“Are those Jin Qi’s parents?”
Xu Muchan suddenly turned his head toward a couple not far away who were talking to Old Master Wei.
Wei Yao followed his gaze and couldn’t help being surprised.
“Yes. How do you recognize them? And your eyesight—wasn’t it supposed to still be really bad? You can actually recognize them through all these people?”
Neither of Jin Qi’s parents was particularly striking in appearance. Jin Qi, in particular, took after his father, with a somewhat sinister-looking face that made it obvious at a glance that he wasn’t a good person.
Jin Qi’s father, however, had made his way in the business world and was better at disguising himself. He always wore a smile, making him look much less openly vicious and malicious than his son.
But Xu Muchan’s eyesight was poor. There was no way he could see so many details from this distance. The reason he could recognize them was because a cold, sinister black shadow was wrapped around the couple.
The shadow only vaguely resembled a human figure. Its torso and limbs were unnaturally thin and long, while its head was exceptionally large, like a lantern hanging above the couple’s heads—or like a black cloud.
Xu Muchan thought that perhaps this was where the saying “a black cloud hangs over one’s head” came from.
The couple were probably about to suffer some great misfortune. Even from this far away, he could feel the icy chill emanating from the black shadow.
He even suspected that Brother had something to do with it.
After all, that day, Brother had only opened the bathroom door. He hadn’t done anything else.
But based on what Xu Muchan knew about him, there was no way he would let Jin Qi and the others off so easily.
Xu Muchan withdrew his gaze and said to Wei Yao, “You don’t need to go through the trouble of finding Daoist Yan. They should be in for some serious misfortune soon.”
This time, it wasn’t just Wei Yao who was curious. Everyone else looked at Xu Muchan in astonishment as well.
Xu Fan was the kind of person who couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked directly, “Why do you say that?”
Xu Muchan tilted his head slightly and gave a very faint smile. “Just a feeling.”
Xu Fan froze, staring at him as though she couldn’t quite process the answer.
When she had first seen Xu Muchan, she had already thought that this boy was incredibly good-looking. He had a small head and delicate features, with large, refined eyes and brows, as well as extremely fair, cool-toned skin. There wasn’t a single blemish on his face.
Especially now that his bangs had been slicked completely back with styling gel, fully revealing his striking brows and eyes. He was quite a visual shock at first glance.
But Xu Fan had seen plenty of handsome guys and had long since developed immunity to them. To her, he was simply a particularly good-looking guy, nothing worth making a fuss over.
Especially since this handsome guy didn’t talk much. He was always lowering his eyes, giving off the impression of a quiet, introverted, well-behaved student.
But when Xu Muchan answered her just now, that sudden little smile had allowed Xu Fan to keenly catch a hint of malicious schadenfreude in it, along with a faintly sinister confidence, as though victory were already assured.
It was completely different from the quiet, introverted image he usually presented.
When Wei Yao had introduced him earlier, he had made Xu Muchan sound like some poor little thing, asking everyone to take good care of him……
Xu Fan rolled her eyes inwardly, thinking that Wei Yao really was an idiot who had remained an idiot for ten straight years.
Perhaps sensing that Xu Fan had been staring at him for too long, Xu Muchan turned his face toward her.
Xu Fan withdrew her gaze and smiled. “Then I’ll take your word for it. If the Jin family really suffers some major misfortune, my friend is definitely going to be jumping for joy. When that happens, I’ll have her treat you guys to—”
“Holy shit! Why is he here? Didn’t they say he wasn’t coming?!”
Xu Fan hadn’t even finished speaking when Wei Yao suddenly jumped to his feet and interrupted her.
“Who?”
The others were startled as well. They curiously craned their necks and followed Wei Yao’s gaze, only to see an extremely tall figure walking in.
Because he was backlit, his features couldn’t be seen clearly.
“My ancestor!!”
Seeing that his grandfather’s parents had already gone forward to greet the man, Wei Yao was terrified that he would be late and end up being disciplined by his own father.
He hurriedly threw out, “You guys have fun. I’m going over to greet him,” and then ran off in a panic.
This only made everyone even more confused, and the guests present had the same question.
When they saw Old Master Wei leading Wei Jianguo and his wife forward to personally welcome a young man inside, one of the guests who was close with the Wei family couldn’t help asking, “Jianguo, who is this…?”
Old Master Wei had considerable standing, and today, more than half of Jiangcheng’s business elite had shown up. Whether or not they normally did business with one another, they were all connected by relatives, friends, or other relationships in one way or another, and most had at least become familiar faces to each other.
