RMACAUH Chapter 17

Chapter 17 The villagers had never seen it before, so they thought it was witchcraft…

With a ‘thud’, the bowl in Sang Cai’s hand fell to the ground and shattered. Wei Xiaofeng, afraid he’d been scalded, urged the maidservants to hurry so he could check on him.

“Sang Cai, why are you so careless? Did you get burned?”

“Did the mosquitoes bite you again?”

Wei Xiaofeng scratched his stinging neck and said fiercely, “Are these mosquitoes poisonous or what?!”

Sang Cai felt that something was wrong and said directly, “This place is very strange. I think we should leave as soon as possible!”

Wei Xiaofeng also felt a strange vibe. He had suspected something, but A-Yue’s explanation seemed reasonable.

Besides, he didn’t have anything worth stealing, so A-Yue had no reason to deceive him.

But no matter what, it wasn’t a good thing to stay in someone else’s house for a long time, especially since this place was in the backyard of the Prince’s mansion.

What if the Guangling Prince, Feng Yue, came back one day and didn’t like it, blaming A-Yue? Wouldn’t he be repaying kindness with ingratitude?

“Maidservant sisters, please go out first. I want to have a private word with Sang Cai.”

The maidservants curtsied and turned to leave the bedroom, closing the door for them.

“From now on, you can call me A-Cai.”

“Okay!” Wei Xiaofeng said with a smile, staring at Sang Cai.

Sang Cai was a little embarrassed by the gaze. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re so good-looking! Even better-looking than Su Qingzhi!”

Sang Cai’s eyebrows were thick and delicate, his eye sockets were deep, and his eyes were as bright as jewels. His crimson petal lips set off his snow-white skin, making anyone who looked at him mesmerized.

“Who is Su Qingzhi?”

“He’s the most beautiful *ge’er* in the capital. He’s proficient in everything – qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting. As soon as he goes out, he attracts a crowd!”

Sang Cai chuckled. “I can’t compare to him… Although I don’t know what that Su Qingzhi looks like, after seeing you, I know that there are people like you in this world.”

“Don’t make fun of me…” Wei Xiaofeng found it boring to praise each other back and forth, so he changed the subject. “By the way, why were you lying in that mass grave, covered in injuries?”

“I…” Sang Cai looked embarrassed and lowered his head to avoid Wei Xiaofeng’s searching gaze.

Although Wei Xiaofeng was said to be carefree, he could be as meticulous as hair at times. He said considerately, “It’s okay, it’s okay, don’t say it if you don’t want to. Let’s talk about something else.”

“You saved my life, so there’s nothing I can’t say,” Sang Cai took a deep breath. “But it’s a long story…”

“Is that so? Then wait a moment.” With that, he wheeled himself out of the bedroom. Before long, two maidservants came in, bringing fruit and snacks that filled the *kang* table. They also warmed a pot of sweet wine on the charcoal stove before leaving.

Sang Cai was dumbfounded. “What’s this?”

Wei Xiaofeng grabbed a handful of melon seeds and cracked them with a smile. “Okay, let’s begin.”

Sang Cai looked at him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “You really know how to enjoy life.”

“I’ve been feeling stuffy these past few days, so I can only listen to your gossip. After hearing yours, I’ll tell you all about my stuff.”

“It all started with my mother…”

Sang Cai’s mother was not a local. She came to the village with a baby bump. Sang Cai’s adoptive father picked up A-Ruo, his mother’s name, who had collapsed in the mountains and never left.

Sang Cai had a wonderful time before he turned six. In his memory, his adoptive father was a very simple and honest farmer who treated Sang Cai as his own child, even though he wasn’t.

His adoptive father was also very good to his mother. Their family lived together happily every day.

Until one day, his adoptive father had an accident at the mine. Many people were buried alive under the stone mine.

All he knew was that his mother rushed out in a hurry that day and didn’t come back for a whole day and night.

The room was dark and eerily quiet.

Until the next morning, his mother dragged his adoptive father’s body back in a straw mat.

His mother covered his eyes and said in a low voice, “A-Cai, don’t look. Go back to your room and wait for your mother, okay?”

“Mother… Is Father dead?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. He’s not dead, he won’t die!”

But his adoptive father was clearly dead, with a pale face and severed limbs wrapped together in the straw mat.

Sang Cai returned to the room. He hadn’t slept for a day and a night and was so tired that he fell onto the bed and fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was already dark. A dim candlelight was lit in his mother’s room. There were a few loaves of bread on the table to stave off hunger. Sang Cai filled his stomach and sat in front of the small table, staring blankly at his mother’s bedroom. The curtains were tightly closed, blocking everything inside, but occasionally there were strange gasping sounds.

He lay on the table and slept all night. When he woke up the next day, there was movement in the kitchen. He jumped off the stool and ran in to take a look. He saw his mother cooking as usual.

He subconsciously asked, “Mother, where’s Father?”

His mother happily stroked his face and said, “Your father is fine. He’s feeding the chickens in the yard!”

Sang Cai heard this and happily ran to the yard. Sure enough, he saw his adoptive father holding a winnowing basket and scattering rice bran into the chicken coop.

“Father…” He called out hesitantly.

His adoptive father was stunned for a long time and turned his head stiffly, smiling at him. But that smile was very strange. It wasn’t until much later that he realized why it felt strange, because his eyes were unfocused, without any light, like the eyes of a dead person.

