Chapter 23

Page (1/3)

The snow stopped sometime after midnight. Unlike the heavy snowfall before, this time it left only a thin layer on the ground, one that vanished after a few footsteps in the early morning.

After making breakfast, Wang Hongying went to knock on Wu Zijie’s door. She knocked for a long time without receiving any answer. Normally, whenever he was woken, Wu Zijie would impatiently shout at her to get lost. But today, there was not a sound from inside. If she had not watched him enter his room the night before, Wang Hongying might have suspected that her son had never come home.

Uneasy, she went to the drawer for a key and opened Wu Zijie’s door herself. The room was pitch-black. A mound beneath the blankets rose from the bed, trembling faintly. Clearly, Wu Zijie was already awake.

“What are you doing now?” Wang Hongying demanded, yanking off the blanket.

Only then did she realize that something was wrong. In the span of just two days, Wu Zijie had grown frighteningly thin. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, his lips were pale, and his face was listless and sunken. He was mumbling something incoherently.

Wang Hongying was startled. She hurriedly turned her son over and asked what had happened, but the moment her hand touched him, Wu Zijie suddenly shrank back against the headboard. His voice grew louder this time, and at last Wang Hongying could make out what he was saying.

“It wasn’t me who pushed him. It has nothing to do with me. Don’t kill me, don’t kill me. Sob… I was wrong. I really was wrong. Get away from me—ugh!”

Wu Zijie suddenly clutched his own throat with both hands, making strangled choking noises.

Wang Hongying hastily tried to pull his hands away, but they were as cold and rigid as though held down by a pair of invisible hands, and they possessed astonishing strength.

She shouted for her husband. Only after the two of them joined forces did they finally manage to pry Wu Zijie’s hands from his throat.

Wu Zijie gasped for breath. Several finger marks had already appeared around his neck, and judging by their appearance, not all of them had been made just now.

“Don’t kill me… huff… I pushed him. I pushed him down. I did it on purpose.” Wu Zijie collapsed onto the bed, continuing to mutter.

Wang Hongying’s eyes filled with tears of distress.

“What on earth is going on? How did he suddenly become like this? Is he possessed? Where did he go yesterday? Somewhere unclean?”

Wu’s father, however, did not react as violently as she did. He stood to one side for a long while before asking, his hands and feet turning cold, “Did you hear what he just said clearly?”

Wang Hongying had caught some of it—something about not killing him and him being the one who pushed. She knew what her son was usually like outside. He liked shoving people from behind, but so far he had never caused anyone’s death. Children were always roughhousing; he simply did not know any better. He would grow out of it.

“He’s delirious. His head is burning up—he’s confused from the fever. How can you take nonsense seriously?”

Wu’s father suddenly shouted, “No!”

Wang Hongying’s hand trembled. She glared at him reproachfully. “Why are you shouting? Our son is sick. Why aren’t you taking him to the hospital instead of standing there?”

Wu’s father stared at her and uttered a single name.

“Tongtong.”

Wang Hongying, who was about to lift the child and get up, froze. Her expression grew unnatural, but she quickly said, “He’s been dead for years. Why bring him up all of a sudden?”

“Tongtong drowned.”

“What does that have to do with our son? He fell in himself. It wasn’t Xiaojie who pushed—”

She suddenly stopped speaking. At that very moment, Wu Zijie was still muttering that he had been the one to push him.

A chill rose from her back, freezing her spine. Her lips trembled as Wang Hongying stared at the child in her arms.

“Is it… Is Tongtong back? Has he come back for revenge? The matter was never solved, and the police never said Xiaojie pushed him. Is he still in this room?”

Terrified, Wang Hongying looked around. Her body shrank instinctively, but she soon summoned her courage and began to curse.

“My son didn’t push you! Get out of here right now! If you keep causing trouble, I’ll find someone to deal with you! I’ll scatter your soul!”

The moment she shouted those words, the black shadow began to writhe violently. But after struggling through the entire night, it had already expended much of its limited spiritual power. It could only make Wang Hongying feel cold; it was unable to harm her.

Page (1/3)

Page (2/3)

The black shadow glared at the family resentfully. Give him a little more time, and he would surely repay blood with blood.

After cursing the ghost, Wang Hongying no longer dared remain in the bedroom. Together with her husband, she moved the child into the master bedroom.

“Are we not taking him to the hospital?” Wu’s father asked.

Wang Hongying clenched her teeth. “It won’t help. We need to find a master. Xiaojie won’t get better until this little ghost is dealt with. Hurry and find someone powerful. I’m going out.”

Wu’s father grabbed her arm. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going next door. They must have done something. Otherwise, everything was fine for two or three years—why would he suddenly come back for revenge now?”

Wu’s father still had his doubts about ghosts, and he refused to let Wang Hongying leave. “Stop looking for trouble. What if this isn’t a haunting? Take the child to the hospital first. If the fever keeps burning, he’ll be ruined.”

Together, the two of them carried Wu Zijie out of the building and into a taxi bound for the hospital. Everyone in the neighborhood saw them along the way, yet not a single person came over to help.

After settling the child in, Wang Hongying was still unwilling to give up. When Wu’s father refused to look for anyone, she began making calls on her own.

Unexpectedly, she really did manage to find a master—a supposedly powerful Daoist priest. The price was rather steep: ten thousand for a house call. Wang Hongying wavered for a long time, then finally gritted her teeth and agreed.

Next door, Tang Qianran woke from her sleep and once again felt the child nestled beside her. She lay there happily for a while, then sat up uneasily and took Han Ming’s hand.

