After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Besides what was already in the inn, there were only a few clothes for Master Ye and Madam Ye, and some baby supplies. Asking the innkeeper, they learned that the rich were different from the poor. They wouldn't carry pots and pans with them, nor would they hide gold, silver, or jade on their person; they had their own methods. For example, they would only take silver notes from a bank when needed.

Fearing the shopkeeper would become suspicious, they hastily packed some baby supplies and returned to the Miao village.

Miao Han said, "I'm not lying. Master Ye was killed by the village chief's son."

They wanted the silver notes that Master Ye had stored in the bank. To withdraw the notes, a receipt was needed, but what that receipt was was unknown. The village chief's son was an impatient man who used torture to extract a confession, eventually drowning the man.

Firefly: "Drowned? In that little ditch at the edge of your village?"

Miao Han: "No, it's a water vat in an abandoned house."

Firefly: "How big would that vat have to be to drown a grown man?"

Miao Han: "It wasn't like he was taking a bath, they had to put the whole person into the vat. The village chief's son was strong, he grabbed his hair and pushed him into the vat over and over again. Just a few times, really just a few times, and then he stopped moving. Madam Ye was crying her heart out, and their little daughter was crying loudly too. The village chief's son got annoyed and threw the child to the ground."

Lu Zhiyuan: "And then?"

Miao Han closed his eyes: "Madam Ye cursed at us and was slapped several times by the village chief's son. Her eyes were full of hatred, and she looked particularly frightening. I don't know who suggested it, but they took turns bullying Madam Ye."

Firefly: "Beasts! You are all beasts!"

Miao Han held his head in his hands: "I tried to stop them, but none of them listened to me."

He went outside and trembled as he listened to the horrific sounds coming from inside. He couldn't bear to listen and crouched in a corner, covering his ears. After what seemed like an eternity, the village chief's son came out and tossed him a red sash.

That red belt was the one that hung on his pomegranate tree, embroidered with pomegranates and pomegranate blossoms.

They threw the bodies of Master Ye and Miss Ye into the dry well in the abandoned house, and locked the barely alive Madam Ye in a room in the abandoned house. They had Miao Han watch over Madam Ye and try to get the credentials from her.

Miao Han didn't know how to start the conversation, let alone how to ask Madam Ye for the receipt. He closed his eyes, groped his way into the house, and took off his coat to cover her. He kept confessing and apologizing, saying that he only wanted some money for his mother's medical treatment and to find himself a wife. He never intended to kill Master Ye, let alone harm Madam Ye and her child.

Madam Ye's voice was hoarse. She said she was in pain and asked Miao Han to find her some medicine.

She was in so much pain that she couldn't move. He applied medicine to her with his eyes closed, and it felt like touching fire no matter where he touched her wounds or her skin.

Madam Ye smiled and told him to open his eyes.

He felt a pang of sadness when he saw her lying there like a rag doll.

He had seen her when she first arrived at the inn—a beauty beyond compare, radiant and captivating. He had also seen her after giving birth—gentle, serene, and compassionate. Neither of those versions matched the one before him.

Whether out of guilt or something else, he developed unusual feelings for Madam Ye.

Seven days later, those people came again, ostensibly to find evidence, but in reality to humiliate Madam Ye. Just like seven days ago, he stood guard outside the door, listening to the commotion inside, growing more and more aggrieved and furious with each passing moment.

Two weeks later, while he was applying medicine to Madam Ye, she suddenly burst into tears and asked him if he could kill her. She said she had let down her husband and her daughter, and she didn't want to live this life that was neither human nor ghost.

Miao Han couldn't bear to kill her, but he didn't know how to help her escape.

Every entrance and exit of the Miao village is guarded. How could a weak woman like her escape? If she did escape, how would he explain it to the village chief? His Miao family has lived here for generations. If he betrays the villagers, where will he and his mother find refuge?

Madam Ye grasped his hand and said that the Ye family had deposited over a thousand taels of silver in a bank. She could give the receipt to Miao Han and let him withdraw the money. With the silver, they could leave Miao Village and live anywhere in Beiliang. If he didn't mind her situation, she was willing to marry him. She had only one request: their daughter should take the surname Ye, and their son could take Miao Han's surname, Miao.

Miao Han was tempted and planned to take action that very night.

He first escorted his mother to the edge of the village, then sneaked back to the abandoned house. The once pitch-black house was now lit, and from inside came Madam Ye's pleading voice. Through the dilapidated window, Miao Han saw the village chief's son, his clothes disheveled.

He drank alcohol and went on a drunken rampage in the abandoned house.

Hearing Madam Ye's pleas for mercy, Miao Han became furious, grabbed the sickle hanging on the wall, and rushed inside.

At that time, Miao Han never imagined that a sickle, especially a sharpened one, could be found in a long-abandoned house. He had never killed anyone and didn't know how to kill. The first blow landed on the village chief's son's back.

The village chief's son, being thick-skinned and tough, turned around and tried to take the knife from him. He was afraid, but he also knew that if the village chief's son took the sickle, he and Madam Ye would surely die.

With his eyes closed, he swung the knife a second time.

The second blow landed on his shoulder blade, and Miao Han staggered, almost unable to pull the knife out. He couldn't remember the third or fourth blow, only that when he woke up, he was sitting on the ground, his hair and clothes were stuck together with blood, making it look like he was wearing a bright red robe.

Madam Ye sat there coldly, saying that this matter could not be concealed. Once the government found out, even if they obtained the banknotes from the bank, they would still be wanted. He was completely disoriented. Following Madam Ye's instructions, he forcefully cut off the head of the village chief's son and, under the cover of night, threw his body into the village chief's well.

Afterwards, he disguised himself as the village chief's son and made the village chief watch him jump into the well.

“The well-throwing incident was a ruse; it was just a cover-up using the darkness, the lanterns, and the terrain around the village chief’s house.” Miao Han smiled bitterly. “The village chief’s son was the first to be killed, and the second was my mother.”

Firefly: "You killed your own mother?"

Miao Han shook his head: "It wasn't me, it was Madam Ye. Madam Ye killed my mother. No, it wasn't Madam Ye either. My mother found out what I had done and was afraid that Madam Ye would seek revenge on me, so she willingly died in her place."

Lu Zhiyuan: "And then?"

Miao Han: "I do not resent Madam Ye because of my mother's situation. She died willingly, and it had nothing to do with Madam Ye. Madam Ye wanted to avenge her husband and daughter, and I helped her. All the ghost stories mentioned earlier, such as the midnight wedding and the large red sedan chair stopped on the bridge, were true. Those were not the work of ghosts, but the work of Madam Ye and me."

Lu Zhiyuan: "What about the villagers of Miaojia Village?"

Miao Han: "Some died on the day of the village chief's son's funeral, poisoned by arsenic, which I administered. Some were tricked back under the guise of a curse, and others were killed by Madam Ye. They deserved to die, we all deserved to die. Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor, and no one can escape the law of cause and effect."