Otherworldly Merchant

I had a lot of doubts in my heart right now.

Is Chuyi that scary? Also, what did he mean by ‘He’s from the Zhang family’? What is the background of my Zhang family? 

With these doubts in my mind, I went with Mu Tou to the mountain peak. A cottage was situated on the top. We were invited in. Inside the house was just some plain furniture. Overall, it was a poor-looking house. It didn’t even have electricity. The man used some candles to light up the place.

An old fashioned table was opposite to the door, and a memorial tablet was placed on it. Behind the tablet was an ancient painting of an elegant, beautiful woman. She was looking towards the entrance, and I could see faint grief in her eyes.

After Chuyi came in, he lit up three joss sticks and gave the ancient painting a nod. Then, he sat by Mu Tou.

“Tell me everything. If it’s something we can help you with, we will naturally give you a hand,” said Chuyi.

Mu Tou’s eyes were blurry. His tears rolled down as he started to tell us his family’s story.

This mountain was where the famous Empress Xiao had lived in the past. [1]

Mu Tou’s ancestors used to receive Empress Xiao’s favors, so they volunteered to be her grave-keepers after she had passed away.

In honor of Empress Xiao, Mu Tou’s ancestors had changed their family name. It was enough to show how much they admired and respected Empress Xiao!

Empress Xiao was very unlucky overall. She had six husbands in total and all of them were Emperors.

One of them was the renowned Emperor Yang of Sui – Yang Guang!

That was why people made rumors that she had cursed all of her husbands. Every single husband of hers had died tragically. Of course, it was also related to the continuous wars at the time…

Everybody knew that the Emperor of a nation was very possessive. Empress Xiao had remarried after her husbands died, which had provoked the other Emperors’ rage. Thus, even after they died, they still kept pestering her.

Although Empress Xiao had lived until she was eighty-one years old, she had always been tormented by her first five husbands. Even after she passed away, she couldn’t rest well.

She had an otherworldly item, which was the golden hairpin. According to legends, Emperor Yang of Sui had stolen this hairpin from an ancient tomb. Since this hairpin could store evil things, after Empress Xiao died, the resentful souls of her six husbands had gathered and lived in this golden hairpin.

Not long after Empress Xiao died, her body changed due to the strong resentful energy of her six husbands. She became a zombie. However, since she was confined in her own coffin, she couldn’t attack anybody.

Her grave-keeper couldn’t be at ease because Empress Xiao couldn’t rest in peace. They went to an expert and asked how to help her rest.

The expert did have some skills. He offered the grave-keeper a suggestion. The golden hairpin was the reason the six souls kept pestering Empress Xiao. Since the souls were confined in the hairpin, their resentment had grown stronger.

If they could find six other souls to swap with the souls the golden hairpin was keeping, their resentment would be reduced. This would also solve Empress Xiao’s problem.

To let Empress Xiao rest in peace, the grave-keeper found six people from his family, who were willing to sacrifice their lives for Empress Xiao!

And it worked. Empress Xiao could finally rest.

However, the expert then told them that this method could only last for a hundred years. After one hundred years, the golden hairpin would have tortured the souls until they vanished. And, at that time, Empress Xiao’s six husbands would be bound to the hairpin once again. That was why they needed to find six other men to sacrifice.

At first, the Xiao family was rich and large. There were men in the family who wanted to sacrifice themselves. However, after many wars, their family members had reduced greatly. In this dire situation, they had to find other people to die for them.

To make up for those who had died, they let their daughters marry the men first. After a while, their Yang energy would be sucked by the hairpin and they would die.

Those souls would replace the souls in the hairpin.

When Mu Tou came to this part of the story, he choked in his own sobs. He knelt before Mu Wan. “Mu Wan, it’s my fault! I’ve done this out of my willingness. Without Empress Xiao, we wouldn’t exist. I had to do this. Otherwise, we are just a bunch of ungrateful people who don’t remember the favor.”

Mu Wan had tears in her eyes. She looked at her brother. “Brother, how could you… So it was me who killed my previous husbands?”

Mu Tou shook his head. “No, not you. It has nothing to do with you. You knew nothing. It’s the karma I created and I will shoulder this sin alone.”

Mu Wan clutched her head as she cried. “How could you do that?! Brother, do you know how much my heart was in pain? I would rather die than seeing my husbands die.”

“Now you have five souls. You still need another one. Are you going to use your own soul to reach the number? It’s the reason why you called Mu Wan to go home,” said Chuyi.

