With the cellar discovered, Liu Hong’s face had turned pale with tension. She seemed deeply frightened, which only invited more speculation.
Livestream chat:
【I’m going to make a bold guess, did she kill her own child?】
【Very possible. Why else would she be so nervous?】
【She’s the only one from the family who came to the show with this request. Could it be that her family doesn’t even know about this?】
【The more I think about it, the more terrifying it gets. What’s really going on here?】
……
As the live chat buzzed with speculation, Liu Hong shrieked and tried to shut the cellar door. But there was no way she could overpower Jiang Mao. He stood blocking the entrance, his heterochromatic eyes fixed on her with a dark, heavy gaze. Just one look from him sent cold sweat streaming down her face, and she stumbled back several steps.
Chu Mingjia walked to the cellar entrance and descended the steps.
Jiang Mao followed closely, his eyes locked on Chu Mingjia, as if afraid something might happen to her.
Just as Han Fengchen was about to go down, he heard Jiang Mao say, “It’s too narrow down there. Liu Jun, give me the camera.”
Liu Jun replied, “Okay, okay. Mr. Jiang, take it.”
The handheld camera was small and stable. Jiang Mao took it with one hand. Meanwhile, Chu Mingjia switched on the dim yellow light inside the cellar.
What appeared before the viewers’ eyes was a small, dim space. Against the wall on the floor sat a spirit tablet. In front of it were three wine cups and three half-burned sticks of incense.
It was said that three sticks of incense were for worshipping gods, while two sticks were for ghosts. Obviously, this was not a tablet for Liu Hong’s son.
Chu Mingjia frowned and walked over. Jiang Mao immediately followed close behind, and then they both saw the six characters on the tablet:
“Spirit Tablet of the Mountain Lord of Qishan.”
Chu Mingjia’s expression darkened. The tablet bore her title, but it was not for her.
Ever since she had returned, she had sensed no offerings from the mortal world.
So, after a thousand years without offerings, the mountain god had not fallen. Rather, Qishan had a new mountain lord?
How was it that she didn’t know about this?
Jiang Mao’s breathing grew heavy, and the look in his eyes as he stared at the tablet was terrifying.
The air was silent for a few seconds. Chu Mingjia covered the microphone on her chest and spoke slowly, “I told you to guard the sacred mountain, but you abandoned your post. What’s the use of being angry now?”
This was only the second sentence Chu Mingjia had said to Jiang Mao since her return. The first had been telling him to shut up.
Jiang Mao’s head snapped up. His face was flushed, and his eyes were red. He pressed his lips together, hesitated for a long moment, and then said, “Mountain Lord, it was my fault. You can punish me, but… please, I beg you, don’t abandon me.”
He had already lost the Mountain Lord for a thousand years. Heaven only knew how close he had come to madness during that millennium of searching for Chu Mingjia.
Chu Mingjia didn’t answer him. Instead, she asked, “What happened to your eyes?”
Jiang Mao was startled. He hung his head even lower, pressing his lips together, silent for several seconds.
Chu Mingjia looked down at the spirit tablet and said coldly, “If you don’t speak now, then never speak of it.”
Jiang Mao’s head shot up again. Flustered, he said, “It’s not that, I was afraid… afraid you would be angry, Mountain Lord.”
The tall, imposing man, before the petite Chu Mingjia, bent his back and lowered his head. The fierce, demon-quelling aura around him was completely retracted, as if he wished he could curl himself into a ball and become an obedient little kitten.
Slightly nervous, Jiang Mao said, “After you disappeared, I went everywhere looking for you. At first, Luo Sang was still guarding the shrine. But later, the spiritual veins of Qishan began to wither. Without your divine power to sustain him, Luo Sang couldn’t hold on much longer. To save Qishan’s spiritual veins, I lost the divine power you had given me.”
