Chapter 159

Chapter 159

◎A House Full of Ghosts◎

Chi Xingyao was part of an illustrator group she had joined during her university days. Besides illustrators, the group also included many authors. Some authors would buy cover art or character designs for their novels.

The group was large and diverse, so there was a wide range of information. Chi Xingyao didn’t know what to do about her situation, so she posted in the group seeking help.

Many people offered suggestions: change where you sleep, place a knife under your pillow, or if the phone rings, curse as much as possible.

Someone also sent her a link privately: "This paranormal affairs office is legit. I’ll stake my career on it. Last time, bloody handprints mysteriously appeared in my house. I sought help everywhere, and then a small ad-like pop-up appeared. I gave it a shot without expecting much, and a master actually came and fixed it. The fee wasn’t expensive either."

Chi Xingyao had known this illustrator for several years. Although they had never met, they often chatted and shared techniques, so they were pretty close. Realizing she wasn’t the only one who had experienced paranormal events, she felt like she had found an ally: "Why did the bloody handprints appear? How did they handle it? Did it really stop afterward?"

Illustrator Xiao Qi: "The master said it was a yin guest, a ghost that lived in my house. The bloody handprints appeared because I was staying up late during that period, as I’m more inspired at night."

Chi Xingyao: "So I bothered him, and he was complaining?"

Chi Xingyao reflected on herself, but she spent little time at home, and her sleep routine was regular, rarely staying up past midnight. It shouldn’t have disturbed anyone.

Illustrator Xiao Qi: "No, because that ghost died from staying up late, so he wanted to scare me into sleeping earlier."

Chi Xingyao: "...That ghost was actually kind of nice. Did the master take him away? Were there no more bloody handprints afterward?"

Illustrator Xiao Qi: "Yes, the master took him away and also did some cleansing in my house. I didn’t realize it before, but my house always felt a little chilly. I thought it was naturally cool in summer and warm in winter, but it turned out to be because of the yin guest. After the cleansing, my electricity bill has gone up a lot these past two summers."

For some reason, although it was a terrifying matter, when Illustrator Xiao Qi explained it, it didn’t seem scary at all. But Chi Xingyao decided to try the link, just in case it worked.

She opened the link and was hesitating how to phrase her situation when a customer service rep reached out to her. After she explained the whole situation, the representative took her phone number and said a master would contact her.

Chi Xingyao waited for a long time, but no one contacted her. It wasn’t until she was about to leave work that a call finally came. The voice sounded quite young, and the Mandarin was very clear. After asking a few questions, the person said, "So besides this midnight call, nothing else has hurt you, right?"

Chi Xingyao nodded, then realizing the other person couldn’t see, quickly said, "Yes, but the phone calls every night at around 3 a.m. not only disturb my sleep but are also terrifying. These past few days, I’ve been too scared to go home."

Ji Nanxing: "Have you stayed in a hotel?"

Chi Xingyao: "Yes, but it didn’t help. Even when I didn’t bring my phone, I would still be woken up by the phone ringing at around 3 a.m. I changed my phone, but it didn’t work. It’s like it’s haunting me."

Ji Nanxing: "Since there’s no actual harm, we can come over now or meet tomorrow during the day."

After all, it was late, and a young woman meeting two strangers might feel unsafe.

Chi Xingyao quickly said, "Don’t wait until tomorrow, come now, please. I’m really scared."

Right now, it’s just the phone, but who knows if there’s a ghost following her? What if it gets angry seeing her seek help from a master?

Ji Nanxing glanced at his clothes: "Alright, I’m at the subway station. Come meet me here."

After hanging up, Ji Nanxing tugged at his colorful vacation-style clothes: "I said I should bring a set of clothes. Showing up to meet a client dressed like this makes me look unprofessional."

Xiao Ye laughed: "Then the professional attire for this line of work would be a Taoist robe. As long as you have real skills, it’s fine. Otherwise, I’ll see if there’s a clothing store nearby and buy a set to change into."

There was no time to change clothes because Chi Xingyao had already rushed over at lightning speed. From a distance, she saw two boys who looked like they had just returned from a vacation standing at the subway station entrance. She was afraid she had mistaken them, but there was no one else around.

Just as she was about to call the number from earlier, one of the boys said, "Chi Xingyao?"

Chi Xingyao couldn’t help but show a bit of surprise. It really was them. Was this the professionalism that Xiao Qi had vouched for with her career?

Xiao Ye smiled apologetically: "Sorry, we were out with friends today and received your case last minute. We thought you might be in a hurry, so we contacted you first."

Chi Xingyao smiled awkwardly, "You guys look really young."

Xiao Ye, "It's a family tradition, and our skills are top-notch."

