The jeep bounced along the dirt road, kicking up clouds of yellow dust that blotted out the sky.
Inside the vehicle, Officer Zhao wiped away his sweat while studying the woman in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Jiang Ning leaned against the seat with her eyes closed, resting. The shabby military overcoat wrapped around her somehow gave her an intimidating, almost murderous air that made people think twice before looking down on her.
“Comrade Jiang, we’ve arrived.”
The jeep drove into the county government compound and stopped in front of a detached two-story building.
Quite a few people were gathered at the entrance, all wearing solemn expressions. At the front stood a middle-aged man dressed in a Zhongshan suit. His brows were tightly knitted as he paced back and forth.
“Director Li!” Officer Zhao jumped out of the jeep and hurried over. “I’ve brought the person you requested! She’s the wife of Commander Gu!”
Director Li stopped pacing and looked toward Jiang Ning as she stepped out of the vehicle.
She was too young.
And far too shabbily dressed.
A flicker of disappointment crossed Director Li’s eyes. However, out of consideration for Gu Ci, he reluctantly extended his hand.
“Comrade Jiang, I’m sorry to have made you come all this way. It’s about my daughter…”
“Ahhh! A ghost! There’s a ghost! Stay away from me!”
A piercing scream suddenly rang out from the second floor, followed by the sharp crash of breaking porcelain and the heavy thud of something hitting the floor.
Director Li’s hand trembled, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
“Move! Everyone, get out of the way! She’s having another episode!”
Chaos erupted upstairs.
Jiang Ning glanced at the tightly shut windows on the second floor and raised an eyebrow.
“Show me the way.”
She didn’t waste any words. She didn’t even bother to shake Director Li’s outstretched hand. Instead, she walked straight into the building.
Director Li froze for a moment before hurriedly following her.
The doorway to a bedroom on the second floor was packed with people. There were doctors in white coats, a female shaman holding a peachwood sword, and even several burly men carrying bowls of black dog blood.
This was supposed to be medical treatment?
It looked more like a gathering of demons and monsters.
Inside the room, a young woman of eighteen or nineteen was huddled in a corner. Her hair was disheveled, and she was waving a pair of scissors around wildly, her eyes unfocused and frantic.
“Stay away! You’re all ghosts! You’re all trying to hurt me!”
She screamed until her voice was hoarse. The floor was a complete mess, littered with broken glass, torn bedding, and an overturned bowl of medicine.
Several doctors tried to approach her, but each time, she drove them back with the scissors.
“Where are the sedatives? Have you given her an injection?” Director Li demanded, stamping his feet anxiously.
“We can’t get the injection into her!” one doctor replied miserably. “Director, your daughter is incredibly strong. Three people can’t even hold her down. Besides, she’s possessed by an evil spirit. I’m afraid sedatives won’t work…”
“Bullshit!”
Jiang Ning stood at the doorway and coldly spat out the word.
Everyone turned around. Seeing a young woman dressed in shabby clothes, several people were about to reprimand her.
But Jiang Ning had already pushed past the people blocking her way and strode into the room.
“Who are you? Get out! You’ll get hurt!” one of the doctors shouted.
Jiang Ning ignored him completely.
She stopped about three meters away from the young woman.
When the girl saw a stranger, she shrieked and waved her scissors.
“Who are you? Did that hanged ghost send you here?”
Jiang Ning said nothing.
She simply stared at the girl, her gaze as still and emotionless as a pool of stagnant water. There was neither fear nor pity in her eyes, as though she were looking at a lifeless object.
That expression made the girl, who had been in a state of frenzy, pause in confusion.
“Open the curtains,” Jiang Ning suddenly ordered.
“No!” the female shaman beside her shrieked. “That’s an evil yin spirit! It can’t be exposed to sunlight! If sunlight touches it, its soul will scatter!”
“Open them.”
Jiang Ning turned her head and swept her gaze over the shaman.
“If you say another word, I’ll throw you outside and let you bask in the sun. Then we can see whether your soul scatters.”
The murderous aura radiating from her was overwhelming. After spending so much time around Gu Ci, she seemed to have picked up some of his madness.
Officer Zhao shuddered and hurried over. With a sharp swish, he pulled open the heavy curtains.
The midday sunlight poured into the room like golden swords, instantly piercing the darkness.
“Ahhh!”
The girl screamed, dropped the scissors, covered her eyes with both hands, and curled into a trembling ball.
“See! It’s a ghost! It’s afraid of the light!” the shaman shouted, slapping her thigh triumphantly.
Jiang Ning let out a scornful laugh.
She picked up the scissors from the floor, twirled them between her fingers, and slowly approached the girl.
“Li Yan. Nineteen years old. Lead dancer of the county cultural troupe.”
Jiang Ning’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word was perfectly clear.
“Three months ago, you fell and broke your leg during a performance because of an accident. Although your leg healed, someone else took your position. After returning home, you started ‘seeing ghosts.’ You stopped sleeping at night and began acting crazy during the day. Am I right?”
The girl huddled in the corner stiffened.
Director Li exclaimed from the doorway, “That’s right! Every word is correct! Comrade Jiang, you’re incredible! How did you know all that?”
Actually, it wasn’t difficult to figure out.
A pair of dusty dance shoes hung in the room. On the wall was a photograph of a performance in which the girl’s body had been cut off halfway by the framing. And when she had been waving the scissors earlier, she had instinctively protected her right leg.
