radiothebook Chapter 423 The Silver Hairpin Points to the Old River
Chapter 423 The Silver Hairpin Points to the Old River
The crying sound from the bottom of the river climbed up the old river channel. The silver hairpin turned gently in the center of the array plate, and the frost on the hairpin tip was licked wet by the red light. Manager Hu's hand holding the lamp was originally quite steady, but after hearing the words "Sister, don't hand me over to him", the lamp wire tilted towards the boat.
Mo Chengyue used his sword sheath to block the white paper lantern. The ash from the talisman on the edge of the array plate was lifted by the lamplight. He looked at the seventh red dot shining below the silver hairpin and reminded him, "Don't believe the crying."
Shopkeeper Hu's hand stopped on the lamp handle, her fingertips pricked by a splinter and bleeding, but the blood didn't fall to the ground; she pressed it all back into her palm.
She's crying.
"Even ships cry."
She calls me "sister".
"They called from outside the door last night too."
"But this time there's a silver hairpin."
"That's why we should be even more careful."
Shopkeeper Hu gritted her teeth and pulled the white paper lantern back a little, but the flame still shone on the rotten ship plank with the old name written on it.
The sobs from beneath the mud grew fainter, carrying the aggrieved tone of a young girl, as it slowly emerged from the black water: "Sister, why did you give my hairpin to an outsider? You knew it was something I kept before I got married."
Shopkeeper Hu's eyes were red from the lamplight, and his lips moved, but he couldn't say anything.
Mo Chengyue moved the array hook next to the silver hairpin, using his sleeve to separate the red lines on his palm, his tone even harsher than before: "She wants you to take back the silver hairpin."
Manager Hu stared at the array plate, his throat tightening: "Don't speak for her."
The crying immediately followed, filled with resentment at being abandoned for so many years: "Sister, you don't recognize me anymore. You can't even protect my things, and you still say you'll take me home."
Shopkeeper Hu had been pressing her hand on the cloth bag on her chest, but it was now empty. She touched the edge of the old cloth and slowly reached her fingers toward the array plate.
Mo Chengyue used the scabbard to shield her hand from the silver hairpin.
"Stretch it out again, and the silver hairpin will return to the boat."
Shopkeeper Hu stared at him: "What right do you have to stop me?"
"You think you can just rob me now?"
"Those are my sister's things."
"It's also the hook that Seventh Ship Eye wants most right now."
"You're saying she's fake?"
"I told you not to take it too seriously."
The girl beneath the mud cried even more hoarsely: "Sister, he doesn't believe me. He's going to use me as a tool. He's going to lock me back in the boat. Please save me."
Shopkeeper Hu's hand was pressed against the sword sheath, and the blood from his palm flowed down his wrist bone. When it reached the edge of the soul-protecting talisman, it was burned by the talisman's fire.
She asked in a low voice, "What if she really is Shuang'er?"
Mo Chengyue looked at the tip of the silver hairpin pointing towards the river, and then at the other six red dots on the array plate gradually dimming. He answered without hesitation, "If it were really Shuang'er, I wouldn't let you touch the array now."
The light in Manager Hu's eyes was brought back by those words, and the lamplight became a little brighter.
Why?
"Because the moment you touched it, the ship was imbued with the blood of the Hu family, with the primordial energy, and with your voice of 'willingness'."
"Willingly?"
"When you reached out just now, it wasn't to save something, it was to acknowledge a relative."
The crying stopped in the mud, then became softer, sounding even more painful: "Sister, I didn't lie to you, I'm just cold. I watched the water from that boat for twenty years, saw you guarding the inn, saw Mother's shoes, saw you hiding behind the counter crying at night."
Shopkeeper Hu's shoulders and back were tense, and she squeezed the bamboo frame of the white paper lantern so hard it made a soft sound.
"She knows all this."
Mo Chengyue moved the array plate inside the dry leaf line to prevent the silver hairpin from getting closer to the black water, but he didn't give her any way out: "It knows everything that happens by the water."
"What about behind the counter?"
"Your inn is by the river, with talismans hanging in front of the door and an old waterway under the window. You've been working on the red lantern boats for twenty years, so it's not surprising that you've discovered these things."
