Chapter 59: Premeditated (Part 2)
The community gate was open, and a strong security guard was sitting outside the security booth. He was drenched, holding an umbrella in his hand, and his eyes were eagerly looking outside the community. When he saw Sang Jing and the others, it was as if he hadn’t seen them.
“You child, I told you not to eat things from outside. You just wouldn’t listen. Now you’ve gotten sick. Not only does it cost money, but it also delays your studies!”
“Mom, don’t say it. I don’t feel well.”
“You don’t feel well? You know you don’t feel well now. Why didn’t you feel unwell when you were eating! Let’s go. After the shot, I’ll send you back to school.”
“…Oh.”
At the community entrance, a mother and daughter were walking in with an umbrella.
Sang Jing reached out her hand. The cold rain fell on her hand, and it was strangely sticky.
Looking up, the sky was overcast. Dark, heavy clouds pressed down on the community buildings, like a huge cage covering the entire community.
Cui Wangshu shivered. “So cold.”
She reached out and rubbed her arms, hugging herself tightly.
Sang Jing pulled her over and secretly stuffed a talisman into her hand.
The moment Cui Wangshu got the talisman, she felt the cold that had seeped into her bones recede.
“Sang Sang, this…?”
“Shh. This place is full of baleful energy. They are all ghosts with deep resentment. You now have two talismans on you. One to cover up your living qi, and one to avoid the resentment. Now, in the eyes of these ghosts, we are also ghosts.”
Cui Wangshu’s fingers immediately tightened.
They, they had entered a den of fierce ghosts.
In her peripheral vision, the mother and daughter walked over. The little girl stared at them, and the woman also looked over. She said nonchalantly, “Just moved in?”
Sang Jing pulled Xie Yu in front of her and touched the back of her hand.
She and Cui Wangshu were both living people. If they spoke, they would leak their living qi.
Xie Yu understood her meaning, grabbed her hand, and held it. She smiled at the woman and said, “Yes, we came with our little sister.”
The woman looked at their intimate posture and tightly held hands, and also at Cui Wangshu beside them.
She thought they were a newlywed couple with their little sister.
“That’s great. Which floor do you live on? The feng shui of our community is good. They had someone look at it when it was being built. It’s a blessed land.”
After the woman finished speaking, a gust of wind blew, cold, damp, and with rain.
Sang Jing smiled at her.
The wind and water were indeed good.
Xie Yu replied casually, “We live on the seventh floor. Yes, we also moved here because we heard this place is good.”
The woman was surprised. “The seventh floor? What a coincidence? It’s the one at the very end, right? You came just as that family left.”
Sang Jing squeezed Xie Yu’s hand and smiled at her.
You’re really good at talking.
After Xie Yu exchanged a few more words with the woman, the woman took her child to the community’s medical room.
Sang Jing pulled her hand back.
Xie Yu looked at her, put her arm on her shoulder, and poked her cheek. “It’s good that I didn’t say we were in her house.”
Sang Jing moved her shoulder and pushed her down.
“Sang, Sang Sang…” Cui Wangshu stuttered a little. “The person we’re looking for, is she here?”
Just as she finished speaking, Sang Jing’s phone vibrated.
She glanced at it. It was a call from Ying Laishi.
Xie Yu smiled. “Xiao Cui, your mouth has been blessed.”
However, the next second, she couldn’t smile anymore.
“Sang Jing, where are you? The one who sent you the message wasn’t me, and the one who linked up on the livestream wasn’t me either. Don’t believe it,” Ying Laishi’s voice was urgent.
Xie Yu: “…”
Are you kidding me?
Sang Jing also frowned, then heard Ying Laishi say again, “I found a powerful Celestial Master. She said she can solve the talisman on Shen Jue’s back. I took Shen Jue over a few days ago, to a temple. That person said she needed to meditate for three days. During these three days, Shen Jue and I were not in the same room. I just got my phone and saw the livestream tonight online. Sang Jing, that wasn’t me.”
