Looking at Chu Qingjiu and Qi Wu's interlaced fingers, Wu Zhong finally breathed a sigh of relief. Once the kid had been soothed, he would stop making a fuss.
His gaze slowly traveled up to Chu Qingjiu's face, then abruptly stopped.
Chu Qingjiu's cheeks and ears were flushed. His eyes were hazy and hard to read, but their shimmering depths still tugged at the heart.
His complexion had gone from its initial pallor to a rosy glow. He looked more lively now, and a little healthier.
Most conspicuous of all, however, were his slightly swollen lips. They were a vivid, luscious red, carrying a hint of inadvertent desire that made him look positively delectable.
After studying him for a while, Wu Zhong found it odd and asked hesitantly, "Little Chu... what happened to your mouth?"
At those words, Chu Qingjiu briefly tightened his grip on Qi Wu's hand. He had almost forgotten that he had just been kissing Qi Wu. After kissing for so long, his lips were bound to show it.
He was deeply embarrassed, but maintained his cool expression and quickly found a plausible excuse.
"A poisonous mosquito bit me earlier. There are plenty of bugs in the mountains."
A certain "poisonous mosquito" felt considerably better upon hearing that. He merely curled his lips into a faint smile, offering no objection.
The others looked at the mountains surrounding them and caught the faint dampness in the air. They thought Chu Qingjiu had a point.
If this place were not so remote, it would not have been filled with stilt houses.
The Miao women had been friendly to them throughout the journey, but that very friendliness made it all the more ironic, because they were the ones who had planted the Mind-Losing Gu.
The Miao women led them to the home of the Gu Miao Tribe's chief. It was no different from the other Miao people's homes: another three-story stilt house.
A Feng knocked on the door and called in a cloyingly sweet voice, "Chief, I've brought them."
All eight players had assumed the chief would be an elderly woman, but when the door opened, what they saw shocked them.
The chief had creamy skin and strikingly beautiful features: almond-shaped eyes, a delicate nose, a tiny cherry-red mouth, and an oval face. She looked no older than twenty.
"Come inside, all of you."
Her voice was lovely too, as clear as a mountain stream, leaving them entranced.
"Wow, every woman here is a beauty. Why would they even need to use gu?"
Wu Zhong could not help marveling. Who would cheat on such a beautiful wife?
After a long while, he added to himself, "Oh, maybe it's because there are too many beauties. They need gu to keep their men from running off with another one."
Chu Qingjiu thought the fact that all the Miao women were so young and beautiful was itself suspicious. It was almost as though they possessed a way to slow aging.
Moreover, the so-called Gu Ghost Woman was hidden among the Miao women. According to the description Qi Wu had obtained from their organization, the Gu Ghost Woman had red eyes and usually appeared as an elderly person.
Yet so far, even the women who had gathered to watch them when they first left their room had all been young and beautiful. There had not been a single elderly person among them.
Lost in thought, Chu Qingjiu failed to notice the threshold and stumbled over it. Fortunately, Qi Wu caught him.
After leaving the locked room, Chu Qingjiu had let go of Qi Wu's hand.
He simply felt that they were those Miao women's "husbands." If the women discovered that two of those "husbands" had already paired off with each other, there was no telling what trouble might follow.
Qi Wu steadied Chu Qingjiu, then held out a hand, palm up.
There was some distance between their room and the chief's house. By now, aside from a faint redness at the corners of his eyes, there was no sign that Qi Wu had cried.
Qi Wu gave his usual harmless smile. "Gege, you're not in good health. Hold on to me so you don't fall."
Upon hearing that Chu Qingjiu was in poor health, the chief and all eight Miao women turned to look at him, their expressions varying. The one named A Xue looked troubled.
Chu Qingjiu took in all their expressions, then lowered his eyes and placed his hand in Qi Wu's palm, allowing Qi Wu to lead him along.
Those Miao women seemed to favor men in better health, showing a particular preference for Wu Zhong and Qi Wu, who were both tall and well-built.
Taking their unnaturally beautiful appearances into account, Chu Qingjiu suspected that they were most likely using gu insects to drain men's vitality, then prolonging their own lives to preserve their youth.
A Xue's troubled expression was very likely because she was the Miao woman who had planted the Mind-Losing Gu in Chu Qingjiu. Given his poor health, he probably could not provide her with much vitality.
Originally, all the Miao women, including the chief, had an affinity of 20 toward Chu Qingjiu. After hearing about his poor health, every one of them dropped to 10, further proving how much they valued physical fitness.
Still, he only needed to raise A Xue's affinity to 30. Then he could use his own Puppet Threads to control her and make her give him the antidote.
This instance was not difficult for Chu Qingjiu.
Next, he only needed to find out which Miao woman had planted the gu in Qi Wu.
Noticing that Chu Qingjiu kept his head lowered and quietly let himself be led upstairs, seemingly lost in thought, Qi Wu lowered his voice and asked softly, "Gege, what are you thinking about?"
Without lifting his head, Chu Qingjiu replied evenly, "You."
"Hm?"
Qi Wu thought he must have been hearing things. Given Chu Qingjiu's personality, how could he possibly say something like that? Someone who embarrassed as easily as Chu Qingjiu could not possibly remain unflustered.
In truth, Chu Qingjiu had not registered what he had said. He really had been thinking about Qi Wu, because all he needed to do was identify the Miao woman who had planted the gu in him.
But once he realized, his ears suddenly turned scarlet, as though blood had rushed into them. Qi Wu took in the change. Now that was more like it.
How could I not know what my gege is like? There's no way he'd flirt with me first.
"I'm thinking about you too, gege."
Smiling, Qi Wu leaned close to Chu Qingjiu's ear and whispered.
Chu Qingjiu moved the hand Qi Wu was holding, not to pull it free, but to trace the character for "okay" on his palm with his index finger.
He was too embarrassed to say it aloud, but writing it worked just as well. In fact, it set Qi Wu's blood racing even more than saying it would have.
His fingertip traced across Qi Wu's palm stroke by stroke, as soft as a little feather deliberately teasing him, leaving a faint tickle and a barely perceptible touch.
It was practically flirting.
"Gege..."
Qi Wu's voice suddenly grew husky, carrying a slightly rough, uninhibited quality, as though he had been drinking. It was utterly seductive.
That single word seemed to conceal so much. Chu Qingjiu could more or less tell what state Qi Wu was in. He merely curled his lips slightly and said nothing.
He was not some clueless child. Not taking the initiative to flirt did not mean he did not know how. Even without firsthand experience, he had seen enough to understand.
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