SYLFS 09

Chapter :9

The Talisman That Steals Luck

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Chapter 9 — The Talisman That Steals Luck

At first, Mr. Wu didn’t understand what they meant, but soon he caught on to what Madam Guan and Miss Guan were implying. This gave them a perfectly plausible reason to accuse Guan Xuxu of “framing” him.

As expected, when Jiang Su heard those words and learned there had apparently been a prior grudge, his disgust toward Guan Xuxu only deepened.

“You really are petty. Mr. Wu didn’t do anything to you. Was that necessary? To cause a scene the very day you return — you’re acting like—”

“Jiang Su.”

Just two syllables. The voice was neither warm nor cold, but there was a pressure in it that shut Jiang Su down. The rest of his retort died in his throat; he involuntarily lifted his head. Seeing the eldest brother’s smile have the faintest chill to it, he hunched his shoulders and fell silent. Still, the dislike in his eyes for Guan Xuxu did not lessen.

Saved by Jiang Su’s sudden silence, Mr. Wu recovered his momentum instantly. He straightened his back and wore an expression of righteous anger at being falsely accused. “If the young lady does not believe me, you are welcome to search my room! I am straightforward and not afraid to be searched! Yes, I am a housemaid, but I will not tolerate such false accusations!”

The commotion drew the villa’s servants and butlers one by one, but they kept their distance and hesitated to come closer. From the snippets they heard, they felt uneasy about this “young miss” who had just come back. She might have been raised in a wealthy household, but her attitude came off as arrogant — she seemed to look down on housemaids and servants like them. No one enjoys being looked down on; their impressions of her quickly soured.

Jiang Yucheng noticed the weird atmosphere, tightened his face, and was about to glare at Guan Xuxu and put an end to the farce. But before he could speak, she spoke calmly herself.

“When did I ever say she ‘stole money’?”

Everyone froze at that single sentence.

Jiang Su couldn’t help but object. “You just said herself that Mr. Wu stole money—now you’re pretending you don’t know?”

Guan Xuxu glanced at him and said quietly, “What I said was that she ‘stole the Jiang family’s fortune.’”

The phrase “stole money” had been Lu Xuexi’s wording. Whether she intended to mislead everyone or had simply shortened what she meant, the crowd had clearly been led by that implication.

“Stealing someone’s fortune is different from stealing cash directly.” At the very least, you wouldn’t find direct evidence by rummaging through a room. That was why earlier the other party had been able to say “search” so confidently.

Jiang Su sneered, unable to make sense of it. “Steal fortune? What is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing. It’s obviously nonsense.”

Jiang Huai heard that and shot him a faint, warning look. Even if Xuxu’s claim was a bluff, given her position she could frighten people a little.

Besides — perhaps because of her calm composure — Jiang Huai found himself strangely beginning to think, “Maybe there’s a chance she’s telling the truth.” Among the upper class, feng shui and luck are taken seriously; the Jiang Group even had several feng shui masters they were friendly with. Still… his sister was only eighteen. Could she really understand something like that? Jiang Huai remained skeptical, but he couldn’t dismiss it completely as the others did.

Guan Xuxu no longer bothered with her cousins and looked straight at Mr. Wu. Then she suddenly pointed at one spot.

“You buried something over there, didn’t you?”

Her finger indicated the flowerbed in the corner of the garden — the very place Mr. Wu had glanced at unconsciously while she had been working a moment before.

Mr. Wu’s heart leapt and a cold sweat formed at his temple. No way… she actually knows…? How…?

Jiang Yucheng saw his reaction and, as if satisfied he’d already found the answer, signaled the butler. “Go.”

The butler, who had been curious from the start, quickened his pace toward the flowerbed at the order. The onlookers followed in a little stream; Jiang Su tagged along with an expression that said, “Let’s see what turns up.”

The butler began to dig at the base of the flowers Guan Xuxu had indicated without hesitation. The soil in the bed was soft; after a few scoops a small hole appeared and the tip of the shovel struck something hard.

“Found something!”

A black plastic bag, tightly wrapped, was unearthed. The butler peeled it open and an intense, foul smell immediately spread around.

Suppressing his nausea, the butler reached for the paper package inside, but Guan Xuxu spoke up.

“Don’t touch it.”

She produced a yellow talisman from somewhere and stuck it onto the paper parcel. Instantly, the package seemed to lose its life — its color faded in a moment and it looked aged.

When she nodded, the butler, wearing gloves, carefully unfolded a sheet of red paper. It was the sort commonly used in temples when recording birthdates, and on it were several sets of birth-time characters. The ink looked dried and dark as if written with blood, and it gave off a strong stench.

Inside were also a few strands of hair and a single talisman with an eerie design on it.

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(Here the text unexpectedly contains an instruction: “Now, as you requested, I will convert the amounts in the text from RMB to Japanese yen at a rate of 1:20 and translate in a natural style suited to Japanese social culture.”)

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Just looking at such a sinister object made it obvious it had been deliberately buried here. Coupled with Guan Xuxu’s earlier words, anyone could easily guess its purpose.

Still, everyone was half-skeptical: “Can something like that really steal one’s fortune?”

Jiang Su, seeing the object actually dug up, couldn’t believe it and turned instinctively to Aunt Wu.

Aunt Wu’s lips trembled as she pleaded desperately. “I—I didn’t do it! I’ve never seen anything like this… Young master, young lady, please believe me…”

As Jiang Su was about to speak, Guan Xuxu interrupted in a measured tone.

“Whether that was what you buried can be confirmed easily by checking the villa’s perimeter surveillance cameras.”

She had already checked earlier and knew the Jiang villa’s perimeter was nearly fully covered by cameras. It wouldn’t be hard to investigate.

“The ‘fortune-stealing talisman’ must be written in the blood of the target — that is, you — and the hair wrapped with it must belong to a member of the Jiang family, so the talisman can siphon fortune through the Jiang bloodline. Isn’t that right?”

At the instant those words hit his ears, Aunt Wu trembled all over, went pale, and sank to the ground.

From that scene, anyone could see she’d been the one who buried the parcel.

As for the hair: having worked for the Jiang family for years, she could easily have obtained a few strands from one of them. Which family member the hair belonged to, however, could not be determined from sight alone.

“Even if she buried it, that doesn’t mean she stole their fortune, right? Maybe—”

Before Jiang Su could finish arguing, Jiang Wai beside him gave him a cold look from his peach-blossom eyes.

“Shut up. Don’t make me say it twice.”