Chapter 428: Chapter 422: Send the Ghost to the End
Yuan Er’s wife looked at Qin Liuxi for a long time, eventually focusing on the Jade Gourd on her waist, and asked: "The clay figurine you mentioned, is it really inside that gourd?"
Qin Liuxi picked it up, pulled out the cork, and tapped the bottle: "Come out."
The Ghost Baby turned into a wisp of blue smoke and floated out, seeing Yuan Er’s wife, its resentful energy surged immediately and rolled towards her.
Yuan Er’s wife couldn’t see it, but she felt a sudden unease in her heart, feeling something rushing towards her. It seemed as if there were ghostly wails and wolf howls by her ears, the shrill screams piercing, and she couldn’t help but scream in terror while clutching her head.
"Come back." Qin Liuxi scolded and patted the Willow Branch on her waist.
The Ghost Baby, with a face of reluctance, didn’t dare to go against her and floated back sullenly.
"She has already suffered her retribution. After this pregnancy, she will need at least three years of recovery before she could possibly have another child," Qin Liuxi said, a statement meant for both the ghost and Yuan Er’s wife.
Yuan Er’s wife, having suffered through multiple miscarriages and a premature birth, was physically depleted. However, her fortune still indicated the possibility of another son, provided she refrained from wrongdoing and nourished herself for a few years.
The Ghost Baby glared with blood-red eyes and said, "Their hearts are too cruel."
Just because she was a girl, they beat her, even after she was born, they drowned her directly, it was too cruel.
"Karmic retribution will be clear at the Mirror of Sin; rest assured," Qin Liuxi said, "If there’s anyone to blame, it should be the one who trapped you in the clay figurine."
The resentful energy of the Ghost Baby stirred again.
Qin Liuxi tapped on the bottle, and the Ghost Baby hummed, unwillingly crawled back in. Before entering the bottle, it glanced again at Yuan Er’s wife, eyes filled with hatred yet a trace of faint affection, finally turning into a sigh.
The room returned to tranquility.
Yuan Er’s wife’s face turned even paler, staring at her Jade Gourd, and started crying: "I had no choice, I didn’t want this, I had two daughters continuously, my mother-in-law cursed me every day, my husband never showed me kindness, we are too poor to raise them, I had no choice. If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t have gone to that temple to pray for a child, I only heard it was effective."
"Is that temple really that effective?" Qin Liuxi asked.
Yuan Er’s wife nodded: "I have a cousin who married into the neighboring Yangliu Village, she also went there to pray for a child, but she had a son, why is it always daughters for me."
"I told you, the clay figurine you worshiped is an evil object, it originally had a baby soul, by worshiping it, you were nurturing her. When you conceived, she naturally came first to be reborn. As long as you keep worshiping her, she will keep coming," Qin Liuxi said coldly.
Yuan Er’s wife turned pale and said, "But my cousin..."
"What if she just happened to get a male baby?"
Yuan Er’s wife was stunned: "Why is my fate so unfortunate."
Qin Liuxi, somewhat impatient, said, "Tell me, what is the situation with the Nuwa Temple."
Yuan Er’s wife sniffled and said: "It involves praying to the Fertility Goddess, adding incense oil, then choosing a clay figurine from the Conception Pavilion to worship day and night at home, and you’re not allowed to speak in detail about the Conception Pavilion with outsiders, otherwise it won’t work."
She recollected the events at the Conception Pavilion and said, "I added incense oil and followed Master Cizhen to the Conception Pavilion, then chose a clay figurine under the seat of the Fertility Goddess, it had to have eyes dotted on it."
"Nothing else?"
Yuan Er’s wife shook her head, thought for a moment, and added: "My cousin told me, when she went to pray, she even discussed Buddhism and meditated with Master Cizhen for a while, fell asleep, and then chose in the Conception Pavilion. I didn’t do the meditation; perhaps Master Cizhen saw that I wasn’t a person of destiny."
Qin Liuxi’s hand twitched, a thought crossed her mind, and asked, "How was your cousin’s childbirth?"
Yuan Er’s wife, somewhat envious, said, "She was the village beauty when she was a girl."
"Is Master Cizhen a female crown?"
"Yes, indeed."
Qin Liuxi frowned, wondering if she was overthinking.
"Is there nothing else?"
Yuan Er’s wife shook her head: "Anyway, when selecting the Divine Object... The matter of choosing the clay figurine must not be spoken about outside, otherwise it will reveal the Heavenly Secret and displease the Fertility Goddess, and then it will not be effective."
"Fools abound every year, and this year there are especially many!" Qin Liuxi scoffed sarcastically.
Yuan Er’s wife’s face flushed.
Seeing that she couldn’t get any more information, Qin Liuxi didn’t linger any longer.
Yuan Er’s wife stopped her again and pointed at her waist, saying, "What do you plan to do with her?"
"Of course, I intend to help her transcend and then send her to be reincarnated." Qin Liuxi said with a smirk, "What, have you found your conscience and can’t bear it now?"
Yuan Er’s wife said, "I know you look down on me, you don’t understand the suffering of women, it’s better left unsaid. After she was born, I wished to keep her too. I pleaded with her father and her grandmother, but I couldn’t surpass her."
As she spoke, tears streamed down her face.
"Sending her for reincarnation is good too; at least she won’t be born into someone like me again, nor into our family, it’s too miserable."
Qin Liuxi was silent for a moment, then said, "You should worry more about your own body rather than this. I advise you to properly recuperate for a few years, don’t be in a hurry to get pregnant again, otherwise you will surely die, although you won’t be able to conceive in these few years anyway."
Yuan Er’s wife’s lips quivered.
Qin Liuxi had already walked out, followed by suppressed sobbing behind her, yet her expression remained unmoved. Instead, the Jade Gourd stirred.
She patted the Jade Gourd’s body. Mrs. Yuan was outside talking to Deng Fucai, accompanied by an honest-looking man and two little girls, likely Yuan Er and his two daughters.
"Master, I have prepared everything, how should we proceed?" Mrs. Yuan asked.
Qin Liuxi asked: "Where did you bury that child after you drowned her?"
Mrs. Yuan stiffened.
"You dig her up yourselves, if there’s no small coffin, use a jar to collect the bones." Qin Liuxi glanced at the yard and saw a pottery jar: "That one will do."
Mrs. Yuan hurried over to pick up the pottery jar and handed it to Yuan Er: "You go."
"Let’s go together," Qin Liuxi said.
Mrs. Yuan and Yuan Er looked at each other, then went behind the house.
Their family lived near the mountains, apparently the child was just wrapped up then buried directly behind the house. Qin Liuxi was speechless. Watching them gather the small skeleton in the pottery jar, she then wrapped it in a red cloth, re-selected a burial spot, set up a small mound, and had them burn ingots, paper money, and have a meal offering.
After all these were done, the sky had darkened. Qin Liuxi said to Mrs. Yuan and Yuan Er: "From now on, during Qingming and the Ghost Festival, as well as on the anniversary of this child’s death, you must come to worship. Only then will her resentful energy truly be appeased."
Seeing Buddha to the end, sending ghosts to the very bottom, that should suffice.
Mrs. Yuan asked, "Always?"
"Of course, after all, she was alive when she was born; it was your drowning that killed her, you have to redeem your sins," Qin Liuxi said calmly: "If you choose not to do it, then in future calamities, do not blame heaven or others, as they are all karma."
A chill wind swept through, causing the treetops to rustle loudly.
Mrs. Yuan’s legs went weak, and she said, "We will do it, we will definitely do it!"