In the end, everyone felt that the matter was handled well.
Indeed, sacrificing Lu Yingjiu was for the greater good of thousands of people.
The villagers found their candidate and happily dispersed. Yao Gou, relieved that he didn’t have to step in, cheerfully went to arrange the ceremony. Jing Xian… Jing Xian was also quite happy, taking Lu Yingjiu straight to the guesthouse recommended by Yao Gou.
Upon arriving at the guesthouse, the owner, hearing that they were two masters, immediately waived their fees and even offered them the best room.
The two went upstairs.
The room was not large, but the environment was quite good, very clean and tidy. Lu Yingjiu pulled open the curtain and he could see the green trees outside the window.
Just now, Lu Yingjiu had randomly grabbed a person from the crowd to inquire about the situation.
The Chu family had indeed visited many times before.
After all, the dream of the Peacock God shattered here, which was suspicious no matter how you looked at it. As the contract holders of the Peacock God, they naturally had to investigate.
But at that time, the village was calm and peaceful, not to mention fierce ghosts, even a few small ghosts were nowhere to be seen. The Chu family lingered in the village for too long and were even mistaken by the villagers as criminals from other places. The investigation yielded no results, so they had to give up.
A few years have passed, and suddenly a female ghost appeared here causing trouble.
And it was a female ghost from decades ago.
Although it was unknown whether there was a connection between the two, Lu Yingjiu still informed Chu Banyang of the situation.
Chu Banyang said he knew, discussed with the Chu family, and sent someone over.
[Actually, it’s not urgent.] Lu Yingjiu said. [You guys are short of hands, aren’t you? With me here, nothing will happen.]
The Chu family were all busy people.
Of course, many of them no longer worked as exorcists, focusing on business and wealth accumulation.
Chu Banyang said: [Still, someone has to come over, I’ll try to make time.]
Lu Yingjiu replied: [Okay, I’ll check the situation first.]
Putting down his phone, he originally wanted to ask Yao Gou about the situation.
However, as soon as Yao Gou arrived at the guesthouse, he threw his bag and disappeared, probably chatting with some villagers. He couldn’t be found and didn’t reply to messages. He might have swindled a few more 50 yuan notes.
Lu Yingjiu decided to go downstairs directly, intending to ask someone about the situation.
Just as he and Jing Xian arrived downstairs, they smelled a fragrance of tea.
Looking over, it turned out that the owner of the guesthouse was making tea.
The owner seemed to be quite leisurely, setting up a solid wood tea table in the hall. The table and chairs were a shiny brown-red color, a pot of boiling water was always on, and he would greet guests when they came. When he was free, he would make tea, sipping and dozing off.
Seeing the two coming downstairs, he greeted again, “Ah, two masters! Would you like to come over for a cup of tea?”
Jing Xian whispered to Lu Yingjiu, “His tea definitely won’t taste as good as mine. If you want to drink, I’ll make it for you when we go back to the room.”
“It’s a good opportunity to chat with others,” Lu Yingjiu gave him a helpless look, “It’s always good to inquire about the news. Why do you have to compete even for this?”
“Isn’t it because we’re about to get married, and I want to show off in front of you.” Jing Xian said naturally, “I’m still looking forward to our wedding night.”
Lu Yingjiu glared at him, “You’re always thinking about that.”
Jing Xian just laughed.
The two went over and sat opposite the owner.
The owner poured two cups of Da Hong Pao tea for them, and then said, “The two masters have traveled a long way to our village, and I don’t want to play the role of a junior in front of you either. Let’s not be reserved, just call me Xiao Tan.”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
The owner looked to be in his forties or fifties, his face a bit old, with wrinkles on his face that all squeezed together when he smiled.
At least a couple of rounds older than him.
In short, he really couldn’t call him “Xiao Tan”.
He found a more compromising way to address him. “Boss Tan, I wanted to ask about the specific situation of the ghost.”
“Oh, that,” Boss Tan sat up straight and wiped the water droplets off his hands with a towel, “You’ve seen the news report, right? That is, how she came to our village.”
“I know roughly.” Lu Yingjiu answered, “But you can tell me again.”