From that day on, his adoptive father was like a puppet on a string, living with them and occasionally talking, but at most, he would only answer when asked.

Soon it was summer, and a rotten smell emanated from the house. His adoptive father began to lose his appetite. One night, he was awakened by his adoptive father’s vomiting. The heart-wrenching vomiting seemed to bring up his internal organs.

He watched his mother carry a basin of bloody mess out of the bedroom and bury it in the vegetable garden.

His adoptive father quickly became thin and no longer ate anything. At night, he would often wander alone in the yard. Sang Cai was extremely afraid.

A very large pit had been dug in the vegetable garden. Wild dogs dug up what his mother had buried. Sang Cai stood there stunned, watching. It looked like a human heart, but also like a rotten lung.

After that, his mother would always cry while holding his adoptive father at night, saying things he couldn’t understand.

Things like perhaps she should have let him rest in peace long ago.

Before long, many people in the village contracted a strange disease. People who contracted the disease would lose their appetite, and their bellies would swell like drums. When they were about to die, they would spit out strange worms from their mouths. The deceased had to be burned together with the worms they spat out in order to prevent future troubles.

That summer had just passed when the villagers poured into their house and took the walking corpse of his adoptive father from his mother’s hands. His mother roared, begging them to return her husband to her, but they still put his adoptive father on the firewood and burned her husband to ashes in front of her.

The moment his mother’s soul turned to ashes with her husband, it seemed to peel away from her body little by little.

The villagers didn’t give up, because people in the village were still getting sick and dying.

“Mother, shall we leave here? A-Cai is very scared.”

His mother gently touched his head and said, “A-Cai, don’t be afraid. Mother has something to give you.”

“What is it?”

His mother took out a wooden box from under the bed and handed it to him. “Keep it safe. You can learn the things inside to protect yourself, but remember not to harm others, understand?”

“Yes, A-Cai remembers,” Sang Cai nodded ignorantly.

“In the future, when Mother is not by your side, you must take care of yourself.”

“Where is Mother going? Why aren’t you by my side? Why aren’t you taking A-Cai with you?”

His mother looked at him with pity, tears streaming down her face. “The place Mother is going to is very dark and cold. You’re too young to go yet.”

“Then Mother shouldn’t go either!”

“But if I don’t die, you and they won’t be able to live.”

“A-Cai doesn’t understand…” He pouted in grievance, and large tears fell down his face.

“When A-Cai grows up, you’ll understand.”

Sure enough, within two days, the villagers tied him and his mother up and were going to burn them alive.

In order to protect him, his mother said to those villagers, “It’s me! I cast the witchcraft, and only I can save you. As long as you release my child, I guarantee, I guarantee I can end all of this!”

His mother negotiated with them, saying that as long as she could lift the witchcraft, they would treat Sang Cai well after her death.

He watched helplessly as his mother walked along the mountain’s turbulent river and disappeared into an underground cave, which was like a monster that ate people, dark, cold, and damp.

“Mother! Mother!!!” He wanted to go with his mother, but the villagers held him tightly and dragged him back to the village.

As an orphan, he wandered around the village. As his mother left, the strange disease in the village really got better. Some kind-hearted villagers initially took pity on him and gave him some food, but after a long time, they began to change their minds.

The villagers began to fear him, afraid that he would be the second harmful wizard, so they dug a very deep cellar in the village and locked him inside.

For twelve years, except for the village guards who would give him some food on a regular basis, it seemed that he had been forgotten by the world for so many years.

A few days ago, it had been raining, flooding the cellar, and he broke free from the chains and swam out of the cellar.

He ran and ran, but he was still caught up by the villagers, who hit him hard with stones, shouting, “Kill him, kill this monster!”

…

At this point, Sang Cai choked for a long time. He lowered his head, his fallen blue hair covered his face, his hands clenched the quilt tightly, and tears fell continuously on the brocade quilt, smudging a circle of tears.

After a long time, he pretended to be strong and took a deep breath, smiling at Wei Xiaofeng. “I won’t die easily, because my life was exchanged for by my mother. I want to live well.”

Seeing Wei Xiaofeng staring at him with a grave expression, silent, Sang Cai felt uneasy and asked cautiously, “I’m not a monster, Xiaofeng, don’t be afraid of me.”

Wei Xiaofeng shook his head vigorously. “No, no, I’m not afraid of you, it’s just… it’s just that I think it’s too hard for you to have lived to this day. Then your mother, could she really do witchcraft?”

“Of course she couldn’t,” Sang Cai said with a melancholy expression. “I also learned from the things she left me that she was a *yaoren* who had fled all the way from Miao Jiang.”

“What’s a *yaoren*?”

“It’s a vessel used by the great witch of Miao Jiang to test medicine. My mother has a special physique and is one of the few *yaoren* who survived.”

“My goodness, what you’re saying is more exciting than any storybook, it’s truly mysterious!”

“Actually, it’s not that mysterious. There’s an ancient tomb hidden under that village. More than ten years ago, the tomb was flooded by an underground river, and the water that the villagers drank was contaminated by corpse water. The raw water they drank contained newly hatched corpse worms, which burrowed into people’s stomachs and sucked blood and ate flesh. The villagers had never seen it before, so they thought it was witchcraft.”

“My mother had two symbiotic Gu worms in her body. After she sacrificed herself, the two Gu worms would drill out of her body and quickly strangle and devour all the corpse worms in the water.”