I Failed to Reform the Protagonist [Transmigration] - Chapter 20

In truth, it was no longer early. At this hour, it was time for morning lessons at Yunxiao.

Pei Jing had only just returned, yet he was already about to leave again.

The sky was a dull slate grey, and frost-mist clung to the vegetation along the road, adding a heavy damp chill to the air.

Chu Junyu seemed entirely indifferent to the fact that Pei Jing had stayed out all night. Pei Jing, however, spoke to him earnestly about the events at the old man’s house in the Yunlan Mountains.

“I went back there later with Xu Jing. Those mirrors in the old man’s house definitely had a purpose. They were pasted opposite the windows and doors specifically to keep evil spirits out. The old man’s grandson had been blessed by a high monk when he was young; his eyes were attuned to the spiritual world, making him far more sensitive to ghosts than others.”

“Yet he still died. The mirror on the rafters was smashed, and the spirits crawled up from beneath the earth. Their family wasn’t large; at that time, only two people could have entered his room. So, I suspect the child was harmed by someone close to him—most likely his second uncle.”

“It was either the temptation of a demon or pure greed.”

Pei Jing walked along the path, idly plucking a stalk of foxtail grass and twirling it in his hand as he kept pace with Chu Junyu, sharing his findings.

“Then that same night, I entered the forest and actually saw that ghost. It was hideous, covered in faces from head to toe—no wonder it was afraid of mirrors; it probably scared itself. Originally, I wouldn’t have been its match, but I encountered a benefactor. That benefactor saved my life, allowing me to descend the mountain unscathed. Scared the life out of me; I almost thought I was going to be eaten by that monster.”

He talked the whole way, receiving only a calm remark from Chu Junyu: “Your luck is quite good.”

Pei Jing tossed the grass aside and walked over, familiarly throwing an arm around Chu Junyu’s shoulders. “But this matter isn’t over yet. The old man’s second son is coming back next month. How about you come with me to catch him? I’m afraid he might have some ghost on him that I can’t beat.”

The moment he leaned in, Chu Junyu’s pace faltered. The youth beside him was full of vibrant energy, his scent as clean as green grass and mountain streams.

Chu Junyu’s pale eyes drifted to Pei Jing’s face. “On what grounds?”

Pei Jing replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world: “On the grounds that we’re close friends.”

The sky was grey, and the paths between the fields were a muddy mess. In the transition between spring and summer, the evening rain fell incessantly. A man clad in a straw raincoat sat at the front of a horse carriage, returning home from a thousand miles away.

As he neared the village, the carriage slowed down. When passing a certain field, the man in the raincoat held his breath. That field had long been desolate; because of a freak death there, the villagers pointedly avoided it, and it was now overgrown with wild grass. In the hole where a boy had been buried upside-down in the mud, a wandering immortal had placed a straw scarecrow, claiming it was to ferry the lost soul.

In reality, the man knew it was a lie—he had paid for that “immortal” himself. The scarecrow’s purpose wasn’t to ferry the soul, but to suppress the child’s ghost so he could neither be reincarnated nor crawl out to seek revenge.

He only had his eyes to blame; they were always seeing things they shouldn’t.

Stopping the carriage outside the house, he called out “Father,” but the old man didn’t respond. The man took off his raincoat, revealing a fierce, wicked face. He entered the courtyard but couldn’t find the old man after searching for a long time. He muttered to himself contemptuously, “Gone to the city to sell wood again? How much can that old fossil make working himself to death? What a waste of effort.”

Thirsty and exhausted from a day of driving, he went into the kitchen and dunked his head into the water vat to take a large gulp. Mid-drink, he felt something soft brush against his face. He opened his eyes. The inner walls of the vat were covered in moss, making the water murky. Now, in that murky depths, a female corpse had been twisted and stuffed into the bottom of the vat. The corpse’s bulging, pitch-black eyes stared back at him, her face bloated with a look of lingering resentment.

The man shrieked in terror, coughing up a mouthful of water and nearly choking. But he had committed so many atrocities that he had long since ceased to fear ghosts. He grabbed a brick from the nearby stove.

Gripping the brick, he smashed the water vat with all his might. The vat shattered, and the female ghost disappeared. He lifted his head, gasping for air.

Wiping his face with his sleeve, the man spat, “How unlucky. You think you can take my life? Keep dreaming.”

After drinking, his eyes twitched with fatigue. He shuffled toward the house; the old man wasn’t back, and he wasn’t in a hurry to deal with the group of women in the carriage yet.

He returned to his room, kicked off his shoes, and collapsed onto the bed, falling into a deep sleep. He slept until nightfall. As darkness descended, the atmosphere of the house shifted instantly; the moonlight filtering through the paper windows carried a bloody hue.

The man dreamed of his elder brother.

His brother had had his back snapped by a falling log, his body broken in two, so his appearance in the dream was twisted. When his brother was alive, he was a dull-witted fool who couldn’t even understand his own death. He looked at the man with an honest face and asked, “Why did you kill my son?”

