Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Atonement
"What is it?" Yang Xiao pressed.
"Do you still remember those girls that the Feng Family bought? They weren’t just bought randomly... they were all firstborn daughters in their families. We found a few of the girls’ families, and according to their parents, some families had more than one daughter. They wanted to sell all of them, but the people from the Feng Family would only take the eldest. Even when offered the rest for free, they wouldn’t take them."
"Some families actually didn’t intend to sell their children, but they couldn’t withstand the Feng Family visiting repeatedly to persuade them, saying that keeping a girl is a burden, she can’t do heavy work and is just another mouth to feed. If they sold her to them, not only would they get some silver to help with expenses, but more importantly, they would give the girl a good future. They even said things like as a parent, one should learn to consider their child’s best interests."
"They promised to send the girls to the Nunnery Temple in a distant place, to have them devote themselves to quiet contemplation, to accumulate virtuous deeds for their families. When they grew older, the Feng Family would even arrange for someone to find them a good family to marry into. This was said to be a blessing that one couldn’t cultivate in several lifetimes."
Kuang Hongyi spoke all this in one breath and couldn’t help but sigh. The Feng Family weren’t much better than Master Bai; they were all of the same ilk.
Hearing this, Yang Xiao understood. It turned out that the so-called first daughters who were not married off referred to these poor girls. If they weren’t "married off," they wouldn’t end up in the hands of the Feng Family and ultimately wouldn’t have suffered so much.
Now the source of the three phrases had been found. According to Kuang Hongyi’s analysis, their mission was drawing to a close.
Then, Yang Xiao shared the intelligence he had acquired on this trip with Kuang Hongyi and took out both the old garment with Ms. Chun’s birth details and the Coffin-opening Axe.
Kuang Hongyi’s eyes lit up, and he praised repeatedly, "That’s great, fantastic! Now that we have Ms. Chun’s birth details, our chances of winning have greatly increased! And this axe is a treasure for warding off evil. Chu, you’re truly a blessing to us."
"It’s not my merit alone, all thanks to Miss Su for handling Manager Liu of the coffin shop so well, she even recognized him as her godfather. If we encounter more difficulties, we might need to ask Miss Su to step in," Yang Xiao politely complimented Su Tingting with a smile.
Hearing Yang Xiao say this, Kuang Hongyi looked at Su Tingting with much greater appreciation, aware that with Manager Liu’s reputation involved, he would have to think twice before causing her trouble, "Ha, Miss Su, you truly are not what you appear to be. I underestimated you."
Su Tingting dared not put on airs in front of Kuang Hongyi, and repeatedly declined the praise, crediting Kuang Hongyi and Yang Xiao with all the achievements and expressing a slew of thanks.
After exchanging pleasantries, they got back to the matter at hand. Yang Xiao mentioned what Manager Liu had said and analyzed, "My views are the same as Manager Liu’s, the likelihood of Ms. Chun’s daughter still being alive is very small."
Kuang Hongyi nodded in agreement, "That’s right. Considering Master Bai’s cruel nature, if he didn’t even spare Ms. Chun, it’s even less likely he left her daughter alive. He would make sure to remove the roots along with the weeds."
"So what we need to do now is find the place where the child was buried, and then bury this garment with Ms. Chun’s birth details near it. The bond between mother and child is strong, and this is probably the only way to dissolve Ms. Chun’s resentment," Yang Xiao then changed the subject, "However, Manager Liu reminded us, there must be something peculiar about that place, otherwise with Ms. Chun’s abilities, she shouldn’t have failed to find it."
This almost spelled it out, Kuang Hongyi slapped his thigh, "Yes... it’s the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda!"
"Right, that’s what I think as well. If we consider the timeline, Master Bai left Feng Mansion with his troupe head-on to Old Bull Bay Ferry Crossing straight away. No matter how you look at it, beneath the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda is the best burial place, ensuring the child’s spirit is trapped and won’t come back to trouble them."
Recalling the chilly presence he had sensed from a distance when passing by the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda, Yang Xiao still felt a shiver down his spine; there was definitely something strange about that place.
The events that followed were much clearer, and by dawn the next day, they planned to find a chance to leave the mansion and then hire a carriage straight to the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda to bury Ms. Chun and her child together.
If all went smoothly, then this mission would be considered complete.
"Ah, easier said than done, but we still have to get through tonight," Kuang Hongyi said, turning his head to look out the window, his face grim.
"Something’s happening tonight?" Su Tingting immediately felt uneasy.
"Hmm," Kuang Hongyi returned his gaze, "Today when I went there, Master Feng was talking to Shi Dali. Master Feng appeared very sad, and he told us he regretted the incident with Old Master Feng and wanted to seek redemption."
"The doctor from the mansion said that the next two days are about the time the Young Lady is due to give birth. Master Feng has already arranged for the Young Lady to be taken to the lake tonight, and, following the same ritual used for Xi Yao... no, for Ms. Chun, they’ll use the Hebo Xi Ship, leaving life and death to fate, hoping that such sincerity can resolve the grudge between the ghost and the Feng Family."
Yang Xiao: "???"
Was this Master Feng’s idea of seeking redemption? Yang Xiao had thought Master Feng had had a change of heart and was prepared to commit suicide as atonement.
What kind of redemption was this? It was nothing but a clear sign he feared for his own life and didn’t care about others, ready to use the last bloodline of the Feng Family as a substitute for his own death.
"Shameless, isn’t he? Even his own grandson doesn’t matter to him, does it?" Su Tingting realized she had overestimated the Feng Family’s moral bottom line, "Then... will the Young Lady agree to it?"
Yang Xiao was so amused by Master Feng’s devout attitude of atonement that he cursed, "What good does her agreement do, a woman heavily pregnant, does she have a say in the mansion?"
Yang Xiao didn’t care about matters of the Feng Family, what he cared about most was whether he could survive, "Kuang, do you know what we need to do tonight?"
"I’ve heard we’re supposed to escort the Young Lady to the lake. The specifics weren’t provided by Master Feng, the time... roughly around the third watch," Kuang Hongyi said.
Now that the situation was relatively clear, Yang Xiao and Kuang Hongyi decided after discussion that they would temporarily not inform Shi Dali about the discovery of Ms. Chun’s date of birth, and it was even more important to keep it from the Feng Family. Kuang Hongyi reminded Yang Xiao that when he was searching for clues with Shi Dali outside the mansion today, he distinctly felt somebody tracking them. It must have been people from the Feng Mansion, and there was more than one.
Yang Xiao sighed, his expression turning vigilant, "We know too much about the Feng Family’s affairs, any of these could lead to Master Feng’s beheading. They haven’t made a move because we’re still useful, still expected to stall Ms. Chun. Once this matter is completely over, we’ll likely be thrown into the bottom of the lake, dying unclearly, with no one the wiser."
"Then what should we do?" Su Tingting asked anxiously. If they didn’t die at the hands of a ghost but at the hands of the Feng Family, that would be a truly stifling way to go.
Yang Xiao didn’t have an immediate solution, "We’ll have to play it by ear, but one thing is certain now - the situation has changed. The Feng Family poses a greater threat to us than Ms. Chun. Ms. Chun is unlikely to kill us all, but Master Feng can."
