Chapter 122
Chapter 122
The Teahouse Proprietress wasn’t certain that the object strapped to the unfamiliar man’s back was an ax. It had been wrapped in cloth, concealing its true appearance, but the shape certainly looked like one.
“Hey, Xiao Jiu, have you noticed that Bai Family boy’s Facial Features seem to have changed?” the Teahouse Proprietress said, eager to gossip. “He used to be so gentle and courteous, and his smile made people feel as if they were basking in a spring breeze. But now, there seems to be something more… How should I put it? Sinister? Or maybe wicked?”
I glanced at the Teahouse Proprietress but didn’t respond.
A Teahouse had always been a place where all sorts of people mingled.
Anyone capable of keeping a Teahouse thriving year after year for an entire decade in a trouble-ridden place like Wufu Town couldn’t possibly be ordinary.
In the past, I had never thought to investigate the Teahouse Proprietress’s identity or background. After all, we hadn’t interacted much, and she had always acted quite friendly toward me. But now, it seemed best to look into her first.
After seeing Jin Wuya off, I returned to the Pawnshop, picked up the gifts I’d bought in the county seat, and headed to the Dou Family Coffin Shop.
The Dou Family Coffin Shop was set to reopen in two days, yet someone was already standing guard outside its doors today.
Dou Jinsuo opened the door and ushered me inside. Dou Zhile was in the Main Courtyard, selecting coffin timber. A long tobacco pipe hung at an angle from the corner of his mouth, embers flickering in the bowl.
“Second Uncle, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu is here,” Dou Jinsuo called out.
Dou Zhile straightened up, removed the pipe from his mouth, tapped out the bowl, and casually snuffed the embers.
The three of us entered the Main Hall together. Dou Jinsuo took the gifts from me, then served us tea.
I said sincerely, “If it hadn’t been for your old pipe tar that day, Sister Qingying would have suffered terribly.”
“It was no trouble at all,” Dou Zhile said. “I’ve dealt with the Bai Family for decades, so I know a thing or two about certain matters. If there’s any way I can help, then of course I will.”
We discussed the Bogwood Coffin for a while longer before the conversation soon turned to Bai Jingmo.
I casually mentioned running into Bai Jingmo at the Teahouse earlier that day.
The moment I brought up the unfamiliar Six-Fingered Man, Dou Zhile’s expression changed dramatically. “Girl, are you sure the Teahouse Proprietress wasn’t mistaken?”
I froze. “She probably wasn’t. What’s wrong?”
Dou Zhile lowered his head in thought and remained silent for a long time.
I noticed that the hand holding his long pipe was trembling slightly. Whatever was going through his mind had clearly shaken him badly.
I asked again, “Old Dou, do you know that man?”
Dou Zhile shook his head. “I’m not certain it’s him yet. But if it really is him, and he’s come back… Girl, we’re in serious trouble.”
His tone was grave, but when I pressed him for details, he refused to say anything more.
He only said that he needed to verify the matter first. If the man truly was the person he suspected, he would tell me immediately.
After returning from the Dou Family Coffin Shop, a faint sense of unease began creeping over me.
Who was that man?
Why had he appeared in Wufu Town at this particular moment?
Had the Bai Family invited him here?
And why would the Bai Family do that?
Sitting alone behind the counter, I went back over everything that had happened recently. Slowly, a disturbing possibility began to take shape in my mind.
The Bai Family currently needed a Human-Skin Red Coffin made. Yet when they secured the first commission Dou Zhile accepted after his return, they gave up on the Human-Skin Red Coffin and instead requested the Dou Family’s Bogwood Coffin.
Was the Bogwood Coffin more important than the Human-Skin Red Coffin?
Or was it simply that the Bogwood Coffin was difficult to obtain, while they had already found someone else to make the Human-Skin Red Coffin for them?
The moment that second possibility occurred to me, my scalp prickled and I felt sick all over.
