Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

Distracted by such a thrilling fall, Wu Li forgot all about the "an eye for an eye" suggestion.

When Song Yueyao saw Chai Xiaomi and Wu Li return, she wondered why they had taken so long.

The boy remained silent, his lips pressed into a tight line, radiating a low-pressure aura that kept strangers at bay.

He walked to the farthest corner, a few strands of long hair falling across his face as he silently combed the stray hairs at his temples, meticulously braiding them into his high ponytail.

As he moved, a faint, tinkling sound of silver ornaments could be heard.

Interspersed among the conversation between Jiang Zhiyu and Yan Xingxiao.

"It is undoubtedly a skeleton." The earthenware urn over there had been opened, and Jiang Zhiyu was holding a small toe bone, his brows furrowed tightly.

Although he had expected it, he never imagined that the bones would be so small, so small that it was heartbreaking.

She died at such a young age, and instead of finding peace in the cycle of reincarnation, she was cruelly turned into this "corpse soup." What is the person behind this trying to do with it?

Jiang Zhiyu's expression was solemn. He took out a bright yellow talisman and gently placed it on the toe bone. He then drew a line in the air with his fingertips, and a faintly glowing incantation was imprinted on the talisman.

Gradually, a faint red mark, resembling a birthmark, seeped from the surface of the talisman.

"It's a newborn girl."

"A baby girl..." Yan Xingxiao murmured, his thoughts seemingly drawn by those two words. He suddenly remembered the waiter's inadvertent revelation that the shopkeeper was from Sanchao County. His expression changed in shock, "So that's how it is... so that's how it is!"

Seeing his terrified expression, everyone else looked on with surprise and doubt.

Only Wu Li, in the corner, continued braiding the last strand of hair as if no one else was around. When he heard Yan Xingxiao's exclamation, he merely lifted his eyelids slightly, then lowered them again indifferently. He even tilted his head slightly in annoyance, as if he found him too noisy.

Yan Xingxiao hadn't thought of this before, because it was just some rumors he'd heard on his journey and couldn't be taken seriously. But after seeing the baby girl's toe bones refined into corpse water, he figured the rumors weren't entirely unfounded.

"Sanchao County got its name from the fact that the local people were obsessed with having sons, and many female infants were destined not to live more than three days after they were born."

"They would be abandoned along the way by the men who went out to do business, in various places, including desolate mountains and deep, cold pools, all of which became their burial grounds. The most vicious and heinous thing was to refine their corpses into corpse oil and grind their bones, carrying these with them. They firmly believed that in this way they could borrow the resentment of the infant spirits to reverse their fate, helping them to do business well and become rich and successful!"

"This is something I overheard people talking about in private during my early business days. It is said that many of the men in Sanchao County are wealthy merchants with prosperous fortunes. It is rumored that they rely on such insidious tricks to steal the fate of infant spirits and forcibly change their own destiny."

As Yan Xingxiao finished speaking, a heavy silence fell over the room.

Chai Xiaomi listened silently, her heart feeling heavy, as if it were stuffed with cotton soaked in ice water.

Isn't this the same as raising a ghost child?

She had always been timid, but after listening to Yan Biaotou recount the ordeal of those baby girls, she felt only endless sorrow.

Those newborn baby girls, before they even had a chance to see the world properly with their clear eyes, before they even had a drop of milk, with their empty little bellies, had their weak cries silenced by their own parents.

After death, their souls cannot find peace; they are reduced to tools, and even their last remaining value is completely exploited.

"So," Song Yueyao calmly explained, "the infant that Madam Yan mentioned playing with her and ultimately luring her to hang herself is the vengeful spirit of the baby girl in the urn. If it was truly the shopkeeper who instigated it, why would he do such a thing? What benefit would he gain from murdering Madam Yan?"

Why do this?

Chai Xiaomi's eyes flickered slightly. After a moment of thought, she suddenly spoke, "I think..."

"That child, in the first place, was probably looking for me."

Perhaps because he couldn't find her, or perhaps because he was hindered by some unknown force, he went to the next room and found Madam Yan.

She remembered that although she and Madam Yan had adjacent guest rooms, the layout of the rooms was not the same.

Madam Yan's room had no wardrobe, but her room did.

She had clearly heard a faint creaking sound as the cabinet door opened at night.

According to Chief Escort Yan, the shift was at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM). Madam Yan's accident happened in the latter half of the night, while she had heard the noise in the first half of the night.

Chai Xiaomi's speculation immediately gave Jiang Zhiyu an idea.

"If that's the case, then the infant spirit's resentment is deep and its obsession hasn't subsided. It's very likely it will come looking for us again tonight. We might as well turn the tables on it." He suggested, "Tonight, we'll use millet as bait and wait in the shadows. As soon as it shows up, we'll capture it and find out the reason behind it."

His gaze swept over the crowd, finally settling on Chai Xiaomi, his voice steady and resolute: "Don't worry, Xiaomi. I promise, I will never let you get hurt in the slightest."

Jiang Zhiyu has always been kind-hearted and chivalrous, and he always keeps his word. Once he has made a promise, he will protect people even if it means going through fire and water.

Meeting those firm and clear eyes, Chai Xiaomi felt a surge of security amidst her anxiety, so she nodded vigorously, trusting them completely: "Yes!!"

But as soon as she nodded, she suddenly felt a slight chill on her back, as if a sticky, damp gaze had quietly enveloped her.

She instinctively turned around to look.

The boy in the corner deliberately turned his face away, avoiding her gaze, his movements so quick it was as if he had anticipated it.

Even though he was caught peeping, he still pretended to be nonchalant.

The boy lowered his thick eyelashes and stared nonchalantly at his wrist, where a string of delicate silver bells was loosely wrapped.

Chai Xiaomi squinted and examined the string of silver bells; it was the one that had originally been on her ankle, the one that he had snatched away.

However, he also repaid her in another way.

She raised her hand and subconsciously touched the silver fish pendant hanging from the hairpin. Now he only had his right ear left, the silver ornament exquisite, hanging right next to his beautifully shaped jawline, like a bewitching mark unintentionally added.

It made the boy look even more handsome.

She's beautiful, but she looks inexplicably pitiful.

He was looking down, fiddling with the silver bell on his wrist, his fingertips moving slowly, one after another.

But after he finished playing the bell, he pressed his fingertips firmly against the bell, muffled the sound that should have been crisp inside the metal casing, leaving only a barely audible, muffled whimper.

Its frail and obedient appearance makes it seem like a little dog that's been soaked in the rain but is stubbornly pretending it doesn't need a heater...

Chai Xiaomi felt a slight warmth on her fingertips as she touched the hairpin. She realized that the two of them seemed to be wearing a matching pair.

"Never mind," she sighed inwardly.

Considering he made her a custom-made hairpin, she should hurry up and try to win him over.

Although we have no idea what our little villain is upset about right now.

It's okay anyway.

No matter how bad his temper is, when faced with her unique coaxing technique that combines "persistence" and "shamelessness," wouldn't he eventually have to admit defeat?