Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 11 Old accounts
For the next ten days or so, Xue Baoping did not go out. It was late spring, and it was also the time of the lean season, but fortunately, she used to go to the Bishan outside the town to chop wood every day, and she could always harvest some fungus, mushrooms, sour fruits, and mountain ginger. When she was lucky, she would catch a pheasant with its neck injured by an eagle, just like she did a few days ago. And she was a slender girl, with a small appetite that she had cultivated over the years, so she could actually dry all these foods and store them slowly.

Therefore, for the past ten days she lay on the window, watching the sunlight shining through the window into the bowl of clear water, watching the skin of the small callus inside gradually heal, becoming white and smooth, and gradually producing small buds of flesh, as if hands and feet were about to grow.

She was happy about every change in it. When she was thirsty, she drank some well water, and when she was hungry, she ate some dry food. As for what she would do when all these were eaten up, she didn't want to think about it - the stove collapsed, and she didn't have to do the work she had done for more than ten years, so she didn't want to do anything.

But on the fifteenth day, she changed her mind. Not voluntarily, but semi-voluntarily - on the third day of feeding, she felt that the chicken blood began to stink, so she used a pot to dry the chicken blood, and then ground it into powder, and fed it little by little. But it rained a few days ago, it was a drizzle, but it lasted for two or three days. When she opened the small can of blood powder the next night, she only smelled a foul odor.

She tried to throw a little to feed the cocoon, but instead of eating it, it twitched a few times and then became motionless, as if it were dead.

She was panic-stricken now, feeling a familiar yet strange sense of fear, like when her parents had died and she was standing alone in the empty room brightly lit by the sun.

She quickly changed the water in the small bowl and pricked her finger to drip a few drops of blood into it. After a long time, the cocoon slowly twisted its newly grown tentacle-like limbs and ate up the few drops of blood, but it was still listless, as if it was not full.

At this time, Xue Baoping seemed to have just woken up from a dream, and realized that she had to get some food, otherwise, she was afraid that the little thing her parents sent to accompany her would starve to death.

She opened the small drawer at the head of the bed and took out a mahogany box. The box was originally covered with copper and trimmed with silver wire. It was one of the dowries her mother had saved for her. Now the copper and silver had been removed, leaving only the plain box. She opened the box, took out the only silver earring left, and walked out of the courtyard for the first time in more than ten days.

Xuejiadian faces the Jinshui River, and along the river are residential buildings, about 80% to 90% of which are empty. She walked slowly along the river and saw that the big willow tree by the river had sprouted many new branches, and new grass had also grown from under the soil along the river. However, the grass seemed lifeless, not very green, and only sprouted palely.

She slowly walked past three houses and finally stopped in front of a house at the end of the bridge. She held the post at the door and took a long breath. Only then did she feel that her head was not so dizzy, so she knocked hard on the door.

After a while, I heard a lazy and muddy male voice inside: "Who is it?"

A few dragging footsteps approached, and the door creaked open, revealing a young bald man with drooping eyes. He was short and fat, dark-skinned, and very strong. When he saw that it was Xue Baoping standing outside, his face was full of impatience and he restrained himself a little: "Oh, Sister Xue. What's the matter?"

Xue Baoping looked at the corner of his eye - there was a mole there, so it must be Wang Wu, the second son of Wang Shuang'er. She held the earring in her hand, raised her hand and compared it to her left earlobe, then to her neck, then to her fingers, and finally drew a circle in front of her body.

Wang Wu opened a door, leaned against the door frame with his arms folded, narrowed his eyes and smiled, and leaned over half of his face: "What did you say? I can't hear you?"

Xue Baoping stared at him in silence.

She was talking about the earrings on her earlobes, the necklace around her neck, the rings on her fingers, and the many silver ornaments that she had brought to the Wang family in exchange since she was six years old, which were supposed to be her dowry.

The Wang family was a hunter family. When her parents were still alive, the Wang family would supply meat to the Xue family store, so the two families were familiar with each other. On the day her parents died, Xue Baoping cried until she was hungry, and she thought of the Wang family. She didn't remember what happened at that time very clearly, but she only remembered that someone came to his house, took out the body, wrapped it in mats and buried it hastily, and then the three Wang family members searched the house for a long time, and she didn't know what they took away, but they only told her that it was the funeral expenses.

The six-year-old child was ignorant and thought that this family was a good family. From then on, whenever he couldn't stand the hunger, he took things from home and went to Wang's house to exchange for some food. At first, a silver bracelet could still be exchanged for enough bran to eat for three or four months, but later, a ring, a necklace, and an earring could only be exchanged for a few pieces of dried meat and roasted crispy bones.

The Wang family said that they would be fair in their work, but now that there has been famine for years, it is difficult to hunt the birds and beasts in the mountains, so let's record it as a debt. They also said, "One thing for one thing" - for example, the ring brought last time has been recorded as a debt, so the necklace brought this time is naturally the second one, and the piece of dried meat exchanged for it should be recorded as the second debt. In this way, until she was nine years old, she gradually realized that the "uncle" and "brother" of the Wang family were not what she thought, and she stopped doing stupid things.

until today.

