Chapter 53

Chapter 53

He put away his phone and looked up to see Yu Ni standing at the edge of the window, poised to jump: "Say one more word of nonsense, and I'll jump straight down and let this human die. When that happens, it'll be on your kind, and you'll definitely be punished."

His phone buzzed—Zhu Yuan had texted: "Watch out for it."

Cheng Gu knew this meant Yu Ni, who was about to jump. He glanced at the people gathering around and replied: "People are getting drawn in. Speed it up."

Zhu Yuan: "Okay."

Cheng Gu put away his phone and shooed away the crowd gathering around.

"What's the deal? Can't we even look?"

"Who are you? What's a dude doing in the girls' dorm?"

"Isn't that Yu Ni? Who's she talking to? Why's she so riled up she's gonna jump?"

"Has their dorm been too thirsty for attention lately? First playing games, then campus bullying, and now jumping off a building?"

"I heard Yu Ni got possessed from playing that game. Look how off she is now—gotta be true."

The chatter kept going nonstop, the crowd growing larger and gradually forming a ring around them. Cheng Gu's trying to talk them down was useless. Remembering He Jing once said he could help out at big venues when things got out of hand, he made a call.

"Got it. Let me look up the school's office number," He Jing said.

Within minutes, staff rushed over and broke up the crowd.

"What are you looking at? They're putting on a show. Stop staring."

"Don't block the area. Get back to whatever you were doing."

"Scram, scram. No filming. Delete those videos."

"..."

Dozens of people got scattered, with staff posted below. The guy who'd been yapping the most held a megaphone, glanced at Cheng Gu a few times, then leaned in all secretive: "Is there actually a ghost up there?"

"First time I've ever seen a ghost. Can I go up and peek?"

"No," Cheng Gu answered the second question, smiling as he explained, "It's too dangerous up there—and not just up there, but here too. That thing might set its sights on you."

The guy shuddered at that, shut his mouth, and moved off with his megaphone, continuing to disperse the others.

A cold, biting wind swept through. The sky went dark and gloomy, thunder rumbling faintly, dark clouds rolled in at an alarming speed.

Cheng Gu sneezed out of nowhere. He looked up, squinting at Yu Ni, and saw her inch even further out. He got ready to catch her.

"Already dead, and still eyeing someone else's body," Zhu Yuan said, digging frantically through his bag. "Killing one wasn't enough? Now you're after two?"

"Got one already, so what's one more?" Yu Ni grinned, her grin infuriating. "As for you, if anything happens to this body, her parents will definitely hunt you down."

"Sorry, but our company's top-notch. We won't let that happen, and we won't let you win either."

Zhu Yuan yanked something from his bag and chucked it.

Yu Ni flinched and dodged, turning to look at the object. In that split second, Zhu Yuan closed in, grabbed her by the collar and hauled her into the dorm.

"Bang." The dorm door slammed shut. The lights flickered. Zhu Yuan crouched down, pressing down on Yu Ni's shoulders, and spoke in a low voice: "You've already tormented her half to death. You deserve to die a thousand times over."

Yu Ni thrashed wildly, twisting around, shooting Zhu Yuan a vicious glare from the side: "What about me? I'm innocent here too. If I'm so innocent, why can't I hurt anyone? I just want to live. What did I do wrong?"

Zhu Yuan pressed her face down, keeping her from looking at him, and sneered: "So your 'living' is just hurting others? You didn't want to live, so you jumped off this building. You call that innocent?"

Yu Ni froze, her previously ferocious expression instantly twisting into something hideous.

"If those people hadn't gossiped about me behind my back, would I have jumped? The people in this school are the problem. I'll make them die."

Her eyes were bloodshot as she glared, the black aura wrapped around her nearly devouring her entirely.

Zhu Yuan was violently knocked back by the black aura but managed to grab the dorm door in time to avoid falling.

She rubbed her slightly sore wrist and looked at Yu Ni, who was getting up.

"What right do you have to meddle in my affairs?" Yu Ni sneered. "How hypocritical. If you really want to save this person, then kill those gossiping bastards for me."

"Are you sure they were gossiping?" Zhu Yuan countered.

Yu Ni froze, the black aura around her solidifying, her wild movements ceasing.

