This night, the stars hung low.
The sleep-talker's cries turned into a sigh, and Aunt Ge's small courtyard gradually fell silent. A wisp of night breeze drifted by, swirling up a few fallen leaves before suddenly vanishing beneath the starlight.
Only, beneath the window of Aunt Ge's room, a golden shadow remained, flickering in and out of sight in the darkness, almost an illusion.
That was a piece of gold Song Ciwan had left behind using the Stone-to-Gold Technique. 'Since Aunt Ge and Huang Gui both felt they had no choice but to steal the pension money, then I'll let them face the "helplessness" that comes with wealth!'
'This world is full of things that aren't black and white, impossible to judge clearly. I don't consider myself a Judge, and I can't be bothered to bring justice to the world. But since I am here, as a daughter, there are some things I simply must do.'
It seemed the couple, Ge and Huang, had only stolen a few taels of silver, but who was to say that wasn't Lady Liu's chance to live?
Taking it a step further, if the Song Family had received the full pension back then, Song Ciwan wouldn't have been saddled with a mountain of debt, and she wouldn't have been forced to become a menial worker in the Washing Room.
The Washing Room was a dead end. Regardless of whether the current Song Ciwan had managed to snatch life from the jaws of death, the fact that she had been forced down that path could not be so easily forgotten!
'Doesn't the Song Ciwan who survived need to demand a tribute for the "self that died"?'
Song Ciwan wasn't seeking justice. She stood only on her own ground, seeking a clear conscience!
Her Stone-to-Gold Technique was still in its early stages. The gold she created could only last for three days. 'Let's just see what kind of story this piece of gold will stir up within three days.'
In the deep of the night, Song Ciwan returned home with the evening wind.
She changed her clothes, washed up, and once again summoned the Heaven and Earth Scale.
This time, at the Huang Family's home, Aunt Ge and her husband Huang Gui had together provided Song Ciwan with a sufficient amount of emotional value.
What Aunt Ge provided was: [Human Desires: Greed, Anger, Fear. Three jin and eight taels. Sellable.]
Song Ciwan sold it and obtained: [Three years and eight months of Cultivation.]
In an instant, Song Ciwan fell into a profound state of Meditation.
Three years and eight months of Cultivation felt as though she had diligently cultivated the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting, gathering purple haze at dawn and lunar essence at night. Though she had no Elixirs to aid her, she cultivated tirelessly without a moment's rest—
In this state, time flew by unnoticed. When she opened her eyes again, the True Qi in her Dantian was a degree more substantial.
Sitting to discuss the Dao, Sitting and Forgetting the Dao. To depart from form and abandon intellect, becoming one with the Great Profundity.
A feeling of clarity, as if her mind, body, and Divine Soul had been washed clean, lingered around her, giving her a completely new understanding of everything she had learned before.
This was the lucidity that comes with the passage of time. Only a moment had passed in the real world, but for Song Ciwan, it felt like three years!
Song Ciwan gently exhaled. A stream of white vapor floated from her lips and fell to the ground in front of her. With a POOF, a distinct white mark was left on the bluestone floor before her bed.
It was as if it had been scraped by a sharp object. The mark wasn't deep, but it was startling.
'To think a single breath could cause such a result!'
This was "qi like a heavy mist," a sign that Song Ciwan had reached the Late-stage Qi Transformation and was not far from breaking through to the Qi Refining Stage.
This Cultivation speed, like the rate at which her lifespan was increasing, was terrifying.
Song Ciwan had actually been extremely anxious after confirming the truth of Father Song's death, but after this session of Cultivation, that anxiety was imperceptibly soothed.
'No more rushing, no more fear. All fear stems from a lack of firepower. As long as I have enough firepower, everything will be fine.'
'Of course, when it's time to be steady, I must be steady.'
Song Ciwan then sold the portion of the seven emotions and six desires she had obtained from Huang Gui: [Human Desires: Grief, Terror, Fear. Three jin and nine taels. Sellable.]
Sold. Obtained: [Basic Taoist Skill: Palm Thunder.]
Song Ciwan straightened up immediately. While suppressing her joyful surprise, she quickly and carefully memorized all the secrets of the Palm Thunder.
She memorized and practiced the new Magic, reviewed the old ones she had learned, and continued carving the Wooden Puppet. Song Ciwan was incredibly busy. It was thanks to the True Qi she cultivated through the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting that she had enough energy to "grind."
She ground away until the sky turned fish-belly white, at which point Song Ciwan finally stopped her Cultivation and took a short nap.