Wang Wu was annoyed by her stare, so he put away his smile, frowned, and was about to slam the door. At this time, a hand stretched out to hold the door open, and his brother Wang Wen stuck his head out. Seeing that it was Xue Baoping, he immediately frowned and asked Wang Wu: "What's wrong?" Wang Wu snorted: "The little mute is here to bring up old scores."

Wang Wen glared at him and said, "What do you mean by old accounts? Are old accounts no longer accounts? We Wang family members always do things cleanly and fairly. Do you still want to deny your debts?"

Wang Wu was scolded so much that he kept groaning but he dared not get angry. He kicked the door and ran into the yard. Wang Wen then walked out of the door and sighed, "Sister Xue, didn't you reopen your shop last year? Are you in trouble again? Oh, that's right. In recent years, not only is it difficult to grow crops, but even our hunters have a hard time. The animals on Bishan have learned to be smart. You set traps and traps, but after a few days, you find nothing. A few days ago, a deer was trapped, but the town owner said that the wizard loves to eat venison, so he kept a record with me and took the whole deer away. Do you think this kind of account can be recovered?"

Xue Baoping just stared at him. Wang Wen scratched his head and said, "So it's difficult for our family too. Alas, but our two families are old friends. Let's put it this way - do you have any gold or silver jewelry or something like that? I'll exchange some dry goods for you first. Wait a few days, and if there's a market in Qingjiang, I'll go to the market and exchange your things for rice and flour and bring them back to you, okay?"

Xue Baoping had expected this kind of explanation when she came here, and she also thought about whether there were other ways to get some food. But the cocoon only eats flesh and blood. These days, she has also caught some insects and earthworms to feed it. But after the Xuanjiao incident, the soil fertility near Jinshui Town has not recovered. Not only are the crops sluggish, but even the insects in the soil are pitifully few. Now it is almost summer, and apart from some dried bacon, she really doesn't know how to keep feeding it.

She sighed and revealed the silver earring in her palm.

Wang Wen walked down the steps with a smile, and took the earring from her palm. At this time, he saw her thin wrist. It was white and clean, with the light blue of the blood vessels underneath. There were calluses on the palm, but the base of the palm and the fingertips were all red, which was unique to young girls, and even long-term hunger could not erase it.

Wang Wen was distracted for a moment, took the earrings and returned to the doorstep, looked at her carefully for a few more times, and realized that the little mute of the Xue family had become thinner over the years, and some of her short clothes could not hide her slender body. So he smiled and said, "Sister, wait a moment."

He turned and went back inside, and when he came out, he was holding half a fried chicken and a bunch of dry biscuits. He walked up to Xue Baoping and tried to pinch her face with a smile, but Xue Baoping dodged immediately and looked at him with a frown. Wang Wen laughed twice: "Sister, you seem to be estranged. Didn't I hold you in my arms when you were a child? Here, take it. We have become estranged over the years and don't visit each other much. I'll go over to take a look when I have time. If you have anything rotten or rotten, I'll fix it for you and make sure you live comfortably."

If we really put things in perspective, a silver earring cannot exchange for these. Xue Baoping felt that his words made her uncomfortable, as if she understood something, but not quite. She simply stopped thinking about it, grabbed the thing from his hand, stepped back two steps, and slowly moved away.

After returning home, she tore off a strip of meat from the dried chicken, soaked it in water, chopped it into minced meat with a knife, and then sprinkled it into the bowl. As soon as the minced meat fell to the bottom, the cocoon immediately twisted, and Xue Baoping saw a small crack in the front of it, as if it was a new mouth, sliding four tentacles to move around the bottom of the bowl, eating food quickly.

Her heart suddenly sank, and she drew a bowl of well water, sipping the water and biting on the pancake bit by bit. When she finished the palm-sized pancake, the minced meat in the bowl was also eaten up by the little thing, and it swelled up and suddenly became two or three times bigger, hanging in the water without moving, but it seemed as if a new small heart had grown inside, beating again and again, and it looked as if it had fallen asleep.

Xue Baoping also lay down by the window. The long-lost feeling of fullness made her feel sleepy, and the setting sun shone through the window, warming her body. Before she knew it, she fell asleep.

When she woke up again, it was already dark. The room was pitch black, and you couldn't see your hand in front of you outside the window. Xue Baoping raised her head, wiped her saliva, and groped her fingers into the small bowl as usual - the small callus moved around her fingertips, and she slowly got up and moved herself to the bed.

But after taking two steps in the dark, she stopped.

There was a smell in the house... the smell of fresh meat cooked in clear water with just a little salt, a piece of scallion and a slice of ginger.

Her lips trembled, and she took small steps back to the windowsill and touched the fire starter there.

The small flames rose up, and she saw a large porcelain bowl on the low cabinet beside the bed. In the bowl was a piece of plump spinal meat with tendons and fat, still slightly steaming. And Wang Wen - sitting by the bed, smiling at her, with the stripes of flesh on his face reflected by the firelight.

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(End of this chapter)