booktalesy Chapter 5 The Blind Old Woman, Monsters and Demons
Chapter 5 The Blind Old Woman, Monsters and Demons
Li Xiao's forehead was covered in cold sweat. He swallowed hard and didn't know what to say.
A middle-aged laborer nicknamed Lao Kang walked over, looking on with envy.
"Ah Si, you little rascal, you don't even recognize a true god!"
"This is the famous 'fortune teller' of Xiangshan Village. She is very accurate in telling fortunes and predicting things!"
"Sometimes, when the old men and women in the city, dressed in silk and riding in sedan chairs, encounter difficult problems that they can't solve, they have to prepare generous gifts, hire a sedan chair, and rush down to the foot of the mountain to ask for a divination!"
"I can't be wrong to say you're blessed."
The old man recognized the blind old woman and looked at her with great respect.
His words immediately eased the somewhat strange atmosphere around them.
The way the laborers looked at Li Xiao changed.
What started as displeasure and pettiness turned into a mixture of envy and jealousy.
After Lao Gang explained it this way, Li Xiao felt the strange feeling from before completely disappear. The old woman in front of him instantly became kind and amiable, and those dead fish eyes were just cataracts.
"Thank you, Madam Ming."
Li Xiao didn't know what to say, so he simply thanked him.
"Good young man, being able to eat is a blessing..."
The blind old woman stroked her black bamboo cane and repeated the same sentence.
At this moment, the old man said respectfully, "Grandma, aren't you supposed to stay at the foot of Fragrant Mountain and not leave the mountain? Why have you come to Wuling County?"
The blind old woman glanced at the old man and said slowly in her withered voice, "The village has been in turmoil, and the incense smoke has faded. Let's just follow the flow of people... wherever we end up, that's where we'll go."
"Yes, yes, this Wuling City is so popular! You can even see foreigners on the streets."
Old Gang rubbed his hands together, his face full of flattery: "Look at me, sir, am I lucky enough to have such good fortune?"
Everyone says that this blind fortune teller is very accurate, but she's very expensive.
Seeing that Li Xiaobai had gotten the better deal, Lao Gang wanted to do the same.
The blind old woman glanced at it, shook her head, and said, "No luck, no luck."
Immediately, a burst of laughter and curses came from the surrounding area.
The old man's face darkened, and he felt frustrated.
As a result, everyone's gaze towards Li Xiao changed, as if he were about to achieve great success.
Manager Zhang, who was not far away, saw the fortune teller and quickly came over. He bowed and said politely, "Fortune teller, you've arrived. Master Huang is waiting for you. I'll show you the way."
The old woman turned around and followed the steward deeper into the courtyard.
I don't know if she can see, but she walks with a swagger.
As soon as the old woman left, the laborers around her immediately surrounded her, chattering amongst themselves.
Their words were full of envy, tinged with jealousy and sarcasm.
"We manual laborers, what kind of good fortune do we have..."
Li Xiao stammered and tried to brush it off, but for some reason, he felt a tightness in his chest.
Because apart from these laborers, the rice shop assistants and guards around them were all silent, and their gazes toward him seemed to reveal a strangeness.
This made Li Xiao feel uneasy, and he worried about keeping watch tonight.
"This Huang's Rice Shop seems a bit eerie..."
.......
The inner hall of the Huang family mansion.
The strong sandalwood scent couldn't mask the faint, lingering chill.
"May God protect me, Huang Shoucai, and keep me safe and sound..."
Huang Shoucai, the head of the Huang family rice shop, was a withered old man in his sixties with graying temples.
Despite it being the hottest time of summer, he was wearing a silk-lined jacket and still felt a chill seeping into his bones.
Huang Shoucai twirled a string of glossy sandalwood prayer beads, repeatedly chanting those few prayers.
On the offering table, the sacrificial animals were fresh, and the fruits and pastries were neatly arranged.
Two thick red dragon and phoenix candles were burning brightly, their wax dripping in layers.
In the gilded incense burner at the very center, three sticks of fine agarwood smoke rose straight up, but as the smoke rose into the air, it strangely twisted and dispersed slightly, as if it were being stirred by an invisible airflow.
Huang Shoucai stared intently at the distorted cigarette, his eyes sunken and bloodshot.
Footsteps came from under the eaves, unhurried, "tap, tap, tap," the sound of a bamboo cane tapping the ground.
Huang Shoucai suddenly looked up, a glint of hope mixed with a deeper fear flashing in his eyes.
"May God protect me, Huang Shoucai, and keep me safe and sound..."
His final prayer faded from his lips.
The curtain was lifted by a withered hand, and the gray, old clothes from the previous dynasty seemed to carry a chilling aura, causing the candlelight in the inner hall to flicker slightly.
"Master, the fortune teller has arrived."
The steward who had led the way bowed his head and reported the news, then quickly withdrew.
Huang Shoucai forced a grateful and respectful smile, bowed deeply, and said, "Thank you for coming, madam. I am truly desperate and have no other choice but to ask you for guidance."
