Chapter 15

The original suspicion seemed further confirmed when he saw the bowl on the ground in front of Li Sanjiang. It contained not only water, but also two floating leaves of patchouli.

If Li Sanjiang himself wanted a drink, there was a table beside him where he could have set it. There was no need to place it on the muddy ground.

It looked more like a respectful gesture:

Please have some tea and rest. Just lift a hand for everything else; there is no need for you to concern yourself with it.

Li Zhuiyuan walked closer curiously. Could Great Grandfather be pretending to sleep?

But if Great Grandfather truly did not want to handle this matter, why had he come to preside over the ritual?

And if it was merely for the fee, why had he dragged Liu Jinxia and Grandpa Shan into it as well?

Grandpa Shan might have been willing to end up in such a miserable state for money, since he barely had enough to eat, but Liu Jinxia's family was fairly well-off. Why would she agree?

The contradiction in the logic of his actions made Li Zhuiyuan question his fixed impression of his great grandfather for the first time.

"Li Sanjiang! Li Sanjiang!"

Grandpa Shan roared from behind him. His mouth was covered in blood, and he held a clump of old teeth in his hand. His expression had twisted into something utterly savage.

"Damn it!"

Li Sanjiang woke with a start, his body jerking as he nearly fell off his chair. Then he looked around blearily, his gaze landing on Grandpa Shan's face.

"Hey, how'd you end up looking like a ghost?"

"Li Sanjiang, you beast! You goddamn beast!"

Grandpa Shan's chest heaved violently with fury. He had been made to piss himself like a dog, then had a whole row of teeth knocked out. Yet when he turned around, he found Li Sanjiang still sleeping soundly, with sleep crust in his eyes. He nearly choked to death from rage.

Li Sanjiang looked over at Liu Jinxia again. Seeing that her face was swollen like two crumpled meat buns had been stuck to it, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he almost burst out laughing.

"Blind Liu, what happened to you?"

Liu Jinxia closed her eyes and said nothing. Even talking made her cheeks hurt now.

She was angry too, but they were from the same village. In truth, she had long noticed something about Li Sanjiang's "ability." Though it left her feeling unfairly treated, she also knew it made perfect sense.

"Hey, where are those three from the Niu Family? Why are they gone?"

Li Sanjiang finally grew anxious. Where had the client family gone?

Grandpa Shan had no choice but to force himself to calm down. He wanted to grit his teeth, but he had no teeth left to grit, so he could only bite his lip and say,

"A little after eight, Blind Liu told me it had gotten cold. Only then did I realize there was a draft where I was sitting. Old Woman Niu had come back."

"What? She's been dead for half a year, and she can still come back to life?"

"She isn't a ghost. She's a Death Collapse!"

"A Death Collapse? You think I'm an idiot? Someone who's been dead for half a year and buried in the ground can turn into a Death Collapse?"

"She is a Death Collapse. Water seeped through the soles of her shoes, and she left wet tracks when she walked. I fought her for a while, and she had that water-corpse smell Death Collapses have. My eyes aren't blind, and I still have a nose. I've fished up corpses my whole life. I can't mistake a Death Collapse!"

"And then?"

"And then..."

"Why'd you stop? You couldn't beat her?"

"If I were ten years younger..."

Grandpa Shan did not continue. He had not beaten Old Woman Niu and had even fallen for her tricks. It was truly humiliating.

At last, he had begun to accept that he was old.

If Blind Liu had not warned him tonight, he might have fallen for it immediately. There would not even have been any need for a fight.

"I'm asking where the Niu Family people are."

Li Sanjiang asked again. This was no longer just about money. If they had presided over a ritual and gotten all three members of the client family killed, their reputation throughout the surrounding villages would be ruined. Who would dare hire them to preside over a ritual again?

Run Sheng said, "Niu Lian is digging a hole by her mother's grave."

"Then why didn't you go save her?"

Run Sheng glanced at Li Zhuiyuan standing there and said, "There wasn't time. I brought Little Yuan here first to wake you up."

"Let's go to the graveyard!" Li Sanjiang slapped the chair, then looked at Grandpa Shan and Liu Jinxia. "You two... stay here and rest first."

His gaze carried a clear sense of, Why are you two so useless?

Grandpa Shan's chest began heaving violently again. The emotions he had just managed to suppress were stirred up once more.

