Xiao Ciyou raised her hand. With a sharp slap, she sent Song Yingshi sprawling to the ground.
“Even without spiritual power, I can still slap you! What are you, to dare stand in my way?”
She stepped right over Song Yingshi and strode into the villa.
Once the people beside her had helped her up, Song Yingshi turned to Pei Xiuyan as he got out of the car, tears streaming down her face.
“Pei, I’m sorry you had to see that. Older Sister was just afraid that I’d come back and take the love Mom and Dad have for her, so she hit me.
“She’s not usually like this. Please don’t blame her because of me.”
Pei Xiuyan felt as if the world had gone black before his eyes. Then black again.
He really didn’t believe in ghosts and gods. But he had seen Song Zhien’s fingers twitching, and the red thread around his wrist trembling.
It was as if everyone else was blind to those two talisman papers—and only he could see them.
Then the Song couple had started acting like lunatics.
He began picking at his hand again.
Where was the thread? Where had it gone?!
“Pei, did Older Sister cause you trouble? Let me apologize to you on her behalf.
“Could you help me talk some sense into her? She insists on leaving home. How will she manage on her own?”
Song Yingshi took two more steps forward and reached for Pei Xiuyan’s hand.
That brought him back to himself. He jerked his hand away.
“Manage? The Song family needn’t worry about that. The Pei family can certainly afford to support Miss Song.”
Song Yingshi’s expression stiffened. “What… What do you mean, the Pei family will support her?”
Pei Xiuyan’s gaze turned cold. “You don’t understand? Miss Song is my… grandmother’s benefactor. The gifts the Pei family sent over today were for Miss Song, too.
“If the Song family keeps calling her an adopted daughter and doesn’t welcome her home, then those gifts are unnecessary as well. Qi Jia, go bring back what we delivered this afternoon.”
“Yes!”
Pei Xiuyan was about to get back in the car when he added, “And please tell President Song that your family shouldn’t pursue the Pei Corporation’s partnership. Without Song Zhien, there will be no partnership.
“Also, I’ll be taking her with me later. Do you mind if I wait in the car?”
Song Yingshi opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Pei Xiuyan said briskly, “Thank you.”
He got into the car and slammed the door shut.
The Maybach remained parked right outside the Song family’s gates, not moving an inch. It was like a resounding slap across Song Yingshi’s face.
Someone nearby snickered. “The Song family are ridiculous. They had an adopted daughter who could’ve helped them get in with the Peis, and they still managed to play such a good hand this badly!”
“Song Yingshi is the ridiculous one! She said she didn’t want Pei to blame Song Zhien because of her, but he doesn’t even know her. What a presumptuous thing to say!”
Amid the people’s mockery, Song Yingshi was so ashamed she wanted the ground to swallow her.
Wasn’t Song Zhien supposed to be plagued by misfortune now?! How could she be so close to Pei Xiuyan?!
…
Xiao Ciyou returned to the original owner’s room.
The Song family villa had five floors in all, and her room was in the middle of the fifth floor.
She lifted the mattress and slit it open with a utility knife. Inside the lining, she found a yellow talisman folded into a triangle.
Just then, a nearly transparent shadow drifted out from behind her and settled on her shoulder. It gradually took the shape of a little tabby cat.
The cat spoke. “Figure anything out?”
Xiao Ciyou asked, “You can come out already? I thought you’d need to build up merit for at least a month.”
The cat licked its paw. “That man you formed a pact with is rich in violet qi. I smelled it and came right out. Is this talisman the medium for exchanging fate patterns?”
Xiao Ciyou nodded. As she unfolded the talisman and took the fetal hair from inside, she said, “The entire Song family villa was carefully arranged on someone’s instructions. It uses yang to nourish yin and baleful energy to exchange fortune. The Formation Core is this room.
“Song Zhien lived in this room for eighteen years. For all those years, her fortune was used to nourish the Song family.
“If I hadn’t been reborn into this body, her fate pattern would have continued nourishing the Song family through Song Yingshi. It would only be a matter of time before they surpassed the Pei family.”
The cat stared at the spell on the talisman for a while, its little ears twitching.
“Good grief, they mixed a soul-dispersing curse into the fate-exchange spell, too. They meant for Song Zhien to be barred from reincarnation even after she died!
