Si Teng (Rattan) – CH 068

Chapter 68

The room was quiet. Taking advantage of this pause, Yan Furui finally remembered to chew and swallow the food in his mouth. Qin Fang felt a little uneasy. Si Teng had never been one for patience, and this was entirely her personal matter. Why was she telling him all this detail?

Of the three, perhaps only Yan Furui truly took this story seriously. “So what happened next?”

Si Teng smiled. “Then, I went.”

***

She had already guessed that this meeting wouldn’t go smoothly, but Bai Ying’s stubbornness far exceeded her expectations.

Bai Ying didn’t think it was Shao Yankuan’s fault; she blamed everything on Qiu Shan’s schemes.

—Qiu Shan must have said a lot of bad things about me to Yankuan, which is why he was deceived.

—He’s the eldest son, and the pressure of the family business is immense. Qiu Shan was despicable, tempting him with money. He was just confused for a moment.

—I believe that if I give him some time and spend more time with him, he’ll see that I’m sincere and will change his mind about me.

Yankuan, Yankuan, Shao Yankuan did nothing wrong. Even if he cut her neck with a knife, she could only blame the knife for not obeying her command. Si Teng taunted Bai Ying coldly: “Shao Yankuan already has a wife. You want to be someone else’s mistress? Aren’t you ashamed? It’s not just you who is embarrassed; it’s shameful for all of us demons.”

“Yankuan said he would marry me openly, with all the proper etiquette. He wouldn’t wrong me in the slightest. Besides the traditional pomp and ceremony, we’d also have a Western-style wedding, popular in Shanghai.”

“You believe that?”

Bai Ying stared into her eyes. “I do. If he doesn’t…”

Her voice suddenly took on a chill. “If he doesn’t, I won’t marry him. Doesn’t he want Qiu Shan’s money? For that, he’ll have to give me what I want. I won’t embarrass the demons. I’ll marry him in a dignified ceremony. Once I’m with him, I’ll stay by his side day and night. Are you still worried I can’t change his mind?”

Si Teng’s smile gradually faded. “So, there’s no room for negotiation?”

She had to admit that before she met Bai Ying, she had already intended to attack and had murderous intent. She believed Bai Ying felt the same way.

Force was always a solution for failed negotiations.

***

Si Teng smiled at Qin Fang. “Back then, I never could have imagined that Bai Ying would kill me.”

“Even now, I still can’t figure it out. I had no distractions, cast aside human emotions that didn’t belong to a demon, and devoted myself to being a demon, wanting to win Bai Ying back. Emotionally and logically, I should have been the winner, so why did Heaven choose her?”

She used the word “choose,” and Qin Fang recalled what she had just said.

—When splitting, there was no absolute equality or even strength. While both appeared to be “half,” one side was bound to be stronger.

Exactly which side was stronger, no one knew in advance. It was understandable to say it was Heaven’s choice, but what were Heaven’s criteria for choosing?

Qin Fang and Si Teng shared the same confusion: no matter how one looked at it, Si Teng was the stronger. To put it bluntly, she was the orthodox demon, while Bai Ying’s love for Shao Yankuan and her wild fantasy of having a child were tantamount to rebellion, and she was thoughtless. She even killed Si Teng for an unworthy man. So why was Bai Ying the stronger half?

However, Yan Furui saw it as a non-issue: Bai Ying was strong, so be it. It wasn’t something she could control, just like some people were born beautiful while others were born ugly. That was fate. What was there for Miss Si Teng to worry about?

He was eager to know what happened next. “Miss Si Teng, what happened next?”

***

What happened next?

She hadn’t witnessed what happened next, but she had a clear outline in her mind, partly from Jia Guizhi’s account and the letter from Bai Ying in the long black trunk, and partly from the fragments she had found over the past few days.

That night, Jia Guizhi’s great-grandfather, Jia San, an ordinary rickshaw driver, accidentally showed up at the bankrupt Huamei Textile Factory and, confused, pushed open the workshop door.

What he saw terrified him. Just as he tried desperately to escape, the door slammed shut.

Clack, clack, clack…

The clatter of high-heeled shoes stopped right in front of him. Jia San trembled with fear and kowtowed profusely, and Bai Ying asked him, “Do you want to live?”

Jia San’s teeth chattered so violently that he uttered “yes” several times, the pronunciations strange and indistinguishable. Then, he suddenly felt like ants were crawling on his back, crossing his neck, and slowly crawling up his cheek. In front of Bai Ying, he didn’t dare to pat it. Just as the itch became unbearable, the gossamer-like thing suddenly slithered and darted into his nostrils.

Then, like Taoist Wang Qiankun, Jia San experienced the power of the Killing Vine. He crawled convulsively on the ground, stars flashing before his eyes, and the sound of dripping blood lingered in his ears.

Bai Ying said, “If you’re obedient, you won’t have to endure this torture in the future.”

She ordered Jia San to take the blood-drenched body away. The north was at war and unsafe, and the south was in chaos and unstable. The southwest wouldn’t let him go, so he urged him to go to the northwest; the more vast and sparsely populated, the better. She said, “I’ve heard there are foreigners in the northwest. Foreigners are good; they won’t question Han people. When you get there, stay there and write a letter with your address.”

