Chapter 748 - 385: Great-Aunt’s Orders (Part 2)

Chapter 748: Chapter 385: Great-Aunt’s Orders (Part 2)

The voice finally stopped abruptly. It seemed he had fainted.

Huai Zi hurriedly pulled Juhua into his arms and whispered in her ear, "Don’t be afraid! The Grand Aunt won’t hurt you. We’re helping the uncles."

Why would Juhua be afraid? She almost burst out laughing.

’How strange,’ she thought. ’Just moments ago, the same thing had scared me stiff, but now I feel like a bystander. Listening to them wail, beg for mercy, repent, and apologize is just hilarious.’

She decided to add some fuel to the fire. Drawing out her words in a thin, wailing voice, she cried, "Grand Aunt—you’ve finally come, Your Ladyship! Look at them, so brazen and bold..." As she spoke, she squeezed Huai Zi’s hand to signal him not to worry.

Huai Zi quickly shouted, "Uncles, hurry and tell the Grand Aunt that you’ll divide the family property peacefully..."

In the darkness, one of the uncles cried out, "We won’t divide the family! We’ll keep living together... Mother, don’t be angry..."

The others quickly chimed in with their agreement.

When Juhua heard this, she thought, ’How could they not divide the family? Without the Grand Aunt to keep them in line, this family is bound to have problems sooner or later.’ So she quickly said, "No, that won’t do. The Grand Aunt told me that with her gone, you uncles definitely won’t be able to get along. It’s better to divide the property sooner rather than later. She had to leave in a hurry, otherwise she would have helped you sort everything out before she left. But she said to do it just as she always said you should. No one is allowed to fight over it. Whoever starts a fight, she’ll come for them."

The lie rolled off her tongue so smoothly. She had figured out from their earlier conversations that the Grand Aunt had likely mentioned how to divide the family property before, so the words came to her naturally.

Seeing Juhua spinning an ever more elaborate tale, Huai Zi frantically leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Can you make this story believable? Don’t let them question you and cause you to slip up. That would be a disaster."

Juhua didn’t say a word, only squeezing his palm to reassure him.

And so, after another round of commotion, they finally decided to divide the family property right there in the mourning hall. Someone relit the oil lamp, and all the outsiders withdrew, leaving the siblings to argue it out in front of the coffin.

When Juhua came out, she saw the short man being carried away. He was still unconscious; it seemed he had been truly terrified.

She inwardly wiped away a cold sweat. ’If anyone ever tells me again that there are no such things as ghosts, I’ll definitely give them a piece of my mind. Tonight’s experience has completely overturned my views on ghosts and spirits.’

Just as she was thinking this, a small hand suddenly grabbed her left hand. "Young Madam! Were you scared just now?"

It was Pu Pao.

She quickly asked, "Pu Pao, I couldn’t look after you just now. Where did you go? Were you scared?" She turned the question back on Pu Pao.

Pu Pao giggled, shrinking her neck and glancing around. Then she pulled Juhua and Huai Zi toward a less crowded spot and whispered, "I was in the mourning hall the whole time. I saw that the wind hadn’t blown out the lamp, and the Young Madam was getting anxious, and everyone was staring at you. So I crawled under the coffin, got to the offering table, and used one of those pokers for burning spirit money to knock over the oil lamp..."

"What?" Juhua’s voice shot up an octave, drawing the gazes of everyone nearby. She hastily clapped a hand over her mouth.

’What in the world is going on?’ she wondered. ’I was just starting to believe ghosts were real, and now Pu Pao comes and tells me she was the one who knocked over the lamp. So are there ghosts in this world or not?’

Does this count as the Grand Aunt’s spirit manifesting? If not, then why was the wind blowing so strangely?

Hearing Pu Pao’s words, Huai Zi chuckled softly.

Juhua thought about it and still felt unconvinced. Mainly because she felt that no one had pushed over the first oil lamp. At that time, she had been the only one in the mourning hall.

So she asked doubtfully, "You were trembling with fear just a moment ago. How did you dare to crawl under the coffin once you were in the mourning hall? Weren’t you scared after knocking over the lamp?"

Pu Pao said excitedly, "I don’t know why, but I wasn’t scared at all then. Seeing them screaming like they’d seen a ghost was actually kind of fun. I snuck out later under the cover of darkness."

Juhua gave her a strange look, concluding that the Grand Aunt must have been using Pu Pao’s hands to teach her descendants a lesson. Otherwise, how could such a young girl not be terrified in front of a coffin? She had been shaking with fear just before.

Just then, Qingmu came over to call them for the meal. Juhua shook her head and said, "Brother, I’m not going to join the main feast. I’ll just find something to eat in the kitchen. Huai Zi, you go sit at the table with my brother."

Huai Zi told Qingmu that he would stay with Juhua and not to worry, that they would just get some hot food from the kitchen. So, Qingmu went to eat by himself.

Huai Zi, Juhua, and Pu Pao headed toward a thatched shed to the east. It turned out that not all the cooking was done in the kitchen. A temporary shed had been built with mud bricks, and several large woks were set up over makeshift stoves. Apart from a few stir-fried dishes, the rest of the food—like the rice and braised meat—was cooked in these large woks. People also gathered here to wash dishes and prepare vegetables.

Although the Grand Aunt’s family was relatively well-off, they hadn’t prepared a lavish banquet. The dishes were decent, with no shortage of meat, but the rice was cooked with corn mixed in.

Juhua was no stranger to this kind of rice, having eaten it for over a year. The problem was that after it was served, it wasn’t covered, and it was awful when it got cold. She had only managed a small mouthful at noon and was now so hungry she felt her stomach was caving in.

Inside the thatched shed, only a dark, thin woman sat before the stove opening. She looked quite surprised to see Juhua and the others.

Juhua quickly explained why they were there. The woman gave a slight smile, not asking any further questions. She pulled a few bowls and pairs of chopsticks from a nearby basket, ladled some hot water from a large wooden bucket to rinse them, and then placed them on a long plank table propped up by mud bricks.

She turned back, smiled at Juhua and the others, and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "I’ll stir-fry some vegetables." Then she brought over a few small stools for them to sit on.

Juhua quickly thanked her and sat down with Huai Zi and Pu Pao. She watched as the woman pulled a handful of washed napa cabbage from a vegetable basket, chopped it up, heated a large wok, and began to stir-fry.