Otherworldly Merchant - Chapter 552: Princess Taiping
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Chapter 552: Princess Taiping

To 

discover if

 the jade hairpin was really meddling with us, I waited 

until

 Yin Xinyue was fast asleep to pull the hairpin out of her hair. I locked it in 

a

 safe then went to bed. 

It was later than midnight when

 I 

heard footsteps

 from the living room. I thought it was 

a

 thief. I woke up and looked around. Yin Xinyue had disappeared again!

I turned on the light in the bedroom. The safe where I had kept the jade hairpin 

had been

 opened. 

It seemed the problem 

laid

 with that jade hairpin.

I could 

have just taken

 the hairpin while Yin Xinyue was sleeping 

and

 destroyed it. It would have put an end to this case. However, I had already formed a bad habit of being curious to learn about the origin of the otherworldly item before solving it. At least, the spirit in the jade hairpin hadn’t harmed Yin Xinyue yet. 

Moreover, from what I’d observed, the spirit could be a resentful married woman. Otherwise, she wouldn’t pull a sad face all day long. 

I didn’t disturb Yin Xinyue but tiptoed to get the Sirius Whip

. Then, I 

hid behind the door to observe her. 

She was sitting on the sofa and sighing from time to time. Eventually, she opened the door and left. I hurried to follow her. She seemed to know 

her destination clearly. She was heading 

toward the suburban area. 

When she reached the suburban area, she moved faster. I was worried about her so I also accelerated my speed. 

However, 

I carelessly stepped on a 

twig

. 

Yin Xinyue 

halted, then

 turned to look at me. A strange smile hung at the corners of her mouth. 

I 

thought

 it was strange, but not because it looked scary to me. Quite the contrary, this smile was bright and beautiful. However, it was another woman’s smile, not my wife’s! 

At this moment, I was flustered

 and

 didn’t know what to do. Yin Xinyue’s eyes rolled to the back of her head

. Then, 

she fainted. I hurried to pull the jade hairpin 

out

 of her hair then carried her back home. 

Throughout

 the entire night, I stayed by her side to watch her. Nothing else happened. However, the next day, Yin Xinyue had a fever. I made a glass of charm water and fed her. She gradually 

got

 better. 

When she got up, the first thing she wanted to do was find the jade hairpin. She looked as if she would kill me if I didn’t give it to her!

I considered it, then gave her the jade hairpin. I had secretly asked Li Maz

i

 to watch Yin Xinyue tonight. I wanted to know what she wanted to do, after all. 

At night, I pretended 

to be 

sleeping. Yin Xinyue was lying next to me

. She

 slept as though she knew the plan Li Mazi and I had prepared. 

Soon, I heard her gentle 

snores. I

 exhaled

. I 

texted Li Mazi 

and asked

 him not to wait and watch outside. He could go home to rest. Then, I drifted into sleep. 

I didn’t know how long I had slept when my phone 

rang

. 

The call had woken me up. 

I picked up the call

 and said 

drowsil

y,

 “Who’s this?”

“Dude, how can you still be sleeping?! Your wife is out here!” Li Mazi sounded hurried. I reacted

 and reached 

to my side. Yin Xinyue had disappeared again. 

“Damn it!” I punched the bed. “Li Mazi, please follow her!” Then, I put on more clothes

 and rushed 

out of the house. 

Soon, I saw Li Mazi. He was dozens of meters behind Yin Xinyue. 

When he saw

 me, he threw me a fierce look. “Little 

B

rother Zhang, you must listen to your brother this time. We have to break that jade hairpin. You’re married and have a famil

y

 now!” 

It was the first time Li Mazi had talked to me as though he was my elder brother. 

Since

 he 

had

 married thrice, he 

was qualified

 to give me a lesson. 

In terms of protecting his family, he had done well. I nodded. 

After biting

 my 

lip

, I made up my mind. This hairpin had 

tormented

 my wife a few times. I shouldn’t show mercy to it anymore. 

After half an hour, we reached the riverbank. Yin Xinyue didn’t look 

as though

 she would stop here. 

“Oh 

shoot

, does she intend to jump into the river?” Li Mazi’s eyes bulged. My eyes turned red. I didn’t care about anything else

 and 

accelerat

ed 

toward her. 

“

Sigh.

” Yin Xinyue faintly turned and looked at the two of us. She shook her head reluctantly then jumped into the river. 

Fortunately, the water wasn’t rapid. I jumped and easily caught her. 

I felt her body turning heavier and heavier. It seemed there was an endless force trying to pull her down. I was lucky that I had kept the Sirius Whip at my waist 

the entire 

time. I hurried to withdraw the whip and coile

d

 it around Yin Xinyue. I 

was

 finally able to pull her up easily. 

