Chapter 28: 27. The Figure on the Tree Top

27. The Figure on the Tree Top

"Lady, Lady…"

A yin wind tore open the papered window, and a thick fragrance of wine drifted into the room. Somewhere hidden, a voice like a cat in heat softly called out to the person inside.

When Bai Xiue heard the Paper-Face's warning, she was already half on her guard.

But when she caught that eerie call, her shoulders trembled despite herself, her face draining of color!

The cold wind chilled her body. She lifted her gaze toward the papered window but saw no one outside—yet in the blink of an eye, a figure appeared hiding behind the courtyard wall directly opposite the window!

That figure wore a large red Tang-style jacket with embroidered longevity characters across the chest, a red silk flower pinned at the breast.

On its head sat a skullcap, and a black cotton-braided false queue swept around from the back of its head, looping three times around a neck white as paper.

It crouched on an old locust tree behind the rammed-earth courtyard wall, its thin body propped among the gnarled branches. A pair of upturned slanting eyes on its gaunt face stared fixedly at Bai Xiue—only the whites showing, no pupils: "Lady, when shall we enter the bridal chamber?

Lady, we should enter the bridal chamber now…"

"Do you smell it?" The Paper-Face's nostrils flared as it spoke to the dazed Bai Xiue. "There's wine in the room."

Bai Xiue stared fearfully at the figure perched on the old locust tree. Hearing the Paper-Face's words, she was momentarily bewildered, but still nodded instinctively: "I smell it, I smell it…"

"If there's wine, there's nothing to fear.

This is just a dream your dead husband has sent to pass along a message." The Paper-Face's expression eased slightly.

The moment its words fell, Bai Xiue saw the Wen family's young master hanging on the old locust tree outside the courtyard suddenly vanish.

The yin wind flooding the room slowly receded, and everything gradually returned to normal.

Bai Xiue had barely begun to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly—

The two papered windows began to flap violently, opening and closing without stop!

"Clang, clang, clang, clang!"

The oil lamp on the table was whipped about by the yin wind gusting through the papered windows, swaying unsteadily and liable to go out at any moment!

The already dim room flickered between light and dark with the swaying flame. A massive shadow was taking shape on the wall behind Bai Xiue, its blurred outline gradually growing clearer!

Black nails and a deathly pale palm suddenly clawed up onto the window.

The Wen family's young master with the "upturned slanting brows," still wearing his skullcap, thrust his neck in through the window.

It tilted its head to study Bai Xiue inside the room, its skull twisting ninety degrees, then a hundred and eighty, then three hundred sixty, spinning around outside the window: "Laaady—dy!"

Young Master Wen moved every joint in his body, hands and feet working together, and in an instant crawled into the room!

Clang!

The two papered windows snapped shut.

The cold wind from the windows blew off the black cloth draped over the mirror on the table.

The mirror, whipped by the wind, faced Bai Xiue directly.

Inside the dark mirror, a black spirit tablet stood out even darker than the mirror itself, while the characters on the tablet were unusually clear: Spirit Altar Tablet of Wen Yongsheng, the Dragon-Chang of the Grass-Radical!

"Thud thud thud thud!"

That spirit tablet shook violently, and cracks began to split across the mirror's surface.

Crimson blood seeped from the cracks, forming densely packed words on the mirror: "Go home, go home, go home…"

On the wall behind Bai Xiue, the enormous shadow had become a "person" wearing a Qing-dynasty official's hat.

On top of that "person's" great ceremonial hat, there was no hat button.

Beneath the great hat was a gaunt face seven parts similar to the Wen family's young master's, its features obscured by a phantom, mottled aura of sacrificial Qi that filled its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, making them impossible to discern.

It wore a blue-black "official's robe" without a rank badge, and the official boots on its feet had tall, spotless uppers.

"Go home."

It spoke to Bai Xiue, who had whirled around sharply.

The voice came in layered waves, as if gathered from many men, women, old, and young.

As it spoke, it drew a hand out from the wall and lightly scooped at the empty air—a thin, gaunt figure was fished out of thin air and pulled toward it.

Bai Xiue fixed her eyes on the figure pinched between the "Qing-dynasty man's" fingers—and that person was none other than Old Duan Gong Zhou Sanji!

"Go home."

The "Qing-dynasty man" spoke unhurriedly, and Zhou Sanji was tossed into its mouth, his flesh and blood ground to pulp between sharp teeth.

Between its up-and-down chomping teeth, fresh red blood soaked through!

"Go home."

Zhou Chang was fished out of the empty air again and slowly, unhurriedly chewed and consumed!

Bai Xiue's shoulders shook like sieves!

She watched the scene on the wall, terror and grief surging up in her heart, and instantly the tears poured down like rain!

"Go home."

The "Qing-dynasty man" scooped up Stone Egg and was still chewing him slowly.

The terrifying shadow on the wall grew fainter and fainter, until at last it vanished completely.

The two papered windows were still properly closed, the latch screwed tight.

The mirror on the table was still draped in its black cloth, never having shown a single crack, let alone any trace of blood on the cloth.

Everything that had just happened seemed like a dream.

But Bai Xiue's tears would not stop.

"Wen Yongsheng is using this dream to warn you… if you don't go home as it demands, Zhou Sanji's whole family will die one by one, just as you saw in your dream." The Paper-Face's eyes and brows had lost their smile too, and it spoke softly to Bai Xiue.

"Mm."

Bai Xiue raised the back of her hand, wiping her tears as she stood up.

Still sobbing, she gathered the sewing basket from the bed's edge onto the table, placed the few pieces of fur she had sewn into the basket, finally folded the spread-out bedding, and cleaned the room.

Teardrops fell into the dark corner, extinguished in the silent dust.

Bai Xiue was leaving.

She walked to the door, turning back to survey the room she had lived in.

Her gaze fell upon the sewing basket on the table; she hesitated again and again, hesitated once more—

She still went back, picked up the stack of furs from the basket, tucked them against her chest, and prepared to depart.

"You did right; it should be this way.

You owe them nothing, they cannot help you in any way, so why leave them the things you painstakingly sewed?" The Paper Face expressed approval of Bai Xiue's actions. "We are slipping away quietly from here; that has already saved them once more."

Bai Xiue shook her head: "I, I promised Zhou Taiye."

"What do you intend to do?"

"I was thinking, if there is still a chance... I want to finish sewing this Hundred-Beast Robe for them and bring it over."

"..."

Bai Xiue slipped out the door silently. She stopped at the doorway of the room where Zhou Sanji and Zhou Chang lived. Transparent holes appeared all over her body; the wind passing through them grew silent as well.

She placed the silver coin clenched in her palm onto the stone block at the door hinge.

"Where did you get the money?" The Paper Face asked, frowning.

"A body-pressing coin." Bai Xiue answered softly.

A body-pressing coin is a New Year's coin, a spirit-suppressing coin.

This was a silver coin buried alongside Bai Xiue, used to suppress her as an evil spirit.

It was the last possession of her lonely soul, caught between life and death.

Bai Xiue left.