Chapter 104 Her Dream
The somewhat somber atmosphere was quickly broken by shouts coming from outside the window.
"They said pregnant women are in the way and they won't let me near you." Wang Tao stood up in a panic: "I should go."
She forgot to let go of Pingyu's hand.
As she moved, the hand became a severed limb.
Pingyu: ......
Forget it, it can't be hidden anyway.
Wang Tao stared blankly at the severed arm for a moment, her expression instantly turning to horror.
Pingyu reacted quickly, making a shh gesture over her mouth: "Shh!"
Wang Tao shook off the severed limb from her hand and quickly covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. Seeing the girl wave her hands twice, she reassured her, "My hand isn't gone!"
Upon hearing this, the woman's fear intensified: a room with only two people but five hands—that's the most terrifying thing, isn't it?
Ping Yu closed her eyes, her head aching. She didn't know what was causing the severed hand's excitement, but there was no way to hide it now. Since Wang Tao was convinced that she was a person of extraordinary ability, she might as well just lay it out. The girl grabbed the happy severed hand and introduced it to Wang Tao, saying, "I met her on the road, she seems to be a drought demon."
“You heard me right at first, the voice that was speaking to me was hers.”
As Wang Tao was still reeling, Ping Yu grabbed the severed finger and pointed it toward the well outside the window: "She said her leg was in your well and wanted me to go and retrieve it."
The drought demon was in her house.
The drought demon only had one severed hand left.
The drought demon's legs were in her well.
Legend has it that the drought demon was burned by the Taoist priest, and the existence of this severed hand greatly shocked Wang Tao. If the drought demon was dismembered, then it proved that the village legend was likely false. After the brief fear subsided, she found herself strangely familiar with the hand. Wang Tao carefully supported her waist; Wang Xushi should be on her way by now.
We can't delay any longer.
She looked outside and said, "Let's talk later."
The sun sets completely.
Not long after Wang Tao left, the severed hand swiftly retracted into the bundle. Ping Yu's sixth sense also sounded an alarm, and she hurriedly stuffed the severed hand into the clutter. Just as she finished, the door to the house opened from the outside in. The girl sat obediently in the chair. Wang Xu smiled and said kindly with narrowed eyes, "Come on, Grandma will take you to eat."
The wolf grandmother wagged her tail and tried to take the girl's hand. Pingyu pretended not to notice and followed her into this trap. Wang Tao didn't go back to her room but went straight to the kitchen. When Pingyu was led to the dining table, Wang Tao was half-lying out of the doorway. She took a deep sniff of the steaming food on the stove, looking extremely hungry. Madam Wang Xu lightly patted her and frowned, scolding, "No wonder I didn't see you earlier, so you were playing the weasel here!"
"Mother, why did you kill a chicken today?" Wang Tao turned around, not looking at Ping Yu, and only smiled awkwardly at Wang Xu Shi, "It wasn't me, it was the child who wanted to eat it."
After saying that, she stroked her swollen belly, looking dazed because of her pregnancy: "He kicked me as soon as the aroma of the chicken soup wafted out. Mother's cooking is still the best."
"Oh my, it's good that he likes to eat meat, and even better that he likes to eat chicken!" Wang Xu's face changed, and she immediately clapped her hands and became happy: "He who likes to eat chicken will soar to great heights when he grows up. I'll get some chicken combs to make soup for my eldest grandson tomorrow!"
Upon hearing that they would be having meat soup that evening, Pingyu's expression twisted for a fleeting moment where the two couldn't see. Even the chefs of her wealthy Lin family couldn't make good meat soup, let alone in the countryside where there were hardly any spices. And yet, her persona was that of a poor, starving little thing who would have to wolf it down. She swallowed desperately, making a loud "gulp" sound, making it clear that the child was extremely greedy.
Wang Xushi pulled her attention back: "Alright, stop standing there and go inside to eat."
At that time, resources were scarce, and poor farmers would usually only kill chickens during the New Year.
A feast is all about meat and oil.
Pingyu called herself "Ah Mao" in this household, thinking that giving a child a lowly name would make them easier to raise. Looking at the oily soup floating on the table, she thought, "Sure enough, this is the last bite before I'm sent on my way." She probably wouldn't even live to be sacrificed; one sip and she'd be poisoned by the oil.
Forced by circumstances, she had no choice but to pick up the bowl and bury her head in her drink. Soon, her rhythm was interrupted. The girl swallowed the soup with difficulty, and the girl who had been covering her face with the bowl peeked out with one eye. Wang Xu slammed the bowl down in front of Wang Tao, splashing soup onto the pregnant woman's clothes, leaving watermarks. Wang Xu's profile turned upside down, and she said irritably, "Weren't you craving chicken soup? Why aren't you drinking it?" The pregnant woman barely touched her chopsticks, sitting blankly staring at the oil on the surface of the soup. Ping Yu's words and the image of his severed hand kept flashing before Wang Tao's eyes.
