There was some truth to that statement. Without a bit of natural talent, one wouldn’t even know where the ghosts were.
Wu Yinyu used her clean hand to scoop out the sand. Soon, half her palm was coated in mud, and her fingernails were packed with grit. Unconcerned, she continued digging until she had indeed hollowed out a perfectly square pit.
Empty coffins attracted Ghostly Evil. In some places, people prepared coffins in advance before their elderly passed on; such coffins had to be frequently brought out to sunbathe, otherwise they would surely become tainted with inauspicious energy.
And indeed, as soon as the incense was planted and the coffin formed, the sand in the distance rustled. Something seemed to be drawing near.
Wu Yinyu placed a copper coin inside the pit and covered it with a thin layer of soil. Then, she took two more incense sticks and planted them flanking the original one, one on the left and one on the right.
This square pit was barely the length of two palms. The incense sticks, if laid down, would actually protrude beyond it. Looking at it this way, this “coffin” was laughably slapdash.
Wu Yinyu looked back at Yu Zezhi with a smile and drawled lazily, “The Wu family doesn’t use this method. The other branches probably wouldn’t stoop to it either. Boss Yu has likely never seen it before. Allow me to broaden your horizons.”
“Should I say thank you?” Yu Zezhi truly had never witnessed such an extreme, unorthodox approach. It seemed like something only those solitary practitioners without sect or school, those who walked the edge, would resort to.
Most of the methods passed down through the ages were those verified as workable by predecessors. The remaining skewed and heretical techniques that weren’t inherited had their reasons for being discarded.
“Boss Yu is too polite.” It was finally Wu Yinyu’s turn to say this line.
Seeing this, Yu Zezhi took out her lighter and lit the other two incense sticks for Wu Yinyu. She asked, “Since it wasn’t taught by the Wu family, who taught you?”
“Boss Yu,” Wu Yinyu fanned the smoke rising from the incense and interrupted, “That’s crossing the line.”
Yu Zezhi stopped asking questions. After a two-second pause, she saw the person seated on the steps suddenly tilt her head back to look up at her.
Wu Yinyu rocked back and forth, laughter trembling in her voice. “If I tell you not to ask, you just stop asking? Boss Yu is this obedient and sensible?”
Addressing a peer with a formal honorific, yet simultaneously describing them as obedient and sensible—no matter how you heard it, it was bizarre.
But Yu Zezhi just gave a faint, indifferent chuckle. “Since you’re not inclined to say, you can tell me whenever you feel inclined.”
In that instant, Wu Yinyu’s heartbeat quickened slightly. Teasing this person, who seemed as if she had renounced all earthly desires and passions, was exceptionally entertaining.
“I’m quite inclined right now.” She smoothed the sand around the edge of the “coffin” and added, “If Boss Yu is willing to listen, then naturally, I’m willing to tell.”
“Then speak,” Yu Zezhi said, unhurried and unflustered.
“What if I said I figured it out on my own? Would you believe that?” After speaking, Wu Yinyu suddenly clapped her palms together with a loud, crisp slap.
Her clasped hands didn’t separate immediately. Instead, she kept them pressed together as if in prayer or offering, while muttering something under her breath.
Because her voice was so low, Yu Zezhi couldn’t hear very clearly. She simply bent down, wanting to lean in closer for a better listen.
Every time Wu Yinyu finished a line, she would clap her palms together once more. The clapping seemed to carry a specific rhythm.
As Yu Zezhi bent over, a sudden gust of wind swept across the beach, blowing sand and dust straight at her face. She had to close her eyes. The moment she opened them again, a ghostly figure was standing right before her, tilting its head and staring.
The ghost’s hair hung in sodden, clumped strands plastered to its face, with large patches apparently fallen out, leaving it looking extremely sparse. Whether its face or its limbs, everything was grotesquely swollen. Its waist and abdomen were distended, the skin peeling away in large sheets.
Yu Zezhi only gave it a glance before continuing to lean closer to Wu Yinyu. She angled her ear incredibly close, but still couldn’t make out a word.
In the next instant, Wu Yinyu’s muffled, indistinct murmurs suddenly became crystal clear. With a sly smirk, she said, “Boss Yu, trying to steal my secrets? If you want to learn, just say so openly. I’ll teach you without taking you as a disciple; won’t mess up the seniority.”
Yu Zezhi straightened her back. Unexpectedly, the ghost that had crawled out of the water was still staring at her, with its bulging eyes and protruding tongue—hardly a state conducive to answering questions.
The yellow paper effigy immediately acted as if startled, spinning wildly multiple times. Finally, as if having an epiphany, it folded at the waist and planted both its “arms” onto the sand. Though clearly torn into the shape of a human body, it struck a pose exactly like a barking dog—a pity it could make no sound.
Wu Yinyu shook out the red-dyed cotton thread, preparing to loop it around the neck of the water ghost before Yu Zezhi. But the specter dissolved into a thick, viscous slurry and slowly seeped away into the sand.
The copper coin buried under the thin soil rang out with a clear ‘ding’—it had undoubtedly been struck.
Ghosts: upon seeing a coffin, they desire to lie in it; upon smelling incense, they crave to eat it. Unfortunately for this one, Wu Yinyu had buried a copper coin there.
