On Saturday morning, Zhou Fuzhen rushed back into the dormitory and eagerly shook a fast-asleep Jiang Wei awake.
“What time is it? What’s the first class?” Jiang Wei, still half-asleep and thinking it was Monday, asked with sleep-heavy eyes.
“No classes today, Weiwei. What’s the background of the jade pendant you gave me?” Zhou Fuzhen leaned over the edge of the bed and asked with a dead-serious expression.
Rubbing her eyes, Jiang Wei stared at Zhou Fuzhen for a good while before fully waking up. “Why did you run back on a Saturday? Didn’t you just go home last night?”
“The jade pendant you lent me, Weiwei! It’s too damn legendary.” Zhou Fuzhen pulled the jade pendant out from her collar and showed it to Jiang Wei. “It warded off a disaster for me.”
“What’s going on?”
“I got sleep-paralyzed by a ghost while sleeping, and the jade pendant saved me,” Zhou Fuzhen said loudly.
“…” Jiang Wei stared in astonishment, her first reaction being that Zhenzhen was just messing with her. But taking a close look at Zhou Fuzhen’s expression, she didn’t look like she was lying—Zhenzhen wasn’t a good enough actress for that.
So… sleep paralysis by a ghost?! Holy shit—
Jiang Wei’s immediate instinct was to grip her phone tight, as if that could grant her a sense of safety.
“It’s true.” Seeing that Jiang Wei wasn’t speaking, Zhou Fuzhen assumed she didn’t believe her, and yanked open her clothes to show Jiang Wei the mark on her chest:
“This burn mark was left behind by the small jade pendant. At the time, it was glowing hot, bursting into a ball of fire, and then the ghost on me was gone.
“Look at these two dark bruise marks—if you look closely, you can see them. They look just like a pair of footprints left behind by that ghostly thing on my body.”
Jiang Wei reached out and rubbed the oval-shaped burn mark just below Zhou Fuzhen’s collarbone. It didn’t rub off, and instead earned her a slap on the back of the hand from Zhou Fuzhen.
“Ouch!” Zhou Fuzhen tugged her clothes back into place and rubbed the two dark marks herself. “It’s real, it doesn’t rub off. May I turn into a dog if I’m lying.”
As Jiang Wei was digesting Zhou Fuzhen’s words, the dormitory door suddenly creaked open, and Wang Jingjing and Sun Tian walked in from outside.
“Lend us your dish soap, our dorm’s ran out—” Sun Tian’s voice abruptly cut off. Her eyes widened as she looked at the disheveled Zhou Fuzhen, then shifted to Jiang Wei, whose face was leaning right toward Zhou Fuzhen’s chest.
In a few seconds of dead silence, Sun Tian’s brain made several hairpin turns.
Everything was clear without a word.
The next instant, an understanding look bloomed across Sun Tian’s face—she got it now. Letting out a hehe chuckle, she didn’t even borrow the dish soap anymore, clicked her tongue, backed out of the room, casually dragged a dazed Wang Jingjing out with her, and pulled the door shut with a loud bang.
“…” Zhou Fuzhen looked down at her own chest, then looked up to meet Jiang Wei’s expression of utter amusement mixed with exasperation.
“…” Jiang Wei twitched the corner of her mouth. If there weren’t more important matters to handle right now, she’d really have given Sun Tian a second installment of “Meeting a Ghost in the Restroom.”
…
As for where the small jade pendant came from, Jiang Wei could only use the excuse that she inherited it from her grandfather. Zhou Fuzhen immediately concluded that Jiang Wei’s grandfather must be an otherworldly hermit master.
Jiang Wei vaguely implied that she hadn’t known her grandfather possessed such an identity, while Zhou Fuzhen put on an expression that read, “I know this is your secret,” “I get it.”
Listening to Zhou Fuzhen recount last night’s experience with a mix of excitement and lingering dread, Jiang Wei’s thoughts drifted back and forth.
So the Weng Zhong jade pendant really worked, and it had rescued Zhenzhen from the dangerous jaws of a ghost-压床 (sleep paralysis/chest-pressing specter).
However, what on earth was going on with this world?
Ever since acquiring this phone, she had already lived through several supernatural incidents: the paper doll looking up, Sun Tian encountering a ghost, Zhenzhen experiencing ghost sleep-paralysis… Oh wait, Sun Tian encountering a ghost had been fake.
“Weiwei, can you please come over to our house and help us exorcise the evil spirits?” Thinking of last night’s dream still gave Zhou Fuzhen chills. After hesitating for a moment, she grabbed Jiang Wei’s hand and pleaded.
Jiang Wei pointed at herself: Me?
How was this any different from sending the minor demon Drill-Wind to go assassinate Sun Wukong?
A real ghost… so dangerous, could she possibly handle it?
Thinking of all the horror movies she’d watched in the past, anyone would feel their heart seize up with dread—let alone Jiang Wei, who had experienced far too many bizarre events since getting the phone. Ghosts or no ghosts, she genuinely believed in them now.
Meeting Zhou Fuzhen’s eyes, Jiang Wei softened. Her jade pendant had saved Zhenzhen; to Zhenzhen, she was probably the only person she could lean on. After all, Zhou Fuzhen couldn’t exactly run down to the police station and ask Uncle Policeman to help catch a ghost.
Besides… what did a real ghost actually look like? Was it truly defined like in horror movies? She held a burning, intense desire to explore all the bizarre occurrences she had lived through and the corresponding changes happening to the world. Nobody wanted to remain completely ignorant during a global transformation; she wanted to find out what was actually going on with this world.