Yet no one recognized this young man whom the Wei family was welcoming with such respect, despite his extraordinary appearance and bearing.
So everyone began whispering and discussing among themselves, wondering whether the man was from outside Jiangcheng’s social circle.
Could it be that the Wei family was planning to move their operations elsewhere?
Faced with everyone’s confusion, Old Master Wei said with a hearty smile, “This gentleman is an elder from our Wei family’s main clan. Don’t let his young appearance fool you—his seniority is actually higher than mine. He only agreed to attend today’s ceremony out of consideration for an old man like me.”
His words were deliberately vague, leaving everyone even more bewildered.
After all, the Wei family were native Jiangcheng residents who had lived and established themselves here for generations. No one had ever heard that they had a main clan somewhere else. Where had this relative suddenly come from?
Everyone was puzzled.
But since Old Master Wei had put it that way, no one was tactless enough to press him for details. They simply smiled and greeted the man politely, addressing him as “Mr. Wei.”
This Mr. Wei, however, clearly wasn’t someone who was easy to get along with.
Faced with the smiling guests welcoming him, he couldn’t even be bothered to offer a perfunctory response. He simply pushed his way through the crowd and walked straight inside.
After locking onto the person he had come to find, Wei Xilou walked over to Xu Muchan and handed him a glass of milk he had casually picked up from a waiter along the way.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here?”
Xu Muchan was also surprised to see him. He muttered, “I wasn’t planning to come in the first place.”
Wei Xilou gave a slight nod and sat down beside Xu Muchan as though no one else existed.
He was tall and imposing. At over 1.9 meters, even sitting down he was still tall enough to look down upon everyone around him.
The buttons of his black shirt were fastened all the way to the top, while the silver mechanical watch on his wrist reflected a cold gleam.
He rarely smiled, and even without saying a word, his gaze remained fixed on the person beside him. Yet he still brought an overwhelming sense of pressure to the young people present.
At first, Wei Yao’s friends continued whispering among themselves, curious about where this intimidating big shot had come from.
But as the air around them grew colder and colder, they gradually didn’t even dare to speak too loudly, much less gossip.
In the end, everyone fell silent with remarkable mutual understanding.
Wen Dajiang, who had originally been sprawled across the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, also became extremely uncomfortable and lowered his leg, switching to the posture of an elementary school student sitting properly.
Wen Dajiang desperately tried to signal Xu Muchan with his eyes.
Unfortunately, Xu Muchan was half-blind and didn’t react at all.
Fortunately, the others understood Wen Dajiang’s signals. After exchanging knowing glances, they all found excuses to leave.
In the end, Xu Muchan was the only one who remained sitting there.
He tilted his head and met Wei Xilou’s gaze with a smile.
“Brother, you scared them all away.”
Wei Xilou frowned slightly. “Then they must simply be too timid. A-Chan wouldn’t run away because of me.”
“……”
Xu Muchan was speechless for a moment. He didn’t say that there were actually times when he wanted to run away too. Instead, he cleverly changed the subject.
“We were talking about the Jin family just now. I heard Jin Qi jumped from the building yesterday and broke his leg. Was that you, Brother?”
Wei Xilou said, “He’s nothing more than a rat in the sewer. Why would I need to dirty my own hands? Jin Qi has a life on his conscience. All I had to do was let him see.”
Xu Muchan immediately understood.
“You gave him the Yin-Yang Eyes?”
The vast majority of people in this world couldn’t see those non-human things.
But in reality, there were far more non-human beings in the world than anyone could imagine. Many people who couldn’t see them assumed, in their own arrogance, that being able to see such things was some kind of special talent. Some even believed it was a gift from Heaven.
But in Xu Muchan’s eyes, this was absolutely not something that could be called fortunate.
After all, accepting that ghosts existed in this world—and that they were everywhere—was not an easy thing.
For someone like Jin Qi, who had committed countless evil deeds, it was an especially severe form of punishment.
Because if ghosts existed in this world, it meant that the people he had killed could also become ghosts, and sooner or later, they would come looking for him.
Xu Muchan thought of the Chinese teacher who had jumped from the building, whom Xu Fan had mentioned earlier, and said with a sigh, “Sometimes, having ghosts in this world isn’t entirely a bad thing.”
Wei Xilou took the empty milk glass from his hand and asked meaningfully, “Does A-Chan think that having ghosts in this world is a bad thing?”
