Zhu Yanyi glanced faintly at Hua Na, poured herself another cup of tea, and took a sip before speaking. "Is your backlash comfortable?"
"You~" Hua Na stared at Zhu Yanyi, her eyes wide. The fact that Zhu Yanyi mentioned the backlash again meant she was connected to it. Being connected to the backlash could only mean she had removed the flower gu. "It was you. You removed the flower gu I placed on Xie Jingyun."
"Quite smart, but no reward." Zhu Yanyi placed her teacup on the table. Her sharp eyes fixed directly on Hua Na. "Who told you to place the gu?" Her tone lost its previous leisure, gaining a faint hint of killing intent.
"No, no one." Hua Na’s voice sounded uncertain.
"No one?" Zhu Yanyi sneered. "Xie Jingyun is just a sixteen-year-old girl, at most a middle school student. She has never offended anyone. Why would someone place gu on her for no reason? Don’t tell me you did it for fun. If you think it’s fun, I can place some poison on you for you to play with. Do you want that?"
"Are you a poison doctor?" Hua Na asked in confusion.
"No, I am not a poison doctor. But I know everything a poison doctor knows. Except for shamanic medicine, I understand about eighty or ninety percent of what poison doctors and flower doctors know. Do you understand?" Zhu Yanyi smiled faintly. In truth, she had recently been studying shamanic medicine as well, since it had appeared. Fortunately, the Azure Sovereign Qingdi’s inheritance contained ample information on it.
"Who exactly are you?" Hua Na asked again.
"Didn’t I tell you? I said my name is Zhu Yanyi." Zhu Yanyi seemed to return to her original laziness. "But many people like to call me the Little Divine Doctor. Of course, some also like to call me the Saintly Hand Demon Doctor. I like both titles. I just don’t know if you are satisfied with this answer?"
"You are the legendary Little Divine Doctor." Clearly, Hua Na had heard of Zhu Yanyi’s reputation. Hearing Zhu Yanyi say this, she immediately knew who she was.
Zhu Yanyi smiled faintly, looking at Hua Na. "Flower doctors have a different, good reputation among shamanic, poison, and flower doctors because those who study flower medicine are generally believed to be kind-hearted and do not casually harm ordinary people. Yet now, you have harmed the innocent Xie Jingyun. I cannot figure out where your so-called reputation for kindness comes from. Could I be mistaken?"
Hearing Zhu Yanyi’s words, a trace of guilt flashed in Hua Na and Hua Yun’s eyes. Yes, it was guilt. They had never intended to harm ordinary people; they were just sometimes forced by circumstances.
"I’m sorry." Hua Na stood up and bowed deeply. "I will not make excuses for myself. This is what I did, and I admit my mistake."
"My sister has already suffered the backlash of the flower gu. Isn’t that enough?" Hua Yun said directly from the side.
"The backlash of the flower gu is due to her misuse of it. The backlash is deserved. As for anything else, to be honest, I consider this a punishment for her. It can be called reaping what she sowed." Zhu Yanyi never considered herself a kind-hearted person.
"Why do you speak like that?" Hua Yun was unconvinced.
"A-Yun, stop talking. This matter is my fault. My current situation is indeed reaping what I sowed." Hua Na was clearly more open-minded than Hua Yun.
Seeing this, Zhu Yanyi nodded slightly. "It seems you know you were wrong. But wrong is wrong. If Xie Jingyun had not met me this time, she would have been killed by you."
"I didn’t intend to kill her. In three months, I would have gone to remove the flower gu for her." Hua Na said seriously.
"Are you foolish or am I? After three months, a person’s essence and qi will be nearly depleted by your flower gu. Even if the gu is removed, what then? She will be weak and frail every day and every year. Is this what you mean by not killing her?" Zhu Yanyi’s tone was very serious. "This is clearly making life worse than death."
"I…" Hua Na lowered her head. She had forgotten that Xie Jingyun was just an ordinary person. How could she recover after three months of flower gu? As Zhu Yanyi said, even if she removed the gu after three months, Xie Jingyun’s body would remain weak and frail, likely never knowing health again. "I’m sorry." These were the only three words she could think of now.
Zhu Yanyi looked at Hua Na. "No need to say sorry. A friend of mine said it correctly: if 'sorry' were useful, what would we need police for?" She then said directly, "Speak. Who told you to place the flower gu on Xie Jingyun?"
Hua Na remained silent. Hua Yun, seeing her clan sister’s expression of self-reproach, felt uncomfortable and spoke up. "This has nothing to do with Sister A-Na. It was Mao Wan’er who made us do it."
"Mao Wan’er? From the Mao family in Xiu Town?" Zhu Yanyi asked, looking at Hua Yun.
"Yes." Hua Na nodded. It seemed that with Hua Yun speaking up, she felt relieved and no longer hid anything. "Mao Wan’er and Xie Jingyun went to the same school. Xie Jingyun had good grades and was beautiful. Mao Wan’er thought Xie Jingyun was stealing her spotlight, so she wanted to deal with her."
"For such a trivial reason, you helped harm someone? Did you not consider the consequences of harming others?" Zhu Yanyi looked at Hua Na and Hua Yun with displeasure.
Hua Na smiled bitterly. "People from our Hua Family Village are not ignorant. However, the ancestor of the Mao family once saved our Hua family ancestor. Our ancestor gave the Mao ancestor a token. As long as they hold this token, we must help them, but only once.
This time, Mao Wan’er brought that token to ask for our help. In fact, our Hua Family Village has issued only two tokens in five hundred years. One has been retrieved, and the other is with the Mao family. This time, Mao Wan’er sent it over, requesting that we place flower gu on Xie Jingyun. I told her then that Xie Jingyun was an innocent person, so I could not use flower gu to take her life. I could only place a three-month flower gu. She agreed, so I acted."
Hua Na took a deep breath. "I admit, I forgot that Xie Jingyun is an ordinary person. Unlike flower doctors who have lived with flowers since childhood, the flower gu will exhaust her body. This is my fault. Therefore, my suffering the backlash is my just deserts. I have nothing to say."
"Mao Wan’er." A strange smile appeared at the corner of Zhu Yanyi’s mouth. "Brother Wang, go investigate Mao Wan’er. A person from a local influential family in Xiu Town coming to Modu and acting so arrogantly must have some backing. Investigate everyone behind her for me."
"Yes. I will go immediately." Wang Ye agreed and left at once to investigate.