“Alright, I’ll make the long story short.” Boss Tan said, “It’s just that the family wanted their son to have offspring, so they bought a woman back – the son of that family is called Yan Hao, and the woman’s name is…”
He stopped speaking, looked around suspiciously, and lowered his voice, “Master, if I say her name out loud, will I be retaliated against? The people in our village are all afraid to say it.”
“It’s okay.” Lu Yingjiu said, “If you’re not at ease, you can write it down on a piece of paper.”
Boss Tan hesitated for a long time, but still dared not say it out loud.
In the end, he took a pen and paper and wrote a line in a crooked handwriting: [He Wanbai]
He pointed at it and said, “This is her name.”
After letting Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian see it, he quickly crossed out the name with a black pen, crumpled the paper into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.
It seemed that he was really scared.
Then Boss Tan cleared his throat and said, “Then I’ll continue. This Miss He, at that time the law was not perfect, and the village customs were indeed not good. She wanted to escape but couldn’t, and finally jumped into a well. A few days later, the whole family died.”
“At that time, I was working in another place and didn’t know the specific situation. It was a friend who told me later.”
“After that family died, the village was very scared. Several people said they could hear a woman’s crying at night. They thought that they couldn’t live like this, so they invited a famous exorcist from outside.”
Lu Yingjiu took a sip of tea.
The faint aroma of Da Hong Pao bloomed on the tip of his tongue, and the warm taste made people feel relaxed.
He casually asked, “Do you know who was invited?”
“I don’t know.” Boss Tan frowned deeply.
This made the wrinkles on his face more obvious, as if they were squeezed together. After a long time, he said, “It seems to be a Chu. I’ve heard that the Chu family is quite famous.”
“They are quite famous.” Lu Yingjiu replied.
He thought to himself, if it really was the Chu family, maybe he could still find someone now.
Boss Tan went on to say that after the exorcist surnamed Chu came, he stayed in their village for one or two years before leaving – he looked rich with his outfit, obviously from a wealthy family in a big city, which was incompatible with the economic situation in the village at that time.
Outsiders were not welcomed at that time. Of course, the local ruffians didn’t dare to rob him or steal his things rashly, for fear of being retaliated against by the exorcist’s “evil ways”.
No one knew what he was doing here, they just saw him running to the back mountain all day, often going for two or three days before coming back.
However, after the exorcist surnamed Chu came, the female ghost did indeed disappear.
The villagers thought that the ghost had been exorcised long ago.
They didn’t expect that after so many years, she would appear again.
Lu Yingjiu asked again, “What has the ghost done recently?”
“Alas,” Boss Tan sighed, “She hasn’t really killed anyone, she just goes around looking for people to tattoo.”
Lu Yingjiu: “Hm?”
“It’s literally tattooing,” Boss Tan said, “I heard that she worked in a tattoo shop before she was trafficked, so it’s her old line of work…”
Before he could finish his sentence, there was a sudden outcry outside the door.
Someone shouted, “Something’s happened!!”
Another person yelled, “Where are the masters?! Call them over quickly!”
Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian looked at each other, both put down their tea cups and went out to see what was happening.
Seeing that people had heard the cry for help and were running towards a nearby house, there was already a crowd of people at the door.
The crowd was bustling, and Lu Yingjiu vaguely saw Yao Gou’s plump figure.
The two of them went over.
The door of the house was wide open, and Yao Gou had already squeezed in first. There were many people, and Jing Xian walked in front of Lu Yingjiu, easily pushing people away, and pulled Lu Yingjiu in with one hand.
Lu Yingjiu was led by him, and he got in without any effort. He thought to himself that if Jing Xian was willing to squeeze into the supermarket, he would definitely be the nightmare of the supermarket aunties.
Once inside the house, they smelled a strong smell of blood.
A man was sitting under the bed in the bedroom, leaning against the wall, his face pale.
He was bare-chested, his face twisted in pain, and there was a pool of blood on the ground, slowly spreading.
The blood was all flowing from his right arm.
Yao Gou had already called for someone to get a few thin towels to wrap around his right arm, and then he kept slapping talismans on it through the towels.