She gave Jia San an address to remember. When she mentioned the recipient, she hesitated for a long time before saying, “Send it to me, Bai Ying, Miss Bai.”

Jia San trembled. “Miss Bai, I can’t read.”

Bai Ying said, “Just… Just write the address and find someone who can write. But…”

A cryptic smile crossed her face. “You can’t move. I’ll write you a letter after I’ve settled things here. Maybe in three to five years, maybe six to seven. Be patient, and you’ll get it.”

“You can’t have anyone else read this letter. You’re the only one who can read it. Learn to read it yourself. Read it later, morning or night; it doesn’t matter. Everything I want to say and everything I want you to do is in this letter. I’m not afraid of you harboring ulterior motives. If you want your entire family wiped out, go ahead and try.”

She added, “Bury the body properly, somewhere uninhabitable. The more remote, the better. I’ll need it someday.”

Jia San trembled even more violently.

He found some scraps of cloth from the textile factory, wrapped the body, and tucked it into the seat of his rickshaw. He pulled it home, his legs weak and powerless. After returning home, he hid the body. His wife searched his wallet, but seeing he hadn’t earned much, her face darkened. She scolded him for drinking too much wine and not doing his job properly. He stared at his wife’s lips, opening and closing, and said, “We have to move to the Northwest.”

He collapsed, as if the alcohol had taken over him. No matter how she shook him, he wouldn’t wake up. The next morning, he brought up the same thing again, and his wife realized he wasn’t talking nonsense. She immediately flew into a rage, crying, fuming, and even threatening to hang herself. She threw at least ten plates and bowls, and Jia San began to feel some regret.

Just then, his son suddenly said, “Father, when you were asleep yesterday, something long crawled out of your nose. I leaned over to look, and it slid into my ear. It was really itchy, but when I woke up this morning, it wasn’t itching anymore. I don’t know if I was just dazzled or dreaming.”

Killing Vine!

Jia San was first terrified, then furious. He threw the lids off the stove and said, “Are you leaving? It’s fine if you don’t. I’ll take our son with me, and you can find another man to marry!”

…

After a long journey and several displaced experiences, Jia San and his family finally settled in Nangqian.

He made a special trip to the county town to send a letter to Miss Bai Ying. However, Nangqian was far from Shanghai; learning to read was difficult. Most of the people around couldn’t even speak Chinese. He did find one or two literate people, either military clerks or people of high status. Who would bother to teach him to read and write? He stuttered, and having to make a living in a foreign land, he had no time to truly learn. After several years, he could only count the number of characters he knew on two hands.

Miss Bai Ying had previously said it might take three to five years, perhaps six to seven years, but in reality, the letter arrived later than expected. It was entrusted to a traveling merchant moving to the northwest for a large sum of money, fearing it would be lost if sent through the official post.

He did recognize the two characters on the envelope: Bai Ying.

These two words seemed to bring back a nightmare.

Jia San was learning to read the letter while learning to read. Later, when a teacher was sent from the city to participate in a literacy campaign, he became more attentive. Every day, he would copy a few characters from the teacher’s book, shuffling their order and asking the teacher, “Teacher, how do you pronounce these characters? What do they mean?”

One day, he finally understood the entire letter. He felt as if he had been hit by ice water. Only then did he realize that this debt, which had been inexplicably incurred from the sky, was one he would never be able to repay.

Miss Bai’s letter asked him if Killing Vine had found his son.

“Your son will eventually have a child, whether it’s a son or a daughter. This Killing Vine will be passed down through the generations, and of course, it won’t be endless. There’s one thing Jia San’s descendants must accomplish. Counting from that night, it will last seventy years, and the deadline will be eighty years. If they still can’t accomplish it, the Killing Vine will attack. And not only that, but it will also wipe out the entire family line. However, if they succeed, there will be rewards: gold, silver, and treasures. Even bringing the dead back to life is within their grasp…”

Jia San trembled as he counted, his ten fingers held before his eyes, then realized he didn’t have enough. Did he start from that night? That was 1937. That meant he could begin the task in 2007. But if it wasn’t completed by 2017…

2007; by then, he would have been long dead. His son wouldn’t be able to do this either. Maybe his grandson, or maybe even a generation later…

His heart was pounding as he read the instructions in the letter over and over.

The letter mentioned a town near Hangzhou that specialized in silk reeling and sericulture. It mentioned a wealthy family there and a man named Qin Laifu.

***

A chill rose in Qin Fang’s heart.

Si Teng fell silent. She turned and gazed for a long time at Bai Ying’s portrait on the wall.

Qin Fang’s voice trembled slightly. “The town you mentioned… that town has my family’s old house. Qin Laifu… seems to be…”

Si Teng interrupted him. “Not ‘seems to be.’ Qin Laifu is your great-grandfather’s name.”

“Qin Fang, isn’t it time to come over and kowtow? If I’m not mistaken, you are a descendant of Bai Ying and Shao Yankuan.”

For a moment, the room fell into a deathly silence.

The silence was broken by Yan Furui’s almost stuttering, surprised voice. “W-what…what?”

T/N: Mirroring Yan Furui… “W-what…what?”

This twist! Wei Yu is sooooo good!!

*rushes to translate next chapter*