Chapter 8
Meng Shu’s reasoning was quite simple. The fact that Xie Chi had been chosen for this assignment meant that she was definitely one of the most outstanding talents among the younger generation. Besides, one look at her was enough to tell that she was an expert at exorcising ghosts. If he could follow her around and learn a thing or two, perhaps he would soon meet the requirements to complete his apprenticeship.
Meng Shu explained his idea to Xie Chi, who didn’t mind at all. In fact, she was quite welcoming. The main reason was that Meng Shu’s abilities complemented her own, and he had a fairly good personality. They should be able to get along well as colleagues.
There was also one particularly important point: Meng Shu didn’t want a salary.
He would accompany her on livestreams voluntarily, without asking for payment. However, if the two of them accepted a job together, he would still take a share of the earnings, and only ten percent at that.
Xie Chi actually began to feel a little guilty about the arrangement. After discussing it with Meng Shu, they agreed to try working together first. If things went well and they decided to cooperate in the long term, Meng Shu could simply resign from his current job, and Xie Chi would pay him a salary.
Meng Shu, who was already thrilled that Xie Chi was willing to take him along, immediately burst into tears of gratitude.
“You’re such a good person.”
Xie Chi, who had inexplicably received a “good person” card: ??
However, Meng Shu had only recently been possessed by a female ghost and forced to carry a ghost fetus. His body was still somewhat weak, so he needed time to recover properly before he could accompany Xie Chi on her livestreams.
After resolving Meng Shu’s problem, Xie Chi rested for two days. She also took the opportunity to check the feedback online and discovered that the response had been quite positive. Her first livestream had performed much better than expected, attracting a considerable number of followers who had stayed subscribed. Many people were also asking when her second livestream would take place.
Xie Chi asked her martial nephew to select a few more locations so she could choose one.
Her martial nephew soon presented her with two options.
The first was a somewhat famous mountain village. The village held a particularly unusual festival celebration, surrounded by all sorts of mysterious rituals and superstitious practices. There were also rumors that quite a few people had witnessed ghosts appearing there. When the village had been especially popular online a couple of years earlier, several internet celebrities had even visited to take photos and check in.
The second option was relatively straightforward.
It was a school with a very long history. Because it was built on a mountain, the campus was fairly isolated, and all students were required to live in the dormitories. Although they had weekends off, traveling up and down the mountain was inconvenient, so most students remained at school on Saturdays and Sundays.
Xie Chi had only glanced at the covers of the two proposals and hadn’t even opened the detailed information, yet she’d already made her decision.
“Let’s choose the school this time. Save the mountain village for the next livestream.”
“Can I ask why?” her martial nephew asked curiously.
“My instincts tell me that the problem in that village won’t be resolved in just a day or two. Since I’m still in the early stages of livestreaming, it would be better to start with something relatively simple.”
Xie Chi leisurely opened the school’s information file.
It was extremely detailed.
There was a reason the school had been built on a mountain.
Many years ago, the city where the school was located had suffered a particularly devastating flood that claimed numerous lives. At the time, the school had stood at the foot of the mountain and had been completely submerged in the disaster.
After the floodwaters receded, the school was eventually rebuilt. However, after considering various factors, the authorities decided against rebuilding it on its original site and instead relocated it to the mountain.
Including its history before the reconstruction, the school had weathered nearly two hundred years of change.
Apparently, it had originally been a private academy. In any case, it was a school with a long history and plenty of stories behind it.
Naturally, the reason it had been selected as a potential livestreaming location was that something strange had happened there.
The incident had unfolded as follows.
Not long before summer vacation, a ninth-grade student had suddenly disappeared from the school. He remained missing for approximately two days. The police had already become involved and begun searching for him when he abruptly reappeared on campus.
However, by then, he had become somewhat mentally unstable.
On the morning of the third day after his disappearance, someone found him near a flowerbed. He was still wearing the same clothes he’d had on when he vanished and was lying unconscious among the flowers.
When someone woke him, he initially wore a vacant expression. Then, without warning, he shoved the person who had awakened him and began running frantically.
As he ran, he shouted, “The flood is coming! Everyone, run! Get out of here!”
The student who discovered him immediately called a teacher, who quickly summoned an ambulance and had him taken to the hospital.
Many people claimed that the missing student had been taken away by the ghosts of students who died in the flood many years ago. Others believed those ghosts had possessed him.
There were all sorts of theories, but everyone seemed to agree on one thing: the boy had definitely encountered a ghost.
More importantly, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
Unfortunately, the previous person who disappeared from the school hadn’t been as lucky as this student.
After vanishing, that person was never seen again.
“Has anyone from our profession investigated the place already?” Xie Chi asked while flipping through the information.
Her martial nephew nodded.
“Yes, but they weren’t able to figure out what happened. Will this place be all right, Martial Aunt? If you think it’s too troublesome, we can choose somewhere else. If we don’t take the assignment, the higher-ups will ask someone else to handle it.”
Generally speaking, the people who coordinated with the relevant government departments were members of the younger generation. Only when the younger practitioners couldn’t resolve a problem would the older, more experienced experts be invited to intervene.
Although Xie Chi wasn’t particularly old, her seniority within the sect was another matter entirely.
“I can give it a try. But this school isn’t in the local area, so I’ll have to travel there.”
