Venerated Venomous Consort

As soon as Gu Xijiu opened her eyes, she realized that she was dreaming just moments ago about going to heaven. She remembered that she was looking for someone. Also, there was something about a mission.

She raised her head and rubbed her temples to calm herself down. Her intuition told her that those were her memories. Therefore, to get her memories back, she had to remember the dream. However, it was all scattered and too blurry for her to recall everything at once.

Di Fuyi once told her that the time would come for her memories to come back to her; so, she should not pressure herself too much. Too much stress would not do anything good to her brain, anyway. Thus, she stopped trying.

She rose and cleaned herself up. Then, she went and knocked on the door of the room beside hers. After a while, there was still no answer from the room. Puzzled, she could not help but wonder if he had left the city.

Even if he had to go, Gu Xijiu assumed that he would have told her about it first. She tried to push the door open by force, but it remained shut. Was he still resting in the room?

“Miss Gu, are you looking for Mr. Di?” Politely, the owner of the place approached her from the staircase.

“Yes.”

“He left before dusk. However, he did leave you a message before he went, asking you to take care of the people and that he would return in three days.”

She was not aware of his early departure. Certainly, she was not expecting him to leave so swiftly without even telling her.

“The door seems to be locked from the inside. Could there be an intruder in his room?” Gu Xijiu fixed her eyes at the locked door.

“Before Mr. Di left, he made a reservation for these two rooms, one for you and another one for him. He must have placed some special mechanism on that door so that outsiders cannot go in. There is nothing to worry about, miss,” the owner reassured her.

Gu Xijiu heaved a sigh of relief. “I see. I was worried that someone might have invaded his room.”

Food was provided for Gu Xijiu at the tavern. After breakfast, she returned to the place where the villagers stayed. As soon as she arrived, she realized that something was not right. Most of the villagers were absent. Only three people stayed behind; they were all elders.

The three elders saw her coming and felt as if hope had returned to them.

“Stone, you are finally here.”

“Stone, please save the villagers.”

“What happened? Where are the others?” Gu Xijiu suspected that something was terribly wrong.

“This morning, a group of violent soldiers came and took our food away. They did not even leave any water supply for us. They told us to work if we wanted to live here; otherwise, we have to leave Luo Hua City.”

“The soldiers have taken our men to some kind of meeting for work, saying that they would be assigned with different tasks.”

“Even the children had to go with them.”

Gu Xijiu was puzzled, but not quite surprised about it. After all, there was no place for a jobless man in the city. Everyone had to contribute; it was unavoidable.

“What about Chun Cao and the girls?” Gu Xijiu was concerned about the girls.

“Not sure. They were taken together with the group.”

…

What was the most tiring job in Luo Hua City? It was to extract stones in the quarry. Every piece was in the shape of a big, green stone with ranging sizes from hundreds of kilograms to a ton.

These stones were carried on the backs of the workers; sometimes alone, sometimes a few men together. The stones were required to restore any damaged walls or to build fancy new homes.

Tie Dan, Tie Niu, and their men were sent to the quarry early in the morning to carry out the worst job they could ever imagine.

When Gu Xijiu arrived at the quarry, she saw her people working tirelessly with a heavy burden on their bent backs. Sweat soaked their clothes thoroughly, and they trembled while taking each step.