Everyone was left speechless by Yun Jianyue's lackluster performance.
"Right, there's something I need to ask you all," Yun Jianyue shifted focus, detailing Zhou Benxin's recent brush with death and the pattern of escalating misfortunes.
As the SAB team pondered, Fang Lin'an spoke up. "That sounds familiar based on my research. Was he frail in childhood? Did his family perform a 'replacement' ritual for him? Is his 'replacement effigy' buried on Chongguang Mountain?"
"Your description fits the backlash symptoms from a corrupted or rejected replacement ritual," he explained. "But you'd need to confirm this with his family; he likely knows nothing about it."
Yun Jianyue considered this, exchanged contact information with Fang Lin'an, and hurried back to campus.
Thankfully, the night passed peacefully for Zhou Benxin.
Zhou Ruyan, however, was radio silent all day. It wasn't until 9:00 AM the next morning that Yun Jianyue received a reply: Zhou Ruyan was already at the university gates.
Turns out, Zhou Ruyan had been in back-to-back meetings yesterday and missed her calls and messages. She saw them only after pulling an all-nighter. Immediately taking emergency leave from work, she'd driven through the night straight to A City.
SMACK!
A sharp, clear slap echoed across Zhou Benxin's cheek. Zhou Ruyan's almond-shaped eyes blazed with fury. She'd driven all those hours with this single, cathartic purpose.
"Didn't I warn you, over and over, not to go to Chongguang Mountain?! Were mine and our parents' words just wind in your ears?!" Zhou Ruyan's voice cracked with the force of her anger.
Yun Jianyue quickly intervened, offering Zhou Ruyan a bottle of water, cap helpfully unscrewed. "Sister Ruyan, getting angry won't solve this now. You need to tell me everything you know. I might be able to help."
They found a secluded coffee shop. Zhou Ruyan, pale but composed, began the unsettling story.
*
Twenty-one years ago.
The Zhou family adhered rigidly to patriarchal values. Zhou Pingcheng and Bi Cuiwen's firstborn was a daughter, disappointing the elders profoundly.
Because the birth was via cesarean section, they had to wait three years before trying for another child.
By the time their daughter was five, Bi Cuiwen still hadn't conceived again.
Panic set in. Particularly from Bi Cuiwen's mother-in-law, who constantly berated her daughter-in-law under her breath, calling her a "barren hen," lamenting that the Zhou lineage—single-son heirs for three generations—would end with Bi Cuiwen.
In today's world, women armed with knowledge and self-worth might scoff at such outdated cruelty.
But Bi Cuiwen, twenty years ago, was merely a product of that oppressive patriarchal society. The more she was blamed, the more consumed she became with shame and desperation. She tried every conceivable method to conceive. Nothing worked.
Then, near the year's end, she finally became pregnant.
The family rejoiced.
Their elation was short-lived. After bribing a doctor for an early gender scan, the devastating news arrived: another girl.
Bi Cuiwen was already four months pregnant. An abortion was unthinkable at that stage. The draconian One-Child Policy loomed large. The family's meager savings could barely cover the fine for this unplanned daughter. Having her meant officially ending any hope of a son.
"Ohhh…" Bi Cuiwen sighed constantly, weighed down by despair.
A female co-worker, noticing her manager's gloom, pried out the reason. Seeking favor, the woman offered a solution.
"Boss, I know a spirit medium… a truly powerful one. They say she can… change a girl in the womb into a boy. Would you like to try?"
Bi Cuiwen desperately wanted a son, but a shred of rationality remained. She knew fetal gender couldn't be altered.
"Don't tease me," Bi Cuiwen waved a dismissive hand. "Just get back to work. Such a thing is impossible."
"Oh, but it is real!" the woman insisted eagerly. "My auntie last year, she gave birth to a big, plump boy, didn't she? The scans all said girl first! She went to this very spirit medium! Please, Boss, trust me on this. I'll arrange it for you!"
Bi Cuiwen longed to reject this absurdity. But images flashed before her: her mother-in-law's perpetually sneering lips; the look of crushing disappointment that would surely settle on her husband's face when he learned of another daughter…
Somehow, against her better judgment, she agreed.
The co-worker moved swiftly. The very next day, armed with an address, the two women set off for a remote village on bicycles. The journey was long.
The spirit medium barely glanced at Bi Cuiwen before speaking: "It's a girl in there."
Despite being four months along, Bi Cuiwen was painfully thin, her pregnancy not yet visible. The accuracy of the pronouncement sent a shiver down Bi Cuiwen's spine. Credibility, thin as smoke, began to form.
She seized the medium's wrist like a drowning woman clutching driftwood. "Please, help me! If I bear no son… or they would bear no son… my family…"
"Understood. Follow me." The medium's voice was flat. She withdrew her hand and led Bi Cuiwen inside.
The cottage was dark, poorly ventilated. A thick, musty smell hung in the air. No lamps were lit in the daytime gloom. Stale air, dim light.
The medium instructed Bi Cuiwen to lie down on a wooden plank. Bi Cuiwen obeyed. Strangely, within moments, she was asleep.
She dreamed. A beautiful little girl ran towards her, arms open wide, calling "Mama!"
As Bi Cuiwen looked down at the child's lovely face, a hideous, mottled birthmark bloomed across the girl's cheek. It spread rapidly, consuming the entire left side of her face! One side remained porcelain white; the other turned a sickly, gunmetal gray – a starkly divided face!
The child's voice warped, growing strangely dissonant, yet still she pleaded, "Mama!"
Just as Bi Cuiwen was about to answer, a sharp shove jerked her awake.
"It's done. Drink this." The medium held out an earthenware bowl filled with a viscous, black liquid – ritual water.
Pregnant women shouldn't consume such unknowns. But the grotesque nightmare haunted Bi Cuiwen. Gnawed by a mix of fear, guilt, and desperate hope, she brought the bowl to her lips and drank.
That night, agonizing cramps wracked her abdomen. Terrified, her family rushed her to the hospital at dawn.
Strangely, the pain vanished upon arrival at the hospital.
The doctor performed a thorough examination, including another ultrasound. The same doctor who had accepted the bribe performed the scan.
Upon reading the results, the doctor shot up from his chair so violently he knocked over his teacup. He stared, unseeing, at the report in his trembling hand.
"Impossible…" he stammered, rubbing his eyes, certain he was mistaken.
"What is it?" Bi Cuiwen asked anxiously. "Is something wrong with the baby?"
The doctor shook his head, still grappling with the medically impossible. "Last time… it was clearly a girl… How… how is the fetus now showing male genitalia?" By what witchcraft could such a transformation occur?