The family of three at the dining table continued eating without raising their heads, not sparing the other four people present even a glance.
Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang could barely stand to watch.
They covered their vaguely queasy stomachs and looked away. Then, through mouthed words and hand gestures, they signaled to Yan He and Xu Muchan to go take a look at the balcony.
The four of them pretended to be casual as they slowly made their way toward the balcony.
The He family lived on the first floor. If the balcony windows could be opened, perhaps they could observe the situation outside and look for an opportunity to escape.
The three members of the He family were each more bizarre than the last. Staying together with them was a tremendous test of their psychological endurance.
The group split up to search for clues.
Xu Muchan walked straight toward the left side of the balcony.
A washing machine was placed there. Above it was a clothesline with several pieces of clothing hanging from it.
The doors and windows were clearly closed, and there was no breeze inside, yet the clothes were gently swaying.
Xu Muchan approached the washing machine and looked outside through the dusty window glass.
The outside was dim and gloomy, shrouded in darkness. Nothing could be seen clearly.
He gripped the window handle and tried to open it, only to discover that it would not move at all, as though it had been welded shut.
“I can’t open the window on my side either.”
Wei Yao walked over and happened to see that Xu Muchan’s window could not be opened either.
At last, he gave up on the idea of escaping by jumping out the window.
Yan He said grimly, “Looks like we’ll have to spend the night here for now and look for a way out tomorrow when it’s light.”
Then he added,
“If it becomes light.”
Wen Dajiang desperately wiped his face.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep. If you guys can sleep, then go ahead. I’ll keep watch.”
He was genuinely afraid that he would wake up to find himself as one of the dishes on the He family’s dining table.
He had taken a few extra looks at the meat on the table earlier.
Although there were no obvious identifying features pointing to any particular body part, he could not shake the feeling that it was not animal meat.
As the group discussed what to do, He Jiaqi’s voice suddenly came from behind them.
“I’m going to bed. There are only two bedrooms in the house, so you can squeeze together in the living room.”
She walked without making a sound. No one knew when she had come over.
Wei Yao was nearly scared into jumping.
His face went pale as he turned around to face her, forcing a smile.
“Okay. Don’t worry about us. Go get some rest.”
He Jiaqi nodded and turned back toward her room.
At some point, He Jiaqi’s parents had also returned to their room.
Their bedroom door was tightly shut.
The entire living room was now occupied only by the four of them and the chaotic remains of the meal on the dining table.
Wei Yao looked toward the front door, still unwilling to give up.
“Are we really going to spend the night here? They’ve all gone to sleep. Why don’t we secretly open the door and take a look outside? If those ghost children are gone, we can leave.”
Wen Dajiang immediately agreed with the suggestion.
Xu Muchan, however, was lost in thought. His fingers kept rubbing against the wall, as though he were thinking about something.
Yan He figured there should not be much harm in taking a look.
“Then let’s go see.”
The three of them walked toward the door.
Wei Yao gripped the doorknob, took a deep breath, and whispered,
“I’m opening the door, okay?”
Wen Dajiang urged him, “Stop talking nonsense. If you’re going to open it, hurry up.”
Wei Yao remembered the countless ghost children he had seen earlier and still had some psychological trauma.
He released the doorknob and stepped back.
“Why don’t you guys do it instead?”
“Can you be any more cowardly?”
Wen Dajiang could not stand it anymore.
He shoved Wei Yao aside with his shoulder, grabbed the doorknob, and pushed it downward.
Click.
The door lock made a soft sound.
Wen Dajiang pressed against the door and carefully pushed it outward.
As he did, he gradually realized something was wrong.
“Holy shit, why is this door so heavy?”
The He family’s door opened outward.
After Wen Dajiang finally used every ounce of strength he had to push the door open a crack about the width of a palm, he suddenly froze.
His eyes went wide.
“I know why the door is so heavy.”
As soon as he said that, he desperately began pulling the door back shut.
But by then, the ghost children outside had already seized the opportunity to squeeze inside.
One bluish-white arm and head after another desperately forced its way through the gap.
The narrow crack from top to bottom was packed with the ghost children’s arms and heads.
Wei Yao and Yan He realized something was wrong and simultaneously grabbed the doorknob.
They pulled with all their strength—
The front door slammed shut.
The heads and arms jammed in the doorway were crushed and fell to the floor, rolling everywhere.
“I fucking knew it—they’re still moving!” Wen Dajiang was so startled that he jumped up and frantically stomped on them with his feet.
