Chapter 62

Qi Xu’s roommates were particularly excited. When they talked about these things, their faces were even brimming with interest. She had forgotten that everyone in their dorm had similar personalities. They were all very interested in horror movies, horror games, and the like.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been tricked by the Ghost Bride into the Ghost House before, turning into hostages to check and balance Qi Xu.

At that moment, Qi Xu always felt that she probably shouldn’t have erased other people’s memories. Look, after erasing the memories, her roommates had completely forgotten what happened with the Ghost Bride and were once again particularly interested in all these ghostly things.

Qi Xu didn’t make a sound, not wanting to join the conversation at all.

She always had a premonition that if these strange things appeared around her, they were most likely coming for her.

But since Qi Xu wasn’t speaking, her roommates were: “By the way, that girl from the neighboring department before—heard her grades dropped a lot. Later, she posted on the school forum saying that she picked up a red envelope before the exam. When she opened it these past few days, it said it wanted to borrow her scores. There was only a pathetic fifty cents inside the red envelope, but it borrowed 100 points from her. She had five subjects, each dropping 20 points from before. In the end, she didn’t even get the scholarship last semester.”

“Was the person who borrowed the scores found out?”

“Nope. University grades are all pretty normal, up and down. The scholarship winners are still those same people, with maybe a few rotations at most. But last semester’s scholarship list was still that group, so it might not be someone gunning for the scholarship who did it. Maybe some slacker borrowed scores to pass.”

Qi Xu listened to them chat for a while before her roommates said mysteriously again, “Lately, with the freshmen in military training, the student union has been patrolling to keep order on the sports field. Just the day before yesterday, they found several red envelopes in the grove next to the sports field. All of them said they wanted to borrow lives.”

At the mention of this, the other two roommates perked up too. “No way, who’s that malicious?”

“One red envelope for 200 bucks, but it wants 20 years of lifespan. It was a girl who picked it up. When she saw that red envelope, she just froze. She didn’t go to class yesterday and dragged her roommates to a nearby temple, directly tossing that red envelope into the merit box.”

Qi Xu couldn’t help but give a thumbs up. “Impressive.”

That girl was ruthless too. Upon receiving the life-borrowing red envelope, instead of tormenting herself endlessly, she just pushed it all away. One red envelope for 200, and according to her roommates, she had picked up five in total—that was 100 years of lifespan. She handed them all over to the Bodhisattva, letting that life-borrowing ghost go tussle with the Bodhisattva.

There were often posts on the forum saying that investigators patrolled temples, Taoist temples, and such places frequently. Because ordinary folks, if they encountered unscientific things, would easily pin their hopes on gods and Buddhas. They would go in to pray and then drag the Daoists and monks aside to vent.

Investigators patrolled often and could gather some intel, then follow the trail to deal with the ghosts. So… throwing that red envelope into the merit box meant it would be discovered by the monks and reported to the Spiritual Countermeasures Bureau, of course. The girl’s approach was completely correct.

Of course, now that Qi Xu knew about it, there was an even more convenient and quick way.

She directly pulled out her phone and texted the Vice Bureau Chief, telling her about the matter. The Vice Bureau Chief would absolutely not let it slide. Even the little ghosts that Qi Xu reported, she would arrange for investigators to handle. More so for something this big.

The Vice Bureau Chief indeed took it very seriously and told Qi Xu to investigate first.

“…”

When Qi Xu received the order, she fell silent. Actually, the Vice Bureau Chief hadn’t done anything wrong. Qi Xu was an investigator too, on the public payroll. Since she was getting paid, solving problems for the organization was normal. Moreover, the Vice Bureau Chief hadn’t forced her; she didn’t make Qi Xu go solo and resolve it all by herself. She just wanted Qi Xu to gather some intel before other investigators took over.

“Has that girl come back now?” Qi Xu received the order and changed her earlier attitude of just listening without responding. She directly asked.

“She has.”

“Who is it? Which class?”

They gossiped without naming names usually, but since Qi Xu asked, her roommates wouldn’t hold back. She said cautiously, even lowering her voice. “I’ll tell you guys, but you absolutely can’t say it outside.” From her roommate’s mouth, Qi Xu learned the girl’s name.

Same year as them, called Rao Yun, living in the dorm building next door. After hearing this, Qi Xu got up from her chair. It was lunchtime nap time right then; normally, Qi Xu would sleep on her dorm bed for a bit. Seeing Qi Xu head out, her roommates were a bit surprised. “Where are you going?”

“To the library.”

Qi Xu explained briefly and headed straight to the neighboring dorm building. On the way, she messaged a classmate she knew from the student union to ask for Rao Yun’s dorm number.

At the bottom of the dorm building, Qi Xu was a girl. Though her face was unfamiliar, she looked every bit the student. She pretended to have forgotten her access card and coquettishly chatted with the dorm auntie for a good while. The auntie scolded Qi Xu a bit but still let her in.

