At this moment, the courtyard was as silent as death. The guests who had come for the feast had long since fled.
In the courtyard, my cousin was sitting on the coffin board, with her feet stepping on my aunt and her mother - in - law.
She was holding her belly with one hand. Just as Wang Bao had said, her face was extremely ferocious. She glared at the two women beneath her feet and said, "Do you see? I'm pregnant. It's a girl in my belly. Don't you just like sons? Well, I'll just give birth to daughters!"
"No, Daidi. We didn't mean that. Please let Mom go. Mom is so scared."
"Hehe, Daidi. It means you wanted me to bring a younger brother. But I brought the younger brother for you. How did you treat me then, Mom? Were you scared when you hit me with the fire poker? Did you ever think about the retribution?"
"And you, old hag. You forced me to have children for you. You made a bunch of tonics that were supposed to ensure a son and forced me to drink three cups every day. I was always drunk. Your son was even more damned. He beat me when I didn't obey him. He beat me so badly that I had a miscarriage and could never have children again. And you blamed it all on me."
"How did I die? I was stripped naked by your son and thrown into the snow to freeze to death. Even after I died, I was slandered as a whore. Don't you think you deserve to die?"
The two old women, being in their fifties, couldn't stand such a shock. They were trembling violently. My cousin's mother - in - law had already fainted.
I stood in the courtyard. After hearing my cousin's experiences, I felt extremely uncomfortable. "Cousin, I've come to see you."
When my cousin saw me, her empty eyes seemed to light up, but it wasn't a look of expectation. It was more like a greedy light.
"There's an evil aura on her. It's the evil aura of her own obsession. Someone deliberately used this aura to control her corpse to do evil." Bai Qi raised his hand to protect my chest, preventing my cousin from getting closer to me.
"Cousin, did you come to see my baby? Wait a minute. I'll take her out for you to see. It's a girl." My cousin's actions were strange and completely unlike her usual self.
As she spoke, she put her hand into her clothes and kept rummaging for something. Even through the clothes, one could hear the sticky sound of tearing flesh.
"Cousin, no need. I mainly came to find you. I'll visit my niece another day." I quickly stopped my cousin, afraid that she would really take out something bloody from her belly.
"You don't want to see her because she's a girl? You're just like them. You all want me to give birth to a son..."
At this moment, my cousin suddenly flew into a rage. Her body trembled, and a powerful black gas enveloped the entire house. The already ferocious features on her face were covered with black threads like spider webs.
Her ten fingers were thick, and her black - purple fingernails were like ten steel cones, slashing directly at me.
At the same time, Bai Qi had already possessed my body. The short gun in his hand twirled like a staff. He gently blocked it in front of my chest. The short gun collided with my cousin's fingernails, and a golden spark exploded.
My cousin was sent flying by the short gun in Bai Qi's hand, but she didn't back down. Instead, she took to the air again and pounced on me like a hungry tiger.
Bai Qi was calm. He spun half a circle on the ground, crouched slightly, and swept the short gun out. A wave of qi vibrated. A yellow talisman was picked up by the tip of the short gun and flew straight towards my cousin's heart.
Just as the yellow talisman was about to pierce my cousin's heart, I couldn't bear to see my cousin's corpse damaged.
"Bai Qi, can you keep my cousin's body intact?"
As soon as I finished speaking, Bai Qi flicked away the talisman paper on the short gun. He did a side somersault and slapped my cousin hard on the chest.
This palm directly slapped out the evil aura that was controlling my cousin's corpse. It instantly turned into a black smoke and fled.
Without the support of the evil aura, my cousin's body went limp and she fell to the side.
Bai Qi stepped forward, caught my cousin's corpse, and laid her back on the wooden board.
He ordered my aunt to burn paper here and made her mother - in - law kneel on the ground to repent. She wasn't allowed to get up until the rooster crowed in the morning.
After saying that, he took me and chased after the evil aura.
