Translator: Guy Gone Bad

The man who could read the characters on the parchment lived not far away from them in the same city . It took one hour to drive there .

Holding the box in one hand and Xia Liang with the other, Ji Yue came before the front door . When he was swaying whether to knock at the door or shout for someone, the door was opened .

It was a gray-bearded old man . He looked kind and easygoing .

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“My name is Ji Yue . I am visiting Mr . Li Yuan . ” Ji Yue smiled at him politely .

“This is he . ” The old man nodded smilingly, looking the black cat in Ji Yue's arm, “Come on in . ”

“Grab a seat . Care for a cup of tea or water?” asked the old man .

“I am fine . Thank you . ” Ji Yue put the box on the table and Xia Liang on the ground, “I guess you should know why I come . ”

As he was speaking, he opened the box and took the parchment out and gave it to Mr . Li, “this is it . Please have a look . ”

Mr . Li saved the chitchat as Ji Yue got right to the point . He took the parchment and rubbed with his fingers, “It is at least one hundred years old . Have a seat and I will have a look right now . ”

Then he put on his reading gla.s.ses and read the characters on it .

Since Xia Liang came in, she stayed focused on Mr . Li's facial expression . He was relaxing at the beginning . The more he read, the more serious he got . And finally he was mortified . Xia Liang wondered why .

What is on the parchment?

It took a dozen of minutes for Mr . Li to finish the reading . He put down the parchment and sighed, “It's a doom!”

“What does it say? Please instruct me . ” asked Ji Yue .

“It tells a story . ” Mr . Li sighed and then continued, “two hundred years ago, the youngest son of Nangong family fell in love with a woman from Nanjiang, but the Nangong family objected because the woman was not from an upper-cla.s.s family and she was from Nanjiang . The family ordered their little son to come home and forbid them to see each other again . The little son was determined to be with the woman no matter how . But no matter how hard he fought, the family didn't approve them and shut him home instead . To stop him from thinking the woman, the family sent someone to kill the woman . But the woman was already pregnant by that time . She begged the a.s.sa.s.sin to spare her and her kid's life . In the end, the a.s.sa.s.sin didn't . He also told her that he was sent by her lover because her lover wanted to get rid of her . The woman was furious and cursed with her own and her child's blood before she died . She cursed that all blood in Nangong family would die out miserably after 100 years . The lord of Nanggong family at that time hired a great master to break the curse when they knew about this . This wooden box was the key to seal the curse . The stuff in the box belonged to the woman, and the patterns and those beautiful stones are used to suppress the curse . ”