Chapter 27 Chapter 27 Whenever I think of being disemboweled...
The two siblings were still grumbling. When the elder brother asked if he hadn't paid attention all these years, he was tricked by his brother-in-law. The younger sister was also unhappy and brought up the old story of how she, a virgin, married a divorced man who was ten years older than her. If her brother hadn't been good friends with Lao Qu, she wouldn't be happy about it.
Aunt Fei was still skeptical, "Did Old Qu figure you out from the very beginning?" Old Qu had always treated her well, even when she'd first married, when her older sister was naive and uninformed, and he'd been on her side. She'd thought she'd completely won her over, but she'd never expected someone so cunning and scheming. Thinking back on all these years of being married to him, she felt a little scared.
Lin Xinghuo was impatient to listen to their arguing, so he turned around and went to Deputy Director Qu's stepfather's house.
The two sides weren't far apart, but they were actually worlds apart. This side was a proper compound, with guards on duty, and those below the rank couldn't live there.
Lin Xinghuo stayed with the Fei siblings for a while. Deputy Director Qu, whom she had just followed, hadn't yet gone in. He was in the compound gatehouse, talking to the guards who had just come off their shift. "There's nothing else down there, but wild vegetables are everywhere in the mountains. Spring famine is tough, so all the staff in our commune are taking the lead in picking them. We've picked out some good ones and are sending some to the old man."
The guard seemed to be familiar with him and didn't refuse the two bundles of wild vegetables he left. He smiled and said, "My mother at home was just craving some fresh vegetables. Thank you very much, old man. But the leaders have been busy these past few days and haven't had time to go home for lunch. I'm afraid you, Commissioner Qu, won't be able to eat until tonight."
Deputy Director Qu knew that his stepfather was on a business trip and his biological mother was at home.
After some more chatting and laughing, Deputy Director Qu went in.
The soldier who was recording the visitors at the gatehouse saw him walk away and said, "Captain, although this person is not a relative, he is much more filial than those relatives. He is also friendly, and from time to time we will also get some blessings from him." The key point is that he gave us wild vegetables and fruits, which are practical and acceptable. Unlike those who tried to find ways to give us cigarettes and money, they could not and dared not accept them.
The captain spread out the wild vegetables and tied them into small bundles again, chuckling, "The less related they are, the more filial they are and the more polite they are to us. Okay, stop gossiping about the leader's family. When Qiangzi comes down to relieve his shift, don't forget to ask him to bring the vegetables." This is the tenderest prickly ash bud. Only a fool would believe that they are everywhere in the mountains.
On the other side, Deputy Director Qu walked to the small courtyard where his stepfather's family lived, bent down to adjust the basket of wild vegetables to make it look more marketable, and then rang the doorbell.
A girl about seventeen or eighteen years old wearing an apron ran out to open the door. Deputy Director Qu smiled and said, "Xiangyu, are you busy?"
The first floor was empty. Of the two bedrooms, only Qu Xiangyu's door was open. Deputy Director Qu took a quick glance, went straight up to the second floor, knocked on the door, and said, "Mom, can I come in?"
Qu's mother put down the book in her hand, let him in and said indifferently: "Why are you running over here instead of working properly?"
Deputy Director Qu closed the door and said with a smile, "The thorn buds have just emerged. I watched and asked someone to break them off so that you and Dad can taste them."
"You are thoughtful." Qu's mother nodded.
Deputy Director Qu was already used to his mother's dignified look in front of him. While they were talking, he sat down opposite Qu's mother and asked in a low voice: "What do people in Beijing say? What exactly do uncle and cousin mean? Is that medical worker surnamed Lin really the one they are looking for?" Even the man in charge didn't show up, so why was the reaction so cold?
"You're still so impatient," Qu's mother scolded. "They already know about this. If you have the time, you might as well investigate that girl's background more thoroughly."
Of course, he was worried that they would contact his mother directly and erase his achievements. Even his mother wasn't safe these days, especially when there was a half-brother in the middle.
"To explore deeper, you need direction!" Deputy Director Qu stared at Qu's mother. "You have to tell me the whole story! Otherwise, with only the fragments I know, it's normal to find the wrong person. Besides, maybe if this one is wrong, the next one will be right."
"You've kept it a secret, which probably means I can only ask directly over the phone. These days, writing letters or making phone calls are not as safe as meeting in person." The uncle in the capital is a very cautious person, and he might cut off contact with Snow Province just because of nothing.
Mother Qu frowned, displeased that he was using his adopted brother in the capital to pressure her, but the investigation really depended on this son who had settled down in the countryside. It wasn't a good thing, so she kept it a secret for his own good. "When I was little, I heard the old man drunkenly rambling about how the Jin family made their fortune through unusual means, and that seemed to be the reason for his extraordinary longevity. People outside thought he was eighty, but in fact, when he married your wife, that courtesan, he was exactly a hundred years old!"
