Chapter 10

Xie Chi had no idea what the little black ball was thinking. She simply found her soft and pleasantly cool to the touch.

After all, it was still summer, and the little ball was made of yin energy. Stroking her felt wonderfully refreshing.

And so, Xie Chi spent the entire time holding the little ball of black mist, rubbing and petting her while chatting with Yun Xu and Ah Qiao. She didn’t even put her down when they started eating.

During their conversation, she also learned why her senior martial brother had come here. An elderly client of his had developed some health problems, and there seemed to be something wrong with his home as well. The client felt that these circumstances were abnormal and might be related to supernatural matters, so he had invited Yun Xu over as a guest and asked him to investigate while he was there.

“Then, Senior Brother, are you going over there tonight?”

“Mm. Someone will be coming to pick me up shortly.” Yun Xu nodded.

Ah Qiao immediately looked unhappy. “Huh? But I wanted to sleep with Ah Chi tonight. We could whisper secrets to each other all night. It’s been ages since we last slept together.”

“Once you’ve dealt with the problem over there, you probably won’t be rushing back right away, will you? I’m not in a hurry either, so we can spend some more time together.” Xie Chi quickly comforted Ah Qiao. “We can sleep together then.”

Only then did Ah Qiao cheer up a little. “All right, then.”

Little Ball of Black Mist: ??

Xie Chi is going to sleep with someone else?!!

Her entire little body instantly wilted. She lay there pitifully, refusing to move.

Xie Chi, however, had no idea what had happened and didn’t notice anything unusual at all.

After finishing their meal, Xie Chi prepared to find a hotel for the night.

Yun Xu and Ah Qiao originally wanted to drive her there, but she refused.

“Didn’t you just receive a phone call? Someone’s coming to pick you up soon, right? It wouldn’t be convenient to leave suddenly now. Besides, I’m not a child anymore. Are you seriously worried someone might kidnap me?”

Only then did the two temporarily abandon the idea of escorting her to the hotel.

They saw Xie Chi off at the entrance.

She had barely left when a rather understated black car pulled up outside. A young man stepped out.

“Are you Master Yun? My apologies. stolen content I only returned today, so I’m afraid I haven’t been able to receive you properly.”

“It’s nothing. I only arrived a short while ago myself.”

Yun Xu still carried himself with the bearing of a distinguished master in front of outsiders, although his youthful appearance did make that somewhat…

Yun Xu walked forward with Ah Qiao.

His eyesight was excellent, and he immediately noticed the yin energy clinging to the young man.

“Hm? Have you encountered something strange recently?”

Yun Xu took a talisman from his belongings.

“Take this. Until I’ve resolved all the problems, it should keep you safe.”

The young man accepted the talisman and smiled.

“Speaking of which… someone on the plane today also wanted to give me a talisman. But she looked very young, not much like someone in your profession…”

“Mm. There are plenty of scammers around, too.”

Yun Xu didn’t think anything more of it and followed the young man.

Meanwhile, Xie Chi had already found a hotel and checked in.

When traveling away from home, there was no need to be too particular about things. After taking a shower, she placed the box beside the bed, then climbed under the covers and prepared to sleep.

She needed to conserve her energy. There was important work to do tomorrow.

However, she didn’t immediately fall asleep after lying down.

Ever since learning how to use a smartphone, Xie Chi had developed the habit of playing with it before bed.

Her martial nephew had downloaded WeChat for her and helped her register an account, explaining that young people nowadays all used it and that having an account would make communicating much more convenient.

Xie Chi didn’t have many contacts.

There were only her martial nephew, Meng Shu, and Yun Xu and Ah Qiao, whom she’d added earlier that day.

However, as soon as she opened WeChat, she saw a money transfer from Ah Qiao.

The transfer was accompanied by a message:

Take this and buy yourself something yummy.

She opened it.

8,888 yuan.

Mm. It wasn’t much money. She could accept it.

Xie Chi: Thank you, Sister Qiao. [Kisses.jpg]

While chatting, she suddenly noticed something cool beneath her blanket.

Although the air conditioner had been running the entire time, there was no reason for the inside of her blanket to feel so cold.

Moreover, the sensation was rather strange, almost as though someone had accidentally poured an entire bowl of chilled jelly under the covers.

Xie Chi lifted the blanket and looked.

At some point, the little ball of black mist had slipped into her bed and was now laboriously climbing up her body.

Xie Chi: …

“Don’t want to sleep in your box anymore?”

The jade inside the box should have been particularly suitable for ghosts to inhabit, and it could even nourish their souls. Surely it was much more comfortable than sleeping under a blanket?

She scooped up the little ball of black mist and gave her a few affectionate rubs.

“Or are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?”

Raising a ghost was much more convenient than raising an ordinary pet.

If you kept a pet, you had to clean up its poop and consider things like preparing homemade meals for your cat.

But when raising a ghost, all you really needed to do was keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t eat anything she wasn’t supposed to.

And ghosts didn’t shed fur!

Although Xie Chi liked cats very much, she was somewhat… allergic to cat fur.

One of her senior martial brothers on the mountain also kept a cat, and it shed terribly.

Especially during winter, he practically had to wash his bedsheets every day because a thin layer of fur would accumulate on them.

That was the main reason Xie Chi didn’t keep cats.

Of course, hairless cats existed…

But they didn’t feel nearly as nice to touch as her Xiao Hei.

The little ball of black mist rubbed and nuzzled against Xie Chi, acting spoiled and affectionate. Clearly, she had no intention of leaving the bed.

