The room descended into chaos. Vivian grabbed the old hag, who was still spouting nonsense, and slapped the Han Family's younger aunt twice, once across each cheek.
The Han Family's younger uncle came forward to help his wife, only for Han Yunshu, known as a refined businessman, to knock him to the floor with a single punch. Han Jiahao tried to help his parents, but the two Han elders signaled the bodyguards beside them, who restrained him and forced him to kneel in the hall.
Han Yunshu looked urgently at Qi Gu, his voice full of hope. "Master, what should we do now? Our child... is already dead, but we still need to switch their fates back, don't we? Otherwise, even if that child reincarnates, he'll still be destined to die young."
Vivian nodded repeatedly. Together with the two Han elders, she looked at Qi Gu, waiting for him to offer a solution.
Qi Gu closed his eyes. Countless twisted, intricate black threads invisible to ordinary people appeared in the darkness of his vision. They were so tangled that someone could spend an entire day and night studying them and still fail to trace their origins, yet Qi Gu needed only a glance to instinctively tell where they came from and where they led.
But the thread belonging to the Han Family's youngest son, which had connected him to his family, had been severed years ago. It could no longer be found.
Qi Gu opened his eyes. "Bring me a porcelain bowl filled with clean water, a map, four silver needles, and a handful of sandalwood incense."
The Han family hurriedly urged the housekeeper beside them to fetch everything.
Before long, everything was ready.
Qi Gu placed the porcelain bowl on a huanghuali wood side table in the hall, then lit three sticks of the incense with spiritual light from his fingertip. White smoke rose in curling wisps. Silently reciting an obscure incantation, he held the incense and bowed three times toward the bowl, then planted the sticks in the water.
The housekeeper instinctively lunged forward, trying to save the expensive cashmere rug and huanghuali tabletop.
Yet the three incense sticks stood perfectly upright in the bowl of water, burning quietly without tilting to either side.
Everyone present was astonished.
Qi Gu said calmly, "The four of you, come forward and drip your blood into this porcelain bowl."
Having witnessed such supernatural powers, none of the four dared delay. They hurried forward one after another, pricked their fingertips with the silver needles, and dripped their blood into the bowl.
Afraid that too little blood would weaken the effect, they even asked Qi Gu whether they should add more.
Qi Gu was speechless. "...That won't be necessary."
Just after Vivian, the last of them, finished adding her blood, the scattered strands of blood slowly crept together in the bowl. Then, little by little, they actually climbed the incense sticks, staining them bright red. Even the white smoke rising from the sandalwood incense turned a faint pink.
The pink smoke, which had been drifting freely, suddenly seemed to gain intelligence of its own. It condensed into a solid mass that no longer readily dispersed.
Then it drifted toward the map on the table.
The pink smoke circled above the map. Qi Gu said, "All four of you, call the child's name together."
The Han family hurriedly called out, "Han Song."
Since Qi Gu did not tell them to stop, they kept calling, even when their mouths and throats grew dry.
Drawn by those repeated calls and the bonds of kinship, the pink smoke slowly drifted toward one section of the map and finally stopped there.
Qi Gu leaned over to look, his expression turning a little peculiar.
Han Song... was actually in the very city they were in!
After a moment's thought, Qi Gu bit his middle finger and flicked a drop of spiritually imbued blood toward the pink smoke. It immediately began writhing in agitation. Qi Gu hurriedly said, "Follow it closely, and you'll find Han Song!"
The Han family quickly instructed the driver and bodyguards to stand by. More than a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on the cloud of smoke.
This was their hope of finding Han Song!
Under everyone's expectant gazes, the smoke circled once above the spacious living room, then settled directly over Qi Gu's head.
Vivian asked cautiously, "Master, is something wrong with your smoke?"
Qi Gu froze for two seconds, then understood. He pulled the gourd from his waist, opened it, and gave it a gentle shake.
Green Ghost tumbled out, landed on the floor, and looked at Qi Gu in bewilderment.
Qi Gu gave him an encouraging smile. "Don't be shy. Go ahead and show yourself."
Green Ghost always listened to Qi Gu. At his words, he obediently revealed his form before everyone.
He soon recognized Vivian despite her disheveled hair and remembered that she had once given him a little horse. Awkwardly working his stiff mouth, he offered her a clumsy smile.
Vivian's gaze fell on his body, so thin that he seemed little more than a skeleton, and his eyes, which looked especially large in his gaunt face. Two streams of tears immediately spilled down her cheeks.
This was... her Han Song!
How had the baby their whole family had cherished for years ended up like this?
"Shorry, wash my smile too ugly?" Afraid his smile had frightened the kind auntie who had given him a present, Green Ghost hurriedly apologized.
But Vivian could not understand his ghostly speech. She only cried harder.
Watching her cry, Green Ghost felt the little heart in his chest ache terribly too. He looked to Qi Gu for help.
Using the blood from the wound he had just bitten open, Qi Gu dabbed Green Ghost's forehead.
"Auntie, don't cry. I didn't mean to..." Green Ghost stood timidly in place, his voice soft and small. He did not dare approach, afraid of frightening the kind person who had shown him kindness.
"Baby, it's me! It's Mommy!" Unable to contain her surging emotions any longer, Vivian swept Green Ghost's tiny body into her arms.
Scalding tears pattered onto Green Ghost's shoulders and cheeks. Dazed, he thought, So warm... Were hugs really this warm?
He had spent too long in that freezing pond. Even when he was alive, he had never felt body warmth like this.
Mommy... What was Auntie saying?
Han Yunshu and the two Han elders rushed forward as well. All four of them held Green Ghost tightly, their tears almost drowning him.
By the time everyone's emotions had settled somewhat, half an hour had passed. Green Ghost had also gained a rough understanding of his situation.
So he was not the child of that family who had drowned him because of his missing finger. He was the child of this kind auntie's family.
He was not a mistake born to be unloved. Bad people had merely switched his fate, forcing him down a path that did not belong to him.
Vivian repeatedly stroked Green Ghost's little four-fingered hand and the injured spot. "Does it hurt? Does it hurt, baby? You must have been so scared back then. It was all Mommy's fault. Mommy should never have lost you..."
Han Yunshu's eyes were bloodshot and filled with ruthlessness. Under his pressure, the Han Family's younger uncle and aunt finally revealed the truth of what had happened years ago.
They had first sought out a bone-reading fortune-teller to tell Han Jiahao's fortune. When they learned that their child was destined to die young, they naturally refused to accept it. Later, after discovering that Han Song and Han Jiahao had identical birth charts, they began to scheme and bribed the fortune-teller to exchange the two children's fates.
In his reckless youth, that bone-reader had divulged heaven's secrets, and his own child had been born with an intellectual disability. To leave enough money to support his child for the rest of their life, he had agreed.
The moment the exchange was complete, he had vomited blood and died.
As for the nanny who had carried Han Song away... that was the early death originally destined for Han Jiahao taking effect on Han Song instead.
As for why Han Song had lost a finger, leading the buyer to drown him because of his disability, they would have to catch the nanny before questioning her in detail.
Before you continue