Chapter 31: The Ghost Master (Part 4)

Since Jiang Si was the one asking for help, it wouldn’t be right to take Shen Hu’s money.

He packed a lot of gold and silver ingots plus paper money for Shen Hu—not the type produced by the Hell Bank.

What many people didn’t know was that there were rules to choosing paper money. For burning to deceased souls, Hell Bank notes and punched yellow paper money were fine; if worshipping deities and big shots, it was best to choose gold and silver paper to offer to the gods; if it was specifically for bribing Underworld Enforcers, gold and silver ingots were best.

Punched paper money was called “Stream Money” (Xi Qian), divided into six or nine holes, equivalent to small change in the human world. But money specifically used to bribe Underworld Enforcers was called “Outer Treasury Money” (Wai Ku Qian), and using hard currency like gold and silver ingots was best—after all, it looked impressive when taken out.

Shen Hu lifted the weight of the large bag and thanked him solemnly, “Many thanks, little friend.”

“You’re too polite.” Jiang Si didn’t care about these things; he could just make more anyway.

Shen Hu didn’t forget to take the Teng worm with him before leaving.

Just as his front foot left, Hai Di’s back foot drifted quietly back into the shop. Smelling the scent of Taoist incense, he couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

“That mage came again?”

He thought Jiang Si was still figuring out ways for his soul to return early, and felt somewhat unhappy.

“Just left,” Jiang Si said, looking him over. “Why have you been running out so much lately? Is something up?”

“Nothing.” Hai Di got a headache thinking about how Xiao Fengxian had dragged him to catch up on various storybooks recently. And Bai Qi-niang, a little snake who just got her title and form, felt she had read enough stories of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies to volunteer courageously as a military advisor to strategize for him.

Learn what from her?

Kidnap the person directly and force a marriage ceremony?

Hai Di wouldn’t say these things even if beaten to death. Facing Jiang Si’s confused gaze, he shook his head firmly. “I’m fine.”

“?” Jiang Si had originally asked casually, but seeing this attitude, he immediately felt suspicious. With a turn of thought, a mischievous idea formed.

The next second, he clutched his arm and hissed, complaining, “You weren’t there just now so you didn’t see that Teng worm suddenly attack people. Luckily I was quick and blocked it—”

Before he finished speaking, a large, pale hand was placed on the arm he was clutching. Green-gray veins showed through the skin, looking freezing cold just by sight.

“Let me see,” Hai Di said directly.

Jiang Si was stunned; he didn’t expect him to be so anxious. Caught off guard, his sleeve was lifted. Under the fabric was naturally a clean, smooth arm. Seeing no wound as imagined, Hai Di’s moving fingers froze, his gaze sinking as it met Jiang Si’s.

“…I didn’t say I was injured.” Jiang Si sounded righteous. “With Shen Hu here, even if the Teng worm attacked, it couldn’t hurt me.”

His words were full of trust in Shen Hu. Hearing this, Hai Di sneered internally—they’ve only known each other for a few days…

Concerned about the cold war state they had just ended, Hai Di didn’t say anything nasty. But being a ghost without memories, he couldn’t hide his thoughts at all. He was already cold all over; with his face darkening further, it was no different from a biting winter wind on a cloudy day.

“What I wanted to say is that I got some inspiration from it just now, so I’ll be busy again.” Jiang Si silently wrapped his clothes tighter, touched the tip of his nose, and explained, “Why are you so agitated?”

“I’m not.”

“Tsk, I really should get a Bagua mirror for you to look at yourself.” Jiang Si said, “I could dip a brush in ink and write directly on your face.”

“…” Hai Di let go, not wanting to respond to his teasing.

But Jiang Si just wouldn’t let him off. Taking advantage of their close proximity, he reached out and pinched Hai Di’s face, saying seriously, “There are words on your face, you know that?”

Hai Di was suspicious. “What?”

“I’m acting cool.” As soon as Jiang Si said it, Hai Di laughed out of anger. Not wanting to say a single word, he turned his head and left.

…

Let’s not mention how Shen Hu discussed capturing the escaped evil ghost with the Underworld Enforcers after he returned. Recently, Rong City hadn’t been peaceful, and Ning City, thousands of miles away, wasn’t peaceful either.

News of the accident in the Hai family spread like wildfire, becoming a hot topic in elite circles.

Before, when two people met, they would first exchange pleasantries: “Have you had lunch?”

