Chapter 8: Why the Disturbance
The three exchanged uneasy looks before Li Mother finally stammered out, “Wh-what relationship could there be? She… she was just the girl I bought from a broker to be Second Son’s wife. It was a proper transaction, we even have the deed. The magistrate’s office stamped it too!” As she spoke, she pulled out a yellowed sheet of paper, marked with handprints and a red official seal.
Yun Jiao frowned. She knew this was ancient times and that the buying and selling of people was real, but it still left a sour taste in her heart.
“And after that?” If it was just that, how had the woman ended up dead?
“After that… after that…” Li Mother’s face darkened further before she muttered defensively, “It was all her fault for being disobedient! We paid twenty taels for her. Yet she was lazy, and even at nine months pregnant she dared run off. After that… she never came back.”
“Great Immortal,” Li Da chimed in to support her, “we searched the mountain for her again and again. Second Brother himself looked for half a month, turning the hills upside down. But that wretch was too useless, dying up north and dragging my brother down with her.”
“All my fault!” Li Mother spat bitterly. “I brought a curse into this house. All these years and she never gave us a son, and even after death she comes back to harm him. If I had known she was such an ungrateful wretch, restless even in the grave, I’d never have let her into my family!”
Li Da nodded vigorously in agreement.
Mother and son took turns spitting venom at the ghost’s life, while Li Er on the bed stayed silent, head bowed, saying nothing.
“You mean… you never found her?” Yun Jiao’s eyes narrowed.