Zhuang Ming's childish voice was like an ice pick in the winter month, stabbing straight into Zhaozhao's already unsteady heart.
A terrible thought took shape in Zhaozhao's mind. She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't control the wild growth of her speculation.
"What do you mean..." Zhaozhao's voice trembled uncontrollably. "By saying you took the baby out of your mother's belly?"
Zhuang Ming frowned, his eyes shifting back and forth between his younger sister and Sister Zhaozhao. He seemed a bit confused as to why this question was worth dwelling on, so a hint of bewilderment appeared in his big eyes.
But Zhaozhao was a sister he liked very much, so he carefully recalled and told the whole story exactly as it had happened.
"Mom fell down the stairs and bled a lot. Mom was very sad. She cried and kept saying something about her sister. I saw it. Mom didn't want her sister to leave. She said her sister could still be saved. She grabbed me and told me to find someone, but no one paid any attention to us no matter how long I shouted. Then Mom closed her eyes and never opened them again."
When he reached the sad part, Zhuang Ming hung his little head, and tears rolled down one by one. He raised his hand to wipe them away and tried hard to control his voice.
"When I ran back, Mom was holding a pair of scissors in her hand. I saw my sister lying in Mom's belly. There was so much blood. Her whole body was covered in it. I cut the thing that connected her to Mom, but my sister still didn't wake up. She was just like Mom and would never talk to me again."
A look of dullness appeared on Zhuang Ming's face. "My sister used to say hello to me when she was still in Mom's belly."
Zhaozhao never expected the truth to be so bloody and cruel. But this gory reality made her catch her breath while also making her feel relieved.
Thank goodness, Zhuang Ming wasn't what she had thought.
"Where was your father?" From Zhuang Ming's description, his father seemed to have no presence at all, like a ghost.
"Dad..." Zhuang Ming clutched his sleeves tightly. His small body trembled, and he said in a quivering voice, "Dad was with that aunt. He didn't like Mom. He locked Mom up there and took my sister away."
Took her away? Did Zhuang Ming's father take away the corpse of his younger sister?
It seemed to make sense, but Zhaozhao always felt that something was off.
Although she was no longer completely ignorant of human society as before, she still found the complex relationships among humans a headache.
Or rather, her understanding of the relationships among all groups was very simplistic, so she wasn't sensitive enough to relationships that went beyond moral and ethical boundaries. That was why she didn't notice anything wrong with Zhuang Ming's father in what he had said.
Zhaozhao could vaguely sense something. She thought maybe she should go and meet Zhuang Ming's father to secretly investigate.
Suddenly, a baby's cry rang out in the official greenhouse. Zhaozhao looked down at the little ghost baby. Just as she was feeling at a loss, Zhuang Ming very skillfully picked up his younger sister and rocked her to soothe her.
Zhaozhao didn't know what to do for a moment. She lowered her head and examined the withered branch again.
She tilted her head and thought for a while. Something flashed through her mind.
A vivid green spiritual power flowed out from her fingertips and slowly seeped into the withered branch.
Under the effect of the spiritual power, the withered branch suddenly began to sprout again and regain new vitality. The buds on the withered branch grew very quickly and soon turned into fresh new leaves.
Zhaozhao still couldn't recognize what kind of tree this branch belonged to even after it had grown leaves. She just felt that it looked a bit familiar.
It seemed that there was nothing she could do about this tree relative for the time being. Zhaozhao could only sigh regretfully.
Zhuang Ming stared at this strange scene with wide eyes. Even the little ghost baby stopped crying and stretched out her hand to reach for the branch in Zhaozhao's hand.
"Sister, are you the Fairy of Hundred Flowers?" Zhuang Ming exclaimed, looking at Zhaozhao with admiration all over his face.
Zhaozhao smiled when she heard this description and shook her head. "I'm not." She was just an ordinary little tree spirit.
But Zhuang Ming didn't want to believe her denial. He pointed at a few pots of flowers in the greenhouse and said, "You must be. All these flowers bloomed secretly the day you came. And that dead tree outside. I heard from the adults that it was almost dead, but it miraculously came back to life!"
Zhuang Ming seemed very excited, but Zhaozhao was quite calm. She was sure that she wasn't the Fairy of Hundred Flowers. All she wanted to do now was to figure out the mystery surrounding Zhuang Ming and what that big tree he kept talking about was.
What kind of extraordinary treasure could it be that so many ghosts yearned for it?
She still didn't know what was going on with this little ghost baby who had become a ghost cultivator. It seemed that she had to find a way to place a mirror beside Zhuang Ming so that she could detect it in time when Zhuang Ming's mother came back to look for her.
Before leaving, Zhaozhao used her magic to seal Zhuang Ming's "sister". After all, Zhuang Ming's younger sister shouldn't have existed in this world. Even though she was just a ghost baby without any independent thought, she still had some magical power on her. It was safer to seal her.
After the little ghost baby was sealed, she looked just like she was sleeping. Zhuang Ming carefully placed her on the blanket and covered her with a quilt.
Looking at this scene, Zhaozhao felt a pang of sadness for no reason. "Do you like this younger sister very much?"
"Yeah." Zhuang Ming nodded heavily. "She's my only relative now."
Looking at the happy smile on the boy's face, Zhaozhao finally didn't say anything.
She quietly stuck a coin-sized round mirror on Zhuang Ming's back and then got up and left.
The withered branch that had grown new leaves was also taken away.
What she didn't know was that the moment she turned around, a wisp of red light suddenly appeared on the back of her neck. A mark flashed by on her nape.
Zhuang Ming was stunned. He rubbed his eyes, but when he looked again, there was nothing there.
---
When Zhaozhao arrived at the Demon Management Bureau again, she was undoubtedly late. The electronic attendance machine dutifully recorded a big mark for her.
She didn't have the heart to care. She sat at her workstation in a daze, staring at the tree branch and thinking about how to report Zhuang Ming's matter to the Demon Management Bureau.
Before she knew it, it was lunchtime. Colleagues left one after another to go for lunch. They called Zhaozhao before leaving, but she refused them all. Zhaozhao would keep thinking about things if she couldn't figure them out.
She didn't know how much time had passed when a snap of fingers sounded beside Zhaozhao's ear. She turned her head and saw Lu Chukong's smiling face very close to hers.
"Why are you here?"
Lu Chukong said mysteriously, "Guess."
Zhaozhao didn't want to guess. She just stared at him stubbornly.
"Okay, okay. I'm here, of course, to handle a big matter, and it's related to you."
"Me?"
"Yes, it's you. Oh, and where's your dear husband? He has to be here for this matter too."
Zhaozhao hadn't even recovered from the words "dear husband" when another lazy voice interrupted. "I'm here."
Lou Qingzhuo leaned against the door in an unseemly manner, smiling wickedly and seductively.
Zhaozhao frowned and blurted out, "I don't know you. You're a scammer!"
"Hey, what are you talking about? Girl, you saved me on the roadside that day. When I woke up, I found myself half - naked, so I swore to repay you by marrying you."
"You think you're worthy of repaying me by marrying me?" A chill suddenly came over. Su Yuan didn't know where he came from, and no one knew how much he had heard.