Chapter Ten: Divination

"Use a rock," I said calmly from the sidelines.

The sturdy man finally snapped out of his daze upon hearing my words. He grabbed a rock from nearby and swung it at Zhang Kaifu’s head. With a sickening thud, Zhang Kaifu’s skull cracked open, splattering blood all over the man's face.

The unconscious Zhang Kaifu finally went quiet. The woman knelt on the ground, coughing incessantly, tears and snot streaming down her face.

"Qian! Are you alright?!" The sturdy man patted her back, checking for injuries.

"I’m fine... I clearly banished the filthy thing that had possessed him, but..." She shook her head, pulling out a tissue to wipe away her tears and mucus, looking as if she couldn't believe she had failed.

"Brother Tian, if you hadn't reminded him, she would have been dead by now." Yu Xiaoxue sounded annoyed. It was clearly me who had saved the woman, yet her first reaction wasn't to thank me, but to fix her makeup.

I didn't say anything, just watched quietly, though I found it somewhat amusing. *Oh, Yu Xiaoxue, you’ve never even worn makeup in the village; how could you understand how much a city beauty cares about her appearance? They’d risk their lives for beauty! Haven't you seen those reports about people injecting toxins into their faces just to look slimmer? It’s in the news every day. You can't expect a beauty to apologize while she’s still covered in snot and tears, can you?*

Yu Xiaoxue didn't know what I was thinking, but she blushed when she caught me smiling at her.

After the beauty finished wiping her face and heard Yu Xiaoxue’s biting sarcasm, she said awkwardly, "Thanks to your friend's reminder, otherwise I, Zhao Qian, would have met my end here today. You saved my life, and I will certainly repay you."

After she finished, she glanced at Yu Xiaoxue. Although her expression didn't change, even someone as sheltered as Yu Xiaoxue recognized the blatant provocation and immediately shot a cold glare back at Zhao Qian.

"Heh, no need to thank me yet. I was just being meddlesome. Also, you’d better have this officer cuff the man on the ground, otherwise, you might not live long enough to thank anyone later." I didn't have a good impression of these two siblings, so I didn't bother being polite.

Zhao Qian cast a lingering, fearful look at the unconscious Zhang Kaifu before turning to Captain Huo. "Captain Huo, it’s been three months since we last met, hasn't it? I hope you've been well. You’ve seen the situation now—what do you think we should do?"

"Little Zhao, long time no see. No need for formalities with me, Huo Dadong. I’ll cuff this Little Zhang right now." With that, Captain Huo took out his handcuffs and secured Zhang Kaifu.

"May I ask, Captain Huo, what crime did this friend commit to warrant being cuffed?" Zhao Qian asked, looking at me.

"Oh, him? You must have seen the corpse outside the village, right? When I found him, he was digging a hole to bury it. I took them both as suspects and was planning to bring them back to the station for questioning. When I caught him, he claimed the village was plagued by an illness and everyone had died. Neither Little Zhang nor I believed him. And since the signal was down and we couldn't call for backup, we decided to bring them into the village to check the situation. I didn't expect to run into this."

"So that's how it is." Since I was a suspect, Zhao Qian couldn't say much more.

After Huo Dadong finished speaking, he patted the sturdy man on the shoulder. "Zhao He, you’ve got skills! Ever since you returned from the service, your moves are way beyond what I can do, Uncle Huo!"

"Captain Huo, you're too kind. I’m just helping my sister; I’m no match for you." Zhao He scratched his head, smiling sheepishly, though he clearly felt flattered.

Spirits wandering in broad daylight—this bridge was becoming truly sinister.

I looked down at the bridge; the spirits had finished consuming the offerings and were preparing to surge up again. I said, "I don’t want to die yet. I suggest you leave quickly. This isn't the place for idle chatter."

The three of them exchanged glances; perhaps because of what had just happened, they trusted my words a bit more.

Huo Dadong wanted to turn back, but the Zhao siblings were headed into the village. Huo Dadong reasoned that since the Zhao siblings were experts in these matters—even if they were momentarily rattled by Zhang Kaifu’s madness—it didn't mean they were incompetent. As a criminal investigator of over a decade, he knew some things couldn't be solved with just a gun.

He immediately escorted me and Yu Xiaoxue into the village, while Zhang Kaifu was slung over his shoulder.

"Captain Huo, you’re going to investigate whether everyone in the village is dead, right?" Zhao He asked.

"Yes," Huo Dadong replied, his forehead already beaded with sweat from carrying a grown man.

"We’ve crossed the bridge now, and it’s broad daylight. You can put him down and focus on your investigation. We’re going to the house on the hillside to see if Granny Zhou is there; my father has some business with her," Zhao He said, helping Huo Dadong lower Zhang Kaifu. This was an indirect way of telling Huo Dadong that there were no ghosts in the daylight and they didn't want him tagging along.

"Wait, you don't know? Granny Zhou has passed away. I saw the mourning cloth hanging on the hillside, and I was planning to go up and offer some incense," Huo Dadong said, acting surprised. He wasn't a fool; he had nearly encountered ghosts in broad daylight, so he knew better than to be reckless. Sticking with these two was the safer bet.

