“Then what do you want?”
Fu Sang touched Qi Changying’s cheek, gently stroking his lips with his fingertip before putting his fingertip inside and pressing it against the sharp tip of his tooth.
“How about you kiill me, eliminate harm for the people, and save yourself from this sea of suffering?”
Fu Sang gave a soft laugh. Before Qi Changying could answer, he rejected the suggestion himself:
“But not now. Bear with it.”
“Why?” Qi Changying asked, following his words.
“Because I still have a great grudge that hasn’t been avenged. You don’t make the list for now.”
Fu Sang pushed him away, lowered his head, and used his fingertip to wipe away the trace of blood seeping from the tooth mark on his side before straightening his clothes.
“…” Qi Changying frowned slightly and looked up at him:
“Can you not take revenge?”
“?” Fu Sang scoffed, “You hate me that much? Are you so eager to kill me that you can’t even wait this little while?”
“I…”
What Qi Changying instinctively wanted to say was actually, “I don’t hate you.”
But clearly, this was not the answer Fu Sang wanted.
Before speaking, he suddenly remembered that the last time he and Fu Sang had talked about this, Fu Sang was not happy at all.
Not only was he unhappy, he became even angrier, constantly using more malicious words and actions to provoke and hurt him, pushing their conflict to the highest point several times until it completely erupted.
If such an argument could truly make Fu Sang happy, then so be it. But clearly it could not. He suffered too, and afterward, he could only use self-harm to restore his calm.
Or perhaps Fu Sang’s happiness itself could only be born alongside pain. He had no way to feel happy and content like ordinary people over some relaxed and peaceful matters. Only extremely twisted conflicts and pain could bring him pleasure.
But Qi Changying felt that this was not right.
People could not, or at least should not, live in such an extreme, precarious way.
He tried to change Fu Sang, trying to make him separate positive emotions from negative feelings, trying to bring his cognition back onto the right track.
But clearly, he overestimated himself. He could not influence Fu Sang in the slightest.
On the contrary, everything he had done was making Fu Sang even more pained and sharp.
Thus, Qi Changying could not help beginning to reflect on whether his choice had been right or wrong, and whether he should never have meddled in this matter from the beginning.
Was he really wrong to try to cross the boundary of the identity of “servant” or “pet” that Fu Sang had defined for him?
At this point, he wanted to tell Fu Sang the truth. He wanted to say that he did not hate him and would not hate him. But he thought that if Fu Sang heard these words, perhaps he would take them as a provocation, perhaps they would ignite an even deeper anger and desire to win, and then they would continue the cycle of hurting others and themselves like last night, tormenting each other like this forever.
But what if he followed Fu Sang’s meaning and said that he hated him?
Qi Changying was not good at lying, and he would not lie to Fu Sang.
In the end, he did not know how to answer, so he could only choose silence.
Qi Changying lowered his eyes and turned his head away.
In Fu Sang’s eyes, this became a kind of acknowledgment.
Qi Changying could not bring himself to say such a sharp word as “hate.”
It was normal for him to remain silent.
Unable to say exactly what he was feeling, Fu Sang gave a soft scoff:
“If you can’t wait, you’ll have to wait anyway.”
Qi Changying sighed softly:
“…Miss Huo said before that Heaven has its own destiny, and you cannot rashly interfere in another person’s karma. If you personally collect this debt, you will also pay an equal price. It’s too much of a loss, Fu Sang.”
“?” Fu Sang seemed to have heard some enormous joke:
“Big Mouth… Did she tell you that regardless of whether there is a price to pay, I’m simply the kind of person who will use any means necessary to achieve my goal? I’ve lived until now just to make him suffer even more terribly.”
“…Then do you hate me too?”
“…”
Suddenly asked such a question, Fu Sang was slightly stunned.
He only nodded instinctively:
“Yeah.”
After saying this, he paused for a moment, probably to emphasize something to Qi Changying or to himself, then added:
“Otherwise?”
“Then you…”
Qi Changying said one word, pursed his lips lightly, and did not continue.
During the silence, Fu Sang could not help guessing what he had originally wanted to say.
‘Then you also want to torture me like you will torture Zhuge Lin?’
‘Then how do you want me to die?’
