Shi Yu and Leng Xinyu were unable to carry the Soul-Slaying Axe, so this glorious but heavy task fell on Hu Fang.
The general outline of the matter is already very clear.
In order to have a son, Liu Dafu married a wife and a concubine.
But the concubine did not seem to join the Liu family voluntarily.
The whole thing, that kind of filthy prejudice against women, was like a twisted black hole, expanding infinitely in Shi Yu's heart.
Perhaps because of her empathy as a woman, Shi Yu's movements became more intense when she was searching for books.
The whole house was filled with a sickening malice.
This strange feeling was just like when she was seventeen years old and her aunt told all her relatives with a compassionate look how good she was to Shi Yu, and how troublesome Shi Yu was and how he caused her all kinds of trouble.
The entire family was angry with Shi Yu because their father was framed, and they acquiesced to their father's inheritance being taken away by their aunt.
At that time, Shi Yu was criticized by thousands of people, but he resisted in the face of adversity.
On the day when her aunt was sent to prison, she was pushed to the opposite side by all her relatives and friends, but she also welcomed her new life in the sunshine.
Later, she became a world champion, won national honorary medals, and became a semi-public figure.
Those relatives who once accused her of being heartless and ungrateful began to come to her and show their affection.
Shi Yu is not a magnanimous saint. Although she no longer hates, she will never forgive.
The hurt she had suffered, although the wounds have healed, the scars remain.
"What's wrong with you?" Ying Zhuo looked at her and keenly caught the gloomy expression on her young face. "Why do you have such a sad expression?"
Shi Yu restrained his expression, and smiled slightly when his eyes met his: "Nothing, I just feel sorry for those girls."
"Nothing in this world is more tragic than being harmed by your own blood relatives," Ying Zhuo said.
He is right.
Hu Fang found a door behind the bookshelf. There was a talisman stuck on the door. The talisman was written in a flamboyant style and it was hard to tell what it was. But Shi Yu felt it looked very familiar, as if he had seen it in "The Complete Book of Evils".
She held "The Complete Book of Evils" in her hands and flipped through the pages. Sure enough, she saw a talisman paper that was exactly the same as the rune on the door on one of the pages.
It's the Soul-Devouring Talisman.
It is marked in the book that there are two Soul-Devouring Talismans, one of which is pasted on the door and another one needs to be found.
Everyone started searching on bookshelves, desks, and corners of the house.
There were several candlesticks in the room, which provided some light but it was still a little dim. Shi Yu turned on the flashlight on his watch and searched on the bookshelf. He flipped through the piles of rice paper and found a piece of red paper at the bottom.
The color of the paper looked festive, and there were some words written on it in vertical ink.
——[Chen Nian, the second daughter of the Chen family, became the concubine of Liu Dafu, the master of the Liu family, on the seventh day of the sixth lunar month in accordance with the orders of her parents and the words of the matchmaker. From then on, the 100 taels of silver owed by the Chen family were offset and another 100 taels were paid as a betrothal gift. Signed: Liu Dafu. 】
Chen Nian.
Shi Yu suddenly remembered the crescent-shaped jade pendant he found in the woodshed, with the word "Nian" written on it.
"It turns out that the 'Nian' on the jade pendant refers to Second Mistress Chen Nian's Nian." Shi Yu muttered to himself.
The Chen family owed money to Master Liu, and they sold their daughter as a concubine to redeem the money, so Chen Nian did not marry Master Liu voluntarily.
Considering what Butler Liu said before, it seems that Second Madam Chen Nian still has the intention of escaping from the mansion.
"Found it." Ying Zhuo stood in front of the bookshelf and found a neatly folded rune between two books.
Hu Fang and Leng Xinyu cheered immediately, watching Ying Zhuo holding the rune and walking towards the wooden door. After sticking the rune on the door, the cinnabar marks on the two runes suddenly emitted a faint red light at the same time. Then the door creaked open and two talismans fell at the same time.
"Take the rune. It will be useful for sealing ghosts later." Ying Zhuo said, bending down to pick up two Soul-Devouring Talismans, folded them and put them in his pocket.
The new room was opened, and the whole room was decorated like a living room.
The lady’s dressing table, floor-standing wardrobe, couch, lady’s chair, and opening screen.
