Chapter 70: The Counterattack of Madam Black Cat (28)
Translator: Guy Gone Bad
The man who could read the characters on the parchment lived not far away from them in the same city. It took one hour to drive there.Holding the box in one hand and Xia Liang with the other, Ji Yue came before the front door. When he was swaying whether to knock at the door or shout for someone, the door was opened.
It was a gray-bearded old man. He looked kind and easygoing.
“My name is Ji Yue. I am visiting Mr. Li Yuan.” Ji Yue smiled at him politely.
“This is he.” The old man nodded smilingly, looking the black cat in Ji Yue"s arm, “Come on in.”
“Grab a seat. Care for a cup of tea or water?” asked the old man.
“I am fine. Thank you.” Ji Yue put the box on the table and Xia Liang on the ground, “I guess you should know why I come.”
As he was speaking, he opened the box and took the parchment out and gave it to Mr. Li, “this is it. Please have a look.”
Mr. Li saved the chitchat as Ji Yue got right to the point. He took the parchment and rubbed with his fingers, “It is at least one hundred years old. Have a seat and I will have a look right now.”
Then he put on his reading gla.s.ses and read the characters on it.
Since Xia Liang came in, she stayed focused on Mr. Li"s facial expression. He was relaxing at the beginning. The more he read, the more serious he got. And finally he was mortified. Xia Liang wondered why.
What is on the parchment?
It took a dozen of minutes for Mr. Li to finish the reading. He put down the parchment and sighed, “It"s a doom!”
“What does it say? Please instruct me.” asked Ji Yue.
“It tells a story.” Mr. Li sighed and then continued, “two hundred years ago, the youngest son of Nangong family fell in love with a woman from Nanjiang, but the Nangong family objected because the woman was not from an upper-cla.s.s family and she was from Nanjiang. The family ordered their little son to come home and forbid them to see each other again. The little son was determined to be with the woman no matter how. But no matter how hard he fought, the family didn"t approve them and shut him home instead. To stop him from thinking the woman, the family sent someone to kill the woman. But the woman was already pregnant by that time. She begged the a.s.sa.s.sin to spare her and her kid"s life. In the end, the a.s.sa.s.sin didn"t. He also told her that he was sent by her lover because her lover wanted to get rid of her. The woman was furious and cursed with her own and her child"s blood before she died. She cursed that all blood in Nangong family would die out miserably after 100 years. The lord of Nanggong family at that time hired a great master to break the curse when they knew about this. This wooden box was the key to seal the curse. The stuff in the box belonged to the woman, and the patterns and those beautiful stones are used to suppress the curse.”