Jiang Mao was born ferocious and ominous, an inauspicious being. It was only through Chu Mingjia’s divine power that he had been able to receive spiritual nourishment on Qishan. After she disappeared, and he sacrificed his power to save the mountain’s spiritual veins, his murderous aura could no longer be suppressed. He had been forced to leave Qishan.
The appearance of his blue eye was due to his insufficient spiritual power, he could no longer control his true form.
Chu Mingjia frowned. “Luo Sang is dead too?”
Jiang Mao nodded.
Luo Sang was Chu Mingjia’s ghostly servant, a paper effigy that had guarded the entrance to the shrine.
A paper effigy had no soul or physical body of its own; it existed solely through Chu Mingjia’s divine power. Once she disappeared, it naturally perished when the power sustaining it ran out.
Chu Mingjia didn’t speak. Jiang Mao grew a little nervous. “Mountain Lord, don’t be angry. I know I was wrong.”
Chu Mingjia looked at him and sighed. “From the look of you, overflowing with murderous energy, are you reaching your limit?”
Jiang Mao didn’t answer. He didn’t dare say that he often reverted to his true form at night now. If he hadn’t run into Chu Mingjia, he would have returned to Qishan by now, found a hidden cave, and fallen into a deep slumber.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, Chu Mingjia didn’t press further. Instead, she said, “Never mind. We’ll talk about it later. For now, pry this open.”
Jiang Mao immediately took the iron shovel and pried the spirit tablet off.
Beneath where the tablet had been, there was a wooden board. Lifting the board revealed a wooden box underneath.
The sight was eerily reminiscent of Lin Xiao, sealed inside a wooden box.
Chu Mingjia’s expression turned serious. “Take it out.”
The live stream audience was stunned:
【Holy crap, here we go again, ladies!】
【This familiar scene, this familiar wooden box, this familiar atmosphere… Could it be fortune-borrowing again?】
【No way. A mother borrowing fortune from her own son is unheard of. Besides, if her son had good fortune, why would she kill him?】
【Is it possible there’s another mastermind behind this? And this woman is just being used? After all, she desperately wanted a son.】
……
The audience speculated. Everyone on the scene wanted to know the truth too. Even Chu Mingjia, for the moment, couldn’t figure out why Liu Hong would have killed her own son.
Wasn’t she the one who wanted a son the most?
Jiang Mao took the wooden box out and placed it flat on the ground. It was covered in familiar talismans and incantations. He looked up at Chu Mingjia.
This was indeed another fortune-borrowing formation. The spirit tablet’s main purpose was to suppress this wooden box.
Chu Mingjia sighed. “It seems this child was very spiritually gifted.”
Otherwise, there would have been no need for suppression.
As the box was opened, what appeared before the viewers’ eyes was once again an inverted funerary urn, no different from Lin Xiao’s case.
But in the eyes of Jiang Mao and Chu Mingjia, it was very different.
Last time, Lin Xiao’s urn had contained her ashes. This time, when Jiang Mao opened it, he saw the skeletal remains of an infant.
The live stream audience was utterly shocked:
【This… could this be…】
【Oh my god, police, get to work! This woman needs to be thoroughly interrogated.】
【Is it possible she had a difficult labor or something and gave birth to a stillborn…】
The live stream audience simply couldn’t fathom what kind of mother would do such a thing, and some couldn’t help but make excuses for her.
Chu Mingjia and Jiang Mao carried the funerary urn out of the cellar. The moment Liu Hong saw the urn in Jiang Mao’s hands, her face turned deathly pale, and she said angrily, “You, you dug that up?!”
Her expression was panicked, and she seemed deeply afraid of the urn, not even daring to look at it.
Chu Mingjia said, “Didn’t you say you hear a ‘gulu gulu’ sound every night, and occasionally a baby crying? This is the source. Take a good look.”
Liu Hong shook her head and backed away, her eyes darting. “No, I won’t look. I don’t want to see it. I don’t believe what you’re saying. You’re all frauds. I don’t believe it… I don’t believe it…”
She kept saying she didn’t believe it, but what exactly didn’t she believe?
