Chapter 68: Stop Acting Cute

“Watch out!”

Xiu didn’t have time to think. He immediately shielded Wen Chu behind him.

He felt incredibly vexed.

Yuan Le’s phone call and Wen Chu’s strange reaction had given him a bold guess, so much so that he completely forgot the connection between the bone flute and An Ya.

Seeing the bloody aura on the bone flute growing thicker, Xiu hesitated no longer. The Soul-Binding Chain shot out from his tassel earring, heading straight for the female ghost whose phantom form had already appeared above the bone flute.

The blue chain quickly wrapped around the female ghost in mid-air.

The red-clothed female ghost writhed, emitting terrified shrieks, but she couldn’t break free from the Soul-Binding Chain. Finally, she was dragged down by Xiu and tied up firmly on the ground.

Wen Chu’s gaze paused on the Soul-Binding Chain binding the female ghost, but in the end, he said nothing.

Xiu looked coldly at the red-eyed female ghost and cut straight to the chase: “An Ya, do you know about the Wen family?”

Upon hearing the words “Wen family,” An Ya’s shrieks stopped. She stared blankly at Xiu, her gaze gradually clearing.

“The Wen family…” An Ya said as if in a trance, “It was them who insisted on exterminating us. What did my parents do wrong? What did I do wrong??”

Xiu frowned. “Speak clearly. Who wanted to exterminate you?”

An Ya paused, then lifted her head to stare straight at Xiu, laughing hoarsely: “Wasn’t it you guys?”

Xiu was stunned. After saying these few sentences, An Ya fell into madness again, writhing frantically, her eyes scarlet as she shouted “Kill you all.”

The more she struggled, the tighter the Soul-Binding Chain wrapped, almost cutting deeply into her body.

Spots of blood seeped onto the red-clothed female ghost’s clothes. It looked like she was about to be cut apart by the Soul-Binding Chain.

It was at this moment that Wen Chu stepped forward.

He floated in front of An Ya and whispered, “Hello?”

An Ya stopped struggling, staring blankly at Wen Chu’s white hair and blue eyes.

Wen Chu tried hard to organize his words: “Xiu and I are currently investigating the Wen family’s matters. We need your cooperation. Speak properly. Xiu is different from them; Xiu is a good person.”

As he spoke, he showed An Ya the small phone hanging around his neck: “Look, he treats me very well and even bought me a phone. Xiu won’t kill innocent ghosts indiscriminately.”

An Ya didn’t speak, staring blankly at Wen Chu for a long time.

“Why didn’t I notice last night…” she murmured.

Wen Chu didn’t understand: “Notice what?”

An Ya looked him up and down, finally saying with extremely certain tone: “You have amnesia, and your soul is incomplete. It’s completely different from what Mom showed me.”

Wen Chu was still confused, but in the next moment, An Ya forcefully released a burst of Ghost Qi under the constraints of the Soul-Binding Chain.

“—”

“Hey!”

This Ghost Qi wasn’t strong, but Wen Chu was caught off guard and knocked back a few steps, bumping right into Xiu.

Xiu was busy catching him, and hadn’t had time to put away the bone flute in his hand. Wen Chu bumped into the bone flute as he retreated.

His head felt dizzy, and darkness fell before his eyes again.

Before the image completely disappeared, Wen Chu heard Xiu’s questioning voice.

“What did you do to him?!?”

“Nothing, just…”

Wen Chu couldn’t hear the rest.

Darkness, endless darkness.

When Wen Chu opened his eyes, it was pitch black. This time he knew it wasn’t the system space with the lights off. He waited quietly in this small dark room.

Like last time, he entered a memory.

Only—

Wen Chu looked down at the clothes on his body, which were too complicated and out of place for a seven or eight-year-old child.

So heavy.

He was no longer watching from a third-person perspective but had merged with the “self” of that time.

Because of this, Wen Chu could finally understand the reasons for various unreasonable things in the fragmented memory last time.

He didn’t sit down because it would wrinkle his clothes, and re-ironing took time, and no wrinkles should appear on the clothes of the young master of the Wen family.

The small dark room was requested by himself because only buried in darkness would no one see his expressions and emotions, and he wouldn’t be judged with everything magnified.

