Jiang Ye grabbed the bedside lamp from his nightstand and smashed it backward with all his strength.
Liu Bei vanished into thin air. The bedside lamp struck the bedframe, and the lampshade shattered all over the floor.
The crying sounded from the ceiling.
Jiang Ye looked up and saw Liu Bei clinging spider-like to the corner where the wall met the ceiling. He leaped out of bed as if he were flying, charged straight out of the bedroom, and slammed the door shut behind him in one smooth motion.
The instant the door closed, Liu Bei crashed into it.
BANG, BANG.
Jiang Ye rushed to the entryway and raced against time to tear open the second package. His secret weapon was inside. It might be useful.
After two impacts, Liu Bei stopped hitting the door. The bedroom went silent as death.
Panic rose in Jiang Ye’s chest. If this were a headless corpse, it would be easier to deal with. After all, that was only a corpse that could move. Physical barriers still worked on it. But what he was facing now was a female ghost. Physical barriers were useless.
Sure enough, the next moment, the bedroom door that had clearly been locked creaked open. Liu Bei’s hideous face surfaced from the darkness behind the door.
Sweat poured down Jiang Ye’s body. He stabbed hard at the package with a pair of scissors.
The print shop owner had wrapped it too tightly. He had been tearing at the package for ages and still couldn’t get it open.
He looked up toward the bedroom. Liu Bei had already come out and was standing in the doorway.
Faster, faster, faster.
Jiang Ye clenched his teeth, his hands never stopping.
When he looked up again, Liu Bei had moved several steps closer and was standing beside the living room coffee table. Every time Jiang Ye raised his head, she was a little closer than before.
Jiang Ye used every bit of strength he had and tore the tape off the package box at the fastest speed of his life.
Liu Bei’s red dress appeared before his eyes.
She had reached him.
He lifted his head and met Liu Bei’s hideous white eyes.
Jiang Ye pried the package open and whipped out the thing inside, holding it up in front of Liu Bei.
Liu Bei’s face froze. Her entire body flickered once, then suddenly vanished.
Jiang Ye panted heavily, almost collapsing from exhaustion.
He drew the thing back. Under the orange glow of the entryway’s voice-activated light, what he was holding was clearly a life-size body pillow printed with Jin Feize’s image. The ink was sharp and clear. Even Jin Feize’s long, curled lashes were distinct, every strand visible.
Jiang Ye first dismantled the two pinhole cameras that had slipped through the net. Then, carrying the six-foot-two body pillow, he made a full patrol of the apartment. This time, he did not even spare the underside of tables, the space beneath the bed, the cracks between cabinets, or the area behind the curtains.
At last, he confirmed that Liu Bei had disappeared.
He put the body pillow on the bed, lay beside it, and even pulled the blanket over it, creating the illusion that he and Jin Feize were sleeping together.
To be safe, he took out his phone, plugged it in to charge, and pulled up the recording of Jin Feize he had secretly made that morning.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll stay with you.”
He set it to loop.
After waiting for a while, Liu Bei did not appear. It seemed she would not come again.
Reassured, he put in earplugs, put on an eye mask, leaned against Jin Feize’s life-size body pillow, and fell asleep.
The next day, he slept until nearly noon. Then he opened the third package, got dressed, and went out for class.
While lining up at the breakfast shop to buy rice noodle rolls for lunch, he saw Liu Bei across the road in her red dress.
Cars came and went. Pedestrians flowed past in dense streams, yet not a single person seemed to see that strange woman.
Jiang Ye paid. When he turned back toward the road, Liu Bei had already crossed and was standing on his side. The distance between them had shrunk by a large stretch.
His expression did not change. Carrying the rice noodle rolls, he walked into an alley.
Once he entered the deep alley, he turned his head again. Liu Bei was standing behind him.
Jiang Ye put down the rice noodle rolls and unzipped his jacket, revealing the white T-shirt he wore underneath.
Printed on the white T-shirt was a full-color image of Jin Feize.
Liu Bei’s face froze again.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished.
Jiang Ye calmly picked up his rice noodle rolls and headed toward the guitar training center.
Jin Feize stood at the practice room door and waved to him from a distance. He looked Jiang Ye over and saw that he was unharmed. A trace of surprise appeared in his expression.
“I never expected you really would have a way to deal with the female ghost. You’ve truly surprised me.”
Jiang Ye said flatly, “Thanks to you.”
“Our Little Ye really is amazing. What should I do? I like you more and more.” Jin Feize smiled.
Jiang Ye ignored him.
“Something happened to Shen Duo. Did you know?” Jin Feize said again.
Jiang Ye frowned.
“Shen Duo can’t help you. The institute can’t help you either. I’m the only one who can help you,” he said. “Ask me to save you.”
Jiang Ye stared at him and asked, “Why is Liu Bei afraid of you?”
“Who is Liu Bei?”
Jin Feize tilted his head and thought for a moment.
“Ah. That ugly thing. She’s the one following you?”
Jiang Ye asked, “Did you have anything to do with her?”
“No. I just purely hate ugly people. Is she afraid of me? Maybe it’s because she feels ashamed of her inferiority when she sees me. I know she had a crush on you. She even confessed to you on the school confession wall before. But with me here, how could you possibly like her?”
Jiang Ye: “…”
He involuntarily remembered when Jin Feize had still been the Witch. Sometimes, on WeChat, she would complain about the ugly thing in class pestering him.
