The Earth Egg Stirs the Heart

The Earth Egg Stirs Hearts

After Ma Shi said this, his gaze finally landed on me, and his tone grew a few degrees heavier. "You are Han!" A powerful pressure swept over me, his eyes scrutinizing me like knives.

I felt a tremendous pressure, and cold sweat began to bead on my forehead.

Ma Erlei said, "Uncle Ma, we rested in the place you arranged last night and never left the stilt house at all. How could we have stolen your Seven-Colored Gu? Brother Kunlun isn't Han. You've got it wrong."

Ma Shi gave a cold laugh. "When you spoke inside the house, you were using the Han language. I see a mass of evil air between this boy's brows. He doesn't look like a descendant of Chiyou."

When I had been talking with Ma Erlei just now, I hadn't used Miao, and I never thought they would hear it. I glared back at Ma Shi and said, "Uncle Ma, whether I'm Han or Miao, is that really so important?"

Ma Shi stared straight at me, took two steps forward, and said, "There are many thieves among the Han. You're a thief too. Tell me, was it you who sneaked out last night and stole my Seven-Colored Gu? And this morning, you deliberately had Ma Erlei carry the Seven-Colored Gu out."

Being stared at by his eyes made me especially uncomfortable. Before the matter had even been cleared up, he had already treated us as thieves. It was more than anyone could bear.

I said, "You say we stole the Seven-Colored Gu. Do you have proof? If you don't, please watch your words. I am Han, but I am absolutely not a thief!"

The muscles on Ma Shi's face twitched. "We in Qingya Village do not welcome Han. You pretended to be Miao to enter our stockade and violated our taboo. The Seven-Colored Gu of Qingya Village suddenly vanished, and aside from you three outsiders, no one else came here. With things this clear as day, do we still need evidence?"

Ma Shi waved his right hand, and three burly men holding blades quickly entered the room. They searched room after room. Ma Erlei and I hurried to the room where Xiao Yudao was resting and shielded her.

The three searched every corner of the rooms, constantly shaking their heads.

"Search their bodies!" Ma Shi shouted with a dark face.

"Da Xiao, Erlei, what happened?" Xiao Yudao was startled awake.

"It's a small matter. They say we stole the Seven-Colored Gu. It'll be cleared up. Don't worry." I glanced at Xiao Yudao and spoke softly.

"Uncle Ma, what right do you have to search us!" Ma Erlei usually looked simple and honest, but his temper was still very stubborn. "Is this how Qingya Village treats its guests?"

"Do it!" Ma Shi ignored Ma Erlei and spoke to the three burly men instead.

The three burly men carried out orders with great efficiency. They tyrannically swung their long blades, their eyes glaring like bronze bells. From the way they looked at us, they already regarded us as thieves, and their movements were extremely rough.

The Seven-Colored Gu was Qingya Village's divine village-guarding Gu worm, its status the same as the Golden Silkworm Gu in Camellia Village. The three men's eyes were fierce. If we truly resisted, those long blades really would come chopping down.

I swallowed and shouted, "Erlei, don't act recklessly. Let them search!"

Ma Erlei's face turned red with anger, and he gritted his teeth as he cried, "No matter how powerful the Seven-Colored Gu is, among the Miao people's top ten Gu worms, it's only second. The truly powerful one is the Golden Silkworm Gu. If you dare deal with people from Camellia Village, you're offending the Golden Silkworm Gu."

"A truly top-tier Seven-Colored Gu could kill the Golden Silkworm Gu as easily as turning over a hand." Ma Shi's pupils widened, and he stepped forward and slapped him. The blow landed hard on Ma Erlei's face, leaving five finger marks imprinted there.

After Ma Erlei took that slap, two burly men held him in place and quickly searched him, but they did not find anything like a small bamboo tube or little jar that could hide a Gu worm.

Ma Erlei gritted his teeth and shouted, "Ma Shi, if you've got the guts, kill me with one slash. Otherwise, I will repay today's humiliation tenfold someday."

Ma Shi snorted coldly and did not take Ma Erlei seriously at all.

The three burly men held their long blades and surrounded me.

I clenched both fists, furious beyond measure, and said, "I have three jars on me. I can take them out for you to inspect. You can determine whether the Seven-Colored Gu is inside. These jars belong to me. You cannot snatch them away."

Ma Shi looked at me with disdain. "I don't want your rotten junk."

I set the three containers on the table.

Ma Shi walked forward and carefully sensed them. His right eyebrow twitched without him meaning to, but he soon returned to normal.

I said, "Now you should be satisfied. The Seven-Colored Gu is not in our hands."

Ma Shi was stunned for a moment, then said, "I still haven't searched your body. This time, I'll do it personally. To deal with a sly Han like you, I have to do it myself."

Ma Erlei gritted his teeth and shouted, "Ma Shi, you're despicable and shameless!" He lowered his head, dipped his shoulder, and charged. Ma Shi turned and kicked out, striking Ma Erlei squarely in the abdomen.

Ma Erlei clutched his stomach, in so much pain that he could not speak for a long while.

"Tie him up!"

The blade-wielding burly men untied the ropes at their waists, and in a moment, Ma Erlei was bound.

I hated him so much my teeth itched. I glanced at the jar containing the Three-Corpse Snake Gu, then glanced at Xiao Yudao lying in bed. Xiao Yudao shook her head slightly.

Two large hands pressed down on my shoulders, and I did not move. Ma Shi personally searched me and finally pulled out the Earth Egg. He examined it carefully for a while, and his eyebrow twitched again.

