No Escape from the Net

At Wang Laizi's words, Yin Yunze distinctly felt Zhao Cheng's body stiffen.

Clearly, although Zhao Cheng had kidnapped a child to sell her, he did not seem to actually want Zhao Wan dead.

Yin Yunze then felt Zhao Cheng cock his ear and listen for a moment before letting out a sigh of relief.

Spirit Medium Wang, however, curled her lip. "All the better if she's dead. Saves us the trouble of doing it ourselves!"

"What!" Zhao Cheng was startled. "You weren't planning to hand her over when you got the money?!"

"If we keep this girl alive, we'll have to find a way to watch her and make sure she doesn't get a chance to escape! Rather than go to all that trouble, we might as well just kill her!"

Spirit Medium Wang looked at Zhao Cheng and spoke as though whispering from hell. "Besides, your sister-in-law has her heart set on this daughter of hers. If she gets together with you and has your child, will the child you have with her ever be as favored as this girl? Boy Zhao, you wouldn't want your child to..."

"..."

It had to be said that with those words, Spirit Medium Wang had Zhao Cheng in the palm of her hand, reducing his resistance to murder to its lowest point.

With his own future child in the picture, Zhao Cheng might not do the deed himself, but he most likely would not object either.

One could not expect much in the way of morals from someone who would kidnap his cousin's child.

If Yin Yunze had still wanted to gather information before, Spirit Medium Wang's words had put an end to that. He did not want to listen any longer.

After all, Zhao Wan could hear everything Spirit Medium Wang was saying too.

The earlier adult talk was one thing, since Zhao Wan probably had not understood it.

But making Zhao Wan listen to these bastards plotting to kill her was going too far!

"Zhao Cheng, do you think what she told you is true?"

Yin Yunze looked up at Spirit Medium Wang and sneered. "If I'm not mistaken, this old crone's plan was to use the letter you brought to lure Sun Qin away. Then, while Sun Qin was out of the house and you had followed her out, she and her scoundrel son would go inside together and steal the gold.

"You actually believed that nonsense about Sun Qin arranging for people to beat them every time they saw them in exchange for grain? This old crone and her idiot son aren't worth that price. She's been scheming against you from the start.

"If you really believe this old crone, you won't get a single coin in the end. Give you half? She never intended to give you a penny from the start! That's why, stingy as she is, she was so quick to offer you a third and then half."

"Only a liar would ask for the moon like that. Otherwise, what's so special about you that you'd be worth that much money? Anyone could do your job for a few taels of silver."

"What risk is there in kidnapping a little girl and delivering a letter? As long as they weren't told the truth, anyone could do it. When you find that what you're getting far exceeds what you've done, unless the other party is your own father or mother, you ought to consider whether they're lying to you."

"If I'm not mistaken, you can take a look at the letter that old crone prepared for you. It most likely doesn't mention the gold at all, and just tells Sun Qin to go somewhere in the village..."

Of course, Yin Yunze sounded as though he had it all worked out, as though he knew everything like the back of his hand.

In truth, though, Yin Yunze was not at all sure of what he was saying.

Yin Yunze had said it more to drive a wedge between the three of them. After all, it was only a few extra words.

"...I can't read!"

What Yin Yunze had not expected was to get that answer from Zhao Cheng.

"..."

Those words left Yin Yunze speechless and reminded him that education was a privilege in ancient society.

Seeing Sun Qin teach Zhao Wan to read and write earlier had caused Yin Yunze to overlook that reality.

As he stood there at a loss for words, Yin Yunze noticed a slight change in the way Spirit Medium Wang looked at him.

First came shock, as though he had seen through her thoughts. Then it turned to horror and fear, as if she had seen something terrifying.

That profound fear was definitely not the way one would look at a ten-year-old girl. It was more as though she had seen a monstrous beast from a great flood.

"Hewwo there..." Seeing Spirit Medium Wang like that, Yin Yunze was just about to greet her.

But the next moment, Spirit Medium Wang grabbed Wang Laizi, turned and ran.

"Wait, what about the letter?" Her reaction left Zhao Cheng rooted to the spot. "What's wrong with that old crone!"

"She was probably scared."

Hearing the little girl on his shoulder answer, Zhao Cheng asked instinctively, "What scared her?"

"Me, of course."

Then Zhao Cheng heard the little girl say with a grin, "She found out I'm actually the fox immortal from the Fox Immortal Temple! I just don't like leaving Clear Creek Village, that's all! I don't know what that old crone was thinking, but she actually thought I couldn't leave! Isn't that funny?"

"...Funny. Hilarious!" Zhao Cheng's face stiffened, and he forced out a smile uglier than a crying face.

He carefully set the girl on his shoulder down on the ground, then dropped to his knees with a thud. "Lady Fox Immortal, spare my life!"

"How boring."

Yin Yunze loosened up, looked down at the trembling Zhao Cheng and snapped his fingers. "Aren't you going to try resisting? Maybe I'm only pretending to be possessed by the fox immortal. Maybe I'm still just Zhao Wan, too weak to truss a chicken."

"N-no, I wouldn't dare..." Zhao Cheng, however, sensibly and very firmly shook his head.

As Zhao Wan's cousin-uncle, how could Zhao Cheng not know what she was like?

There was absolutely no way she would look as hard to provoke as she did now.

Besides, who was Spirit Medium Wang? She had served that fox immortal before!

Even Spirit Medium Wang had been so frightened that she fled without a word. How could Zhao Cheng dare not believe it!

"You wouldn't dare, huh!" Yin Yunze planted a foot on Zhao Cheng's head and said viciously, "Then do you know how sick all that bouncing around just made me feel? And you're a grown man! Don't you know what hygiene is? How long has it been since you bathed? You stink! You nearly made me throw up!"

"Lady Fox Immortal..." Hearing this, Zhao Cheng said weakly, "It's not that I don't want to wash. It's just that since you stopped the water supply, even the village chief's household hasn't had water for bathing, let alone me."

"..." Yin Yunze had not expected the blame to land on his head, but he quickly recovered and snapped, "You dare talk back! Don't tell me there's no water! Didn't I just ask the Dragon Lord to send you rain? It rained all night and filled the lake for you. How could you still not have water to bathe..."

Zhao Cheng explained weakly, "I-I was busy damming the water. I didn't have time..."

Clear Creek Village naturally treasured the rain it had bought with gold, and wished it could keep every last drop from flowing outside the village. The village's able-bodied men had gone without sleep all day yesterday, busy blocking the waterways.

Yin Yunze could not help sneering. "So you finally got some time to yourself, and you didn't have time to bathe, but you did have time to come make trouble for Sun Qin and Zhao Wan?"

Faced with that deadly question, Zhao Cheng did not know what to say. All he could do was repeat, "Lady Fox Immortal, spare my life!"

Yin Yunze ignored his pleas, however. Looking at the two figures running over from a distance, he chuckled. "At her age, she's still running back and forth. Isn't she afraid she'll run herself to death?"

Hearing that, Zhao Cheng instinctively looked up. Spirit Medium Wang and Wang Laizi, who had already fled, were running back in this direction.

But judging by the way they kept looking over their shoulders, they seemed to have encountered something even more terrifying.

Only when Spirit Medium Wang and Wang Laizi got closer did Zhao Cheng suddenly realize that they had not come back of their own free will. Their eyes had clearly been hoodwinked by a ghost!

Stealing a glance at the fox immortal wearing Zhao Wan's skin, Zhao Cheng no longer dared make the slightest move.

After all, Spirit Medium Wang and Wang Laizi had shown through their own experience that there was no use running from this fox immortal.