Chapter 102

Chapter 102

I didn’t want to get too entangled with the Bai Family. Bai Jingmo was no saint, either.

The best outcome would be a clean transaction-money and goods settled, nothing more.

Bai Jingmo gave a bleak smile. “Xiao Jiu, are you still blaming me? Do you think I’m useless, that I have no say in the Bai Family?”

Me: “?”

What was he even talking about?

“My Grandmother is getting on in years, Xiao Jiu,” Bai Jingmo said suddenly. “If one day she passes away, then the Bai Family will be under my control…”

I couldn’t listen anymore. “That’s the Bai Family’s own business. The reason we’re sitting here today is to discuss a deal. If you’re not sincerely interested in pawning this Qilin Statue, then I’ll excuse myself.”

I did want the Qilin Statue, but not so badly that he could use it to hold me hostage.

I stood to leave. Bai Jingmo hurriedly grabbed my arm. “Xiao Jiu, perhaps you still don’t understand the Bai Family’s position among the Five Great Immortal Families of Wufu Town. If I take the lead and stand up in support of you, I may be able to help you escape the cage of the Pawnshop.

“Don’t think that just because you have Liu Junyan to rely on now, everything will be fine. The Wufu Town Pawnshop is a bottomless pit. Liu Junyan can’t fill it, and you certainly can’t…”

I had no desire to listen to his nonsense. I shook off his hand and headed for the door.

The moment I pulled open the private room door, Bai Jingmo suddenly said, “Xiao Jiu, I did fight for you. On the night of the First Day of the Eighth Month, if you had chosen the White Sedan Chair, we would already be husband and wife now. My feelings for you are witnessed by heaven and earth.”

I didn’t stop. I hurried out of the Teahouse.

As I made my way back toward the Pawnshop, my steps grew slower and slower.

All I felt was wave after wave of cold seeping through me. It had been a long time since I had let myself recall, in detail, what happened that night on the First Day of the Eighth Month.

But Bai Jingmo’s words forced me to face the predicament I had been in all over again.

Before Granny died, she told me I absolutely had to choose the Green Sedan Chair.

The Green Sedan Chair belonged to Hu Yulin. At the time, that choice hadn’t been wrong. But looking at it now, the moment Feng Lishu returned, I was instantly out of the game.

And behind the White Sedan Chair was Bai Jingmo.

If I had chosen the White Sedan Chair back then, could I really have become husband and wife with Bai Jingmo?

No!

If I had chosen the White Sedan Chair, I would probably already be a wronged ghost in the Zhu Pan River by now.

Thank goodness I ultimately chose the Crimson Sedan Chair. I chose correctly.

But now, everyone was telling me that Liu Junyan was the wrong answer. All of them were doing everything they could to tear us apart.

First Feng Lishu, then the Fox Lord.

And now Bai Jingmo, too.

Every one of them kept telling me, over and over, that they were doing this for my own good, that they were trying to help me break free from the shackles of the Wufu Town Pawnshop.

Perhaps even they themselves had forgotten that I had already walked out from the gates of death. To me, the Wufu Town Pawnshop was not an abyss. It was salvation.

The harder they tried to separate me from Liu Junyan, the tighter we would cling to each other in this endless abyss.

I thought the matter would end there. What I never expected was that two days later, the news of Old Lady Bai’s death swept through all of Wufu Town like a gust of wind.

Even Tang Tang, who was far away in Huicheng, received the news right away.

When Tang Tang video-called me, she was at the hospital keeping Song Ruoqing company.

There was a deep scar across Song Ruoqing’s right wrist. She had truly meant to die. The tendons in her hand had been severed, and from now on, she would even struggle to hold chopsticks with that hand.

And yet her entire being seemed as if she had died and been reborn. There was light in her eyes again.

With the Song Family’s downfall, no one was happier than her.

She had regained her freedom.

