Desire for human life
Without hesitation, Mr. Chen sent a maid to fetch two wooden boxes.
The old woman stood beside Mr. Chen, holding the wooden box as he instructed. The smaller wooden box on top was opened, revealing six gold ingots.
"One gold ingot for each sentence, all right. Say three sentences first."
"The first sentence is, one's own evil will bring disaster upon oneself. The second sentence is, if one covets human life, he will suffer the consequences. The third sentence is, Madam Chen was harmed by the jade hairpin, but she had to rely on it to maintain consciousness."
After saying that, Heng Jin took out three gold ingots from the wooden box and handed them to Yuan Li.
Mr. Chen stood up, picked up the red paper lantern at his feet, and said, "Both boxes are yours. Come with me."
He approached the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva and turned the incense burner on the table. A staircase suddenly appeared beneath the table. A cool breeze blew through the tunnel, and candlelight lit up. Unlike the red candlelight cast by the red lanterns inside the house, the candlelight in the tunnel was much more normal.
He led everyone into the tunnel and arrived at a house with luxurious furnishings. The house was fully equipped with furniture, all of which were the styles that women liked. Any item picked out at random was much more valuable than the furnishings in Chen's mansion outside the tunnel.
From the passage to the cave, incense burners were placed at regular intervals. However, even with such a strong aroma, a strange smell could not be masked, and it was faint and could be smelled every few steps.
This smell is somewhat familiar, similar to the smell in Zhao's mansion, but due to the interference of other aromas, it is impossible to determine what the strange smell is.
A woman with white hair squatted on the carved bed in the center. She must be the so-called Madam Chen. Their footsteps were loud, amplified in the quiet and empty cave. A normal person would have turned to see who was there, but Madam Chen was like a puppet, motionless, with no reaction at all.
Mr. Chen blew out the lantern, walked over to the couch and sat down. He put his hands on her shoulders and said softly to her, "Madam, I've invited a master who can cure you. Can you let him take a look at you? Be good and don't make a fuss. Don't scare the master. Turn around and let him take a look. Come on."
When she turned around, Yuanli's eyes were drawn to the jade hairpin on Madam Chen's head. It was identical in style to the soul-calming hairpins Heng Jin had found. Her hair was in a rather unusual bun, holding the jade hairpin securely in place, practically covering most of it. This was a new sight for Yuanli. Even if she rushed forward to grab it, she wouldn't be able to remove it immediately.
Madam Chen's skin was unusually pale, like a corpse bleached in water, almost devoid of blood. She wore a dress of the latest fashion, a similar style Yuanli had seen when she bought a dress for Si Xi. The tips of her nails were slightly red, gradually fading from a crimson hue to a faint blush. It seemed she had dyed them deliberately.
As she looked, Yuanli's gaze moved from her fingertips and suddenly met Mrs. Chen's dull eyes like dead water.
Yuanli was very sure that Madam Chen was staring at her.
Heng Jin approached her, placed Madam Chen's embroidered handkerchief over her head, and felt her pulse through it. After confirming what she had been thinking, Heng Jin said bluntly, "I need to see Madam Chen's scalp. Her hair is too tight. Please comb it out for her."
"No, the jade hairpin cannot be removed. Why do you want to see my wife's scalp?"
"I need to accurately assess the condition of Madam Chen's body. It's okay to take it for a short while. Madam's hair is so intricate, I'm sure it took you a lot of effort to comb it. If you're afraid, you can remove the hairpin and let Madam hold it in your hand."
Mr. Chen hesitated for a moment, then began to skillfully and swiftly undo the bun on Mrs. Chen's head. His movements were gentle, as if he were handling a fragile treasure. Only when the bun was halfway undone did the jade hairpin on Mrs. Chen's head come off.
"Look, but be gentle."
"I see."
He approached Madam Chen and was about to make a move when the worried Mr. Chen stopped him, "Wait! Let me part Madam's hair, and you, the Immortal, can just point where you want to look."
Heng Jin nodded in agreement, which was exactly what he wanted; he felt disgusted and didn't want to touch it anyway. He pointed to a random spot, and after Chen Yuanwai carefully peeled it open, Heng Jin saw a ulcer on Mrs. Chen's scalp. There was a patched scar, a long, thin line that curved erratically, presumably sealed with fine needlework.
It would be a pity if she had such sewing skills but didn't become a Suzhou embroidery embroiderer or a doctor.
"Shall we talk here, or over to the side?"
"Let's talk about it after we get out."
Mr. Chen pinned the jade hairpin back into Mrs. Chen's bun, said a few words to comfort her, and then led them out of the tunnel and sat back in the seats they had sat in before entering.
"Great Immortal, tell me, can my wife be saved?"
"Your wife has been dead for many years. Even if a great immortal were alive, she wouldn't be able to come back to life. I've made it very clear that I paid you three ingots of gold for three sentences. You've also heard that I figured out your wife was dead. Yet, you still gave me ten ingots of gold as a reward. What exactly do you want? Just say it directly."