Afterwards, she got up, washed, cooked, fed the geese, and went to work as usual.
'A working girl's duties can't be slacked off for even a single day.'
After work, Song Ciwan headed straight for Aunt Jin Hua's house.
Today was the end of the month, the day Song Ciwan had originally set to repay her debt. She brought with her the wages she had saved up this month, a total of two taels of silver.
According to Huang Gui, the matter of stealing Song Youde's pension was a collective act, led by the household clerk at the Government Office—
'These people are old skinflints. They'd scrape three feet of dirt off a barren field if they walked past it. When the pension set by the higher-ups passed through their hands, there was no way they wouldn't skim a layer off the top.'
Out of a total pension of one hundred taels, the household clerks took thirty taels, and another twenty taels were split among the other junior officials who worked on the same shift as Song Youde.
The head of the Yu Family was a constable; he took five taels of silver. Huang Gui took three taels, and the dozen or so others split the remaining twelve taels.
By the time Song Youde's body was brought home, the pension money that reached Lady Liu and Song Ciwan was only fifty taels.
Song Ciwan was keeping a ledger. It was written clearly in her book: later, when Lady Liu fell gravely ill and the Song Family ran out of money, Song Ciwan went to the Yu Family—that is, Aunt Jin Hua's family—and borrowed exactly five taels of silver!
'Heh. Isn't that just fascinating?'
When Song Ciwan arrived outside the Yu Family's courtyard, she found the gate wide open. Aunt Jin Hua was holding a wicker basket and sprinting down the street. Several other neighbors were running with her, all heading in the same direction.
As they ran, someone said, "Aiyah, what a strange thing! Did gold really appear in the Huang Family's courtyard?"
"Isn't it just? Not only did gold appear, but someone's life was lost!"
"Celestial Lord! How did someone die?"
Song Ciwan was at the very back. Like a shadow, she immediately fell in behind the crowd. Her heart began to beat a little faster as she listened to the neighbors' chattering.
"I heard that woman, Ge Xiaohong, saved up a big gold coin to arrange a marriage for her second son. The eldest son's wife saw it and wouldn't let it go, so the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law started fighting."
"Hah! What kind of precious bride requires a gold coin for matchmaking? Of course the eldest son's wife wouldn't agree. How rich is their family, that they can just use gold coins for a betrothal? Isn't there anything better to do with that money?"
"That's right! I heard that gold coin weighed a good twenty or thirty taels. At the very least, it's worth two or three hundred taels of silver!"
"But the bride Huang Erlang wanted to marry is the young lady from the Chen Family on Liuquan Street..."
Someone gasped, "The Chen Family? The Chen Family that owns half the street?"
Before the gasps could fade, the group rounded the corner and arrived in front of the Huang Family's home.
The Huang Family's gate was also wide open. Chaotic screams came from the courtyard, and one voice was crying hoarsely, "My husband, my husband! Wake up, you can't just leave me like this!"
A young man roared in anger, "Huang the Second, you prodigal son! You've angered Father to this state! Today, I, your older brother, will beat you to death!"
A crowd of neighbors was squeezed outside the courtyard. Some stood on their tiptoes, craning their necks, while others tried to push their way in.
Those pushing in shouted, "The doctor's here! Quickly, quickly, make way, make way..."
The crowd parted. Someone who had just arrived and didn't know the situation quickly asked, "What's going on? Didn't they say the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were fighting? How did Huang Gui end up collapsing? What did Huang Erlang do?"
"Huang Erlang lied to his mother! He never even got to talk to the girl from the Chen Family. He's a gambling addict with debts of several hundred taels of silver. He tricked his mother into giving him the gold coins to pay them off!"
"Then what happened? How did he get exposed?"
"Huang Dalang's wife snatched the gold coins, so Huang Erlang brought some thugs to rob his sister-in-law. But Huang Dalang caught them, and after all that, how could it not be exposed?"
"Aiyah, what a terrible, tangled mess..."
Before the sighs of the onlookers could fade, new information came from the courtyard.
It turned out Huang Gui wasn't dead, but he had been so angered by Huang Erlang that he had a stroke and was now paralyzed!
Huang Erlang's leg was broken by Huang Dalang. Aunt Ge, protecting her younger son, got into a conflict with her elder son and ended up getting so angry she fainted.
...
A complete mess, a chaotic tangle.
Standing outside the crowd and watching, Song Ciwan was like a speck of dust, silently withdrawn at the edge of the mortal world. Yet, she was shaken to her core, speechless for a long time.