Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Yu Nian’s words carried a deeper meaning.
“Senior Sister, you mean…”
Yu Nian nodded. “If the Pawnshop’s Seal had been broken today, Wufu Town and Jiangcheng wouldn’t have been the only places to suffer; Huicheng would have been next. Xiao Jiu, once Jiangcheng’s floodgates open, Huicheng is always the one that ends up drowning.”
So Granny had not stayed at Wufu Town Pawnshop as its Shopkeeper’s Guardian by chance. She had been entrusted with a mission.
There was also a reason Granny’s master had ultimately chosen to settle in Huicheng.
She had to guard the final line of defense along this waterway.
For that, both Granny’s master and Senior Sister’s mother had given their lives.
Yu Nian had also had her eyes gouged out when she was very young.
She was only twenty-three now. She had been just thirteen when she lost both eyes.
I couldn’t imagine how a helpless, orphaned thirteen-year-old girl had escaped her enemies’ encirclement and survived until now.
If she hadn’t come to rescue me, she probably wouldn’t have revealed herself to the world so readily.
Now that she had shown herself, she would face an even more relentless manhunt.
The fact that Second Master Liu had immediately joined the battle the moment Yu Nian brought out the Thousand-Soul Banner today offered a glimpse of what awaited her.
I asked, “Senior Sister, was your mother’s death connected to the Wangting Mountain Snake Clan?”
“The Wangting Mountain Snake Clan?” Yu Nian put away the tortoise shell. “No. The Wangting Mountain Snake Clan isn’t the true threat. They’re nothing more than puppets. What’s truly terrifying is the thing lurking behind them. Back then, Grandmaster merely brushed against the fringes of that thing, and it cost her life.
“But my mother was indeed killed by the Wangting Mountain Snake Clan. They wanted the Thousand-Soul Banner.”
Part of what Yu Nian said confirmed my suspicions. The rest indirectly proved that Liu Junyan hadn’t lied to me before.
Wangting Mountain was not to be trifled with.
Yu Nian reached into the cloth bag she carried and took out several little paper figures stacked together, a bundle of Yellow Talisman slips-around ten in all — and several triangular packets. She handed them to me.
“This is our first meeting, Xiao Jiu, and I don’t have much to give you. Keep these with you for protection.
“You may call me Senior Sister, but you aren’t a member of the Mystic Order, nor have you inherited the teachings of the Yu Lineage. You have your own path to walk. That path will be broader, but also more difficult. Very few people will ever be able to truly help you. Xiao Jiu, only by ferrying yourself across can you reach the far shore.”
Only by ferrying yourself across can you reach the far shore…
In the years to come, whenever I felt lost or even lost sight of who I was, those words would pull me back time and time again.
Yu Nian also taught me a Mind-Purifying Technique. She told me to recite it often whenever I had the time, saying it would benefit me.
We talked for a long while, until Li Qingying came over with an egg to treat my face.
By then, I had already realized that rolling an egg over the mark on my cheek probably wouldn’t reduce the bruising. After all, the mark hadn’t come from being struck in the first place.
Even so, I let Li Qingying roll the smooth, peeled egg over my cheek several times. Then she called for us to wash our hands, saying the meal was almost ready.
By then, the horizon had begun to turn fish-belly white with dawn. I casually asked, “Sister Qingying, has Liu Junyan returned?”
“Seventh Master came back a while ago,” Li Qingying said. “Lord Xiao is here too. They’re discussing something in the Main Hall.”
I murmured an acknowledgment, then went to call Liu Junyan and the others to eat.
Everyone had gathered in the Rear-facing Room, leaving the Main Courtyard unusually quiet.
Just as I was about to step over the threshold of the Main Hall, I heard voices coming from the West Room.
“You’re really planning to keep this from her?”
“I can’t tell her yet.”
“Afraid she’ll be repulsed?”
“…”
“Or are you afraid you won’t be able to control yourself?”
“I can control myself.”
Lord Xiao clicked his tongue, clearly not believing a word of it.
They went on to discuss a few other things. In the end, the foot I had lifted over the threshold never came down. I drew it back, turned around, and left.
Liu Junyan was hiding something from me-something even he might not have under control right now… Could he really have made a deal with the Copper-Coin Figure?
That uneasy feeling welled up inside me again.
When I returned to the dining room, Li Qingying and the others had already set out the food. I told everyone to start eating without waiting for Liu Junyan and Lord Xiao.
The two of them might not even need to eat.
After the meal, I received calls from Tang Tang and Jin Wuya. Both wanted to know how the battle had gone last night. After we chatted for a while, Tang Xun said it was time for her to return to Huicheng.
Yu Nian was going with her.
I thanked Tang Xun, then gave Yu Nian a tight hug. I reminded her to take good care of herself and keep in touch. Yu Nian promised she would.
As we saw them out, Yu Nian summoned the Thousand-Soul Banner and transferred most of the Souls imprisoned within it into the Soul-Guiding Lantern.
The Merit in the Soul-Guiding Lantern surged all at once, and it gained a little more Lamp Oil as well.
This was Yu Nian’s second gift to me.
And it was a weighty one.
After they left, I turned around and saw Lord Xiao coming out.
He was still dressed the same way, his entire body concealed beneath his clothes. As he passed me, he warned, “Seventh Master may seem a little strange lately. Just leave him be. He’ll get better in time.”
I nodded and said I would. Lord Xiao walked out through the front gate, raised a hand in farewell, and left.
And with that, the curtain finally fell on this tremendous upheaval.
I stood outside the Pawnshop for a long while, gazing at the once-again tranquil surface of the Zhu Pan River, yet my heart refused to settle.
Li Qingying said, “It’s only a little after five. Go wash up and get some more sleep. You need a proper rest.”
I murmured my agreement and told Li Qingying to get some rest too.
Back in my room, I took a hot shower. While sitting at the vanity and blow-drying my hair, I turned the right side of my face toward the mirror and glanced at my reflection.
That was when I noticed a small patch of red marks low on my right cheek, close to my jawbone.
They were faint at first, but when the hot air from the hair dryer swept over them, their color abruptly deepened. The marks almost seemed to form a word.
I aimed the hair dryer at my jaw and kept blowing. The marks grew darker and darker until they were as red as dripping blood.
And when those tiny marks came together, they formed the Chinese character for ‘Slave’!
The hair dryer slipped from my hand and hit the floor with a loud clatter. It was still plugged in, roaring away, but I didn’t even notice.
That word-‘Slave’.
Linu.
Feng Lishu’s words echoed endlessly in my ears.
She had said I had always been her slave. That was why she could control me, and everything I had should rightfully belong to her.
I also remembered what Yu Nian had said after touching the mark. It wasn’t a fingerprint. I might have been born with it, or it might have been the karmic consequence of a past life.
Could this be the karmic bond between Feng Lishu and me from our previous lives?
Had I really been her slave in my past life?
Impossible. How could that be possible?
I couldn’t believe any of it. No. Absolutely not!
I shot to my feet in a panic and ran toward the Main Courtyard. At that moment, I needed a shoulder to lean on. An embrace.
I needed the person I trusted most to tell me, in his own words, that none of this was true.
But when I rushed into the West Room of the Main Courtyard, rounded the folding screen, and saw the man sitting cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed, turning Prayer Beads ceaselessly through his fingers and murmuring what sounded like scripture under his breath, I instantly froze in place…