Liu Jinxia remained calm. She even cast Grandpa Shan a slightly contemptuous glance. You've been his partner for so many years, suffered so many losses being sent ahead of him, and still haven't learned your lesson. You deserve it.

Li Sanjiang led Run Sheng and Li Zhuiyuan toward the graves. They had barely reached the edge of the fields when they heard a voice.

"Mom, I'm hungry! Mom, I'm hungry! Mom, is dinner ready yet?"

A figure in rough mourning clothes ran out ahead of them. It was Niu Rui. He spread his arms as though seeking his mother's embrace. Though he was already over fifty, he looked exceptionally innocent at that moment.

"Catch him!"

Li Sanjiang directed Run Sheng. He went left while Run Sheng went right, blocking Niu Rui's path. Then they lunged at him together and finally pinned him to the ground.

"Let me go! Let me go! I want my mom! I want my mom!"

Niu Rui continued struggling, but he could not break free no matter what.

"Mom, I'm Fu Hou! Mom, I'm Fu Hou!"

They had just restrained Niu Rui when Niu Fu appeared in the distance. He spun in circles as he wept bitterly, his voice mournful and heartfelt—far more invested than he had been while crying at the funeral during the day.

Li Sanjiang pinned Niu Rui down and said to Run Sheng, "Go catch Niu Fu!"

"Grandfather, can you manage?" Run Sheng looked at Niu Rui, who was still struggling fiercely beneath them.

"It's fine. I've still got some strength." Though he was injured, Li Sanjiang remained confident that he could hold down a little old man. He had carried corpses his whole life and knew the human joints inside and out. He knew exactly how to lock someone down.

"Got it!"

Run Sheng left Niu Rui and charged toward Niu Fu. With a flying tackle, he pinned Niu Fu beneath him.

"Little Yuanhou, look for some rope. Straw will do too!"

"Okay, Great Grandfather."

"Boohoo... Mom, my dear mom... boohoo... my precious mom... ah, damn it..."

A woman appeared on the ridge of the field opposite them. Her hair was disheveled, and her body was covered in blood and mud. Her hands in particular looked as though the flesh was about to peel away entirely, hanging from the bones in strips like shredded cloth.

For some reason, her body was wrapped in something resembling waterweed, which trailed a long way behind her.

She staggered forward slowly, heading toward the ditch ahead.

It was Niu Lian!

She had not been buried alive after all. She had escaped again. Yet judging by her state, she seemed to have already been buried, failed to die, and dug herself back out.

Seeing this, Li Sanjiang shouted at Li Zhuiyuan, "Little Yuanhou, hurry and find some rope or straw!"

The scene was what it was, but what reached Li Zhuiyuan's ears was, "Little Yuanhou, catch her! Don't let her fall into the ditch!"

Li Zhuiyuan blinked. He looked at his great grandfather and Run Sheng, each holding down a member of the Niu Family in separate places, then looked at Niu Lian in the distance.

He did not obey his "great grandfather" and go after Niu Lian. Instead, he ran toward the shed. There was rope there, as well as Grandpa Shan and Liu Jinxia. Though injured, they could still help tie someone up.

The reason he did not go after Niu Lian was simple. It was not because he was young and weak. In fact, Niu Lian looked even frailer now. A child could probably grab the strip hanging from her body and hold her back.

But the three of them had originally been moving together, and now they were suddenly being split apart one by one. Li Zhuiyuan instinctively felt uneasy. It was as if everything had been planned: the three members of the Niu Family came out one after another, waiting to be caught.

Yet after running a short distance, Li Zhuiyuan stopped again. He suddenly realized that even if he had not gone after Niu Lian, had he not still run off on his own?

A gust of cold wind swept past. Li Zhuiyuan turned around. Behind him lay nothing but dark fields. Where had Great Grandfather and Run Sheng gone?

At that moment, the sound of a wooden fish rang by his ears, mixed with chaotic chanting, like the White Cloth Band of fake monks performing at the funeral earlier that day.

Figures dressed in Daoist robes appeared around him once again. Holding all manner of ritual implements, they circled around him.

It felt as though his ears and eyes had been stuffed with clutter, leaving him restless and agitated while gradually cutting him off from the outside world.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his right hand and bit down hard on his forearm. He had clearly not held back, and teeth marks and blood appeared on his arm, yet he felt barely any pain.

