Chapter 324 - Approved by the Spectres (1/2)

Chen Ge crawled out of the tunnel and looked around. There were no windows in the room, and not far from the mouth of the tunnel were a few livestock that had just died.

“She used animal blood? This can trick the baleful Specter?” Chen Ge muttered to himself.

Hearing the faded sound of a baby crying, he followed the voice and went up to the second floor. The room felt obviously feminine. There was simple furniture in the room. Different from other village homes, there was not a coffin but a wooden bed.

Pulling the heavy curtain back, there were several bamboo baskets placed next to each other on the wooden bed, and each baby’s lips were covered with a piece of grass. The grass seemed to have some sort of tranquilizing effect. Even though the babies were taken away from their parents, they did not cry that heavily.

“The reason the Zhu woman takes the babies away every time is to save them?” Chen Ge found a notebook underneath the pillow. He flipped it open and realized it recorded a list of names and address. The author of this notebook was probably barely literate, so most of the pages were represented by symbols.

“The Zhu woman outside looks to be in her thirties or forties, but this book is already yellowed; this should be from many years ago.” Chen Ge read through the book, but he could not understand the content. It looked like Chinese, but Chen Ge could not recognize the characters. “The addresses are fuzzy. I can recognize a few of the names. Could they be the children that were rescued?”

“You’re right. These are all the children that I’ve managed to smuggle out.” An old lady’s voice suddenly came out from behind him. Chen Ge turned with his finger on the recorder. “I should be the one that’s afraid, or do you think this old lady that has one foot in the grave can still harm you?”

The old lady’s speech was off, probably because she had no teeth. Chen Ge walked deeper into the room with the recorder. In a small room, he found a seriously hunchbacked old lady with wrinkled face. She was leaning against the wooden bed. Both of her legs and one arm had severely atrophied, and she could only barely move her head and the remaining arm.

“Madam, you are?” The woman looked so old that Chen Ge felt the need to show her respect. The senior looked at Chen Ge and smiled. “I’m someone who is favored by the Specters.”

Hearing that, Chen Ge’s mind woke up. He could not have been more familiar with that term!

“You have this sense of familiarity about you. You have interacted with them before, yes?” The ‘them’ on the old lady’s lips naturally referred to the baleful Specters.

“You’re right. I’ve not only interacted with them; I’ve built them a home to give them a place to live.”

“Then, you’re much stronger than I am.” The old lady tried her best to express her goodwill. “Come, take a seat. I didn’t hear the door open, so you must have entered from the tunnel connected to the ancestral hall. I believe you’re here to smuggle the babies away while the ceremony is ongoing?”

“Yes, that is the plan.” Chen Ge did not get close to the old lady, but he did move his finger away from the recorder.

“It is as I thought; those who are favored by the Specters have something approved by the Specters.” The woman’s voice was flat but comforting.

“Something approved by the Specters?”

“Yes.” The old woman nodded with difficulty. With Chen Ge pressing her, she told Chen Ge what really happened that year. It was similar to what Ah Qing had said, the only difference being the baleful Specter was not completely inhumane. She still had some humanity left. The old woman had once told the woman ‘three times’, so she promised to do three things for her that were not out of bounds.