Another week passed, and the Lantern Festival came to an end. After a long hospitalization, Chen Yang's doctor finalized the date of his discharge. Classes at the Imperial Capital University would commence the next day, but Lisa, who had been sleeping for more than half a month, still did not wake up.
"Soon, I guess in just a couple of days." Because of Lisa's delay in waking up, Elder Wu had been to the courtyard in the past days to check on him.
Did that mean he was going to wake up soon? Master Mao and Minister Lou heard the words and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Master Wu, the magical tools I asked people to find have been sent here. Please see if they can be used." Minister Lou had people search for magical tools for most of the month, and they were just sent over last night.
"Hmm." Elder Wu nodded and followed Minister Lou and Master Mao, leaving the room toward the first floor.
Once they left, Joohyun was the only one left in the room. Within the period where Lisa was in a coma, Joohyun would visit him every day, sometimes only for a while, and sometimes for an hour.
Recently, because Lisa might wake up at any time, Joohyun stayed in the room all day, wanting Lisa to see her as soon as he opened his eyes.
Joohyun propped up her chin on her hands and carefully examined the unconscious Lisa. The longer she looked, the more she felt that her Third Brother was indeed better looking than all the good-looking boys/men she had ever seen. He was truly worthy of attracting her fancy.
Third Brother wasn't only handsome, but also very smart. He had books everywhere at home. Joohyun's eyes swept over several books at Lisa's bedside table. They were probably Lisa's reading materials before going to bed. Pricked by curiosity, Joohyun took one, flipped the pages, and found that it was a collection of modern poetry. Believing that this was Lisa's favorite book, she also started reading it with relish.
In the living room on the first floor, six magic tools were placed in sequence, four of which were attack-type peach wooden swords, the fifth was a compass, and the sixth was a jade pendant.
Elder Wu's gaze wandered past the six magic weapons disinterestedly. His eyes stopped on the jade pendant, and he said, "This alone is barely usable."
"Only one can be used?" Minister Lou had searched all of these six magic weapons and bought them back at sky-high prices. Unexpectedly, only one could be used.
"As I said before, the evil spirit in Lisa's body is extraordinary and requires an extremely high grade magical tool. Moreover, this jade pendant isn't the top of the line. It's just barely usable." Elder Wu explained, "As for the other six, if they were forcibly used to store evil qi, they would probably shatter on the spot."
"Is this enough?" When minister Lou asked this sentence, he was not confident enough.
"Not at all!" Sure enough, Elder Wu shook his head and said, "Although I don't know how much of the evil qi within Lisa's soul can be separated, it's better for you to prepare more magic tools than to be without magic tools to carry the separated evil qi when the time comes."
Minister Lou frowned and replied, "Okay, I know. I will let the people underneath to search for more."
"Minister Lou, you shouldn't be too anxious. Magical tools are essentially hard to find," Master Mao said, "The Metaphysics shop has just stocked up a few pieces of good grade magical tools. I have talked to them in advance and asked them to send the tools directly to me. I think they'll be here by tomorrow. What's more, their quality is better than this jade pendant."
"That's great." Minister Lou was overjoyed when he heard such good news.
Elder Wu also nodded at the news. He turned to Assistant He Qi nearby and asked, "Where is the hairpin?"
Elder Wu took the hairpin back and studied it for a day, after which he found that the hairpin's aura was gone. Hence, on the second day, he had Joohyun bring it back to the Lou family's small courtyard.
"Miss Joohyun said that the hairpin needs sufficient spiritual qi, so we placed it in the formation eye. I'll go and fetch it real quick," He Qi said. He turned around and headed outside the living room. The eye of the Spirit Gathering Formation in the Lou's small courtyard was located on the edge of the rockery outside the living room.
In a short while, He Qi came in with a red sandalwood box and respectfully handed it to Elder Wu.
Elder Wu raised his hand and opened the box, revealing the dark hairpin inside. The design of the hairpin was very simple with only a pearl at the tip. The dark hairpin body was made of unknown material, but the Pearl-like adornment at the tip of the hairpin had become colorful after being nourished by spirit qi. The colorful spiritual light that day probably came from this hairpin.
"This spiritual artifact can also be used to separate Lisa's evil spirit," Master Mao blurted out when he saw the hairpin.
"This spiritual artifact can naturally be used, but..." said Elder Wu, "It's also the only thing that can purify Lisa's evil qi. Are you sure you want to use it to separate his evil qi?"