“I felt Tongtong beside me again just now. Is this… is this bad for him? I want to find a master to pray for him.”

Han Ming gave an almost imperceptible sigh. Sitting down beside her, he nodded. “I’ll ask around and see where we can find one.”

Tang Qianran proudly pulled out her phone. “I know someone.”

As she spoke, she dialed a number.

“Hello, Sister Ling? Do you still have the contact information for the person you mentioned last time? I want to find a master to perform a blessing ritual for Tongtong.”

The woman on the other end hesitated slightly. “I do have her contact information, but I don’t know whether she performs rituals. Her current business is catching rats and finding lost pets. How about this? I’ll ask her first and get back to you, all right?”

“All right.”

Lin Ling was a friend Tang Qianran had met after losing her child. She worked at a maternity and baby-products store and, like Tang Qianran, had also lost a child. Lin Ling’s child had been gone for five or six years. Although she desperately wanted another, she had never been able to conceive.

Lin Ling was resilient and cheerful. Losing her child had not destroyed her. Aside from working, she had spent the past several years supporting children in welfare homes, intending to adopt one after a few more years. Whenever Tang Qianran was overcome with grief, Lin Ling patiently comforted her.

Several months earlier, Lin Ling had told Tang Qianran about a strange customer who had come to her store. The woman had told her to put away her necklace and stop enshrining her child’s memorial tablet. Although Lin Ling had found it inexplicable, she had somehow followed the woman’s instructions. To her surprise, two months ago she discovered that she was pregnant.

Lin Ling believed she had conceived because of that customer. Convinced that the woman was a true master, she had shared the strange story with Tang Qianran. At the time, Tang Qianran had paid little attention. Now that she knew Tongtong existed, she thought of that woman again.

Lin Ling was on the phone now. The master occasionally came to the store to buy baby products, so Lin Ling had naturally added her contact information. The master had even sent her a business card and invited her into a group chat.

Lin Ling had originally assumed that the master would exorcise evil spirits and capture ghosts. She had never expected the woman’s main profession to be catching rats for people. It was somewhat at odds with her image, but in Lin Ling’s heart, a master was still a master.

After being closed for another two days, Hu Yuanfei had begun to develop a real dislike for winter.

He was so bored that he had already used up two of the talismans Daoist Wen Yuan had given him. Even the increase in his cultivation did nothing to make him happier.

Hu Yuanfei lay flat as a pancake, allowing Qingyao to crawl all over him.

Page (2/3)

Page (3/3)

“Little Qingyao, why do humans have to live such difficult lives? Everything costs money. Why is a fox several hundred years old as poor as I am? Why didn’t I bring something valuable with me when I came down from the mountains?”

Lang Xiao passed by him. “What valuable things did you have?”

Hu Yuanfei instantly straightened his back and sent Qingyao, who had been climbing upward, tumbling away.

“I used to—cough—I had some objects in my cave that humans gave me. They’d be antiques by now. Antiques are worth a lot of money among humans. But I threw everything away when I came down the mountain.” Hu Yuanfei was filled with regret.

Lang Xiao poured a bucket of cold water over his hopes. “You’re only a little over three hundred years old. Things from three hundred years ago aren’t worth much.”

Hu Yuanfei flopped back down. “All right.”

At least he no longer had to feel bad about losing them.

Just as the two of them were chatting aimlessly, the phone rang. It was Lang Xiao’s. She answered it and gave a surprised little exclamation.

“A blessing ritual? I’ve never done one before. It’s not that I can’t do it. I suppose I could give it a try.”

It was just the usual Daoist procedure. She did not know how, but she could learn it on the spot.

Lang Xiao quickly got in touch with the client, only to discover that it was someone they had met two days earlier, and the location was somewhere they had just visited as well.

She immediately thought of the resentful little ghost. Perhaps the request concerned him.

“All right. See you this afternoon.”

Hu Yuanfei listened anxiously nearby. His ears stood straight up, and his furry face came eagerly toward her.

“A job?! Where? Are we leaving right now?!”

Lang Xiao put away her phone. “They contacted me, not you.”

Hu Yuanfei fell silent.

The fox immediately wagged his tail and rubbed himself against the gray wolf.

“Why make such a distinction between you and me? Aren’t we partners now? I can help too. I don’t need half the payment—just give me a little. I’m a great demon, after all. I won’t cause you any trouble. Lang Xiao, Senior Lang Xiao, Mommy Lang Xiao, what do you say? Take me with you.”

As he spoke, he blinked repeatedly, then lay on his side and struck a seductive pose, all four paws pointing skyward and his tail raised high. The tip swayed enticingly in Lang Xiao’s direction. He had even resorted to using the fox-spirit’s bewitching charm.

Lang Xiao stared at him in silence.

She felt as though her eyes had been injured.

She immediately used her demonic power to suppress him, preventing Hu Yuanfei from casting his charm on her.

When temptation failed, Hu Yuanfei scooped the little one beside him into his arms. Raising the furry creature in his paws, he waved it in front of Lang Xiao.

“Little Qingyao, hurry and make Mommy agree. If she doesn’t, we won’t be able to go out with her.”

Qingyao giggled and called out “Mommy” again and again. Stretching out both arms, the child hugged Lang Xiao and planted several slobbery kisses on her face.

Lang Xiao helplessly wiped the saliva from her cheeks. “Fine, fine. Stop rubbing against me.”

She really was helpless against these two.