‘Then you…’
“Then, do you still want me to kiss you?”
“…”
Fu Sang’s eyes flickered slightly.
When he came back to his senses, he raised his hand and hooked one of the long strands of Qi Changying’s hair with his fingertip, the back of his finger gently brushing against his cheek:
“That doesn’t stop me from accepting your services.”
‘What a strange person and ghost.’ When they were close, Fu Sang thought this.
They clearly hated each other. Clearly, the night before, they had been tormenting each other as though they wanted to live or die together. Clearly, they had wished for the other to die or simply disappear on the spot, yet in the blink of an eye, they could kiss each other again.
But there should be nothing wrong with this. Although their actions looked ambiguous, Fu Sang knew very clearly that this was merely a form of entertainment for him and did not represent any feelings or relationship.
For some reason, he could always obtain what he wanted from Qi Changying.
Qi Changying’s hand slipped beneath Fu Sang’s clothes, unconsciously and gently touching the ring of tooth marks he had bitten into his side.
Then it touched his warm abdomen, gently brushing over the slightly raised old scars on his body.
“Fuck…”
Fu Sang was straddling Qi Changying’s legs, and a brief sound escaped between his teeth as he breathed.
He gritted his teeth and threatened:
“If you don’t want to solve it for me with your mouth again, then stop touching me randomly.”
Qi Changying’s movements stopped.
He hesitated before withdrawing his hand, lowered his eyes, and wanted to move closer again to Fu Sang’s warm breath. But just as the two were about to touch again, a sharp scream suddenly came from the corridor.
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, his thoughts briefly clearing. He lifted his head slightly and listened.
The voice sounded like a child. The screams came from the end of the hotel corridor, and as he cried and shouted, he ran closer and closer to them.
Realizing this, Fu Sang pushed Qi Changying away, straightened his clothes, quickly walked to the entrance, and pulled open the door.
Someone stumbled heavily right outside his door, and the shouting abruptly stopped.
The guests on both sides of the corridor were startled by the sound and poked their heads out curiously. Among them were Huo Wei and Zhuge Qianyi, who were staying next door to Fu Sang.
“Dad! Dad, ahhh!! There’s a ghost, Dad!!!”
After opening the door, Fu Sang finally heard the child’s muffled shouting clearly.
He was a boy around twelve or thirteen years old. After running and falling onto the carpet in the hotel corridor, he did not get back up.
He covered both his eyes tightly, as if facing tremendous fear, and desperately moved backward, desperately trying to escape this unsettling place.
A middle-aged man rushed out from the room at the end of the corridor. While apologizing to the startled guests, he hurried back to the child’s side, shielding him with his body and repeatedly comforting him:
“It’s okay, it’s okay…”
Fu Sang exchanged a glance with Huo Wei, signaling her to ask about the situation. He then turned his face away and raised his hand to rub some blood from the bite wound at the corner of Qi Changying’s lips.
He walked toward the room where the man and child were staying, while raising his hand and smearing that bit of cold blood onto the corner of his eye.
The familiar sting invaded his left eye. Fu Sang frowned slightly and closed his eyes to endure the pain. When he reached the man’s wide-open room door, he opened them again…
His vision seemed to have been covered by a thin layer of black gauze, but it soon became clear again.
It seemed that the boy saying “there’s a ghost” was not an illusion.
Because the room was indeed filled with gray-black yin energy.
Fu Sang took a deep sniff and discovered that this ghost’s level was surprisingly not low.
It was at least fourth rank. It was not impossible for it to be a sixth-rank Vermillion Nightmare.
Besides that… there was something else familiar in this scent.
This successfully aroused his interest.
“Holy crap…”
Zhuge Qianyi, who had followed him over to watch the excitement, also saw the scene inside the room clearly. She gave a small gasp:
“There really is a ghost! So scary…”
“?” Fu Sang glanced at her without commenting.
Over there, the boy had already stopped screaming under his father’s comfort. He only kept crying and trembling.
Huo Wei was asking about the situation nearby, while the other guests who had opened their doors and poked their heads out heard that they were shouting “ghost” and probably thought the child had some mental problem. Seeing that his family was already handling it, they all withdrew their curiosity and closed their doors.
