Chapter 974 - 976 - Sorcery_1
Bai Ruozhu glanced at the crowd of onlookers and, sure enough, saw Zhou Taohua hiding towards the back, watching her with a venomous gaze that also carried a triumphant smirk.
It was indeed her, Bai Ruozhu’s expression grew colder. She had not wanted to stoop to Zhou Taohua’s level, but Zhou Taohua, in her quest to trouble her, had already harmed Guizhi. She could no longer afford to be soft-hearted.
However, she still needed to shut up Guizhi’s mother first.
"Fang Auntie, don’t you feel ashamed when you speak? It was you who wanted money so badly that you were willing to marry Guizhi off to an old widower who had beaten his previous wife to death. Later, when you saw that Mrs. Xie was willing to pay more for a maid, you took the initiative to sell your daughter. And now you dare blame me for it? Guizhi was sold on a dead contract; from the day she was sold, she was no longer your daughter. You keep pestering me now, but have I taken a single coin from you?" Bai Ruozhu said loudly.
Many in the village still remembered the matter of Fang Guizhi being sold and began to murmur quietly.
"Don’t try to dodge the blame. I know everything. It was you who conspired with that Mrs. Xie, tricked Guizhi into leaving, and even persuaded her to defer to me as her mother," Guizhi’s mother said, hands on her hips.
"You signed the indenture contract yourself. What do you want with Guizhi now? Do you want money because you see her living well?" Bai Ruozhu looked at her with disdain. "You raised a daughter, not an easy feat, but she has served your family well. In the end, you sold her to make money. Once the dead contract was signed, everything owed to you was paid. She will no longer carry the Fang surname from now on. If you’re eyeing money, don’t come causing trouble with me. Do you really think I, Bai Ruozhu, am easy to bully?"
"If you don’t agree, then go to the Government Office and accuse me of abducting your daughter. Let’s see how the county officer judges it!" Bai Ruozhu said, sneering.
Guizhi’s mother didn’t dare to do that; false accusations were also punished with flogging. Even without an indenture contract, just asking around the village would reveal that she indeed sold her daughter.
"I know she’s living better now, but anyhow, she’s born of my womb. Just because she’s doing well, she can’t just forget her parents, right? I know my Guizhi is timid; it must be your doing," Guizhi’s mother muttered to herself.
Bai Ruozhu looked at the onlookers and addressed them: "Fellow villagers, please judge for yourselves. She sold her daughter for money. No matter how well Guizhi is doing, she is earning for her employer. If she went to ask Guizhi for money now and got caught by the Xie Residence, she’d be taking their money, which could land her in prison."
The onlookers agreed, mentioning that Guizhi was bound by a dead contract and belonged to her employer; how could she take anything from the employer’s property?
Guizhi’s mother began to waver in her stance, wondering to herself if Zhou Taohua had been deceiving her.
"I heard that Guizhi is in your house, helping you with work, not serving the Xie Family at all. Don’t try to fool me," Guizhi’s mother said after some thought.
"Who told you that, if not Zhou Taohua? What does she know? I’m partnering with Mrs. Xie in business. Isn’t it normal for her to send someone from her household to oversee the store?" Bai Ruozhu said, then looked toward Zhou Taohua in the crowd and asked loudly, "Isn’t that right, Tao Hua?"
An onlooker asked, "Tao Hua and her family have returned? Why didn’t I see them when Zhou Deshun came back in a horse carriage yesterday?"
Zhou Taohua, somewhat frightened, shrank back and said, "I’ve just come back to the village; how would I know these things? Don’t drag me into this mess."
Bai Ruozhu smiled, "Whoever is spreading rumors and sowing discord knows who they are. Heaven has eyes, and it might just curse her to never marry in her lifetime."
"How can you speak like that!" Zhou Taohua was immediately upset.
"If I’m talking about someone stirring up trouble, that’s not you, so why are you so anxious?" Bai Ruozhu asked with a smile.
Zhou Taohua choked on her words, unable to utter a single sentence; in the end, she stamped her foot and turned her head to run away.
Guizhi’s mother rolled her eyes, suspecting that Zhou Taohua had used her as a pawn. She then thought about how Bai Zepei was now a Scholar Laureate, a rank far above that of a mere Scholar, and decided it was best not to provoke him.
With that in mind, Guizhi’s mother suddenly clutched her stomach, saying, "Ouch, my stomach hurts so much, I need to leave first."
With no one else coming to create a scene, Bai Ruozhu and the others’ journey became much smoother. They paid visits to the village chief, the elders, Mr. Wu, and other acquaintances, delivering the gifts they had brought back.
In the evening, everyone was invited to dine at the Wan Family’s residence. Bai Yihong and the others drank some wine. Since Bai Ruozhu wanted to take Dengdeng back to sleep early, she excused herself in advance.
Once back in the yard, she called Jianqi over, handed him a small bottle, and whispered, "Just pour it in Zhou Taohua’s room."
Jianqi nodded, "Understood."
With Jianqi’s martial arts skills, he quickly reached the roof of Zhou Taohua’s room, lifted a tile, and poured the bottle’s contents through the gap.
He also noticed Zhou Taohua, in the room, mumbling to herself while holding some object. From his angle, he could only see her back and was unable to make out what she was holding.
"Curse you for not curing my illness, curse you for cursing me to never marry—I’ll stab you dead, stab you dead!" Zhou Taohua’s voice was somewhat suppressed, like a tightly wound string. Even though the sound was soft, the tone was strangely piercing.
Jianqi’s face changed color. He picked up a pebble and threw it into the room, where it knocked over a small wooden box not far behind her.
Startled by the noise, Zhou Taohua shivered and immediately turned to look back. Seeing it was only the box fallen from a cabinet, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Because she turned around, Jianqi finally got a clear view of what she was holding!
It was a voodoo doll made of straw, crudely fashioned but identifiable, and the words "Bai Ruozhu" were scribbled on it—clearly, she had intended to stab Bai Ruozhu!
Jianqi was infuriated and wanted to teach Zhou Taohua a lesson, but remembering his master had her own plans, he had to replace the tile and return to report back.
When Bai Ruozhu heard about Zhou Taohua stabbing the effigy of her, she was unconcerned. She considered such acts to be feudal superstitions, thinking that cursing someone with a doll could bring harm. If it were really that easy, countless people would have been killed by curses.
However, ancient people placed importance on such acts. If Zhou Taohua had made an effigy of her, it showed how much hatred she harbored in her heart.
"Master, it’s better to believe in the possibility of sorcery rather than dismiss it. If she knows your date and time of birth, that would be troublesome," Jianqi, seeing Bai Ruozhu take it lightly, couldn’t help but add, "I heard the previous Emperor of Chengshui Country died of witchcraft curses. His death was extremely gruesome. He tried to transfer the curse to someone else, but, unfortunately, he did not succeed in the end."
Bai Ruozhu, now intrigued, asked hurriedly, "Why didn’t it succeed? Was the sorcerer too powerful to break the spell?"
"The attempt to transfer it to another person already meant it was unbreakable, but the recipient had to be close kin for it to succeed. The previous Emperor of Chengshui Country, wanting to save himself, decided to transfer the curse to a less favored princess, and as a result..."