HTCYH Ch 29

Chapter 29: Liang the Genius

After acting out a baffling scene of conjugal affection with Wuming, Tu Si was completely confused. Still, he obediently refrained from asking or saying much, simply letting Wuming set the pace while he played the role of the doting wife behind him.

Inside the house, after rummaging briefly, Wuming asked in puzzlement, “Why is there so little of Liang the Genius’s stuff here? There are only his middle and high school clothes.”

The room was silent for a long while. Seeing no one respond, Tu Si then answered, “Maybe he went out to study and rarely came home?”

Wuming continued, “But there aren’t any of his mother’s belongings either. His father died early—so when did his mother pass away?”

This question was aimed at the child bride. The young girl lowered her head and stammered, “I… I don’t know. When I died, his mother was still alive and well—no illness, no pain, and full of spirit.”

Wuming nodded and stopped asking further. He pulled a phone out of the cabinet, charged it, and discovered that there was no signal in the village. Left with no choice, he started fiddling with the text messages and photo album.

Suddenly, a golden, fluffy head popped into half of his line of sight. Smiling, Wuming brought the phone close to Tu Si’s face, and the two of them pressed their heads together, clearly giving the impression of a young couple playing on a phone together.

After a while of pointing and whispering over the screen, Tu Si raised his head and noticed a trace of jealousy in the young girl’s eyes, which was quickly concealed by an expression of envy. Something exploded in Tu Si’s mind, but he showed nothing outwardly. Instead, he sneered, “That scumbag Liang the Genius—turns out he treated his current girlfriend pretty well. He even wrote a will, completed notarization, and left all his property to her. Did he know he was guilty and wouldn’t live long?”

The young girl listened with a blank, naive look and asked Tu Si, “What is a notarized will?”

Only then did Tu Si realize he had slipped up. He quickly shook his head and said, “Nothing you need to worry about. I was just cursing Liang the Genius for living it up extravagantly in college, a grade-A scum.”

The young girl didn’t respond further, seemingly reminded of some sad memory. She drifted back toward the urn.

Covering his mouth lightly, Tu Si frowned and whispered to Wuming, “Did I say something wrong?”

Wuming shook his head gently and said, “They’re all pitiful people. What we can do is finish this game quickly, kill Liang the Genius, and avenge all the innocent souls.”

Tu Si nodded, turned around, and limped away to keep searching. At that moment, a red plastic sheet covering a jar in the corner caught his attention. Lifting it up, he found ten jars underneath. Opening one, he saw only soil inside. Somewhat intrigued, he was about to pour it out to study when the young girl rushed forward to stop him: “No! You mustn’t touch it! If you touch it—I… I won’t be able to see Xiao Mi again!”

Tu Si froze but didn’t insist on defying her. He pressed his palms together reverently before resealing the jar. As he put it back in place, he noticed a piece of red paper pinned beneath it. Picking it up, he saw it was covered in Thai script. He quietly pocketed the red paper, covered everything again, and pretended nothing had happened.

Once Wuming was done exploring, Tu Si suddenly stumbled into his arms, rubbing affectionately against his chest, mumbling with his face buried against him, “I’m tired, I want to sleep.”

Wuming’s smile grew even more indulgent, his voice soft and bubbly as he said, “Is that so? Then let’s go back to the cave and rest, hmm? You probably won’t sleep well here.”

Tu Si nodded, then asked the young girl, “Do you want to come back with us?”

Drifting from the urn, the young girl answered, “I want to stay here with Xiao Mi.”

Tu Si nodded, resting his head against Wuming’s chest with a drowsy look, as if he could barely keep his eyes open. Wuming bent down, scooped Tu Si into a princess carry, and headed toward the forest.

As they moved away from the self-built house, Tu Si, still swinging his legs, leaned against Wuming’s chest and said, “Gege, teach me Thai, won’t you?”

Wuming hitched Tu Si up higher in his arms and teased, “Still calling me Gege?”

Tu Si giggled, “Doesn’t the Captain like it when I call you Gege? You look pretty happy when you hear it~”

The curve at Wuming’s lips deepened, and he chuckled lowly. “I like it. I love hearing it. Say it more.”

Tu Si pulled out the red paper and pushed it in front of Wuming’s face. “Captain, stop surfing the internet like you’re missing five grams of brain cells. You’re an antique, but you don’t act like one. Always learning from Gen Z kids.”

