Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The courtyard gate slammed shut with a heavy thud.

The Town Head and his men forced me into the Main Hall, step by step.

The Town Head’s Son stared at me without blinking, his eyes filled with a frenzied excitement. The hand holding the Coffin Nail was trembling.

The Town Head pointed toward the Attic. “Xiao Jiu, look. What is that?”

In the Attic, a Red Coffin sat ominously, wrapped in heavy iron chains.

“Wufu Town is a cursed town. Every thirty years, we need a Pure Yin Body to suppress the Curse. You are already the ninth.”

With his hands behind his back, the Town Head squinted at the Red Coffin, talking as if to himself. “Nine is the number of change. Only through change can there be an end. Xiao Jiu, you are the key.”

“You escaped your fate on the First Day of the Eighth Month, and a few nights ago, you were lucky enough to survive again. Xiao Jiu, things don’t happen a third time. This time, you delivered yourself to my doorstep. Don’t blame me for being heartless.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly reached out, grabbed a handful of my hair, and dragged me toward the Attic.

I struggled, but the other men immediately stepped forward and hoisted me up.

The Attic wasn’t high, and I was carried up in no time.

They pinned me into the Red Coffin. The Town Head’s Son knelt beside the coffin, pressing the sharp tip of the Coffin Nail against the center of my brow.

A bloodthirsty light gleamed in his eyes. “Xiao Jiu, don’t be afraid. My technique is excellent; it won’t hurt much.”

With that, he raised his hammer high…

Just then, the Crack of a Whip suddenly echoed from outside, followed by the sound of the courtyard gate crashing to the ground.

Someone ran out to see what was happening, but the Town Head shouted anxiously, “Jiabao, quick! Nail it in!”

But he had forgotten that the men holding me down had already run out.

I lashed out with a kick, striking the Town Head’s Son hard on the hand. The hammer clattered to the floor.

However, the tip of the Coffin Nail still pierced my brow, drawing blood.

Ignoring the pain, I scrambled to climb out of the Red Coffin. The Town Head frantically tried to pin me back down.

In the chaos, a Long Whip with red tassels lashed out from behind. With a swift whirl, it coiled tightly around the Town Head’s neck.

Meanwhile, I had already snatched up the hammer and pressed the blood-stained Coffin Nail against the brow of the Town Head’s Son.

Everything was under control.

I looked back and gave Li Qingying a triumphant smile. “Sister Qingying, your timing is perfect.”

The note I had left for her said: *If I haven’t come out of the Town Head’s Residence in half an hour, break in.*

Li Qingying rolled her eyes at me. “If I had actually waited half an hour, your body would be cold by now.”

I let out a laugh, then turned my gaze to the Town Head. I pressed the Coffin Nail down slightly, making the Town Head’s Son wail in pain. I threatened sharply, “If you don’t want your bloodline to end here, answer my questions!”

The Town Head was still hesitating.

He kept glancing toward the East Room, as if someone was hiding inside.

Losing my patience, I swung the hammer without hesitation.

At the same time, Li Qingying tightened her Long Whip.

The Town Head gasped in pain and cried out in a panic, “I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! Just don’t hurt my Jiabao! Whether it’s that Broken Mailbox or the eight Red Coffins in the Zhu Pan River, it was all to appease the Five Immortals back then-ah!”

Before the Town Head could finish, a dozen Yellow Weasels suddenly swarmed out of the East Room. The leader leaped into the air and slashed its claws across the Town Head’s face.

The turn of events was too sudden. Li Qingying immediately pulled me toward her, shielding me as we retreated, while lashing out with her Long Whip to keep the Yellow Weasels at bay.

The Yellow Weasels pressed forward relentlessly. As soon as one was injured by the whip, another would immediately take its place.

Li Qingying successfully got me out of the courtyard gate, and we both bolted toward the Pawnshop.

The Yellow Weasels pursued us doggedly until we ducked under the eaves of the Pawnshop. Only then did they stop. They crouched on the street opposite us, their small, shrewd eyes-no larger than soy beans-staring fixedly at the Pawnshop, filled with a sense of lingering malice.
Back at the Pawnshop, I gasped for air while Li Qingying stood guard at the door, her Long Whip in hand.

