Chapter Eight
It was noisy outside, but Aunt Wang's courtyard was quiet. It had been a chaotic day from morning till night. The geese were frightened and stopped calling when strangers came. They hid in the dark corners and peeked out.
Seeing the tall man survey the courtyard and walk familiarly into the house, the listless goose straightened its neck, mustered its spirits, and quietly followed him into the main room.
The main room was dark and quiet, with no lights on. The two memorial tablets in the center silently watched the goose.
The goose shivered for no apparent reason.
Looking at the dim light in the inner room, it remembered that hateful humanoid monster, and its belatedly frightened mind, no bigger than a mung bean.
Let's go.
Li Zhi turned around and saw the goose trotting away with its big feet, but he didn't think much of it. He turned back to look at Baozhu, who was lying on the bed with a pale face, and asked worriedly, "Is Miss alright?"
Baozhu is very bad!
When she saw the Celestial Master arrive, fearing that her demonic nature would be exposed and that the Celestial Master would blame her for all the strange events that had happened in the village, thus preventing her from protecting Li Zhi's life in this eerie village, she quickly collected a large handful of silver poria flowers that the villagers had hung on their doors and swallowed them all at once.
Since the flowers of the silver poria cocos can ward off evil spirits, they are naturally not a good thing.
Before long, she felt dizzy and weak, collapsing onto the bed. At this moment, most of the demonic energy around her had dissipated, and as long as she slightly restrained what remained, she figured the Celestial Masters wouldn't have the leisure to test her.
She was feeling unwell and afraid of running into the Celestial Master, so Baozhu stayed in the inner room and couldn't even see the commotion outside. This caused her another kind of agonizing discomfort. She could still strain her ears to listen, but she couldn't see what was being dug out from under the tree!
Baozhu hugged the quilt and said softly, "I'm afraid you got caught in the rain during the day. You feel a little weak now, but it's alright. You'll be fine after a rest."
The fox spirit was pale, but her eyes were still bright. She darted around twice before finally unable to hold back and asked, "Young Master Li, what's going on outside? Who is Li Han? They're talking in such a cryptic way, I don't understand at all."
After saying that, her bright, beautiful eyes widened, and she looked at Li Zhi expectantly.
Seeing this, Li Zhi's inexplicable anger dissipated, his heart softened, and he said in a gentler voice, "Li Han was my uncle's eldest son. He drowned three years ago and is no longer alive."
Baozhu blinked, asking curiously, "Then what does this have to do with the King... my aunt?"
Upon hearing this, Li Zhi turned around and looked through the window of the inner room towards the courtyard gate. Aunt Wang's small body appeared even more frail among the excited villagers. The strong man brought by the Taoist master was barely maintaining order to prevent the scene from getting out of control.
Aunt Wang's resentment was no less than anyone else's.
Li Zhi didn't want to look anymore and looked away, and the room became quiet.
Baozhu looked at Li Zhi with a puzzled expression.
The noise outside grew louder and louder. Li Zhi sighed softly and finally spoke: "Aunt Wang's daughter hanged herself."
"Why?"
"Aunt Wang said that she was bullied by Li Han and, in her grief and anger, she couldn't think straight."
"How did you bully them?"
Li Zhi was stumped and didn't know how to explain.
Just then, Aunt Wang's hysterical, shrill voice came from outside, explaining on his behalf.
"My beloved Hibiki, she's only eleven! How could she seduce a man! She was defiled, and you all say it's her fault! What fault did she commit!"
"You old fool! Your daughter has clearly hooked up with Li Yao, yet you're making baseless accusations against Li Han! Li Han is a scholar, would he even look at your greenhorn? Don't you even know what kind of person she is!"
The two people inside heard this and didn't know what to say for a moment.
"Why are they talking about Li Yao again, and what is their relationship with him?"
“Aiyuan… told Aunt Wang that she was bullied by Li Han. Aunt Wang went to their house to demand an explanation, but Li Yao said that he and Aiyuan had gotten together, and that it was Aiyuan’s own choice.”
