Chapter 641
Chapter 641
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 641
>Chapter Title: Granny
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Seeing the granny in front of him carefully scraping off the monkey skin stuck to the other with a stone, Yang Kid couldn't help but widen his eyes.
He never imagined that this starved, skin-and-bones old woman who loved sucking on stones was actually a mysteriously unfathomable master!
"Head of the house, it's a dead body! A real dead body—brains are all splattered out."
Zhao Xiumei beside him fearfully hid behind Yang Kid.
Though the red-robed Daoist had killed plenty of people along the way, no matter how many times she saw it, she was still terrified of corpses.
"No worries, don't be afraid. Can't you see this old lady is a great hero who slays evildoers?"
Yang Kid softly reassured her.
Her actions put him much more at ease. It was unlikely she'd just finished off a villain only to turn around and slaughter innocent folk.
Besides, they'd given her a bowl of red oil wontons earlier. Even if she hadn't eaten them in the end, that still counted for some goodwill.
In stark contrast to Yang Kid's steadiness, everyone else around bolted with screams at the sight of the actual corpse—especially that immortal-wind old Daoist, who yelled the loudest and fled the fastest.
The three monkeys, however, had a completely different reaction.
"Mama! Mama!! Mama!!"
The two unskinned ones raised their hands high, hopping and leaping excitedly around the granny.
"Come on, come on—all of you stay still and be good. Let me have a look."
Yang Kid then watched as the granny carefully pried up the monkey skin on them with the stone, separating it from their flesh.
"Why's there a kid inside the monkey skin?! That's terrifying."
"I heard Senior Sister Bai mention it before—some folks catch kids, wrap 'em in monkey skin, and train 'em as monkeys. Monkey-kids are way better than real ones. I thought it was nonsense, but here it is for real. Enough talk—let's go lend a hand."
He might not have had the guts to step up earlier, but piling on when things were going well? That he could manage.
The couple ladled a basin of hot water from the nearby pot, soaked a towel cloth in it, shook it out to cool slightly, and began gently wiping away the blood and pus from the three monkey-kids' bodies.
It clearly hurt like hell, but these three hadn't been wrapped in the skins for long—they could still be saved.
As the trio worked, the monkey-kids were draped in Yang Kid's oversized clothes. At last, they transformed from monkeys into humans.
Their mannerisms were still pure monkey, though. Evidently, that man had trained them hard for a long time—recovery would take ages.
Watching the granny wrap white cloth strips around the monkey-kids' heads, Yang Kid asked curiously,
"Elderly lady, what are you doing?"
"Wrapping this on them—their lives will be hard as stone from now on. Nobody'll dare bully these three poor little ones anymore."
Yang Kid nodded in understanding at her words. He figured it must be some local custom, like dotting cinnabar on a kid's forehead to ward off evil.
He'd believed in that stuff once, but he wasn't a child anymore. He knew it was all nonsense now—cinnabar didn't ward off evil. Only Senior Brother Li did.
"Heh heh heh, little one—you've got a kind heart. Good deeds get good rewards."
The granny reached out and gently patted Yang Kid's head before setting off ahead with the three monkey-kids.
As their four figures receded into the distance, Yang Kid thought for a moment, then hurried to his own cart.
"Let's go—they're heading our way. We can give 'em a lift."
"This... this doesn't feel right. That granny looks off."
Zhao Xiumei's face showed clear hesitation.
"It's fine. She might be a bit touched in the head, but that doesn't make her bad. Plus, traveling with a master like her will keep us safer on the road."
He recalled how Master Lv had tagged along with Senior Brother Li all the way to Great Liang for exactly that reason. Today, he was putting it to good use.
Besides, if she was willing to save those three monkey-kids and even help fix them up, she couldn't be a villain.
"Elderly lady, hop on the cart. It's rough going with that crutch. Looks like we're headed the same way anyhow."
The ragged old woman initially refused the cart, but Yang Kid's earnest insistence wore her down, and she climbed aboard.
Four more riders made the cart heavier, but the granny weighed next to nothing, and the three kids combined probably didn't match what Gao Zhijian had tipped the scales at back in the day.
"Ai, little one—how old are you?"
The granny in the cart leaned against a pot helmet bread, staring at the back of Yang Kid's head as she asked.
"Me? No idea. Nobody kept track when I was little, so I don't know. Got to be at least thirteen or fourteen, I reckon."
A flicker of reminiscence crossed the granny's eyes.
"Ai—my two grandkids would've been about your age, if they'd lived."
"Elderly lady, what happened to your grandkids?"
Yang Kid, leading the horse, twisted around to ask.
"Sold my granddaughter for two steamed buns. My grandson? Snatched away, tossed in a pot, boiled, and eaten. Ai, my poor babies..."
Tears streamed down the granny's face as she spoke, plunging the mood into sorrow.
"Mama? Mama?"
One of the monkey-kids lifted a baggy sleeve to wipe her face, but she pulled him into a hug and broke into sobs.
"Ai, head of the house—this poor old soul's had a hard life too."
After whispering that to Yang Kid, Zhao Xiumei hopped aboard and launched into her own tale of past misery to comfort her.
With the monkey-kids and Zhao Xiumei consoling her, the granny gradually quieted. She dabbed at her eyes with her thimble finger and said,
"No matter. It's all right. Stone Ditch Grandpa's watching over me—he came to me in a dream. My grandson and granddaughter are doing fine with him. Once I die, I'll see them again. And one day, we'll all be one big, wealthy family."
Zhao Xiumei's eyes went wide.
"Stone Ditch Grandpa's that powerful? What bodhisattva is he? Does he grant kids? I'll have to pay my respects sometime."
That perked the granny right up. She crossed her legs, her face lighting up as she launched into an animated spiel about just how mighty Stone Ditch Grandpa was and all the wonders praying to him brought.
Yang Kid's wife Zhao Xiumei listened, half buying it, half skeptical.
Everyone had eaten their fill of wontons and felt no hunger as the cart rattled along the dirt road for two and a half shichen.
They reached a county town just before nightfall—no more bedding down exposed to the elements.
"Head of the house—how do I look?"
Yang Kid turned at the voice and saw his wife Zhao Xiumei with a strip of white cloth wrapped around her head.