I don’t know how much time passed before those Yellow Weasels suddenly left, as if they had received some kind of order.

Li Qingying turned around and let out a small cry of alarm, reaching out to touch my neck.

Only when she touched it did I feel the pain-a sharp, stinging sensation that made me hiss through my teeth.

My neck had been clawed by a Yellow Weasel.

Li Qingying hurried to get medicine to treat the wound, but my mind was stuck on what had just happened.

So close. I was so close!

If those Yellow Weasels hadn’t suddenly appeared, I would have been able to squeeze some useful information out of the Town Head.

What a waste of a perfectly good opportunity.

However, it wasn’t a total loss. At the very least, I was now certain that the so-called Wufu Town Curse was likely nothing but nonsense.

The Curse was merely a smokescreen used to cover up something else.

Whatever it was, it was connected to the Five Immortals… those beasts!

The Dou family was backed by the Gray Immortal, while the Town Head’s family was backed by the Yellow Immortal.

The Town Head’s surname was Huang.

Of course. How could I have overlooked such an important detail? (Note: Huang means Yellow in Chinese.)

Wufu Town wasn’t large, and there were only so many original residents. The most prominent surname was Huang.

Next was the Bai Family in the north.

In contrast, the Dou family was sparsely populated.

I counted them on my fingers and realized there weren’t any families in Wufu Town with the surnames Liu or Hu at all.

What was going on there?

Now, only Dou Jinsuo was left of the Dou family, and he couldn’t stir up much trouble. The Town Head’s scheme had failed with me, so that only left the Bai Family.

They were all grasshoppers on the same string; there was no way the Bai Family would just sit idly by.

The Bai Family…

Compared to the Town Head, the Bai Family held a fairly high status in Wufu Town because they had been doctors for generations.

Wufu Town didn’t have a proper hospital, only a small Clinic.

However, the Bai Family owned a fairly large Medical Hall. Granny Bai was highly skilled in medicine, and many people from the surrounding countryside came to seek her help.

I used to spend most of my time away at school, so I didn’t understand the intricacies of these things. Looking back now, rather than saying Granny Bai treated the sick, it was more accurate to say her family enshrined the White Immortal and she handled supernatural matters.

After Li Qingying finished bandaging my wound, she urged me to go lie down.

My mind was racing with calculations, and I didn’t feel like moving anymore anyway.

She stayed with me until after ten o’clock that night. Seeing me yawning repeatedly, she tucked me in, turned off the lights, locked the main door of the Pawnshop, and went to her own room to sleep.

I had just drifted off into a daze when a knocking sound suddenly echoed from outside.

*Thump… thump… thump… thump-thump…*

Three long, two short. The sound wasn’t loud, but it repeated with a steady rhythm.

Granny once said that if someone knocks at midnight with a frantic, life-threatening urgency, it’s usually a person. But a rhythmic knock like this-three long and two short-was mostly Dirty Things.

Could it be a Yin Pawn coming to the door?

A Yin Pawn comes with a request that cannot be refused.

With that thought, I got up to open the door.

Taking an extra precaution, the moment I pulled open the small street-facing door of the Southern Study, I leaped back, putting as much distance between myself and the entrance as possible.

*Drip… drop…*

A figure stood outside the door… or rather, a shadow…

It wasn’t that the person was just a shadow, but rather that I couldn’t see them clearly.

Liu Junyan had suffered a Heavenly Punishment and was severely injured, currently in secluded recovery. Influenced by him, my eyes seemed to have lost the ability to see those things clearly again.

But even though I couldn’t see the figure clearly, I could see the ground. Accompanied by the dripping sound, pools of fresh blood were continuously seeping into the Pawnshop.

The figure reached out a hand toward me, clutching a small knife that dripped incessantly with blood. Her voice was raspy and unpleasant-it was a woman.

“Pawn… Pawn Knife…”