Er Ya didn't hear Xia Qingtian's song in the end.
She propped the pot by the bedside, started the charcoal, and began dismembering the rat with her bare hands, cutting off its tail and tossing it into the pot.
The others watched, their stomachs churning, nearly vomiting up everything they had eaten that day.
"I was too rushed when I slipped out, forgot to bring rat tails," Er Ya wiped her hands on the bedsheet beside her, then pulled out dried centipedes, spider legs, and other strange items from her overalls pocket, along with two somewhat withered leaves, and threw them into the copper pot.
The copper pot turned red, emitting thick smoke that stung the eyes and made it impossible to open them.
"Cough, cough! How about you do it outside? This smoke is too suffocating, cough..." The butler felt his eyes were about to fall out.
If he couldn't stand it, how could the family head, who was in a weakened state?
"Cough, cough! You know nothing, it's this smoke that's needed! Ah-choo!" Er Ya coughed and sneezed from the fumes. "This smoke can lure out the gu worms. Those things love poisons, and this poisonous smoke is the most effective!"
"Poisonous, poisonous smoke?" Yue Chengfeng was startled. Before he could ask further, he saw a reaction from the Yue family head.
The Yue family head's eyes were tightly shut, his body convulsing, his face ashen, and he was covered in a cold sweat.
"Dad!" Yue Chengfeng's mind went blank, and immense panic engulfed him.
"Don't just stand there gawking, come and help!" Er Ya lunged onto the bed, trying to pry open the Yue family head's mouth. "Stop him from biting his tongue and committing suicide!"
Hearing this, Xia Shang and Xia Qingtian immediately stepped forward to assist.
After managing to pry open the Yue family head's mouth, Er Ya immediately shoved a rolling pin into it, then breathed a sigh of relief.
"Whoosh~" She raised a hand, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and casually swung it down as she climbed off the bed. "You all stay back, be careful."
Xia Qingtian and Xia Shang hadn't retreated more than two steps when they saw small, black, millet-sized worms drilling out from the corner of the Yue family head's mouth, in quite large numbers.
Seeing these worms made Xia Qingtian's scalp crawl, and her calves trembled, a terrifying feeling blossoming in her heart.
"Here they come, here they come, it stinks!" Er Ya squatted by the pot, waiting for the small worms to approach before kicking over the copper pot.
The red-hot copper pot covered all the dense mass of small worms. The pot trembled violently, emitting faint crackling sounds that were particularly chilling.
After the sound finally disappeared, Er Ya crouched down again to check. "The gu worms are all burned to death. That old man is fine now."
"He's fine?" Xia Qingtian still felt as if this were all a dream, her whole body feeling floaty and uncertain.
"Mhmm." Er Ya went to the Yue family head's side and felt his pulse again. "He'll wake up in about ten minutes."
"That's wonderful," the butler said, his eyes welling up with joy. "I'm trembling all over, it feels like a dream."
"Me too..." Yue Chengfeng couldn't describe his feelings. Seeing the Yue family head overcome the crisis felt like a sudden release after extreme tension. He was so happy he wanted to cry.
"Me too..." Xia Qingtian was about to agree when she saw Xia Shang beside her shedding tears with a sinister look. She vaguely felt something was wrong and turned to look at Er Ya, her internal alarm bells ringing loudly.
"No, that's not it." Er Ya dripped two drops of liquid onto the copper pot. With a sizzle, the smoke in the room instantly dissipated. "You inhaled a large amount of poisonous smoke and are poisoned."
"I'm sorry~ Although I'm not immune to all poisons, I've developed a certain resistance. This poisonous smoke is nothing to me, but I accidentally forgot that you aren't poison-resistant."
Er Ya stuck out her tongue, made a fist, and lightly tapped her head, striking a cute and playful pose. "Heh heh~"
"..."
"???"
"!!!"
She knew it!
Xia Qingtian slapped her forehead and looked at Er Ya with a sense of helplessness. "What do we do now?"
"It's okay, don't panic. This poison isn't fatal," Er Ya reassured them.
Hearing Er Ya's words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"It will just start to fester from the lungs and eventually spread to the internal organs, leading to what is commonly called a perforated gut. But you won't die~" Er Ya added.
"Can I hit her?!" Xia Qingtian turned to look at Xia Shang, her mouth twitching.
Xia Shang glanced at Xia Qingtian, then at Yue Chengfeng and the Yue family butler who had the same expression, and quickly waved his hands. "Er Ya, the antidote!"
"Oh, this? It's simple. Drink strong liquor. Drink it in large gulps; the stronger the better. Guzzle it down and get thoroughly drunk, then sleep it off, and you'll be fine tomorrow," Er Ya said. "Isn't that easy?"
Survival was paramount. The butler immediately brought two jars of strong liquor. Xia Qingtian braced herself and gulped down a large bowl, feeling a scorching sensation spread from her mouth down her esophagus, as if a fire had suddenly ignited, making Xia Qingtian feel like sparks were erupting from every pore.
This liquor was truly unusually potent.
The butler and Yue Chengfeng also frowned as they drank.
Xia Shang was even less tolerant of alcohol. After downing a large bowl, he was already beginning to feel dizzy.
To detoxify themselves, the four of them forced themselves to drink bowl after bowl. Xia Qingtian was the first to give up, too drunk to even hold the bowl.
Next was the butler. The butler was getting on in years and hadn't drunk so much in years. His eyes rolled back, and he flopped onto the ground like a starfish.
Yue Chengfeng held his forehead, feeling an overwhelming wave of drowsiness.
"That's enough." Seeing Xia Shang mechanically reaching for more alcohol, Er Ya stepped forward and took the bowl from him. "Drinking this much is enough to detoxify. Xia Shang, you should sleep. You don't need to drink any more."
With the bowl taken away, Xia Shang looked at Er Ya in a daze. He reached out and cupped Er Ya's face, displaying a brilliant smile that he had never shown anyone before. "Er Ya, it's so good to see you."
"!" Meeting Xia Shang's eyes, Er Ya's cheeks instantly flushed, as if she had also had too much to drink.
At this moment, the room door was opened. Yue Chengfeng, the eldest son of the Yue family, led the way, saying as he looked back, "I'm truly sorry, Mr. Gu, to trouble you to invite Director Hao here personally."
"It's nothing, it was on the way," Mr. Gu's expression remained unchanged, his voice consistently cold and distant. "The Yue family head's health is more important."
"My father's condition is an old ailment. It had actually stabilized considerably. I don't know why it suddenly..." Yue Chengfeng trailed off, startled by the pungent smell of alcohol in the room. He scanned the surroundings and saw the mess on the floor, with pots and wine jars everywhere.
Yue Chengfeng and the butler were drunk and unconscious, and two unfamiliar young men and women were also flushed with drunkenness.
"What... what happened? Chengfeng!" Yue Chengfeng immediately walked towards Yue Chengfeng and pushed him a few times, but he showed no signs of waking up.
Mr. Gu's brows furrowed, and just as he was feeling surprised, a drunken rabbit, thoroughly marinated in alcohol, stumbled into his arms.
"Qingtian?" The surprise in Mr. Gu's eyes flashed briefly, and then he understood.
At this moment, Xia Qingtian looked up, struggling to see the person in front of her, and grinned.
Getting drunk wasn't so bad; she could dream of the person she missed dearly.
Xia Qingtian grabbed Mr. Gu's tie with one hand and touched his face with the other. "You're so handsome... so handsome... you have great potential for being a kept man... How about it? Will you let this sister support you? *Hic*?"