I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 148 - 96 Nursing Home, Maid_2

Yizhen sat in the shop waiting lifelessly, but after a while, she couldn’t help but get up and come to the counter to look at the Talisman Scripture Scroll that Xu Qing was copying.

The embroidery girl, on the other hand, sat sideways on the coffin, her eyes empty as she looked at the shop door, beyond which lay the freedom she had lost...

...

As dawn approached, the distant sound of a rooster crowing could be heard.

After a night of recovery, the Golden Simurgh could now stand upright. Unfortunately, when it flapped its wings in an attempt to crow, it still could only produce a hoarse sound akin to a cough.

The poison on Xu Qing’s sword was no ordinary poison. Although the rooster had taken the antidote, its scorched throat might still need some time to heal.

In front of the counter, Xu Qing tied the completed pages with a string and affixed a cover.

Then he wrote the four small characters "Cave Profound Talisman" on it.

Earlier, Yizhen had politely declined on the grounds that she shouldn’t accept rewards without meritorious deeds, but Xu Qing had interrupted her.

He had said it was a token of the old gentleman’s goodwill.

It was also considered a fateful encounter on her journey.

If Heaven bestows a gift and you do not accept it, you will face its wrath.

If one does not accept the heartfelt gift of the old gentleman, it would also hurt his feelings.

If Yizhen were to follow her usual nature, she wouldn’t accept such a precious gift no matter what Xu Qing said.

But remembering the goodwill Hu Baosong had shown her, she found herself accepting it.

"Old Hu and Daoist Yizhen’s master were old friends. By seniority, he could be considered an uncle. Since it is a teaching from a master, the Daoist can just accept it without hesitation."

After giving the talisman book, Xu Qing also conveyed Hu Baosong’s invitation for Yizhen to attend his lecture two days later.

Seeing Yizhen agree, Xu Qing happily said, "In that case, Daoist Yizhen and I can be considered half disciples of the same sect. If the Daoist doesn’t mind, I would like to call you Senior Sister. After all, calling each other ’Daoist’ all the time seems a bit distant."

Yizhen smiled lightly and nodded, "Junior Brother Xu."

Seeing that he had successfully completed Hu Baosong’s task, Xu Qing was in great spirits.

"Senior Sister, there’s no need to be formal. Let’s meet again in two days."

Yizhen nodded, but before leaving the shop, she turned back and entrusted Xu Qing with a task: "Junior Brother Xu, it’s already bright outside, and there are more people on the streets. My spiritual bird, though its poison has just been cleansed, is still weak and can’t travel far. If someone sees it, it will be inconvenient."

"If it’s convenient for you, could it stay here quietly to recuperate for two days?"

"It’s no problem, just a small matter. It’s just that I have never fed a spiritual bird like this and don’t know what it eats and drinks..."

Yizhen laughed, "This chicken is easy to feed. It eats all kinds of grains like coarse rice and wheat, but it especially loves glutinous rice."

What?!

Xu Qing nearly choked on this.

Glutinous rice is the essence of the five grains, full of yang energy, capable of dispelling corpse poison, and it also has a restraining effect on ordinary walking corpses.

While glutinous rice no longer had any effect on Xu Qing, he had inherited a zombie’s aversion to it.

Just like some people dislike cilantro or fishy-smelling herbs.

In the funeral business, glutinous rice is scattered around a coffin to prevent corpse gas from spreading, and it’s also scattered at the door to ward off evil.

Grains have slight exorcistic properties, and Xu Qing used to use white rice instead of glutinous rice when performing rites as he disliked glutinous rice.

"No wonder this Golden Chicken has such strong yang energy, its diet clearly makes a difference," Xu Qing grinned, inevitably feeling a bit of ’the roof hates the house’ towards the Golden Chicken.

Yizhen didn’t sense Xu Qing’s double meaning. She smiled and took a pouch of glutinous rice from her wide sleeve and placed it on the table.

"This is the remaining glutinous rice. If it needs to eat, please feed it some of this."

Xu Qing glanced at the approximately fifty-pound rice bag, then looked at Yizhen’s wide sleeve, assuming she had some kind of storage artifact.

Watching Yizhen leave the Funeral Shop, Xu Qing turned around and disdainfully handed the bag of glutinous rice to the embroidery girl.

"Embroidery girl, you will be responsible for feeding the chicken. In two days, I’ll take you to my Feng Shui Treasure Residence to begin your duties."

The Shuimen Bridge Residence had been unattended for a long time, and Xu Qing found the embroidery girl to be the perfect candidate.

Although, in strict terms, she wasn’t really a person.

Xu Qing didn’t care about the ghost girl’s skills; he valued her ability to scare people.

This talent, if cultivated well, could ensure that even the most audacious martial artist visiting his residence would flee in terror.

Feed the chicken? The embroidery girl looked at the enormous rooster that could probably swallow her whole like a worm and felt deeply resistant.

But a ghost has to bow under the eaves.

Feed, then. Being a chicken-feeding farmer is better than being forced to do something worse by the wicked man.

Though she wasn’t keen on feeding chickens either.

At this moment, the embroidery girl hadn’t yet realized the severity of the situation. She unwittingly opened the bag of glutinous rice, and the next moment, an intense white light burst from the bag’s opening, visible to ghostly vision. The glutinous rice, having been sun-dried for a long time, had absorbed plenty of solar energy, which ghosts naturally loathe.

Startled by the sudden flash, the embroidery girl squealed and retreated in fear.

She looked like a girl who had seen a giant snake.

"What’s going on?" Xu Qing, who was studying the art of talismans, turned to look upon hearing the commotion.

The embroidery girl pointed at the bag as if there was something terrifying inside and said with a trembling voice,

"Rice, glutinous rice! There’s glutinous rice inside!"

"Making a fuss over nothing, it’s just glutinous rice. I thought you saw a mouse in there." Xu Qing put down his book irritably, stood up, and came over to the bag. He grabbed a handful of glutinous rice and opened his palm to show it.

"What’s there to be scared of? I raised you to scare others, and if you’re this timid, how can you achieve anything great in the future?"

"Come here, open your hand."

Xu Qing grabbed the embroidery girl’s reluctant hand and stuffed a handful of glutinous rice into it.

"Your master needs to focus on reading now, so you had better go feed the chicken!"

"..."

The embroidery girl widened her eyes.

Indeed, he just wanted to use me as a servant girl, all that talk about helping a ghost cultivate itself was just a sham. He just wanted to have an obedient ghost to order around!

At the stove, a white-clad female ghost nervously fed the Golden Chicken.

Her cautious demeanor looked just like a girl lighting firecrackers for the first time.

Xuan Yu sat on the stove. Seeing the Golden Simurgh eating so happily, it couldn’t help but say, "Hey girl, your Miss Xuan Yu also wants to eat rice, bring some over."

Based on its past experience living in a rich household, Xuan Yu imitated what it had heard.

"..."

The embroidery girl silently grabbed a handful of rice and brought it to Xuan Yu.

A cat that can speak, and one that can make the Golden Chicken bow its head, must be some great demon she couldn’t afford to offend.

After serving the cat and the chicken, the embroidery girl picked up the wooden ladle she had just filled with water and floated to the water jar. She began to feel sorry for herself as she looked into the still water.

’Look at you, being bullied by people is one thing, but now you even have to be subservient to a chicken and a cat. Why is your fate so miserable...’

However, this time, there was no reflection of herself in the water at all.

...