“Come on, let’s go inside first. Xiao Bei, let’s go inside first…”
The man looked extremely exhausted. Deep wrinkles and dark circles hung on his face, and he had not trimmed his beard in a long time. His whole appearance looked dejected and disheveled.
Hearing him say “go back to the room,” Xiao Bei frantically shook his head, his entire body filled with resistance.
Huo Wei was always good at spotting opportunities. She hurriedly said:
“…Uncle, if there’s something unclean in your room, why don’t you let the child come to my room to calm down first? I just heard him shouting ‘there’s a ghost.’ Believe me, this is what I do. Maybe I can help you.”
The man seemed somewhat dazed. After hesitating, he slowly nodded.
Seeing this, Huo Wei quickly supported him and led the father and son toward her room. Before entering, she even waved at Fu Sang and the others, meaning that the task assigned by the organization had been successfully completed and was ready for inspection at any time.
“There is a ghost, Dad. She came to find me again, Dad…”
Only after entering Huo Wei’s room did Xiao Bei finally seem to regain a trace of security, and he burst into tears with red eyes.
He was probably really frightened, his entire body curled up on the sofa and trembled.
The man’s eyes were filled with red blood vessels, and he looked as though he had not rested for a very long time.
He sighed:
“Then Dad will take you somewhere else to stay. Okay? We’ll leave right now…?”
“It’s useless, it’s useless, Dad. She’s latched onto me. She’ll find me again. No matter how far we run, it won’t be useful…”
Xiao Bei raised his hand to wipe away his tears. In the movement, Fu Sang caught sight of what seemed to be a dark mark beneath his sleeve.
He raised an eyebrow, reached out, grabbed Xiao Bei’s wrist, and without saying anything, immediately pulled up his sleeve.
Xiao Bei instinctively struggled, but failed, so he did not continue struggling and allowed Fu Sang to hold his wrist, revealing the bluish-purple bruises covering his forearm.
“Did the ghost do this?” Fu Sang asked.
Xiao Bei nodded through his tears.
“How did she do it?”
“I wanted to run, but she grabbed my arm. I couldn’t shake her off, so…”
Xiao Bei sobbed and could not form a complete sentence.
“That is quite a powerful ghost. If she wanted your life, you absolutely wouldn’t have survived until now, and the injuries you suffered would definitely be more than these bruises. This means her purpose is only to frighten and torment you. So think carefully. Who have you offended?”
Fu Sang released Xiao Bei’s wrist, his voice cold as he spoke.
Huo Wei nudged him with her elbow in dissatisfaction:
“Can you talk properly? He’s just a child around ten years old. Who could he have offended? Can you stop looking at everything from the ghost’s perspective?”
“Strong. Aren’t there many juvenile offenders in rape and murder cases? There are also many cases where the sins of the older generation are punished and placed upon their descendants. I’m just presenting one possibility.”
Fu Sang shrugged.
The more he spoke, the more enthusiastic he became.
Huo Wei had no choice but to give the child’s father an awkward smile:
“I’m sorry, my friend speaks harshly. He just doesn’t want to rule out this possibility. He isn’t saying that you and your child are criminals…”
“I know.”
The man’s voice was filled with heavy exhaustion. He sighed and shook his head:
“But I dare say that my conscience is clear in this lifetime, and my child has always been excellent in both conduct and studies. You can’t pick out a single fault. The ghost that has been haunting him suddenly appeared half a month ago. She only haunts my child. I can’t see her, and I’ve never seen what she looks like. I only heard Xiao Bei say that she is a female ghost… If you suspect that everything we’re going through is some kind of retaliation, I can swear a poisonous oath. In this lifetime, I’ve never wronged anyone. If I have, may Heaven strike me with lightening, and may I die a terrible death…”
The man raised his hand and rubbed his face:
“…Xiao Bei has barely had a sound sleep for almost half a month. We took him to the hospital, and the doctor said Xiao Bei had a mental illness and that he caused the injuries on his own during an episode. But how is that possible? I know he isn’t sick. He…”
“The girl just said she does this for a living. Please, I’m begging you. I’m begging all of you. If this really was done by a ghost, please drive that filthy thing away and save my child. Whether you want money or anything else, I can agree to it…”
“Stop.”
