Chapter 13

It didn’t sound much like a compliment, yet Yu Zezhi offered no retort, merely glancing over in silence.

The male ghost was so choked with sobs he couldn’t speak clearly, but as the Benevolent Grip on the red thread was about to vanish entirely, his voice grew fainter and fainter, until it was barely audible, like the buzz of a mosquito.

Wu Yinyu lacked such charitable impulses. She had dragged the ghost out of Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion solely to question him; everything else was none of her concern.

But a thought suddenly sparked in her mind. She took out a small bottle from her bag, dipped into the Charm Water within, and drew a pattern on the ground.

It was the lotus pattern from the jade pendant.

Wu Yinyu asked, “Have you ever seen this kind of lotus pattern?”

The old ghost wept and wailed, shaking his head repeatedly.

Wu Yinyu hadn’t held much hope to begin with. She simply stood up and said to Yu Zezhi, “If Boss Yu wishes to help him, then go ahead. I’m heading north.”

“Together,” Yu Zezhi said. She bent down, picked up the yellow paper from the ground, and rapidly folded it several times. Without using scissors, she relied purely on careful tearing, bit by bit, until she had forcefully torn the yellow paper into a little figurine with hands, feet, and a head.

The paper effigy was rather crude, purely hand-torn, and nowhere near delicate.

After tearing it, Yu Zezhi took out a copper coin and pressed the paper effigy to the ground. She turned her head to look at Wu Yinyu and said, “Lend me your hairpin.”

Puzzled, Wu Yinyu removed her hairpin. The wooden hairpin actually held a hidden secret; the tip could be unscrewed, revealing a silver needle concealed inside.

She was surprised that Yu Zezhi knew this secret and so effortlessly extracted the silver needle. Her eyes narrowed. “How did you know my hairpin had this clever use?”

Yu Zezhi pricked her middle finger with the silver needle, squeezed out a bit of blood, and smeared it onto the paper effigy’s forehead. She said flatly, “Done.”

The paper effigy, pinned under the copper coin, suddenly came alive as if animated. With a whoosh, it darted out, and once steady on its feet, bowed deeply, the picture of obedience.

Wu Yinyu took back her hairpin and began pinning up her long hair again, leaving just a single lock hanging down her back. She pressed, “Who revealed that to you, Boss Yu?”

Only then did Yu Zezhi remove the copper coin from the old ghost’s forehead and tear away the now-ineffective red cotton thread from his face. She replied, “Many people within the Five Gates know about it. If Ms. Wu’s secret isn’t hidden tightly, it’s hardly difficult for others to find out.”

“Upon returning to Wise City, did Boss Yu investigate everyone thoroughly, or is your interest… solely in me?” Wu Yinyu’s words were startling.

“Why would Ms. Wu ask that? Do you still suspect I was behind both jade pendants?” Yu Zezhi pointed into the distance while commanding the paper effigy, “Go.”

The paper effigy plastered itself onto the old ghost’s face. Immediately, the specter moved like a marionette, its steps stiff and slow as it walked into the distance.

“Wasn’t that matter already cleared up? How could I still suspect you?” Wu Yinyu’s eyes curved like crescent moons.

Yu Zezhi didn’t utter a word. She lowered her head and, surprisingly, took out a mirror, setting it on the ground.

This mirror was no ordinary object; it could reflect the images of Ghostly Evil.

The old ghost, guided by the paper effigy, walked step by step into the mirror.

Yu Zezhi then picked up the mirror. In an instant, the grayish-white ghost completely vanished.

Wu Yinyu had only limited understanding of the Yu family, knowing only that this branch specialized in Puppet Mastery. She pondered for a moment, then asked, “You’ve collected him? I had expected you to liberate him on the spot.”

“The illusory realm within the mirror will naturally untie the knot in his heart. When he emerges again, he will surely be able to find the path to the Two-World Sea on his own.” Yu Zezhi turned her body toward the north. “Shall we go?”

Wu Yinyu picked up the remaining partially burned incense from the ground and stabbed it against the stone steps outside Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion, forcibly snuffing it out.

Then, she very casually tossed the incense and torn yellow paper scraps into a trash bin. Raising an eyebrow, she said, “Let’s go then. I didn’t expect the Yu family’s method of sending off ghosts to be so similar to the Wu family’s. Or is it just that Boss Yu personally uses methods similar to the Wu family?”

“It’s not about similarity; variations ultimately stem from the same core.” Yu Zezhi’s aloof and distant manner always carried a sense of disconnection, as if she couldn’t quite mesh with the era.

Wu Yinyu teased with a laugh, “I wouldn’t dare claim kinship or connections with Boss Yu. Our Wu family’s ghost-sending rituals are far more troublesome, nothing as effortless as Boss Yu’s.”

Yu Zezhi silently watched Wu Yinyu, her face devoid of expression, yet still exuding an unspoken authority that inspired awe.

