Chapter 172
Chapter 172
That was right. Why had Gu Die suddenly appeared in Wufu Town?
Xiangxi was several thousand kilometers from Jiangcheng.
As a one-in-ten-thousand Gu Saintess who possessed genuine Buddha Eyes, Gu Die would have been kept under the strictest guard. The odds of her escaping the stockade alone and making it all the way to Wufu Town were practically zero.
So what was the missing piece?
“I settled in Wufu Town because of the Five Blessing Immortals’ reputation. I’ve always kept a close eye on the Pawnshop,” the proprietress said. “After the Pawnshop reopened, you began visiting me more often. I wanted to befriend you, and several times, the truth was right on the tip of my tongue, but I forced myself to swallow it back.
“Xiao Jiu, I was afraid.
“I was afraid that revealing my hand would get me killed. So I let opportunity after opportunity slip past-until the night Gu Die came to me. She clung to my leg, sobbing piteously, and begged me to save her.
“To tell you the truth, when I saw Gu Die in Wufu Town, I was both shocked and panicked. I asked her how she had ended up here. She told me that a month earlier, the clan chief and his people had taken her out of the stockade and headed for Huicheng. She had never forgotten what I’d told her all those years ago, so she seized an opportunity to escape along the way.
“Perhaps it was fate. After all those twists and turns, she found her way to Wufu Town and spotted me standing outside the Teahouse from a distance. She was clever enough not to approach me in broad daylight. Instead, she waited until the dead of night, when no one else was around.”
So that was what had happened.
But why had the clan chief been taking Gu Die to Huicheng?
I asked, “You’ve run the Teahouse so successfully all these years, so you must have built up a decent network behind the scenes. Why didn’t you take Gu Die and leave? Why send her to the Pawnshop to die instead?”
Gu Die had begged the proprietress to save her, but in the end, she had still gouged out her Buddha Eyes and died.
Even after her death, her body had remained under the clan chief’s control.
The proprietress shook her head helplessly. “There was no way she could survive. I may have made quite a few friends in private, but who would willingly invite that kind of trouble upon themselves? Besides, the further word spread, the more danger Gu Die and I would be in.
“Gu Die was doomed either way. But if she fell into the clan chief’s hands, she wouldn’t even have a chance at Reincarnation! Given those two choices, I had Gu Die take a gamble. Even if she won, she would still die in the end, but at least… she might have a chance to receive Salvation with Lamp Oil. If she received Salvation through the Merit of the Soul-Guiding Lantern, she would surely live a good life in her next incarnation.”
To have reasoned through every layer and devised such a plan must have cost the proprietress no small amount of thought and effort.
This had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision. After careful consideration, she had chosen what she believed was the best possible path for Gu Die.
And Gu Die had trusted her completely, carrying out her suggestion without the slightest delay.
“Xiao Jiu, I manipulated you,” the proprietress said guiltily. “But I don’t regret it, because I knew you were the only one who could save Gu Die — and the only one who might someday be able to save me as well.”
I remembered how, after forcibly drawing out a drop of Lamp Oil to send Gu Die into her next life, I had fallen gravely ill. I had been bedridden for days before I slowly recovered.
Being manipulated like this did not feel good.
But since I had indirectly saved Gu Die, I could not bring myself to be that angry either.
My feelings were complicated.
“I know you’ve been investigating me,” the proprietress said, looking at me. “I also know you would discover my secret sooner or later. And when you did, it would be time for me to repay the favor I owe you.”
Confused, I asked, “Repay me? How?”
“I’ll handle Miss Jiang’s case,” the proprietress said. “Shamanic arts and Gu arts have shared the same roots since ancient times. I have some connections with the Corpse-Driving Lineage. I can make a trip back to Xiangxi and retrieve the trapped fragment of Miss Jiang’s Souls.”
I never imagined Jiang Yingxue’s situation would take a turn like this.
Gu Yan came from the Shiwandashan Mountains, and she had once served as the Guardian charged with protecting the Gu Saintess. The fact that she’d managed to escape from there all by herself proved she was highly capable.
If she was willing to help, I couldn’t have asked for more.
Even so, I still had plenty of concerns. “But if you go back to Xiangxi, won’t your identity be completely exposed? Is doing this really worth it?”
“Once Gu Die came looking for me, it was only a matter of time before I could no longer hide my identity,” the proprietress replied with surprising clarity. “I don’t know when the clan chief started working with the people in Huicheng, but Huicheng is so close to Wufu Town that it’s only a matter of time before he traces me here. Instead of waiting passively for him to come after me, I’d rather make the first move and carve out a path to survival for myself.”
Her reasoning was calm and perfectly sound.
I agreed at once. “All right. As long as you successfully bring back that wisp of Jiang Yingxue’s Souls, I’ll wipe the slate clean over your scheme against me.”
“Now that we’ve settled how I’ll repay the favor, Xiao Jiu, shall we discuss a partnership?”
Her abrupt change of subject left me baffled. “A partnership? What do you want to work with me on?”
The proprietress reached out, brushing a slender, pale fingertip across my right cheek.
Before coming to the Teahouse, I’d applied a thick layer of concealer to hide the ‘Slave’ character.
I’d thought I’d hidden it perfectly, but it still hadn’t escaped the proprietress’s keen eyes.
Staring at the character on my cheek, she said, “I happened to notice something wrong with your cheek before, but the character was very faint back then. Now, just as I suspected, it’s gotten worse.”
My heart leaped into my throat. “You know what this is?”
The proprietress shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but the technique of branding a character onto someone else’s body bears a strong resemblance to Witchcraft. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve been afflicted with a Symbiotic Curse, a form of advanced Witchcraft.”
“A Symbiotic Curse?” I asked gravely. “What’s that?”
“It’s a type of curse typically cast between blood relatives. Its effects are strongest when used on twins,” the proprietress explained. “Twins begin competing in the womb, fighting over nutrients. Even after they’re born, they often share a telepathic bond. Some are even linked so closely that they live and die as one.
“With birth rates dropping, twins and even higher-order multiple births are now seen as a blessing of many children and descendants. But in certain tribes, the birth of twins is considered an ill omen.”
I frowned. “This is the first I’ve ever heard of that. Isn’t having plenty of children and descendants supposed to be a good thing?”
“It’s probably just a difference in beliefs,” the proprietress said. “Those tribes believe twins are destined to be rivals. From the moment they’re in the womb, they begin stealing each other’s fortune until both sides are left ruined.
“So whenever twins are born into the tribe, there are two ways of dealing with them. The first is to kill the physically weaker twin outright, then keep the stronger one and devote all their resources to raising them.”
It was similar to the survival-of-the-fittest dynamic seen among birds.
“The other method is to use the Art of Divination to determine which twin possesses greater fortune, then place a Symbiotic Curse on the weaker one. The name says it all: the weaker twin exists merely as a tool to accompany the stronger one through life — or, to put it another way, as a slave who endlessly funnels their own fortune into the stronger twin…”