The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

By the time her ox-cart leisurely arrived in Prefecture City, it was already dark.

Although she was anxious, there was nothing she could do.

Once in the city, she headed straight for the Wen family’s residence.

When Lady Wen and Wen Shu saw Yingbao, they burst into tears of joy.

“Yingbao, are you hurt?”

Yingbao showed her wrist to Lady Wen and wrote a few words: “They bled me.”

Wen Shu quickly held her hand and said anxiously, “Don’t move, I’ll get the medicinal liquor.”

Yingbao nods. Her bandage on the wrist was dyed red with blood. It needed to be rewrapped and cleaned before applying another layer of medication.

If it weren’t for the Five Dingzhi pills she had been taking, she would have long become weak and powerless.

That damned Pei Shixian used some kind of medicine that slowed down her wound’s healing process, hence her wrist bandage constantly being soaked with blood.

Lady Wen helped Yingbao lie down on the bed and ordered the servants to find Master Zhou and tell him that Yingbao was back.

“Yingbao, what happened? Why can’t you speak?” Xiu Zhenniang asked.

“Pei Shixian and Han Yueniang took me to a basement and performed a sorcery ritual to transfer luck to Chen Tiantian.” Yingbao managed to write about the whole incident with a charcoal pen.

Xiu Zhenniang gritted her teeth in fury and immediately had her husband report it to the Prefectural Government Office.

Before long, Zhou Wuchang and his two apprentices hurried over.

When he learned the whole incident was done by Pei Shixian and his wife, he wasn’t too surprised.

Zhou Wuchang, uncommonly affectionate, gently touched Yingbao’s head and said comfortingly, “Don’t worry, your master will avenge you. You stay here with Lady Wen. I will come for you when I have taken care of everything.”

He then ordered Zhang Min, “Take good care of your junior apprentice sister. If anything else happens, you won’t be let off lightly.”

Zhang Min nodded despondently.

Thus, Yingbao began staying at the Wen family home, lying in bed for a day.

When she woke up, she heard about what Master Zhou had done to Pei Shixian’s family from Zhang Min.

“The Han mother and daughter tried to flee to Beijing by boat but were stopped and brought back by my master for trial at the Prefectural Government Office.”

Zhang Min excitedly recounted, “I heard from Elder Apprentice Brother that Master Zhou drained half a bowl of blood from Chen Tiantian and fed it to a black dog.”

Yingbao was puzzled, and wrote in her small notebook: “Why?”

“Hehe, Elder Apprentice Brother said this is the method of transferring the universe’s energy, which feeds her sins to the black dog to cleanse her soul.” Actually, it’s just payback for her drinking Yingbao’s blood.

“What happened after that? Were they punished?” Yingbao wrote swiftly with her charcoal pen.

Zhang Min frowned, “Pei Shixian denied practising the magic of disgust and kept defending himself. It seems like Magistrate Wang somewhat favours him.”

Yingbao’s expression darkened. Just when she heard Zhang Min whisper, “Don’t worry, today Master chopped off one of Pei Shixian’s hands in court. He also had letters tattooed on the faces of the Han mother and daughter.”

Yingbao’s eyes widened.

Zhang Min whispered, “In master’s hand is the purple gold dagger bestowed by the Emperor, meant to execute corrupt officials. He used that to avenge you.”

At this, Yingbao’s eyes sparkled, and she yelled, “That’s great…” Although her voice was hoarse, she managed to produce sound.

“Eh? Junior Apprentice Sister, you can speak!” Zhang Min exclaimed with surprise, “I’ll tell Master about this.”

Yingbao also wanted to go.

She wanted to see what words had been tattooed on Chen Tiantian’s face.

Under the accompaniment of Lady Wen, the young apprentice siblings made their way to the entrance of the Prefectural Government Office.

By then, quite a crowd had gathered around the office. Most of them were curious townsfolk, and there were also around ten Taoists.

Yingbao and Zhang Min jumped off the carriage and squeezed into the crowd.

They saw Mrs. Han and Chen Tiantian being held back by several government officials at the stairs, not allowed to leave. They were executing Magistrate Wang’s order to exhibit them to the public for two hours before they could depart.