“Let’s keep walking, Boss Yu. Admiring my good looks?” Wu Yinyu spoke flippantly, circling around Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion toward the main street directly north, pondering whether she should catch another ghost to interrogate.

As she walked, Wu Yinyu glanced back and saw Yu Zezhi still standing outside the entrance of Cuihui.

Yu Zezhi was staring motionlessly at the door lintel, with no telling what she was looking at.

Wu Yinyu recalled that when they first arrived, there seemed to be something above the lintel drawing her own gaze upward.

But she was pressed for time now. She pointed at her wristwatch and urged, “Boss Yu, please stop radiating your boundless, restless compassion. This Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion is crawling with ghosts. Don’t tell me you intend to send them off one by one? These old specters have deep, stubborn attachments. Even the Impermanence Envoys from below can’t take them away.”

The ghosts and monsters within Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion were numerous not only because it was an antique auction house, but also because the building was open on all four sides and situated at a crossroads. Such positioning was frankly terrible; it could be described as “pierced by ten thousand arrows,” generating tremendous killing energy. To make matters worse, the solitary high-rise building concentrated and amplified the Yin energy even further.

That was precisely why the original owner had constructed the building with eight sides and eight corners, using the Bagua diagram to suppress it.

But Yu Zezhi was still staring wordlessly at the door lintel, causing Wu Yinyu to pause as well.

Wu Yinyu turned around and walked back, tilting her head upward with her hands clasped behind her back. “What’s up there?”

“There’s something.” Yu Zezhi suddenly said.

It was pitch black in the dead of night. If there was something, it could only be Ghostly Evil.

Wu Yinyu examined it for a long time, but even drawing on her Yin-Yang Eye, she couldn’t discern anything unclean up there.

That strange feeling surfaced in her heart again, as if urging her.

Look.

Hurry, look.

“What does Boss Yu see?” Wu Yinyu’s heart suddenly lurched.

Yu Zezhi reached out a hand. “Give me a sheet of paper.”

Where would Wu Yinyu be carrying paper? She jutted her chin forward. “There are folded spirit ingots made of yellow paper in the bag. Why not unfold one to use?”

Yu Zezhi had no choice but to fish out a flattened golden ingot, set the bag on the ground, and unhurriedly began unfolding it.

The yellow paper was soft and pliable to begin with, and now it was full of creases after being unfolded. Fortunately, it was still usable.

“Making another paper effigy?” Wu Yinyu observed.

Yu Zezhi had already folded the yellow paper, and in just a few swift movements, she tore out another effigy. As before, after borrowing Wu Yinyu’s silver needle, she once again “awakened” the figurine.

The wrinkled little yellow paper effigy tilted its head crookedly, looking none too bright, yet its limbs were surprisingly nimble. It clung to the pillar and scrambled straight up, easily reaching the top of the door lintel.

Wu Yinyu lowered her eyes, but didn’t see Yu Zezhi’s hand, pressed against her skirt, move even a fraction. This was certainly not Puppet Control.

She remembered, back when she was very young, seeing members of the Yu family manipulate puppets. The most skilled among them could control several at once, one person putting on an entire play. Those cotton puppets danced with hands and feet waving wildly, as if truly possessed by wandering souls.

It was a pity that the Yu family gradually declined. The two elders had passed away very early, and afterward, she never again witnessed a “Puppet Dance.”

Then, some time ago, Yu Xiangge and Wei Liuxing died in a car accident, and it seemed this branch of the art was about to vanish entirely. Just as everyone was sighing with regret, Yu Zezhi returned to Wise City and assumed the position of Family Head.

The paper effigy dangled from the door lintel, looking as if it were doing pull-ups. But it exerted no effort at all, simply pulling itself along by its “arms” as it slid from left to right.

“Found it?” Wu Yinyu asked.

The paper effigy let go and drifted down lightly from midair, landing in the palm of Yu Zezhi’s hand.

Yu Zezhi pinched the effigy’s “arm” and dangled it in front of Wu Yinyu.

The paper effigy itself was perfectly intact, but both “arms” were an inky black. The ink stains had slightly smeared, spreading toward its chest, abdomen, and head.

Such ink stains were not unfamiliar to Wu Yinyu; after all, they had once stained the back of her hand too.

Following instinct, she leaned closer to sniff. An Ink Fragrance assailed her nostrils.

But the strange thing was, how could there be ink on the lintel of Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion, and fresh, still-wet ink at that?

The ink that had touched Wu Yinyu’s hand previously was invisible to everyone except her, and no second person had ever sensed the Ink Qi’s presence. Yet now, Yu Zezhi could clearly see it.

Wu Yinyu’s heart pounded violently. Indeed, Lu Yiqi’s disappearance was inextricably linked to that mass of Ink Qi. Still uneasy, she probed cautiously, “What is this?”

Yu Zezhi stared fixedly at her. “That is also what I would like to ask.”