Now, the topic upon meeting became: “Have you gone to the hospital to visit?”

More and more people turned their eyes to the hospital, secretly expecting to watch a rich family drama: the sole heir lying in a coma on a hospital bed, leaving the vast family business to who knows which branch relative.

Guessing didn’t break the law, so all kinds of remarks spread convincingly. They even made up a story about the Hai family’s young master being plotted against by an illegitimate child from nowhere.

The central figure of the public opinion vortex was still sleeping in a bed in a sanatorium. A pile of instruments like oxygen concentrators and ECG monitors ran continuously, beeping and ticking.

Long-term bed rest made his already structured face even sharper. From the brow bone to the jaw, every part was cold and hard as if cut by straight lines. Lying there motionless, he was a perfect piece of ancient Greek human sculpture.

After gazing at the hospital bed through the window for a long time, Mrs. Hai asked in a deep voice, “How is my son’s condition recently?”

“Young Master Hai’s condition is fair. All bodily organs are functioning normally; there are no major issues.” The doctor answered cautiously, taking a moment to glance at this mother. She wore a haute couture women’s suit dress, her long hair pinned behind her head, with exquisite makeup on her face—an image of a capable iron lady, showing no visible worry for her son’s coma.

But saying she wasn’t worried at all wasn’t right either; Mrs. Hai would come to the hospital to take a look every day, no matter how late.

The doctor couldn’t understand this mother-son relationship, so he simply stopped thinking about it and waited quietly for her to speak.

“That’s good…” Mrs. Hai said calmly, her hand clutching her bag tightly. It had been a month. If Hai Di still didn’t wake up…

No, it’s not like this situation hasn’t happened before. He woke up in the end, didn’t he?

She told herself to be calm and handle work matters for him before Hai Di woke up, including those nasty rumors outside.

What do they mean by changing the heir?

Mrs. Hai sneered. She only had this one son. Without her nod, even if she donated all the property, she wouldn’t give it to anyone else.

As usual, she instructed the doctor, “Observe his condition closely. Report to me immediately if anything is wrong.”

Just after returning home from the hospital, before Mrs. Hai could contact her husband, she received a call from the Celestial Masters Association in Forty-Nine City (Beijing). The caller was surnamed Wei, the vice president of the association.

“Hello, Mrs. Hai.”

“President Wei, calling so late, did something happen to my son?” Mrs. Hai looked nervous.

“There is a situation,” President Wei said. “I divined for your noble son these past few days and discovered a trace of anomaly.”

Mrs. Hai asked hoarsely, “Is it good or…”

“Hard to say. It could be hanging by a thread, or it could be hitting rock bottom and bouncing back,” President Wei said. “Pay close attention to his condition recently. If there is a glimmer of life, it will be in these few days. If he doesn’t wake up during this time, then I can only ask you to accept my condolences.”

“Is there really no other way?” Mrs. Hai found it hard to accept, her hand holding the phone trembling uncontrollably. Her lips, painted with lipstick, pressed tightly together, forcing back a sob.

“Everyone has their own fate; it cannot be forced. Mrs. Hai, I told you long ago. Your noble son is twenty-six now; this is destined to be a life-and-death tribulation. If he can pass it, he will be safe and sound with no future troubles.”

He didn’t say the rest, but both understood. After Mrs. Hai hung up, she sat motionless in the shadows of the living room lamp until broad daylight, the inching sunlight moving across her face like the passage of time.

Also illuminated by the sunlight was Jiang Si. He stood under a banyan tree, the spots of light distorting on his face. Only the orange-red transition where light met shadow made him look somewhat alive.

“Why did I have to come again?” Jiang Si’s half-dead pale face carried confusion. Staying up late yesterday to write a script, he hadn’t even slept four hours before being called to the Taoist temple by Shen Hu. At this moment, he had the urge to kill.

Not far from them was the temple’s central Bagua altar, laden with many offerings. More than a dozen Taoist priests bustled back and forth, each with the same tense expression, revealing an atmosphere so taut it could snap at any moment.

“Thanks for your trouble. I invited you here because there’s something to discuss. We plan to lure the evil ghost into the temple so all fellow Daoists can slay it together, saving it from harming the Yin and Yang worlds any further,” Shen Hu explained.

“Oh, okay.” Jiang Si was indifferent. “So my meaning here is?”

“Has anyone ever told you that your fate pattern (Ming Ge) is very special?” Shen Hu changed the subject, looking profound.