But only for a moment. The black aura surged wildly again. Yu Ni threw her head back and roared, her facial skin loosening in a horrifying way, as if separating from the flesh.

"If it weren't for them, how could I have died? It's all their fault. I'll kill them. Even if I can't kill them, I'll kill others."

Her eyes were filled with resentment and malice, her pupils seemingly stained with black ink, slowly devouring the whites until both eyes turned completely black. Then she deliberately worked her head and neck, a cold smile curling at the corners of her lips: "So, what's it going to be? Are you going to save her or not?"

Normally, a person carries three flames—the yang fire of life.

Two on the shoulders, one on top of the head.

That's why you shouldn't casually pat someone's shoulder, especially in the dead of night. And if someone pats your shoulder from behind when you're outside, you must never turn around.

If you turn around, that flame goes out.

Once two of the yang flames are extinguished, the person is in a dangerous state. If all three go out, survival becomes nearly impossible—they become a living person wandering the underworld, unable to reincarnate until their true lifespan is exhausted.

The flame on Yu Ni's left shoulder was completely extinguished. The one on her right was a faint, weak flicker, and as the black aura coiled around her body, even that faint flame went out, leaving only the unsteady flame atop her head.

"Save her," Zhu Yuan said, rummaging through his pocket.

"Still trying to trick me?" Knowing that what she had thrown out earlier was just candy, Yu Ni scoffed at his behavior, showing no fear. "Talismans don't work on me. Stop searching. With your amateur skills, you want to capture me? Dream on."

The black aura encroached upon the flame, and the fire formed by countless tiny sparks was slowly dying out.

Zhu Yuan paused, then smiled at Yu Ni with curved eyes: "You're right, I am an amateur. But what can I do? The company has strong backing, our employee benefits are good, and we have plenty of tools."

With that, he suddenly flung something from his hand.

Three miniature bells floated around Yu Ni, forming a triangular encirclement. The faint ringing echoed through the dorm room—soothing and harmless to humans.

But for a ghost, the moment the bells rang, an indescribable burning sensation spread through its body, as if countless invisible things were gnawing at its soul. In mere moments, it could be torn apart completely.

"What is this? Get away!" Yu Ni flung the bells away.

The moment the black aura touched the bells, it was repelled, slamming into Yu Ni. A faint light flashed, and she was knocked back several steps, clutching her numbed chest. Her entire body seemed to be falling, her vision twisting and darkening, blurring to the point of losing consciousness in an instant.

She knew what this meant and screamed desperately: "I will never leave this body. Even if we both perish together, you won't save her."

"Fine. You go ahead and be destroyed first. This body may be damaged, but it's not irreversible." Zhu Yuan crossed his arms, tilted his head, and stared at her with complete calm, his eyes utterly devoid of emotion—everything firmly under his control.

Yu Ni froze, and the black qi that had been frantically burrowing into her body came to a halt.

The bell continued to ring, her soul feeling as if it were being torn apart. Yu Ni clutched her head, collapsed to the ground, and slammed her head against the floor in desperation.

"Stop the bell, let's talk, let's talk."

It knew that with the bell in play, it would be hard to do anything to Zhu Yuan, and fearing that Zhu Yuan had even more powerful tools—since even threatening mutual destruction was useless—it could only negotiate.

"Too late," Zhu Yuan said. "I tried to talk to you from the start, and you refused. If you won't talk, I've got other ways."

She walked over to the bell, picked it up, and gave it a gentle shake. The previously faint sound instantly intensified, so violent that black blood immediately trickled from Yu Ni's ears onto the floor.

What kind of bell is this?

Yu Ni's head felt heavy and muddled, blood streaming from her nose onto the ground. Her soul ached so badly that she could no longer stay inside the body, and was forcibly ejected from her body by the sound.

It struggled unwillingly, clawing at Yu Ni's arm, refusing to let go, trying to re-enter. Out of the corner of its eye, it saw Zhu Yuan holding something like a golden net. The next moment, the scene shifted, and it was faced with dozens of golden threads.

"A new item that just showed up in the warehouse—you get to be the first to try it. Aren't you honored?" Zhu Yuan's eyes peered through the net's threads.