Deputy Director Qu's face changed. He hated hearing his own mother mention Fei's mother-in-law in such a tone. Back then, it was her who had insisted he marry her, and now it was her who was hurting him! He had previously asked his own wife to come over to help take care of the family, and his stepfather had agreed, but his own mother had flatly refused, preferring to bring his stepfather's niece from the countryside to live with him. Privately, she even specifically told him not to come over as much, as she felt sick at the sight of her face, which bore an 80% resemblance to his mother-in-law.
Suppressing his anger, Deputy Director Qu sneered: "Isn't it just offering sacrifices to the family spirit! This spirit is now worshipped by my uncle. I heard that my mother-in-law has been out a lot these days. I guess it's the spirit that's doing well. Let her go out and relax. My uncle in Beijing has been in poor health. Otherwise, please ask the spirit to bless my uncle to live a long life like Old Master Jin?" They are all old people related to the Jin family and are all staying in the Jin family's hometown. Why does the spirit look down on you, the adopted daughter, and instead let the concubine from the Eighth Route Army worship you?
Qu's mother sneered, "That Huang Daxian was only worshipped after he became rich. He does have some efficacy, but it's just a gimmick to deceive people. The real use is the living person nailed to the Jin family's ancestral tomb and the fox tail!"
"Nail a person alive in a coffin? And there are foxes..." Deputy Director Qu suddenly understood: "So you paid attention to it as early as when I told you about the interesting thing about two foxes following this girl when she went down the mountain?" He originally thought that his mother was interested in the daughter-in-law that Fei Xinli insisted on marrying, just like himself. He suspected that the Fei family had received some advice from Huang Xian, so he started to pay attention to the little girl.
Mother Qu had been scheming for a long time, and now she couldn't help but feel proud: "Back then, the Jin family had no biological daughters, so they took in a great number of adopted daughters. I was the only one who knew this secret." So, the Jin family fell into ruin overnight, with the other thirty-five adopted daughters and their in-laws serving as scapegoats. Only she, pregnant, was taken away by her adoptive brother. Of course, she had paid a heavy price, not only did she nearly get taken advantage of by the old man when she was trying to uncover the secret, but she also suffered the terrifying punishments she later endured in the capital.
"The old man and your uncle were vague about it. I've been guessing and piecing together what happened over the years: that woman was probably exceptionally unusual. She rescued the old man, who had dared to go out alone to pick ginseng at the age of ten, from the deep mountains and forests, and then followed him out of the mountains. A woman who knew nothing but was frighteningly beautiful. In that impoverished and desolate mountain village, she had no shortage of food or clothing, and even kept a giant black fox half the height of a man."
"At first, everyone thought she was a witch, and later she actually saved the entire village from an avalanche on the mountain. The old man worshipped her like a goddess, as if he was even looking forward to marrying her and living his life with her. But he accidentally discovered that she was actually a man, a very handsome man with long hair! And that black fox... well, anyway, the old man discovered something remarkable. The ginseng collectors of the time had many strange old customs passed down from generation to generation, and the old man also learned some lucky charms from carpenters. So, while the man and the fox were exhausted from saving others, he trapped them with red ginseng thread."
"The people in the mountains were so poor that seven families banded together and killed the fox. When they cut it open, they found its internal organs, which were crystal clear and looked like precious treasures. The old carpenter, who was older and knew how to suppress the enemy, took the heart. I don't know how the rest was divided up, but the old man was too young and alone without his parents to support him, so he only got the tail. The man went crazy when he saw the fox being killed, tears and blood in his eyes. He even let the red thread cut his legs and pounced on the fox. The old man couldn't help but take a step forward and saw the man pull something out of the fox's open abdomen. Anyway, the man was cut open later, but there was nothing special, and the old man didn't find anything else from him."
"Because it was the old man who had brought the man out of the mountains, the other six families pushed him over to him for disposal. The old man, upset at not having gotten the gem and fearing retribution, used a half-understood method to seal the man, who was still breathing, along with a fox's tail, into a small coffin and buried him in the spot where only the heads of ginseng collectors could be buried—right under the coffins of his father and grandfather. He then blew up the nearest mountain, erasing all traces of the village."
Lin Xinghuo, who was eavesdropping on the outer wall, looked at the caracal and felt that the black fox was a fairy who practiced the righteous way: when Lin Xinghuo looked inward, her five internal organs were like five-colored stars. Because she was of the wood element, her liver was particularly well-nourished among the five internal organs, like a piece of green wood carved from jade.
Lin Xinghuo touched his chest with one hand, and for some reason he suddenly felt a sharp pain, and he almost lost his grip on the brick joint.
