Chapter 74: Begging for Mercy

After pleading for mercy, the two elderly figures gradually fell silent.

They were dead.

Their eyes were wide open, the corners split, staring blankly at the ceiling; the veins in their necks bulged, the blood vessels beneath their skin had turned black; both their hands and feet curled under them, as if bound by invisible ropes. Their final cries echoed like the wails of the condemned.

Doctors and nurses rushed in. They were quick, but it was already too late.

Given the alarming volume of blood lost and the state of their bodies, there was no point in attempting resuscitation.

What followed was dispersing the onlookers outside the ward and calling in the orderlies to clean the room.

Their family members were summoned to the office for further arrangements.

Li Sanjiang spotted his great-grandson and, puzzled, pulled Li Zhuiyuan aside.

"Aren’t you supposed to be with your grandpa at the river? How did you end up here?"

Xue Liangliang stepped forward, handing over his student ID.

"Sir, I’m a student at Haihe University. I used to be at River Engineering. I brought a sick classmate to the hospital, and since Little Yuan knows the way, I asked him to lead us. I already told his grandpa."

"He knows the way?" Li Sanjiang eyed both of them. "He just came back to his hometown. He’s never even been downtown. What way does he know?"

"Actually, I just like the kid. Thought I’d take him out for a stroll."

Li Sanjiang took the ID, examined it carefully, and returned it. He seemed convinced—for now, university credentials still held weight.

At that moment, the middle-aged couple from the ward emerged from the doctor's office and came straight to Li Sanjiang.

He sighed and said, "My condolences."

Li Zhuiyuan figured they must be Ying'er’s uncle and aunt.

But this couple didn’t look grief-stricken. More like they had more pressing concerns. Each grabbed one of Li Sanjiang’s hands, whispering urgently:

"Grandpa Sanjiang, please help us. Save us."

"Yes, please, sir. It's just too terrifying."

Li Sanjiang shot a glance at Li Zhuiyuan, signaling them to talk in private on the floor’s balcony.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t insist on tagging along. His third aunt was still finishing the paperwork, and Ying’er sat on a bench, dazed and unfocused.

Witnessing such horror and losing family at once was a heavy blow.

Li Zhuiyuan sat beside her, speaking gently to comfort her, while also probing for details.

Ying’er’s grandparents worked at a private fish farm. Two weeks ago, during dredging operations, they unearthed a small coffin.

The coffin was bright red. Despite being soaked underground for who knows how long, it showed no decay—if anything, it looked more vivid, as if steeped in its own color.

The elderly couple called the boss over and suggested, per local custom, it should be incensed and then sent off into the river.

But the boss, being from out of town, scoffed at superstition. He called in two workers and had them pry open the coffin.

Inside lay the body of a young girl, around eight years old, dressed in a black cotton jacket and embroidered shoes. It was likely a winter burial. At first glance, the body looked almost lifelike—no signs of rot.

Everyone thought it must be a recently buried child!

But within minutes, the body suddenly decayed. The once dewy skin turned ashen, the flesh dissolved rapidly, leaving only a skeleton wrapped in that black cotton jacket.

The girl wore a full set of jewelry—a jade hairpin, rings on her fingers, a gold band around her neck.

Also in the coffin was a porcelain vase plastered with talisman paper and a carved piece of black wood.

The wood bore a large inscription:

"The corpse suppresses evil. Merit aids ascension."

Beneath that, in smaller characters, and a signature:

"To the reader: Do not defile the body. Do not touch the items. Reseal the coffin and cast it into the river. Only then can catastrophe be avoided.

—Bai Family Matron"

Ying’er’s grandparents begged the boss to reseal the coffin and return it to the river. But the boss, enticed by the jewelry and the vase—which he assumed to be valuable—took everything. As for the coffin and the remains, he buried them in a pit by the riverbank.

Then the horrors began.

First, the boss vanished without a trace.

Then Ying’er’s grandparents started having nightmares of the little girl seeking revenge. Their health deteriorated. They were hospitalized at the town clinic and even developed suicidal tendencies.

One day, while the third aunt had gone home to fetch food, the elderly pair tricked Ying’er into leaving—saying they wanted orange crystals soaked in water—and made for the rooftop, planning to jump.

Luckily, Great-Grandpa arrived just in time and stopped them.

But after that, the clinic refused to keep them, fearing liability. They were transferred to the City People's Hospital.

Their condition only worsened. With sedatives and close watch from family, they were prevented from harming themselves further.

But no one expected such a chilling, unnatural end.

After Ying’er finished recounting, Li Zhuiyuan asked:

"What about the two workers who helped open the coffin?"

"I… I don't know. No one's mentioned them."

"Were your grandparents still mentally lucid in the beginning?"

"Except during their episodes, they were fine. Just fifteen minutes before vomiting blood, they were chatting with me—about finding a boyfriend after I get into college."

At that moment, Third Aunt called from the office.

"Yinghou, help Mom fill out this form."

"Coming, Mom."

After Ying’er left, Li Zhuiyuan realized that at some point, Xue Liangliang had edged up beside him, eavesdropping.

Catching Li Zhuiyuan’s look, Xue Liangliang wasn’t embarrassed. If anything, he was excited.

"You were fishing for information."

"I was comforting my cousin."

"Whew… you scared me back there. When those two old folks yelled 'Bai Family Matron' in the ward, I nearly had a heart attack. Thought it was because of me smashing that statue—or maybe 'cause I brought Zhao Hequan to this hospital today and triggered something awful."

So Xue Liangliang had seen the inscription under the statue too.

"Don’t worry, Liangliang-ge. The timelines don’t match. The girl in the pond was found two weeks ago. You and Zhao Hequan smashed the statue yesterday. No connection."

"But… age-wise, can we be sure?" Xue Liangliang asked. "Back then, transport and communication were poor. Maybe the statue was just symbolic. What if the deity behind it really was that little girl?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "Not the same."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Because he’d seen that woman. Her physique and aura might have matched the statue, even exaggerated it—but there was no way she’d ever been an eight-year-old girl.

"But they both used the name Bai Family Matron," mused Xue Liangliang. "Could it be a title? Like how Taoist sects all call their masters something-something Tianshi?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. "Or a surname."

Somehow, he thought of the spirit hall in Liu Yumei’s east wing, filled with ancestral tablets from the Qin and Liu families.

"All surnamed Bai?" Xue Liangliang laced his fingers. "Could be. In dialect, 'Bai Family Matron' might just mean 'that powerful woman from the Bai family'—a respectful title."

Li Zhuiyuan agreed, glancing toward the balcony. His great-grandfather and Ying’er’s uncle and aunt were still inside.

Xue Liangliang nudged him gently.

"So, all that your cousin told you—got any other thoughts?"

"A lot was concealed or glossed over."

"Exactly." Xue Liangliang lit up. "You caught that too. The boss disappeared. Her grandparents got sick. But the two workers who opened the coffin—nobody knows? Unless..."

"Unless those workers were the grandparents themselves."

"That cousin of yours just repeated what the grown-ups told her. But those two old folks—they sugarcoated their roles too much.

If what they claimed was true, they wouldn’t be crying for mercy on their deathbeds. They’d be crying injustice.

Which means… maybe they dredged up the coffin, called the boss over.

Or the boss found it and wanted to leave it alone—but they pushed to open it.

At the very least, they were deeply involved. Not so innocent or reasonable as they claimed."

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