The three of them arrived outside Xu Juanjuan’s room, and the door opened by itself.
Inside, a middle-aged woman in a qipao lay quietly on the bed as if asleep. A young woman sat by the bed, tightly holding her hand.
"Honey!" Old Xu cried out in alarm, trying to get past Gu Qingyin to go over.
"Don’t come any closer!" the young woman by the bed suddenly said.
Old Xu froze. The voice was vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t his daughter’s at all. His expression changed drastically. ’The ghost has completely taken over Juanjuan’s body!’
Qin Zhen reacted as well, shouting anxiously, "Master Gu!"
Gu Qingyin stepped forward, her gaze calm as she watched Xu Juanjuan.
"You’re a Heavenly Master?" Xu Juanjuan’s expression was wary, tinged with disdain. ’In the past few days, I’ve seen more Heavenly Masters than I can count on one hand, and not a single one was any good.’
Gu Qingyin silently sized her up, her gaze finally landing on the woman’s abdomen. A look of realization dawned on her. ’No wonder this ghost is so hard to deal with. It’s not one, but two.’
Xu Juanjuan instinctively covered her stomach, her face fierce. "What are you looking at!"
Gu Qingyin quirked her lips into a negotiating posture. "State your demands."
Xu Juanjuan paused, then looked at Old Xu and said bluntly, "I want to marry him." This was the obsession that had turned her into a ghost. If this Heavenly Master couldn’t help her achieve it, she would do it herself.
Gu Qingyin blinked, turning a suspicious gaze to Old Xu, who was breaking out in a cold sweat. "A ghost you know, huh? No wonder she’s not targeting anyone else, just your daughter."
Qin Zhen was also surprised, but his eyes soon showed a glimmer of understanding, and his expression became very complicated.
"Is the child in her belly yours?" Gu Qingyin made a reasonable guess.
At this point, there was no use denying it. Old Xu nodded with a bitter smile. "It’s mine."
Gu Qingyin asked again, "Did you kill her?"
"I did not!" Old Xu retorted loudly. "Her death was an accident!"
"It’s true I was keeping someone on the side, but I never thought about divorcing my wife. I love my wife very much. So, when she got pregnant, I told her to get an abortion and even gave her a large sum of money."
"But she didn’t go. She took the money and secretly continued the pregnancy. Only when her belly got too big to hide did she tell me she was going to have the baby." Old Xu’s face was grim. "Of course I didn’t agree!"
"The day she died, she was on her way to my company to cause a scene, planning to have someone else tell my wife. But she got into a car accident on the way. She and the baby were both killed on the spot."
"I admit, when I heard the news, I was relieved," Old Xu explained anxiously. "But I never wanted to hurt her! It was all just an accident."
"Bullshit!" Xu Juanjuan shouted. "You were the one who said you’d divorce your wife! Otherwise, why would a top graduate from a prestigious university be your mistress? I must have been out of my mind! I was looking for true love, but you were just fucking playing around!"
"You scumbag! You bastard! I lost my innocence, I lost my future, so what gives you the right to have a happy family, as if nothing ever happened? Trying to pay me off? In your dreams!"
Old Xu got angry too, roaring, "If I hadn’t thought you were sensible in the beginning, do you think you could have ever climbed into my bed? I gave you a car and a house these past few years, but you were never satisfied! You even coveted the position of Mrs. Xu! Take a good look at yourself! Are you even worthy?"
Xu Juanjuan, probably driven mad with rage, let out a sharp scream. She released Mrs. Xu’s hand and charged at Old Xu with incredible force, only to be repelled by a flash of golden light as she got close.
Old Xu sneered, pulling a Jade Guanyin from his collar and clutching an Amulet in his other hand. He taunted, "Come on, if you’re not afraid to die!"
Looking like she was ready to take him down with her, Xu Juanjuan recklessly charged again.
Watching from the side, Qin Zhen grew extremely anxious and yelled, "Old Xu, get out of the way! That’s Juanjuan’s body!"
Gu Qingyin took the opportunity to circle around them and walk to the bedside. First, she used a Gathering Yin Talisman to absorb the Yin Qi from Mrs. Xu’s body. Then, she used a Soul Stabilizing Talisman to steady her three spiritual and seven mortal souls. Finally, she stuffed an Amulet into the woman’s hand.
By the time Xu Juanjuan was knocked out of her furious rage, she realized the hostage she just had was gone.
Gu Qingyin smiled. "Now, it’s time to solve your problem. Seeing as you’re also a victim and haven’t made any grave mistakes yet, I’ll give you two choices." She rubbed her wrists and said in a negotiating tone, "You can either come out willingly and I’ll send you to be reincarnated, or I can drag you out and obliterate your soul."
Before Xu Juanjuan could react, layers of black energy billowed from her abdomen, coalescing in mid-air into the vague shape of an infant before diving straight for Gu Qingyin’s stomach.
The baby ghost actually intended to force its way into Gu Qingyin’s abdomen and use her body to nurture a mature ghost body.
A chill filled Gu Qingyin’s eyes. "You’re courting death."
She slapped a palm toward the baby ghost. With a loud BANG, the baby ghost exploded, dissipating into pure Yin Qi that scattered in all directions.
"AH! My child!" Xu Juanjuan shrieked madly, her eyes bloodshot as she lunged at Gu Qingyin. "I’ll kill you!"
Gu Qingyin pulled a square seal from her satchel and pressed it against the center of Xu Juanjuan’s forehead.
The next second, Xu Juanjuan’s body convulsed, and a blurry shadow was jolted out of her. It was the possessing female ghost.
Gu Qingyin then took out a bottle, aimed its mouth at the ghost, and the ghost instantly let out a scream as it was sucked spiraling inside. A yellow talisman was slapped on to seal it, and the bottle was casually tossed back into her satchel.
"Put her on the bed," Gu Qingyin said, pointing to Xu Juanjuan, who had collapsed on the floor.
Old Xu, snapping back to his senses, was about to step forward, but Qin Zhen beat him to it, lifting Xu Juanjuan into his arms and carefully placing her on the bed.
Never mind Gu Qingyin, even Old Xu was a bit stunned.
Gu Qingyin blinked, her gossipy heart stirring. But the timing was wrong; she had to save her patient first.
She walked to the bedside, looked down at Xu Juanjuan, and sighed regretfully.
"What is it? Is Juanjuan’s condition very bad?" Qin Zhen asked nervously.
Gu Qingyin really couldn’t hold it in any longer. While arranging items like the vermillion brush on the nightstand, she asked, "Boss Qin, why are you so nervous? Even more nervous than Mr. Xu. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were Juanjuan’s father."
Qin Zhen’s expression froze. He subconsciously glanced at Old Xu, only to find Old Xu staring at him with a dark, heavy gaze.
Qin Zhen was startled. He quickly looked away and explained, "Master Gu, you’re joking. I’ve watched Juanjuan grow up since she was a child, and Old Xu and I have been friends for decades. Naturally, our bond is different."
’Is it that simple?’
For some reason, Gu Qingyin didn’t quite believe him. But seeing that Old Xu seemed to have accepted the explanation and was even quite moved by it, she couldn’t press the matter further. She cleared her throat and said, "Mr. Xu, could you please come over and add a bit of your blood to the vermillion?"
To prepare the vermillion, she had used nearly ten different ingredients. The last and most important one was the blood of a close relative.