Yingbao looked at Chen Tiantian, crying her eyes out with tears streaming down her cheeks, but she felt no ripple in her heart.

In her past life and this one, she had never killed anyone. But at this moment, she couldn’t help but think about killing Chen Tiantian herself.

She was sure Chen Tiantian had wanted to kill her back when they were locked in the cellar. Sadly for they had big plans, they didn’t dare to leave no trace.

Chen Tiantian, spotting Yingbao now, hatred surged in her eyes.

On one side of her forehead was a prominent bird-egg size ‘prisoner’ character.

Next to the Han family’s mother and daughter, a government official held up a sign with a statement pinned on. It declared the Han family had committed heinous crimes, harming children by using sorcery, drinking their blood, actions that are morally repugnant. Therefore, their faces have been tattooed as a deterrent to others.

The same ‘prisoner’ mark was etched on Han Yueniang’s forehead, but she was blankly looking at the sky, completely numb.

“Junior sister, Pei Shixian’s right hand was severed, and he will never be able to perform spells again.” Zhang Min had a look of schadenfreude.

Yingbao took her senior brother’s arm and returned to the cart.

With Chen Tiantian’s face tattooed, will she still have a shot at becoming the Empress Dowager in this life? Probably not.

This was very good indeed.

Yingbao breathed a sigh of relief.

A few days later, the master and his three disciples set off on their journey.

This time, they were not traveling on foot but brought two dwarf horse carts with them.

Yingbao shared one with her second senior brother, while the eldest senior brother and the master rode in the other one. The carts were loaded with bedding, luggage, and such.

They headed north at a moderate pace, covering about sixty to seventy miles a day.

Whenever they passed through towns and county cities, they would stop to walk around, buying daily necessities, food, and water to bring with them.

Before they knew it, it was the end of August and the weather was getting colder and colder.

The master and his disciples finally entered the territory of Jingzhou.

Passing a small county town, Zhou Hao bought a lot of rice and flour to put on the horse cart, and also bought some salt and sugar.

After traveling a few tens of miles, Master Zhou said, “Let’s stop at the village ahead and rest there for a few days.”

“Okay!” This trip was the most relaxed one for Zhang Min, he was ecstatic and quickly directed the horse cart towards the village.

Shortly after, houses made of stacked stones with thatched roofs came into view. The houses were low, looking quite shabby.

A few villagers came out of the village, standing by the road and curiously eyeing the horse carts.

An elderly villager dressed in ragged clothes suddenly shouted, “General Zhou! Are you General Zhou?”

Zhou Wuchang smiled and nodded at him, “Uncle Wu, I am Zhou Wuchang.”

Old Man Wu hurriedly ran over, exclaiming excitedly, “It really is you! You’ve finally come back!”

A few more villagers recognized Zhou Wuchang and came over to greet him.

Yingbao was curious. She quietly asked her second senior brother, “Have you been here before?”

“I have.” Zhang Min wanted to say that his family house was just over a hundred miles away in Prefecture City. This time he was happier than anyone to return home.

Yingbao asked, “What did Master do before? Why does he know these people?”

“Master was stationed here for over a decade, everyone in the military camp knows him.”

In fact, Zhou Wuchang is the current emperor’s uncle, the half-brother of the late Empress Dowager on her father’s side. He was once stationed on the frontier in his youth and had held the high-ranking position of Great General of Huaihua.

Later, as his relatives passed away one by one, he surrendered his position, returned home, and became a Taoist, living the life of a hermit.

“Yingbao, when we have some free time, I’ll take you to the woods over there to hunt for some rabbits to bring back for dinner.” Zhang Min excitedly offered.

Yingbao jumped off the horse cart, “Master forbids killing. We are Onmyoji. Aren’t you afraid Master will punish you if you go hunting rabbits?”

Zhang Min also jumped off the horse cart, took down the bags of rice and grains from the cart, and said, “That’s just for show. Now that we’re in Jingzhou, we should eat and drink what we can. Nobody will blame you. Hey, even Master isn’t strict about that.”

Yingbao asked, “For show? Why?”