Chapter 23: Hey, Hey—You’re Being So Dramatic
Not only Qin Mochen, but the others as well noticed the footprints on the ground.
Each pair of footprints was soaking wet, as if those feet had been submerged in water the whole time, never to dry.
Su Keke’s soul-summoning talisman had not only brought back the child’s life-soul that had left his body, but also—
Something else.
A gust of cold wind swept through the room. The yellow flame of the white candle by the bed flickered a few times, then turned an eerie shade of green.
The greenish flame no longer gave off warmth; the air around it grew chillingly cold.
Chen Yujuan screamed in terror, “Master! Master!”
At the instant that icy wind rushed toward them, Su Keke suddenly flung a ghost-suppressing talisman into the air. At the same time, she reached out as if grabbing something invisible, then slapped her hand onto the child’s body, as though forcing something back into him.
“You almost scared the child’s soul away,” Su Keke said, shooting Chen Yujuan an unhappy look.
She had emphasized beforehand that no one was to shout, because the child was timid and easily frightened.
The ghost-suppressing talisman Su Keke had thrown didn’t fall. Instead, it hung in midair—or rather, stuck to something unseen.
In the next second, a short, piercing scream rang out in the air.
The talisman began to shake violently.
Seeing the wildly trembling talisman less than two meters away, Chen Yujuan broke out in a cold sweat, her heart nearly leaping into her throat.
Auntie Zhou, meanwhile, still hadn’t recovered from her initial terror.
Assistant Wu remained standing straight as a board, not moving an inch, though his eyes were wide—wide open.
Only Qin Mochen, after a brief tightening of his pupils, remained calm and composed.
He knew there was something he couldn’t see, struggling and rolling about on the ground.
Others couldn’t see it, but Su Keke could see it perfectly clearly.
She smacked her lips at the thing before her. “Hey, hey, you’re really overacting. The ghost-suppressing talisman only hurts the most when it first sticks.”
The female ghost struggling on the ground: …
The ghost slowly stopped struggling.
She looked to be about the same age as Su Keke, around seventeen or eighteen. Her face was bluish-white, and her ponytail was dripping wet, water trickling from the tips of her hair.
The drops hit the cement floor with a steady drip-drip-drip.
It was not a pleasant sound.
The female ghost glared at Su Keke, a trace of resentment in her eyes.
Su Keke puffed out her cheeks. “Why are you glaring at me? The kid even calls you ‘big sister,’ and you still had the nerve to snatch his body. That’s really shameless.”
As she spoke, Su Keke turned to Qin Mochen. “Uncle, don’t you think this water ghost is shameless?”
Qin Mochen, who heard nothing at all, paused slightly, then hummed in agreement. “Yes—shameless.”
Female water ghost: …
Assistant Wu: …
When Chen Yujuan heard the words “water ghost,” she sucked in a sharp breath in fright.
“You’ve got some nerve,” Su Keke said as she looked at the female ghost. “You’re a water ghost, yet you dare to leave the river.”
“…I can tell you’re also from Peach Blossom Village. I know most of the people near the village tail. Do you live at the village head?”
“…What’s your name?”
Su Keke’s apparent “self-talk” made everyone in the room feel their scalps go numb.
Sure enough, something else had followed them inside.
Su Keke suddenly looked at Chen Yujuan and asked, “This water ghost says her name is Xue Hui. Do you know her?”
“Xue Hui—the youngest daughter of Old Xue’s family!” Chen Yujuan blurted out.
Auntie Zhou had just recovered a little, but upon hearing that name, she nearly fainted again.
Old Xue’s daughter, Xue Hui, had quarreled with her family last month. In a moment of despair, she jumped into the river. That river flowed through the entirety of Peach Blossom Village.
Xue Hui’s body was found downstream, near the village tail. The corpse had been soaked pale white, terrifying the children who had been playing there.
From that day on, far fewer children went to play near the water.
The adults all said that a place where someone had died in the water was unclean.
Now it seemed that the river truly was “unclean.”
