zhuiling adopted child au

Chapter 3

Their recent attempts had been to find any key features that could help them identify the ghost and to find out what she had wanted. So far, they knew she had been wrongfully accused and assassinated by an angry mob. Many had found it reasonable that the woman had wanted revenge. However, there was one problem. The woman seemed to have a selfless character so they found it odd that she wanted revenge.

It had been the third day of their investigation when the ghost finally opened up to them. Turns out, the mystery child of the ghost had survived and was now an orphan. The little girl had been adopted by a visitor who had moved in to the village. The ghost claimed that she had given protection to the kind stranger as repayment. She had also been getting revenge on the villagers who had tormented her child.

On day four, they had found out the reason why the ghost lady's tea house was burnt down. Turns out, the village chiefs daughter had taken a liking to the ghosts husband, but her advances were quickly rejected.
Angered by the outcome, the  village chief's daughter had spun rumors about the small family. The lies were that the tea the couple sold tasted different not because it came from a different region, but because they had drugged it to make people addicted to buy more. Another lie was that an old shamon had claimed the child to be born under the star of solitude.

She had managed to spark the hot coal and got what she wanted. Some of the angered villagers had set fire to the tea shop and burnt it to ashes. When lie An escape the house, the chiefs daughter had stopped the mob from hurting the child and told them to let the child go. This earned her praise from the idiotic villagers for her pretentious righteousness. After they let the child go, the village folk lamented her and abused her because of the rumors. Although the chief new of the rumors his child had spread, he was too much of a coward to do anything about it.

It was only after the child was taken away did they stop, paired with the hauntings of the ghost.

This story was enough for the juniors to loose any remaining respect they had for the village. Most of them started hating the father & daughter duo with a passion. The juniors quickly switched sides in favour of the ghost and swore to help avenge her child.

Lan disciple: but to do that, we need to find out who the child is.

Lsz: the child is lie An.

Lan disciple: what! Lie An? The one with super granny?

Ljy: do you know another lie An?

Asked jingyi with sass.

Lsz: let me break it down. You might not have noticed that it was super granny the kind woman who the ghost gave protection to. This is because the ghost gave her protection from wild animals and other villagers.

Lan disciple: oh! That does make sense. Super granny's crops remained intact even during the nights we fell asleep on duty.

Jin disciple: and also, the villagers couldn't steal her belongings either.

Ljy: wait. You guys slept on duty?

Lan disciples: not at all xixong.

Ouyang disciple: so that means she was the kind woman the ghost was helping. And the only orphaned little child she had was lie An.

lan disciple 2: plus, the villagers seem to hate lie An.

Ozc: that is right!

Ljy: so our next move is to inform super granny about this.

Jin disciple 1: so let's go.

The juniors were heading away together when Lsz stopped to look back.

Lsz: jin ling, you okay?

The boy in question stood stiff in his position without moving a muscle. Lsz had somewhat understood why Jl was reacting like that. Jl was the one who had gotten the most close to lie An, making Lsz take second place. Jl would often get defensive for lie An when a villager came as a threat to her. And it was more than obvious that jin ling saw himself in the young child. Lsz himself was also boiling with anger for the child he had grown to love.

Lsz made his way to jin ling and took his hand and looked at him softly.

Lsz: jin ling, look at me.

Said lan shizui gently.

Jl: shizui, I-  I just- why did this happen to lie An? She did nothing to deserve what is happening to her.

Lsz: I know jin ling. And we will make things right. We will make sure justice is served.

Jl took an exasperated sigh.

Jl: alright, shizui. Let's just go back and join zichen and the idiot.

The two boys continued walking catching up with the rest of the group. Lsz saw that jin ling still had a serious expression, so he tugged on jin lings hand and gave him a comforting smile. The two walked on, forgetting about their joint hands.