The one outside wasn’t Lou Guangrui. The Heavenly Master didn’t need to break his taboos and interfere in mortal affairs; whoever had come was worse than Lou Guangrui.
At least Lou Guangrui was human, and Gu Daosheng wouldn’t be at a disadvantage if he had to fight.
Besides, Lou Guangrui didn’t want his life right now; he still had three good years to live.
The word “stepmother,” spoken with such obvious intimacy, echoed through the ink-black night. It seemed to push aside the layers upon layers of talisman paper on the wall and drill straight into Gu Daosheng’s ears, sending a wave of goosebumps erupting all over his body.
The word struck a raw nerve.
“Why… won’t… you… open… the… door?”
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The knocking sounded the same each time, a cold, mechanical thud that echoed through the night, filling it with an eerie, bone-chilling dread.
Gu Daosheng wanted to hide, but he hadn’t expected Lou Hongchen to be the one here. His body froze, and he stood stupidly behind the door, staring fixedly at the dark wood.
As the knocks sounded, the thin door seemed to vibrate, rustling like a sheet of paper.
“Stepmother, you said the other day that you and I… are stepson and stepmother… If you won’t be my Sheng Sheng, then you can just be my stepmother. Heh heh…” Lou Hongchen’s voice, filled with a chilling quality, was as hair-raising as the knocking. The talisman papers on the door remained still, yet his yin energy seemed to crawl through the narrow gap beneath the door.
“Stepmother, I’ve come to find you… Why won’t you open the door for me?”
A frigid wind brushed across the floor, swirling nonexistent dust like an infinitely stretching hand, ready to seize anything in its path.
A sudden chill crept up Gu Daosheng’s ankle. For a fleeting moment, the ghostly aura seemed to solidify into a black iron hand, attempting to grasp his slender ankle. He snapped out of his trance and leaped away, retreating several steps.
He dared not even breathe heavily, taking tiny, shallow sips of air before letting them out just as slowly, his chest aching from the effort.
What should I do? he panicked. He had never faced a situation like this. In a futile gesture, he drew several offensive talismans, but they were no more effective than the ones already plastered on the wall.
If the talismans outside were useless against Lou Hongchen, the ones in his hand would be just as futile.
It’s just instinct, he realized. Clinging to the skills I have, desperate for some semblance of comfort.
The talismans in his hand fluttered without a breeze, and Gu Daosheng felt a sudden chill on his wrist. At first, he thought he was so terrified that his own body temperature had dropped. But when he felt the cold touch move and gently take his hand, he nearly jumped out of his skin. His first instinct wasn’t to shake it off; he was too afraid of provoking the vengeful ghost, but to glare down.
…He nearly died of fright. It was just Nan Ying, who had returned.
Nan Ying had just scurried off to check if the secret passage actually existed. He was about to return and report his findings when he heard three knocks on the door. He knew exactly what that meant.
Though a mere little ghost, he was fiercely loyal. Instead of fleeing, he immediately dissolved into two wisps of smoke and drifted back to Gu Daosheng’s side, his gaze fixed sternly on the door.
He grabbed Gu Daosheng’s hand and shrank back, instinctively trying to hide behind him for courage. Yet, his other hand gripped the leather whip as if it were a weapon capable of vanquishing evil spirits. His eyes widened, making him look as if he feared neither heaven, earth, nor ghosts, as if he were the one bolstering Gu Daosheng’s courage.
Gu Daosheng’s courage did indeed swell by a fraction. He subconsciously squeezed Nan Ying’s hand and took a deep breath.
In a flash of inspiration, he cast a talisman toward the upstairs bedroom. Though he remained standing in the downstairs living room, his voice seemed to emanate from the bedroom above. The sound, muffled by the distance and the thickness of the walls, made the scattered response sound incredibly convincing: “Who is it? Hongchen, is that you?”
“I was just about to get dressed for bed. I’m putting my clothes on now and will be down to open the door in a moment. Just wait a bit.”
