Half-Tried Deity

The scorching sun shone through the sparse sycamore trees. Through the speckles of light, cicadas perched on the moss that grew on the stone slabs of Qing Tang Town. They were stuck on tree branches, singing their lungs out, irritating people for no particular reason.

Qing Tang was a small ancient town. This town was not called Qing Tang before. Legend had it that a spirit was once here and left a sword called Qing Tang in the town. Therefore, the village had changed its name.

In the afternoon, the sky that was originally intolerably hot, suddenly changed. Billowing clouds covered the sky. After a burst of lightning and thunder, heavy rain came pouring down, extinguishing all the heat.

The village’s market, which was initially bustling, came to a stop due to the heavy rain. Many vendors who didn’t manage to go home, were gathered together in a nearby tea shop.

“Aunt Li, have you heard that the Song Family in the east of town is haunted!” Qi Family’s wife whispered to a woman in her fifties, wearing a floral head scarf, next to her.

“Really?” The woman named Aunt Li glanced around furtively, before whispering back.

“Of course it’s true. Didn’t you see that the Song Family invited several senior immortals to perform an exorcism, but I heard that the ghosts were so fierce that the immortals weren’t able to do anything.”

“I think the Song Family must have done too many wicked things. The ghost is most probably Liu Er Niang, tsk tsk. Think about it, how wronged she was when she died back then. I think the Song Family would be really haunted by her this time.” Aunt Li pouted her lips, her voice became louder.

“Shh- Don’t simply say this kind of thing! It won’t be good if you were heard by the Song Family.” Qi Family’s wife looked around quickly, after noticing that no one was listening to them, she continued, “But in my opinion, the Song Family is truly out of luck this time. How could this happen if they hadn’t taken the Liu Family’s house back then.”

“They had sinned ah!” The two sighed, then they noticed that the rain had gradually become smaller.

In less than half an hour, the heavy rain had stopped, and the sun showed itself from the clouds. The stone road revealed its original blue-gray colour after the rain. The vendors walked out of the tea shop in twos and threes, looking for a place on the stone road that was dry to once again lay out the goods they had just put away.

After a while, the hustle and bustle of the market had returned, and the town was once again shrouded in noise, resuming its liveliness.

However, at this moment, in the Song Family’s courtyard in the east of town seemed a little quiet. More than 30 people from the Song Family, young and old, all sat in the hall with a sullen expression on their faces. Sitting in the center, Old Master Song had two dark circles under his eyes.

“Old Master, help to find a way. If this goes on, everyone won’t have to sleep anymore.” His second concubine, whose face was pale, whimpered, sitting on his right side.

“Think of a way, think of a way, what else can I do! I have already invited four senior immortals, but even they weren’t able to do anything about it!” Old Master Song slammed the blue and white porcelain teacup in his hand. He had lived here for more than ten years. Why was it haunted now?

In the beginning, several people said that they saw someone in the backyard in the middle of the night. He didn’t believe them at first, thinking that they were just coming out with excuses to cause trouble. In the end, he woke up that particular night and went to the hut. He actually saw someone standing beside the well in the northeast corner of the backyard!

It was too dark that time, Old Master Song only saw the person wearing a faint white coat. She was bald, and making a ghastly sound in her mouth. He was scared to death!

Actually, Old Master Song was a merciless person when he was young. The Song Family was not named the Song’s before, but the Liu’s. However, there weren’t many members of the Liu Family last time, so Old Master Song sent someone to seduce Liu Er Niang, the maiden daughter of the Liu Family. Then, he took advantage of Liu Er Niang’s date with her lover and sent his people to catch them in the act.

An unmarried maiden caught fooling around with a man. It wasn’t long for her to become the talk of the town. The Liu Family’s Old Master was so angry that he died immediately.

Liu Er Niang, after losing her only relative, went to look for her lover, only to find that her lover already had a family. In the end, rumours had it that Liu Er Niang then shaved her head and went to become a nun in a temple.

After the matter was over, Old Master Song bought over the Liu Family’s house with a low price, and changed it from Liu to Song. Liu Er Niang’s lover became the Song Family’s housekeeper. It wasn’t until now that everyone realized that this whole thing was Old Master Song’s evil scheme. However, it was too late. Liu Er Niang had already committed suicide in the nunnery.

So when Old Master Song saw the bald head ghost, he immediately knew that it was the ghost of Liu Er Niang who had returned to seek revenge from him.

And after that night, strange things began to happen in the Song Family’s house. First, the cook discovered that his livestock had disappeared for no reason. Then, the wood house caught fire by itself, and what was even more frightening was that Madam Song suddenly found that her offerings were missing when she was praying in the temple.

