Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 103
by Little PandaMy Wife (15)
“Kiss me, and I’ll let you go, hmm?”
Inside the guest room separated by two rooms.
During the day, having given pocket money, Xu Dashu and his wife, who sent Xu Jiayao to stay in town, sat there nervously and uneasily, showing a forced ingratiating smile to the arriving master. Listening carefully, they heard no sound coming from Xu Jiao’s room. They exchanged a glance, each seeing a bit of fear in the other’s eyes.
However, the bald master sitting cross-legged on the wooden bed in front of them appeared composed, with a look of meditative calmness. Just as the couple was about to be overwhelmed by the silent atmosphere, he suddenly spoke:
“It’s done.”
Xu Dashu and Mother Xu almost jumped up on the spot because of this sentence. Mother Xu dug her fingertips fiercely into Xu Dashu’s arm and asked again to confirm: “Master, are you sure? That little demon girl has already been captured?”
The bald master opened his eyes, his bare feet stepping into a pair of cloth shoes by the bedside. As he stood up, he saw the expressions of Xu Dashu and his wife and consoled them in a deep voice:
“You two need not panic.”
“Back then, I said she was the reincarnation of the Ghost King’s wife. Even though she’s human, she carries the Ghost King’s yin energy and is naturally a calamity. Originally, I thought if I removed all the yin energy from her, she would grow up like a normal child. I never expected her to remain unrepentant, growing into what she is today, even relying on her closeness to spirits to join forces with them and wantonly attack ordinary people…”
Before he finished speaking, Xu Dashu and his wife were already nodding continuously, agreeing with his words: “The master is right!”
“Master, can you take care of her?”
The bald master heard these words, his gaze circling in front of them, pondering for two seconds. He slowly said, “After all, she is just an ordinary person. Taking a life is something I absolutely cannot do…”
While speaking, his hand moved under the wide sleeve, his thumb and index finger slowly rubbing together, seemingly hinting at something.
Mother Xu first noticed this gesture, and being rather impatient and anxious, she stomped her foot and said, “Master, you didn’t tell us this back then. At that time, we didn’t want this child and wanted to throw her into the mountains to feed the dogs. But you said raising her would be useful, so we worked hard to bring her up. Now that she’s turning against us, you’re asking for more money? Poor us, we’re almost being killed by this bad thing, and you actually stand by and do nothing?”
Xu Dashu glanced at the woman beside him with the corner of his eye, saying nothing, just pacing to the door, raising his pipe for a long, deep puff. Though he didn’t speak, he also didn’t rebuke Mother Xu’s attitude, clearly allowing her outburst.
The bald man in worn straw shoes didn’t appear very friendly, with a face full of flesh and narrow eyes. When he squinted, two deep nasolabial folds appeared.
In Mother Xu’s heart, there instinctively arose some fear.
But she did not retreat, after all, money is the lifeline of their poor family. She still has a son who hasn’t married a wife and hasn’t bought a house. Future expenses are considerable, so how could she let such a deceitful wild monk trick them out of it?
She thought back to many years ago when she first met this monk.
The monk thought the couple didn’t know, but Mother Xu remembered very clearly. Before Xu Jiao was born, this smelly monk somehow found his way to their door and couldn’t be driven away, just like a swindler, saying they were in big trouble.
At first, Mother Xu didn’t believe it until the monk pointed at her belly and said this fetus was a girl, and moreover, the wife of the Ghost King, which nearly angered her into premature labor.
With great difficulty, she entered the delivery room, and the monk was waiting outside. Mother Xu was already terrified by his words, nearly having a difficult labor. Fortunately, the village midwife was experienced and helped a lot during the delivery. As soon as the child was born, Mother Xu, on the verge of exhaustion, heard the midwife say—
“Oh my dear! Why are this baby girl’s eyes completely black? Guifen! You’ve given birth to a ghost baby!”
Hearing this, Mother Xu immediately blacked out.
The midwife was extremely flustered; at that time, the bloody smell of childbirth hadn’t dispersed in the room, and she felt it was difficult to breathe. In a hoarse voice, she said, “Throw it away! Throw it away! This baby cannot be kept!”
After saying this, she fainted.
When she woke up, the room was filled with the smell of smoke from Xu Dashu’s smoking. Mother Xu didn’t think much, just tugged at the young Xu Dashu’s sleeve, trembling, and asked, “The child… was the child thrown away?”
Xu Dashu looked at her gloomily, seeing her anxiously trying to lift the quilt to get out of bed to see for herself, he quickly pushed her back: “You lie down properly… this matter, this matter isn’t urgent.”
