Chuyi said, “While I was chasing after that person, I saw these words embroidered on their back. Also, I’ve noticed that my client’s house, Ms. Wu’s apartment, and even that granny’s house all had a stone tablet with the words ‘Mount Tai’s Shigandang’ engrave on it. I don’t think this is just a coincidence.”

His analysis was logical. In this modern society, especially in the cities, those stone tablets were rare. Since he had noticed many of them in the same neighborhood, it was definitely abnormal.

If I wasn’t wrong, this sort of stone tablet would be present in the houses of the other victims as well.

I had visited a few families in this neighborhood while delivering the missing souls, so I took Chuyi to those families to check. My guess turned out to be correct, and all of the families had a Shigandang stone tablet!

I was puzzled. Mount Tai’s Shigandang was a mountain god that hated ghosts and monsters. How come it became something so harmful to people?

Chuyi didn’t talk much and just asked me to take him to Ms. Wu’s apartment.

When we got there, I asked Ms. Wu, “Do you have a Shigandang stone tablet in your house?”

Ms. Wu nodded. “Yes, we have one. When we bought this house, the stone tablet was already here. Many families in this neighborhood have the same tablet on the outer wall.”

Chuyi and I climbed out of the window to check. Indeed, not only did Ms.Wu’s house have it, but many apartments in this building also had the same stone tablet.

That’s strange... If so many households have this stone tablet, why did bad things only happen to Ms. Wu’s family?

Chuyi thought for a while and said, “I see!”

I was sure that he had found the secret behind the stone tablet. I asked, “What happened?”

He told me, “Look at the upper right corner of this stone tablet.”

I studied it and found a small crack at the upper right corner of the stone tablet. It seemed as if the stone tablet was somehow split open.

Chuyi used a pair of scissors and carefully pinched something. He then drew a piece of broken rock out of the crack.

He asked me to find a magnifying glass to check this piece of rock. It turned out that it wasn’t a rock but just a lump of dried mud that had been cooked until its color became the same as the stone tablet’s. Without a closer look, it would have been hard to tell the difference.

Chuyi said, “The stone tablet is supposed to repel ghosts and monsters. But if it’s not intact, it will become an ominous item. Moreover, different missing parts will bring people different misfortunes.”

“For example, if it’s missing the upper right corner, it will bring misfortune to the children of the family. In particular, their careers won’t be smooth. Xiaoqing’s going to take her university entrance exam soon, which is considered a step of her career. I think there’s someone who doesn't want those twenty-four senior high school students to ace their exam!”

I felt uncomfortable when I heard that. Who was the despicable person that wanted to destroy the future of twenty-four high school students? What kind of grudge did they have?

Chuyi no longer spoke. He directly used the pair of scissors to pry the entire stone tablet out of the wall. He covered the hole with a cloth and carefully placed the stone tablet on the tea table, asking Ms. Wu to keep an eye on it. He instructed that no one touch it while he went out to prepare a few things.

Ms. Wu was frightened. “What’s the deal with this stone tablet? Most of the families in this neighborhood have similar tablets in their houses. Why did bad things only happen to my house?”

Chuyi didn’t explain in detail. “This stone tablet is missing a corner, so its power is reduced. The evil spirits don’t dare to visit the other houses but yours is a different deal since the protection is weakened.”

Ms. Wu was even more sacred. She had started to doubt that all of the corners in her house were a possible hiding place for evil things. She insisted that she didn’t want to stay in the house alone.

Chuyi tried to talk her out of it, but she didn’t listen. She insisted on going with us to get the things we needed.

Chuyi had to give her two talismans and asked her to stick them on her window and main door. He told her that his talismans were even stronger than the stone tablet, so evil things wouldn’t dare to get into her house.

Ms. Wu finally calmed down.

When we left her apartment, the hazy sun was rising. I guessed it was around five or six o’clock. “What do we need to prepare? How about we wait until it gets lighter? After all, we aren’t going to use those items during daylight.”

He answered, “We’re going to get some corpse wax. It’s only during this time of day that corpses can produce wax.”

“Corpse wax?” I couldn’t help but shiver. “Why do we need corpse wax?”

The so-called ‘corpse wax’ was the fat found inside a dead body. Due to the heat, it would melt and seep out of the skin, creating a layer of wax-like substance on the corpse’s skin. Just hearing how it was produced could tell one that it was nothing good. The only function of this substance was to attract evil ghosts and spirits; it had no other uses. Why would Chuyi want to collect it?

I felt curious and asked him about it. However, he just said that there was something he needed to use it for. I wasn’t in the mood to pester him further, so I let it go.

In the end, Chuyi brought me to a graveyard full of unmarked graves. We circled around the graveyard and found a grave that looked new. From the color of the dirt on the grave, we guessed it wasn’t older than three days.

Three days was the prime time for a corpse to produce corpse wax!

Unearthing someone’s grave was a wicked act. To reduce our sins and sense of guilt, Chuyi burned some joss sticks and money paper to comfort and please the deceased person. After the other party ‘agreed,’ we started to dig up the grave.

We soon reached the coffin, which looked old, shabby, and thin. I guessed it was one of the cheapest ones.

Most of the people buried here didn’t have enough money to buy a slot in a proper cemetery or hold a cremation. It wasn’t strange that they were buried in cheap coffins.

However, when I opened up the coffin and saw the person inside, I was baffled.

Laying inside the coffin was a beautiful, flower-like young lady with precious gold and silver accessories. Although she had been dead for around three days, her appearance didn’t change much. She looked pale but peaceful. If her belly wasn’t swelling up because of gas, we would have thought that she was just sleeping.

At first glance, I knew that she was from a wealthy family. How did she die at such a young age, and why was she buried in a place like this?

All of a sudden, I remembered a current missing case in my city. A cement factory owner’s daughter was kidnapped and had gone missing for days… Was this young lady the missing person?

I pitied her. She was young and beautiful but was now gone forever. I saw her photos from when she was still alive. She was much more beautiful than many famous actresses.

“Hurry up!” Chuyi urged, “Help me lift her up. I need to scrape off the corpse wax.”

I sighed and apologized to the girl in my heart.

I helped Chuyi lift her up. Then, he asked me to undress her upper body.

I was depressed. Blaspheming the dead was what I hated the most. I had never thought that I would have to do it one day.

After I was told to do it, I quickly took off the garments on her upper body.

Her skin didn’t glow anymore, and it looked pale. However, her curves were still attractive.

I secretly cursed myself. How could I be in the mood to admire a dead body?!

Chuyi and I carefully used a dagger to scrape the corpse wax on her body, which we then stored in a small plastic bag. Shortly after, we had collected enough to fill a pouch.

Then, I dressed her up and put her back in her coffin. I closed the lid and buried her one more time.

Although the sun was high in the sky, this place was shrouded in a hazy layer of Yin energy. We couldn’t see our surroundings clearly.

As we left, I felt as if someone was quietly weeping behind me. When I turned my head to check, I was so scared that my scalp went numb.

A young woman was on her knees by the grave we had just unearthed. She was wearing luxurious clothes and crying mournfully. A layer of black mist surrounded her.

She was the lady in the coffin!

I shivered in fear.

Chuyi turned to me and explained, “I’ve released her soul. I had an agreement with her that I could collect the corpse wax on her body. In return, I had to release her soul so that she could take revenge on her murderer…”

I knew someone was out of luck!

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