Part 3
Shi Danxing swallowed hard with difficulty and gave an awkward smile. “Mine is due to the timing—”
Jiang Si remained non-committal. He nodded and walked to the wall, pulling open the curtains. Sunlight flooded into the shop instantly.
He said coldly, “Then please seek a higher master elsewhere.”
“Don’t—we’ve come all this way with such difficulty.” Sun Yu said anxiously, playing mediator between the two. Seeing Jiang Si’s hardened attitude, he urged Shi Danxing, “Old Shi, it’s already come to this. What is there that you can’t say?”
“Hurry up and say it! How can Boss Jiang help you if you don’t speak, huh? Even if you don’t care about your own life, what about your wife? She’s been with you for over a decade. Now that you’ve finally achieved success and the good days have just begun, she’s met with this disaster. Isn’t it heartbreaking?!”
“…” Shi Danxing clutched his robe tightly, not daring to let a single ray of light in. It was as if letting the light in would completely expose his unsightly and dark thoughts.
Under Jiang Si’s mocking gaze and Sun Yu’s constant urging, he finally spoke after a long silence.
“I… I did do something.” He spoke with difficulty and then immediately tried to remedy it. “But I truly never expected it to turn out like this. I didn’t mean it.”
“What did you do?” Sun Yu had a gut feeling it wasn’t anything good.
Shi Danxing whispered, “I borrowed some life.”
“What?” His voice was too low; Sun Yu couldn’t hear him at all. He shouted impatiently, “Ai-ya, speak louder!”
“I sought someone to borrow life—”
Shi Danxing repeated himself. This time, Sun Yu heard him clearly. He could hardly believe his ears. Although he didn’t understand the intricacies of such matters, just hearing it made him realize it definitely wasn’t anything good.
Jiang Si finished his sentence for him. “The large-scale placement of soul-calling banners outside was your doing, right? Under the guise of sponsorship, you placed those things openly among crowds to take the opportunity to siphon their lifespans. From whom did you learn this method?”
When he saw the soul-calling banners on the lanterns back then, Jiang Si had only been puzzled and hadn’t thought of their use. After returning, he had enlarged the photos he took during his free time, and only then did he discover the secret. Soul-calling banners alone wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the patterns on them were precisely a type of sacrificial scripture.
To ensure he hadn’t misremembered, he had specifically contacted a friend who did cultural relic research at a museum in the Southwest. It was confirmed that those were patterns from artifacts unearthed there a few years ago.
Those artifacts were burial objects from thousands of years ago. When they were first unearthed, because their dangers weren’t known, several archaeological experts lost their lives. Later, they used special fabric to cover them so they wouldn’t be exposed to the air and strictly prohibited ordinary people from approaching, which temporarily solved the issue.
Shi Danxing only knew this method could extend his life; he didn’t know the specifics. When asked by Jiang Si, he only said dully, “It was that Master Wei. I don’t know where he went.”
Jiang Si said, “No wonder you were so at ease letting your wife use the talisman water later. It turns out you had already experienced the benefits of it first and trusted Master Wei’s methods.”
“I know I was wrong. I’ll have someone take them all down the moment I get back.” Shi Danxing guaranteed hurriedly. Having been exposed to this extent by Jiang Si, he didn’t dare have any more doubts and was completely convinced of his ability.
Jiang Si didn’t agree immediately. He took the man’s contact information and only said he would be in touch when he had time, telling him to go back and wait.
Before they left, he tossed over two bundles of incense and candles, telling Shi Danxing to take them back and light some to smoke himself if his condition worsened.
Shi Danxing was overjoyed and hurriedly took them, offering his thanks.
Jiang Si arched an eyebrow and looked at him. “That will be fifty thousand yuan in total. Which of you is paying?”
“…”
It wasn’t convenient for Shi Danxing to take out his phone, so Sun Yu could only pay for him first. He wondered in his heart what kind of incense could be so expensive.
Jiang Si saw through his thoughts and said, “For something that can save his life, is fifty thousand considered a lot?”
Sun Yu smiled sheepishly and didn’t dare say more.
After watching the two of them leave the shop, Jiang Si looked down and pinched the face of a paper effigy, straightening it. He muttered to himself, “Tell me, how can human hearts be so wicked?”
For the sake of his own selfish desires, he had performed a ritual to borrow life in a place with the highest foot traffic, showing absolutely no regard for the lives of innocent people.
Later, he recounted the matter to Hai Di. Facing a table full of delicacies, he had no appetite. He propped his chin on his hand and said gloomily, “Sometimes I really want to just strangle these people one by one. It’s infuriating just looking at them.”
Hai Di felt helpless. He placed a piece of fish on Jiang Si’s plate. “Don’t get yourself worked up before they even face their retribution. Come, eat something.”
“I asked the owner of this shop to save a Leopard Coral Grouper. This fish tastes best steamed; give it a try.”
Jiang Si picked up a piece and put it in his mouth. Without any unnecessary spices, it melted in his mouth, tasting incredibly fresh and sweet.
There was also a dish of the chef’s secret sauce on the side. Dipping it in a bit of sauce made the flavor even more complex.
