Red satin - Chapter 13
Xiaoyue felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Jiang Anhua's hands were clamping her down like iron, as if she were going to crush her.
Jiang Anhua seemed to be furious. In her haste, she swung her hand to push him away, and the long sword pierced through Jiang Anhua's body right in the chest. Xiaoyue was shocked and stared at her own hand and his wound. She had only forgotten that she was still holding a sword in her hand in her haste.
Jiang Anhua looked down at his chest, an expression of disbelief on his face. "You really want to kill me!" he frowned, seemingly puzzled.
"No...no...it's not like that, it's...it's about killing..." Xiaoyue looked at him and became incoherent.
Jiang Anhua suddenly waved his hand, and a strong wind arose. The long sword slowly melted inside his body, and he had become terrifying.
He grabbed the stunned Xiaoyue, opened his mouth, and bit down hard on the right side of her neck.
Xiaoyue's neck looked pink and delicate in the moonlight, shimmering softly.
Xiaoyue struggled slightly, her hair swaying and hitting his face.
He abruptly stopped what he was doing, his mouth agape, but he didn't take a bite.
The two embraced on the stage for a long time, their actions seemingly intimate yet terrifying. Finally, he pushed Xiaoyue away and said to her, "Go away, and never come to the theater again. You can't kill me, and I can't be killed either. Go!"
He disappeared, leaving Xiaoyue alone on the empty stage.
When Xiaoyue returned home, her master was already waiting for her there.
The master only said one sentence: "Give up! I don't want to lose you."
Xiaoyue threw herself into her master's arms and finally broke down in tears, feeling as if she had lost all her strength. She finally gave up the idea of killing Jiang Anhua.
It was as if this had never happened. She and her senior brother went to other people's houses to look for and catch ghosts, but she smiled less and was more melancholy.
One day, two guests came to the house. The chef seemed very happy and hurriedly asked Xiaoyue to serve tea and water, and then asked her to go to the market to choose the best vegetables.
She went out, but halfway there she realized she hadn't brought any money. She went back to get it, and as she passed the living room window, she heard the master's voice: "Thank you both for coming down the mountain to help."
"It's nothing. We really can't tolerate this kind of evil spirit anymore. I don't know why, but his cultivation level is so high."
"I've heard that he already possessed supernatural abilities before he died, and he may have been a born extraordinary person."
"It's a pity. If he hadn't died, he might have become a great master."
The master continued, “There’s no need to say anything now. It’s good that you two are willing to come out of the mountains to help. I was defeated by him ten years ago, and now my female disciple has also been defeated by him. I don’t want to get rid of him because he also died a tragic death. However, seven days ago, another woman died in his theater. He has taken countless lives. This kind of evil spirit cannot be allowed to live any longer, otherwise I would not be worthy of being the Ke family’s Celestial Master. This time, even if it costs me my life, I will beat him to a pulp so that he will never be reincarnated.”
Xiaoyue's heart tightened, and she turned and left.
She hid in the theater, waiting until dark, but Jiang Anhua didn't appear. She was worried that her master and the two masters might storm in at any moment, and she was also worried that the two sides would really fight. She didn't know who she hoped would win. Although she knew that her master was doing the right thing, she didn't want to see Jiang Anhua beaten to a pulp.
A long, long time passed, and the moon rose again. She looked up and saw Jiang Anhua standing by the window, still leaning against the railing, quietly watching her.
The two people stood by the window, one sitting in a chair, and the moonlight streamed in through the same window. The human and the ghost were able to enjoy the same moonlight.
"Can you please not kill him?"
"Then can you please not leave me?"
After he finished speaking, there was another long silence.
"My master has already sent people to take you away, you'd better leave quickly!"
“Where can I go? I’m not afraid of those two. Even if they come out of the mountains, they can’t capture me.”
Jiang Anhua suddenly appeared in front of Xiaoyue, looked straight at her and said, "Actually, killing me is easy too. My weakness is my eyes."
Xiaoyue didn't understand why he said that, and was about to ask, but her lips were already sealed. Time cannot stand still, but memories will forever remain in this moment. Their passionate kiss cannot be contained in the world, and Xiaoyue's heart felt like it had fallen into lukewarm water, losing its direction.
