CH 32

Things that come from the underworld must never be allowed to remain.

They carry a strong yin energy. If the ghost who placed the light bulb was malicious, it may attract many ghosts.

To be honest, Lu Yingjiu rarely saw things from the underworld.

The last time he saw one was that little flower from the underworld.

He gently threw out a piece of talisman paper. The talisman wrapped around the light bulb flexibly, and with a sudden force——

Ka-cha!

The lightbulb exploded, scattering debris all over the floor, resulting in the corridor being plunged into darkness except for the faint green light of the fire exit sign in the distance.

The yin on the bulb also disappeared.

Lu Yingjiu checked again and again that there was no yin energy remaining, and then pasted two pieces of talisman paper on the door of the house, and then entered.

The cow cat came up to him and rubbed against his leg. Lu Yingjiu fed it cat food and scratched its chin.

Before going to bed, he warmed up a glass of milk and drank it slowly while reading.

The trees outside the window were rattling because of the wind, and there was no other sound in the house except his flipping through the pages. It’s not like when Jing Xian was still around, when there were still some movements around.

Jing Xian might be stroking the cat.

Jing Xian might be watering the flowers.

Jing Xian might be drawing ghost-exorcism talisman paper – the talismans he drew were still horrible, so horrible that Lu Yingjiu couldn’t bear to take a second look.

Obviously Lu Yingjiu had lived alone for a long time, and Jing Xian had only been here for a few days, but the sudden silence somehow made him a little uncomfortable.

When the book was almost finished, it was already getting late.

Lu Ying turned off the lights and laid down on the bed, closing his eyes.

Somehow, half asleep and half awake, he thought of that underworld light bulb again.

…he had a very bad feeling.

The next day, Lu Yingjiu was woken up by the noise of a phone.

The drowsiness was still very heavy, yet his phone was buzzing like hell. He fumbled around the bed with his hands, and answered the phone with his eyes closed, “Hello?”

Ye Feng’s voice came, “Do you have time today?”

“You have a commission again?” Lu Yingjiu yawned, “Or did you mean yesterday’s matter was not resolved?”

“Well, I still have to go there, just want to ask if you are free.”

Usually, Ye Feng was not so diligent in contacting him. Ye Feng was also an official ghost exorcist, so he shouldn’t be unable to handle a commission.

Lu Yingjiu could imagine what happened from Ye Feng’s perspective: the only intern in his firm ran away because the salary was too low, and Lu Yingjiu, the bare rod, was left. (TL: metaphor for a leader without helpers.)

Now Ye Feng suddenly wanted to pull him, probably because Jing Xian had just left, and was afraid that he would feel deserted all of a sudden.

Lu Yingjiu got up, went downstairs, and bought bread at the convenience store for breakfast before getting into the car.

Arriving downstairs of the residence, he met Ye Feng.

As Ye Feng went upstairs, he said, “The old grandma contacted me again, saying that in the middle of the night last night, someone seemed to be crying in the corridor and suspected that we didn’t get rid of the ghosts. To be honest, if I was alone yesterday, I would really think so too. But you are also there, that ghost must have really died.”

“The hanged ghost had definitely disappeared. Maybe there are new ghosts attracted by the yin energy.” Lu Yingjiu said, “This kind of thing is not uncommon. Yesterday, my doorstep was even haunted.”

“Your doorstep?” Ye Feng was stunned for a moment, “Didn’t that ghost disappear in minutes?”

“I didn’t see a ghost, but it left a lightbulb from the underworld.”

“What kind of ghost would leave a light bulb?” Ye Feng was amused, “It’s impossible for an electrician to turn into a ghost. This is too dedicated, and even just happened to replace the broken light bulb.”

When they arrived at the old grandma’s house, they listened to her additional details and described the grand occasion of last night.

“You didn’t hear the crying, it’s horrifying that makes one panic——” the old woman kept shaking her head as she shook her fan, “Like a child, it goes wa wa wa wa.”

Lu Yingjiu asked, “Did the crying you heard come from upstairs or downstairs?”

The old grandma thought for a long time, and the wrinkles on her face were furrowed together. “I didn’t hear it clearly, It feels like the entire corridor is covered with that sound. If you insist, then it might be from above.”

So Lu Yingjiu and Ye Feng started from this floor and slowly went up.

It was morning, and the bright sunlight was cut into six pieces by the iron fence and fell on the soles of their feet. There were festive couplets pasted on the door, one side was ” Bloom Prosperity and Honor” and the other side was “Five Blessings Descend Upon This Home”. The leaves outside were rustling, which quite gave the hint of tranquility of time.

They walked in tandem.

On the 7th floor, the white walls in the stairwell were covered in graffiti.