"This is the bedroom of the Liu couple." Shi Yu said.
The whole room exuded a dark and gloomy atmosphere. Although the lights on the four people's watches were on, this strongly depressing space made people feel uncomfortable.
The furniture in the room is still in its original state, but each piece of furniture is covered with thick dust, giving the entire tone a gray feel.
On the left side of the entrance is the lady's dressing table, which is equipped with a dressing table, comb, bronze mirror, as well as many jade bracelets, jewelry and earrings that look very expensive.
The four people searched in different places one by one. Shi Yu stood in front of the dressing table and saw a palm-sized wooden box placed behind the mirror.
The wooden box is carved with complex and elegant peony patterns, and a special pattern combination lock is attached to the opening and closing position.
The lock is very delicate, with four grids on the surface. Each grid has a rotatable circular animal silhouette pattern grid. After turning it slightly, it seems that all four animals must be moved correctly to unlock the combination lock.
Shi Yu used the light from his watch to glance at the patterns on the four grids. Ox, snake, tiger, dog, sheep... all the twelve zodiac animals were on it.
"What is this?" Leng Xinyu suddenly exclaimed as she stood in front of the wardrobe, holding four pieces of baby clothes in her hands.
Judging from the styles, these four baby clothes are all for baby boys.
Each piece of clothing is embroidered with different animal patterns, and the fine stitches reflect a mother's expectations for her unborn child.
Shi Yu looked at the animals on the four pieces of clothing, arranged in order from the bottom to the top, in the order of tiger, dragon, horse, and monkey.
"The first wife was pregnant with four children. These four pieces of clothing should have been sewn by the first wife based on the attributes of the children's birth." Shi Yu sighed as he stroked the stitches on the clothes. "She hoped she was pregnant with a boy, so every piece of clothing she made was for a boy, but all the babies she gave birth to were girls."
Complex emotions gradually lingered in Shi Yu's heart. She walked to the dressing table holding the small wooden box, aligning the patterns in the order of tiger, dragon, horse and monkey.
When the last monkey returned to its position, the small lock clicked open.
The four people gathered together to study the contents of the wooden box.
There are two letters in the wooden box.
Letter from home: [My son, you have given birth to four daughters in a row. If your husband takes a concubine and she gives birth to a boy or a girl in the future, it may shake your position as the wife, so get rid of her. 】
This letter is also easy to understand. It should be a letter sent to my great-grandmother from her parents’ home.
Hu Fang smacked his lips: "How much money does your family have to play house fighting here, as if you don't have the throne."
The second letter: [After taking pregnancy-maintaining medicine, take black-haired female cat placenta to enhance the efficacy of the medicine. Then drowning one's own baby girl in the well can serve as a guide for attracting the 'brother' from the earth. But this method will cause serious sins and endanger yourself in the future, so use it with caution...Xuan Ling. 】
The placenta of a mother cat, her own daughter drowning in a well...
Leng Xinyu's throat felt itchy and she squatted beside him and started to dry heave.
In order to have a son, this family was willing to sacrifice their own daughter's life.
Shi Yu closed the book and said, "So this is what Xuan Ling said before, the root of the Liu family's sin, killing their own daughter led to the formation of the 'four-headed baby'. Then they covered the well with a stone carved with money patterns to suppress the soul of their own daughter."
How cruel.
Leng Xinyu had retched enough and asked with a pale face: "So the death of the second grandmother is related to the first grandmother?"
"Not necessarily." Hu Fang said. "Didn't Butler Liu just say that if the Second Madam wanted to escape from the mansion, she should be killed. Maybe the Second Madam was discovered when she was escaping and was killed by the master, or maybe she hanged herself?"
The answer to this question can only be found behind the room where the Baimi cigarettes are placed.
There were still some places in Liu Dafu and Grandma's room that had not been searched thoroughly. Shi Yu sat in front of the couch, lifted the mattress and saw a torn page on the pillow, which was torn from "A Hundred Evils".
——【Incense offering rice: Insert three incense sticks into the white rice to calm the wrath of wronged spirits. When the incense sticks are extinguished, the wronged souls will go crazy and start a massacre, leaving no one alive. 】
After reading it, Hu Fang’s face turned pale: "Incense offering? Isn’t it the thing placed at the door of the west wing?"