Suddenly, her master's voice rang out from outside the door: "Xiaoyue, you!!!"
She was shocked and tried to push his face away.
Two fingers, two bright red fingers coated with balsam juice, pierced the eyes of the riverbank flower.
Xiaoyue had stopped thinking, staring blankly at Jiang Anhua, who had already broken her vital point. She watched him slowly fall like a shattered piece of jade, then disappear from the ground. She couldn't see his expression, couldn't see his eyes, and didn't know what else he wanted to say. She couldn't speak either, but she knelt on the ground, frantically groping for his body. The rough ground chafed her delicate fingers until they bled, yet she continued searching for him.
It must be a joke. How could a ghost be killed so easily? Didn't he always claim to have high cultivation? How could he possibly be killed!
I killed him myself; I broke his fatal weakness and killed him.
The air around her seemed to gain weight all at once, and she couldn't hold on any longer, collapsing again. When she woke up again, her master had already sent two masters up the mountain, and her senior brother was watching over her. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Jiang Anhua's face, whether she was smiling, angry, disdainful, or making faces.
However, he was a ghost, and a malevolent one at that, and he has now disappeared.
Xiaoyue reminded herself of this countless times, but it was no use. She had lost her mind. She didn't know when she had fallen in love with him, nor why she would fall in love with a ghost. But by the time she realized it, it was too late.
He'll never come back, will he?
Xiaoyue screamed in her heart.
No, no, there must be a way to save him. Since it's the Ke family, they must have a way. Xiaoyue hid in the attic, frantically flipping through the book. When she was little, her master had told her that if she could set up an altar and invite the ancestral master, all the world's problems could be solved. Finally, she found the method. Xiaoyue finished reading the yellowed book in the dim attic, a smile appearing on her lips.
Night had fallen, and Xiaoyue changed into her most beautiful clothes. Then, carrying the altar supplies, she went to the theater, raised the altar by the water lily pond in the backyard, and began the ritual.
However, her hand, which was used to light incense, was grabbed.
She looked up; it was her senior brother.
"Junior sister, you can't do this, you'll die. Is it worth it for a ghost?"
"worth!"
"He's just a ghost. Even if you bring him back to life, he'll still be a ghost. You can't be with him."
"I don't care if he's a human or a ghost, good or bad, or whether he can be with me. None of that matters. I just need him to exist in this world and for me to be able to feel him."
"This altar is a taboo matter for the Ke family. After it is erected, inviting the ancestral master can certainly make your wishes come true. However, you will have to pass the fire test, the insect test, and the knife test. You will also have to exchange your best things with the ancestral master to move him and make your wishes come true. You may die, do you understand?"
"Senior brother, I'm not afraid of death, nor am I afraid of ghosts. I'm just afraid of loneliness, you know? If I have to guard the same scenery alone for a year, a hundred years, or a thousand years, enjoying the beautiful scenery all by myself, unable to be with the person I love most, who no longer exists anywhere in this world, and I can't even share the moonlight with them, I'd rather die!"
Xiaoyue hardened her heart and, taking advantage of her senior brother's distraction, struck his pressure points.
Then she started holding incense again, and at that moment another hand grasped hers.
She dared not look up, for that familiar fragrance wafted over again—the scent of riverbank flowers.
"You didn't disappear?" Xiaoyue asked softly.
I thought doing this would make you happier!
"Aren't your eyes your Achilles' heel?"
"I have no fatal flaw, meeting you is my fatal flaw."
She looked up and, for the first time, looked intently at Jiang Anhua under the moonlight, at his eyebrows, his eyes, and his expression, wanting to remember them all.
“I know I’ll never have the chance to see you in the sun, so I’m willing to give anything so you can see the sun,” Xiaoyue said, word by word.
"Even if you sacrifice yourself and ask the patriarch to help me clear my sins and be reborn as a human, so what? I will still lose you. I don't know if I will be able to meet you again in the next life, because I don't know where you are. Without you, what is the difference between being a human and being a ghost?"
