But Chen Shi stared for a long while and still couldn’t make out any clear evidence—he just felt that something was off about the qi surrounding this child.
After a while, He Yu took a small bear plush toy and gave it to the child, who obediently accepted it and hugged it to his chest. As he moved, his collar slipped askew, revealing the juncture between his neck and shoulder—on the skin there was a long bluish-red mark, like the chafe mark of a rope.
Chen Shi had sharp eyes, and he noticed there was one on the child’s wrist under his sleeve cuff too, nearly turned purple, along with red blood spots.
Chen Shi froze for a moment, then immediately erupted in fury. “Is his family abusing him?!”
When people die and turn into ghosts, they all carry deep obsessions, and with their spirit no longer bound by a physical body, their emotions become even harder to control—they can easily lose control when provoked.
Without turning around, He Yu said while helping the child straighten his clothes. “Don’t go throwing your temper around carelessly. Be careful not to hurt anyone.”
Chen Shi’s fury, which had been on the verge of spiraling out of control, was forced back down.
He was a ghost—if his yin-baleful qi ran wild, it would hurt this child.
After He Yu finished straightening the child’s clothes, he gently brushed aside the wisps of hair on his forehead. At the corner of the child’s forehead, there was an old scar about a finger’s width, clearly from years past.
With the fire of anger smoldering in his chest, Chen Shi paced around and around the shop in frustration.
He had just circled twice when someone else pushed the door open and came in.
It was Sister Wu, who a few days ago had kindly reminded He Yu that there was something wrong with the building. Sister Wu was warm-hearted and had a wide network of connections; she had helped He Yu a great deal during the shop’s renovation and opening, saving him a lot of trouble, and it was Sister Wu who had introduced and connected him with the manufacturer that produced the plush toys.
The moment Sister Wu walked in, she began smiling and congratulating He Yu on the opening. She had gone back to her hometown a couple of days prior and had only just returned today, missing the shop’s first day of business. But she had watched the whole process of this shop being set up, and here it was—such a notoriously haunted building, and yet not the slightest anomaly had occurred.
She was starting to think this young Boss He was no ordinary person!
Other people might think the ill reputation of the haunted house was probably exaggerated, but Sister Wu was someone who had been in contact with all the previous tenants—she had personally watched family after family get frightened into moving out.
Last time she’d chatted with young Boss He about the strange happenings in the haunted house, he’d been so calm about it, unnervingly so—he had to be someone knowledgeable and capable in this field!
Sister Wu had just finished greeting them when she spotted the child sitting inside, and let out an “oh my.”
“Isn’t this the child from upstairs? What’s he doing here?” She then explained, “His name is Zhou Xiaogu, he’s the child from the Guan family upstairs, the one with autism. I have a key to the Guan family’s place—let me take him back.”
He Yu nodded. “He ran to the shop entrance, and I was worried it wasn’t safe, so I brought him inside to sit for a while.”
Chen Shi squeezed over, frustrated, and asked, “I noticed this kid has bruises on him—is his mom—”
Sister Wu paused, then sighed. “Xiao Guan… probably doesn’t like this child. The two of them are both pitiable people. You wouldn’t believe it looking at Xiao Guan now, but when she first moved in, she was gentle and pretty. But with Xiaogu having this condition, being dragged down by it year after year turned her into what she is now.”
“Earlier on, it wasn’t so noisy upstairs, but it’s gotten more and more frequent since,” Sister Wu said vaguely. “It’s only natural she doesn’t like this child. If it weren’t for this child, how easy would it be for her to remarry? Now she can only grind through it day after day.”
Zhou Xiaogu’s screaming had been getting more and more frequent, and Guan Qiyan might be abusing him. But if it weren’t for Zhou Xiaogu, Guan Qiyan would probably be living quite happily.
Sister Wu prepared to take Zhou Xiaogu back home. But Zhou Xiaogu grabbed the edge of the chair seat and refused to get up.
“What’s wrong?” Sister Wu was taken aback, and coaxed him, “Auntie will take you home, okay?”
Zhou Xiaogu looked up, his large eyes with sharply defined black and white staring straight at He Yu.
He Yu paused for a moment, then crouched down and stroked Xiaogu’s head, his smile warm. “It’s alright now. The little plush bear will protect your home. I promise you.”
Seeing that Xiaogu was still looking at him, He Yu extended his pinky finger and said earnestly, “Come, let’s hook pinkies.”
Xiaogu slowly raised his hand, and He Yu waited patiently for him. The two hooked pinky fingers together, and He Yu gently shook it. “Pinky promise made, absolutely unchanging.”