Shi Yu nodded: "It’s not difficult to understand. This sentence means that the tobacco is burned out and it’s time for us to die."
"..." Hu Fang. Are you a little too nonchalant?
Shi Yu still had that indifferent look on her face. She lazily sat up from the bed and at a glance she saw something in the corner of the bed.
She reached out her hand and groped in the crack of the bed, and pulled out a crescent-shaped jade pendant that was exactly the same as the one in the woodshed.
The color, shape, and fracture are exactly the same. The only difference is that there is another word engraved on the jade pendant found under the master's bed.
——[Kang]
"What is this?" Ying Zhuo looked at Shi Yu's palm with great interest, his slightly indifferent eyes.
Shi Yu took out a jade pendant with the word "Nian" on it from his jacket pocket. He held one in each hand and connected the broken ends of the two jade pendants together: "In ancient times, men and women would use some tokens of love, such as this jade pendant, which is broken into half. The man's half and the woman's half, and it means they are in love for life."
"But hasn't Chen Nian become Liu Dafu's concubine?" Ying Zhuo asked again.
Shi Yu said: "So, Chen Nian has secretly decided to spend her life together."
When the broken ends of the two jade pendants were connected, the sound of conversation was heard again in the room.
One of the voices was familiar to all four of them, it was the master's voice, and the other two were a man and a woman.
Master - "You bitch! I've heard that you were having an affair with a cowherd in the suburbs, and you've cuckolded me. I'll beat you to death!"
Woman - "Give me back Kang Lang's jade pendant!"
Man - "Master Liu, please, what kind of woman can't you find? I'll work like you, please let us go!"
Woman - "Kang Lang, don't beg him! I'd rather die than obey him!"
Master - "Humph, what a pair of star-crossed mandarin ducks, I'm going to be the one with the stick! Come on! Take Dong Weikang to the woodshed, beat him up, and then sell him! Lock up the second wife in the east wing! Don't let her go out!"
Suddenly, the whole room was filled with chaotic sounds.
The cries of women, the pleas of men, the cursing of the master, and the dragging sounds of servants.
The Second Wife already had someone in her heart, which was why she was unwilling to marry Liu Dafu. But she had no choice but to become Liu Dafu's concubine because her family owed him money. Dong Weikang was dragged to the woodshed and beaten half to death. He left behind the jade pendant with the word "Nian" which was a token of his and Chen Nian's love, and also left his blood on the firewood pile.
Carrying the two jade pendants "Nian" and "Kang", Hu Fang carried the axe, and the four of them walked out of the bedroom and study, crossed the main hall and came to the east wing.
The main hall was the same as when they had just left. Butler Liu had disappeared long ago, and the "four-headed baby" was nowhere to be seen either.
When they arrived at the east wing again, there was only half the length of an index finger left on the white rice and tobacco placed at the door.
The game is almost over. Shi Yu
pointed at the iron chain tied to the east wing and said, "Chop it."
Hu Fang swung the axe, raised it high, and swung it hard at the iron chain, "Horse, take my axe!"
"Crash--" the iron chain fell off, and the fireworks at the door sparked, and then returned to normal.
Shi Yu didn't say much, but put his hand on the door panel and pushed it hard.
The door was pushed creakingly, and everyone was trying hard to slow down their heartbeats, but they were afraid because they remembered what Ying Zhuo had said before that there was a "big thing" in the room.
The coldness hit me in the face. The windows in the living room were tightly closed, but the coldness was still there, sticking to me like grease.
The evil spirit here is overwhelming.
Hu Fang comforted himself tremblingly: "It's okay, it's okay. We have the Soul-Slaying Axe and the Demon-Binding Rope."
Shi Yu suddenly tilted his head and looked at him: "What is the formula of the Demon-Binding Rope? I forgot."
"..." Hu Fang.
The east wing was the second grandmother's room. Shi Yu took a quick look inside the room with his watch and saw a word written in shocking red on the wall.
[Hate]
There was no furniture in the room, only a very ordinary round table and a desk and a mattress for sleeping.
A black cloth strip was hung on the beam, tied into the shape of a hanging.
There was a half-person-high stool collapsed under the rope, and at first glance it looked like suicide by hanging.
