Demon King's Repayment - chapter 52
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Yuan Xiang came to Yongjitang on East Street. The unique secret snake oil ointment made by this drugstore was very effective in treating burns and was well-known far and wide.
Yongjitang was once the best-known pharmacy in Queqiu Town. The medicines sold in the shop had remarkable effects and were reasonably priced. The former owner, Dr. Han Rui, was a benevolent doctor. Since the husband and wife opened the pharmacy, they had often rescued the wounded, administered medicine and helped many people. They were very loved by the neighbors.
Yuan Xiang was often sent there to buy medicinal materials by her Shifu when she was a child. She had a good impression of Dr. Han and his wife.
What was regrettable was that during the early spring floods, Dr. Han went out with his wife and encountered bandits while crossing the river on a merchant ship. Unfortunately, both were killed on the river.
The poor couple had an eight or nine-year-old son and the prosperous drugstore had to be taken care of by Doctor Han’s cousins. The two brothers had been taken in by Doctor Han in the drugstore to do miscellaneous tasks. They took over the drugstore in the name of taking care of their nephew. They took turns in fostering the young master Han. He lived a life under the fence.
The sun set, the sky and the earth got dim and everything was hazy, blurring the boundaries of the world.
The shops on both sides of the street lit up lanterns one after another and the doorway of Tongjitang was filled with many customers buying medicines.
The wife of the new shopkeeper, Jiang Shi, was sitting outside the shop, twirling a handkerchief in the neighborhood where she was familiar.
In the early years, Jiang Shi had lived an extremely poor life with her tried-and-tested husband. He was very stingy. Only after her husband learned the skills at the cousin’s drugstore and became a shopkeeper did her life gradually improve. She also began to wear good clothes, gold and silver, but she still couldn’t get rid of the bitterness engraved in her bones.
“My poor nephew, I don’t know what was wrong with his destiny. His father and mother had just died and now he also lost his life. He made me disappointed. For half a year, I supported him and spent a lot of money. Who knew that this little unscrupulous person just left like this. How can I live now?”
Although she couldn’t squeeze her tears, she twirled her handkerchief and wailed, making a distressed and wretched face.
After her nephew Han Youzhi got lost in Celestial Wolf mountain a few days ago, Jiang Shi had been complaining in front of the door for a few days. So everyone knew that her nephew had died. Of course, they had to reluctantly inherit the shop.
The wife of Han’s second shopkeeper, Zhu Shi, was a short and chubby woman. Leaning on the counter at the moment, she ate melon seeds, “My sister-in-law is a kind-hearted person. Who doesn’t know that you treated your nephew better than your own son? He did not have luck to enjoy the blessing and died at a young age. His younger brother and sister were so uncomfortable that they could not eat for a few days.”
As she spoke, she opened her lips and spat the shell of the melon seeds, but she didn’t stop eating.
“People can’t come back to life after death. There is no way. I wonder, since my nephew is gone, let’s ask a Taoist to do something about it and send him on his afterlife journey safely.”
Jiang Shu put down her handkerchief and glared at her, “How much will it cost?”
On the snow-covered street at this moment, Yuan Xiang looked at the drug store across the street and hesitated.
The lively gate, bright as daylight, had a demon in the state of a fleshy insect lying on the pavement at the front of the medicine shop. There were many pedestrians around, but they didn’t notice it.
“Hey, it’s disgusting. What kind of demon is that? I have never seen it in the mountains before,” Wu Yuan stood on Yuan Xiang’s shoulder with a disdainful expression.
“That’s Du Yu (Grudge-eater; Silverfish like: insect on books and wood), a kind of demon that feeds on grievances in the world,” Yuan Xiang saw the three-foot-long demon creeping and crawling on the tiles and really didn’t want to pass over it. The demon’s human face and insect body slowly climbed to the edge of the eaves and hung from the roof. Almost sticking to Jiang Shi’s head, he opened his layered eyelids to look at Jiang Shi.
But Jiang Shi didn’t realize it, still pretending to cry with her sister-in-law.
“It is a demon that survives by devouring jealousy, resentment, hatred and other negative emotions. It breeds around some gloomy and jealous humans,” Yuan Xiang explained.
“As it grows up slowly, even if the family has blessings and the golden light of merit, it will gradually disappear. Gradually the good luck converges, the bad luck grows and the fortune withers. The people would soon have bad luck in their lives. The family status would decline. As a result, their resentment and hatred would become stronger in order to feed Du Yu and let it grow.”
Life was impermanent. No one knew where the dead went, but the dead were still staring at some living things in the world. The living didn’t know what kind of ghosts would eventually trap them.
“Meow, I saw it. This house had good fortune, but now it’s almost dispelled by the foul black air of this ugly bug. It’s so stinky inside, I don’t want to go in.”
“Then wait for me here,” Yuan Xiang touched the clean kitten on her shoulder. She found a stone pier, swept the snow off it, spread her handkerchief and placed her delicate apostle on it.
She pinched her nose and passed under the demon’s body patiently, went into the drug store and bought the ointment.
When she was stepping out of the drugstore and crossing the threshold, the beast poked his head out of the eaves and glanced at her with dark red eyes. Yuan Xiang didn’t pay attention to him, wiped the bad luck on her body, and crossed the dirty street. She reached out her hand to pick up her clean kitten and walked on the way home in the gloomy sky leaving the brightly lit, noisy and lively pavement behind.
On Yuan Xiang’s shoulder, Wu Yuan’s eyes were gleaming in the dimness, watching the farce behind, “Since that woman is not sad, why is she crying and howling?”
“Humans are different. Sometimes they are clearly happy, but on the surface they have to pretend to be distressed. Sometimes they are clearly sad, but they have to put on a smile.”
“Why?” Wu Yuan blinked puzzledly, “Your life is short. Shouldn’t you concentrate on living a little more happily?”
In the eyes of a demon with a long life, human life was as short as morning dew. Wu Yuan was puzzled. He had always thought that these races that were dying all the time must cherish their fleeting lives. At least they should be like Ah Xiang, playing happily every day.
Unexpectedly, after arriving in the world, he found that many humans didn’t feel that their lives were short at all and they always spent a lot of time on unnecessary things.
Yuan Xiang returned home, washed her hands and applied the ointment on Nan He.
Nan He changed back to his wolf form and obediently laid on a soft towel on the table top.
Human beings were a fragile race, so they spent more energy than any species, developing and refining medicines and methods for treating trauma from generation to generation.
The wound medicine was translucent and light yellow, with a peculiar scent. When applied to Nan He’s skin, a cool sensation came from the wound. The person who applied the medicine was gentle and treated him carefully. Fingers ran across his skin, leaving a tingling sensation along the way.
“The back is fine, turn around a bit,” the human said.
Nan He was awkward for a moment but slowly rolled over his body. His four legs curled up, revealing a sparsely hairy belly. He turned his head away awkwardly, and didn’t know where to place his eyes.
“Don’t be nervous. I’m just applying medicine. No need to be so embarrassed,” Yuan Xiang said with a smile. She didn’t feel embarrassed and treated Nan He’s wound cleanly.
Nan He quickly turned back, and limped, trying to climb off the table.
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yarnie
ughhhhhh that demon with villain woman!! this feels a lot like ghibli studio’s eerie demons and their creepy story/scenes related to humans!