Chapter 22: The Trouble with Esoteric Techniques

After more than ten minutes, the sky began to lighten. Rolling dark clouds carrying the dull sounds of thunder moved away. The heavy downpour gradually turned into a light, drizzling rain, and soon the wind stopped and the rain ceased.

After another while, sunlight fell. The sky was clear for miles.

Zhang Lifei and Wang Haifei politely declined Su Chunfeng and Chen Xiulan’s repeated warm offers to stay, and despite the road being muddy and slippery after the heavy rain, still frightened, they decided to hurry home—who knew with this weather? Would it suddenly start pouring again?

Su Chunfeng and Chen Xiulan had no choice but to walk them out.

Just after watching the two girls’ graceful figures on their bicycles disappear around the muddy lane’s turn, Su Chunfeng and Chen Xiulan heard a nearly shrill, miserable cry come from Liu Jinming’s home, followed immediately by the panicked voices of Liu Jinming and his wife Hu Ling:

“Mom, what’s wrong with you?”

“Hurry, go get someone!”

“Quick!”

Chen Xiulan wore an expression of surprise and confusion.

Su Chunfeng also feigned puzzlement, but in his heart he understood—Old Lady Liu probably wouldn’t survive the powerful destructive force of the Anti-Evil Talisman this time. Thinking this, he looked up as if casually glancing at the earthen jar placed at the northeast corner of Liu Jinming’s roof.

At that moment, the mouth of the jar had already split open, like a mouth blown apart by a firecracker, looking quite eerie and frightening.

Su Chunfeng shook his head with some pity, thinking to himself, “If Liu Jinming’s family saw this, would they regret and be scared?”

“What happened at their house?” Chen Xiulan murmured quietly.

Su Chunfeng said calmly, “Other people’s business is not our concern. Let’s avoid others saying we’re gloating over their misfortune and watching the drama. Let’s go back inside.”

“Mm-hmm,” Chen Xiulan nodded, surprised in her heart that her son would say such mature words, then turned and followed her son back home.

Not long after, Su Cheng hurried back from outside. As soon as he entered the house, he frowned and sighed, “Liu Jinming’s mother suddenly fell ill just now. The whole family rushed to the county hospital… I happened to pass by when they were getting into the car. It looked like she might not pull through.”

“Oh my!” Chen Xiulan showed surprise. “The old lady was usually quite healthy and strong.”

“Who can say for sure about illnesses?” Su Cheng shook his head, took off his cloth shoes which were wet from stepping in water, and changed into slippers. “Wasn’t our own grandfather fine one moment, then gone the next when illness struck?” Saying this, he waved his hand somewhat sadly. “Let’s not talk about this… Ah, have Xiaofeng’s classmates all left?”

“Yes, they left in a hurry as soon as the rain stopped. They felt too embarrassed to stay for a meal.”

Su Cheng looked at his son and said, “It’s fine to be good friends with your classmates, but don’t start dating at such a young age. It affects your studies.”

“I know,” Su Chunfeng grinned.

Afternoon.

Taking advantage of when most people in the village were napping and the streets were empty, Su Chunfeng took a trowel and a handful of dry soil. He climbed onto the roof, went around to the southwest corner of their courtyard wall, and used the trowel to scrape off the “Anti-Evil Talisman” carved on the bricks. Then he vigorously smeared dry soil over it several times, wiping it off with his hand. After this, nothing unusual could be seen on those two bricks—since the Anti-Evil Talisman was now useless, as the saying goes, better safe than sorry; it was best to erase the traces.

Sure enough, three days later, rumors began to spread in the village…

According to the rumors, Liu Jinming’s mother, because of forcing Su Cheng’s wife Chen Xiulan to donate money for temple repairs, had an argument with them and held a grudge. She set up an earthen jar, iron nails, and other items on their roof, attempting to use Folk Sorcery to curse Su Cheng’s family. Unexpectedly, the curse failed and backfired on her. She suddenly fell ill and nearly died.

Now, Old Lady Liu was still staying in the county hospital, reportedly paralyzed.

And these rumors were spread by the old lady’s second daughter-in-law, Liu Jinming’s wife, Hu Ling.

Because after her mother-in-law set up the jar and used Folk Sorcery to cast the curse, Su Cheng’s eldest son Su Chunfeng had once gone to their house to question it and demanded they remove the jar. He had even kindly told their family that a teacher once said Folk Sorcery, that superstitious nonsense, could backfire if not done right. However, Liu Jinming and the old lady didn’t believe him and angrily chased Su Chunfeng out.

As a result, only about ten days later, this incident happened.

Naturally, Hu Ling was still frightened.

Moreover, these rumors weren’t made up by Hu Ling out of thin air. She even had evidence—that day when the old lady suddenly fell ill, she rushed out to get people and happened to see the mouth of that earthen jar placed at the northeast corner of their roof inexplicably split open. It was truly terrifying.

To tell the truth, such gossipy village women really can’t succeed at anything but can ruin everything. As the saying goes, family shame shouldn’t be aired in public, but she not only spread these words but also left that broken jar on the roof.

So now, many curious villagers went to look…

“Ah, it’s really true!”

“Never seen a jar mouth split open like that. Really strange.”

“They brought the trouble on themselves!”