The fortune teller's lifeless white eyes "looked" at him, yet seemed to pierce through him, landing on the twisted cigarette on the offering table. The stiff curve of her lips seemed to have flattened slightly, and her voice remained as dry as ever:
"The incense is still burning brightly... but the smell is off."
She gently tapped the smooth white jade floor with her bamboo cane, "Human greed knows no bounds..."
Huang Shoucai shuddered, and a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
He didn't dare to reply, but bent down even lower.
"Hehehe..."
The old woman made a strange sound in her throat, swayed to the main seat, then went past it, supported herself with her hands on the blackened bamboo cane, and plopped down on the grand chair next to the altar.
She inhaled the incense smoke deeply, and the ash from the incense seemed to be drawn towards her like a siphon.
But suddenly, the incense trembled and then dispersed to the side.
"I'm afraid I can't control it anymore."
The old woman's eyes, now white, turned to Huang Shouchai: "What exactly have you made it do all these years?"
"It's over, it's over..."
Upon hearing this, Huang Shoucai was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, remaining stunned for a long time.
He ordered the old woman to stand up: "Hurry up and speak."
After a long silence, Huang Shoucai slowly began to speak: "At first, I only offered sacrifices of cattle and sheep to the god of granaries to ensure the prosperity of my Huang family's business. Later, several rice shops opened in town and took over our family's business, so I..."
The fortune teller said, "You're letting the god of grain harm people??"
Huang Shoucai hurriedly shook his head; "No, I only made a wish to the God of Grain, asking that the business of those two rice shops be worse. The business of the two rice shops gradually declined, but who knew that starting the year before last, the people in those two rice shops suddenly encountered one misfortune after another, and they all died tragically one after another. The remaining people also moved away from Wuling County..."
As he spoke, he shuddered, as if still shaken, and pulled his coat tighter around himself. He continued, "The demands of the Granary God have been getting higher and higher. Until a few days ago, it actually demanded... demanded..."
The fortune teller continued, "You're asking for a living person as a sacrifice, right?"
Huang Shoucai said, "Yes... but I'm a respectable businessman, how could I dare to do such a heinous thing? I just think of it as sacrificing many cattle and sheep, hoping that the God of Grain will grant my wish... but..."
The fortune teller said, "But it's useless. If you don't offer living people as sacrifices, the God of the Grain will come and take them away himself. These past few days, the deaths of those employees in your shop were caused by the God of the Grain..."
Huang Shoucai knelt down and kowtowed: "Mistress, save me! I'm willing to give up half of my fortune, just for peace..."
The fortune teller shook her head and uttered three words: "Difficult, difficult, difficult!"
Huang Shoucai's face turned pale and his body went limp.
The fortune teller rose, her cloudy white eyes fixed on the candlestick, and sighed, "Ten years ago, I entrusted the God of the Granary to you, repeatedly instructing you never to make any promises that would harm others. Alas, you were blinded by greed and still made a heinous vow. Once the God of the Granary does evil, there's no turning back. Before, it couldn't harm people because the dragon vein held it back, but two years ago, the previous dynasty collapsed, the dragon vein was severed, and it could no longer hold it back..."
Huang Shoucai trembled as he asked, "May I ask, Granny, what exactly is this 'Granary God'? The other day I found the corpse of one of my shop assistants... it looked like it had been eaten by something, it was no longer human..."
"Now that things have come to this, I will no longer hide it from you."
The fortune teller said slowly, "Back then, what you bought from me was a rat spirit that had cultivated for three hundred years."
Huang Shoucai exclaimed in surprise, "A rat spirit?"
"All things in heaven and earth can become spirits, but spirits do not harm people. If you serve them well, they can become the household immortals of your Huang family after a hundred years, ensuring the prosperity of your Huang family and the continuous continuation of incense offerings."
"Unfortunately, you allowed it to harm people. The rat spirit's heart turned evil, and it's gone forever. Without the dragon vein to suppress it, it can come out and cause trouble. Now that it has eaten people, it's probably about to become a demon."
"There are still demons in this world..."
Huang Shoucai was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he stood there frozen like a clay sculpture.
He never imagined that all these years he had been serving not some kind of granary god, but a rat spirit!
What's even more terrifying is that, because of his own greed, he has now become a demon that harms people!
The fortune teller snorted coldly and said, "You believe in the God of War, but why don't you believe in demons?"
Huang Shoucai trembled all over: "If you, Granny, kill that rat demon, I'm willing to offer seventy percent of my fortune..."
"Hehehehehe..."
The fortune teller's laughter was particularly grating. She got up and walked towards the door.
"I brought this little mouse spirit from the mountains to you, intending to use the warmth of human life to help it cultivate. But your greed led it astray and turned it into a demon. And you want me to kill it with my own hands?"
"What's meant to be will be..."
"Ming Po..."
Huang Shoucai collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.