After thinking it over again and again, a person surfaced in Xia Wanqing’s mind.
Zhou Huiping’s ex-husband.
It was said that he had fallen into the river after getting drunk and gone missing.
His body was never found.
She remembered once hearing that man say to Zhou Huiping, “For you, I can’t even be a human being anymore—I can only be a ghost.”
Back then, Xia Wanqing had truly believed he was a ghost. But having watched so many TV dramas in her later life, she now understood that a “ghost” didn’t necessarily mean an actual ghost—it could also mean someone who couldn’t come into the light.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of someone pacing outside the room.
She quietly walked to the door and peeked through the crack, only to see that it was Uncle Wen.
Xia Wanqing immediately pulled the door open and stepped out.
Uncle Wen had wanted to look for her but didn’t want the rest of the Xia family to find out. He had been thinking of a way when he saw Xia Wanqing come out.
Seeing her, Uncle Wen sighed helplessly. “Miss, we’ve found her. It’s just that she… she’s gone mad. She doesn’t know anything anymore.”
They were in a slum area of Shanghai.
A dilapidated old house stood before them. Two men were guarding the door, and when they saw Uncle Wen, they stepped forward to greet him.
Xia Wanqing pushed the door open. A disheveled woman inside was startled and trembled violently, clutching her head and shaking it as she cried, “Not me, not me!”
A wave of putrid, fishy stench surged forward.
Uncle Wen covered his nose with a handkerchief, afraid the young miss wouldn’t be able to bear it. He quickly advised, “Miss, how about I have her brought outside?”
Xia Wanqing’s expression remained calm. The smells of the apocalypse had been thousands of times worse than this. She shook her head. “Let her stay in a familiar place. That way, there’s a better chance of getting what I need from her.”
Uncle Wen’s face filled with admiration.
The young miss was incredible—able to remain unfazed in such a filthy, foul-smelling place.
Xia Wanqing walked up to the woman and squatted down, tilting her head slightly. “Look at my face. Do you recognize me?”
Everyone said she looked like her mother.
This woman was the nurse who had helped deliver her mother’s baby. After her mother’s accident, she went insane.
A nurse wouldn’t go mad just because a patient had an accident—she must have encountered something else.
The woman stared carefully at Xia Wanqing. Suddenly, as if frightened, she screamed, curled her body up, and clutched her head, shaking it frantically.
“I won’t tell anyone… it wasn’t me… you killed her!”
Xia Wanqing took out a photo she had prepared in advance. “Is it her?”
It was a photo of Zhou Huiping. The woman began trembling even more violently, screamed, and fainted.
Xia Wanqing’s gaze turned icy, as cold as a thousand-year-old abyss.
Zhou Huiping!
I won’t let you get away with this!
From the woman’s fragmented words, Xia Wanqing had already guessed part of the truth.
She left the room with a cold expression. Uncle Wen stepped forward. “Miss.”
“Uncle Wen, please take care of her.”
“And don’t tell Uncle about today’s events. Also, I need a sum of money.”
…
On the way back, Xia Wanqing passed by a paper effigy shop and stopped in her tracks.
The seventh lunar month was the most yin. Perhaps because of a guilty conscience, Zhou Huipping was especially superstitious.
Throughout this entire month, she wouldn’t let Xia Jianye go out drinking at night, and she strictly ordered that both children must be home before dark.
Xia Wanqing came up with a good idea…
As soon as she entered the house, Xia Jiayao’s voice exploded like a firecracker. “Xia Wanqing! You actually dared to hit me—I’ll beat you to death!”
Xia Wanqing raised her leg and kicked him. Xia Jiayao’s entire body flew backward.
“Waaah—” Xia Jiayao pointed at her. “I’m going to tell Dad!”
“Shut up!” Xia Wanqing shot him a cold look. Xia Jiayao shuddered and immediately fell silent.
Xia Wanqing ignored him and strode toward the room.
Xia Jianye and Zhou Huiping had turned the room upside down but still couldn’t find the property deed. Suddenly, they heard Xia Jiayao crying, which startled them into hurriedly tidying up.
Before they could finish, the door was pushed open and Xia Wanqing rushed in. At the moment she entered, she concealed all the hatred on her face.
There was no evidence of what had happened back then. Even if she called the police now, they couldn’t do anything to them. She had to find a way to make them personally admit their crimes.
Seeing the messy room, she cried out exaggeratedly, “There’s been a burglary at home! I’m calling the police!”
Xia Jianye immediately rushed over and grabbed her hand. “No, no—we were just tidying your room.”
Xia Wanqing looked unconvinced. “Does tidying a room require breaking cabinets?”