Wu Yinyu thrust her hand directly into the sand and managed to grab a lock of wet, matted hair.
She tightened her fingers and forcibly yanked that lock of hair out. Unexpectedly, a piece of scalp was still clinging to the roots, while the ghost itself had vanished to who knows where.
Feeling a wave of nausea, Wu Yinyu clicked her tongue in disdain. “Still, this will suffice. The body, hair, and skin—these are excellent things for containing the Hun and Po souls.”
“How do you proceed?” Yu Zezhi asked from beside her.
“Just watch.” Wu Yinyu pressed the lock of hair, with its attached scalp, into the sandy “coffin.” She then pulled out the three incense sticks planted nearby and proceeded to “nail” them into the water ghost’s hair.
It was like using the incense sticks as a three-pronged rake, stabbing down viciously.
Instantly, from beneath a patch of sand not far away, a sharp, piercing shriek erupted.
Wu Yinyu sprinted toward the sound. She raised a hand and pulled out her hairpin, letting her nearly waist-length hair tumble down in waves. She extracted the silver needle inside and quickly slashed a line across her palm. Not even bothering to tuck up her Qipao’s skirt, she crouched down and slammed a palm strike into the sand.
The ghost had no choice but to burst up through the sand. It scrambled away, arms and legs flailing out of sync, but Wu Yinyu caught its neck with the red thread.
Wu Yinyu grabbed a copper coin and shoved the ghost’s protruding tongue back into its mouth.
The ghostly entity trembled all over. The swelling across its body actually subsided somewhat; though still hideous, it was at least not as disturbingly unwatchable as before.
“Tell me, have you seen this person’s soul? Who was guiding him when you saw it?” Wu Yinyu raised a hand and crooked a finger toward Yu Zezhi.
Without changing expression, Yu Zezhi retrieved Lu Sansheng’s shirt and tossed it toward Wu Yinyu.
Wu Yinyu just so happened to hook a corner of the shirt with her index finger, lifting it and dangling it before the water ghost’s face.
The water ghost pointed in the direction of the Wu residence. It suddenly opened its mouth, but instead of speaking, it was as if a spring had burst forth within. Pitch-black liquid gushed out in torrents, carrying the copper coin along with it.
Ink?
The disappearance of Lu Sansheng’s soul was indeed intimately tied to the ink.
“Only ink, no spirit?” Wu Yinyu focused solely on this question, not even mentioning anything related to the Wu family.
The water ghost vomited for a long while, but out came nothing except the ink. After a time, the “ink” from its mouth gradually faded in color, replaced by the briny stench of seawater rushing forth.
Wu Yinyu stepped around behind the specter’s back, raised her leg high, and stomped down on its back, forcing it to prostrate itself low.
The ghost, bound by the red thread, had lost all power to resist and slammed face-first into the sand.
Wu Yinyu yanked the red thread tightly, her foot still planted on the ghost’s back, and gleefully declared, “Alright, you may eat the incense now.”
The ghost, pinned to the sand, flared its nostrils and inhaled deeply at the smoke trailing off the incense. It even struggled to crawl forward a little more, but with its back pinned down, it could only inch closer with tremendous effort.
Having eaten the incense, the ghost became much more docile. When the living eat their fill, they become drowsy; becoming a ghost doesn’t rid one of this tendency—unless they transform into a Wraith. Those things, when fed, might actually become more ferocious.
Wu Yinyu forcibly bound the ghost into a small bundle using the red thread and buried it within the “coffin.” She lit three fresh incense sticks for it. Once this incense burned out, the ghost’s lingering attachments would be cleansed away, and it would be time for it to journey onward.
Yu Zezhi couldn’t agree with the approach. As Wu Yinyu was putting her shoes back on, she suddenly said, “You forcibly dispelled his lingering attachment without resolving the knot in his heart. Even if he crosses the Two-World Sea and reincarnates, his next life will inevitably be lived in utter confusion, with an incomplete mind and spirit.”
“But I still sent him on his way.” Wu Yinyu wiped her hands on Lu Sansheng’s shirt and tossed it carelessly back into the bag. She looked Yu Zezhi straight in the eye. “Boss Yu truly has the heart of a Bodhisattva. But Boss Yu, have you ever considered that by reincarnating this way, if he experiences a sudden realization in his next life and untangles his heart’s knot on his own, he might live far better than he did in his previous existence?”
It was already three in the morning by now, and almost no cars were visible on the road.
Thoroughly disgusted with the sand clinging to her hands, Wu Yinyu used only two fingers to fish her phone out of her bag. She tapped the screen twice and, once the call connected, quickly rattled off their address.
As the Wu family’s driver, the man was long accustomed to late-night outings. Aside from the fact that the calls sometimes came a bit too abruptly, his salary was actually quite easy to earn. After all, he wasn’t required to drive every single day.
After hanging up the phone, Wu Yinyu turned to look at Yu Zezhi with a meaningful gaze. “Many thanks for your trouble today, Boss Yu. Shall we head off together?”
“Where to?” Yu Zezhi had already sensed what was coming.
“My place.” Wu Yinyu’s hands were still dirty, and she didn’t particularly want to touch her hair. She let her hair remain loose and tapped the blunt end of her hairpin against Yu Zezhi’s arm. “So you can also see what I saw at the Lu residence.”