The ten thousand talisman papers had all proven useless. Gu Daosheng’s heart sank halfway, leaving him with no choice but to stall for time.
He wondered if Lou Guangrui was still coming.
Cangtian, please hurry up!
Let the father and son fight it out. Don’t drag him into this.
Lou Hongchen stopped knocking. His reply was curt and decisive: “Alright.”
“Great. I, I’ll wait for you.”
Seeing that Lou Hongchen truly believed he was upstairs, Gu Daosheng breathed a sigh of relief. He felt a sudden urge to thank his younger self.
Zhuang Zheng had always lectured Gu Daosheng on the importance of composure for a Heavenly Master. He insisted that one couldn’t be too flighty, for how else could they calmly capture ghosts? The first step toward composure was learning to meditate. In the beginning, Gu Daosheng was locked in his room, forced to sit for an entire day.
What seven- or eight-year-old could sit still like that? Gu Daosheng certainly couldn’t. Every few minutes, he’d be desperate to get out. Zhuang Zheng, of course, wouldn’t indulge him. Every ten minutes or so, he’d ask from outside if Gu Daosheng was practicing properly. Gu Daosheng would reply with a listless “Yes.” Eventually, he got so annoyed by the constant questioning that he just stopped talking altogether.
But that’s when an invisible little pebble would bounce off the window, hop through the crack, and strike Gu Daosheng in the back, forcing him to focus.
Later, in order to go out and play, Gu Daosheng relentlessly practiced drawing talismans until he created a new kind: the “Sound Retention” Talisman. It allowed him to leave his voice behind in the room. Even if he’d already slipped out the window and traveled a hundred miles away, his voice would still sound as if he were right there in the room whenever his Master asked if he was inside.
Gu Daosheng feigned oblivion, his voice calm as he asked, “Hongchen, why have you come so late? Is it something urgent?”
“Yes,” Lou Hongchen replied. Hearing his stepmother’s voice, he felt a strange, intoxicating warmth spread through him, like fine wine. The darkness amplified this euphoria. He took a shallow breath, trembling with a suppressed excitement. I want to see you, I want to see you so badly.
He struggled to control his abnormal reaction, pressing down on his right hand, which was already convulsing. His knuckles strained to straighten, but the hand seemed to have a mind of its own, curling into a twisted claw before rapping three times more on the smooth, cold door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Stepmother,” Lou Hongchen urged, “why are you taking so long to get dressed? Open the door and let me in.”
“Let me in, let me in, let me in, let me in…”
That flimsy door would not have stopped an evil spirit for a single second; if he truly wished to force his way inside, any door made by mortal hands would be no more than a paper screen.
Yet, despite his desperation, Lou Hongchen insisted on waiting for his stepmother to come downstairs, open the door for him, and invite him inside. His gentlemanly conduct was anything but ghostly.
The intervals between his knocks remained the same, but the pace grew more urgent.
Meanwhile, the breath Gu Daosheng had just released escaped him completely. His racing heart began to steady.
Good, good.
There’s a folk legend that when a ghost visits someone’s home, it will politely knock three times. If the host opens the door, the ghost is “invited” in. With the host’s consent, it can then settle in, and it’s very hard to drive away.
If you don’t want it to visit, just don’t open the door.
“Don’t open it, no matter what…” Gu Daosheng muttered.
The moment the words left his lips, the door exploded with a loud bang.
The door didn’t fly off its hinges, nor did it open. Instead, the thousands of talismans on it were triggered all at once, erupting in a blinding golden light that seared the ghost’s eyes.
The entire door frame shuddered, expanding and contracting like a human nostril flaring.
The crackle of fire was more festive than the firecrackers used to scare away the Nian beast during the Lunar New Year, punctuated by a blood-curdling shriek.
Gu Daosheng’s heart leaped with joy. The talismans worked!
