Hibiskus als Gemälde

Kapitel 28

Let it grow.

Innocent people are unaware of the wickedness of flowers.

Immerse yourself in its delicate fragrance.

Who planted poppies by the roadside?

Let it smell sweet.

Innocent people are unaware of the wickedness of flowers.

Still slowly appreciating it.

Oh, poppy,

You are as radiant as the setting sun…

"Grandma Mi Nang, I have brought that strange man here," Old Man Ao cleared his throat and said loudly.

A long sigh came from inside the wooden house: "Hmm... Is it just the two of you?"

“Yes, Mother-in-law,” Old Master Ao replied respectfully.

“But the old woman heard a third person’s breathing…” Granny Minang said coldly.

Old Master Ao smiled calmly and said, "That's just a child."

Shen Caihua, who was crouching in the poppy bushes, was shocked to hear this and quickly covered his mouth. He had been careful enough, but had they still discovered him?

There was a moment of silence in the room, then he continued, "Elder Ao, put the strange man down and go back."

"No, Mother-in-law, I have something else to say," Old Man Ao quickly said.

"Speak," Granny Minang said crisply.

Old Man Ao pondered for a moment and said, “Grandma, I found this strange man, so he should rightfully belong to me. Moreover, the central government will be giving him an important position in the future. Therefore, I would like to accompany you to break the restrictions on him. I humbly request your permission.”

"Then take him back. This old woman has no interest," Granny Minang said angrily, and at the same time, the oil lamp in the room went out with a "poof".

"No, no, that's not what I meant..." Old Ao hurriedly explained, "Alright then, I'll come to check on you every night. If you need anything in your life, please let me know, and I'll personally bring it up the mountain."

There was no more sound from inside the room.

Helpless, Ao Lao had no choice but to loosen the rope in his hand, take two steps back, and turn to leave... As he passed by Shen Caihua, his arm suddenly swelled up and grabbed him by the back of the neck.

"Hmph, I noticed someone was following us a long time ago. So it was you, you little rascal. Tell me, did you and Naisuo steal the big parrot?" Old Ao shouted sternly.

"Old monster! You stole Dudu away..." Shen Caihua shouted angrily.

With a creak, the door opened, and Granny Minang suddenly stood in the moonlight.

Chapter 38, Part 3

Under the hazy moonlight and amidst the fragrant sea of flowers, Granny Minang was revealed to be a short, stout old woman with long, silver hair, a face full of wrinkles, wearing a long-sleeved, front-opening short jacket, a red striped apron, a single-piece skirt with a black front shawl, and leggings—the attire of a Taiwanese indigenous Atayal.

"What did you say..." The mother-in-law's sharp gaze was fixed on Shen Caihua.

"The white-haired monster stole Dudu!" Xiao Caihua cried out as he struggled.

Granny Minang, her face as cold as ice, turned around and asked Old Man Ao in a chilling tone, "What is this child saying?"

"This little guy has a blue-and-white macaw named Dudu that can talk..." Old Ao explained awkwardly.

Upon hearing this, Granny Minang suddenly let out a long, mournful howl, then threw her head back and laughed loudly, sending chills down the spines of all who heard it.

"Leave the child here, you can go." Granny Minang smiled, then her face fell, and she said indifferently.

"Yes..." Old Man Ao replied, still seemingly reluctant, but under his mother-in-law's sharp gaze, he had no choice but to turn around and go down the mountain dejectedly.

Under the moonlight, Granny Minang's expression softened instantly, a warm feeling welling up inside her. She gently reached out her hand, tears welling in her eyes, and said, "Little Caihua, Granny never thought she would see you again in her lifetime..."

Shen Caihua's eyes widened, his whole body burning with heat. The Zhuyou essence within him sensed the old woman's fellow disciple's true energy, and a sense of familiarity welled up within him. "You are a Hakka nanny... Grandma..." Deep in his mind, he remembered that night six years ago, the kind old woman he met in Nanzhuang, Miaoli, Taiwan, who was also Dudu's original owner.

The Hakka grandmother nodded excitedly, hugged Xiao Caihua tightly, and tears slowly streamed down her face.

