Chapter 14: Empty Millstone (5)
Xue Xian felt goosebumps rise across his body.
Of course, it was impossible for paper bodies to get goosebumps and he was not scared. However, the thought of someone actually capable of burying their own mother under their house for a prosperous and smooth career made him think that some people in the world are ingeniously disgusting.
It would have been better to raise a millstone than to raise this son!
Xuan Min picked up the millstone, just larger than his palm, from the hole in the ground and placed it on the floor. He peeled the yellow talisman off the chains and lit a small fire to burn it all up.
While the yellow talisman burned, Xue Xian, who was hanging from Xuan Min’s waist, could feel a faint buzz as if someone was tapping lightly on his bones with a small hammer. In short, it was not that comfortable.
This millstone had been buried underground for at least three years and during that period, it had absorbed much of the dark and resentful energy that passed by. Now, as the yellow talisman was burnt, the strands of dark and resentful energy bound to the millstone were pulled away, one by one. Discomfort was a normal reaction. Except that he, a half-dead piece of paper hanging on an inner pocket, felt very uncomfortable. Baldy, who was burning the yellow talisman directly, must have felt even more uncomfortable.
Xue Xian turned his head and glanced at Xuan Min, only to see him look like the eight winds could not move him. His expression was stoic as if he was doing something completely unrelated.
He suddenly felt that this Baldy was not quite the same as the monks he had seen in the past but he could not pinpoint why.
Probably because…he was exceptionally easy to piss off!
While Xue Xian continued to speculate, Xue Min had already finished burning the yellow talisman. As the last speck of dust fell to the ground, the chain on the millstone broke with a click and also fell onto the ground.
A shadowy figure clutching the handle of the millstone gradually appeared. Just like a withered branch curled on the floor, the figure expanded under Xue Xian and Xuan Min’s gazes, turning into an old granny with a hunched back.
The lady’s white hair was scarce and tied in a small bun behind her head. She was wrinkly and her two eyes were glossy as if she was always holding in the tears.
Just by her looks, one could vaguely recognise her as Granny Liu. Compared to her illusion holding a walking stick in the array, this ghost Granny Liu looked even more fragile as if she would close her eyes and fall down on the ground at any moment.
Without the walking stick, her slanted body looked even more deformed. The left side of her body hunched over even more than the right. It was only with the support of the millstone’s handle that she could even stand.
“What iniquity…” muttered Xue Xian.
In his immortal life, he had no parents and did not have a deep understanding of blood relationships. But after being forced to spend half a year in the mortal realm, he at least knew of the basics.
This Advisor Liu had indeed expanded his horizons. How much must one hate their own mother to be able to do something this inhumane!
Hearing this, Xuan Min looked down and gave him a sweeping look, which added to Xue Xian’s pent-up frustration. Raising his chin, he glared back, but still looked unintimidating no matter how hard he tried.
This Ancient One rolled his eyes and after some thinking, a new idea popped up—
To the top of his head!
As a man of spontaneous actions who did whatever he wanted, Xue Xian wasted no time clawing onto Xuan Min’s monk robes and climbing up much faster after last time, reaching the front of his robes in the blink of an eye.
Just as he was about to move up another layer, a sharp cry came from the door.
“Ahhh! Don’t touch me, don’t touch me! Help—Help—”
The voice was shrilly and bitter, as if someone had seen a ghost.
It was deafeningly loud and unpleasant and shook Xue Xian so much that he clawed empty air, falling down from Xuan Min’s chest and onto the ground face first in a rather inelegant landing pose.
An embarrassed Xue Xian didn’t want to see anyone after he landed on the floor, his four claws rigid and motionless, as if he had fallen to his death.
Xuan Min ignored the screams outside the house, merely squatted down to look at the paper man lying on the ground and asked monotonously, “Aren’t you going to get up?”
Xue Xian continued pretending to be dead.
Xuan Min gently knocked the back of the flat head of the piece of paper, “Then, I’ll burn it.”
After finishing his words, he actually lit a matchstick. The tiny flame roasted the paper hot.
“…” Xue Xian said in a muffled voice, “Don’t you have any mercy? Or did you feed it all to the dogs?”
Xuan Min’s fingers halted, as if he had remembered something. His expression softened for a split second and then he shook his head. Waving the matchstick to put out the tiny flame, he picked up a foot of the paper man and scolded in a low voice, “Will you still climb?”
Xue Xian, probably still feeling ashamed, covered his face with two hands as he was picked up upside-down. Yet, he managed to spit out a retort: “Climb your ass!”
As soon as this bastard had been put back into the bag, clumsy footsteps thudded and ran out of the house.
He moved his hand, only to see the blockhead Liu Chong looking at his direction with a blank expression. He had just escaped the array, his blue robes torn in numerous places, exposing the cotton fillings. Who knows what he had been through?
His face was scrunched up, his eyes red. He opened his mouth to speak to Xuan Min. However, before he could speak, his eyes swept past Granny Liu, who was holding onto the millstone for support and he froze.