Chi Xingyao nodded, then looked at the two of them and asked, "Can you figure out what's wrong with me? And about the phone, this is the one I used before. It began ringing in the middle of the night, so I got a new one. The old phone stopped ringing, but the new one started. Then I got a new number, but now no matter if I change phones, numbers, turn off the phone, or even leave it behind, the alarm rings at exactly three o'clock."

She was really being driven crazy.

Ji Nanxing said, "There's nothing wrong with your phone. You have a bit of lingering ghost presence on you, but not much. The problem is probably in your house."

Chi Xingyao hesitated. It was late, and she felt a bit wary about taking two men to her place.

Noticing her hesitation, Ji Nanxing handed her a talisman, "Hold onto this. If the ghost is in your home, it shouldn't dare approach you tonight. We can set up a time to check out your place tomorrow during the day."

Chi Xingyao asked, "But what if the ghost disappears during the day?"

Ji Nanxing, "It might hide, but since it’s been haunting you for so long, it either has a request or you've done something to provoke it. Either way, without solving the issue, the ghost won’t just leave."

Chi Xingyao really didn't dare stay alone at home. She’d been staying at a hotel near work these past few days. At least there were staff around, so she could call for help if anything happened.

But if she didn't go home, she couldn't resolve the issue.

After glancing at the two guys again, Chi Xingyao said, "Can I check your IDs?"

Xiao Ye smiled, "Good, you’re being cautious. A girl should definitely be careful when she’s alone. Here, our IDs."

They had gone to a water park today, and tickets were pre-purchased, requiring IDs for redemption, so they happened to have them on hand.

Seeing their IDs, Chi Xingyao grew a bit more suspicious. They weren’t even adults yet, a full ten years younger than her. Could they really be trusted?

But two underage boys were safer than two grown men. After some internal debate, Chi Xingyao said, "Let’s go take a look now. The sooner we fix this, the better, instead of me being anxious all the time."

Chi Xingyao took them back to her apartment but made sure to text a coworker, telling them to message her every ten minutes. If she didn’t reply, they should call the cops.

Ji Nanxing noticed her actions, but he said nothing. It’s better for a girl to be careful than to trust anyone blindly.

It was just two stops, and they quickly arrived at Chi Xingyao's building. Xiao Ye said, "There’s a spot nearby that does amazing grilled frog. Want to get some after we’re finished?"

Ji Nanxing smiled, "Another place you know well?"

Xiao Ye, "Just around the back is the basketball court, and the place we ate last time, remember? It's near here. Too bad we didn't finish that day, a brat ruined it."

He still remembered the scene of seeing Ji Nanxing by the flower bed that day, sunlight filtering through the leaves, the person sitting on the flower bed focused on his phone, so well-behaved and pretty. He had been mesmerized, and later racked his brains to come up with an excuse to buy a book.

After buying the book, he couldn't bear to let him go and insisted on having a meal together.

Thinking back to a year ago, Xiao Ye smiled, "You don't know, you were holding your phone trying to grab something, and when I called out, you missed it. I was so panicked at that moment."

Ji Nanxing looked at him puzzled, "Panicked about what?"

Xiao Ye, "Panicked about offending my desk mate, what if he ignored me afterwards."

Their voices weren't loud, but it was quiet in the neighborhood at night. Chi Xingyao, walking not far ahead leading the way, naturally overheard their conversation.

She glanced at them secretly, just as they were passing under a streetlight. That glance allowed Chi Xingyao to clearly see the tenderness in Xiao Ye's eyes and the Taoist named Ji Nanxing smiling beside him.

Chi Xingyao looked away, her heart deeply moved. In that moment, she suddenly had a strong desire to fall in love, but the object of her affection wasn't her current boyfriend. She wanted a truly broad shoulder, a haven that could shelter her from the storm, a truly stable and reliable partner.

Not just a comfort for loneliness, something that could end at any moment, or even companionship she had to pay for.

She led them upstairs, opened the door, but didn’t dare to go in first.

Xiao Ye walked ahead, pushed the door open, and switched on all the lights before stepping aside to let Ji Nanxing in.

His Yang Energy is strong; if there were any ghosts in the house, they would be scared away by him.

Ji Nanxing entered the room and unexpectedly laughed, turning to look at Chi Xingyao: "Your place is pretty lively."

Chi Xingyao’s eyes widened in shock, her face filled with fear: "Wait, seriously? Don’t scare me like that, I’m freaking out!"

Ji Nanxing: "Come on in, don’t worry, they won’t harm you."

Hearing this, Chi Xingyao became even more frightened: "They? How many are there? Can you deal with them? Don’t scare me, I’m really not brave."

