HEIFEIGU -Chapter 15

The near-accident of peeing herself had traumatized the screenwriter.

She went all out.

Milk tea, coffee, strong tea—everything. No sleep, 24/7.

If this wasn’t solved, she truly didn’t dare sleep.

The late Qing period wasn’t that far from modern times. Many place names were unchanged, and plenty of documents existed.

Starting from the mansion’s location, after days of research, she found something.

It was an old record book of “wife pawning.”

“Pawn” as in pawnshop—selling one’s wife due to poverty.

The book was thin, yet filled with cases.

Just reading it made her break out in cold sweat.

This thin booklet recorded countless short, tragic lives of women.

They were treated like goods, passed from buyer to buyer, and none ended well.

One case took place at the mansion’s former site:

“The Zhu family head owed a tobacco house twenty silver dollars. He pawned his wife, Ms. Yue, to Owner Wu as a concubine for ten silver dollars per year.”

The truth emerged through the fog.

On the other side stood countless lives fading from vibrant to withered.

Looking back at her script, the screenwriter felt ashamed.

It was too detached from reality.

She always romanticized these women as being redeemed by love.

But in reality, no one saved them.

They were thrown into wells, drowned in ponds, buried alive in dark mansions.

They were bloody sacrifices of the old society.

With a heavy heart, she sent this information to Xie Jixing.

---

That day, the crew wrapped up early. As dusk fell, the mansion was empty.

But Xie Jixing deliberately stayed.

The ghost hadn’t appeared for days. Many flavors of milk tea had been offered, untouched.

He had even made her another phone and topped up her reading app.

No idea what she was doing.

Holding two cups of milk tea, he entered the last room.

A blue flame flew into the dressing mirror.

The red mole under his eye shimmered.

He stared at the mirror seriously and said:

“Yue Qinyao, are you willing to leave here with me?”

Crack!

A sharp sound. A crack appeared in the mirror.

His reflection vanished.

Instead, an eerie scene emerged.

A strong pulling force made him dizzy.

He felt himself lying on a canopy bed in darkness.

Two men were whispering.

“Owner Wu, she’s inside. Should we take her to your house, or keep her here?”

“Here is fine. Has she been checked and cleaned?”

“Yes. She’s young, tender, with bound feet, especially—”

The rest was drowned by lewd laughter.

Xie Jixing tried to open his eyes.

They felt as heavy as stone.

He barely opened a slit.

A shadow loomed over him.

Someone was pulling at his clothes.

The person smelled unfamiliar.

A strange, sickly-sweet stench clung to him, nauseating and revolting.

He struggled with all his strength, but his body hadn’t fully grown yet, and there was no way he could withstand an adult man’s brute force.

In the midst of his struggle, he used the only weapon he had—biting the man hard. Even tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, he refused to let go.

The man, enraged, dragged him to the ground and unleashed a storm of violent blows.

Each kick heavier than the last pounded his frail body. His ribs were probably broken in several places, and blood choked his throat. Yet the man didn’t stop, growing more frenzied with each strike, smashing the boy’s long black hair against the wall.

The force was so intense that one could even hear the cracking of the skull.

With another brutal hit, the boy’s body went limp, finally ceasing to struggle—he had completely fainted.

“She’s really gone.”

A faint voice murmured nearby.

This time, Xie Jixing had no strength at all to lift his eyelids.

“I see you have a well in your backyard. Throw her in, and cover it up.”

“Director Wu, that’s not fair. The girl was for you to sleep with; once you were done, I could let someone else have her. Now that you’ve killed her, it’s a huge loss, and I can’t explain it to the Yue family.”

“Give these two boxes to Zhu Shimei, get it done quickly. And remember—I was never here today!”

…

The two seemed to be discussing how to handle a piece of cargo, not treating the person on the ground as a living being.

Ultimately, two boxes of 【goods】 had ended a human life.

Xie Jixing felt himself being lifted. In a dazed whisper, he pleaded, “Husband… husband, save me…”

His voice was soft and weak.

The person carrying him paused for a moment but didn’t stop walking, only murmuring, “I’m sorry.”

With a thud, he was plunged into the icy water.

The cold shock cleared Xie Jixing’s mind slightly. His survival instinct kicked in, and he struggled upward, barely catching a breath.

But the walls were slippery, and there was nothing to grip.

