Chapter 41: Upright Chopsticks in the Bowl

Yan Yu sat on the sofa, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the wooden armrest. After thinking for a while, he said, “Old Cao, hand me what I asked you to prepare.”

Master Cao quickly handed over the cloth bag slung across his body to Yan Yu. Su Han, curious about its contents, watched as Yan Yu pulled out a blue-and-white porcelain bowl and looked up at her. “Fill this with water for me.”

“You’re starting to order me around already?” Su Han narrowed her eyes.

Yan Yu fell silent for a moment. “…Old Cao, come here and help!”

As the saying goes, better to provoke a petty man than a woman. Yan Yu would rather bully Master Cao a little than let himself be at Su Han’s mercy in the days to come.

Grumbling, Master Cao did as he was told. Yan Yu placed the filled porcelain bowl on the coffee table, then took out a pair of chopsticks, placing them diagonally across the bowl.

“There’s still a red string,” Master Cao reminded him.

Yan Yu nodded, smiling as he walked over to Dahei. “Dahei, have I treated you well?”

“Woof woof…” Dahei instinctively sensed something ominous and quietly retreated into a corner.

Yan Yu pressed closer, coaxing, “I feed you ten big kidneys a day. Don’t you think you should do something in return?”

“Woof woof!” Dahei clung to his last bit of stubbornness.

“How about that little female dog from last time? Next time, I’ll take you for a walk in that park again,” Yan Yu resorted to his trump card.

Suddenly, Dahei, who’d been resisting, perked up, tongue lolling as he licked Yan Yu’s hand and stretched out his paw as if to say, “Take whatever you need!”

Su Han, watching from the side, couldn’t help but comment, “Birds of a feather, the dog matches the owner!”

Yan Yu chuckled, took out a small knife, and gently nicked Dahei’s paw, squeezing out a few drops of black dog’s blood to smear on the red string.

“Red string soaked in black dog’s blood—Master, are you planning to catch a ghost?” Master Cao asked, surprised.

“You finally guessed right for once.” Yan Yu nodded. “The first tenant of this house was peculiar. If we want to live here, we have to get to the bottom of things. So tonight, I’m going to catch the ghost and interrogate it!”

With that, Yan Yu wrapped the red string around his finger and sat on the sofa, waiting.

Su Han and Master Cao looked bewildered. “That’s it? No other preparations?”

“That’s all,” Yan Yu replied, glancing at the porcelain bowl on the table.

“What kind of preparation is that?” they wondered aloud.

“Water embodies yin, chopsticks yang. Right now, the house is balanced between yin and yang, so nothing’s apparent. But when the ghost arrives tonight, yin energy will rise and yang will converge. When that happens, the chopstick in the water will stand upright,” Yan Yu explained, smiling at Su Han. “Who knows how long the night will be? I can’t expect you to stay up all night on watch alone, can I?”

Su Han felt an unexpected warmth in her heart, thinking to herself that this guy was more considerate than he let on.

In truth, Yan Yu hadn’t known Su Han would be there; the chopsticks were meant for his own use. It just happened to work out that way.

After a restless night, Su Han felt exhausted. She sat on the side sofa playing on her phone, but soon sleepiness crept in.

Master Cao, thick-skinned as always, started snoring within minutes of sitting down.

Only Yan Yu remained in the center, focused, eyes bright, staring unblinkingly at the chopsticks.

…

The night was still. No one knew how much time had passed when Su Han was suddenly woken by Yan Yu calling her name softly. Only then did she realize she had dozed off.

“What is it?”

Just as she spoke, a faint sound reached her ears.

Tap tap tap… tap tap tap tap…

Her pupils contracted sharply.

“Shh…” Yan Yu gestured at the coffee table. “It’s here,” he whispered.

Su Han quickly looked, and saw the chopstick in the center of the porcelain bowl eerily standing upright, like an incense stick in a censer.

She turned back and saw the innermost bedroom suffused with a chilling energy, seeping through the crack beneath the door.

Dahei was already awake, his pitch-black eyes locked on the bedroom door. Remembering Yan Yu’s instructions, he made no sound, but his fangs were bared.

“Keep an eye on the bedroom. I’ll wake Old Cao.”

Yan Yu went over and gently shook Master Cao’s shoulder, but the old man only snored louder.

Helpless, Yan Yu pinched his nose, and soon Master Cao woke, groggy.

“No matter what you see, don’t make a sound, understand?” Yan Yu said sternly.

Master Cao woke up instantly and nodded rapidly. Only then did Yan Yu let go, pointing to the upright chopstick on the table.

The moment he saw it, Master Cao trembled from head to toe, and then, in a tenor’s shrill, kneeling-worthy voice, shouted, “Holy crap—a ghost—!”

Tap tap tap—tap!

The sounds from the bedroom stopped abruptly!

Yan Yu nearly kicked Master Cao down the stairs. “Damn it, didn’t I tell you not to make a sound?!”

Master Cao forced a wry smile. “I—I’m getting old, can’t take a fright like that!”

“Yan Yu!”

Before Yan Yu could lose his temper, Su Han tugged at his sleeve. He turned and asked, “What is it?”

Su Han spoke softly. “Look… the bedroom door… it’s open…”

The three of them turned in unison. The tightly shut door now stood ajar, a sliver of pitch blackness showing.

Gulp.

Even Yan Yu couldn’t help swallowing. Master Cao, scared out of his wits, started chanting Buddhist prayers under his breath.

Bang!

Suddenly, the bedroom door was violently flung open and a thin figure leapt out, arms raised, shouting at Master Cao, “Demacia!!”

Master Cao: “???”

“Heaven and earth in harmony, the Dao follows nature—by my command!”

Just as the ghostly figure was about to strike Master Cao, Yan Yu unleashed a flash of golden light from his hand, hitting the ghost square in the chest. The apparition was flung backward, crashing to the floor, finally revealing its form.

It was a boy of about thirteen or fourteen, dressed in a blue-and-white striped hospital gown, his face pale as paper, purple veins bulging on his forehead, making him look especially eerie.

At the sight of the ghost child, Master Cao instinctively clutched his lower half and muttered, holding his breath, “I… suddenly need the bathroom.”

“Don’t tell me you peed yourself again?” Yan Yu said dryly.

Su Han frowned, her voice low. “Yan Yu, we’ve seen this ghost before.”

“What?”

“In the internet café yesterday—the one perched on Zhu Xiangyang’s shoulders. That was him,” Su Han said.

Yan Yu raised an eyebrow. “Well, the world is small. Yesterday I said if he kept to himself, I’d leave him alone. Never thought I’d run into him today!”

Yan Yu picked up the red string and advanced step by step toward the ghost boy on the floor.

Right then, the midnight bell chimed, and a sudden, intense sense of danger flashed through Yan Yu’s mind!