Chapter 26

The car that had driven out from the Wu family home now returned.

Yu Suhan sat in the living room watching cartoons, while Wu Yinyu led Yu Zezhi upstairs. Though the girl was wary of strangers, the moment a cartoon started playing, she sat perfectly still, her eyes wide and glistening with focus.

The door to the upstairs room was still locked. A red string was tied to the doorknob, and the mirror fastened to the other end of the string remained dutifully wedged under the crack of the door.

Yu Zezhi took one look at this setup and understood. “Something got into your room, didn’t it?”

That was indeed the case. Why else would anyone put on such a display?

Wu Yinyu knew Yu Zezhi was suspicious of her, so she had no intention of hiding the appearance of Ink Qi. She rapped three times on the door, a crisp dok dok dok against the wood.

Most ghosts and monsters still observed a certain etiquette. If the owner had been away for a long time, or if one knew beforehand that a ghostly evil had entered the room, one had to knock before entering.

One knock to announce presence, two for inquiry, three to signal entry.

Three knocks, and no “one” inside responded.

Yinyu turned her head, exhaling a breath. The memory of what she’d seen upon waking that afternoon still sent a chill through her heart.

“What was it?” Yu Zezhi asked directly.

Yinyu pulled the mirror from under the door using the red string and answered, “Ink.”

A palm-sized mirror, a thin sliver. Even its frame was plastic, not looking worth much money.

She held the mirror up, pressing its surface flat between her palms, wanting to use it to see if anything strange had happened in her room while she was away.

But the mirror was empty, reflecting nothing at all.

The Wu family’s specialty was Retrocognition—using mirrors or flowing water, any object that could cast a reflection, as if retracing yesterday’s steps, to see the events that had once taken place.

Since she saw nothing, Wu Yinyu had no choice but to untie the red string, explaining, “When I left, I suspected it was still in my room, so I deliberately placed the mirror there.”

“But you still didn’t find it?” Yu Zezhi had hit the nail on the head again.

“Correct.” Wu Yinyu took a quiet, steadying breath, preparing herself mentally before turning the doorknob. “You’ll understand in a moment why I locked the door.”

With that, she opened the door and stepped inside, her face filled with shock.

The walls and floor were pristine. Not a single stain anywhere.

The walls covered in Devil Buddhas, the great pools of ink on the floor—all of it had vanished without a trace.

“What did you want to show me?” Yu Zezhi asked, stepping in after her.

Standing in the room, Wu Yinyu felt a chill creep from the back of her neck up to her scalp. She turned her head, a bit stiffly, and forced a casual smile. “If I told you that when I woke up, the walls and floor were completely covered in ink, would you think I’ve gone mad?”

Yu Zezhi just looked at her in silence, offering no judgment.

In Wu Yinyu’s memory, it seemed Yu Zezhi often scrutinized her this way, as if sizing her up.

Wu Yinyu walked to the head of the bed, pulled a matchbox from the drawer, pinched out some pipe tobacco, and hastily struck a match. “This is exactly what I wanted to tell you about—the thing I couldn’t figure out. I didn’t expect it to be gone now.”

“I believe you,” Yu Zezhi said, her voice calm.

The tobacco lit, Wu Yinyu pressed the mouthpiece of her pipe to her lips with an addictive urgency, sat down on the bed, and looked over with a smile, her voice muffled. “I thought you were going to say it wouldn’t matter if I were a little crazy.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Yu Zezhi replied. The last time she’d entered this room, she had only given it a cursory glance. Now, she meticulously scanned her surroundings.

Wu Yinyu didn’t keep many personal items out in the open; most were neatly folded and stored in her cabinets. Unembarrassed, she blew out a puff of smoke. “I know you suspect me, Boss Yu, and coincidentally, I suspect you, too. After all, we can both see that Ink Qi, isn’t that right? I’m not in a hurry to distance myself from it. I’m just saying, I’m also troubled by it.”

“Mm.” Yu Zezhi lowered her head to examine the floor that Wu Yinyu had claimed was covered in ink.

Cleaners came to the Wu house daily. Even if Wu Yinyu’s room was tidied a day less, it couldn’t get very dirty. Forget ink stains—there likely wasn’t even any dust to be found right now.

A sudden thought struck Wu Yinyu. She turned, crooked a finger at Yu Zezhi. “No matter. I can still show you something.”

Yu Zezhi followed her over and watched as Wu Yinyu sat on the sofa and opened the laptop on the table.

The mouse darted nimbly, navigating through folders until she pulled up the surveillance footage she’d exported that afternoon.

“Watch this,” Wu Yinyu said, narrowing her eyes to take another drag of her pipe. She turned her head to exhale the smoke to the other side and swiftly started the video.

She had been very worried the video file might be unplayable. Fortunately, it wasn’t. But she quickly realized this footage was different from what she had seen before.

In the video, she had indeed gotten up in the dead of night, had indeed walked out the door, and had even fetched a calligraphy brush from the study. But as she wielded the brush against the wall, waving it around for half the night, not a single drop of ink splattered out.