It realized it had shrunk and tried to slip through the threads, but before it could touch them, it sensed the danger—that approaching them would instantly weaken its soul—and retreated.

Zhu Yuan ignored it, helped Yu Ni to her feet, gently wiped the blood off her face, seated her in a chair, and pulled two triangular talisman papers from her pocket, placing them on Yu Ni's shoulders.

The extinguished flames were instantly nourished and began to flicker back to life.

The door opened, and Cheng Gu poked his head in. "All done?"

"Pretty much." Zhu Yuan gestured for him to come in and tossed him the golden net. "Take a look, a new gadget."

It was an extremely tiny net, made of ten long threads, giving off a faint golden glow.

The threads bore faint black writing, but they were too thin to make out.

The moment Cheng Gu caught it, an indescribable chill seeped from his palm into his body, causing his shoulder to involuntarily twitch.

Soon, the cold vanished, replaced by a comforting, relaxing warmth.

Inside the golden net was a pinky-sized shadow, moving ferociously, dodging the threads as it searched for an escape.

"So this is the thing?" Cheng Gu examined the net with fascination.

"Yeah." Zhu Yuan pressed the pressure point above Yu Ni's lip, and her chest, which had been still and barely rising, began to rise again.

She withdrew her hand, gave Yu Ni a little water, and picked up the bell that was still floating in the air.

"What's that?" Cheng Gu asked.

"A triangular bell—it can wake people, but ghosts can't bear to hear it. Listen too long, and their souls are scattered to the winds." Zhu Yuan gave it a gentle shake, and the shadow in the golden net curled into a ball, retreating.

Now it knew fear, completely losing its earlier cockiness.

"Both just showed up in the warehouse." Zhu Yuan placed the bell in Cheng Gu's hand for a closer look. "That's all I know about them."

The triangular bell wasn't round like a regular bell; instead, it had a sharp triangular shape, bronze-colored, with a small handle on top, so small that three of them could be completely hidden in one hand.

Other than that, there was nothing noteworthy about the bell. Cheng Gu was more curious about the net in his hands, tentatively poking it with a finger—it was incredibly soft and elastic, as if he'd touched a cheek for a split second.

The amazing texture only made Cheng Gu more curious.

He thought of something. "Isn't there another ghost?"

Cheng Gu had initially seen the candy Zhu Yuan had thrown and was debating whether to come up when he saw another ghost float in and hide in the neighboring dorm.

"That one's harmless," Zhu Yuan said. "Timid, scares easily, and it'll come with us willingly. It's this one." She gave a cold glance at the thing in the golden net. "It jumped off a building on its own, and regret became an obsession that eventually turned into resentment. It wanted someone to keep it company, so it started hurting people."

Cheng Gu pocketed the net and the bell, making sure they wouldn't fall out before preparing to knock on the neighboring dorm's door.

But before he could make a move, the other ghost drifted out.

Zhu Yuan was right—it was indeed timid. The moment it saw Cheng Gu, it trembled uncontrollably, barely able to speak.

"Don't, don't, don't kill me. I, I won't resist, I'll go with you."

"We won't," Cheng Gu said softly. "Don't be afraid. We know you'll come with us."

"Are you Wen Yushi?" Zhu Yuan asked.

Yu Ni's eyelids fluttered, and she groggily opened her eyes. Her memory was still stuck on the day she played the spirit game. Seeing Zhu Yuan's cold face, she screamed incessantly, thinking Zhu Yuan was the ghost.

"Stop screaming." Zhu Yuan grabbed her flailing hand. "You can't play games like that anymore, understand? You genuinely walked through death's door, and your body isn't what it used to be. That's what happens when you mess around."

Yu Ni froze, realizing she'd probably been possessed. She looked around, saw nothing wrong, and whispered, "Who are you?"

"Someone here to fix the problem, and it's done now," Zhu Yuan said.

Yu Ni stammered, "Are you serious? Did you deal with it? Why did it latch onto me? Is it that Wen Yushi?"

Suddenly named again, Wen Yushi, who was still struggling to explain to Cheng Gu that she'd done nothing wrong, flinched once more.

"I didn't do anything, I'm a good person... a good ghost. I didn't scare anyone either." She waved her hands in explanation.