With no other choice, Li Zhuiyuan spread open his palm. He had not expected the trick he had just taught Run Sheng to be used on himself so soon.

But before his palm could strike his face, a man's voice came from behind him.

"Ah, you still fell for her trick."

Li Zhuiyuan turned around and saw Uncle Qin standing there. His appearance immediately gave him an immense sense of security.

Uncle Qin reached out and placed a hand on Li Zhuiyuan's shoulder. "She is a Death Collapse formed from a cat and a human. A Corpse Demon. She excels at bewitching people's minds."

"Uncle, hurry and save my great grandfather and the others."

"Mhm, don't worry. It's already fine."

Uncle Qin raised his right hand. In it, he was gripping a black cat.

The black cat had half its tail broken off, one eye blinded, and one leg lame. Though large parts of its body had rotted away, it was still struggling and moving.

Was this the animal corpse that had become a Death Collapse together with Old Woman Niu?

"Uncle, you've already taken it down?"

"Not completely." Uncle Qin smiled. "This thing was already badly injured, just like your great grandfather. Now the cat and human have separated. I only caught the cat. Once we find the human and destroy them together, this Corpse Demon will be dealt with."

"Then my great grandfather and the others..."

"A few haunted members of the Niu Family can't threaten your great grandfather. Let's find Old Woman Niu first. Once we deal with her, this matter will be over. Come on, she's in the old house on the west side of the village."

Uncle Qin held the struggling cat in his right hand while taking Li Zhuiyuan's hand with his left, leading him westward.

"Uncle, didn't you say you wouldn't even help a fallen soy sauce bottle?"

"It's past midnight now. Your great grandfather's ritual has ended, so if I act now, it has nothing to do with him. I just happened to pass by, saw a Corpse Demon harming people, and dealt with it while I was at it."

"Oh, I see. Uncle, you're really amazing."

"Heh, this is nothing. You haven't seen the truly powerful ones. This Corpse Demon is just a minor player. Before liberation, those Great Death Collapses in the jianghu were the truly formidable things. Those were genuinely terrifying."

"A Corpse Demon isn't even powerful? Then Uncle, what other powerful Great Death Collapses are there?"

"There are plenty. In ancient times, people of high status who had once held great power were drowned in rivers and became General Death Collapses. They often possessed the ability to command the river's water demons and vengeful souls, even controlling Vengeful Spirits.

There are also regions where water burial is customary. What was originally only a small basin of water gathers together, but changes in time cause the river to shift course, breaking free from its original bounds and flowing into other areas. Carrying corpses in coffins, accumulating resentment, it forms something like a corpse king.

Whenever such things emerge, natural disasters follow.

The hardest to deal with are some practitioners of dark arts. They take crooked paths, use themselves as vessels, and preserve themselves in hopes of achieving ascension through another form of release from the body. Such Death Collapses retain the Daoist arts and supernatural abilities they possessed in life. They may not be the strongest or most tyrannical, but they are the hardest to deal with, because they understand what methods the living can use against them."

Li Zhuiyuan looked up and asked curiously, "Uncle, those Death Collapses are so powerful, yet we do not see them anymore. Who destroyed them?"

Uncle Qin answered, "They were all destroyed by the righteous path."

Li Zhuiyuan silently withdrew his hand from Uncle Qin's palm and stopped walking.

Uncle Qin noticed. He stopped and turned back toward the boy.

But Li Zhuiyuan did not look at Uncle Qin. His gaze was fixed only on the crippled, rotting black cat in Uncle Qin's hand.

The black cat's eyes glowed dark green, occasionally flashing with bloody light, brimming with resentment.

"Little Yuan, why did you stop?"

Uncle Qin asked.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that when Uncle Qin spoke, the black cat's damaged lips moved as well.

"Little Yuan, what's wrong?"

Uncle Qin bent down to look at Li Zhuiyuan. At the same time, he moved his right arm behind the boy as though intending to put an arm around him and comfort him.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately sensed a furry paw touching his neck. He swiftly sidestepped and pulled away from Uncle Qin.

"Little Yuan, what exactly is wrong with you?"

Uncle Qin's tone became stern, and the bloody red in the black cat's eyes suppressed the green.