Xu Muchan paused before calmly saying, “Those ghosts are really scary. Brother is a mountain god, so you’re definitely different from them.”
As though he hadn’t noticed the guilt in Xu Muchan’s eyes, Wei Xilou smiled and brought him another glass of milk.
“Silly A-Chan, gods and ghosts sometimes aren’t all that different.”
Xu Muchan didn’t say anything else. He lowered his eyes guiltily and drank his milk.
He actually agreed with what Brother had said.
After all, the Mountain God of Guiyi Mountain sitting beside him was supposedly a mountain god, but sometimes the aura he gave off was even more terrifying than the ghosts and evil spirits outside.
Just as Xu Muchan was guiltily drinking his milk nonstop, Wei Yao came over carrying two glasses of champagne.
When he saw Xu Muchan actually holding a glass of milk, he was immediately shocked.
“Xu Muchan, are you a little baby or something? Why are you still hiding here drinking milk?”
Xu Muchan hadn’t even spoken when Wei Xilou lifted his eyes and looked over.
His gaze was cold, as though a blade had scraped over Wei Yao from head to toe, inside and out.
Wei Yao immediately became obedient. He carried his wine over and sat down on the sofa opposite them, instinctively trying to defend himself.
“Old Ancestor, I’m only a few months away from being an adult. There’s nothing wrong with me having a little alcohol.”
Then he asked, “Xu Muchan, what year were you born?”
Xu Muchan slowly finished his milk and placed the glass on the table. He cast a pitying glance at Wei Yao, who continued to court death without realizing it.
Wei Yao was completely unaware that disaster was looming over him. He continued chattering away, spouting all kinds of nonsense about why the champagne glass had suddenly exploded and how terrible its quality was, saying he was going to file a complaint and so on.
It felt like if someone gave him a stage, he could immediately go up there and perform a stand-up comedy routine.
Wei Xilou frowned and interrupted him.
“Are you very free?”
Wei Yao was stunned.
“Yeah. The ceremony hasn’t started yet.”
Wei Xilou nodded. His gaze lingered on the wine glass in Wei Yao’s hand for a brief moment.
The next second, the champagne flute suddenly gave a crisp crack.
Before Wei Yao could react, the crystal-clear stemmed glass in his hand suddenly exploded.
Glass shards flew in every direction, and the alcohol splashed all over Wei Yao.
“Fuck! Fuck!”
Wei Yao jumped to his feet, shouting in panic.
Beside his face, a hand with exposed muscles suddenly reached out and caught a shard of glass that should have sliced across his cheek.
Goddess Jinhua stood behind Wei Yao, her black vertical pupils staring coldly at Wei Xilou.
The corner of Wei Xilou’s mouth twitched upward as he gave her a malicious smile.
Goddess Jinhua: “……”
It casually stuffed the glass shard into the huge mouth on its belly, then concealed its form.
Wei Yao’s astonishingly dull senses remained completely oblivious to the strange atmosphere. He continued grumbling about why the champagne glass had suddenly exploded and how terrible the quality was, saying he was going to complain to the manufacturer and so on.
Xu Muchan finally couldn’t stand it anymore and reminded him, “The ceremony is about to begin. Go change your clothes first.”
“Oh, right.”
Wei Yao finally reacted and hurriedly ran toward the back.
By the time Wei Yao had changed his clothes, the ceremony had just begun.
The guests stopped their conversations and gradually made their way to the central courtyard to observe the ceremony.
Xu Muchan also temporarily separated from Brother and went to sit with the Xu family.
The entire ceremony was extremely grand.
First, a group of Taoist priests wrote a sacrificial memorial and burned it to announce the ceremony to Heaven and Earth.
Then Old Master Wei, representing the Wei family, proceeded to lavishly praise Goddess Jinhua, even inventing numerous touching stories about how she had protected his grandson, effectively announcing the relationship to their relatives and friends.
Finally, one of the main figures of the ceremony, Wei Yao, made his appearance.
Following the elaborate rites expected of a filial son and grandson, he performed three bows and nine prostrations before respectfully addressing Goddess Jinhua:
“Godmother.”
The guests present had all seen their fair share of the world, but they had never heard of a family making such a grand spectacle of having their grandson acknowledge a deity statue as his godmother.
For a while, everyone began whispering among themselves, and quite a few people felt that the Wei family had gone completely overboard with their superstitions.
Only Xu Muchan saw that when Wei Yao solemnly called out, “Godmother,” Goddess Jinhua’s enormous form appeared.
