The Second Chapter

Zhan Ni woke up in the morning to find that Zhan Huitian had already left home.

She hadn't eaten much the entire previous day and lacked the energy to cook, so she decided to go out and find something to eat.

On a street not too far from her home, she found a noodle shop. Just as she walked in, she saw Mr. Ning, whom she had met just yesterday, leisurely picking at noodles with chopsticks by the window.

The shop owner's greeting drew Mr. Ning's gaze towards her. Zhan Ni hesitated, unsure whether to approach and greet him.

Mr. Ning, however, beckoned her over. Zhan Ni had no choice but to walk towards him.

"Sit," Mr. Ning said, pointing to the seat opposite her.

As soon as Zhan Ni sat down, a waiter immediately placed a bowl of beef noodles in front of her.

She said somewhat awkwardly, "This isn't mine..."

"I ordered it for you in advance. Try it, it tastes quite good."

"You knew I was coming here?" Zhan Ni was surprised.

Mr. Ning put down his chopsticks. His bowl still had more than half the noodles untouched. He looked into Zhan Ni's eyes and said, "It's not difficult. I'm a fortune teller."

He could also tell fortunes? Zhan Ni thought, wondering who was more skilled between him and Liu Mumu.

She had personally witnessed Liu Mumu's abilities. This Mr. Ning didn't seem like a swindler, but it was hard to say.

Seeing the hesitation on her face, Mr. Ning smiled. "Your mother went on a blind date, and you were unhappy, so you punctured the other person's tires. When your mother found out, she hit you for the first time... Should I continue?"

"No need," she quickly stopped him. These were enough to prove his abilities.

Perhaps Mr. Ning's capabilities were even greater than Liu Mumu's.

"You knew I would come here to eat, and you appeared here... Is there something you need to tell me?" Zhan Ni asked tentatively.

Mr. Ning shook his head. "I don't need anything from you. You need my help, don't you?"

Zhan Ni's heart trembled. She looked at the person opposite her warily. Did he know something? Impossible. The secret of the vase was known only to herself and Liu Mumu.

And there were many things that even Liu Mumu didn't know.

Mr. Ning remained inscrutable. "If I wanted to harm you, the person sitting here today wouldn't be you, but your elder brother."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zhan Ni denied without hesitation. She stood up, wanting to leave. She wasn't sure if Mr. Ning was hinting at something.

"You do," he leaned forward slightly and whispered to Zhan Ni, "First your mother's strange cause of death, and now your body is showing abnormalities, right? And your father, died inexplicably outside. You're a smart child, you must have had suspicions all along, haven't you?"

Zhan Ni secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but her nerves also tensed.

Mr. Ning didn't know her secret, yet he was talking about the secret of the vase.

"I just said something casually, and you believed me. It's obvious that you already believed that there are unusual powers in this world," he stared at Zhan Ni. "Your intuition is very sharp."

Zhan Ni relaxed slightly. She stood awkwardly for a moment, then sat down again under Mr. Ning's reassurance.

She said softly, "I met a very skilled fortune teller in my hometown before."

That person was Liu Mumu's grandfather. From school teachers to classmates' parents, no one who went to see Grandpa Liu for a fortune telling ever spoke ill of him.

Some people thought he was a swindler, but Zhan Ni felt that if someone could deceive hundreds of people without anyone exposing him, he must have genuine skills.

Moreover, she didn't think Grandpa Liu was a swindler. She had personally seen Grandpa Liu prevent an accident with just a few words. He was truly remarkable.

"No wonder," Mr. Ning wasn't interested in the fortune teller she mentioned. He steered the conversation back. "Let's talk about the vase. It was originally your father's memento. Do you want to know its purpose?"

Zhan Ni's body trembled. It felt like countless needles were piercing her heart, making her flustered and restless, unable to sit still.

Of course, she wanted to know. Liu Mumu refused to tell her directly, only speaking ambiguously. She was still guessing about the vase's purpose.

"Your father was a somewhat crazy person. If I'm not mistaken, he should have drawn some blood from you not long ago?"

Under Mr. Ning's questioning gaze, Zhan Ni nodded. She licked her dry lips and asked him, "He asked me to get a check-up, is there something wrong with that?"

