Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The disturbance in the city was no small matter, yet no one came running out to watch the commotion. That was because many people had had their souls hooked away in their sleep.

All they had left were their bodies lying in their houses, which drew every wandering ghost and lonely spirit within dozens of miles. They gathered in dense swarms, like black fog rolling in, all wanting to seize a body for themselves.

Qiao Ying stayed close beside Shen Qingyu, holding up an umbrella. Beneath the eaves by the roadside, she saw the night watchman lying there. He looked as if he were merely asleep; no matter how fiercely the wind and rain raged around him, he remained unconscious.

Before long, members of the Zhao family hurried over and carried the unconscious night watchman to the medical hall to be settled there.

But the not-so-small medical hall was already packed to overflowing.

Standing at the entrance, Qiao Ying looked at the sea of people lying across the floor inside. A chill crept into her heart, but she also found it strange. “Why did these people lose their souls, while we’re perfectly fine?”

Xue Heting said, “The ones who are unconscious are all ordinary civilians. Cultivators like us have more stable souls. They cannot be hooked away so easily.”

Qiao Ying looked toward Ming Caihua, who was leaning against the wall.

Ming Caihua raised a hand and shook the bracelet on his wrist. “Stop looking. I’m fine because of the restriction. I was forced to be linked to his soul, so nothing happened to me either.”

Qiao Ying blinked, then pointed at herself. “Then what about me? Why am I fine too?”

Xue Heting turned back and looked at the young man standing outside, listening to the sound of the rain. Uncertainly, he said, “Perhaps it is because of Young Master Shen.”

Qiao Ying looked outside as well.

Shen Qingyu had changed into a dry set of blue robes, and his long hair was no longer drenched. From the back, his figure was tall and graceful. Standing in the bleak wind and bitter rain, he really did seem a little like an immortal about to drift away.

Of course, that was only if one could ignore the ridiculous bows tied around both his hands.

Qiao Ying thought for a moment, then walked over to his side in a few steps. “Shen Qingyu.”

He turned his face slightly and smiled. “Mm?”

Qiao Ying asked, “Do you know what took everyone’s souls away?”

Shen Qingyu said, “Perhaps it was this rain.”

Qiao Ying asked again, “Then why am I an ordinary person, yet I can still stand here safe and sound?”

Shen Qingyu smiled again. “Perhaps it is still because of this rain.”

Qiao Ying felt that he had no intention of speaking to her properly at all.

Just then, someone from the Zhao family rushed over to find Xue Heting. “Young Master Xue, this is bad! Old Madam has gone missing!”

Xue Heting’s brows furrowed. “Master’s Wife is missing?”

The man nodded and said, “The people in the residence followed Old Master’s orders and stayed with Old Madam while she rested in her room. But when the maidservant went to help Old Madam to bed tonight, she found that Old Madam was already gone. Old Master and the young master are both searching for her now. Could it be… could it be that there really is a Yaoguai hidden in our residence?”

Xue Heting said in a low voice, “Do not speak nonsense. Master’s Wife will certainly be fine.”

No matter how many years Old Madam had spent throwing the temper of a spoiled young lady, and no matter how proud and aloof she was, to the orphaned Xue Heting, Old Madam was indeed an elder who had raised and cared for him, one worthy of respect. If anything happened to Old Madam, he would not be able to sit still.

Xue Heting cupped his hands toward Shen Qingyu. “I will go search for Master’s Wife’s whereabouts. Young Master Shen, I will have to trouble you to see whether you can find any useful clues about the matter here for now.”

Ming Caihua did not like that haughty Old Madam at all. His face was full of reluctance, but he could only follow Xue Heting out to search for her.

Qiao Ying watched Xue Heting’s figure disappear into the curtain of rain and shook her head with a sigh. “I suppose this is what people who care for the whole world are like. Busy every day, without a single moment to rest.”

Shen Qingyu smiled and asked, “You like people like that?”

Qiao Ying said, “Like isn’t the right word. Admire would be more fitting. Because I know I could never become someone like him. But as an ordinary person, when trouble comes, I would still hope to meet someone like him, someone willing to step forward.”

Sometimes, the things she said were strange too.

Shen Qingyu bent down. Now, going even further than before, he pinched the flesh on both sides of her cheeks with his hands. His tone was light and cheerful. “With me watching over you, what trouble could you possibly run into?”

Qiao Ying wanted to push him away, but she couldn’t budge him. Her words came out muffled. “Isn’t my greatest suffering right now because of you?”

Shen Qingyu tried to tempt her again. “Then do you want to run?”

Seeing that he was about to lose his mind again, Qiao Ying quickly covered his mouth. “All right, all right, let’s stop talking. Shen Qingyu, let’s hurry up and get down to business. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home and sleep!”

Shen Qingyu’s hand was once again taken in hers. With a smile on his lips, he cooperated and let her pull him into the brightly lit medical hall. Then, copying her movements, he crouched down before one of the people who had lost their three souls and six spirits.

Qiao Ying bumped his elbow with her hand. “Hurry and take a look. What exactly is going on with these people?”