And the chains on his wrists…

Wen Chu moved his wrist. The heavy clattering sound came with a piercing pain, but this body seemed accustomed to pain. Wen Chu’s soul hurt so much he almost cried, but the body still numbly endured it all.

Rustle—

The door opened, and a different maid stood outside.

“Young Master, it’s time for cultivation.”

Wen Chu walked out of the darkness, making noise with every step.

Freed from the third-person perspective, as a seven or eight-year-old, he looked levelly at the maid bowing in greeting and could clearly see the flickering fear in her eyes.

To get away from him, the previous maid had climbed into the Eldest Young Master’s bed. She would rather be a menial worker in the kitchen than be his maid again.

The sun was shining brightly outside. Wen Chu looked at the quiet square courtyard and slowly curled his lips.

The chains were because—

He was the monster of this family.

.

The new maid, Dian Cui, was trembling.

She had been sent to Young Master Wen’s courtyard because she accidentally offended the Second Young Mistress.

In the entire Wen family, no one didn’t know about this child born with white hair and blue eyes.

Madam Wen became pregnant with him over the age of fifty. During birth, she suffered massive bleeding and shock, and died despite rescue efforts.

When the Young Master was taken out via C-section, his heartbeat had stopped, and his face was dark blue. The servants were already preparing to bury the Young Master with the Madam.

Who would have thought he would open his eyes on his own?

Those were extremely pure blue eyes, quietly looking at the servant who picked him up casually. He didn’t cry or fuss, but after being thrown into the trash can, he crawled out himself, announcing his existence to everyone.

Everyone was astonished and hurriedly reported to the Master. The Master was not shocked at all. He happily picked up the baby with soft white hair, ecstatic.

He named him “Chu,” meaning beginning, and declared on the spot that from then on, the heir of the Wen family could only be Wen Chu.

Much later, everyone learned that as the Wen family declined day by day and the new generation became more and more decadent, about to fall out of the ranks of prominent families, the Master and Madam took a risk and used a god-invoking method. Regardless of what god or monster it was, as long as it could save the Wen family, they were willing to worship it for life.

But at that time, everyone only knew that when the last Young Master of the Wen family was born, the Madam died, and the Master acted as if crazy, stripping the Eldest Young Master of his inheritance right on the spot, simply like being possessed by a ghost.

Such rumors reached their peak after the servant who threw Wen Chu into the trash can disappeared and was found drowned in a well many days later.

Rumors that Wen Chu was a demon were rampant. The Master was furious and personally executed several servants who spread rumors, taking Wen Chu to his side to raise him before the rumors barely subsided.

The real subsiding of rumors was when Wen Chu was one year old.

The Master’s favoritism naturally made the original Eldest Young Master jealous, but he was already nineteen, long past the age of bickering with a babbling child.

Therefore, Eldest Young Master Wen simply seized the time to gather power, attempting to sideline Master Wen before Wen Chu grew up. He fueled those rumors about Wen Chu quite a bit.

When Wen Chu had his Zhuazhou (first birthday grab) ceremony, Master Wen invited guests from all sides. With no matriarch in the family, the task of arranging the banquet naturally fell to Eldest Young Master Wen.

Eldest Young Master Wen wasn’t stupid enough to make mistakes in such an obvious place, ruining Wen Chu’s birthday banquet and harming himself. Everything was arranged properly.

After three rounds of drinks, with guests and hosts enjoying themselves, the babbling Wen Chu was placed on the ground for the grab.

A circle of items was placed on the ground: talismans, magical artifacts, peach wood swords, copper coins, books, etc. Wen Chu blinked his eyes and sat there for a long time, finally picking up a small peach wood sword.

Master Wen laughed heartily, saying the Wen family had hope for the future, and asked Eldest Young Master Wen to pick Wen Chu up.

The next moment, Wen Chu used the small peach wood sword made for babies to sever Eldest Young Master Wen’s arm.

Severed in the physical sense. Eldest Young Master Wen’s entire arm fell to the ground, blood spraying like a fountain, and the bottle held in his hand was revealed to everyone.

Everyone exclaimed, but the guests were knowledgeable exorcists after all. Even though the Wen family was declining, they still had doctors. Eldest Young Master Wen’s bleeding was quickly stopped, saving his life. The bottle in his hand was seized and found to contain a dose of drug sufficient to make an infant an idiot.