He was not a good person. He was even somewhat cruel and vicious.
Jiang Ye had always thought he was unpopular. Who knew he was Jin Feize—and that at school, everyone loved him.
Aside from Jiang Ye, no one would know what kind of evil heart was hidden beneath that gentle skin.
“I’m going to class. Goodbye.”
Jiang Ye walked toward the practice room, only to see Jin Feize following him in.
He looked at Jin Feize with a frown. Jin Feize said innocently, “I’m going to class too.”
He pointed at a new guitar placed in the practice room.
“That one is mine.”
Jiang Ye: “…”
Anyone with money could come to this place. Jin Feize had plenty of money. Jiang Ye had no way to stop him.
Forget it. He would pretend Jin Feize didn’t exist.
Jiang Ye sat down in his seat and placed his guitar on the stand. As he lowered his head in thought, he wondered what method there was to communicate with ghosts.
If he could find a way to communicate with Liu Bei, maybe he could find out why she kept following him.
He took out his phone and searched Baidu: how to communicate with ghosts?
The first answer was “saucer spirit.”
Jiang Ye had never believed in that kind of thing. But now that headless corpses and female ghosts had appeared in his life, every single one more bizarre than a saucer spirit, he decided to try.
Jin Feize suddenly said, “I want milk tea.”
“…”
Jiang Ye knew that if he didn’t go buy milk tea for him, there would be no peace for the rest of the class.
The teacher had not arrived yet, so he went out to buy milk tea and picked up drawing paper along the way. When he returned to the practice room, he began making a letter chart for the saucer-spirit ritual.
The weather was good today. After two periods of class, the sun had come out outside. Jiang Ye focused entirely on drawing the saucer-spirit chart, sweat covering his forehead.
Jin Feize took a sip of milk tea and frowned.
“The milk tea isn’t sweet enough.”
Jiang Ye was focused on his work and ignored him.
Jin Feize asked, “When can I eat your lips again?”
Jiang Ye’s pen tip paused.
He had already used all his strength to endure this man, but Jin Feize always managed to touch his bottom line.
Jiang Ye closed his eyes.
“Stay. Away. From. Me.”
Jin Feize turned a deaf ear. He propped his chin on his hand and leaned in front of him.
“When exactly?”
The distance between them suddenly shortened a great deal, but Jiang Ye could not push him away. He could only move to the side.
“In your next life.”
Jin Feize looked at him for a while, then lowered his head and took out his phone.
Jiang Ye’s gaze darkened. He pressed down on Jin Feize’s hand.
Jin Feize smiled and asked, “When?”
“…When do you want?”
“Tonight.”
“…”
Jiang Ye gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice, “How long are you planning to threaten me with this?”
Jin Feize thought about it seriously, then answered, “Until you die and your head is placed beside my pillow.”
He smiled beautifully.
“Then I won’t need to threaten you to kiss you.”
Jiang Ye looked at him coldly.
The two of them stared at each other. Where their gazes met, bright sparks seemed to flare.
Jin Feize did not avoid his eyes. He remained gentle and composed, not caring in the slightest about Jiang Ye’s anger.
Rage surged through Jiang Ye’s chest like a tidal wave, but he could do nothing. In this man’s eyes, perhaps he was nothing more than an amusing toy.
He couldn’t help thinking about where, exactly, he had gone wrong to get entangled with this devil.
Jin Feize leaned close to his ear and asked softly, “You still haven’t answered me. Is tonight all right?”
Jiang Ye lowered his eyes.
Bit by bit, he pressed the anger down into them.
“Yes.”
Jin Feize was finally satisfied and stopped bothering him.
That day, Jiang Ye did not memorize a single piece of music. All he accomplished was making a hand-drawn saucer-spirit chart.
After finally enduring until class ended, he waited for Jin Feize to go to the bathroom, then rolled up the chart, went downstairs to the supermarket, and bought a small saucer. He went up to the roof of the training center, spread the chart flat on the ground, and, following Baidu’s instructions, placed the saucer in the center.
Then he pressed the fingers of his right hand onto the middle of the saucer, took a deep breath, and said, “Saucer spirit, saucer spirit, please come out.”
He waited for a while.
The temperature around him dropped sharply.
It was a blazing-hot day, yet the air seemed to frost over.
The evening glow turned cold and dim. The wind was bone-chilling.
He saw a pair of bluish-purple bare feet appear across from the hand-drawn chart.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
“Are you Liu Bei?” he asked.
He saw Liu Bei crouch down. Her bluish fingers pressed against the saucer and pushed it toward “Yes.”
“Were you killed by a headless corpse?” he asked again.
The saucer was pushed toward “Yes” once more.
Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then asked, “Is my mother still alive?”
Liu Bei’s finger paused for a while.
Finally, it moved.
Jiang Ye’s heart hung in suspense as he watched her push the saucer toward “Yes.”
Jiang Ye let out a breath of relief and continued asking, “Is Shen Duo still alive?”
This time, Liu Bei paused even longer. For a long time, she did not move the saucer.
At last, she pushed it slowly toward “No.”
Jiang Ye’s brows drew tightly together.
As expected, Shen Duo had met with misfortune.
He lifted his head and looked into Liu Bei’s clouded eyes.
“Last question. Why do you keep following me? What do you want me to do?”
The saucer began moving beyond his control, pointing to one character after another.
Jiang Ye slowly read them aloud.
“Come—to—Taisui—Village. Find—me.”