Gu Song hurriedly picked up the Soul Urn, and the little ghost instantly turned into a wisp of green smoke and slipped inside.
Holding the Soul Urn, Gu Song seemed reluctant to put it down. "Did he say why he ended up like this?"
Xu Qiuyan sat down on the sofa. "Do you know that if it hadn't been for him, you might already be dead tonight?"
Gu Song froze for a moment, but he did not doubt it.
"He went through a vicious battle. The thing sent to kill you was an evil ghost. Even I never expected that he would face an evil ghost without backing down. He nearly got beaten into oblivion by that evil ghost."
Gu Song burst into tears. "Xiao Tian, why were you so foolish?"
Although I had not witnessed that scene myself, my nose still stung.
I had always been strongly opposed to raising little ghosts. Those gossip stories often carried all sorts of rumors—some celebrity would travel all the way to Thailand to ask some so-called master to raise a little ghost for them, hoping to borrow its luck, while gamblers raised little ghosts in hopes of improving their gambling fortunes.
In short, they did it all to satisfy their selfish desires.
But Gu Song and Xie Xiaotang only did it to keep their child.
It came from their love for their child. Although I did not approve of this method, I could understand it.
What I had not expected was that the little ghost would be willing to die once more for Gu Song. If he had truly been scattered into oblivion, then, in Duan Hongbin's words, he would not even have had a chance to enter reincarnation.
"The evil ghost ran away before I got there," Xu Qiuyan said.
I asked, "Could that Onmyoji be behind this again?"
"I don't know. It's possible."
Xu Qiuyan had not even seen the evil ghost, much less the person behind it who controlled ghosts.
It seemed the other side was already preparing to make a move against Gu Song.
We were leaving for the Northeast tomorrow. What would happen to Gu Song's safety?
We could have Xie Yi send someone to protect him, but I thought it might be better for him to come to the Northeast with us.
For one thing, he was familiar with Zhuanghe. For another, I wanted to see whether the person trying to kill him was the faceless Onmyoji I had seen before.
"We're going to the Northeast tomorrow to find Zhuanghe. Come with us," I said.
He did not hesitate. "All right."
I called Old Du. He said it was no problem and that he would bring the plane tickets over later.
"Why don't you come stay with us tonight? We can head straight to the airport first thing tomorrow morning," I said.
Gu Song nodded. "All right. I'll go pack some things."
He went into the room, and I told Xu Qiuyan about what had happened to them in Lop Nur.
"I've heard some of the legends about the Twin Fish Jade Pendant too. I never expected them to be true."
Xu Qiuyan sounded somewhat emotional.
I was just about to say something when my phone rang again.
"Jiang Xiaobai, there's something I need to tell you." Xie Yi was always so direct, with no preamble at all.
"What is it?" I asked. Calling at this hour, it probably was not a trivial matter.
"Didn't you say Gu Song and Xie Xiaotang were involved in the Twin Fish Jade Pendant matter? I can tell you responsibly that the Twin Fish Jade Pendant exists, and it is currently in the hands of Unit Nine."
His words stunned me. Xu Qiuyan, who had also heard Xie Yi, widened her eyes in shock.
"The other side is clearly after the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, and they seem to suspect that Gu Song and the others have already obtained it."
I interrupted Xie Yi. "But they never got it. I believe Gu Song wouldn't lie."
"You still don't get what I mean, kid. The other side merely suspects that the Twin Fish Jade Pendant is in their hands, which is why they attacked them. But it isn't. Didn't I just tell you? That thing is in Unit Nine's possession. Since the other side thinks so, we'll play along. I'll have someone spread word that they did get the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, but Gu Song has already handed it over to you."
Now I understood.
"You want to use me as bait?" Though I understood why he wanted to do this, I still resisted it deep down. Being used did not feel good.
"Yes. I know you're uncomfortable with it, but don't you want to solve this case sooner?" Xie Yi sensed my displeasure.
"But will they believe it?"
"Of course. If necessary, you can take it out and let them see it. Just showing it to them will be enough, because there should be people among them who know what they're looking at."
I could not help but freeze. "You mean you'll give the Twin Fish Jade Pendant to me? Let me take it to the Northeast?"
"Yes. Feeling the pressure now?" Xie Yi laughed. That laugh made him sound like an old fox.
"You really dare hand something that valuable to me? Aren't you afraid I'll lose it? And what if I can't resist using it for something?"
