Baxia Village is located north of our village, belonging to the neighboring county.
The village is not large, with about a hundred households, and a huge stone tablet stands at the entrance.
The front of the tablet is engraved with the village chronicle, while the back is carved with an old turtle worshiping the moon.
I was taken to the ancestral hall, where a white-haired elder was waiting for me.
At his first glance at me, he sighed, “So alike, truly alike.”
Though puzzled, I didn’t voice my questions. Instead, I took out the marriage contract with the Feng family from my bag and placed it on the offering table in the ancestral hall.
“What you want, I’ll give. Please return my grandmother’s remains to me.”
“You’re a good child, neither humble nor arrogant.”
He stood with his hands behind his back, his brow etched with the marks of time. “Ten years ago, right here, your grandmother and I made this marriage pact, all to suppress the curse of Dragon-Locking Village and protect your life.”
“Now that thing has latched onto you, Huai Yan. The marriage contract cannot be broken. If you break it, you will lose your life.”
I smiled bitterly. “Do I have any other choice?”
“Yes, of course you do.” The elder pulled out a black paper talisman and pressed it into my hand. “That thing has just awakened and hasn’t fully recovered its strength. When it comes for you again, stick this talisman on it. Leave the rest to us.”
I held the talisman, silent.
A faint unease stirred within me.
If a single paper talisman could subdue that thing, why hadn’t he produced it back when my grandmother came pleading for help?
“Once we capture that thing and seal it back into Dragon Locking Valley, the Feng family will immediately fulfill the marriage contract. Huai Yan, from then on, the Feng family will be your home, your steadfast support!”
I shook my head. “I am cursed and will not force anyone to marry me. All I want is for my grandmother to be laid to rest in peace.”
The elder readily agreed, spoke with me at length, and even cooked longevity noodles for me at noon, wishing me a happy birthday and a long life.
Before I left, he promised to help me give my grandmother a proper burial as soon as the matter was settled.
After a day and night of turmoil, I returned home in the evening, utterly exhausted, and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I don’t know how long I slept, but in my drowsiness, I felt someone stroking my face.
Lightly, again and again, brushing against my cheek, tickling me.
I reached up to scratch, but my hand was caught by another, larger one.
I jolted awake from my sleep, coming face to face with a man with sharply defined features.
The man wore a crown, dressed in a crow-blue robe, his long eyebrows sweeping toward his temples, his phoenix eyes bright and piercing. Especially those amber vertical pupils, staring right at you as if they could draw you in, enchanting and alluring.
“Awake?”
He leaned casually against my headboard, his side facing me. Tall and imposing, I was almost enveloped in his embrace.
Instinctively, I shifted backward, one hand slipping into my pocket to feel for the paper talisman.
Though I had doubts about the talisman given by the Feng elder, in this situation, not using it left me with no way out. Using it might offer a sliver of hope.
So without hesitation, I slapped the talisman onto the man’s chest.
The talisman ignited without fire, burning to ashes in an instant, leaving a large hole in the robe and faintly revealing the man’s abdominal muscles.
Yet the man remained completely unharmed.
From start to finish, he stared at me motionlessly, his gaze growing colder and colder.
With my first strike failing, I tried to roll off the bed and escape, but he pinned me back onto the bed by the neck.
“Huai Yan, you’re not being good!”
The man’s fingers were long and powerful, squeezing my neck until I couldn’t breathe, my face flushing crimson.
Then he sneered mockingly, “Since that’s the case, let’s play a game.”
With a wave of his hand, a ball of fire rose into the air, instantly igniting the curtains. A white snake tail as thick as an arm wrapped around the fireball, wildly dancing through the room.
In an instant, flames erupted everywhere, thick smoke billowing.
“You’re insane! If you want to die, don’t drag me down with you!”
I pushed him away and rushed straight for the door, but no matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn’t open.
I turned and tried to climb out the window, but the window wouldn’t budge either.
Only then did I realize that the fire the man had started only burned the curtains—the other flames were coming from outside.
The doors and windows of the old house were all made of wood. Normally, even if they were locked, I could kick them open, but today they wouldn’t budge. It was truly strange.
The fire grew fiercer, sparks crackling and popping. It wouldn’t be long before the house collapsed.
A hand gripped my waist, the wind whistled past my ears, and in a dizzying whirl, I was already outside, standing beneath the large locust tree to the west.
The raging flames lit up half the sky, allowing me to see everything clearly.
My old house was covered in paper talismans, their symbols glowing with a blue light in the fire.
It was these talismans that had formed some kind of array, preventing me from opening the doors and windows.
Three cars were parked not far from my house, with many people standing in front of them. The three leaders each held bright red marriage contracts in their hands, one of whom was the elder from the Feng family.
Boom!
The moment the house completely collapsed, the Feng family elder stepped forward and threw his marriage contract into the sea of flames.
The other two middle-aged men followed suit.
“Huai Yan is dead, the marriage contract is automatically void. The Feng family of Baxia sends off the departed soul!”
“The Vermillion Phoenix Zhu Family of Danwu sends off the departed soul!”
“The Bai family of Jianbang sends off the departed soul!”