“Gr…Grandmother?” asked Liu Chong hesitantly. Maybe it was because he was still scared by the illusion of Granny Liu in the array but he flinched and did not dare to step closer.
Granny Liu glanced at him with her lifeless eyes and tears fell down her face immediately. Gripping the millstone, she waved her hand at Liu Chong and sighed, “Chong-er, what happened to your clothes?”
Liu Chong pushed all his guilt to the back of his mind as soon as he heard her tone. He rushed over with red eyes and knelt down on the floor, trying to clutch Granny Liu’s hands. “Granny, why have you grown shorter? Wh-why can’t I hold you?”
The old lady had been depleted by the millstone for too long and had shrunk to half the size of a normal elderly person, making her seem exceptionally shrivelled and pitiful.
She brushed it off and flashed a deflated smile at Liu Chong. “Granny is old, and when Granny is old, Granny shrinks. As for holding, then let us not hold anymore…”
“Granny, why didn’t you…why didn’t you visit me? I folded so many paper ingots. Didn’t you say that after folding them, writing down your name and burning it, you would come and take them? I…I folded them every day, burned them every day, but no one came to visit me. Why didn’t you come, not even once? I want to listen to you talk, I want to chat with you, but I never see you and I…I forgot what I wanted to say…”
Liu Chong still had the mind and heart of a child. As soon as he saw the grandmother he missed so dearly, he sniffled through the last of his words and started to cry. He didn’t have the patience and strength of a grown man and just bawled as if he could express three years of forgotten words by crying all at once.
“Granny has been listening, Chong-er need not cry. Granny knows everything,” Granny Liu wiped her tears. “Oh, I’ve been watching over you every day and night…”
The grandmother and grandchild pair were in the middle of crying when a crazy man rushed in the house. “Help! Help! Don’t touch me—don’t come near me!”
The man looked as horrible as a madman, his hair was tangled, his clothes all messed up and dusty as if he had rolled on the floor for who knows how many times.
Xue Xian looked closely, “Isn’t that Advisor Liu?”
Considering this, Liu Chong was rather lucky. Advisor Liu was clearly shocked in the array. He busted into this house hurriedly, not caring how much he had hated entering it before.
Xuan Min saw Advisor Liu’s dirty figure and stepped aside while frowning. Without anyone blocking him, he bumped into Liu Chong and fell to the floor.
And found himself face to face with Granny Liu.
Chapter 14: Empty Millstone (5)
Xue Xian felt goosebumps rise across his body.
Of course, it was impossible for paper bodies to get goosebumps and he was not scared. However, the thought of someone actually capable of burying their own mother under their house for a prosperous and smooth career made him think that some people in the world are ingeniously disgusting.
It would have been better to raise a millstone than to raise this son!
Xuan Min picked up the millstone, just larger than his palm, from the hole in the ground and placed it on the floor. He peeled the yellow talisman off the chains and lit a small fire to burn it all up.
While the yellow talisman burned, Xue Xian, who was hanging from Xuan Min’s waist, could feel a faint buzz as if someone was tapping lightly on his bones with a small hammer. In short, it was not that comfortable.
This millstone had been buried underground for at least three years and during that period, it had absorbed much of the dark and resentful energy that passed by. Now, as the yellow talisman was burnt, the strands of dark and resentful energy bound to the millstone were pulled away, one by one. Discomfort was a normal reaction. Except that he, a half-dead piece of paper hanging on an inner pocket, felt very uncomfortable. Baldy, who was burning the yellow talisman directly, must have felt even more uncomfortable.
Xue Xian turned his head and glanced at Xuan Min, only to see him look like the eight winds could not move him. His expression was stoic as if he was doing something completely unrelated.
He suddenly felt that this Baldy was not quite the same as the monks he had seen in the past but he could not pinpoint why.
Probably because…he was exceptionally easy to piss off!
While Xue Xian continued to speculate, Xue Min had already finished burning the yellow talisman. As the last speck of dust fell to the ground, the chain on the millstone broke with a click and also fell onto the ground.
A shadowy figure clutching the handle of the millstone gradually appeared. Just like a withered branch curled on the floor, the figure expanded under Xue Xian and Xuan Min’s gazes, turning into an old granny with a hunched back.
The lady’s white hair was scarce and tied in a small bun behind her head. She was wrinkly and her two eyes were glossy as if she was always holding in the tears.
Just by her looks, one could vaguely recognise her as Granny Liu. Compared to her illusion holding a walking stick in the array, this ghost Granny Liu looked even more fragile as if she would close her eyes and fall down on the ground at any moment.
Without the walking stick, her slanted body looked even more deformed. The left side of her body hunched over even more than the right. It was only with the support of the millstone’s handle that she could even stand.
“What iniquity…” muttered Xue Xian.