"Ah," Baozhu understood, "that fool was pushed out by his brother to block the bullet."
“Hmm.” Li Zhi pursed his lips. “Li Qing then said that Ai Yuan should marry Li Yao to fulfill the wishes of their two children.”
“Li Yao is an idiot, and Ai Yuan has been bullied by his brother, so she definitely won’t agree.”
"So she hanged herself."
Baozhu looked closely at Li Zhi's face and noticed that Li Zhi's tone was heavy when he mentioned Aiyuan.
She tried to recall it with her perpetually slow-witted mind.
What happened after Li Qing went to the capital to ask Li Zhi to repair the ancestral hall? Baozhu didn't remember very clearly, but it seemed that a year later, people from her hometown came to pay their respects to Li Zhi several times.
But it was no longer the family of Li Zhi's paternal uncle, Li Qing.
Baozhu wondered wistfully if Li Zhi had done something in his previous life.
But she quickly dismissed the idea. Li Zhi was a kind-hearted person and a good official; what could he possibly do?
In short, after this conversation, Baozhu understood that Li Qing was a very bad mortal. His eldest son died, but seeing that his cousin Li Zhi was alive and well with a bright future, he was filled with jealousy and hatred. He was bewitched by the tree fly that could seduce people and instigated Zhang Yuniang to use her own life as a stake to cast a curse on Li Zhi.
By a twist of fate, the curse was broken by the precious pearl, but they were instead struck down by the curse.
As for why the old locust tree turned into an evil creature and started to grow tree flies, it was because of the evil their family had done to Ehime a few years ago.
Evil produces fruit, and that fruit poisons the one who planted it.
The human heart is as deep as the sea. Baozhu thought she understood some things, but there were always deeper things that she couldn't understand.
"That vile woman still has the nerve to reply!"
"That old bastard..."
The shouting and cursing outside grew louder again, startling Baozhu from her deep thoughts. She sat up, glanced around, and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh dear, it looks like they're going to attack Aunt Wang! They really don't know right from wrong!"
Li Zhi also came to his senses. Seeing that the Yiren Temple could hardly control the crowd, he gave Baozhu a few instructions, turned to leave, but then turned back.
As Baozhu watched Li Zhi approach and lean down, her heart began to pound wildly.
She closed her eyes.
Li Zhi simply reached out and lifted the blanket that had slipped off her.
When she opened her eyes, Li Zhi had already left the inner room.
Baozhu pressed her hand to her chest, staring blankly at the mottled wall, and sighed silently in her heart.
Li Zhi pushed through the crowd and found Zhang Tianshi, who was watching the spectacle with his arms crossed and an expression of great interest.
“Master Zhang, I am Li Zhi, a scholar from the Gengchou year, and Li Qing’s nephew.” Li Zhi got straight to the point. “The lawsuit between Aunt Wang and Li Qing’s family is probably not the focus of Yiren Temple. Where did the evil curse in Li Han’s stomach come from? Have the tree flies been eradicated? These are questions we need to address with Aunt Wang. What do you think?”
In the year of Gengchou, which was six years ago, how old was Li Zhi?
While secretly plotting in his heart, Zhang Tianshi said aloud, "Ah," and politely replied, "It seems that's the case."
As he spoke, he looked at Li Zhi with particular seriousness and said with a smile, "Young Master Li, you're sure to be someone important in the future."
Without waiting for Li Zhi's reply, Zhang Tianshi directed the burly men from Yiren Temple to squeeze into the crowd and snatch Aunt Wang from the villagers' hands. He then shouted at the top of his lungs, "The evil spirits have not yet been cleansed. You should all go home quickly and stop causing trouble here and disturbing Yiren Temple's work!"
While shouting and waving their hands like herding ducks, the burly men began to push and shove menacingly. The villagers, who were making a scene, immediately fell silent. Even if they wanted to cause more trouble, they were afraid of the strange temple's behavior and obediently left.
