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墨書 Inktalez
Everyone knows that harm leads to no good end, but what exactly constitutes harm?
Gu Anniang's question left Xing Ruyi pondering for a long time, only to realize that she did not have a suitable answer.
After hearing the words of the Great Sage, Gu Anniang set up the Nine Star Soul Summoning Array, originally intending to save her husband. Just like herself, people are inherently selfish; it seems nothing is too much to do for the sake of saving someone they love. Unfortunately, this matter had been a mistake—or perhaps a conspiracy—ever since she encountered the Great Sage. If one were to trace back further, it might start from the moment her husband threw those lotus seeds from underground, or perhaps from when her husband accepted a deal from Gu Anniang's father.
In any case, everything was interconnected, making it difficult to find the true root of the events.
The story is lengthy, so let us begin with Gu Anniang completing the Nine Star Soul Summoning Array as instructed by the Great Sage.
Once the Nine Star Soul Summoning Array was set up, Gu Anniang's husband seemed to return to normal; however, his damaged face still needed some time to heal.
Time passed quickly, and six months went by. One night after those six months, Gu Anniang's husband went mad once again. She followed him and ran to a desolate grave, only to see him jump in. Flames suddenly erupted in the grave pit. Despite her desperate attempts to save him, all she could retrieve was a charred and burnt corpse.
In her moment of utter despair, that old man appeared again and told her that everything stemmed from that bowl of lotus leaf fried rice.
The lotus leaf fried rice itself was harmless. The problem lay with the lotus seed taken from the grave. That lotus seed had been sleeping underground for a thousand years and was the most beloved item of the grave's owner during their lifetime. Being both cherished and hidden away in the grave for so long naturally meant it carried some misfortune. As the lotus seed was reborn, that misfortune grew within the lotus flower, on the lotus leaves, and within the lotus seeds themselves. For common people, consuming this lotus seed might lead to mild discomfort or illness for a few days. However, Gu Anniang's husband was different; he dealt in selling corpses and often walked among the dead. He was also the one who brought out the lotus seed himself, so that misfortune sought not just to make him ill but to take his life.
It wasn't impossible to reverse this fate; one only needed to find a girl born in an inauspicious year, month, and hour to borrow her soul and then find a boy born in an auspicious year, month, and hour to borrow his life. The Great Sage even kindly calculated for Gu Anniang and pointed out that two such individuals existed in Luoyang City: the girl was Purple Jade and the boy was Wang Shu.
At that time, Gu Anniang was solely focused on saving her husband and did not think too much about it; she followed what the Great Sage suggested.
"After Purple Jade died, did your husband recover?" Xing Ruyi glanced at the half-mad man and realized that Gu Anniang had undoubtedly been deceived by that old man transformed by the Great Sage. Borrowing souls and lives—could it be so simple? After all, Mo Xu You had helped Jin Yu borrow a life before; what happened then? Jin Yu gained something but had to endure constant pain as his body turned to bone.
Gu Anniang shook her head: "I was deceived! Following his instructions, I first found Wang Shu and deliberately seduced him with my beauty before transferring his yang energy to my husband. My husband did indeed come back to life; however, he was neither fully human nor ghostly. At that time, I didn't think much about it; I just wanted my husband to return to normal so we could live a peaceful life together. But gradually, the yang energy transferred from Wang Shu became ineffective. I had no choice but to follow his instructions and ask Purple Jade for her soul.
Originally, I should have acted myself, but after much hesitation and reluctance, my husband went instead because he couldn't bear to see me suffer. Unexpectedly, on his way there he encountered Wang Fu. My husband took advantage of this situation; after seizing Purple Jade's soul, he hung her corpse on the Black Locust tree in front of Wang Family."
At this point, Gu Anniang paused briefly before bringing up another matter: "I later learned that old man was actually the Great Sage transformed into a weasel. My husband also mentioned a detail: after hanging Purple Jade's corpse on the Black Locust tree, he saw a weasel lurking nearby. At that time, none of us paid any attention to it."
Borrowing the soul of Purple Jade, my husband's condition has indeed improved significantly. I was in high spirits and prepared to reopen for his birthday celebration. Just as I was about to open the door, I overheard some gossip from my husband's brothers. Apparently, Purple Jade's corpse has been stolen!
"Purple Jade's corpse has been stolen?" Xing Ruyi frowned. "Do Wang Fu and Wang Shu know about this?"
"They probably don't! Wang Shu personally oversaw the burial of Purple Jade, and at that time, all his resentment was directed towards Wang Fu; he had no mood to pay attention to anything else. Moreover, once someone has been buried, who besides those like my husband, who engage in the trade of the dead, would care whether the person buried is still there?"
"Was it that Weasel who did it?"
"I can't be sure, but it appeared near Black Sophora on the night of the incident; it definitely wasn't a coincidence." Gu Anniang brushed a strand of hair that had fallen over her forehead and glanced sideways at her husband. At that moment, the man also looked at her with a sidelong glance. What should have been a warm scene appeared extremely strange to Xing Ruyi; the two mismatched eyes—one large and one small—looked like they were cross-eyed and severely so, almost suggesting a split personality.
