Chapter 75: The Hanged Ghost

After saying that, I turned and walked away.

Just then, the woman in sunglasses hurried forward and blocked my path.

“What do you want?” I frowned.

“Well, my little sister was out of line. I apologize on her behalf,” the woman in sunglasses said.

“Sis…” Lyu Biyu stomped her foot.

I looked at the woman, gave a dry chuckle, and said, “An apology? Wearing sunglasses while apologizing is a bit disrespectful, don’t you think? Besides, it’s so dark out—aren’t you afraid you’ll trip?”

The woman hesitated for a moment, then took off her sunglasses, revealing a delicate, pretty face.

She looked familiar.

“You… you’re that singer… what’s your name…” I tapped my head, struggling to remember.

“Lyu Zhiruo!” Lyu Biyu blurted out.

“Yes, yes, that’s right! Lyu Zhiruo. You sang ‘An Autumn Fairytale’—it’s a great song.” I smiled. Back when I was interning at the hospital, I heard the nurses humming it every day, and it played everywhere in the streets. That’s how I knew.

“Thank you. May I ask—how did you know we were going to have an accident?” Lyu Zhiruo asked.

I pointed to the flag on my box. “Miraculous Hands, Restoring Spring, Feng Shui and Fortune-Telling—I saw it coming, of course.”

Lyu Zhiruo clearly didn’t believe me but replied perfunctorily with an “Oh,” then got straight to the point. “I can tell you’re a good man. Could you do us a favor?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how to fix cars. And even if I did, your tire’s blown to bits and you don’t have a spare. There’s nothing I can do.”

“It’s not about fixing the car. It’s… Could you stay here with us tonight?” Lyu Zhiruo said, a bit embarrassed.

“Sis, you want him to stay? He’s a swindler—who knows what he’s planning! Letting him stay with us is like inviting a wolf into the house!” Lyu Biyu said anxiously.

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Lyu Zhiruo scolded. She was out of options. Two girls, stranded in the middle of nowhere, were bound to be scared. The man before her didn’t seem very reliable, but her intuition told her he wasn’t a bad person.

I caught the look on both their faces, grinned, and turned to leave.

“Wait, mister, don’t go!” Lyu Zhiruo panicked and grabbed my sleeve.

I shook her off. “Don’t think that just because you’re a celebrity, you can be so handsy with me. I’m an upstanding man.”

Lyu Zhiruo felt so desperate she wanted to die. “Sure, you’re an upstanding man—so what am I?”

“One hundred thousand. Stay with us for one night and I’ll transfer you one hundred thousand tomorrow,” Lyu Zhiruo offered.

“One hundred thousand?” I started walking away again.

“Fine, two hundred thousand!” she cried urgently.

I turned back. “Deal. Pay me thirty thousand as a deposit first.”

“What? We don’t have that much cash… How about three hundred?” Lyu Zhiruo said. But seeing my anger, she quickly offered, “Here—take my watch. It’s a Vacheron Constantin, worth more than five hundred thousand.”

I took the watch, weighed it in my hand, and said, “Deal!”

Then I went to open the passenger side door.

But Lyu Zhiruo blocked me. “You… you can’t come in the car. We’re two women, it’s inconvenient.”

So they wanted me to spend the night outside. Well, whatever. I went and sat under a big tree, lit a cigarette, and started smoking.

Inside the car, the two women locked the doors behind them. They whispered for a while, but soon sleepiness overtook them, and they drifted off.

No idea how long had passed before Lyu Zhiruo was jolted awake by the cold. This time of year, nights could be chilly, but not so cold as to wake her up shivering.

She opened her eyes and heard the sound of Lyu Biyu grinding her teeth.

Still gnashing her teeth at her age! Lyu Zhiruo thought. She sat up and glanced forward—her heart skipped a beat, her pretty face contorted with terror. She opened her mouth to scream, only to cover it tightly with her hand.

Outside, a shadowy figure with long, sharp nails was scraping at the car window.

After a moment, a face pressed up against the glass—a ghastly, blue-skinned visage with fangs and a long tongue drooping down.

Then the ghostly face tried to push its way through, and unbelievably, it passed right through the glass.

Lyu Zhiruo trembled, her mind blank. As the ghost’s head came all the way inside, its tongue nearly touched Lyu Biyu’s cheek, dripping saliva onto her face.

Lyu Zhiruo finally snapped out of it and shook Lyu Biyu with all her might, but no matter how hard she tried, her sister wouldn’t wake up.

At that moment, the ghost suddenly turned to look at her.

A chill ran down her spine. She flung open the car door and ran straight toward me.

“Ghost! There’s a ghost! Help!” she screamed, tripping over a stone, falling to her knees before me.

I opened my eyes and said, “It’s the middle of the night, and you honor me with such a grand bow?”