When Elder Wu reminded Master Mao of this, he immediately shook his head. The spiritual artifact could naturally be used to separate Lisa's evil qi, but that would only reduce the evil qi in Lisa's body, not completely solve it. Keeping this spiritual artifact and use it to purify evil qi whenever Lisa's evil spirit rioted would be more valuable than using it to separate his evil qi.
After making sure that the spirit qi inside the hairpin had recovered abundantly, Elder Wu put the hairpin back into the box and handed it to He Qi and said, "Keep it stored. It'll be useful when separating evil qi."
"?" Master Mao looked at Elder Wu in confusion. Didn't you just say that it was best not to use it to store evil qi?
"To prevent accidents," Elder Wu clarified.
Hearing the word accident, the expression of the other three people present all drastically changed. When Elder Wu had first suggested separating evil qi to them, he expressly stated that the success rate wasn't 100%, and there might be accidents. It was just that they had all selectively ignored this possibility.
He Qi took the wooden box somberly, and then returned the hairpin in the eye of the formation.
Lisa's bedroom faced south and was wonderfully positioned. In the early morning, the sun shone directly on the bed through the window, but it was nearing noon, and the sunlight had retreated to the corner of the wall and was about to withdraw from the room. Nonetheless, the bedroom with the curtains drawn was obviously too bright even with the absence of direct sunlight.
Especially for a person who had been sleeping for half a month; his eyes merely opened a slit, and then closed again, stimulated by the sunlight.
Lisa instinctively turned sideways, so that his back would face the light. When he opened his eyes again, he found the poetry book he had placed on his bedside table, and the white slender fingertips on the light blue cover of the book.
It's Irin. She's alright!
In a split second, Lisa calmed down, and a faint smile unconsciously crept through the corners of his mouth.
Lisa's sideway turn was very light, but Joohyun still noticed it. She moved the book that was blocking her sight away, and her eyes immediately fell into Lisa's dark, deep pupils. Then, she called out in surprise, "Third brother, you're awake!"
"I'm awake!" Lisa opened his mouth and responded a bit hoarsely.
"Third Brother, are you thirsty? I'll pour you some water. No, I'll call you a doctor." Joohyun said, dropping the book in her hand, and hurriedly running out of the bedroom.
Looking at Joohyun's excitement, Lisa couldn't help but smile. His mood brightened up for no reason, and he didn't know if it was because he knew he rescued Joohyun, or because he saw her as soon as he opened his eyes.
Maybe both.
Soon, Master Mao, Minister Lou, Elder Wu, and the medical team swarmed into Lisa's room. After some examination and making sure that Lisa's body was perfectly alright, they left again in turns. Again, only Joohyun remained in the room, drinking congee with Lisa.
"This congee has no taste at all," Joohyun drank two mouthfuls and expressed her dislike.
"Then don't drink it. I will let He Qi prepare something else for you to eat," Lisa said.
"No." Joohyun shook her head.
"I thought you didn't like it."
"But it's not like you can eat anything else," Joohyun said.
"..." Lisa was stunned, "You don't have to eat the same thing as me."
"But what if I eat something that smells too good, and you crave it." Joohyun said rightfully, "So you have to get better quickly, and then we can eat something else together."
Lisa wanted to say that he would not crave it, but looking at the little girl's seriousness, he could only nod and agree, "Okay, then I'll get better quickly."
Joohyun smiled with satisfaction and lowered her head to take another sip of porridge. Lisa used a spoon to scoop a mouthful of porridge. Fluffy rice grains flowed into his mouth, and his tongue was flooded with a sweet aroma. In fact, it was totally tasteless, ah.
After lunch, Joohyun helped Lisa stroll around the courtyard for a while, and then the two of them sat together on a rattan chair under the sun. Joohyun took the opportunity to tell Lisa about the thrilling scene of New Year's Eve.
"Third Brother, you must never touch a zombie again in the future." Lisa's evil spirit would riot the moment he touched a zombie. After two experiences, Joohyun was a little scared.
"Okay." Lisa nodded in agreement.
"My grandfather was there that day, ah. As I told you before, my grandfather is proficient at catching zombies. With him, you didn't have to make a move at all." Joohyun said, "If my grandfather had made the move, you wouldn't have been unconscious for so long."
"It won't happen in the future," Lisa promised with a smile.
