Chapter 46: Yuan Qing 02

  Gu Yin got off the bus halfway because he inadvertently saw a young man, a young man who looked very similar to Yuan Qing in his memory, and his age seemed to be between a teenager and an adult.

  The young man was carrying a large shopping bag full of things with the name of the supermarket printed on it, and he had obviously just come out of the nearby supermarket.

  Gu Yin kept a distance that was neither too far nor too close, slowly following the man. After turning at the intersection, the man walked to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road, checked the sign and started waiting for the bus.

  Gu Yin didn't follow him immediately, but stood by the roadside, silently staring at the young man on the opposite side of the station. As he stared, the man looked even more like Yuan Qing, not just in appearance, but also in demeanor and temperament...

  "Yuán Qīng..." Gu Yín muttered Yuán Qīng's name, and his eyes suddenly became profound as he looked at the young man in front of him.

  ……

  Gu Wenkai rushed to the hospital and walked into Qin Fei's ward, where Qin Fei was leaning back on the bed with his eyes closed. When Gu Wenkai pushed open the door and made a slight noise, Qin Fei's eyelids twitched slightly before he quickly opened his eyes and looked up at Gu Wenkai.

  Gu Wenkai saw Qin Fei looking at him and was about to greet him, but the moment their eyes met, he suddenly froze, and his greeting got stuck in his throat due to a brief hesitation.

  The person sitting on the hospital bed was Qin Fei, but his eyes didn't look like Qin Fei's at all. Those eyes that should have been warm and gentle seemed to be dyed with ink, becoming dark and deep. This Qin Fei looked extremely unfamiliar, making Gu Wenkai feel for a moment that the person sitting on the hospital bed was not Qin Fei himself.

  But that was just an illusion. This person was indeed Qin Fei. He had known Qin Fei for so many years, and it was impossible to mistake him. Had he been possessed by some kind of evil spirit?

  "Qin Fei?" Gu Wenkai called out tentatively, and also moved closer to wave his hand in front of Qin Fei's eyes.

  As soon as Gu Wenkai spoke up, the deep, mysterious look in Qin Fei's eyes suddenly dissipated, and he returned to the familiar appearance that Gu Wenkai knew.

  "What are you doing?" Qin Fei raised his hand and pushed away the hand that was waving in front of his eyes.

  "What's gotten into you?" Gu Wenkai said, eyeing Qin Fei. Qin Fei looked a bit pale, but that was just because he was ill, not possessed.

  " Possession?" Qin Fei looked at Gu Wenkai in a daze.

  "Don't you feel anything out of the ordinary?" Gu Wenkai asked.

  "No." Qin Fei shook his head.

  "What were you thinking just now when you looked at me? Your eyes... " Gu Wenkai paused for a moment, searching for an appropriate description, "Hmm, especially deep."

  "I didn't think of anything," Qin Fei said.

  Gu Wenkai: "......" So what just happened was just a daze? Is it good to be in such a deep daze?

  "What's that wooden box in your hand?" Qin Fei's gaze shifted to the wooden box tucked under Gu Wenkai's arm, and he asked.

  "This? My big brother found the antidote materials for you." Gu Wenkai placed the wooden box on Qin Fei's bedside table, "He was originally going to come over and help you lift the curse himself, but I don't know what he saw on the way here, he got off halfway and ran away, leaving me with the task of lifting the curse for you. The method is written down by him, but I still need to study it."

  Gu Wenkai said, pulling over a chair beside the hospital bed and sitting down, taking out a note from his pocket with Gu Yin's written incantation method, planning to start studying. Just as Gu Wenkai hadn't finished reading, he saw the slightly ajar hospital room door being pushed open, and Qin Mu walked in. Gu Wenkai hastily put the note back into his pocket, standing up politely to greet Qin Mu.

  With Qin Mu present, Gu Wenkai didn't dare to continue studying the method of dispelling the curse. Fortunately, Qin Fei's fever had completely subsided, and he could be discharged after the doctor's rounds in the morning.

  The hospital is not a suitable place to lift the curse, so after Gu Wenkai sent Qin Fei and his mother back, he stayed behind, planning to help Qin Fei lift the curse before leaving.

  Qin's mother stayed up one night keeping watch over Qin Fei who couldn't sleep, now that Qin Fei's fever had completely subsided and with Gu Wenkai accompanying him, Qin's mother finally returned to her room to rest. Qin Fei's room was left with just Qin Fei and Gu Wenkai, and Gu Wenkai finally had the opportunity to finish reading the method of dispelling the curse that Gu Yin had given him.

  The method of breaking the curse is indeed as Gu Yin said, not difficult at all. The materials for the ritual tools have been fully prepared by Gu Yin, and all that's needed is to draw the formation according to the template on the note paper, place the ritual tools and the curse-breaking materials in their corresponding positions in the formation, and let Qin Fei stand within it.

  Gu Wenkai took out a large sheet of white paper from Qin Fei's room, spread it on the desk, and then used a brush to draw the symbol array in one breath. After the ink on the white paper dried, Gu Wenkai laid the paper with the symbol array flat on the floor, and then began to carefully place the ritual objects and materials that looked like small stones from the wooden box onto it, following the positions written on the note signed by Gu Yin.

