24
If Lộc Hà is dead, what hope do I have left?
Should I call the police? Did anyone see anything? Did anyone hear anything?
As I screamed hysterically, Tống Hiến Nam rushed over and clamped a hand over my mouth. “The Tống family’s lineage cannot die out. My little brother has to live.”
“I’m only a daughter. I can’t do anything for the family... If I could trade my life for a grandson for my parents, I’d be willing.”
“Go to sleep. Once you’re asleep, it won’t hurt anymore...”
Before long, Tống Hiến Nam herself had tied me up as tightly as a bundle of rice cakes, secured it with a knot that couldn’t be undone, and forced me to swallow several sleeping pills. Once again, I fell into a deep, unconscious sleep.
This time, I had no idea how long I’d been asleep.
When I woke, my body was stiff as a log. My lips were cracked and dry, and my throat felt like a broken bellows; all I could manage was a hoarse wheeze.
I instinctively raised a hand. It was withered and dehydrated, the wrinkled skin stretched over sharply defined knuckles. It looked absolutely horrifying.
Even more terrifying, the corpse-wrapping ring was still there!
The ring clamped down on my flesh as if it had become one with my finger, constantly sucking nutrients from my body.
Desperate, I struggled until I rolled off the bed and onto the floor, where I saw a foot...
A foot reduced to bare white bones.
My gaze trembled as I looked up. A skeleton still covered in flesh was standing right in front of me!
A stench rushed straight into my face. It tilted its head at me and raised its right hand...
“Honey, you’re awake?”
“Happy birthday!”
25
I’d been asleep for seven straight days!
My mind was blank. Instinct took over, and I rolled off the bed, crawled out of the bedroom, and looked for somewhere to hide.
Chu Thải Phượng was keeping watch at the front door, so I bolted for the big glass window. But a rope suddenly came out of nowhere, tightened around my neck, and yanked me hard to the ground!
“Honey... you’re my life. What am I supposed to do if you run away?”
I nearly passed out from suffocation as Tống Thuận Dương, now nothing but a skeleton, dragged me into the storage room.
The room reeked of blood, and the walls were covered in talismans drawn in blood. This must be the yin-coffin formation!
Tống Hiến Nam sat obediently inside a circular formation, talking with Tống Huyên.
“Our eldest sister disappeared twenty years ago. Was she really off working?”
“Our second sister suddenly had a fight with the family two years ago. Where did she go?”
“A little over ten days ago, our third sister went to Myanmar to make money and lost contact. Why didn’t you call the police?”
“Every time Tống Thuận Dương teetered on the brink of death, whose life did you trade for his?”
“Aren’t you afraid? You’ve killed so many people!”
Tống Huyên laughed arrogantly and flung a handful of paper money into the air. “Go ahead and investigate if you’ve got the nerve. Those beasts got in my way. Being sacrificed for my son is a blessing for them!”
“Oh, my dear daughter-in-law is here? Then let’s get started. I’ll keep her womb intact so she can enjoy the happiness of becoming a mother...”
The skeleton dragged me into a circle of blood, convulsed a few times, then went still.
A cold, ghostly wind blew in, and Tống Huyên began chanting. The corpse-wrapping ring on my ring finger grew hot and tightened until it felt like it was about to sever my finger!
In my desperation, a bag of icy soil was shoved into my hand, immediately dispelling the heat from the ring...
“The evidence is clear. Take them in.”
26
What?
I forced my eyes open and saw Tống Hiến Nam raise a hand to rub her face. Her entire face transformed into someone else’s. She pulled a pair of handcuffs from her pocket, rushed over to subdue Tống Huyên, wrenched his arm behind his back, and pinned him to the ground!
Chu Thải Phượng ran in through the front door, but Lộc Hà appeared behind her like a ghost and stuck a talisman to her. She immediately froze in place.
“You think a fake effigy can fool me? You think you can push this old lady around?”
Lộc Hà let out a few cold laughs, drew a peachwood sword, and cut Tống Huyên in half with a single stroke!
“Everyone, stay back! Don’t get in my way!”
Tống Thuận’s corpse was cut in half. Its head rolled away, and its body convulsed before rapidly shrinking, exposing the rotten remains inside. Green flesh crawling with maggots sprayed out in thick clumps...
I backed into a corner, watching the gods battle the ghost. Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, I suddenly realized Tống Huyên’s mouth was still chanting nonstop!
27
“How do we shut him up? Damn it, tell him to stop!”
Tống Hiến Nam shouted to Lộc Hà, but Lộc Hà was focused on suppressing what remained of Tống Huyên and had no time to answer.
A few clacks sounded behind me. Tống Thuận Dương, now a heap of white bones, seemed to sense the curse and slowly lifted his head.
In the nick of time, I shoved the bag of soil in my hand into Tống Huyên’s mouth!