As Tang Tang peeled an apple, she asked me, “Did Old Lady Bai really die? Just a while ago, Bai Jingmo was still siphoning other people’s vital essence to extend her life. How could she just die all of a sudden?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “The news only just got out. Sister Qingying has already gone to verify whether it’s true.”

But Tang Tang’s words made my heart skip a beat.

How could it be such a coincidence?

Old Lady Bai should have died long ago. She had only kept herself alive by relying on Bai Jingmo to harvest other people’s vital essence outside. That day at the Teahouse, Bai Jingmo had just said, “If Old Lady Bai were to pass away…” Could this have been orchestrated by Bai Jingmo himself?

If so, Bai Jingmo’s ambition… was not to be underestimated!

“That old hag deserved to die!” Tang Tang sighed. “Once she’s dead, half of the Bai Family’s empire will come crashing down.”

Maybe a lot of people would think the same.

But I felt a chill crawl up my spine.

If this really was Bai Jingmo’s doing, then he was a complete lunatic!

And that lunatic had never given up on me!

Not long after I ended the video call, Li Qingying came back.

Her expression was terrible.

I hurriedly asked, “Sister Qingying, what happened?”

“Old Lady Bai really is dead,” Li Qingying said. “The Bai Family has arranged a ritual service to perform Release from Suffering for Old Lady Bai. Guess who they invited?”

How was I supposed to guess that?

So I asked, “Who?”

“That Evil Monk,” Li Qingying said. “The one who appeared at the West Street Entrance the night you all went to Huicheng.”

I was stunned too. “Why would it be him?”

Li Qingying cleared her throat. She was clearly nervous as well. “What I’m wondering now is the sequence of these two events.”

Yes. That was very important.

If the Evil Monk showed up first, and Old Lady Bai just happened to die, so the Bai Family simply invited him to conduct the ritual, then it was still manageable.

But if… if the reason the Evil Monk appeared in Wufu Town was because the Bai Family had invited him here in the first place, then… this was a trap from beginning to end!

And the prey this trap was aimed at was our Pawnshop!

Bai Jingmo’s target was me. The Evil Monk’s target was Du’e Maotan.

If those two joined hands, it would be impossible for us to guard against them.

In a low voice, I said, “No matter what the truth is, we have to be careful now. Just in case.”

Li Qingying said, “Seventh Master probably didn’t expect the Bai Family to pull something like this either.”

“I’ll tell him about this,” I said. “Sister Qingying, keep a close eye on the Bai Family.”

Li Qingying nodded solemnly.

By evening, someone from the Bai Family came to announce the funeral and delivered a funeral notice to the Pawnshop as well.

The notice listed Old Lady Bai’s cause of death: after a lifetime of healing the world, she had passed peacefully of old age.

The ritual service would only last three days.

In other words, Old Lady Bai’s body would be buried three days from now.

Given Old Lady Bai’s status, there was no doubt she would be buried in the ground.

The mourning hall had already been set up by evening, and people began arriving one after another to pay their respects.

The Bai Family Medical Hall was well known throughout the surrounding villages, and they had connections with many capable and unusual people. Old Lady Bai’s funeral was destined to draw attention.

In Wufu Town, the dead took precedence over all.

No matter how much hatred or resentment you had toward the deceased while they were alive, as long as their family came to your door with a funeral notice, you had to at least bring a bundle of joss paper over and offer your respects.

A funeral notice could not be refused.

Fortunately, the Bai Family did not ask the Pawnshop to send someone over to help arrange the funeral. Otherwise, we would not have been able to refuse that either.

And because of Old Lady Bai’s death, the Pawnshop’s Funeral Supplies Shop became especially busy.

Li Qingying handled the business while I busied myself making paper effigies and paper horses.

After dinner, I had Li Qingying stay behind to watch the door. Then I carried a large basket of joss paper, Gold Ingot, and other offerings, and went to the Bai Family.

Paying my respects was a small matter. I had to see for myself that Evil Monk performing the ritual service for Old Lady Bai…