“Liu Jinming’s mother was truly awful. Even though Su Cheng made money this year, it was hard-earned money, and he took a big risk taking a loan to buy that Combine Harvester! Why did she have to force them to donate two hundred yuan for temple repairs? She clearly wasn’t in the right and even cursed people…”

“What do you think? Could it be that Su Cheng’s family also cursed the Lius?”

“Impossible. What kind of people are Su Cheng and his wife? Everyone in the village knows they wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“That’s true…”

…

Liu Jinming, who finally found time to return to the village in the evening after three days at the county hospital, heard these rumors. Furious, he went home and beat up his wife, then climbed onto the roof, took down the broken earthen jar and a few bricks, carted them on his bicycle outside the village, and threw them far away.

There’s a saying: if you haven’t done anything wrong, you won’t fear ghosts knocking at your door at midnight.

Even as overbearing as Liu Jinming was, he ultimately knew that what the old lady in his family did back then wasn’t right. Thinking back to what Su Chunfeng said when he came to ask politely that night, the mysterious eeriness of the old lady using Folk Sorcery with that jar to cast a curse, the way she suddenly got sick and screamed in terror before fainting during that thunderstorm, and the jar inexplicably splitting open like that… he couldn’t help but shiver. “What if it really was the curse failing and backlashing onto our own family? Will that curse ever end? Could it affect other people in the family?”

The old lady hadn’t returned from the hospital yet. The doctor’s diagnosis was that excessive fright caused a sudden cerebral infarction, resulting in nerve block and partial paralysis of her limbs. Even after discharge, she would need long-term rehabilitation therapy and care.

For an ordinary family, such a patient was definitely a heavy burden!

After beating up his wife who spread the family shame, Liu Jinming still couldn’t vent all his anger. He sat in the dim courtyard, smoking one cigarette after another—in just three days, the medical costs for the old lady had used up all the savings of both brothers. Follow-up treatment and recovery would cost more money. How would they live in the future?

Maybe tomorrow he should gather some clan members, go cause trouble for Su Cheng’s family, and extort some money from them?

Su Cheng made quite a bit of money this year!

Anyway, the conflict with their family was already spread in the village. Moreover, the village rumors said this incident with the old lady’s sudden illness was related to Folk Sorcery, so it couldn’t be separated from Su Cheng’s family! But Su Cheng wasn’t some pushover either, and in this matter, his own family wasn’t in the right…

Liu Jinming gritted his teeth. To hell with right or wrong. What he wanted was money!

After deciding in his heart, he threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it fiercely with his toe, stood up, and went inside to sleep. But lying in bed, he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep—he hated why his mother had to act so extreme! He regretted why he had been so narrow-minded that day, not listening to young Su Chunfeng and taking down and throwing away that broken jar. He also felt lost and scared…

The pressure in his heart was too great.

Under this immense pressure and the fear in his heart about this rather mysterious and eerie event, Liu Jinming, who had finally managed to fall asleep after a long struggle, was startled awake from a nightmare in the middle of the night. He couldn’t help but cry out in terror, scaring his wife so much she rolled off the bed.

“Husband, what… what’s wrong with you?” Hu Ling asked, trembling and screaming.

“Nothing, nothing…” Liu Jinming wiped cold sweat from his forehead, quickly reached to find the lamp cord by the bed, turned on the light, got out of bed, went to the table, picked up the cigarette pack and lighter, trembling, took out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and sat by the table in thought.

In the deep night, her usually bold and fierce husband was woken by a nightmare and screamed in fright, which terrified Hu Ling immensely.

Connecting it to the strange inexplicability when her mother-in-law suddenly fell ill…

Hu Ling became even more afraid. She felt as if something outside the dark window was peering into their room. She quickly crawled up and squeezed next to her husband, sobbing and saying, “Husband, do you think that jar curse Mom made attracted something unclean to our house?”

Irritated beyond measure, Liu Jinming lifted his foot and kicked his wife to the ground, roaring, “Don’t you dare spout nonsense!”

“Ah!” Hu Ling fell to the ground, clutching her stomach with a pained cry, then fearfully scooted on her bottom to the edge of the bed, leaning against the headboard, staring blankly at Liu Jinming.

Liu Jinming’s face was taut. He took deep drags of his cigarette.

Under the lamplight, his face flickered vaguely in the coiling smoke, dim and uncertain.

Watching this scene, all sorts of thoughts rose in Hu Ling’s heart. The more she thought, the more afraid she became; the more afraid she became, the more she felt as if uncertain things existed everywhere inside and outside the room…

Her mind finally snapped!

“Ah!” Hu Ling suddenly stood up, rushed at Liu Jinming like a madwoman, tearing, kicking, clawing, and scratching, while howling heart-wrenchingly, “You damned bastard! All you do is beat and scold me every day, doing those shameful things outside! It’s all your sin, all your mother’s sin! How can we live like this from now on!”

When had Liu Jinming ever been subjected to such treatment from his wife?

Enraged, he stood up and flung his wife into the corner. “Have you lost your mind?! Get away from me!”

But Hu Ling, who had crashed into the corner, wasn’t scared this time. She quickly got up and lunged at Liu Jinming almost insanely. “I’ll fight you to the death! I don’t want to live anymore…”

“Damn it!” Liu Jinming’s rage grew even stronger. He slapped her fiercely, smack after smack.

…