Chapter 35

The moment she heard that Gu Shuge had actually materialized, Shen Juan could no longer care about the wave lines. She hurriedly asked, “When?”

Gu Shuge had not looked at the time and could only give an approximate answer. She wrote in Shen Juan’s palm, “At dawn, but before it was fully bright.”

Shen Juan thought briefly and formed a rough time range. It should have been around six o’clock.

“How did you discover you had materialized?” Shen Juan asked again.

Gu Shuge was thinking about the connection between materializing and the blood she had drunk yesterday. Hearing Shen Juan ask, she opened her mouth and replied, “It was when I secretly kissed…” Before she could finish, she hurriedly covered her mouth, eyes widening as she looked at Shen Juan.

Shen Juan could sense her presence and her movements, so she thought to herself, What does covering her mouth with both hands mean?

Gu Shuge swallowed and felt thankful that Shen Juan could neither hear her speak nor see her. She lowered her hands and gently let out a breath, her shoulders relaxing slightly.

She even sighed in relief. Shen Juan continued observing without showing anything.

Gu Shuge worked hard to come up with an answer that was not exactly a lie, but also would not expose her. She wrote in Shen Juan’s palm, “I touched you at that time and discovered I had materialized.”

So she discovered she had materialized because she touched her. Shen Juan considered this sentence. The feeling of it, when read aloud, was rather composed, as though nothing had happened.

Covering her mouth, sighing in relief, then pretending nothing had happened. These three steps made Shen Juan instinctively feel that Gu ​read the original at bailiantales.com​Shuge was hiding something from her. If she really was hiding something, it should be in this answer.

“I touched you at that time.” Shen Juan secretly pondered this. Her expression did not change as she asked lightly, “Where did you touch me?”

Hearing this, Gu Shuge remembered kissing Shen Juan that morning. Seeing that Shen Juan knew nothing about it now, she somehow felt both guilty and indescribably excited. Her heart began pounding violently again.

Shen Juan was waiting for her answer when, all of a sudden, countless wave lines drowned her again. She endured it for a moment, but failed to hold back and said, “Why do you keep surrounding me with wave lines?”

What wave lines? Gu Shuge did not understand. So she drew a question mark in Shen Juan’s palm, then very cleverly thought this was a perfect chance to change the subject. She wrote, “It should be because of your blood. We just don’t know the specific connection.”

She deliberately wrote especially slowly, taking ten minutes to finish one sentence. She thought this should be enough to move past it. The thing Shen Juan cared about most was her physical form.

Sure enough, Shen Juan thought for a moment and said, “It’s related to blood, but I’m afraid it isn’t only because of blood.” She analyzed calmly, “If blood alone could allow a dead soul to have a physical form, then the boundary between life and death would be far too blurred.”

Even that method of “nourishing the soul with blood” had conditions. Either it required the blood of tens of millions of people to continuously pour over the soul-body, or it needed spiritual energy to nourish it at the same time, and it would still take a thousand years.

Neither was something that could be done easily.

Yet yesterday, she had only given Xiao Ge one cup of blood, and that had allowed her to have a physical form for forty-five seconds. This was far too easy.

Once Shen Juan said this, Gu Shuge felt it made sense too. If it were that easy, then the underworld would probably empty out. Little ghosts would all remain in the mortal world, raised by their loved ones, and there would be no more separation by death.

But she still felt faintly unconvinced and wrote, “That’s different. It was your blood.”

It was not just anyone’s blood. Shen Juan’s blood was very special to her. It was the only substance she could touch. To her, it was precious.

A smile appeared in Shen Juan’s eyes, but she said nothing.

What exactly was the reason? Although Gu Shuge was unconvinced, she still thought about it very seriously. Blood must have played a very important role, but were there other conditions? The Soul-Nourishing Buddha probably also had an effect, though she did not know what kind.

At present, these were the only two pieces of information they knew. It was still too little, and there was no way to deduce the cause.

“So, where exactly did you touch me?” Shen Juan suddenly circled back to the original question.

