However, with such a killing method, one couldn’t even know how it had happened, let alone find evidence. If Mu Jingzhe really died by Shao Qiyun’s hand… Xiao Wu didn’t dare imagine it and really didn’t dare gamble.

  Mu Jingzhe had been getting weaker and weaker, but Shao Qiyun’s condition had been getting better and better. Xiao Wu had watched helplessly as this bizarre thing happened. In the end, Mu Jingzhe had even said her last words. He could only look for Shao Qiyun again.

  He had asked Shao Qiyun what she had done, but Shao Qiyun had refused to answer. “I won’t tell you. Anyway, Mu Jingzhe’s life is in your hands now. If you want her to live well, then be my son and help me and support me financially. Otherwise, I’ll make her wish she was dead.”

  Xiao Wu had pretended to agree on the condition that Mu Jingzhe would get better. Otherwise, he wouldn’t believe her.

  Shao Qiyun wasn’t afraid that Xiao Wu would play any tricks and agreed directly. After that, Mu Jingzhe really recovered. Everyone thought that it was because she had taken Chinese medicine, but Xiao Wu knew that this wasn’t the case.

  He hadn’t expected Shao Qiyun to really be able to control Mu Jingzhe’s life and safety. After proving her ability, Shao Qiyun had immediately wanted Xiao Wu to acknowledge her. Otherwise, she would torture Mu Jingzhe again.

  Xiao Wu had tried his best to calm down and made a lot of effort to convince Shao Qiyun not to be anxious. “It has to be at least three months apart. Otherwise, it’ll appear abnormal if I acknowledge you right after my mother recovers from this illness. Her mother and the rest will also guess it. If that happens, your plan will probably be useless.”

  Shao Qiyun wanted this to be a lifetime transaction so she could lead a good life for the rest of her days. She decided she could wait three months and thus reluctantly agreed.

  After convincing her to let him stay for three more months, Xiao Wu had cherished those three months very much. He had thought of solving the problem in three months, but he didn’t succeed. Shao Qiyun was tight-lipped and didn’t speak the truth at all.

  Xiao Wu had made a lot of effort to ask around and check. This was also the reason he had been out for the entire summer vacation. He had wanted to solve this from a scientific perspective, like Shao Nan would do, but it was useless.

  Later on, Xiao Wu had finally found some clues. Shao Qiyun and Mu Jingzhe’s situation was very similar to a legendary thing—the Gu[1].

  Many people had heard of such a thing, but they had basically never seen it before. However, Shao Qiyun had this thing.

  \r \r \r

  Xiao Wu had found out by himself. Seeing that three months had passed, Shao Qiyun hadn’t hidden it from Xiao Wu and had directly said that she had used the Gu.

  Shao Qiyun’s face had been filled with hatred. “You didn’t expect this, did you? There’s always a way out. Back then, you people were ruthless to me. Even when I was in such a state, you still didn’t help me repay my debt. In the end, those debt collectors found me. My fate was worse than death.”

  Back then, Shao Qiyun hadn’t been able to fork out the money. In front of her had been only two paths. She could die or repay the debt with her body. She had two choices. The first was to become a prostitute to repay her debt. Coincidentally, she was quite good-looking. Her second option was to deceive someone into marrying her and scam a man out of their money.

  These methods were risky. Once one took this path, there was no going back.

  At the time, Shao Qiyun had gotten lucky, and there had fortunately been a third option: She could become the subject of a kind of in-vitro experiment[2]. As long as Shao Qiyun was willing, the debt would be repaid for her.

  In the end, Shao Qiyun had chosen the third path. After passing through many places, she had been brought to a very remote deep forest in the southwest and had met a man there.

  That man had been the victim of Gu. It was said that he used to have a family of his own. Later on, someone had used Gu on him, causing him to abandon his wife and children to follow that Miao[3] woman to her village.

  After being in love for more than ten years, it was only after that woman passed away that he finally found out that she had cast the love Gu on him. Unfortunately, he could no longer go back to the past.