Yan He was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He pulled out several Filth-Transforming Talismans and threw them over. The heads and arms that were still twisting and bouncing on the ground turned into a pool of foul-smelling black water the moment they came into contact with the talisman paper.
Wei Yao nearly vomited. “What the hell is this thing? Ugh…”
Yan He squatted down, found a chopstick, and stirred the mess on the ground. His brows furrowed tightly.
“Why does this look like a Hungry Ghost?”
“A Hungry Ghost? Aren’t Hungry Ghosts supposed to have huge bellies? This doesn’t look like one at all.” Wei Yao backed away several steps, speaking from a considerable distance.
Yan He said, “According to folk legends, a Hungry Ghost is a ghost formed after a person starves to death. Its belly is as large as a basin, while its throat is as thin as a needle’s eye. Because it cannot eat food for years, whenever it sees food, it will pounce on it and eat.”
“In Buddhism, there is also the ‘Realm of Hungry Ghosts,’ referring to beings who fall into the hungry ghost realm because of greed and jealousy, where they constantly suffer from hunger.”
“But actually, these two explanations should be viewed together. A Hungry Ghost doesn’t actually refer to an individual entity. It’s a plural term. Hungry Ghosts usually appear in groups, and they don’t have a fixed appearance. No one knows what they originally looked like.”
“From what I’ve heard, they can take all kinds of forms and appearances. It all depends on what they have eaten. They turn the food they consume into a part of themselves, and then go looking for their next meal.”
Wen Dajiang timidly raised his hand. “Then those Hungry Ghosts outside, covering everything as far as the eye can see… How many people did they have to eat to become this numerous…?”
Yan He spread his hands. “I don’t know. If you’re curious, you can go outside and count them.”
Wen Dajiang gave a dry laugh, politely declining his suggestion.
Yan He said, “Everyone, stay alert tonight. This ghost domain is highly unusual. At the very least, I’ve never heard anyone say that Jiangcheng has this many Hungry Ghosts. Hungry Ghosts of this scale should have been reported to the Religious Association long ago, and they would have sent people to clean them out.”
And in the He family home, there was even another, even more terrifying existence capable of keeping the Hungry Ghosts outside from entering.
Yan He glanced at the precious compass that was still spinning wildly and said in a weathered tone, “Given the situation now, everyone can only pray for their own good fortune.”
If he had known it would be this dangerous, he would have called his senior brother over as well.
He had really been too careless this time.
Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao: “…”
Even Yan He could no longer be relied upon.
The two of them, feeling miserable and terrified, clung to each other and timidly shuffled over to sit on the sofa.
When Wen Dajiang turned his head, he saw that Xu Muchan was still standing on the balcony, one hand pressed against the wall, seemingly lost in thought.
He pushed Wei Yao away in disgust and leaned his head toward Xu Muchan.
“Xu Muchan, what are you doing?”
Xu Muchan came back to his senses. He rubbed his fingers together and said, “Something feels strange.”
“What’s strange?” Wei Yao also came over.
Xu Muchan shook his head and said, “Are you guys going to sleep? If not, let’s split up and search the living room and kitchen. There might be some clues.”
“The He family can’t possibly have just been sitting at home, being purely unlucky, and then suddenly encountered ghosts. Everything has a cause. If we find the cause, perhaps we can figure out what exactly is causing all this trouble.”
Yan He felt that what he said made a lot of sense.
“Then let’s split up and search.”
Xu Muchan nodded and began searching the television cabinet and coffee table nearby.
The Xu family had a lot of miscellaneous belongings, and they apparently weren’t very good at organizing things. The not-so-large space was crammed full of clutter.
After searching for a while, he found an electronic clock in a drawer of the coffee table, as well as a biscuit tin. Inside the tin were medical records.
The electronic clock looked as though it was broken. The numbers on it weren’t changing.
Xu Muchan narrowed his eyes and looked at it. He could vaguely make out that it displayed 6:45. As for the smaller date display, he couldn’t see it clearly, so he put it aside and began looking through the medical records first.
There were two or three medical records in the biscuit tin, mixed together with some examination forms, CT images, and so on.
Xu Muchan flipped through them one by one.
When he reached the very bottom, he suddenly paused and pulled out a thin sheet of paper.
He couldn’t make out the smaller words on the paper, but he clearly recognized the words at the beginning:
“Medical Certificate of Death of Resident.”
“Come over and take a look. Whose death certificate is this?” Xu Muchan called softly to the others.
Yan He came over carrying a straw doll. He took the paper, looked at it, and said, “Judging by the sex and age, it should be He JiaqI’s younger brother. The cause of death is written very vaguely—sudden respiratory and cardiac arrest.”