Shopkeeper Hu looked down at the silver hairpin: "Then how should I divide it?"
"Use things from the shore."
"What happens on the shore will also be talked about."
"Things that only you sisters know, things that cannot be heard by water."
The crying broke out again: "Sister, you don't need to listen to him. I know you love me. When you were little, you always combed my hair and were afraid of hurting me."
Manager Hu was about to wipe her face, but stopped when she heard this and turned to look at Mo Chengyue.
"She knows about combing hair."
Mo Chengyue asked, "Does anyone else know?"
Manager Hu gritted his teeth: "My family knows."
"Change."
Her sobs quickened: "Sister, stop asking. Asking me just shows you don't believe me. You've never been like this before."
Shopkeeper Hu suddenly lowered the white paper lantern, and the light shone through the hole of the talisman, illuminating the fine white mark below the silver hairpin.
She spoke to the mud beneath her: "Shuang'er, if you are truly here, answer me with one small favor."
Mo Chengyue didn't stop him, but simply placed the Rain Flower Sword between the array plate and the ship's plank, and the talisman ash fell in a narrow line along the spine of the sword.
The girl under the mud cried as she answered, "Sister, ask away, as long as you don't hand me over to him."
Shopkeeper Hu's voice began to tremble, but he enunciated each word clearly: "Three days before your wedding, I hid something for you. It wasn't by the water, nor in your makeup box. You said you would take it out and laugh at me when you returned home."
The mud subsided, and the black water slowly rose within the inscriptions on the ship's plank, while the red dots clung to the silver hairpin, refusing to recede.
Mo Chengyue gently reminded him, "Don't try to fix it."
Manager Hu closed his eyes and swallowed back the hint that was about to come out.
The girl's tearful voice circled halfway around the old river's underground canal before she softly said, "It's osmanthus candy. You were always afraid I'd crave it, so you secretly hid it at the foot of the bed."
Shopkeeper Hu loosened his grip, and the white paper lantern nearly fell onto the withered leaves, but Mo Chengyue caught it with his sword sheath.
She didn't speak immediately, but simply picked up the lamp again, and the light revealed that the color in her face was gradually fading.
The crying voice realized something was wrong and quickly added, "Sister, I misremembered. I was on the boat for too long, and the water damaged my brain. Please don't blame me."
Shopkeeper Hu's lips moved, and the voice squeezed out from between his teeth: "Hiding sugar at the foot of the bed was something Mother did."
Mo Chengyue looked at the array plate. The seventh red dot began to shrink back, while the fine white light on the silver hairpin and frost leaves shone even brighter.
Shopkeeper Hu continued, "What I hid for you was a torn piece of red silk."
The crying from beneath the mud stopped again.
Shopkeeper Hu pressed the talisman money against the wound on his palm, as if trying to hold himself back with the pain: "You thought the silk the matchmaker brought was too tacky, so you secretly cut a hole in it. Afraid that your mother would scold you, you told me to hide it in the dry woodpile in the backyard."
The sound of a girl's rapid breathing came from the black water, the sound of her breathing emanating from her old name, sending chills down one's spine.
"Sis, I just forgot."
Manager Hu looked at the array plate, and the fading tenderness in her eyes finally disappeared: "You haven't forgotten."
Mo Chengyue replied, "It didn't see it."
Manager Hu looked up at him: "Because we weren't near water that day."
"A dry woodpile, in the backyard, sheltered from the river winds, with no waterways."
"So it can only guess."
"It guessed one that would be easier to soften your heart."
The crying suddenly turned shrill, the girl's aggrieved tone cracked, and a cold, wet female voice came through: "Who cares about such details about your petty squabbles between you sisters?"
Manager Hu raised the white paper lantern, its cord taut in the wind. She looked at the three characters "Hu Shuang'er" on the boat deck and said coldly, "You really aren't her."
A female voice laughed through the black water: "I'm not her, so why did you reach out just now?"
Shopkeeper Hu did not dodge those words. Her palm, soaked with blood, held the Soul-Suppressing Coin. She put her hand behind her back, preventing the blood from falling onto the array plate.
"Because I miss her."
"If you miss her, take the hairpin back."
"You want a silver hairpin."
"That's hers."
"Now that we're in the formation, we can see where you've pinned her down."