Chapter 180
Chapter 180
Everything that had happened since that man appeared was far too strange.
To be honest, his presence made me deeply uneasy.
Liu Junyan shook his head. “I don’t know him.”
After a pause, he asked tentatively, “But he seemed to know you?”
I hesitated, unsure whether I should tell Liu Junyan what the man had said.
The man clearly had ulterior motives.
When it came to relationships, there was no room for even the slightest intrusion.
I was afraid it would stir up unnecessary trouble.
But on second thought, Liu Junyan and I had already chosen each other long ago.
If he truly loved me, surely he wouldn’t mind what had happened in my previous life, would he?
After thinking it over, I asked, “Liu Junyan, we’ve been together for so long. If we’re going to get married, shouldn’t we meet each other’s parents first?”
Liu Junyan froze. After a moment, he said, “Xiao Jiu, you’ve already met my mother. She likes you very much.”
I pressed, “What about your father?”
Of course, by Liu Junyan’s father, I didn’t mean the one from the Wangting Mountain Snake Clan.
He had never spoken to me directly about his father. I didn’t know whether that was because he had no idea who his biological father was or because he simply didn’t want to talk about him.
The instant I saw Liu Junyan’s expression change, I regretted asking.
So it wasn’t that he didn’t know. He just didn’t want to mention him.
My question had struck the most painful place in his heart.
I was just about to laugh it off and change the subject when Liu Junyan said, “He isn’t important. I can make my own decisions about something as important as my marriage. Xiao Jiu, I owe you a wedding. When the time is right, I’ll make it up to you with the very best one.”
I owe you a wedding.
In the span of a single day, two men had said the exact same thing to me.
I smiled. “I was being willful. With one crisis after another, this is hardly the time to be thinking about things like that.”
Liu Junyan cupped my face in his hands and said solemnly, “Xiao Jiu, marriage isn’t just some trivial matter. I’ve waited many years for you to marry me. Ever since I found you again, there hasn’t been a single moment when I haven’t wanted to take you back to the Dragon Clan openly and rightfully. But… Xiao Jiu, give me a little time. Trust me.”
I nodded at once. “I trust you. I’ll wait.”
I was just about to steer the conversation back to the man on Yellow Springs Road when a knock sounded at the door, interrupting us.
The door opened a moment later. Li Qingying entered carrying a meal, with Hui Moqiong following behind her.
“You must be hungry, Xiao Jiu. I figured you’d be awake by now. Have some plain congee to warm your stomach.”
Hui Moqiong, meanwhile, called Liu Junyan over to the round table to discuss something.
Li Qingying stayed beside me as I ate my congee, and we listened to the two men talk.
“It’s very strange,” Hui Moqiong said. “After we evacuated Tafeng Village, white smoke sealed off the village again. This time, though, it didn’t last long. When the smoke dispersed, something inconceivable happened.”
Liu Junyan asked, “What happened?”
Hui Moqiong scratched his temple beneath the lock of hair dyed white, as though he had no idea how to describe it. “Seventh Master, you know what happened when we stormed Qilin Temple. The instant Xiao Jiu’er’s Souls were sucked away, all the villagers kneeling inside the temple burst apart and turned to powder…”
“What?!”
My spoon fell into the bowl with a clang. I stared at him in disbelief. “Every single one of them turned to powder?”
I had understood every word perfectly, yet once they were strung together, I couldn’t bring myself to believe what they meant.
“Yes. It was like plaster crumbling into powder. There was a huge amount of incense ash mixed in, but surprisingly little blood,” Hui Moqiong said. “At the time, we thought all of Tafeng Village had been reduced to nothing when your Souls left your body. But after the white smoke sealed off the village and Tafeng Village came back into view, do you know what I saw?”
The other three of us asked in unison, “What?”
“The whole of Tafeng Village has come back to life.”
Hui Moqiong’s words left all of us stunned.
Li Qingying frowned. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘come back to life’? Old Fifth Hui, can you stop telling us only half the story?”
Hui Moqiong said helplessly, “It means exactly what it sounds like. They came back to life. And not only that — a lot of them look several years younger, too.”
My first reaction was to ask, “Did my grandma come back to life too?”
Hui Moqiong nodded. “Yes. She looks much younger, and she’s in excellent health.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, then asked, “Did you happen to look at the middle finger on her right hand? Is part of it missing?”
“Why would I be staring at her hands for no reason?” Hui Moqiong asked. “Is it important? Should I send someone to check again?”
I immediately said, “Yes. Have someone take a look, and make sure they see it clearly.”
This was far too important to me.
Li Qingying had personally thrown my grandma’s severed middle finger into the trash.
If even that finger had grown back, then this was terrifying beyond anything I could imagine.
Hui Moqiong had no shortage of disciples and grand-disciples, and a large group of them were lying low around Tafeng Village. It wasn’t long before a message came back.
“Xiao Jiu’er, both of your grandma’s middle fingers are intact. There’s even a copper ring around the base of one of them.”
Even the copper ring had returned with it?
This time, even Li Qingying’s expression changed. “Xiao Jiu, you saw it yourself. I wrapped it up tightly, and the garbage truck emptied the bin first thing the next morning. There’s no way that copper ring could have ended up back on your grandma’s hand.”
She was right. It was impossible.
So where exactly had things gone wrong?
Tafeng Village truly was a bizarre place. The fact that every child in the village had been granted by Qilin Temple was already difficult enough to accept.
But now, it seemed as though time itself could flow backward for the entire village.
People who had died and crumbled into dust could be reborn… How had they accomplished something that defied the very laws of Heaven?
I refused to let the matter rest. I had to make a trip to Tafeng Village myself and see what was happening with my own eyes.
As it happened, the others felt the same way.
Early the next morning, we drove to Tafeng Village and observed it from a distance.
Sure enough, just as Hui Moqiong had said, many of the villagers were already up at dawn.
They went in and out, tending to their usual household chores as if nothing had happened.
As the sun climbed higher, the children began gathering in twos and threes to play.
Before long, I spotted Xin’er and Dabao.
They… were alive again too.
But I would never forget the sight of Xin’er like a shattered porcelain doll, or how she had urged me again and again to eat the candy.
It was as if everything that had happened had been nothing more than a grotesque, absurd dream.
Now that the dream was over, Tafeng Village was still the same Tafeng Village it had always been.
But I knew it hadn’t been a dream!
A thought even more horrifying and bizarre quietly took shape in my mind: everything in Tafeng Village seemed to revolve around my very existence.
Every child in the village had been granted by Qilin Temple, and the remains of my past life were very likely hidden inside that temple.
The instant my Souls were snatched away, every villager in Tafeng Village burst apart and crumbled into dust.
And when I came back, they… came back too…