Chapter 26: What kind of storm could a five-year-old possibly stir up?

Jiang Hengzhi’s hands paused as he reached for a toy for Jiang Xinxin. He lowered his gaze and scoffed, "Do you truly believe Bai Wenyin is dead?"

"She has pulled such outrageous stunts before just to grab our attention and concern. Besides, would she ever be willing to die? The Jiang family deposits such a large sum into her bank account every year; even if she never returned, it would be more than enough for her to live in luxury elsewhere."

Jiang Hengzhi sneered, "I find it more likely that she simply viewed Nan Yuanman as a burden and abandoned her to go enjoy a better life after giving birth."

He admitted that when he first heard Nan Yuanman say Bai Wenyin had died, he felt a momentary pang of distress, but disbelief quickly followed. He knew how robust Bai Wenyin’s health was. After being abducted for sixteen years, she had returned completely unscathed and even had the strength to fight with Yaoyao upon her arrival. When he punished her by locking her in a dark room without food for a night, she still had enough strength to land a punch on his nose the moment she came out. How could someone so full of life possibly be dead?

Jiang Lixuan listened, subconsciously glancing toward the upper floor, terrified that Nan Yuanman might hear these words and be hurt. He spoke with a hint of reproach, "Don’t say such things in front of Yuanman next time. Regardless of anything else, Yuanman is still just a child. The grievances between us and Bai Wenyin have nothing to do with her."

"How can you say it has nothing to do with her? Isn't there a saying that children pay for their parents' debts? The same applies to a mother's debts being paid by her daughter," Jiang Hengzhi sneered. "Since Bai Wenyin dared to let her daughter return alone, she should have been prepared for her daughter to face our hostility." Perhaps, if she heard that Nan Yuanman was suffering in the Jiang household, she would return.

Jiang Lixuan looked at him with an indescribable expression, "Second brother, don't be so absurd as to target a young child. But don't say I didn't warn you—the old coffin maker who raised Nan Yuanman taught her quite a lot. You had better not cross her, or else... I won’t be able to save you." As he spoke, Jiang Lixuan began walking toward the stairs.

Jiang Hengzhi scoffed in disdain. She was just a five-year-old child; what kind of trouble could she possibly cause?

Jiang Lixuan paused, his eyes slightly lowered as he stood at the foot of the stairs. He looked back at Jiang Hengzhi, "...Second brother, do you... regret driving Bai Wenyin away?"

Jiang Hengzhi did not answer. The only sound in the hall was the clicking of building blocks as Jiang Xinxin played. Jiang Lixuan waited for half a minute, pursing his lips before speaking in a low, raspy voice, "...I do."

Back then, although he had been biased toward Jiang Yueyao, he knew that Bai Wenyin was his only sister by blood. In truth, he hadn't wanted to drive her away. She was just too stubborn. He had only wanted to teach her a lesson, thinking that if she suffered a little out there, she would realize how well the Jiang family treated her and return within a few years. He never imagined that her departure would last five years. When he went to find her five years later, he only found her child—not her. He had felt resentment toward her initially, but hearing Nan Yuanman today, his heart felt truly uneasy.

"I will send people out to look for traces of Bai Wenyin. Second brother, I hope you don't end up feeling the same regret as I do." With that, Jiang Lixuan headed upstairs.

Jiang Hengzhi remained silent for a long while, inwardly scoffing. Who would regret driving away a disgrace to the Jiang family? He thought this to himself, but his mind couldn't help but drift back to when Bai Wenyin first returned to the house. Back then, she was frail and sensitive, and he could feel her attempts to curry favor with them—her biological brothers and parents. They had felt guilty at the time; after all, if they hadn't been so distracted at the amusement park and had kept a closer watch on her, she wouldn't have been abducted. They had once wanted to make it up to her and live together in harmony.