The talismans had a cooling and hemostatic effect.
Despite this, the effect was far from enough, and blood kept gushing out from the wound, and the towels were all red.
Yao Gou was immediately sweating profusely, and hurriedly pressed more talismans on it. People next to him were also anxiously making phone calls, seeing if they could send him to the hospital.
Lu Yingjiu squatted down next to him, held Yao Gou’s hand that was taking out the talisman, and said, “Let me take a look.”
“Oh, oh, okay, okay,” Yao Gou hastily replied, “You look, you look”
Lu Yingjiu gently lifted a towel.
His movements were slow, but the towel still brought down a piece of rotten skin, causing the man to gasp in pain.
What came into view was swollen skin and a series of ghastly blue-black marks on top.
The blue-black color was like ink, seeming to form part of a pattern, like… a tattoo.
Lu Yingjiu continued to lift the towel piece by piece.
Then, the entire swollen arm appeared before him.
On the skin, the blue-black lines spread wildly, like some kind of malicious vine, stretching from the shoulder all the way to the wrist, drawing a vivid dragon.
The dragon’s head was facing his neck and head, its eyes wide open and its mouth wide open, as if it would pounce on him and bite his neck the next second.
This tattoo was filled with a sinister aura of Yin Qi. And unlike normal tattoos, the wound was like it had been cut directly with a knife, the lines so fine and detailed, the skin torn and flesh gaping, no wonder he was in such pain.
Lu Yingjiu’s face darkened slightly, he took out a talisman paper and gently pasted it on the man’s shoulder.
The effect was immediate.
A cool sensation spread from the talisman paper, covering the entire right arm, and the pain lightened instantly.
The blood that was originally gushing out now slowly seeped out.
The man’s face looked much better, he was panting heavily.
Lu Yingjiu looked back and asked, “Is there a car to take him to the hospital?”
“Yes, yes.” A person nodded repeatedly, “I have already called, the car is on its way.”
Lu Yingjiu then looked at the man and asked, “Can you recount what happened?”
The man took a few more breaths, accepted the water handed over by Yao Gou, drank most of the cup before he barely recovered, and began to speak, “I, I was originally taking a nap, but while I was sleeping, I felt a pain on my arm like a knife scraping.”
He shivered, “I really wanted to wake up, but my body was heavy, and I couldn’t open my eyes at all!”
Lu Yingjiu thought to himself, it sounds like he was haunted by a fierce ghost, and then had sleep paralysis.
“The knife kept scraping on my body!” The man’s face turned even paler, “I don’t know how long it took, at least an hour or two, it scraped over my flesh one stroke at a time! My flesh was almost shredded by it! It was too terrifying, I would rather die than experience it again!”
With this agitation, the blood accelerated its seepage, flowing down in a continuous stream.
Lu Yingjiu gently pressed him down and said, “Calm down, it’s okay, she won’t dare to come over with us here.”
His calm tone indeed made the man feel a bit more settled.
However, recalling the terrifying feeling of being tortured by a knife, the man couldn’t help but shiver. Even now, he didn’t dare to look at his bloody right arm, fearing that he would faint at the sight.
Lu Yingjiu asked again, “Do you have any connection with her? Or have you encountered anything unclean these days? Walking at night or looking in the mirror at midnight could all be possibilities.”
At these words, a subtle expression appeared on the man’s face.
But the next second, he shouted, “Absolutely not! Why me out of so many people?! You masters must think of a way, if this continues, everyone in the village will be in danger!”
Hearing this, the faces of the people around changed.
“You’re lying.”
At this statement, the man instinctively retorted, “How could I…”
As he looked up, he met Jing Xian’s gaze.
Jing Xian, who was originally watching the excitement from the side, casually made a comment. Each word was filled with indifference, yet it made people feel like he was stating a fact.
The man wanted to say more, but when he met Jing Xian’s gaze, he felt a chill in his heart, as if there was a sharp knife hanging over him. He immediately fell silent, his mouth tightly closed.
Yao Gou clapped his hands and said, “Ah! Speaking of this, I remember now, I knew your face looked familiar! Weren’t you in the news back then!”
The man shrank back a bit.
