Si Jingyi's scream was even more shrill and terrifying than Gu Yanyan's earlier screams.
Wen Yan, Si Moyan, and Old Master Si, who were fast asleep, immediately opened their eyes.
Wen Yan was still a bit groggy. She rubbed her eyes, "What happened?"
Si Moyan furrowed his sword-like eyebrows and quickly stood up from the floor. "It's the second brother's scream. I'll go out and take a look!"
Si Moyan found Si Jingyi in the dry toilet.
Si Jingyi was squatting on the ground, holding his head with both hands, trembling all over.
"Go away, you dirty things! I haven't even done anything wrong. I was just deceived by a transgender woman. I'm the most pitiful one here, why are you looking for me?"
"Sob sob sob..."
A grown man was frightened into crying bitterly.
Si Moyan coughed softly, "There are no dirty things. Get up, don't scare yourself."
Seeing Si Moyan, Si Jingyi hugged his leg like a fragile flower, "Big Brother, I saw it, a hanged ghost with a long tongue sticking out. It was so scary!"
Si Moyan looked around but didn't find anything.
Even if there was something, it was probably scared away by Si Jingyi's crying.
"It's gone. Hurry up and get up. Doesn't it stink squatting here?"
Si Jingyi squatted there, not daring to move.
Si Moyan narrowed his dark, narrow eyes, noticing something was wrong, "You..."
At this moment, Si Jingyi really wanted to find a block of tofu and smash his head against it to die.
He... he was so scared that he peed his pants.
If word got out, this would definitely be the biggest dark history of his life!
How was he going to live from now on?
Si Moyan didn't mock Si Jingyi. If he hadn't been truly terrified, he wouldn't have been scared into peeing his pants.
"Big Brother won't tell anyone about this. I'll go get you some pants."
After changing his pants, Si Jingyi walked out of the toilet with heavy, small steps.
Wen Yan was brushing her teeth in the courtyard.
[Ahahaha, Second Brother Si actually peed his pants from fright!]
[I won't laugh at him to his face. At most, I'll just laugh a few more times in my heart.]
Si Jingyi, "..."
Heavens, just let a bolt of lightning strike him dead!
Why did such an incredibly embarrassing piece of gossip have to be updated in real-time in his sister-in-law's system?
How could he ever hold his head up in front of his sister-in-law again?
After Old Master Si heard Wen Yan's inner thoughts and learned what happened to Si Jingyi, he walked over and patted Si Jingyi on the shoulder.
Si Jingyi blinked his red peach-blossom eyes, thinking Old Master Si would comfort him a bit. Unexpectedly, Old Master Si said, "Compared to peeing your pants, finding a transgender girlfriend and having someone get pregnant with a pillow is even more embarrassing. Anyway, you already have no good image left in your sister-in-law's heart, so stop struggling. Just lie flat and let it rot!"
Si Jingyi, "..."
The old man really knew how to stab him in the heart!
After breakfast, Old Master Si urged Si Moyan to sneak into the Luo family's house to check on Si Yubai's situation.
Wen Yan shook her head, "Don't go for now. A master has arrived at the Luo family. Going over to spy now might alert the enemy."
Wen Yan needed to confront the master that night, so she asked Old Master Si and the others to help her prepare the items needed for the ritual.
...
When Si Yubai slowly woke up again, he found himself lying in a room covered with talisman papers, copper coins, and burning incense candles.
A strange and unpleasant smell drifted in the air.
Although his body wasn't tied up, his limbs were weak, and he couldn't move.
He turned his head slightly and saw another person lying on a small bed next to him, with a breath as weak as a thread, looking like they were about to die.
That person still looked very young, as if suffering from a major illness.
With a creak, the door was pushed open.
Luo Nianchu walked in carrying a bowl of porridge.
She stood in front of Si Yubai's small bed, her eyes as gentle and considerate as before. "Baibai, let me feed you something first."
Si Yubai couldn't move, but he kept his thin lips tightly pressed together, refusing to open his mouth.
Luo Nianchu didn't force him. She sighed softly, "You heard the conversation between my mom and me, didn't you?"
Si Yubai looked at the gentle and delicate woman in front of him. His eyes were blood-red, and his fair, handsome face was so gloomy it seemed like water could drip from it.
The beliefs in his heart collapsed in an instant.
He had clearly seen the light, but after passing through that light, he fell into an even deeper, bottomless black abyss.
At this moment, Luo Nianchu was like a female demon baring her fangs and brandishing her claws, ruthlessly tearing his heart apart.
His lips couldn't stop trembling. "So, from beginning to end, your approach to me was just a scam, right?"
He couldn't understand why she had chosen him.
"You never had any true feelings for me, did you?"
Luo Nianchu pursed her lips. "You are nine years younger than me. I only treat you as a little brother. Your soul is still that of a child; it's impossible for me to be moved."
Si Yubai was emotional, angry, and ashamed. The veins on his forehead bulged, and he questioned in a hoarse voice, "If you never liked me, why do you know all my preferences?"
"Because Mother Luo understands you."
As soon as Luo Nianchu finished speaking, Mother Luo walked in.