Xie Chi wasn’t particularly fond of trains. The security checks were far too strict, making it inconvenient to bring many of her belongings.
Her martial nephew probably understood why she disliked traveling by train. He coughed violently a couple of times before explaining, “The application we submitted earlier has already been approved. From now on, whenever you take those forms of transportation, your magical artifacts won’t be confiscated anymore. We’ve also arranged for someone to transport your sword here. It should arrive in another couple of days.”
Xie Chi was very pleased to hear this.
“That couldn’t be more convenient. I’ll go pack my things, then. We should leave as early as possible and avoid wasting any more time.”
“All right, Martial Aunt.”
This time, her martial nephew wouldn’t be able to accompany her, so he couldn’t help worrying.
He looked exactly like a parent watching their child leave home to attend university in another city for the first time, his expression both solemn and anxious.
“Will you really be all right on your own, Martial Aunt? Maybe I should come along after all…”
“There’s no need.”
Xie Chi rejected his suggestion quite decisively.
“I’m going to pack my things. Please help me book the tickets.”
“All right, Martial Aunt.”
There actually wasn’t much for Xie Chi to pack.
Her belongings mainly consisted of her livestreaming equipment, a few changes of clothes, and the box she absolutely had to keep with her.
She didn’t need to bring much else. If she needed anything after arriving, she could simply buy it there.
The following day, Xie Chi set off.
Her martial nephew, practically in tears, escorted her onto the plane.
“Martial Aunt, remember to send me a message before you come back. I’ll come pick you up!”
“I know, I know.”
This was actually Xie Chi’s first time traveling by airplane.
Although she had accompanied her master on assignments to distant places in the past, her master had been afraid of heights, so they had always traveled by train.
She remembered one occasion when an exceptionally wealthy client had even sent a private jet to pick them up.
To avoid revealing his fear of heights, her master had calmly explained that their sect valued keeping one’s feet firmly on the ground, traveling in all directions to broaden one’s horizons, and thereby deepening one’s cultivation.
In short, he’d spent quite a while talking the client into accepting his explanation.
In the end, they had still taken the train.
Xie Chi had a fairly good seat, right beside the window.
After the plane took off, the window shades had to remain open. She could see clouds drifting past the side of the aircraft, which made her imagine the extraordinary sight of the entire plane traveling through the clouds.
Xie Chi’s eyes were filled with wonder.
She marveled at human ingenuity.
If a Creator truly existed in this world, then humanity’s intelligence must surely be the greatest gift that Creator had bestowed.
She gazed outside for a long time, until the passenger sitting beside her finally couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Could you please pull down the window shade? The light is too bright.”
“All right.”
Xie Chi reluctantly lowered the shade.
However, she was feeling quite energetic and had no intention of sleeping. With nothing else to occupy her time, she simply sat there staring into space.
The person beside her no longer felt particularly sleepy either.
Seeing her sitting there, he asked, “Don’t tell me this is your first time on a plane?”
Xie Chi nodded honestly.
The young man immediately looked at her strangely.
Earlier, when Xie Chi had kept staring out the window, he’d already thought that there was something rather provincial about the look in her eyes.
However, saying something like that aloud would be extremely rude.
After thinking it over, the young man ultimately decided not to voice his thoughts.
Instead, Xie Chi glanced at him a couple of times.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something about him was slightly off.
The young man grew uncomfortable under her scrutiny, and a little embarrassed as well.
“Is there something on me?”
Xie Chi hesitated, looking as though she wanted to say something.
In the end, she shook her head and rummaged through her bag, taking out the protective talisman Meng Shu had drawn for her earlier.
When Meng Shu learned that she was going on a long journey, he had specially drawn the talisman for her. He’d said that even if she didn’t need it, it was still a token of his good wishes as a friend.
So Xie Chi had brought it along.
“Here, this is for you. I think you might need it.”
Xie Chi took the protective talisman out of the plastic sleeve where she kept her talismans, which resembled a student ID card holder, and handed it to the young man.
She could vaguely sense that something was wrong with him, but it would be difficult to determine the source of the problem in such a short time.
More importantly, she had other matters to attend to on this trip and couldn’t afford to spend too much time on someone else’s affairs.
Nevertheless, since their paths had crossed, they could be considered connected by fate.
Help whenever you can.
That was what her master had taught her.
If she gave the young man the protective talisman now, it might temporarily save his life if something happened to him.
If he was willing to accept it and keep it with him, the two of them would have formed a positive karmic connection.
Should they meet again in the future, Xie Chi would help him resolve his problem completely.
However, if the young man refused to accept it, Xie Chi wouldn’t force it upon him.
Everyone had their own destiny, and certain things simply couldn’t be forced.
All she needed to do was try her best.
Her master had once told her that as long as a person could live with a clear conscience, they would have nothing to be ashamed of before heaven and earth.
The young man’s expression grew even more awkward.
Perhaps he’d mistaken her for someone involved in a pyramid scheme or some kind of religious cult.
In any case, he declined her offer with an embarrassed but polite smile.
Xie Chi smiled back and didn’t try to persuade him a second time.
She put away the protective talisman.
Since fate hadn’t brought them together in that way, there was nothing more to say.
She could only hope that whatever problem he was carrying wasn’t too serious.
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