I could tell that neither Zhao Qian nor Zhao He had developed "Yin eyes"—they couldn't see the physical manifestations of the ghosts, at most only the hazy aura. Huo Dadong was just a cop; he would have to rely on the Zhao siblings here.

"What?! You said Granny Zhou passed away?!"

Zhao Qian dropped the polite honorifics, asking directly. She looked toward my grandmother's house on the hillside, her eyes filled with gravity. She began tapping her fingers together as if calculating something, and her face turned deathly pale as she looked at me.

It seemed Zhao Qian had some real talent; she could actually calculate a thing or two.

I pretended not to notice her divination and said, "Since you knew my grandmother, you should go up and offer some incense before you leave."

"You’re Granny Zhou’s grandson?" Huo Dadong looked at me in shock, suddenly connecting it to some terrifying possibilities.

Zhao Qian and Zhao He were equally stunned, wearing expressions of realization. It seemed they had already linked this to the earlier events on the bridge.

"What? Did you think Brother Tian was someone anyone could just claim as a relative?" Yu Xiaoxue sneered.

All three were taken aback. Huo Dadong was even more surprised that he had cuffed Granny Zhou’s grandson. However, he had indeed seen me digging a hole to bury a body, and one couldn't just bury a victim of unnatural death. As a matter of procedure, he couldn't let me go just yet.

"Since Granny Zhou has passed, let’s go offer our incense before moving on. Also, Captain Huo, I think you should put your case on hold," Zhao Qian advised.

"Hmm, Little Zhao is right. But we police have our protocols, and I can't just release a suspect. How about this: once we return to the station, I will handle this fairly. If it’s confirmed that this young brother didn't kill anyone, he will naturally be released." Huo Dadong wasn't a naive rookie; after Zhao Qian’s warning, he realized he might be in over his head, but he couldn't simply ignore protocol—he had to keep up appearances.

I sneered and said nothing.

"You’d better not burn that incense; it will only attract filth. Even though Grandma is gone, her body isn't actually in the coffin. You should just let us go. My brother and I didn't kill Dan; it was a ghost infant. We were planning to bury Dan and flee Xiao Yi Village, but you lot came barging in to throw your lives away," Yu Xiaoxue said, feeling aggrieved that they wouldn't release us.

"What did you say?!" Zhao Qian looked at Yu Xiaoxue with growing alarm.

Huo Dadong stroked his chin, studying Yu Xiaoxue’s eyes and expression. He had interrogated countless people and could tell when someone was lying. Yu Xiaoxue’s reactions convinced him that she wasn't lying; even if she were mistaken, she was describing a genuine hallucination, not a fabrication.

"The person who died was my brother, Zhang Yuanyi, also known as Zhang Yidan. He died an unnatural death. Do you understand now?" I added. I wasn't looking at Huo Dadong, but at Zhao Qian. The message was clear: *Miss Zhao, this is no place to linger!*

Zhao He asked hurriedly, "Unnatural death? What do you mean?"

"It’s not that I look down on you, but I don't think you can handle what’s here. Once night falls... no one will be able to leave." I kept my eyes on Zhao Qian, as she was the only one with any real skill. If I wanted to escape Xiao Yi Village, I would likely need her. As for Zhao He and Huo Dadong—one was a mere lackey and the other a useless cop in the face of the supernatural—they were nothing but dead weight.

"Hmph, alarmist," Zhao He snorted, offended that I looked down on him.

Zhao Qian didn't waste another word. She immediately took out a few paper talismans and a bundle of incense from her kit. She arranged the talismans in a Bagua pattern, lit the incense, shook a bell while chanting silently, and then began calculating with a feng shui compass from her kit.

Zhao He didn't dare say another word, and Huo Dadong didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

After a short while, the incense burned unevenly, looking as if it had been chewed by dogs, and the needle of the feng shui compass spun violently. Zhao Qian had never seen such a bizarre phenomenon; she immediately broke into a cold sweat.

"We cannot stay here! We must leave immediately—not a minute longer!" With that, Zhao Qian burned the talismans she had been holding, poured a few cups of water from her canteen, and intended to distribute them to us. "Brother, Captain Huo, and you two, drink this talisman water first."

Zhao He drank his without a second thought, and although Captain Huo was a police officer, after what he’d just witnessed, he knew this wasn't the time for atheism, so he drank it as well.

"Brother Tian, I don't want to drink it. It looks disgusting. Can Xiaoxue not drink it?" Yu Xiaoxue turned her head away, looking at the talisman water Zhao Qian was trying to feed her.

"Then don't drink it." I sighed inwardly. Sure enough, if two beautiful women meet and aren't best friends, they are destined to be enemies.

Yu Xiaoxue had already consumed Granny’s "Yin-Piercing Talisman," which was far more potent than this Taoist "Ghost-Avoiding Talisman." Whether she drank it or not made little difference. Anyone could draw a basic Ghost-Avoiding Talisman.

Zhao He had been holding a cup to feed me, but when I said that, he immediately threw a look of "casting pearls before swine" and tossed the cup aside. He was likely wishing me dead a hundred times over in his heart.