Chapter 101
Chapter 101
I frowned. Could that man be an Evil Monk?
Liu Junyan, however, did not seem surprised. “I didn’t expect him to arrive this quickly.”
Li Qingying immediately perked up. “Seventh Master, you know who that is? I get the feeling he doesn’t have good intentions toward our Pawnshop.”
Liu Junyan teased, “He’s here to deliver a pet. Don’t worry about him.”
“A pet?” Li Qingying was confused. “Are we going to keep a pet?”
Liu Junyan stood. “I’ll head back first. The two of you should get some proper rest these next couple of days and build up your energy. This pet is wild and not easy to tame. It may take some time and effort.”
He returned to the Black Coffin.
The Hexagonal Palace Lantern then hung itself back beneath the western corridor.
I fell into thought.
Liu Junyan had mentioned keeping a pet to me before, but clearly, this pet was not that kind of pet.
Then, thinking back to the situation when he had said those words, I suddenly realized something.
Could that Evil Monk be connected to the Du’e Maotan?
The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Jin Wuya had put that piece of Cat Bone into the Pawnshop as a Dead Pawn. It made sense that the other party would track it here.
So what would he do next? Try to snatch it by force? Or come to negotiate a deal?
If he wanted to negotiate, how should I respond?
Still, judging from Liu Junyan’s attitude, he was probably not afraid of that Evil Monk.
With that thought, I felt much more at ease and patiently waited for the Evil Monk to come knocking.
But to my surprise, the first person I waited for was not the Evil Monk, but another uninvited guest.
Li Qingying got into an argument with someone outside. I hurried out to take a look, only to find that it was Bai Jingmo.
The moment Bai Jingmo saw me, he quickly said, “Xiao Jiu, I have something very important to tell you. It’s about the Song Family.”
The Song Family’s matter had already been resolved, and Liu Junyan had analyzed the stakes for me. I really did not want to keep going back and forth with Bai Jingmo over it.
Seeing that I did not seem very interested, Bai Jingmo said anxiously, “Then what if I came to the Pawnshop to pawn something? Xiao Jiu, trust me. You will definitely be interested in what I have.”
As he spoke, he raised the object he had been holding the entire time, wrapped in a piece of red cloth.
When I looked over, he lifted one corner of the red cloth.
His movement was extremely quick, but I still recognized it at a glance.
It was actually the Qilin Statue!
I immediately said, “Sister Qingying, let him in.”
Bai Jingmo said at once, “No, Xiao Jiu. Let’s find a place to sit down and have a proper talk.”
He was clearly trying to avoid the other people in the Pawnshop.
I thought for a moment, then said, “Then let’s go to the Teahouse.”
Bai Jingmo agreed.
Li Qingying gently tugged at me. I gave her a reassuring look. “I’ll be back soon. It’ll be fine.”
After that, Bai Jingmo and I went to the Teahouse and asked for a very private room. We sat facing each other and ordered tea.
Bai Jingmo placed the item on the table and lifted the red cloth in front of me.
Inside was indeed the Qilin Statue from the Song Family.
Bai Jingmo said, “You should have heard that the young master of the Song Family came down with a strange illness, and they invited me over to help diagnose him. While I was staying with the Song Family, I accidentally discovered this secret.”
He got straight to the point and sounded very sincere.
“Xiao Jiu, I remember you’re from Tafeng Village. Tafeng Village has a Qilin Temple, and the divine statue worshiped inside looks more or less like this one, right?”
I frowned. “You investigated me?”
As soon as I said it, I immediately felt I had been overly sensitive.
My background was not exactly a secret to the animal immortal families in Wufu Town.
Seeing my expression soften, Bai Jingmo continued, “I wasn’t deliberately investigating you, Xiao Jiu. It’s just that Tafeng Village has been unstable recently as well. With these two things happening at the same time, I couldn’t help paying a little more attention.”
As he spoke, he took out his phone again, pulled up a few photos, and handed them to me.
I gave them one glance, and my whole body jolted.
The photos showed a boy on the brink of death.
He lay in bed, barely breathing, his body covered in hideous burn scars.
They were exactly the same as the scars on the children of Tafeng Village… even the one on my own body.
Shocked, I blurted, “He… why is he like this too?”
“Because, in essence, he comes from the same place as the children of Tafeng Village,” Bai Jingmo said. “The children in Tafeng Village were simply luckier. The incense offerings at Qilin Temple have been keeping them alive. Young Master Song, on the other hand, can only rely on Life Borrowing to extend his life!”
My heart gave a violent tremor. “You mean the Dragon-Phoenix twins the Song Family arranged…”
“Yes. They were the ones whose lives were borrowed.” Bai Jingmo stared intently into my eyes and said with complete sincerity, “That’s also why I left the Song Family. Xiao Jiu, I don’t want to help the wicked do evil.”
So that was it.
I looked at the Qilin Statue on the table, and many things naturally began to connect.
Father Song was a womanizer, yet he had never been able to get the son he wanted.
The year they broke ground on the mountain, a pair of Dragon-Phoenix twins from the greater Song Family died and were buried on Wangting Mountain. Not long after that, Mother Song became pregnant.
In other words, the reason Mother Song had successfully conceived a male child back then was probably because they had performed a Child-seeking Formation in that pavilion on Wangting Mountain.
That made me think of the two stone pedestals I had seen on either side of the pavilion that night.
It seemed the corpses of those Dragon-Phoenix twins must have been sealed inside the stone pedestals, serving as the most crucial part of the Formation.
The sins of the Song Family were too numerous to record!
While I was lost in thought, Bai Jingmo did not say a word.
It was not until I had sorted everything out and subconsciously picked up my teacup for a small sip that Bai Jingmo finally said, “I heard something happened to the Song Family last night, and it had something to do with Seventh Master? Didn’t Seventh Master tell you any of this?”
My hand froze around the teacup, and a few drops of tea splashed out.
No. Liu Junyan had not told me.
“Perhaps he was weighing the pros and cons as well,” Bai Jingmo said. “For something this big, the implications run deep. If you want to grasp some things, you have to let go of others. Xiao Jiu, don’t you think I’m right?”
I instantly lifted my eyes to Bai Jingmo. He was blatantly trying to drive a wedge between us.
I was angry, but I had no way to refute him.
In this matter, Liu Junyan had indeed been hiding things from me all along. I understood it too, since he had explained the general situation to me.
But what he did not know was that a burn scar had appeared on my arm as well. I simply had not had the chance to tell him yet.
Bai Jingmo pushed the Qilin Statue closer to me and said, “The way I see it, whether it’s the Qilin Temple in Tafeng Village or this Qilin Statue from the Song Family, their function is the same. I thought it might be of help to you, so I took the risk and brought it back. Xiao Jiu, I hope I can help you this time. We were never enemies.”
I did not want to owe Bai Jingmo any favors, but this Qilin Statue had truly struck my weak spot.
It was like a key. A key that might very well unlock the mystery of my origins and save all of Tafeng Village!
I wanted it badly, but I still restrained myself and said, “Do you want a Live Pawn or a Dead Pawn? How much do you want for it?”
Bai Jingmo froze for a moment, then said, “Xiao Jiu, that was only an excuse to ask you out. I brought it back because I wanted to give it to you.”
“No. I won’t accept rewards I haven’t earned,” I said. “Let’s handle this by the book. You pawn it, I take it in. Once the transaction is complete, there will be no further entanglement between us…”