Deputy Director Qu gasped upon hearing this: "A black fox! Rumor has it that the magical guardian immortal, the black old lady, was a black fox who had attained enlightenment. How could he kill her just like that? There was still a living person..." Or had he just saved someone and then turned against his benefactor? What kind of wolfish nature did he have? Deputy Director Qu was a little hesitant to continue planning to marry his eldest daughter off to the capital.
Qu's mother looked down on his cowardice and asked, "Then why are there only seven families?"
"Because the other twenty or so families who disagreed were burned down by these seven families that night." Qu's mother sneered, "Only seven families in the entire village survived."
"Anyway, since then, the old man who changed his name and surname has been making money in everything he does, and he has been very successful. He has built up a family fortune and expanded it. After he became successful, he became obsessed with raising foxes and hired a team of fox hunters. At that time, the reputation of the Jin family's fox furs spread to the interior of the country. But after sixty years, the Jin family suddenly fell into decline. It was a time of war and chaos. The old man spent all his money and used human lives to pave the way. Finally, he dug up the small coffin, but there were only white bones inside. The fox tail that the human skeleton had been holding was gone, and only a walnut-sized, half-open thing was left. Before he could take a closer look at what was inside the opening, the bones turned into ashes in the sunlight." The old man's skills were not good enough. One man and one fox tail only made the Jin family prosperous for sixty years.
Lin Xinghuo's hand, wedged into the crack of the brick, tightened, and she suddenly thought of the bells hanging around the fox cubs' necks that never rang. Her heart ached and bitter, making her feel nauseous.
"The old man had no choice but to place the ruby-like heart he had snatched from the old carpenter's descendants into the coffin." Qu's mother shuddered as she spoke, her voice becoming thinner and lower. "And the old man's only biological daughter, similar to the previous one where a living person was held by the tail, was made into a living person holding the heart, and nailed inside with a palm-length silver needle."
"The Jin family prospered even more after this, but this time the incident was so turbulent that it sparked speculation, so the old master asked the eldest son of the eldest house to offer sacrifices to the Yellow Immortal."
Deputy Director Qu drank two sips of hot tea, patted his chest, and asked after a while: "What does that have to do with finding someone? Could it be that the medical worker surnamed Lin is the descendant of that aunt?" He stretched out his hand to count, this must be the great-granddaughter, right?
That's not right. Isn't it said that only the eldest grandson of the eldest branch of the Jin family hid the truth and survived?
"No, that aunt was still single when she died. But according to the old man, she looked a bit like the previous one."
"It's not surprising that they look alike." Deputy Director Qu suppressed his fear: "Didn't you say that the old man's concubines were all found to resemble his deceased wife?" Now he understood, they probably all looked like the person he had nailed into the coffin with his own hands.
"Then...that Xiao Lin, does he look alike too?" He brought back the two-inch photo he had taken at the barefoot doctor training class and showed it to his mother.
After all, Qu's mother was a generation younger. She had only seen the last few concubines. She shook her head and said, "If the old man had never changed, then your wife would look like the one in the coffin. The girl in the photo is the exact opposite of your wife. She doesn't look like a whimsical woman like your wife."
Deputy Director Qu felt that he could no longer go home to see his wife's face.
Lin Xinghuo, who was outside, heard Qu's mother say again: "The key to finding someone will be after this. I don't know how to calculate it, but sometimes a girl will be secretly buried in the old mausoleum every year, sometimes every three to five years. There are all kinds of backgrounds here, but they all have some interest in animals, such as cats and dogs. Generally, they are maids bought by the family for the old man to raise foxes." She had a maid who was chosen to serve in the fox room, and she 'died' not long after.
"More than twenty years later, the old man suddenly aged incredibly quickly, and the Jin family's businesses ran into trouble. He summoned his descendants to his bedside and told them to find their own way out and not to flee to a single location." This was all revealed to her by the eldest branch's adopted brother during their escape. The eldest branch had already made several backup plans, with the capital being the most distant and difficult route. Fortunately, the eldest branch knew the most secrets and had already secretly transferred property, which is why they managed to escape death. Unlike the other six branches, they were all caught or reported, leaving them with nothing.
"As you know, only your uncle and I were fine. But he knew more and knew more than me. Before we left, he burned the old man to ashes and buried him in a place in Qujiatun."
"He married me back to Xue Province, to a man named Qu, just so he could find someone to choose from and decide on the urn for the old man's ashes every year." Qu's mother took off her glasses, her voice strangely cold. "It wouldn't have been difficult. I work in a hospital, and every month there are stillborn baby girls. If the girl you're talking about wasn't even more special, and she hadn't sent a telegram directly to Beijing without my knowledge, I wouldn't have wanted you to know about it."