The more he said this, the more anxious Mother Xu became, even raising her hand to hit her own belly, with a crying tone in her voice: “How can it not be urgent? What kind of fate is this for me, marrying into your Xu family, three years without a sound, finally having one, how can it be a ghost child? I’ve had bad luck for eight lifetimes, what kind of feng shui does your old Xu family have, not even seeing the ancestors bless us!”
Xu Dashu heard her even start cursing his ancestors and immediately slapped his own leg: “What kind of nonsense are you saying! Your own lack of effort, what’s it got to do with my ancestors? Alright! Stop talking! You quickly go to sleep, next week we still have to harvest the wheat!”
After saying this, he planned to leave.
When he reached the room door, not knowing what came to mind, he paused his steps, without turning back, and facing away from Mother Xu said: “That master… he’s truly capable. He told us to keep this girl, and just now showed some skills. Anyway… the child now looks normal, can cry, and the eyes have both black and white. I gave him the money for repairing the house, you don’t concern yourself with this matter.”
Mother Xu heard that he gave away the money for repairing the house and immediately looked as if she was going to faint. Enduring the pain of her wounds reopening, she directly tore her throat and shouted: “Xu Dashu! Are you crazy!”
“For a girl… you gave away the money for repairing our house?”
“If the child is gone, I can still give you another! Why did you listen to that swindler? I think he’s just here to cheat money!”
Xu Dashu, wearing cloth shoes with a hole, stomped hard on the ground, and his pipe struck the nearby door frame, shouting loudly: “Alright! Don’t I know you? You just want a son, don’t you? I just heard the master say, if we raise her, don’t starve or beat her to death, she can bring us more money! And a son too!”
Mother Xu was taken aback, then laughed and cried as she looked at him, only saying: “This talk is fooling ghosts, isn’t it? Do you really believe that master came to save people? If he were truly so kind, would he still charge you money? You’re just stubborn; how did I ever fall for someone like you! You useless thing, I’ve been scrimping and saving just to save up for house repairs, oh… I might as well be dead… In the next life, I won’t find a useless man like you again!”
Xu Dashu heard her dragging her voice in a mournful cry on the bed, the sobbing sound extremely pitiful, making his brows furrow with worry. After a long while, he let out a long sigh, speaking in a conceding tone:
“Alright then.”
“I understand you, but I can’t do anything…”
He took a hard puff of his cigarette and said to his wife, “Just now I heard from Erwa in the neighboring village that Afen, who helped deliver your baby, was on her way back riding a motorcycle, and the driver lost control, throwing her directly into the paddy field. At that moment, she went headfirst into the water, and they said when they pulled her out, she was already gone.”
He stood at the door, blocking most of the light coming into the room, and after saying this, he started taking big puffs of his cigarette again.
Mother Xu on the bed was still somewhat unable to react, not knowing what she thought of, her voice trembling as she asked, “The person… just gone like that?”
She still remembered that, besides herself, Afen was the only one who knew what she had given birth to. Just after taking one look at that baby, was she gone like that?
Lying in the bedding, Mother Xu was so frightened that she broke out in a cold sweat.
She didn’t wail anymore, as if she had accepted her tragic fate. She even started to be unwilling to nurse the baby girl, and it was the neighbor who didn’t know anything who took her to nurse along with her child, thinking she didn’t like this baby girl. Until the girl slowly grew up, she noticed that the family’s situation gradually started to improve.
Xu Dashu never lost when gambling with others, and when those people were caught, Xu Dashu was the only one who escaped. Later, he once went to town to buy a lottery ticket and won a prize of fifty thousand yuan. The two of them were quite the sensation in the village, and at that time, they heard about a distant relative of the Xu family who had triplet sons and couldn’t afford to raise them, so they used the money to adopt one of the children.
Seeing that life was gradually getting better, and since Xu Jiao hadn’t shown any strange behavior over the years, the couple gradually forgot about her birth circumstances. According to the master’s advice, as long as they didn’t beat or starve her to death, they treated her like a beast of burden at other times.
Until one year.
Xu Jiao, taking Xu Jiayao, passed by the riverbank and somehow was pushed into the river by Xu Jiayao.
That day, only Xu Jiayao came home, and at first, the couple didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t until evening that they noticed Xu Jiao hadn’t returned. Mother Xu complained at the dinner table, “This dead girl has grown wings, doesn’t she want to come back? When I see her tomorrow, I’ll beat her with a stick to death, see if she dares to be lazy again, today daring to let my Jiayao come back by himself.”
