Chapter 65 Unfettered Imagination

The old man sported a messy Einstein-style hairdo. Short and wiry, he was dressed in coarse blue homespun garments dusted with a layer of grime, and he clutched a shovel in his hand.

He had just been clearing out the silt inside a hollow silkworm cocoon.

Liao Xiaoqin smiled and asked, "Mister, is Researcher Du available?"

The old man brushed the dirt off his clothes and rolled his eyes twice.

"He's dead!"

Liao Xiaoqin's pretty eyes widened.

"Dead? When did that happen?"

Ignoring us entirely, the old man hoisted his shovel over his shoulder and walked away.

The two of us exchanged bewildered glances.

Right at that moment, we spotted a plump fellow whose appearance suggested some minor leadership position walking toward us.

Liao Xiaoqin motioned for me to go over and inquire.

I hurriedly fished out a cigarette and offered it to him.

"Hello, could you tell me if Researcher Du is with this silkworm breeding base?"

The man replied, "That's right."

I asked again, "When did he pass away?"

The chubby man furrowed his brows. "Young man, you're so young, why are you cursing people with death right off the bat? He was just clearing out mud a moment ago!"

I was dumbfounded. "Is he the elderly man wearing coarse blue homespun clothes?"

The chubby man nodded. "Yes, that's him."

I scratched my head. "I asked him just now, and he himself said Researcher Du was already dead."

Upon hearing this, the man paused for a second, a mix of哭笑不得 expressions crossing his face.

"Ah! That old Du, what he hates most in life is being called 'Researcher Du.' You're supposed to call him 'Master Du'! You must be here for medical treatment, right? Go on over quickly before he wanders off somewhere else again."

I went back and relayed the situation to Liao Xiaoqin.

Liao Xiaoqin gave a thumbs-up.

"Full of character! Sounds like he really has some genuine skill!"

Later on, I learned that the old man's name was Du Xiangbei. His ancestors were Miao poison-sorcerers (practitioners of Gu witchcraft), and during the tumultuous era, he fled from western Hunan to Yunnan province, making a living by raising silkworms.

A few years prior, he had caught the eye of the Kunming Sericulture Research Institute and landed a job there—a secure iron rice bowl position.

The Du family had spent generations dealing with all kinds of insects, especially silkworms, and it was safe to say no one understood them better than Old Du.

However, places like research institutes always had a few laymen in leadership positions who loved to meddle, ultimately destroying a fine batch of silkworms he had painstakingly cultivated. Old Du, blessed with a fiery temper, directly planted a mild Gu curse on the interfering official, leaving the latter bedridden for a month. Consequently, he was promptly fired, after which he came to work at this private little silkworm farm.

To him, the title of "Researcher Du" was the greatest insult of his life.

Seeing Old Du enter a room, we immediately hurried over.

Upon reaching the doorway, we saw a sickly-looking woman with generalized edema and a distended stomach that looked ready to burst, kneeling before Old Du.

"Master Du, please save me."

Old Du patted his head.

"Stop kneeling. Kneel again and I won't save you."

The woman got up, crying.

Seeing us follow behind, Old Du's face twisted with disgust, and he moved to close the door.

Liao Xiaoqin raised a hand and wedged it in the doorway, her lovely face beaming with a radiant smile.

"Master Du, we used the wrong honorific earlier, please don't take offense.

"We were recommended by Professor Qin Huaixun from Peking University. He said you are the foremost authority in the domestic sericulture field, so we made a special trip to seek your guidance. You go ahead with your work, we'll just wait outside."

I had never seen Liao Xiaoqin act so demure and polite, and I found myself staring in a daze.

Noticing my unresponsiveness, Liao Xiaoqin heavily stomped on the tip of my shoe.

I hastily handed over the two cartons of Ashima cigarettes and two bottles of Yulinquan liquor I had bought along the way.

Upon seeing this, Old Du frowned.