Gu Shuge froze. How—how had the topic circled back again?

Shen Juan said nothing else. She only waited for her answer. Although her tone was not especially firm, it was obvious that she needed an answer.

Gu Shuge knew she could not escape. Tangled, she wrote in Shen Juan’s palm, “Face. Between the brows.” She left out the corner of the lips. Face and between the brows were already suggestive enough. If she wrote the corner of the lips too, there would really be no hiding it.

Shen Juan lowered her eyes and smiled faintly.

Gu Shuge blushed from her smile and hurriedly added, “I touched you by accident.”

Shen Juan’s smile deepened.

Gu Shuge’s cheeks were bright red, but she did not know what to do.

Fortunately, Shen Juan stopped at the right time and did not ask, “What did you use to touch my face?” leaving Gu Shuge some dignity. She said, “Let’s continue looking through books for a method.”

Gu Shuge instantly felt relieved and hurriedly wrote in her palm, “Okay!”

After writing that, she was about to leave and get busy. Then she suddenly heard Shen Juan say, “Will Xiao Ge sleep with Sister again tonight?”

Gu Shuge widened her eyes, not knowing whether to answer yes or no. Then she met Shen Juan’s eyes, which were full of laughter, and instantly understood. So bad—she was teasing her!

She wrote a huge “no” in Shen Juan’s palm, then ran off to the sutra library to search for books.

She drifted among the bookshelves, dividing up the portion they had not yet checked, then went over to search. After looking for a while, she passed directly through the floor to see what Shen Juan was doing.

Shen Juan was already sitting at the desk, flipping through books. Gu Shuge passed through the floor again and returned upstairs.

At first, Shen Juan had wanted to have someone photocopy the entire sutra library. With enough people and a few machines, it would only take two or three days. But Bailong Temple firmly refused this request and did not even allow photographs, saying it would damage the paper quality of the books.

This reason was proper and reasonable. After all, many museums did not allow flash photography in order to protect cultural relics. But then, they had turned around and agreed to Shen Juan’s request to live inside for five days.

In that case, their earlier concerns were very hypocritical.

Clearly, they only felt that making photocopies would be too large a commotion. If people found out, it would attract criticism. But if Shen Juan stayed alone, the display would be much smaller. As long as no one publicized it, no one would know.

They still gained nothing that day. However, they did learn a great deal about hell. Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva had made the great vow, “Until hell is empty, I vow not to become a Buddha,” so the underworld also had an extremely deep connection with Buddhism.

There was also mention that underworld officials relied on yin malevolence to locate yin ghosts, seize them, and bring them to the underworld to judge the merits and faults of their lives and determine whether they should be punished or rewarded.

It also mentioned that yin ghosts did not fear sunlight or moonlight. But moonlight produced yin malevolence, so it would attract ghost emissaries. Ghosts who had no method of cultivation and were relatively weak would go out during the day and hide at night, avoiding exposure to moonlight. But powerful ghosts were not afraid of being taken away by ghost emissaries. Instead, they would use yin malevolence to strengthen their cultivation.

So after an entire day, the only thing Gu Shuge gained was discovering that she was a weak ghost with no method of cultivation.

It was around six in the evening when her sense of presence finally disappeared.

Now, the amount of time she could be sensed was already longer than the time she could not be sensed. Shen Juan was in a cheerful mood.

Gu Shuge, on the other hand, felt low because they had made no progress. She muttered to Shen Juan, “Why don’t we just buy Bailong Temple? Then the sutra library will be ours, and we can find people to help search through it.”

After muttering, she even wrote the sentence down.

Shen Juan was helpless. “What nonsense are you saying? Bailong Temple was among the first batch selected as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. Who are you planning to buy it from?” If not for this layer of protection, how would Bailong Temple have dared to bargain with the Gu family?

The moment Gu Shuge heard “National Key [read the original at bailiantales.com]Cultural Relics Protection Unit,” she said nothing more and obediently continued working hard to search.

