Chapter 192

Chapter 192

If I hadn’t casually tugged the bedroom door shut, I never would have seen the Talisman pasted behind it.

But there were rules when it came to placing Talismans. Whether it was a Talisman meant to ward off evil or one used in Feng Shui to dissolve Sha, it should either be pasted on the outside of the door or above the door on the outside.

Some Sha-dissolving Talismans needed to be pasted outside the windowsill, but they definitely wouldn’t be placed inside the room.

Certain ghost-expelling Talismans could even have the opposite effect if they were pasted indoors. They might attract ghosts instead.

I didn’t know much about Fulu, so I took a photo of the Talisman with my phone and sent it to Seventh Master, asking him to explain what it was.

Just as I sent it, Anning had finished setting everything up outside.

Then we closed all the doors, leaving the living room in darkness.

I took a candle from my backpack and lit the first one.

The placement of the candles mattered. If they were arranged incorrectly, the Soul Summoning could easily fail.

Liu Jing had died by hanging, but the reason she had hanged herself was postpartum depression. And the cause of her postpartum depression was related to Feng Shui-namely, it governed false alarms and strange phenomena.

Among the Six Spirits, Tengshe governed false alarms and strange phenomena, and it occupied the center together with Gouchen.

The center was the Central Palace Position, so the first candle was placed in the exact center of the living room.

After arranging the candles, I lit the Guiding Lamp.

The Guiding Lamp needed to be held by a person, because a living person carried yang energy. It represented someone from the living world seeking out a Ghost to discuss business.

But right now, there were only two of us, Anning and me. Anning had to serve as the Spirit Medium, while I had to burn paper and recite the incantation. There was no one left to hold the Guiding Lamp.

I could only place the lamp beside me, keeping it as close as possible.

“We’re about to begin the Soul Summoning. Are you scared?” I asked Anning.

If she was afraid, I would have to calm her down first. If she rejected the Ghost too strongly in her heart, that meant she wasn’t sincere, and the Ghost wouldn’t possess her.

Fortunately, she was bold. She shook her head and said she wasn’t afraid.

Thinking about it, that made sense. After all, she had spent so much time tangled up with Du Yuwei. Maybe she had already built up an immunity to Ghosts.

“Then let’s begin.”

After saying that, I lit three sticks of incense and bowed in all four directions. Then I set the Yellow Paper on fire and tossed it into the Fire Basin.

“Heavenly Net and Earthly Fiends, Flower Maiden Liu Jing, aged twenty-eight. At twenty-eight, she died an unnatural death and entered the City of the Unjustly Dead. I humbly ask the Bright Lamp to guide the way and bring Liu Jing back…”

“Liu Jing, please appear before us.”

The moment I finished chanting, the candle flames in the living room began flickering wildly, as if blown by the wind.

At that moment, one candle flame began turning green. Then a second one turned green as well. The changes didn’t happen all at once; it was more like a relay.

One look, and I knew something was off. The one who had come up didn’t seem to be Liu Jing. It was probably the child.

When almost all the candle flames had turned green, only the candle in the very center remained normal, showing no change at all.

I looked over at Anning again. Her face was tense and confused. Clearly, she hadn’t been possessed.

“What’s going on…” She stared at me. “I don’t think I’ve been possessed.”

Just as I was feeling confused too, the cry of an infant suddenly rang through the entire living room.

The cry was clear, loud, and terrifyingly real, as if there truly were a baby crying right there in the living room.

But when we looked around, we saw no baby at all.

All the hairs on my body stood on end. It wasn’t that I was particularly scared-it was just deeply unnerving.

Anning, however, was already starting to panic. She hugged her arms around herself and asked me, “Weren’t we summoning Liu Jing’s soul? Why did her child come up instead?”

I said, “The child is still too young and has always stayed with its mother. Its mother must have come up too. But why hasn’t she possessed you…?”

After thinking for a moment, I asked Anning, “Are you actually really scared?”

She gave me an embarrassed nod.

I asked her, “Didn’t you say you weren’t afraid? You spent so much time with your sister and your nephew. These Ghosts aren’t even as fierce as your sister…”
She said, “But they’re not my sister and my nephew…”

I was speechless. So she was only not afraid of her sister and nephew. She was still scared of other ghosts.

I told her to calm down and stop resisting it in her heart. The more she resisted, the less likely Liu Jing would possess her and come out to see me.

Just then, another voice rang out. It was a man’s voice, coaxing a child.

“Son, stop crying. Your mom just fed you. You’re full already.”

“Be good and go to sleep. Daddy’s exhausted. Let Daddy get one peaceful night’s sleep, okay?”

The moment I heard that voice, a shiver ran through me.

Wasn’t Liu Jing’s husband still alive? Why would his voice be here?

Suddenly, a furious roar exploded in the living room, scaring Anning and me so badly we nearly jumped to our feet.

“I told you to stop crying! Crying every day! Every damn day!”

“Your mom fights with me every day, and you cry at me every day! The second I come home, you start crying!”

“You think I’m not tired from leaving early and coming home late every day? I told you to stop crying! Why don’t you just fucking die? I really want to strangle you!”

Hearing that torrent of abuse made me feel sick for some reason.

That bastard!

Who cursed their own child like that?

What baby didn’t cry? If he thought it was annoying, then he shouldn’t have brought the damn child into the world!

“I get it now. This is the child’s resentment. The child was too young. He couldn’t express himself when he was alive, and he can’t express himself after death, either. He can only show it this way…”

I was explaining it to Anning when I suddenly realized she had gone silent.

I turned and saw Anning staring fixedly at me. But her eyes had turned completely grayish-white. There were no pupils left in them.

The sudden fright sent my liver trembling. My whole body jerked.

Liu Jing had possessed her!

“Who are you…”

Anning suddenly spoke, her voice extremely low, but the sound that came out belonged to another woman.

“Hello, Ms. Liu…”

“I’m…”

Forcing down my fear, I was just about to introduce myself when I suddenly remembered the ominous divination I had gotten downstairs.

This woman valued her family above all else. After death, her Ghost lingered, clearly because she didn’t want to leave this home. If I said I was a real estate agent here to sell her house, she might come at me the very next second.

“My name is Chen Mo. I’m here to keep you company and talk with you. I know you’re very lonely…”

“Lonely…”

She swayed her head, her expression vacant, and muttered, “At home, it’s just me and the baby. I’m so lonely…”

I asked, “You’re still in your postpartum confinement period, right? There should be a nanny at home to take care of you.”

She slowly shook her head. “It’s my husband’s mom. She’s in my house. She makes me wash clothes, cook, and do chores. I’m so tired. It’s so hard…”

Hearing that, I frowned too, and cursed along with her. “That son of a bitch. Just because you’re not her own daughter, she works you to death? You only just gave birth, and she treats you like this!”

As soon as I finished speaking, tears suddenly began streaming down her face. “She treats me badly. I don’t have a mom… I have nothing. Only my baby…”

I nodded. “That’s right. You still have your baby. You’re not alone.”

She suddenly looked at me and asked, “Do you like children too…”

I froze for a second, then quickly nodded. “I do. I love them!”

She made a motion as if she were holding a child, then stretched both hands out toward me, like she was handing the child over. “Then hold him…”

I stared at the empty air in front of me, trembling.

Hold what?

The air?