“Tsk, tsk. I haven’t seen such a gutsy little shrimp in hundreds of years. Trying occult tricks on you… They’d better hurry up and reincarnate.”
Xiao Ciyou held the talisman. “My spiritual power is too low right now. I’ll go replenish it beside Pei Xiuyan, then break this spell. Let’s go.”
Holding the talisman, she went downstairs. As she passed the master bedroom, Song Chengye and Zheng Meilan were still pulling each other’s hair.
“Zheng Meilan, you crazy woman! With so many guests watching today, how could you say something like that?”
“Honey, I’m sorry! Sob, sob—I was telling the truth! You’re useless! I’m sorry, sob, sob… useless!”
…
Xiao Ciyou walked out of the Song family home and climbed straight into the car. Then she clasped Pei Xiuyan’s wrist.
“Give me some.”
Pei Xiuyan said, “…Give you what?”
Xiao Ciyou raised an eyebrow. “This thread. You can’t see it?”
Pei Xiuyan tried to argue. “I just had a serious illness. Occasional hallucinations are perfectly… All right, I can see it. What exactly is this thread?”
He didn’t want to admit it, but when Xiao Ciyou’s fingers interlaced with his, the red thread suddenly blazed with light. He couldn’t ignore it.
“It’s a soul contract,” she said. “You came back from the Underworld because I formed one with you. As long as I’m alive, you won’t die.”
“And if you die?”
“You’ll find out when I die. For now, I need you to lend me some of the violet qi and merit you have.”
Pei Xiuyan hadn’t even realized he was already following Xiao Ciyou’s train of thought. “How do I lend them to you?”
Xiao Ciyou fixed her beautiful eyes on him. “Just think that you want to lend them to me.”
Pei Xiuyan thought that sounded absurdly subjective.
But if thinking it could help her, he didn’t mind lending her a little.
Xiao Ciyou suddenly felt lighter. An invisible force gathered at her fingertips, and she immediately took out the fate-exchange talisman.
She formed a hand seal with both hands. The instant the incantation left her lips, an unmistakable, commanding power radiated from her.
“Within and beyond the Three Realms, the Dao alone is supreme. My body is clothed in golden light, which shines over me—break!”
A flash of golden light passed through her hands. The talisman suddenly burst into flames all by itself, flaring up with a whoosh before turning to ash in an instant!
At the same time, a Daoist priest meditating far away at Qingfeng Temple spat out a mouthful of dark blood and collapsed. As he hit the ground, his black hair turned white in an instant, and deep wrinkles covered his face.
“Master! Master! What happened?”
The Daoist priest shakily sat up. “Their fate patterns have already been exchanged, and they still found someone to cast a backlash spell! They’re making a last, desperate struggle!
“When I go down the mountain, I’ll personally scatter that evil creature’s soul!”
…
Inside the car, Pei Xiuyan watched the talisman crumble to ash and silently covered his face.
It must have been coated with white phosphorus. One rub and it caught fire. That had to be it!
Xiao Ciyou opened the window and let the ashes in her palm scatter in the wind. Only then did Pei Xiuyan notice that her palm was raw and blistered, as if burned by a branding iron.
“What happened?”
Her hand had been fine on the way to the Song family’s place.
“Song Yingshi exchanged our fate patterns. Phoenix Noble Fate, golden-light protection, you know? I slapped her, and this is the price.”
Pei Xiuyan frowned. “Can’t that thing I lent you—the… violet qi or whatever—heal it?”
Xiao Ciyou gave him a look. “This is an external injury! It needs ointment! Don’t be so superstitious, okay? What do you think you have, a healing spell?”
Pei Xiuyan fell silent.
So now he was the superstitious one? Who was it that had just said she’d beat up the ghost messengers?
The thought flashed through his mind. Then he suddenly felt a chill down his back and couldn’t help wanting to look behind him.
Xiao Ciyou grabbed his face and turned it forward again.
“Don’t look.”
“…W-why?”
“Because my spiritual power is very low right now, and I need time to recover. If you pretend you can’t see them, we can buy some time. Otherwise, I’m not sure I can beat them.”
Qi Jia, who was driving, couldn’t help glancing in the rearview mirror. He reminded the strange Miss Song in the back seat, “There’s no one behind us.”
Xiao Ciyou smiled faintly. “I never said the ones following us were people.”