In his immortal life, he had no parents and did not have a deep understanding of blood relationships. But after being forced to spend half a year in the mortal realm, he at least knew of the basics.
This Advisor Liu had indeed expanded his horizons. How much must one hate their own mother to be able to do something this inhumane!
Hearing this, Xuan Min looked down and gave him a sweeping look, which added to Xue Xian’s pent-up frustration. Raising his chin, he glared back, but still looked unintimidating no matter how hard he tried.
This Ancient One rolled his eyes and after some thinking, a new idea popped up—
To the top of his head!
As a man of spontaneous actions who did whatever he wanted, Xue Xian wasted no time clawing onto Xuan Min’s monk robes and climbing up much faster after last time, reaching the front of his robes in the blink of an eye.
Just as he was about to move up another layer, a sharp cry came from the door.
“Ahhh! Don’t touch me, don’t touch me! Help—Help—”
The voice was shrilly and bitter, as if someone had seen a ghost.
It was deafeningly loud and unpleasant and shook Xue Xian so much that he clawed empty air, falling down from Xuan Min’s chest and onto the ground face first in a rather inelegant landing pose.
An embarrassed Xue Xian didn’t want to see anyone after he landed on the floor, his four claws rigid and motionless, as if he had fallen to his death.
Xuan Min ignored the screams outside the house, merely squatted down to look at the paper man lying on the ground and asked monotonously, “Aren’t you going to get up?”
Xue Xian continued pretending to be dead.
Xuan Min gently knocked the back of the flat head of the piece of paper, “Then, I’ll burn it.”
After finishing his words, he actually lit a matchstick. The tiny flame roasted the paper hot.
“…” Xue Xian said in a muffled voice, “Don’t you have any mercy? Or did you feed it all to the dogs?”
Xuan Min’s fingers halted, as if he had remembered something. His expression softened for a split second and then he shook his head. Waving the matchstick to put out the tiny flame, he picked up a foot of the paper man and scolded in a low voice, “Will you still climb?”
Xue Xian, probably still feeling ashamed, covered his face with two hands as he was picked up upside-down. Yet, he managed to spit out a retort: “Climb your ass!”
As soon as this bastard had been put back into the bag, clumsy footsteps thudded and ran out of the house.
He moved his hand, only to see the blockhead Liu Chong looking at his direction with a blank expression. He had just escaped the array, his blue robes torn in numerous places, exposing the cotton fillings. Who knows what he had been through?
His face was scrunched up, his eyes red. He opened his mouth to speak to Xuan Min. However, before he could speak, his eyes swept past Granny Liu, who was holding onto the millstone for support and he froze.
“Gr…Grandmother?” asked Liu Chong hesitantly. Maybe it was because he was still scared by the illusion of Granny Liu in the array but he flinched and did not dare to step closer.
Granny Liu glanced at him with her lifeless eyes and tears fell down her face immediately. Gripping the millstone, she waved her hand at Liu Chong and sighed, “Chong-er, what happened to your clothes?”
Liu Chong pushed all his guilt to the back of his mind as soon as he heard her tone. He rushed over with red eyes and knelt down on the floor, trying to clutch Granny Liu’s hands. “Granny, why have you grown shorter? Wh-why can’t I hold you?”
The old lady had been depleted by the millstone for too long and had shrunk to half the size of a normal elderly person, making her seem exceptionally shrivelled and pitiful.
She brushed it off and flashed a deflated smile at Liu Chong. “Granny is old, and when Granny is old, Granny shrinks. As for holding, then let us not hold anymore…”
“Granny, why didn’t you…why didn’t you visit me? I folded so many paper ingots. Didn’t you say that after folding them, writing down your name and burning it, you would come and take them? I…I folded them every day, burned them every day, but no one came to visit me. Why didn’t you come, not even once? I want to listen to you talk, I want to chat with you, but I never see you and I…I forgot what I wanted to say…”
Liu Chong still had the mind and heart of a child. As soon as he saw the grandmother he missed so dearly, he sniffled through the last of his words and started to cry. He didn’t have the patience and strength of a grown man and just bawled as if he could express three years of forgotten words by crying all at once.
“Granny has been listening, Chong-er need not cry. Granny knows everything,” Granny Liu wiped her tears. “Oh, I’ve been watching over you every day and night…”
The grandmother and grandchild pair were in the middle of crying when a crazy man rushed in the house. “Help! Help! Don’t touch me—don’t come near me!”
The man looked as horrible as a madman, his hair was tangled, his clothes all messed up and dusty as if he had rolled on the floor for who knows how many times.
Xue Xian looked closely, “Isn’t that Advisor Liu?”
Considering this, Liu Chong was rather lucky. Advisor Liu was clearly shocked in the array. He busted into this house hurriedly, not caring how much he had hated entering it before.
Xuan Min saw Advisor Liu’s dirty figure and stepped aside while frowning. Without anyone blocking him, he bumped into Liu Chong and fell to the floor.
And found himself face to face with Granny Liu.