“Quite a few people have said I’m good-looking,” Jiang Si affirmed. “Looks count as a type of fate, right?”

“…I’m referring to your Ba Zi (Eight Characters/Birth Chart). Your Ba Zi is light and belongs to Yin; your Yang fire cannot suppress the Yin energy, making you easily possessed by ghosts and monsters. Plus, your eyes can communicate with Yin and Yang… Your family must have worried a lot about this when you were young, right?”

Jiang Si naturally knew this. Since childhood, he heard his family say he attracted ghosts and monsters, who all wanted to swallow him whole like Tang Monk’s meat. Later, as he grew up, his Yang energy increased, and thanks to his grandfather, he was less and less troubled by his fate.

“What do you mean?” Jiang Si crossed his arms and lowered his brows slightly to look at him.

“That evil ghost was enslaved by the Ghost Master for years. To lie dormant for so long before seizing the chance to strike back and kill its master, it must have a bigger plot. I suspect it wants to borrow a life.”

“Borrow a life?” Jiang Si smiled. “Borrow a corpse to return the soul, you mean?” How euphemistic.

“Cough.” Shen Hu was a bit embarrassed and nodded. Seeing him like this, Jiang Si was speechless. “So you want me to be the bait? To lure it into the trap?”

“Little friend is smart.”

“Your intentions are obvious to everyone…” Jiang Si sneered. “How do you know it will come for me? What if it runs somewhere else? What if it doesn’t fancy me?”

“It won’t.” Shen Hu shook his head. “According to our latest discovery, the evil ghost is still in Rong City.” As he spoke, he took out a round plate engraved with North and South pole directions, but with a screen like a mobile phone in the middle. Tapped by Shen Hu, it lit up, displaying a data chart.

“This is the latest detector developed by our association. It can detect the Yin energy values of the entire city. Rong City is obviously much higher than other areas. As for whether it fancies you… you may not know yet, but you are already famous in Rong City’s underworld. The news of you using ghosts as actors to make viral videos has long spread. Now many ghosts want to leech a cameo to act.”

“Huh?”

Hearing he was to be bait, Jiang Si didn’t react much, but seeing this thing, he truly woke up. His spirit was suddenly roused, shocked on the spot: “…Leaving acting aside for now, you guys are using such high-tech stuff to catch ghosts?”

“Metaphysics must also advance with the times.” Shen Hu took it for granted. “Everything is in absolute motion and relative stillness. Science is developing, and our metaphysics cannot fall behind; only then can we maintain a static equilibrium.”

Fine, they study philosophy too…

Jiang Si had too many complaints to voice. He looked curiously at the instrument for a good while and asked, “Is this data updated in real-time?” He sharply noticed the date at the top, precise to the minute.

“This is networked nationwide,” Shen Hu introduced. “But it’s still a first-generation product and can only monitor data over a large range. With more research later, maybe it can completely replace the compass.”

Jiang Si admired it and asked him, “Is there a machine that can automatically generate money?”

“…No.” Shen Hu shook his head. Jiang Si instantly lost interest. After discussing specific plans for a bit longer, he left.

By evening, the temperature had dropped significantly. Walking under the rustling sycamore trees, Jiang Si felt even sleepier. Yawning several times in a row, he finally saw his shop’s sign.

Before he reached the door, a rubber ball landed at his feet. He looked up to see a child in a blue jacket looking over timidly, two big dark eyes unblinking, like two large, round grapes embedded in a fair, tender face.

Seeing him, Jiang Si’s mouth watered, missing the crisp sweetness of grapes a little.

The child was the grandson of Auntie Zhang next door, barely reaching Jiang Si’s thigh height, extremely cute with those watery eyes.

Jiang Si was always lenient toward human cubs. He bent down to pick up the ball and struck up a conversation good-naturedly: “Hello there, little friend, how old are you?”

Hearing the voice, the child pursed his lips and suddenly burst into tears. He ran back to Auntie Zhang’s shop, pulling at Auntie Zhang who was sitting in front of the door, crying and shouting: “Grandma, there’s a monster———— Waaah—— so scary——”

Hearing his words clearly, Jiang Si stood frozen on the spot, doubting life. “Are the aesthetic differences of children so big nowadays?”

Refusing to believe it, he looked up towards the end of the intersection. The setting sun hung obliquely, dyeing the layers of forest, everything bathed in red light.

Dusk was also the time when demons met; he must have seen something unclean and got scared. Jiang Si firmly believed this.

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