  After finishing the arrangement of the symbols, Gu Wenkai got up from the floor and beckoned to Qin Fei who was sitting on the bed watching him struggle, "It's done, you come stand over here."

  Qin Fei put the tea cup he was holding on the bedside table, walked to the white paper with the symbol array drawn on it, took off his slippers and stepped barefoot onto the position specified by Gu Wenkai.

  After Qin Fei stood still, Gu Wenkai checked the process on the receipt again, then began to recite incantations facing Qin Fei.

  "Haha!" Qin Fei looked at Gu Wenkai, who was standing three steps away, speaking in a serious tone, and tried to hold it in, but couldn't help bursting out laughing at this unusual and ridiculous situation.

  Gu Wenkai, whose chanting was interrupted, glared at Qin Fei and gritted his teeth: "What are you laughing at?"

  "Sorry, couldn't help it..." Qin Fei hugged his arm, suppressing his laughter, causing his shoulders to shake continuously. "It's just that...it feels really weird." Although he knew it was a spell, Gu Wenkai's temperament was really too contradictory to the profession of being a Taoist priest, and even when he recited the incantation with a serious face, it still looked especially hilarious.

  "Tsk! Do you have to be so easily amused?" Gu Wenkai gave Qin Fei a stern glance, but didn't get angry. He just warned him not to make another sound before continuing his incantation.

  The process of breaking the curse was very brief, and in less than five minutes, Gu Wenkai finished reciting the incantation. He took a glance at the array of symbols that had turned into a pile of broken stones, the materials used for the curse-breaking ritual, and declared that the curse-breaking was complete.

  "Is there a special feeling?" Gu Wenkai asked Qin Fei who walked down from the symbol array.

  "There's no special feeling." Qin Fei shook his head.

  "My elder brother said that if all these small stones for removing the curse are crushed, then the removal of the curse is successful." Gu Wenkai squatted in front of the white paper with the symbol array drawn on it and poked at the stones on top. Not a single intact stone was seen, "Since my elder brother said so, there shouldn't be any problem."

  "Do you really trust Gu Yin?" Qin Fei asked as he looked at the things on the ground and began to pack them into a wooden box, asking Gu Wenkai.

  "Although I don't want to admit it, that guy is indeed trustworthy when it comes to inquiring about the underworld." Gu Wenkai closed the wooden box heavily, "But only and only in this one aspect!"

  Qin Fei smiled and said: "Previously in Qing Shui Town... help me thank Gu Yin, I'll invite him to dinner another day."

  Qing Shui Town... Upon hearing these three words, Gu Wenkai's expression paused for a moment. For Qin Fei, Qing Shui Town was an encounter. Without saying more, the mental blow Zhang Zhi Xin brought to him was not small, even if Qin Fei didn't say anything. After Gu Wenkai agreed to help Qin Fei pass on a message to Gu Yin, he didn't continue discussing the topic of Qing Shui Town. Now, this topic was still not something that could be casually mentioned by Qin Fei.

  Qin Fei's illness came on suddenly, but he recovered unexpectedly quickly. After resting at home for two days, except for still feeling a bit weak, he was basically fine. After the Small Cold Festival, Qin Fei finally got his mother's approval and went to the book bar.

  It was Thursday, and He Yidong had class, so there were only Shen Wei and Xie Zhe in the book bar. The afternoon book bar wasn't crowded, and when they saw Qin Fei, they first asked about his physical condition, then Shen Wei started telling Qin Fei some things that had happened in the book bar recently. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the book bar, mostly just gossip about some customers.

  Shen Wei spoke enthusiastically, and Qin Fei listened intently as she whispered in his ear. Xie Zhe was chatting with someone on WeChat, occasionally interjecting a few words. As Shen Wei gossiped, she sneaked a peek at Xie Zhe's phone to see who he was chatting with. To her disappointment, she found that Xie Zhe was actually chatting with He Shidong, the university dog.

  At 4 o'clock this afternoon, He Shidong, who was originally not supposed to work at the bookstore today, rushed to the bookstore with a male classmate.

  "Boss, let me introduce you, this is my new friend Jiang Xu." He Yidong pulled the classmate he brought along and ran to Qin Fei's exclusive seat to introduce.

  Qin Fei looked up at Jiang Xu, a young man with a gentle appearance and a harmless temperament, the kind of person who could give people a good impression at first glance. However, when Qin Fei saw him, for some reason, he didn't have much of a good feeling, but instead had a subtle sense of rejection.

  "Hello." Although Jiang Xu didn't give Qin Fei a good impression, Qin Fei still smiled and greeted him.

  "Hello." Jiang Xu nodded at Qin Fei and returned him a smile.

  "Sit down." Qin Fei said.

  Jiang Xu nodded and sat down in the position opposite Qin Fei. He Shidong casually moved a chair and sat down on the right side of Qin Fei.

  "Boss, Jiang Xu wants to have a part-time job next semester. I don't know if you're still hiring here." As soon as the two sat down, He Shidong didn't wait for Jiang Xu to speak and directly got to the point.