How could a brush not dipped in ink paint anything? Even if she’d gone at it all night long, the wall would still be clean.

Wu Yinyu’s heart hammered in her chest as she hit the pause button. For a long moment, she couldn’t speak. She didn’t want Yu Zezhi to think she was crazy.

After a while, Yu Zezhi asked, “Do you have a habit of sleepwalking?”

“I didn’t before.” Wu Yinyu paused. “Do you believe me?” The tobacco in the pipe bowl had burned to ash, and she hadn’t taken another puff. She checked the file’s modification timestamp. Although she held no hope, she was still disappointed when she saw the time hadn’t changed.

She tossed the mouse aside and stared at the screen, her eyes dark with brooding intensity. “Let’s drop this for now. I made you come all this way for nothing.”

“I believe you.” Yu Zezhi tapped the keyboard, rewinding the progress bar. “It wasn’t for nothing.”

Wu Yinyu laughed. They were close now—if she just tilted her head slightly, the tip of her nose would brush Yu Zezhi’s cheek. But she didn’t. She just smiled and said, “You believe whatever I say. If this keeps up, my heart will end up tied entirely to you.”

She hadn’t turned her head, but Yu Zezhi glanced sideways at her. After a few seconds, a faint smile appeared. Raising an eyebrow, Yu Zezhi said, “Interested in me?”

“Ever since I first laid eyes on you at the Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion, that interest has never waned,” Wu Yinyu replied, her gaze itself remarkably straightforward, hot with intensity.

But Yu Zezhi simply responded with a “Mm.”

Wu Yinyu was instantly at a loss. What did “Mm” mean? Did it mean she could pursue her?

Even if she could, she didn’t dare right now. This Yu character still harbored many secrets. Who knew if this person was some monstrous ancient creature disguised in human skin?

On the screen, the surveillance footage began playing again from the start.

Wu Yinyu didn’t know if Lu Dongqing really intended to use the Ancient Method to draw a ghost into his body. But she now had a new idea.

She had truly never experienced sleepwalking. What the video showed looked more like ghostly possession, even though she had been unable to find any trace of such possession on herself.

No abnormal pulse, no pain, no sense of soul-losing trance, no discomfort of being occupied. She wondered if the thing was just too brilliant, too powerful.

The Fate Altering Spirit Writing technique always summoned the nearest ghostly evil. She thought, if she had indeed been possessed by an Evil Object, and she was present during the spirit writing, perhaps that thing could be lured out.

This idea was, admittedly, very risky. Something that could silently devour two people and one soul was not easily dealt with.

After watching the video, Yu Zezhi straightened up and asked, “What were you just thinking?”

Wu Yinyu looked up, a little innocently, and extended her hand, her opening words sounding almost like a pick-up line: “Could I trouble you to take a look, Boss Yu, and see if something isn’t quite right with me?”

Yu Zezhi looked at her clean palm but didn’t take it. She simply asked, “Do you think that wisp of Ink Qi has possessed you?”

Wu Yinyu curled her fingers, closing her palm. She leaned back lazily and said, “Just a joke. If it had possessed me, wouldn’t I know it?”

Yu Zezhi’s expression remained unchanged, seemingly unsuspicious.

“Boss Yu,” Wu Yinyu suddenly asked, “do you know how the Five Gates dispose of those who have been possessed by an Evil Entity?”

“How?” Yu Zezhi asked.

Wu Yinyu’s gaze seemed to diffuse, her focus wandering as she spoke slowly, “When an Evil Entity possesses someone, even if it can be completely expelled, sequelae remain. A body that has been possessed, tainted by evil Qi, becomes a vessel with no rejection response to any ghost or monster. To deal with this, the Ancient Method must be used to suppress it, to prevent endless future calamity. Therefore, anyone who has had the Fate Altering Spirit Writing technique used on them must die, even if they survive it.”

“That doesn’t sound like good news.” Yu Zezhi let out a soft, humorless laugh and brushed away the cigarette ash that had fallen on the table. “Aside from the footage, what other strange things have you encountered?”

“Nothing else,” Wu Yinyu said, snapping back to the present.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave first.” Yu Zezhi paused, perhaps realizing her departure seemed too hurried, and added an explanation: “Suhan has a class soon.”

Wu Yinyu had no choice but to stand up as well. She joked, “I thought it was my rich, fervent interest that scared you off.”

“That would require a bit more,” Yu Zezhi actually replied.

Wu Yinyu escorted her to the staircase landing, a smile in her eyes. “Boss Yu, you actually like the passionate type?”

“Not exactly,” Yu Zezhi said, walking downstairs, following the thread of conversation. “So, what kind does Ms. Wu like?”

“I like…” Wu Yinyu hesitated, unable to describe it even after reaching the ground floor. She answered without much thought, seemingly out of nowhere, “The prim-and-proper-on-the-outside type, I suppose. The slightly crazy kind.”

