Li Mazi’s obsessive-compulsive disorder chose this moment to flare up. “Old Yao, don’t you feel tired of answering with single words every time? Can’t you just finish a complete sentence? I’m getting old here listening to you!”

Old Yao shot him a glance and then took the book back to his room. Li Mazi continued shouting, “All right, all right. We’ll see what happens when you need my help again in the future!”

Then, Li Mazi spat on the ground and added, “Little Brother Zhang, we should go!”

I shook my head as I looked at Li Mazi’s retreating figure. Then, I bowed toward the inner room of the house as a farewell gesture to the old man. “Senior, goodbye!”

Old Yao suddenly returned to the living room, and he shoved a crumpled piece of paper into my hand. I tilted my head to unfold it and read the content. It was a simple route drawing on the paper; it marked the location where he had unearthed the goldfish bracelet. For a grave robber, a grave he had visited was like a personal possession. He would never share the location if he didn’t completely trust the other party.

I was surprised as I looked back at Old Yao. I didn’t know what made him decide to trust me. After all, it was the first time we had met.

Old Yao still wore his calm and almost indifferent face. Then, he closed his door right in front of me with a loud bang. I couldn’t help but smile. This old man was really something.

Li Mazi was waiting for me outside. His patience had run out. “Little Brother Zhang, we were wrong right from the start. We shouldn’t have gotten involved in this case because of that forum post. Sigh, we could have been drinking tea and chatting about life in the antique shop right now. That should be the life we deserve.”

“It’s your fault for being greedy. An otherworldly merchant can’t leave a deal unfinished once he accepts it. You understand this rule as much as I do, don’t you?” I smiled as I headed to the pier.

Li Mazi followed close behind me. “Little Brother Zhang, you can’t blame this on me. I just wanted to earn some money for my retirement.”

“Li Mazi, don’t always focus on money! Sometimes, you must do charity work to earn good karma.” I shot him a meaningful glance. “Think of it as doing it for your son.”

Li Mazi immediately zipped his mouth shut. Although he didn’t have many redeeming virtues, he had always taken good care of his son.

It was easy to see that they were biologically bonded.

I kept thinking on the way home.

Li Xiaoling was wearing the goldfish bracelet when she committed suicide, and she even slit her wrists to make sure her suicide attempt was successful. Both her blood and resentful energy were absorbed by the goldfish bracelet. I was certain that the amount of Yin energy inside the bracelet had increased several times over.

The next course of action would be to recover the goldfish bracelet.

However, I didn’t know how they had dealt with Li 

Xiaoling’s

 body. It would have been quite troublesome if her body had been cremated.

It would have been better to go to the University of Wuhan to find Zhuang Ning and have a talk with her, but I had to return to my antique shop with Li Mazi first as it was getting dark already.

Li Mazi finished a whole bucket of KFC’s family combo at my shop and left with a full stomach. I stayed up most of the night to study the map Old Yang had shoved into my hand and got up early the next morning, heading directly to Wuhan University after washing my face.

It was the students’ breakfast time when I arrived at the institution. As luck would have it, I bumped into Zhuang Ning at the intersection.

Her condition was the same; she still looked sick and had covered herself in a winter puffer jacket.

She laughed when she saw me. “I can tell you really like Wuhan University. You should enroll soon… Why not check out the admission process while you’re here? Then, you won’t need to come here every two or three days. Seriously, though, I don’t know how I should picture you. All the students are losing it right now, and they would rather stay outside the campus. You’re the only one who’s so happy to come here.”

I was beginning to notice that I couldn’t keep up with Zhuang Ning whenever I met her, just as it happened with every other girl I faced. Sometimes, this would also happen when I chatted with Yin Xinyue.

I took a few deep breaths and said reluctantly, “Actually, I came here to see you.”

“To see me?” Zhuang Ning was bewildered. “How can I possibly help you?”

“Don’t worry. There’s something you can help me with.”

“Sounds good to me.” Zhuang Ning nodded and said, “I still haven’t had breakfast yet. Just buy me breakfast, and I’ll help you.”

Why do people like using me to get free meals? I think my pocket will start bleeding soon!