Impossible.
Sang Jing had almost no hesitation. That was her teacher’s talisman. No one could break it except her teacher.
“You’ve been deceived.”
“Huh?”
“Go and find Shen Jue first. If you have any news, don’t call. Just send a message. It’s not convenient for me here.”
Sang Jing quickly finished and hung up the phone.
“What’s going on?” Xie Yu asked.
The corners of Sang Jing’s lips curled up, her dimples faintly visible. “It’s obvious that someone deliberately led us here.”
Soon, a message came from Ying Laishi.
Shen Jue was missing.
“Then, then what should we do? We can’t get out?” Cui Wangshu said and had already sent a message to Bei Shan.
“Team Leader, help!!!”
Sang Jing looked at the tall building. “Since we’re here, let’s go in and take a look.”
Just as Sang Jing finished speaking, Xie Yu hugged her arm and said very righteously, “I’m scared.”
Cui Wangshu silently looked at Sang Jing’s other arm and in the end, didn’t dare to reach out.
There was only one solitary building in the community, with thirty-three floors and thirteen households on each floor.
The moment they stepped into the building, the cold feeling came again, drilling through their skin and into their bones.
If it weren’t for the talisman suppressing it, Cui Wangshu had no doubt that it could freeze a person to death in here.
Xie Yu took a deep breath and couldn’t help but sigh. “So comfortable.”
Cui Wangshu glanced at her.
As expected, a ghost is comfortable in a ghost’s nest.
“Incense?” Sang Jing twitched her nose.
She wasn’t mistaken. It was the smell of incense, and it was on the first floor.
Sang Jing pinched something in her pocket, her fingers stained with a little incense ash. She held up her hand, and the incense ash floated in the air. The faint smell of incense gradually took shape, extending in wisps to the other end of the corridor.
“Let’s go.”
Sang Jing followed, crushing the incense ash as she went. After she passed, the incense ash burned cleanly, leaving no trace.
The door at the end of the corridor was closed. Sang Jing placed her hand on the door and felt a metaphysical art.
There was a Celestial Master inside.
“Knock, knock, knock—” Sang Jing raised her hand and knocked on the door.
No answer from inside.
She squatted down again, a talisman between her fingers, and passed it through the crack in the door.
When Sang Jing stood up, the door opened a crack. The room was pitch black. Sang Jing saw a pair of bloodshot eyes. Blood mixed with incense ash covered her face, so that at first glance, Sang Jing didn’t recognize her.
“Sang Jing!” the person in the door said in pleasant surprise.
Cui Wangshu recognized the voice. “Team Leader!?”
Bei Shan opened the door a little wider and saw Cui Wangshu. She frowned and reprimanded, “Why are you here? You’re so bold. You dare to come to any place!?”
Cui Wangshu lowered her head and took the scolding without a word.
“Come in quickly,” Bei Shan waved, then looked cautiously at the corridor.
After they all went in, Bei Shan turned on the light. Sang Jing and the others who had just come in saw another person in the room.
Song Zhiwei.
Song Zhiwei was lying weakly on the table, blood and incense ash mixed together, streaming from her seven orifices.
Her gaze was fixed on Xie Yu beside Sang Jing. She slowly sat up, her lips moving. “Xie… Xie Yu, you’re not dead, are you?”
Yu, which Yu?
Sang Jing had a gut feeling that the name Song Zhiwei was saying was not Xie Yu.
Bei Shan let out a long sigh of relief. “It’s not your time to die. Fortunately, Sang Jing, you’re here.”
Sang Jing looked at Bei Shan’s disheveled appearance. “What happened to you guys?”
Bei Shan tilted her chin at Song Zhiwei. “I followed her here. Who knew I would stumble into this ghostly place? I don’t know how so much resentment has gathered. In the latter half of the night, there are ghostly cries, and even talismans can’t hold them off.”
Sang Jing: “Then what is she doing in this place?”
Bei Shan rolled her eyes. “Who knows? She won’t say no matter how I ask. I was almost caught by a little ghost trying to save her.”
