Since he had been scared out of his wits earlier

, Shen Haoran didn’t want to take us to the haunted house no matter what. 

I shrugged and asked Li Mazi to find a motel to rest first. 

After the inciden

t

, I didn’t dare to 

leave 

the Sirius Whip. When I got on the bed, I took out the Sirius Whip from the bag and put it at my waist. 

Li Mazi was watching TV next to me. He didn’t remember that he was possessed. I didn’t want to scare him, so I didn’t tell him about the incident. 

However, to assure the both of us, I gave him the Yin and Yang Umbrella. After adhering a few talismans on the door to the bathroom and the window, I felt much better. 

Right when

 I was about to zip

 up

 my bag, I touched something 

that felt like

 a scroll. It was the painting I had bought today. 

Since

 I was bored, I expanded the scroll

 and cocked 

my head to one side to study it. I felt it looked different from the last time I saw it, but I couldn’t tell 

what was different about it

… 

Li Mazi saw 

that I had brought 

the painting with us

. H

e pretended to be amazed. “Little 

B

rother Zhang, you really like this beauty in green, don’t you?” 

He 

made

 a face at me. 

After l

ooking at this silly brother of min

e

, my mood was gone. I shot him a fierce glance and rolled the painting to put it away. I 

thought about going 

to bed. 

As I was the driver, I was weary now. I easily 

fell asleep

 not long after I la

id

 down. However, I couldn’t rest well. A flat

 and 

white face kept 

lurking

 in my 

mind

.

I had spent the night with shallow 

sleep

. When I got up, I couldn’t pull myself together, and I had a 

slight

 headache. Li Mazi got up looking refreshed as though he 

had

 a good sleep. 

I envied him

 and said 

to myself,

T

his rascal 

sure is

 silly

.

I

f you say he’s brave, he 

could

 pee on himself when 

faced with

a

 ghost. But, if you say he’s 

a coward

, he c

ould

 sleep pretty well under any circumstance. 

I could tell that the incident from yesterday had

n’t impacted

 him. He even turned to me and asked why I had raccoon eyes. 

I glared at him. We collected our 

belongings

 and left the room. However, when we got out of our room, we saw Shen Haoran. 

Shen Haoren

 didn’t sleep well last night

. I could tell since 

the dark circles under his eyes were even darker than mine. He 

looked

 haggard

. He had brought us 

breakfast in a plastic bag. 

Li Mazi and I finished the steamed buns 

quickly

. Then, we decided to play Poker. We asked Shen Haoran to play with us

, but h

e was restless and anxious

. He 

attempt

ed

 to get up and leave a few times. I had to explain to him, “From the encounter with the white face yesterday, I know we are going against something fierce! We should wait until noon 

when

 the sunlight is the strongest. If we go to the haunted house at that time, it will be safer.” 

After listening to me,

Shen Haoran still couldn’t focus on the game. 

However, 

he didn’t bother us anymore. At around noon, we ate something then headed to the haunted house. 

This town wasn’t big. Som

e

 people came to greet Shen Haoran. It seemed Shen Haoran and his friends were a band of thugs here. 

We had walked for around twenty minutes 

before turning

at

 a deserted street. Eventually, we stopped at an uncompleted house. I lifted my head to assess the structure. I found nothing.  

Besides

 looking old, this house was cold and deserted since nobody had lived here for a long time. There was nothing strange about it. I didn’t find a wisp of Yin energy here. 

“Let’s 

go

 inside!” My chin motioned toward the house. I thought we shouldn’t make a lot of 

assumptions

 here. There were times we couldn’t see anything from the surface, but there should be something mysterious inside. 

Shen Haoran hesitated when he heard that we had to 

go

 in. He lingered

 and 

didn’t want to 

go

 in. 

Li Mazi was behind him

. He pushed his

 shoulder

 and

 boldly urg

ed

, “What are you afraid of? 

Now is

 the time when we have the 

strongest

 Yang energy during 

the 

day. Th

ose

 foul 

things

 won’t dare to come out!” 

I shot Li Mazi a glance but didn’t expose him. No matter what, half of his words were brag

s

. There was nothing for me to comment on. 

After listening to us, Shen Haoran 

lowered

 his head in silence. He acted as if he

’d lost any hope

. Then

, h

e resolutely pushed the door of the haunted house. 

The interior of the haunted house was as normal as the other houses in the countryside. There were old

-

fashioned chairs and a table. The floor had white porcelain tiles. There 

was a

 staircase in the corner

 that connected 

to the second floor. This was a typical villa style in the countryside. There was nothing strange or anything wrong with the 

geomancy

 of this house. 

We went to the second floor and then 

to

 the third floor. I found nothing wrong. Except for getting dust all over our bod

ies

, we didn

’t collect any helpful information. 

However, I vaguely felt that something was not right… 

I then had 

a

 spark in my head, which I knew was very important but I couldn’t grasp it. I simply sat on the staircase and tried to remember the structure of this house. 

Shen Haoran and Li Mazi saw 

that I had

 a serious face

. Th

ey didn’t disturb me. 

