Lu Fei narrowed his eyes and examined the grayish-white lump of flesh at the bottom of the rice jar.
"How does it look so much like the Taisui meat I saw at the Taoist temple before?"
Those pieces of Taisui meat had decomposed quickly after being removed from the water, yet this lump of flesh was also submerged in water. Could it really be the same substance?
"Senior Dong, what is this?"
Lu Fei watched for a while, then put the lid back on.
"Manager Lu, you are flattering me too much! I'm just an old woman who asks rice to see things. How dare I call myself a senior in front of your Sinisterium Pawnshop?" Auntie Dong hurriedly stood up and waved her hands.
"If you don't mind, just call me Aunt Dong."
Asking rice is a folk divination method similar to necromancy, through which a shaman invites spirits to possess their body, allowing the living and the dead to communicate as if the spirit has taken over the shaman's body.
This method is often used when a family member has passed away, and the living want to know if the deceased has any unfinished wishes, or when there is unrest and bad luck in the home, and they want to find out if they have offended something.
It is also a kind of Yin and Yang profession that helps people eliminate misfortunes and solve problems.
Those who know how to ask rice are usually older women, with few men, because women have more Yin energy, making it easier to summon souls.
Auntie Dong is exactly this type of shaman who helps people by asking rice to see things.
In the mystic world, there are many diverse professions, each with its unique skills.
In Lu Fei's view, every person in the mystic world who helps to alleviate misfortunes is worthy of respect, regardless of their level of ability.
"Okay, Aunt Dong!" Lu Fei nodded with a smile, "This thing looks quite peculiar, what exactly is it?"
"Even you don't know, Shopkeeper Lu?"
"It looks like Taisui meat."
Dong Shenpo stood up again, her eyes wide open: "Is it really Taisui? I've heard Taisui is a good thing, but this thing is extremely eerie, it crawled out of a dead person's mouth!"
"Crawled out of a dead person's mouth?" Lu Fei was startled, "Aunt Dong, sit down and tell me what happened slowly."
"It's a sad story!"
Dong Shenpo sat back down, letting out a faint sigh.
"A few days ago, a distant relative came to me for some rice. Their child suddenly fell ill, first complaining of constant thirst, no matter how much water they drank, it was never enough."
"Then, the child kept getting thinner day by day. Originally a plump and healthy young man, in less than half a month, he became emaciated."
"I've heard of a fear of water, that's when a person gets bitten by a mad dog and contracts rabies. But I've never heard of an illness that causes such intense thirst."
"Just that big bucket of water, he can drink seven or eight buckets a day by himself!" the fortune-teller, Aunt Dong, pointed at the water dispenser in the pawnshop and gestured.
"Seven or eight buckets?" Lu Fei and Hu Zi looked at each other in shock.
"That's too exaggerated, we can't even finish one bucket in a week, how could he drink seven or eight buckets a day without his stomach bursting?"
"Not only did his stomach not burst, but he didn't even sweat, and rarely went to the bathroom." Aunt Dong's face was also full of disbelief.
"The water he drank seemed to just disappear, the more he drank, the thirstier he got."
"My relatives were extremely worried, they took the child to the hospital, but no illness could be found. They wondered if it was due to some sort of spiritual conflict, and came to ask me about it."
"I held that child when he was little, he was such a well-behaved boy! As a mother myself, I definitely had to examine him thoroughly!"
"But the strange thing is, I asked several times, and there was nothing supernatural attached to him. I advised them to take the child to a major hospital as soon as possible, just in case it was some rare disease and they would miss the best time for treatment."
"Unfortunately, they had just arranged everything and were ready to get in the car when the child passed away."
Aunt Dong shook her head, her weathered eyes full of regret.
"The couple cried so hard that it seemed the sky and earth had turned dark."
"The child has always been in good health since he was young, how could he suddenly get such a strange illness?"
"The child's mother couldn't accept it at all, she stayed by the child's side, not letting anyone take the child to the funeral home."
"Then, in the evening, guess what happened, Boss Lu?"
Lu Fei cooperatively asked, "What happened?"
Tiger, who was sitting nearby, even stopped shelling peanuts, listening intently with his ears perked up.
"The child suddenly sat up!" Madame Dong made an exaggerated gesture, "Not just sitting up, but also walking around the room!"
"Good grief, is this a case of resurrection?" Tiger exclaimed.
"It's much more eerie than a resurrection!" Madame Dong waved her hand emphatically, "A resurrected corpse can at most open its eyes and sit up, the body would be stiff, how could it walk around?"
"That child, except for having closed eyes, was just like a living person, wandering around the room."
"The child's mother was overjoyed, thinking the child had come back to life! But when she called out to the child and reached out to pull him, he didn't respond; his body was cold as ice."
"She didn't know what was going on, so she followed the child and noticed that he seemed very anxious, as if he was looking for something."
"In the end, he ran to the bathroom and forcibly shoved his head into the toilet."
"The couple was terrified and rushed to pull the child away, but he clung tightly to the toilet. Then, his throat bulged, and he vomited out a lump of something."
"After vomiting it out, the child collapsed and never got up again; he was as good as dead."
"That thing just lay in the water in the toilet, motionless."
Dong Shenpo glanced at the rice jar and sighed again.
"The couple had no idea what was happening and were scared to death, but they figured out that the child's death must have something to do with this thing."
"My big brother, the child's father, put on a plastic glove and fished the thing out, putting it in a bucket."
"The child is still in the freezer, and the mother keeps thinking he will come back to life. At the time, she even wanted the father to put that thing back into the child's mouth."
Huzi couldn't help but click his tongue: "Aren't you disgusted by something scooped out of the toilet? Besides, that thing clearly looked problematic. How could you even think of putting it in a child's mouth?"
"You don't have kids yet, do you, young man?" The fortune-teller Dong gave Huzi a rueful smile, "A child is a mother's life. If it can bring the child back, who cares about that?"
"Fortunately, my brother was still in his right mind and didn't agree. After cleaning the child up, he came to me with the bucket."
"I don't know what it is! I just felt it was ominous, so I sealed it with a talisman to prevent it from running around."
"After much thought, I realized that only Sinisterium Pawnshop deals with such strange and bizarre things, so I came to Manager Lu."
The fortune-teller Dong looked at Lu Fei.
"Manager Lu, you say this thing is a Taisui? They say eating a Taisui can cure all diseases and prolong life, so why did my brother's child get sick and die?"
"Aunt Dong, Taisuis also have good and bad types. There is a kind called Evil Taisui, which can harm people," Lu Fei mused.
"However, based on this alone, we still can't confirm that the lump of flesh in the rice jar is an Evil Taisui."
"Before the child got sick, had they been anywhere unusual or eaten anything special?"