"Before your brother got into the accident, this special friend of his had been targeted by someone with bad intentions."
"The other side was very powerful."
"To protect his friend from being harmed by them..."
"Your brother came up with this solution."
Xiao Xiao deliberately slowed his speech so the old man would have more time to understand.
"Your brother hid his friend away."
"Inside the jade ball?"
The old man felt as if he were listening to a wild fantasy.
What kind of friend... could be hidden inside a jade ball?
A bug? A butterfly?
Whatever it was, so many years had passed...
"Is it still alive?"
In truth, the old man had only been talking to himself.
He already knew the answer.
No wonder his brother had insisted on telling him those two words at the end...
He wanted him to open the jade ball and release the creature inside.
But he had let his brother down.
The friend his brother had treasured...
Regret instantly flooded the old man's heart.
But—
"It's still alive."
The old man's expression jolted.
His voice even changed pitch. "It's still alive?!"
How was that possible?
"What exactly is it?!"
Wasn't it a rhinoceros beetle or a butterfly, some kind of insect?
If it was one of those, how could an insect have survived until now?
If it wasn't, what other creature could hide inside such a tiny jade ball?
The old man didn't know.
"It's a yaoguai."
Xiao Xiao sounded as if he were stating two ordinary words.
But the old man seemed to have been struck by a tremendous shock.
"A ya-yaoguai?!"
The old man cried out.
But his hoarse voice wasn't actually as loud as he thought.
Xiao Xiao slowly recounted the story of the