“What about the date of death?”
“April 24th.”
Xu Muchan froze.
“Isn’t that the day I sent He JiaqI home?”
As the two were talking, Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, who were searching the shoe cabinet in the entrance hall, suddenly waved frantically at them.
“Fuck! You guys, come and look at this!”
The two had no choice but to temporarily stop what they were doing and go over.
They saw that the opened shoe cabinet contained no shoes at all.
Even the dividing shelves had been removed.
Inside were stacks upon stacks of yellow paper, hell banknotes, incense, candles, and other offerings.
“There’s stuff up there too. It’s all paper offerings.”
Wen Dajiang opened the upper cabinet as well.
Inside were paper houses, carriages and horses, as well as paper figures.
The craftsmanship was actually quite exquisite and beautiful.
But when associated with the strange circumstances surrounding the He family, it was enough to make goosebumps rise all over their bodies.
Xu Muchan reached out and took down a paper house, examining it with a frown.
Wei Yao said, “Why are you taking that thing? It’s for the dead. How unlucky!”
Xu Muchan said nothing.
He took out his phone and used its voice time announcement.
It was currently 9:56 p.m.
He then turned his head and looked around, as though searching for something.
“What are you looking for? Your eyesight isn’t good either. Tell us, and we’ll help you look.”
Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao followed behind him, turning around wherever he went.
Xu Muchan thought for a moment and said, “Look for some kind of timekeeping device here. An alarm clock, electronic calendar, or something similar—something that can show the date and time.”
Yan He said, “Isn’t there already one on the coffee table? The one you just found.”
“That one’s bro—”
Before he could finish, Xu Muchan suddenly thought of something.
He hurried over, picked up the electronic clock, and shoved it into Yan He’s hands.
“What date does it show?”
Yan He looked at it, and his expression changed as well.
“April 24th, 6:45 p.m.”
Xu Muchan quickly said, “If I remember correctly, that Friday there were no evening self-study classes, so school ended at 5:30. After that, I had the driver take He JiaqI home first.”
“It took about forty minutes to drive from the school to the intersection near her home. But there was a traffic jam, so she got out of the car early at the intersection and walked the rest of the way.”
“Counting the time she spent walking, He JiaqI should have arrived home at around 6:30.”
Yan He followed his train of thought.
“In other words, not long after He JiaqI arrived home, she probably discovered that her younger brother had died. After that, something happened for some unknown reason…”
“No. I think I roughly know what happened!”
As he said this, Yan He looked at the straw doll in his hand.
The crude straw doll still had a length of red thread tied around it.
The red thread was tied very tightly, while the other end extended for more than a meter and had been randomly wound around the straw doll.
He then said to Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, “Go search the kitchen and refrigerator. See if there’s a rooster, dog blood, or something like that.”
The two of them couldn’t follow his train of thought at all and were completely confused.
They could only obediently follow his instructions and head into the kitchen.
One searched the refrigerator while the other searched the trash can.
The moment Wen Dajiang opened the refrigerator, he cursed and suddenly stumbled backward, crashing into the edge of the kitchen counter.
“Ol-old-old Wei, there’s a corpse in the refrigerator…”
“What’s there to be afraid of with a corpse? We’ve already seen ghosts. Can you stop being such a coward?”
As Wei Yao spoke, he lifted the lid of the trash can, pinched his nose, bent down, and used the chopsticks he had picked up to rummage through it.
The chopsticks pushed aside the tissues piled on top, revealing a human face underneath with horribly twisted features.
“…Fuck!”
Wei Yao dropped onto his butt and desperately covered his mouth so he wouldn’t scream.
With his other hand, he frantically grabbed Wen Dajiang’s pants.
Wen Dajiang turned around and saw Wei Yao pointing at the trash can with a look of utter terror.
He leaned over and took a look.
He couldn’t hold it in and let out a retch.
Then, out of frustration, he kicked Wei Yao and used the counter to support himself as he walked out.
He frantically waved toward the two people in the living room.
Xu Muchan and Yan He approached.
They heard him say, “I think we found He JiaqI’s grandmother. Her body is in the refrigerator, and her head is in the trash can.”
Yan He squeezed into the cramped kitchen.
He first looked at the meat in the refrigerator.
All four limbs were still there, and it was fairly easy to identify the species.
The skin was loose and had a blackish-yellow tint.
She was probably quite old, which matched He JiaqI’s grandmother.
He then went to look at the trash can.
He found a plastic bag, put it over his hand, and directly reached in to take out the head.
With the head, it was even easier to identify her.