The ballpoint pen drew a villian, houses, chimneys, and ships on it…it looked like it was done by children.

Ye Feng muttered, “Which family’s brat is this, so lacking in quality.”

Lu Yingjiu remained silent, looking at the graffiti.

After a few seconds, he said, “Stand farther away, don’t these lines look like a human face?”

Ye Feng took a few steps back, tried to ignore those obvious designs, and looked at them with a blank gaze——

Sure enough, it could be barely seen that it was a crying face.

Feeling the hair on his back stood on end, he took out the talisman paper he had prepared and pasted it on the four corners of the white wall.

Then the talismans burned.

All they heard was an extremely sharp cry, echoing in the corridor!

Sure enough, it was as what the old grandma said, a cry of a child.

Ba-da, ba-da, ba-da!

Ba-da, ba-da, ba-da!

What sound was coming from downstairs? It sounded like a child crawling on the ground with hands and feet.

Ye Feng was about to invite a spirit and charge down, when he saw Lu Yingjiu beside him supporting the railing with one hand, flipping down with his body lightly, and fell all the way down.

The stairs sweep past under his feet, and he quickly saw spots of blood on the stairs, which looked like handprints of a baby crawling.

He arrived at the floor from where they started..

The door of the grandma’s house was wide open, and a baby with bloody hands was crawling towards her house!

The baby’s face was blue, and it looked like a dead person. Sharp teeth could be seen in the mouth. If it used its teeth to even bite lightly, the artery might be bitten through.

The old grandma heard the sound and came to the door.

Then he saw the dead baby jumping towards the old lady——

The talisman paper in Lu Yingjiu’s hand was about to fly out, but the old grandma hugged it tightly, firmly embracing it in her arms, and coaxed, “Okay, okay, don’t cry baby, grandma is here!” 

After speaking, she twisted around, paused with the dead baby, and looked at Lu Yingjiu vigilantly, “Didn’t I invite you to exorcise ghosts? Why did you make my good grandson cry? You, get a move on! If you don’t leave, I will sue you!”

Ye Feng also rushed down, seeing this scene, he was stunned for a moment.

Then he understood everything, and couldn’t help feeling sad in his heart.

This grandma, who didn’t accept that her grandson was dead, was still lying to herself.

As the old lady saw them standing still, she yelled sternly, “Not leaving?! I’ll call the police! I’m going to call the police!” After speaking, she went to take out her small mobile phone.

Yet she did not succeed and screamed instead.

A small paper man the size of a thumb got into her pocket at some point, and ran away lightly with her mobile phone in her hand, and returned to Lu Yingjiu’s feet, bouncing around.

Lu Yingjiu took the phone and walked towards the old woman slowly. The other party was so frightened that she hugged the child tightly and shrank in the corner.

Lu Yingjiu’s tone was unhurried, “Look at its face carefully.”

It’s all livor mortis.

The old woman pursed her lips tightly and refused to move.

The dead baby that was in her arms, grinned at Lu Yingjiu, the sharp nails scratched the old grandma’s arm, and blood flowed down – but she didn’t seem to feel the pain at all.

Lu Yingjiu sighed silently.

A talisman flew out of his hand, and with the scream of the old woman, it accurately stuck to the dead baby’s forehead.

In an instant, the baby’s body disintegrated and turned into flying ashes, floating in the air. The old grandma wanted to reach out to grab it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t catch even a speck of dust.

She stood there blankly, and after a long time, she sat down as if she had lost all strength.

—She remembered it all.

Lu Yingjiu helped her up, and Ye Feng pulled a chair over in time for her to sit on.

Under Ye Feng’s comfort, the old grandma slowly stabilized her emotions, she seemed to aged ten years older, and kept wiping her tears.

Lu Yingjiu said, “Accepting death is indeed difficult, I have experienced this feeling too. I am sorry for your loss.”

He took out a safety talisman paper from the bunch he carried with him, put it inside a brocade bag, and hung it at the door of the grandma’s house.

The brocade bag was fragrant, and it swayed gently in the wind.

Ye Feng came over and whispered to Lu Yingjiu, “I told the people from the association.”

There were positions similar to psychological counselors in the Green Lantern Association, who were responsible for calming the emotions of the parties involved.

Lu Yingjiu nodded.

When others arrived, it would not be anymore their business.

Before the two left, they heard mournful cries.

Although they have been exorcising ghosts for many years, and have seen many tragedies, to the point where their emotions have become numb, however, their hearts were still touched every time this happened.

Ye Feng rubbed his face vigorously in the driver’s seat, and said, “Ah, I don’t want to do this anymore, let’s go eat.”

“En.” Lu Yingjiu nodded.