That Chu Mingjia had said her third child was a boy?
Chu Mingjia looked at the skeletal remains inside the urn and said coldly, “A newborn baby’s bones are soft. You put him in an urn, buried him in the ground, and even used the spirit tablet of the Mountain Lord to suppress him. Why? Weren’t you the one who wanted a boy so badly? This is a boy.”
Hearing this, Liu Hong reacted strongly. She screamed, “You’re lying! It’s a girl!”
Chu Mingjia: “…”
Everyone: “…”
Han Fengchen, who had been quiet all this time, couldn’t hold back anymore. “Can’t you tell whether it’s a boy or a girl?”
【There’s definitely something fishy here! Could it be that she mistook the child for a girl and killed it?】
【Where are the police? Why aren’t they here yet? Arrest her and interrogate her properly!】
【There’s definitely more to this. It’s probably connected to the previous fortune-borrowing case, maybe even the same people!】
……
Chu Mingjia spoke slowly, “This child was very spiritually gifted. You put his body in an urn and suppressed him. His soul didn’t turn into a malevolent spirit, instead, it became a jar ghost. Following the mother-child line, it found you, but it didn’t seek revenge. It just came to see you every day. It still retains its human kindness.”
Jar ghosts were rare. In ancient times, some Taoist priests who practiced evil arts would seal people inside urns and refine them. The resulting jar ghosts would use the urn as their body, becoming impervious to weapons, filled with ghostly energy, and obedient to the priest’s commands.
Hearing this, Liu Hong broke down and screamed, “I told you, he’s not my child! He’s not! He’s a cursed star destined to kill his father and mother!”
Her emotions spiraling, she shook her head and muttered, “When I was pregnant with her, her malevolent energy was already very strong. The other children in the neighborhood would all cry in fear just seeing her. I didn’t even dare go outside because… because the neighbors all despised me…”
The elders in the neighborhood wouldn’t even let her pass by their doors, believing she would frighten their children. So later, when a master came and said the child would bring death to its father and mother, she believed it almost immediately.
Chu Mingjia was silent for a few seconds. Then she lowered her head, looked toward the cellar entrance, and said softly, “Did you hear that? He doesn’t acknowledge you.”
Everyone: “…”
Liu Hong staggered back a few steps in terror, looking from the cellar entrance to Chu Mingjia. “Wh-who are you talking to?”
Han Fengchen also followed Chu Mingjia’s gaze toward the cellar entrance. There, in the dark opening, a chubby, fair-skinned baby face had appeared.
The little one had a round face, big black eyes, and a tiny mouth. He tilted his head, looking at Chu Mingjia. His small, fleshy hands rested on the edge of the cellar opening, and his face lay on top of them. He looked utterly adorable.
Even Han Fengchen, who wasn’t particularly fond of children, felt his heart melt at the sight.
He placed a hand over his heart and unconsciously lowered his voice. “Oh my god, he’s so cute. If raising a ‘little ghost’ meant raising one like this, then I…”
He paused as he suddenly saw clearly: the adorable baby was trapped inside a jar. Only his head and hands were visible; his body and legs were inside the jar.
Han Fengchen touched his nose. “Then I still… probably couldn’t do it.”
Livestream chat:
【Help! Did they see that child?】
【I’m so frustrated! What does the child look like? Judging by Chenchen’s reaction, he seems really cute.】
【I searched for “jar ghost” but couldn’t find any information. Does such a thing really exist?】
【I don’t know, but if Sister Chu says it exists, then it must exist!】
……
Although the little jar ghost had been sealed inside the jar right after birth, he had wandered the human world for several years in this form and now understood everything.
He looked at Chu Mingjia, blinked a few times, then suddenly puckered his lips, and tears began to fall.
Han Fengchen: “!!!”
Han Fengchen immediately grew anxious and stammered, “Ah, that, I, I didn’t mean it like that. You’re actually very cute. I really like you. I wasn’t saying anything bad…”
The jar ghost ignored Han Fengchen. He crawled out of the cellar, his two little short legs emerging from the bottom of the jar, and waddled roundly toward Chu Mingjia.