“Trình San, where’s the soil I gave you? Shove it in! It’s from the grave of his three daughters. Use their resentment to suppress his murderous energy. Every wrong has its source, and every debt its debtor. Understand?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Tống Huyên stopped chanting.
The entire bag of soil spontaneously burst into flames. The strange yellow-green fire couldn’t be put out; it devoured Tống Huyên’s head. A scream of agony rang out as the flames roared higher.
But the curse had already been completed.
Tống Thuận Dương seemed to come back to life and crawled up from the ground. Rotten flesh fell bit by bit from his bones as he moved in one direction...
“Quý Khinh, burn the ring! He’s looking for whoever’s wearing it. Use that fire to destroy it!”
But the corpse-wrapping ring had clamped tightly around my ring finger, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t pull it off. Tống Huyên’s head was burning right beside me, but I couldn’t bring myself to put my whole hand into the flames.
“She can’t get the ring off. We can’t burn her whole hand!”
“Then think of something! If Tống Thuận Dương gets the ring, we’re all done for!”
Cornered with nowhere to run, my hand brushed against something sharp on the floor.
Beneath the broken tiles, just one corner of a photo showing three people was visible.
My parents were in it.
In that moment, I suddenly understood.
Resentment doesn’t come only from hatred.
When someone you love is hurt, helplessness and fury can also give rise to resentment.
Though my parents are gone, their love for me will never change.
“Give me the lighter! It’s in Tống Huyên’s pocket!”
As everyone watched in astonishment, I set fire to the corner of the photograph and thrust my hand into the blue-yellow flames without hesitation.
I felt no pain at all. The corpse ring was instantly swallowed by the flames. The band snapped in two and crumbled to ash.
At last, Tống Thuận Dương convulsed over and over. With a scream of pain, he disintegrated into a pile of white bones, never to recover again.
28
The police took Chu Thải Phượng away.
From the day their first daughter was born, they had prepared everything for a son who might be born someday.
They erected memorials for their daughters while they were still alive, chose the village latrine pit as the burial place for newborns, and raised their “girl sacrifices” in isolation, with no education, no friends, and no chance of marrying a man. Whenever they were needed, all it took was a summons from whatever far-off place they had gone to work, and they would sacrifice their lives to save Tống Thuận Dương.
Whenever Tống Thuận Dương was in critical condition, they had to return home.
If their parents hadn’t called the police, who would have cared what became of people so easily overlooked by society?
The supernatural can’t be proven by science, but in the old latrine pit behind the Tống family home, DNA tests clearly identified three of their daughters.
That was how Trình San, a local police officer investigating the disappearance of the female migrant workers, was connected with Lộc Hà and me, who were searching for the ancient rival of the mystic sect.
Fortunately, truth and justice did not come too late.
Before leaving, Lộc Hà asked Chu Thải Phượng, “Do you know where Tống Huyên, who was actually born in 1916, got his new skin?”
Chu Thải Phượng answered with a question of her own: “Can Tống Thuận Dương’s fate still be changed?”
“What are we supposed to do without a man in the family? Even if he was just a baby who died young, we still had to raise him. Only a son can carry on the family line!”
Trình San coldly shoved her into the police car. “Go to prison and think about carrying on the family line! You should pray that your last daughter, Tống Hiến Nam, cares enough to visit you and bring you a couple of meals!”
Chu Thải Phượng suddenly burst into tears, staring at the 28th floor in anguish, hoping for one last glimpse of her son.
Lộc Hà stepped forward and cast a divination for her, then said softly, “Actually, the final moment of the fate-changing ritual was completed. But because the ring was destroyed, her son may have entered something else. Southeast, at the four o’clock position—extremely inauspicious.”
Chu Thải Phượng’s eyes lit up, and she and the others all looked southeast…
A badly wounded stray dog charged out of the bushes. It tried to walk on two legs, its eyes glowing red, and attempted to attack several passersby. It failed, and was finally run over by a truck, meeting a gruesome end.
“This is the best comeuppance your son could get.”
I thought so too.
29
After Chu Thải Phượng was taken away, the forensic doctors and Lộc Hà’s team both returned to the scene to investigate. Both groups left looking very strange.
Lộc Hà didn’t explain anything to me. She only said she’d cleaned everything in the room, so I didn’t need to worry, and gave me a lot of good-luck charms.
Life soon returned to normal. We became friends by chance and occasionally had dinner together.
On New Year’s Eve, I went to pick Lộc Hà up after work and bought some traditional Chinese medicine for a cold while I was at it.
As I waited, a college student with clear, bright eyes suddenly tugged at my sleeve and asked about Doctor Lộc’s skills.
“I came to see her to get my health back in shape. Why does she seem like some kind of charlatan?”
“This gold ring was a gift from my grandmother. The outside is engraved with her birthday, and she even had my birthday engraved inside. She meant to pass it down to me as my dowry. How could it possibly be an evil object?”
-THE END-