Spoiled by Eight Uncles (Lily)

Edward and Jean were in a state of shock, their jaws agape.

They stared at Lilly's bold provoking, listening to her ask for a fight.

Then she chanted some prayers, and attacked using a fart... and it worked! Before they could return to their senses, she had thrown out the jar of souls and shouted “Come on!"...

They couldn't see much more after that. After all, the water spirits had been drawn out already.

The harem spirit herself was quite confused too.

She had gone into this like any other battle, and was holding down a resentful spirit when the one next to it fell to her knees and began begging for forgiveness for her mother. What was going on? Lilly clapped her hands, impressed. “You're amazing, Auntie Harem!” The harem spirit blinked. “Who's this...” The younger spirit continued to kneel, sobbing as she begged. “Mother and | are sorry, we won't do anything bad anymore.

Please let us go, please...” Lilly shook her head. “Do you know how many lives you've taken?” The young spirit's eyes flickered. “Just, just seven or eight...” Lilly frowned. The word ‘just’ for seven or eight lives was hardly appropriate The resentful spirit being held down by the harem spirit spoke up in a hoarse whisper, “Roxie, don’t beg her...” “It's our bad luck that we were caught this time..." The spirit glowered at Lilly, furious that she had lost.

She had only needed one more innocent soul... just one more! And she would become a malignant spirit, leaving this river forever.

She had drowned tens of thousands of times in this river! It was too much to bear, and she began to usurp other spirits so she could leave sooner.

Only for everything to fall apart.

Lily did not care about what the older spirit was saying. She turned to the younger spirit named Roxie. “What are your names, and where are you from? How did you die?” Roxie hesitated, before her eyes flashed with hopelessness and she said, “We were villagers living by the riverbank. That was about eight years ago, when the city had just started building these residences...” She pointed at the riverbank. There was a tall building erected there now, the old houses nowhere to be seen.

“One weekend, Mother and | were washing our sheets by the river...” “Mother thought the sheet was too big for the washing machine to clean, that's why we went to the river.” “Father came too, but he just swam in the river.” Roxie’s mother had been washing the sheets when she fell into the water. Roxie ran to help her, and fell into the water herself.

“Mother screamed for help, but Father was too far out in the river and didn’t hear her.” Roxie sobbed as she spoke. “That's how Mother and | drowned.” After drowning, we became water spirits here. Mother was very angry, and refused to be reborn. She resented Father, calling him a coward for not turning back.

The older spirit seemed to remember this as well, her eyes reddening.

It was fine that she had died, but her daughter had died too. Her husband had just been swimming a hundred meters away, her daughter could have been saved...

But she had drowned along with her too! “It's unfair, | hate it!" the older spirit howled, her teeth clacking from the force of talking. “I need to find him, I need to kill him! What were his ears for, hm?” Lilly was speechless Roxie continued speaking. “Because we fell into quicksand and the water weeds held us down, Father couldn't find us. He thought that we'd gone home, and went back as well.” “After that he came out with a bamboo pole and fished around the water, but never found us...” Lilly frowned. “How did you kill that girl Jane?” The older spirit thrashed around at the words. Seeing as there was no use in doing so, she gave up.

Roxie glanced at her mother, before describing what had happened in the past two days.

Jane never wanted to kill herself. She came to sit by the river after arguing with her mother, sulking on a stone bench.

“Because she was alone, my mother and | got closer to try to lure her over.” “Then we heard her calling her mother. Her mother yelled at her asking where she was, and Jane said she was at the garden by the river.” Roxie stopped short, pursing her lips. “Jane’s mother was really angry after she heard that. She said, ‘Very well, | see you're trying to threaten me with suicide, aren't you! Who do you think you're scaring, going down to the river and everything? Go on, jump and don’t come home!” Lilly asked, “And then?” Next to her, the four men could only watch as she spoke to thin air.

It was terrifying to see these spirits, but not being able to see them... or ‘listen to their stories’ made them feel a little left out too.

So what were the water spirits saying to Lilly.

Jean mumbled, “This is boring. We should've brought Drake along...” Roxie continued to speak. “Jane was around my age, and | understood how she felt. She couldn't even explain before her mother hung up on her... She knelt by the river, crying.” Roxie hadn't wanted to kill Jane, but her mother told her not to feel too sorry.

“Mother said we could feel sorry for others, but no one’s going to feel sorry for others.” When she hesitated, her mother dragged Jane into the water.

Roxie struggled with herself watching on, but ended up not stopping her.

“Jane's mother only came looking for her a day after she died. She couldn't find her after searching the whole day. Mother dragged another two girls into the water at night.” “Jane's mother heard someone had drowned, and freaked out.” “That boy who walked by was very brave. He was really good at swimming, and the two girls hadn't fallen too deep so he was able to save them.” “Mother was really angry, and made me possess Jane and make it look like she was drowning. Then.. she made me... drag the boy down...” Roxie seemed to be filled with remorse here, not speaking anymore.

Roxie’s mother was quite the opposite. All she said was, “They deserved it! Why did they have to take those photos by the river? They could've done that anywhere else!” Lilly was furious. “What about that young man, then? He was saving someone, he was good!” Roxie's mother hardly cared at all. “So what? He was going to die anyway, he might as well help me out.” Lilly was speechless She was truly angry, stepping up to grab the older spirit by the neck and shaking it. “Wake up! Your life matters, but others don't?” Jane was confused. Didn't she say this yesterday? The spirit felt as if she was being shaken apart, struggling and hitting Lilly. Yet every time she struck, the red bracelet on Lilly's wrist would glow and strike her back.

Why did it feel like the older spirit was just screwing herself over? She would be destroyed by Lilly if she didn't retaliate, but striking back would result in getting hurt as well. The spirit was starting to panic. “Stop...” Lilly did not stop.

Under the double attack, the older spirit turned into a wisp of aura and was sucked up by the jar of souls.

The harem spirit was shocked herself. What the hell, was this little girl that terrifying? Lilly stopped short, too. She stared at her now-empty hands, pursing her mouth.

Why are grown-ups so complicated...

Why did they like to blame others all the time? Why was it so hard for them to understand things that even children understood? Lilly fell into a state of confusion...