Li Zhun truly treated his guests with warm enthusiasm. Miaomiao and company stayed in the Li residence within Jingyang Slope for three days. Every bowl of rice was personally served by Li Zhun himself. During this time, this young, elegant and outstanding merchant often clinked wine cups together with Liu Fuyi. They drank and chatted merrily, speaking of all the demon hunter things they had encountered on the road. The two of them seemed to have found kindred spirits.
Most of the time, Madam Shi sat quietly beside Li Zhun, not interjecting at all. From time to time she would help him refill his tea, looking exactly like a smiling bighead carp.
"Brother Liu, what you spoke of last time... the fox demon. Was it really that incredible?" Li Zhun was extremely curious but he had already drunk too much and his words weren't coming out as nimbly.
"It was somewhat troublesome." Liu Fuyi still maintained his steady elegance, a humble smile adorning his lips, "The fox demon was hibernating in Taicang County, biding its time and looking for an opportunity to suck human essence. It was Yao'er who used her Demon Restraining Circlets to suppress it and destroy its demon dan. 1 Now, it can no longer come out and hurt people."
Madam Shi's hand shook slightly as she was pouring wine and she immediately used her left-hand to support the wine pot.
This detail was something Ling Miaomiao noticed as she followed Mu Sheng's gaze. In all honesty, this whole plot at Jingyang Slope was something she was very unconfident about.
When she reached the part of the story where they had reached Jingyang Slope while she was reading "Demon Hunter", it was already midnight. She had read in her half-awake, muddle-headed manner and could only remember the sound of her finger sliding across the screen of the e-book. By the time she took a rest and regained her spirits, she had already automatically flipped her way to the point where Mu Yao leapt over the crevice. Everything in-between had been completely missed.
At the time, she had been fretting over Qiong Yao's style in writing romance, so she didn't have the patience to scroll back and reread the plot.
She only saw the end.
Which is also to say, from this point onwards, since she reached the climax at Jingyang Slope, everything was akin to a piece of white paper to her. From this point, she was no longer just a spectator, she had also become a part of the plot.
.......Now that she thought about it, everything did seem to be more exciting now.
Mu Sheng ate in an exceptionally taciturn manner. He used the fact that he was eating to carefully scrutinize the expressions of everyone at the table.
Ling Miaomiao discovered that his gaze stayed the longest on Madam Shi's face, his face full of probing.
This guy.. Mu Sheng. He had way too many demerits no matter how she looked at it.
However, when it came to being professional, there was nothing she could pick at.
His skills, not just in the Mu Family, when compared to the entirety of the demon hunting world, was considered to be at the peak: Possessing extremely acute senses, and able to quickly maneuver through the complex puzzles before him. Even more mysterious was his ridiculously powerful combat strength.
He was both callous and ruthless. If it wasn't for the suppression of the Mu family heads, he wouldn't have been as unknown as he was right now.
Of course, the reason why he was still unknown and without reputation could be because he was purposely hiding his strength.
Often, he would be the only joining the fight after all others had already exhausted their strength.
Following Mu Sheng's gaze, one could easily catch onto many little details they missed at first. For example, there was an iota of stiffness that was very difficult to detect from Madam Shi's warm expression.
On the first day they had arrived at Li Zhun's residence, they could sense a barely discernible amount of demonic qi covering the entirety of Jingyang Slope.
The demonic qi was so faint and permeated everywhere, even inside rooms, that it was very difficult to make out the source of it.
Liu Fuyi had asked back then, "Do you all think... Li Zhun and Madam Shi are suspicious?"
Mu Yao paused for a moment. She replied in a rather unsure manner, "I saw that there was a smidgen of black on the skin below his eyes. His vital energies were also lacking, as if something had been sucking away his Yang qi. I'm not certain though..."
Miaomiao guessed her connotation: "Li Zhun's vital energies were sucked away, doesn't that mean Madam Shi is the problem?"
Mu Yao shook her head, "The demonic qi on Madam Shi is very faint —- In all honesty, each and every person here has, more or less, the same amount of demon qi on them. From what I can see, it's either: There's a greater demon hiding here amongst the people, purposely restricting their own demonic qi. Or because there have been countless bodies buried, thus attracting all kinds of lesser demons to this place."
Liu Fuyi nodded. His face didn't relax in the slightest, "If it's the former, this greater demon is definitely much stronger than we might've estimated."