"That blood was actually used to smear on the vase. With your blood, the vase gained extraordinary power." His voice grew lower and lower, almost hoarse. "As long as you write someone's birthdate and time on a piece of paper and burn it in the vase, that person will disappear from this world according to your will."

"Why did it have to be my blood?"

Seeing that Zhan Ni didn't have an overly strong reaction, Mr. Ning leaned back. He hadn't misjudged this girl after all.

She was an ambitious and sufficiently ruthless child. The Zhan family, this entire family, probably had a crazy gene originally.

From Zhan Hongye to Zhan Huitian, and then to Zhan Ni, none of them disappointed him.

"Because your father used your blood as a sacrifice. The sacrifice was not completed, and he died. It was the previous owner of the vase who killed him using the residual power of your blood."

"The previous owner you're referring to, is it my elder brother?"

Mr. Ning smiled without answering.

This clever girl, after seeing so many terrifying details and connecting them with today's conversation, would inevitably make some guesses. When she discovered her elder brother's true colors, what choice would she make?

His silent smile had already given Zhan Ni the answer. She hadn't guessed wrong after all.

She was originally her father's sacrifice, and now her elder brother was also treating her as a sacrifice.

Mr. Ning's explanation about sacrifice was the same as what Liu Mumu had said. He hadn't deceived her in this regard.

"You know my elder brother, don't you? Why are you telling me this?"

Mr. Ning smiled slightly, clasping his hands together and resting them on his chin. "Because you are more worth my investment. Your elder brother is too greedy and not a good partner. As his younger sister, you should have already sensed it, right?"

He hit Zhan Ni right where it hurt.

Before, if she hadn't known, it would have been fine. But now that she knew she'd missed out on such a huge sum of money. Her elder brother, living such a good life out there, had never once thought of his younger sister.

Even now, he said he'd treat her well, but after inheriting so much money, he hadn't even considered giving her a little. He was truly hypocritical.

Her anger easily stoked, she calmly asked, "Do I just need to smear my blood on it? Won't that hurt me?"

Mr. Ning smiled, "A sacrifice requires at least four times. Your father taking your blood was only the first time. You have two more chances. As long as you stop before the fourth time, it won't cause you any harm. Have you thought it through?"

Zhan Ni's hands trembled slightly, unsure if it was from excitement or nervousness.

As long as she smeared her blood on it, she would possess the power to control human life. As long as she controlled herself, she could use these two chances to completely change her life.

Zhan Ni's dream had never been to study hard and get into a better university.

She had always just wanted to be more outstanding, to have her Dad see her and bring her home.

She should have been living the same life as the children of rich people. Although she had missed out on the first decade or so, she had never given up.

She didn't want to end up like her Mom, taking a large alimony from her Dad but still working in the school cafeteria without any shame, letting her classmates know her mom was just an auntie serving food.

She would become rich, wouldn't have to worry about work or life, wouldn't have to haggle over every penny, she would have a higher social status, just like her Dad.

The fantasy of the future was too beautiful, Zhan Ni was almost lost in it.

But soon, she came back to her senses.

No, it wouldn't do.

She had only met Mr. Ning twice. How could she be sure his words were true? Mr. Ning's words had indeed begun to sway her. It was just a little blood, perhaps there wouldn't be any serious consequences.

She didn't need two chances, one would be enough.

But soon, Zhan Ni dismissed the thought.

Liu Mumu had told her not to let her blood touch the vase again. She hadn't said the consequences, but she had repeatedly warned her.

She had seen Liu Mumu's abilities with her own eyes.

Using herself as a sacrifice was too risky. She needed to think it over carefully.

Zhan Ni's gaze drifted, a struggle appearing on her face. After a long pause, she said, "...I still need to consider it."

"It's alright. Young people always want more choices." Mr. Ning's tone was calm, but as he lowered his eyes, his gaze turned sinister.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone.

The phone's ringtone suddenly blared, a melodious pure music playing softly, only audible to the two of them. Within the music, there seemed to be some noise mixed in, like someone coughing, or hoarsely calling out.

This sound seemed to have some kind of magic, drawing Zhan Ni's attention completely. It wasn't until ten minutes after the music stopped that Zhan Ni regained her senses.

Mr. Ning had left at some point. She was still sitting in her original spot, and the bowl of braised beef noodles in front of her had gone mushy.