Yao Gou became more excited as he spoke, “I take my work very seriously, I’ve read all the information! You were clearly close to the victim’s family – their son was called Yan Hao, right? You were Yan Hao’s good brother. I remember the report said that it was you who initially suggested they buy a wife!”
People around started whispering.
“Is that true?”
“I think so, I remember my brother saying that he was indeed close to Yan Hao.”
“Ah, so it was his idea, no wonder he’s being retaliated against now…”
The man’s face turned even paler.
After a long while, he struggled to say, “She’s now threatening the entire village! A fierce ghost has no reason! She’s gone mad!”
Lu Yingjiu said, “You made an academic mistake. In fact, many fierce ghosts do have reason, and there are quite a few who specifically pick people to retaliate against…”
The man was silenced by his words, his mouth opening and closing, like a fish that had been hit in a vital spot, and in the end, he didn’t say a word.
Outside the house, there was a piercing sound of an ambulance. He heard it and seemed to have grasped a lifeline, “Quick, quick, quick! Let me get in the car! Damn it, I’m not staying in this village anymore! It’s really bad luck! Hey, you guys, since you’ve taken the money, hurry up and get rid of the ghost! Stop talking nonsense!”
After saying that, he stood up cursing and swearing, “All of you be careful! She might come to your house tonight!”
No one came to help him, and he felt a bit awkward, so he leaned against the wall and walked outside.
****
After Yao Gou’s inquiries, Lu Yingjiu learned that the previous victim who was forcibly tattooed was a neighbor of Yan Hao’s family.
Similar to the man just now, the neighbor had a tiger cut out on his back with a knife, and he was in so much pain that he had to go to the hospital and had been lying there for several days.
Upon further investigation, it turned out that when He Wanbai tried to escape years ago, she was seen by that neighbor. The neighbor told Yan Hao, and He Wanbai failed to escape and was caught again.
After asking enough questions, the three of them returned to the guest house.
After Boss Tan poured tea for the three of them and took a phone call, he went to get busy.
Lu Yingjiu sat at the table, took a sip of tea, and said, “It seems that she is just retaliating specifically. And she doesn’t hit hard, she doesn’t have a killing intent, mainly torture.”
“So,” Yao Gou thought for a moment, “She’s a good ghost, we can ignore her, just take the money and leave.”
Lu Yingjiu laughed, “It’s not that simple. One, after she finishes retaliating against her enemies, she might shift her target and harm other villagers, we can’t risk other people’s safety; two, ghosts don’t belong here, we still have to send her to the ghost realm.”
Jing Xian also said, “No, we can’t ignore her.”
Lu Yingjiu was somewhat surprised.
Most of the time, when he was solving supernatural cases, Jing Xian was just hanging around.
Just like just now, while he was focusing on the victim’s arm, Jing Xian was focusing on him, the division of labor was clear – anyway, for Jing Xian, these ghosts were nothing, if it weren’t for Lu Yingjiu not letting him act rashly, he would have flattened the mountain long ago, and then continued to spend the honeymoon with Lu Yingjiu.
So this was the first time he heard Jing Xian express his opinion so firmly on a case.
Could it be that this case was special?
As Lu Yingjiu was guessing, he heard Jing Xian continue, “How can we ignore her, we still have a wedding to hold. The wedding is absolutely not to be canceled, we’ve already agreed.”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Jing Xian was indeed Jing Xian.
“Oh. Both masters make sense, Yao is very impressed and has learned a lot.” Yao Gou thought for a moment, “So, we have to do as you said, we still have to hold that wedding! Lure her out!”
He scratched his head and said, “Ah, I’ve already taken a walk around the back mountain, and found the wedding hall. Everything is ready but the favorable situation, just waiting for you two to get ready and then get married!”
“How can there be a wedding hall on the back mountain?” Lu Yingjiu asked.
“Ah, it’s a long story, you just come with me and see, you’ll know when you see it.” Yao Gou finished his tea and stood up, “Come on, let’s go now!”
Yao Gou was full of energy.
Perhaps it was because the villagers gave him too much money, he simply couldn’t refuse, embodying the phrase “money makes the world go round”.
