Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Are those Jin Qi's parents?"

Xu Muchan suddenly turned his head to look at a couple talking with Old Mr. Wei not far away.

Wei Yao followed his gaze, surprised: "Yeah, how do you recognize them? And with those eyes of yours—didn't you say your vision was still bad? You can pick them out from this far away through all these people?"

Jin Qi's parents weren't particularly good-looking, and Jin Qi himself took after his father, with a somewhat sinister look that made him seem shady at first glance.

However, Jin Qi's father had spent years in the business world and was better at hiding his true nature. He always wore a smile on his face, so his cruelty and malice weren't as obvious as his son's.

But Xu Muchan's vision was poor—he couldn't see such details through the crowd. The reason he could recognize them was because a cold, dark shadow was wrapped around the couple.

The shadow barely looked human, but its torso and limbs were unnaturally long and thin, with just the head being way too big, like a lantern dangling over the couple's heads, or a black cloud.

Xu Muchan figured this was what "a dark cloud hanging over your head" meant. This couple was in for serious trouble—he could feel the chill coming off the shadow even from this distance.

He even suspected his brother might have had something to do with this, since that day his brother had only opened a bathroom door and nothing else.

But knowing his brother, Xu Muchan was sure he wouldn't let Jin Qi and his family off that easily.

Xu Muchan withdrew his gaze and said to Wei Yao: "You don't need to bother looking for Taoist Master Yan. They're about to have some serious bad luck soon."

Now it wasn't just Wei Yao who was curious—everyone else was staring at Xu Muchan with wide eyes.

Xu Fan couldn't hold back her curiosity, so she asked directly: "Why do you say that?"

Xu Muchan tilted his head slightly and smiled faintly: "Just a gut feeling."

Xu Fan was stunned for a moment, staring at him, confused.

When she'd first seen Xu Muchan, she'd thought he was a really good-looking boy—small face with large, refined features, flawless pale skin. Especially with his hair styled back with gel, fully revealing his striking brows and eyes, the first impression was quite a sight.

But for Xu Fan, who'd seen so many handsome guys she was immune to it, he was just a slightly better-looking guy. No big deal.

Especially since this handsome guy didn't talk much, always keeping his eyes lowered, giving off the vibe of a quiet, introverted good student.

But just now, when Xu Muchan had answered her and suddenly smiled like that, Xu Fan had caught a hint of malicious glee in it, and even a hint of sinister confidence that was totally different from the quiet, introverted image he projected.

When Wei Yao had introduced him earlier, he'd made the boy sound like some poor thing, asking everyone to look after him... Xu Fan silently rolled her eyes, thinking that Wei Yao was as clueless as ever.

Seeming to notice that Xu Fan's gaze had lingered on him for too long, Xu Muchan turned to look at her.

Xu Fan withdrew her gaze and smiled: "Then I'll take your word for it. If the Jin family really does run into some serious bad luck, my friend will be jumping for joy. I'll have her treat everyone to—"

"Holy crap! Why is he here?! Didn't he say he wasn't coming?!"

Before Xu Fan could finish her sentence, Wei Yao suddenly jumped up and interrupted her.

"Who?"

The others were startled and craned their necks to see an extremely tall figure walking in. He was standing against the light, so they couldn't make out his face.

"Oh my god!!"

Seeing that his grandparents had already gone up to greet him, Wei Yao was afraid his dad would punish him if he was too slow, so he tossed out a "You guys entertain yourselves, I need to go greet him" and took off in a panic.

This only made things more confusing, and the guests were just as confused.

When they saw Old Mr. Wei striding forward with Wei Jianguo and his wife to personally welcome a young man inside, a guest who was close to the Wei family couldn't help asking: "Jianguo, who is this...?"

Old Mr. Wei had a lot of pull—today, most of the business circle in Jiangcheng had shown up. Whether or not they did business together, with all the connections between relatives and friends, everyone at least knew each other by sight.

But the young man being respectfully welcomed in by the Wei family—with such an impressive presence and looks—was recognized by no one.

So people began whispering among themselves, wondering if he wasn't from the Jiangcheng circle. Could it be that the Wei family was planning to move away?

Facing everyone's confusion, Old Mr. Wei said with a chuckle: "This is an elder from the main family line of our Wei family. Young as he looks, his standing in the family is even higher than mine. He's only attending today's ceremony out of respect for an old man like me."

His words were intentionally vague, leaving everyone even more confused.

After all, the Wei family were native Jiangcheng locals who had lived and worked here for generations. No one had ever heard of them having a "main family line"—where did that come from?

Everyone was puzzled.

But since Old Mr. Wei had said so, no one was rude enough to push for details. They all smiled and greeted the young man, calling him "Mr. Wei" out of respect.

