Chapter 59: Seeing Through

Xu Yingying was silent for a moment before hatred once again welled up in her eyes, and a menacing aura began to emanate from her, even more intense than when she had resented me before. She spoke coldly, "I'm going to find the people from the Chen family. They killed me, and I intend to settle the score with them."

Her words were exactly what I had hoped for. After all, Chen Yetian had arranged my wedding with Bai Xiaoli for the night of the full moon, intending to use Xu Yingying’s hand to kill me at the ceremony. I had no quarrel with Chen Yetian, but he conspired against me with that mysterious man in black, seeking to take advantage of the ill-fated bond between Xu Yingying and me to publicly ruin me on my wedding day.

I couldn’t forget the mocking smile on the black-clad man’s face by the Longtou Canal that day; swallowing that anger had never been easy. Hearing Xu Yingying’s words today, a plan began to form in my mind. Before leaving, I gave her the address of my wedding with Bai Xiaoli, telling her to seek out Chen Yetian and his grandson there and settle things with them.

On the way back, Granny Wan looked at me and said, “Xiao Xizi, I didn’t expect a country boy like you to be so shrewd. Those two, Chen Yetian and his grandson, are really going to fall into your hands this time.”

Before I could answer, Bai Xiaoli interjected, “Granny Wan, you say my Yangxi is cunning, but you’re no less crafty yourself. That blood-dripping paper you used just now was a trick. It might fool Xu Yingying, but it can’t fool me.”

I was taken aback by Bai Xiaoli’s words, and Granny Wan’s eyes clearly sparkled as she fixed her gaze on Bai Xiaoli and asked, “Then tell me, what was wrong with my paper?”

Bai Xiaoli asked Granny Wan for a similar piece of yellow paper, gently bit her own finger, and let the blood drip onto it. The blood quickly soaked in. Then, she grabbed my hand and, without warning, bit down, making me nearly cry out in pain. She let a drop of my blood fall onto the yellow paper as well. Seeing my pained expression, she stuck out her tongue playfully before pointing at the yellow sheet. At that moment, my blood also merged into the paper.

“What—what’s going on? Could it be that Bai Xiaoli and I are related by blood?” Seeing this, I panicked.

Bai Xiaoli burst out laughing at my reaction. “Brother Xizi, look how nervous you are. If I’m right, Granny’s yellow paper can’t test for blood relations at all—it can only tell the living from the dead.”

“Only the living from the dead?” I put down the boat pole, picked up the yellow paper from the ground, and asked Granny Wan, “What does Xiaoli mean by that?”

Granny Wan nodded in appreciation. “That’s right. This yellow paper is also called the ‘Book of Life and Death.’ Blood from the living can merge with blood from the living, and likewise, blood from the dead can merge with blood from the dead. But the blood of the living and the dead can never merge, no matter what.”

Hearing this, my respect for Granny Wan grew even more. To pull off such a trick in front of a vengeful spirit and deceive her so thoroughly—she was indeed extraordinary. At the same time, I was curious how Bai Xiaoli knew about this.

Bai Xiaoli said that Granny Wan had mentioned it in passing during a lesson, and she had remembered.

“Haha, Xiaoli, you really have a knack for this trade. Oh, one more thing—I almost forgot. Since you delivered the ghost fetus, you must worship it for ten days. Starting tomorrow, you’ll stay at my place for those ten days,” Granny Wan beamed, looking as if she had just found a treasure.

Bai Xiaoli was more than willing. She phoned her mother, saying she’d be traveling for ten days. Her mother showed no concern and readily agreed.

When the fishing boat docked, Granny Wan instructed me to burn the white cloths used during Xu Yingying’s delivery and collect the ashes in a gourd. She told me that ashes tainted with the umbilical blood of a vengeful spirit could suppress maternal curses, and worked extremely well.

I wanted to give the ashes to Bai Xiaoli, but she was afraid and refused, so I tucked them into my own backpack. Then we placed the cat-bone jar containing the ghost fetus in Granny Wan’s ancestral hall for worship.

This exorcism had gone relatively smoothly. When we returned from Granny Wan’s, it was just past midnight. I studied the “River Calming Rites” for a while, and, exhausted, went to bed.

The next morning, I was woken by a frantic knocking at the door. Guessing it was Bai Xiaoli, I put on my clothes and opened the door while calling out, “My dear, could you not knock so loudly? You’ll wake the whole—”

Before I could finish, I was stunned. Standing at my shop’s entrance was not Bai Xiaoli, but a wealthy-looking woman swathed in mink. She was plump, with two enormous pearl earrings dangling from her ears. She looked vaguely familiar, so I asked, “Sister Fatty, who are you looking for?”