Divination

"Use a rock." I said calmly from the side.

The burly man only snapped out of it after hearing me. He grabbed a rock beside him and brought it down on Zhang Kaifu's head. With a bang, Zhang Kaifu's scalp split open, and blood splashed all over his face.

Zhang Kaifu, who had passed out, finally quieted down. The woman knelt on the ground, coughing nonstop, tears and snot streaming down her face together.

"Qian! Are you all right?!" The burly man patted the woman's back and checked her injuries.

"I'm fine... I clearly drove away the filthy thing... that was attached to him, but..." The woman shook her head and pulled out a tissue to wipe the snot and tears from her face. She still looked unable to believe she had actually failed.

"Xiaoxue, if Brother Tian hadn't reminded you, she'd already be dead." Yu Xiaoxue sounded somewhat angry. Clearly, I was the one who had saved her, yet the first thing she did wasn't thank me. Instead, she had started fixing her makeup.

I said nothing and watched quietly, though I found it somewhat amusing inside. Oh, Yu Xiaoxue, Yu Xiaoxue. You've never even worn makeup in the village, so how would you know how much a beautiful city woman cares about her appearance? They'd rather be beautiful than stay alive! Getting poison injections in the face to slim it down—you've never seen that, have you? There are reports about it every day. So you can't expect a beauty to come over with snot and tears hanging off her face to apologize to you, can you?

Yu Xiaoxue had no idea what I was thinking, but when she saw me smiling at her, her face reddened slightly.

After wiping the snot and tears from her face, the beauty also heard Yu Xiaoxue's sarcastic remarks. Somewhat awkwardly, she said, "It was all thanks to this friend's warning. Otherwise, I, Zhao Qian, would have died here today. You saved my life. I'll definitely repay you."

After saying that, she glanced at Yu Xiaoxue. Her expression hadn't changed, but despite not having seen much of the world, Yu Xiaoxue knew that it was a barefaced provocation. She immediately shot Zhao Qian a look in return.

"Heh, there's no need to thank me yet. I was just sticking my nose into things. Also, you'd better have this police officer handcuff the man on the ground first. Otherwise, in a moment, who knows whether you'll still be alive to thank anyone." I had no favorable impression of these siblings, so my words were hardly polite.

Zhao Qian looked at the unconscious Zhang Kaifu with lingering fear, then turned toward Captain Huo. "Captain Huo, it's been three months since last time, hasn't it? I hope you've been well. You can see the situation now. Do you think perhaps..."

"Little Zhao, good to see you again. Why be so polite with me, Huo Dadong? I'll handcuff Little Zhang first." With that, Captain Huo took out his handcuffs and secured Zhang Kaifu's hands.

"May I ask, Captain Huo, what did this friend do? Why did you handcuff him?" Zhao Qian asked, looking at me.

"Oh, you mean him? You should've seen the corpse outside the village just now, right? When I found him, he was digging a pit to bury the body, so I handcuffed the two of them as suspects and planned to take them back to the station for questioning. When I caught him, he said some disease had broken out in the village and everyone had died. Little Zhang and I didn't believe him. Then there was no signal, so we couldn't call for backup. We planned to bring them into the village to check the situation first. Who would've thought we'd run into this mess? Then you two arrived."

"So that's how it is." Since he was a suspect, Zhao Qian couldn't say much.

After Huo Dadong finished speaking, he patted the burly man on the shoulder. "Zhao He, you're something else! After coming back from the army, your skills have already surpassed your Uncle Huo's!"

"Captain Huo, you're too kind. I'm only helping my little sister. How could I compare with you?" Zhao He rubbed his head and smiled sheepishly, though he was secretly delighted.

Ghosts emerged in broad daylight. This bridge was truly sinister now.

I glanced beneath the bridge. The ghosts had finished consuming the incense offerings and were about to surge up again, so I said, "I don't want to die yet. I suggest you leave as quickly as possible. This isn't a place for idle chatter."

The three exchanged glances. Perhaps because of what had just happened, they believed my words to some extent.

Huo Dadong wanted to turn back, but the Zhao siblings were heading toward the village. After thinking it over, Huo Dadong decided that the Zhao siblings knew about these things. Although Zhang Kaifu's madness had startled them just now, that didn't mean they were incompetent. He had been a criminal policeman for more than a decade and knew that some matters couldn't be solved with a gun.

He immediately escorted Yu Xiaoxue and me back toward the village. As for Zhang Kaifu, he hoisted him over his shoulder.

"Captain Huo, you're going to investigate whether everyone in the village is dead, right?" Zhao He asked.

"That's right." Huo Dadong answered. Carrying an adult on his back had already left his forehead slick with sweat.

"Now that we've crossed the bridge, and it's broad daylight, you can put him down first and investigate in peace. We'll go take a look at Granny Zhou's house halfway up the mountain and see whether she's there. Our father has something to discuss with her." Zhao He helped Huo Dadong put Zhang Kaifu down. It was an indirect reminder that there were no ghosts in broad daylight, and that they had important business and didn't want to travel with him.

"Huh? You didn't know either? Granny Zhou already passed away. There's white mourning cloth hanging halfway up the mountain, and I was just about to go up and burn a stick of incense for her." Huo Dadong looked surprised. He wasn't a fool. He had nearly seen a ghost in broad daylight just now. There was no way he could be fine on his own. It was safer to follow these two.

I could tell that Zhao Qian and Zhao He hadn't cultivated Yin-Yang Eyes. They couldn't see the corporeal Yin ghosts, at most only a hazy mass of Yin energy. Huo Dadong was merely a criminal policeman. Here, he would have to rely on the Zhao siblings.

