Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 1555: Chapter 1539: Fish Bones

Perhaps the commotion outside caught the attention of the people at the mountain gate. At this moment, an old granny carrying a wooden basin of clothes came back from the riverbank opposite. She saw the two strangers, Huo Sining and Gu Xu, standing outside the mountain gate and paused, looking at them with confusion.

But when the old granny’s gaze fell on Qibao, her eyes brightened quickly, and she shouted with delight, ”Qibao?”

Upon hearing this, Qibao looked up towards the voice, and upon seeing a familiar person, he immediately shouted, ”Third Aunt!”

”It’s really you, child!”

The old granny put the wooden basin on the stone path, hurried a few steps forward to greet them, opened the mountain gate, and smiled, ”I thought my old eyes were failing me, that I’d mistaken you. In over a year, you’ve grown taller and dressed so nicely that your Aunt almost didn’t recognize you!”

Qibao’s initially aggrieved and anxious face finally showed some smile, ”Third Aunt, are you and the other uncles and aunts still well?”

The old granny squatted down to touch Qibao’s head, ”Thanks to you remembering us, Aunt is in good health. But you, child, suddenly vanished. You’ve suffered a lot outside, haven’t you?”

”No, Qibao hasn’t suffered much.”

The little fellow shook his head, turned around, and introduced Huo Sining to the old granny, ”Third Aunt, this is my sister. I now live with her in a big house in Magic Capital, where there’s food, clothing, and I can go to school. Sister is very good to me!”

The old granny, hearing Qibao’s words, stood up straight, her gaze lingered on Huo Sining for a good half-minute before nodding, ”She seems like a good child. Our Qibao has troubled you a lot, hasn’t he?”

Huo Sining smiled, ”What are you saying, Qibao now resides in my home; he’s my little brother. Among family, how could there be such outside talk of causing trouble?”

The old granny nodded, ”It’s good to be back. First, go offer a bow to the Mountain Goddess.”

Saying this, the old granny led Qibao up the mountain, while Huo Sining and Gu Xu exchanged a puzzled glance and followed closely behind.

Walking up the stone stairs, they arrived in front of a house with green brick walls and black tiles. Huo Sining looked up and saw the three words ’Heritage Hall’ above the lintel. On either side were engraved five-character shrine couplets, suggesting it was a shrine.

Inside the shrine, the old granny led Qibao to burn incense, light candles, kneel, bow, and worship. In the center of the shrine was an altar, upon which stood a statue of the Mountain Goddess.

Qibao, having evidently seen this ritual before, obediently bowed three times in front of the Bodhisattva without a word.

After finishing all this, the old granny led the three from the shrine’s back door to a stilted building.

This was Huo Sining’s first time seeing a real stilted building. From entering the territory of Miao Village, all they saw were buildings, with stilted buildings being few and far between.

Following the old granny into the house, her previously smiling face suddenly changed; from amiable to stern, looking at Qibao with disappointment.

”You ran away, why come back?! Don’t you know it’s dangerous here? Are you foolish?”

Huo Sining and Gu Xu were somewhat at a loss, not understanding why the old granny suddenly changed her expression so quickly.

”Third Aunt, we brought Qibao back to figure out what’s really going on. Just now, when we entered the mountain gate, the kids called Qibao a monster. What’s the situation here?”

Huo Sining felt a bit of a sting in her nose at the thought of that scene at the mountain gate. The villagers hostility towards Qibao, even the children, rejecting him. Qibao was only a six or seven-year-old child—what grave crime had he committed to warrant the disdain of the entire village?

The old granny seemed to have understood Huo Sining and Gu Xu’s confusion; she sighed and said, ”Follow me.”

Leading them walk behind the mountain, the old granny stopped in front of a house, only to see ruins—a scene of collapsed beams and the remains of walls.

Seeing this, Qibao was completely caught off guard and rushed forward, diving straight into the ruins.

”Qibao!”

Seeing this, Huo Sining hurriedly tried to stop him, but at the moment Qibao was like he’d lost his mind, ignoring her attempt to deter him.

The old granny shouted fiercely, ”What’s the point of crying now? You ran away, did you ever consider what he would do?”

Qibao’s body froze, suddenly sitting down on the ground, trembling all over.

Huo Sining vaguely guessed something, lifting her head in disbelief looked at the old granny, ”This... is Qibao’s family home?”

The old granny nodded, ”A lot happened this year. After the child ran away, the mountain chief found an excuse, brought men and overturned his family’s home; the house was demolished. The mountain chief wouldn’t stop there, even dug up his mother’s and father’s graves, and we couldn’t stop him.”

Hearing this, not just Qibao, even Huo Sining, an outsider, was filled with rage. She raised her head and asked, ”Is there no one who can stop this lawlessness?”

The old granny shook her head, ”Stop? Who can stop him? The mountain chief is like the Emperor here; what he says is the law, and no one dares to rebel.”

Huo Sining was so angry that her shoulders shook, ”What is this mountain chief trying to do?”

The old granny’s lips curled into a mocking smile, ”Who knows what he wants? But this man won’t give up until he reaches his goal; he opened Granny Jue’s and Qi Lang’s coffins, couldn’t find what he wanted; now he’s trying to find Qibao. And you guys, unexpected as it may be, just walked right into his hands—are you trying to numb yourselves?”

Huo Sining looked down at Qibao, frowned and said, ”We’re just trying to figure out what’s really going on here. This child doesn’t know what the mountain chief wants; his mother didn’t tell him anything. He’s just an innocent victim here. And, just as we entered the mountain, those kids called him a monster, which is too much!”

At this, the old granny’s face also showed some strangeness, ”You can’t blame those kids. This matter even puzzles me. This child’s father was picking herbs on the mountain, fell from a cliff, and his body shattered into pieces. His mother was buried under our watch; the coffin nailed shut by us, too. They were buried less than two meters apart.”

”But on the day the mountain chief dug up the graves and opened the coffins, both graves revealed skeletons resembling fish bones, yet Granny Jue’s and Qi Lang’s bodies were nowhere to be found!”