Chapter 35: Have You Seen My Child?
At the Feng residence…
Mrs. Liu had been a long-time servant of the household, responsible for making pastries in the kitchen. Her skills were excellent, and the young masters and mistresses of the Feng family all loved her cooking. She had finally gotten a rare day off, and planned to buy some small toys for her child before heading home to spend time with her husband and family.
After leaving the Feng residence, Mrs. Liu took a familiar shortcut through a narrow alley. She was planning to stop by and buy a few things for her child first.
“My child! My child!”
Suddenly, she saw a disheveled woman standing at the mouth of the alley. Her hair was matted, her eyes vacant, and she muttered to herself in a daze. She didn’t seem all that old.
Mrs. Liu shook her head. Even though the world had become relatively peaceful these days, incidents of child abduction still happened frequently. She had seen women like this before, where mothers who had lost their children and gone mad from grief.
That kind of soul-crushing trauma wasn’t something an ordinary person could bear.
“So pitiful…” Mrs. Liu sighed and started to walk past.
Just as she passed by the disheveled woman, she suddenly felt a chilling grip on her wrist. The madwoman had grabbed her. “Have you seen my child?”
Mrs. Liu’s heart skipped a beat. She turned to look at the woman and saw a pair of bloodshot eyes locked onto her, staring intensely. It sent a chill down her spine.
“What are you doing?!” Mrs. Liu cried out in fright, quickly yanking her wrist free.
She had been about to scold the woman harshly, but when she saw her miserable, pitiful state, her anger softened.
Shaking her head, she said gently, “I haven’t seen your child.”
As she spoke, Mrs. Liu instinctively began backing away.
Seeing that the woman didn’t go into a frenzy or chase after her, but simply stood there in a daze, staring blankly,
Mrs. Liu let out a sigh of relief, turned around, and quickly walked off. She felt a sudden chill on the back of her neck, as if someone were clinging to her and blowing cold air against her skin. She couldn’t help but quicken her pace.
This alley was quiet and long, but ironically, it was the shortest path to her home. It also passed by a busy market street, which was perfect for picking up something for her child. That was why Mrs. Liu always chose this route.
Her wrist was still a bit red and swollen, and she frowned. “That woman had a frightening grip…”
Turning a corner, Mrs. Liu stepped over a small puddle in her embroidered shoes. Just two more turns, and she’d reach the bustling street. She was now eager to get to a place full of people.
Bang!
As she turned the next corner, she collided with someone.
“Ow! Can’t you watch where you’re going…” Mrs. Liu’s voice caught in her throat, as if something had suddenly seized her neck, because standing before her was the same disheveled woman from earlier.
“Have you seen my child?!” The woman’s voice was exactly the same as before. She had vacant eyes and a dazed expression, and her bloodshot gaze was fixed on Mrs. Liu.
Cold sweat instantly drenched Mrs. Liu’s back, and a wave of dread rose from deep within her.
“N-no... I haven’t…” she stammered, shaking her head like she’d seen a ghost. Then she turned and practically ran, fleeing in panic. She hadn’t expected that after walking so far, she’d run into that same woman again.
This damned alley only has one way through so how did she get ahead of me? Mrs. Liu swallowed hard.
She couldn’t resist glancing back and saw that the woman was still standing exactly where she’d been, staring fixedly at her, muttering to herself.
Mrs. Liu felt her mind beginning to blur. She turned, ready to flee the place at once, but a cold hand suddenly grabbed her from behind.
Smack!
“Have you seen my child?” It was still that same mechanical, emotionless voice.
Mrs. Liu felt her heart leap to her throat. “I…”
She only managed to say one word before she was dragged back into the alley. The sound of something gnawing, grinding echoed faintly from the shadows. And then, there was only silence.
***
When Li Yanchu arrived at the Feng residence, he immediately sensed something was off. The layout was somewhat similar to that of the Chen residence, which was similarly designed according to feng shui principles to gather wind and water, attract wealth, bless the family, and keep the household safe. But the moment Li Yanchu stepped through the gate, he felt a faint discomfort and a subtle unease.
The maids and servants within the Feng residence also looked dull and lifeless, dazed and distracted, each burdened with unspoken worry.
When Li Yanchu reached the inner residence, he finally understood the source of that strange, unsettling feeling. The Feng residence was too quiet. So quiet it felt... unnatural.
On the way, the steward of the Feng residence had already briefed Li Yanchu on the situation. A kitchen maid, Mrs. Liu, had gone home to visit her family and then vanished without a trace. The gatekeeper of the Feng household clearly saw her leave, but Mrs. Liu’s husband reported that she never came home.
Four days passed. Finally, her body was discovered in an alley not far from the Feng residence. Disheveled and filthy, she was curled up in a corner of the wall.
It was strange. Even though the alley was secluded, plenty of people walked through it every day. Yet, no one had noticed Mrs. Liu’s body until a group of children playing nearby stumbled upon her.
The yamen dispatched a coroner to examine the body, and it was confirmed that Mrs. Liu had been dead for several days. Her time of death matched the day she had left the Feng residence, and corpse spots had already appeared on her body. But there were no wounds, no signs of struggle, no trace of violence at all.
The case quickly became one of the unexplained incidents recorded by the Wei City yamen. Then, on the very next day after the body was found, strange things began happening at the Feng residence.
“This is the room where the maid heard a woman crying?” Li Yanchu asked, pointing at a room.
“Yes, this is Mrs. Liu’s room,” the steward replied.
There was a flicker of unease in his eyes, and he instinctively took a step farther away from the room. Ever since the discovery of Mrs. Liu’s body, some maids had reported hearing the sound of an unfamiliar woman crying coming from inside the dead woman’s room.
“The night guards checked the room,” the steward said, his voice trembling slightly, “but there was no one there. Not even a shadow.”
A hint of concern flashed across Li Yanchu’s eyes. With the Qingyi Festival approaching, it seemed that all of a sudden, strange incidents were cropping up across Wei City, and ordinary people had no way of dealing with such things.
The steward said, “The servants are all saying it’s a female ghost causing trouble. Not only did she kill Mrs. Liu, now she wants to take the lives of everyone in this household.”
Li Yanchu offered words of comfort, “Don’t worry too much. I’ll stay in this room tonight. If there really is a female ghost, I’ll do everything I can to protect the Feng residence.”
Though the steward still seemed uneasy, he felt a bit more at ease. After all, Daoist Master Li Yanchu of Qingyun Temple had become a rising figure in Wei City lately. Not only was his Daoist cultivation formidable, but his martial skills were also exceptional. The Feng family had invited this young Daoist precisely to calm fears and eliminate evil spirits.
Li Yanchu moved into the supposedly haunted room on his own. After activating his Qi Sight, a chill ran through his heart. The room was filled with heavy yin qi, and there was a lingering dampness, like the moisture of standing water.
To a cultivator like him, the environment felt deeply oppressive and unpleasant.
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