Chapter Forty-Eight: The Weeping Bride (18)

After Su Man obtained the revival card, she and Sun Li moved to another place to talk.

The two of them sat in a small pavilion halfway up the back mountain. Sun Li munched on the steaming buns Su Man had brought, endlessly praising her as a good person.

“So, about Zhao Ming and that big fortune you were all after—can you tell me more about it?”

With the buns in hand, Sun Li had already tossed aside thoughts of Zhao Ming. There was nothing he wouldn’t say. So, as he ate, he recounted the events to Su Man.

Last night, Wang Cheng and Zhao Ming took him out for a trip. They visited a villager’s house in search of treasure. They found it, but just as they were about to leave, Sun Li accidentally kicked a basin. The noise woke the villager, who confronted them. Zhao Ming claimed it was Sun Li’s fault and told him to kill the villager. Otherwise, Zhao Ming threatened, he’d blame everything on Sun Li the next day and ensure the whole village refused to feed him.

Frightened, Sun Li killed the villager, and the group sneaked away into the night.

“That’s what happened. We got rich that night.” Sun Li might have been a fool, but his account was clear. Still, it wasn’t what Su Man really wanted to hear.

She asked, not expecting much, “What was the treasure you found?”

“A golden hairpin.” Sun Li gestured at his head, mimicking how to wear it. “For hair—Zhao Ming said so.”

He’d seen the gleaming piece and liked it a lot, but Zhao Ming insisted it was for women and refused to give it to him.

A golden hairpin? Could that be a cursed object? Was the Evil Celestial Master a woman?

A thousand guesses flashed through Su Man’s mind.

“Do you want it? That golden hairpin was really pretty.”

“Is it with you?” Su Man looked at him more closely.

Sun Li shook his head. “It vanished along with Zhao Ming.”

“Immortality?” she recalled what he’d told her earlier.

Sun Li nodded.

“Zhao Ming said he’d met an immortal, who taught him the art of everlasting life.”

He gestured wildly. “It’s like this—cut off your own head, then draw some kind of symbol…”

The process must have been too complex for him, for he couldn’t quite explain it, only repeating, “Anyway, the golden hairpin disappeared with Zhao Ming.”

Perhaps Zhao Ming had made it sound so wondrous that Sun Li believed it completely and didn’t think Zhao Ming had died.

But the hairpin’s disappearance was a fact.

The most crucial and mysterious part of all this was that so-called immortal. Judging by Sun Li’s story, Zhao Ming wasn’t a fool, yet he believed in the absurdity of this immortal’s technique. That meant the so-called immortal must have some real abilities.

“Did you meet the immortal too? Do you remember what he looked like?”

Sun Li nodded, then shook his head, confused. “The immortal was a cat.”

“A cat?” This answer caught Su Man off guard.

“Really, whenever Zhao Ming mentioned him, he’d go meow, meow, meow.” Sun Li wasn’t joking; he was quite certain. “That immortal must be a cat.”

Meow, meow, meow…

Sun Li wasn’t normal, so she couldn’t use normal logic to guess his meaning.

A flash of inspiration struck Su Man. “Miao Sheng?”

“Ah? Yes, yes, that’s it—Miao…Miao, that’s right.” Sun Li clapped his hands and grinned, delighted. It matched exactly what he’d heard from Zhao Ming.

Su Man was startled. Thinking back on Miao Sheng, she realized it actually made a strange sort of sense.

But if Miao Sheng was involved, what role was he playing in all this? What was his goal? The golden hairpin? The cursed object?

That much remained unclear. But luckily, last night’s events had unwittingly brought the truth to light.

“Hmm? Someone’s coming.” Sun Li popped the last bun in his mouth and called out to Su Man.

Su Man looked up; she didn’t see anyone nearby at first. After a couple of seconds, a plump figure appeared in the distance, running toward them in a hurry.

“Su Man, Su Man!”

It was Lin Qi.

“Su Man, help me!”

He was scrambling up the slope, shrieking in terror.

Su Man now saw that someone was following him—a villager, judging by the clothes.

But the villager looked fierce, wielding an axe as he gave chase, as if he meant to hack Lin Qi in half.

Su Man tightened her grip on her knife. As Lin Qi drew near, she shouted, “Down!”

At the same moment, she flung her knife.

Lin Qi dropped to his knees, trembling. The blade whizzed just over his head and struck the villager squarely in the forehead. Strangely, there was no blood; instead, the villager turned to motes of light and vanished.

“It was a horror entity,” Su Man muttered, narrowing her eyes. It seemed her judgment had been correct—there was something off about that villager.

Her gaze shifted to Lin Qi, lingering on him for a couple of seconds before she looked away without a word.

“What happened? What was that all about?” Lin Qi stammered as he got up from the ground. “Su Man, good thing you were here, or I’d have been done for.”

He was full of gratitude, opened his mouth to say something else, but abruptly forgot what it was. His eyes went blank with confusion.

He scratched his head. “What did I come to tell you?”

Su Man glanced at him again, not answering.

Lin Qi muttered to himself, “When I left the guide’s house, I came to find you…Why was I looking for you again? And how did I run into that villager?”

He felt as if he’d forgotten something terribly important.

“Su Man, Su Man!!” came Huang Mei’s anxious shout from afar.

She ran up so fast that in the blink of an eye she was right beside them. Without preamble, she yanked Su Man aside.

“Su Man, stay away from him. He’s not Lin Qi. Lin Qi is already dead!!”

Lin Qi’s eyes flew wide. “!!”

He hurriedly protested, “I’m right here, Huang Mei! Look at me—I am Lin Qi!”

“You’re not!” Huang Mei’s eyes were red as she tried to continue, but Su Man grasped her hand, shaking her head in warning. “Let’s talk about this back home.”

“But…” Huang Mei thought Su Man didn’t believe her, but when she looked into Su Man’s calm, all-knowing eyes, she nodded.

On the way down the mountain, no one spoke. Lin Qi followed uneasily, wanting to explain but not knowing what to say. The closer they drew to the houses below, the greater his unease.

Sun Li trailed after them. He didn’t know what was happening—only that he’d eat if he stuck with Su Man.

As they entered the village, they saw from afar a crowd gathered outside Chang Gui’s house, voices clamoring in agitation.

Lin Qi suddenly stopped in his tracks.