Chapter 6

Chapter 6

By the time the Ancient Marriage Contract was delivered, it was already past midnight outside.

Tomorrow was the wedding day.

The old butler set a long wooden box on the offering table, his movements so careful they were almost reverent. Xu Lingyi opened the box herself. Inside, lined with yellow silk, lay a dark red Marriage Contract. The paper was even older than the folded document I had seen tonight, its edges scorched by fire, portions of it remounted and restored.

One glance was enough for me to recognize my grandmother’s work.

When she restored paper, she liked to leave behind an extremely fine hidden line-not to show off, but to help future restorers determine the structure of the paper layers. That line was tucked into the cloud pattern at the upper right corner, like a vein so faint it was almost invisible.

I reached out to touch it, but the old butler immediately stopped me. “Miss Lin, you cannot touch the original.”

“I’m a restorer,” I said. “If you won’t let me examine the paper layers, how am I supposed to know where to sign?”

Xu Lingyi looked at me for a moment, then nodded.

“Let her see it.”

I put on the gloves the old butler handed me and slowly unrolled the Marriage Contract.

The main text was a typical old-fashioned marriage pledge, written in beautiful calligraphy:

“Two surnames joined in marriage, one hall bound by contract; a good match forever sealed, a fitting pair in equal name.”

Below that were the names Shen Mingche and Lin Tang. Beside the characters for Lin Tang was a dark bloodstain, but half of it had been burned away by fire. Next to it was a tiny annotation my grandmother had added.

I held my breath.

That note had not been meant for the Shen Family.

My grandmother had used an old hidden marking method from the restoration trade, the sort only people who worked with aged paper would understand. She had broken several characters apart along the direction of the fibers, hiding them in the backing paper’s grain on the reverse side of the Marriage Contract. By the candlelight, I deciphered them bit by bit until I finally read one sentence:

“The Borrower Is Not the Husband; Call His True Name.”

My heart jolted.

The key to the Life-Borrowing Ritual was not the spilling of blood, but confirming who the “life borrower” was.

If Shen Jianwei’s name was written on the Marriage Contract, the ritual would bind me to him. But if the true beneficiary was Shen Mingche, then during the wedding ceremony, the Shen Family would have to make me acknowledge him by default. Otherwise, according to the old rites, the name would be improper and the ritual would fail. Back then, when my grandmother secretly switched the Marriage Contract, it was very likely so Lin Tang would not recognize Shen Mingche as her husband at the final moment, causing the fate ritual to backfire.

Xu Lingyi did not know about this hidden note.

She only knew the Lin Family had once broken the ritual, but she had no idea the key to breaking it was still hidden in the original document she treasured so dearly.

I continued reading and found a second hidden note:

“Reverse the Vermilion Line; Debt Returns to the Original Owner.”

Around the Marriage Contract was a ring of red line patterns. Ordinary people would think it was decoration, but in fact, it was the ritual’s pathway. The spot where Xu Lingyi wanted me to press my handprint tonight was the starting point of the red line’s forward flow. Once I pressed down, my blood would be guided along the cinnabar pattern to the man’s name.

But if I pressed my blood at the end point of the reverse flow, then publicly spoke the name of the real life borrower, the ritual would turn back on itself.

My grandmother had not written what would happen afterward.

Perhaps the ritual would simply fail. Or perhaps all the illness and calamity Xu Lingyi had suppressed over the years would return to Shen Mingche. But I had not come to save the Shen Family. All I wanted was to stay alive.

I closed the Marriage Contract. In my heart, I already had a plan.

“I can sign,” I said. “But not tonight.”

Xu Lingyi’s gaze chilled. “Are you playing me?”

“The Ancient Marriage Contract will only be stable if all three letters and six rites are complete. Tonight, the groom isn’t present, the ancestral tablets aren’t all here, and there are no guests to witness it. If I only place the Blood Seal now, it could easily go awry.” I looked up at her. “Auntie Xu, you’ve waited eighteen years. Are you willing to gamble on even that slight deviation?”

I was making it up.

But I made it sound real enough.

People who restored old contracts understood better than anyone how to use jargon to frighten people who believed in jargon.

Xu Lingyi looked at the old butler. The old butler hesitated and said, “Mr. Liu did also say that during the wedding ceremony, the living energy would be at its strongest, and the old method would be most stable.”

Xu Lingyi fell silent.

I went on, “Let the wedding proceed as planned tomorrow. Let me complete every step. I will place the seal before the final ancestral tea offering. By then, I will already be wearing the Shen Family’s bridal clothes, and I will have acknowledged Jianwei in front of the guests. The Life-Borrowing Ritual will be even more stable.”

Shen Jianwei’s head snapped up.

He had finally understood what I intended to do, but he did not expose me.

Xu Lingyi asked slowly, “Why should I trust you?”

I smiled faintly. “Because I don’t have my grandmother’s abilities. She could escape with my mother. I can’t escape now.”

That was half true and half false.

I really could not escape, but I was not planning to run anymore either.

In the end, Xu Lingyi agreed.

She had me sent back to the bride’s lounge. Two bodyguards were stationed outside the door, and there were people keeping watch below the window as well. Shen Jianwei was forcibly taken by her to see a doctor. Before he left, he turned back to look at me.

I did not respond.

Only after the door closed did I take that photograph from the hidden compartment of my handbag.

Besides my grandmother’s handwriting, there was also a shallow indentation on the back of the photo, worn faint by time. I gently lifted the corner with a small knife and discovered that a thin slip of paper had actually been tucked behind it.

On the thin paper was my grandmother’s handwriting.

“Mianmian, if you are seeing this, it means the Shen Family still did not let you go. Remember this: since the Shen Family believes in fate, use fate to frighten them; since the Shen Family cherishes reputation, expose them in front of everyone. The old rites kill. The truth saves lives.”

After reading those words, my tears suddenly fell.

It wasn’t that my grandmother had left me no protection.

She simply knew that some roads had to be walked to the very end before I could understand how to come back alive.

I wiped away my tears and opened my phone.

The signal was still very weak, but the bride’s lounge was connected to the internal network for tomorrow’s wedding livestream equipment. During the makeup trial earlier that day, I had seen the staff adjusting the camera positions, so I knew the control terminal was in the dressing room next door.

For the sake of appearances, the Shen Family had specially hired a media team to film the entire wedding behind the scenes.

Then I would let them film to their hearts’ content.