"Little Yuan, be good and come with me. We'll settle this together, and only then can your great grandfather and the others truly be out of danger!"

This time, Uncle Qin's lips moved only slightly, while the black cat's mouth kept opening and closing.

The sight reminded Li Zhuiyuan of a strange performance he had once seen at a school anniversary celebration in the capital. The performer stood onstage holding a puppet. Whenever he spoke, the puppet's mouth kept opening and closing, making it look as though the puppet itself was speaking.

But what was happening before him seemed to be the reverse of that stage performance.

Gradually, Uncle Qin fell silent. The cat fell silent as well. They seemed to have realized that the child had seen through them.

An eerie smile began to spread across Uncle Qin's face. The cat's mouth split open too, blood constantly dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Then everything in Li Zhuiyuan's vision turned blood-red. Whether he looked at them before him or in any other direction, everything was covered in a layer of blood and grime.

Li Zhuiyuan stood where he was, fists clenched. He was terrified, but he did not run around in panic, nor did he scream wildly.

In Records of Strange Tales from the Jianghu, the most frequently repeated warning concerning Corpse Demons and other Death Collapses capable of beguiling people was that corpse fishers had to remain calm and could not let them lead them by the nose.

The more panicked you became, the more openings they had to exploit.

And at a time like this, he could not close his eyes. Closing his eyes was an act of cowardice and surrender, equivalent to handing over all initiative.

Cold sweat continually seeped from Li Zhuiyuan's forehead. He swallowed from time to time, his breathing gradually quickening. His entire body felt as though he were standing atop a furnace, being roasted alive.

Yet the image from the dream he had after performing the Fortune-Transfer Ritual with Great Grandfather that night suddenly surfaced in his mind. In that dream, he had stood on the bed at home, surrounded by a sea of corpses.

Everything feared comparison. Once you were certain that all of this was fake, once you could use the genuine terror of a dream to strengthen yourself, the scene before you no longer seemed so frightening.

The black cat's smile gradually faded. Uncle Qin staggered back two steps, his body rotting away at incredible speed. Within a few blinks, he had become nothing more than a puddle of filthy water.

In an instant, all the illusions around him vanished. The evening breeze brought fresh air, and Li Zhuiyuan's body relaxed as he began gasping for breath.

The black cat regained its freedom. It hopped and dragged its crippled body over to Li Zhuiyuan, then looked up at him.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and stared back at it.

A person and a cat fell into silent mutual scrutiny.

Li Zhuiyuan was the first to break the silence.

"What... exactly do you want?"

Li Sanjiang's actions had already left Li Zhuiyuan confused, but this Corpse Demon's series of actions struck him as even more incomprehensible.

Was it taking revenge?

The black cat seemed to sigh. It looked exhausted. It opened its mouth, apparently wanting to speak, but no words came out—probably because Uncle Qin was gone.

It swiped a paw at Li Zhuiyuan, then dragged its crippled body westward along the path.

Li Zhuiyuan remained where he was and did not follow.

After walking some distance, the black cat stopped, turned around, and looked at Li Zhuiyuan. Mockery flowed through its feline eyes.

But Li Zhuiyuan still did not move. He had a strong thirst for knowledge, but not the sort of reckless curiosity that arose in uncertain situations, nor any excess impulse toward kindness.

"Meow!"

The black cat let out a shrill cry like a child wailing. It was angry, but this time its anger was directed at Li Zhuiyuan. It carried no killing intent, only helpless, stifled frustration.

"You want me to go with you?"

The black cat nodded.

"But I have no reason to go with you."

The black cat raised its paw and pushed it toward the front.

The first time, Li Zhuiyuan didn't understand. Only after it pushed him a few more times did he get it.

It meant that at the birthday banquet on the first floor, at the final critical moment, Old Woman Niu had pushed him away when she awakened.

At the time, Old Woman Niu had her back to the Zombie and had said:

"Little Kid, Grandma will send you off first."

Although Old Woman Niu hadn't died in the end and was still alive, Li Zhuiyuan didn't believe that scene, that action, or the kindness released at the end by that strange-tempered old woman had been an act.

Because he could tell whether it was an act or not, because he himself often...

Damn it!

Li Zhuiyuan crouched down, lowered his head, and clutched his head in both hands.