She started to wonder if her house had turned into a ghost haven. She didn’t care about the house anymore; she could just leave it vacant, but she didn’t want to be haunted.

Ji Nanxing looked at the elderly woman sitting in the living room, her hair gray but neatly combed. Before he could speak, the lady scrutinized him: "Can you see us?"

Ji Nanxing replied: "I’m a Taoist. You called her at night, making her think the place was haunted, so she asked me to come and solve the problem."

A young male ghost floated over, circled Ji Nanxing twice, then turned to the female ghost standing by the window: "Honey, Taoists actually exist in this world!"

A stern-looking old man tapped his cane on the ground, pointing at Chi Xingyao: "Then help us tell that girl to wise up and see clearly. What kind of losers has she been picking!"

Listening to the four ghosts in the room talking one after another, Ji Nanxing simply sat down and waited for them to finish before looking at Chi Xingyao: "Your place is haunted, so why didn’t your boyfriend come stay with you?"

Chi Xingyao hadn’t mentioned having a boyfriend, but with ghosts in the house, it was possible the Taoist had figured it out or heard it from the ghosts. She didn’t hide it: "He’s too busy. This shouldn’t have anything to do with him, right?"

Hearing this, the dignified elderly woman became furious: "Too busy? He just doesn’t care about my daughter. She called him, her voice almost crying, but he didn’t take it seriously, saying she was having nightmares, and he had some game season to focus on. How blind can one be to find such a man!"

The female ghost by the window floated over: "Hello, I’m Xingyao’s mother. We really can’t stand the guy she’s dating. We finally got a chance to see our family when the Ghost Gate opened, and we wanted to remind her to open her eyes and find someone better. Staying single forever is better than being with someone like that. But we can’t appear, and we tried to influence her phone with ghost energy, but she couldn’t hear us when the call went through."

They had been worried about this for days. The Ghost Festival lasts only a few days, and once the Ghost Gate closes, they have to leave. They can’t stay up here forever, but they really can’t stop worrying about this girl.

If she had found a good person, they could have been somewhat reassured, but that Zhou Yu is a total jerk!

It’s not that they want to think the worst of people, but some just can’t stand the test. They’re gone now, and Xingyao is left alone, beautiful and wealthy. If someone targets her, just going after her money would be the least of their worries; they fear for her life.

Every year, they come to stay with her for a while, seeing her work hard and live well, they felt pretty reassured. But this year, they found out she’s dating someone, and such a poor choice at that. How can they not worry?

After listening to them, Ji Nanxing looked at Chi Xingyao: "There are four ghosts in your house; they should be your parents and your grandparents."

Chi Xingyao, terrified, was stunned, unable to believe it for a while before asking incredulously: "Who did you say they are?"

Ji Nanxing said: "The elderly lady is wearing a Yulan-patterned cheongsam, her hair neatly combed and tied into a bun at the back. The elderly gentleman is wearing a Tang suit with dark patterned prints, no white hair, and looks a bit stern."

When she heard about the Yulan-patterned cheongsam, Chi Xingyao couldn’t hold back her tears. That was her grandmother, who loved wearing cheongsams the most, especially those with Yulan patterns.

Ji Nanxing: "The young lady is wearing a bohemian-style linen dress, with a side braid and a mole at the corner of her eye. The young man is wearing a loose shirt and work pants, and your eyes resemble his."

All the fear and terror of the past few days dissipated in that moment. Chi Xingyao ran into the room, but looking at the empty house, she cried to Ji Nanxing: "Where are they? Is there any way I can see them, even just once?"

Ji Nanxing: "They are sitting on the sofa. The living and the dead exist in separate realms; you can’t see them, but you can carefully feel their presence."

Not everyone can open their third eye. Chi Xingyao was clearly pampered by her family growing up, and she was very dependent on them. After experiencing loss and being alone for these years, seeing her family again would be like experiencing separation from them once more.

This would be very hard for her to accept.

And if her family, moved by her tears and pleas, thinks of her being alone in this world, they would be even more reluctant to leave. If they form an obsession and can’t return to the underworld, for these lingering ghosts who came up during the Ghost Festival, there would be severe punishment.

Not to mention whether those lingering ghosts would become obsessions, if Chi Xingyao were to open her spiritual sight and see her relatives, knowing that her family could still be together after death, she might very well commit suicide.

So now, even though she knows her relatives are around protecting her, since she can't see them, they still belong to another realm, and the impact on her is not so direct.

Chi Xingyao cried for a while. Just the thought that her grandparents and parents are in this house made her feel the sense of being wronged—having no one to rely on, no one to protect her, and even losing her home.

Although many people can live well without parents, and many others sever family connections to live more freely, Chi Xingyao is not that kind of person. Despite her parents' early death, her grandmother gave her plenty of love, and she is very attached and dependent on her family.