He’d always said that all talismans in the world are cut from the same cloth. If they could blast a ghost, how could they not blast a spirit? Ghosts and spirits shared the same origin; none could escape the Heavenly Master’s hand. It was just that the scream… was a little… ungraceful.
He let go of Nan Ying’s hand, feeling a pang of pity for Lou Hongchen’s lost composure. He patted the back of Nan Ying’s head, telling him not to be afraid and to watch him.
With his hands clasped behind his back, he prepared to leave and exorcise the evil spirit, his figure walking tall and confident.
“Ah… What a powerful talisman! My head, my head is going to be smashed to pieces again. Doesn’t Lou Guangrui despise all this ghost and god stuff? How could he hire a Great Celestial Master in private? That hypocritical, despicable old beast!” Teacher Cheng’s head was incredibly resilient; he had been bouncing it against the ground all day.
It would fly up into the air one moment and slam down to the ground the next.
Gu Daosheng turned back, retreating faster than a rabbit.
“Lou Guangrui, you old beast!” After emerging from Nan Ying’s stomach, Teacher Cheng, desperate to see his daughter, wanted to hold her and weep for a good cry before finally letting go.
He wanted to tell her that her father was useless, that because he had no power, no influence, and no ability, he had let Lou Guangrui forcibly take her away to become the Lou family’s Miss Eleven.
That year, Cheng Jingru was eighteen, not yet graduated from her final year of high school. Teacher Cheng lived for his daughter, and he would die for her. He didn’t know where his body had fallen, but he went searching for someone with only his head.
…His daughter was afraid of heads.
And she couldn’t hear him speak.
Teacher Cheng saw a mad, raving Cheng Jingru. When he first saw her at the gates of the Lou family residence, he thought she was just feigning madness. He even secretly praised her for being clever. He never expected that she had truly gone mad.
A perfectly good girl had been driven mad by Lou Guangrui’s abuse!
Teacher Cheng was furious, his head spinning like a top in his desperation.
He knew he had terrified Lou Ling earlier. They had locked eyes in a mirror; the North Courtyard had mirrors, after all. In his haste, Teacher Cheng had only thought of the mirror’s ability to bridge the living and dead, allowing him to manifest, forgetting that he was just a head.
The moment his head appeared in the mirror, Cheng Jingru, who had been cradling a small pillow as if it were Lou Mingzhang, trying to lull him to sleep, had suffered a complete breakdown.
Teacher Cheng bounced helplessly on the ground, wanting to cry but unable to, for he had no body, no heart.
He didn’t even know where all this grief came from. Perhaps it was etched into his very brain.
Just a head wasn’t enough. It was too terrifying, and his face was scarred and hideous. He turned to search for his body. It wasn’t at the gate, nor was it in the Lou family home. After a long search, he finally returned to where he started, hoping to ask Nan Ying and Gu Daosheng if they had seen his body.
Who would have thought he’d be blasted in the face by the Heavenly Master Lou Guangrui had hired!
So Lou Guangrui was afraid to die after all.
If he hadn’t bounced away quickly and leaped high, his skull would have been shattered.
In life, Teacher Cheng had never cared for his appearance, as long as he was clean. He’d spent his whole life indifferent to his image, but now was the time he cared about his face the most.
His face stung with pain. The gentleness he had cultivated over twenty years as a teacher vanished in a flash of rage.
“How dare you disfigure me?!” he roared.
He straightened his head, glaring as he locked eyes with Lou Hongchen, who was raising an eyebrow in a challenge.
Lou Hongchen looked down at the talismans. Each one could be used only once. The shattered talismans lay scattered on the ground, turning to ash and swirling around their feet in the wind.
As the talismans lost their power, they crumbled into ash, like burning paper. Sparks drifted and danced in the breeze, rising and falling before finally settling on the ground.
He let out a low, dry chuckle, then sighed, “So that’s how it is.”
