Chapter 525: Do you know? I like him (1/2)

Chapter 525: Do you know? I like him

The weird voice instantly made Mu Linger’s heart skip a beat! She froze, her eyes fixed on the floor because she was too scared to look up. Just then…was that really a person’s voice? Or was it…just my imagination?

As if recalling something, her heart began to pound as she felt the entire world sink into silence. The thump-thumps rang out clearly against her chest.

And then!

The sound of rapid footsteps came hurrying her way. Mu Linger instantly looked up but saw nothing beyond an empty door frame. There was nobody there until various prison guards arrived on the scene. Her bright and glittering eyes instantly dimmed. She allowed the guards to point and talk amongst themselves before they locked her door, never sparing them another glance. She forgot about her record-keeping bowl and sat on the ground like a slumped over doll, her arms listlessly hugging her knees. I knew I heard wrong, I must have been hallucinating things.

“Lass, since you gave up the chance to escape, there’s no fleeing now,” the voice rose out of the darkness again, bright and clear and coming from right.

This…

Mu Linger’s head whipped over and saw nothing until her eyes adjusted to the darkness. There was a black-robed figure plastered to the wall, merging almost seamlessly with the blackness. It would have been impossible to see him if she didn’t look carefully.

Qi gege!

She almost blurted out the ‘Qi’ from her lips before she caught herself in time. Still, she couldn’t help tears from streaming down her face.

Qi gege, Linger’s missed you!

Gu Qishao was covered completely in black robes as befitting his identity as Gu Qi Sha. Han Yunxi had told him to come as Gu Qishao, but he would never do that! Mu Linger might be a fool, but she wasn’t an idiot. What if she made the connection between his two personas? He wouldn’t have cared so much in the past, but things were different now. This girl would be working in Pill Fiend Pharmacy in the future. If she found out that Gu Qi Sha was Gu Qishao, wouldn’t she vex him to death?

Thank goodness Xie Deyi had been too busy hurrying back to bother tormenting Mu Linger, so he didn’t have to expose himself as Gu Qishao then. Mu Linger sat there dripping tears while Gu Qi Sha was too lazy to pay her any attention. He strolled around the cell before spotting a little white porcelain bowl.

“Lass, catch!”

Mu Linger hastily caught the bowl in her hands before smiling in spite of her tears. “Your Excellency Pill Fiend, thank you!”

Her vision was hazy from all the crying, but her smile was brilliant. The light streaming from above just happened to hit against her face, illuminating her teary grin. Unfortunately, Gu Qishao turned a blind eye to the sight as he leaned against a wall and languidly sat down. “Lass, what were you doing, putting a pill in the bowl everyday?”

Mu Linger grew alarmed. “How did you know that?”

“Shh!” Gu Qishao grew unhappy.

Mu Linger muffled her mouth and waited until there were no more sounds outside, then scooted over to sit beside Gu Qi Sha. Like him, she leaned against the wall and lowered her voice to reply, “Your Excellency Pill Fiend, how did you know?”

“This old man’s been guarding the skylight everyday. How else do you think I got here in the nick of time? You think you’re that lucky?” Gu Qi Sha asked back.

Mu Linger secretly chuckled at how stupid she’d been. Why did she never notice how similar Pill Fiend and Qi gege were in the past? Still, she hadn’t met His Excellency Pill Fiend much in the past. Moreover, Han Yunxi was so smart but hadn’t realized it either until recently. It’s not that Han Yunxi and I are stupid, but that Qi gege’s just too shrewd and good at hiding things.

If Han Yunxi could hear her now after swearing her oath to Gu Qishao, she’d probably laugh until her stomach hurt.

“Your Excellency Pill Fiend, did you come to rescue me?” Mu Linger asked cheerfully.

“You didn’t escape when you had the chance, so what was the point of this old fellow’s rescue mission?” Gu Qi Sha snorted contemptuously.

“Where could I have gone if I escaped? Hide for the rest of my life? In any case, I can’t die, so there’s still hope, isn’t there?” Mu Linger asked seriously. She knew that two major factions in Medicine City were interested in her marriage affairs. It’d be impossible to confine her in the cell for the rest of her life, so those people could make it so that her life was worse than death.

“Can’t die…” Gu Qi Sha muttered to himself before laughing out loud. “Not dying means you have hope? Hahah!”

For some reason, Mu Linger suddenly sensed a trace of despair in Gu Qi Sha’s eerie laughter. She disliked the feeling very much. “Your Excellency Pill Fiend, why did that man suddenly grow worms? Did you poison him?” she asked as she changed the subject.

“Han Yunxi gave me the toxin, it’s call Roundworm Birthing Poison. A tiny dose can give rise to a full swarm within the human body. Don’t worry, that man won’t last past two hours before the worms eat up his internal organs.”

Gu Qishao had received Han Yunxi’s poison by carrier pigeon as soon as he arrived in Medicine City. He was to used it to save Mu Linger. The method of poisoning wouldn’t give him away, but make everyone else think it was Mu Linger who knew poison arts instead and keep a healthy distance.

“Han Yunxi is so scary…” Mu Linger gave a polite assessment of the woman.

Gu Qishao laughed even louder. “That’s why you shouldn’t annoy her. Otherwise, you won’t even know how you died.”

Mu Linger shivered involuntarily while Gu Qishao gloated inwardly. With the girl’s history of previous transgressions, it was better if she nursed a healthy fear of Han Yunxi. He would never tell Mu Linger that this Roundworm Birthing Poison was one of the Hundred Poisons Sect’s most famous poisons instead of Han Yunxi’s own creation. Of course, Han Yunxi’s toxins were formidable, but her poisoning skills were downright awful. If she was the one in charge of spreading poison today, she’d probably fumble multiple times before she succeeded while Mu Linger got bullied in the meantime.

Feeling a little guilty after Gu Qi Sha’s latest comment, Mu Linger moved to change the topic again. When Gu Qishao saw her tightly clutching the white porcelain bowl of pills, he asked again in curiosity, “Lass, just what’s all this medicine for? This isn’t how you make prescriptions, right?”