"That's a stone egg I picked up. Hurry up and put it down. Otherwise, I won't be polite." After Ma Shi took the Earth Egg, he actually seemed reluctant to part with it, and I shouted, "You didn't find the Seven-Colored Gu, but now you want to swallow my earth egg. I've never seen anyone as brazen and shameless as you."

Ma Shi held the Earth Egg and looked at me with a strange, complicated gaze, then quickly returned to normal. "You picked this up while gathering herbs? Give it to me, and I can let you go. I'll even forgive you, Han."

I found it laughable in my heart. He thought I didn't know how powerful the Earth Egg was and wanted to trick me out of it.

I shook my head and said, "This earth egg is extremely hard. It's just right for grinding medicinal powder. If you want one, go look in the mountains... You're the clan chief of the stockade. Surely you would never snatch something from a child."

I deliberately put Ma Shi on a high pedestal, just to leave him with no excuse to snatch away my Earth Egg.

Xiao Yudao hurriedly said, "Uncle Ma, accidents can happen in the process of raising Gu. Maybe we happened to run into something going wrong with the Seven-Colored Gu. Since you didn't find it here with us, you should go look elsewhere. The earth egg was picked up by my senior brother. It belongs to him."

Ma Shi lightly tossed the Earth Egg to me and smiled. "How could I want a child's belongings? This Han child violated our stockade's taboo. Tie him up first. You are Ma Huoxin's daughter, so I'll send someone else to take care of you."

I caught the Earth Egg, put the three jars into the black cloth bag, and fastened it tightly to my body, shouting, "I won't be separated from my Gu worms."

The three burly men stepped forward and tied my hands behind my back with rope.

I shouted, "Xiaodao, it's fine. Focus on recovering." Xiao Yudao, lying in bed, shed tears that fell in streams.

The three blade-wielding burly men drove Ma Erlei and me out of the stilt house, then herded us toward Qingya Village's ancestral hall. Ma Shi followed behind with a shifting expression, his face dark, no one knew what he was thinking.

All along the way, Ma Erlei cursed Qingya Village as despicable and shameless, until in the end a rag was stuffed into his mouth and he could no longer shout. His face turned bright red from holding it in. I observed the stockade roads and discovered that behind the stockade was a cliff. If we wanted to escape, there was only one mountain path.

Damn it all, I cursed inwardly. The Seven-Colored Gu of Qingya Village had suddenly disappeared, and they were pinning it on us with nowhere for us to argue our case. The whole stockade had only one road leading out. Escaping this place would be no easy thing.

The three burly men escorted us into the ancestral hall, then deftly looped ropes around Ma Erlei's waist and mine, tying us straight to the pillars. The ancestral hall had two sections in all. On the innermost shrine stood all kinds of spirit tablets, and beside them were eight chairs for holding council.

The moment I stepped into the ancestral hall, I shivered without warning.

Ma Shi shouted, "Think it over properly. Once you've figured it out, have someone call me!"

I said, amused, "The Seven-Colored Gu suddenly died. What does that have to do with us? I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to think about. Elder, please give me a hint."

Ma Shi shook his head and said, "Looks like you still haven't figured it out." He turned to the burly men standing guard and said, "Starve them for a day first. If they still won't confess by nightfall, let them stay in the ancestral hall."

After leaving those words behind, Ma Shi walked off.

The three burly men brought over chairs and sat off to the side, watching us.

When it was time for lunch, the three of them even brought over bowls of rice and chewed in great mouthfuls, eating with an especially hearty relish. Ma Erlei's eyes nearly bulged out until they bled.

I was starving too. I had only drunk a little porridge in the morning, and by now I was so hungry my chest was sticking to my back. I shouted, "Go tell Ma Shi that even prisoners in jail waiting to be beheaded get fed. We're starving here, so hurry up and bring me food."

The burly man muttered twice, lifted his head to glance at me, then went right back to eating his own meal.

Those dog bastards, they really meant to starve us for a whole day. I shouted a few more times, but the three guards still ignored me.

"Go tell Ma Shi I've figured it out. Have him come see me." I truly had no other way, so I could only trick Ma Shi over first.

The three of them turned their heads to look over. One of them barked, "Don't try playing tricks on me." Then the man ran out.

Before long, Ma Shi walked in smoking his pipe, smoke curling around him. He raised an eyebrow and said, "Figured it out, have you?"

I deliberately said weakly, "Clan Chief Ma, I've thought it through. But I'm too hungry. If I don't eat, I'm afraid I won't even have the strength to talk."

Ma Shi burst out laughing and said, "No problem. I'll have food brought to you right away." Ma Shi passed down the order, and in less than ten minutes, food and dishes were delivered. He then had someone untie Ma Erlei and me, sat off to the side smoking his dry tobacco, and watched Ma Erlei and me eat.

Smoke curled through the air, and the fragrance of rice drifted about.

"Clan Chief Ma, I know what you want. But after eating my fill, I'm a little sleepy. Hurry up and tie me up, so I can lean against the pillar and sleep," I said.

Ma Shi had taken a fancy to the Earth Egg on me, but because of his status, it was inconvenient for him to seize it by force. He wanted me to personally open my mouth and give the Earth Egg to him myself, so I could exchange it for freedom. In his mind, the Seven-Colored Gu was certainly important, but the Earth Egg moved his heart even more.

I absolutely would not let him have his way.

"Han people really are sly." Ma Shi knocked the stem of his pipe heavily against the floor, producing five crisp sounds.

Ma Erlei suddenly clutched his stomach, collapsed to the ground, and howled in pain. A layer of green even spread over his face.