Chapter 22: Summoning a Soul, and Something Else
“Miss Su, I saw there were red candles in your bundle, but you specifically chose a white one. Is there some particular reason for that?” Assistant Wu asked.
He was normally not a curious person, nor would he usually speak out of turn in front of Fourth Master Qin. But today, Fourth Master’s mood was clearly quite good.
Experience told him that at a time like this, doing or saying anything was acceptable.
Su Keke glanced at Qin Mochen and asked with a mischievous smile, “Uncle, are you curious too?”
Qin Mochen lifted the corner of his mouth. “Yes, very curious.”
Su Keke’s lips curved into a bright smile. “If it were anyone else asking, I’d be too lazy to explain. They wouldn’t understand even if I did. But Uncle looks so smart—I’m happy to explain it to you.”
Assistant Wu’s face fell.
So… does that mean he looks stupid?
The little shaman Su Keke asked her uncle, “Many people wear red underwear or red vests during their zodiac year, or tie a red belt around their waist. Uncle, do you know why that custom exists?”
Qin Mochen replied, “Red wards off evil.”
“That’s exactly it. Each year, a ‘Year Deity’ takes a turn on duty. When your zodiac sign clashes with Tai Sui, you offend inauspicious stars, so your birth year is prone to bad luck. Red belongs to the Li trigram in the I Ching. Li represents light, corresponds to fire in the Five Elements, and in yin-yang terms, it is yang. It can, to a certain extent, attract good fortune and avert misfortune.”
“Uncle, isn’t that easy to understand?” Su Keke asked with a smile.
Qin Mochen hummed in agreement. “You explained it very clearly.”
Assistant Wu, who was completely lost: …
Though he didn’t want to admit it, he realized he really did seem quite stupid.
Su Keke continued, “The life-soul belongs to yin. Right now, I’m summoning a soul, so I can’t use a red candle. Otherwise, it would scare the child away.”
Assistant Wu asked curiously, “Miss Su, do ghosts really exist in this world?”
Su Keke replied enigmatically, “If you believe, they exist. If you don’t, they don’t.”
Assistant Wu: …
At that moment, Auntie Zhou, who had gone out to summon the soul, returned.
She looked rather strange, as if she had been badly frightened. Her face was deathly pale, and her movements were stiff and mechanical.
Her right hand held the umbrella, while her left arm was almost rigidly stretched straight out.
The room was dimly lit, but because a candle was burning, people’s shadows were clearly cast.
The flickering candlelight magnified the shadows several times over, projecting them onto the wall behind Auntie Zhou.
When the people in the room saw the shadows on the wall, they all sucked in a sharp breath.
Chen Yujuan suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth, forcibly swallowing the scream that nearly escaped.
On the wall, there should have been only the shadows of Auntie Zhou and the black silk umbrella—but now, there was clearly something more.
A small, child-sized shadow was tugging at Auntie Zhou’s stiff left hand.
If that were all, it wouldn’t have been enough to shock them, since everyone was mentally prepared.
What truly terrified them was that on Auntie Zhou’s right side, there was another shadow standing very close to her!
That shadow was extremely slender, like that of… a woman.
Auntie Zhou seemed to have noticed this long ago, which was why she was reacting the way she was.
Su Keke glanced at it once, then withdrew her gaze, not treating the extra shadow as anything important. She even reminded Chen Yujuan, “Auntie, quickly call the child back.”
Chen Yujuan snapped out of it, opened her mouth, and called in a trembling voice, “Shuai-shuai, Zhang Yuanshuai, come to Mommy quickly.”
When Su Keke heard the child’s full name, her brows knit slightly.
After Chen Yujuan called out a few times, the child-shaped shadow that Auntie Zhou had been “holding” left the area beneath the umbrella.
Once it left, that shadow on the wall disappeared.
At the same time, the slender figure on Auntie Zhou’s right side vanished as well.
Qin Mochen looked down at the ground and discovered a pair of wet footprints. His gaze darkened.
The footprints stretched all the way from the doorway toward them, the pace growing faster and faster.
