Chapter 49: 48. Bai Family Grave (Requesting Follow Reads!)

48. Bai Family Grave (Requesting Follow Reads!)

Bai Family Grave lies nestled among mountains, with only one winding, treacherous path leading out, rarely trodden by travelers.

To the left of the village, the Green Dragon extends its claws; to the right, the White Tiger crouches; behind it rises a mighty peak, while a barrier mountain blocks the front, the bright court open and spacious—the qi of the dragon flows endlessly around the village. From the perspective of feng shui, Bai Family Grave is an exceptional burial site, comparable to the tomb of a prince.

Yet despite its name containing the character “grave,” Bai Family Grave is in fact a small village inhabited by the living.

When the living dwell where the dead are honored, misfortune inevitably follows.

Bai Xiue stood on the mountain path, gazing at Bai Family Grave surrounded by mountains.

Under the black sky, Bai Family Grave was as lifeless as it had been by day, as if devoid of any vitality.

The mountain wind, cold and grim, whipped against Bai Xiue’s thin frame.

She gazed at the distant village for a while, then lowered her head and slowly stepped forward, following the hidden mountain path veiled by dead trees, passing through the forest under cover of night, heading down toward Bai Family Grave.

Bai Xiue pressed her lips together, silent tears sliding down her cheeks.

On half her face, ripples spread, and Bai Ma’s face subtly emerged; she looked around the surroundings, sighed after a long while, and spoke: “Everyone is like this…”

“Everyone has something they cannot resist. Once you understand that, it’s no bad thing to bow early and submit…”

Bai Ma lowered her eyelids, her gaze dim: “Wen Yongsheng, who desires you, is more terrifying than Feng Si, that vulgar deity. That man could easily crush even Feng Si’s omen of death—what chance do you have against Old Master Wen?”

“Accept your fate. It saves others much trouble.”

“Mm.”

Bai Xiue wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Suddenly, remembering something, she broke into a smile: “He’s actually a good man.”

“Can a cold, heartless man be called good? I think you’ve never met a real man.”

Bai Ma clearly sneered at Bai Xiue’s assessment.

Bai Xiue smiled but offered no rebuttal.

Then she remembered her current situation, and the smile faded: “I’m being sent to marry Old Master Wen. Will you still cling to me?”

Bai Ma frowned: “You’re a Lotus Child of Destiny; I am the single soul of the twin lotus. Even if I didn’t wish to attach to you, I have no choice.”

“Then… even if we must climb mountains of knives and walk through fires… if two of us are together, we can talk, keep each other company, and it won’t be so scary…” Bai Xiue suddenly felt more at ease.

“You fear being alone more than you fear death?” Bai Ma mocked her.

But Bai Ma then recalled how Bai Xiue had once truly tried, with her six sisters, to hang herself before the Bride’s Pond.

“Someone’s coming.”

As the two fell silent, Bai Xiue glimpsed a long line of people slowly approaching along the mountain path, hidden by dead trees; she nervously warned Bai Ma.

Immediately, strands of lotus root fibers rose from her body, drifting like wisps of smoke, winding around a large tree’s branches.

With a gentle tug from the fibers, Bai Xiue’s figure floated lightly upward, hanging from the tree’s fork.

Dressed in gray-white clothing, from below she appeared no more than a gray-white cloth fluttering in the wind.

On the treetop, Bai Xiue held her breath, her expression tense as she watched the path below.

The previously silent path gradually filled with voices.

Men clad in black short tunics, each tied with a red sash, clustered around several wooden carts, pushing or pulling them as they transported thin-skinned coffins along the mountain path.

The area around Bai Family Grave produces no good timber for coffins, yet Bai Family Grave frequently sells coffins.

And every coffin sold by Bai Family Grave is extremely expensive.

Those who buy the coffins are not after the crude, poorly made thin-skinned ones, but for the “items” included with them.

Just as Bai Xiue herself was once ordered by the Wen family as an item included with a coffin, delivered to their home in the city.

Bai Xiue counted the coffins on the carts: six in total.