Xing Ruyi lowered her head and rubbed her forehead, covering her eyes with her palm before quietly shifting her gaze elsewhere.
Fortunately, this brief emotional exchange between the yin-yang couple was interrupted by Gu Anniang's voice recounting events: "On the first night after Purple Jade's body disappeared, something strange happened in my Coffin Shop. Since I planned to reopen for business, I found a Clerk—an orphan—to temporarily stay in my Coffin Shop. One reason was that there were too many things to handle, and another was that I needed someone to help me keep watch. After all, my husband's situation is somewhat special; I didn't want anyone rashly barging in from behind. Of course, I made three rules with that Clerk: he was absolutely not allowed to enter behind the curtain.
At night, I didn't hear any strange noises, but when I got up the next morning to call for the Clerk, I found him sprawled over a coffin. Initially, I thought he was just slacking off, but when I turned his body over, I saw he was covered in blood; his face looked as if it had been gnawed by something—completely unrecognizable—and there were terrifying scratch marks on his chest.
Since it involved a life, and people knew I had just hired a Clerk, it was obviously unacceptable to hide this matter. The Government Office quickly sent someone over; after examination by the Coroner, I was informed that this Clerk had been clawed to death. At that moment, I noticed something odd about the Coroner's expression; so I discreetly inquired further. He hesitated for a while before quietly telling me to be cautious because the scratches on the Clerk's body looked very much like they had been made by human hands. However, those long nails could only belong to a man or perhaps not even all the girls in Luoyang City would have such nails. Because the situation was too bizarre and he couldn't come up with an explanation at that moment, he chose to conceal it."
"Could it be that your husband here is the one who killed the Clerk?" Xing Ruyi asked while glancing at the man's hands. Indeed, his nails were not short at all; he certainly had potential as a zombie.
"It wasn't me!" This time it was not Gu Anniang who spoke but her husband beside her.
His voice was much gentler than his appearance suggested. As Xing Ruyi put it, it was magnetic—perfect for becoming a midnight radio host in later years. She had always been tolerant of pleasant voices; thus she kept her mouth shut and said nothing further.
"It really wasn't him! Because just when the Coroner was speaking with me, the real murderer appeared. Although we only caught a fleeting glimpse, we could tell that figure resembling a ghost was female. We chased after that figure for quite some time but ended up at Purple Jade's tombstone.
In Luoyang City, everyone knows about Purple Jade's mysterious death, but only my husband and I know the details behind it. Whether out of personal motives or fear harbored by those Yard Officers and Constables, we deliberately avoided discussing it and silently returned to the city. The death of the Clerk was quietly dealt with as an accident."
"Do you suspect that Purple Jade is responsible for killing the Clerk?"
Gu Anniang nodded, "At that time, I still didn't know that everything was orchestrated by Wong Tai Sin. I thought it was truly Purple Jade returning for revenge, mistakenly taking Clerk for my Husband. So, after following the Constables back to the city, I disguised myself and left the city to seek out Wong Tai Sin. You can probably guess what happened next, Ruyi.
Wong Tai Sin, that Weasel, came up with a new idea for me. Coincidentally, Wang Shu also came to find me regarding Purple Jade, so I decided to go along with it and shared the method that Weasel had given me with him."
"Is that the Black Cat?"
"Yes! Wong Tai Sin told me that to calm Purple Jade's resentment, we could only create an illusion—an illusion that a murderer had already been brought to justice, making Purple Jade believe that her great vengeance had been avenged."
"Purple Jade's soul has already been borrowed by your husband. Without a soul, a corpse can at most be used for a deception; how could there be a vengeful spirit seeking retribution? It's surprising that you, Gu Anniang, who grew up in a Coffin Shop, can't see through such a shallow trick."
"Ruyi, it's easy for someone outside the situation to see clearly. Moreover, at that time, I was both anxious and afraid; I didn't carefully consider Wong Tai Sin's words at all. It wasn't until years later when I successfully borrowed Wang Shu's body for my husband that I realized this was all part of Wong Tai Sin's scheme. My husband and I were merely pawns in his game."
"How did this come about?"
"Don't you want to ask why my husband and I ended up in our current state?" Gu Anniang pointed at herself. "In fact, Wong Tai Sin was right about one thing: everything is related to that Lotus Seed. The Lotus Seed and Wong Tai Sin are both from the same Tomb; the Lotus Seed was loved by the tomb owner in life, while Wong Tai Sin is a guardian of the tomb. Over time, it absorbed the aura of the grave and took on human form. My husband acted without asking and offended both the tomb owner and Wong Tai Sin. Everything that followed was merely retaliation from him."
"If it was revenge, why not just kill you directly? Why go through so much trouble to use you to kill Purple Jade, Wang Fu's Son, Wang Shu, and that innocent Black Cat?"
"Hmph!" Gu Anniang let out a cold laugh. "That's because Wong Tai Sin also wants to protect himself!"
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