"If it really is Madam Shi, what could she be?" Mu Yao subconsciously tapped her fingers on the table. "An intelligent and beguiling... fox? A painted skin demon? Or..."
Her throat caught for a moment, as if she had stumbled into something, then finished her statement, "Or is it 'her'?"
Suddenly, the fragrance of food wafted into her nose and something was shortly pushed against her lips. Miaomiao subconsciously opened her mouth and bit down into the fried shrimp.
Her train of thought was immediately broken. Her gaze stiffly moved over and noticed a pair of watery black pupils staring at her, in extreme proximity.
Mu Sheng used the chopsticks in his hand and pushed the shrimp in. Only after doing so did he turn back around and ask in a voice only she could hear, "Why do you keep staring at me without eating?"
"Oh..... Seeing you eat made the food seem extremely tasty, I... I'm looking for the desire to eat." Ling Miaomiao chewed without tasting the shrimp at all. She was trying her hardest to appear calm and collected, in addition to trying to recall just what in the world happened just now. Even her palms exuded a fine film of cold sweat in doing so.
The black lotus had personally fed her.
........................................................ What kind of weird scene was this!?!?!?!?
Mu Sheng originally was paying close attention to Madam Shi but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of apricot eyes staring at him blankly. After noticing her, he could no longer concentrate again.
It was clear she was on a mental journey going through distant horizons. Even after he turned her way and pulled extremely close to her face, she didn't react at all. Each and every hair of her lashes was clearly discernible. Her lips were slightly parted, lending to the somewhat foolishness she was currently exuding.
At first, he felt like he couldn't stare any longer but his hand moved like a bolt of lightning, he couldn't control it. He stuffed a fried shrimp into her soft and tender lips.
The instant he did so, she didn't seem to feel like it was inappropriate or anything. She acted just like a small pet being fed food, quietly holding the shrimp in her mouth as she turned, obediently eating it all. However, his heart beat like mad, making him feel like he had gotten infected by some disease.
As Miaomiao pretended to calmly go with the flow, she furtively snuck a glance at the black lotus's expression. She saw that his chopsticks paused in the air. His long lashes pointed down and his lips were curled up into a mocking grin, "Do you have it now?"
"I do, I do." Ling Miaomiao felt like she was a little girl who was caught by the school director as she tried to jump the school wall, guiltily lowering her head and grabbing a bowl of rice.
As she expected, it was still the evil and malicious black lotus, she'd be better off not looking.
"Brother Li, I wonder whether or not you still depend on making incense to make a living?"
Liu Fuyi steered the topic towards making incense and their gazes all gathered on Li Zhun's face. Even though Mu Yao sat back in her chair, she still straightened her waist.
They had stayed in Jingyang Slope the past few days for several reasons. For one, they wanted to observe Li Zhun's family and familiarize themselves with the area. Secondly, they wanted to check out the incense making factory. After all, the incense that had bone ash mixed into it, had come from this incense factory. Thus, going to investigate this factory was one of the key points.
Li Zhun laughed, "Brother Liu, that's a good joke, I couldn't move any of those shops with me so I exchanged them all for silver. Once I moved to Jingyang Slope, I felt bored so I found some workers to open an incense factory. Even though I call it a 'factory', it's actually just thirtyish small vendors working in cooperation."
"A part of the reason I opened the factory was to find a way to pass time and to give our surplus servants some work to do. Secondly, it was to fulfill a vow."
"A vow?"
"Chuchu basically walked back out the gates of hell. Now that she can grow up healthy and tall, I am extremely grateful to the heavens. I want to do more good deeds, accumulate merits and gather luck. I would rather start a business that loses money as long as I could help make quality incense for temples."
Everyone who heard him nodded: Li Zhun's reason was in line with Guo Xiu's story. That was how he found a bargain in buying incense.
Coincidentally, the wet nurse came in hugging Chuchu. Both Li Zhun and Madam Shi took turns one after the other to tease her. Afterwards, her head drooped as she began to rub her eyes, revealing signs of tiredness.
As Madam Shi had said before, Li Chuchu suffered from a terrible illness before and her body was not well. Everyday, she would only be lively for a few short hours. All she could do was play some less strenuous games with her father and mother. Things like puzzles and math games. Li Zhun and his wife both greatly spoiled her, as soon as she felt tired, Madam Shi would immediately hug her and bring her to the room to let her rest.