Yu Zezhi said nothing more. She walked over and patted Yu Suhan’s shoulder.

The girl looked up in a fluster, her peripheral vision still slanting towards the TV.

“Don’t rush,” Wu Yinyu said. “I’ll have my driver take you back. That way, you won’t have to return the car. Otherwise, it’ll really be endless back-and-forth.”

“Fine,” Yu Zezhi agreed. She cast an unobtrusive glance back upstairs and suddenly asked, “Those two pieces of jade are still with you?”

“Of course,” Wu Yinyu replied.

With the Red Jade, everything in the dream had corroborating evidence. But looking at the Thousand-Layered White Jade Pagoda, and that utterly fantastical wind, fire, thunder, and lightning—it didn’t seem like anything that could happen in this world.

Could there really be a White Jade Capital up in the heavens?

“Why the sudden question?” Wu Yinyu asked.

“Just curious,” Yu Zezhi said, stroking Yu Suhan’s head. Her voice was mild. “After all, two pieces of jade that are completely identical could be called a rarity under heaven. And Ms. Wu’s ‘affinity at first sight’ is quite unique enough.”

The so-called uniqueness was perhaps precisely because no one else had bid.

A mere piece of Red Jade, with a starting bid high enough to seem like they were searching for a fool to fleece. Perhaps even the Cuihui Eight Treasures Pavilion hadn’t expected anyone to ring the bell.

Wu Yinyu had come downstairs empty-handed, but now she propped up her arm, taking the posture of holding a smoking pipe. “When I use a pipe, they also say I’m unique.”

“When we met that day at the Shengxian Treasure Shop, I thought you had time-traveled here from the past.” Yu Zezhi’s gaze and tone held neither praise nor censure—just a plain, ordinary observation.

Wu Yinyu’s gaze fixed, her breath catching slightly for a moment. Quickly, she lifted the hem of her qipao and asked, “Because of the qipao and the pipe?”

“Hm?” Yu Zezhi first let out a noncommittal nasal hum, as if confused, and only then did she somewhat absently give another “Mm.”

A very peculiar feeling rose in Wu Yinyu’s heart. It seemed like this person was telling the truth.

She joked, “If only that were the case. Maybe I could even travel back, see exactly who carved those two pieces of jade, and also meet that resident who visited twenty-three years ago.”

The driver arrived quickly, honking the horn outside the gate.

Yu Zezhi got Yu Suhan into the car, but she herself stood outside for a moment longer by the door. “Ms. Wu, what if someone really did come from the past? Someone who didn’t drink the Oblivion Brew, so even after crossing the Two-World Sea, could clearly remember their past life?”

The Oblivion Brew, that was what the common folk called Meng Po’s Soup.

Wu Yinyu’s eyes widened slightly. “Are you implying that if I’m not such a person, I should go find one who is?”

Yu Zezhi, with her usual straight-faced seriousness, said, “Just a joke.”

This was beyond joking. If the underground Judges heard this, she might be convicted of spreading rumors. Because if such a person truly existed, it would mean the Judges and Impermanence Envoys had been derelict in their duties.

“Can you joke about this?” Wu Yinyu scoffed lightly. “That person you mentioned… it wouldn’t be you, would it?”

Leaning on the car door, Yu Zezhi said, “Of course, when I joke, I don’t make myself the subject. Remembering past events isn’t something good.”

Wu Yinyu watched Yu Zezhi get into the car, watched it drive into the distance, before turning and walking back inside.

She went upstairs and took out the manila envelope containing the old photographs. A sudden, powerful urge to visit Jadeite Garden arose. Regardless of whether Song Youzhi was willing to see her, she had to ask about the past.

Yu Zezhi was undeniably deeply connected to the woman who had visited the Wu family twenty-three years ago. Unraveling that mystery might reveal the origin of the Ink Qi.

This answer also concerned Wu Yinyu herself. That face of hers, which didn’t resemble any other Wu family member in the slightest, had to have an explanation.

She had a premonition: perhaps she really had come from the past. She just didn’t know how far back “the past” would have to be for someone to have seen the heavenly White Jade Capital.

Taking the envelope with her, Wu Yinyu drove to Jadeite Garden. The security guard there recognized her and opened the gate directly to let her in.

The sound of piano music drifted from the house. The one playing could only be Song Youzhi.

After parking the car, Wu Yinyu stood in the courtyard clutching the envelope for a long time. Only when the piano music stopped did she walk over and ring the doorbell.

Visitors rarely came here. Song Youzhi assumed it was Wu Wanying arriving, so she opened the door without even asking.

The instant she saw who was outside, a faint look of terror flickered in her eyes. Hastily, she tried to slam the door shut again.

A dong sound came from inside, as if Song Youzhi had fallen.

Song Youzhi’s legs were not good; she’d likely been frightened and taken a tumble.

But Song Youzhi had forgotten one thing: Wu Yinyu had a key.