Since you insist on hearing it, I might as well tell you everything, Qu's mother said calmly. She was almost old enough to long for a long life like Old Master Jin. My adopted brother in the capital had been planning to open the old mausoleum, retrieve the heart, and rearrange it—after all, Old Master Jin's ashes weren't very useful.
The adopted brother was even more gifted than the old grandfather, having even received a proper apprenticeship. His skills far surpassed the old grandfather's half-baked arsenal. Years earlier, he had acquired one-seventh of a black fox's skull, secretly cultivating it with Huang Xian. This enabled Huang Xian to become even more powerful than even the God of Wealth worshipped by other families. However, the skull's tail had far less power than five precious stones. The adopted brother always lamented the old grandfather's selfishness, refusing to reveal the location of his ancestral tomb.
"Bang!" Deputy Director Qu abruptly stood up, his lips trembling as he asked, "All these years, all these years, you've been staying in the hospital, refusing to retire and enjoy your life. Could it be that?" Deputy Director Qu was growing increasingly frightened. His mother returned to their hometown with his stepfather every year to visit the Qu family, even the year his brother was born. He had originally thought this was to maintain a good reputation, but now he was saying she was maintaining some kind of feng shui formation beneath Old Man Jin's urn on behalf of her adopted uncle in Beijing?
Mother Qu said nothing for a long while before she said, "Your uncle is a powerful man in the capital. You only need to know this. From now on, just do whatever I tell you. You will gain many benefits. It's not impossible for you to marry Dani to the capital. As long as you can find a way to get the black fox skull back from your mother-in-law's house, I will guarantee that your wish will come true."
Lin Xinghuo counted silently in his heart, and it turned out that the black fox was divided into seven parts: head, tail, five colors and five internal organs.
"Actually, your uncle has already informed me. He was the one who told you to investigate the girl's background." Mother Qu comforted her eldest son. "Besides, I think it would be a good idea to fulfill your eldest brother-in-law's wish. If the girl marries into the Fei family, no matter how she is used in the future, she won't attract attention. I didn't tell you before because I didn't want to scare you. You still can't keep your composure."
Qu's mother looked plump and kind, but she didn't care about human life at all. "It just so happens that her surname is Lin, and she's an orphan. I don't mind her even if she has a tough personality. Maybe your uncle can even recognize her as a distant relative."
This was exactly what Deputy Director Qu had been thinking. Like the Fei siblings now secretly conferring at his home, they all believed Lin Xinghuo was a descendant of the Jin family who had survived. So Deputy Director Qu was puzzled as to why his uncle in Beijing hadn't reacted when he heard about the Fei family's plot to force Lin Xinghuo, and why his mother had repeatedly stalled on giving him a clear answer. It turned out she was just waiting for her in-laws to save her trouble.
"Investigate it thoroughly!" Qu's mother emphasized again, "Investigate carefully! If there's any difference from the previous one, then this is truly the time of fortune. Let Huang Xian'er take the lead and bring both the man and the fox to the Fei family. Things haven't been going well these past few years, so it's not a good time to do this. Even a strong dragon has to stay coiled. But your uncle said that as long as the seventh year passes, everything will be fine. That's still more than six years away..."
Implicit in his words, Lin Xinghuo and the little foxes' fates had already been predetermined to protect their family's feng shui.
Tuxun wagged his tail and wanted to kill the two of them.
Lin Xinghuo grabbed its thick tail, shook his head, hugged it with one hand, and quickly left the Qu family.
"You told me," Lin Xinghuo pulled out the wooden token from his neck, "this is the token to open my family's land."
"Master Buxian saved the little foxes, but they became closer to me."
"I was able to survive and wake up because the little fox called the master to rescue me after I fell down the mountain and fainted..."
"I'm an abandoned baby that my master found in the old forest."
"The Black Fox and his companions also emerged from the deep mountains. And they were accompanied by humans and foxes."
“…”
As the clues came together, Lin Xinghuo asked the caracal, "Is it possible that we came from the same place?"
The caracal racked his brains to dig up the inheritance: "This kind of clan land was very common in ancient times. Whether it was human cultivators or demon clans, many powerful people would open up space in places with abundant spiritual energy as a foundation for reproducing their offspring or their clan. But when the spiritual energy gradually dried up, the only ones that could survive were the originally independent small spiritual realms. Spiritual realms have their own rules and sometimes even break away from the main space outside."
This cannot be confirmed for the time being, but Lin Xinghuo has a bad guess: she thinks that the original body that has been stupid for many years may be herself.
Whenever she thought of the black fox that was disemboweled, her heart would involuntarily tighten and her whole body would shiver, so cold that it made her want to go crazy.
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The author has something to say: See you tomorrow~ I will try to update as early as possible tomorrow and see if I can restore it to the morning.
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