Waddling in his jar, he looked very much like a round little turtle.
The little jar ghost walked up to Chu Mingjia, looked up at her, and said in a very small voice, “Mountain Lord.”
Chu Mingjia: “???”
She was astonished. “You know me?”
The little jar ghost nodded and sniffled. “I’ve been to the Ghost Shrine. Your divine power is there.”
Chu Mingjia: “…”
The “Ghost Shrine” the little jar ghost mentioned was, several hundred years ago, the sacred shrine of the Qishan Mountain Lord, a place of thriving incense offerings.
Now, it had become a desolate, cold “Ghost Shrine,” one of the most feared exploration sites for adventurers.
Chu Mingjia looked at the jar ghost and said softly, “Go play.”
The jar ghost furrowed his little brow, glanced briefly at Liu Hong, and then vanished from sight, hiding somewhere unknown.
The poor little jar ghost probably didn’t even know that because of his exceptionally good fortune, his own biological parents had betrayed him. After his death, he had been suppressed by a false god.
While Chu Mingjia and Han Fengchen were speaking with the jar ghost, Liu Hong had turned pale with fear. Overwhelmed with emotion, she fainted.
Just then, the Qishan County police, who had been monitoring the live stream, arrived. They, too, found Chu Mingjia’s live stream quite eerie. Several officers stood on the yellow dirt path outside Liu Hong’s house, looking at the people inside with complicated expressions.
Two special agents accompanying them walked in calmly to negotiate. “We suspect Liu Hong is connected to a child trafficking case from several years ago. We need to take her in for questioning.”
Chu Mingjia immediately stepped aside and gestured with her hand. “Please.”
The special agents: “…”
Then they added, “Ms. Chu, we also require your assistance.”
Chu Mingjia: “…”
Chu Mingjia wanted to find out what had happened to her sacred mountain as well. Both of these fortune-borrowing cases pointed to the Qishan Mountain Lord. By digging deeper, she might be able to uncover the person behind it all.
Liu Hong was taken away.
Chu Mingjia took Jiang Mao and Han Fengchen to give their statements.
The live stream was interrupted once again.
Within a short period, two similar fortune-borrowing incidents had occurred in the Qishan area, which could easily cause public panic.
After all, if both young women and newborn infants could be targeted for fortune-borrowing, did that mean anyone with good fortune was at risk?
And how many more such cases were there?
Chu Mingjia and Jiang Mao arrived at the police station. Liu Hong was taken in for separate questioning.
A special agent brought Chu Mingjia in to observe. After waking up, Liu Hong appeared completely dazed. She firmly believed that the child sealed in the urn was not her own, it was a cursed star destined to kill its parents, a malevolent ghost, a vicious spirit. And it wasn’t a boy, it was a girl. She was convinced it was a girl.
“If it had been a boy, I would definitely have…” she murmured, her voice very low. “I would never have done that. Even if he were a demon, I would have… accepted it.”
Everyone looked at her with heavy expressions. Han Fengchen sighed. “This woman is completely insane over having a son.”
Just then, a dark-skinned middle-aged man stormed into the police station, shouting, “Liu Hong! Where’s Liu Hong? Where have you taken my wife? Release her right now!”
Several officers stopped him. “Sir, please calm down. The suspect is being interrogated—”
“Interrogated? Interrogated my ass! She has a history of mental illness. Don’t you police know that?”
Everyone: “…”
Chu Mingjia: “???”
She turned to the special agent. “A history of mental illness?”
The agent frowned. “There’s no diagnosis record in her personal file.”
But since a family member claimed it existed, she would have to be evaluated. If Liu Hong truly had a mental illness, investigating the case would become even more difficult.
Liu Hong’s husband was named Song Gui, a native of Qishan County. Originally, they had lived in the village. But as the Qishan area became known for hauntings, villagers gradually moved away. Seeing the village empty out, Song Gui had no choice but to scrape together money and build their current two-story house in town several years ago.