The well water was bone-chilling, and as he tried to lift his head to understand why the man who had promised on his wedding day, in front of heaven, parents, and ancestors, to protect him for life, was now personally sending him to certain death…

Before he could even utter the words “husband,” a heap of dirt and stones fell on him.

There was no way out.

Xie Jixing closed his eyes, blue flames igniting from his feet. The mirror shattered with a bang, scattering into countless shards.

When he opened his eyes again, he could still hear the desperate cries from the well.

“Liars… all liars… they said they’d love me, protect me… Die! I want him to die with me!”

A cold sensation ran down his back, and the soft, real voice whispered in his ear again:

“He said if he betrays me, he would not die well!”

“I will wait here, until the day he meets his deserved end.”

Immersed in the experience of being a ghost, Xie Jixing’s entire body ached and shivered, but he knew the sensations he’d just felt entering the mirror couldn’t have been more than a fraction of what the female ghost experienced before dying.

He had suspected the young lady might have encountered a scumbag, but he hadn’t imagined the man could be this despicable.

In the illusion just now, he seemed to have heard the scumbag’s name: Zhu Shimei.

Xie Jixing opened a cup of milk tea, placing it on the shards of the mirror, and said, “Yue Qinyao, no matter how long it takes, I’ll give you closure. But there’s no need to punish yourself endlessly for someone not worth it.”

“Drink something sweet—it’ll lift your spirits.”

He opened his own cup as well. The two cups clinked lightly.

“To us, Sister Yue—wait for my news.”

After leaving, Xie Jixing met with the scriptwriter. Together they looked up the name Zhu Shimei and checked what had happened to him.

Because of those two boxes of 【goods】, he had been cornered and beaten to death by a group of smokers in a dark alley.

Indeed, he had met his deserved end.

But Xie Jixing wasn’t willing to leave it at that. He intended to dig up Zhu Shimei’s grave, even if only a trace of his soul remained, to show Sister Yue and let her vent her anger.

The Zhu family had been a prominent clan before liberation; their ancestral grave’s location wasn’t hard to find. Xie Jixing and the scriptwriter took a dual approach: one used mystical arts, the other the Internet. Soon, they had pinpointed the location.

When they arrived, Xie Jixing was dumbfounded.

After several land reforms, the grave mound had long been leveled, replaced by modern agricultural technology.

The Zhu family’s ancestral grave was now… a pig farm.

Standing at the pig farm gate, Xie Jixing reflected on the message brought by his “shadow fire.”

Bad news: Zhu Shimei’s soul had already reincarnated; no fragment remained.

Good news: By the principle of nearby reincarnation, he had been reborn right here in this pig farm.

Xie Jixing immediately set up his phone and opened his livestream. To the fans who had just joined, he said:

“I’m going to visit a factory later. Can you help me out, boost some traffic?”

Fans responded with adoration.

【No problem! What new project did Xingxing take on?】

【Let mama see! What fancy factory is baby visiting?】

The camera turned, revealing the factory sign: Super Fragrant Pig Farm.

The live chat fell silent for a long while before reacting.

【Xingxing, your field is really this niche?】

【Entertainment idol livestreaming a pig farm? What a ridiculous move.】

【But if it’s Xie Jixing doing it, I’m not even surprised, honestly.】

The farm manager was surprised too. Even internet celebrities had entered this obscure industry?

He cautiously welcomed Xie Jixing, “Really a livestreamer? Everything here is legal, no hidden tricks.”

Xie Jixing showed him the livestream; the comments included a slogan apparently started by a fan:

【Chew natural (pig head), seek extraordinary farming (rice ear), livestream to help farmers (camera), technology boosts production (thumbs up, thumbs up)】

It looked professional enough to convince the manager.

He nervously tidied his remaining bangs. “Please, come in.”

The pig farm was large. Xie Jixing couldn’t just search for the scumbag directly, so he followed the manager inside.

They visited the high-tech feed-mixing area and vaccination zone, where several staff were at work.

The manager stammered his introduction, “Currently… our staff are all agricultural university students; their skill level is like this!”

He gave the camera a thumbs-up, very genuine.

Xie Jixing used his shadow fire to sense—nope, not here.

They next toured the waste treatment room and disease control center—still nothing.

Finally, at the back of the farm, the manager frowned, “The pigsties are inside. It’s… a bit smelly. Want to go in?”

“Since we’re here, yes.” Xie Jixing donned protective overalls.

Walking through the breeding and gestation areas, they arrived at the fattening zone. Suddenly, the blue flame at his fingertips flared.

Found it!