The sun was shining brightly all the way, and after being warmed by the sun, the atmosphere finally improved a lot.

Ye Feng drove slowly, and Lu Yingjiu also leaned on the seat to catch up on sleep.

Ye Feng said while driving, “By the way, I may go to Yueshan Village once in a few days.”

“What are you going to do there?”

“Didn’t my second grandpa manage a nursing home there before? Yesterday the village chief called me and said that my second grandpa left some belongings in the warehouse. They found them and told me to go back and get them.”

“Your second grandpa…” Lu Yingjiu frowned.

He didn’t have any impression.

The light turned red and the car simply stopped.

“His name is Ye Deyong. I showed you a photo! I’ll look for it.” Ye Feng fumbled around in every pocket, finally found his wallet, opened it, “I always carry the photo with me….”

He paused.

Seeing that he hadn’t spoken for a long time, Lu Yingjiu glanced at him.

In the old photo, Ye Feng was still a kid, and a man with half-white hair and a white coat was holding his hand. The background was the endless mountains and a white exterior wall of the nursing home.

After seeing it, he had an impression: Ye Feng did show him this group photo.

It’s just that Ye Feng’s pupils were shrinking now, as if he saw something incredible in the photo.

He said, “Lu Yingjiu, look here.” He pointed at Ye Deyong’s neck, “Why do I feel like something is strangling him?”

Lu Yingjiu took a closer look.

Sure enough, on Ye Deyong’s neck, he saw a very light and faint black streak. The black color was too inconspicuous, if Ye Feng had not been too familiar with this photo, it would be impossible to notice it.

The black almost wrapped around Ye Deyong’s neck, like a terrifying rope.

In Lu Yingjiu’s impression, in the group photo, the two looked very relaxed. But now, Ye Deyong’s facial muscles were tense and his face was blue, as if he was enduring some kind of pain.

The light turned green, and traffic behind them started honking.

The car was parked on the side of the road.

Ye Feng was still staring at the photo.

He murmured, “Looks like it is needed to go there now…”

****

Lu Yingjiu returned home.

He was going to go to Yueshan Village with Ye Feng tomorrow afternoon, he would need start packing his luggage tonight.

Ding—

The elevator arrived.

He walked towards the door of the house and stood still.

It was very bright in front of his house, and a brand new light bulb was astonishingly bright.

After careful inspection, the talisman paper pasted on the door was still intact.

At this moment, Lu Yingjiu actually doubted his ability to exorcise ghosts.

——How did I meet such a powerful ghost again?

And this ghost’s style…

Lu Yingjiu frowned, and threw out another talisman paper, crushing the light bulb.

The corridor returned to its darkness.

This time, he densely covered the walls with talisman papers, creating a net that was enough for ghosts to have nowhere to hide.

Early the next morning, the first thing he did after waking up was to open the door——

The light bulb was replaced again, but the talisman paper on the wall was not damaged.

Lu Yingjiu: “…?”

He stood under this light bulb, really confused.

A talisman paper was thrown out, and the fragments of the light bulb scattered all over the place again.

He kicked the pieces to the side of the corridor and pressed the elevator. His courier had arrived downstairs, and it was full of newly bought paper, which could be used to draw symbols after cutting.

When he went downstairs to take out the courier, he felt faint fluctuations of a talisman paper on the courier box.

Turning the package over, sure enough there was a small talisman at the bottom: Flowing clouds and Mountains,  it’s a safety symbol.

This talisman was printed and was of little use. But the seller should know a little about exorcising ghosts, which had been printed on every package.

Lu Yingjiu stared at the safety talisman for a few seconds.

He then remembered the safety talisman he gave the old grandma yesterday.

He said at the time: “It is really difficult to accept death, and I have experienced this feeling too.”

This statement was not purely to comfort.

Looking at the white-haired elder in front of him, he really remembered the past.

When Zhuang Xue passed away, he couldn’t believe it either.

The person who was still arranging flowers in the morning, yet at night, a cold body was the only thing that’s left.

Lu Yingjiu has experienced a considerable period of downturn, and always feels that if he learned the technique of exorcising ghosts well, he could get Zhuang Xue’s soul back. And the harder he tried, the more he knew that it was impossible, and all the hard work only brought him was despair.

At that time, Lu Yingjiu had already known Ye Feng.

Ye Feng was one year older than him. He didn’t go to high school, and followed the Ye family to learn exorcism. He usually idled around the block and slept until noon.

During that time, Ye Feng was really afraid that Lu Yingjiu would take things too hard, thus he set an alarm clock every day, and went downstairs to his house early in the morning to tell him to go to school. After school, he would come here specifically to look for him, to hang out, to eat, to chat, in short, not to let Lu Yingjiu be alone, and to find something for him to do.