Her rotting snake tail, with the bones exposed, coiled beneath her. Six arms, like spider legs, propped her body up from the ground. Her long neck bent downward, bringing her head to the same level as Wei Yao’s. Her vertical pupils, hidden behind her black hair, stared straight at him.
The eerie, ghostly deity overlapped with the compassionate-looking image of Goddess Jinhua, creating an indescribably strange sight.
Yet apart from Xu Muchan, no one present could see it.
After the ceremony acknowledging the family relationship came the usual banquet. Those who had business to attend to left first, while those who had nothing else to do stayed behind to eat, drink, socialize, and make connections.
Xu Muchan found it noisy. He would rather go home and study. Just as he was about to tell Xu Qingming that he wanted to leave first, someone blocked his path.
“President Xu, Mrs. Xu.”
The Jin couple approached with wine glasses in hand, blocking the way on either side.
The Xu family and the Jin family operated in different fields and had basically no business dealings with each other. They could hardly be considered familiar. Yet although the Jin couple appeared polite on the surface, there was an unmistakable aggressive undertone to their approach.
Xu Qingming was displeased, but he still put on a smile. “President Jin, long time no see.”
Jin Cheng had no intention of exchanging pleasantries. His gaze went directly to Xu Muchan.
“So this is the child who had a conflict with Jin Qi? I heard he was only recently brought back from Yundong, and that there’s something wrong with his eyes?”
Mrs. Jin glanced at Xu Wangchuan, who was standing to the side, and said with a smile, “You two are truly blessed. Both of your sons are capable. Unlike our family, we only have this one child, so naturally we spoiled him a little. He’s straightforward by nature, and when someone used underhanded tricks to harm him, he didn’t even know.”
“If the two of you have something to say, just say it. There’s no point beating around the bush like this.” Xu Zhifei had already harbored considerable resentment toward the Jin family because of what happened in the equipment room. She had never expected that instead of the victim coming to confront them, the Jin family would act as though they were the ones here to demand an explanation.
Mrs. Jin’s smile disappeared, and she was about to speak when Jin Cheng stopped her.
He was a smiling tiger. He always wore a faint smile when he spoke, but that smile was so formulaic that it only made people even more uncomfortable.
“There is indeed something. Something happened to our Jin Qi recently, and you should have heard about it. This child was locked in the equipment room for an entire night before. After he came home, he kept saying that he had seen a ghost. We’re not the sort of family that believes in feudal superstition, naturally, so we didn’t take him seriously. Then, just last night, Jin Qi was suddenly pushed from the second floor and broke his leg. The doctor said that if he had fallen from any higher, he might have broken his spine. He’s still lying in the hospital now.”
“His mother and I didn’t believe any of this at first. But the child inexplicably fell from the second floor and kept insisting that there was a ghost. Even though we didn’t believe him, we were frightened too, so we used our connections to find a master to take a look. That master said Jin Qi had been harmed by a little ghost. He also said that the person who tied the bell must be the one to untie it, and told us to think carefully about whether Jin Qi had offended anyone recently.”
“His mother and I thought about it, and Jin Qi rarely has grudges with anyone. The only thing was that he had a little conflict with your Xu Muchan recently.”
Xu Zhifei’s expression immediately darkened. “What exactly are you implying? Are you trying to turn around and accuse our Muchan of summoning a little ghost to harm your son?”
Perhaps she had never encountered anyone so shameless. Xu Zhifei was actually angered into laughing.
“Listen to yourselves. Doesn’t that sound completely absurd?”
Seeing that she refused to admit anything, Mrs. Jin dropped all pretense of politeness and sneered, “Who doesn’t know that your family loves dabbling in all these supernatural things? And your son was brought back from some remote mountain village in Yundong. Who knows what kind of harmful things he learned there? My son, Jin Qi, has gotten into trouble twice, and both times it happened after encountering Xu Muchan. Can you really say it has nothing to do with him?”
Xu Zhifei was a refined woman and nowhere near as sharp-tongued as Mrs. Jin. Her lips trembled with anger.
“Stop twisting right and wrong!”
By comparison, Xu Qingming seemed much calmer. He patted his wife reassuringly on the shoulder and asked the Jin couple, “Do you have any evidence?”
Jin Cheng said, “If we had evidence, we wouldn’t be standing here discussing this so amicably. We all see each other frequently. Let the kids’ little quarrel go. Jin Qi has already learned his lesson. It’s time to let things go. That way, everyone can still sit at the same table and have a drink in the future.”