As the men pushed and pulled the carts, the coffin lids on top swayed, and a faint stench of decay drifted into Bai Xiue’s nostrils.

“Another six unfortunate girls…” Bai Xiue thought of her six sisters, and her heart ached.

“Huh—”

Suddenly, a strong mountain wind swept through.

The gust kicked up dust and mud, rustling the tree branches loudly.

The lids of the six thin-skinned coffins on the carts suddenly shook together, slowly sliding downward—intensified stench of decay burst forth from within!

As the lids slid open, Bai Xiue saw clearly: the corpses inside were not other Bai women, but her six sisters!

Their skin was purple-black, tongues hanging out over blackened lips.

Each corpse bore deep grooves around the neck!

“Sister Xiue!”

“Sister!”

“Sister!”

The hanged women’s eyes streamed blood-red tears; their pale, lifeless gazes fixed on Bai Xiue in the tree: “Don’t let us suffer even in death! Don’t let us suffer even in death!”

“Sister/Sister, push our bodies down the path! Better to be crushed into mud than serve the ghosts of city lords!”

“Sister/Sister, wait for us—we’ll go to the garden together…”

“Let’s go to the garden together…”

"Let’s go stroll through the garden together..."

On the treetop, Bai Xiue wept uncontrollably; clusters of lotus root fibers shot from her fingertips.

The pale, translucent fibers rode the foul wind, drifting onto the six coffins below; as Bai Xiue flicked her fingers, the coffins toppled from the carts, their corpses tumbling down the mountain path!

Some men, sensing something amiss, rushed to steady the coffins—when Bai Xiue silently glided down from the tree, entangling the corpses with her fibers and hurling them over the cliff.

When she looked again at the corpses inside the coffins, they were no longer her six sisters, nor did they all appear hanged.

In that fleeting moment of mental confusion, what she had seen was vastly different from the reality before her now.

The corpses in the coffins were not her six sisters.

Yet she felt no regret for what she had done.

The people around saw the figure drifting from the tree, and saw its face covered in dense lotus root pores; terrified, they abandoned the coffins entirely, screaming: “Ghost! Ghost!”

They scattered in all directions, fleeing for their lives.

Bai Xiue hurled the last corpse over the cliff.

She thought she heard a few girls’ laughter, briefly echoing in her ears: “Sister Xiue, thank you.”

“We’re off to the garden now…”

“Sister Xiue, we’ll meet you in the Flower Hall someday…”

Those bright, lovely voices drifted away.

Bai Xiue stood frozen on the path for a moment, then continued walking downward.

The lotus root fibers drifting around her body had subtly begun to glow with a faint silver sheen; their texture, touched by this light, seemed to have changed.

The strands of lotus filaments drifting around her subtly glowed with a faint silver sheen, and their very texture seemed to shift because of this faint luster.

“Xiue! Xiue!”

Unaware, Bai Xiue had circled the small path and reached the perimeter of her family’s courtyard.

She paced back and forth around the yard, hesitating, yet dared not knock on the gate.

At that moment, a deliberately hushed call came from behind her.

Bai Xiue turned and saw an old man carrying a pile of firewood taller than himself, his face weathered by wind and time, walking toward her.

He reached her side, tears suddenly welling in his eyes, his expression a mix of joy and fear: “My youngest daughter, my youngest daughter is alive! I knew it—I felt your breath when they took you away!”

The man walked up to her, and suddenly two tears streamed from his eyes, his expression a mix of joy and fear: "My youngest daughter, my youngest daughter isn’t dead! I knew it—I felt your breath when I checked you then!"

“Go! Go quickly! Your mother will wake soon!”

He grabbed Bai Xiue’s arm and pulled her away: “Don’t come back! This place isn’t worth returning to, daughter! Don’t come back!”

ps: Please follow-read, friends! Today’s follow-reads are vital to this novel—please, even if you’re saving it, turn to the last page of today’s chapter!

This place isn’t worth your returning, little daughter!

Don’t turn back!

PS: Please follow along, friends—today’s follows are crucial for this novel; even if you’re saving it, please scroll to the last page of today’s chapter!