Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The man pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and gently wiped the blood from my forehead.

He stared intently at the space between my eyebrows. After a long moment, he asked again, “Ali, is it you?”

Ali?

I remembered what Seventh Master had said before he emerged from the coffin to save me all those years ago: “Little Fire Fox, have you returned?”

Who on earth were they mistaking me for?

I immediately shook my head. “I’m sorry, I’m not Ali. My name is Xiao Jiu.”

“Xiao Jiu?” The man tucked away his handkerchief and smiled, ruffling my hair, which had already turned mostly white. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Xiao Jiu.”

He was truly so gentle. When he smiled, his upturned peach-blossom eyes seemed to speak, possessing a soul-stirring charm.

For a moment, I actually forgot how to speak.

Just then, someone called out from a short distance away, “Fox Lord, we must continue our journey.”

The man gave an acknowledging hum, then reached into his robes to pull out a jade pendant. He hung it around my neck and said, “This is a meeting gift. Xiao Jiu, no matter what trouble you encounter in the future, you can seek my help. Just shatter the jade, and I will be able to sense it.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

Watching his tall, retreating figure, I hurriedly called out, “Thank you for saving me!”

The man looked back and flashed a smile. “Xiao Jiu, welcome back.”

***

The sky had turned completely dark by the time I rushed back. As soon as I entered the door, I saw Granny collapsed on the floor, her face devoid of color.

“Granny!”

I rushed over and gathered her into my arms, calling her name while forcefully pinching her philtrum.

My hands were shaking, and my voice trembled along with them.

I was so afraid-afraid that Granny would never wake up again.

After a long while, Granny took a deep breath and finally drifted back to consciousness. When she opened her eyes and saw me, she stood up almost reflexively, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the Main Hall.

Seeing her steady pace, I felt a slight sense of relief.

Granny led me into the Main Hall. Just like in previous years, she lit three sticks of Yellow Incense and thrust them into my hands, urging, “Xiao Jiu, quick! Offer incense to Seventh Master.”

I took the Yellow Incense and knelt before the Black Coffin. Just as I was about to bow, a sudden gust of yin wind swept through the room. The three sticks of Yellow Incense snapped cleanly in half, and the embers died out.

Granny’s face turned deathly pale.

She immediately relit three more sticks of Yellow Incense, handed them to me, and told me to try again.

But the incense snapped again, just as cleanly as before.

We tried several times in a row, and the result was always the same.

The yin wind in the Main Hall was relentless, making the Talisman Paper on the Black Coffin dance wildly and the Five-Colored Flag on the large red sedan chair in the corner rattle loudly.

It felt as if an invisible force was surging through the entire Main Hall, pressing down on me until I could hardly breathe.

The terror in Granny’s eyes deepened. In the span of just a few minutes, she seemed to wither and age rapidly, as if all her essence had been drained away…

She kept pulling various pieces of Talisman Paper from her black cloth bag and slapping them onto the Black Coffin. However, as soon as they touched the wood, every single one of them spontaneously combusted without a flame, turning instantly to ash.

Granny’s footsteps became increasingly unsteady, and her complexion grew worse by the second. Streaks of blood began to leak from the corners of her mouth-it was a terrifying sight.

I lunged forward and threw my arms around her, pinning down her hand as she reached for another Yellow Talisman to suppress whatever was inside. I cried out, “Granny, stop! You’re bleeding! I’m taking you to the hospital!”

Granny just kept shaking her head, though the blood at her lips only flowed faster.

She grabbed me back. In her clouded eyes, her pupils seemed to be losing focus, yet they remained filled with overwhelming worry. “What do we do? Xiao Jiu, the Curse of Wufu Town… the Curse has come after all. Even Seventh Master can’t protect you anymore!”

“Xiao Jiu, my poor Xiao Jiu…”
The moment Granny opened her mouth, blood gushed out in heavy spurts.

She collapsed into my arms. I held her up with one hand while the other frantically wiped the blood from her lips, my tears falling uncontrollably, pitter-patter, onto her face.

In that moment, I finally understood. Granny was already at death’s door when I first walked in.

My voice calling out to her had only triggered a final, fleeting rally-a terminal lucidity.

She had held on until now solely through the sheer force of her obsession to wait for my return.

But she… she couldn’t hold on any longer.

“Xiao Jiu, where did this come from?”

Granny suddenly noticed the jade pendant hanging around my neck. She gripped it tightly with one hand, her eyes searching mine with desperate hope.

I quickly recounted everything that had happened on my way back.

“Heh, those beasts… they’ll do anything to snatch a soul!” Granny hissed through gritted teeth, cursing them. Then, a smile flickered across her face. “But the heavens have eyes. For Xiao Jiu to meet the Fox Lord… this is fate! This is a chance for life!”

Fox Lord?

Right, that was how the attendant had addressed the man.

Granny grabbed both of my hands, pressing the jade pendant firmly into my palm. Her expression turned solemn. “Xiao Jiu, Granny’s time has come. Don’t be sad. Having you with me these past ten-odd years has made me very happy.”

“Granny has to go now. The road ahead…”

She stopped abruptly, staring at my hair in sheer terror.

Without me realizing it, my hair had turned completely white.

Strand after strand of white hair whipped around, caught in the ghostly wind swirling through the Main Hall. I felt something heavy pressing down on my back, layer upon layer, forcing my spine to bend and draining the strength from my limbs.

Cold. I felt a bone-deep chill, as if I had been plunged into a cellar of ice.

“They’re here! They’re here…”

Granny flailed her hands-withered and thin as dry branches-striking at my back repeatedly as if trying to drive away the things weighing me down.

But it was useless.

A chorus of ghostly wails and wolf-like howls suddenly erupted in my ears. Though I couldn’t see them, I could feel them.

The lingering, inescapable aura of yin, the force constantly tugging at my white hair… everything served as a reminder that the Main Hall was crawling with those things!

Something was shoved into my hand. I looked down; it was a ring of keys.

Granny finally reached her limit. She slumped against my shoulder, her voice as thin as a thread as she gave her final instructions: “These are all the keys to the Pawnshop. Keep them safe.”

“You must protect the Broken Mailbox at the Corridor Front at all costs…”

“Choose the green sedan chair, Xiao Jiu… you must choose the green one…”

My mind was a blur of confusion.

The Broken Mailbox? Why did I need to protect a broken mailbox?

And where was this green sedan chair? The one in the corner of the room was bright red.

Besides, why did I have to choose a sedan chair at all?

But Granny could no longer answer my questions.

Granny… was gone.

I pulled her cold body into my arms and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

Granny!

The woman who had saved me, who had raised and protected me… my only family… was gone.

But before I could even process the agony of my loss, the clothes on my body suddenly changed.

One moment I was wearing a well-fitting tracksuit; the next, it had transformed into a heavy, elaborate set of crimson bridal robes.

In the blink of an eye, the Main Hall-and the entire Pawnshop-was decked out in festive decorations, draped in a sea of blood-red.

A high-pitched, shrill voice drifted in from outside the courtyard gate:

“The auspicious hour has arrived! We humbly invite the bride!”