Xia Jianye had suspected there was something hidden in the cabinet’s false compartment and had dismantled the whole thing.
She covered her mouth in surprise. “I get it now—you deliberately wrecked my room because you want me to switch rooms.”
“I know, you know the house will soon no longer be mine, so you want to leave me a memory. You’re so kind. Tomorrow we’ll go transfer the ownership—have you prepared the money?”
“Of course it’s prepared. We’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.”
The scolding Xia Jianye was about to unleash was swallowed back the moment he heard that.
Xia Wanqing turned to leave. “Oh right, where are the dishes I asked you to buy from the restaurant?”
“I’d never been to Yunlai Restaurant and wanted to try it. Who knew it would be so expensive? I spent all the money eating there.”
Xia Jianye’s eyes widened in disbelief. “All of it?”
“Mm. It’s getting late—I’m going to sleep.” Xia Wanqing pretended to yawn and turned away.
Xia Jianye’s blood surged violently. It felt as if cotton were stuffed in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
So much money—and Xia Wanqing ate it all by herself.
His vision swam as he clutched his chest and walked to the bed.
Boom—
The already shaky bed collapsed with a crash, splitting into several pieces.
Xia Jianye fell flat onto the ground, his tailbone slamming hard. The pain brought tears to his eyes.
The door opened again, and Xia Wanqing said with a smile, “This room has spiritual energy. I often dream of my mom here. Maybe you’ll see her tonight too.”
“One her husband, one her best friend—you must really want to see her.”
The window was pushed open, and the night wind howled in.
It was clearly midsummer, yet Xia Jianye and Zhou Huiping felt chilled to the bone and couldn’t help shuddering.
Zhou Huiping’s legs went weak, and she collapsed onto the floor.
Bzz— The sound of electricity grew louder.
The already failing light flickered twice before going completely dark.
The room was plunged into darkness.
Zhou Huiping screamed and grabbed Xia Jianye’s arm, clinging to him.
Xia Jianye’s lower back was already in excruciating pain. Being yanked like that, he saw stars and his face twisted, unable to make a sound.
Zhou Huiping came back to her senses and cried out anxiously, “Honey, are you okay? It’s the seventh lunar month—could there really be ghosts?”
There had always been a saying in the countryside that the seventh month was the most yin time of the year, when it was easiest to encounter ghosts.
Bang! The sound of the door slamming shut echoed.
Zhou Huiping dodged in fright and slammed right into Xia Jianye’s lower back.
Xia Jianye rolled his eyes in pain, nearly fainting. He opened his mouth, wanting her to take him to see a doctor.
But Zhou Huiping had no time to care about him. Her legs were weak; she couldn’t stand and instead crawled toward the door, trying to escape.
When she twisted the doorknob, she realized the door had been locked from the outside.
She herself had changed this lock to punish Xia Wanqing—now it was being used on her instead.
“Jiayao, Jiayao!” Zhou Huiping called out in a trembling voice. “Help Mom open the door!”
Hearing her call, Xia Jiayao’s obese body instinctively wanted to charge at Xia Wanqing, but one cold glance from her forced him back.
He lowered his head, not daring to look at her, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.
“Get lost,” Xia Wanqing said coldly.
Terrified, Xia Jiayao ran downstairs. In his panic, his left foot tripped over his right, and he tumbled straight down the stairs.
Hearing the commotion, Zhou Huiping pounded on the door. “Xia Wanqing, are you crazy? Let me out!”
No one answered her.
After shouting until her throat was hoarse, Xia Jianye finally realized that Xia Wanqing truly would not care about him as her father anymore.
In order to get out, Zhou Huiping tried every method, even saying that he was about to die—but the door remained unopened.
After rummaging through the bedroom for hours without dinner, she wanted to drink tap water to stave off hunger, only to discover the water supply had been shut off.
Xia Wanqing stood in the hallway with her arms crossed, leaning lazily against the wall, one leg propped up.
When she judged the timing to be right, she walked to the window and made a hand signal downstairs.
…
Zhou Huiping sat on the floor, wrapped tightly in a quilt, only her eyes exposed.
The weather was already stiflingly hot, and under the quilt she was so overheated she could barely breathe—but compared to ghosts, she would rather endure the heat.
Xia Jianye’s buttocks hurt less now. Struggling, he got up and ran to open the door.
“It’s useless,” Zhou Huiping croaked.
The next second, with a click, the lock opened. Candlelight flickered faintly.
“Useless trash!” he snorted coldly and walked out.
The next instant, a scream rang out. He fell hard to the ground again, staring ahead in terror.
Zhou Huiping sniffed. In the air was a faint smell of urine mixed with the scent of incense and candles.
The next second, she screamed as well.