The missing key clue finally surfaced, linking the entire plot together.
The practice of the “Nine Generations of Washing Women,” a feng shui black magic ritual, was nothing but a lie, a tragic relic of the past. Butler Chen deceived the Jin family by saying that washing the girls for nine generations would ensure their family’s everlasting prosperity. In truth, he was merely using the grievances of the murdered baby girls to cultivate his dark arts.
The Jin family, however, believed the lie and killed eight generations of baby girls. Now, in this ninth generation, they found themselves unable to have a son, no matter how hard they tried. The accumulated resentment from the nine generations of murdered baby girls was too intense. These girls wanted to reincarnate through the madam’s womb, and even Butler Chen could no longer suppress them.
So, he told the Jin family patriarch that if they could redirect the grievances of these baby girls elsewhere, the madam would be able to give birth to a healthy child.
The two daughters born to the previous madam had been taken and drowned. After being unable to bear such torment, she drowned herself in a lake. Her lingering resentment roamed the house day and night. Butler Chen used the bones of her children to craft a cursed artifact, threatening her to stay away.
In fact, the talisman the Jin family patriarch gave the players was indeed effective at warding off female ghosts, but when Li Jianxi dismantled the talisman, he found something else inside.
It was an evil object made from the placenta and umbilical cord of the current madam’s first child. Combined with the spell set up in the guest rooms, after staying one night with the talisman, the players were completely marked.
The ghost babies would be tricked by this illusion and target the players, attempting to reincarnate inside them. But since the players weren’t pregnant, the ghost babies couldn’t be born normally as they would in the madam’s womb. With the support of black magic, the babies would forcefully drain the players’ blood and flesh and crawl out of their stomachs. These babies, neither human nor ghost, were monstrous abominations, eventually killed by Butler Chen as part of his dark ritual.
The black magic disturbed their minds, and the more terrified they were, the weaker their life force became, making them easier targets for the resentment to invade.
Chi Yi, upon hearing all this, couldn’t help but pat her chest in relief. Thankfully, though she had been scared, staying by Li Zhi’s side made her feel so secure that she was just a little braver than the others. So the curse didn’t activate randomly—it triggered faster the more afraid you were!
It really was true: the better your mental state, the longer you lived!
But even if the Jin family’s plan succeeded, and even if the players had shared the ghost babies’ grievances, allowing the madam to give birth smoothly, she still would have had a daughter.
The sex of a child is determined the moment the egg is fertilized, unaffected by any external conditions. Stopping the ghost babies’ reincarnation merely increased the chance of having a son from 0% to 50%.
The Jin family believed that as long as this child was a boy, their family’s luck would suppress the grievances of the nine generations of baby girls, ensuring their prosperity. But it was all a lie from the start. They would only reap what they sowed.
Butler Chen had both his arms broken by Li Zhi and was beaten unconscious by Zhao Luan and Tian Mingjie. The players tied him up, and Li Jianxi said that after the incident in Qingyu Town was resolved, they would take him back to their sect for punishment.
Li Jianxi took out a faded blue cloth bag, pulled out a brush, and dipped it in cinnabar to draw a symbol on the palms of their hands.
“This symbol will remove the evil marks on you. You no longer need to worry about the ghost babies reincarnating.”
Relief washed over their faces—had they finally cleared the game?
The baby in the swaddle was still crying, and the madam, who had passed out from the pain of childbirth, was slowly waking up. Hearing the baby’s cries, she struggled out of bed and staggered toward them. “Where is my child?! My child! Don’t kill my child, I beg you!”
Li Zhi took the baby from another player’s arms and handed it to her. “Here’s your child. She’s safe.”
The madam clutched the baby tightly to her chest. Watching the infant cry with her eyes closed, she tearfully kissed the wrinkled little face. “Mama’s here. Mama’s here, and this time, I’ll protect you. I won’t let those bad people hurt you.”
The baby, as if understanding her words, gradually stopped crying and fell into a peaceful sleep.
The madam looked at Li Zhi with deep gratitude. “Thank you… Thank you for saving me and my child. Otherwise, I might have ended up like the previous madam, unable to go on living.”
Li Zhi remembered the first wife, who had visited the players two nights in a row but hadn’t harmed anyone. “Have you seen her before?”
The madam, tears streaming down her face, nodded. “I saw her on the first day I married into this house. I was very scared, thinking she would hurt me. But every night, she just stood anxiously by the bed, as if trying to tell me something. I was too frightened. Later, Butler Chen gave me a talisman, and I didn’t see her again… until…”
She looked down at the child in her arms, her voice trembling. “Until last year, when I gave birth to my first child. I saw her again, and there were two small ghost babies at her feet. I heard her tell me to run, to take my child and run.” The madam broke into sobs.
“She had been trying to warn me all along, but I understood too late. My daughter was taken from me and drowned, just like her two children… In this house, daughters can’t survive.”
No wonder the first wife had never intended to harm the players. All those strange occurrences were probably just her attempt to scare them away.
Li Zhi gently tidied the madam’s messy hair. “No one will harm you anymore. Why don’t you take your child and rest? Once we’ve handled things outside, we’ll come and bless the baby, alright?”
The madam nodded through her tears.
Outside, Li Jianxi was preparing to set up a ritual to release the ghost babies.
