Several guards rushed in and saw Qiu Zhuqing slumped against the wall. The trachea in the middle of her neck was forcefully torn open with a half - inch long gash. Blood and white froth stained her neck and the cheongsam on her chest.
She wasn't dead yet. A creepy "gurgling" sound came from her throat. She stretched out her hand forward, trying to plead with me to save her.
"What are you standing there for?!"
Li Mingyue was almost on the verge of a breakdown. She wanted to step forward to cover the wound on her mother's neck but was afraid of the gushing blood. So she grabbed a guard and shrieked hysterically, "Arrest this woman! She killed my mother! She killed the concubine of the Si family!!"
The guards glanced at each other, wondering if Li Mingyue had gone crazy from the shock. Clearly, the knife was in Qiu Zhuqing's hand, and I was still more than two meters away from her, with a sofa in between. How could I be the murderer?!
"Wait!"
Suddenly, a low shout came from outside the door. A tall and lanky figure rushed in. It was Lu Tianchang, who had been captured by Si Jiangchen before.
He reached out his hand and blocked Li Mingyue and the guards.
"You said she killed your mother?"
Lu Tianchang asked without looking back, "How?"
As he spoke, he looked up at me and Qiu Zhuqing, who was gasping for breath, and raised his eyebrows.
"She!! It was her who stabbed the knife into my mother's throat!"
Li Mingyue shrieked frantically and pushed Lu Tianchang's back, scolding, "Why are you so nosy? Just arrest her and beat her to death!"
"Bullshit!"
Hearing Li Mingyue's words, Lu Tianchang suddenly turned back and glared at her. "That old woman was taken by a ghost. How could it be her doing!"
I was also stunned for a moment. Suddenly, I remembered that since Lu Tianchang was a powerful Taoist priest, he must have the ability like the Heavenly Eye and could definitely see the old man behind Qiu Zhuqing.
"Frauds, all of you are frauds!"
Li Mingyue reached out to grab the Hanyang rifle from a guard while scolding, "I'll have my uncle execute all of you!!"
The Hanyang rifle was a long - barreled gun with a sharp bayonet on the muzzle. The guard was afraid of hurting this young miss during the struggle, so he quickly hugged the gun and dodged to the side.
"Stop! Mingyue, what kind of behavior is this?"
Si Jiangchen and his father, Si Cheng, rushed in from outside the door. It was Si Cheng, her uncle, who scolded Li Mingyue.
"Uncle! Uncle!! My mother is dead!"
Finally seeing her relative, Li Mingyue threw herself into Si Cheng's arms, hugged his arm, and burst into tears.
"Uncle will seek justice for you."
Glancing at Qiu Zhuqing leaning against the wall, a hint of anger flashed in Si Cheng's eyes. "Du Xinghe, explain. What's going on here?"
"What's there to explain? She didn't want to live anymore," I said coldly. "I've never seen a woman be so cruel to herself, stabbing a knife into her own body."
"Nonsense. Why would my mother commit suicide!"
Li Mingyue was lying in Si Cheng's arms, which always made me feel... awkward!
Were uncles and nieces so affectionate? Or was the social atmosphere in big cities more open, unlike in our remote small mountain villages where the strict separation of men and women was emphasized.
"Yes, Zhuqing was still discussing with me today how to handle your and Achen's wedding. How could she suddenly lose the will to live?"
Si Cheng squinted his eyes. It was obvious that he felt quite sorry for his younger sister - in - law.
"Do you want to know why she lost the will to live?"
Seeing that there were quite a few people gathered in front of the private room, a mischievous thought suddenly popped up in my mind.
"I can actually invite the victim here so that everyone can understand the whole story."
I looked at Si Jiangchen and found that he was looking at me with great interest, a faint smile on his face.
"Ah! Is it going to be a soul - summoning?"
"Invite a ghost to possess someone?"
"This is the Taoist art of the Si family. How does this young girl know how to use it?"
"Haven't you heard? She's going to be the future mistress of the Si family. How could she not know Taoist arts?"
"Really? I heard that it's the young miss who's going to be married."
"Shh, just watch the show. Don't be nosy!"
...
People by the door were chattering. Some bold ones had even squeezed into the private room.
The originally fairly spacious room suddenly became cramped.
"Showing off your meager skills!"
Si Cheng said coldly. "When it comes to the Si family, where do you get the audacity to show off?!"
"Achen."
Si Cheng glanced back at Si Jiangchen standing behind him and said, "Go and invite your aunt's soul up..."
"Father, let Xiaohe do it. I just drank some wine. I'm afraid I'll offend the soul."
Si Jiangchen's excuse was very skillful. He definitely gave his father enough face, but I could also sense the great estrangement between them.
"Humph!"
Si Cheng snorted but didn't say anything else.
Lu Tianchang beside him muttered in a low voice, "Is the soul and spirit intact?!"
I guessed that he thought I had the constitution of a zombie, without a human soul and three vital spirits in my body, so I couldn't perform Taoist arts.
Unexpectedly, now I actually took the initiative to ask to summon a soul, which made him even more confused about my constitution.
Seeing that no one objected, I stretched out my hands and made the hand gesture to invite a ghost. Lu Tianchang and Si Cheng both sneered softly at the same time.
The "hand gesture to invite a ghost", as the name implies, was to invite a ghost that had already entered the underworld back to the human world.
However, Qiu Zhuqing was just a soul that had just died and hadn't entered the underworld yet.
So the "soul - summoning hand gesture" should be used. Seeing that I even made such a simple mistake in the hand gesture, even Si Cheng, who was a "theorist without practice" and only knew the theory, couldn't help but look down on me.
I ignored their ridicule. I made the hand gesture and pointed repeatedly in the direction of Qiu Zhuqing's body, whispering, "The sky is clear and the earth is bright. Evil souls and ghosts, enter the seven orifices of a human and tell your grievances. Come quickly as ordered!"
After the last low shout, Li Mingyue in Si Cheng's arms suddenly let out a very loud "burp", and then her body began to tremble.
"Ugh..."
While trembling, Li Mingyue pushed Si Cheng away and slowly walked up to me in a distorted posture.
"Speak. What grievances do you have?"
My voice was very low, almost like a whisper, with a hint of temptation.
"I... I'm in so much pain!!!"
Li Mingyue's eyes rolled upwards. Her eye sockets, filled only with the whites of her eyes, were full of thin blood vessels. She desperately grabbed her mouth with both hands and let out another painful "gurgling" sound before saying again, "This... this bitch... She made me swallow boiling water and burned me to death!!"
When Li Mingyue said these words, her voice was old, like that of an old man, with a slight Hunan accent, completely different from her usual soft and gentle voice.
The crowd watching the show in the private room was in an uproar.
"The ghost has possessed someone! Why is it a man?"
"Didn't we ask the concubine to come out?"
"Who is this man?"
...
I pursed my lips slightly and looked at Si Jiangchen proudly. Then I asked, "Sir, please introduce yourself first."
"Uh... I..." Li Mingyue hung her head and thought for a while, then tilted her neck up high. "I am Li Jiuming!!"