Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 498: This Box Must Not Be Touched

Most of the business cases in the otherworldly item Circlewere related todeceased peopleandevil spirits. After awhile,one’s karma would inevitably take a hit.

That was why we hadthisunwritten rule in this business—to periodically do charity work.During the trip, it wasamustnot toprovokeanyone. We had to be humble and patient.Itwas the only wayto completelyget rid of the bad luck!

It was a rule my grandfatherfollowedall his life, soIplanned to do the same. After the New Year holiday, I asked Li Mazi tocomewith me tocollectsome good karma.But he was lazy andlost interestwhen I told him that we were going to a rural area. He declined by using Ru Xue’s pregnancyas an excuse.

I didn’t feel like forcing him. I told my plans to Yin Xinyue and left on my own,choosingthe small paths in the countrysidefor my trip.

Itwas the beginningof spring, so the farmers didn’t have many things to dointhe fields. As they had free time, they wouldgatherto play mahjong. The scene was the same all the way from Hubei to Hebei. Those folks invited me a few times to play with them, butmy luck wasn’t really good and I lost.

I had spent almost half a monthdrawingprotectivecharms for the villagersorgivingsome financial support to the elderly or the widows. I hadn’t encountered any trouble so far. Unwittingly, I had arrived in Puyang.

Handanwas to thenorth of Puyang, andIdidn’t feel like going there asI had justdealt withCao Cao near Handan, so I decided to stop at Puyang.

Every time my grandpa went out to do charity work, he wouldspendfromtentofifteen days.Given the time, my mission should havebeen complete. I decided tospend thenight there and go home thenextday.

To my surprise, somethinghappenedduringthelast night ofmytrip.

Since it was the last night of the trip, I was too lazy to ask around tofind a nice place. I got a room in a small, simple hostel.

The owner was a grannie who seemed to be more thansixty years old. Shehurried to get me a room andtookme upstairswhile carryinga kettle of warm water.

She didn’t leave after placing the kettle on the tableandchatted with me for a whilein herHenan dialect. After talking with her for a while, I knew that she was a widow,and thissmall hostel was the house the old couple had bought for their son after he got married.

However, her son had bought a house in another province, and he rarely went back hometo visit. After her husband passed away, the grannie remodeled the house and turned itinto a small hostel, which helped herearn some money.

I admired this hard-working grannie, so I alsotoldher my stories.

Her eyes brightened when she learned that I was an otherworldly merchant. She looked somewhat hesitant. Eventually, she told me to sleep earlyand left.

The look on her face belied some trouble she was coping with. Big trouble,I guessed. Otherwise,shewouldn’t havelookedso distressed.

Ifshe didn’t want to talk, there wasn’t much I could do.

I rolledaroundin my bed, unable to sleep. I hadafeeling thatmy charity trip wouldn’t be successful if I didn’thelpher.

I resolutely descended the stairsand directly askedtheold lady whethershe had any trouble.

The grannie kept silent for a while. Then, she said,“Son, follow me.”

With herbackhunched, sheheadedto the back of the hostel. I followed her.

There was a small courtyard behind the hostelthatheld quite a few miscellaneous items. Therewas also asingle-floor housewith a strawroof.My guess was that the place used to be the grannie’s old house.

I caught a wisp of aromatic incense as we got closer to the house. The aroma became thicker and almost irritating to the nostrils when the lady pushed the door open.

I couldn’t help but pinch my nose. “Grannie, why are you burningthis muchsandalwood in such asmall room? Although it can expel evil spirits, too much smoke in the room isn’t good for your body. Don’t you know this?”

“I didn’t have a choice…”

The grannie shook her head, then invited me in. Inoticedthat the altar table in her house was made of red sandalwood, the best type of sandalwood.

Redsandalwood,also called Blue Dragon wood, was the perfecttoolto expel evil spirits. At the same time, it could bring good fortune to the family. In ancienttimes, imperial courtiers and nobles had used red sandalwood to create accessories or furniture.

Duringthe Ming Dynasty, almost all the red sandalwood in our country had been cut down. The imperial court then sent people to various Southeast Asian countries to buy the wood. It proved how precious red sandalwood was!

I didn’t expect to see such a treasure in the house of this ordinary-looking grannie. I touched the wooden furniture; the material was genuine. Then, I recognized that even the incense holder, the offering bowls, and the tumblersweremade of red sandalwood.

Behind the incense holderwasa bronze box, the only item on the altar not madeof sandalwood. I reached out as I wanted to touch it, but the grannie grabbed my hand, her facetense. “Son, you shouldn’t touch this box.”

“Is there something wrong with thisbox?” I muttered.

The grannie nodded, her face serious. Then, she came near me, whispering, “Did you noticeanything?”

I became tensedue toher behavior. I turned and carefully assessed the box.

I saw a few cracks on the box which had revealed the red color inside. I then realized that it was a wooden box painted in bronze.

I couldn’t guess the age of this box due to this layer of bronze paint.As the granniedidn’t tell me anything,I tried to look inside the box through the small cracks.

However, I didn’tfindanything strange. I turned and gavehera skeptical look.

“Let me show you,” the grannie said after hesitating for a while.

Sheremovedthe incense holder and pulled me to the door, her face serious.

As I was about to ask her what she was doing, thealtar table shook violently. The bronze-painted box seemed to have been revived as itbouncedon the table.

After each bounce, the cracks on the box would expel a wisp of red mist. However, the red mist didn’t disperse. It slowly gathered, covering the entire altar table.

Although I didn’t know what was in the box,it certainly wasn’t something ordinary ifit could subdue the furniture made of red sandalwood. I quickly backed off, my gaze stilllingering onthe mist.I wanted to know what it would do.

The mist wasn’t trying to attack us, and nothing else happened after itcoveredthe altar. Around ten minutes later, the red mist was dispersed.

A cry arose from the box rightwhen themist hadcompletelydisappeared.

Afterward, everything went back to normal.

I curiously asked the old lady, “Auntie, what just happened?”

Since she had kept calmwhenthe red mist appeared, it wasobviousthat it wasn’tthe first time this had occurred. Moreover,she was unharmed after all this time.

Sowhywas shesoscaredbefore? Ifelttherewas more to this story.

The grannie looked at me, then at the box. Sheplacedthe incense holder back on the altar table and piously burned three joss sticks. We left the houseafterwards.

When we returned to the hostel, the grannie sat down. Her eyes reddenedas she choked with sobs. “Actually, my late husband was killed by that thing…”

I frowned. I waited until the grannie calmed down to pryfurther.“Auntie, could you tell me what happened?”

“Yes, I’ll tell you the whole story.”

The grannie wiped hertears. “I’ll share it with you, but you should just leave it alone.”

It seemed that she didn’t believe I could handle thiskind of stuff. I simply noddedand started listeningto her story.

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