Upon hearing this, Ye Jinghuai, who was teaching his three grandchildren to read inside the house, quickly put down his book and went outside.

The three boys inside the house immediately followed.

The group was in a hurry, but only the boy at the back noticed Jiang Xianya.

"You...you are Xianya's cousin?" The young man stopped and walked a few steps to Jiang Xianya. After looking her over, he asked tentatively.

The girl in front of me looks just like my aunt, especially her eyes, which are exactly the same. She looks to be only a teenager and must be my aunt's daughter.

Although he didn't know why Jiang Xianya was here, now was not the time to ask. With his cousin Xianya around, his aunt would probably be happier and recover from her illness faster.

"Mm." Jiang Xianya nodded gently.

“Cousin, you’ve come at the right time. Come with me to visit Aunt. Ever since Aunt returned to the Ye family seven days ago, she’s been bedridden, either in a daze and unresponsive or talking nonsense,” the young man said hurriedly.

On the way to the backyard, Jiang Xianya learned that the boy's name was Ye Qingyan, he was fifteen years old, the second son of her maternal uncle, and her third cousin.

Ye Qingyan was also very curious about Jiang Xianya's arrival, but before he could ask her anything, he had already arrived at the backyard.

He heard his grandmother Hua crying and thought his aunt Ye Miaoyun was dead, so he quickly grabbed Jiang Xianya's sleeve and ran into the house.

"Old man, Miaoyun was trembling all over just now, and kept rolling her eyes back. She almost couldn't catch her breath and didn't even recognize her own mother. She must be possessed. Please have the eldest son go and invite Fairy Xu or Fairy Wang to come and exorcise the evil spirits from Miaoyun." Hua Shi said to Ye Jinghuai while crying.

My daughter has had a hard life these past few years. She finally returned to her parents' home, but she's been acting like she's been possessed. She hasn't been behaving normally these past few days.

She couldn't just stand by and watch her daughter be tortured to death like this, could she?

“I know we’re not well-off at home. I still have a few pieces of gold jewelry. I’ll have my eldest son take them to the pawnshop to exchange them for silver. That should be enough to invite a fortune teller over,” Hua said, wiping away her tears as she stood up.

When things are tough at home, we have to hire those sorceresses to exorcise evil spirits, which costs at least ten or twenty taels of silver.

The Taoist priests at Qingyun Temple outside the county town don't ask for much; it's entirely up to fate. But they generally don't come down the mountain.

Unless fate allows!

Every year, many people go to Qingyun Temple to ask the Taoist priests to come down the mountain, but if only two or three out of a hundred people can get their wish, that's considered good.

Going back and forth like this not only wastes time, but also has a high chance of being a complete waste of effort.

She couldn't wait any longer, so she had no choice but to spend money to hire a sorceress.

Ye Jinghuai was a scholar. Even though the Great Yan Dynasty promoted Taoism, he did not believe in ghosts and gods. After all, he had never seen ghosts or gods and thought they were all nonsense and just people's ignorance.

He wanted to scold his wife, Hua, but seeing her gray hair and tearful face, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Just then, Ye Qingyan brought Jiang Xianya in.

"Grandfather, Grandmother, come and see who's here!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Jinghuai and Hua Shi turned around and immediately saw Jiang Xianya standing in the room.

Jiang Xianya looked very much like her mother, Ye Miaoyun. Ye Jinghuai and Hua Shi immediately recognized her, and the two couldn't help but burst into tears.

The last time I saw my granddaughter, she was only three years old. In the blink of an eye, she has grown into a young lady.

Jiang Xianya was not even born when her father, Jiang Mingtao, "died"!

At that time, Jiang Mingtao was the only hope of the Jiang family. His death was a great blow to Jiang Fuyi and Liu, and the couple had nowhere to vent their grief and bitterness.

After Ye Miaoyun gave birth to Jiang Xianya, they discovered that Ye Miaoyun had not given birth to a boy. After their son died, they pointed the finger at Ye Miaoyun and Jiang Xianya, saying that they were cursed to bring misfortune to their husbands and fathers, and they beat and scolded the mother and daughter.

Ye Miaoyun, in particular, suffered greatly from bullying.

When Jiang Xianya was three years old, Ye Miaoyun couldn't bear it any longer and took the child back to her parents' home for help.

Unfortunately, the old scholar Ye Jinghuai did not take them in, but instead gave his daughter ten taels of silver and sent her back.

Although the son-in-law is dead, the daughter still has to remain a widow. The granddaughter is a member of the Jiang family and the son-in-law's only child, so she can't be brought to the Ye family to be raised.

Ye Jinghuai is very rigid by nature, believing that after a man dies, a woman should remain faithful to her deceased husband.

However, he did not leave it unattended.

In order to make things easier for his daughter and granddaughter in the Jiang family, he would send his two sons to visit with gifts and money during festivals.

He thought that the Jiang family would stop mistreating them after taking these things, but he never expected that it was all just wishful thinking on his part.

Every time the two sons visited the Jiang family, the Jiang family would put on an act to make them mistakenly believe that Ye Miaoyun and Jiang Xianya were doing well.

It wasn't until the Jiang family falsely accused Ye Miaoyun of having an affair with Qi Jiu and tried to drown her that Ye Jinghuai realized how terribly wrong his actions over the years had been.

Because he was a teacher, he cared too much about his reputation and about etiquette and rules, and almost caused his daughter's death.

He hadn't seen his granddaughter for many years.

“You are Xianya, aren’t you?” Hua Shi ran over excitedly and held Jiang Xianya’s hand tightly: “You must be Xianya. You look a lot like your mother. I am your maternal grandmother.”

"Child, how did you get here? Did the Jiang family know that your mother was very ill and send you here on special occasion?" Hua asked, holding Jiang Xianya's hand.

“No.” Jiang Xianya shook her head and told them what had happened in the past two days.

Ye Jinghuai and the others were shocked and devastated upon hearing this.

Jiang Mingtao was Ye Jinghuai's prized student. Even though Jiang Mingtao is now "dead," Ye Jinghuai still misses his beloved student and son-in-law very much over the years.

One of the reasons he didn't want his daughter to go back to her parents' home was because of Jiang Mingtao.

The son-in-law died.

If the daughter remarries, the son-in-law, if he knew in the afterlife, would certainly not be at peace and would never want his wife to remarry.

Therefore, Ye Jinghuai kept persuading Ye Miaoyun to stay in the Jiang family and raise the child.

He felt that doing this would comfort Jiang Mingtao's spirit in heaven.

Unexpectedly, all of this turned into a huge joke.

He almost became the culprit who caused the deaths of his daughter and granddaughter.

Hua couldn't help but raise her fist and punch Ye Jinghuai several times: "You old bastard, I cried and begged you to kill yourself, but you still wouldn't let Miaoyun bring Xianya back. In your heart, your prized student Jiang Mingtao was even more important than your daughter. And what happened? He abandoned Miaoyun and Xianya and even wanted them to die. You are truly blind, mistaking a heartless beast for a treasure."

Ye Jinghuai was already shocked, upset, and regretful... After hearing Hua's words, he could no longer bear it, spat out a mouthful of blood, and fell backward violently.