Master Wen was furious and locked Eldest Young Master Wen in confinement.

Wen Chu just watched the whole process.

Neither sad nor happy, without any emotion, like a quiet empty shell.

Since then, no one in the family dared to say Wen Chu was a demon.

Instead, it was replaced by another more fearful title

—Monster.

Then, when Wen Chu was five, Master Wen, who had a son in his old age, suffered a stroke, and Eldest Young Master Wen took power.

Five-year-old Wen Chu was shackled with chains. On the grounds of “not understanding etiquette,” Eldest Young Master Wen terminated all his exorcism studies and started teaching him etiquette instead.

Wrinkled clothes, whipped.

Speaking too slowly, whipped.

Walking with the left foot first, whipped.

Wen Chu silently accepted everything.

Teaching teachers died violently one after another without reason, and maids in Wen Chu’s courtyard also died tragically in succession. But under Eldest Young Master Wen’s high pay, countless people still came one after another.

Wen Chu looked at the new teaching teacher.

His soul was QAQ-ing with the system.

Wen Chu: 【I’ll cry if I get beaten. Since I have pain sensation, I haven’t been beaten. Shield my pain sensation, please QAQ】

System: 【You recovered this yourself; I can’t shield it.】

Wen Chu: 【Wuwu.】

He didn’t want to recover pain sensation either.

The system comforted him coldly: 【It doesn’t matter, this body won’t feel pain from beating.】

Wen Chu’s eyes filled with tears: 【But my soul will hurt.】

The system paused, seemingly puzzled: 【Can a soul feel pain too?】

Wen Chu nodded vigorously: 【Last time I cried from pain.】

System: 【…Ah, I thought you were pretending to be pitiful for Xiu. Sorry, let me try.】

The system fell silent after speaking, leaving Wen Chu to face the teacher alone.

The teaching teacher held a pointer, looking at Young Master Wen who was staring straight at him, remembering the death states of previous teachers, cold sweat dripping down his back.

Before he could clear his throat to speak, hurried footsteps came from not far away.

A gloomy young man with only one arm walked over hurriedly.

“Eldest Young Master.” The teaching teacher and the maid bowed together.

Wen Chu stood quietly.

The Eldest Young Master seemed to have just come down from some formal meeting. Seeing Wen Chu, he hurriedly squatted halfway, shaking his shoulders: “You are a naturally cultivated spirit body, right? Father said you are the genius of our family back then, is it true?? What level did you cultivate to before you were five?”

Wen Chu’s soul looked confused.

“He” spoke, however.

He said: “If you sacrifice me, all of you will die horrible deaths.”

“Wen Chu’s” tone wasn’t threatening, very calm, just stating a fact.

Eldest Young Master Wen’s face suddenly became extremely poor, raising his hand high and giving him a slap.

Wen Chu was slapped so hard his head turned to the side.

Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth.

Eldest Young Master Wen’s face was full of shock and anger: “What do you know? Do you know how declining the family is now? If we don’t make contributions, we will be expelled from the ranks of prominent families. As the head of the family, I worry every day… what do you know!”

As he spoke, another slap came: “I am not that old man to be threatened by you. Stop pretending with me! If you were really that evil, could I have locked you up till now?!”

“That old man has had a stroke and can’t speak anymore, haha… hahaha!!”

Pain.

So painful.

His cheek seemed swollen.

A full-strength slap from an adult on a young child could potentially kill, let alone Wen Chu taking two slaps directly.

He was in so much pain that tears fell pata pata, but this body had no reaction at all, not even a change in expression, as if long accustomed to it.

The system’s anxious voice came: 【Are you okay? Next time we skip directly, you—】

Its voice stopped abruptly.

Because on Wen Chu’s wrist, a wisp of golden light lit up.

The gentle golden light caressed Wen Chu’s soul, taking him away from this world bit by bit.

The scolding and pain faded away.

Wen Chu heard Xiu’s voice: “Hey? Hey?? Wake up, stop looking!”

Wen Chu opened his eyes.

The hotel room was bright. He was lying on the bed, and Xiu was holding his wrist nervously.

Not far away, the female ghost was tied up tightly.