He truly hated these thoughts that sprang up out of nowhere, because they kept denying his current identity while gradually severing all the relationships around him.

And if he let this continue, he would begin rejecting every behavior around him that wasn't rationally correct. Family, friendship, and all the warmth in society would become stupid wastes of time. He would turn cold, like the massive processors in the school computer room, flashing with light.

In the end... he would become his mother.

He would hate himself like this, just as his mother hated herself.

He suddenly understood a little why his mother had taken him to see psychologists again and again when he was young. His mother had realized that her son had inherited the same illness as her.

The Black Cat seemed tempted at that moment. Green light swirled in its eyes. Its previous bewitchment had been endured by this Boy, but looking at the Boy's reaction now, perhaps an even better opportunity had come?

But in the end, it didn't do so. Not out of kindness, but because it felt fear. It seemed that using bewitchment on the Boy again would trigger unimaginable and terrifying consequences.

Li Zhuiyuan kept murmuring his relationships over and over, constantly telling himself, even hypnotizing himself, who exactly he was and what relatives he had.

Only this time, Qin Li's name was occasionally mixed in.

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his face hard, as if trying to stuff his sense of identity and immersion back into place. He stood up, took a deep breath, and looked at the Black Cat again. The Black Cat saw the warmth and kindness of a youth in his eyes.

The Black Cat's eyes widened. At this moment, it was actually a little unable to tell who the Corpse Demon really was.

"You need my help? Then lead the way. Take me to the old woman."

The Black Cat nodded and continued ahead. This time, the Boy followed.

As they passed a small ditch, the Black Cat suddenly vanished without any warning.

Li Zhuiyuan knew this ditch well. When he had come here during the day, he had washed his hands here. To make Uncle Qin stay, he had even planned to have a picnic on the stones ahead.

Three concrete slabs had been laid across the ditch for people to cross. Li Zhuiyuan stepped onto them and looked around, but still couldn't find the Black Cat.

But since it wanted to take him somewhere, it shouldn't have disappeared halfway there.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and looked at the gaps between the concrete slabs beneath his feet. The gaps were wide, half a palm's width.

Below them, water flowed continuously.

At that moment, a bulge appeared in the water. An old woman's face slowly surfaced, staring at Li Zhuiyuan through the gap between the concrete slabs.

She was hiding there.

Even though he had been mentally prepared, this entrance still sent a chill down Li Zhuiyuan's back. Yet he forced down his discomfort and squeezed out a smile at the face below.

"Splash..."

The water continued to flow, and the old woman's face drifted along with it. Once it passed beyond the concrete slabs, the sound of water grew louder.

She rose inside the ditch. The ditch was deep, and she was short. She shouldn't have been walking underwater; it was more like she was floating while maintaining an upright posture.

Only the part above her shoulders remained above the water.

She no longer looked like she had at the birthday banquet. Back then, though she had been skin and bones, she had at least still looked human.

But now, only strips of cloth remained of her clothes, and much of her body had rotted away. There were even many wormholes and marks from rat bites.

It seemed that if the current in the ditch grew any stronger, it could completely smash her apart.

This was her true body. Because she had been buried without the protection of a coffin, she had become like this.

She floated in the water while Li Zhuiyuan followed along the path beside the ditch.

Now that she had a body, she could speak.

If one only listened to the description, this scene should have sounded gentle and warm: on a summer evening, a grandmother chatting with her little grandson.

But paired with the real image, it was enough to make anyone's scalp crawl.

"When she was very young, she was trafficked into the Niu Family as a child bride. She didn't even have a surname of her own."

"Her husband died early. She raised the children by herself. During the hardest years, not one of her children starved to death or died young."

"After her children grew up and started families, she helped them raise their children, then continued raising their grandchildren."

"At that time, she could still do housework, watch the children, cook, and do some farm work. She was content. She felt she was still useful, useful to her children.

She was that kind of person. She had no surname as a child, and after growing old, after living an entire lifetime, she had never possessed even a moment for herself. Like a cart wheel, she just kept turning and turning.

On smooth roads, she turned more smoothly and quickly. On rough roads, she bumped and stumbled... but still got through.

She never complained. She believed that this was simply how people were supposed to live."

"Later, she grew old. She could no longer watch children or work the fields. She couldn't even tend the stove anymore. Her children and grandchildren all felt she was useless, a burden.