The special agent immediately walked up to Song Gui and asked sternly, “Your wife has a history of mental illness? Why isn’t it recorded?”
Song Gui stiffened his neck and retorted, “I couldn’t afford to take her to the hospital. What’s the problem?”
Everyone was momentarily choked by his response, unable to find words.
Song Gui looked like a typical rural farmer, wearing old, yellowed clothes, with messy hair, a scruffy beard, and dirt still on his pants. He must have rushed over in a hurry, sweating profusely.
The special agent spoke up, “We excavated a funerary urn from your cellar. According to Liu Hong’s testimony—”
Song Gui cut him off. “That’s my son. I couldn’t afford a cemetery, so I buried him there. It’s my land. Are you going to interfere with that too?”
Everyone: “…”
Chu Mingjia suddenly interjected, “But the one buried there according to Liu Hong is your daughter. Isn’t that right?”
Everyone turned to look at her.
Chu Mingjia stared at Song Gui, guessing that he probably hadn’t watched the live stream.
She probed, “Liu Hong says it’s a daughter, and you say it’s a son. In that case, let’s have someone run a DNA test and see which one of you is lying.”
Hearing this, Song Gui’s composure cracked, and a flicker of panic crossed his face. His eyes darted around, and he quickly said, “You’re going to believe a mentally ill person? The one buried there is definitely my son!”
Chu Mingjia shook her head. “That’s impossible. Liu Hong says it’s not. When was your son born?”
Song Gui insisted, “How could it not be? He was born on March 29th at midnight, XX year! I remember it very clearly. There was a heavy downpour that night, and the midwife arrived very late. My son died just a few days after he was born.”
Most of what Song Gui said was factual, the birth date and weather were correct. Even if the police investigated, they would find the same. And since the midwife had long since passed away, many details would be impossible to verify.
After hearing the birth date, Chu Mingjia’s eyes narrowed slightly. Last time, Lin Xiao was born at noon. This child was born at midnight. It was hard not to read into the coincidence.
Chu Mingjia performed a quick divination on the spot and asked, “How many days after birth did your son die?”
Caught off guard by the question, Song Gui hesitated. His eyes darted for a few seconds, then he immediately began to bluster, “How should I know?! I’ve long forgotten! My son died, do you think I was in a good mood? How could I remember so many details? Now move aside, move aside! Let me take my wife home!”
Chu Mingjia shook her head and turned to the special agent. “March 30th, XX year, the day after the child was born. Investigate who sent Song Gui that suspicious sum of money around that time.”
As soon as she said this, everyone was stunned. Even Song Gui, who had been yelling all along, froze in place. He stared at Chu Mingjia in terror, his face turning pale.
Song Gui’s voice trembled. “Wh-what are you talking about?”
Chu Mingjia looked at him. “Where did the money to build your house come from?”
Song Gui: “…”
In the Qishan area, everyone was very poor. Going out to work might not have been a bad option, but Song Gui and Liu Hong had never done so. More importantly, according to Chu Mingjia’s understanding, the Liu family’s house had been built five years ago, the same year that child had died.
It was hard not to read into the coincidence.
Chu Mingjia hadn’t been entirely certain, but seeing Song Gui’s expression now, she knew she was right.
Everyone present was stunned by this dramatic twist.
Han Fengchen’s jaw dropped. He whispered to Liu Jun, “Holy crap, I always thought Liu Hong was the criminal, but it turns out her husband is the real mastermind?”
Without needing to film, Liu Jun was also quite idle. He shook his head and sighed as he watched the drama unfold. “Song Gui sold his own son for profit? But then why was the child’s remains buried in their own cellar? Did the child die after being sold, or was it sold after death?”
If the child died after being sold, that would be illegal child trafficking. If it was sold after death, that was another matter entirely. After all, trading in fortune wasn’t something the police could prosecute. It was like ghost marriages, everyone knew it was wrong, but could the police arrest the parents of a deceased child for arranging one?
