Chapter 13 The Corpse

Wu Yujiao bit her lip and nodded, her voice hoarse. "I saw it. One night, my father lost money gambling again. He was drunk and shouted that he was going to dig up my sister's grave, saying that she hadn't made any money to support him when she was alive, so it wouldn't be too much to take some money from her grave after she died. After all, she came from the Zhennan Marquis's residence. My father thought there would be valuable burial objects in the coffin. I followed my father in the dark."

"After my father dug open the grave, he didn't find anything valuable, so he left. I waited for him to leave before running over to see my sister. Her body was wrapped in a piece of torn mat. Father... Father didn't even look at her body! He didn't even cover her coffin when he left!"

"I opened the mat and realized how horribly my sister had died! Her eyes were wide open, and her body was covered in injuries. Her mouth was sewn shut with thin hemp rope, and it was filled with hair. Her limbs were nailed to the coffin with coffin nails. No, that's not right. Her head, along with half of her shoulder, had been torn off and sewn back on after death. There were dense stitches on it."

Just listening to Wu Yujiao's description made Fatty feel a chill run down his spine. Especially the part about her head being torn off immediately reminded him of General Guo, the enemy of ten thousand on the battlefield, who could tear through armor with his bare hands and return with the enemy general's head. This... this scene was so similar. It seemed that the doctor's guess was correct, this Zhennan Marquis was also a disciple, and one who was about to be completely corrupted!

But sewing the mouth shut, and filling it with hair, what did that mean? And nailing the limbs with coffin nails, such a scene was full of a strong religious color. There must be some meaning behind it.

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and slowly said, "This is a kind of punishment. People who perform this punishment know that the victim is full of sorrow and resentment, and they are worried that the victim will go to Yan Wang (King of Hell) to complain after death. They fill the mouth with hair and then sew it shut, so that the victim can't speak even in the underworld, and thus can't tell their grievances. And if I'm not mistaken, the tongue should have been cut off as well."

Wu Yujiao was already in tears at this moment, nodding her head violently several times. "You're right. After seeing my sister's body, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a long time. My sister died so tragically. My mother cried herself blind because of my sister's affair."

Hearing about the tragedy of this family, Fatty wanted to comfort this poor girl, but when he opened his mouth, he didn't know what to say. After all, they couldn't fundamentally help them at the moment, and their situation wasn't that much better either. After all, there was a separation between here and their world.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Cheng stood up. "Where is your sister's grave? Is it convenient to take us to see it?"

"It's gone. I burned it with a fire. The remaining bone fragments were thrown into the big river." Wu Yujiao exhaled, her eyes full of sorrow.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng's expression became strange. "It is said that one should be buried for peace. Why did you burn the body?" Jiang Cheng's suspicion was based on the fact that in the context of this era, people had no concept of cremating corpses at all. What they emphasized was being buried for peace, and enjoying the worship of relatives or descendants was the orthodox way.

Unexpectedly, Wu Yujiao squeezed out a bitter smile. "I know what you're thinking, but I don't think I did anything wrong. If my sister was here, I think if my sister had a spirit in heaven, she would agree with me doing this. We've had enough of this place. We've suffered enough. We no longer expect a next life. This life... is enough. Let it end here."

Hearing Wu Yujiao's words, Fatty felt very uncomfortable, but he couldn't change it. After all, they were just people, not gods. Before leaving, Jiang Cheng asked the girl if she had any relatives to rely on besides her father, of course, those real relatives, not a beast like her father.

The girl was dazed for a moment, then nodded hesitantly. "Yes, there are a few relatives on my mother's side, but they all live far away from here. My mother is ill, and we don't even have the money to treat her illness, let alone the travel expenses needed on the road. Besides, my father wouldn't let us go."

"Don't worry about that. I'm asking you, do you want to leave here and go to rely on your mother's relatives? Can you adapt to life there?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Wu Yujiao seemed to have misinterpreted Jiang Cheng's meaning. The next second, the look in her eyes changed. She knelt down to Jiang Cheng with a "plop." "Please, be kind, why don't you... why don't you buy me? I can do anything. I can cook and wash clothes. I'm willing to do any hard work. Please be kind!"

Fatty and Jiang Cheng were both taken aback. Fatty immediately reached out to help Wu Yujiao up, but she refused to get up. Seeing that Jiang Cheng didn't react, she begged Fatty again.

"Okay, get up. Listen to me first." Jiang Cheng told Wu Yujiao his plan. He planned to give Wu Yujiao's father a sum of money, which would be considered helping her redeem herself, but not buying her. Then, he would let Wu Yujiao take her mother to seek refuge with relatives. He could also pay for her mother's medical treatment.

Wu Yujiao was dumbfounded, but after a while, her eyes suddenly became wary. "You're paying to buy me, but you don't need me to do anything. Then what are you after?"

"Are you in cahoots with my father, trying to trick me?"

"Knowing that I won't submit, you're thinking of finding a reason to trick me over first, right?"

Jiang Cheng didn't expect Wu Yujiao to be so young, but she thought a lot. He couldn't help but laugh. "I'm too lazy to lie to you. For me, if I wanted to do something to you, it would be better to just kidnap you directly. Why would I waste so much time talking?"

After thinking about it, Wu Yujiao's tense expression gradually improved, but she still couldn't figure out Jiang Cheng's intentions. However, judging from their strength, it seemed that they didn't need to do so much.

"Have you thought about it? If you have, we're going to leave." Jiang Cheng gestured towards the door. Wu Yujiao's father was still guarding outside. Being able to do such a thing to one's own child was unheard of.

Seeing Wu Yujiao nod, Jiang Cheng and Fatty took the lead to walk out. The man not far from the door saw the two of them come out and greeted them with a smile. "How do you two feel? If you're still satisfied, then all you need is 80 taels of silver..."

Seeing the man like this, Fatty became more and more angry. He kicked the seemingly strong man, causing him to fall over. "You deserve to die! The person who brought us here wanted 50 taels of silver, but it's 80 taels here?"

Jiang Cheng was not in a hurry. He took out several large ingots of silver from the package behind him and threw them in front of the man like he was giving alms to a beggar. "This is 80 taels, and it's only more, not less. Your daughter is ours. If I ever find out that you're secretly plotting anything, I'll break your dog legs!"