Chapter 146
Chapter 146
Yan Zhengchu set up a small stall beside the busiest street in Kaiming County.
The banner hanging over it read: Ghost Catching, Evil Expelling, Free Spirit Talismans.
And yet, most of the people passing by treated him like a charlatan. They gave the stall a glance, then walked away.
Yan Zhengchu was in no hurry. Before setting up, he had already cast a divination. He was certain that “business” would come his way soon.
But after waiting nearly two hours, until his mouth was dry from thirst, not a single person had stopped.
Just as he began to wonder whether today’s “hexagram” had failed him, someone finally came to a halt.
It was a middle-aged man with a face full of worry.
“Daoist Master…”
Before he could say more, Yan Zhengchu asked directly, “Have you visited Yuelai Villa recently?”
The moment those words left his mouth, the middle-aged man was visibly shocked.
Agitated, he asked, “How did you know that, Daoist Master?”
Daoist Yan smiled faintly, putting on an air of profound mystery. “All it takes is a quick calculation on my fingers.”
The man said, “My daughter and I went to Yuelai Villa five days ago to attend a wedding banquet. After we came back from the feast, she fell ill.”
“We’ve already called a physician and given her medicine, but she has remained unconscious all this time…”
“She also keeps telling me that there’s a shadow following her.”
“A shadow?”
Yan Zhengchu immediately packed up his stall and said frankly, “Take me to see her now.”
On the way to the man’s home, the man gave Yan Zhengchu a rough account of what had happened over the past five days.
The man’s surname was Zhan. He was a well-known blacksmith in Kaiming County, known to others as Zhan Wulang.
Five days ago, his daughter Xiaoduo had come home from Kaiming Academy and told him that Mr. Qin’s son was to marry the young lady of Yuelai Villa.
Old Master Shen, overjoyed, was going to host banquets for ten days, inviting everyone in the county, and he would not even accept gift money.
After Xiaoduo heard that, she begged her father to take her to the feast.
So that evening, after Xiaoduo finished her lessons, Zhan Wulang brought his daughter there.
And just as the rumors said, the Shen Family did not accept any gift money. All one had to do was say a few words of congratulations, and they could go in and eat and drink to their heart’s content.
Zhan Wulang was delighted. Seeing the table full of rare delicacies and fine wine, things he had never even laid eyes on before, he felt all the more that this trip had been worth it.
“The wine at that wedding banquet was truly fragrant and mellow, so I couldn’t help drinking a few extra cups…”
At this point, regret appeared on Zhan Wulang’s face. “Back then, Xiaoduo had eaten her fill and wanted to leave the table to play. I reminded her of a few things, then let her go…”
A man caught up in drinking and boasting with the others at the table-how could he still keep track of a child?
By the time he suddenly came to his senses, Xiaoduo was nowhere to be seen among the banquet tables.
Terrified, Zhan Wulang hurriedly questioned the servants in the villa. In the end, he even alarmed the old steward, who took him around the estate to search.
One had to understand that Yuelai Villa covered a vast area. There were at least several dozen courtyards of all sizes.
As they searched, cold sweat kept breaking out across Zhan Wulang’s back, and he gradually sobered up.
Hearing this, Yan Zhengchu could not help asking, “Then how did you find her in the end?”
Zhan Wulang looked somewhat embarrassed. “She was found… in the courtyard where Miss Shen lives.”
“What? How did Xiaoduo run into the inner quarters?”
After all, Yan Zhengchu had been to that villa once and had even stayed there for a night. Although he did not know its entire layout, he could still estimate the distance from the front courtyard to the inner quarters.
How could a little girl of five or six, with no one to lead the way, have run that far?
Zhan Wulang sighed again and said, “Xiaoduo said a shadow led her there…”
“A shadow again?”
Yan Zhengchu frowned slightly, instinctively feeling that this matter truly was not simple.
He asked again, “When you found Xiaoduo, what was she doing?”