He hummed a song all the way, leading Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian towards the back mountain.
Yao Gou was quite happy.
Jing Xian was also quite happy.
Although Jing Xian didn’t show any expression all the way, Lu Yingjiu somehow could accurately judge Jing Xian’s mood from his expressionless handsome face.
…Moreover, Jing Xian, not knowing what he was thinking, would unconsciously smile whenever he made eye contact with Lu Yingjiu.
Lu Yingjiu touched his forehead and said to him, “Are you really that happy, it’s not like we haven’t been married before…”
“How can it be the same,” Jing Xian immediately retorted, “Last time I didn’t even show up, just a ghost shadow came out and reluctantly bowed with you, you didn’t even see it.”
Lu Yingjiu really didn’t see it at the time.
But the priestess and the master of ceremonies did see it – that’s why they were scared by Jing Xian.
Lu Yingjiu said, “You said you were in a deep sleep for more than ten years.”
“Yes,” Jing Xian said, “due to some… irresistible force.”
“Irresistible force?” Lu Yingjiu thought for a moment, “Were you injured?”
According to his understanding of ghosts, long periods of sleep were usually caused by injuries. People need to rest in bed when they are sick or injured, and ghosts also need to recuperate.
“It’s a small matter, a small matter,” Jing Xian obviously didn’t want to talk about this topic, and vaguely passed it over, “Anyway, I slept for a while, and then woke up at the wedding.”
Lu Yingjiu found it funny, “How can you wake up in the middle of your sleep, and how did you know I was getting married?”
“That’s called heart-to-heart connection,” Jing Xian said, “What if that master really brought a ghost to you and you married her, I would be pissed off. So I was sleeping, and suddenly I felt uncomfortable all over – the kind of discomfort when your wife is about to be taken away, and then I was awakened by anger.”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He never expected this reason.
Jing Xian woke up from his deep sleep in shock, surprisingly awakened by anger, just to marry him, which was commendable.
Jing Xian continued, “After being awakened by anger, didn’t I come to find you? Unfortunately, I could only send a wisp of residual soul to the human world, and after paying respects with you, the residual soul dissipated.”
He looked around the entire village again, “Although this is a fake wedding, it can make up for it for the time being. After we have time, I will definitely give you a luxurious wedding – hey, what do you think, where should we make up for our wedding, in the human world or the ghost world? How about holding one in both places? Invite all the people and ghosts we know, the more lively the better.”
Lu Yingjiu said, “There might be some hope in the human world. As for the ghost world, you can only wait until I’m buried…”
“Okay, then you’ll have a wedding before and after your death,” Jing Xian agreed readily, “I’ll wait for you to die.”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
No matter how he heard it, he felt that something was wrong with this sentence.
But when he thought about what Jing Xian had said, he found it even stranger.
At that time, Jing Xian could only send a wisp of soul to the human world, and it only lasted for a few seconds.
It must have been a very serious injury that Jing Xian suffered.
Lu Yingjiu thought that if he had a chance, he would have to ask him about the specifics. What a terrible thing it must have been to hurt Jing Xian like that.
He turned his head.
Just right, he made eye contact with Jing Xian again.
Jing Xian curled his lips.
To others, this smile would seem wicked and wild, full of the charm of a domineering boss, and could easily make the cover of a magazine. But no matter how Lu Yingjiu looked at it, he felt something was wrong.
He asked, “Why are you smiling like that?”
Jing Xian replied, “I’m thinking, do we have a chance for a wedding night this time, I have a lot of things I want to show you, the kind that can be shown slowly all night…”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Lu Yingjiu said, “You really can’t say anything nice.”
Jing Xian said, “Although I think you’re scolding me as a dog, as long as you kiss me, I don’t mind.”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Jing Xian actually reacted! He was careless, it seems that Jing Xian has been seriously studying the slang of the human world.
Jing Xian continued to propose, “What do you think, isn’t this deal very profitable?”
“Okay, okay,” Lu Yingjiu appeased him, “I’ll kiss you later, I’ll kiss you later, first take your hand off my waist.”
Lentamente ganhando espaço…. 🤭