There was a sour smell in the room, very much like the smell of some rotten food, which made people's heads swell.
The red words all over the room gave them a very uncomfortable feeling, but they still had to search for clues despite this discomfort.
The second grandma's bed board was very thin, and the bedding on it was also thin. In terms of treatment, it was not comparable to that of the first grandma.
In feudal times, the status of a concubine was already inferior to that of a wife, but the pitifully sparse furniture in the entire room made one feel that the Second Wife's situation might be even worse than that of the maid Xiaolian.
There were two bowls and plates on the round table. The food inside had already gone moldy and one could vaguely tell it was radishes and vegetables.
The quality of the meals was also very poor.
Perhaps it was because of what happened between the Second Madam and her lover that irritated Liu Dafu, so he deliberately treated her harshly.
"Here is a handkerchief." Ying Zhuo squatted beside the bed and took out a dirty white cloth from under the bed.
When I opened it, I saw shocking words written in a reddish-brown liquid in a crooked manner.
——【Kang Lang, I will never let you down! 】
"So, did Second Grandma really commit suicide?" Leng Xinyu rolled her eyes curiously, looking at the word "hate" written on the walls of the room.
Shi Yu looked at the layout of the entire room. The dim light formed a strange halo, outlining the bodies of all the players slightly blurry. She felt that Ying Zhuo had been standing beside her, as if waiting for something, with his lips tightly pursed and not speaking.
What is he waiting for?
"What is this?" Leng Xinyu saw a small lush green bell hanging on the bed curtain. The texture was very special, and there were some rune-like patterns carved on the bell.
She took it off and shook it gently with her hand.
"Dingdang——"
Ying Zhuo's face changed drastically and he shouted, "Don't touch that!"
- "Ah——"
A woman's scream suddenly exploded in everyone's ears. The sound was sharp and fierce, as if it wanted to tear people's eardrums.
Leng Xinyu and Hu Fang were both startled and fell to the ground.
Hu Fang pointed at the heresy happening on the rope: "What is it!"
"This is a spirit-calling bell!" Ying Zhuo shouted.
"Soul-summoning bell?" Hu Fang was shaking like a sugar sieve as he looked at Leng Xinyu, whose face had turned completely pale.
Leng Xinyu was about to cry: "Why is there a spirit-calling bell in Second Madam's room?"
The woman's scream was like a surging tide, hitting everyone again and again. Shi Yu covered his ears, hoping to reduce the decibel attack on his eardrums.
There was a head hanging on the rope, with no body below the head and neck, only long black hair mopping on the ground.
The black rope and black hair almost merged into one. The soft hair moved without wind, as if dancing in the air. The light sources in the entire room were dimmed at once. The dim vision added a huge sense of fear to this incredible scene.
The head turned slightly, revealing a pale face.
This face belongs to a woman. Apart from the pale skin color, one can still vaguely see her appearance when she was alive, and she was very pretty.
It had its eyes closed, as if it was asleep, yet it also seemed to be awake; its bloodless lips were trembling slightly as if it was humming something.
Shi Yu stood and looked straight at the head. The flashlight shining on its face made the pale face even more eerie.
"Are you Chen Nian?" she asked.
Hu Fang almost kowtowed to Shi Yu, how dare you talk to him?
The head opened its eyes, but there were no eyeballs in the eye sockets, only the eerie eye sockets staring at Shi Yu.
Shi Yu saw two marks on its neck, one was upward and the other was... flat.
——"Wuuuu, Kanglang, I'm sorry..."
It suddenly cried, its voice sobbing, miserable and sad.
"Dong Weikang?" Shi Yu was surprised.
Her words seemed to trigger some plot point, and the master's voice came to her ears again.
Master - "You, you bitch! You are not a virgin?"
Woman - "Wuwuwu, Kanglang, I'm sorry for you."
Master - "Bitch! Bitch! Someone come! Beat Dong Weikang in the woodshed to death!"
Woman - "No, no!!!!"
Dong Weikang died on the day Chen Nian was forced by Liu Dafu.
Chen Nian was disheartened and wrote "hate" all over her room.
It wants revenge, revenge for its lover.
