Bai Youwei brought the hand to the kitchen in the back courtyard and let it take a bath in the large water vat.

The severed hand flipped over inside the vat, rolled one way and then the other, thoroughly absorbed in its play.

Last night, Bai Youwei had thrown it out to compete for the remains, and it had gotten covered in mud — filthy to the extreme, but still quite nimble.

It appeared that the Bone-Hauling Woman’s yin energy could injure players but had no effect on items.

“If only it were a bit bigger — maybe it could’ve snatched the remains clean away.” Bai Youwei looked at the severed hand and let out a quiet sigh. “Small build, small strength.”

Shen Mo smiled faintly. “If it were bigger, you’d probably just complain that it got in the way.”

Bai Youwei opened her eyes wide at him. “No I wouldn’t — I love big, the bigger the better.”

“……” Shen Mo parted his lips and, in the end, said nothing further.

“In a while, let’s call them along and head into the village,” Shen Mo said after a pause.

Bai Youwei knitted her brows. “Maybe let’s forget it — let’s just go ourselves. Those two are acting a bit odd today. And after Fu Miaoxue got a scare from me just now, going to look for them now would just be asking for an earful.”

Shen Mo stifled a laugh. “All right, just the two of us then.”

After a moment, thinking of Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue, he said with a contemplative look: “Fu Miaoxue carries herself and acts like a pampered young lady of a wealthy household — but her manner of speaking…”

Was a little coarse.

She swore casually and frequently cursed people out — mainly Du Lai — telling him things like “What’s wrong with your brain~”

Bai Youwei nodded along. “I know. And have you noticed — even though the two of them are a couple, their dynamic is interesting. Du Lai always seems a little submissive around Fu Miaoxue — eager to please, even compensatory.”

She still remembered the first time she’d met Du Lai: he’d shown two little tiger-tooth fangs in a casual, swaggering grin, saying he only dealt with clever people.

But that swagger vanished completely whenever Fu Miaoxue was around.

How to put it — well, there was an old saying for it:

*One thing tames another; there is always something that meets its match.*

……

At that moment, Fu Miaoxue was trembling in Du Lai’s arms, shaken and terrified, frightened to the core.

Her courage, among women, was far from small — but she had a genuine dread of dead people, ghosts, and corpse remains.

“I am getting out of this miserable game! Not in a minute — not in a second — I can’t wait any longer!” Fu Miaoxue wept in Du Lai’s arms. “Wuwuwuwu this place is too terrifying!”

Du Lai looked troubled. “But you said to wait until tonight, didn’t you?”

“Let’s go find the thing first, and then once it gets dark we move — alright?” she said pitifully. “Bai Youwei won’t realize! She doesn’t understand Fujianese opera — and the lyrics of that sung passage are wrong. Even I only caught it last night!

*’Heaven, oh heaven, I am one who stands alone and helpless, yet to leave my home behind. I only wish to return to my roots, crossing mountains and rivers, enduring hardship and toil.’*

See — the Bone-Hauling Woman’s purpose is ‘returning to her roots,’ not ‘the bones of her husband!'”

Like hearing the opening of *Twinkle Twinkle Little Star* and reflexively singing the rest — instinct kicking in and completing the familiar pattern. And with everyone’s nerves stretched tight in the rainy night, Fu Miaoxue hadn’t immediately caught that the lyrics had changed.

But now, she had finally noticed the oddity.

And her small discovery was not something she intended to share with Bai Youwei.

“Returning to one’s roots — *roots* means a person’s origin. She doesn’t want to be buried here — she can only be buried in the place we discovered! Fu Miaoxue clung to Du Lai. “We only need to find the token, and we can give the Bone-Hauling Woman her burial. Let’s go, let’s go… the sooner we find the token, the sooner I won’t have to be this scared!”

Du Lai thought it over and finally nodded. “All right.”

*And today, she hadn’t turned into a puppet either.*

—