"Grandma..." Shen Caihua finally burst into tears, telling the story with great grievance that the white-haired monster had stolen the big parrot Dudu.

“Good child, don’t be afraid, Grandma will get Dudu back for you…” The Hakka grandma gently wiped away the tears on Xiao Caihua’s face and said softly, “Let’s go inside first.”

The wooden house was simply furnished. In the center of the wall was a shrine, and in front of the curtain was a wooden plaque that read "The Spirit Tablet of My Deceased Husband, Li Dishui". Three sticks of incense were burning in the incense burner, and the smoke was curling up.

An old coffin sat on the floor of the house, its lid half-open, revealing a quilt inside. This was the sleeping bed of the Hakka grandmother—the Zhuyou Ling Coffin.

Shen Caihua subconsciously licked his lips. He remembered that night six years ago, there was a fat, sweaty corpse hidden behind the shroud of the memorial tablet.

"Child, are you hungry? I'll get you something to eat." The Hakka nanny walked out of the room.

Under the moonlight, the old beggar, bound hand and foot, still stood upright in front of the wooden house, his white eyes staring blankly ahead, his expression vacant.

"Ugh, lie down to the side." The Hakka nanny casually pointed and poked the Xuanji acupoint, two inches below the top of his sternum.

This acupoint is one of the nine major acupoints for fainting in the human body. If it is pressed, one will faint immediately. If the acupoint is not released, one may remain unconscious for up to twelve hours.

The old beggar collapsed silently against the wall of the wooden house, while the Hakka woman hurried toward the back of the house.

Chapter 39, Part 1

Behind the wooden house flowed a small stream, no more than ten feet wide, with clear water so clear that the moonlight could see to the bottom. Fish swam in the water, and occasionally the croaking of frogs could be heard.

The Hakka woman stood by the water's edge, her palms held in front of her chest, slowly moving horizontally while chanting, "Hehe na, ja jie ting ting po..."

The silvery-white fish in the stream slowly gathered around the bank, as if they had encountered an invisible wall, and finally huddled together, no longer swimming. The Hakka woman reached out, picked out a few of the larger ones, removed their gills, and lifted them out of the water before turning back into the wooden house.

“Caihua, how about I make you some fish soup?” the Hakka nanny said softly.

At this moment, Shen Caihua lifted the shrine curtain and tilted his head to look inside. He did not see the fat, sweaty corpse he remembered, but only a porcelain jar.

"Alas, those are the ashes of old man Li Dishui. The old woman plans to send them back to his hometown by the Songhua River in Northeast China," the Hakka old woman said with a sigh.

"Grandma, weren't you in Taiwan? How come I see you here again?" Shen Caihua asked curiously.

While busy cleaning and scaling the fish and starting a fire to make soup, the Hakka nanny said indignantly, "Six years ago, when Hansheng came, everything went wrong. The old man was drained of all his energy by that wicked man surnamed Huang. I don't know which bastard stole the historical records I had accumulated for more than ten years. It really makes me so angry."

Shen Caihua felt a sudden tightness in his chest. He couldn't let it slip that he was the one who had stolen the bottle of Hanqing.

"After cremating the old man, the old woman put his ashes in that jar. Staying in Nanzhuang, Miaoli, was no longer interesting. She wanted to go to the old man's hometown on the mainland, but she had visa problems. Coincidentally, one of the old man's fellow villagers from the 93rd Division of the Nationalist Army was a bandit leader in the Golden Triangle. Knowing the old woman's reputation in Taiwan, he invited her to Mae Salong. Later, in a conflict with government forces, that fellow villager was unfortunately killed in battle. The old woman then went to live in seclusion on the western mountains of Kokang on the China-Myanmar border, planning to later smuggle herself to the mainland to bury the old man and fulfill his wish. Seeing you tonight is truly a blessing from heaven… Caihua, you should come with the old woman." The Hakka old woman recounted.

“No, I’m going to save Dudu,” Shen Caihua replied.

“Dudu will come along too. Granny will go and get Dudu back tomorrow,” the Hakka nanny comforted him.

"What if the White-Haired Monster refuses to give it to us?" Shen Caihua asked worriedly.