The haunting had turned the entire Song Family upside down. No one dared to sleep at night now. Old Master Song had also visited several great immortals who were said to be very powerful, but every time the great immortal told him that the ghost had been removed, someone in the family would always see the ghost appearing by the well the next day.

No one in the Song Family dared to approach the backyard at all now, even the servants.

“Father, please say something. We can’t just wait for our death here, who knows when that ghost decides to attack us!” Song Zhi, the Song Family’s Young Master, wasn’t looking too good.

As soon as he said that, everyone in the hall spoke up. All of them wanted Old Master Song to make a decision. Finally, Old Master Song slapped his thigh abruptly, “Oh yes! How could I forget about Xiao Qiao!”

“Quickly, Song Zhi, get on your horse and go find your aunt in Wu Lan Temple at Cang Lan Mountain.” Old Master Song ordered hurriedly, suddenly recalling his sister.

The Song Family didn’t have such a big influence in Qing Tang Town before. It was an event that made them famous fifty years ago. At that time, a celestial came to Qing Tang Town, and took Song Qiao’er, the only daughter of the Song Family, as an apprentice.

So, from then on, the Song Family became a big family in Qing Tang Town. After all, a member of the Song Family was favored by the gods, and that was how the Song Family rode on another’s success.

Song Qiao’er left for more than forty years, during which she only returned to the Song Family once. Old Master Song was already over fifty at that time, but Song Qiao’er was still in her twenties. This made Old Master Song even more convinced of the existence of immortals. No doubt that being an apprentice of a god meant immortality.

Before leaving, Song Qiao’er told her brother that she was going to practice in Wu Lan Temple at Cang Lan Mountain. Now that terrible things were happening to the Song Family, Old Master Song immediately thought of his sister.

The eldest son, Song Zhi acted immediately upon receiving his father’s order. He immediately rode to Cang Lan Mountain.

Song Zhi returned a day later, but without Song Qiao’er. When Old Master Song saw that his son had returned alone, he couldn’t help gulping.

“Song Zhi, where is your aunt?” Old Master Song pulled his son over and asked softly.

“Father, I didn’t go to Cang Lan Mountain. I met a celestial along the way, and invited the celestial instead.” Song Zhi explained the Old Master Song with a smile.

“You, idiot, where! Where is your so-called celestial!” Old Master Song immediately slapped his son, how dare he tried to joke in this kind of situation!

After being slapped, Song Zhi looked a bit wronged, he explained, “The celestial said that he will only come tonight…”

After Song Zhi’s messy explanation and description, Old Master Song finally believed that his son had really invited a celestial. Song Zhi was originally planning to go to Cang Lan Mountain. Who knew that when he was walking in the forest that night, he saw an old Taoist in green clothes fall from the sky.

After seeing the old Taoist, Song Zhi didn’t care whether he knew him or not, he immediately rushed towards him and wept loudly. After listening to Song Zhi’s tragic description, the old Taoist decided to follow him. Therefore, Song Zhi hurried back home without going to Cang Lan Mountain.

That night, the backyard of the Song Family’s house was empty. The breeze blew over the weeping willows by the pond, and the wicker made ripples on the water. Under the dim moonlight, a person stood by the well in the northeast corner of Song Family’s backyard.

Upon looking closely, one could see that that person was actually bathing!

And she was even humming a tune while showering! That voice that made Old Master Song and the others scared to death. She was singing, I love taking a bath, it makes my skin feel so good~~~

Only

“Aiya, it would be great if I had a shower gel… I really can’t use soap!” Holding the soup ladle she “borrowed” from the kitchen, she poured cold water that she had just collected from the well on to herself, and then she sighed softly, “Bathing with unpolluted water feels so good ah!”

After taking a bath, Qi Huan wrapped a large white “bath towel” around her body contentedly, secretly rejoicing that luckily she had brought some big bed sheets with her when she time travelled.

Qi Huan, 23 years old, was a freelancer working from her home before time traveling. Qi Huan’s greatest aspiration in life was lying in bed for the rest of her life, while still having enough money and food for herself, so she was naturally in bed when she time travelled.

Luckily, she was in bed, it was the reason she had such a big “cover blanket” with her. Even Qi Huan herself was very surprised, why were her clothes gone after she time travelled? Not just that, even her hair and eyebrows were gone. That was too much! Although she had extreme beauty that could outshine the moon (self-proclaimed), she wouldn’t mind too much if she just lost a few hair, but she couldn’t accept being completely bald!

Fortunately, when she landed, she was in a completely dark firewood store room of the Song Family. Otherwise, she would be even more miserable if she was seen by others. It would be fine if a handsome guy saw her, but if it was some old man who saw her, then she wouldn’t want to live anymore!

Qi Huan touched the short hair that had just grown on top of her head, she sighed again. She had time travelled, just like the heroine in the book she had read, but the heroine always ran into a handsome man, why did she have no such luck!

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