The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Unless that man was someone Dou Zhile knew well-perhaps even a fellow disciple-Dou Zhile would never have reacted so strongly to my description.
So Six-Fingers was very likely a coffin maker too — and one of considerable skill.
He was someone even Dou Zhile considered a threat.
I pressed hard against the spot between my brows. Everything happening in Wufu Town was so tangled and complicated that I barely knew where to begin.
One crisis followed another, without giving me the slightest chance to catch my breath.
What was I supposed to do?
How could I stop whatever might happen next?
At that moment, I even had a terrifying thought: Were we wrong to keep fighting so hard to stop all of this?
But we had no idea what kind of unimaginable consequences would follow if we simply let these events play out.
After turning it over in my mind, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry and went to the Main Courtyard to find Li Qingying.
Li Qingying was maintaining her Long Whip. When she saw my expression, she asked, “Xiao Jiu, are you feeling unwell?”
“No.” I hesitated, then said, “Sister Qingying, I want to ask you something. Lord Xiao… he has troops under his command, doesn’t he?”
Even shrimp soldiers and crab generals were still troops.
Li Qingying nodded. “Of course he does. Why?”
“The Bai Family has probably already found someone to make a Human-Skin Red Coffin for them. No — it’s possible the Human-Skin Red Coffin has already been completed. Something may happen at the Zhu Pan River next. Could we ask Lord Xiao to send some troops over, just in case?”
I didn’t want a repeat of last time, when the incident had already occurred by the time I thought of asking Lord Xiao for help.
We couldn’t exactly ask Lord Xiao himself to spend every waking moment stationed by the Zhu Pan River, guarding it for us. All we could do was request some of his troops.
Li Qingying thought for a moment. “I can speak to Lord Xiao and try to persuade him, but there’s no guarantee he’ll agree.”
I immediately told her that was fine and to simply do what she could.
Li Qingying put away her Long Whip, got into her car, and drove off.
I spent the entire afternoon in a state of restless anxiety. Even by the time I went to bed, there was still no news from the Dou Family.
The night was too quiet.
So quiet that I didn’t dare sleep. I didn’t even dare turn off the light.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the iron chains attached to the eight Red Coffins in the Zhu Pan River pulling taut, slowly hauling a massive Black Coffin up from beneath the water.
That Black Coffin was like a man-eating beast. With a single opening of its maw, it could tear me apart and swallow me whole, bones and all.
Just as unease gnawed at me, a sudden commotion erupted outside.
I pricked up my ears and listened. It sounded as if someone’s house had caught fire and the villagers were being roused from their beds to put it out.
I hurriedly threw on a coat and went outside. Grabbing a passing villager, I asked, “Whose place is on fire?”
“The Bai Family Medical Hall,” he answered anxiously. “It suddenly caught fire in the middle of the night, and the Medical Hall is full of medicinal herbs. The Bai Family… nothing seems to have gone right for them since Old Lady Bai passed away. Ah, Bai Jingmo is still too young. He can’t keep things under control…”
I released him and let him leave.
Bai Jingmo was young? He couldn’t keep things under control?
What a joke.
Still, this fire had come under suspicious circumstances. Logically speaking, the Bai Family wouldn’t pull a stunt like this at such a critical moment. So how had the fire started?
The villager called back to me, “Hey, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu! We’re all neighbors here. Aren’t you coming to help put out the fire?”
Me?
Help the Bai Family put out their fire?
I would have loved nothing more than to see the Bai Family Medical Hall burn to the ground overnight.
But aloud, I brushed him off with a laugh. “I’ll change into something easier to move in, grab a bucket, and head over.”
The man nodded and ran toward the Bai Family Medical Hall.
I stood at the entrance of the Pawnshop with my arms folded, gazing in the direction of the Bai Family Medical Hall.
As I watched the flames rising in the distance, a glint suddenly flashed at the edge of my vision. I instinctively leaned backward. A Silver Needle immediately shot past the tip of my nose and buried itself deep in the doorframe…