Xie Yu walked to Song Zhiwei and bent down. “What did you just call me?”
Song Zhiwei retreated in fear. She looked at Xie Yu’s face, her breathing rapid and heavy. “Xie, Xie Yu.”
“Which Yu?”
“Holding a jade and embracing gold.”
Xie Yu, Xie Yu.
When she had brought Xie Yu back, the thing she remembered most clearly was her own name.
But why would Song Zhiwei say her name was Xie Yu?
A flash of inspiration. Sang Jing thought of the memory fragment Xie Yu had remembered before.
Besides her, there was another child in their family, and Xie Yu’s mother doted on that child. Could that child be Xie Yu?
Xie Yu’s prosperous destiny, so outstanding yet not valued. Her early death with an unclear cause, and ‘Encounter’ being impersonated.
She had her own name and identity, but she had to live under the name “Xie Yu.”
An absurd idea formed in Sang Jing’s heart. She half-lowered her eyelashes, the emotions in her eyes as gloomy as the dark clouds above this building.
Swapping fates…
The air pressure around them suddenly dropped. Even Cui Wangshu noticed that her mood was not right. She didn’t dare to make a sound and slowly moved to her team leader’s side.
Bei Shan waved her hand at Sang Jing. “Sang Jing? What’s wrong with you?”
Sang Jing looked up at her and slowly calmed down. “Nothing.”
With that, she walked to Song Zhiwei and asked her, “Why did you go hiking that day? What did you do while hiking? Did you know from the beginning that something would happen to Xie Yu?”
Sang Jing’s speech was faster than usual, and her voice was also much colder and harder.
Xie Yu, at the side, clearly felt the change in her attitude.
Song Zhiwei’s eyes reddened, and she was about to cry.
Seeing this, Bei Shan quickly stopped her. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t cry. If your tears wash away this incense ash and your blood qi leaks out, the ghosts outside will tear you apart and eat you.”
Song Zhiwei trembled in fear and held back her tears. “I… I, I’m sorry!”
She suddenly turned and knelt down to Xie Yu. Xie Yu subconsciously went to pull her up but was stopped by Sang Jing and received Song Zhiwei’s kneel.
Song Zhiwei knelt and said, “I’m sorry. But I was really short of money. She gave me a lot of money, enough for me to pay for my medical expenses. She only asked me to take you to the pavilion on the mountain. I… I didn’t know…”
“She? Who is she?” Sang Jing asked.
Song Zhiwei shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Sang Jing seemed to have laughed out of anger. “You don’t know who she is, and you dared to listen to her and take someone to the mountain? If something happened, could you take responsibility…”
No, Xie Yu was already dead. Something had already happened.
“I had no choice. I really had no choice!” Song Zhiwei still couldn’t help but cry. She bent down and kowtowed to Xie Yu. “I’m sorry. I’ll atone for my sin.”
Thinking of what Bei Shan had just said, Sang Jing raised her leg and blocked her head, hooking her leg and making her fall to the side.
Xie Yu looked at her and pursed her lips.
So the hiking was not a friendly get-together, but premeditated.
“Then why are you here?”
Song Zhiwei laughed self-deprecatingly, with tears in her eyes. “To find my little sister. I did something against my conscience to treat my little sister’s illness, but she still died. I didn’t even get to see her one last time. Someone told me that I could see my little sister here, so I came.”
Hearing this, Bei Shan secretly gritted her teeth.
Silly girl, you believe everything anyone says.
Sang Jing didn’t ask anymore. Her gaze moved to Xie Yu.
Xie Yu was silently looking down, her thoughts unknown.
“You… remembered?” Sang Jing walked to Xie Yu’s side and asked hesitantly.
Xie Yu’s eyes were filled with something Sang Jing couldn’t understand, which made her heart ache and feel a strange discomfort.
The person and the ghost looked at each other for a while. In the end, Xie Yu shook her head and gave her a smile. “No.”