"Third Brother, although your evil spirit is used to catch ghosts, ah, absorb zombies and so on, you'd better leave these tasks to us, Celestial Masters. Don't mess around in the future, ah." Joohyun babbled on for a long time, but her ramblings circled around only one thing.
"Got it. I won't do it in the future." In fact, Lisa didn't understand these principles, but at that time, he had no time to think about it.
"Third Brother, you don't know how dangerous that day was. The Heavenly Thunder almost struck down. Had it struck down, then..."
"Do you also like modern poetry?" Lisa feared that Joohyun would keep rambling about this matter for the entire afternoon, so he broached a change of subject.
"What?" Joohyun didn't react for a moment.
"When I woke up, I saw you reading modern poetry," Lisa reminded her.
"Oh, that book ah, it's quite nice." Joohyun nodded.
"Which poem do you like?" Lisa asked casually.
"I like Third Brother... wait a minute, uh." Now that Lisa asked, Joohyun honestly pondered over a poem she had liked since she read the book in the morning.
Joohyun suddenly ran away under Lisa's astonished gaze. However, in two minutes' time, she came running back again, still holding the book of poetry they were discussing just now.
"Third Brother, I like this one the most." Joohyun sat back on the chair, took the poetry book to Lisa's side, and turned to the page she liked.
Lisa looked over curiously, then his expression fluctuated: "Do you like this one?"
"Yeah, I like this one." Joohyun nodded her head heavily.
. This was a very famous love poem. Irin likes this one. Is the little girl enlightened? Who does she like? A dark shade-tinged Lisa's eyes.
"Third Brother, can you read it to me?" Joohyun blushed and said, anticipation overflowing from her voice.
"What?" Lisa raised his head, disconcerted.
Joohyun's face turned redder. She knew that her request was strange. It's not like I don't know how to read. Why am I letting someone read for me? Really!
"Our school is about to start, right?" Joohyun cooked up a quick-witted nonsense, "Two days ago, our monitor sent me a message that after school starts, the class will organize a recitation competition, and everyone must prepare a work. I want to recite this poem, but I think I can't deliver it well, so Third Brother, read it to me once."
At the end of Joohyun's speech, her guilty conscience made her voice smaller and smaller.
Lisa looked at Joohyun and the little girl's increasingly red face. Suddenly he smiled, and his eyes brightened again: "Okay, I'll read it to you."
Joohyun gushly handed the book to Lisa without delay.
Lisa took a look at Joohyun, and under the burning eyes of the little girl, he read softly:
"I'm willing to be the rapids,
The small river in the mountains,
On the rugged road,
Passing on the rocks...
As long as my love
Is a small fish."
After reading these, Lisa couldn't help but pause. He looked askance at Joohyun next to him out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly felt that this sentence was like some kind of obscure confession.
Yes, yes, that's the sentence. My love is a small fish, that's me, Xiao Yu, tee-hee-hee. Joohyun struggled to maintain her expression and didn't let her inner thoughts show on her face, but her big eyes betrayed her heart.
"In my waves
Swim around happily.
I'm willing to be a barren forest,
On both banks of the river..."
Lisa smiled faintly and continued to recite in a soft and affectionate voice until he finished an entire verse.
"Third Brother, you read it really well." Joohyun took out her phone and asked again, "Can you read it again? I'll record it and read it when I return. I'll definitely get first place in the competition."
Lisa glanced at the mobile phone that Joohyun was tightly gripping. She wants me to read it again? Does she want to record it and learn it slowly?
"Okay!" Lisa didn't reveal his doubts either. After Joohyun tapped the recording app, he read the poem again.
Looking at the little girl, who resembled a cat that successfully stole a fish, Lisa's smile widened even more. It seemed that he wasn't imagining it. The little girl should really like him. Recalling that kiss on New Year's Eve, Lisa could no longer restrain a deep laughter.
"Third Brother? Joohyun raised her head in confusion.
"Irin, once Elder Wu finishes separating the evil qi for me, I have something to tell you," Lisa looked at Joohyun and said seriously.
"What is it?" Joohyun asked curiously.
"I can't tell you now." Lisa shook his head.
"Oh." Although Joohyun was curious, she did not pursue the question. She thought for a moment and also said, "Then I also have something to tell you at that time."
"Alright. When the time comes, say your piece first," Lisa said.
"En." Joohyun nodded joyfully.