"Nianchu, the time is almost up!"
Luo Nianchu nodded.
No matter how naive and stupid Si Yubai was, he now understood the purpose of the Luo mother and daughter.
The man on the next bed obviously looked like he was dying. The mother and daughter must have teamed up with that master to exchange a life for a life!
"Luo Nianchu, I have no grudges or enmity with your family. Why are you treating me like this?"
Luo Nianchu ignored Si Yubai and walked to the man on the small bed next to him.
"Brother Hanlin, your pain will end soon. You will be able to gain a new life."
Seeing Luo Nianchu speak to the man on the next bed in such a gentle tone, Si Yubai's eyes looked as if they were going to bleed. Like a fierce beast that had suffered a massive blow, he was about to go mad in the next second.
Mother Luo walked over and looked down at Si Yubai condescendingly. "You're about to die, so I'll let you die understanding why."
Mother Luo suddenly rolled up her sleeves, revealing a tooth mark on her right hand.
The tooth mark was from many years ago, but it was bitten very deeply at the time, so even after all these years, the bite mark was still there.
Seeing the tooth mark, Si Yubai's pupils contracted violently, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. "You... you are Luo Qinglian..."
Luo Qinglian was the nanny who had abused Si Yubai when he was a child.
Si Yubai had been traumatized when he was young, and with so much time having passed, he couldn't quite remember what she looked like.
But he clearly remembered the tooth mark on her hand.
That was when she abused him, and in his anger, he forcefully grabbed her arm and bit her viciously.
Later, she pushed him away and, in a fit of rage, locked him in a pitch-black cabinet.
Luo Qinglian was a demonic woman!
The deep psychological shadow from being abused by her since childhood meant that even as an adult, Si Yubai subconsciously felt fear and panic.
He never dreamed that the woman he treated as his salvation would actually be her daughter!
No wonder Luo Nianchu understood his living habits so well. She even knew clearly that he had claustrophobia.
Everything from the past played back slowly like a gramophone. Si Yubai felt as if he had fallen into an endless abyss.
His heart felt suffocated, confused, and panicked.
And he was filled with regret.
If only he had listened to Wen Yan's advice earlier, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
Even if he died and someone successfully swapped souls with him, who could he blame?
He had brought this upon himself.
But he was deeply worried that the soul about to occupy his body would use it to do evil and hurt his family!
At this moment, Si Yubai finally realized how horribly wrong he had been.
But in this world, there was no cure for regret.
Si Yubai struggled to crawl up, but his body felt as if it were bound by invisible ropes. No matter how hard he struggled, it was all in vain.
"Ah—" A roar of anger and unwillingness tore from Si Yubai's throat.
Scalding tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.
He knew he was doomed to die.
In such a remote mountain village, no one would come to save him.
"Why me? You hurt me when I was a child, and now that I'm grown, you're still hurting me. What have I ever done to wrong you..."
Luo Qinglian looked at the dying, struggling Si Yubai. She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had to spend three years in prison!"
Si Yubai's face was knocked to the side. The burning pain left him dazed for quite a while.
"You went to prison for child abuse! You broke the law, shouldn't you be punished?"
Luo Qinglian sneered. "I was under a lot of pressure working for your Si family. What's wrong with taking it out on you? You were just so delicate, so precious! I taught you a little lesson and you dared to bite me! Letting you live to nineteen is already the utmost of my benevolence!"
Si Yubai had never seen such a cruel and shameless woman.
She had done wrong and served three years in prison, yet she hadn't reflected on her actions at all. Instead, she had worsened, becoming even more vicious and terrifying!
"Don't blame me. It just so happens that your destiny fits the conditions for Xu Hanlin's possession. If you want to blame anyone, blame your own bad luck!"
Si Yubai never expected human hearts could be this sinister.
"You will get your retribution!"
Luo Qinglian curled her lips dismissively. "Little young master, the good die young, while a scourge lasts a thousand years. Haven't you heard this saying? Even if I face retribution, I will still live longer than you."
"Mom, Brother Hanlin has stopped breathing!"
Luo Qinglian hurriedly went out to call the master.
After the master came in, he immediately began casting a spell.
Si Yubai had never seen a human ghost, but as the master's chanting echoed, he seemed to see a wisp of a soul entering his body.
His entire body began to ache in agonizing discomfort.
He wanted to drive that wisp of soul out, but the master's magic was too powerful. His own soul felt as if it were being forcibly extracted.
Si Yubai was so pained that his face turned deathly pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Countless memories flashed through his mind like a fleeting illusion.
He hadn't waited for his mother to wake up, and his family... he had eloped with Luo Nianchu, they must be so angry...
He might never see them again.
Si Yubai's eyes grew hazy. Just as he was about to be squeezed out of his body, there was a sudden loud crash. The door was kicked open from the outside.
Wen Yan scoffed, "Crooked and evil sorcery!" With that, she tossed a fat rat she was holding into the room, and with her other hand holding a talisman paper, she waved it through the air.
The paper talisman burst into flames in mid-air. Immediately after, a scene occurred that left everyone in absolute disbelief—