Upon hearing this, Yuanli and Chu Xiao were shocked. Madam Chen was actually dead!
No wonder she always felt creepy. Yuanli finally understood that the strange smell covered by the strong fragrance should be the stench of a rotting corpse. It was only because it was an old corpse and the effect of the jasmine hairpin made the smell not so strong.
"I've been mending this body of your wife over the years, replacing it sixty-four times. Wearing that jade hairpin used to help slow down the decay of her new skin, but lately it's been getting worse. I want you to help me keep my wife. Anything is fine, as long as she can still talk to me and look at me."
"Your request is a bit tricky. She's rotten to the point where her internal organs are being eaten away by maggots. Unless you get a new body, you'll probably just get a ghost."
"Anything is fine, but it's better to have a body." Mr. Chen smiled with satisfaction.
"No, ten gold bars won't do. I need to know your past so I can be completely safe."
Mr. Chen's eyes fell on the tea and he said:
My wife and I are related by marriage. I am eight years younger than her, but I simply love her and will marry her. My family is much wealthier than hers, and after her father learned of my feelings, he never let her marry anyone else. Everyone around us tacitly assumes that we will definitely get married in the future.
The lady said that she also wanted to marry me.
However, before she could marry me, I received the news that she was going to marry into the Zhao family. There was not even an explanation, and no one kept it from me.
When I went to find her, she was already pregnant. Tears streaming down her face, she told me her father said she was destined to be a princess and queen, rich and powerful, and shouldn't marry into a merchant family like mine, where we'd never reach power. She was forced to marry into the Zhao family, and he said we couldn't afford to offend them, and that he wanted to end all ties with me.
Actually, I know it was Sui'er who had her eye on the Zhao family. The Zhao family needed Sui'er's waterway business and the dowry, and Sui'er thought he was truly a royal relative in trouble, so she was just using him to her advantage. I don't blame her; Sui'er just wanted a better life. She's not wrong.
I didn't look for Sui'er again, but Sui'er returned to her hometown and found me a year after she got married.
She said she needed my help. Once she gave birth to a son, she would become the future head of the Zhao family and have the final say. How could I possibly watch my Sui'er suffer? So, I went back to the Zhao family with her, hid in the secret room in her room, and helped her get pregnant.
God was not kind to her. We miscarried one child after another, and she still couldn't have a child from the Zhao family in her prime.
The man in the Zhao family didn't love her and wanted to divorce her after taking advantage of her family. I helped Sui'er kill her husband. Her mother-in-law was a very young woman who had been trapped in the Zhao family's courtyard all her life, raising someone else's son. Sui'er had been very filial to her since she entered the family. She felt sorry for Sui'er who had lost her husband and her family at such a young age, so she asked her to adopt a child.
Sui'er had too many miscarriages and had long been unable to have her own children, so we adopted a child.
Sui'er was a woman who would not give up until she achieved her goal. She was strong-willed and would never be willing to be trapped here as a widow. Especially since the second wife had given birth to one child after another, each of them was very successful, so the family heirloom must be given to the second wife.
Although the Second Wife was a strong woman, she was also a playboy, playing games behind the scenes more than anyone else. Sui'er set her sights on the Second Wife, and I helped her kill those women. Sui'er also successfully climbed into the Second Wife's bed.
Finally, when Hu'er was eight years old, we designed to put all the blame for the murder of the women in the second house on the wife of the second house. In addition, with Sui'er's pillow talk, the second house was furious and killed her.
Before the second wife succeeded, Sui'er would never be his nominal second wife. The second wife was not stupid, she knew the truth, and the reason for dealing with that woman was also due to the family of the second wife. He married the daughter of a high-ranking official, and Sui'er was unhappy again.
After learning from the second wife that the family heirloom was given by the immortal ancestor, it was a magical treasure that could cure all diseases and even bring people back to life, Sui'er now had a new goal.
When Hu'er was twelve years old, I unexpectedly discovered that he was also killing people for Sui'er. Although he was young, he was so smart that every time I traced back to him, I could always stop at him.
After Hu'er learned about me and his mother, he actually accepted it and tacitly acknowledged me as his father. We, father and son, were determined to make Sui'er the head of the Zhao family and possess the magical treasure. After the second wife's son was killed in a hunt, Sui'er's mother-in-law became ill with anger, and nearly everyone in the family was killed. Sui'er was the only candidate left for the position of head of the Zhao family.
To hasten her mother-in-law's death, Sui'er revealed the entire story of her and the second wife's affair, giving birth to Hu'er. This angered her to the point of fainting. But she survived! Hu'er drugged her and carried her to an ancient tomb to sleep for a night, where she contracted corpse poison and was now completely doomed. Even in this state, the stubborn old woman refused to use the jade hairpin, saying she couldn't disobey her ancestors. It was so pedantic!
But I never thought that Sui'er would be infected with the corpse poison from her body!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
