Chapter 74: Thin Fate and Shallow Affinity

Yang Xiao gave Su Tingting a look, and the latter immediately began to pour out her grievances. Upon hearing that the three of them had brought Chun Jie's Birth Date and Time, as well as the Birth Date and Time of someone suspected to be Chun Jie's child, Shopkeeper Liu's expression turned strange. His lips trembled, but in the end, he did not say much until Su Tingting finished speaking.

After a moment of silence, Shopkeeper Liu reached out his hand, "Bring that relic to me."

Taking the relic handed over by Su Tingting, Shopkeeper Liu stroked it with his rough palms, then leaned in to sniff it, and immediately nodded, "Not bad, it is something that came out of a grave. It still carries a lingering baleful aura that is neither fully dissipated nor gone; it is the scent of that thing. I recognize it."

But just as Su Tingting reported the Birth Date and Time for both Chun Jie and the Second Young Mistress, Shopkeeper Liu pinched his fingers to calculate for a moment, then shook his head, "That's not right."

Su Tingting was a little panicked, "What is not right?"

"Looking at the Birth Date and Time, the fates of these two are inherently incompatible. The one with the longer life has a very poor fate, destined to live a life of displacement and receive no affection, while the one with the shorter life is completely different; it is a rare fate of fortune and prosperity. Regardless of their background or future experiences, both are excellent."

Once these words were spoken, they cut off the hope of Yang Xiao and the others. The background of Chun Jie's child could absolutely not be considered good, so the Second Young Mistress had no connection to Chun Jie.

With the clue severed, everything had to start over from the beginning, which made Yang Xiao and Kuang Hongyi feel very uncomfortable.

Yang Xiao was still somewhat unwilling to give up, "Shopkeeper Liu, please take another look. Could it be... could it be that something went wrong somewhere? Would it be too thin a conclusion to draw based on just two sets of Birth Date and Time?"

Shopkeeper Liu frowned, and before he could speak, he heard Su Tingting also chime in to persuade, "Godfather, this matter is very important to us. If we can confirm it, we will be saved!"

Only after hearing Su Tingting's voice did Shopkeeper Liu's expression gradually soften. Finally, he let out a breath, looked toward the direction of the young shop assistant, and instructed, "Go to the Patriarch's place and offer three kowtow Incense sticks for me, and bring out the Head Coffin."

The young shop assistant was shocked for a moment, his eye sockets turning red, "Master, to request the Head Coffin, one must worship with a chicken and kill Yellow Paper 7 days in advance. This..."

"Do as I say!"

Scolded by Shopkeeper Liu, the young shop assistant gave Yang Xiao a fierce glare, turned, and went to the backyard. After a moment, he returned holding a box wrapped in white linen cloth.

Uncovering the white cloth, Kuang Hongyi raised his eyebrows sharply. Inside was actually a small coffin. Although the coffin was not large, it was extremely exquisite, pitch black all over, with the texture of jade.

Kuang Hongyi could not help but swallow his saliva. He knew of this object, but this was his first time seeing the real thing. People in the Yin Hang trade call this a Head Coffin, also known as a Casket Head Coffin. It is considered a rare treasure for suppressing houses and warding off evil, and it is also a legacy item of the old coffin shop.

After setting down the small coffin, the young shop assistant went to scoop water. After several times, he poured the water into the coffin. Estimating that it was about enough, Shopkeeper Liu raised his head, looked toward Yang Xiao's direction, and held a narrow knife for carving wood in his hand, "You, come over here."

Yang Xiao could not help but take two steps back, smiling apologetically, "Shopkeeper Liu, if I break this treasure of yours, I cannot afford to pay for it. Perhaps you should..."

Noticing that Shopkeeper Liu's expression had drooped, Yang Xiao finally walked up obediently. Shopkeeper Liu fumbled to grab Yang Xiao's left hand and lightly cut his finger with the knife, "Go on, write down the other person's Birth Date and Time."

At this time, the apprentice handed over the Yellow Paper, which was laid out on the coffin lid. Yang Xiao endured the pain and wrote down the Second Young Mistress's Birth Date and Time.