After rubbing her a couple more times, Xie Chi placed her on her stomach.

“All right, all right. If you like it here, you can stay.”

If it were winter, Xie Chi certainly wouldn’t want to cuddle a freezing-cold unauthorized copy ball of yin energy while sleeping.

But summer was different.

She was wonderfully cool and refreshing!

Besides, their little darling didn’t have many demands. If she suddenly felt like sleeping under the covers, what was wrong with letting her do so?

With the little ball resting on her stomach, Xie Chi held her phone and prepared to watch a television drama.

The little ball rubbed against her and slowly climbed upward, making her way over the contours of Xie Chi’s body until part of her emerged from beneath the blanket.

“You want to watch too? All right.”

Xie Chi tucked the blanket around them and moved her phone a little farther back so that the little ball of black mist lying against her chest could see the screen too.

Xie Chi watched with complete concentration.

However, after a while, she suddenly felt the little ball on her chest trembling continuously.

She lowered her head to look.

Yin energy was constantly spilling from the soft little ball, falling in droplets. Each drop dispersed into a faint, invisible vapor the moment it touched the blanket.

Xie Chi: ?

Why does this look a little like a human crying?

Is the drama really that touching?

“Don’t cry, don’t cry.”

Xie Chi cupped the little ball in her hands, lowered her head, and gave her a loud kiss.

The little ball, which had been trembling violently, suddenly went completely still.

For approximately three seconds, nothing happened.

Then—

Boom!

She abruptly exploded.

Yin energy scattered in every direction, startling Xie Chi.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the dispersed mist to gather together again.

However, the entire little ball now seemed extraordinarily shy.

Don’t ask Xie Chi how she could tell. She simply had that feeling.

“Such a big reaction to watching a television drama?”

Xie Chi didn’t dare let her watch anymore.

She tidied things up and tucked the little ball back beneath the blanket.

“Go to sleep, go to sleep. Early to bed and early to rise. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

Nobody knew how well the little ball slept.

In any case, Xie Chi slept very soundly.

Early the next morning, she checked out of the hotel and took transportation toward her destination.

The school was situated on a mountain on the outskirts of the city. A bus traveled back and forth along the route every half hour.

Xie Chi arrived at just the right time and boarded without having to wait.

The bus didn’t take her directly to the school.

The nearest stop was still a short distance from the mountain, but it was only about a five-minute walk.

After getting off the bus, Xie Chi shouldered her backpack and walked for a while before reaching the foot of the mountain.

The mountain wasn’t particularly tall, and two smaller hills were connected to either side of it.

From the foot of the mountain, she could even make out what appeared to be a temple halfway up the slope.

At the foot of the mountain lay the school’s original site.

For some reason, the old buildings hadn’t been completely demolished and replaced with something else.

The remains of the former school were still there, although only a few broken walls and dilapidated single-story buildings survived.

This was fairly normal.

Back when the flood occurred, multistory buildings hadn’t yet become widespread. Some schools still consisted of single-story buildings that hadn’t been renovated or rebuilt.

Xie Chi stood at the foot of the mountain for a while, surveying the ruins of the old school, before slowly beginning her ascent.

There really was a small Taoist temple halfway up the mountain—or rather, a Buddhist nunnery.

However, it was tiny, with seemingly only two or three people living there. It was hardly an impressive establishment.

Xie Chi merely glanced at it as she passed before continuing upward.

After climbing for a little over half an hour, she reached the summit.

Someone else might have taken longer.

After all, Xie Chi had trained since childhood and possessed excellent physical fitness, allowing her to climb mountains quite quickly.

She arrived at the school entrance and made a phone call.

Within a few minutes, a middle-aged man with very sparse hair hurried out to meet her.

Actually, being bald wasn’t particularly frightening.

What was truly unfortunate was having a horseshoe-shaped bald patch.

There was still some hair around the sides of his head, but the palm-sized patch in the middle was completely smooth and shiny, making him look especially pitiful.

“Hello.”

Seeing how bald the man was, Xie Chi immediately assumed he must be one of the school’s senior administrators.

“Are you the principal?”

“No, my surname is Chen. I’m the school’s director of discipline. Our principal accidentally injured his foot a couple of days ago and is still in the hospital, so he really couldn’t come to meet you.”

Director Chen looked rather embarrassed.

“Ah, you should have called me directly. I could have picked you up at the airport.”

As he spoke, he discreetly examined Xie Chi.

He clearly knew the true circumstances behind her visit, but her youth and pretty appearance made him feel that she might not be particularly reliable.

It was rather like how many people, when visiting a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, instinctively believed that older doctors must be more capable.

Xie Chi’s profession was quite similar in that respect.

It seemed that the older someone was, the more they resembled an enlightened master with extraordinary abilities.

“There’s no need to trouble yourself. It wasn’t that far anyway.”

Xie Chi looked past Director Chen and surveyed the school grounds.

Although some unpleasant incidents had occurred here, the students still had to attend classes.

It happened to be break time, and students were moving about outside.

The entire school was brimming with vitality, filled with the distinctive energy of young students.

On the surface, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong at all.

Noticing where she was looking, Director Chen sighed.

“Actually, we normally don’t have classes on Saturdays and Sundays. But the students are about to take their high school entrance examinations, so the teachers have been putting in extra hours even during the short breaks.”

“Of course, the first- and second-year junior high students are all in their dormitories right now. And these supplementary classes aren’t compulsory. Everyone attends voluntarily.”

A trace of pity appeared in Xie Chi’s eyes.