The Hakka woman's face hardened, and she said solemnly, "Then I will pluck out every single white hair from his head."

Upon hearing this, Shen Caihua immediately burst into laughter.

"No, I still need to go find Momo," Chen Caihua said quietly, stopping his laughter.

"MoMo?" The old woman thought for a moment and said, "Is she the little girl who got lost in the rainforest six years ago?"

Shen Caihua nodded.

"After all these years, do you know where she is?" the old woman asked.

Shen Caihua shook his head: "I don't know."

"The world is so vast, it's probably not easy to find someone like him..." the Hakka old woman said, looking at Caihua with sympathetic eyes.

Chapter 39, Part 2

"Grandma, why does the White-Haired Monster call you 'Grandma Rice Noodle'?" Shen Caihua asked, puzzled.

"It's because the Hakka grandmothers were so famous in Taiwan, and the Burmese Communist Party and the 93rd Division of the National Revolutionary Army had a long-standing feud, so the grandmothers changed their names. 'Mi Nang' is the name of the poppy flower, meaning both beautiful and poisonous," the Hakka grandmother explained.

Shen Caihua seemed to understand but not quite, and said sweetly, "It's strange, why do I feel like I have family when I see Granny?"

Upon hearing this, the Hakka nanny smiled and said, "That's because you and I are from the same school."

"Fellow disciples?" Shen Caihua still couldn't understand.

“We both belong to the most mysterious witchcraft school in the world today, the Zhuyou School, and are descendants of Guo Pu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty,” the old woman then grinned and said sarcastically, “the so-called ‘evil and crooked ways’.”

"Is he a bad person?" Shen Caihua asked.

“Even so…” the Hakka nanny laughed heartily. “Come on, child, have some fish soup.” The Hakka nanny ladled out a large bowl of steaming hot clear fish soup, which smelled extremely delicious.

Shen Caihua was really hungry, and he sipped the fish soup with great relish.

“Talent, I will teach you the art of incantation, would you like to learn?” the Hakka nanny said sincerely.

"Can the 'Lard' skill defeat the White-Haired Monster?" Shen Caihua asked, swallowing the fish soup in his mouth.

"Of course, you can also pluck all the white hairs off his body," the Hakka woman said with a smile, as if she had suddenly become much younger.

“Okay, I’m willing to learn the ‘Lard Divine Skill’,” Shen Caihua replied happily.

"Granny asks you, where does your Zhuyou True Qi come from?" The Hakka nanny pressed her fingers on Caihua's wrist and felt that the child's true qi was extremely powerful, far exceeding the power she had gained through seventy or eighty years of hard work. So she asked in surprise, which was also a question that had been lingering in her mind for six years.

“Me? No…” Shen Caihua said in surprise.

"Have you heard of Guo Pu?" the old woman asked.

Shen Caihua shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

"Did my senior sister, the Hakka Holy Mother Granny Wang, teach you anything?" the old woman asked again.

Shen Caihua shook his head and said, "No one has ever taught me anything."

"Then how did you manage to break out of this 'Zhuyou coffin' when you were in Nanzhuang, Miaoli? And how did you manage to burn a big hole in the lid of Granny's coffin?" Granny asked in confusion.

Shen Caihua said sincerely, "I don't know how I got out." In fact, when he was sealed in the spirit coffin that night, he subconsciously used the ninth move of the Zhuyou Divine Skill, "Opening the Heavenly Gate," to cut a round hole in the coffin lid, which allowed him to escape. However, he had no recollection of these events.

The Hakka woman thought to herself, "This child doesn't seem to be lying. It seems there really are people in this world with extraordinary talents, born with them. Guo Pu's incantation magic is truly unfathomable..."

The nanny set up a small bed for Shen Caihua, because he did not want to sleep in the Zhuyou coffin with the nanny.

Caihua noticed the round patch on the coffin lid, and subconsciously felt a pang of emotion. He hugged the suction cup and fell asleep on the small bed. The days of travel had left him physically and mentally exhausted, and he quickly drifted off to sleep.

Seeing that the child was already fast asleep, the Hakka woman walked out of the room, picked up the old beggar lying in the corner outside the door, and headed straight for the top of West Mountain under the moonlight.