Xiaogu obediently left, hugging his little plush bear.
By evening, Guan Qiyan came home, passing by the shop entrance, still with that same gloomy, hunched-over look—nothing at all like the gentle, pretty appearance Sister Wu had described. Her movements were stiff and her eyes were gloomy; if anything, she looked more like someone mentally ill.
Chen Shi kept staring at her the whole time.
He Yu pulled down the shutter door. “Stop staring.”
Chen Shi let out a dejected “oh.”
Without Guan Qiyan’s care, Zhou Xiaogu had no way to survive on his own at all.
Chen Shi paced around and around the old-fashioned telephone.
He kept thinking about Zhou Xiaogu, afraid that once the child went back he’d be abused by Guan Qiyan again. But he was just a ghost, with no money, unable to do anything at all.
The old-fashioned telephone, dizzy from being circled so much, used its phone cord to pull him to a stop.
Chen Shi sat down on the floor, buried his head in his knees, and repeated mechanically, “I want to help him… I want to help him… I want to help him…” The cold, gloomy aura around him grew heavier and heavier, and his eyes grew murkier and murkier.
This was the obsession that had turned him into a ghost.
The obsessions strong enough to resist reincarnation and cause a person to become a ghost after death are all, by nature, fixated to an extreme. When an obsession goes too far, the ghost loses its reason and transforms into a Li – a malevolent, mindless spirit. A Li’s power is far greater than a ghost’s, but they cannot be communicated with—they only know how to act on instinct, wreaking destruction and violence wherever they go.
The little plush toy worriedly hopped into his arms, but there was nothing it could do either.
The old-fashioned telephone wound its cord around him twice, then suddenly patted Chen Shi, gesturing for him to look at the clock.
Chen Shi was startled, and only then realized it was already 11:30. Normally by this time the commotion upstairs would have long since finished, but today there was no sound at all.
Xiaogu wasn’t beaten today? The clarity gradually returned to Chen Shi’s eyes.
For several days after that, no sound came from upstairs at all. Chen Shi remembered the pinky-promise agreement between the boss and Xiaogu that day, and had a vague guess about it; his mood improved considerably, and he began working even more enthusiastically to sell plush toys and earn money.
He Yu’s mood, however, began to grow increasingly irritable. That earthbound spirit on the road had, for some reason, fixated on him, following behind him every time he passed by. But there was only that one crosswalk nearby—taking a detour would mean walking a good deal further.
As dusk approached, He Yu held a plate of dumplings, eating dinner while staring at the road, and said unhappily, “What exactly is going on with that thing? Can it not be communicated with?”
Chen Shi was also looking at that mark on the road. “I feel like it’s about to turn into a Li.”
A Li cannot be communicated with at all. This earthbound spirit’s mind didn’t seem all that lucid either.
After He Yu finished eating the dumplings, he wiped his mouth. “Let’s close up the shop.”
A lucid mind has its way of being communicated with, and a muddled mind has its way too. He planned to have a good long talk with this earthbound spirit tonight.
Chen Shi pulled down the shutter door first and started tidying up the shop.
He’d only tidied up about half of it when suddenly a “bang” sounded from outside the shutter door, and immediately after, before it could even be locked, the shutter door was lifted up by someone, and a young man tumbled in from underneath in a sorry state.
Xiang Yang looked up and saw the warmly decorated shop, staring at Chen Shi in mutual bewilderment.
Wasn’t this supposed to be an empty, uninhabited house?!
……
Half an hour earlier.
Xiang Yang was a novice exorcist who’d just entered the field—not particularly skilled, but bold. He’d heard that something was off about a nearby underground mall after dark, and went to investigate on his own, only to run into the real thing.
The underground mall wasn’t just accumulating yin-baleful qi over the years—something had actually spawned a Guai there.
(tn: 怪 (Guai) refers to a monster or strange entity born from chaotic energies, distinct from ghosts.)
“Ghosts and monstrosities” is a commonly used collective term, but it actually refers to two different things. Ghosts are what’s formed when a living being’s deep obsession remains after death, its spirit refusing to be reincarnated. A Guai, on the other hand, is something born from yin-baleful qi combining with various other chaotic thought-fragments.
The thing in the underground mall was formed from all kinds of miscellaneous qi and stray thoughts converging onto a mannequin, becoming a Guai.
During the day the underground mall was full of people coming and going, making it impossible to investigate, so Xiang Yang took advantage of the night and went into the mall alone.
The site of the incident was a corner shop unit that, due to its poor location, had never been rented out, and had eventually become a makeshift storage room, piled with counters, mannequins, and other leftover items from stores that had moved out.