Mu Tou nodded. “Yes, I knww Mu Wan had encountered a strong opponent. If we continued, we would be discovered, so I asked her to come home. I was going to use my own soul to reach the required number.”

“Mu Tou, how can you be so stupid?” Mu Wan hugged her brother as she cried. “Without you, how can I live?”

Chuyi shook his head reluctantly. “Sigh, although Empress Xiao did some favor to your family, it has been more than one thousand years. What you’ve done for her is enough to repay her favor. Why do you have to sacrifice yourself? This is not loyalty. It’s stupidity, you know?”

Mu Tou sighed. “It’s our ancestor’s pledge. I don’t dare to break it.”

“You still want to do that?” Chuyi was astonished. He looked at Mu Tou.

“Right,” said Mu Tou.

“Brother, you shouldn’t. If you die, what will I do? I can’t continue to live on!” Mu Wan sobbed.

Mu Tou hugged Mu Wan and gently stroked her long hair. “Go somewhere far away and marry a good man! In my life, I’ve let out down the most. Please forgive your brother.”

Mu Wan shook her head. Tears streamed down her face.

“You’re an idiot.” I sighed and said, “Living people don’t need to care that much for a dead one. If you care about Empress Xiao, you should help her ascend and free her instead. That’s the true rest.”

“If she could be freed, I would have done that already. Unfortunately, Empress Xiao died a thousand years ago. There’s no way to help her ascend. This is the only way to help her rest,” said Mu Tou.

“Then just hit her until her soul vanishes,” Li Mazi interjected. “Have you ever thought about the men you’ve killed? Is it fair to them? A woman who died more than one thousand years ago needs six men to die for her every one hundred years. Do you think it’s fair?”

“Behind those six innocent men were six families. You cared about your fixation so much that you forgot the others!”

Mu Tou shook his head. “Things have come to this. I can only use my death to pay for my sins. After one hundred years, I hope you can let Empress Xiao’s soul ascend. At that time, I’ll have fulfilled my ancestor’s expectations…”

"Stupid and stubborn,” Chuyi said coldly.

Suddenly, Mu Tou hit Mu Wan’s nape with his hand, knocking her out.

Then, he kowtowed three times toward Chuyi. He received the golden hairpin from him then left.

“Should we let him leave just like that?” I was a little upset and looked at Chuyi.

He patted my shoulder, “Before I die, I will deal with Empress Xiao’s soul.”

"But..."

I still wanted to talk him out of it but Chuyi had already followed Mu Tou.

I shot a glance at Mu Wan, who had fainted. With a sigh, I followed the others.

Mu Tou took us behind the cottage where a small grave was situated. He opened the grave. I saw a white door.

Mu Tou opened the white door and gave a yearning glance toward his cottage house. All of a sudden, he stabbed the golden hairpin into his throat. Blood immediately streamed down. Then, he disappeared into the grave.

I shone my flashlight into the grave, but it was too deep. We couldn’t see the bottom.

Chuyi said, “We should seal it. This is his choice.”

Li Mazi and I moved immediately and sealed the grave. Chuyi threw inside the black donkey hooves together with other stuff we had prepared.

He said, “These items could help stop the Yin energy from the grave.”

Originally, Chuyi wanted to use the items to deal with Empress Xiao’s corpse. But right now, they were of no use…

After we burned the cottage, we brought Mu Wan back with us.

When Mu Wan woke up, she didn’t cry or whine. She just sat quietly and looked absent-minded.

“Mu Wan, what do you want to do next?”

Mu Wan said that she wanted to become a nun.

Li Mazi advised her and said, “You’re still in your prime time. Why would you become a nun? I can introduce you to a good guy. Later on, we can help each other.”

Mu Wan had died inside. She no longer cared about this world. I knew it was no use in talking her out of it.

Chuyi knew a nun from a temple. He wrote Mu Wan an introduction letter to go there.

After I watched Mu Wan leave, my heart had mixed feelings.

Being loyal was worth of one’s admiration. To repay Empress Xiao’s favor, Mu Wan’s ancestors had become her grave-keepers. They had endured hardship through all different kinds of situations. This loyalty was worth being the model for people to learn from.

However, it was the same ridiculous loyalty that had sacrificed so many innocent lives.

Loyalty had eventually changed into stupidity and ignorance!

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Xiao_(Sui_dynasty)