Everything just now was an illusionary dream.

But there seemed to be a burning pain on his cheek.

Wen Chu looked at Xiu, blinked, and tears fell.

“Xiu…”

Wen Chu grabbed Xiu’s hand aggrievedly, pulled him onto the bed, hugged him and wailed.

“Why did you come so late? It hurts so much. They bullied me, beat me, and scolded me…”

What he shed were tears of blood, staining the bed beneath him red pata pata, making the whole room look like a surging sea of blood again.

Xiu threw out a talisman to stop the sea of blood within the room to avoid attracting other exorcists, and hugged Wen Chu back.

Objectively speaking from public aesthetics, a white-haired red-clothed spectre crying tears of blood like this was really horrifying.

But Xiu’s heart ached terribly. Holding Wen Chu, he tirelessly wiped his tears and said gently, “What happened? What did you dream about?”

Wen Chu was still shedding tears.

He didn’t know what this counted as; it was all fragmented memories.

In the memory, influenced by the main body, he couldn’t feel any emotions, just simply afraid of being beaten because of fear of pain.

Breaking away from the memory, countless grievances surged up.

It wasn’t him who wanted to come; the Wen family insisted on inviting him. After inviting him, they scolded him, beat him, and finally wanted to sacrifice him.

Wen Chu choked with sobs, unable to speak, just repeating repeatedly: “It hurts, it hurts…”

He trembled in Xiu’s arms, burying his face in Xiu’s clothes, sniffing the scent on the other person vigorously, attempting to use the scent to cover the pain almost carved into his soul.

Xiu could only be anxious, circulating spiritual power through Wen Chu’s whole body but finding no injured place.

“Where does it hurt?” Xiu couldn’t help asking.

Wen Chu extended his wrist to him, eyes teary: “Wrist hurts.”

Xiu held his wrist and circulated spiritual power again, still nothing.

Even the scars previously caused by the Soul-Binding Chain had completely disappeared.

Xiu looked left and right but couldn’t see anything. Wen Chu kept crying. With no other way, he lowered his head and blew on Wen Chu’s wrist.

“It’s okay, it’s okay…” He patted Wen Chu’s back to comfort him, “I’ll blow on it for you, it won’t hurt anymore.”

Wen Chu really stopped crying.

With blood-colored tears still at the corners of his eyes, he stared unblinkingly at Xiu who lowered his head to blow on his wrist.

Wen Chu felt it didn’t hurt that much anymore.

“Xiu…” He called him.

Xiu looked up.

Wen Chu pointed to his cheek: “Here hurts too.”

Xiu paused.

Wen Chu added: “They slapped my face. It hurt so much.”

Xiu sighed, hesitated no more, leaned over, cupped his face and blew on it.

Wen Chu was blown on and forgot the pain again, nestling happily in Xiu’s arms, blood tears stopped flowing.

The blood stains on the bed disappeared, revealing Wen Chu’s exquisite and beautiful little face which was covered in blood.

Looking at his face, Xiu’s eyes softened a bit more.

How could they bear to?

Xiu couldn’t help thinking.

Facing this face, he couldn’t even say a harsh word. How could they bear to treat him like this?

But obviously, he couldn’t get an answer from people a hundred years ago.

Gathering spiritual power at his lips, he kissed Wen Chu’s right cheek very lightly.

The boy’s cheek still had childish soft flesh. Because he was a spectre, it felt cold to kiss. Xiu couldn’t help kissing a few more times until Wen Chu’s cheek was dyed with his body temperature before letting go.

Wen Chu was stunned, staring at him blankly.

Only then did Xiu realize what ambiguous action he had done uncontrollably just now.

He looked away, pretending to be natural: “Kissed it for you, doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Wen Chu raised his hand dazedly to touch his cheek.

Xiu kissed him.

Because he said he was in pain.

“Xiu.” Wen Chu’s gaze became firm.

“Hmm?” Xiu looked at him.

Wen Chu pointed to his left cheek: “This side hurts too.”

Xiu: …

Wen Chu: “And here, here, here…”

Xiu: …

Xiu covered Wen Chu’s mouth with a fake smile: “You don’t hurt anymore, right?”

Wen Chu blinked guiltily.

Xiu: “Stop acting cute with me.”

