Chapter 17: Do You Have Anyone You Suspect?

“You mean this thing was inside my mattress? So what exactly is this doll for?” Jiang Muqing's gaze fixed tightly on the cloth doll she held in her hand.

Although he had been physically limited recently, there was no way he wouldn’t know what was in his own room. How could this doll suddenly appear inside the mattress?

Hu Hu raised his hand. “I know! I know! I’ve seen in movies and TV shows that this kind of thing is unclean, used to curse people...”

He stopped halfway, his face filled with terror as he looked at Jiang Muqing.

“Second Young Master, so this doll is a curse against you!”

At those words, everyone present turned pale.

Hu Feng scowled and turned away. “I want to see exactly who’s been meddling in the house!”

“Don’t rush. If they really wanted to do something, it wouldn’t be so easy for you to find out,” Jiang Muyu called after him, tossing the tattered doll to Hu Hu and telling him to find a basin to burn it in the yard.

“Auntie, if we burn it, will the Second Young Master be fine then?” Hu Hu asked.

“Of course not. If it were that easy to break, why would I still be standing here?” Jiang Muyu urged him to hurry. If they didn’t burn it, how could they provoke the other party to come forward?

As Hu Hu went to burn the doll in the yard, Jiang Muyu’s gaze fell on Jiang Muqing, who hadn’t spoken a word since earlier. She said, “What Hu Hu said is right—this is a cursed doll. Not only does it curse a person, but it also steals their luck.”

“Someone placed it inside your mattress without you noticing. Do you have anyone in mind who might be behind this?”

The marks on the doll corresponded to what the other party hoped would happen to Jiang Muqing.

The method was undeniably cruel.

A figure flashed in Jiang Muqing’s mind, but he quickly dismissed the thought and shook his head.

Jiang Muyu didn’t care whether he would tell the truth or not. These things weren’t that important to her. Besides, once the doll was found and burned, the backlash would inevitably fall on whoever planted it. Naturally, the person who targeted Jiang Muqing would expose themselves.

In the yard, Hu Hu placed the doll into the basin and lit it with a lighter.

He had noticed earlier that it was just a cotton doll, albeit an ugly one.

He never expected such an ugly doll could be used to curse someone.

He thought to himself disdainfully.

The outer cotton quickly burned away, revealing a talisman hidden inside.

Hu Hu picked it up and tried to burn it, lighting a new flame, but no matter what he did, the talisman wouldn’t catch fire.

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Even holding the lighter close, the talisman showed no sign of burning.

It was clearly inscribed with something.

Hu Hu shouted to Auntie and hurried into the living room.

“Auntie, the doll’s burned, but there’s a talisman inside that just won’t burn. You have to come see!”

Jiang Muyu went over and found the black talisman at the bottom of the basin, covered in a mess of cryptic symbols.

Hu Hu had dropped out of high school and never touched a book since, so he couldn’t make out what was written.

“Auntie, what does this say? Is it a curse?”

Jiang Muyu shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s written so badly, I can’t read it.”

Hu Hu was speechless.

Jiang Muyu examined the talisman carefully for three seconds but still couldn’t recognize it.

It looked like some charlatan’s scribble, drawn without any meaning.

“What should we do now, Auntie… Ah!?”

The next second, the talisman suddenly ignited in Jiang Muyu’s hand, burning completely to ash in moments.

Hu Hu’s eyes widened in astonishment. Auntie really is Auntie...

Something that couldn’t be burned by the fire just now disappeared effortlessly in her hands.

Jiang Muyu clapped her hands and kicked the basin into a nearby flowerbed, thinking it would enrich the soil. Soon, she could plant flowers again.

“All right, now we just wait for someone to show up.”

Hu Hu scratched his head, puzzled. “Wait for who?”

Since the Second Young Master was injured, the household had stopped receiving visitors.

Except for Miss Yang, who occasionally came to visit the Second Young Master, no one else had come around.

So when Jiang Muyu said they were waiting for someone, Hu Hu was curious and wondered who it could be.

Jiang Muyu took a couple of steps into the house, then suddenly remembered something and tossed the yellow talisman she previously promised to him.

She said, “Try to hang out less with your rowdy friends, especially at night. If you don’t have to go out, don’t. Be careful not to get your soul stolen by little ghosts.”

“Little ghosts, soul stealing?”

The moment those words flashed in Hu Hu’s mind, he shuddered. No, he wasn’t married yet—he couldn’t just disappear like that.

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That morning, she hadn’t yet had time to perform acupuncture on Jiang Muqing.

She pushed his wheelchair to the servant’s quarters on the first floor, which were now empty since the servants had left.

“You’ll stay here for a while. It’s more convenient for you to get some sunlight when you go outside.”

Besides, she wanted to see what exactly those people were scheming.

“You said my house was unclean. Why do you want me to stay there? What if—”

Jiang Muqing didn’t finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear: what if something happened?

Jiang Muyu looked indifferent. “You can trust me. I want to see which demons and monsters they really are.”

If they stopped now, she could consider letting them off. But if they continued their mischief or tried other tricks, she would have to send them to the afterlife.

She laid Jiang Muqing down on the bed, went upstairs to get the silver needles, and washed her hands in the bathroom.

Jiang Muqing couldn’t help but feel nervous about being needled again, especially after the pain he endured yesterday. Just thinking about it was worse than death.

So when Jiang Muyu held the silver needle close to him, he gripped the bedsheets tightly on both sides.

She glanced at him and pinched slightly on his leg.

“Don’t be nervous. It’ll be quick.”

“I’m not nervous,” Jiang Muqing said. He was just afraid of the pain.

The pain in his leg proved that it still had sensation. As long as he could eventually stand again, he could endure a little pain.

The next moment, as the silver needle felt like an ant crawling inside his bones, Jiang Muqing gripped the bedsheets even tighter.

He told himself that he hadn’t provoked Jiang Muyu today, so the acupuncture shouldn’t hurt...

But the next moment, the pain intensified fiercely, as if his legs were being crushed under the bed again.

His vision darkened, and he fainted once more.

Hu Feng hurried over to wipe his sweat and asked, “Miss Jiang, didn’t you say it wouldn’t hurt?”

Jiang Muyu remained calm and composed. “That was yesterday’s acupuncture. Today, I never said it wouldn’t hurt.”