Living Sacrifice

With a whoosh of rage, my father sprang up from the ground and pointed at my nose, his entire body trembling.

I had already made up my mind. I told him to scold me. After scolding me, he would go and find Soo Soo.

Without a word, my father fell to the ground with a crash.

When I saw that he had fainted, I was startled and quickly helped him up.

After a long while, my father finally breathed a sigh of relief and woke up.

Seeing him like this, I carried him home.

My father was still shaking when I got home. From the looks of it, he was truly infuriated.

As we entered the house, I saw the old lady waiting for us at the door.

Although she is already old and stooped, her eyes are bright like a cat's. When she looks at me, she can make me jump.

I walked my father into the house, and the matron went to give him his pulse. I was a little surprised that she was still a teacher, so it was only my father who had nothing to do with her.

The Grand Matriarch told me that he was angry because of the blood and Qi attacking his heart.

I asked if I needed to buy some medicine, and the Grand Matriarch said no, she wanted me to go to each of the houses and ask for some cinders.

The cinders were the cinders left over from the cinders used to burn incense for the Kitchen King. These things were available in every house.

It was the first time I heard that cinders could cure illnesses, so I asked her why. The Grand Matriarch told me about the others. Just go and ask for them, the more the better.

Every time I knocked on a door, I saw people looking at me like they were crazy. I know that this must have been the result of me frantically searching for Soo Soo a few days ago.

At that time, they all thought Soo Soo had died, so they thought I was crazy.

However, I had no intention of explaining this much to them. Opening the door would show me the reason for my visit.

Who knew that after those people heard my words, their expressions immediately changed. After saying that it was inconvenient, they slammed the door shut.

I ate the shut door and felt extremely unhappy. I thought to myself, is there something wrong with my mother? Why did she have to guard against me like I was a thief?

In the end, I really couldn't get any ashes. Feeling helpless, an idea struck me and I suddenly thought of the village's temple on the ground.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, when there were still many happy events in the city, there would always be people who paid their respects to the incense and went to that place to look for ashes. There must be a lot of them.

In the end, I brought home a dustpan of fragrant ashes from the temple.

By the time we got home, my father was awake and talking to the matriarch.

Their voices were very low and their expressions were very secretive. The moment I entered the room, they saw me and immediately stopped talking.

It was obvious that they were intentionally avoiding me. I did not even need to think to know that there was a high chance that the things they were talking about were related to me and Soo Soo.

Even if my dad wasn't, he was my dad after all, and I didn't want to make the relationship too stiff, so I pretended not to see it.

When I handed the ashes to the Grand Matriarch, I gave her a hard look, warning her not to sow discord between me and my father.

However, the Grand Matriarch didn't seem to care at all when she looked at me. It was obvious that she didn't take my warning seriously.

She asked me if I had cinders from all the houses, and I didn't bother to explain, so I told her yes, and in the end I warned her not to give them to my father.

The Grand Matriarch glanced at me and said it was for my use.

I was stunned for a moment, thinking, could it be that this damned old woman wants me to eat this kind of thing?

Without a word, I went back to my room and lay down on my bed. I began to think about last night.

Last night, when Soo Soo and I were in the small room, it was like a somewhat real dream. I can't tell whether it was real or fake.

Was I really unable to find Soo Soo last night, or was it just a dream I had after fainting?

As I thought about it, I fell asleep. When I woke up again, it was already night.

I was awakened by a knock on the door, and when I woke up I found that the sound was coming from the window.

I saw a figure at the window. It was Soo Soo.

I was overjoyed. Just as I wanted to shout, Soo Soo made a booing gesture. I immediately lowered my voice and asked where she was.

Soo Soo said that two days ago, she saw people from the Zhao Family in the village, so she hid and did not dare to come out.

She's a girl, without any family, and now she has to rely on me.

I was going to ask her about last night, but when she said she was thinking about me, I felt a little guilty for suspecting her so much, so I swallowed the words that came to my lips.

I opened the window and told her to hurry in.

Soo Soo pretended to climb forward. However, she suddenly stopped.

Curious, I asked her what was wrong.

Soo Soo glanced at me and then asked me, "Why is the window of my room so dirty?"

Only then did I notice that there was a layer of dust on the windowsill just outside the window.

I took a closer look and immediately recognized it. It was the fragrance that I had gotten during the day. I didn't know when, but a thick layer of it had actually covered my window.

On second thought, I knew it had to be the work of that old woman. This crazy old woman was playing some sort of trick.

I told Soo Soo that this is scented ash. It's fine. Just let her in.

Soo Soo said no. She was most afraid of getting dirty. With this thing here, she was determined not to enter.

I laughed to myself, thinking that the little house you were hiding in was even dirtier than this, and you didn't mind.

I reached out to wipe off the ashes, and then realized that they were actually mixed with something else. It was a kind of granule like sugar, and when I squeezed it, it felt like salt. He cursed in his heart. The old granny was purposely mystifying.

Only when all the incense had been wiped clean did Soo Soo carefully climb in through the window.

She tried her best to avoid the remaining scented ashes. It seemed that she really dreaded these things.

Ever since Soo Soo had entered, the temperature of the entire room had dropped significantly.

But at this moment, I heard a loud bang. Then, I saw the door of the room tremble. It was obvious that someone was knocking on the door.

Then I heard my father's angry shout: Open the door! Open the door!

Startled, I quickly pulled it out.

Soo Soo was also greatly frightened. Her face instantly turned pale.

I told her not to panic and quickly found a place to hide.

My father must have heard my voice and became even more anxious. He kicked the door to the room.

Soo Soo's face turned pale from fright. I consoled her and said that it was fine. I told her not to be afraid. I would not let anyone hurt her again. Not even my father.

At this moment, the door finally burst open.

To my surprise, it wasn't my father who rushed in first, but the great-aunt.

I stopped her from going further in and told her that she had better not get involved with our family matters as an outsider.

My father rushed in after the grandma and shouted at me, Shut up!

Then he went around to the grandma, gritted his teeth, and said: Is that woman in your room?

Initially, I wanted to protect Soo Soo from harm, but after hearing what my father said, I was stunned.

When I looked back, Soo Soo was already gone.

I was stunned and subconsciously searched for traces of Soo Soo in the room. Soon I realized that the window of the room was open.

I was relieved to know that she must have run out the window at the last minute. However, Soo Soo's actions were quite fast. I did not notice at all that she had left.

Seeing that Soo Soo had already left, my heart immediately felt a lot more at ease.

My father looked inquiringly at the Grand Matriarch and asked her what was going on. Didn't they say that adding salt to the scented ash would prevent dirt from coming into the room?

I immediately understood that the old lady said that the scented ash was prepared for me. So that was what happened. I could not help but feel annoyed in my heart.

The old woman didn't say anything. She walked over to the window and took a look at it, then asked me, with a look of understanding, "Did you get rid of the ashes?" Did you do it yourself, or did that woman ask you to do it?

I ignored her, and then the old woman's face grew suspicious again. At the same time, she muttered to herself, "No, with the cinders, she wouldn't have been able to get close to this house. How could I have bewitched her?"

After thinking for a moment, the old woman's eyes suddenly moved. She asked me, "Did you get me a real casserole? Is there something else?"

I told her the truth, and then I said to her, Don't you fool my dad with this shit. My dad is my dad, and I'm me.

The old woman said nothing, but went out, saying as she did so: It is not true that the cinders were not prepared for her, so she was not on her guard, and there was a great deal of trouble.