Old Lady Ji asked.
Suisui gazed at Wang Dongxue. Being so young, she didn’t fully understand what her eldest maternal aunt had just said.
However, she didn’t believe that her aunt was someone destined to be childless.
So she shook her head, saying, "My aunt will have her own children, and quite a few!"
Wang Dongxue was disappointed. Suisui rejected me.
"Mother! I... I’m going to rest now."
Wang Dongxue carried her bowl and went out.
Old Lady Ji sighed. "Are you unwilling to live with your aunt? Why? Grandmother can see she likes you very much."
Suisui shook her head. "No! I am willing to live with my aunt."
Old Lady Ji was puzzled again. "Then why did you just refuse your aunt?"
Suisui blinked her eyes innocently. "I didn’t refuse her!"
"Didn’t you just say that your aunt will have her own children in the future? And quite a few at that!"
Everyone knew that Ji Youyuan had injured his leg, and it seemed to have affected his fertility. Although she had asked her second son, the Divine Physician, he had assured her countless times that his elder brother’s fertility hadn’t been damaged. But it was a fact that his wife hadn’t conceived all these years!
"I was telling the truth! Grandmother, I have a feeling Aunt will have children, and several of them!"
Looking at her granddaughter’s large, grape-like black eyes blinking with such sincerity, Old Lady Ji was very pleased, even if she didn’t quite believe it.
"Yes! My Suisui is a Little Lucky Star. If you say so, then it will be so."
Hearing herself called a ’Little Lucky Star’, Suisui looked down dejectedly.
"Grandmother, I don’t want to be a Little Lucky Star!"
"Oh?"
"Yanyan is the Little Lucky Star. She was born amid auspicious signs; let her be the Little Lucky Star."
"Suisui, you were also born amid auspicious signs. You are also a Little Lucky Star!"
"I don’t want to share a birthday with her. I don’t want to compete with her. I am Li Suisui. Grandmother, please don’t say that Li Yanyan and I were born on the same day anymore, okay?"
Old Lady Ji caressed her small face. "Alright! Grandmother promises you, your birthday won’t be celebrated with hers anymore. Now, go to sleep. Grandmother will stay with you."
Perhaps it was the presence of her grandmother that made Suisui feel at ease, and she quickly fell asleep.
Old Lady Ji, weary from the day’s events, was afraid of getting too close and disturbing Suisui’s wound, but she still shared the same sleeping mat with her.
In a daze, Old Lady Ji saw a white mist appear before her eyes. Within the mist, a lotus pond emerged. The lotuses in the pond were in full bloom, and a Koi Carp joyfully frolicked in the water. As she became engrossed in the sight, the Koi Carp suddenly leaped up, heading straight for her.
She quickly reached out to catch it, and then she heard a soft, tender cry in her ear, "Grandmother... Grandmother..."
Old Lady Ji slowly woke up to find her sleeping granddaughter clutching the hem of her clothes, murmuring in her sleep, "Grandmother... you’re so good to me!"
「At the entrance to the Ji Family’s courtyard.」
Fourth Brother Ji was pushing Ji Youyuan out from the courtyard when, upon looking up, they saw Wang Dongxue dressed in black.
"Dong... Dongxue, you..." Ji Youyuan stammered.
"I know what you and Fourth Brother plan to do. Count me in," Wang Dongxue stated.
Ji Youyuan turned his head to glance at the room where Suisui and Old Lady Ji were.
Wang Dongxue reassured him, "Don’t worry. Second Sister-in-law is at home. She’ll protect Mother and Suisui!"
"Let’s go!" Ji Youyuan declared. "First, we’ll collect some interest from the Li Family!"
「Meanwhile, at the Li household.」
Even late at night, Old Lady Li was restless. That cursed star, Suisui, had been rescued by the Ji family’s widow. She worried whether the Ji Family would retaliate against them. That Old Lady Ji had birthed so many children—seven or eight of them, all sons! And her only daughter, it was said, was thoroughly doted on by her brothers even before she married into the Li family.
Old Lady Li recalled the vicious kick Old Lady Ji had landed on her chest that day. The memory fueled her anger, and sinister thoughts began to brew. "Second Daughter-in-law," she began, "we didn’t manage to kill that girl today. Now that she’s been taken away by the old woman from the Ji family and is no longer in our home, do you think she will still influence Fifth Brother’s Imperial Examination?"
Zhao Chunxiang’s eyes darted around at this, then she sighed dramatically. "Oh! It’s hard to say! That child is the epitome of a lone star bringing misfortune. Her fate is just too resilient! Look, even after everything today, she didn’t die! Who knows if her potent bad luck might even affect our Fourth Uncle!"
Zhao Chunxiang had been constantly prodding Old Lady Li to get rid of Li Suisui. She had, of course, already put in considerable effort with a Celestial Master regarding this. There could only be one child born under auspicious signs, one heaven-sent Little Lucky Star, and that had to be her Yanyan! She would find a way to eliminate anyone who tried to compete with her Yanyan!
As Zhao Chunxiang was thinking this, she heard a sound from outside.
She strained her ears, but then there was nothing. Yet, she felt a chill, even though it was the height of summer. It should have been swelteringly hot, even late at night.
"Mother-in-law! Do you feel something is off?" Zhao Chunxiang asked Old Lady Li, her body trembling.
Old Lady Li’s eyes widened as she pointed behind Zhao Chunxiang. "Outside... there’s... someone..."
Startled, Zhao Chunxiang spun around and saw a large, dark figure on the window. She screamed, "AH..." and lunged into Old Lady Li’s embrace.
"Who... who... Are you human or ghost?" Old Lady Li shrieked.
Human or ghost? Wang Dongxue had no intention of wasting words on them. She vaulted in through the window with a nimble leap, grabbed Old Lady Li and Zhao Chunxiang—one in each hand—and sped off towards the mass grave!