But this Mr. Wei was clearly not easy to deal with. Faced with the smiling guests, he didn't even bother to fake a smile—he simply pushed through the crowd and walked inside.

His eyes found the person he was looking for. Wei Xilou walked up to Xu Muchan and handed him a glass of milk he'd grabbed from a waiter on his way over: "Why didn't you tell me you were coming here?"

Xu Muchan was also surprised to see him, muttering: "I didn't really want to come in the first place."

Wei Xilou gave a slight nod and sat down beside Xu Muchan like no one else was there.

He was tall—over 1.9 meters—and even seated, he could look down on everyone present. His black shirt was buttoned all the way to the top, and the silver mechanical watch on his wrist reflected cold light. He was stern and unsmiling, and even without saying a word, his gaze never left the person beside him, but he still brought enough pressure to bear on the young people present.

Wei Yao's friends had been whispering at first, curious about where this big shot had come from, but as the air around them grew colder and colder, they gradually dared not even speak loudly, let alone gossip. Finally, they all fell into an unusually synchronized silence.

Wen Dajiang, who had been sprawled on the sofa with his legs crossed, also awkwardly put his legs down and switched to a primary school student sitting posture.

Wen Dajiang desperately tried to signal Xu Muchan with his eyes, but unfortunately Xu Muchan was half-blind and didn't react at all.

Fortunately, the others understood Wen Dajiang's look, exchanged knowing glances, and made excuses to leave one by one.

In the end, only Xu Muchan remained sitting in place.

He tilted his head, met Wei Xilou's gaze, and said with a smile: "Brother, you scared them all away."

Wei Xilou frowned slightly and said: "Then they must have too little courage. Achan wouldn't be scared away by me."

"..."

Xu Muchan was speechless for a moment. He didn't mention that he sometimes wanted to run away too, but wisely changed the subject instead: "We were just talking about the Jin family. I heard Jin Qi jumped from a building yesterday and broke his leg. Did you do that, brother?"

Wei Xilou said: "A rat in the sewer—why would I need to dirty my own hands? Jin Qi has lives on his conscience. All I needed to do was let him see."

Xu Muchan immediately understood: "Brother opened his yin-yang eyes for him?"

The vast majority of people in this world cannot see those non-human things.

But in reality, these supernatural beings are far more numerous than people imagine. Many who can't see them always arrogantly assume that being able to see such things is a talent, even a gift from heaven.

But in Xu Muchan's view, this was definitely not something that could be called lucky.

After all, accepting that ghosts exist in this world—and that they're everywhere—is not an easy thing.

Especially for someone like Jin Qi, who had done so much evil, it was a tremendous punishment.

After all, if ghosts exist in this world, it means the people he killed could become ghosts too, and one day they'd come for him.

Xu Muchan, thinking of the Chinese teacher who jumped from the building that Xu Fan had mentioned, remarked, "If ghosts exist in this world, that's not always a bad thing."

Wei Xilou took the empty milk glass from his hand and asked with an unreadable expression, "Does Achan think ghosts in this world are a bad thing?"

Xu Muchan paused, then said, keeping his composure, "Those ghosts are terrifying, but you're a mountain god, so you're definitely different from them."

As if he hadn't noticed the guilt in his eyes, Wei Xilou smiled and handed him another glass of milk. "Silly Achan, sometimes gods and ghosts aren't all that different."

Xu Muchan didn't respond, lowering his eyes guiltily as he drank his milk.

He actually agreed with his brother.

After all, the mountain god of Guiyi Mountain beside him, for all his title, sometimes gave off an aura more terrifying than any ghost or spirit out there.

Just as Xu Muchan was guiltily drinking his milk, Wei Yao walked over with two glasses of champagne. Seeing Xu Muchan clutching a glass of milk, he was horrified. "Xu Muchan, are you a little baby? Why are you hiding here drinking milk?"

Before Xu Muchan could say anything, Wei Xilou glanced up at him, his gaze cold as a blade, stripping Wei Yao bare from head to toe.

Wei Yao immediately straightened up, then sat down on the sofa across from them, drinks in hand, instinctively trying to cover his ass. "Ancestor, I'm a few months from turning eighteen, so having a drink shouldn't be a problem."

Then he asked, "Xu Muchan, what year were you born?"

Xu Muchan slowly finished his milk, set the glass down, and shot Wei Yao a pitying look as the guy kept digging his own grave.

Wei Yao, completely oblivious to the doom hanging over him, kept rambling on like he could've taken the stage for a stand-up set.

Wei Xilou frowned and interrupted, "You got that much free time?"

Wei Yao blinked, caught off guard. "Yeah, the ceremony hasn't started yet."

Wei Xilou nodded, his gaze lingering on the glass in Wei Yao's hand for a beat. The next second, a sharp "crack" rang out from the goblet.