Although Chuchu was clearly already tired today, it was obvious that she had finally become familiar with the main leads. She even carefully walked over to grab onto Mu Yao's hand with a very bashful smile on her face.
Madam Shi spoke from the side: "Chuchu really likes Lady Mu."
With sudden goodwill being showered upon her, Mu Yao's expression softened and she held the little girl's petite hand, "Do you want to play with Sister Mu tomorrow?"
The little girl tilted her head to look at her, her irises just like black gems lighting up everything she laid eyes on. Miaomiao couldn't take it and reached out with her claws, gesturing her over, "There's me too."
Chuchu looked at both of the older sisters in front of her, both of which were as pretty as jade flowers, and nodded seriously. Madam Shi smiled warmly then picked her up to carry her inside: "Chuchu is so obedient, sleep more later so you'll have the energy to play with your big sisters tomorrow."
Chuchu opened her gem-like eyes, continuously watching them even as she left, slowly disappearing behind the massive screen.
"Let us seize the occasion." Li Zhun was exceptionally high today. He once again clinked wine cups together with Liu Fuyi, "Since Brother Liu is interested in my incense factory, I'll bring you all to take a look today. What do you all think?"
Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi looked each other in the eye and hurriedly rushed to answer, "Of course it's a great idea."
Li Zhun's incense factory was at the edge of Jingyang Slope, as a result of drawing on the natural resources in the surrounding and to reduce pollution. The distance to the Li residence was naturally quite far, their entire group on reaching their destination after an entire two hours of walking.
The mountain was covered with a dense forest, lending a dark hue to the scene. As the wind blew lightly, waves of green followed with it. Many small wooden huts and cottages dotted the mountainscape with no particular order. Not far away, a large stretch of sandalwood trees grew on the most favorable piece of land.
At the foot of the mountain, a few comparatively larger wooden huts were storage units for storing the raw materials used to make incense. There was a drying and threshing floor next to them, the large plain of billowing white cloth clearly contrasting with the washed and drying dark tree bark set out. The air was filled with a dense incense smell.
As Li Zhun had said, the number of people clad in worker's outfits only numbered around thirty. There were young and old, male and female. Each and everyone of them moved about in a rush, focused on their own tasks. Peeling the tree bark, washing then drying out and finally grinding it into powder. They were all busy as bees and moving about in an orderly and methodical manner.
Li Zhun pointed at the smoke rising from the houses, "Our incense is made from the most carefully selected sandalwood tree bark. We mix in straw powder to prevent it from breaking apart. We also add in a roll of traditional medicine powder, only then can it be considered complete. The scent lasts a long time, is mellow and rich, and can't calm one down."
The main leads carefully examined everything in and out but couldn't pick out the slightest problem from it at all.
Whether it be the simmering rooms for traditional medicine or the processing rooms filled to the brim. They were all clean and bright, neat and tidy. With a single glance it was clear that the processing line was in perfect order.
The workers seemed to also be affected by the clean fragrance from prolonged exposure. They didn't work too slow nor too quickly. There was no restlessness or daydreaming. The corners of their eyes and brows all exuded a sense of 'zen'.
Mu Yao stopped in front of a neat tower of incense and broke off a small piece. She dabbed it on her fingers and put it to her nose to take a sniff, shaking her head with a bit of annoyance.
This incense didn't have any bone ash.
Mu Sheng silently walked forward. He unceremoniously reached over to grab onto the topmost incense seal — and tore it open. Then, he broke off a small piece, handing it over to his sister.
He and Mu Yao looked each other in the eye. She hesitantly smelled it and slowly, her eyes widened.
"Miss Mu, what do you think about our incense factory?"
Suddenly, they saw Li Zhun coming towards her, full of passion. Mu Yao calmly concealed the incense seal in her sleeves.
"The quality is first class, it's worthy of being used by the imperial family."
Li Zhun nodded, full of pride, and called out, "Everyone is tired now, no? Please follow me, Madam Shi has already prepared good wine and food for everyone at home." His bright and shiny eyes turned to glance at Liu Fuyi. He straightforwardly patted his shoulder, "Brother Liu, let us drink together again."
It was clear that after being shut in this deserted hole all year round, the passionate and hospitably Li Zhun could no longer hold it in.