Wen Chu: ?

Wen Chu felt wronged, but with his mouth covered by Xiu, he couldn’t speak at all.

Fortunately, Xiu only covered it for a while before letting him go.

He was still nestled in Xiu’s arms, and Xiu accepted this posture by default, patting his back while saying: “You suddenly fainted after touching the bone flute just now, just like the last time. Did you see anything?”

Wen Chu thought for a moment: “I saw the Wen family of the past…”

He omitted the fact that he was Wen Chu and briefly described what he saw just now from a third-person perspective.

The more Xiu listened, the graver his expression became, then he said: “That Wen family ceasing to exist might be related to… the Formation Eye.”

Wen Chu didn’t quite understand: “What does this have to do with Wen Yaozu? Why does An Ya want revenge on Wen Yaozu?”

According to his memory, it seemed he caused the destruction of the Wen family.

As a descendant of the Wen family, shouldn’t An Ya hate him the most? How come she didn’t seem to have any malice towards him, but kept targeting Wen Yaozu instead?

Wen Yaozu didn’t even have the surname Wen.

Xiu took out the “Wen Family Genealogy” placed by the bed.

“Look at this.”

Wen Chu leaned over to look and saw a map drawn on the last page of the genealogy.

“This is the map of the Wen family’s ancestral home.” Xiu explained.

“I talked to An Ya just now. An Ya only told me that her ancestors had the surname Wen and were a main branch of the Wen family back then. But since she can remember, the family has always been impoverished, and relatives and friends either died violently or went to jail accidentally.”

“And everything, like her being poisoned this time, was always Wen family framing them behind the scenes, dedicated to making their family completely cut off descendants and burying the secrets of the past.”

Wen Chu was puzzled: “What secret?”

His memory was too one-sided. Except for the teaching teacher, maid, and Eldest Young Master Wen, he had never seen anyone else, let alone knowing such a bloodline existed within the Wen family.

“She didn’t say, only said it was hidden in the Wen family’s ancestral home, letting me see for myself.”

Xiu looked at Wen Chu inquiringly: “Do you want to go and see?”

Wen Chu stared blankly at this map.

Feeling something, he reached out to turn the page.

Sure enough, on the next page was a detailed design drawing of the ancestral home.

His fingertips stopped at a small courtyard in the corner.

Endless darkness and pain, reprimands and curses seemed to be still in his ears, but Xiu was right beside him.

Solid and powerful heartbeats came from Xiu’s body.

“What’s wrong?” Xiu asked.

“Nothing.” Wen Chu turned back.

He said abruptly: “Xiu, can you feel pain?”

Xiu was baffled: “Of course, I am human, I have pain nerves.”

“Oh…” Wen Chu said slowly.

Being injured hurts too much.

The injury that turns a person into a spectre would only hurt more.

He was a bit reluctant to let Xiu be in such pain.

Wen Chu hugged Xiu’s neck and said: “Let’s go and see.”

Wen Chu’s mood was a bit low. After agreeing, he lowered his eyes and suddenly popped a sentence: “Xiu, if, I mean if, I am an evil ghost who killed many people regardless of good or bad, would you kill me?”

Before he could confidently tell Xiu he didn’t harm people, but after seeing the memory now, Wen Chu wasn’t sure.

The self in the memory seemed to be harmed miserably by the Wen family.

Wen Chu felt that with his character, the disappearance of the Wen family was mostly likely related to him.

Even worse, he might have killed many people with his own hands.

Not just bad people. According to Xiu, spectres attack regardless of good or bad, so he might have killed many innocent people too.

If that was really the case, how could he get Xiu’s love?

Wen Chu pursed his lips.

His nose was a bit sour.

This time it was his heart hurting.

He was reluctant to take Xiu away, but it didn’t mean Xiu was reluctant to lay a hand on him. After all, Xiu had tried to kill him several times just knowing he was a spectre.

If he knew he was the Formation Eye…

Wen Chu lowered his head, not seeing Xiu’s complex expression. Hearing no response from Xiu for a long time, he laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Sorry, I just said it casually, making it difficult for you. What shall we eat tomorrow…”

“If that is really the case.” Xiu spoke abruptly.

“Then I will accompany you to make amends and atone for your sins.”