Zhan Wulang hesitated for a moment before saying, “She was… outside Miss Shen’s door.”
“Then did you see Miss Shen?”
Zhan Wulang hurriedly waved his hands. “Of course not. At the time…”
He seemed about to say something, but stopped himself just in time.
Yan Zhengchu noticed the odd look on his face. There was hesitation in his tone, and even a trace of confusion.
“At the time, what?”
Zhan Wulang was clearly feeling guilty. “Nothing…”
“Really nothing?” Yan Zhengchu paused mid-step and deliberately stopped to look at him. “If you are hiding something, this Daoist Master cannot guarantee I will be able to help you.”
At that, Zhan Wulang was indeed frightened.
He looked around, then hesitated before saying, “At the time, I saw that Miss Shen’s courtyard was a little strange…”
“How so?”
“Although the manor was holding a wedding celebration, there wasn’t the slightest hint of joy in the courtyard where Miss Shen lived. There was even a large lock on her door.”
It did not look like the room of a bride awaiting marriage.
It looked more like she had been locked inside.
Doubt stirred in Yan Zhengchu’s heart as well, and he continued, “Are you certain Miss Shen was inside?”
Zhan Wulang nodded firmly. “Because I heard Miss Shen shouting from inside…”
“And how were you certain it was Miss Shen shouting?”
“The old steward said so.”
Yan Zhengchu gave a slight nod, then asked, “What was she shouting?”
“Her words were a bit muffled at the time. The general meaning was that she refused to take medicine…”
Yan Zhengchu asked again, “Do you know what illness Miss Shen has?”
Zhan Wulang shook his head before replying, “I only know that Miss Shen has been frail since childhood and often falls ill. As for what illness she has this time, I truly have no way of knowing.”
By the time they had spoken this far, they had arrived at Zhan Wulang’s home.
After pushing open the courtyard gate, Yan Zhengchu sensed only a faint trace of Yin energy lingering in the air, but no Baleful Qi.
He took out his luopan and examined the surroundings. Finding nothing unusual, he went to the bedside to check on Xiaoduo’s condition.
Zhan Wulang stood tensely to the side and watched as Yan Zhengchu merely formed a hand seal with his fingers and pressed it to his daughter’s forehead.
A moment later, his daughter’s eyes flew open, and a wisp of black energy seeped out from within them.
Yan Zhengchu picked up a copper coin and struck the black energy with it.
Then the copper coin fell to the floor, and Xiaoduo suddenly woke up crying loudly.
“Xiaoduo! Daddy’s here!”
Seeing that his daughter had awakened, Zhan Wulang was both shocked and overjoyed. He quickly asked Yan Zhengchu, “Daoist Master, is my daughter all right now?”
Yan Zhengchu replied, “She merely ran into an evil spirit. Once the evil energy is driven out, she will be fine.”
As he spoke, he crouched down in front of Xiaoduo and asked her gently, “Xiaoduo, when you were at the manor for the banquet that day, did you see anything?”
There was a folk belief that before a child’s “heavenly eye” closed, children of a certain age could easily perceive both the world of the living and the dead.
Perhaps Xiaoduo had seen something that day…
Xiaoduo lay in her father’s arms for a short while before her crying slowly stopped.
Faced with the young Daoist Master’s question, she still answered timidly and honestly, “I saw… a shadow following me the whole time.”
“It even invited me to go play at the manor…”
Yan Zhengchu quickly asked, “It spoke to you?”
Xiaoduo nodded and said, “It said it also had a daughter, and that it wanted to take me to meet her. Then… then Daddy came and found me.”
Yan Zhengchu frowned. Connecting everything from beginning to end, he fell silent for a moment, then asked Zhan Wulang, “Where is Miss Shen’s mother?”
Without almost any thought, Zhan Wulang replied, “Madam Shen passed away more than ten years ago, when Miss Shen was born.”