Shi Yu suddenly realized that the temperature around him was dropping rapidly to a level that could be sensed by the skin, and everyone's capillaries were filled with a chill.
——"Chichichichichi..."
Its mouth suddenly opened wide, making a strange sound.
Ying Zhuo's face changed, and he pulled Shi Yu's hand and rushed to the door: "Run!"
The incense stick was almost out!
Shi Yu followed behind Ying Zhuo. From the corner of her eye, she saw the long hair that was covering the ground fluttering in the air. Every strand of hair seemed to grow towards them consciously.
"If you get caught in the hair, you will die!" Ying Zhuo said.
Hu Fang and Leng Xinyu screamed and ran towards the door, their hair stopped at the door and no longer spread out.
The incense stick at the door was only the length of a fingernail left and was about to go out.
The four people fled to the main hall, but they did not feel much joy after surviving the disaster. The door of the main hall, which had been closed, opened wide again for some reason, as if there were other people in this Liu Mansion besides the four of them.
Leng Xinyu grabbed the spirit-calling bell and burst into tears: "I don't know, I didn't mean it..."
Shi Yushun's heartbeat slowed down and took the spirit-calling bell from Leng Xinyu's hand: "Why does Second Grandma have this thing?"
Some things seemed to have been answered inadvertently.
There is not just one ghost in this Liu residence. Shi Yu basically already knows the origins of the four-headed babies and the long-haired ghost, but the fact is that before the second grandmother died, there were already some abnormal things in the entire house.
"I have a suggestion." Ying Zhuo suddenly spoke.
Everyone looked at him expectantly.
Ying Zhuo's eyes fell on Shi Yu who was standing at the door looking outside: "The four babies are afraid of fire. We can first find a fire source, and then use the soul-summoning bell to lure the four babies out, and then tie it up with the magic rope."
Shi Yu blinked slightly. She had thought about this suggestion, but...
"We also need someone to lure it." Ying Zhuo looked at Shi Yu with his eyes of the same color.
Shi Yu spread his hands nonchalantly: "Sure."
"But my ability is sometimes there and sometimes not... Just now in the lotus pond, I..."
"It's okay. Let's go to the front yard." Shi Yu stood up, looked at the wide open door, and made a proposal that both Leng Xinyu and Hu Fang rejected.
"No!" Hu Fang was the first to say. "Have you gone to feed the four babies?"
"Then you stay here and feed the long-haired ghost." Shi Yu patted his butt and walked towards the suspension bridge without looking back.
“QAQ”Hu Fang.
Shi Yu no longer cared about Li Sirui's instructions, as there were still some details to know the answer to this story.
Shi Yu stood on the suspension bridge, looking at the mirror-like calm surface of the lotus pond. The night sky above his head was still purple-blue, without any starry sky or moonlight, just like the ugly and fickle human heart.
After crossing the suspension bridge and going through the dog hole, before going to the well, Shi Yu first went to the woodshed to get a match.
Fortunately, Shi Yu still had some unused matches in his pocket. After lighting the fire stick, the strong light shone on everyone's faces, making everyone's expressions slightly complicated.
The four people once again came to the isolated well.
"I have always wondered why this world came into being and why so many evil things appeared." Shi Yu stared at the stone above the well, his eyes filled with a slightly white luster that reflected the stone.
The bucket game is selfish.
Death Island is about survival.
The family portrait represents hatred.
This time, it was prejudice.
Prejudice against boys.
The appearance of the four-headed baby is the prejudice of its biological parents.
Liu Dafu killed his own child, and eventually his own child caused the destruction of his family.
——"Sister, don't go near the well."
Li Sirui's advice floated into Shi Yu's ears like a cloud.
Shi Yu stood beside the well, his eyes filled with madness. She held the bell high in the air, and under the gaze of three people, she gently shook the bell.
"Ding Dang——"
The crisp sound summoned out the wronged souls trapped in the well.
Before they were full-term, they were thrown into the well by their own father. However, because of their father's fear, they were covered with stones engraved with runes, and they would never be able to reincarnate.
Even a black cat cannot bear to eat meat for the sake of its own children.
But she can kill a child with her own hands.
Shi Yu began to feel the chill on his back again, and the screams of Hu Fang and Leng Xinyu were heard again.
She knows.
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