Master Pei was so angry that his hair was pushed crooked that he almost fell ill.
"These troublemakers! Why won't they listen to me when I tell them to stop making trouble?" Master Pei said angrily.
"You'll know what to do after a few more times. You'll get used to it." Master Zhang chuckled and reached out, pulling Aunt Wang along as they headed towards her house.
Seeing this, Li Zhi paused and followed.
The group from Yiren Temple squeezed into Aunt Wang's courtyard. Zhang Tianshi half-supported and half-coerced Aunt Wang by grabbing her arm and pushing her into the main room.
Master Pei followed him in and was about to close the door to the main room when Li Zhi behind him pressed the door shut and turned around to lock himself inside as well.
"You scholar," Master Pei said helplessly, "what are you doing following along when the Temple of Strange People is investigating a case?"
Li Zhi walked straight to the corner, pretending not to hear.
"Alright, we do need people who are familiar with the situation." Master Zhang found a few stools and invited the group to sit down.
He lit the oil lamp, held it in front of him, and looked at the dazed Aunt Wang, saying, "I don't care why you're doing this, I'm just asking you, where did you get that evil curse in Li Han's belly?"
“Xiandu Prefecture,” Aunt Wang murmured.
"Be more specific."
"I don't remember, I think it was one of the guests who told me."
Zhang Tianshi clearly didn't believe it. He looked much more serious at this moment, and a glint of light flashed in his eyes as he changed the subject.
"You killed Li Han and then imprisoned his body under the old locust tree with a curse. Why?"
"He ruined my daughter."
"A life for a life, yet why did you send tree flies to lure Li Qing and his wife into a demonic state?"
"I don't have that. I don't know how to use that thing you're talking about, the one that urges tree flies."
As Aunt Wang answered, she swayed unsteadily, clearly exhausted from arguing with the villagers. Seeing this, Master Pei felt a pang of pity and stepped forward to offer her a stool, coaxing her, "Auntie, I know your suffering. If that person harmed your daughter, he deserved to die. But tell me the truth, where did you learn all this?"
Aunt Wang sat on the stool, let out a long sigh, and after recalling for a while, slowly said, "I really forgot. It was when I was young. A customer, I've forgotten what he looked like and how tall he was. Among the things he left behind were those... those evil spells. I've put them away."
"Where is that thing?" Master Pei pressed.
“It’s burned.” Aunt Wang looked at Master Pei’s round face and suddenly became talkative. “I originally thought that, according to the evil magic, using a human corpse to nurture an old tree with a spirit can make the old tree grow into a demon. I wanted to try it. If it’s true, and the tree demon destroyed this village, then I could help Aiyuan get revenge.”
Before Master Pei could ask any more questions, the door was knocked on by a burly man from the Temple of Strange People. She went to open the door and took a cluster of small white flowers from the man's hand.
Master Pei looked down at it for a while, then suspiciously handed the item to Master Zhang.
"Is this a golden poria flower?"
Zhang Tianshi peeked at it, then took it and smelled it: "It's golden poria flower."
Both Taoist masters looked at Aunt Wang.
Aunt Wang looked bewildered.
“Golden and silver Poria cocos are two sides of the same coin. Silver Poria cocos drives away evil spirits, while golden Poria cocos gathers evil spirits and summons souls. Villagers crush the golden Poria cocos when they pick it, so Li Qing couldn’t possibly not know that.”
Zhang Tianshi muttered to himself.
“Someone replaced the silver poria cocos flowers in Li Qing’s house, someone knew that tree flies had been bred in the old locust tree, and someone used another person to do the dirty work.”
"Aunt Wang, is that you?" Zhang Tianshi suddenly leaned down, staring into Aunt Wang's eyes, and coaxed, "In this village, besides you, who else can do that?"
Baozhu, who was in the inner room and dared not even breathe loudly, listened.
Who was it that, being a demon, was so distracted by the scent of the silver poria flower that she didn't notice the secret beneath the old locust tree?
Is there another person in the village who can see demonic energy?
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