“That…that is…” Grandpa An's finger shook as he pointed in the direction of the crimson bracelet on my wrist. I subconsciously covered it with my other hand. Seeing this, the old man gradually calmed down.
“Grandpa, is there something wrong?”
To see her own grandfather acting as if he had gotten a stroke due to his old age made her frightened to the extent that she ran to his side.
“No…nothing…I’m alright.” He panted for a bit. As he stood up, the fear in his eyes disappeared and soon, it seemed as if nothing had happened.
He fished out a cigarette from his gray trousers to smoke, but it was instead immediately s.n.a.t.c.hed away by An Ning. “Grandpa! You should stop smoking; it’s bad for your health!”
It goes without saying that in the eyes of the public, Grandpa An had started his shroud shop to shorten his own lifeline. And now, he’s smoking… really…he never listened to anyone.
He sighed. He predicted that his granddaughter would encounter a catastrophe today made him, which was what made him hurriedly call her over.
Never did he imagined that the catastrophe was actually that.
Grandpa An sighed again. His bean-sized eyes locked themselves onto me before turning and staggering into the shop.
“You two, come in.”
I took a few more glimpses at the entrance of the shop. But right before I could take a step into the shop, a strong gust of Yin energy suddenly escaped through the entrance from the inside of the shop.
In the middle of the room, there laid an opened coffin with white ribbons hanging on its sides.
The cupboards in the left and right of the shop displayed many ingots made from aluminum foil and different sizes of funeral wreaths hung on the gla.s.s cupboard doors.
An Ning helped her grandfather into the shop, who instead pushed away his granddaughter’s kindness and slowly staggered on.
I hesitated for a long while before finally making up my mind to enter the shop.
However, as I was about to take a step into the shop, a gust of Yin energy started to hammer into my body. Never had I felt such a feeling before in the past, so why was it happening now?
Moreover, most of the icy energy was directed towards my lower abdomen. I could not help but wrap my arms around my belly, which stopped the flow of energy.
Seeing me clutching my stomach and standing foolishly at the entrance of the shop, An Ning strode to me, asking, “What’s wrong? Your stomach don’t feel well?”
“An Ning!”
Grandpa An sat on a small wooden stool in the hall and scolded at An Ning loudly, “Do not get close to her. Come here!”
I was stunned. An Ning was also startled by her grandfather’s sudden yelling; she was clueless about the reasons for her grandfather’s sudden actions.
“Grandpa…”
“An Ning, that girl is not someone you should get close to. Listen to me and come here!”
While Grandpa An continued to beckon to An Ning, I felt a little offended.
Just why in the world was Grandpa An treating me with such hostility?
I suddenly recalled the gaze he gave me when he saw the crimson bracelet on my wrist. Then the reason for his gaze suddenly became quite clear to me.
An Ning was in a dilemma between me and her grandfather. But so as to not hurt my feelings, she stood a little distance away from me; in fact, she was just a step away from me.
She did not know why her own grandfather was treating her best friend with such hostility; one moment ago, he invited the both of them to enter, but suddenly forbid her to get close to Xiaohua.
“I suppose your name is Ronghua?”
I nodded at Grandpa An’s question. But only after a moment of silence did he continue.
“Do you know Ménjiè village?”
The moment I heard that village name, I was taken aback.
Ménjiè village was the name of my village. The word ‘Mén’ refered to the Gates of h.e.l.l, and the word ‘Jiè’ represented the cross between the two worlds.
This work/translation is property of © Fantasy-Books and unless it's one of the approved sites listed in - https://fantasy-books.live/approved-list then this work has been stolen; reading this work on a stolen site is a clear disrespect to the content creators. Thank you.
And because my village was located there, its name was thus as such.
However, my parents did not mention that name often. Instead, they would always call it ‘hometown’. The reason being that they did not want the village to influence my brain, and thus they deliberately tried to avoid using the village’s name.
I hesitated for a moment before nodding and responding softly. “My hometown is Ménjiè village.”
“Were you offered as a bride to Hades?”
Grandpa An went straight to the point and I almost choked on my saliva!
An Ning almost did a flip upon hearing the nonsense that her grandfather just sprouted. She looked left and then right; looking at me for a while before turning to look at her grandfather. Unable to believe what she had just heard, her lips twitched as she asked, “What bridal offering? Married to Hades? What are you joking about?”
I suddenly began to feel a little tensed due to the strange energy that I felt coming from Grandpa An. From his body, I could feel the strong Yang energy, but there was somehow a mix of cold Yin energy amongst the Yang energy.
The thought of the little demon inside my belly made me raise my guard as I took a few steps back.
Grandpa An saw my wariness. The wrinkles on his face softened and he spoke gently.
“Girl, I mean no harm.”
However, not only I did not let my guard down to his statement, I stubbornly refused to do so. In response, Grandpa An sighed and he looked deep into my eyes.
“Xiao Hua, have you ever heard of the Eclipsers?”