At the moment we 

reached

 the riverbank, Li Mazi took the jade hairpin 

out of

 Yin Xinyue’s hair. I didn’t 

hold back 

now. I held the Sirius Whip in one hand while the other hand made 

a

 hand seal. When the Sirius Whip had accumulated enough magic power, I lashed it at the hairpin. 

We all heard a scream. A woman wearing a wedding costume with a phoenix coronet on her head floated from the jade hairpin.  

In common sense, when a ghost was hit that strong, she would flee or stay to take harsh revenge on me. It was different this time. The woman just hovered above us. 

Besides looking at us with 

her gloomy expression, she didn’t do anything else. 

“Why are you standing there? If I hadn’t stayed up 

all

 night to watch her, my sister

-

in

-

law would have 

been

 dead b

y 

now

!

” urged Li Mazi. He saw that I was in a daze, so he thought that I 

was feeling

 sorry for the ghost

.

 

I pulled myself together. Li Mazi was right. Before I slept, I had asked him to go home and told him there was no need to watch her. If he had listened to me, Yin Xinyue would have…

“Don’t blame me. I

 gave 

you a chance…” I 

said to

 the wedding dressed ghost. I raised the Sirius Whip

 and read 

the

 Big

 Dipper Sirius Spell. 

This female ghost looked vulnerable 

as

 she didn’t have the power to attack back. The 

Big

 Dipper Sirius Spell could smash her soul. Before I could lash my whip, Yin Xinyue’s voice came behind me. “Honey, don’t hurt her…” 

I turned and found that Yin Xinyue was awake. 

Apart

 

from

 her pale face, she looked okay. 

“No, we won’t discuss this! Don’t you know it almost killed you?” The flame of anger arose again in my heart. 

Yin Xinyue said resolutely, “It was me who decided to jump into the river. It had nothing to do with her!” 

“What?” I was bewildered. Li Mazi wore the same expression. 

“Honey, she was just a woman who desired love. I pit

y

 her a lot. 

All her

 men ditched her…”

 protested 

Yin Xinyue

. Then, she 

told us the female ghost’s story. 

The jade hairpin was 

an

 otherworldly item. Li Mazi and I weren’t wrong about this. However, 

it didn’t seem the

 female ghost 

wanted

 to harm anybody. For a few days, she had been telling Yin Xinyue what she had experienced. 

S

he was the famous Princess Taiping, the daughter of Empress Wu Zetian. From her early childhood, she was smart and beautiful. 

In common sense, a noble, beautiful

,

 and smart 

p

rincess like her should have a happy marriage. 

Sadly

, her marriage was dramatic! 

At first, she married Xue Shao

. I

n the end, she married Wu Youji. She had married thrice. In each of her marriages, she had always craved love. However, from the beginning to the end, she was just a tool for them to compete for power. She was left badly wounded. 

Princess Taiping had worn the wedding dress three times, but she had never been in love once. She had been rolled into the tornado of the desire for love 

and

 she could never escape from it. In the end, she died alone, which made a wisp of her soul dwell in the jade hairpin she loved the most. She had been subtle

 as she waited 

for her love. 

I felt somewhat sad after listening to her. 

It was no

 wonder why Yin Xinyue 

always wore 

the wedding dress. It was the saddest segment of Princess Taiping’s tragic life.

Yin Xinyue was affected by Princess Taiping’s emotions. That

 wa

s why she wanted to 

end

 her life by jumping into the river. 

Everything had happened because of love! 

I suddenly recognized that I had to thank Princess Taiping. If Yin Xinyue had felt 

happy

, she wouldn’t have been affected 

by Princess

 Taiping’s fixation. 

She wanted to commit suicide because deep in her subconsciousness, she didn’t feel safe. It meant I was far from a true life partner to her.  

In the end, since I neither wanted to hurt Princess Taiping 

nor

 let her affect other women, I decided to send the jade hairpin to a nun temple. 

S

he 

wouldn’t be able to

 affect the nuns who had determinedly left all of their relationships in the mortal world

. After 

a few years of listening to their prayers and mantras, perhaps she 

would be able to

 see through mortal love like them. It would 

be good

 karma 

for me

, too. 

Our lives resumed to calmness after that. However, Li Mazi and I had become more cautious 

than ever before

. 

We had solved the jade hairpin, but we 

had

 no clue about the person who had left the hairpin. 

Who 

could that

 person be? 

Was

 he lurking in 

a

 hidden corner, watching us?