Chapter 18

When it came to stubbornly arguing, even ten Qi Xu tied together were no match for Xia Zhiming. Fortunately, Xia Zhiming wasn’t the type with an Empress Dowager personality. While Qi Xu cleaned the inside, she tidied up the outside a bit. At the very least, the dust on the mattress was gone, and Xia Zhiming even placed a sleeping bag on one of the beds.

Qi Xu saw the sleeping bag and was a bit confused. “Then what do I sleep on?”

“Didn’t you bring your own?”

Qi Xu felt a little embarrassed. “No…”

Xia Zhiming got off the bed and rummaged through her suitcase for a moment before pulling out a disposable bedding set. “Make do with this. I’ve already gone above and beyond.”

Qi Xu let out an “oh” and even said thanks. She didn’t think there was anything to complain about. It was just as Xia Zhiming had said—she hadn’t brought anything herself, so it wasn’t Xia Zhiming’s fault. Besides, it was already pretty good that Xia Zhiming had given her a disposable bedding set.

Qi Xu spread the bedsheet over the mattress, then grabbed a couple of her clothes. She balled one up as a pillow and used an outer jacket as a blanket. Fortunately, it was already mid-to-late June, and the weather had warmed up, so it wasn’t cold at all. Even just draping a jacket over herself was enough for the night.

Perhaps because she had done a ton of work right before bed, or maybe because it was already quite late, Qi Xu felt sleepy after lying down and fiddling with her phone for a bit. But she still wanted to look up those time points Xia Zhiming had mentioned earlier.

Qi Xu wrapped herself in her clothes and turned down the screen brightness before searching for the significance of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and Summer Solstice. However, nothing she found explained why the ghost would show up on those days.

This actually perked her up instead. She stubbornly dug through a bunch of information until she finally found the reasons Xia Zhiming had mentioned.

The fourteenth was the “Lunar Taboo Day” on the lunar calendar. There were three Lunar Taboo Days each month: the fifth, fourteenth, and twenty-third, but Qi Xu still didn’t fully understand why. As for the day after, it wasn’t special just because it was the fifteenth—it just happened to fall right before the Summer Solstice.

This one was easier to look up. A dozen pages into the Summer Solstice entry, she found the explanation. On the lunar calendar, there were the Four Separation Days and Four Absolute Days. The Four Separation Days were the days before the spring equinox, Summer Solstice, autumn equinox, and winter solstice, while the Four Absolute Days were the days before the Start of Spring, Start of Summer, Start of Autumn, and Start of Winter.

These days were all inauspicious, marking seasonal transitions and the convergence of yin and yang. Unlucky for humans, in other words, lucky for ghosts.

Once she reached this point, Qi Xu got excited right away. Sleepiness vanished as she shouted toward Xia Zhiming, who was lying on the bed next to hers. “I got it! It’s because the fourteenth is a Lunar Taboo Day and the fifteenth is the day before the Summer Solstice, right?”

Xia Zhiming lay flat in her sleeping bag, perfectly straight. She turned her head slightly at Qi Xu’s words. “Mm, yeah. You’re so smart.” Xia Zhiming was being quite perfunctory, but Qi Xu felt like she had finally figured something out and didn’t care at all whether Xia Zhiming meant it.

“What if that ghost just doesn’t show up?”

Xia Zhiming finally turned her head fully to look at her. “It will definitely come out.”

She lay back down then. Qi Xu tossed and turned for quite a while before falling asleep. Her dreams were bizarre and motley. Perhaps because she had read about the lunar calendar, she even dreamed of becoming a Daoist herself, teaming up with Xia Zhiming to slay demons and exorcise evil.

The Xia Zhiming in her dream was somewhat off-kilter.

When dawn broke and Qi Xu woke up, just glancing at the bed beside her made her jolt in fright. All traces of sleepiness vanished instantly. Xia Zhiming was nowhere to be seen.

Qi Xu scrambled out of bed, hurriedly changed clothes, and tied up her hair. While doing so, she didn’t forget to call Xia Zhiming.

But no matter how many times she tried, the call didn’t connect. She grew even more anxious. Had Xia Zhiming been taken away by that ghost? What was she supposed to do then?

It was broad daylight now, though—ghosts probably wouldn’t come out… No, no, no. Xia Zhiming hadn’t guaranteed that. What if it wasn’t like in TV dramas or novels? What if, in the real world, that ghost could roam around in daylight?

If even Xia Zhiming had been caught, did she even stand a chance of surviving?!

Qi Xu hung up the phone and gripped it tightly. She felt like she had to go find Xia Zhiming. Not just because she couldn’t survive without her, but because Xia Zhiming was her lifesaver. Even if she didn’t go full “tie grass rings to repay the favor,” she couldn’t just abandon her to die.

‘I’m strong, I’m strong. I’m super strong as a ghost!’