At that time, Xu Jiayao was timid; he stopped eating halfway through the meal, his face full of tension. Under Mother Xu’s questioning, he finally said that in the afternoon, because his sister wouldn’t buy him sweets, he pushed her into the river at the village entrance.
The entire round wooden dining table was shrouded in silence.
Xu Dashu was the first to jump up, as if wanting to go outside, but halfway there, he turned back and said to Mother Xu, “This can’t be blamed on us…”
Mother Xu inexplicably understood his words, patted Xu Jiayao’s somewhat anxious head, and only said, “Alright, Mom doesn’t blame you, eat more food, your sister can swim, she’ll come back.”
Only she herself knew how false these words were because Xu Jiao had never been in the water.
As a result…
That night she was sleeping soundly in bed when she suddenly felt a chill, as if someone had poured a basin of cold water into the bedding. Both Xu Dashu and his wife were woken by the cold. Xu Dashu thought she was making trouble for no reason in the middle of the night and was about to scold her, but Mother Xu turned on the light and looked.
Xu Jiao, with hands and feet tangled in water plants and a pale face, was lying on their bed with her eyes closed.
Clothes and hair were wet, soaking the couple’s bedding completely.
The Xu couple exchanged a glance, both thinking Xu Jiao had died and come to claim their lives. Unexpectedly, the person lying in bed woke up on her own, scaring them terribly. She quickly climbed down to apologize to them. Xu Dashu, with a trembling voice, asked her how she came back. Xu Jiao said she walked back herself, but it was too late and she couldn’t see the house clearly, so she went to the wrong one.
Later.
They found that Xu Jiao started talking to the air. Sometimes, while washing dishes, she would suddenly turn her head to look at the kitchen window and whisper, “Why are you here? I can’t invite you to my house, my parents will be angry!”
Sometimes, when Xu Jiao was feeding the chickens in the yard, she would make a shooing motion towards the outside of the yard, “I’ll come to find you after I’m done with my work!”
Mother Xu once caught her talking to herself like this, immediately recalling the stories of people who died in the river years ago. It was said that many children would swim in that river during the summer, and some would mysteriously disappear, with their bodies only surfacing much later.
Thinking of how Xu Jiao disappeared for an afternoon and suddenly appeared in their room at night…
It seemed as if something was helping Xu Jiao.
Mother Xu, both shocked and scared, gave Xu Jiao a severe beating and locked her in the kitchen, forbidding her to speak of such things again. That time, Xu Jiao was locked up for too long, and since her health was already poor from falling into the water, she burned with fever in the kitchen for a long time.
Fearing that she might die and return to haunt the couple, Mother Xu reluctantly found a barefoot doctor from the village to treat her. After two days on an IV drip, the girl’s life was strong, and she recovered as if nothing had happened, seemingly forgetting about talking to the air a few days ago.
But.
Since that time, the good feng shui gathered in the house dispersed.
Xu Dashu originally had some money in hand, went out with the villagers to do business together, but lost everything. Later, he heard someone took a liking to the mountain on their property, wanting to lease it to plant fruit trees. Xu Dashu had already found people, cleared the miscellaneous grass on the mountain, and cut down trees, but the person who was supposed to lease it never came, leaving him truly bankrupt.
The Xu family returned to their previous state. From that time on, Mother Xu was convinced that the master had ulterior motives, took what belonged to him, and refused to help their family anymore. The couple beat Xu Jiao more severely and resented her uselessness even more.
(LP: I wonder whose fault it is? (≖_≖ ))
Before her.
Hearing Mother Xu’s words, the bald master sneered and said directly, “You can’t say it like that. Initially, I wanted to take her away, but your husband disagreed, and asked me to remove the Ghost King’s yin energy from her and change your family’s feng shui, which is what brought your Xu family wealth—”
“Later, it was your lack of care that let her be noticed by a decades-old ghost in the river. If I hadn’t happened to come here a few months ago and discovered this incident, and directly arranged a ghost marriage for her with that ghost, your family would have long been overwhelmed by the resentment accumulated by that water ghost, and you wouldn’t be alive today.”
“Now, taking money to do things is the simplest thing, so how did it become, in your words, that this poor Taoist is robbing money and taking lives?”
Mother Xu felt a pang of guilt.
She recalled the midwife who mysteriously died after delivering her. Now, seeing the master’s unfriendly gaze, Mother Xu knew the person in front of her was not simple. At this moment, Xu Dashu chimed in from the side:
“Alright!”