Before Wei Yao could react, the crystal goblet in his hand exploded, glass shards flying everywhere and wine drenching him.

Wei Yao leapt up, yelling, "Holy shit, holy shit!"

Right beside his face, a hand with exposed muscle shot out and caught the shard that would've sliced his cheek.

Lady Golden Flower stood behind Wei Yao, her vertical black pupils fixed coldly on Wei Xilou.

Wei Xilou curled his lip and shot her a malicious smile.

Lady Golden Flower: "..."

She casually stuffed the shard into the gaping mouth on her belly and vanished.

Wei Yao, bless his oblivious heart, didn't pick up on the tension at all and kept griping about why the goblet had randomly exploded, insisting the quality was garbage and he was gonna file a complaint.

Xu Muchan finally couldn't help himself and reminded him, "The ceremony is about to start. Go change your clothes first."

"Right." Wei Yao finally snapped out of it and scurried off to the back.

After Wei Yao changed, the ceremony began right on time. The guests stopped chatting and moved to the courtyard to watch. Xu Muchan temporarily parted ways with his brother and went to the Xu family's seats.

The ceremony was a grand affair. First, a group of Taoist priests wrote out sacrificial prayers and burned them to proclaim to heaven and earth. Then, Old Master Wei, as the family's representative, heaped lavish praise on Lady Golden Flower and spun touching tales of her protecting his grandson, making the announcement to all the relatives and friends. Finally, Wei Yao, one of the main players, took the stage, performing the solemn rites of a filial descendant—three kneels and nine bows—before respectfully addressing Lady Golden Flower as "Godmother."

The guests had seen a lot in their lives, but never had they seen a family so publicly have their grandson acknowledge a deity statue as his godmother.

Whispers broke out, and plenty of people figured the Wei family had gone off the deep end with superstition.

Only Xu Muchan saw that when Wei Yao solemnly called out "Godmother," Lady Golden Flower's massive form materialized. Her rotting serpent tail, bones showing through, coiled beneath her; her six arms braced against the ground like spider legs; her long neck craned down so her head was level with Wei Yao's, her vertical pupils hidden behind black hair fixed on him.

The eerie, ghostly deity and the compassionate statue of Lady Golden Flower overlapped into one, creating a sight too strange for words.

Yet no one there besides Xu Muchan saw any of it.

After the recognition ceremony, it was the usual banquet routine—those with business took off early, while everyone else stayed to eat, drink, mingle, and network.

Xu Muchan found it too loud and would rather head home to study. He was about to tell Xu Qingming he was heading out when someone blocked his path.

"President Xu, Mrs. Xu."

The Jincheng couple came up with wine glasses in hand, blocking the way from both sides.

The Xu and Jin families had no overlapping business and rarely crossed paths, so they weren't exactly close. Now, the Jincheng couple seemed polite on the surface, but they were clearly spoiling for a fight.

Xu Qingming was annoyed but still forced a smile. "President Jin, long time no see."

Jin Cheng, however, skipped the small talk. His gaze landed directly on Xu Muchan. "So this is the kid who had a run-in with Jin Qi? I heard he was just brought back from Yundong, and his eyesight's not great either?"

Mrs. Jin glanced at Xu Wangchuan standing on the other side and said with a smile, "You're truly blessed—both your sons are so accomplished. Unlike us, with just the one kid, so he got spoiled a bit. He's straightforward and can't even tell when someone's pulled a fast one on him."

"If you two have something to say, just say it. No point beating around the bush." Xu Zhifei, still sore at the Jin family over the equipment room incident, spoke up. She hadn't even gone after them as the aggrieved party, and now the Jins were acting like they were the ones demanding justice.

Mrs. Jin's smile vanished, and she was about to speak when Jin Cheng stopped her. He was a real smiley snake, always wearing a three-part smile when he talked, but it was so rehearsed it just made things creepier.

"It's about something, all right. Our Jin Qi's run into some trouble recently, and you've probably heard about it. The kid was locked in the equipment room overnight, and after coming home, he kept saying there were ghosts. We're not the superstitious sort, so of course we didn't believe him. But then, last night, Jin Qi got pushed off the second floor and broke his leg. The doctor said if he'd fallen from any higher, his spine might've snapped. He's still in the hospital now."

"His mother and I didn't believe in such things at first, but with the kid mysteriously falling from the second floor and insisting there were ghosts, we got scared despite ourselves and found a master through connections. That master said Jin Qi had been cursed by a minor ghost and that the one who started it had to end it—telling us to think about who Jin Qi might've pissed off recently."

"His mother and I thought about it—Jin Qi rarely makes enemies. The only recent conflict was with your Xu Muchan."

Xu Zhifei's face fell. "What do you mean? Are you trying to turn this around and claim our Muchan sent a ghost to harm your son?"