Rural customs varied widely, making these cases extremely difficult to handle.
……
Chu Mingjia’s few sentences served as a wake-up call for the police. One officer immediately spoke up, “There was a child trafficking case five years ago, around February or March of that year.”
That year’s child trafficking case had even made the newspapers and caused a huge public outcry, because over five or six children had gone missing in the Qishan area over two consecutive months.
Two or three had been found, but three remained missing.
And that didn’t even include Liu Hong’s deceased child.
Hearing this, someone immediately said, “Arrest him for questioning!”
Song Gui: “???”
“Wait, I came here to pick up my wife! She has a mental illness. Why are you questioning me? What crime have I committed?”
The officer replied, “We’re questioning you about your son. There are no records of his birth or death. Now, explain in detail.”
Song Gui: “…”
While Song Gui and Liu Hong were being interrogated separately, the sky outside had darkened, it was evening again.
Chu Mingjia walked out of the police station and saw the little jar ghost in the distance. He had the lid of his urn balanced on his head, clutching two leaves in his little hands as makeshift cover, crouching furtively in the grass and occasionally peeking toward the police station.
The moment he saw Chu Mingjia, he stood up immediately, revealing his two short legs, and called out in a small voice, “Mountain Lord.”
Chu Mingjia came out of the police station, followed by Jiang Mao.
She walked up to the little jar ghost, took a piece of chocolate from her pocket, and waved it. “Want some candy?”
From birth until now, the little jar ghost had never tasted candy, nor any human food, for that matter.
But he had seen other children eat it, and his two older sisters often bought candy too.
He licked his lips and said softly, “But I can’t eat it.”
Chu Mingjia replied, “I can burn it for you.”
The little jar ghost’s eyes lit up. He stared at the chocolate in Chu Mingjia’s hand and sweet-talked, “Thank you, Mountain Lord. You’re so kind, Mountain Lord.”
Jiang Mao watched the little jar ghost with a dark, brooding gaze. A sudden sense of crisis welled up inside him.
These little ghosts were so smooth-tongued and knew exactly how to please people. Unlike him, clumsy with words, not good-looking, so dull and unlikable.
Jiang Mao frowned, his expression cold and heavy.
Chu Mingjia remained crouched, still talking to the little jar ghost. “Let me ask you, do you remember who sent you back home?”
She guided him. “It must have been raining heavily that day, and at night.”
The little jar ghost had been born at midnight. If they had set up the formation, it would have been done in the dead of night as well.
This child was highly spiritually gifted, he should remember.
The little jar ghost immediately said, “I know! That uncle had lots of children at his place. He kept praising me, saying he liked me the most, and that he would send me back to my parents.”
Chu Mingjia asked again, “Do you remember what he looked like?”
The little jar ghost looked troubled. “I don’t remember. I just know that the uncle had a really big black mole on his face.”
The little jar ghost pointed to his cheek.
Chu Mingjia handed the chocolate to Jiang Mao. “Burn some toys, snacks, and maybe a little bellyband for him. Take care of him for now. After the case is over, send him to the shrine.”
The little jar ghost was highly spiritually gifted. And the shrine, though now called the Ghost Shrine, still held faint traces of Qishan’s spiritual veins. He could recuperate there.
Jiang Mao took the chocolate, lowered his head, and met the little jar ghost’s eyes.
He was a bit troubled and could only ask, “What do you want?”
He was a rough man, how was he supposed to know what a baby liked?
He would just have to buy whatever the child asked for.
Chu Mingjia relayed the trafficker’s facial features to the police. With the time, place, and description, the police quickly identified a suspect through their system.
The suspect was actually a local of Qishan County. Based on speculation, he was likely an old acquaintance of Song Gui, they had known each other for a long time.
Song Gui remained tight-lipped, refusing to confess. So the police continued interrogating him while dispatching officers to arrest the suspect.
