Chapter 161: Strange Bell

Su Ruo became busier and busier in the coming days; although she had great talent in medicine, she had missed many lessons and had to gradually make them up.

With Guihua's company, the mistress still did not speak, still feared the master and senior brothers, but gradually she had adapted to her current life, no longer needing someone to look after everything; everything seemed to be moving in a good direction.

However, every time Su Ruo saw Guihua, she felt an indescribable strangeness in her heart, which made her very uncomfortable.

But aside from Su Ruo, the master and senior brothers all had a good impression of Guihua.

Guihua could cook many dishes, especially the master's favorite Sichuan cuisine, which she made very well; since Guihua arrived, the food in the Medicine Hall had greatly improved, to the point that even the master had gained a bit of weight.

Moreover, because the mistress had awakened, the master's face glowed with health each day, full of vigor, appearing to be in especially good spirits.

The three senior brothers also praised Guihua's cooking without end; objectively speaking, even Su Ruo could find no fault with her culinary skills.

Moreover, Guihua also cleaned every room until spotless, and ironed the clothes until they were neat and smooth.

Sometimes she could also help the master air-dry some medicinal herbs and carefully sort them.

Everything was perfect, leaving no room for criticism, but does such a flawless person really exist in this world?

The better Guihua performed, the stronger Su Ruo's unease became; on several occasions she wanted to warn the master that Guihua had a problem.

But whenever the master mentioned Guihua, he would beam with praise, so Su Ruo had no choice but to swallow her words.

Although Su Ruo suspected Guihua, she could not let the master dismiss Guihua based on those suspicions, especially since the master and senior brothers all liked Guihua so much.

But Su Ruo did not abandon her vigilance toward Guihua; besides the required lessons, she spent almost all her time accompanying the mistress.

Yet even under Su Ruo's meticulous observation, she still could not find anything wrong with Guihua, which made her begin to wonder if she was overthinking.

【16】 That day, after class, Su Ruo returned to the Medicine Hall; seeing her, the mistress immediately, as usual, put down the flower in her hand and wanted to run to Su Ruo.

These days, although the mistress no longer clung to Su Ruo as before, whenever she saw Su Ruo she would happily run to her side, like a chick seeing its mother return.

In fact, the mistress's intellect now was only that of a few-year-old, her eyes pure like a child's.

Gradually, Su Ruo also became accustomed to interacting with the mistress in this way.

But this time, as soon as the mistress made a move, Guihua shook the bronze bell in her hand; the bell's sound was extremely faint, and if not for Su Ruo's unusually sharp hearing, it would have been impossible to hear.

Accompanying Guihua's action, the mistress suddenly stopped; although she continued to look at Su Ruo and smile, she made no further movement.

"Mistress, what's wrong?" Su Ruo asked, looking at the mistress who had suddenly frozen in place, puzzled.

At that moment, Guihua's bronze bell rang again, and at the same time the mistress finally moved, happily running toward Su Ruo; aside from that brief pause, everything seemed no different.

If Su Ruo did not have extreme confidence in her memory, she might even think that what just happened was her own illusion.

As Su Ruo immediately looked at Guihua, she happened to see the corner of Guihua's mouth lift into a strange smile, but Guihua quickly suppressed it.

Su Ruo stared at the bell in Guihua's hand, and her gaze instantly turned sharp.

The mistress did not notice Su Ruo's oddness; she smiled and took out her own embroidered pattern to show Su Ruo, the butterflies on it lifelike.

At that moment the master approached and said, "Your mistress studied embroidery from childhood; she loves embroidering these flowers and birds. Who would have thought that after ten years of unconsciousness she would have forgotten everything, yet her embroidery skill remains unchanged."

Upon seeing the master, the mistress instinctively wanted to hide behind Su Ruo, but the faint bell sound rang again, and she immediately stopped her movement.

She seemed to have forgotten what she intended to do, still standing beside Su Ruo and smiling at her; this smile was no different from usual, everything appeared perfectly natural, yet Su Ruo felt a creepy sensation.

Is Guihua using this bell to control the mistress?

Once this thought arose, it could not be contained; Su Ruo forced herself to stay calm to see what Guihua would do next.

The master did not notice the strangeness between the mistress and Guihua; instead, he was pleased with the mistress's change—although she still feared him, at least she now avoided him when she saw him.

He felt that if things continued this way, someday he could return to his wife's original state; even if full recovery were impossible, it would be fine, because being able to live each day with his wife was already good enough for him—this was heaven's gift to him, and he must cherish it.

"Since Ruo Ruo has come back, let's eat!"

The master said with a smile, he was not someone who greatly indulged in food, but after eating Guihua's meals, he had begun to look forward to eating.

Although there were only four people, Guihua prepared five dishes, which could be said to have catered to everyone's preferences.

At the table, the master ate while praising Guihua's skill; Guihua responded modestly.

The mistress obviously also liked Guihua's dishes, eating two full bowls of rice; the master was pleased that her appetite was good.

But he worried that if the mistress ate too much at night she would suffer indigestion, since her digestion was still weak; thus he reminded her: "At night you should still eat a little less."

The mistress continued to pick up her favorite dish, showing no reaction to the master's words; this was normal, as these days she had been like that—except when facing Su Ruo, she basically had no response to anyone else's words, as if completely immersed in her own world.

But this time, after the master finished speaking, Guihua only lightly shook the bell, and the mistress immediately put down her chopsticks and sat properly.

Su Ruo tightened her grip on the chopsticks, growing more certain that her guess was correct, yet she pretended nothing was amiss and picked a dish the mistress liked most to give her.

"It's fine; after I finish eating I'll accompany the mistress for a walk to aid digestion, and then bring her some hawthorn cake."

But the mistress remained sitting upright, not moving the dish she had picked up.

Guihua stood up, took a handkerchief to wipe the mistress's mouth, and said, "I know Miss Su is kind to the mistress, but the mistress should still listen to the master and eat less at night."

Su Ruo clenched her fingers, but only for a moment did her expression return to normal; she smiled and said, "Aunt Guihua, I think the bell in your hand looks quite special—I've never seen one like it before; may I take a look?"