After a long time, Lu Yingjiu calmly accepted the fact:

The dead cannot be resurrected, everything is predestined.

He has no other relatives left in this world.

Zhuang Xue died in a car accident. On the handlebar of her bicycle, there was a safety talisman paper painted by Lu Yingjiu.

Lu Yingjiu was a very rational person and would not attribute Zhuang Xue’s death to “my talisman paper drawing is not good enough”. The world was impermanent, even if a piece of safety talisman was drawn by the Heavenly King Lao Tzu, it still couldn’t stop death. (TL: A metaphor for a person who is the most noble and authoritative)

But after that, he put in countless days and nights, afterwards, the safety talisman he drew was the best on the Dao.

Thinking back on this now, it seems like a lifetime away.

Lu Yingjiu smiled silently, took the package and went upstairs again, waiting for Ye Feng to come to pick him up.

At the door of the house, he stood still once more.

In front of him was another good light bulb.

Lu Yingjiu thought that there had been many weird things since childhood.

But he had really never experienced this before. There is a light bulb from the underworld at his doorstep, and every time it breaks, it will be repaired immediately!

Lu Yingjiu was extremely confused.

But in this bewilderment, his intuition was clamoring. It’s as if when an anime character pondered about something clearly, there would be a white line flashing behind his head——

Now, there is such a white line behind his head!

This, this is definitely Jing Xian’s doing!

It’s impossible for other ghosts to do it!

People cannot be resurrected after death, time cannot be turned back, and water that is spilled cannot come back.

But Jing Xian, who was driven away, can fly back by himself like a boomerang, which is fast and convenient, and has a strong initiative.

Maybe he even brought him some snacks on the way back.

Lu Yingjiu rubbed his brow bone vigorously, his head hurt like hell.

He realized that he would not be able to catch Jing Xian with a paper talisman.

He was still guessing which famous priest Jing Xian was before, but now it seemed that with Jing Xian’s strength, all famous priests must listen to him.

What is this, the priest’s boss?

Lu Yingjiu gave up pasting talismans, broke the light bulb and opened the door directly, moved a chair and sat under the rotten light bulb.

The talisman paper can’t catch Jing Xian.

But the light bulb can catch him!

A smashed light bulb is the most effective idle trap in existence.

Lu Yingjiu sat in the corridor.

Sure enough, less than ten minutes later, there was a gust of wind in the corridor, which was so cold that it was bone-chilling.

The wind blew all the way under the light bulb, blowing Lu Yingjiu’s hair.

Lu Yingjiu yelled, “Jing Xian.”

The wind stopped for a moment.

At this moment, Lu Yingjiu threw out a talisman——

Facts had proved that his timing was very good. When the opponent was caught off guard, the talisman took effect!

Then, he simply saw Jing Xian standing under that light bulb, holding a new light bulb in one hand and changing it.

The two looked at each other.

There was a dead silence all around.

After an unknown amount of time, Lu Yingjiu leaned back on the chair comfortably and crossed his fingers, “Come, explain it to me.”

Jing Xian: “…..”

Jing Xian said, “I want to change a light bulb for you. Every time I change it, when I leave, someone breaks it again. At present, the quality of people in the human world really is too bad.”

Lu Yingjiu: “…….” He felt like he was being scolded.

Lu Yingjiu took a deep breath, “Why are you back again? Didn’t I tell you all about it? Priests shouldn’t come to the human world, go back quickly.”

“That won’t work.” Jing Xian looked at the light bulb, “If this light bulb isn’t replaced properly, it’ll be too dark and dangerous.”

Lu Yingjiu only felt his eyebrows twitch, “Why are you helping me change the light bulb? Or, let me change the question, why do you stay by my side? Didn’t you tell me that you do not have any lingering obsession?”

He really felt that there might be something wrong with Jing Xian’s brain circuit. What’s so good about him, worthy of Jing Xian, that he would insist on staying in the human world?

Isn’t this simply a treatment only available for wives? How virtuous and capable he is! (TL: being sarcastic)

Jing Xian looked at him.

It was unknown if it was only Lu Yingjiu’s illusion, but he felt that Jing Xian’s ears were a little red.

Lu Yingjiu said, “You, speak.”

Jing Xian: “…….”

Lu Yingjiu took another deep breath, “Jing Xian, go back, go back now.”

“I won’t go back.” Jing Xian seemed to have finally made up his mind, looked at him with piercing eyes, took his hand, and said courageously, “Because, because we are husband and wife! How could I possibly leave you alone!!”

Lu Yingjiu: “…?”

Lu Yingjiu: “?”