Qi Xu psyched herself up inwardly and prepared to head out with her phone in hand. But as soon as she opened the door, she came face-to-face with Xia Zhiming. The moment she saw her, Qi Xu’s eyes nearly welled up with tears. She threw herself at Xia Zhiming.

“Where did you go?! I thought the ghost got you! How could you just wander off like that? In movies, anyone who gets separated always dies!”

Xia Zhiming grabbed Qi Xu’s clothes and peeled her off. “It’s fine. You’re half-human half-ghost anyway.”

A little death, no life.

Qi Xu was at a loss for words, but now that Xia Zhiming was safe, she felt much more relieved. Xia Zhiming sighed. “But you’re still human! Getting separated would be dangerous for you too!”

Xia Zhiming was probably experiencing this kind of concern for the first time in her life. Her expression looked a bit odd. The two stared at each other for a moment before Qi Xu’s stomach started growling loudly. She could only say, “Is there a breakfast place around? I want some breakfast.”

“There is.”

The two went out for breakfast. But while eating, Qi Xu kept feeling like someone was watching her. Xia Zhiming, however, was used to it. “In a small town like this, the population structure is simple. Everyone basically knows everyone’s relatives. Two outsiders like us speaking standard Mandarin instead of the local dialect naturally make us stand out.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

After breakfast, they returned to the inn. Xia Zhiming checked her phone while heading to the electrical room. She had Qi Xu help her turn off all the breakers first, then turn on the main switches for each room one by one.

That day, Xia Zhiming took Qi Xu through every room in the place, especially the one where someone had died.

It was actually pretty easy to tell if someone had died recently.

The first time they entered a room with a history, Qi Xu jumped in fright. The room straightforwardly had the victim’s position outlined in white chalk on the floor—a clear silhouette of someone collapsed on the ground, visible even from the doorway.

As they got closer, a thick rusty iron smell hit them. At first, Qi Xu thought it was like the night before, maybe from some rusty pipes. But Xia Zhiming quickly said, “This one died from slitting their wrists, huh? No idea why they didn’t air it out—the smell is so strong.”

Qi Xu went numb. So that rusty smell really was the stench of blood.

Xia Zhiming didn’t care at all. She even walked right up to the white outline, squatted down, and examined it closely. Qi Xu followed a bit closer and noticed a large dark red stain on the floor, different from the surrounding carpet.

The dark red was near the “hand” part of the outline, clearly the mark left from the wrist-slitting.

Qi Xu shivered. The inn felt much colder than outside.

But with Xia Zhiming squatting there so seriously, Qi Xu felt too awkward to leave. She shuffled closer and eventually got used to the chill, squatting down right beside her. “Did you figure something out?”

“This one didn’t turn into a ghost, or its soul got eaten. Anyway, the people who died here afterward probably didn’t turn into ghosts either.”

“Is that good news or bad news?”

“Half and half.” Xia Zhiming stood up, and Qi Xu followed suit. But she left it at that without explaining what “half and half” meant. The rest of the time, she continued leading Qi Xu through the other rooms.

The number of rooms varied per floor. Some were bigger, some smaller, but across the five floors, there were over a hundred in total. By the time they had checked them all, night had fallen.

Back in their room, Xia Zhiming pulled Qi Xu into the daily “infusing yang energy” routine. And today, she went a bit overboard, telling Qi Xu to open her mouth and stick out her tongue.

Qi Xu covered her mouth, eyes wide. “Huh?! Why?!”

Xia Zhiming rolled her eyes. This time, she actually explained. “Didn’t you look up those next couple days? So much yin energy around—if I don’t infuse extra yang energy into you, you’ll really turn into a ghost. Now stick out your tongue properly. This way is faster.”

Qi Xu pouted reluctantly but still stuck out her tongue—just the tip, like a kitten. Xia Zhiming pressed down on her shoulders and leaned in without ceremony.

This French kiss was too stimulating for a pure, naive college student like Qi Xu. She could hardly describe the sensation. When their lips met, Qi Xu felt a bit dizzy. Their tongues tangled, with a slight pulling sensation that reminded her of eating a green tongue popsicle.

Except this green tongue moved on its own and was warm.

In her daze, Qi Xu thought it felt pretty nice.

She mused to herself: Xia Zhiming’s so good at kissing—she must have done it tons of times! Damn that mature big sister, always taking advantage of me!

After a good long while, their lips finally parted. Qi Xu looked up at Xia Zhiming and saw that she wasn’t in great shape either.

Her hands, which had been gripping Qi Xu’s shoulders, had wrinkled the fabric of her clothes. Her breathing was unsteady from the prolonged kiss, her chest rising and falling noticeably. Her face was flushed red, eyes misty.

But what drew Qi Xu’s attention most were her lips.

They were exceptionally glossy, as if freshly coated in glossy lipstick, shimmering enticingly… They even looked a bit more swollen than usual from all the kissing.

Qi Xu inwardly scolded herself, because at that moment… she actually wanted another kiss. Just like the one they’d shared.