Chapter 21
Chapter 21
The spirit medium lived in the village’s Sixth Production Team, as did Grandpa Yun. In fact, the two of them were distantly related.
Transportation to the Sixth Production Team was inconvenient. The cement road only extended halfway there, and cars couldn’t go any farther once they reached the end. Whenever the younger villagers returned home, they parked their cars in the open lot nearby.
Grandpa Yun and Yun Luhua helped Xia Huiqing out of the car. But the moment they stepped out, every dog in the village suddenly went berserk.
From the nearest homes to the farthest, almost every dog in the village began barking wildly, as though they had sensed some danger that humans couldn’t perceive.
Startled by the barking, Xia Huiqing shrank toward Yun Luhua.
None of them had ever witnessed anything like this before. In the pitch-black night, the sound of a hundred dogs barking at once was enough to make anyone’s blood run cold.
Suddenly, two local mutts, one yellow and one white, came charging over from the distance, barking furiously. They snarled desperately at Xia Huiqing, their tails tucked between their legs, yet refused to retreat a single step.
“Dabai! Dahuang! What’s gotten into you? Don’t you recognize her?” Grandma Yun shouted, reaching out to drive the two dogs away.
They were the family’s dogs and were usually exceptionally friendly, especially toward Xia Huiqing.
But now, they seemed to have gone mad. No matter how Grandma Yun tried to shoo them away, they kept barking wildly at Xia Huiqing.
In the end, Grandma Yun had no choice but to grab each dog by the scruff and tell Grandpa Yun and the others to take Xia Huiqing on ahead.
They had to pass Back Hill on the way to the spirit medium’s house.
Despite its name, Back Hill wasn’t a hill behind anyone’s home. It was simply the name the villagers had given it. And although they called it a hill, it was really just a low rise less than a hundred meters tall.
Nearly everyone who died in the village was buried there. Every year during the Qingming Festival, Back Hill bustled with people as each family went to pay respects to their ancestors.
Xia Huiqing remained relatively calm throughout the walk.
But the moment they reached the foot of Back Hill, she suddenly went mad.
Her head snapped up toward the summit. Muttering as though possessed, she started down the path leading up the hill, repeating incessantly, “Someone is waiting for me on Back Hill. Someone is waiting for me on Back Hill…”
“My girl!” Yun Luhua burst into frightened tears and hurried to grab her.
But Xia Huiqing found strength from nowhere. With a casual shove, she sent Yun Luhua staggering backward.
Xia Huiqing showed no reaction whatsoever to her mother nearly falling. After pushing Yun Luhua away, she turned and continued up Back Hill, still repeating the same words over and over.
“Someone is waiting for me on Back Hill…”
Grandpa Yun and Xia Chao immediately rushed forward to restrain her. Xia Huiqing was no longer afraid of Xia Chao, but her strength had somehow become extraordinary. The two men could barely hold her down.
“Let go of me! I have to go to Back Hill! There are people waiting for me up there! They’re waiting for me!”
Xia Huiqing screamed herself hoarse. Like a wild beast in a frenzy, she thrashed and shrieked without pause.
“Dad, come help us!” Xia Chao was starting to lose his grip on her and hurriedly called Grandpa Xia over.
In the end, Grandma Yun fetched a length of rope. Working together, they tied Xia Huiqing up and finally subdued her enough to continue toward the spirit medium’s home.
The distance was only a few hundred meters, but with Xia Huiqing fighting them every step of the way, it took them nearly an hour to reach the spirit medium’s door.
“Auntie, hurry! We need your help!” Grandma Yun called into the house.
The spirit medium was nearly seventy and wore reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. The moment she saw Xia Huiqing bound in rope, still struggling and screaming, her expression changed.
She hurriedly bit her finger, strode up to Xia Huiqing, and pressed a drop of blood from her fingertip to the center of the girl’s forehead.
The violently agitated Xia Huiqing instantly lost consciousness.
“My girl!” Yun Luhua shrieked. She looked anxiously at the spirit medium and asked, “What’s wrong with my daughter?”
The spirit medium’s voice turned grave. “I’m afraid she’s gotten mixed up in something nasty. Hurry, carry her into my room.”
Everyone hastily carried Xia Huiqing inside.
The spirit medium lived in a traditional old wooden house, dimly lit by a single yellow bulb. A wooden recliner stood in the room, and she had them lay Xia Huiqing on it.
“Should we untie her?” Grandma Xia asked anxiously.
The spirit medium shook her head. “Not yet. All of you, get out.”
They were worried, but by now they could tell that the spirit medium truly knew what she was doing. They filed out of the room, glancing back every few steps.
The door remained open, but a blue floral curtain hung across the doorway. It reached all the way to the floor, and without any wind, it completely blocked anyone outside from peering in.
No one could see what the spirit medium was doing inside.
All they could hear was her chanting strange incantations in a singsong voice, none of which they understood.
That was when Yun Jianyue arrived.
“How is she?” Yun Jianyue greeted her maternal grandparents, then her aunt and uncle, followed by her paternal grandparents, before finally asking about Xia Huiqing.
Tears glistened in Yun Luhua’s eyes as she shook her head. “We still don’t know.”
Since no one could see her, Lu Changxue floated out of the jade pendant. Staring at the sinister ghostly energy seeping from the house, she said to Yun Jianyue, “Your cousin isn’t doing too well.”
The moment she finished speaking, the sound of a clay jar smashing came from inside.
Then came the spirit medium’s voice. “Foul spirit, whoever you are, begone at once!”
The next instant, a violent wind sprang up.
The light inside the old wooden house flickered wildly before going out altogether, plunging the room into complete darkness.
The spirit medium seemed to have been badly frightened. She scrambled out of the house on all fours and screamed at everyone, “Something’s gone wrong! Run! Hurry!”
“My baby! My baby is still in there!” Yun Luhua was nearly out of her mind. She was terrified, but she still charged toward the house without hesitation.
Yun Jianyue grabbed her and shoved her into Xia Chao’s arms. “Uncle, get Auntie somewhere safe. Look after all the grandparents.”
Before Xia Chao could react, Yun Jianyue dashed into the pitch-black house like a gust of wind.
Seeing her niece run inside pushed Yun Luhua completely over the edge. Sobbing, she pounded on Xia Chao’s chest. “Let me go! Let me go! My daughter and my niece are both in there! Honey, go save them!”
Xia Chao held her tightly. “Calm down, honey. I can only go in after them once I know you’ll be all right. Do you understand?”
Inside the house, everything was pitch-black. Yun Jianyue couldn’t see a thing.
But Lu Changxue could. As she floated toward Xia Huiqing, she called out, “Your cousin is over here!”
“Don’t go near her!”
The warning had barely left Yun Jianyue’s mouth when a black hand burst out of Xia Huiqing’s body and shot toward Lu Changxue.
Lu Changxue dodged behind Yun Jianyue, and the black hand retreated into Xia Huiqing’s body.
“Turn on the light,” Yun Jianyue told her.
Lu Changxue stared at her. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“It used ghostly energy to break the light. Can’t you use ghostly energy to fix it?” Yun Jianyue asked, exasperated by her utter uselessness.
“I’ll try!” Lu Changxue hurriedly channeled her ghostly power into the light. As an A-rank vengeful ghost, she was more than capable of something this simple. After a brief attempt, the bulb flickered back to life.
Only then did Yun Jianyue see what Xia Huiqing was doing.
Still dressed in her school uniform, the girl writhed across the floor in the shadows, shrieking, crawling, and squirming like a thing possessed.