Chapter 170: You Treat Me Better Than My Own Mother
“A Bing, did you hear any sound?!”
Auntie Feng had already been scared and quickly moved close to her son when the picture frame fell and the glass shattered; now hearing the crying sound again, her teeth chattered, and her hands immediately grabbed her son’s arms, clutching them tightly without letting go.
Only like this did she feel a little bit of safety.
But this obviously wasn’t enough; Auntie Feng hurriedly shouted, “Daoist Master Yan, Daoist Master Yan, aren’t you going to perform the religious ceremony? Hurry up and perform the religious ceremony!”
“Mom, don’t make a fuss!” Shen Jiabing had of course heard the sound, but it was just that one sound, which he thought was an illusion; he wanted to listen more clearly.
At this time, Xuan Xia also quietly spoke to Yan Wentao.
“This is the method you said you had?”
Earlier, when Yan Wentao chanted the spell, she still didn’t know what he was chanting; now she understood that Yan Wentao had used the incantation to instantly boost the yin energy here.
It was equivalent to helping the evil thing grow.
Yan Wentao said, “This… under the circumstances, it was an expedient measure.”
What expedient measure.
Now Xuan Xia only hoped that Yan Wentao had a foolproof plan and wouldn’t mess it up.
Mist had risen in the room at some unknown time, the mist was thick and soon filled the entire space into a vast white expanse; the visible range was greatly limited, and the outdoor light sources were completely blocked off.
The four people were clearly standing close together, but except for Auntie Feng and her son who could see each other, they couldn’t see anyone else.
Yan Wentao’s voice came from nearby, “Boss.”
“What?” Xuan Xia asked.
As the two exchanged questions and answers, from the sound of their voices, both seemed very calm.
But this was of course, because both of them had opened their heavenly eye, unlike Auntie Feng and her son.
This thick fog was just manageable for the two of them.
“Nothing, be careful.” Yan Wentao was just confirming.
Xuan Xia responded and said, “You be careful too.”
No sooner had the words fallen than Xuan Xia heard a female voice shout, “Mom.”
Xuan Xia instinctively scanned around, but she only heard the voice and saw no one.
Yan Wentao had the same reaction.
After the two found nothing, they decided to hold position and continue observing.
Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao didn’t recognize this voice, but the mother and son right beside them did.
Auntie Feng’s cheeks tightened, and she almost opened her mouth to respond.
This was her daughter-in-law Li Qiaozhen’s voice!
Upon recognizing it, Auntie Feng gripped her son’s arms even harder, her whole body nearly hanging onto his hands.
This time Shen Jiabing heard it clearly, his entire expression changed dramatically, and his whole body trembled.
No way, how could it be?!
Because no one answered, the cry of “Mom” soon sounded again in the white mist.
With this cry, the white mist enveloping everyone instantly turned into thick black mist.
The black mist was even more frightening than the white mist; Auntie Feng couldn’t take it anymore and shouted into the black mist with a trembling voice, “Qiaozhen, why are you scaring Mom like this!”
“Mom!” Because Auntie Feng had responded, this call carried a lively laugh in its tone.
“Are you the ones playing tricks!” Shen Jiabing steadied his mind, warning himself not to fall for it easily.
The “you” in his mouth of course referred to Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao.
“I tell you, if you keep scaring an old lady like this and something happens to my mom, I definitely won’t let you off!”
Xuan Xia was too lazy to respond to him, but he was quite bold and had a very firm mindset.
If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have been scared out of their wits by now.
And that voice that appeared out of nowhere kept calling “Mom,” each “Mom” with a different tone, making Auntie Feng’s tears flow.
Auntie Feng cried as she said, “Qiaozhen, Mom treated you well, why do you have to scare me like this? If there’s anything unsatisfactory for you down there, just say it; whether you want gold, silver, house, or car, I’ll burn them all for you, okay?”
Just don’t disturb their living lives anymore. Auntie Feng didn’t dare to say this.
“Mom, you treated me better than my own mom.” The voice in the mist picked up Auntie Feng’s words, “I never had a mom since I was little, and you treated me like your own daughter.”
Auntie Feng: “You know that, you know that well.”
Since you know that, why are you scaring Mom like this? Auntie Feng said this in her heart again.
But the voice in the mist said, “Mom, if you hadn’t been good to me, Jiabing and I wouldn’t have made it. We couldn’t go on!”
The voice suddenly changed, adding a sobbing tone, “I really regret it, Mom, I really regret it. Why didn’t I harden my heart and end this marriage sooner? I really regret it so much; if I’d known it would cost me my life, I really regret it…”
“What did you say? What are you saying?” Upon hearing this, Auntie Feng’s fear instantly halved, replaced by shock, “What do you mean by that, Qiaozhen?”
