Chapter 60: One Mountain Cannot Tolerate Two Tigers

Without much effort, the two found Chun Jie's grave. Calling it a grave, it was actually just an inconspicuous little mound of dirt, with a black wooden board stuck in front of it.

The writing on the wooden board was already blurred and illegible; one could only vaguely make out the character "Chun." Yang Xiao threw the few tools he had swiped from the coffin shop onto the ground, "That's right, this is the place!"

Handing the axe in his hand to Su Tingting, Yang Xiao instructed, "You go and split this wooden plaque."

Staring at the mottled black wooden plaque, Su Tingting felt panicked, "Me?"

"Otherwise? Do you want me to lead the charge?" Yang Xiao didn't give Su Tingting any chance to refuse, "You do it. Even if you get possessed, I can still find a way to save you. Once I get possessed, just think about it, we'll both be finished."

Yang Xiao had already thought it through: if something really went wrong when Su Tingting opened the coffin, he would run back to the coffin shop at top speed and ask Shopkeeper Liu to come and help.

Yang Xiao's words left Su Tingting with no room to argue, so she had to take the axe. She gestured in the air a few times, but felt increasingly uneasy. After all, this wooden plaque counted as Chun Jie's tombstone, and smashing someone's tombstone felt a bit unjustifiable, "I... what posture should I use? How about, how about I kneel? Would that seem more respectful?"

"No, the faster and more violent your movements, the better. This wooden plaque is equivalent to the facade of this tomb. What you need to do is a quick battle to force a quick decision, to break its baleful energy first." Yang Xiao instructed from the side, "Hold the axe with both hands and hack down hard. You need to have momentum!"

"O-okay." Su Tingting had no choice. She said sorry to herself several times in her heart; she was doing this to survive, too.

Just as Su Tingting unified her thoughts and gathered her courage to act, she was suddenly stopped by Yang Xiao, "Wait!"

With her momentum gone, Su Tingting's hands were shaking. She turned back with a mournful face, "What... what is it now?"

Yang Xiao trotted a few steps, increasing the distance between himself and the grave and Su Tingting. Seeming to feel that still wasn't safe enough, he finally hid behind a tree, revealing only his head, and stretched his neck to shout, "Nothing, it's very safe. You continue."

Su Tingting held her breath and focused, gathering all her strength, and hacked down with the axe. Accompanied by a loud bang, the wooden plaque shattered directly into several pieces.

Seeing that there was no problem, Yang Xiao ran over from behind the tree. At this moment, Su Tingting was standing there blankly, holding the axe.

"Are you okay?" Yang Xiao sensed something was wrong.

"Just now... just now I seemed to see a human figure standing behind the wooden plaque. But... but after the plaque was split open, the figure vanished instantly," Su Tingting said, stuttering.

Yang Xiao snatched the axe, "It's good that it vanished. If it vanished, then it's fine. This should be the baleful energy inside the coffin that Shopkeeper Liu mentioned. Once the baleful energy is broken, opening the coffin will be steady."

Yang Xiao didn't let Su Tingting intervene in the following matters; he picked a handy tool and began to dig the grave.

Wang Laizi was truly perfunctory; the coffin was buried extremely shallowly. However, this was convenient for Yang Xiao, and before long, he had cleared away enough dirt, and a thin-skinned coffin appeared before the two.

Squatting into a horse stance and taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao gathered his strength and swung the axe, splitting the coffin lid open with a single blow. He hadn't expected the coffin to be of such poor quality, and unable to control his body, he lunged forward violently, almost falling headfirst into the coffin.

There was indeed no corpse inside the coffin, neither adult nor child, only some old clothes so rotten their color couldn't be distinguished.

Picking out the clothes one by one and spreading them on the ground, the two examined them carefully. In the end, Su Tingting had the sharpest eyes; under the collar of one garment, she found some red writing. The writing was intermittent, as if written while drunk, and when connected, it was exactly the Birth Date and Time.

Having obtained Chun Jie's Birth Date and Time, Yang Xiao and Su Tingting left immediately after simply dealing with the grave. The sky was getting late, and they had to return to the Feng Family Mansion before dark.

When they met the coachman near the village entrance, the coachman was so anxious he was about to cry, and was going from house to house asking if anyone had seen two strangers.

After getting into the carriage, the group hurried back without stopping. Fortunately, the journey was smooth and they didn't encounter any accidents, which allowed them to barely make it back to the Feng family just as the sky was turning dark.

Carrying a Lantern, they headed straight for the backyard. Only when they pushed open the door and saw Kuang Hongyi did the hearts of Yang Xiao and Su Tingting settle.

"Oh my, Brother Chu, you... you worried me to death!" Seeing Yang Xiao, Kuang Hongyi acted as if he had seen a long-lost relative, fussing over them with concern.

Yang Xiao understood perfectly what was going on. Kuang Hongyi didn't miss him; he was thinking about the intelligence in his hands. If he and Su Tingting died outside, it wouldn't be easy for Kuang Hongyi to be left alone, not to mention there was still the mysterious Shi Dali.

Yang Xiao took the hot tea Kuang Hongyi handed him and gulped down a few mouthfuls first; he had been put through the wringer along the way, "Brother Kuang, you returned early, hurry and tell me, what new news is there?"

Knowing he and Yang Xiao were grasshoppers on the same rope, Kuang Hongyi didn't hide anything. While inviting the two to sit down, he said, "There is quite a lot of news. The Feng family has new arrangements again tonight. Oh, we can talk about that later. Let me tell you about the new clue we found first—you definitely won't expect it!"

"Not long after you left, I don't know what Shi Dali said to Master Feng, but he actually agreed to let us go out of the mansion to look for clues too."

"This Shi Dali is not simple. He brought me to a small alley in the south of the city and found an old, blind storyteller."

"This storyteller used to tell stories at Yingke Lou a long time ago. According to him, the Bai Family Troupe used to have two pillars. Besides Xi Yao, there... there was also one called Chun Jie. But many years ago, this Chun Jie suddenly left."

Yang Xiao nodded and continued, "That's right, we also found out about this Chun Jie. It seems she was the eldest daughter of Troupe Leader Bai, but because she eloped with someone, she was useless to Troupe Leader Bai, so he used her life to trade for the life of his youngest daughter, Xi Yao. The first of those three sentences, 'Tou Nu Bu Wai Jia,' refers exactly to this matter."

Unexpectedly, as soon as Yang Xiao finished speaking, he saw Kuang Hongyi shaking his head violently, "Wrong, wrong! That's wrong! This Chun Jie was not Troupe Leader Bai's daughter; they had no blood relationship. Also, we later found out one thing: that Chun Jie didn't actually elope with anyone; she... she was sold by Troupe Leader Bai!"

"What?" Su Tingting's eyes widened.

"That's right, she was sold. Oh, this Troupe Leader Bai is truly not a human being. In a troupe, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers. To make way for his own daughter, Xi Yao, whose singing was slightly inferior, he sold Chun Jie. Worried about his own reputation, he even spread the word that Chun Jie didn't conduct herself with dignity and broke the troupe's rules first. Can you believe this is something a human would do?"

Kuang Hongyi's face showed indignation. The next second, as if he suddenly remembered something, "By the way, we also found the source of that phrase, 'Tou Nu Bu Wai Jia'!"