The man’s words were disjointed and confusing, making Fu Sang annoyed.
Another troublesome errand.
Unfortunately, it happened to be related to what he wanted.
He frowned, reached into his pocket, found it empty, and stretched his hand toward Huo Wei, listing the items like calling out a menu:
“Cinnabar, talisman paper, lighter.”
“Oh…”
Huo Wei hurriedly found them in her bag and handed them to him.
Fu Sang unfolded the talisman paper and stuck it to his palm, dipped the pen into cinnabar, and asked the man:
“Tell me your name, year, month, day, and time of birth. All of it.”
The man did not like Fu Sang’s condescending attitude at all.
But the child was still trembling in his arms. They had fled all the way here from Chuanning, and that female ghost was like sticky candy, clinging tightly to them and impossible to shake off.
Seeing his child tormented like this, he truly had no other choice. He could only choose to trust these strange people who had suddenly appeared before him.
He said:
“Zhao Yong’an. Yong as in “brave’” and . An as in “safe”. August 30, 1975.”
“Precise to the hour.”
“Around twelve noon.”
“THisd… Wait.”
Zhuge Qianyi, who had not said a word this whole time, suddenly raised her hand and interrupted Zhao Yong’an.
She stared at Zhao Yong’an’s face:
“Uncle, may I ask where you’re from?”
“…” Zhao Yong’an raised his head and glanced at her before answering, “Jinguan.”
“But your accent doesn’t sound much like someone from Chuanning. It sounds a little like someone from the capital.”
“Oh… I’m from the capital, but I moved away many years ago. I’ve lived in Chuanning for about twenty years…”
Hearing this, Zhuge Qianyi felt that she might have discovered something major.
She took an exaggerated deep breath, looked at Huo Wei, then at Fu Sang, and finally back at Zhao Yong’an before asking:
“Do you know Li Guizhen, Uncle?”
The name Zhuge Qianyi uttered left Zhao Yong’an stunned for a long while, as if he had never imagined that he could hear this person’s name at this time and place.
After a long pause, he nodded hesitantly.
“Of course. She was my ex-wife. How do you…?”
“I knew it! I have a really good memory! I saw it in the archives. Li Guizhen’s husband was named Zhao Yong’an! Her birthday matches too!”
Zhuge Qianyi was so proud of herself that she almost applauded herself on the spot.
She looked at her companions for praise and encouragement, but unfortunately, only Huo Wei silently gave her a thumbs-up. As for Fu Sang, he did not even raise his eyes.
“Your son’s name and birthday.” Fu Sang was completely unconcerned about Zhuge Qianyi’s great discovery.
He continued asking.
“…Zhao Xiaobei, February 19, 2014, eight in the evening.”
After quickly calculating the birth characters of the two people and recording them, Fu Sang folded the talisman paper and reached his hand toward Huo Wei again.
“Lighter.”
Huo Wei was like Doraemon, giving him whatever he wanted. She even thoughtfully lit it for him and held the flame out.
Fu Sang could not be bothered to take it. He directly used the flame in her hand to ignite the edge of the talisman paper, then held it between two fingers and rapidly drew several strokes in the air in front of the father and son.
He was very fast. Before the flames could burn himself, he finished the ritual and threw the talisman paper into the ashtray.
A faint smell of burning filled the air. Fu Sang closed his eyes and carefully identified it.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Yong’an had not lied.
The smell produced by burning the paper was fine, and he did not see any strange imagery either.
This meant that there was indeed no vicious karma attached to the father and son in front of him.
Therefore, this incident was most likely an unforeseen disaster.
This was truly rare.
Now that the matter he wanted to confirm was clear, Fu Sang moved the ashtray aside and brought the conversation back to Zhuge Qianyi’s great discovery.
After all, Zhuge Qianyi also had the additional identity of a client to him. He still had to deal with her problem, and since Zhao Yong’an had once been Li Guizhen’s husband, he could roughly be considered half an informed party.
So Fu Sang’s topic made an extreme jump.
“May I ask, how did Li Guizhen die back then?”
“…” Zhao Yong’an was clearly a little unable to react.
“Does this have something to do with Xiao Bei’s matter?”
“Maybe?” Fu Sang shrugged.