I was speaking from the heart. That thing was like Pandora's Box. Anyone would be tempted to try out what it could do. It was even more terrifying than Pandora's Box, because it was impossible to predict what kind of consequences it might bring.
"I trust you."
Hearing that, I could not help thinking, Holy shit.
I truly had no idea where his so-called trust came from.
"All right. Go to West Lake Road right now. There's a psychological clinic there called One Meter Sunshine. It isn't closed yet. Once you get there, someone will hand the item over to you." With that, he hung up as decisively as ever.
"What the hell is this?" I grumbled.
Xu Qiuyan had heard the conversation between Xie Yi and me, and she could not help wondering whether it was real.
"Here's the plan. I'll head to West Lake Road now. You take Gu Song back first."
"Okay."
After all, we would be taking Gu Song back to where we lived later. Bringing him along to collect the item would not be appropriate.
Xu Qiuyan naturally understood what I was thinking and said nothing more.
I went straight downstairs, left the residential complex, and got into a taxi.
The One Meter Sunshine psychological clinic was quite famous in Lin City. It had not originally been on West Lake Road, but had moved there because its former location underwent old-city redevelopment.
I heard that the clinic's owner was a psychologist himself, surnamed Zhu.
The taxi stopped outside the clinic. It was already past eleven at night, yet the lights were still on. They must have been waiting for me.
When I entered the clinic, I saw two men playing Go.
One was around fifty, slightly plump and probably not very tall. He wore black-framed glasses and held a thermos in his hand. He stared at the board with a worried look on his face and wore a moon-white silk Tang suit.
The other looked under forty. He sat ramrod straight in a dark gray stand-collar Zhongshan suit, looking very sharp. Though he was no longer young, he was still strikingly handsome.
"Teacher, you lost," the man in the Zhongshan suit said to the man in the Tang suit with a smile.
The worried look on the Tang-suited man's face gradually faded. He tossed a Go stone from his hand into the bowl. "I did lose. One wrong move, and every move after goes wrong. Your Go skills have really improved, kid!"
Then he looked at me. "Well, the person you were waiting for is here. Nothing more for me to do, so I'll be heading back. I can't compete with you young people. At my age, I need to sleep early and rise early, with goji berries steeping in my thermos." He smiled and nodded at me before brushing past me and leaving the clinic.
My intuition told me that he was probably the owner of this clinic, the psychologist named Zhu Yi.
"You're Jiang Xiaobai?" The man in the Zhongshan suit looked at me with a smile.
I nodded. "Yeah. Xie Yi told me to come pick something up."
The man in the Zhongshan suit pointed at a small box beside the Go board. "It's right there."
I walked over, picked up the box, and opened it. After one glance, I could not look away.
Inside was a jade pendant. The entire pendant was formed from two yin-yang fish biting each other's tails. I could sense a certain aura emanating from it. It was strange, as though it contained some mysterious power.
"This is the Twin Fish Jade Pendant? Why doesn't it look quite like the pictures I saw online?"
The man in the Zhongshan suit smiled at that. "Do you think there would be real pictures of the Twin Fish Jade Pendant online?"
"But how can I be sure it's real? Why don't we test it?"
The man in the Zhongshan suit shook his head. "Young man, don't be curious. Curiosity killed the cat. Some things are best not tried lightly."
I nodded. In truth, I had not really intended to test it either.
"By the way, I still don't know what to call you!"
He knew my name, but I did not even know his. That felt like a loss no matter how I thought about it. I also had no idea what his relationship with Xie Yi was, or whether he was from Unit Nine.
"My surname is Shu. Xie Yi and the others all call me Old Shu. You can call me Old Shu too."
"Then I'll call you Old Shu. I've got the item, so I won't keep chatting. I have to catch an early flight tomorrow. Bye!" I waved to him, turned, and left the psychological clinic.
"He's an expert." Chu Ge appeared beside me at some point.
"Oh?" Hearing that, I turned to look back at the clinic behind me. I really had not noticed. Old Shu gave me the impression of a university professor, a scholar.
I had even thought he was one of the clinic's doctors. I had heard him call that man in the Tang suit "teacher" with my own ears.
They had waited for me here only because Xie Yi had asked them to personally hand the Twin Fish Jade Pendant over to me.
Yet Chu Ge said Old Shu was an expert.
"Who's stronger, you or him?" I asked with a smile.
Chu Ge shook his head. "I'm no match for him."
Before you continue