“There is a difference. If you become a ghost, I will feel sorry that you can’t see the sunlight. If you become a human, even if I can’t be with you, I will be happy to know that you can meet many people and survive. This life or that life is not important. What is important is that I always want you to be well.”
The incense still ended up in the incense jar.
Once the sacrificial fire was lit, no one could stop it. Jiang Anhua and her senior brother were still pushed out of the sacrificial circle by an invisible force.
Two men watched helplessly as their beloved woman walked barefoot through the fire, countless insects falling from the sky and biting her; it was all beyond saving.
The patriarch appeared, an old man with white hair and beard, lazily gazing at Xiaoyue below the stage.
"What do you want from me that you asked me to come out?"
"I only ask that you can help Jiang Anhua pass on to the afterlife and be reborn as a human."
"It's nothing, what do you have for me?"
"What do you want, Grandmaster?"
"You are so beautiful that the moon and flowers would be ashamed to look at you. I want your beauty. Would you be willing?"
"Of course I'm willing."
"I won't take your life, even though it's an exchange of one thing for another. All I want is your beauty. By the way, why is it that when the Ke family members set up an altar, they always sacrifice themselves to benefit others?"
He sighed for a moment, then pointed at the riverbank flower, and saw that the riverbank flower slowly became transparent.
Xiaoyue rushed forward, looked at him, and the two stood facing each other without saying a word.
He watched her slowly grow old and ugly, while she watched him slowly become transparent.
She shed no tears, only a willing smile.
His tears were pale purple, shining like stars in the moonlight.
"I never knew loving someone could hurt so much!" he said.
"I never knew loving a ghost could be so blissful!"
The tear fell from nowhere; he had vanished, becoming transparent and invisible. Only the jade pendant he had taken from Xiaoyue's neck remained in mid-air.
Xiaoyue picked up the jade pendant from the ground and slowly walked away. Her figure became blurry in her senior brother's eyes, and her back looked incredibly old. The faint moonlight shone on her, and the road ahead was calm and peaceful.
Part Four of The Red Satin
Chapter Sixteen: Listening Garden (1)
Qin Jin watched the desolate figure slowly disappear in front of the large mirror, and the mirror itself vanished as well. Suddenly, she woke up and looked around. The sun had already risen, and the four of them had woken up on the sofa. They looked at each other, wondering if it was a dream or a memory dream that Grandpa Ke Liang had left them before he passed away. They wanted to ask each other but were too embarrassed to do so.
That morning, everyone was lost in thought. Finally, Ke Liang couldn't hold back any longer and ran to Qin Jin, saying, "Qin Jin, you know what, you really do look like that Liu Xiaoyue. No wonder Grandpa mistook you for someone else."
The other two immediately chimed in, saying, "Yes, yes, you really look like Liu Xiaoyue. Could you really be Liu Xiaoyue reincarnated? Your past life was so amazing! That love story could be made into a movie and become a classic."
Enraged, Qin Jin grabbed Hei Bao and fled, locking the door tightly inside the study. Meanwhile, the three people outside started discussing the scene from that dream, like moviegoers recounting details from a great film.
Qin Jin stood in the room, lost in thought for a long time. She thought about Liu Xiaoyue and Jiang Anhua from her dream. Although she didn't know if they were her past lives, their love was heartbreaking regardless. If she really was Xiaoyue reincarnated, then where was Jiang Anhua?
In this vast sea of people, if there truly is a past life and a present life, where do we end up, and by what means can we recognize each other?
Suddenly Tang Shishi knocked on the door: "Qin Jin, come out quickly, we've found a way to break the curse."
Business is more important. Let's put these romantic notions aside for now. My life is in danger, and I don't even have the chance to commit suicide for love.
She went outside and saw everyone gathered around a table with a large pile of ghost-catching books they had found from Grandpa Ke Liang. It seemed that all four of them wanted to become self-taught.
A book had crooked handwriting that said, "Burning the red cloth will break the curse of Kabeng." Everyone looked at the notebook and felt it was unbelievable. Could it really be that simple? However, they decided to burn the cloth anyway, thinking it was better to believe it than not.