The hunchbacked old woman dropped her smile, adopting an expression that was neither a full grin nor a scowl, as she walked over to Little Shu and me. She reached out, took the crystal glass bottle, flipped her wrist, and inverted it, pouring the entire contents onto the floor with a splash. Wherever the water landed, finger-sized white worms immediately appeared, crawling slowly across the floor, the walls, and the legs of the chairs.

A wave of nausea hit me, and gripping the back of a chair, I began to retch. Half-dead worms were dragged up from my stomach, my throat, and my mouth. The more I saw those creatures, the more violently I vomited, until my guts were entirely empty, and I could bring up nothing more. Only then, gasping for breath, did I wipe my mouth with my sleeve and sit up straight, forcing myself not to look at them again.

"You..." Little Shu looked at the hunchbacked woman with a look of censure, wanting to speak but holding back.

"I am avenging my late husband," the hunchbacked old woman stated languidly, releasing her grip on the crystal bottle, letting it fall to the floor. The moment the glass hit the ground, shards scattered, and as they settled, they seemed to lift again, transforming into a flurry of white petals that drifted down to the floor. I thought this Reflected Villa was strange enough, and now this bizarre old woman appeared.

Little Shu lightly stepped on one of the worms that had landed near her foot, causing a spray of green ichor to burst forth. Frowning, she addressed the hunchbacked woman, "I don't know about your old grievances, but everyone here is my friend."

"I know," the hunchbacked woman replied with a smile. "That gentleman even saved Jinlan, so I didn't deal with him too harshly."

To say she hadn't been too harsh! Clutching my stomach, I leaned my back against the chair, breathing heavily, contemplating the schemes of this old crone. She had deliberately placed the water bottle near the entrance so that, under the guise of thirst, I would ingest a bottle full of repulsive worms. Then, just as I was writhing in agony and contemplating self-disembowelment, she dragged Hua Gu and A Mang to the study, standing before us triumphant. This was clearly a calculated move.

Realizing this, I gathered all my strength and managed to force out, "What do you want? Just say it."

"Hahahaha..." The hunchbacked woman cackled wildly, then offered me a sarcastic thumbs-up, sneering, "You are clever after all. That immortal old demon and I are the top Gu-raising masters in Miao Village. Every time I perfected a new venomous Gu, she would find some way to have Hua Gu sneak it away to refine an antidote. I can let that slide. But years ago, that old hag used a Gu poison to knock out my old man and had him taken to Kou Village. When I rushed over to save him, I found him completely surrounded by the Man-Eating Netherworms. To prevent the worms from attacking me when I arrived, he lit a torch himself and led the swarm out of the village, burning himself alive."

As she spoke, she leaned close to my face, her eyes flashing with malice, and demanded fiercely, "Tell me, should I avenge this?"

When Hua Jinlan slaughtered the villagers, I was the only survivor, and I had heard her accusations regarding her father's death. The general outline was similar to what the hunchbacked woman described, but Hua Jinlan believed her father sacrificed himself for the entire village, whereas the old woman claimed he was abandoned at the village entrance and died to protect his wife, who was coming to his aid, from the Man-Eating Netherworms. It seemed their interpretations of that disaster diverged sharply: one saw a voluntary sacrifice, the other a malicious setup. Nevertheless, the outcome was the same: Hua Jinlan's father used his own body and the torch to lure the Netherworms out and incinerate them. From that perspective, his death was indeed heroic.