In the dream, the man didn’t bother to hide his nature. He smirked contemptuously. “That brat only lived that long because he was tough. What more do you want? I’ve had enough of this poor life in the ravines. I finally found a way to get rich; anyone who gets in my way dies.”

The elder brother began to cry like a coward.

At that moment, the vengeful spirit of his sister-in-law appeared. Unlike the weak brother, his sister-in-law had been a shrew in life; as a fierce ghost, she was incredibly vicious. Her eyes were bloodshot, her nails black and green as she lunged at him. “Give me back my son’s life!”

Since it was his dream, she couldn’t hurt him in the slightest. However, the sensation of being strangled by an evil ghost was very clear. He convulsed on the bed and snapped awake, drenched in sweat.

The light in the room flickered dimly. His throat was parched again. Suddenly, he felt a chill down his spine. Ever since he had wandered into that forest in the Yunlan Mountains and made a deal with that female ghost, he had rarely been haunted. What was happening today?

He got out of bed. He heard the sharp sound of nails scratching against the window. He looked closely—countless red female arms appeared against the paper window, but they seemed to be blocked by something and couldn’t get in. The man looked back; a mirror hung on his wall, reflecting a faint, ghostly white light. It was the one his nephew had insisted on putting in every room.

If the female ghost hadn’t made her demands later, he wouldn’t have known that these mirrors possessed the power to ward off evil.

“You can’t blame me. Blame those eyes of yours; keeping them would have caused trouble sooner or later.”

From the moment his nephew said, “Second Uncle, there’s a woman on your back,” he knew he couldn’t let the boy live. He leaned down to put on his shoes, muttering, “I sacrificed two of my own wives; killing you was nothing.”

As he bent over, something fell from above and shattered on the floor. He stared blankly; it was a mirror. It had fallen from the ceiling, reflecting something red. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his back went cold.

He looked up.

On the rafters, a female ghost in red was crawling on all fours. Her black hair covered her face. She lowered her head, her mouth split open to her ears, and flashed him a bizarre smile.

In the middle of the night, the man let out a scream like a slaughtered pig!

The mindless yet resentful spirits from the Yunlan Mountains gathered here, surging into the man’s room like a tide to devour him. The entire house was stained red with blood.

Outside the house, Pei Jing, Chu Junyu, and the old man slowly stepped forward. The old man stared blankly at the blood-light rising into the sky, his dry eyes devoid of emotion.

Pei Jing said, “Your second son was wicked at heart; this can be considered his just desserts.”

The old man seemed to age ten years in an instant. He closed his eyes as tears slowly seeped from the corners. “He was crooked even as a child, and grew up to be a do-nothing gambling addict. I wondered where he got the money to pay off all those debts. So that was it… Sigh.”

The old man trembled. “I only pity my grandson.”

Pei Jing remained silent.

Once the second son had been completely devoured, the resentment of the spirits seemed to dissipate. As the east turned pale and the sun appeared, the women and infants dissolved into mist and dust.

They turned the second son’s room upside down and found an entrance. Beneath it was a cellar. The cellar reeked of filth and darkness. Piled together were a group of women with large bellies, their hair disheveled and their breath long gone, yet the things inside their bellies were still wriggling. Pei Jing closed his eyes and sliced open one woman’s belly with his sword.

Instantly, a meter-long green insect crawled out likely the “Mother Grub” Ji Wuduan had mentioned.

With the old man’s consent, Pei Jing set the house on fire. He hoped the victimized women could find peace in reincarnation and no longer wander as vengeful ghosts.

After the kidnapped young women in the carriage were rescued, they were overcome with terror and gratitude, kneeling and kowtowing repeatedly. Pei Jing, who hadn’t meddled in mortal affairs for years, gave them some silver and left them once they reached a town.

It rained for several days. On the way back to Yunxiao, they passed the place where the young boy had died.

Pei Jing walked into the field and pulled up the scarecrow. In the grey rain, the soul of a well-behaved boy slowly emerged from the hole. He was born with incomplete souls; even with the enlightenment from Wu Sheng, he still retained a bit of foolish innocence.

The boy’s hands and feet were short and white, looking very small. His large, bright black eyes gazed at Pei Jing without blinking, unsure of what to do. Even in death, he carried no resentment.

Pei Jing could see a golden flicker of Buddhist light on the boy’s forehead. He should have lived a blessed life, yet he had attracted a demon.

The boy stood dazed. Pei Jing chuckled softly and tapped his finger on the boy’s forehead.

In a voice only the two of them could hear, he whispered, “Go now.”

The boy blinked in confusion as a white light merged into his brow. Suddenly, as if realizing something, he bowed respectfully to Pei Jing. His steps moved involuntarily toward a certain direction, his figure slowly fading into the grey misty rain.

On the road, Pei Jing reflected: “That old man spent his whole life doing good deeds, only to be ruined by his second son. I truly don’t understand; the rest of the family were all kind-hearted people. How could they raise such a beast?”

Chu Junyu’s lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. “Perhaps some people are simply born evil.”