Knowing the Warmth of Southern Tea (GL) - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

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Wen Cha bit her finger, clasped her hands together, and began chanting a passage. Nan Nuan could not hear clearly what she was saying. Suddenly, a small red insect crawled out of the man’s mouth and moved toward the palm of Wen Cha’s hand. At that moment, the man began foaming at the mouth; after a short while, he stopped breathing entirely.

Nan Nuan watched this scene with her head tilted to the side. It was far from what she had imagined. It was so… plain; it really didn’t look like what she expected of a legendary Gu poison.

Wen Cha collected the Gu into her palm, but an accident occurred at that moment. Perhaps because Wen Cha’s blood was too sweet and fragrant, the Gu insect was not satisfied with just one sip; it actually crawled along her palm and into Wen Cha’s body.

“Ah! What’s happening?” Wen Cha screamed, finally remembering her mother’s warning that there must be no physical contact!

In an instant, An San’s dagger was once again pressed against Wen Cha’s neck.

“Miss Wen, I thought those of the martial arts world kept their promises. It seems you are still not clever enough to understand the principle that a person of character does not stand beneath a collapsing wall,” Nan Nuan said. She prided herself on her judgment of character, but she had nearly been played by this little girl. If the Gu had been extracted for her instead, would she be the one dead right now?

“This was an accident! I don’t know why, but it crawled into my body on its own!” Wen Cha explained frantically. She truly wasn’t playing tricks this time. When it came to knowing who she could provoke and who she couldn’t, Wen Cha’s intuition was actually quite sharp.

“Oh, an accident. Look, that gentleman is dead. Fortunately, it was an ‘accident,’ otherwise, I would be the one dead,” Nan Nuan tossed her fan onto the table, her smile growing even more brilliant. At this, Wen Cha felt a chill run down her spine. Truly, the more gentle a person usually is, the more terrifying they are when they get angry.

“How could this be? How could a Love Gu take a person’s life?” Wen Cha muttered in confusion, beginning to question the Gu arts she had studied for over a decade. This shouldn’t be right; such a massive flaw shouldn’t have occurred!

“If Miss Wen doesn’t know, I certainly don’t. An San…” Nan Nuan began.

“Wait! You can’t kill me! The Gu is inside my body now. If you kill me, you will die too. I swear, this is the truth. This is a Love Gu—if one side dies, the other follows them in death!” Wen Cha shouted. She truly did not want to die and regretted immensely that she had provoked this “jinx.” Why did she have to meddle in other people’s business? If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be in this life-or-death situation.

“I won’t kill you, of course. Rest easy, Miss Wen. An San, tap her pressure points and hang her upside down in the room. Let her think carefully about where the problem lies. An Er, go dispose of the body. After all this commotion, it’s time for me to eat,” Nan Nuan said with a smile. She would solve her hunger first before discussing anything else. By now, An Er should have reached the small tribes. She hoped he would bring back good results.

“Understood.”

Wen Cha was hung up once again, but this time it was inside the room—at least that was slightly better than being outside.

Nan Nuan ate in the room; Wen Cha was hanging. Nan Nuan read a book in the room; Wen Cha was hanging. Nan Nuan painted in the room; Wen Cha was hanging.

Wen Cha went from cursing loudly at the beginning to eventually falling silent, perfectly illustrating the truth that “silence is gold.”

She was hung like this for an entire day. She went from blaming others to self-pity, and finally to self-reflection. It must be said that she did some growing up.

“Miss Wen, have you figured it out?” Nan Nuan asked.

By this time, Wen Cha had gone a day and a night without a drop of water while being hung upside down. She was extremely lightheaded.

“I’ve figured it out,” Wen Cha said, licking her parched lips.

“And what have you figured out?” Nan Nuan asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Wen Cha’s head was spinning; she felt she was about to die. She had been the apple of her mother’s eye since childhood and had never suffered like this. She shouldn’t have run away from home; if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have met this terrifying person. Wen Cha actually began to sob quietly.

Nan Nuan had An San unblock her pressure points and take her down. Wen Cha immediately curled up in the corner by the table and cried. Seeing her weeping uncontrollably, Nan Nuan didn’t feel she had been too harsh. If Wen Cha had targeted an ordinary young nobleman or a scholar, the ending would have been different—she would have ruined someone’s entire life. In that sense, Wen Cha wasn’t innocent at all.

“Why aren’t you comforting me?” Wen Cha asked. At home, she could have anything she wanted; this was the first time she had truly failed.

“If you’ve cried enough, there’s water on the table. Have some.” Nan Nuan didn’t answer directly. Wen Cha slowly stood up and stretched her body. Feeling like she had come back to life, she immediately poured herself water, drinking cup after cup—six in total.

At this point, Wen Cha seemed to regain her spirit. “I think that man might have had some kind of hidden poison in his body. It had built up over a long time and was unexpectedly triggered by the Gu. The Gu insect was affected by it, which is why it lost control and crawled into me.” She absolutely refused to mention that she had misremembered her mother’s teachings, which led to the current situation. She decisively shifted the blame onto the dead man.

“Mm,” Nan Nuan replied. This matched exactly what the hidden guards had found out about the man. An Er had been sent to the Miao region to find a truly skilled master who could remove the Gu, as this young girl was clearly unreliable. Surely Confucius was right: “Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave towards.”

“This Gu insect cannot be lured out twice in a short period. The one in my body can’t be moved yet, but the one in yours can. Do you want to try?” Wen Cha asked. She swore to herself she wouldn’t play any tricks—partly because she was scared, and partly because she was afraid she might actually fall for this “pretty boy.”

She absolutely could not have any entanglement with this wicked pretty boy!

“No need. I have no wish to die an unnatural death,” Nan Nuan rejected her directly. She wouldn’t give Wen Cha another chance. Regardless of the reason, incompetence was incompetence.

“Then what do you want to do?” Wen Cha asked.

“I’ll have to trouble Miss Wen to accompany me for a while. Once the Gu is resolved, you will be free,” Nan Nuan had already thought of the solution.

“What?” At the thought of staying with “Nan Wei,” Wen Cha felt uncomfortable all over. Why had she been so meddlesome in the first place?

“Then… can I not be hung from the ceiling beam?” Wen Cha asked cautiously, terrified that Nan Nuan would hang her up for the entire journey.

“Of course… not.” As soon as Nan Nuan finished speaking, she had An San hang Wen Cha up once more.

Wen Cha felt that life was no longer worth living. So, letting her down was just so she could have a glass of water?

Nan Nuan’s expression suggested: I didn’t just want you to drink water; I wanted you to have a good cry, too.

Eventually, Wen Cha lost consciousness while hanging.

“Master, do you truly intend to take this person of unknown origin with us?” An San asked worriedly.

“What else can we do? Time is pressing. We must proceed this way. An San, clean up the matter regarding that man. Make sure no one can trace it back to us.”

“Rest assured, Master. I left him at a brothel. People will assume he met with retribution because of his philandering. It has nothing to do with anyone else.”

“That is good. A County Magistrate’s son who could marry eighteen concubines… Go investigate that Magistrate. I hope this place can be replaced with an honest official who actually serves the people.”

“Understood.”

Nan Nuan considered it her good deed for the day.