Chapter 145: The Ghost Tailor

Elder Brother sat down, no longer looking at me, nor speaking another word. I grabbed him by the collar and jerked his head around. "Say something! Are you out of your mind?!"

He glared at me and said, "I said no means no."

Just as I was about to throw a punch at him, Han Xue grabbed my arm and shook her head. Her face was already covered in tear tracks, a sight that made my heart ache intensely. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. I looked at Elder Brother and said, "I will definitely be with her. Even though your opinion doesn't change anything, I hope you'll give me a reason."

Elder Brother slapped my hand away, turned his head, and fell silent once more.

At that moment, Uncle Zhu stood up, patted my shoulder, and said, "Yezi, come over here. Your uncle has a few words for you."

"Say it right here, right in front of Xue'er. If your reasons are upright and honorable, what is there to hide?" I demanded. At that moment, it felt as though countless knives were piercing my heart. I had returned with such excitement and joy to share the good news with them, and this was how they welcomed me? Han Xue and I had been together for so long, even sleeping in the same bed for months. If there really was a valid reason, what were they doing all this time?

"Yezi, don't be willful," Uncle Zhu urged, tugging at my arm.

I shook him off. Just then, Fat Man walked over. He gripped my shoulder with one hand, right in the exact spot Chen东方 had grabbed me earlier—a pressure point that easily forced a person to calm down. He said to me, "Go on. Remember this, Yezi: Fat Lord here can compromise on anything else, but not on this. You haven't done anything wrong, and Fat Lord has your back. What era is this, and they're still playing matchmaker for you?"

I never expected that, at a time like this, the one standing on my side would be Fat Man. I nodded, looked at Elder Brother, Uncle Zhu, and my mother, who still kept her head lowered, and said, "You'd better give me a reasonable explanation, or else all of you owe both me and Xue'er an apology!"

I followed Uncle Zhu behind the house to a grove of poplar trees. Uncle Zhu pulled out a cigarette and offered it to me, but I slapped it flying. "Spit it out!"

Uncle Zhu looked at me and sighed. "You stubborn child, your temper is still as stiff as ever."

"It depends on the situation! You guys are completely out of your minds! This makes no sense!" I snapped.

Uncle Zhu lit a cigarette for himself, pointed toward the woods outside the village, and said, "Yezi, do you remember that night I brought that girl to you and made you sleep with her?"

"The daughter of A?" I asked.

Uncle Zhu nodded, sighed, and continued, "Back then in Shennongjia, what was brought out was a pair of dragon-and-phoenix twins. The boy was taken by your father—that's you—and the baby girl was that very girl. The only reason the Ghost Path allowed you to survive back then, apart from the condition that your father had to die, was that you had to unite with that girl, and any children born from you two would have to be handed over to them. Yezi, you and that girl carry different destinies. There is no blood relation between you, yet your fates are intimately intertwined. You possess the Ultimate Yang Constitution, while she is the Fated Yin Woman. Your union with her will bring you immeasurable benefits. Furthermore, as twins born of a pair, coming together is your destiny."

I stared straight at Uncle Zhu and asked, "What if I refuse?"

"If you refuse, the Ghost Path will take your life on your wedding day. However, I believe that since they arranged for the two of you to grow up, they shouldn't fall short at the final hurdle. What they are most likely to do is take Han Xue's life," Uncle Zhu said.

"Are you shitting me?! You're making up a reason like this just because A has more power and influence?!" I roared.

"When I had you sleep with her back then, it was precisely to force the Ghost Path to intervene. Only when the Ghost Path obtained what it wanted would it step in to stop everything else," Uncle Zhu explained.

"What is the Ghost Path anyway?! Since this secret existed, what were you all doing this whole time?" I cursed.

"We all knew Han Xue's identity, but none of us expected that her parents would actually agree to let you two be together. That was indeed our oversight," Uncle Zhu admitted.

"Do you want to hear the honest truth?" I looked right into Uncle Zhu's eyes.

He nodded. "Go ahead."

"Right now, I suddenly feel like you people are cut from the same cloth as that man surnamed Liu! Let me tell you, I've had enough! I'm sick of you all arranging my destiny! Keeping everything a secret from me, manipulating every single detail—I tolerated all of that! But now you're even trying to interfere with me being with the person I love? Let me tell you, forget it! Whoever dares to lay a single finger on Han Xue, even if it costs me my life, I will slaughter their entire family!" I glared at Uncle Zhu.