These were all clues.
This was a typical case of a hysterical episode, medically associated with what was then commonly called hysteria.
The girl was under tremendous psychological pressure and couldn’t face reality. Her subconscious mind had turned to madness as a way to escape. At the same time, her extreme behavior allowed her to obtain attention and protection from her family.
Put simply, she no longer wanted to live in reality. She wanted to remain in a world of ghosts.
“You think I’m a ghost too?”
Jiang Ning crouched down, playing with the sharp scissors. Their tips were only a few centimeters from the girl’s face.
“Perfect. So am I.”
The girl peered at her through the gaps between her fingers, her eyes filled with terror.
“I heard there’s only one way for someone possessed by a ghost to escape.”
Jiang Ning leaned close to her ear, her voice turning sinister.
“You have to become a real ghost. Just stick these scissors into your neck, and you’ll never have to worry about performing again. You won’t have to worry about someone taking your place, and you won’t have to pretend to be crazy anymore. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”
As she spoke, the cold blades pressed against the girl’s carotid artery.
“No… No, please…”
The girl went limp with terror, her teeth chattering.
“No?”
Jiang Ning’s gaze sharpened. She abruptly swung her hand and slapped the girl across the face.
SMACK!
The slap was vicious. Half the girl’s face swelled almost instantly, and a thin line of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
The entire room fell silent.
Director Li nearly fainted.
“Comrade Jiang! What are you doing?!”
“Does it hurt?” Jiang Ning asked.
The girl was stunned. Clutching her face, she nodded blankly.
“It hurts…”
“If it hurts, that means you’re human.”
Jiang Ning stood up and drove the scissors into the tabletop. The blades sank three inches into the wood.
“Since you’re human, stop pretending to be a ghost. If you want to die, I have plenty of ways to help you. If you want to live, shut your mouth.”
She turned toward the group of people standing dumbfounded at the doorway.
“Get everyone who isn’t involved out of here. The doctors can stay.”
Jiang Ning pulled the box of silver needles from her pocket.
“Hold her down. I’m going to perform acupuncture.”
Perhaps the intimidation of that slap had been too much, or perhaps it was Jiang Ning’s commanding presence that left no room for argument.
The girl, who had been thrashing around moments earlier, now sat obediently without daring to move. Two doctors held down her arms and legs.
Jiang Ning took out the needles and disinfected them.
This time, she didn’t use the Seven-Star Needle technique. Instead, she selected several major acupoints from the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles technique, which was used in traditional acupuncture to awaken consciousness and restore mental clarity.
Renzhong, Shaoshang, and Yinbai.
Each needle went into a highly sensitive point where the pain would be particularly intense.
“Ahhh!”
The girl convulsed in pain, tears and mucus streaming down her face.
“Let it out.”
Jiang Ning continued working without pausing, her voice cold and merciless.
“Let out all the resentment and grievances you’ve been holding inside. If you can’t get them out, then keep them bottled up. Go ahead and suffocate yourself with them!”
The girl finally broke down.
She burst into loud sobs.
It was no longer the shrill, eerie screaming of a supposed ghost. It was a human cry, raw and emotional, as years of pent-up frustration came pouring out.
Half an hour later, Jiang Ning removed the needles.
The girl had cried herself into exhaustion and was now lying on the bed, fast asleep. Her breathing was steady. Although her face was swollen and red, the sinister, deathly pallor she had worn earlier was gone.
“That’s enough.”
Jiang Ning wiped her hands.
“Give her some medicine to calm her nerves and nourish her brain. Then find a mental health professional for her to talk to. She isn’t possessed. She’s suffering from a psychological problem. Psychological problems need psychological treatment. If you keep indulging her, I won’t be able to save her next time.”
Director Li looked at his sleeping daughter, his eyes reddening.
He rushed forward and grabbed Jiang Ning’s hand, so overwhelmed with emotion that he could barely speak.
“Comrade Jiang! You’re a miracle doctor! An absolute miracle doctor! I was blind not to recognize your abilities earlier! Tell me, what kind of reward do you want? Anything within my power, I’ll do it!”
Jiang Ning pulled her hand away and rubbed it against her clothes with a look of disgust.
“Money.”
She kept her answer brief.
“Also, I heard the county has a limited number of bicycle purchase permits. Can you get me one?”
Director Li was taken aback. Then he waved his hand grandly.
“Of course! As it happens, I have a permit for a Phoenix-brand bicycle right here. I originally saved it for… Ahem, for a relative. Since you need it, Comrade Jiang, it’s yours!”
He took an envelope from his briefcase and pressed it into Jiang Ning’s hand.
“There’s also two hundred yuan inside as your consultation fee.”
Jiang Ning accepted the envelope and felt its thickness between her fingers.
Satisfactory.
“I’m leaving.”
She picked up her shabby cloth bag and turned to walk downstairs without sparing another glance at anyone in the room.
When she reached the entrance, she spotted the female shaman cowering in a corner. The moment the shaman saw Jiang Ning approaching, she began trembling with fear.
“Master… Which sect do you belong to?” the shaman asked shakily.
Jiang Ning stopped.
She turned around. Her pale face, illuminated by the sunlight, curved into an eerie smile.
“Me?”
She pointed toward the sun overhead.
“I’m from the school of materialism. And my specialty is dealing with frauds like you who peddle ghosts and spirits!”