“No wonder you won’t open the door. No wonder you won’t open it for me… So that’s why…”
Teacher Cheng’s fury faltered as he realized he had misjudged the man.
They say the children must pay for the father’s debts, but who knew what kind of abuse Lou Hongchen had suffered, born into such a filthy family? Lou Guangrui’s debts shouldn’t be his to bear.
His face bore a resemblance to a young Lou Guangrui, but his eyes were completely different. Lou Hongchen’s eyes were too dark; no matter how bright the light, they absorbed it all, leaving only the visage of a demon.
The moon was obscured, and in the deep darkness, Teacher Cheng couldn’t see those eyes. He only saw the sharp jawline that bore a slight resemblance to Lou Guangrui’s.
The more he looked, the more the resemblance grew, and the more his hatred intensified.
Rage surged through his skull, his hair standing on end like fuel for the fire. With his scalp pulled taut, Teacher Cheng lunged forward and sank his teeth into the other man’s flesh. “Since you’re Lou Guangrui’s son, then you can go to hell!”
Inside the brightly lit room, Gu Daosheng didn’t dare press his ear against the door to eavesdrop. He kept his distance, knowing when to retreat.
He held Nan Ying with one arm; the little ghost was far too un-ghostlike, requiring him to cover the boy’s eyes and ears. His other arm pressed against Lou Ling; though the man had fainted from fright, he was at least a living person with Yang energy.
Several pairs of eyes stared intently outside, their gazes tense and anxious as they watched the battle unfold. To get a good view of the spectacle, Gu Daosheng had slapped a “Transparency” Talisman onto the wall in front of them.
The entire wall remained standing, neither rotten nor collapsed, yet it seemed to merge with the air, turning completely transparent and revealing the scene outside with perfect clarity.
The outside could not see in.
He wasn’t truly looking for excitement. If he had encountered such a scene on the mountain, Gu Daosheng would have turned tail and run to his Master without a second thought, screaming for help as he fled; any voice too quiet would be a disservice to his own precious life.
Once his Master arrived and the threat to his life was gone, he would then emerge, riding on his Master’s strength to berate the ghost he couldn’t defeat alone.
This house was only so large; two floors covered in offensive talismans, providing the maximum possible protection. If he ran out in the dark of night, he might be lucky, but what if he ran into the First Madam, who had yet to show her face?
So, his only option was to watch the spectacle.
When the talisman paper turned on its own, nearly blowing Teacher Cheng sky-high, Gu Daosheng grimaced and shut his eyes tight, a sight not meant for public viewing.
He worried that if Teacher Cheng acted recklessly again, he might be annihilated; his daughter had yet to even see him. Gu Daosheng gritted his teeth, gripping the Talisman Gun in his hand. He would suck the talismans back in and dismantle the magic array.
Worst case, he’d just have to go out there and fight the damn thing!
Just a mere evil ghost…
Unexpectedly, Teacher Cheng suddenly went berserk. The fury he spewed was clearly directed at Lou Guangrui, yet he still charged forward recklessly, gaping wide his blood-soaked maw, even after realizing the person before him was Lou Hongchen, not his enemy.
At that moment, Gu Daosheng happened to hear Lou Hongchen say, as if sensing something, “So that’s how it is.”
A faint, ominous premonition instantly rose in his heart, and a chill began to seep out from within.
A ghost and a spirit were fighting.
The lights in the room, perhaps affected by the yin energy of such a scene, crackled with electricity, flickering on and off.
After fighting for a long while, Teacher Cheng’s head finally came back to his senses. He realized, “You can see me… You’re a ghost!”
The instant those words fell, the lights in the room went completely out, leaving the space so dark one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face. At the same time, Gu Daosheng felt someone blow a breath against the back of his neck, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
That frigid breath licked around Gu Daosheng’s neck. Then, Lou Hongchen’s smiling voice lingered by his earlobe: “So, you really already know I’m dead, huh?”
“Well, that makes things much easier.”