A cute and pretty girl had privileges even among girls. Actually, the auntie knew Qi Xu wasn’t from their building; otherwise, with such a pretty young lady coming and going every day, how could the auntie not recognize her?

Qi Xu followed the dorm number her friend gave and hurried upstairs. She was fast and soon reached the dorm door. But after knocking, she couldn’t help but think—what if no one was in? Maybe the person was especially studious and diligent, and at this time, she was in the library?

She knocked for a while with no response inside, and Qi Xu really thought no one was there. Just as she turned to leave, she suddenly saw two girls standing prettily behind her. “Who are you looking for?”

Qi Xu said Rao Yun’s name, and her two roommates exchanged glances. “She’s in, but her condition isn’t great. She took sick leave this morning and didn’t go to class.” As they spoke, they opened the door. Once inside, they called out, “Yunyun, someone here for you. Is it your friend?”

In the middle of the day, the whole dorm was dim. The south-facing window curtains were drawn tight, not letting in a bit of sunlight. Their school dorms were standard bunk beds with desks below. All four upper bunks had curtains, but three were open, with only one closed tight.

No need to say—that one was Rao Yun’s.

From the looks of it, Rao Yun’s situation wasn’t good at all. It wasn’t as nonchalant as Qi Xu’s roommates had described; clearly, she had been tormented badly by the life-borrowing red envelopes. Hearing someone had come to see her, Rao Yun finally unzipped from the upper bunk and poked her head out.

Seeing her face, Qi Xu was startled. It was the kind of look completely devoid of energy, with thick dark circles like she’d done smoky makeup. That appearance was even more ghostly than Qi Xu’s ghost body.

Rao Yun looked Qi Xu up and down, puzzled. “I don’t know you.”

Qi Xu directly stated her purpose. “It’s like this—I heard you got a life-borrowing red envelope…” At those four words, Rao Yun clearly shuddered. Seeing her like that, Qi Xu knew she was very scared.

To ease her fear, Qi Xu started making things up. “Actually, my family does ghost hunting as Daoists. We’ve been in the exorcism business for many years. I was pretty shocked to hear this kind of thing appeared in school. I don’t want other classmates to get harmed by it.”

She thought for a moment, then pulled out the peace talisman Xia Zhiming had given her from her bag. Grabbing the ladder, she stepped up and held it right up to Rao Yun. “Here for you—this is a peace talisman, super effective! It can protect you!” Finally, Qi Xu added, “It’s a gift, no charge.”

Qi Xu acted pretty impulsively, thrusting the peace talisman forward on her own and acting all chummy like this. But her face was really pretty—that was true.

Pretty people had a natural persuasiveness in their actions, making it seem real. Of course, many people instinctively thought: She’s this good-looking, so she wouldn’t come to scam me, right? Plus, Rao Yun and Qi Xu were both girls, so they naturally felt the other would be easy to get along with.

Though Rao Yun found Qi Xu bubbly and over-the-top, seeing the peace talisman held high in her earnest hand and Qi Xu’s smiling face, she tentatively took the peace talisman from her hand.

The moment the peace talisman touched her hand, Rao Yun wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but she felt a soft golden light flash over it. Immediately after, she felt her whole body lighten up, much more comfortable. The dark cloud that had been hanging over Rao Yun’s head for days faded a lot.

She widened her eyes in surprise. This peace talisman really worked?

Her thoughts were written all over her face, and Qi Xu saw it clearly. She felt a bit smug inside. Of course it worked—who made it? This was personally crafted by Xia Zhiming! At its strongest, it could even take down a little ghost outright! Not to mention Rao Yun just had some yin energy clinging to her.

Qi Xu had been training lately. Though she hadn’t invented a way to freely switch between human and ghost body yet, she had gained her own insights into detecting yin energy. Rao Yun feeling like a dark cloud was over her head was spot on—yin energy pressing down would definitely make her whole body uncomfortable, head heavy.

With the peace talisman on, it immediately dispersed the yin energy on her.

Rao Yun savored the feeling of relief for a moment, looking at Qi Xu with disbelief in her eyes. “How did you do that? I really feel much lighter…”

Realizing Qi Xu had real skills, Rao Yun wasn’t so resistant to talking to her anymore. Her two roommates saw Rao Yun finally willing to get down and exchanged glances, deciding to leave the space to Qi Xu and Rao Yun. They made excuses and left, leaving just Qi Xu and Rao Yun.

Qi Xu first pulled open the curtains, then sat face-to-face with Rao Yun. Rao Yun recounted what happened that day, mostly matching what Qi Xu’s roommates had said.

But there was one thing her roommates didn’t know…

“Actually, besides the five red envelopes I picked up that day, I found more red envelopes later.” At this point, Rao Yun broke down a bit. “Every night, no matter where I am, I find a red envelope in my pocket, on my desk, in my backpack, even clipped in the folds of my notebook.”