She felt a chill rising from the soles of her feet.
The faces of Madam Murong, Murong Yong, Old Madam Murong, Murong Hui, Liu Muyu and others flashed before her eyes. Her mind was filled with doubts as she speculated on the various possibilities behind this.
For a moment, she couldn't help but think of the plays and storybooks she had read in the past. Keywords such as white moonlight, cinnabar mole, family misfortune, deep love, involuntarily... substitute, etc. filled her mind.
"A substitute." Gu Yunzhen murmured, as if talking to himself, but also as if asking Gu Yanfei, "Am I a substitute?"
After she said it, she felt that her guess was a little ridiculous. She had only heard of people looking for substitutes with similar looks, but had never seen anyone looking for a substitute with the same horoscope.
"It is indeed a 'stand-in', but," Gu Yanfei curled the corner of his mouth sarcastically, "Miss Liu should be the stand-in for the elder sister."
There was a hint of mystery in the slightly raised voice of her words.
Combining the clues from the previous life, Gu Yanfei is 90% sure that Liu Muyu is Gu Yunzhen's substitute.
"..." Gu Yunzhen was completely confused and had no idea what Gu Yanfei meant by this.
Gu Yanfei then went on to look at the second piece of silk paper in the letter sent by the carrier pigeon, which contained information about the True Man Shangqing.
When he was young, Shangqing Zhenren became a disciple of Wuliang Temple and took Tiangang Zhenren's first disciple as his master. It has been more than 30 years since then.
It is said that he, like the legendary Tiangang Zhenren, was born with a Taoist temperament and extraordinary intelligence. He was especially good at talismans, alchemy, and feng shui. After entering the temple, his Taoism quickly made great progress. In the past seven or eight years, he has displayed many supernatural powers.
For example, he once saw through the tampering of the ancestral tomb of General Feng's mansion; for example, he once used magic to bring back the second young lady of Changning Marquis's mansion who had been in dementia for five years;
For example, he used only a talisman to pull the seventh son of Prince An's Mansion back from the gates of hell after being stabbed with a knife...
There were countless such miracles, and Shangqing Zhenren became famous and was given the title of "living immortal".
After reading it, Gu Yanfei handed both pieces of silk paper to Gu Yunzhen.
Gu Yunzhen also looked at it carefully. When she saw that the second piece of paper was about Shangqing Zhenren, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Gu Yanfei stroked the depression under her lips with her index finger thoughtfully, and the image of the old lady of the Murong family lying on the bed appeared in her mind again. The deathly aura around her was as thick as a cocoon, tightly binding her inside.
"I once heard a story..."
Just as Gu Yanfei started, Gu Yunzhen raised his head from the silk paper and looked at her puzzledly.
This was actually an incident that Gu Yanfei witnessed happening in a mortal town when he was in the Yaoling Realm.
In a small town, there was a scholar who accidentally saved a girl from a country gentleman's family. In gratitude for saving her life, the girl pledged herself to marry the scholar.
However, his wife was weak and died of illness less than two years after their marriage.
The scholar accidentally found an evil book. In order to resurrect his wife, he used witchcraft to lock his wife's soul in her skull. He then buried the skull in the ground and watered it with blood every day, from mice, to chickens, to cows... The amount of blood needed increased day by day, until human blood was needed.
To this end, the scholar did not hesitate to kill one person after another.
Flesh and skin began to grow on his wife's bones little by little, just like a seed taking root and sprouting in the soil, but her body no longer had any temperature, her limbs were stiff, and she could not stand the light.
The wife didn't want to be resurrected, and she didn't want to become half human, half ghost.
But the scholar still forced himself to do it because he couldn't let his wife die.
Because the scholar's family had fallen on hard times, if it weren't for the Yue family's wealth, he would have been penniless long ago. It was with the help of the Yue family that he was able to make a comeback.
Once his wife died, without the help of his wife's family, the scholar would become penniless again.
Gu Yanfei suddenly stopped here, his eyes deep.
Gu Yunzhen's heart went through ups and downs with the story. At first, he was moved by the scholar's "deep affection", but then he was troubled by the fact that the scholar killed several people to save one person. After hearing this, he became disgusted with the scholar's selfishness and cruelty.
"What happened next?" Gu Yunzhen asked, feeling that the wife in this story was too pitiful.
Later...
Gu Yanfei blinked, as if he had returned to the memories of a hundred years ago.
Later, the wife was completely "resurrected" and had flesh and blood, but her blood was black. She became an irrational evil creature and killed everyone in the city.
At that time, Gu Yanfei was ordered by his master to go down the mountain to eradicate the evil.
She witnessed a hell on earth. The wife was covered in human blood, her mouth was filled with blood, her hands were filled with blood, and she was holding pieces of meat between her fingers. She was crying, with two lines of black tears flowing down, begging her: "Kill me!"
Gu Yanfei's eyelashes fluttered twice, but he didn't say this in the end. He just said lightly: "Later, the scholar was killed by his wife, and the wife also died."
"Any evil magic has a price to pay."