Bai Qi took my body and ran out of the village all the way into a dense forest. White mist lingered in the air. Since it was night, the swaying leaves cast terrifying shadows on the ground. It was really scary.
Bai Qi separated from my body. Seeing him, I felt much more at ease.
"Where is this? I don't think I've ever been here before?" I couldn't help asking.
As a rural child, I was quite wild when I was a kid. I often went to the mountains to play and was very familiar with the nearby areas, but I had no impression of this place.
"We seem to have stepped into a maze set up by someone." Bai Qi always held the short gun in his hand and guarded me warily.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound. I felt a chill under my feet. I quickly looked down and saw a fire fox crawling out. It bit my backpack and tried to pull it out.
I instinctively protected my backpack but was scratched on the back of my hand by the fox's claws.
Seeing this, Bai Qi flicked the short gun and sent the fox flying.
I picked up my backpack to check. The bottom of the bag had been torn a big hole by the fox. I didn't care about my injured hand and quickly rummaged for the Pure Ruyi.
Fortunately, it was still there. If I had lost it, Gu Yuan would definitely have killed me.
But inadvertently, the blood from the wound touched the Pure Ruyi.
A white light floated out of the Pure Ruyi and landed on the ground. A graceful girl stood in front of me.
"Manyue?"
This girl looked exactly like me. I looked at her curiously, but besides smiling, she couldn't do anything else.
"She's just a soul with retained memories. She can't communicate with people." Bai Qi said.
"How did I release her? And how can I take her back?" I looked at the Pure Ruyi and was at a loss for a moment.
At the same time, it was all white around me. It seemed that my soul had been dragged to a certain place. Bai Qi wasn't by my side here.
Suddenly, a red light landed, and Hu Qingluan stood in front of us. Her charming fox - like eyes were teasing, but I could feel an indelible hatred from them.
"Why is it you?" I asked.
Hu Qingluan looked coquettish. She posed in a seductive way and said, "Don't worry. This is the pale land of the Pure Ruyi. I brought you here just to let you see someone."
As she spoke, she opened the small jar in her hand. What floated out was actually my cousin's soul.
When my cousin saw me, anxiety appeared on her pale face. She immediately shouted, "Lanlan."
"You actually captured my cousin's soul. What on earth do you want?" I stepped forward suddenly, trying to grab my cousin, but she was put back into the bottle again.
"Nothing. I just want to make a deal with you. Just give Manyue to me." Hu Qingluan said.
"Didn't you give Manyue to Gu Yuan? Why do you want to take her back?" I asked puzzledly.
Hu Qingluan's eyes moved. "I had no choice but to hand her over. I was afraid that he wouldn't protect me if I didn't give her to him."
She took a few steps forward with great interest and spoke in a cutesy voice. "If the Pure Ruyi is lost in your hands or Manyue's residual soul dissipates, how will Gu Yuan treat you? I'm really curious to know."
"You won't be able to get away with it either. I have a mouth. Can't I speak out?"
"Do you think I'll give you a chance to speak? The Pure Ruyi is my family heirloom and it protects me. Once you leave here, my face in your mind will be blurred. You won't be able to recognize me."
Then she changed into another charming pose and continued, "Lan Chiyu, do you know how many hundreds of years I've been waiting for Gu Yuan to change his mind? I thought I was about to achieve my goal, but then you came out of nowhere. I'm not willing. Fortunately, this is a rare opportunity. I can use you to get rid of Manyue. I don't believe that Gu Yuan won't come back to me."
These words made it seem as if Manyue and I were mistresses who had stolen someone's man. In fact, she was the real slut, yet she was pretending to be innocent in front of us.
"My patience is limited. If you don't make the exchange, your cousin will really be gone forever. I'll give you one minute." As she spoke, she released my cousin's soul again.
Looking at my cousin's innocent face and recalling Manyue's serene smile.
I stood there, at a loss. One was my cousin, who I had played with since childhood and was like a real sister to me. The other was Manyue, whom Gu Yuan would risk his life to bring back.
I didn't want to give up either of them. How could I make this decision?