I was lucky that the food in the cafeteria was rather cheap, and Zhuang Ning couldn’t eat anything too expensive. Each of us got a millet porridge bowl, then chose a couple of seats by the window. I looked at her with concern. “You look sick. Why didn’t your boyfriend come to take care of you?”

Zhuang Ning smiled faintly. “Actually, I don’t have a boyfriend. I made that up.”

“Why bother making that up?” I didn’t get it.

Zhuang Ning smiled. “That’s what female students do; they compete about everything. I often stay out of the dorms because of work. I didn’t want people to say bad things about me, so I told them I had a boyfriend. Anyway, what did you want to ask me?”

“How did they deal with Li 

Xiaoling’s

 body?” I asked.

Zhuang Ning almost spat the porridge in her mouth. “It’s really hard for me to have some appetite. Do you really need to ask such a question while we’re eating?”

I smiled embarrassedly. My question was indeed out of place.

Zhuang Ning put down her spoon and sighed. “Li Xiaoling hasn’t been buried yet. Her remains are kept at the funeral home according to her father’s wishes.”

“Where’s the goldfish bracelet?”

“Her father kept it. He wanted something to remember her by.”

It was a good thing that the goldfish bracelet hadn't been buried.

Zhuang Ning didn’t look better after eating her porridge. She closed her puffer jacket, visibly shivering. “Do you need to know anything else?”

I was surprised by her question.

She gave me a contemptuous look as she said, “The whole situation is becoming too strange and dangerous... My studies will be affected if this continues. I’m just doing it for myself.”

“Would you agree if I asked you to go back to your previous dorm room?” I probed.

Zhuang Ning’s face turned pale in an instant; she looked at me with a face full of dread. “To go back to the room where Li Xiaoling killed herself?”

I gave her a nod. “I want you to go back to that dorm room and do one thing for me.”

Zhuang Ning took a deep breath. “Do you really think that the lip-sewing incidents are related to Li Xiaoning’s death? She’s dead already. How could she…?”

Zhuang Ning was unable to finish the sentence. She looked at me with disbelief, just as if she had pictured something terrible in her head.

I calmly explained. “Sometimes, deceased people are much scarier than when they were alive.”

“Is she a ghost now?” Zhuang Ning was tense.

“A king among ghosts,” I said casually.

Zhuang Ning took another deep breath. “Just who are you? Are you a Daoist priest?”

My face blackened. 

Why do people always think about Daoist priests when they hear about ghost hunting cases…?

Zhuang Ning kept silent for quite a long time before she asked me, “If I go back to that dorm room, will you be able to solve this thoroughly?”

“Pretty much.” I answered without hesitating to encourage her. 

My approach worked, and she agreed to help me. “All right! I’m going to pack some stuff and return to my previous dorm room.”

“No need to rush now.” I stopped her and said, “We still need to prepare a few things. It would be better if we could get the goldfish bracelet Li Xiaoling was wearing when she committed suicide.”

Zhuang Ning held her head low and pondered. “The goldfish bracelet? Leave it to me.”

My plan was to get Li Xiaoling’s address through Zhuang Ning, and I would take it from there. It was unexpected that she would decide to shoulder this for me.

Zhuang Ning said, “Li Xiaoling and I were roommates for more than one year. I should pay a visit to her father now that she’s gone. Anyway, it would be more credible than a visit from a complete stranger like you.”

Zhuang Ning was right, but I was worried about her health. Could she go out with that weak body of hers?

Zhuang Ning forced a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to die.”

I called Li Mazi after leaving Wuhan University. Li Mazi’s voice sounded dejected on the other end of the line. “Little Brother Zhang, where did you run off to? I went to visit you early in the morning, but you weren’t home.”

Visit your sister! I’m sure he went there for a free meal!

I gritted my teeth, but I didn’t expose him in the end. “I went out to do something important. Li Mazi, you know the saying ‘feed an army for a thousand days to use it for one hour,’ right? I’ve been feeding you for so long, so it’s time for you to set off.”

“What? Set off?” Li Mazi was frightened.

Crap, wrong choice of words.

I hurried to rephrase, “I mean, it’s time for you to go on stage. It will be a magnificent debut.”

Li Mazi swallowed his saliva. “What’s happening?”

