Chapter 330
Chapter 330
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 330
>Chapter Title: A Family All Together
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“Dad, these are jujube paste mooncakes. I remember jujube paste is your favorite.” Bai Lingmiao specially held up a mooncake stamped with a red mark and tiptoed to place it in front of a spirit tablet.
“Little brother, you like red bean paste ones. The village didn’t have any red bean paste, so try this sesame one. The flavor’s pretty good too.”
After distributing the mooncakes, Bai Lingmiao pulled out three incense sticks, lit them, knelt on the ground, kowtowed to them, and stuck them into the remaining mooncakes.
wisps of pale smoke drifted slowly among the spirit tablets, and the Bai family ancestral hall once again had incense burning.
Bai Lingmiao looked up at the black wall in front of her, seemingly lost in thought. After a long while, a smile appeared on her face as she said, “It’s Moon Evening today. I’ll spend it with everyone.”
She picked up a mooncake from the plate and took two steps forward, sitting down on the steps of the ancestral hall. Gazing at the bright moon in the sky, she took small bites of the mooncake.
As she ate, a figure appeared at her side. Bai Lingmiao extended her right hand, offering the mooncake in her hand into the red veil of the Second God. Then she gently leaned her head to the left, resting it on the big god’s red silk robe.
And so, on the steps outside the Bai family ancestral hall, two women with identical heads silently nestled together, sharing the same mooncake and admiring the same full moon in the sky.
Suddenly, a blaze of fire lit up in the distance. Bai Lingmiao stood and looked, spotting the earthen kiln built from tiles and stones in the distance.
The kiln was tall, taller than any other house in Oxheart Village. Towering flames enveloped it, like a massive bonfire.
Gouwa stood on the rooftop nearby, letting out strange yells as he tossed all sorts of old clothes into it.
On Moon Evening, they burned the earthen kiln. Bai Lingmiao remembered it happened every year, though it was something the boys in the village enjoyed—girls weren’t so keen on it.
Gazing at the soaring flames in the distance, Bai Lingmiao thought of her troublesome little brother.
As the eldest sister, she had been like a mother to him. With their parents always busy, she had basically raised him single-handedly.
She had watched that infant in the cradle grow into a boy who could jump and run, but it had all come to an abrupt end.
Her longing for her family reached its peak. Her trembling hand reached for the drum at her waist and began to beat it.
“Dong dong dong~ dong dong dong~” The rhythmic drumming echoed through the quiet village.
After hesitating for a moment, Bai Lingmiao tremblingly opened her mouth and began to sing. The tears she had held back all evening finally flowed.
She sang in the Bei family’s Cry Smoke Soul melody, her voice carrying profound, utter sorrow that made everything around her tremble.
“Clear wind ah~~ Smoke soul na~~~ Woo woo woo.”
In that moment, she resonated with the lyrics. If before she had only been mimicking under the immortals’ coercion, now she suddenly gained a deeper understanding and feeling for those summoning rites.
Only when enough family members died could one truly grasp the emotion needed to sing the Cry Smoke Soul melody.
She realized her inner turmoil was affecting the immortals—a peculiar sensation.
In fact, one could say that the current Bai Lingmiao surpassed Li Zhiqiang in the Bei family arts, but this was a price she never wanted to pay.
The drumming continued, the utterly desolate divine melody persisting.
“Smoke soul na~ In the yang world’s three realms, we wait as people, woo woo woo in the yin court’s three cities as smoke souls ah.”
“They say heaven’s the jeweled canopy, earth the pool, people like muddy fish in the yang world’s three realms, woo woo woo.”
“Muddy for a moment carries two quarters, muddy for two quarters lacks a moment ah.”
This time, it was the big god watching from the side. As Bai Lingmiao sang the soul-summoning melody, gusts of baleful wind swept through the ancestral hall’s gates, past the big god’s red veil, extinguishing the white lanterns before swirling slowly around Bai Lingmiao.
Sensing something, Bai Lingmiao nearly faltered in her singing, but she gritted her teeth and pounded the drum at her waist with heavy beats.
“Hearing smoke souls shed heartbroken tears, my heart’s like swallowing bitter coptis. With grievances, smoke souls, nowhere to plead; with injustices, nowhere to cry out ah.”
The baleful wind grew stronger. The spirit tablets inside the hall rattled loudly, the roof tiles clattering as if the entire Bai family ancestral hall had come alive in that instant.
As she sang on, a wisp of baleful wind brushed lightly over the big god’s skirt hem and slipped into the blood-red veil.
A burnt smell began emanating from the big god. She trembled as she raised her hands, stiffly leaning toward Bai Lingmiao. “My girl...”
The instant she heard that voice, Bai Lingmiao’s heart jolted. Ignoring everything, she threw open her arms and lunged forward. “Mom!!”
Hugging the big god, Bai Lingmiao felt as if she had found support again. She poured out everything pent up in her heart.
She closed her eyes and spoke for a very, very long time, but even after she stopped, there was no response.
When she opened her reddened eyes and looked toward the big god’s red veil, she was met with disappointment. The moment she had stopped the divine melody, she had already left.
“Did my mom say anything when she left?” Bai Lingmiao asked softly.
Through the red veil, the big god stared at Bai Lingmiao for a long time before slowly saying, “She’s not your mom...”
“No, she is my mom! Dad, Grandpa—they’ve all just come back! They’re all blaming me!” Bai Lingmiao shook her head vehemently in denial.
The big god said nothing, simply opening her arms to embrace her again. She crouched down, lifting Bai Lingmiao entirely into her arms and gently rocking her.
Bai Lingmiao stared wide-eyed, rocking gently as she silently gazed at the beams overhead, seemingly pondering something.
Outside, the earthen kiln had gone out at some point. The two sat silently in the dark ancestral hall.
“If I go, can you stay with Senior Brother Li for me? He really can’t be left alone.” Bai Lingmiao suddenly spoke up.
The big god just held her, showing no reaction.
“I’m sorry, but I really can’t hold on anymore. I can’t do anything—I can’t even avenge my family!”
Tears streaming, Bai Lingmiao struggled free from the embrace and pulled out the rope she had prepared long ago.
She walked to the center of the ancestral hall and tossed the rope up toward the beam to tie it.
The big god stood as well, moving behind Bai Lingmiao to hold her slender legs, helping her complete the next steps.
When the big god gently released her hands and stepped back, the rope snapped taut with a creak, followed by uncontrollable gasps.
The big god ignored the sounds, silently circling back to sit on the ancestral hall steps, continuing to admire the full moon in the sky.
Behind her red veil swayed Bai Lingmiao’s small white shoes, and behind the shoes stood the pitch-black wall of densely packed spirit tablets, like a solid mass of darkness.
(End of chapter)