Xing'er collapsed onto the ground, and I let out a huge sigh of relief. I squeezed the bloody bite mark on my shoulder, watching thick blood well up from the wound, and then said to Xiao Shu with a mocking tone, "This is the good child you've been dreaming about."

Xiao Shu sighed, his voice faint, "A karmic debt."

"Now what? What about his mother?" Before we arrived, A'li had mentioned Xing'er had a mother, and that the mother locked him up here. Now the woman was gone, vanished into thin air, not even a shadow of a female presence anywhere.

Uncle Xiao just kept shaking his head, utterly speechless.

"Didn't you two discuss this topic at all just now?" I was curious what they had been doing while A'li and I were dozing by the cave entrance.

"It’s hard to say. It felt like nothing was discussed, yet everything was touched upon. As for the specifics, it’s all hazy; I genuinely can’t recall the details," Xiao Shu admitted with resignation.

"Oh," I nodded in understanding, offering no argument. Adults speak differently than children. Adults lie; children are forbidden to. If adults touch upon a subject they don't wish to disclose to the other, they often resort to evasions like "I can't remember," "It slipped my mind," or "Perhaps." Of course, it was also possible he truly couldn't recall. If that were the case, the brainwashing issue was back on the agenda. Had Xing'er really managed to condition him? Regardless, A'li had been found. According to my original plan, simply taking her home would suffice. Since Xing'er now had a mother, he could stay here.

So, I walked up to the blood-soaked Xiao Shu, pointed toward A'li, and said, "Our mission is complete. Let's take her and go."

"Huh?" Xiao Shu’s face registered surprise, a look laced with profound reluctance. "Why are we leaving just as we've arrived?"

"Don't tell me you were expecting the Master to throw a grand banquet to honor the two of us?" I deliberately injected a note of sarcasm.

"Xing'er is chained to that rock. How are we supposed to take him?" He pointed to the stone to which the chain was tethered. Xing'er lay sprawled on the ground, seemingly asleep, completely motionless.

Heh, I sneered internally. Drained of blood and still oblivious to self-preservation, he was shamelessly defending the creature! My statement clearly implied abandoning Xing'er, yet he assumed I meant taking Xing'er away. Clearly, there was an issue between him and her. If the pronouns him and her in Chinese were ever replaced by the English he and she, perhaps our conversations would suffer far fewer misunderstandings.

So, I clarified, "I meant A'li. Xing'er’s mother is nearby, and you don't have the key to those chains; you can’t take him anyway. Furthermore, he doesn't belong in our world. What could you offer him if you brought him back? He needs blood to survive—can your blood alone sustain him? What happens when he grows up and starts preying on the neighbors?"

This barrage of rapid-fire questions left Xiao Shu dumbfounded. He rolled his eyes at me, sat down by the cave entrance, and remained silent, neither agreeing to leave nor refusing.

I gently helped Xing'er up from the ground. Seeing his bloodied mouth, I realized he had already fallen into a deep sleep. Xiao Shu’s blow had landed perfectly on the nape of his neck. Had it struck the back of his head, he probably would have died instantly. It seemed that even while rescuing me, Xiao Shu had held back, unwilling to kill this demon child who shared some obscure connection with him.

Just as I lifted Xing'er and leaned him against the stone, the gut-wrenching chuan chang gu in my stomach began to churn violently. A voice, tinged with mischievous glee, echoed into my mind from afar: "Young man, don't try to slip away! If you don't bring the ghost infant back, what about Hua Gu and that other young man?"

Then, a searing pain spread from my stomach throughout my entire body. I clenched my abdomen, silently repeating, Plan for the long term, plan for the long term... Only then did the troublesome (Gu worms) begin to quiet down.

Sigh, I exhaled, covering my face with my hand and sinking down beside the rock. How could I have forgotten that detail? The two hostages were still in the clutches of that old hag.