Chapter 7
Edward Quan ·
For no reason I could understand, tears began to fall.
I didn't know why I was crying.
Only that my heart hurt.
The old man opened the door.
Beyond it lay a large room.
Seventeen little coffins stood in the center.
All painted red.
I couldn't move.
One.
Two.
Three.
…
Seventeen.
Not one missing.
A yellow paper was pasted to each.
I approached the nearest.
【First time.】
【Died in the womb.】
The second:
【Second time.】
【Premature birth.】
The third:
【Third time.】
【Disappeared after birth.】
I looked at the fourth.
【Fourth time.】
【The mother ended the child's life with her own hands.】
I recoiled.
"No!"
The old man stood behind me.
I turned on him.
"What is this?"
No answer.
I pointed at the coffins.
"Tell me!"
"These are the seventeen endings you and your daughter have suffered."
I shook my head.
"Impossible."
"You don't remember. But they all happened."
I looked at the seventeenth coffin.
Somehow, I felt I had to open it.
I went closer.
No yellow paper covered its lid.
Only words cut into the wood with a knife.
【Mommy, I don't blame you this time.】
I touched them.
Images flooded my mind.
I saw myself lying in a hospital bed.
My belly was huge.
Mingyuan stood beside me, holding a sheet of paper.
"Sign it, Qinghe."
I was crying.
"No!"
He bent over me.
"If you don't sign, you'll both die."
I shook my head wildly.
"I don't believe you!"
My mother-in-law came forward and gripped my hands.
"Qinghe, think of Mingyuan!"
I struggled.
Machines sounded around me.
A doctor's voice said, "We can't wait any longer!"
Then a baby cried.
Very softly.
Very weakly.
I tried to lift my head.
I saw a red, newborn baby being carried out.
I reached for her.
"My baby…"
But Mingyuan took her away.
I screamed.
"Give her back!"
No one answered.
The scene changed.
I was on the hospital roof, holding a child.
Mingyuan stood behind me.
He dropped to his knees.
"Qinghe, give me the baby!"
I'd cried myself hoarse.
"Stay away!"
"Calm down!"
I looked at my daughter.
She opened her eyes.
Dark eyes looking up at me.
She didn't cry.
She only gently curled her hand around my finger.
I heard my own voice.
"I'm sorry."
"I couldn't protect you this time."
Then, holding her, I turned.
The images shattered.
I screamed and collapsed.
The old man caught me.
"Qinghe!"
I clutched my head.
Tears wouldn't stop.
"No…"
"That isn't…"
"I didn't want to kill her…"
He sighed.
"I know."
I looked up.
He watched the seventeenth coffin.
"Because that time, you never wanted to hurt her."
I stared.
"Then why…"
He spoke each word distinctly.
"Because you discovered that if you handed her to your husband, she'd face something worse than death."
My breath stopped.
"What did Mingyuan want to do to my child?"
He looked at me.
"Do you know why the Chen family has had only sons for three generations?"
I shook my head.
"Because daughters born into the Chen family…"
He paused.
"Aren't meant to grow up."
"They're meant to repay a debt."
I sat on the cold floor.
The old man told me a story.
A hundred years ago, an ancestor of the Chen family was a wealthy merchant.
His name was Chen Youde.
Back then, the Chens had been poor.
His business had failed, leaving him deep in debt.
One night, he met a wandering Taoist.
The man said he could change his fortune.
For a price.
Chen Youde asked how much.
The Taoist answered, "Three generations of wealth."
"In exchange for a daughter."
Chen Youde agreed.
Before long, his wife became pregnant and gave birth to a girl.
When the baby was just seven days old, she disappeared.
From then on, the Chen family prospered.
But three generations later, the curse didn't end.
It grew more terrible.
Because the Taoist hadn't been human.
What he worshipped was an evil thing living beneath an old well.
It didn't eat human flesh.
Didn't drink blood.
It fed on something called fate.
Every newborn carried a share of destiny.
Especially children born with a rare fate.
By taking that destiny, the thing could prolong its existence.