Chapter 90: Deceiving the Malevolent Spirit

At that very moment, I received a message from Lu Jiu on WeChat. He said he had already arrived at the house and told me to open the window.

After I did, I indeed saw a head poke out from a room on the second floor across the corridor. Lu Jiu shouted to me, “How do you like the place I rented? Five hundred a month, one bedroom and a living room. Much cheaper than yours, right?”

Seeing that Lu Jiu was right across from me put my mind at ease a little.

When I did not answer, he went on shouting, “I have to say, Pi Yangxi, your life really is tough. You were bitten on the neck by a venomous snake, and you still managed to crawl back onto the bed yourself. If it were me, I would have dropped dead on the floor long ago.”

Crawl back onto the bed myself?

Hearing that, I froze. I clearly remembered that after the cobra tore open my neck, I had collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness. Why was Lu Jiu saying I had crawled back onto the bed myself?

I asked him again to make sure. Lu Jiu said, “Did your memory get all mixed up? When I went to look for you, you were indeed lying in bed, and you kept shouting for your brother...”

I fell silent and said nothing. Under poisoning, the nerves do become numb, and hallucinations are certainly possible. But at that moment I could not tell whether this was illusion or reality. I even hoped it was an illusion, because I distinctly remembered my brother telling me that Grandfather was full of secrets and that I should be careful around him. If it was true, I really did not know how I would face my grandfather.

Lost in thought, my eyelids grew heavy and I drifted into sleep. That night was far from peaceful, and I had another strange dream.

In the dream, I came to the great stone tortoise statue at the entrance to the village. The stone tortoise opened its mouth and spoke, telling me to push aside the statue and take out what was hidden inside.

Then I dreamed of that fierce coffin chained beneath the pleasure boat that day. The coffin had been transported beneath Dragon Head Canal, wrapped layer upon layer in massive chains. Inside it, I saw a pair of eyes, coldly gazing at the bustling, thriving city of Crossing River.

In a daze, I saw those eyes sweep toward me. My heart jolted, and I woke abruptly from the dream.

When I opened my eyes, two ghastly white faces filled my vision. Terrified, I sat straight up in bed.

Only then did I see clearly that they were two vividly lifelike paper figures.

Who had put paper effigies in my room?

I got dressed and stepped out into the hall, only to see a black-and-white memorial portrait of me hanging in the center of the room. Beneath the portrait, a straw mat had been spread on the floor.

“What, what is going on?”

I looked around the hall. It had been turned into a funeral parlor, and the sight sent a chill down my spine.

Just as I was trying to figure out who had arranged this, I saw Granny Wan come in carrying a bundle of paper figures.

“Granny, what are you doing?” Realizing it was Granny Wan who had set up the funeral hall, I hurried to stop her in bewilderment.

“Don’t just stand there like a fool, give me a hand.” She thrust the bundle into my arms, then began neatly arranging the paper figures in two rows as she said, “That thousand-year-old female ghost does not want you to marry Bai Xiaoli. She will definitely come back tonight to see whether you are dead or not. If she discovers that you’re still alive, she will show you no mercy.”

“Didn’t I drink the birth water yesterday?” I asked in confusion. Thinking of what I had drunk yesterday still made me feel sick.

“That birth water can only hide your vitality. It means that when the ghost is far away, she cannot sense whether you are alive or dead. But if she comes here in person to confirm it, we still have to put on a convincing act. As long as she sees your corpse, she will no longer think of coming for you,” Granny Wan said.

Only after hearing her words did I understand just how perilous the wedding Grandfather had arranged for me truly was. If Granny Wan had not reminded me today, I would have thought I had already escaped disaster.

Granny Wan then carried the two lifelike paper figures from my room and placed them on either side of the memorial tablet. Only later did I learn that these two figures were a boy and a girl. Each held a lantern in their hands. Granny Wan told me that when the thousand-year-old female ghost came tonight, she might not reveal herself. If she drew near, the lanterns in the hands of the boy and girl would light up, and I would have to be careful. If the lamps in their hands went out, it meant the ghost had left, and I would have made it safely through the ordeal.