"So it was that blockhead Qin Huaixun who sent you... Fine, go sit over there for a bit."

Qin Huaixun had been Old Du's colleague back at the research institute before leaving to teach at Peking University; he was practically the only person Old Du acknowledged.

Liao Xiaoqin seemed to have quite extensive connections.

We sat and waited on the chairs nearby.

Old Du filled a bowl with water, snipped a lock of hair from the woman, and burned it in the water. Then he took out a medicinal jar from the side, poured in some pitch-black liquid, and finally, with extreme care, retrieved a breathable wooden box from his person.

Inside the wooden box lay a golden silkworm, about the thickness of a little finger.

Old Du placed the insect into the black water containing the burned hair, stuck incense into the nearby household shrine, muttered a few incantations we couldn't understand, and instructed the woman to drink the water and swallow the worm along with it.

The woman hesitated, looking terrified.

Old Du snapped, "You foolish woman! It will suck out the poison in your belly, and you just need to vomit it up half an hour later. It won't stay inside you."

Hearing this, the woman furrowed her brows, picked up the bowl with trembling hands, and prepared to drink.

Yet that golden silkworm seemed exceptionally agitated, rolling back and forth incessantly in the bowl as if trying to leap out.

Seeing this, Old Du frowned deeply.

"Huh... This has never happened before. What's going on?"

Suddenly!

The golden silkworm leaped straight out of the bowl and lunged viciously toward Liao Xiaoqin.

Liao Xiaoqin's face drained of color as she sidestepped.

The golden silkworm slammed directly against the wall.

*Thud!*

It dropped to the floor, body fluids oozing out, motionless. It was dead.

Old Du's eyesight didn't seem too good, and he turned his head around, looking about.

"Where's my silkworm?"

I swallowed hard and pointed at the dead silkworm on the ground.

"It... committed suicide."

Old Du rushed over to inspect it, and upon discovering that it was thoroughly and irreversibly dead, he collapsed limply onto the ground and began to wail miserably.

"My silkworm..."

Liao Xiaoqin and I exchanged glances, just as we reached out to help Old Du up.

Old Du flew into a towering rage, snatching up a nearby iron shovel with the fierce intensity of a man facing his father's murderer.

"You killed my precious baby!"

He brandished the shovel and came swinging at us.

Liao Xiaoqin gave me a swift kick.

"Good disciple, you hold him off for a bit!"

With a twist of her litling torso, she flashed right out the door.

Staggering from her kick, I tumbled to the ground, and seeing the shovel descending toward my forehead, I had no choice but to roll frantically to the side to dodge.

*Smash!*

The shovel struck the earth.

Dirt splattered everywhere.

Terrified out of my wits, I scrambled up and bolted outside.

Old Du chased after me from behind, furiously brandishing his weapon.

I sprinted for the entrance, shook him off with a few swift maneuvers, and pressed my back against the outer wall of the silkworm breeding base, gasping heavily for breath.

"Hey!"

Liao Xiaoqin poked her head out from behind the wall, hands braced against it, greeting me with a cheeky grin.

My anger flared up instantly.

"Liao Xiaoqin, what on earth are you trying to do?"

Sporting a gloating expression, she blew warm breath onto her hands, pulled out an iron box from her robes, and opened it to show me.

Over a dozen black silkworms.

These were all the ones from the body of Marquis Guo Wu!

No wonder Old Du's golden silkworm had lunged at Liao Xiaoqin earlier—it was most likely because of their presence!

I was utterly shocked.

"How did you bring them out?!"

Liao Xiaoqin let out a cold snort.

"These silkworms date back several thousand years and have long since gone extinct in this world. The silk they spin is the primary raw material for forging the Golden Silkworm Molting, and Old Du is probably the only person in the entire world who understands them."

"And then?"

"If your brother took the Golden Silkworm Molting, can't we get Old Du to figure out a way to track him down using these silkworms?"

I was completely dumbfounded by her wild imagination.