Chapter 16: Loose Lips Summon Ghosts Part 1

Wang Ya knew she had guessed correctly. The person who had died violently in the house lay dead on the sofa.

After a good while, Wang Ya heard the Landlord murmur, “So, are you still renting or not?” She noticed the Landlord glancing toward the sofa, her face showing fear mixed with something else.

Wang Ya said, “I’ll rent it, but no rent increase.” She paused and asked, “Who was the one who died in the house to you?” After asking, she noticed the three people in the room looking at her with strange expressions and faces. She asked, “What’s with those looks? Do I have something on my face?”

To close this deal, what could the two agents say?

The Landlord spoke up: “It was my younger brother.”

Wang Ya nodded lightly and said “Oh.” She reached for the contract on the coffee table, already filled out by the agents, signed it, and handed it to the Landlord.

The Landlord’s hands trembled as she folded the contract. She held it and asked, “Miss Wang, do you know a bit about yin-yang matters?”

Wang Ya hummed in affirmation and said, “I’ve been learning this since I was little. Otherwise, how would I dare rent your house?”

The Landlord suddenly seemed excited yet suspicious—after all, Wang Ya was too young. She looked Wang Ya over again and again, then pulled out her phone to call someone. She shouted excitedly, “Hubby, the one renting my brother’s house is a little sister who knows yin-yang stuff! She opened her mouth and said my brother died on the sofa. Hubby, come over quick…”

Wang Ya had sharp ears, and she stood close to the Landlord, so she heard the voice on the phone clearly.

The Landlord wanted to hire Wang Ya to perform Soul Delivery for her brother. The Landlord’s husband suspected Wang Ya was a con artist who had scouted their family’s situation in the neighborhood to scam money and told the Landlord to just rent out the house. The Landlord refused, saying it was her brother who had died—the house now belonged to her. She was willing to spend some money to deliver his soul and argued that the haunted house was hard to rent or sell anyway. Her husband hung up, she called again, and finally he turned off his phone. Furious, the Landlord made the decision herself: she hired Wang Ya to deliver her brother’s soul and even offered to waive three months’ rent if Wang Ya succeeded.

Wang Ya did the math—three months’ rent was just over four thousand yuan. Did they think four thousand-plus could hire her? But then she thought, if the Landlord didn’t waive it, she’d still have to deliver this ghost to live here anyway! Saving three months’ rent was three months. So Wang Ya nodded and agreed. She told the Landlord to buy some Incense, Yellow Paper, Cinnabar, and such, then come back after sunset. She added, “If your husband thinks I’m a scammer, have him come along and see for himself.”

The Landlord agreed readily.

Wang Ya wanted to move in that afternoon. Her hotel was expensive—two nights there equaled a month’s rent, and it pained her to stay.

The lease was for six months minimum, so Wang Ya paid three months’ rent upfront for half a year.

The Landlord signed the contract briskly, collected the rent, and paid the agents. If Wang Ya could deliver her brother, she’d resolve a major worry—the house wouldn’t be haunted anymore, easier to rent or sell, and the money would be well worth it. If Wang Ya failed, she’d naturally move out, no refund on rent, and after deducting the one month’s fee to the agents, the Landlord would pocket two months’ rent for free.

Wang Ya got the keys and left with the Landlord and agents. She went back to the hotel, packed her luggage, checked out, and moved into the newly rented house. She left her bags at the door and started cleaning.

Though haunted, the house wasn’t dirty. She cleared out the trash and cardboard boxes left by previous tenants, wiped the dust, mopped the floor, and it was quite clean.

Exorcising ghosts worked day or night, but daytime was better. Soul Delivery, however, was best at night—daytime yang energy was heavy, ghosts were yin, and under the sun, weaker ones dispersed into smoke. No point in delivering then!

Just as night fell, shortly after Wang Ya finished mopping, she was hanging clothes in the closet when she got a call from the Landlord saying they were downstairs and asking if she was home. Wang Ya told her to come straight up, then hung up and continued hanging clothes. Suddenly, she sensed something off in the living room—Yin Qi thickened abruptly, accompanied by footsteps. She set down the clothes and peeked into the living room. There sat a man in a white shirt, black trousers, and buzz-cut hair on the sofa. He looked young, maybe twenties or thirties, dressed like an office worker. Apart from the heavy Yin Qi, slightly greenish face, and no feet under his pant legs, he looked almost human. It was a fully formed ghost—slightly fierce! That was Wang Ya’s assessment, of course, compared to ordinary ghosts. It was nothing next to the cultivated Ancient Old Ghost at Zheng Yanxia’s Construction Site.