  Later on, he had become interested in Gu and started researching it. However, it wasn’t easy to try it on a small animal. In the end, he had found a way to try it on a human. Just like that, Shao Qiyun had been brought back.

  Shao Qiyun, his lab rat, had unexpectedly succeeded. This also allowed her to gain a good understanding of the Gu, especially the Mother-Child Gu.

  Therefore, she had brought the Gu in her body back to take revenge. She had wanted more, such as the Love Gu, as this way, she could marry anyone she wanted. However, this wasn’t something that could be obtained just like that, so she could only bring back the Mother-Child Gu first.

  “The mother Gu is in my body and obeys my intentions. As for the child Gu, I’ve already placed it in Mu Jingzhe’s body. Although we’re separated, my mother Gu can contact the child Gu. I can do whatever I want to her. You can forget about trying to deal with it. This is an unsolvable problem, and there’s no antidote. Unless I die, it’s useless.

  “But you people can’t kill me casually because if I die, the mother Gu will die. If the mother Gu dies, the child Gu won’t live either. And if the child Gu dies, Mu Jingzhe will die too. So don’t even think about laying a finger on me.”

  Shao Qiyun had explained clearly, “While I’m in a good mood, I’ll give you another piece of information. If Mu Jingzhe dies, it won’t affect me because I’m the mother Gu.”

  The terrifying aspect of this type of Gu lay in its absolute status. Moreover, the mother Gu could even control the life force of the child Gu. The so-called life force was actual life. Back then, Shao Qiyun had been tormented greatly during the experiments. The mother Gu had absorbed too much life force, causing her to urgently need replenishment.

  Because she was too greedy, she had almost absorbed too much life force from the child Gu on her first try and nearly killed Mu Jingzhe.

  This was also why Shao Qiyun had recovered her vitality so quickly back then, but Mu Jingzhe was becoming weaker and weaker.

  The Mother-Child Gu was terrifying, and Shao Qiyun wasn’t lying. There was really no antidote.

  Forced into a corner, Xiao Wu had come up with an idea. “Move the child Gu to me. I’ll come with you. I’ll earn money and support you. I’ll try my best to give you what you want. I’m your son. Just come look for me.”

  Xiao Wu had been willing to suffer in Mu Jingzhe’s place. At most, he would die. However, Shao Qiyun had shaken her head. “Once the child Gu is cast, there’s no way to transfer it to someone else. Besides, what if you ignore it and die after it’s cast on you? I’m better off casting it on someone you care about.”

  Shao Qiyun was smart. After that, she had only urged Xiao Wu to come back quickly. She knew that she couldn’t force him too much, so she had agreed that as long as Xiao Wu went back and acknowledged her, as well as listened to her obediently, she wouldn’t harm Mu Jingzhe.

  Shao Qiyun had done what he’d promised, and Mu Jingzhe had stopped having health problems. Xiao Wu had patiently dealt with her and bought some time. As he’d made preparations to make his departure appear reasonable, he had searched for a solution. However, he couldn’t find one in the end.

  Not wanting Mu Jingzhe to be in danger again, he hadn’t dared gamble. Later on, he’d had no choice but to do those things until, step by step, he had been abandoned by everyone.

  Those falling-out scenes had been the result of Xiao Wu’s repeated practice in secret, forcing the well-protected, timid, adorable Xiao Wu to be reborn.

  Meanwhile, Shao Qiyun had become increasingly greedy and had even wanted to trample on Mu Jingzhe. Xiao Wu had been forced to learn her crazy, greedy, unscrupulous ways. Perhaps it was because they were mother and son, but Xiao Wu really mimicked her quite well in this aspect.

  Shao Qiyun’s catchphrase was, “If I’m unhappy, I have to make someone else unhappy too.”

  This ‘someone’ was none other than Mu Jingzhe.

  [1] venomous worms that can be implanted inside human bodies and then take control over their host’s body

  [2] an experiment performed in or on a whole living organism, such as a person, laboratory animal, or plant

  [3] an ethnic group living in Southern China