I stood there, frozen in place, my mind completely blank.

Xiaomi's words hit me like a hammer blow, completely stunning me.

"Are you... are you sure?" I asked with difficulty.

Xiaomi nodded painfully, clutching her stomach tightly with her hands, tears streaming down her face.

“I went to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor said… that the fetus was perfectly normal, but I know this is not a normal child at all.”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down.

All of this is so absurd, yet it is happening right before my eyes.

"Xiaomi, don't panic. We know that this paper coffin is the root of the problem. Even if we can't burn it, we have to find a way to get rid of it."

Xiao Mi raised her tear-streaked face, her eyes revealing a desperate expectation.

"What can I do? I've tried everything I can think of, but nothing works."

I thought about it and said that tomorrow, when Grandma Sun goes to Lingmei's house, we'll go visit her.

"By the way, what exactly did you see at Grandma Sun's house?"

Xiaomi wiped away the remaining tears on her face and asked impatiently.

Since Xiaomi has already told me her secret without reservation, I naturally have nothing to hide from her either.

So I told her in detail everything I had seen and heard at Grandma Sun's house, from the strange paper figures to the corpse hidden in the wardrobe.

"You mean the bodies of Sister Yunwei's parents were hidden in Grandma Sun's wardrobe? And there are also many paper figures with our birth dates written on them?"

Xiaomi's eyes widened, and her expression gradually changed from surprise to anger.

"That old witch, she must be the one who ruined me!"

I glanced at her and said, "She didn't know you before, and you have no past grudges or recent conflicts with her. Why would she create these weird things to harm you for no reason?"

Xiaomi stomped her foot angrily and shouted loudly.

"Someone must have hired her to make this paper coffin to harm me. In any case, she's definitely involved! I'm going to kill her!"

Xiaomi is straightforward and can't keep things to herself. She says whatever comes to mind and will never put off doing something until the next day.

Without a word, she rushed into the kitchen like a gust of wind, and in the blink of an eye, she came out with a kitchen knife, looking fierce.

It seems they plan to go directly to Grandma Sun to settle accounts.

I was startled by her sudden action and quickly stopped her, saying, "Are you crazy? Calm down!"

"Even if I'm not crazy, she's driving me insane! If she won't let me live, I won't let her have it easy either. It's better to fight to the death!"

Xiaomi had completely lost control of her emotions and was shouting that she wanted to kill someone.

It took me a lot of effort to snatch the knife from her hand.

"Even if we want revenge, we can't be so impulsive! Old Mrs. Sun is no ordinary person. If we rush to find her like this, what's the difference between that and suicide?"

"What else can we do? Are we just going to wait to be killed by her?"

Xiao Mi was so angry that she trembled all over, and her eyes filled with tears again.

Just as we were arguing, Yunwei walked in.

As soon as I entered, I saw Xiaomi and me facing each other, our faces red and our necks bulging, our expressions full of confusion.

He paused for several seconds before asking, "What's wrong with you two? Why are you arguing?"

I was just about to tell her about finding the body at Grandma Sun's house when I suddenly noticed that Yunwei was holding a bowl with a piece of red rope inside.

My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly tugged at Xiaomi's sleeve, giving her a meaningful look.

Turning to Yunwei with a smile, he asked, "Why are you back? Weren't you helping out at Grandma Mei's house?"

"Grandma Sun told us, the people who helped, to come back and get our things."

Yunwei shook the bowl in her hand and said calmly.

A sense of foreboding washed over me, and I pressed, "What do you need?"

"It's nothing! Grandma Sun told everyone who helped to go home and get a bowl of raw rice and three peach branches."

As she said this, she put down the bowl in her hand, took out a nail clipper from the drawer, and was about to start trimming her nails.

"But strangely, the old lady also asked us to bury our fingernails and hair in the rice. I don't know what she was going to do with it, but she said it could ward off evil spirits."

Burying fingernails and hair in rice?

I rushed forward and stopped Yunwei, who was about to cut her nails: "Don't cut them! Old Mrs. Sun is trying to harm you! Do you know what she's going to do?"

"What are you going to do?" Yunwei asked, completely bewildered.

I said that a person's fingernails and hair contain their own essence and spirit, and are also regarded as things closely related to the soul.

There is an extremely sinister spell called 'Soul-Binding and Spirit-Summoning'.

The person who performs this technique collects other people's fingernails and hair, mixes them with raw rice and peach wood branches, and through specific rituals and incantations, can control the souls of these people.

Once controlled by this evil magic, a person will become delirious and their body will gradually weaken. In the end, they may become a puppet to be manipulated, or even lose their life due to damage to their soul.

"Grandma Sun's request for you to prepare things is definitely not well-intentioned!"

Yunwei's movements stopped instantly, the nail clippers in her hand hovering in mid-air.

She turned her head and looked at me with those clear eyes, her eyes filled with surprise and disbelief.

Then, she smiled gently.

“How could that be? Grandma Sun isn’t as bad as you say. She’s always taken good care of everyone. Whenever someone in the village has a headache, fever, or a wedding or funeral, she’s always there to help. She’s the most kind-hearted person in the village. How could she possibly harm us?”

"What a load of rubbish! She's just an old witch!"

Xiaomi suddenly swore, speaking very quickly.

"Sister Yunwei, you're still defending her? Do you know that your parents and sister were killed by her? Your parents' bodies are hidden in her closet!"