Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
17
“What a lunatic.” Qin Juan had seen too many gamblers. Her voice dripped contempt. “So desperate to turn things around he's lost his mind. You'd sooner believe I'm the Jade Emperor than believe he has a magic brush!”
I knew the infighting had only begun.
While Uncle's family suffered, Second Aunt's was living high.
My younger cousin was about to marry her perfect boyfriend. She had even imported a custom-made wedding dress worth millions. Second Aunt, once a domestic worker, glittered with gold and silver, the very picture of wealth.
At the height of their triumph, Eldest Aunt appeared from nowhere.
“Give me back my husband's life!”
Like a madwoman, she seized Second Aunt's face and slapped her again and again.
“You have money! So much money! You wouldn't spend a cent to save your own brother. You heartless bitch!”
Second Aunt screamed in pain. They fell to the floor, wrestling and fighting.
The scene became a tangle of shouting, crying, swearing, and people trying to intervene.
Sure enough, people never knew pain until it touched them. I watched with relish, remembering to pour tea for the guests.
“Oh dear. What an embarrassing spectacle for you all.”
18
Naturally, I had delivered the invitation myself.
After Uncle went bankrupt, Eldest Aunt could only take her blind son to live under a bridge.
They survived by scavenging and eating leftovers.
The fall from wealth to poverty was hard to bear. My cousin could not stand such a life. The moment he heard about the wedding, he demanded to go for a good meal.
Humiliation and helplessness filled Aunt's face as she watched her son gobble his food, reduced to this.
Across the room, the sister-in-law she had once despised was dazzlingly wealthy, surrounded by admirers.
Even that useless daughter had a perfect husband on her arm. Enough to make anyone green with envy!
Hatred burned through her. The fight grew fiercer.
“You filthy bitch!” she screamed. “Don't think I don't know what you've done! How many people did you kill while working as a carer? I have proof!”
Second Aunt panicked.
“Liar!”
Security finally dragged Eldest Aunt away. Before Second Aunt could offer a few reassuring words to the guests, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
Lottery-center staff entered with security guards.
“They're here! They're here! My prize money must be ready!”
Second Aunt's eyes lit up. She hastily straightened herself and greeted them with sudden warmth.
“Come in! It's my daughter's happy day. Have a wedding drink with us!”
The guests showered her with congratulations. She smiled so broadly she could barely close her mouth.
She never noticed the grim, unsmiling faces before her.
“Mrs. Ma Yun, we haven't come to award your prize. You are suspected of lottery fraud. Please cooperate with the investigation.”
19
The jackpot of more than a hundred million yuan was gone?
The words struck like thunder from a clear sky. The whole hall fell silent.
Everyone held their breath. What was going on?
“Impossible!” Second Aunt shrieked. “I watched the draw myself. Every number matched! Oh, I understand!”
Furious, she spoke without restraint.
“You're trying to cheat me out of my money!”
The staff member answered gravely.
“Your ticket is still at the center. But the numbers have changed. They are not the winning numbers.
“Half an hour ago, the real winner presented a valid ticket and collected the entire prize.”
I immediately searched on my phone. The news was already there.
[Lucky Citizen Discreetly Claims Jackpot Worth Hundreds of Millions]
I covered my mouth in feigned astonishment.
“Second Aunt, it looks as though that person's ticket is the real one!”
The banquet erupted.
“I knew it! With her character, where would she get the good fortune to win a jackpot?”
“Exactly. Even when she worked as a carer, she brought bad luck everywhere. The old people she looked after died so easily. No one dared hire her…”
“Then where did the money for her daughter's luxury car and house come from? Loans? Can she repay them?”
At that, another group of creditors could contain themselves no longer.
“No prize money? What about the millions we lent her? She said she'd repay principal and interest once it came through!”
I stood calmly in a corner, watching the melee.
Ever since winning, Second Aunt had maxed out her credit cards to enjoy life.
Relatives had even rushed to lend her money, afraid they would lose the chance to benefit from her later.
The words lit a fuse.
“We lent her money too! She promised to pay when she collected the prize! Pay us back!”
Amid the demands, my younger cousin let out a piercing scream.
An instant earlier, her perfect husband had vanished.
20
Like a bubble, without a trace.
Just like my parents.
People who had been standing there alive, gone as though they had never existed.
My cousin wept and screamed. Before, her mother would have soothed her. Now Second Aunt slapped her.
“Men, men! Is that all you think about? With money, what kind of man can't you have?”
To preserve her dignity, she declared loudly, “All of you, shut up! Do you know today's gold price? It's hit another record! My mine has been contracted out. Work officially begins today!
“One day's output will be enough to keep you for life!
“Make any more trouble, and I won't pay you a cent!”
The creditors fell silent.
21
A crowd of them went to the mine.
The contractor was a local strongman with influence on both sides of the law. The moment Second Aunt arrived, he kicked her to the ground.
“Where's the mine, you old bitch? You dare swindle me? Where is it?”
Beneath the fishpond lay only churned yellow mud.
The mine had vanished completely.
“Impossible! The old woman said every Ma gets three chances! Three!”
Second Aunt dug frantically with her bare hands.