“The master is willing to help us; that’s the virtue accumulated over eight lifetimes. You ignorant foolish woman, get out and pour tea for the master!”
Mother Xu turned to glare at him but didn’t stay in the room any longer. The rules of interaction between people are like this: the bold fear the reckless, the reckless fear the fearless. She valued her life and didn’t want to die strangely like the midwife.
Xu Dashu put down the pipe beside him, squeezed out a foolish smile at the bald master, and said gently, “Master, now the person has been laid down, put in the coffin, and sent to the riverbank. What do we do next?”
The bald master saw his attitude was still good, and his expression became a little better. Thinking of his own plan, he pondered for a few seconds, then said, “That water ghost certainly cannot touch someone already marked by the Ghost King. With this ghost marriage, the water ghost will die, and the ghost king will be enraged—”
“I am here to save all living beings. Whether it’s the water ghost or the Ghost King, I will take them away for you.”
“Rest assured.”
Hearing this, Xu Dashu only nodded, bowed, and flattered him with submissive words, but a glint of shrewdness flashed in his eyes.
This master before him…
It didn’t seem like he wanted to exorcise ghosts; rather, it seemed like he wanted to capture the Ghost King.
Yet he didn’t dare reveal his suspicions, so he pretended to be ignorant, waiting for Mother Xu to bring in tea and drink with the master.
Neither of them noticed that while they were talking, there was a particularly dense shadow in the corner of the wall. After their conversation stopped, the shadow slowly dispersed like an ink stain, eventually disappearing in the corner.
The bald master vaguely sensed something, glanced over there, but found nothing.
By the river.
With Zheng Zhiyu’s help, Xu Jiao pried open a crack in the coffin lid and began to breathe deeply. When she felt a slightly cool breeze on her body, she reached back to grab Zheng Zhiyu’s wrist, who was beneath her, and softly whispered:
“What’s wrong?”
After the shadow returned to itself, Zheng Zhiyu sorted through the situation, the cool breath falling on the back of her neck. Not wanting Xu Jiao to know the family’s troubles, she simply smiled gently and said:
“Nothing.”
“Just feel like, here oi (this might be a typo) seems quite thrilling.”
Xu Jiao: “…”
She didn’t want to deal with this person with a problem in the head, using hands and feet to try to open the coffin lid. However, Zheng Zhiyu, knowing what’s outside, wasn’t willing to let something with only a few decades of cultivation take her person, directly grabbed Xu Jiao’s wrist and restrained her movement from behind.
Xu Jiao softly commanded her, “Let go.”
Zheng Zhiyu slowly said, “There’s a row of red candles lit outside, and an old ghost who’s been dead for decades is waiting for you to go over and marry him. Are you sure you want me to let go? Or would you rather marry an old codger than face me?”
Xu Jiao furrowed her brows, not understanding the meaning in Zheng Zhiyu’s words, but from the increasingly damp and cold air blowing into the coffin, she could judge that the other might not be lying. She was silent for a moment, then still said:
“Let go.”
She said, “You’re squeezing me and it hurts.”
Zheng Zhiyu’s first reaction was that she hadn’t controlled her strength, so she loosened her grip a bit, moving her fingers slightly. The next moment, with her extraordinary vision, she saw the marks on Xu Jiao’s wrist in the darkness.
Thin, like bruises from being bound by fine vines, they spread along her wrist bone, extending all the way up her forearm.
Zheng Zhiyu’s eyes turned slightly cold, she touched the marks on Xu Jiao’s wrist, wanting to make her feel a bit better, but Xu Jiao suddenly shook off her action, her wrist feeling like it was burned by a fire tongue, and said with a somewhat annoyed tone:
“What are you doing?”
“I said it hurts a lot.”
Zheng Zhiyu knew this was the mark left by the water ghost on her, these marks would spread from Xu Jiao’s wrist upward, from wrist, forearm, arm, all the way to the shoulder, and finally to the heart. She would die in extreme pain.
Once she dies, the water ghost waiting by the river will occupy her soul, making her its ghost bride.
There are two solutions: one is to destroy the water ghost, and once the initiator disappears, the mark will naturally disappear as well; the other is to remove this mark from Xu Jiao’s body.
Zheng Zhiyu originally wanted to choose the former, but the thing in the river is very cunning, sensing her dangerous aura, hiding in the river and never coming out, trying secretly to take Xu Jiao’s life right under her nose.