As his low incantations filled the air, the sounds of crying and laughter that had haunted Qingyu Town gradually faded. The blood-covered ghost babies crawling on the ground began to look clean and plump, their little hands waving as they floated into the sky. Gradually, they turned into golden specks of light.
They flew higher and higher, like fireflies, illuminating all of Qingyu Town before being scattered by a gust of wind.
Chi Yi suddenly felt a bit sentimental. “Have they gone to reincarnate? After suffering so much, I hope they’ll be reborn into good families.”
Li Zhi sat on the steps, resting her head on her hand, and softly replied, “They will.”
After finishing the ritual, Li Jianxi packed up his things and said quietly to the players, “Stay here. I’ll go gather their remains and return shortly.”
He had only taken a few steps when Li Zhi called out, “Master.” The word flowed smoothly, her tone carrying a familiar warmth.
“I’ll go with you.”
Li Jianxi’s back stiffened. He turned to glance at her. Her eyes, clear like a spring, shimmered under the night sky. Being looked at by such eyes made it hard for anyone to refuse.
Feeling uncomfortable, he quickly averted his gaze. “Alright.”
Chi Yi had wanted to follow them, but she was worried Zhao Luan might cause trouble. She had already learned from Tian Mingjie that the terrible scar on Zhao Luan’s face had been inflicted when he tried to take the Jin family’s eldest son hostage. The bloody wound made him look even more like a villain. Chi Yi felt that after surviving two rounds, she had grown and couldn’t keep following Li Zhi around like a tag-along, so she decided to stay and keep an eye on Zhao Luan.
With the grudges resolved, Qingyu Town was now silent, save for the wind and the sound of two pairs of footsteps on the stone path.
The clouds had cleared, and the moonlight grew brighter. Li Jianxi’s shadow stretched long and swayed on the stone slabs.
Li Zhi followed behind him, then suddenly asked, “Master, have you been to Qingyu Town before?”
He was walking with clear purpose, heading straight for the Infant Tower without needing her to guide him. Li Zhi recalled the story about a virtuous person who had tried to destroy the tower but had been stopped by the townspeople. Could it have been him?
Sure enough, Li Jianxi’s calm voice came from ahead. “Yes, I came here three years ago to try and release the ghost babies in the Infant Tower, but I failed.”
Li Zhi quickened her pace to walk beside him. “Wouldn’t it be good for the ghost babies to be released sooner? Why did the townspeople stop you?”
Li Jianxi glanced sideways at her, catching a glimpse of her pale face illuminated by the moonlight before quickly looking forward again. “Because they believed that if the ghost babies were released and reincarnated, they would return to their families. They saw girl babies as a disaster and wanted to keep them sealed in the tower forever.”
It was just like in those old stories, where after giving birth to a girl, they would use the most brutal methods to kill her, ensuring she felt pain and fear, so she wouldn’t reincarnate in their family.
Li Zhi remained silent for a long time, simply following him in thought.
Unable to resist, Li Jianxi turned to look at her again. Her usually bright and smiling eyes seemed to have dulled slightly, as if covered by a layer of dust. He lightly pursed his lips and slowly asked, “Have you been inside the Infant Tower?”
Li Zhi shook off her thoughts and smiled mischievously. “Yes, I have.”
Li Jianxi lowered his eyelashes and reached into his cloth bag, pulling something out and handing it to Li Zhi. “This is for you.”
Li Zhi curiously took it and found it was a small pendant shaped like a sunflower, likely made of jade, glowing softly under the moonlight.
“The Infant Tower is filled with heavy resentment. Although you have tools to protect yourself, you’ve still been tainted by it. Wearing this pendant will help cleanse the resentment and keep your senses clear,” Li Jianxi explained briefly before falling silent again, hastily quickening his pace. Within a few steps, he had left Li Zhi trailing behind.
Li Zhi couldn’t help but laugh as she watched his retreating figure.
Why did it seem like he was embarrassed? Was she imagining things?
“Master—” she called out cheerfully, “Thank you for the gift.”
Li Jianxi walked even faster.
The viewers watching this scene were practically beside themselves:
【A love token! This is absolutely a love token!】
【I’m shipping a doomed CP, but I can’t stop! They’re just too good together!】
【I’m confused, y’all. Can NPCs actually give players items?】
【Is there some kind of mechanic in this game where you can raise NPC favorability? If you get it high enough, do you get items? Is this some kind of Easter egg?】
【You can’t raise favorability, right? Aren’t NPCs supposed to reset after every game? How could he possibly remember a player?】
【But Li Jianxi looks like he remembers Li Zhi!】
【From a character standpoint, it makes sense for a master to give a gift to his disciple, right?】
…
As the audience was fully immersed in this moment, the two finally arrived at the location of the Infant Tower. What remained now was just a collapsed ruin.
The bones were still exposed to the elements. Together, they dug a pit to properly rebury them. As the small grave mound was completed, a few fireflies flitted among the wild grass, circling the little mound as if children were playing around it.
Li Jianxi reached into his cloth bag again and pulled out a handful of candy, which he placed in front of the grave.
Li Zhi couldn’t help but think that his cloth bag was like a treasure chest, filled with everything imaginable.
Sensing her gaze, Li Jianxi hesitated for a long moment before pointing awkwardly at the grave mound and saying, “You can take one if you’d like.”