Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I pulled out a sheet of yellow paper and folded it into a delicate paper crane.

“Act with haste as decreed by law! Go!”

Following the seal I formed with my hands, the paper crane flapped its wings twice and took off, wobbling through the air.

I heard the sound of something shattering.

Oh. That was Xu Haoze and Xu Weiyang’s worldview.

The three of us followed the paper crane into the living room. It circled over a potted plant in the northwest corner and refused to leave.

“There’s something in the flowerpot.”

“I’ll do it.”

Xu Haoze swallowed hard and forced himself forward despite his fear.

Not bad. The man had guts. My impression of him improved even more.

Before Xu Haoze could get close, a black cat darted out from who-knew-where, leaped up, and lunged straight at him.

“Watch out!”

I rushed forward and shoved Xu Haoze aside. The lights inside weren’t on, but the streetlamp outside shone in through the door.

The black cat’s silhouette was clearly visible. But with one closer look, I realized this wasn’t a black cat.

It had a cat’s body, but growing out of it was a hideous human head.

“Woooooo…”

Xu Weiyang was still providing background vocals. Her voice was mournful and eerie, like a female ghost’s, making the already terrifying atmosphere even more sinister.

This had to be the evil spirit manifested by one of the Five Ghosts. Judging from its position, this human-faced cat was the Wrath Ghost.

I fished a handful of glutinous rice from my bag. Glutinous rice contained yang energy and was a powerful tool for suppressing evil spirits.

I hurled the rice at the cat with all my strength. The grains passed straight through the cat spirit and scattered across the floor.

The human face on the cat glanced at me with disdain, a mocking smile on its features.

Why wasn’t there any reaction?

I held the rice in my hand up to the light.

Holy crap! Who the hell swapped out my glutinous rice for Northeastern rice?!

“Xu Haoze, there’s a traitor among the masses!”

I looked at the siblings with deep anguish. Sure enough, rich people’s money wasn’t that easy to earn. Everything on TV was true.

“We’re screwed. All this stuff has been swapped out.”

Xu Haoze’s face instantly went deathly pale. As for Xu Weiyang, she stopped crying and sprang up at once.

“What?! Who was it?! Which damned traitor did this?!”

Just then, the human-faced cat lunged at Xu Weiyang.

I launched myself into the air and kicked Xu Weiyang out of the way, then, with my heart bleeding, pulled a yellow talisman from my bag.

I’d gone through so much trouble to steal this from Senior Brother Qingxuan. Every one I used was one less I had!

The moment the yellow talisman struck it, the human-faced cat let out a shrill scream. Then it turned into a wisp of black smoke and vanished on the spot.

Xu Weiyang rolled several times across the floor before finally stopping. Fortunately, the floor was covered with a thick carpet, so she wasn’t really hurt.

Rubbing her waist, she limped over with a grimace.

“Sister Qingyu, you’re kind of like a scumbag boyfriend. I thought you were going to shelter me from the storm, but it turns out you were the one who brought the whole storm with you. That kick nearly broke my waist…”

I rubbed my head awkwardly.

“Well, it was an emergency. If that Wrath Ghost had caught you, ghostly energy would have entered your body. The wound would have rotted and grown maggots. It’d be extremely hard to treat.”