As Gu Yanfei spoke, he took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it to Gu Yunzhen.
“…” Gu Yunzhen’s eyes slightly opened, with redness at the corners of his eyes.
She was still immersed in Gu Yanfei's story and felt empty in her heart.
“Coo-coo.”
The pigeon called softly, and the two sisters looked in the direction of the sound. They saw the calico cat staring at the pigeon with a fierce look. The pigeon shook its wings innocently.
Gu Yanfei grabbed the calico cat, tapped its pink nose, and scolded, "You, stop bullying Gugu all the time. Gugu is much more sensible and capable than you."
Coo Coo is the name Juanbi gave to the carrier pigeon.
"Meow!" The cat almost jumped up when it heard that it, a great spiritual beast, was being compared with a mere pigeon. It raised its butt and rubbed its claws twice in protest.
Gu Yanfei continued to lecture the cat seriously: "You, you always eat and sleep, sleep and eat, don't you know that you will become stupid like this?"
"Look at you, you've become as fat as a ball. Be careful not to jump high or far!"
Gu Yunzhen looked at the man and the cat and was amused. He covered his mouth and laughed out loud, and the slight sadness in his heart disappeared.
Seeing that she finally smiled, Gu Yanfei curled the corners of his lips and his eyebrows were curved.
"Meow~" The cat came over and rubbed Gu Yanfei's skirt affectionately, then circled around her and acted coquettishly. Its voice was sweet and soft, meaning that I am the cutest, the most capable, and the most sensible.
"Okay, stop acting like a spoiled child and go to work!" Gu Yanfei lowered his head and whispered a few words in the cat's ear, then gently patted the cat's butt, signaling it to hurry up.
It is the most powerful one! The cat held its tail high, glanced at the white dove not far away, and walked out of the ancestral hall with an elegant cat step.
The sky darkens particularly quickly in winter, and night has already fallen. The mansion is empty and deserted at night, with silence and coldness.
The moon is bright tonight, and the bright moonlight softly shines in the courtyard.
The cat walked around the mansion in a swagger, jumped lightly onto a tree, leaped over the wall, stepped on the tiles on another house's roof, and took a shortcut all the way to the north of the city.
It is heading to Murong Mansion.
The night belongs to cats. Qingguang didn’t recognize the Murong family, but other cats did, and some even diligently led it the way.
It only took the calico cat an incense stick of time to reach Anding Hutong where Murong Mansion was located.
It's really amazing, it runs faster than a horse! Qingguang thought proudly, licking his nose and then licking his paws.
The cat squatted on the high wall, looking down at the gloomy mansion below. It tilted its cat face and thought for a long time, and finally remembered.
By the way, the master said that the old lady’s yard is in that direction!
The cat howled happily again and leaped towards the northwest of Murong Mansion...
It demonstrated its ability to climb over walls and trees, and to climb up roofs and tiles. In no time, it found the yard with the dead old pine tree and dried-up pond that Gu Yanfei had mentioned, and then it found a tree closest to the window and climbed up swiftly.
This time, the noise it made was a little too loud, and a branch was rustling because of it.
Dead leaves fell from the branches one after another.
The calico cat took advantage of its high ground and looked into the window. It saw an old woman lying on the bed against the wall, and a couple in their forties sitting at the coffee table and talking.
There was only one sheep-horn lantern lit in the room, and the light was a little dim, making the atmosphere a little depressing.
The cat outside simply lay on the branch and didn't move.
The couple naturally heard the noise outside the window, but they just thought it was because of the strong wind at night. Madam Murong glanced in the direction of the window and immediately looked away.
"Master, the Gu family has agreed to the wedding. According to the wishes of Master Shangqing, I have set the wedding date on New Year's Eve." Madam Murong said to her master with a happy face.
"Good!" Master Murong Hao stroked his goatee and said "good" repeatedly with satisfaction. Then he asked with a little displeasure, "Did Sister Yu run away today?"
Madam Murong nodded somewhat awkwardly.
Liu Muyu is his niece, and he cannot escape the blame for causing such a mess at such a critical moment today.
Madam Murong coughed twice, cleared her throat and said, "I was afraid that the Marquis' Mansion would be angry, but fortunately, Madam Gu is a sensible person and did not pursue the matter."
As she spoke, the corners of her plump lips curved up complacently.
After all, the two families have already exchanged engagement letters and the marriage has been decided. Given the character of the second son, the Gu family would never be able to find such a good son-in-law even if they searched with a lantern!
Murong Hao breathed a sigh of relief and didn't dwell on it any more. He just said, "Madam, since there won't be any accidents in this marriage, marry her off."
"Don't worry, Master." Madam Murong responded sternly and quickly changed the subject, "Master Shangqing will come tomorrow and will go to the Marquis' Mansion with me."
"I feel relieved knowing that the real person is here." Murong Hao stroked his beard again.
There was a rustling sound outside the window again. The swaying branches left several hideous and strange shadows on the window paper, as if something was hiding in the darkness and spying on them.
(End of this chapter)
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