I thought ab

out it 

then 

understood it

. I knew what was wrong here. Shen Haoran told us that they had 

collected an ancient

 calligraphy art

work 

in this house. However, I’d checked the interior, and it didn’t look like the house of someone who would like to collect ancient calligraphy. 

The attractiveness of arts lay in the idea it is conveyed in. Making someone who 

has

 no interest or ideas 

about

 calligraphy keep a calligraphy painting was some sort of torment! 

“Are you sure Orange picked up that picture in this haunted house?” I gazed at Shen Haoran as I didn’t want to miss the tiniest expression from him. 

“Yeah…” Shen Haoran sounded ginger. While talking, his eyes su

bconsciously

 rolled around as if he didn’t dare to look me in the eye. I knew he 

was hiding

 something from us! 

I refrained my anger

 and asked

, “I

’ve

 checked the house. It’s just a normal, uncompleted house. Why did 

people

spread

 rumor

s and say it was

 a haunted house?” 

Shen Haoran cleared his throat awkwardly and 

explained to us

 the story of this haunted house. 

There was a couple 

that lived

 with the husband’s mother in this house. They had 

lived well,

 but 

after

 the mother passed away four years ago, strange things started to happen in this house. 

The woman 

began

 to hear strange noises. At first, the bowls in her cabinet would fall off the shelf by themselves. Then, the things around the house would move and relocate. Then one day, when the woman got up, she found that her clothes had so many holes. 

Over

 a long time, this story was 

changed

 further, and the people in the town started to 

spread 

rumors that the woman 

wasn’t filial

 to her husband’s mother. That

 was 

why the dead mother-in-law had returned to 

torment

 them… 

The couple couldn’t bear that other people were pointing at them and rumoring 

about

 them. They moved to another place, 

which caused

 this 

house to be abandoned

. Afterward, the rumors hadn’t stopped, and the house 

became

 a 

“

haunted house.

”

After listening to him, I felt better 

because

 Shen Haoran 

hadn’t

 lied to me. It was true that after people died, their souls would linger in the mortal world for a while. Since they didn’t know that they were dead, they would repeat the 

activities

 they did from when they were still alive. However, this sort of soul was different from 

an evil

 spirit. They couldn’t harm people. 

“Where did you wake up that day in this haunted house?” 

When I asked this question, Shen Haoran’s face 

froze

. “I don’t remember.” 

My flame of anger arose again. I hated those who begged me for help but didn’t want to be honest 

with

 me. I turned to Li Mazi. “Li Mazi, let’s go. We can’t put our nose in this!” 

Li Mazi saw Shen Haoran 

blush. H

e knew that the young man 

wasn’t

 telling us the tru

th

. Then, he followed me 

and left

 the house. 

When 

Shen Haoran saw that we were leaving, he was so flustered. “Master Zhang, I…” 

I turned and saw the man almost 

in tears

. “Tell us. I’

ll give 

you 

one

 last chance!” I wasn’t a heartless person. I did that to force Shen Haoran 

to tell

 us the truth. 

Shen Haoran sat on the stairs

. H

is hands ruffled his hair

 as he sobbed

. After a long time, he said, “Master Zhang, last night I told you I liked 

a girl

, right?” 

I nodded. “Let me guess, 

y

ou like Orange!” 

“Master, you sure aren’t ordinary.” Shen Haoran wore a wry smile. Eventually, he told 

me the full

 story. 

Shen Haoran liked Orange because she was nice and active. Moreover, his family was rich, so Orange’s mom didn’t prevent them from being together. However, since Orange was still very young, they would have to wait a few more years before talking about marriage. 

However, as they were both young and impulsive

, t

here were times they couldn’t restrain the rage of their hormones. A month ago, his friend 

obtained

 a calligraphy 

painting

 written by Li Yu from somewhere. He mysteriously told them that he wanted to show them the painting. 

Since Orange and Shen Haoran had planned to have their private time together, 

after

 their friend 

mentioned

 the calligraphy pai

nting

, Orange lied to her parents and said that they would go to visit their friend’s place and stay there for two days. The plan was that after seeing the painting, they would find a place to spend their time together. No one had expected so many unfortunate things to happen afterward. 

That day, after everybody 

came

, Shen Haoran’s friend, who had given a lot of appraisal to the painting, didn’t show them the painting

. Q

uite the contrary, he just asked them to drink. 

After a few bottles, Shen Haoran almost blacked out. Orange had 

drunk

 a lot, too. Their friend then showed the

m the painting

. However, as the 

group of friends were

 all drunk, they just recognized it 

as

 a scroll painting

. N

o one opened it to see. 

After that, as the alcohol got the best of them, some suggested 

playing

 a dare game

, which was to

v

isit the haunted house! Then, they began to wobble toward the haunted house. However, they soon discovered that the haunted house was just an abandoned house. There was no ghost. They decided to go home. 

Since Shen Haoran was drunk and 

had already 

made

 plans with Orange, 

he 

and Orange lagged to the end of the team. In the end, they sneakily returned to the haunted house and did things children shouldn’t do. 

Shen Haoran suddenly stopped, “I don

’t 

think it 

was

 a big problem. Orange and I are going to get married.” 

“What happened after that?” I knew things

 had

 started to go wrong from this part.