chapter 22
There should have been four shadows in the living room.
Me, Meng Yifan, Xiao Qing, and Seventh Master.
Under the flickering candlelight, the four shadows were stretched long and could be easily seen at a glance.
But after Meng Yifan and I recited the Soul Summoning Document again, I was horrified to find that both my shadow and Meng Yifan’s shadow had suddenly disappeared.
If both of our shadows vanished, then there should only be two shadows left in the living room-one for Seventh Master, and one for Xiao Qing.
But at that moment, I noticed that after our shadows disappeared, another shadow appeared in the living room.
That shadow, just like Xiao Qing’s, had long hair, and it was right next to Xiao Qing’s shadow, slowly moving closer to it.
The two shadows seemed to be merging.
Meng Yifan also noticed something was wrong-I could even hear him swallowing nervously.
Just then, Seventh Master gave a dry cough, then continued chanting the scriptures.
This was his signal to us: one cough meant the Ghost had arrived, two coughs meant the Ghost was out of control and something might happen, so Meng Yifan and I should immediately run out of the room.
Hearing Seventh Master’s cough, Meng Yifan and I instantly understood.
The Ghost had already been summoned!
Seventh Master had already told us what to do next.
But for some reason, my mind suddenly went blank, filled only with fear, and I couldn’t think of anything.
Unless you’ve experienced it yourself, it’s hard to understand this kind of fear-it’s completely uncontrollable.
I could only hope that Meng Yifan would remember what to do, and I would just follow his lead.
But unexpectedly, Meng Yifan, who was usually braver than me, was even more shaken than I was.
He was actually on the verge of tears.
Fortunately, Seventh Master remained calm throughout. He walked directly to face me and signaled with his eyes.
He shook the bell in his right hand and kept gesturing at me with his left.
Seeing his gestures, I instantly remembered what I was supposed to do.
I hurriedly picked up three sticks of incense, lit them in the Fire Basin, then stood up and bowed three times in each of the eight directions.
After that, I sat back down and placed the three sticks of incense into a bowl-a bowl of cooked rice that Seventh Master had prepared in advance.
I continued burning paper, mustered my courage, and looked at Xiao Qing.
“Li Xiumei, is that you…?”
Because I was so terrified, my voice was trembling.
Right after I asked, Xiao Qing, who had been motionless, suddenly raised her head.
That face was clearly no longer Xiao Qing’s, but you could still vaguely make out her features.
It felt as if Xiao Qing’s face and another strange woman’s face were overlapping-we couldn’t clearly see Xiao Qing’s face, nor could we see the other woman’s face.
It was bizarre, but aside from the shock, it wasn’t enough to make two grown men like Meng Yifan and me truly afraid.
What truly terrified us was that the face before us had lost its pupils, as if a pair of lychees were embedded in the eye sockets.
Her hair was disheveled, drool dripped from her mouth, and she looked rabid, snarling at Meng Yifan and me.
We had never seen anything like this before. It felt as if someone had locked us in a cage with a Northeast tiger.
I was scared-I just wanted to run.
At that moment, Xiao Qing, who had already been possessed, suddenly stood up and walked toward me.
She squatted down beside me, those pupil-less eyes constantly sizing me up.
She came up to me like an animal, sniffing me all over, as if trying to catch the scent lingering on my body.
Seventh Master had said that during Spirit Writing, once a Ghost possesses a person, it loses some of its abilities as a Ghost. That’s why it needs to use the Spirit Medium’s body to sniff out the resentment it left on me and Meng Yifan.
It was trying to distinguish whether Meng Yifan and I were the two unlucky souls it had marked.
I sat there, my hands stiff as I tossed Yellow Paper into the Fire Basin.
In truth, I already wanted to run. My legs were itching to flee this house.
But I also knew that if I ran, my only chance of survival would be gone-even Seventh Master wouldn’t be able to save me.
So I could only grit my teeth and sit there, letting Xiao Qing sniff me.
After Xiao Qing finished sniffing me, she went to sniff Meng Yifan.
Meng Yifan simply closed his eyes, choosing not to see or feel anything.
After Xiao Qing had sniffed both of us, her expression suddenly turned blank. She stared at the Fire Basin, lost in thought.
Looking at her, it seemed she no longer had her own consciousness.
Her mind now should be Li Xiumei’s.
There’s no turning back once the bow is drawn. Since we’ve already invited her, we must get to the bottom of this.
I mustered my courage and asked, “Are you Li Xiumei? If you are, please nod.”
The previously blank-faced ‘Xiao Qing’ turned her head to look at me again.
She nodded, making a ‘ka-ka-ka’ sound from her throat, as if something was stuck inside.
Although I didn’t understand what she was trying to say, I was truly shocked.
It felt unbelievable-a person who’s been dead for over ten years was actually communicating with me.
Throughout the process, Seventh Master had reminded us to be careful and never ask Li Xiumei how she died. That’s a major taboo in Spirit Writing.
A Ghost causing trouble is more intelligent than a regular Ghost, so it knows it was murdered and became a ghost. If you ask how it died, you’re provoking it.
So if we wanted to ask Li Xiumei about her death, we had to be subtle, never direct, and throughout the communication, we had to ‘appease’ her.
No matter what Li Xiumei did in life, we couldn’t condemn her. We even had to take her side, making her feel we were here to help.
So, I had already rehearsed in my mind how to ask her.
“Li Xiumei, we’re here to help you. We truly think you’re pitiful, and we want to help you get revenge.”
“But… we don’t know who the culprit is. Can you tell us who it was?”
After saying these words, my heart was in my throat, afraid of provoking her.
Who killed her-this was the key question, one we couldn’t avoid.
After I finished asking, Xiao Qing, now possessed, suddenly jerked her neck, twitching repeatedly, her emotions seemingly unstable.
Fortunately, her agitation wasn’t too severe, and soon the ‘ka-ka-ka’ sound came from her throat again.
Meng Yifan and I exchanged glances, sensing something was off.
Seventh Master had said that a Ghost can’t speak; it can only use a living person’s voice after possessing them.
If that’s the case, Li Xiumei was already possessing Xiao Qing-so why wouldn’t she speak, instead making such strange noises?