“It must still be there! Keep digging! Keep digging!”
Before she could finish shouting, my younger cousin collapsed stiffly. Blood seeped through her skin. Then her body swelled and distorted like a balloon.
The backlash had begun. It awaited anyone who tried to create life with the brush.
Grandpa had been the same.
Now it was her turn.
22
After my cousin was taken to hospital, Second Aunt searched her bags and could not find a single coin.
She ordered me to pay the bill.
I held the slip and smiled.
“With what money, Second Aunt? Even siblings should keep their accounts straight. Where's the IOU for these fees?”
She grew frantic.
“You're asking for an IOU now? She's your cousin!”
“Only my cousin. You and my father were siblings, and you insisted on settling accounts.”
I was still smiling, my face as cold as a ghost.
“Ten years ago, in this hospital, in this very corridor, you and Uncle said the same thing. You demanded an IOU from me, or you wouldn't pay for my parents' surgery.
“The doctors begged you. I begged you. But you hid my parents' bank cards and refused to hand them over.”
“That… That's all in the past!”
She stammered excuses.
“The dead can't come back! Why hold a grudge? We're family, after all!”
Family?
I felt I had heard the funniest joke in the world.
“When you took our home and spent the compensation my parents paid for with their lives, did you think we were family? When you tried to sell me to pay gambling debts, did you think of it?
“Now you remember we're family? Too late.”
The pain of having your heart torn out, your bones scraped bare. The despair of losing everything.
It was their turn to taste it.
23
Outside the hospital, creditors kept arriving.
With nowhere left to turn, Second Aunt dragged my cousin down to kneel and bow before me.
“Ma Xun, draw another magic brush! Yes, one that never runs out. One that can turn everything around for us!
“If I can't pay, they'll kill me and sell your cousin!”
Even now, they had learned nothing. I could only remind them.
“Have you truly never wondered how Grandma learned the brush's secret?
“She loved you most. Favored you most. Why didn't she tell you earlier?
“Why did Grandpa never tell her while he was alive?”
Second Aunt's mouth fell open. At last, a glimmer of clarity appeared on her greedy face. Understanding dawned.
“It was you. Could it have been you…”
Yes. I had deliberately copied Grandpa's handwriting and left instructions revealing the brush's existence.
I had led Grandma to tell them.
Grandpa's real dying words had been a warning.
“Never let them know about the brush. It is the Ma family's guardian spirit. The greater the wish, the greater the price.
“Your uncle and aunt are greedy. They know no limits. If they find out, it will be disastrous. They'll destroy themselves!”
At first, that sounded like concern.
Only when I grew up did I understand what lay beneath it.
If wishes had a price, then when Grandpa summoned the brush to save several families that night…
What had he paid?
Ah. My parents.
24
My parents should never have died.
So, before their eyes, I drew my final wish.
A sharp sword.
“A sword that can cut down anything and set everything back on its rightful course.”
25
A storm stirred inside the windless room.
Sword in hand, I slashed through the air. An enormous gray rat appeared.
I liked to get to the bottom of things.
The day I first examined the brush closely, I had secretly plucked a bristle and wondered what animal it came from.
A rat. A giant gray rat.
I searched through the Ma village's local records and found an entry.
[…The rat demon wreaks havoc, its body as large as an ox, its fur like gray felt. It feeds upon the souls of the living and excels at beguilement… Make its fur into a brush, and the wielder's household will be destroyed. None shall survive.]
Yes. The bristles of this “magic brush” came from a rat demon. It used them to deceive the world.
The more wishes you made, the greater they were, the higher the price.
Seeing my fury, the giant rat bared its fangs. In its agitation, it spoke in a human voice.
“I am the Ma family's guardian spirit! Kill me, and you'll lose every wish you've made!”
Then let them go!
Money, houses, empty fame and fortune—let them all go to hell!
I had waited long enough for this day.
Resolve blazed in my eyes.
“Give them back! Give back every sacrifice! Give me back my parents!
“Give me back everything that's mine!”
I raised the sword and drove it down with all the strength of my life.
With a wretched animal howl, the giant rat vanished into smoke.
26
When the demon disappeared, Eldest Uncle and Second Aunt died too.
They had each made all three wishes. Their souls had long belonged to it.
Blood streamed from their eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths. Their deaths were hideous, their bodies rotting until not a patch of flesh remained whole.
My cousin, who had not used all three wishes, kept his life.
While working as a carer, Second Aunt had secretly poisoned bedridden elderly people and killed two. Her houses and cars were investigated and seized.
Her husband had already taken what little property remained and fled.
My younger cousin lost her reason under the shock and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Eldest Aunt could bear no more either. One bitterly cold day, she secretly abandoned her son and left.
By the time a sanitation worker found him, he had long since frozen to death.
Listening to the gossip, I quickened my steps. Wind and snow thickened along the road. New Year was coming.
Every household was putting up couplets.
So was mine.
Dad was hanging couplets for the Year of the Horse. Mom turned to complain.
“Xunxun, come and look! Your father's put them up crooked again!”
My eyes were wet from the wind and snow.
And, of course, my tears.
I nodded hard and ran toward them.
“All right! Let me see!”
—The End—