowed her saliva.

I pretended not to see it and ignored her completely.

After a while, Ling Ruyue suddenly said to me, “The soup is okay. I will just drink some soup. Brother, can you help me serve a bowl?”

“Serve it yourself.” I was not her servant. She wanted soup, she could serve it herself. I was not like Old Man Jiang, and I was not falling for her sweet talk.

“You serve it.”

“Serve it yourself.”

Once again, we were staring at each other.

“San Wa Er, San Wa Er...” Just as we were locked in this stalemate, Su Rou’s voice came from outside the bamboo forest.

That guy had only just remembered to come find me after seeing me return two days ago.

I put down my bowl and said to Ling Ruyue, “I am going to pick up my friend. If you want soup, serve it yourself. If you starve, I am not responsible.”

Then I ignored her complaints behind me and went to meet Su Rou.

Su Rou was standing outside the bamboo forest in a brand new outfit. The moment he saw me coming down, he rushed over like a rolling ball of meat and grabbed my shoulder.

“San Wa Er, you have no idea how bored I was during winter break,” Su Rou said.

“Weren’t I in the county a while ago? You could have come find me.”

“My parents dragged me around visiting relatives and did not give me money to go to the county. Now that you are back, I finally found an excuse to come see you,” he said.

We chatted as we walked into the bamboo forest. When we reached the Bamboo Cottage, we saw that Ling Ruyue was quietly drinking soup, one spoonful at a time.

“San Wa Er, this little girl is quite cute. She is nothing like you described,” Su Rou said loudly as he walked over. Seeing food on the table, he was not polite at all and grabbed a set of bowls and chopsticks to sit down.

“Hello, Fat Brother,” Ling Ruyue said sweetly.

“San Wa Er, this little girl is really well behaved,” Su Rou said while chewing wild chicken meat, completely ignoring everything I had told him in the forest. What a loyal friend.

I could not be bothered with him. I just focused on eating, hoping Master and the others would come back soon so this girl could be taken away.

“Fat Brother, can you take me to the Hungry Ghost Tomb?” Ling Ruyue suddenly said.

I choked and sprayed soup all over Su Rou’s face.

Su Rou wiped his face and looked at me blankly. Then, after processing her words, his eyes flashed with excitement. He was exactly the type who feared nothing but chaos.

“San Wa Er, Master Jiang went to the Hungry Ghost Tomb?” he asked, completely ignoring his new clothes.

“You better not get any funny ideas,” I warned him.

But Su Rou did not answer. Instead, Ling Ruyue spoke again.

“It is so boring here. Don’t you want to go see the Hungry Ghost Tomb? I have been curious ever since I heard Grandma mention it on the way here.”

Su Rou looked at me with eager eyes, and I also felt my curiosity stir. I had known about the Hungry Ghost Tomb since I was young. It would be a lie to say I did not want to see it. But that place was dangerous. I...

Ling Ruyue, however, continued fearlessly, “You mentioned the Hungry Ghost Worms. I heard Granny Jin talk about them in the village. We call them Ghost King Worms there. They are extremely powerful Gu insects. They are very rare, though, and only certain clan leaders in Gu villages might have them. Sigh...”

My curiosity was already strong, and I could not help but ask, “You know about Hungry Ghost Worms?”

“Yes. I also know how to counter them,” Ling Ruyue said innocently, as if she were talking about ordinary insects.

“So powerful insects, and you can counter them?” Su Rou did not believe it.

“Powerful? Not as powerful as my Hua Feifei,” Ling Ruyue said disdainfully.

“Hua Feifei?” Su Rou clearly had no idea what that was.

Ling Ruyue flipped her hand, and in an instant, a spider the size of a human palm appeared on the table. I had no idea where she had taken it from.

“This is Hua Feifei. Cute, right?” Ling Ruyue said, looking innocent and adorable. It was impossible to match that expression with a giant spider. I could not even face the scene. She actually called a spider cute.

I was not afraid of many things in life, but spiders were the exception. The moment that large spider appeared on the table, my body froze completely. I did not dare move at all. Had not Ling Qing already confiscated all of Ling Ruyue’s strange items? How did she still have this spider?

Su Rou’s expression also turned unpleasant. He was not afraid of spiders in general, but this one was too large. It was the size of an adult man’s palm, with clearly visible furry hairs and strange multicolored patterns. I had never seen such a species before.

“Is it cute?” Ling Ruyue asked again when she did not receive a response.

Then she reached out her pale hand and gently touched the spider.

Su Rou’s face twitched, and I could not help but warn her, “Be careful. It is poisonous. Do not touch it.”

Ling Ruyue made a face at me. “Coward.”

Then she lifted her hand, and the spider actually crawled onto it. It was enormous, almost as big as her entire hand. Her hand was tiny compared to it.

“I know it is poisonous. Hua Feifei was given to me by Granny Jin. It is the poison king among Gu insects. But it is very obedient. Its poison can even kill ghosts.”

I could not take it anymore. A pure and adorable girl, as bright as the moon, holding a spider and casually talking about killing ghosts with its venom. It was completely absurd.

Besides, ghosts were spiritual beings. How could poison affect them?

Su Rou finally recovered and asked tremblingly, “Why is it called Hua Feifei? I get the ‘Hua’ part, but why ‘Fei Fei’?”

Ling Ruyue smiled like an immortal fairy and said, “Fei Fei, show them.”

The spider suddenly floated into the air in an extremely strange way, moving quickly to the top of the corridor. It crawled twice, and Ling Ruyue took out a small whistle and blew it once.

The spider immediately shot toward me at high speed and landed directly on my shoulder.