That night, when Shen Juan went to rest, Gu Shuge very stubbornly refused to sleep with her. The reason she used was that she did not need sleep and had to seize every minute and every second to look through the remaining books.

Shen Juan did not insist either. After all, the most important matter was still Xiao Ge’s physical body.

But after Shen Juan fell asleep, somewhere between dreaming and waking, she sensed a little ghost lying down beside her. That little ghost’s sleeping posture was proper and unmoving, and she continued drowning Shen Juan in wave lines. Shen Juan felt at ease and fell back into her dream.

She had a dream. She dreamed of the year she graduated from university. Xiao Ge was holding a camera, taking graduation photos for her. Shen Juan stood beneath the sunlight, the library behind her. Xiao Ge’s smile was brighter than the sunlight that day as she said, “Sister, smile a little.”

Shen Juan smiled as told, and time froze.

After that photo was developed, it was placed at the head of Xiao Ge’s bed in her bedroom, remaining there for several years.

Until Xiao Ge went abroad, taking both the photo and its frame with her. Because of this, Shen Juan held hope in her heart, calculated the time difference, and spoke with her on the phone for an entire year.

In Shen Juan’s dream, there was no separation or distance afterward. There was only the bright sunlight that day and the way Xiao Ge followed behind her, tugging at the corner of her clothes.

When she woke, the sky had only just brightened, and Gu Shuge was no longer beside her. Shen Juan savored the dream for a while and thought that Xiao Ge back then had truly been adorable. She was adorable now too. Although she was a little harder to understand, Shen Juan was gradually beginning to understand her.

Shen Juan lifted the blanket and sat up, then walked out of the resting room.

She sensed that Gu Shuge was not outside and guessed she had probably gone into the sutra library again.

Shen Juan did not mind. She washed up and came out. Gu Shuge suddenly rushed down from above, then stopped in front of her and poked her with a finger. Shen Juan guessed she had probably found something, so she held out her palm for Gu Shuge to write.

“I found a hidden compartment on the third floor,” Gu Shuge wrote.

A hidden compartment? Shen Juan steadied herself and said, “Lead me there.”

Gu Shuge nodded and walked forward two steps, then stopped. She still did not know that the amount of time Shen Juan could sense her had become extremely long, and thought Shen Juan did not know where she was going and therefore could not be led.

Shen Juan also noticed her concern and said, “I can sense your presence.”

Only then did Gu Shuge continue forward.

She had discovered the hidden compartment by accident. The sutra library was very old, and some places inside already showed signs of disrepair. As she walked back and forth inside, she suddenly noticed that something about one spot on the floor was wrong. The grain of the wood on that floorboard did not seem to align with the surrounding boards, as though it was not the same piece of timber.

Since childhood, she had liked reading detective novels and was no stranger to hidden compartments. She had even made one herself. Relying on the fact that she was a ghost and could move without restriction, she had simply stuck her hand into the floorboards, then probed around with her fingertips and touched something like a box.

When they reached the upper floor, Gu Shuge stood beside the hidden compartment. She suddenly remembered that it was almost seven o’clock now, yet Shen Juan could still sense her presence. In the past, every day after recording how long she could be sensed, Shen Juan would tell her. But yesterday, Shen Juan had not said anything, and they had not discussed it either.

So she stopped and wrote in Shen Juan’s palm, “How long could I be sensed yesterday?”

Shen Juan was thinking about what might be inside the hidden compartment. Seeing Gu Shuge stop and ask this, she instantly [stolen content]felt somewhat uncomfortable, but still told her the truth. “Until six in the evening.”

So long. Gu Shuge was delighted and felt there was great hope. But what had happened yesterday morning quickly surfaced in her mind. Then had Shen Juan sensed things like her covering her face too?

Yet she had not told her.

Gu Shuge’s pupils shrank slightly. She looked at Shen Juan in shock, as though saying, You’re actually this kind of person.

Shen Juan calmly added fuel to the fire. “Also, last night, I sensed it when you secretly lay beside me.”

Author’s Note: Sweet?