Uncle Zhu looked back at me. Though his face was disfigured, it didn't stop him from casting that familiar, helpless gaze at me once more. He sighed and said, "Yezi, compared to your future, you will come to realize that everything else is just fleeting smoke."

"You don't know a damn thing! Without Xue'er, what meaning is there to my life?! Have you said your piece? If so, I'm leaving!" With that, I turned on my heel and marched straight back to the courtyard.

Entering the courtyard, I looked at Elder Brother and my mother, then took Han Xue's hand. "I already know everything. I'm sorry. I can listen to you on any other matter, but not this one. I am definitely going to marry Han Xue, because she is the woman I love. Whether you agree or not has nothing to do with me!"

"Sit down," Elder Brother said.

I shook my head and looked at him. "Elder Brother, ever since I learned I had an older brother when I was a child, I've looked forward to meeting you. I even felt guilty toward you, because if not for me, you might not have been sent away for adoption. Later, when you came back, you were so strong and capable, and I was genuinely happy for you. In all the time we've spent together since, we haven't grown distant despite the twenty-some years of blank space. Instead, I admired you—admired how you looked out for me and protected me everywhere. I thought you were a true hero, a hero who would never compromise with anyone. But today, you've truly disappointed me. Uncle Zhu has already told me the reason. In my mind, my older brother would never tolerate anyone threatening his younger brother; he would support his younger brother's decisions, right or wrong. I never expected you to be the one blocking me. This isn't you. This isn't the brother I thought I knew."

"Sit down," Elder Brother turned around, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at me.

"I won't sit!" I yelled. Normally, I would never defy Elder Brother, but everyone has their reverse scale, and Han Xue was mine.

Elder Brother stood up and glared at me. I glared right back. At that moment, Fat Man gently pushed me aside and stepped in front of me. Fat Man was usually quite afraid of Elder Brother, but this time, he lifted his chin, stared straight into Elder Brother's eyes, and poked his chest with a finger. "This girl Xue'er has zero flaws, and Yezi is an innocent kid too. Seeing them together makes Fat Lord happy. It's rare for young people to give Fat Lord such a pure feeling. Today, I'm the one who accompanied them home back to the village, so Fat Lord considers himself their matchmaker. What I want to say, Yezi just said for me: absolutely no one can stop these two. Even if Fat Lord is an outsider, I'm taking charge of this matter! Sun Zhongming, you might have been raised on dead men's flesh and your heart might be as hard as iron, but Yezi is a normal human being! He has his own feelings!"

Elder Brother looked at Fat Man, then looked at me, and finally said, "I told you to sit down."

"And I told you I'm not sitting!" I retorted.

Fat Man turned around, pressed down on my shoulders, and coaxed, "Yezi, sit down. If they talk sense, we'll listen; if they talk nonsense, we'll walk away. What are you afraid of? With Fat Lord here, are they going to eat you?"

Han Xue also tugged at me, shaking her head. "Don't fight. We're all family."

Once again, I forcefully suppressed my anger and sat down. Elder Brother looked at Uncle Zhu and said, "I support them being together."

"Zhongming! Think this through! Before Yezi fully matures, if the Ghost Path comes, none of us will be able to stop them!" Uncle Zhu said anxiously.

"I know. Let them come. Who made him my younger brother, and who made me his older brother?" Elder Brother shrugged.

Those words from Elder Brother made my heart contract tightly.

My mother raised her head, shook it at us, and said, "No, you can't. You don't know how terrifying the Ghost Path is. You simply cannot."

"Mother, I have a way," Elder Brother said.

Uncle Zhu stood up. "Zhongming, what way do you have? You need to think carefully—remember how your father died!"

"I know. I'm going back to the Sun family once. The Sun family knows someone known as the Ghost Tailor. If he is willing to sew Han Xue's wedding dress, it can deceive the heavens and allow them to marry quietly. That way, the Ghost Path won't find out," Elder Brother said.

"The Ghost Tailor? The one who makes burial shrouds?" Fat Man asked, stunned.

Elder Brother nodded. Then, he turned to Han Xue and said, "Sister-in-law, I've wronged you. For your safety, this is the only thing Elder Brother can do for you."