"What?! You said Granny Zhou passed away?!"

Zhao Qian didn't even bother using the polite form anymore. She asked directly, staring at her grandmother's house halfway up the mountain with a trace of gravity in her eyes. Then she pinched her fingers together and began calculating something. Her face instantly turned deathly pale, and she looked toward me.

It seemed Zhao Qian did have some ability. She had actually managed to calculate a few clues.

I pretended not to notice her divination and said, "Since you knew my grandmother, then go burn a stick of incense before you leave."

"You're Granny Zhou's grandson?" Huo Dadong stared at me in astonishment, then thought of something frightening.

Zhao Qian and Zhao He were equally shocked, wearing expressions that said everything suddenly made sense. Clearly, they had connected this with what had happened on the bridge earlier.

"What? Did you think anyone could just casually claim to be Brother Tian's relative?" Yu Xiaoxue said with a cold laugh.

The three were all stunned. Huo Dadong especially hadn't expected that he had handcuffed Granny Zhou's grandson. However, he had indeed seen me digging a pit to bury someone earlier. A corpse whose death was clearly unnatural couldn't simply be buried and forgotten. He had to follow procedure; first and foremost, he couldn't release me.

"Since Granny Zhou has passed away, let's go burn a stick of incense before leaving. Also, Captain Huo, I think you'd better put your investigation on hold for now." Zhao Qian reminded him.

"Mm, Little Zhao's right. But we police have procedures for handling cases too. I can't release him just like that. How about this? Once we return to the station, I'll handle it fairly. If it's confirmed that this young man didn't kill anyone, then of course I'll let him go." Huo Dadong wasn't some clueless hothead. After hearing Zhao Qian's hint, how could he not realize that they had probably stumbled into serious trouble? But he couldn't simply ignore procedure. He still had to put on the proper show.

I sneered without saying anything.

"Don't burn incense. It'll attract filthy things. Although Granny has died, her body isn't actually in the coffin. You should let us go. Eggy wasn't killed by Brother Tian or me. He was killed by a ghost infant. We were planning to bury Eggy and flee Little Yi Village. And yet you lot ran in here to throw your lives away." Seeing that he had no intention of releasing us, Yu Xiaoxue spoke aggrievedly.

"What did you say?!" Zhao Qian stared at Yu Xiaoxue, already somewhat panicked.

Huo Dadong rubbed his chin and fixed his eyes on Yu Xiaoxue's expression. He had interrogated countless people, and whenever someone lied, he could usually guess the truth eight or nine times out of ten. Yu Xiaoxue's changing expression convinced him that this was absolutely not a lie. Even if what she said wasn't accurate, she had seen something real rather than fabricating an imaginary story.

"The dead man was my brother, Zhang Yuanyi, Zhang Yidan. He died an unnatural death. Do you understand what I mean?" I added. But I wasn't looking at Huo Dadong. I was looking at Zhao Qian. The meaning was crystal clear: Miss Zhao, this isn't a place to linger.

Zhao He hurriedly asked, "An unnatural death? You mean...?"

"It's not that I look down on you, but I think the things here aren't something you can deal with. Once night falls... no one will be able to leave." I was still looking at Zhao Qian, because she was the only one here with any real ability. If we wanted to escape Little Yi Village, we would probably need her. As for Zhao He and Huo Dadong, one was only good for lending a hand, while the other was a policeman who would be utterly useless when ghosts appeared. They were nothing but dead weight.

"Hmph, fearmongering." Zhao He gave a cold snort when he saw me looking down on him.

Without saying another word, Zhao Qian immediately took several talismans and a bundle of incense from her box. She arranged the talisman papers in the shape of a Bagua, lit the incense, shook a bell, and muttered under her breath. Then she took out a feng shui compass from her luggage and began calculating the hexagram.

Zhao He didn't dare say anything else, and Huo Dadong didn't even dare breathe loudly.

In barely any time at all, the bundle of incense had burned in a chaotic mess, as if gnawed by a dog. The needle of the feng shui compass spun violently as well. Zhao Qian had never seen such an eerie phenomenon before. Sweat poured down her face, and she broke into a cold sweat.

"This place isn't fit for us to stay! We're leaving immediately. Not one more minute!" After saying that, Zhao Qian ignited several talisman papers she had taken from her clothing, poured several cups of water from her canteen, and prepared to distribute them among us. "Brother, Captain Huo, and you two—drink the talisman water first."

Zhao He didn't even look at it before draining his cup in one gulp. Although Captain Huo was a criminal policeman, after witnessing what had just happened, he knew this was no time to cling to atheism. He immediately drank his as well.

"Brother Tian, I don't want to drink it. It's so disgusting. Does Xiaoxue really have to?" Yu Xiaoxue looked at the talisman water Zhao Qian had handed over to feed her and turned her head away.

"Then don't drink it." I sighed inwardly. Sure enough, when two beautiful women encountered each other, if they weren't best friends, they had to be enemies.

Yu Xiaoxue had already drunk my grandmother's Ghost-Passing Talisman. It was far more powerful than this sect's Ghost-Averting Talisman, so what difference did it make whether she drank this or not? Anyone could draw a Ghost-Averting Talisman.

Zhao He had originally been holding a cup to feed me. But after hearing what I said, he immediately wore an expression like a dog biting Lü Dongbin—his kindness unappreciated—and flung away even the cup. He probably wanted to kill me a hundred times over in his heart.