Xiang Yang had gone in fearlessly, then fled in an utterly sorry state.
That damn thing could control every single mannequin in the mall!
The little novice did have some basic combat ability, but no matter how high that ability was, it couldn’t withstand being ganged up on! And those things didn’t even know pain—even reduced to half a body, they could still crawl toward him along the ground.
Xiang Yang had finally managed to escape the underground mall, but the mannequins had come chasing after him too.
The good news was that this Guai had territorial limits—only the main body mannequin could leave the underground mall; the bad news was that once it had taken control of only the main body, that mannequin had also grown stronger.
Fortunately, this area was rather out of the way, and with it being dark out, there were no pedestrians on the road. Xiang Yang ran while thinking about how to survive this.
The Paranormal Affairs Bureau’s branch office was in the city center, too far away—not to mention whether he could even make it there running, but if he happened to run into an ordinary person along the way, he risked dragging them into this.
Xiang Yang remembered there was an empty house nearby that had stayed vacant because the environment was bad and yin-baleful qi had accumulated there. He could go inside and use the environment to help fend things off for a bit.
And so, Xiang Yang rushed into the plush toy shop.
Xiang Yang froze for a second, then his expression changed drastically; he reached back and latched the shutter door, saying urgently, “You two, run! There’s danger!”
He intended to stay behind himself to deal with the Guai, letting these two ordinary people escape first.
The mannequin behind him, though stiff-limbed, wasn’t slow at all—it had already caught up at lightning speed.
He Yu: ……
This was troublesome. This little exorcist clearly couldn’t beat the Guai behind him; if he really let the two of them fight it out in his shop, his renovation would be ruined.
Beneath He Yu’s feet, his shadow quietly extended outward, sneaking out of the shop and spreading beneath the mannequin. The mannequin was still cackling with sinister laughter when, caught off guard, the shadow beneath it scooped it up, and with a “whoosh,” it was swallowed whole.
The little coal ball felt around in every direction, found nothing else out of place, and shrank back into He Yu’s shadow, quietly letting out a burp.
A puny little monster like that didn’t need the boss to step in at all! It had handled it all by itself!
“What danger?” He Yu asked, feigning confusion, looking at Xiang Yang.
“There’s nothing wrong. This shutter door was just installed, it’s very sturdy.”
Xiang Yang was still in a panic. No matter how sturdy it was, it wouldn’t be enough! That was a Guai!
But he had no way to forcibly send the two of them away either, and the more anxious he got, the more tongue-tied he became. “Something’s chasing me! It’s very dangerous! I’m serious!”
“Sir, had a bit too much to drink, haven’t you? What’s chasing you?” Chen Shi, picking up on the boss’s hint, went over with a teasing grin and opened the door.
Xiang Yang, frantic, tried to stop him. Chen Shi lightly dodged aside, slipping past him to lift the shutter door.
The street outside was completely empty—not a single figure in sight.
Xiang Yang’s face went blank.
Huh? Where’d the mannequin go? Where’s my great big Guai?
He Yu quietly let out a breath of relief.
“That’s impossible……” Xiang Yang was still looking left and right, muttering to himself as he searched.
That mannequin had been about ten meters away from him just a moment ago—how could it have vanished without a trace in such a short time?
The little rookie, though not too strong in ability, was quite responsible, and went back out to patrol the entire street once more. He was worried the Guai might run wild and hurt an ordinary person.
Xiang Yang searched carefully for a good while, but not only did he not see a trace of the mannequin, even the yin-baleful qi was completely gone.
Chen Shi brought him a stool and poured him a cup of hot water.
Xiang Yang sat there for a long while, cradling the hot water, utterly at a loss. Could it be that he really had been hallucinating? Had he been hit by something back in the underground mall, then controlled by a hallucination that made him run madly all the way here?
Having caused such a commotion for so long in someone’s shop after closing time, Xiang Yang felt rather embarrassed, and bought a little tiger plush toy.
Chen Shi was delighted. Not wasted effort at all—their first sale, hey!
He sized up this guy as someone thin-skinned and soft-hearted—if he could win him over, this kid might just become a regular customer of the shop!
Chen Shi, whose forte was a smooth, glib tongue, opened his mouth and began trying to cozy up to him. “What exactly did you see just now?”
Xiang Yang hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should tell these two ordinary people about the Guai business—he was afraid of being taken for a con artist—and in the end he only said vaguely, “There really was something there. You two be careful these days. Let me leave you my phone number—if you two happen to notice anything off, let me know.”
“I’m Xiang Yang.”
Xiang Yang—that was precisely the name of this supernatural novel’s male lead.
He Yu’s face went stiff.