Chapter 291 The Kuman Thong 1
Ye Shaoyang said nothing and looked at her, waiting for her to tell the truth.
Zhuang Yuning looked from Ye Shaoyang to Xiao Ma and Xie Yuqing, feeling a little embarrassed as she pleaded, "Mr. Ye, can we have a --"
"Don't worry. They are my best friends and my assistants. You can tell everything to them as you would tell me." Ye Shaoyang interrupted.
Xie Yuqing rolled her eyes, "Straight to the topic. I am not your fan, and I don't have much time to gossip."
Zhuang Yuning hung her head low as she drew in a deep breath and faltered out a few words that puzzled the three, "That child spirit, I reared it…."
Then, she shook her head and smiled bitterly, "If I knew that this would happen, I would rather not rear it and choose not to be a celebrity. Mr. Ye, have you ever heard about rearing a child spirit?"
"Are you referring to Kuman Thong?" Ye Shaoyang asked.
Zhuang Yuning replied, "I don't know. My friend helped me adopt one. I have been rearing it for more than two years to help me become famous. But, I did not really learn about the Kuman Thong. Umm, let me think about how I should explain this incident to you." As she spoke, she looked up at Ye Shaoyang.
Xiao Ma and Xie Yuqing also looked at Ye Shaoyang, curious.
Ye Shaoyang frowned a little. He did not know much about the Kuman Thong's craft, but he did have certain level of understanding about this craft: It was a craft among the folk sorcerer; a practice that prevailed in Thailand. Some temples would take in the soul of the babies who died prematurely or the soul of the children who died young and seal them into humanoid puppets. They would pray for them to cleanse the Violent Qi in the soul and give them to the followers to adopt. These are Kuman Thong, also known as the wealth boy. If one sincerely believed it and fed the Kuman Thong, it would show its power. It could change one's luck and fulfil some of their dreams.
Due to its power, Kuman Thong had a high demand, and some made it into a business. Some people would request a specially made Kuman Thong according to their needs. However, as long as it was a true Kuman Thong, the Violent Qi would have been removed, and they would not turn into an evil spirit.
Then, Ye Shaoyang asked, "Miss Zhuang, where did you get the Kuman Thong from? A Chinese or a Thai person?"
"From a local."
"What did you feed your Kuman Thong?"
"Raw pig meat, sometimes with the pig blood. Does that matter?"
Ye Shaoyang sighed, "Yup. There are two methods to feed a Kuman Thong, feeding with the foods we usually eat like milk, cakes, twice a day and --"
"Can a spirit actually drink milk and eat cake?" Xiao Ma interrupted.
"No. They will absorb the essence of the food for cultivation." Looking at their confused faces, Ye Shaoyang felt like he had to organize his answer and explain in detail:
"Kuman Thong is a spirit cultivating in a virtuous way. Therefore, the speed of cultivation is slow, and they can do limited things. Most of time, they can turn their feeder's luck for the better. However, like Miss Zhuang, who fed the Kuman Thong with raw meat and blood, it is considered as cultivating in an evil way. The Kuman Thong will quickly increase its cultivation and can do more things than the former. Once the Kuman Thong confirms its owner, the owner would have no way to abandon it. So, Miss Zhuang, if I am not mistaken, you abandoned your Kuman Thong and it returned, am I right?"
Zhuang Yuning looked at him and nodded, her face was pale, and her eyes welled up with tears as she replied in thick voice, "I really don't know about this. Xiao Ying did not tell me much. She said if I fed the spirit day and night, it will help me to fulfil my dreams. My dream is to become a popular singer. All the while, I believe I am good in singing and gifted in many ways, but my luck was always lacking slightly, and I could not become famous.
"Xiao Ying, or Zhu Zhongying, is my roommate. She comes from a rich family. One day, she told me she had a friend who became rich because of selling Kuman Thong, and he is close to a master who produces Kuman Thong. Learning that it was harmless, Xiaoying kept trying to persuade me to get one, so I agreed to adopt one in the end. Then, I fed it with milk twice a day. Since then, my carrier has reached to a peak. I won a popular singing competition last year and became well-known."
As Zhuang Yuning spoke, she shook her head, wiped away her tears, and paused for a moment before she continued, "After one and half year of feeding, I started to hear a child's laughter and footsteps in the house. I was afraid and planned to stop feeding it, but when I realized it will not hurt me and never disturbed my life, I continued. Then, it became stronger; sometimes, I could see him in the reflection of mirrors. It looked like a small kid, standing behind me, sucking his thumb and looking at me, so adorable…."
"Well, I don't see the cuteness of it." Xiao Ma interrupted as he recalled the terrifying look of the child spirit and shook his head.
"It had a pair of clear, sky blue eyes, cute lips, and smooth skin, different from the one we saw tonight…." She raised her head and showed a nostalgic face.
"I could still remember those days it covered the blanket for me at night and closed the window if I had forgotten. I am not a tidy person. After it became stronger, it would help me clean up the mess every morning. It was such a considerate child. I even dismissed the maid that used to work in my house…."
Ye Shaoyang recalled Zhuang Yuning's awkward expression when he asked her about the maid. Now, he understood why.
Zhuang Yuning continued, "I enjoyed the way it treated me, but, it all changed when I was joining an important singing competition. I wanted to get a good rank. Then, I remembered Xiaoying telling me that if I wanted to achieve something quickly, I could choose to feed it with raw meat and blood. She did warn me that if I feed it with that, it will stick with me forever."
"I thought it would still be the same, and I would love living together with it forever if it was. But, I didn't know the consequences of feeding it with blood and raw meat.
Two months later, I won that competition. Since then, my Kuman Thong has changed. It became paler than usual and its eyes turned blood-red. It did not help me to do housework anymore. Although my career was progressing swimmingly, I dreamt of it drinking my blood every night.
"I tried to stop feeding it with raw meat and blood, but it threatened me in my dreams. Then, Xiaoying told me that I had no way to stop once I started, and it would become fierce and malicious and drink my blood…."