If there were leisure time, Zheng Zhiyu wouldn’t mind rushing into the river to fight it, subduing it in its own territory, but Xu Jiao’s condition definitely can’t wait until then. She silently gritted her teeth, her cold voice tinged with anger:
“What thing dares to try to take my person.”
By this time, Xu Jiao already understood that the earlier pain was not caused by Zheng Zhiyu, because the feeling of her bones being constricted had already spread to her forearm. She wanted to say something to Zheng Zhiyu, but her consciousness was somewhat blurred, as if she had fallen into some woven trap, unable to break through the mist before her eyes.
There was also a gentle male voice whispering in her ear:
“Forgot me?”
“Didn’t you promise me that when you grew up, you’d marry me?”
“How could you forget me? You are my wife.”
Xu Jiao instinctively asked, “Who are you?”
Hearing her voice, Zheng Zhiyu knew that action could no longer be delayed. She pressed Xu Jiao’s shoulder, passed through her body, turned over to cover her from above, forehead against her forehead, and softly asked:
“You don’t want to marry him, right, Jiaojiao?”
Xu Jiao recognized her voice, and with difficulty uttered: “Mm…”
Zheng Zhiyu seemed to be slightly pleased by her “Mm”, and gently said to her: “Relax a bit, it might be a little cold. I’ll help you remove the bad mark he left, okay?”
Xu Jiao, seized by the pain, somehow managed to respond: “Hurry.”
It seemed somewhat impatient.
Zheng Zhiyu kissed her forehead, then for the first time tried to reside in her body, which is commonly called “possession.” Her yin energy was strong, and afterward, Xu Jiao might feel very uncomfortable, but it was still better than losing her life now.
But after entering Xu Jiao’s body—
Zheng Zhiyu suddenly realized that two souls in one body need to compete for control. As her soul collided with Xu Jiao’s, she heard Xu Jiao emit a somewhat unbearable groan from her throat:
“Mm…”
Zheng Zhiyu temporarily took control, quickly found the bit of aquatic plant seed left in the flesh at the wrist, and after pulling out that aquatic plant, she heard the groan, thought of the thing lurking outside, and suddenly conceived a bold idea.
Xu Jiao originally voluntarily gave up control, but didn’t expect Zheng Zhiyu to seem like she found it too cramped, constantly using her cold aura to touch her. The touch of souls is different from skin; it’s a more intimate, more unbearable collision.
It was as if her whole body had become a forbidden zone that couldn’t be touched. The other just lightly approached to touch her, and every place they touched would turn cold and numb, with her body feeling both cold and hot inside.
She was like a little person desperately hiding in a corner during hide-and-seek, but this body was only so big, and Zheng Zhiyu would always find her, trying to completely cover her with her soul. Xu Jiao heard her own weak protests:
“Go away…”
“Don’t touch…”
Zheng Zhiyu didn’t let her hide, just gently coaxed her: “Don’t be afraid, I’m just holding you.”
Xu Jiao now felt the danger had passed and didn’t want to be deceived by her words, trying to push this rogue away. Instead, she became a delicious treat delivered right to the door. The other’s soul was much stronger than hers, like flowing water gently surrounding her, circling her and not letting her leave, making her unfold freely and not curl up due to excessive stimulation.
She could only tremble slightly.
At first, Zheng Zhiyu was like cold raindrops, pattering down without warning, jumping in any random corner. Later, the rain grew heavier, from drops to a sheet, and Xu Jiao only felt every inch of her soul merging with her, the breath filled with that cold taste, as if being assimilated.
Xu Jiao felt herself on the edge of melting, like an ice cream melting in the scorching summer sun, yet her body was clearly cold.
Physiological tears instinctively rolled down from the corners of the eyes.
The pretty girl lying in the coffin curled up into a ball, her face flushed, and wet traces of tears constantly fell from the corners of her eyes.
There were also occasional sobbing sounds: “No… no more…”
But after a while, the crying voice carried a hint of laughter, as if speaking to herself to coax the previous voice: “Be good, kiss me, and I’ll let you go, hmm?”
The answering voice was soft and choked: “No, no… please…”
In a soul state, how can one kiss?
Xu Jiao was troubled, both angry and annoyed, yet was quickly overwhelmed by this unprecedented impact, leaving her soul even more dazed than before.
By the river.
A black-haired man emerged from the water, staring at the coffin surrounded by red candles in the distance. After a long while, bubbles gurgled up from the river.
Each bubble was an angry curse.
0 Comments