—Incense sticks inserted upside down?
What is he doing?
“Mr. Qin, Mrs. Qin, the reason I came here this time is not only to meet the person who raised Ranran, but also to know who was the one who handed Ranran over to you in the first place.”
What did he say?
I froze, suddenly hearing a sharp “whoosh” as a sharp arrow whizzed past my ear, striking the incense burner in front of Tunshe Nalin. The incense burner shattered instantly, followed by a thunderous crack, and a ball of blue flames exploded, instantly engulfing his entire body!
My mind seemed to explode. I raised my leg, ready to rush into the ancestral hall, but was suddenly held back by two pairs of hands on either side. My adoptive parents dragged me away from the door. I yelled, “Dad, Mom, he’s on fire! Hurry and get the fire extinguisher!”
“That’s thunderfire, a fire extinguisher won’t put it out.”
I turned in shock to look at my adoptive father. He and my adoptive mother stared at the ancestral hall with blank expressions, as if they had become two strangers I didn’t know. Their hands gripped me tightly, with a strength so terrifying it made my blood run cold, and they coldly watched as the ancestral hall was instantly engulfed by blue flames.
“Tunshe Nalin!”
I howled, but there was no response from the ancestral hall. In a frenzy, I struggled, only for my knee to be struck by a heavy kick, forcing my legs to buckle and causing me to kneel.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the high heels pressing down on my calf, and my mind went blank with a wave of heat.
“Xiao Ran, don’t blame us. If you must blame someone, blame your bad luck. If it weren’t for our biological child needing to exchange your life, we really wouldn’t be able to bear parting with you.”
“What are you talking about…” I shook my head. “Dad, Mom?”
“Alright, this is none of your business now.” A man’s voice came from behind. I turned my head and saw the back gate of the courtyard suddenly swing open. A tall and a short figure walked in, followed by several shadows wearing pointed hats. It was none other than the two Thais who had kidnapped me on the sea forest road—one named Gu Man, the other Ah Ta. And their boss was none other than Ming Luo’s father.
It turned out that my adoptive parents had been in contact with the Ming family for a long time.
Therefore, the Buddha amulet that attracted Ming Luo’s ghost had never been replaced. I had been trapped in a huge net from the beginning without me knowing it.
The tall, older man walked in front of me. He was shirtless, and a golden object hung on his chest, looking very much like the three-faced Vajra spade that had injured Tunshe Nalin, only larger. His body was covered in dense Thai symbols, all glowing with a blue light, and it seemed as if faint currents of electricity were coursing through his skin. As he approached, I could feel the hairs on my body stand up due to the static electricity.
“What do you want to do? What are you going to do to him?!” I yelled at him.
The guy named Gu Man only glanced at me and said, “Ah Ta, take him back to the boss. I’ll go check on how that monster is doing.”
After saying that, he took the Vajra spade off his neck, pressed his hands together, and muttered something under his breath. Suddenly, a sharp howl came from above. I looked up and realized that the sky above had unknowingly become overcast with dark clouds. Amid the flashing lightning, I could vaguely make out a long, white shadow twisting and undulating… like a dragon.
I froze for a moment, then quickly realized that it wasn’t a dragon.
It was Ming Luo, transformed into the evil water demon.
“Ming Luo!!” I shouted at the sky. “Ah Luo, don’t hurt him, I beg you! It’s because of me that you ended up like this. Take me away, as long as you don’t…”
A huge explosion sounded ahead with a “boom,” and the entire ancestral hall shattered into countless burning blue-flame tiles and wooden debris. The tremendous shockwave and blast sent me and the others flying. Before I even hit the ground, I felt my waist tighten, clearly being wrapped by tree vines, and then I seemed to gently land on a soft lawn.
When I opened my eyes, I realized I had fallen into the flowerbed in the courtyard. The bed, which was originally planted with tropical plants, was now filled with countless red hibiscus flowers breaking through the soil, surrounding me. Numerous ghostly figures also emerged with the hibiscus, of all ages, men, women, and the elderly, each holding a memorial tablet, kneeling around me. One of them, an old man wearing gold-rimmed sunglasses, I recognized at a glance, it was none other than Great Uncle Qin, whom I had seen when I was a child.
When I looked again, I saw that all the memorial tablets of these ghosts began with the character ‘Qin.’ I was so scared that I shouted, “Damn it! Tunshe Nalin, ahhhh, why are all the Qin ancestors here?!”
“All members of the Qin family, listen up!” Tunshe Nalin’s cold voice echoed in the air. “Protect my wife, or I will make sure you turn to ashes and never be reborn!”
“The descendants of the Qin family are unworthy, we beg the God Lord for mercy!”
Amidst a chorus of wails and pleas for mercy, I stared, dumbfounded, at the ancestral hall. The blue flames had already extinguished, and the dark clouds above had dispersed. Ming Luo’s shadow had also vanished, leaving only the small cluster of flames burning on the three incense sticks held by Tunshe Nalin’s right hand. He was unharmed, surrounded by tree vines, and slowly walked out from the ancestral hall.
“Before I met you all, I hoped that you truly cared for him. But the moment I set foot here, I knew it was nothing more than wishful thinking. I only wish for all the evils in the world to not touch him, but why… why must you, of all people, come to violate my taboo?” He clenched his fingers, and the three incense sticks in his palm broke off at the root. The blue flames were instantly extinguished, shattering into countless ghostly shadows, like a swarm of bloodthirsty sharks rushing towards Gu Man.
