Wang Ya reached out and lightly poked her cheap dad’s shoulder, saying, “Dad, let me in. You guard the door—if that couple tries to come into our house, beat them into the fields.” With that, she pointed toward the paddy field under the muddy stone road less than a meter and a half wide outside the door, then ducked under Wang Cheng’an’s arm and strode into the courtyard. She heard the man start cursing and shouted, “Dad, if Wang Chengzhi curses one more time, beat him into the fields.”
Wang Chengzhi grumbled and walked away cursing. The woman who had rushed over asked him a couple of questions, and Wang Chengzhi cursed loudly again: “I should have drowned you in the piss bucket back then!” He then cursed his wife: “Look at the retributive thing you gave birth to!” His curses faded into the distance, but Wang Ya paid no more attention to them. Her home—aside from the front gate, which was intact—had even its courtyard walls pushed down!
Wang Chengwei said, “Yaya, all the light bulbs exploded, and the wires are completely burned out. Come take a look.” He picked up a flashlight and led Wang Ya toward the corner. Along the way, Wang Ya saw that even the cockroaches, rats, and snakes in the brick crevices were dead!
The air still carried a lingering trace of Yin Qi.
Yellow Springs Road opened—living beings, stay away!
Wang Ya stood there in a daze in the courtyard, tears instantly streaming down her face. Last night, Yellow Springs Road had bloomed in her family’s courtyard, and without an Incense Boundary, the range it flung out was uncontrolled. Thus, not a single living creature inside or outside the entire courtyard had escaped—every one had its soul returned to the Yellow Springs! Wang Ya hated it to her core and gnashed her teeth, roaring furiously, “Dead Old Lady! This isn’t over between us!” She wailed again, “Grandma!” and cried until she could scarcely catch her breath.
Wang Cheng’an ran to Wang Ya’s side and shouted, “Yaya, don’t cry—whoever bullies you, I’ll beat them!”
Wang Chengwei asked, “Yaya, do you know who did this? Tell Second Uncle—is it really revenge? Where’s your grandma?”
Wang Ya shook her head, choking back sobs as she forced her tears to stop. “Second Uncle, you stay out of this—don’t get involved, no matter what!” Seeing her uncle’s face tense up, she quickly raised her hand to signal him not to speak. Unable to control her trembling, she said, “Second Uncle, listen to me—this is something you can’t handle. It ties back to a family extermination case from decades ago. Last night, my dad hid; if he hadn’t, he’d be gone too. You can’t handle it!”
Wang Chengwei’s face changed drastically as he asked, “What exactly have you gotten involved in?”
Wang Ya sniffled a few times before saying, “Second Uncle, do you remember Grandma telling you about how she picked up that Nameless Taoist’s things back then?”
Wang Chengwei nodded. “That’s the ghost-catching stuff you learned, right?”
Wang Ya said, “I went out to work and used the things Grandma taught me for ghost catching—someone recognized them. The things Grandma picked up belonged to a family from Yunnan that got wiped out over some item. Now those people have come to our house.”
Wang Chengwei shouted, “What item? Give it to them! Are you stupid?”
Wang Ya yelled back, “Our family doesn’t even have what they’re after—we just picked up some other things from that family!”
Wang Chengwei bellowed, “Fuck! Then where’s your grandma?”
Wang Ya said, “Second Uncle, don’t ask anymore. Even if I have to go down the Yellow Springs, I’ll bring Grandma back. You leave now! You and your colleagues—this is something you can’t afford to provoke. That group dared to bring sixty or seventy people with gunpowder guns and Homemade Landmines to chop people down in the south! The more you know, the worse it is for you. If you know nothing, they won’t come after you.”
Wang Chengwei asked, “Then what about you? What are you going to do?”
Wang Ya said, “I’ll be fine. They couldn’t beat me outside, so they came back to target Grandma.” She didn’t want to say more and turned to the nearby police officer. “Take my Second Uncle away. I’ve said everything I can—don’t ask about the rest, or it’ll bring disaster.”
Wang Chengwei was furious, spewing curses, and asked again, “What about Cheng’an?”
Wang Ya said, “He’ll stay with me; it’ll be fine. Second Uncle, go scare that couple off—don’t let them come over and cause trouble. I can’t stand the sight of them.” That couple, of course, referred to Wang Chengwei’s older brother Wang Chengzhi and his wife—the pair who had nearly drowned her in a piss bucket and sold her off for two pigs.
Wang Chengwei stood there thinking for a moment, then let out a heavy sigh. With clear reluctance but no other choice, he said, “Fine!” He called out to the nearby police officer, left the courtyard, and headed along the field path toward his older brother’s house.
Wang Ya walked toward the house.
Wang Cheng’an followed behind and asked, “Yaya, what’s a family extermination?”
Wang Ya glanced back at Wang Cheng’an. She recalled how her Grandma had broken open the Yellow Springs and rushed into it to escape her enemies, just like the Feng Family’s Legitimate Eldest Daughter had done back then. Thinking of the Feng Family Secret Arts she herself possessed, she couldn’t help but wonder if her Grandma was actually that Legitimate Eldest Daughter from the Feng Family. At this moment, she almost wished her Grandma was Feng Yuqin, returned from the Underworld Courts to the mortal world. If her Grandma could walk out of the Underworld Courts alive once, she might do it a second time. Wang Ya clung to that hope, yet knew how slim it was—even if her Grandma was Feng Yuqin, she was over seventy, riddled with injuries and illnesses, no longer the woman she had been! And if her Grandma was Feng Yuqin, then her dad, Wang Cheng’an, might be the Feng Family’s last remaining bloodline. Those seeking the Yin Spirit Scroll wouldn’t let him live.
Wang Ya knew her family had a particularly ancient painting, so old that the characters and patterns had faded to near illegibility when rolled up. Could that tattered old Ancient Painting be the Yin-Yang Scroll? Wang Ya found it hard to believe! But if her Grandma truly was the Feng Family’s Legitimate Eldest Daughter, then whether that ragged Ancient Painting was the Yin-Yang Scroll became far less certain! Yet with her home ransacked like this, were the items even still there?
