Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As the flames roared up, I leaped out of the pit.

Li Xia and Chen Mengmeng were both sprawled on the ground. Li Xia’s face and hands were covered in blood, but even at the final moment, she hadn’t let go of her daughter.

The fire burned for a full half-hour.

The thing in the pit seemed truly terrified of fire; in the end, it was incinerated until not even a scrap of residue remained.

I retrieved a metal box from the pile of ashes. Smashing it open, I found Chen Mengmeng’s photograph, her birth details-the Eight Characters-and a lock of hair tied with a red string.

Chen Mengmeng had fainted long ago, and Li Xia was looking after her. I brought the items over to show Li Xia.

Li Xia gripped the lock of hair, her lips trembling.

“This… this isn’t Mengmeng’s current hair. I remember this red string. This is her baby hair!”

Only a family member would likely be able to get their hands on a child’s baby hair. Li Xia didn’t say anything further, and I didn’t ask.

As for the thing in that coffin… I suddenly recalled something from my days driving long-haul trucks, something I’d heard the older generation talk about.

If a family in this area had trouble producing heirs, they would often dig up a piece of willow root and bring it home to worship. In their lore, willow root symbolized “leaving a root” for the family line.

I couldn’t be certain if there was a real connection, but looking at that bizarre “Willow Tomb,” I felt waves of revulsion wash over me.

When we left, I didn’t even replace the stone slab. I left the ashes inside the coffin exposed to the harsh glare of the sun.

Together, we left Yangfeng County.

On the way back, Chen Mengmeng woke up once, but she fell back asleep after only a few words. She slept deeply throughout the journey, no longer plagued by nightmares.

I delivered Li Xia and her daughter right to their doorstep.

According to our original agreement, Li Xia was supposed to pay me a fee of fifty thousand yuan. However, I saw the state of her home. Li Xia was currently in the middle of a divorce lawsuit against her husband. Every cent of the family’s remaining savings had been spent on her daughter’s medical treatments. The fifty thousand she intended to pay me was money she had scraped together by borrowing from everyone she knew.

In the end, I only took a thousand yuan to cover my travel expenses.

We agreed that once her divorce was finalized and she recovered the assets that belonged to her, she would pay me the rest. After all, I was short on money too.

Even though I didn’t make a profit this time, I used that thousand yuan to buy plenty of good food for my two children and my mother-in-law. Our family had a lively hotpot dinner together that evening.

After the meal, I helped my mother-in-law tidy up the kitchen.

She whispered to me, “While you were away these past two days, Tang Dong came looking for you.”

“What did he want?” I immediately grew wary.

“I didn’t open the door for him. I just gave him a piece of my mind through the door,” my mother-in-law said. “I’ve been asking around. Apparently, a route his company recently opened has run into a dead end. He’s definitely looking for you to help him with a Chong Sha. Don’t you dare pay him any mind.”

“Don’t worry, Mom.”

I gritted my teeth inwardly. “I still have a score to settle with him.”