The suspect had long since moved to a big city, where he bought a house and a car, got married, and had children.
When the police showed up at his door, he was completely stunned. After all, he had been out of the game for several years, and no one had ever traced anything back to him!
The suspect’s surname was also Song, a fellow villager of Song Gui. He was transported back to Qishan County overnight.
Meanwhile, Song Gui was taken to an adjacent interrogation room. Watching Song Xi on the monitor, the police said, “Since you refuse to admit anything, let’s hear what Song Xi has to say.”
The moment Song Gui saw Song Xi, his expression changed instantly. “He, he, what is he doing here?”
Song Gui’s face twisted with rage. “That bastard! He actually dares to come back!”
If not for the handcuffs restraining him and the officers forcing him into a chair, he might have charged into the next room to fight Song Xi.
“This really has nothing to do with me!”
Song Xi, now pot-bellied and portly, looked nothing like the thin figure the little jar ghost remembered, except for the mole on his cheek, which remained unchanged.
He explained calmly, “I’m just a middleman. Someone approached me because they were interested in Liu Hong’s womb. They asked me to make inquiries, so I went and asked Song Gui. Song Gui agreed to sell of his own free will. What does a transaction between them have to do with me, a middleman?”
Song Xi considered himself innocent. Even if the police wanted to investigate, they should be looking into Song Gui, what did it have to do with him?
He hadn’t stolen Song Gui’s child to sell. The child had been handed over by Song Gui himself. The money had been transferred directly to Song Gui’s account. So how was he involved?
“It has nothing to do with me at all! I’m fully cooperative with your investigation. But as for the buyer’s identity, I have no idea. They were afraid of disputes when the child grew up, so they kept it secret.”
The officer asked, “You said the buyer was interested in Liu Hong’s womb?”
Song Xi nodded eagerly. “Yes. They could tell whether the child would be a boy or a girl and what kind of fate it would have while it was still in the womb. Those were their words, not mine.”
Song Xi continued, “Old folks call pregnant women ‘four-eyed,’ haven’t you heard that? They say young children can see things that ordinary people can’t, like those ‘four eyes.’ When they look at a pregnant woman, they see four eyes. The stronger the spiritual energy of the unborn child, the more it likes to play tricks on people. That person said the child in Liu Hong’s womb had very strong spiritual energy. Didn’t you notice how the neighborhood kids were so scared they cried in the middle of the night? That child was destined for great things!”
The officer frowned. “So the buyer wanted to purchase Liu Hong’s child, and they used you as the middleman to ask?”
Song Xi said, “Yes. I just asked Song Gui, and he agreed immediately, without any hesitation.”
“You’re lying!”
Song Gui broke free from the officers, still wearing handcuffs, and charged over from the next room. He kicked Song Xi hard.
For some reason, the officers on the scene seemed slow to react, they couldn’t restrain Song Gui, nor could they protect Song Xi. The two former fellow villagers had turned into bitter enemies.
Song Xi dodged and shouted, “Hey, hey, hey! Why are you hitting me? Why are you hitting me?! You sold your own child for profit, who’s to blame? No wonder you haven’t had a son all these years. Someone like you deserves to die without descendants, with no one to burn incense for you after you’re gone!”
Song Gui pointed at him. “You were the one who brought that master to our door back then! You said the child would bring death to its father and mother, and that it was a girl. You said we should abort it to avoid future chaos in the household.”
If it had been a son, Song Gui would never have sold him. But he already had two daughters, and the child was supposedly destined to kill its parents. At the time, with all the hauntings in Qishan, they were terrified. They worried that the child in Liu Hong’s womb was possessed by an evil spirit.
Song Gui continued, “That master told Liu Hong to abort it. But you said she was already eight months pregnant, why not wait another month, give birth, and then sell it for money? Tell me, did you say that or not?”
Song Xi looked a little guilty. “Well, that… that was just me running my mouth. You’re the one who made the decision. You’re the child’s father, not me. Just because I said ‘sell it,’ you sold it?”