“Please prepare some stuff for me,” I said with a serious voice. “One hundred Five Emperor Coins tied together with a yellow thread. All of them must be genuine; not even a single fake is allowed. Also, bring me one rooster, two meters of red fabric, and some black dog blood.”

Li Mazi realized my goal. “Little Brother Zhang, you want to use all of this to deal with that otherworldly item?”

“Just do as I asked. Don’t talk nonsense!” I deliberately hung up.

Zhuang Ning overheard my conversation, asking me in a low voice. “Coins, rooster… I’ve watched some movies, and they used this stuff to deal with evil spirits. Are you going to use them to deal with Li Xiaoling?”

I gave her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry. The whole procedure is very simple. In a while, I’ll tell you how to do it, and you’ll understand immediately.”

Zhuang Ning was scared, and the corners of her mouth twitched.

Having been her roommate for a while, Zhuang Ning knew Li Xiaoling’s house address.

There was a time Li Xiaoling stopped going to school for a whole week, so the professor took Zhuang Ning with him to pay Li 

Xiaoling’s

 family a visit. That was why she had an impression of Li Xiaoling’s place.

It was just a normal family visit, but Tang Shuangshuang had used it to fabricate a story that Zhuang Ning had gone to a hotel with the professor.

The story left me speechless. 

Li 

Xiaoling’s

 house was located in the city’s high-end downtown area. When we entered the neighborhood, Zhuang Ning told me, “Stay here and wait for me. Li Xiaoling just died, and her father has been mourning her. He’s not going to be in the best of moods, and he may feel uncomfortable in front of strangers.”

Still, I couldn’t be at ease. Zhuang Ning looked so feeble that I was afraid she could faint in the next second. 

Can she even carry on with the plan?

However, she rejected my good intentions and went upstairs alone.

I waited for her for almost an hour. Li Mazi called me several times in the meantime, but he was mostly spouting nonsense. “Little Brother Zhang, I can’t find the number of Five Emperor Coins you’ve asked me to get! And, what about the black dog’s blood? You want a bottle or a barrel?”

I scolded him for a while, and I regretted letting Zhuang Ning go alone.

No one knew if the goldfish bracelet had possessed Li 

Xiaoling’s

 father or not. Zhuang Ning could be in grave danger if that was the case!

However, I didn’t know Li Xiaoling’s address, so I could only stand there and worry.

Zhuang Ning reappeared after another half an hour. I noticed her face had turned even paler.

I walked toward her in a hurry. “Are you all right?”

“I got it.” Zhuang Ning’s pale face revealed a rare smile. “I told her father that the goldfish bracelet was originally mine. Li Xiaoling was particularly fond of it, and she took it and wore it that day since I wasn’t in the dorm room. I also told him that I didn’t mind, but the goldfish bracelet was a memento from my late grandmother, so I needed it back. Her father didn’t quite buy it, but he gave it to me in the end…”

Zhuang Ning carefully took out the goldfish bracelet from her pocket and gave it to me. The bracelet looked brighter and more eye-catching; I guessed this was because it had absorbed Li Xiaoling’s blood. The black bracelet currently had some sort of dazzling red color.

Zhuang Ning’s fingers were trembling slightly, just as if she were enduring a freezing temperature.

“What should we do next?”

I contemplated and said, “We should go back to Wuhan University.”

I called Li Mazi on the way back to the school, asking him to meet me at the university’s entrance.

When we arrived, Li Mazi was standing with a rooster in one hand and a bottle of black dog blood in the other. Some students and security guards were looking at him.

I hated the fact that I couldn’t just storm over and kick him to death. Why didn’t he mind his public image? Couldn’t he just stand in some corner and wait for me?

As expected, the students were quite curious about him and started discussing.

“He’s holding a bottle of blood, right? What is he doing here?”

“He’s got a big rooster, too. Is he going to perform some magic tricks?”

“Impossible. They might be local delicacies from someone’s hometown…”

Li Mazi craned his neck and looked at me. He then laughed and walked towards me. “Little Brother Zhang, what do you think? One hundred Five Emperor coins, not one more, not one less. All of them are chained together. Mission accomplished!”

Accomplished your sister!

I hated that I couldn’t just stab him with a knife!