Cheng Gu listened intently for ten minutes and roughly understood what the ghost in the golden net was about.

It had mistakenly believed people were gossiping about it behind its back, felt immense psychological pressure, and to get revenge, jumped straight off the building.

But those people weren't gossiping—they just thought it was attractive and elegant, glanced a couple of times, and discussed it quietly for fear of being off-putting.

Some even wanted to befriend it, but it interpreted everything as mockery.

After death, its obsession ran so deep that it lingered in place, and when obsession turned to resentment, it was finally able to leave.

Over ten years on campus, its resentment grew strong enough to harm others.

Wen Yushi had just been going through a rough patch, feeling low for a long time, and it found an opening, luring her to her death.

But she was weak-willed, and even after being killed, she just lingered quietly near the dormitory, going nowhere.

When it tried to make her lure others, she refused.

"I'm fine, right?" Wen Yushi asked anxiously.

"You're fine," Cheng Gu said, pointing at the item in his pocket. "It's the one in trouble. Don't worry, your grudge will be settled. It won't get off easy."

Wen Yushi smiled happily. "Good. I've always believed evil will be repaid."

Yu Ni was sore all over, as if she'd rolled through a pile of rocks. She massaged her arms, stood up, and stretched, noticing her roommates weren't around. "Where are my roommates?"

"Wait outside." Zhu Yuan glanced at his phone, "You can go call them back now."

"Is everything really resolved?" Yu Ni asked uneasily, "Could this thing have any accomplices?"

"We already took the only accomplice away." Zhu Yuan glanced at Wen Yushi, "As long as you don't mess with games like this again, you've got nothing to worry about."

Yu Ni nodded obediently.

With the matter settled, Cheng Gu remembered Zhu Yuan saying it would be "easy to handle" before they entered the school, and couldn't help but chuckle.

It really was pretty easy to handle.

Before they left the school, the guy who'd been using a megaphone to tell students not to crowd around came up to them, looking hesitant.

"Need some help?" Zhu Yuan, having seen this situation many times, took the initiative to ask.

"Not really." The man scratched his head, "I'm not sure if my house counts as a supernatural thing."

"Go on, tell us." Cheng Gu became interested and asked him to explain the general situation.

"I feel like my house is alive."

The man scratched his head again, glanced around nervously, then leaned in close to Cheng Gu and whispered, "Can I even talk about this?"

"Sure." Zhu Yuan said, "Stand up straight and talk normally. There's no one else here but us."

"Oh." The man straightened up sheepishly, coughed lightly to clear his throat, and said, "It's nothing big, really. I just feel like at night, there's always something else in my house. I can't tell if it's real or if I'm just imagining it. Could you come to my place and take a look?"

"How long has this been going on?" Cheng Gu asked.

"Almost a year." The man pursed his lips awkwardly, "It's just that nothing's happened, so I never thought about having anyone check it out, until I ran into you guys today."

Cheng Gu remembered what he'd said earlier and asked, confused, "Why do you say the house has come alive?"

"Sometimes I hear strange sounds in the house, sounds that seem like the house is talking." The man explained, "I searched for the source and found that it was the walls talking."

Cheng Gu was stunned, baffled: "You think walls can talk, and you call that nothing?"

"I mean, besides the sounds, I haven't seen anything, and nothing else happens at home." The man grinned, "But there's gotta be something wrong, so I'm a little worried."

"What area are you in?" Zhu Yuan asked.

"Just in Tuchen District—that's your area, right?" The man asked.

Zhu Yuan said, "Then leave your address. We'll head over after we grab lunch."

"Alright." The man didn't waste any time and added them on WeChat to share his address, "I still gotta work, but someone'll be home. Just knock when you get there—I'll let my family know ahead of time."

There was a mall near the school. Cheng Gu and Zhu Yuan grabbed a quick lunch there, then drove to the address the guy had sent.

It wasn't far from the school, about a ten-minute drive.

They pulled up to the entrance of the neighborhood, and Cheng Gu looked in.

The neighborhood was small—detached villas, maybe a dozen or so.

They parked in the lot. Cheng Gu got out, stretched his legs, and hit the elevator button.

"Ding." The elevator went straight up and stopped at their floor.

Cheng Gu reached out and rang the doorbell.