Before Auntie Feng got an answer from her daughter-in-law Qiaozhen, a “Enough!” exploded in her ear first.
Shen Jiabing’s chest heaved, his brows and eyes fierce as he glared at the pitch-black front, “If you keep playing tricks, even if it exhausts me, I won’t let you off! Whatever your purpose is, I advise you to stop now!”
“A Bing…” Auntie Feng timidly called her son.
After Shen Jiabing’s shout, Li Qiaozhen’s voice didn’t appear again for a long time.
As if it had been frightened.
Shen Jiabing thought his warning had worked and snorted unhappily through his nose.
He thought to himself, if Li Qiaozhen really had the ability to cause all this, why wait until over half a year later? Why didn’t she make trouble in the first few days after dying?
So, there are no such things as strange forces and ghosts in this world; it’s all man-made!
He just didn’t know who it was, using Li Qiaozhen’s name to target him.
One thing Shen Jiabing knew clearly: as long as he held firm, no one would find out the truth.
The more Shen Jiabing thought, the steadier his heart became.
He even proactively supported Auntie Feng and said, “Mom, let’s go. Once we’re out, I’ll call the police.”
Even though it was pitch black ahead where he couldn’t see his hand, this was his home after all; he was very familiar with the layout here and could find the door with his eyes closed.
As soon as he said it, they moved; Shen Jiabing supported Auntie Feng and had just turned direction when Li Qiaozhen’s voice suddenly came from the black mist again.
It was still the sentence from earlier: “Mom, you were really good to me.”
With this sentence, the black mist in front of them suddenly dispersed rapidly, revealing the dining room to everyone.
At the table, a family of three was sitting.
A young couple and the mother-in-law.
The mother-in-law and husband among them, Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao had both seen: they were Auntie Feng and Shen Jiabing.
The only woman they hadn’t seen was obviously the daughter-in-law Li Qiaozhen.
Xuan Xia and the others sized up Li Qiaozhen.
Li Qiaozhen wasn’t particularly beautiful, but the aura she exuded was very gentle; she clearly looked like a warm and graceful person, and her smile was warm too.
The three were eating, chatting happily during the meal.
Anyone feeling this atmosphere would have to say it was “happiness.”
Auntie Feng didn’t know when this scene was from; she only knew that whenever her son and daughter-in-law came to keep her company for meals, it was mostly this kind of atmosphere.
The left and right neighbors all envied her greatly.
However, in the next second, the harmonious scene shattered like a mirage.
Still at the dining table, Auntie Feng was gone, leaving only Shen Jiabing and Li Qiaozhen.
Shen Jiabing suddenly changed his face, one hand suddenly gripping Li Qiaozhen’s neck, forcing her head back.
Li Qiaozhen’s eyes were red, and Shen Jiabing’s eyes were red too, but their emotions were completely different.
One was endless sorrow, the other was morbid obsession.
Auntie Feng stared at this scene, scared into crying out.
How could this be her son and daughter-in-law??
Impossible!
How could this be her son!
Yet Shen Jiabing showed a similar expression to the one in the scene, glaring fiercely with bulging eyes, mostly in disbelief.
Others didn’t know, but he did: this was a scene that had really happened.
Those few days, Li Qiaozhen had quarreled unhappily with him and proposed divorce. How could he divorce her? Unless she died, he absolutely wouldn’t divorce!
He still remembered what he said while gripping her neck then, “Want a divorce? Not even over my dead body! Even if you’re dead, you’ll still be a Shen family wife!”
Immediately after, the next scene confirmed his disbelief.
That was what happened before Li Qiaozhen died.
Li Qiaozhen was on the verge of death, and he watched coldly until she took her last breath.
Yes, Li Qiaozhen originally had a chance for rescue, but he didn’t help; he watched her die with open eyes.
Not only that, he was the main culprit who caused her sudden death.
……
“Ah!!”
Auntie Feng screamed in fright, covering her eyes with both hands and lowering her head, not daring to look at this scene.
As if as long as she didn’t look, these scenes had never happened.
“I don’t want to die, I want to live too.” Li Qiaozhen’s voice came again, “I still have unfinished dreams, so many places I want to visit, I don’t want to die so early.”
By the end, it was like sobbing.
And with Li Qiaozhen’s words, Auntie Feng also wailed out loud.
She refused to acknowledge what she had seen with her own eyes, yet couldn’t suppress the heartache.
“Nonsense! Playing tricks! Spreading rumors!” Shen Jiabing stubbornly refused to give in, then added, “Do you dare come out? If you come out, I’ll kill you, huh?”
What answered him was Li Qiaozhen’s crying.
That crying was no longer normal sobbing; it had reached a ghostly wailing level.