“Do you know what Li Guizhen’s family did?”
Zhao Yong’an shook his head.
“Not really. I only knew that her family was very well-off. They lived in a mountain area on the outskirts of the capital, and that entire mountain belonged to their family. Their family business should have been quite large, but she never told me exactly what they did.”
A child of the Zhuge family who was a muggle marrying a muggle outsider indeed had no need to tell him the truth. It was not strange.
Fu Sang nodded and didn’t say anything.
“She died from massive bleeding during a difficult childbirth more than twenty years ago.” Zhao Yong’an answered Fu Sang’s earlier question.
“You were outside the delivery room?”
“No…”
Although it had already been more than twenty years for Zhao Yong’an, the memory from back then was still deeply engraved in his mind.
“One month before her due date, she said she wanted to go back and stay with her father. I was busy with work at the time, so after taking her back to her parents’ home, I left. Then, a week later, her eldest uncle called me and said her water had broken and she was about to give birth. By the time I hurriedly drove over, she was already gone.”
“Why was it her eldest uncle who called?” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, and the words that came out were still unpleasant.
“It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a biological father.”
“…” Zhao Yong’an was starting to lose his patience. After remaining silent for a moment, he finally replied, his tone not particularly pleasant.
“My father-in-law only had her as his daughter. He was overwhelmed with grief at the time and had no mind to deal with anything else. Isn’t that normal?”
“Then did you see her body? Are you sure she died from complications during childbirth?”
“…Give me a break.”
Zhao Yong’an let out a deep sigh and raised his hand to rub his face again, as if something had completely crushed his spine.
“It has already been more than twenty years. I loved Ah Zhen very much, and her death has always been a pain in my heart. Why must you make me recall all this? Does this have anything to do with my son being haunted by a female ghost?”
“Maybe?” Fu Sang still gave the same answer.
“Just answer whatever I ask, Mr. Zhao. I know more than you do, and there are more things I can do than you can, but patience isn’t one of them. I hope you can give me what I want before it runs out.”
“…” Zhao Yong’an glanced at Xiao Bei, who was trembling and shrinking beside him.
He shook his head and grabbed at his hair in pain.
“Of course I saw Ah Zhen’s body. Her delivery happened suddenly, and their family lived deep in the mountains, so it was already too late to send her outside. So the delivery was handled at the small medical clinic in their own home. When I arrived, Ah Zhen was still lying on the clinic bed, looking as though she were asleep. I only took one hurried look. I didn’t dare look any longer.”
“What about the child? Was the child delivered?”
“The child was delivered. It was a stillbirth, lying in the swaddling clothes as a bloody mass…” Pain appeared on Zhao Yong’an’s face, and he truly could not continue.
Fu Sang condensed Zhao Yong’an’s words in his mind and only felt that there were loopholes everywhere.
“According to your description, you were not present at any point from the time Li Guizhen went into labor until her death. Everything you know now was only something you heard from other people?
“Then there are many parts of this matter that could have been manipulated. Whether Li Guizhen actually died from complications during childbirth is not even certain. Although you have no reason to be the target of revenge, when a person dies unjustly, resentment will arise. When there is resentment, it will turn into a ghost. Once someone becomes a ghost, it would not be strange for them to do anything.”
“There has to be a reason for choosing your child. The identities of ex-wife and current wife’s child are quite subtle, aren’t they?”
Fu Sang gave a simple summary of his speculation, hoping Zhao Yong’an could understand.
“…Manipulated? Manipulated what? Ah Zhen was at her own home back then. The entire family had watched her grow up. How could they have harmed her?”
Zhao Yong’an felt that this person’s assumption was utterly incomprehensible.
Fu Sang, however, felt that this person was truly naive.
“How much do you know about Li Guizhen’s family? Do you think her family was some kind of united, loving, harmonious, and blissful paradise?”
“Then it sounds like you know a great deal about her family’s situation? So what you’re saying is that her death wasn’t an accident, but a murder plotted jointly by her biological father and other family members?”
Zhao Yong’an found it really ridiculous. There was a hint of mockery in his tone, as if he was only one sentence away from asking, “Do you hear how reasonable that sounds?”
Fu Sang, however, snorted and gave the same answer for the third time.
“Maybe?”