Gu Man pressed his fingers to his lips, urgently chanting an incantation, but several strands of blue flames instantly surrounded him, drilling into his seven orifices. In an instant, his body spasmed, and blue light flickered in his chest and abdomen, burning from the inside out. He collapsed to the ground, rolling uncontrollably. Ah Ta shouted and rushed over to help hi but was ensnared by a strand of gray-white tree vine around his neck. Like tossing trash, he was thrown straight out of the Qin family’s courtyard wall.
Seeing this, the dozens of shamans who had come with them scattered in all directions, but none of them got far. They collapsed to the ground, kneeling stiffly as if possessed, continuously knocking their heads against the ground.
“God-God Lord, have mercy! We… we were also coerced!” A familiar voice came from behind. I turned my head to see my adoptive parents, both of them kneeling with their heads bowed towards Tunshe Nalin, trembling uncontrollably. “The Ming family placed a curse on us, controlling our family with little ghosts and ensuring the Qin family’s business ran smoothly in Southeast Asia. Our family’s lifeline is in the hands of the Ming family. We can’t leave them, we dare not defy them…”
“We… we’ve also raised Xiao Ran for so many years, and we’ve truly treated him like our own son… Xiao Ran, say it, tell him how your dad and mom have treated you all these years?”
The hem of my pants was suddenly grabbed, and my adoptive mother looked up at me, her eyes filled with despair, silently pleading for help.
I looked at her, my mind in a complete daze, with questions surging like a flood, completely overturning my once stable world. I didn’t know how to respond to her. Then, it seemed as if she remembered something and turned her gaze to Tunshe Nalin. “You… you wanted the Qin family’s household register, right? I’ll go get it for you right now…”
After saying that, she scrambled and rolled as she fled in the direction of the villa.
Tunshe Nalin paid no attention to her and directly walked up to me, pulling me into his arms.
“I’m sorry… Xiao Ran. If they hadn’t set up this trap against me, I never would have wanted you to know the truth.” His cold fingers gently kneaded the back of my neck, then he picked me up in his arms.
“Master Qin, since you raised Xiao Ran, I won’t kill you. But I need to know, where is the person who entrusted Xiao Ran to the Ming family back then?”
“We… we don’t know.” My adoptive father trembled, lying on the ground, too afraid to lift his head. “Xiao Ran was handed to us by the Ming family, but who entrusted him to the Ming family and his background… we have no idea. We did ask, but Xiao Ran… he doesn’t remember anything.”
The Ming family, Thailand, Southeast Asia’s marketplaces…
A figure of a young boy appeared in the depths of my memory. He was holding a small dog, standing under the dense tree shadows, his gaze lonely. “Are you like me, an illegitimate child?”
That was Ming Luo.
No wonder he liked me so much; it turns out we had met at the Ming family when we were children.
I was the child entrusted to the Qin family by the Ming family, but before I was with the Ming family, where did I come from?
Where was I born, and who are my parents?
All the answers to my questions seemed both unbelievable and unquestionable, pointing directly to Tunshe Nalin. I looked at him, confused. “Tunshe Nalin, do you… know about my background? How do you know? Is my background… related to you?”
“Let’s talk in the car.” Tunshe Nalin held me tightly and walked out of the Qin family’s gate.
Staring at the Qin family mansion growing smaller through the car’s rear window, it felt as though a hole had been carved out of my heart. The very foundation and bones of the world connected to it seemed to be slowly collapsing, as if on the verge of falling apart.
Although I had always considered myself the “child who was bought,” like a wild cat curled up in a tree, I never dared to let myself jump down to embrace and respond to the love my adoptive parents gave me. Deep down, I always felt their love was not like solid ground where I could freely run and live, but more like a swamp. If I jumped in, I could drown in it, enjoying the comfort, but if one day they suddenly stopped loving me, I would end up with no trace left, lost completely.
So, from the beginning to the end, I clung to my tree, at most only daring to drink the moisture from the surface of the swamp. That’s why the elders of the family always said I was naturally cold-hearted. But after all these years, no matter how cautious and guarded I was, how could there not have been a moment when I opened my heart to such love?
But, just as I had instinctively felt it, they suddenly stopped loving me.
Or rather, they never loved me.
My vision blurred, and my fingers unconsciously curled, digging into my palm until Tunshe Nalin forcibly pried them open. Our fingers intertwined, and only then did I realize that my palm had broken skin and was bleeding.
“Ranran…”
The cold lips kissed away the tears that spilled from my eyes. The tension that had been tightening in my heart suddenly snapped, and I buried my head in his chest, crying out loud.
“They don’t love me, Tunshe Nalin… They lied to me. They raised me for their biological child. They never loved me. I’m a child no one wanted, a child no one wanted.” I choked on my sobs, unable to speak, as Tunshe Nalin’s fingers tightened around the back of my neck, making me clearly feel his fingertips tremble slightly, as if he too was enduring this heart-wrenching pain.
“Blame me for being careless.”
Sweet, metallic liquid dripped from the corner of my lips.
“If it weren’t for my carelessness, you should have been by my side since birth, under my protection, raised by me.”
