Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Uncle, Auntie, we have to believe in science. Haven’t you been scammed enough already? If you keep running around like this, the two of you are going to burn through all your retirement money!”

“Wenxuan, don’t stop me. I have to find Xiaolei! I don’t care if it’s science or superstition-I’ll try anything!”

The courtyard was already filled with shouting first thing in the morning. Still groggy, I pushed open my bedroom door and walked out to find a weather-beaten middle-aged couple and a rather handsome young man standing there.

“Who are you looking for?”

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the three people in the courtyard in confusion.

“I’m looking for Master Lingzhu!”

I scratched my head. “That would be me. What can I do for you?”

The courtyard fell silent at once.

The middle-aged couple stared at me in surprise, a few traces of hesitation and regret flickering through their eyes.

The young man’s gaze was even more blunt. He might as well have said I was too wet behind the ears to be out here scamming people.

I rolled my eyes. “No need to doubt me. Ever heard the saying that heroes have been young since ancient times? Go wait in the living room. I’ll be over in a bit.”

After washing up, I changed into a blue Daoist robe and went to the living room. As the saying went, clothes made the man, and gold adorned the Buddha.

Seeing me with my hair in a bun and wearing a Daoist robe, the middle-aged couple’s expressions finally eased a little.

“Master Lingzhu, this is my husband, surname Ye. Auntie Li from the village entrance introduced us to you. She said you’re incredibly capable-that the village chief’s granddaughter in her mother’s home village, Li Family Village, was possessed by evil, and you were the one who cured her.”

I nodded and poured each of them a cup of tea.

Something was very wrong with the middle-aged couple, especially the woman in front of me. She looked not yet forty, but her face was marked by hardship. Her skin was dark and ruddy from years of wind and sun, and because she had spent day after day washing her face with tears, her eyes were so swollen they had narrowed to slits.

As soon as the two finished their tea, they leaned back against the sofa and fell asleep, snoring loudly.

The young man stared at the scene in shock, then immediately turned and fixed a guarded stare on me. “You actually dared to drug them? Sleeping pills?”

I sighed. This young man didn’t seem particularly bright.

“It’s called calming tea. Your uncle and aunt have been grieving too much, and their souls are unstable. If they keep wearing themselves down like this, their bodies will collapse. It will severely damage their lifespans.”

“You can tell me what happened next. Let them get a proper sleep.”

The young man’s name was Ye Wenxuan. He had just graduated from university last month, and he had studied law.

He also had a younger cousin named Ye Xiaolei, the only son of the middle-aged couple.

Ye Xiaolei was a second-year high school student, and his grades had always been among the best.

Because his family lived in the countryside, far from the school, Ye Xiaolei had always boarded at school. Every Friday after class, he would take the last coach back to the village.

That day, Father Ye and Mother Ye waited until past ten at night and still did not see their son come home from school, so they couldn’t help growing anxious.

But when they rushed to the school, the school said Ye Xiaolei had left long ago.

The two of them went to the police station to report it, but the police said the boy had been missing for less than twenty-four hours, so they couldn’t open a case. They told the couple to check internet cafés and billiard halls instead.

After all, it was perfectly normal for students his age to make plans with classmates to play games after school.

The police station had once made a big fuss searching for a boy for half a day, only to find out he had gone to a classmate’s house and played games all night.