Wuming lowered his head, glancing at the text on the red paper while quipping back, “And you, little ancestor, don’t act like an ancestor either. Legs swinging to the sky? Careful, or I might ‘accidentally’ drop you.”

Hearing this, Tu Si stopped swinging his legs. Instead, he hooked his arms around Wuming’s neck, straightened himself, and held the paper right up to his face, waiting for him to translate.

Wuming began to read and translate:

“Materials for making a Kuman Thong【1】:

— Soil from seven cemeteries: the most powerful kind of soil, as graveyards are places through which many spirits pass.

— Soil from seven anthills: ants build their mounds higher and higher, symbolizing rising in life.

— Soil from seven crab holes: earth from crab burrows, filled with the energy of molting and rebirth, symbolizing survival against the odds.

— Soil from seven fertile fields: rich and productive earth, carrying the energy of harvest.

— Soil from seven docks: docks are places where merchants constantly come and go, carrying the energy of business and wealth.

— Soil from seven bustling areas: earth from crowded commercial districts, carrying the energy of attracting customers and money.

— Soil from seven temples: where monks chant daily, carrying divine and spiritual energy.

— Soil from seven caves: abodes of immortals, spirits, mountain gods, or earth deities, imbued with mystical power.

— Soil from seven affinity sites: places where ‘relationship trees’ such as Wandothong or Manaya are cultivated, carrying the energy of human bonds.

Also included are various spiritually potent trees—for example, ghost wood, thunderstruck wood, and other strange trees.

The ashes of a child—the most important material. This serves as the medium through which the spirit enters the Kuman. Just as a human body cannot be without bones, so too must this be included. Incantations are then used to purify the spiritual energy within these materials for later use.”

Tu Si listened with curiosity and asked, “So those jars were holding the materials? But why keep the leftovers—hadn’t Liang the Genius already refined a Kuman Thong?”

Wuming shook his head. Once they reached the cave, Tu Si released countless tendrils, wrapping both himself and Wuming into a cocoon of tentacles, then asked, “Do you think the child bride is suspicious?”

Wuming countered, “What do you think?”

Tu Si shook his head. “I know there are no perfect victims in this world, but I still can’t judge human society’s good and evil in black-and-white terms. Could a child bride raised in such a hellish environment truly remain pure and untainted? Even a lotus that grows unstained from mud still needs to draw nourishment from that mud in order to bloom. She must have issues—but… I don’t know how to define them… I just feel sorry for her and want to help her.”

Wuming asked again, “Then what kind of person do you think Liang the Genius is?”

Tu Si fell into deeper silence. After a long time, he said, “At first, I thought he was the absolute scum of the earth, devoid of humanity, rotten to the core. But later, I realized that much of what the child bride described about Liang the Genius was unreasonably villainous, almost like forced evilness—evil without context, designed just to paint him as an absolute villain. It felt contrived.

It reminded me of the last game, with the bride’s story. The innocent girl, the bodhisattva, the fox spirit, the matchmaker—they were all her. Was she utterly unforgivable? Not exactly. But could she be called purely kind and innocent either? No—because slaughtering a whole village for revenge is not an act of goodness.

And as for Liang the Genius, the only verifiable evil thing he did was creating the Kuman Thong. For everything else, I haven’t found clear evidence. Most of it came through his fiancée’s words. In my heart, I lean toward believing her. But I know—what you see isn’t always real, and what you hear is even less reliable.”

Wuming nodded. “That’s exactly what I wanted to tell you. This morning, when I was speaking with Ailin and the others, we confirmed something: each person sees things and obtains clues based on what the character they’re playing would perceive. For example, in Fang Xia’s perspective, Liang the Genius was greedy and lecherous—already having a child bride, yet still trying to pursue the village flower, Li Chun’er. But in Xu Jinyan’s perspective, Li Chun’er was the one throwing herself at him, while Liang the Genius hardly cared for her. He looked down on both the child bride and Li Chun’er. And in Ailin’s perspective, Liang the Genius was a good man—highly educated, with no bad habits, respectful toward elders, handing over his salary card, kind to small animals, and even practicing vegetarianism and chanting Buddhist scriptures every month.”

Footnotes

【1】Kuman Thong (古曼童 / กุมารทอง): A spirit effigy or doll in Thai folklore, traditionally created using the remains of deceased children (historically, often stillborn fetuses or ashes). It is believed to house a spirit that can be invoked for protection, wealth, or other supernatural aid. Modern practices often use symbolic or substitute materials, but historically, this was linked to occult rituals