Unfortunately, she could survive. Even though she had never asked her children for support, even though she drank cold water and ate spoiled food, she continued living like a lizard in a crack in the wall.

She liked basking in the sun. She would sit in the courtyard and stay there for most of the day.

That day, she saw me, an old, ugly, crippled cat.

Though she herself was struggling to survive, she still took me in. Whatever she ate, I ate.

She would hold me while basking in the sun and talk to me. She told me about her youth, about the man who had fathered her children, whose appearance she had already forgotten.

She told stories about her three children when they were little. She said her eldest son had promised that he would let her enjoy a good life someday, that she would never have to do anything again and could just sit on the bed while meals were brought to her;

that her second son would buy fabric for her every season to make new clothes, so she would no longer have to wear patched old clothes;

that her youngest daughter would buy her a piece of gold jewelry, like the other women in the village had, so she could wear it every day.

Whenever she spoke of these things, she was very happy. But even as a cat, I knew that the children, grandchildren, and granddaughters she had raised hadn't come to see her in a very long time.

Later, she fell ill.

But this broken wooden wheel of hers wouldn't fall apart no matter how many cracks appeared in it.

Someone from the village came and saw her state. They summoned her three children and demanded that they support their mother.

Her three children had long disliked that she had lived so long and still refused to die, sucking away the fortune of her descendants. How could they possibly support her?

Yes, they blamed all responsibility for their children's poor prospects on her, as if every misfortune and humiliation in their lives was because of her.

But the village kept a close eye on them, and they were unwilling to put on an act.

So they tacitly agreed to lock her in the old house.

Look,

it's the one ahead."

Following the ditch, Li Zhuiyuan had already walked a long way. Ahead stood a three-room bungalow. The rooms on both sides had collapsed, and only the middle one was barely still standing.

The door had long since rotted away, and the door guardians pasted upon it had turned black.

Old Woman Niu emerged from the ditch, drenched from head to toe. Standing before the door, she did not hurry to push it open. Instead, she looked around nostalgically.

"They came in every day to bring food, putting on a show for the villagers, but they always entered with empty bowls. No matter how bitterly she begged, she could not beg for even a grain of rice or a sip of water.

Her two sons each had their own excuses. They said their children objected, that if not for her, they would have had such bright futures.

Facing her, starving and barely breathing, the two sons acted as though they had suffered immense injustice, while she was the wicked sinner burdened with grave sins.

But she was still too resilient. She drank dew, ate moss, ate insects that crawled into the house, ate everything she could find inside, whether it was edible or not. So long as she could swallow it, she stuffed it into her mouth.

She truly could survive, keeping that last breath going like a tenacious weed.

Even I pitied her. More pitiful still was that, even then, she remembered to give me half the insects she had painstakingly caught. She was still thinking of feeding me, no matter how hard things were for herself.

Just like when she had painstakingly raised those three children.

Hehehe... hehehehe..."

Old Woman Niu laughed. Fine fur gradually grew from the gaps on her face that had been gnawed out by snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

At that moment, the face of the Cat-faced Old Woman did not seem so terrifying anymore.

Because it concealed the truly ugly thing.

Li Zhuiyuan suddenly asked, "Did you eat her flesh?"

The Cat-faced Old Woman nodded. "I did."

"Creak..."

The door opened by itself, producing a piercing Friction Sound.

As the door opened, the sounds that had seemingly been sealed inside also emerged.

The three Niu Family siblings knelt beside the bed, white cords wrapped around their heads, black mourning cloth tied around their waists, dressed in sackcloth as they wailed in mourning.

Everything looked just like it had during the Zhai Shi ritual in the daytime.

Li Zhuiyuan was somewhat puzzled. Since the three Niu Family siblings were here, what exactly were Great Grandfather and Run Sheng holding onto?

But considering the Corpse Demon's abilities, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly understood. Perhaps what he believed to be wakefulness... had actually never been complete wakefulness. Like waking up in a dream without returning to reality, only to enter another dream.

The clearest sign was... ever since Uncle Qin had disappeared, he had never seen him again.

That earlier Uncle Qin had been created by the Corpse Demon after reading his heart.

It had even read the Records of Strange Tales from the Jianghu in his heart. Yes, it had even recited it to him.