As he spoke, his tone suddenly shifted, and he threw out another lure.
“We’re not an unreasonable family either. Jin Qi has a hot temper and was the one who started the trouble, so if he needs to apologize, he’ll apologize. I heard your company has recently run into some trouble with a patent licensing agreement. As it happens, I have some friendship with the president of that company. We’re all friends here. If there’s a problem, we can sit down and talk it over. Harmony brings wealth, doesn’t it?”
Jin Cheng truly was a veteran of the business world. He and his wife had played good cop and bad cop perfectly, and the bait he threw out happened to scratch exactly where Xu Qingming was itching.
The Xu Corporation had gotten its start manufacturing automotive parts. It had initially seized a share of the market through its cost advantage and eventually became a supplier to several major automobile manufacturers, growing into what it was today.
Recently, however, the Xu Corporation had encountered a conflict of interests with a company it had worked with for a long time. The two sides had been unable to reach an agreement, and the other company had now directly blocked the licensing of one of Xu Corporation’s core patents. Although it was not enough to cause serious damage, it was still a considerable headache.
If Jin Cheng could really step in and mediate…
Xu Qingming’s heart stirred. He glanced at his silent son beside him, and his tone changed as well.
“President Jin is right. However, I genuinely wasn’t aware of this matter. How about you give me some time? I’ll ask the child about it first. Whether he was involved or not, I’ll give you an explanation. How does that sound?”
That was what he said, but in his heart, he had already begun leaning toward believing that this matter was related to Xu Muchan.
After all, Xu Muchan had never been an ordinary child.
Xu Zhifei knew her husband extremely well. From the way he had spoken, she understood exactly what he intended to do. But with the Jin couple present, she could not openly contradict Xu Qingming, so she remained silent.
Xu Qingming spoke gently to Xu Muchan.
“Come with me.”
Xu Muchan stared straight at him and followed.
Xu Zhifei thought it over and still felt uneasy, so she followed them as well.
Xu Qingming found a quiet corner and got straight to the point.
“Does Jin Qi’s situation have anything to do with you?”
“He did too many bad things, so karma came looking for him,” Xu Muchan said.
“Then it does have something to do with you.”
Xu Qingming nodded and said, “This isn’t a big deal. I’ll take you over to apologize to the Jin couple, and you can call the little ghost back. Then this matter will be over. The problem Dad’s company is facing can be resolved at the same time. Everyone wins.”
Xu Muchan did not move.
“I didn’t do it. I won’t apologize.”
The smile disappeared from Xu Qingming’s face. He frowned at him.
“Muchan, there’s no point lying to your father. You’ve been different from other children since you were little. Having this kind of ability isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you don’t want to apologize, that’s fine too. As long as you don’t target Jin Qi again in the future. Even if Jin Cheng is dissatisfied, he’ll have too much to lose to dare say anything.”
“So you knew all along.”
Xu Muchan suddenly smiled.
“When I told you about it when I was little, I thought you didn’t believe me.”
He remembered when he had first begun seeing those things. Because he was still young and did not understand how dangerous they were, he had treated them as playmates and occasionally mentioned them to his parents.
His mother would always show a frightened expression, telling him that he must have seen something wrong and forbidding him from speaking to those playmates again.
But his father was different. He would always carefully ask Xu Muchan how he had made those friends, only to praise Xu Muchan afterward for having such a vivid imagination.
Xu Muchan had always thought that his father, just like his mother, had never believed the things he said when he was young.
But then he suddenly thought of the deity worshiped by the Xu family, and his gaze immediately became strange.
“You always knew. You knew when I was playing games with it too, didn’t you?”
Earlier, Xu Wangchuan had asked him whether he had ever made a wish to a god, and Xu Muchan had denied it.
But in truth, he had.
At that time, the family business had been struggling. His father was often away from home, and whenever he occasionally returned, he would sigh and wear a worried expression.
His mother still smiled, but Xu Muchan could sense that she was unhappy. Once, he had even caught her secretly crying in the kitchen.
Although young Xu Muchan did not understand much, he knew that his parents were facing difficulties and owed a lot of money.
So when he saw that strange playmate with a red veil covering its head again, he innocently made a wish to it.
“It would be great if Daddy could make lots of money.”
The other party asked him, “A wish comes with a price. What can you offer?”
Little Xu Muchan tilted his head and thought for a while.
“How about I play hide-and-seek with you?”