Although I didn't understand what Granny Bai meant, I knew she was trying to save me.
That so - called cinnabar talisman was probably planted on me by my so - called fiancé!
When I woke up in that brothel woman's room wearing a cheongsam, she was holding a talisman in her hand and said she had torn it off my head...
This bastard man, with so many flaws of his own, still regarded others as monsters!
I stayed in Granny Bai's clinic.
This period was the most comfortable time in my life. I no longer had to live a vagrant life or suffer from hunger, and I was dressed in clean clothes.
Granny Bai's clinic was located in the city of Luocheng.
Although there was chaos and warfare outside, this ancient city in the Central Plains region was relatively peaceful, like a secluded paradise.
There were officers and soldiers stationed in the city, so the bandits and defeated soldiers dared not burn, kill, or rob here. The common people still had some money and food.
Although Granny Bai had only arrived in Luocheng not long ago, she had already made a name for herself with her excellent medical skills.
She could not only treat common ailments like headaches and fevers but also cure bone and muscle injuries faster than other doctors. Therefore, there were often injured soldiers coming to her clinic for treatment.
Regarding the medical fees, Granny Bai was very lenient.
If patients had money, they could pay; if not, rice, grain, or eggs would do. For beggars like me and A Wen who had no money at all, it didn't matter. She would still treat us.
Actually, according to A Wen's suggestion, we should leave as soon as Granny Bai removed the cinnabar talisman from me.
A Wen said that the Du family and the Si family were both hunting for us.
Staying in one place for too long might expose our whereabouts.
However, I didn't want to leave.
A Wen's wound on his arm had been left untreated for too long and had festered. He often had infections and fevers. Granny Bai said that the rotten flesh on the wound needed to be scraped off and it would take ten to fifteen days of treatment with medicine to heal. If we left now, A Wen might lose his life due to the fever.
So, I decided to stay. Every day, I helped Granny Bai receive patients, boil medicine, and pick herbs to repay her for saving our lives.
After a few busy days like this, while I was taking care of a feverish child, I heard some conversations between his mother and Granny Bai during the consultation.
"Old Mrs. Bai, we fled from the neighboring town to Luocheng to avoid the war."
The mother looked at her child who was twitching in a fever on the examination bed, wiped away her tears, and said, "Who would have thought that when we got to Luocheng, it was already dark and the city gates were closed. We had no choice but to spend the night in the City God's Temple outside the city... And then something terrible happened!"
"Oh? The child must have been so frightened that his soul left his body," Granny Bai said very confidently after feeling the child's forehead and looking into his eyes. "Did he see something he shouldn't have?"
"Yes! Yes!"
The woman still looked terrified. Nodding repeatedly, she said, "At night, more than a dozen villagers from our village were sleeping in the main hall. In the middle of the night, my son insisted on going to poop, so I had to carry him to the grass behind the temple... Unexpectedly... unexpectedly... as soon as we walked out of the temple gate, we heard shrill screams coming from the main hall. My son and I were so scared that we didn't even dare to breathe. We hid behind the temple gate, and then... then we saw a disheveled female ghost wearing a blood - soaked cheongsam. Her teeth... were about one or two inches long! My son just took a quick peek and fainted from fear. I covered my mouth tightly and hid behind the door until dawn!! After the rooster crowed three times, I finally summoned up the courage to go in and take a look!!"
"Everyone inside was dead?!"
Granny Bai frowned and glanced at me.
"All dead!! Their blood had been sucked dry. They all looked like they had been scorched by fire!"
The woman finally let out her fear. Immediately covering her face, she collapsed on the ground and cried loudly.
"No way!! How could there be blood - sucking monsters here too?!"
A Wen came in from outside and happened to hear what the woman said. He grabbed my arm and whispered, "Miss, the gossip I wanted to tell you last time was similar to this!"
"What gossip?!"
If A Wen hadn't mentioned it, I would have long forgotten the gossip he had been eager to tell me when I was woken up by Granny Bai.
"In the town where we used to beg for food, those beggars we hung out with were also killed in a dilapidated temple!"
A Wen still vaguely remembered the time when they dragged him and threw him in the graveyard, so he gritted his teeth when he said this. "I don't know which hero tore those people into pieces. Even the people who came to collect the corpses vomited."
"... Disgusting!"
I covered my mouth.
Granny Bai sighed deeply and shook her head, saying, "Monsters always appear in troubled times!"
Granny Bai was also very good at treating ghost - related illnesses like being possessed or frightened.
A child's three souls and seven spirits were not yet stable. The frightened soul usually lingered in the place where the child was scared.
As long as one took the child's clothes and called his name all the way at the place where he lost his soul, the soul could be brought back. However, when passing by crossroads, one had to burn some paper money for the lonely ghosts on the road to prevent them from entangling the child's soul and not letting it return to his body.
The mother and son who had fled from famine were arranged to stay in the side room of the clinic.
"Xiao He, go to the City God's Temple with me tonight!"
Granny Bai said to me while I was tidying up the consulting room. "A Wen is still a child himself. He can't go with us to call back the soul."
"... Uh, I know!"
A Wen was still sick. I definitely couldn't let him take the risk!
Who knew if that female ghost in the City God's Temple would always stay there?
Calling back the soul usually took place at midnight.
After lighting the lamps, Granny Bai took the little boy's underwear and asked me to take yellow paper, flint, and a fire sickle. Then we left the city.
The guard at the city gate was Granny Bai's adopted son. He had been shot in the stomach during a battle. Granny Bai had removed the bullet and sewn up his intestines, saving his life. So, that big brother had recognized Granny Bai as his adoptive mother and would visit her with gifts on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month.
Therefore, we got out of the city smoothly. After walking along the small path for about half the time it took to burn an incense stick, we saw the City God's Temple the mother and son had mentioned.
The small one - courtyard temple with three rooms was in a state of disrepair. There were half - man - high thatch growing on the blue tiles of the temple roof.
The rotten wooden door at the temple entrance creaked eerily in the wind.
"Don't be afraid," Granny Bai said, patting my back gently when she noticed that I had almost shrunk my neck into my shoulders. "There are a lot of people inside!"
I was stunned for a moment. Sure enough, I heard low - pitched conversations and the cries of children.
This was the only way into the city. Every day, there were refugees passing by. They were all outsiders and didn't know about the haunted temple. When they couldn't enter the city at night, they would naturally choose a place with a roof to rest...