The hand was fair, slender, and long, with each nail meticulously manicured, so perfect it seemed unreal. After a brief moment of shock upon first sight, Wang Tao felt a sense of familiar déjà vu.
It was as if she had seen this hand somewhere before.
Wang Tao rubbed her temples and took small sips of soup from the bowl in one hand. She replied indistinctly, "Mother, you know I haven't been resting well lately. I suddenly felt sleepy just now, and I didn't move because I was afraid of burying my face in the soup."
"Did I have another nightmare during my afternoon nap today?"
Ping Yu noticed that Wang Xushi glanced over when she said this, and she quickly lowered her head. The girl's ears perked up as she heard the other woman comforting her daughter-in-law, "Then go and rest early after you finish eating. You'll be better starting today."
With a meaningful look from her mother-in-law, Wang Tao put down her bowl and forced a smile: "With Mother's chicken soup here, I'm sure I can get a good night's sleep."
Aside from the sounds of eating, the only other sounds at the table were the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law talking. The two men, like background figures, mechanically fished meat out of the soup. After the meal, Pingyu quickly returned to the house. She locked the door and pulled the severed hand out from the clutter. The severed hand sneezed twice and made as if to lunge out.
Pingyu quickly pulled her back: "What are you doing!"
"Aren't we going to the well?" the severed hand asked. "Time is of the essence, the mission is heavy. Didn't you hear that if we don't help me find my body, three people will die at once!"
Which three?
The severed hand raised three fingers, then retracted one after each name it was called out: "Zhang the widow's daughter, Wang the daughter-in-law, and you."
Pingyu, who was directly counted as a dead person: Your little hands must have been coated with honey.
Anyway, we have somewhere else to go today.
The girl pressed down on the severed hand, and with a flash of her bracelet, she produced a thick book. This was teaching material left behind by Lu Ya, covering all orthodox and unorthodox spells from ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign. Ping Yu had flipped through it in the cave before, and she remembered that it contained a spell similar to creating clones.
When she wanted to follow fate, everything she desired would come true. For example, right now, Pingyu casually flipped through the pages and found the information she was looking for.
The book simply reads four characters: "Paper-cutting brings life to life."
Simply put, it involves infusing spiritual energy into a yellow paper talisman, cutting it into a human shape, and finally dotting its eyes with one's own blood. By blowing on the paper figure after the eye-dotting, it becomes a clone identical to the caster in appearance and personality. Once the caster releases the power and consumes the paper figure, they gain access to its stored memories.
However, this is only a basic form of doppelganger; the paper figure will dissolve when it comes into contact with water.
After Pingyu followed the steps, a child who looked exactly like her stood in front of her and greeted her. She wasn't worried about encountering water, since her actions were only carried out at night when it was dark and windy. During the day, the village was full of people and eyes, and if she were discovered to be in two places at the same time, it would be difficult to explain.
Pingyu stuffed the paper figure into the quilt and tucked the severed hand into his bosom: "Let's go, we're going to Widow Zhang's house."
"Huh?" The severed hand struggled to ask, "Why go through all that trouble when it's so close?"
“The well won’t move, but if you want to do something with the living, you have to fight for control. Instead of waiting for her to come back a second time, let’s go and find out for ourselves.”
The severed hand settled down, obediently coiling around Pingyu's neck like a snow-white snake. The girl carefully climbed out the window, her figure disappearing into the night.
The paper figure lay on the bed, dutifully mimicking Pingyu's deep sleep. As the night deepened, the occasional barking of dogs and croaking of frogs could be heard outside. Accompanying these sounds, a crack was lifted in the window. Wang Xu's mother peered through the slit, her eyes fixed on the girl's bulging blankets. She didn't look away until she herself yawned, then stomped away. Further away, Luo Zi slept like a log, his snores falling like stones from the sky. Wang Tao, her eyelids tightly shut, tossed and turned beside him.
She's had this dream ever since the well started overflowing.
After entering the dream, Wang Tao appeared beside the well in her house the day after tomorrow. She had lost count of how many times she had dreamed of this place. Taking two steps forward, she indeed saw a woman in green standing there. The woman in green was so dressed that her features were obscured.
Wang Tao always dreams of her standing beside her own well.
She was slender, tall, and long, with skin as white and translucent as snow-white jade. Whenever the woman saw Wang Tao arrive, she would slowly sit down along the outer wall of the well. Her long, white hair spread across the ground like veins free of blood. When the woman dipped her hand into the well and turned to look at her, the blurriness on her face would lessen.
Wang Tao remembered that the woman's eyes were beautiful, crimson, and as magnificent as a raging fire. When Wang Tao looked into her crimson eyes, she felt that her own eyes were made to look like glowing charcoal.
They would gaze at each other silently, their eyes locked. The woman would say a few words as Wang Tao was about to wake up, but she never heard her clearly. Perhaps it was because she had just discussed the same topic with someone during the day, but this time Wang Tao actually saw and heard her words clearly in her dream.
The woman smiled gently at her and said a total of two sentences.
"Thank you for the water."
besides……
It's going to rain.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