This is also why, even though she knows in her heart that her boyfriend is not a good match, she still puts up with him, because she just wants to find another family member to depend on, someone to accompany her.

Not wanting her to get deeper into her feelings, Ji Nanxing waited for her to release her emotions for a while before speaking: "They are very dissatisfied with your boyfriend and even said that he once came to your place and stole your jewelry and sold it."

Chi Xingyao cried until she hiccuped, looking bewildered: "Stole jewelry, and sold it?"

Ji Nanxing said: "Your mother told me."

She has a lot of jewelry, the ones here were bought in recent years, all in the jewelry box. Except for some particularly luxurious brands, like bracelets and necklaces worth one or two hundred thousand, she doesn't really remember the specifics of the other items, all mixed up together. If a few items were indeed missing, she indeed wouldn't notice.

Chi Xingyao's grandfather was still angrily saying something on the side. After he finished, Ji Nanxing conveyed: "Your boyfriend also cheated on you with a junior at school, named Xu Shanshan, and he plans to marry you and mooch off you, but still have affairs on the side."

This was personally discovered by Chi Xingyao's grandfather. For the sake of his granddaughter's future, he naturally had to check out the guy thoroughly, but the other party had no integrity whatsoever—not only stealing but also cheating, having a relationship with a junior at school while still sticking to his granddaughter.

Every time his granddaughter was not busy, he would use exams as an excuse to avoid her, spending at most three out of ten days with her.

When his granddaughter got busy, that guy began to whine, saying that his granddaughter was always busy with work and didn't accompany him, always trying to squeeze something out of her.

If it weren't for the rule that ghosts coming up through the Ghost Gate are not allowed to harm people or influence them with ghostly energy, he would have taught him a lesson.

Fortunately, sending messages through dreams to relatives is allowed, but his granddaughter's sleep quality is too good, and dreams couldn't get through. They tried many methods and finally managed to influence the phone using Yin Energy.

Unfortunately, the magnetic alignment was off, and no matter how much they shouted into the phone, their granddaughter couldn't hear them. Luckily, today a Taoist came and served as their intermediary.

Chi Xingyao's father looked at Xiao Ye from afar and then said to his wife: "This boy is good, tall, handsome, with a good figure, and most importantly, radiating with Yang Energy."

Chi Xingyao's mother sighed: "He's simply too young. If only he had been born a few years earlier."

Ji Nanxing glanced at them and then at Xiao Ye standing at the door, trying not to let his Yang Energy affect the ghosts inside, and chose not to convey this message.

Chi Xingyao walked over to the sofa, squatted on the carpet for a while, then turned her head joyfully towards Ji Nanxing and Xiao Ye: "It's really them! It's my family, I can smell them! It's my grandmother's scent, a sweet orange blossom smell."

Hearing this, Chi Xingyao's grandfather sniffed at his wife: "There's no smell."

Chi Xingyao's mother watched her daughter desperately searching for signs of their presence and sadly looked at her husband. When her daughter was just born, she wanted to give her all the wonders of the world, to make her the happiest little princess. Who would have thought she would lose her parents so early.

Although her material life has not been lacking these years, she hasn't been able to give her much love spiritually.

When her mother was still alive, it was better, at least the grandmother and granddaughter had each other for company. After her mother passed, Xingyao was left entirely on her own.

Ji Nanxing had conveyed all the messages from the lingering ghosts, and before leaving, he told Chi Xingyao: "After the Ghost Festival, they will leave. You should not try to keep them. When the time comes, they must go to reincarnation. If you insist on keeping them, it will deplete their future fortunes."

Chi Xingyao nodded upon hearing this: "I understand, thank you."

Ji Nanxing: "You're welcome. If you need anything, you can contact me on WeChat. Then I will wrap up this case."

Chi Xingyao responded: "Okay, how much is the fee?"

Ji Nanxing: "One thousand yuan."

He didn't do much, merely served as an intermediary, not even using a single talisman.

Chi Xingyao thought for a moment and said, "Can I perform a blessing ceremony for my family, like a religious service? Do you offer that here?"

Ji Nanxing replied, "You can go to Yuchun Taoist Temple, they have a dedicated blessing hall."

Chi Xingyao transferred a thousand yuan to Ji Nanxing and watched them enter the elevator. She couldn't help but marvel at the great value for such a low fee.

Returning home, she looked at the house that had frightened her just yesterday, and now her heart was filled with happiness. Even though she couldn't see them, she felt her family's presence with her, and she wasn't afraid at all.

But she figured it was time to dump her boyfriend pronto, so her grandparents and parents wouldn't worry when they passed away.