Old Woman Niu pointed at Niu Fu and said, "He was often sick as a child. It was she who carried him through wind and rain to beg doctors to treat him. When she had no money for medicine, she kowtowed to the doctors and washed clothes and chopped firewood for their families."

Then Old Woman Niu pointed at Niu Rui. "When he was young, he got into a gang fight and beat someone to death. It was she who begged that man's father and mother for forgiveness, supported them and cared for them until their deaths, and only then did they issue a letter of forgiveness. In the end, she truly took care of his parents until they passed away."

Finally, Old Woman Niu pointed at Niu Lian. "When they divided the family property, she cried and said she was her child too, that she couldn't be unfair. She said that even if her brothers refused to support her in the future, she would take her into her own home. So she divided the little the family had into three equal portions."

As she spoke, Old Woman Niu turned to Li Zhuiyuan and smiled. "Do you know what this Niu Lian did? Because she was too good at surviving, Niu Lian found it too troublesome to keep acting day after day.

That night, when it was Niu Lian's turn to 'bring food,' Niu Lian dragged her off the bed and threw her into the ditch ahead. Then the next day, she said her mother had fallen into the ditch while walking and died.

Actually, she had nearly starved to death by then. She couldn't even speak anymore.

But in the end, she was still thrown into the water... and drowned.

She drifted and drifted in the water then. Just like you earlier, I followed her along the shore, walking and walking.

In the end, I jumped onto her body and began eating her flesh. She barely had any flesh left. I couldn't chew it. It was all bones.

But I wanted to bite her. I wanted to eat her. I was angry. Why was she so stupid? How could there be someone so stupid in this world?"

"And then, you died together?"

"Yes. I never expected it to become like this. We died, but we... lived again, becoming neither human nor ghost nor demon, like this.

I think perhaps she was so stupid that even Heaven could no longer stand watching."

Li Zhuiyuan finally asked the question he wanted to ask. "What exactly do you want to do?"

The Cat-faced Old Woman's expression turned fierce. "I want revenge. I want revenge for her. How do those three ungrateful wretches still have the nerve to keep living well!"

"But you clearly already have the power to take revenge. Why haven't you acted?"

Hearing this question, the Cat-faced Old Woman looked at Li Zhuiyuan in confusion. "What you said to me at the birthday banquet, I thought you had deliberately said it to flatter me and save your life. Was that truly what you thought?"

"But shouldn't one think that way?"

"People like you will not allow external evil to harm the living, no matter how grievously sinful that living person may be.

That is your way. Violating it will bring backlash.

Didn't your Great Grandfather teach you?"

Great Grandfather taught me?

Li Zhuiyuan thought about it. But that night, Great Grandfather had clearly taken him to lure Little Yellow Oriole to Big Beard's home.

And afterward, Great Grandfather had stood there with his left hand on his waist and a cigarette pinched in his right, cheerfully saying that they would be able to attend a banquet in a few days.

Could it be that Great Grandfather's way was different from everyone else's?

"No, we're talking about you now. You caused all this. Why haven't you taken revenge?"

The Cat-faced Old Woman's face began twisting, and repeated crack-crack sounds came from inside her body. Dead earthworms and dead rats kept sliding out of her, piling into a heap on the ground.

Then, in a voice filled with grievance and indignation, she nearly roared:

"I want revenge. I dream of revenge. But do you know what makes me angriest?

She and I are one. We are one.

Although I am the dominant one and she is actually gone, her instincts remain inside me.

I can feel it. If I kill even one of those three, her instincts will awaken and restrain me. I will never have another chance to strike at the other two!"

"So you want to kill all three?"

"Of course! I don't want to spare any of them. I don't want to choose one out of three. I want every last one of them to receive the punishment and retribution they deserve!"

Li Zhuiyuan said, "Then don't kill them. Don't kill any of them."

"What?"

Upon hearing that, Old Woman Niu seized Li Zhuiyuan's shoulders with both hands, nearly biting toward his neck as she snarled:

"Little Kid, do you know what you're saying?"

"Because there's no need to kill anyone. She won't be able to restrain you either."

"What do you mean?"

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the Cat-faced Old Woman right before him and smiled.

"Cripple one, sicken one, drive one mad.

Then watch how the good children they personally raised by example care for and support them.

That would be the best...

retribution for them."