She looked exactly like the elderly woman in the family portrait in the living room.
The only difference was that her expression was terrified and hideously twisted.
Yan He placed the head in the sink.
Then he rummaged through the very bottom of the trash can and pulled out the corpse of a rooster.
“There really is one,” Yan He muttered to himself.
Wei Yao hid far away and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Daoist Master Yan really is a professional.”
He had only put a plastic bag over his hand and had dared to pick up a human head with his bare hand.
Yan He said, “I can roughly deduce what happened to the He family.”
Wen Dajiang couldn’t help suggesting, “Daoist Master Yan, why don’t we go outside and talk instead?”
Just thinking about the fact that the kitchen contained the limbs and head of an elderly woman—and that the remains of the old woman’s corpse might very well be piled on the dining table right now—made him shudder.
The four of them moved to the balcony and continued talking.
“In ancient times, there was a widely circulated method of borrowing lifespan. A red cord would be used to tie the person borrowing the lifespan to the person whose lifespan was being borrowed, symbolizing that their lives and deaths were connected.”
“Afterward, scissors and a steelyard weight would be placed there, and the gods would be invited to serve as witnesses while the two sides borrowed lifespan from each other.”
“The steelyard weight represented fairness, while the red cord represented the length of the lifespan being borrowed. How much was cut off represented how much lifespan was divided out.”
“The yellow paper, hell banknotes, paper houses, paper carriages and horses, and so on in the shoe cabinet should all have been used to bribe the gods.”
“Ordinary people’s lifespans are recorded in the Book of Life and Death, and the Book of Life and Death is controlled by the Judge of the Underworld. So they most likely invited some Judge of the Underworld to serve as their witness.”
“But in ancient times, borrowing lifespan was usually done when an elder was approaching the end of their life. A filial younger generation would voluntarily divide some of their own lifespan to extend the elder’s life.”
“But the He family’s situation is completely different.”
“First of all, He JiaqI’s younger brother was already dead. A dead person cannot have their lifespan extended.”
“That’s why they made this straw doll as a substitute.”
“They most likely even sealed He JiaqI’s younger brother’s soul inside the straw doll.”
“To prevent the soulless body from being possessed by nearby ghosts, they also prepared evil-repelling black dog blood and rooster blood. This was to guard against any ghosts being attracted over during the ritual and taking the opportunity to possess someone.”
Yan He pointed at an inconspicuous bloodstain near the straw doll’s feet and said, “But their lifespan-borrowing ritual definitely failed. Not only did it fail, it also attracted Hungry Ghosts, which ate He JiaqI’s younger brother…”
“As for why He JiaqI and her parents became like this…”
Yan He stopped when he reached this point. “I can’t figure it out for the moment. Normally speaking, if the Judge they invited was really a Judge, then even if something went wrong, it shouldn’t have caused any major problems. Could it be that they invited the wrong one and summoned something else?”
He turned to look at Xu Muchan, who had been deep in thought all this time. “What did you think of just now?”
Xu Muchan thought for a moment and said, “Earlier, when I was on the balcony, I noticed that the scenery outside was somewhat strange. It was as if everything outside was a vast chaotic mass, while Building Nine stood independently within this chaos. Also, the windows and walls gave me an indescribable strange feeling. It wasn’t until just now, when I saw the paper-made house, that I got some idea.”
He slowly said, “I think… we may have entered a paper-made house.”
That was why the entire residential complex had only one Building Nine, and the entire Building Nine had only one household, 101.
Wei Yao rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and said, “No way, right? How could living people enter a paper-made house? It’s only that tiny…”
“It’s not impossible.”
Yan He suddenly interrupted, “I was wondering before why the ghost domain here was so large, even affecting the entire residential complex, yet before we entered the ghost domain, we didn’t notice anything unusual at all, and my compass didn’t give any warning. It’s very possible that there was nothing wrong with the compass, but that our senses were deceived. The actual range of the ghost domain’s influence wasn’t this large at all. It should have been when He JiaqI’s mother opened the door that we were already silently dragged inside.”
Wen Dajiang didn’t understand. “Then if we’re inside a paper-made house, would setting it on fire work?”
Yan He said, “If you’re confident you can escape before this place is burned through, you can try.”
Wen Dajiang immediately wilted.
“I think if the owner of the ghost domain is one of the three members of the He family, then He JiaqI is the most likely.”
Apart from the evidence they already knew about, there was also the voice they had heard earlier at the Black River that could prove it. But he couldn’t explain the matter of the Black River, so Xu Muchan glossed over it and asked Yan He, “Daoist Master Yan, can you tell whether the current He JiaqI is something disguised as her, or whether she has been possessed?”