She currently had a little under 100 fear value points, and wanted to buy a defensive offering plus an offensive offering. For defense, the Weng Zhong jade pendant—which had been personally test-driven and proven effective by Zhenzhen—cost 36 fear value points. As for an anti-ghost weapon… a peach-wood sword cost 78 fear value points.
The fear value in her hands fell short of 114, so she couldn’t buy both.
Jiang Wei thought about it for a moment, then looked up to see that the jade pendant she had gifted Zhenzhen was still hanging around the other girl’s neck. Having this one jade pendant between the two of them should be enough, right? As long as they stuck together all the time.
Thus, she decided to buy a peach-wood sword for self-defense and combat.
Taking a deep breath and meeting Zhou Fuzhen’s eyes once more, Jiang Wei hardened her expression, grabbed Zhenzhen’s hand, and said with utmost earnestness:
“As long as you need me, Zhenzhen, through mountains of blades and seas of fire I will go.”
Zhou Fuzhen was amused by Jiang Wei’s sudden roleplay, but thinking of the sheer danger involved in ghost-catching, she also felt deeply touched and couldn’t help leaning over to give Jiang Wei a hug.
Just as Jiang Wei hugged Zhenzhen back and comfortingly patted her on the back, the dorm door creaked open. Wang Jingjing stood in the doorway, looking with helpless resignation at Jiang Wei and Zhou Fuzhen, her gaze practically saying:
I mean, sisters, are you two ever going to finish?
…
On the way to Zhou Fuzhen’s house, Zhenzhen had already convinced herself that when Jiang Wei gave her the jade pendant, she must have already foreseen everything that was about to happen.
By the time they stepped out of the car, in Zhenzhen’s eyes, Jiang Wei had completely transformed into an all-knowing master.
Having tagged along with Zhenzhen over the years, Jiang Wei had already ridden in Porsches and touched Chanel, Hermès, and LV goods, but upon laying eyes on the estate-like detached villa belonging to Zhenzhen’s family, Jiang Wei was still hit with a massive wave of shock.
As someone who had grown up living in run-down, cramped apartments with her adoptive grandparents, she simply couldn’t imagine that people lived in sprawling environments where a single room was larger than a poor person’s entire house. Just how many cats and dogs could you raise in a massive courtyard like this? You could even keep a donkey. How wonderful would it be if she got to live here? A two-story villa with as many studies as she wanted, plus she could set up several bedrooms and sleep in whichever one she pleased. When she felt like it, she could gaze at the stars from the attic, tilt her head 45 degrees toward the sky, and strike a melancholic pose…
Standing outside the courtyard gates, Jiang Wei’s modest, easily-satisfied heart expanded rapidly—her urge to make money was off the charts.
The two friends walked into the courtyard one after another, only to find the place thick with smoke and as choking as a rural field burning straw in autumn. Numerous monks were bustling to and around, setting up incense burners and burning incense as if it were free.
Jiang Wei looked surprised, while Zhou Fuzhen pulled her toward the main villa building and explained, “My mom definitely prepared all this.”
“She believes in Buddhism?” Jiang Wei asked.
“Mmh, for many years now,” Zhou Fuzhen nodded.
As the two of them crossed the courtyard, several passing monks kept glancing sideways at them—clearly lacking detachment from worldly desires.
As Jiang Wei looked around, she spotted two young Daoist acolytes squeezed into a corner, chatting with a senior monk.
“How come there are Daoists here too?” Jiang Wei asked in astonishment. Nowadays, monks performed Buddhist rites, but they also invited Daoist acolytes to hold down the fort?
“Oh, my dad must have invited them,” Zhou Fuzhen replied in a casual tone, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
“?” Jiang Wei’s eyes widened. Mom believes in Buddhism, dad believes in Daoism, and there’s a daughter who loves visiting haunted houses, playing pen-spirit, and watching horror movies?
What kind of feudal superstition household was this?!
The moment the two of them stepped into the villa and walked into the reception area, they saw Old Zhou, Old Zhao (her mom), an elderly Buddhist monk, and a Daoist priest seated on the sofa set before the large floor-to-ceiling windows. The four of them were clustered together drinking tea, making for a rather bizarre scene.
“Master Puyi’s incense burners and altar tables are already set up. With so many people in the courtyard, obviously our side is leading the ritual first,” Old Zhao argued with a serious face, standing her ground.
“The Celestial Master from our Mount Longhu is right here. Naturally, our side sets up the ritual field first,” Old Zhou waved his hand in disagreement, insisting that Celestial Master Zhang open the altar and perform rites first.
Both husband and wife sported severe dark circles under their eyes; it looked like after that minor ghost had been scared away by the Weng Zhong jade pendant last night, it hadn’t spared the master and mistress of this villa either.
Old Zhou and Old Zhao were clashing head-on without yielding an inch, yet Celestial Master Zhang and Master Puyi both appeared extremely amiable. Both maintained the otherworldly demeanor of high-minded masters, silently drinking tea without arguing or bickering, each holding down their respective sides of the arena quite well.
The moment Jiang Wei saw that Zhou’s father and mother had invited both a Celestial Master from Mount Longhu and a Chan master from a major temple, her heart immediately dropped safely back into her chest. With these two high-level experts around, it probably wouldn’t fall to her to take action.
Just as she let out a sigh of relief, Zhou Fuzhen—who was holding her hand—suddenly chimed in loudly:
“The ghost last night was repelled by the jade pendant I was carrying, and I obtained that jade pendant from Celestial Master Jiang. Of course Celestial Master Jiang should open the altar first!”
Seeing Zhou Fuzhen suddenly attract everyone’s attention, Jiang Wei wondered whether she should take this moment to greet Zhou’s parents, but before she could open her mouth, it suddenly hit her—
Celestial Master Jiang? Me? Who? I’m opening the altar?