Probably never having encountered such shameless people, Xu Zhifei laughed in anger. "Listen to yourselves. Isn't this absurd?"

Seeing her refuse to admit it, Mrs. Jin dropped all pretense and sneered, "Everyone knows your family loves dabbling in all this supernatural stuff. And your son was found in some backwater place like Yundong—who knows what harmful things he learned there. Both times our Jin Qi got into trouble were after encountering Xu Muchan. Dare you say he had nothing to do with it?"

Xu Zhifei was a refined person, not as sharp-tongued as Mrs. Jin. Her lips trembled with anger. "Stop twisting the truth!"

In contrast, Xu Qingming remained much calmer. He patted his wife's shoulder reassuringly and asked the Jincheng couple, "Do you have evidence?"

Jin Cheng said, "If we had evidence, we wouldn't be having this civil discussion. We're all familiar with each other, and kids' squabbles are one thing. Jin Qi has learned his lesson. It's time to stop while ahead, and we can still share a drink at the same table in the future."

Then he shifted gears, offering another bait. "We're not unreasonable people. Jin Qi was impulsive and started the trouble, so he should admit his mistake. I heard your company recently had an issue with a patent license. Coincidentally, I have some connections with the CEO of that company. We're all friends—any problem can be discussed over a table. Harmony brings wealth, doesn't it?"

Jin Cheng was a seasoned businessman. He and his wife played good cop and bad cop, and the bait he dangled happened to hit exactly where Xu Qingming itched.

The Xu family had started in auto parts, initially seizing market share through cost advantages and becoming a supplier to several leading car manufacturers, growing from there.

But recently, the Xu family had a conflict of interest with a long-time partner company. Negotiations had stalled, and the other side was now withholding a core patent license. It wasn't a fatal blow, but it was a considerable headache.

If Jin Cheng could really mediate... Xu Qingming's heart stirred. He glanced at his silent son and his tone shifted. "President Jin makes a good point. However, I truly wasn't aware of this. Give me some time to ask the boy first. Whether he did it or not, I'll give you an answer."

He said this, but in his heart, he was already leaning toward believing Xu Muchan was involved.

After all, Xu Muchan had never been an ordinary child.

Xu Zhifei knew her husband all too well and could tell what he was planning from the way he spoke. But with Jin Cheng and his wife right there, she couldn't very well go against Xu Qingming, so she kept her mouth shut.

Xu Qingming said to Xu Muchan with a friendly look, "Come with me."

Xu Muchan looked straight at him and followed.

Xu Zhifei, still uneasy about it, followed along too.

Xu Qingming found a quiet spot and got straight to the point: "Does what happened to Jin Qi have anything to do with you?"

"He did too many bad things. Karma finally caught up with him," Xu Muchan said.

"So it does have something to do with you, then."

Xu Qingming nodded. "This isn't a big deal. I'll take you to apologize to Jin Cheng and his wife now, and you can call off the little ghost. That settles it, and the problem with your father's company gets solved on the side. Everyone's happy."

Xu Muchan stood his ground. "I didn't do it, so I'm not apologizing."

Xu Qingming's smile disappeared, and he frowned at him. "Muchan, lying to your dad won't get you anywhere. You've always been different from other kids since you were little. Having that kind of ability isn't a bad thing. If you don't want to apologize, fine, but just stop going after Jin Qi from now on. Even if Jin Cheng is upset, he won't dare say anything—he's too worried about his own son getting hurt."

"So you knew all along, huh."

Xu Muchan suddenly smiled. "When I told you back then, I thought you didn't believe me."

He remembered when he first started seeing those things. He was young and didn't realize how dangerous they were, so he treated them like playmates and sometimes mentioned them to his parents.

His mother would always look terrified, telling him he was seeing things and forbidding him from talking to those "playmates" again. But his father was different—he'd always ask in detail about how Xu Muchan made friends, then praise him for having such a vivid imagination.

Xu Muchan had always figured his dad, like his mom, never believed the things he said as a kid.

But then he suddenly thought of the deity the Xu family worshipped, and a strange look came over his face. "You always knew. When I played games with it, you knew too, didn't you?"

Earlier, Xu Wangchuan had asked him if he'd ever made a wish to the deity, and Xu Muchan had said no.

But he actually had.

During that time, the family business wasn't going well. His father was often away from home, and when he did come back, he was always sighing and looking worried. His mother smiled, but Xu Muchan could sense her unhappiness, and once he caught her crying quietly in the kitchen.

Little Xu Muchan didn't understand much, but he knew his parents were in trouble and owed a lot of money. So when he saw that strange playmate with the red veil again, he naively made a wish: "I wish Dad could make lots of money."

The other asked, "Wishes come at a price. What can you offer?"

Little Xu Muchan tilted his head, thought for a moment, and said, "How about I play hide-and-seek with you?"