Jiang Luxi only glanced once before taking small steps to distance herself further from those pits.
Huo Jin Ge completely failed to notice her subtle movements.
When he instinctively searched for that familiar figure, he discovered this girl wrapped in another man’s jacket, standing what felt like miles away from him.
Her entire face practically screamed “I don’t know him.”
Huo Jin Ge reached his hand toward her, his eyes casual but his lips curling into a cold smile. “Come here.”
Jiang Luxi only tightened the suit jacket around herself, her entire body radiating resistance.
Huo Jin Ge closed the distance in two strides and, completely ignoring her struggles, ripped the jacket off her and threw it into a nearby tree pit filled with mud.
“My clothes!” Jiang Luxi reached to grab it but was too late.
She watched helplessly as the perfectly good clothing landed in the same tree pit where someone had been buried last time.
Huo Jin Ge’s dark eyes glimmered with cold intensity. “Your clothes?”
Without changing expression, he methodically refastened each button on his own suit jacket until it was perfectly arranged again.
A cool breeze swept through, rustling the leaves in the dense forest.
Jiang Luxi shivered from the cold.
Goosebumps visibly rose on her arms.
Huo Jin Ge saw it all but remained silent.
The sky gradually darkened.
All the pits had been planted with vegetation.
From beginning to end, Jiang Luxi hadn’t uttered a word, just hugging her legs and trembling as she crouched on the ground.
Huo Jin Ge sighed.
This stubborn girl really knew how to keep her mouth shut – even in this state she wouldn’t beg him.
He began unfastening his suit jacket buttons again, but when he looked up, he saw Yu Yi draping his still-warm jacket over Jiang Luxi’s shoulders.
Her thin, small frame was completely enveloped by the oversized garment.
Jiang Luxi’s nose was red and lips pale from the cold – anyone would feel heartbroken seeing her like this.
She sniffled and forced a stiff smile. “Thank you.”
Yu Yi blushed and scratched his head. “No problem.Huo Jin Ge shot him a resentful look, his face stern and voice low. “Yu Yi!”
Yu Yi hurried over to him. Huo Jin Ge stood with hands on hips, feeling terribly stifled in his chest.
Pointing toward a distant hill without changing expression, he said, “You and Jiang Feng are digging pits all over that area today. If there’s even one missing, neither of you eats.”
“……..”
That night, Jiang Luxi developed a high fever.
Though her entire body burned with discomfort, her mind raced with unusual clarity.
She remembered hearing before that encountering unclean things could cause high fevers.
Jiang Luxi abruptly sat up in bed, the towel on her forehead falling onto the sheets from her movement.
Her amber eyes darted around nervously.
It seemed she had encountered evil spirits today.
Her eyes vacant, she collapsed back onto the bed weakly.
Grabbing her phone, she rolled over.
After watching two short videos, the third featured someone called ‘Fengzi Taoist.’
Jiang Luxi suddenly felt interested.
The man in the video wore his hair in a topknot, dressed in a Taoist robe, holding a peach wood sword behind his back – he actually looked quite authentic.
Jiang Luxi couldn’t help sending him a private message.
Originally she just wanted to ask for something to ward off evil.
Fengzi Taoist: [Based on your description, the evil spirit presence in that location is too strong. I need to come perform a ritual at an altar.]
Fengzi Taoist: [We’re fated to meet – 50% discount, ten thousand. Guaranteed to eliminate the evil spirits and ensure your safety.]Jiang Luxi felt a pang of heartache looking at the ten thousand yuan, so she simply ignored him.
However, this time her high fever persisted for a full day and night without subsiding.
The next day, Lin Qing stood by the bed, staring at the thermometer reading 39 degrees, lost in thought.
He turned and met Huo Jin Ge’s gloomy gaze, forcing an awkward smile. “It’s not that high, just 39 degrees.”
Who asked this unlucky girl to be a neurotic case, and to run into such a clueless straight man?
Huo Jin Ge’s eyes were terrifying. “Do you think she’s not foolish enough already?”
Lin Qing choked back his words. “I never said that.”
Huo Jin Ge looked at Jiang Luxi, her face flushed red from the fever, and suddenly realized that women truly need delicate care.
Unfortunately, he had no experience in this area.
Huo Jin Ge ordered someone to attend to Jiang Luxi closely before following Lin Qing out of the room.
This illness made her already slender frame appear even more frail.
As soon as the housekeeper left, she struggled to sit up. Seizing the moment when no one was around, she quickly contacted ‘Fengzi Taoist.’
They agreed to meet at the estate gate at midnight that very day.
That night.
Jiang Luxi, bundled in heavy clothes, quietly slipped past everyone and dragged her sickly body to the estate gate.
From a distance, she spotted Fengzi Taoist standing before the golden iron gate. With one hand behind his back and his Taoist robe billowing in the wind, he exuded an indescribable aura of immortal grace.
Jiang Luxi hurriedly opened the gate and welcomed him. “Taoist, over here!”
Fengzi Taoist nodded in acknowledgment and got straight to the point. “Where is the location? Take me there to confront it.”
Jiang Luxi felt too embarrassed to mention the buried corpse in the back hills, only saying she had encountered an evil spirit and developed a fever.
Fengzi Taoist placed a small packet in her hand. “This is a spiritual medicine I refined to exorcise evil and dispel the evil spirit within you.”
Jiang Luxi tucked the small packet back into her pocket.
When she looked up again, she didn’t know when.
Fengzi Taoist had already strode into the dense forest, raising his peach wood sword. He slashed horizontally and vertically, chanting under his breath, “The universe is boundless, borrowing the power of heaven and earth, scattering beans to form soldiers, by the urgent decree!”
With a grand gesture, he grabbed a handful of soybeans from his pocket and scattered them.
Jiang Luxi stared, dumbfounded.
The man before her grew increasingly frenzied, several times swinging the peach wood sword perilously close to her head.
Terrified, she hid behind a large tree.
What nonsense was he chanting? The more she watched, the more it seemed like he was the one possessed.
Was he actually a madman?
Suddenly, Fengzi Taoist shifted his sword’s trajectory and thrust it toward her.
Jiang Luxi fled through the forest with him in pursuit. “Why are you chasing me?”
Fengzi Taoist pointed two fingers at her, declaring calmly, “Evil spirit, how dare you take human form? Where—do you think you’re running!”
“……..”
Jiang Luxi screamed in terror, darting wildly through the woods until she collided with a warm chest.
She looked up at Huo Jin Ge’s increasingly contorted face, tears of relief welling in her eyes as she clung tightly to his strong waist. “Huo Jin Ge!”
“He was wielding such a huge sword, trying to kill me…”
“……”
Huo Jin Ge felt the strength of her arms wrapped around his waist, and the chill in his eyes gradually softened.
Fengzi Taoist had already been hoisted up by Jiang Feng and Yu Yi, each holding one of his arms.
He continued to babble incoherently.
Huo Jin Ge looked down at the woman who barely reached his shoulders and scolded loudly, “Not sleeping in the middle of the night—did you come here to meet your fellow patient?”
Jiang Luxi lifted her teary eyes, her hands clutching the hem of his shirt tightly.Looking both pitiful and innocent, her voice trembling with tears: “I was scammed.”
“Scammed?”
Jiang Luxi pressed her lips together, pointing at Fengzi Taoist who was still chanting incantations nearby: “He cheated me out of ten thousand yuan.”
“………”