Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Everyone was thoroughly impressed by Yun Jianyue’s halfhearted acting.

“Right, there’s something I need to ask you about.” Yun Jianyue told them what had happened to Zhou Benxin.

While the Paranormal Bureau officers stroked their chins in contemplation, Fang Lin’an spoke up. “I’ve looked into cases like this before. Was he sickly as a child? Did his family have a Doppelganger made for him and leave it on Chongguang Mountain?”

“From what you’ve described, it sounds like his Doppelganger has turned against him. You’ll have to ask his family to know for sure. It doesn’t seem like he knows anything about it himself.”

After a moment’s thought, Yun Jianyue saved Fang Lin’an’s contact information and hurried back to the university.

Fortunately, the night passed without incident. Nothing happened to Zhou Benxin.

Zhou Ruyan, on the other hand, didn’t respond all day. At nine the next morning, she finally messaged Yun Jianyue to say she was already at the university gates.

It turned out Zhou Ruyan had been in meetings all day and hadn’t checked her phone. By the time she finished working through the night and saw the messages, she immediately took leave from the company and drove overnight to City A.

Smack!

A crisp, resounding slap landed across Zhou Benxin’s face. Zhou Ruyan’s almond-shaped eyes blazed with fury.

She had driven all that way just to slap Zhou Benxin herself.

“How many times did I tell you not to go to Chongguang Mountain? Did everything Mom, Dad, and I said go in one ear and out the other?” Zhou Ruyan was so furious that her voice cracked as she berated him.

Yun Jianyue quickly handed her a bottle of water, thoughtfully unscrewing the cap first. “Ruyan, getting angry won’t help now. Just tell me everything you know. I might be able to solve this.”

In the end, the three of them found a caf? with private seating, where Zhou Ruyan told Yun Jianyue the whole story of Zhou Benxin’s past.
Twenty-one years ago.

The Zhou Family valued sons over daughters. When Zhou Pingcheng and Bi Cuiwen’s first child turned out to be a girl, the elders of the family were deeply displeased.

Because the baby had been delivered by C-section, they had to wait three years before trying for another child.

Their daughter was now five, but Bi Cuiwen still showed no sign of becoming pregnant again.

The whole family grew anxious, especially Bi Cuiwen’s mother-in-law. She constantly made barbed remarks, openly and otherwise, calling Bi Cuiwen a hen that couldn’t lay eggs and accusing her of dooming the Zhou Family’s single line of male heirs to end with her.

Women today, with a stronger awareness of gender equality, would never question themselves because of such words from a mother-in-law.

But Bi Cuiwen, living twenty years ago, was merely a pitiful woman who had been shaped and beaten down by a patriarchal society.

The more her mother-in-law berated her, the more desperate she became. She tried everything she could think of to get pregnant, but nothing worked.

Finally, near the end of the year, she conceived.

The entire family was beside themselves with joy.

But their joy soon vanished. After bribing a doctor at the hospital, they learned that this baby was also a girl.

By then, however, Bi Cuiwen was already four months pregnant. There was no way for her to terminate the pregnancy.

The one-child policy was also being enforced extremely strictly. The family only had enough money to pay the fine for this child. If she gave birth to the girl, they would never have another chance to try for a son.

“Sigh…” Bi Cuiwen spent every day wearing a worried frown, sighing wherever she went.

A female worker at the same factory noticed that her supervisor had been in a poor mood lately. After asking around, she learned that Bi Cuiwen was troubled over the baby. Hoping to curry favor with her, the worker offered a suggestion.

“Ma’am, I know a spirit medium with incredible powers. She can turn the girl in your belly into a boy. Would you like to give it a try?”
Bi Cuiwen desperately wanted a son, but she had gone to school for a few years and knew there was no way to change an unborn baby’s sex.

“Stop teasing me and get back to work. How could the baby’s sex possibly change?”

But the female worker insisted, “It’s true. My second aunt gave birth to a big, healthy boy just last year. Her prenatal checkup said she was having a girl too. Then she went to that spirit medium, and she ended up having a son. If you trust me, I’ll help you get in touch with her.”

Bi Cuiwen wanted to dismiss the whole thing as utter nonsense. But then she thought of her mother-in-law’s incessant nagging and the disappointment on her husband’s face when he learned this baby was another girl. Before she knew it, she had agreed.

The worker moved quickly. The very next day, she found the spirit medium’s address and took Bi Cuiwen to see her.

The spirit medium lived in the countryside, and it took them a long time to reach her house by bicycle.

The moment she saw Bi Cuiwen, the spirit medium spoke before Bi Cuiwen could say a word. “The one in your belly is a girl.”

Bi Cuiwen was so thin that even at four months pregnant, she was not showing at all. No one would have guessed she was pregnant at a glance.

So when the spirit medium immediately revealed that she was carrying a girl, Bi Cuiwen began to believe there might be something to her claims.

Like a drowning woman clutching at her last straw, she seized the spirit medium’s hand. “Please, you have to help me. If I fail to give birth to a son again, I…”

“I understand. Come inside.”

Expressionless, the spirit medium pulled her hand free and turned toward the house. Bi Cuiwen followed her in.

Houses back then had poor ventilation and little natural light. The moment she stepped inside, she caught a strong whiff of mildew.

Even though it was daytime, no lamps had been lit. The air was stale, and it was difficult to see.

The spirit medium told Bi Cuiwen to lie down on a wooden board. For some reason, she fell asleep less than two minutes after lying down.

She seemed to have a dream. In it, a little girl threw herself into Bi Cuiwen’s arms and called her Mommy.

When Bi Cuiwen lowered her head to look at the girl, a bluish birthmark suddenly appeared on the child’s soft, fair face.

The birthmark spread farther and farther until it covered the entire left side of the girl’s face!

Half fair and half livid blue, the child now had a terrifying two-toned face!

Even the little girl’s voice became somewhat strange, but she continued calling her Mommy in a sweet, wheedling tone.

Just as Bi Cuiwen was about to answer her, someone gave her a hard shove, jolting her awake.

“The ritual is finished. All you need to do is drink this talisman water.” The spirit medium handed her an earthenware bowl filled with murky black liquid.

A pregnant woman should never consume strange substances, but the bizarre dream had left Bi Cuiwen deeply unsettled.

She did not know what possessed her, but she drank the entire bowl of talisman water.

After returning home, her stomach hurt all night.

Her family was afraid something might happen to her, so they took her to the hospital first thing the next morning.

Strangely enough, her stomach stopped hurting as soon as she arrived.

The doctor conscientiously gave her a thorough examination, including an ultrasound.

The ultrasound was performed by the same doctor she had bribed last time. The moment he received the results, he shot to his feet so abruptly that he knocked over his teacup without even noticing.

“That’s impossible…”

The doctor stared blankly at the ultrasound report. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he had seen it wrong.

Bi Cuiwen asked anxiously, “What’s wrong? Has something happened to my baby?”

The doctor shook his head, completely unable to believe what he was seeing. “Last time, I clearly saw that it was a girl. How did the baby in your belly turn into a boy today?!”