Chapter 15 | Days of Being a Constable in Ancient Times

“Aunt Zhang, why have you come over?” Little Tietou's eldest aunt greeted Old Lady Zhang, her voice heavy with sorrow.

“I brought Qingyun to see Little Tietou. It must be so hard on you all. How is Ah-Tang doing?” Old Lady Zhang patted Lady Cao's hand.

“Still the same,” Lady Cao sighed. “She won't eat or drink, just stays by Little Tietou's side. I understand her—earlier this year, my son was just like this, and so was young Hui. All three children suffered from the exact same thing.”

“I don't know if our family brought bad luck upon ourselves, but it's specifically targeting the children. Sigh, let's not dwell on that. Aunt Zhang, let me bring you inside to see Ah-Tang and Little Tietou.”

Gu Qingyun followed quietly behind. As they reached Little Tietou's room, she saw a man huddled beneath the eaves, clutching his head in a tight ball. He sat motionless, radiating overwhelming grief.

Lady Cao opened her mouth to call out, but Old Lady Zhang held her back and gently shook her head. Understanding her intent, Lady Cao led Old Lady Zhang straight into Little Tietou's room.

Little Tietou's small body lay on the bed under a blanket. His face was deathly pale; even from a distance, he showed no signs of life force.

Had Gu Qingyun not noticed his tiny chest gently rising and falling, she would have taken him for a corpse.

Tietou's mother stared at him without blinking, unable to tear her gaze away. She didn't even stir when Gu Qingyun and the others entered.

Just as Gu Qingyun was about to channel her qi into her eyes for a closer look, the Xuan cat perched on her shoulder meowed sharply toward Little Tietou several times. The cries sounded urgent, like a warning.

“Is that... a Xuan cat?” Tietou's mother snapped out of her daze and looked at Gu Qingyun's shoulder.

“Jet-black all over... It really is a Xuan cat! I've heard Xuan cats can ward off evil and protect households—did it sense something?” Tietou's mother rushed over to Gu Qingyun in excitement.

“Girl Gu, put your cat next to Little Tietou! Maybe with a Xuan cat here, Little Tietou will wake up!”

Looking at the desperate hope in the mother's eyes, Gu Qingyun couldn't bring herself to refuse. She said softly,

“Auntie, that's just a folk belief, so it might not actually work. But let's try it out first.”

Setting Little Black down beside Little Tietou, Gu Qingyun channeled her qi into her eyes once more and examined the child from head to toe.

Through her vision, Little Tietou's life force was continuously draining away. By her estimate, two-thirds of it had already slipped away. If this continued, the boy wouldn't survive past tomorrow.

His face grew paler by the second, taking on a subtle greenish tinge. While ordinary people couldn't pick up on it, it was painfully clear to Gu Qingyun.

She stepped forward without drawing attention, reached out to touch Little Tietou, and quietly channeled a thread of spiritual qi into his body. Before long, a faint touch of color returned to his pale face.

Old Lady Zhang and the two aunts watched quietly from the side. Seeing the touch of color on her son's face, Tietou's mother covered her mouth in shock, tears welling up in her eyes as she held her breath, afraid to disturb Gu Qingyun.

When Gu Qingyun drew her hand back, Ah-Tang stared at her with shining eyes.

“Qingyun, what did you just do?”

Gu Qingyun said, “I thought that since I practice martial arts and work as a Constable, I naturally carry a bit of stern, lethal aura. Since medical clinics didn't help, I figured I'd try this approach. I didn't expect it to actually help a little.”

“Qingyun, I beg you, save Tietou!” Realizing there was hope for her child, Ah-Tang was about to drop to her knees, but Gu Qingyun caught her quickly.

“Auntie, I only have one day of leave, and I can't stay beside Little Tietou at all times. Think back carefully—have any strange things happened in your family over the past year?”

Gu Qingyun prompted her, hoping to gather some clues.

Standing nearby, Lady Cao suddenly blurted out, her tone laced with grit:

“I know something!” Her teeth were gritted.

“My husband's grandmother is over eighty years old. At the start of the year, her health suddenly took a turn for the worse out of nowhere. I was busy at the time, so I had my son look after her.”

“Who would have thought that after just two days, my son fell ill with a sudden affliction and died three days later! But Grandmother miraculously recovered and was even able to get out of bed to eat.”

“Since then, her health has gotten better and better. Then young Hui went through the exact same thing! Now Grandmother is even growing new teeth, and her hair is turning black again. There's definitely something wrong with her!”

Gu Qingyun frowned upon hearing this.

“Auntie, mind your words.” If malicious ears heard this, they might accuse her of slandering her elder.

Ah-Tang wiped away her tears and looked directly into Gu Qingyun's eyes, pleading earnestly:

“Qingyun, I know I'm asking a lot of you, but could you take your Xuan cat and have a look at Little Tietou's great-grandmother?”

“I've heard that martial artists have keen senses far beyond ordinary people. See if you can spot anything amiss. Little Tietou is in such a state—I can't give up on even a glimmer of hope. Please, I beg you.”

Gu Qingyun sighed.

“I'll try, but please don't hold your hopes up too high, Aunties.”

Ah-Tang nodded in understanding.

“I understand. Tietou's great-grandmother is down under the big tree at the east end of the village chatting with people. Just go over there—she's the one with full black hair and a radiant complexion.”

Gu Qingyun scooped up the black cat, asked Old Lady Zhang to stay behind, and sprinted toward the east end of the village.

She came to a halt dozens of meters away from the big tree, ducked into a secluded spot, and observed the group beneath the tree.

Several elderly villagers sat there chatting. One of them immediately caught Gu Qingyun's attention—a remarkably spirited old woman whose dark hair was combed immaculately.

Compared to the other seniors, she was vibrant and full of vigor. She didn't look like an octogenarian at all; she barely looked sixty.

What disturbed Gu Qingyun most was the bright smile on her face. Her own great-grandson was critically ill at home, yet as a great-grandmother, she was sitting outside laughing and chatting with a beaming face.

As before, Gu Qingyun channeled her qi into her eyes. What met her vision was a mottled aura surrounding the old woman: a gray qi belonging to advanced old age mixed with a vibrant green qi. That green life force seemed to have been forcibly pumped into her body, nourishing her aging flesh.

Gu Qingyun's face turned solemn. She looked away, turned around clutching Little Black, and headed back.

...

Seeing her granddaughter return with a grim expression, Old Lady Zhang's heart sank. She pulled her aside and asked:

“What is it?”

Gu Qingyun honestly didn't know how to break the news. She turned to look at Tietou's mother, who was watching anxiously with bated breath, and took a deep breath.

“Grandma, I don't know how to put this... The old matriarch of the Li family seems abnormal. By all rights, she should be terminally ill and near death, but that's not what I saw. Her body seems to be sustained by a force of vitality, making her grow younger as time goes on.”

Old Lady Zhang's expression turned grave as her scrawny hand grabbed Gu Qingyun's arm tightly.

“Are you saying Old Lady Li is stealing her great-grandchildren's lifespan?”

Gu Qingyun closed her eyes with pity and nodded.

“Yes.”

Old Lady Zhang released her grip, her shoulders visibly sagging.

“What a sin... How could she do such a thing? Qingyun, do you have any way to fix this?”

Gu Qingyun explained the solution in detail. Old Lady Zhang didn't ask where she had learned it—ever since her granddaughter was born, she knew the girl possessed extraordinary fortune and was different from ordinary people.