Lyu Zhiruo had never been so disheveled, but terror made her forget her pride. She scrambled to her feet and clung to my arm, her voice shaking. “There’s a ghost! Save me!”

“It’s just a hanged ghost. Nothing to be afraid of,” I said.

She sobbed, “But it’s on Biyu! It’s climbing onto her!”

I got up and walked over to the car. Sure enough, the hanged ghost’s long tongue was coiled around Lyu Biyu’s neck, trying to strangle her. In her sleep, Lyu Biyu started to struggle, hands clutching at her neck, trying to remove whatever was choking her.

I raised my hand and summoned the hanged ghost directly. A flash of lightning shot from my palm—and the ghostly spirit was instantly destroyed.

“All done. Don’t forget my million,” I said, returning to sit under the tree.

Lyu Zhiruo wiped her tears and snot, gradually regaining her composure. Only now did she realize just how embarrassing she had been a moment ago. Still, she was too frightened to return to the car, so she wrapped herself in an overcoat and sat down beside me.

“Are there really ghosts in this world?” she asked.

“You saw it yourself, didn’t you? Wait, how did you, an ordinary person, manage to see a ghost?” I looked her up and down, then suddenly realized, “Ah, you were born under a pure-yin fate. When yin and yang meet, it’s possible to see ghosts.”

“What? I don’t want to see ghosts,” Lyu Zhiruo said, trembling.

“It’s just a coincidence. The odds aren’t high. If it weren’t for your sister’s constitution being cold and her yang energy weak—she’s probably on her period right now, so she attracts evil. Normally, you wouldn’t see anything,” I explained.

Lyu Zhiruo stared at me in astonishment, unable to comprehend how I even knew her sister was menstruating.

“So what you said earlier was true. Is there a way to keep my sister from attracting evil?” Lyu Zhiruo asked.

I just smiled.

Lyu Zhiruo caught on. “A million.”

“Now you’re talking! I’ll give her a few acupuncture treatments with the Infinite Cosmos Needle and prescribe two courses of herbs. That should do it,” I chuckled.

Early the next morning, Lyu Biyu yawned, stretched in her seat, and revealed her shapely figure.

She rubbed her neck—last night she’d had a nightmare about a monster hanging her from a tree with a rope, nearly suffocating her. At the crucial moment, a tall, handsome prince on a white horse descended from the sky and saved her, slaying the monster with a single gesture. Lightning flashed at his command—absolutely dashing.

Wait—where was her sister?

Lyu Biyu looked out the window, then quickly covered her mouth. She saw her sister, wrapped in a coat, sitting beside that street charlatan, her head resting on his shoulder, arms wrapped around his, fast asleep and drooling.

Lyu Biyu jumped out of the car, shouting, “Sis! Sis!”

Lyu Zhiruo woke with a start, let go of my arm as if scalded, and hurriedly pulled away.

“That service usually comes with a fee, but since you sang such a beautiful song, I’ll let it go,” I said.

Lyu Biyu grabbed her sister and whispered, “Sis, are you possessed? Since when do you have such odd taste?”

“Nonsense,” Lyu Zhiruo glared at her, cheeks flushing pink. Last night, she didn’t know what happened; she just suddenly felt sleepy, then felt a warm fire beside her and couldn’t help leaning over. Who’d have thought the “fire” was actually a person?

Before long, a farm tricycle rumbled by. After paying fifty yuan, the three of us squeezed onto the hay in the back, bouncing along a dusty road toward Ruyi Town.

Ruyi Town was bustling—it was the last stop before the Gobi Desert, and many travelers paused here to resupply.

Lyu Zhiruo finally got signal on her phone and called for someone to deal with the car.

“Why are you still here?” Lyu Biyu eyed me warily.

“I haven’t been paid yet,” I replied.

Lyu Zhiruo took out her phone to make the transfer. Lyu Biyu peered over her shoulder.

“Wait, Sis, you sent too much! Weren’t you supposed to pay him a hundred thousand? Why did you send two point one million?” Lyu Biyu exclaimed.

“That’s the amount. Don’t worry about it,” Lyu Zhiruo muttered.

I checked the transaction and said, “To treat your sister, we’d better find a hotel first.”

“Sis, what’s he talking about?” Lyu Biyu folded her arms, puzzled.

“Dr. Qin says your blood and energy are weak, so I paid him a million to help you,” Lyu Zhiruo replied.

Lyu Biyu nearly jumped out of her skin, pointing at me, then at Lyu Zhiruo, hardly able to believe it. “Sis, did this swindler cast a spell on you? You paid a million for him to ‘treat’ me? This… this…”

Lyu Biyu was so angry she could hardly speak. She rushed over, grabbed my shirt, and shouted, “Give the money back, you crook! If you don’t, I’ll scream and accuse you of harassment!”

“If you stood naked in front of me, with your scrawny, flat little body, I doubt I’d be interested,” I said with disdain, glancing at her flat chest.