Urbaner Blumentraum - Kapitel 118
After saying it, he hesitated, then added with some worry: "But there are so many of them, and they're very powerful..."
The woman smiled slightly: "Killing isn't like fighting, and it's not entirely about martial arts!"
The boy paused, not quite understanding what she was saying. Just as he was about to ask a question, he suddenly felt something was off. He looked up and saw everyone staring in one direction, their faces filled with horror.
He looked in that direction and saw that the monk Guangren was huddled in the corner, his exposed skin covered in blisters, some of which had burst and were oozing yellow fluid. His eyes were rolled back, the whites of his eyes covered with green blood vessels, and his tongue was sticking out long and swollen to a purplish-black. He was already dead.
He had seen dead people before, but never one who had died so horribly. Just as he was in a panic, he heard a series of clanging sounds. Turning around, he saw that everyone present had dropped their weapons, collapsed to the ground, and were convulsing. Blisters had formed on their skin, and green blood vessels had appeared on the whites of their eyes. Their symptoms were exactly the same as those of the monk Guangren.
The boy took a few steps back in fear, touched his face, and found it remarkably smooth, which reassured him slightly. Just then, a man clutched his throat, gasping for breath, and asked, "You...when did you...poison me..."
But he didn't get an answer. He exhaled sharply and then never inhaled again...
Jianghu Tianhenqing II 122009-08-18 16:09 Amidst the gentle lapping of oars and the gurgling of water on the lake, Zhu Liuyue, with a soft pillow on her back, spoke eloquently.
Zhu Huihui lay on the carpet, her chin resting on her hands, listening intently.
"Brother Liuyue, how was the poison administered?" she asked the same question.
"Actually, the baby's swaddling clothes were always poisoned. When she was tossed around in the air, the poison was spilled everywhere."
Were all the people in the temple poisoned?
"Besides the woman and the boy, only the boy is still alive."
"Why wasn't the boy poisoned?"
"That's because the woman had already administered the antidote to him when she spoke to the person above him."
“I understand!” Zhu Huihui said. “So, what happened next?”
Zhu Liuyue withdrew her gaze from the void of the night sky and slowly said, "Later, the little boy was found by his family and taken back home. Since then, he has never seen the woman and the baby girl again."
"Brother Liu Yue, is the little boy in the story you?"
“Yes!” Zhu Liuyue nodded gently and sighed, “Back then, I was being kidnapped by bad guys when that woman rescued me.”
"So, who is that woman?" Zhu Huihui asked curiously. That woman is truly remarkable! A story of someone single-handedly defeating multiple enemies and still managing to eliminate them all is something that even a good-for-nothing like her finds incredibly admirable.
Zhu Liuyue looked at Zhu Huihui, hesitated for a moment, and said, "She has never told me her name."
Zhu Huihui was greatly disappointed and couldn't help but complain, "Brother Liuyue, you're really confused. This person is your savior, and you didn't even ask him clearly."
Despite being scolded by her, Liu Yue only smiled slightly and was not annoyed.
Zhu Huihui turned her head and pondered for a long time before finally remembering the important matter—what had she and Brother Liu Yue been talking about at the beginning? Wasn't it about her looking for her mother? How did it turn into Brother Liu Yue being kidnapped and rescued by a beautiful woman?
Ah, right! The conversation veered off-topic from the design on my arm!
She asked cautiously, "Brother Liu Yue, this woman, do I have any relationship with her?"
“Yes.” Zhu Liuyue stared into her eyes. “I saw the exact same pattern on this little girl’s arm as on yours.”
"Are you sure you're not mistaken? That baby also has a birthmark like mine?" Zhu Huihui asked blankly. She only knew that some people in the world could look similar, but this was the first time she had ever heard of birthmarks being the same.
“It’s not a birthmark,” Liu Yue said, shaking her head. “It was drawn on with some strange medicinal liquid.”
Zhu Huihui held her breath and vigorously rubbed the pattern on her arm, but only managed to rub off a few streaks of clay. How could this be painted on? It couldn't be washed off or wiped away at all!
"So—you suspect that the woman is my mother, and the baby she was carrying is me?" She finally understood why Zhu Liuyue would tell her stories even though they were talking about finding her mother.
Zhu Liuyue did not answer the question directly, but sighed softly: "Over the years, I have often thought about what your child will be like when he grows up."
Zhu Huihui pinched her cheek: "You mean, she's grown up, just like me?"
Zhu Liuyue looked at her rosy cheeks and smiled, saying, "I really hope so!"
Zhu Huihui pondered for a moment and asked, "Brother Liu Yue, if I weren't her, would you still treat me this well?"
Zhu Liuyue threw the question back at her: "What do you think?"
Zhu Huihui suddenly felt very frustrated: "I think—no!"
Liu Yue smiled and placed her hand on her head: "If it were before, then indeed it wouldn't have happened."
That means that Brother Liu Yue's kindness towards her has absolutely nothing to do with whether she is the baby girl or not, right? A faint joy rose in Zhu Huihui's heart.
After thinking for a moment, she looked at Zhu Liuyue and said very carefully, "Brother Liuyue, I think—you may be wrong!" That woman was indeed very capable and remarkable, and she admired her very much, but she really had no connection with her!
"oh?"
Zhu Huihui said earnestly, “I grew up in a very remote village. Only my mother and Huahua lived there. My mother was just a country woman with a terrible temper, wasn't pretty, and was very fat. Her hair was all white, and only one of her eyes was good; the other always seemed to be covered by a white film, so she couldn't see anything. I heard she also had a serious illness; her skin was patchy, black and white. The villagers said my mother's illness was contagious, so they never associated with our family. Once, the fat woman from our neighbor Chen Er's family bullied my mother. My mother argued with her, and Chen Er and the fat woman pinned her to the ground and beat her. Later, Chen Er's whole family contracted the plague and died. Heaven avenged my mother—”
He stopped abruptly at this point.
That's right! Her mother was just an ordinary country woman, but this woman taught her a lot—those inexplicable things that she didn't know what they were before and never studied them seriously. Later, after hanging out with the heroes and broadening her horizons, she realized that one of the things her mother had taught her was martial arts!
How could an ordinary country woman know so much?
But if she wasn't an ordinary country woman, how could she have been so powerless to fight back when she was beaten by her vicious neighbors?
These were questions Zhu Huihui had never considered before, but now she suddenly realized them. Although the more she thought about it, the less she understood, she was utterly panicked. In an instant, her mother became so unfamiliar; she even felt that the person was no longer her mother, but a stranger—a terrifying stranger who had raised her but whom she knew nothing about!
She was somewhat bewildered: "Who exactly is my mother?" she asked herself, and also asked Zhu Liuyue.
But neither she nor Zhu Liuyue knew the answer to this question.