**"Interrogating the Rice" (问米/Wen Mi):** A classic form of Chinese folk divination, still practiced in some rural communities. The medium uses uncooked rice as a conduit to summon a spirit to speak through them. The theatrical "hiccup" (嗝) the entity makes before nearly revealing the secret of the Heart-Element is a classic signal of possession—a detail that grounds the horror in a genuine folk practice.
Definition
**"Interrogating the Rice" (问米/Wen Mi):** A classic form of Chinese folk divination, still practiced in some rural communities. The medium uses uncooked rice as a conduit to summon a spirit to speak through them. The theatrical "hiccup" (嗝) the entity makes before nearly revealing the secret of the Heart-Element is a classic signal of possession—a detail that grounds the horror in a genuine folk practice.
Buckle up, fellow travelers—this chapter is a masterclass in Li Huowang refusing to be played. Fresh off his dealings with the Anci Nunnery's rot, our favorite paranoid Heart-Element is done being a passive question-answerer. When the Rice Divination spits out a suspiciously convenient solution to his "missing Five Phases" problem, his Zuowandao-honed instincts flare up. He's not buying any of it. What follows is a tense, one-on-one psychic cage match where Li Huowang, armed with a blade and a few bitter lessons, decides to stop asking nicely and start threatening deities. The chapter ends with him securing a side hustle as an escort guard, a pragmatic move that shows he's learning to work the system instead of just surviving it.
This chapter is a major milestone in Li Huowang's character development. He's no longer the confused, desperate newbie. The lessons from Zhengde Temple and the Zuowandao have hardened him. When the Rice Divination entity tries its spooky routine, his first instinct is aggression, not fear. The key moment is his mental pivot: "No matter what those things are, this world is already mad. I just need to mind my own business." This is the birth of his pragmatic survival philosophy. He's still terrified of the cosmic horrors (the "those... those..." he can't finish saying), but he's learning to compartmentalize that terror. Watch how he deploys the copper coin mask not out of paranoia, but as a calculated tool. The side quest with the escort agency at the end is a small but telling victory: he's found a way to turn his dangerous journey into a source of income.
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