Yan He frowned. “I’m more inclined to believe she’s been possessed.”
Xu Muchan said, “If she’s possessed, then we can find a way to lure out the thing attached to her.”
“How do we lure it out?”
Not to mention Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, even Yan He was somewhat at a loss.
“Don’t we already have ready-made incense, candles, and hell banknotes? The He family used these things to bribe the gods. No matter what they ultimately summoned, it proves that this method really does work. If we simply follow their example, we should also be able to invite it out.”
After hearing him say this, Yan He actually felt that it was truly feasible, and this was also within his professional field.
So he said, “I’ll give it a try.”
As he spoke, he instructed Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao to take out all the incense, candles, hell banknotes, and other things from the cabinet. He himself moved the things on the coffee table aside and used it as a temporary altar table.
The uncooked rice they had temporarily found in the kitchen was for offering to wandering and lonely ghosts, while the offerings on the altar table were for that thing, which they didn’t know whether it was human or ghost, to enjoy.
The surroundings were crude, and there was no way to be particular about too many things. After arranging the offerings one by one, Yan He prepared to perform the food offering.
Before beginning, he thought about it and gave Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao a Qi-Concealing Talisman each.
“I’m only giving it a try. It may not necessarily work. But take these Qi-Concealing Talismans just in case. If I really manage to invite it out, I’ll give you a hand signal later. Then find an opportunity to enter the room and stick this talisman onto He JiaqI. That way, the other party won’t be able to find He JiaqI, and it won’t be able to go back either.”
Wei Yao took the talisman and, together with Wen Dajiang, timidly stood near He JiaqI’s bedroom door.
Wen Dajiang squeezed closer to Wei Yao’s side, glanced toward He JiaqI’s room, and whispered, “Do you think they’re really sleeping in the room? Sleeping that deeply? We made quite a bit of noise just now, right? How come they haven’t reacted at all?”
Although they had tried to keep their voices low and moved carefully, there were ambushes everywhere, and something would suddenly scare you badly without warning. Anyone who was still breathing would have a hard time enduring it.
Wei Yao became even more panicked after hearing him. His eyes unconsciously drifted toward the two bedroom doors.
“Stop talking. The more you talk, the more I… I’m… scared…”
As he spoke, his voice changed pitch and faintly trembled. Wen Dajiang’s heart suddenly clenched. He slowly turned his head and followed Wei Yao’s gaze—
The master bedroom door in front of them had somehow opened a tiny crack.
The crack was pitch-black. Only two pairs of eyes, one above and one below, were glimmering inside, as if two people, one tall and one short, were pressed against the crack of the door and looking outside.
It was He’s father and He’s mother.
Wen Dajiang felt like he wanted to die.
“W-what-what-what do we do…”
Wei Yao didn’t dare move recklessly. He turned his head toward Yan He, only to see that Yan He had already lit the incense and begun chanting, clearly already starting the ritual.
Xu Muchan stood beside him, his gaze focused intently on the altar table, not even looking in their direction.
Wei Yao gritted his teeth and held himself together without shouting or running. Stammering, he no longer even knew what he was saying.
“The enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move.”
Wen Dajiang clutched his arm tightly and, sure enough, didn’t move.
Meanwhile, after Yan He finished a simple ritual ceremony, he solemnly stuck the incense into the bowl filled with uncooked rice.
Thin wisps of smoke curled upward. At first, the smoke rose straight up. After a while, it tilted slightly, as if a breeze had blown over.
At the same time, everyone present felt an invisible pressure.
A faint shadow appeared out of thin air in the living room. One could vaguely make out the shape of a tall human figure. It wore a large red robe and a soft-winged black gauze hat. Its body was exceptionally tall and imposing, and the hat on its head almost touched the ceiling.
The moment it appeared, the already-small living room suddenly became crowded.
Yan He looked at the familiar outfit and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was even somewhat happy. He quietly said to Xu Muchan, “There’s hope this time. What came is actually a Judge. My sect has quite a good relationship with Cui Fujun. Cui Fujun is fairly easy to get along with. Although the one who came may not be Cui Fujun, Judges should communicate with one another. I can try to communicate with him and ask what happened.”
Xu Muchan raised his head and looked at the unusually tall figure. At this moment, the faint shadow had gradually solidified, and its face had also become visible.
Looking at the six pairs of symmetrically arranged eyes on its face, each one filled with an evil and sinister air, Xu Muchan felt that Yan He might have been happy a little too early.
“Why do I feel like it doesn’t look very patient about communicating with us?”