Si Jiangchen took my hand and walked with me along the veranda of the mansion to a small flower hall deep in the courtyard.
The small building with upturned eaves had diamond - patterned windows and doors made of mahogany, looking as delicate as a shrine.
"Hey, you guys! Why are you so late?!"
As soon as Si Jiangchen led me across the threshold, I saw Lu Tianchang sitting on a master's chair with a scowl on his face, looking at us discontentedly.
"Am I going to meet him?" I asked, looking at Lu Tianchang and then at Si Jiangchen in confusion.
"Has the corpse poison eaten your brains?" Lu Tianchang looked like he wanted to come over and rap me on the head. I quickly covered my head. The hair bun that Granny Bai had just painstakingly done for me mustn't be messed up.
"Xiao Si is bringing you here to pay respects to your mother - in - law," Lu Tianchang said helplessly, pointing to a long strip of table behind the screen in the flower hall. "A new daughter - in - law always has to meet her mother - in - law."
I looked at the table. On the ebony table, there was a small memorial tablet with the words "The Spirit of the Kind Mother, Qiu Zhuying" written in gold paint.
"...Why is it written like this?" I was a bit surprised. Although I wasn't very familiar with those family titles, my Du family also had a large clan. During ancestor - worship ceremonies, the women's names on the memorial tablets were always preceded by their husbands' surnames. Shouldn't this Ms. Qiu Zhuying be written as "Si - Qiu Zhuying"?
"I only recognize her as my mother," Si Jiangchen took my hand and led me to the kneeling cushion in front of the table. "Si Cheng is the clan leader, not our family member."
I seemed to understand something... I'm afraid that Si Jiangchen's mother, this Ms. Qiu Zhuying, died because of Si Cheng. That's why Si Jiangchen had no good feelings for the entire Si family!
"My mother died of poisoning," Si Jiangchen lit three incense sticks and inserted them into the small gold - painted incense burner in front of the memorial tablet. He said calmly, "The man she loved the most and the sister she trusted the most killed her."
I was stunned for a moment and immediately thought of the ambiguous actions between Si Cheng and Qiu Zhuqing. I originally thought that these two got together after Si Cheng's first wife died. I didn't expect that they were actually the murderers?!
"Mrs. Qiu had always been in poor health," Lu Tianchang continued. "Xiao Si went to the Qingwei Ancestral Court with our master to learn Taoism. When he came back, Mrs. Qiu had already passed away, leaving behind only a baby girl in swaddling clothes."
"Ah?!" I instantly understood why Si Jiangchen hated the entire Si family so much. "How did you know that Mrs. Qiu... Mrs. Qiu was killed by them? Did you summon her soul and ask?"
After all, Mrs. Qiu passed away when Si Jiangchen was not at home. He had no other way but to find her soul and ask.
I knelt down on the soft kneeling cushion with Si Jiangchen.
"No," Si Jiangchen said calmly. There was no emotion on his face, but it was precisely this kind of him that made me feel an intangible and formless sense of terror from the abyss. He would make Si Cheng pay for his crimes!
"My mother's soul is gone. She didn't even have a chance to complain to me," Si Jiangchen kowtowed three times respectfully on the kneeling cushion. "Mother, I've brought my wife to see you..."
I didn't know how to comfort him for a moment, so I just followed him and bowed three times.
Si Jiangchen got up from the kneeling cushion and then looked at Lu Tianchang.
"Brother Lu, I'll leave the rest to you," Si Jiangchen said.
Lu Tianchang nodded and took out two small straw dolls from his yellow cloth bag.
Si Jiangchen wrote our birth dates and times on the dolls with a brush dipped in cinnabar and then handed them back to Lu Tianchang.
Lu Tianchang raised his eyebrows and asked, "Are you sure you want to use the Great Supreme Soul - Returning Spell on her?"
"Yes."
I listened to their conversation, completely confused.
Wasn't today for paying respects to Si Jiangchen's mother? How did it suddenly turn to me?
But I didn't have time to ask. Lu Tianchang had already stuck a straw doll on my forehead. A stinging sensation made me close my eyes suddenly. When I opened them again, I was in a dark and lightless world.
"Si Jiangchen... Lu, Lu Tianchang?!"
I wasn't sleeping. How could I suddenly fall into this nightmare - like world?!
"Follow me," suddenly, I heard a small voice. I saw the small straw doll appearing at my feet.
"Where are we going?" I was a bit curious. I had just seen that Si Jiangchen also had a straw doll. I looked around, trying to find his figure in this dark but infinitely bright place.
"We're going to the place you should go," the straw doll moved its body clumsily, making a rustling sound. In front of me appeared the bottomless abyss and the strange and colorful Yellow Spring Road on the other side.
"Are you ready?" Si Jiangchen's voice came from the darkness. I quickly looked in the direction of the voice. I saw a white figure gradually emerging from the hazy darkness. It was... Zhu Youjian?! So I was still in a dream!!
Zhu Youjian nodded and looked in my direction. "We're all ready."
The little girl who had emerged from his black hair had curled up to the size of an adult's fist and was emitting a faint blue light.
The straw doll leading the way in front of me let out a cheer and immediately jumped into the air. Its straw body suddenly opened a huge mouth and bit towards the little spiritual body of Xiaojiu.
"Stop!!" I didn't expect such a change. The straw doll had my birth date written on it and should be one with me in spirit. I had never thought of devouring Zhu Youjian's daughter's spiritual body!!
The Great Supreme Soul - Returning Spell!
Xiaojiu's body was the Great Supreme Soul - Returning Spell...
I reached out to grab the straw doll's feet, but it was like a hungry wolf seeing delicious food. It bit off the fist - sized spiritual body from Zhu Youjian's soul body with a "click", despite the risk of having its hands and feet torn off by me.
"Ah..." The severe pain of the soul - body being torn made Zhu Youjian let out a shrill scream. Countless terrifying black mists immediately began to swirl and disperse from the place on his back where Xiaojiu had been parasitic.
"...The Heavenly Gate faces the red well, and the Cloud Gate is lofty. The Seven Non - Worlds lead to the strange cover, and the continuous meandering also spreads evil. The Six Heavens lie across the northern path. This is the home of ghosts and gods. Stabilize the soul and guard the soul. Hurry, as in the edict of the law."
Si Jiangchen's voice rang out urgently in the darkness. As he recited the Soul - Stabilizing Spell, the black hole on Zhu Youjian's back quickly collapsed inward, sucking the escaped black mists back into his soul body.
My straw doll had already swallowed Xiaojiu's soul body. The fist - sized faint blue light had condensed into a small patch, flickering intermittently in the gaps of the straw.
"Floating souls, where do you abide? Mountain gods and river spirits, the six - Jia gold..."
This time, not only Si Jiangchen's voice but also Lu Tianchang's voice joined in. I saw the straw doll quickly grow larger according to the spell. In an instant, it crossed the abyss that we had never been able to cross and rushed towards the Yellow Spring Road that was flickering with a hazy blue light.
"...Woo..." Although the black mists on Zhu Youjian's body no longer overflowed, countless ghostly hands in the abyss were like sharks smelling blood. They wrapped around his body and dragged him towards the abyss...