Afterward, Shopkeeper Liu grabbed Yang Xiao's hand, making him stand with him, and then used his other hand to throw the Yellow Paper with the blood-written Birth Date and Time into the water-filled coffin.

As the Yellow Paper was thrown in, Yang Xiao suddenly felt a bit dizzy, his vision going black in waves, as if he had stood up abruptly after sitting for a long time.

The inside of the coffin was calm and tranquil. The Yellow Paper was soaked through by the water and sank bit by bit to the bottom. In a trance, Yang Xiao had a very strange feeling, as if some kind of connection had been generated between the pool of black water inside the coffin and the lake water in the Feng Mansion at night.

But even stranger was that the Yellow Paper had sunk to the bottom of the water, yet the handwriting on it had not. The blood characters left on the water surface slowly dispersed, but soon, as if pulled by some mysterious force, they began to recombine. The water surface eventually formed a new Birth Date and Time.

"Shopkeeper Liu, the Birth Date and Time has changed, it has changed!" Yang Xiao ignored his dizziness; he had not expected such a scene to appear.

"Do not read it out!" Shopkeeper Liu scolded, then rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, "Write, write it down with your finger!"

Shopkeeper Liu's withered, pale arm was covered with scars of all sizes. Some that were smooth must have been made by knives, but those crooked ones looked more like they had been clawed by human hands.

Yang Xiao steadied his mind and used his finger to write the newly appeared Birth Date and Time on Shopkeeper Liu's arm. But with every stroke he wrote, Yang Xiao's sense of dizziness intensified, and his finger began to tremble uncontrollably. This newly calculated Birth Date and Time seemed to be at the cost of his own Qi and blood.

As the last stroke fell, Yang Xiao lost all his strength. If not for Shopkeeper Liu holding him, he would likely have collapsed to the ground.

"Mr. Chu!" Su Tingting was anxious and was about to step forward to support him, but was desperately blocked by Shopkeeper Liu's apprentice.

That apprentice seemed to despise Yang Xiao, pulling Su Tingting away in one breath, then glared at Yang Xiao, quite indignantly saying, "Senior Sister, don't pity him. That man is not a good thing; his heart is crooked. It is only right for Master to teach him a lesson."

"Don't talk nonsense. Mr. Chu is a very good person. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be alive today." Su Tingting could not bear to hear anyone speak ill of Yang Xiao.

In the end, it was Kuang Hongyi who stepped forward to support Yang Xiao. Until Shopkeeper Liu let go, the two stayed away as soon as possible; Kuang Hongyi also had his guard up against Shopkeeper Liu.

"Brother Chu, are you alright?" Kuang Hongyi asked in a low voice, while looking around, worried that someone might rush out from somewhere to cut off their retreat.

Yang Xiao shook his head. His already pale complexion became even paler, as if his blood had been drained, "I am fine. Shopkeeper Liu... Shopkeeper Liu has no malicious intent."

Shopkeeper Liu did not seem to care about the two men's attitude. After a long while, he sighed slowly, "You are right. This person is indeed Chun Jie's child. She is still alive, but her Birth Date and Time was tampered with. An expert forcibly changed her Birth Date and Time when she was young and ignorant, forcibly cultivating a half-life of resentment into a life of fortune and prosperity. Good means! Truly good means!"

"However, like her mother, this child has a thin fate and shallow affinity, unable to bear such fortune, so she is destined to be backlashed. Her mind is incomplete, and she will be half-witted for half her life. Sigh, what is the use of such wealth?" Shopkeeper Liu lamented, seemingly having many thoughts.

He did not delve into the current situation of Chun Jie's Resentful Soul and the child. Kuang Hongyi also understood the logic of this; people in the Yin Hang trade have always only taken money to do things. Whatever the employer says is what it is; they do not ask about right or wrong, and even less do they easily ask about causes and effects.

They believe in fate; taking people's money to resolve their disasters is only right and proper. But once they know the ins and outs of a matter and have a distinction between right and wrong, they intervene in other people's destiny, which will ruin their own cause and effect.