Xuan Xia, who had been watching, couldn’t help covering her ears; this sound was too stimulating to the eardrums. Uncomfortable!
Perhaps sensing Xuan Xia’s mood, Li Qiaozhen’s crying stopped, and the next second she actually said to Xuan Xia and the others, “Two masters, I died unwillingly; I beg you, let me off this time.”
“…”
Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao exchanged a glance.
Both were encountering a ghost begging them for mercy for the first time.
For a moment, neither knew how to respond to Li Qiaozhen.
After two seconds, Xuan Xia spoke first: “You said your mother-in-law treated you better than her own daughter, so why are you still scaring her?”
The grudge has a head and the debt has an owner; why not go straight to the source.
Li Qiaozhen didn’t show herself, but her voice continued, “I can’t let him harm other innocent people anymore. Can’t, can’t…”
She repeated the word “can’t” twice.
Xuan Xia could only piece together the possible situation from her words: Li Qiaozhen knew Auntie Feng was arranging a new partner for Shen Jiabing; she didn’t want anyone else to follow in her footsteps, so she wanted to stop it.
But for some reason, she couldn’t do anything to Shen Jiabing and turned to Auntie Feng instead, but Auntie Feng didn’t understand her intent and thought Li Qiaozhen couldn’t let go, so she thought of performing the religious ceremony to soothe her.
As for why Li Qiaozhen couldn’t target Shen Jiabing directly, Xuan Xia could only guess that perhaps because Shen Jiabing was the one who killed her, she feared him.
People fear ghosts, but ghosts also fear people, especially the one who killed them; that person naturally carries evil energy, plus Shen Jiabing’s firm mindset—he still wasn’t scared at this point, making him scarier than a ghost.
And Li Qiaozhen still retained a bit of “kindness,” fearing more innocents would suffer.
Xuan Xia lowered her eyes in thought, then said, “I can’t let you off, but I can give you time. I’ll give you a little time to take revenge and resolve your resentment. If you agree, show yourself.”
“Boss…” Yan Wentao looked at Xuan Xia in surprise.
Xuan Xia gave him a look, telling him to follow her lead.
“…Really possible?” Li Qiaozhen could hardly believe it.
Xuan Xia said, “Why would I lie to you? Is there any need?”
The room fell silent; Li Qiaozhen seemed to be thinking.
Li Qiaozhen feared Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao’s heavenly eye abilities, plus she had already suffered from one of Xuan Xia’s daoist talismans in Auntie Feng’s dream before, so she hadn’t dared to show herself.
But it wasn’t silent for long; thick black mist rose again.
This time, Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao saw a shadow flash by with their heavenly eye abilities, and then Shen Jiabing suddenly cried out.
The black mist rose and dispersed; the next second, Shen Jiabing’s neck was gripped by two hands.
The air in Shen Jiabing’s chest was instantly cut off, but that wasn’t what shocked him most; what shocked him most was that the one choking his neck was Li Qiaozhen.
But this Li Qiaozhen had blood flowing from all seven orifices, disheveled long hair, ashen skin tone, extremely terrifying in appearance, truly like a corpse!
And her strength—Shen Jiabing tried to struggle, to pry her hands off, but it was completely useless.
Her strength was so great it didn’t seem like a normal person’s!
In just a few seconds, Shen Jiabing’s whole face turned red, bloodshot eyes bulging, only able to make “heh heh” sounds.
While choking him, Li Qiaozhen’s bloody tears streamed down, “Does it hurt? Every time you choked me, I felt like this! Does it hurt? I felt this pain when I died too!”
Shen Jiabing was lifted up by Li Qiaozhen’s choke, and the moment his feet left the ground, overwhelming fear finally shattered his last line of defense.
Shen Jiabing “heh heh”-ed, his line of sight desperately turning toward Xuan Xia and the others, wanting them to save him.
On the other side, Auntie Feng released her hands from her eyes and was then scared into falling to the ground.
But Auntie Feng was only stunned for an instant before crawling to Shen Jiabing’s side, climbing up while holding him, reaching out her hands, “No, Qiaozhen, don’t!”
Li Qiaozhen turned her head to look at Auntie Feng, her bloody tears flowing even more fiercely.
“Mom…”
At the critical moment, what Auntie Feng wanted most was to save her own son.
Auntie Feng closed her eyes not daring to look at the opposite side, but her hands helped Shen Jiabing pry at Li Qiaozhen’s hands.
Xuan Xia ignored the scene before her, only watching Shen Jiabing’s face, counting seconds in her mind until the last second, when she shouted, “Daoist Master Yan!”
With just that one shout, Yan Wentao tacitly unleashed the ghost-binding chain, capturing and binding Li Qiaozhen.
