He certainly recognized the figure. The paper spirit coldly spoke, sounding half like Xia Xianning: “You disturb the human world, brazenly taking living souls. Don’t you know that yin and yang are separate paths? How can you arrange a marriage? You shall be killed!”
The thin man, initially panicked, hurriedly explained: “Great Emperor, please misunderstand! This humble one is an Yin-Yang master from Changxiang Village, moving a soul here not to arrange an underworld marriage, but to bring our village’s wife back! Otherwise, if yin and yang are imbalanced, I fear great trouble!”
The paper spirit roared: “Nonsense! Lu Lu was clearly born and raised here and has never been to Changxiang Village. How dare you try to deceive me!”
The thin man immediately knelt, terrified: “Great King, I absolutely would not dare deceive you! Please let me explain.”
“Speak.”
His demeanor did not seem like an act, and the explanation that followed would surprise Xia and Luo even more…
Luo Yingbai laughed and said softly: “Your home’s Demon-Banishing King is really gossipy, both nosy and talkative, asking so many questions.”
Xia Xianning also whispered: “It’s fine, we’ve fooled him enough.”
Zhen Quan was just a somewhat capable second-rate practitioner who had never seen such miraculous magic. He immediately answered respectfully after being asked: “The man in the double coffin is known to be the third son of our village chief, named Zhang Jian. That poor guy was unlucky, thirty years old and unmarried, accidentally drowned in a pond. Just before burial, there was a woman who died at the bottom of the mountain on the west side of our village. Everyone simply buried them together, at least they’d have company.”
He spoke until his mouth was dry and after a brief rest, continued: “This double coffin had been buried for over a year without incident, but the day after the coffin was damaged, the woman’s bones disappeared! Think about it, they’d been husband and wife in the underworld for over a year, with feelings between them. With his wife gone, how could the male ghost not cause trouble! The village chief repaired the coffin and reburied it, but that night, the three people who buried it… alas, they all died. The coffin jumped out by itself and blocked the middle of the road, scaring villagers into taking detours. I knew he was determined to have someone find his wife.”
To prevent the male ghost from causing havoc, Zhen Quan calculated fortunes, divined signs, and almost exhausted himself finding this method. Using soul-releasing techniques, he guided his soul along the formation to search for the female ghost’s soul. Whether due to miscalculation or a wandering soul, he fixated on the unfortunate Lü Lu, firmly believing she was Zhang Jian’s missing wife.
Zhen Quan’s plan was to place a dummy in the coffin and then summon the female ghost back. However, he couldn’t successfully bring Lü Lu’s soul back. Every time they were about to close the coffin, the male corpse would push the dummy out, and someone in the village would die the next day.
Initially, Xia Xianning thought Zhen Quan was intentionally harming people, knowingly trying to take the soul of a living person to appease the male corpse. But after repeated questioning, he and Luo Yingbai realized Zhen Quan couldn’t distinguish between living and dead souls. He even naively believed he had taken away a female ghost, unaware the basket was empty.
But if the basket was indeed empty, why would Lü Lu have such a dream?
Zhen Quan sighed: “Now many have died in the village. I say we shouldn’t let those film crew come back. They’ve caused such trouble, and Zhang Jian definitely won’t let them off.”
But the village chief has already distributed the received money among households and can’t take it back. They arrived in our village yesterday. If I don’t bring someone back quickly, who knows what might happen.”
He suddenly knelt and kowtowed to the paper spirit, begging: “Please help save the village, this humble one will set up a shrine and worship for generations, please save the village!”
The paper spirit slowly spoke: “This king will send two emissaries to investigate the situation in Chanxiang Village soon. If there are grievances, we will handle them fairly. If there are false words, we will execute immediately.”
Zhen Quan kowtowed and cried: “Yes, yes, thank you, immortal.”
After he finished speaking, the paper spirit’s body suddenly trembled, then told Zhen Quan to rise and handed him a bowl of water, saying: “Drink.”
Xia Xianning glanced at Luo Yingbai, who smiled slightly.
He gazed at Luo Yingbai’s face. “Your personality is so wonderful. I’ve never met anyone more likable. You never lose your temper, always trying to see the better side of things.”
Xia Xianning suddenly stopped.
Luo Yingbai, who had always been thick-skinned, finally understood what it meant to blush, and he quickly said, “Thank you, thank you, I understand, please don’t say anymore…”
Xia Xianning laughed, “Wasn’t it you who asked me to speak?”
With his tone, Luo Yingbai immediately felt at ease and sincerely said, “I was wrong.”
And while they were talking, Lu Luo woke up behind them.
She sat up dazedly on the sofa, almost unaware of where she was. Her first reaction was to instinctively look at her phone, then exclaim in surprise, “3:30? It’s only 3:30?”
“It is 3:30, sorry I forgot to cover you with a blanket.”
Luo Yingbai walked over and sat on the sofa opposite her, asking, “Miss Lu, did you have a dream again?”
Lu Luo looked at him blankly for a moment, her thoughts gradually clearing. She realized why two strange men were in her home, and the bewildered look on her face faded, replaced by her usual indifferent expression.
Lu Luo nodded to Luo Yingbai in thanks for his concern, then said, “No, the dream changed.”
Lu Luo thought for a moment and said, “This time, after I got into the sedan chair, before even departing, the chair overturned.”
Luo Yingbai exchanged a glance with Xia Xianning, who said officially, “May we know your specific birth date and the date of the accident that occurred more than a year ago?”
Lu Luo looked surprised, not remembering telling Xia Xianning about her accident. But with her mind in disarray, she thought she might have forgotten, so she nodded and provided the information.
Luo Yingbai mentally calculated these two dates and realized that it wasn’t entirely unexpected that Zhen Quan would target Lu Luo, as her own fate was quite strange.
But now, neither scenario seemed to apply.
Xia Xianning had asked that question because he saw from Lu Luo’s facial features that she had an accident more than a year ago. But according to Lu Luo’s description, the accident wasn’t an emotional tribulation, just an unfortunate fall while rock climbing alone, from which she recovered without any sequelae.
Xia Xianning said, “If Lu Lu really died in that accident, then who was the person talking to us just now? No death aura, not a ghost, we looked at their face and they’re not an impersonator, so the only possibility is that she was revived by some strange technique, either knowingly or unknowingly. She’s not a ghost now, but not quite alive either.”
Xia Xianning helped organize the thoughts, and Luo Yingbai’s ideas became clearer. He immediately said, “That means the female corpse that Zhen Quan said was missing from the coffin could also be Lu Lu’s body! This… is a bit terrifying.”
Thinking about the living person they had just talked to, with the body likely lying somewhere else, it was indeed chilling. Xia Xianning said, “Let’s go to Chanxiang Village when we have time. I’ll check the live program Zhen Quan mentioned tomorrow and pull out Lu Lu’s case file from the closed records.”