Shen Qingyu touched the Blind Staff in his hand and gently reminded her, “Qiao Ying, I am blind.”

“So?”

“I can’t see.”
Qiao Ying shifted another step closer to him and looked him straight in the face. “Stop pretending. In this world, no one sees more clearly than you. Compared to you, the rest of us are just blind people with our eyes open.”

She did not know how Shen Qingyu perceived the world, but clearly, even without his sight, he was far more sensitive than the vast majority of people.

Compared to him, ordinary people seemed like they had eyes for decoration.

Qiao Ying thought for a moment. “Would it help you sense things better if you touched them with your hands?”

She took one of his hands and tried to guide him toward the “patients.” Yet the instant she grabbed his hand, he instinctively clasped hers in return, wrapping it up tightly.

Shen Qingyu said, “Someone is performing Soul Summoning. If we want them to wake up, we have to find their souls first. But that would take too much time.”

Qiao Ying asked curiously, “Do you have a better way?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

Then he untied the gauze bow on his right hand, revealing the palm he had cut open himself.

To her surprise, not long ago, he had sliced a wound into his palm so deep that bone had been visible, yet now it had almost healed.

Seeing that he was about to touch the wound again, Qiao Ying hurriedly grabbed his hand. “What are you doing?”

Shen Qingyu said, “Using my method to call their souls back.”

“Explain it first. What exactly is your method?”

He smiled. “Feed them a little of my blood. Those lost Wandering Soul, starving and crazed with thirst, will naturally scramble to come back.”

Qiao Ying said, “No!”

“Why not?” He was puzzled. “Aren’t you in a hurry to go home and sleep?”

Remembering Qiao Ying’s complaint about how hard it was to wash blood out of clothes, he smiled again. “I’ll be careful. I won’t dirty my new clothes.”

“Is that the point? The biggest problem is that you’re going to hurt yourself!”

“It’s only a small wound. It’ll heal quickly.”

“But when you’re hurt, it hurts!”

The smile on Shen Qingyu’s face gradually faded, replaced by confusion.

He lowered his face, as if “looking” at the scar still left on his hand. In truth, even now, he did not quite understand what was so terrible about the “pain” Qiao Ying spoke of.

It was like a person who needed to eat a wild fruit for breakfast every morning. One day, someone told him that eating wild fruit every day was bad for his body, but he could not understand what was bad about it.

After all, for all these years, every morning when the sun rose, that was exactly how he had lived.

Qiao Ying slowly tied the gauze back around his hand bit by bit, glanced at the Zhao family members still standing guard around them, and muttered in a low voice, “Shen Qingyu, when we’re in front of outsiders, don’t keep bringing up your blood at the drop of a hat.”

Imitating her, he also lowered his voice. “Why?”

“Your blood seems… different from an ordinary person’s.” Afraid the others might hear, Qiao Ying lifted her head, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, “An innocent man gets into trouble for possessing a treasure. If someone with ill intentions covets it, that would be bad.”

His ear itched, and that sensation seemed to spread, making his entire body feel strangely abnormal.

As for what exactly was abnormal, Shen Qingyu could not say. He only felt a little numb, a little sore, as if it were pleasure, and yet as if it were torment.

He did not know how he was supposed to resolve this unfamiliar feeling. When a lock of her hair fell against his fingertips, his pale fingers unconsciously hooked around it. Then he lost control of his strength.

Pain shot through Qiao Ying’s scalp. She clutched her head and cried out, “What are you doing?”

Shen Qingyu did not know what he had done either, but he refused to show weakness, so he smiled and said, “Who told you to get so close to me? Your voice is terribly noisy. It makes me unable to hear anything else. I can’t even distinguish heartbeats anymore.”

Qiao Ying gritted her teeth. And here she had been kind enough to worry about him. She tried to rescue that lock of hair. “Fine, I get it. I’ll stay farther away from you.”

But when she tugged at that lock of hair, she could not pull it free.

Shen Qingyu said nothing. He was clearly full of disdain for her, yet he still held on to that lock of black hair and refused to let go, contradicting himself from head to toe.

Qiao Ying stared at him, and he faced her in silence. She had no idea what he was thinking.

Then, all of a sudden, she met a pair of eyes that had appeared in the corner. She was so startled that she fell backward, but the young man’s hand caught her back in time. With only the slightest exertion of force, her momentum carried her forward again, and she crashed into his arms.

This time, she had no attention to spare for leaving him. Covering her face, she stammered, “Shen Qingyu, I think… I think there’s a ghost.”

Shen Qingyu slowly wound that lock of black hair around his fingertip and said with a faint, ambiguous smile, “A little ghost, at that.”

The short figure hiding in the corner cautiously stepped halfway out.

Qiao Ying mustered her courage, lowered her hands, and opened her eyes. Only then did she realize it was a little boy. And this boy could even be considered an acquaintance of hers and Shen Qingyu’s.

After all, Shen Qingyu was such a wicked piece of work that he had “picked up” quite a few peanuts from little boys before.