“I really don’t want to save him.” Jiang Si poked at the fish forcefully, his sharp chopsticks piercing right through the skin, causing the smooth flesh to fall apart.
“Then don’t save him.” Hai Di said. “Whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with you.”
“But I’m curious about who the person behind the scenes is.” Jiang Si sighed. “You probably don’t know, but the number of people in the entire country who recognize the patterns on those soul-calling banners can be counted on one hand.”
“I found out by chance. I was working on a project with my teacher at the time and went to the Southwest for field research. I happened to stumble upon the excavation of those relics. At the time, I thought they were exceptionally beautiful, so I memorized the patterns. But before the good news could spread, it was suppressed by the authorities. They even sent armed forces to transport them away for separate storage.”
“Only after leaving the Southwest did I hear that on the night the relics were unearthed, two archaeological experts died suddenly in their rooms.”
Seeing him get fired up as he spoke, Hai Di couldn’t help but chuckle. “Then go and have a look.”
“Mm.” Jiang Si nodded. “I won’t take his money, so there won’t be any karmic involvement. Even if he can’t be saved, it has nothing to do with me.”
“But aren’t you supposed to be filming?” Hai Di reminded him. “Do you have time?”
“Wait for Wang Zhao to arrive.” Jiang Si picked up his cup and took a sip of clear tea. “I need to rest. I’m getting older; I really can’t work this hard anymore.”
After he finished speaking, he felt something was slightly off with his words. He glanced at Hai Di and added with a smile, “I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Mm. I can work.” Hai Di said flatly.
“…” Jiang Si picked up his cup and took another sip of water, trying to suppress the heat in his face.
However, although Jiang Si’s plan sounded good, once he actually arrived at Shi Danxing’s home, he felt he had underestimated the power of the things on the man’s body.
To block out the light, Shi Danxing had actually had the entire villa covered so tightly with blackout cloth that not even a breath of wind could get in. Stepping inside felt like entering a completely sealed box.
Forget about light; there wasn’t even a trace of air circulation. Moreover, perhaps due to the bodies of the Shi couple, the entire interior was permeated with an incredibly oppressive aura of death.
“How long has your house been like this?”
Once the front door was closed, Shi Danxing personally turned on the lights. Jiang Si scanned the surroundings. He saw no one else besides Shi Danxing and his wife upstairs. Normally, a tycoon as wealthy as him should have, if not dozens of servants, at least a maid for cleaning and cooking, and a driver.
“About a month now.” Shi Danxing couldn’t remember clearly himself. “Since my physical condition worsened, I’ve rarely gone out except to the hospital.”
Jiang Si turned his head to look at him. “What about your business?”
Shi Danxing gave a bitter smile. “How can business be more important than life? Besides, even if I don’t go, there are managers and other vice presidents. It’s not like the company will collapse just because I’m not there, right? If that were the case, would the people I spend so much money on every year be useless?”
Jiang Si nodded. “Where is your wife? Is it convenient for me to see her?”
“It is.” Shi Danxing hurriedly led Jiang Si upstairs. “My wife… her situation is not very good. She might be a bit wary of people; please bear with her.”
Jiang Si didn’t speak. They reached the master bedroom door on the second-floor gallery.
As soon as the door was pushed open, a fishy, acidic, and pungent smell wafted out. The sickly sweet scent of rotting flesh alone felt as if one’s body were coated in spoiled rice milk that had been left open for over a month in the height of summer—thick, sticky, and so viscous that opening one’s palm after touching it would pull long strands.
He rubbed the tip of his nose, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Seeing this, Shi Danxing said awkwardly, “I’m sorry. Her condition is truly severe, and I haven’t been able to clean her up.”
“It’s fine.” Jiang Si was about to enter the room.
Shi Danxing stepped in ahead of him. With a click, he turned on the lights.
Jiang Si was stunned. The moment the light came on, a cup was hurled toward the door.
A woman hidden under the blankets shrieked with a voice that sounded like it was leaking air: “Get out—everyone get out—”
As she spoke, her hair trembled like withered grass. This also allowed Jiang Si to see her exposed skin, causing him to catch his breath instantly.
The skin all over the woman’s body was ulcerated, falling off bit by bit to reveal the red flesh beneath. If it were just ulcerated skin, it might have been manageable, but her face was covered in tumors even larger than the ones on Shi Danxing. As her body shook, the tumors hung down like sacs filled with liquid, trembling.
It seemed as though even a slight prick with a needle would cause the foul-smelling pus inside to spray out.
Jiang Si endured the visual discomfort and carefully examined her face. He discovered that after looking for a while, the tumors actually looked more like small, swollen human faces.
They were packed densely around Mrs. Shi’s features, making her already small features even less noticeable. Without looking closely, one couldn’t even see her eyes or nose.
Translator’s Note:
Hi everyone! Thanks for reading. This chapter starts getting into the “horror” part of the novel. The “Leopard Coral Grouper” (东星斑) mentioned is a very prized fish in Cantonese cuisine. Also, the term “Gu” (蛊) refers to a legendary venomous insect used in Chinese sorcery.
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