Chapter 596: Chapter 588: A Brief Discussion on Feng Shui and the Underworld
Everyone’s expression drastically changed as they saw the tiny animal skeleton cradled in the wet nurse’s handkerchief, with Jiang Wenyan turning her head to vomit immediately.
Qin Liuxi took a silver hairpin from the dressing cabinet, poked the skeleton with it, then stuffed the hairpin back into Qiao Ziling’s hand and said, "It’s the skeleton of a cat, so small, it must have died still inside the womb."
Qiao Ziling: "..."
Why was this hairpin pushed into his hand?
He looked at the skeleton, feeling nauseous, retched a couple of times, and then tossed the silver hairpin back to the wet nurse: "It’s yours now."
Jiang Wenliu asked with a dark expression, "Is this what was found on the beam above the front door?"
The wet nurse nodded with a pale face: "I personally went up there to find it, wrapped in this black cloth, tucked under the corner of the eaves."
Jiang Wenliu glared at Qiao Ziling, his eyes filled with interrogation and accusation.
Qiao Ziling stepped back in fright, waving his hands and saying, "I don’t know anything about this."
He truly felt wronged. What ordinary person would think to check for something vile placed on the high eaves?
Qin Liuxi: Right, I’m not an ordinary person!
After vomiting, Jiang Wenyan’s complexion was even paler. She dabbed some cooling ointment on her philtrum and, supported by her maidservants, came back over and looked at Qin Liuxi, asking: "Junior Temple Master, is it these things that have been causing my health to be poor for years, forcing me to live like a medicine jar?"
"One could say that. As the saying goes, ’One’s fate is firstly determined by life itself, secondly by luck, and thirdly by feng shui.’ Sometimes feng shui can also alter one’s luck. Good feng shui can boost fortune, while bad feng shui naturally results in a decline in one’s luck, such as in your bedroom. At first glance, the furnishings seem ordinary, but in fact, they erode the affection between you and your husband." Qin Liuxi pointed to the table where the wash basin was placed, and said, "There’s also a small mirror placed there, facing the bed. When you get up at night, you might be startled by shadows in the mirror, causing disturbed sleep, right?"
Jiang Wenyan looked at the small mirror; indeed, she was sometimes frightened by it, feeling very anxious, but she had never considered the implications.
"When a husband and wife are discordant, arguments naturally follow, and estrangement is inevitable. Additionally, your indisposition has left you powerless in certain matters, and yet your husband shows no understanding, leading to even worse fights. Naturally, your heartbreak only deepens, and the pent-up frustration becomes harder to dispel."
Jiang Wenyan looked at Qiao Ziling, who felt somewhat guilty and ashamed.
"Having spoken of the feng shui within this room, let’s talk about this cat corpse. Cats resemble tigers, and in Lingnan, they have a tradition of drinking ’Dragon Tiger Phoenix Soup’ as a major winter nourishment, but do they really use dragons, tigers, and phoenixes for the soup? Of course not. It’s merely a medicinal soup made by stewing snake, cat, and chicken together with herbs. Therefore, using the cat to symbolize the tiger makes sense, and as the tiger is known as the king of beasts with a fierce nature, this small cat corpse, placed under the eaves, is itself a form of Suppression Technique. Passing under these eaves every day, you naturally come into contact with its resentful energy and ferocity, causing an increase in your temper, especially after becoming pregnant."
Listening to this, everyone felt dizzy with confusion. Were there really so many things to consider?
They glanced once more at the tiny set of bones, each shuddering from an eerie chill.
"But, not only she walked under this eave, so did I, as well as these servants and maids, so why did only she get affected?" Qiao Ziling still couldn’t understand, over the years, there had been more than Jiang Wenyan coming and going from the room, so why was she the most affected?
Qin Liuxi pointed to the bedroom: "Isn’t there also the influence of Feng Shui from where she slept? The two factors complement each other, and she had to bear more than others, even more than you, because you surely don’t sleep here every day." She looked at Qiao Ziling with a half-smile and said, "The most important thing is, she is the only one who was pregnant."
She covered the small mirror again and said, "When a woman is pregnant, she endures far more than you can imagine. Physical changes, figure distortion, fearing the loss of their husband’s affection, fearing the child’s health, even fearing childbirth. All these, how could you men possibly understand? You can’t truly empathize because you’re not the ones responsible for pregnancy and childbearing."
Qiao Ziling’s face flushed with embarrassment.
"Combining various factors, that’s why she fell ill. If external influences are added, from outside the house to within, it creates a cycle. If the environment doesn’t change, it invisibly affects her, making her prone to anger and jealousy, and with a heart that cannot remain calm, her health naturally fails to improve," Qin Liuxi sighed.
Jiang Wenyan let out a soft sob. Jiang Wenliu went to her side, patted her arm, his eyes filled with compassion, and glared at Qiao Ziling with clenched teeth, "Someone has been harboring ill intentions from the start, scheming to harm my sister. We must have the lady come and look at this Inner House Ghost. Jiang Family’s daughters are not to be bullied so easily. Mrs. Zhang, go and invite her now."
"Yes, Eldest Young Master," Mrs. Zhang was also furious. They were all trained and extremely cautious of Inner House Ghosts, but they never imagined someone would tamper with Feng Shui. They were laypeople to such things, and this cat’s corpse, who knows how many years it’s been there, is truly malevolent.
Nevertheless, Jiang Wenyan went forward and knocked over the jar of fish onto the floor. The porcelain bowl shattered, and two fish flopped on the floor, startling everyone.
She stepped over one fish and stopped Mrs. Zhang, "Don’t go yet." Then she looked at Qin Liuxi, "If there’s anything else amiss, I ask the Junior Temple Master to find them all, and then prescribe a treatment for me."
"Sister?" Jiang Wenliu frowned, wondering if she was trying to downplay the situation.
Jiang Wenyan coldly said, "Nothing is more important than my health. Since these resentful energies have been revealed, they won’t be able to harm me again. I will personally find out who is behind this. But for now, the most crucial matter is my health; I can’t delay any longer."
She had been in Duke Dingguo Mansion for five years, as long as she had been pregnant and as long as she had been sick. She had seen countless imperial doctors, and not a single one had truly cured her. Her illness always recurred, never fully abating. Due to constant medication, her body was frail, her complexion pale, that much was bearable, but the real nuisance was her unpredictable temper, which caused even her in-laws to dare not let her son stay by her side for fear of frightening him.
Without her child by her side and her husband’s attentions waning since their newlywed days, she felt defeated and irritated, becoming increasingly indiscreet and disproportionately reactive to any slight upset. She had always thought it was all because of her chronic illness, and all the doctors believed the same, but the situation now seemed different from her assumption.
Her illness was not untreatable; someone from the very beginning did not wish her well, deliberately setting a trap, inflicting her with invisible, insidious poison that slowly degraded her health and temperament until she was unrecognizable—a scheme so meticulous and malicious.
Yet she had been oblivious, walking right into it.
So first, she needed to confirm there were no problems with her health, then she could deliberate the rest.
Jiang Wenyan bowed solemnly to Qin Liuxi, "Junior Temple Master, please diagnose and prescribe treatment for me."