But the Bai Wenyin who returned had been tainted by the vicious nature of the lower classes. She appeared fragile and sensitive on the surface, but was secretly malicious. She had led people at school to bully Jiang Yueyao, and even—when they were in a car accident on the way to the mall—she had abandoned him to save herself. If not for Yaoyao and her classmates passing by, he and the driver would have died in that crash.

Thinking of this, Jiang Hengzhi’s wavering resolve slowly hardened once more. Such a wicked woman—even if she were truly dead, he would feel no regret.

***

On the second floor, inside Nan Yuanman’s room.

After locking the door, Nan Yuanman took several paper talismans from her small satchel, buried them in the four corners of the bedroom, and opened the small, vibrating coffin.

As soon as it opened, a mass of black mist surged out, lunging directly at her face. The room’s yin energy spiked, a wild wind howled, and a layer of gray frost formed on the exposed tiles and the bottles and jars on the table.

Nan Yuanman’s neatly combed hair was tossed by the eerie wind, her delicate, fair face set in a stern expression. She raised her chubby little hand and grabbed the black mist rushing toward her. At the same time, another mass of mist crawled rapidly across the floor, its hands transforming into sharp shears, snapping toward her calves.

"Thump!"

A small wooden grass doll dropped from the air, slamming heavily onto the black mist.

Zhuangzhuang let out a shrill, miserable howl, "Ah—!"

"Brother!" The small black shadow in Nan Yuanman’s grip shrieked, its body twisting frantically. "Let me go! You devil! Let me go! Let go of my brother!"

"Let you go? Impossible. You are burdened with too much bad karma; if I release you, you will just run out to harm others again." Nan Yuanman scoffed. If she hadn't reacted quickly just now, she would have been killed by these two little ghosts. They were vicious.

Even the grandfather in the coffin hadn't been able to fully suppress them.

"We have never actively harmed anyone! It was those people who forced us to do it! We didn't want to!" The little girl said, her voice trembling. "We are innocent! We haven't done anything wrong!" She looked at Nan Yuanman pitifully, pleading, "Big sister, believe us. We were also murdered; we are innocent."

The black mist on the little girl’s body slowly faded, revealing her true appearance. She looked only two or three years old, very frail. She had likely been burned to death; her body was covered in extensive burn scars, half of her face destroyed. Through the remaining pale, clear half of her face, one could vaguely see that she must have been very cute before the fire.

Seeing her pitiful state, Nan Yuanman softened slightly. She knew they had been murdered; her grandfather had mentioned this when he was alive. In the regions of Southeast Asia, such as Siam, there were black wizards who specialized in dark arts—masters of black magic, corpse-binding, and raising "ghost children." The bodies required for raising these ghosts had to be those of children who had suffered immense abuse and cruelty; only then would the immense resentment at the moment of death allow a soul to coalesce and be controlled by the wizard. To create effective amulets and "Guman Thong" figures, some wizards would go into remote mountain villages, buying the bodies of those who died violently at extremely low prices, or bribing people to abuse infants to death to acquire the necessary remains.

It was precisely because of this that Nan Yuanman had shown mercy when dealing with Zhuangzhuang and his sister. Otherwise, given the deep, purple-red karma on Zhuangzhuang, she would have blasted him into the eighteenth level of hell with a single Heavenly Thunder Talisman long ago.

However, she also knew that ghosts were full of lies; only five percent of what the little girl said could be trusted. Yet, Nan Yuanman knew it would be difficult to send these twins to the afterlife after the Meng family’s affairs were settled, as they still harbored lingering obsessions. Without resolving those obsessions, they could not enter the cycle of reincarnation.

Nan Yuanman pursed her lips and, after a moment of hesitation, released her grip on the little girl’s throat.

The moment the little girl broke free, her pitiful expression vanished, replaced by a ferocious snarl. She shrieked, "Master, save me!"

At the same time, deep in the mountains of the Xia Kingdom, a middle-aged monk, sitting cross-legged under a waterfall and covered in strange, tattooed patterns, suddenly opened his eyes.