What had just happened?

She recalled it, shook her head. She had just listened to a piece of music.

Mechanically, she finished the bowl of noodles in front of her. She walked out of the noodle shop, but her heart was anxious. She had to go home immediately; there was something important to do.

She walked all the way to her doorstep. Just as she was about to enter, she felt inexplicably agitated.

She thought she should call Liu Mumu.

She had already dialed the number, but she didn't know what to say.

"Zhan Ni, is something wrong?" Liu Mumu's voice came through.

After a moment of silence, Zhan Ni said, "Nothing, I dialed the wrong number."

Then she hung up.

Liu Mumu looked at her phone, feeling puzzled.

Zhan Ni looked at the darkened screen, feeling her actions were strange. Why had she called her?

Back home, she found the bottle in her room. She then wrote down Zhan Huitian's birthdate and time, put the note, a lighter, and a small knife into her pocket. She then put the bottle into a canvas bag and hurriedly left home.

Home wouldn't do. She needed to find a higher place.

At ten in the morning, the company supervisor was in a meeting. Zhan Huitian sat in the seat that originally belonged to his father.

The air conditioning in the conference room seemed too cold; he felt a chill.

He tugged at his tie and was about to speak when he noticed all the supervisors looking at him in horror.

He looked down at himself. Blood was seeping through his suit.

The bloodstain on his neck was the deepest, rendering him speechless.

Zhan Huitian clutched his neck, his eyes wide, as if he still hadn't understood how all this had happened.

Someone screamed and ran out the door. Someone rushed over as if to help, while someone else was calling an ambulance.

Zhan Huitian's vision darkened. He could only hear a rushing wind sound blowing past his ears, a very loud sound.

Just then, another group of people rushed into the office. The man in the lead roared at the people around Zhan Huitian, "Police business, everyone out."

The others hesitated and retreated. Some who wanted to stay were blocked by the arriving police officers. Once the extraneous personnel had left the conference room, Fang Chuan rushed over. After checking Zhan Huitian's condition, he turned to Yan Xiu behind him and said gravely, "He's been cursed too. What's going on?"

They had just listed Zhan Huitian as a suspect in Zhan Hongye's murder when he nearly died from the same curse.

Fortunately, they arrived in time. If they had been a moment later, he would have been dead.

Yan Xiu crouched beside Zhan Huitian. He took out a brand-new pen from his pocket, lightly slicing his index finger with the sword tip hidden within. Blood instantly welled up.

He pressed his index finger to the center of Zhan Huitian's forehead and then rapidly drew a blood talisman. The complex patterns almost covered the man's entire face.

With the final stroke, accompanied by a low utterance of "Condense," the bleeding wounds on Zhan Huitian's body froze in a bizarre state.

The wounds didn't heal, but they stopped expanding and bleeding.

Yan Xiu withdrew his hand. Fang Chuan quickly handed him a rabbit-patterned bandage with both hands.

He had "borrowed" it from his niece, and it was quite pleasing to the eye.

Yan Xiu frowned as he looked at it for a moment before tearing it open and applying it.

"What's going on with this kid? Did we find the wrong killer? That shouldn't be right. The message from headquarters clearly stated he was guilty of patricide."

Since ordinary evidence couldn't prove Zhan Huitian's involvement in Zhan Hongye's death, Fang Chuan had filed a report requesting support from headquarters.

Because they only had the birth date and not the time, it took longer to perform a more precise calculation. They had been waiting for headquarters' reply these past few days.

The results were as they suspected, but why had Zhan Huitian been targeted now?

Yan Xiu suddenly asked, "Where is Zhan Huitian's sister?"

Fang Chuan's expression sharpened. He immediately ordered his subordinate, "Notify everyone. Search for Zhan Ni. Bring her to the police station immediately upon capture."

"Yes." Two police officers left at once after receiving the order.

"Is there something wrong with the Zhan family's feng shui? Why is everyone in the family so crazy?" Fang Chuan couldn't help but say.

Yan Xiu offered no comment.

Zhan Ni, holding a vase, arrived at a very old residential complex a few streets away.

The buildings in the complex were only seven stories high, with a rooftop on the top floor. Someone had hung a row of wet clothes on the rooftop. No one stopped her as she walked onto it.

She cut her hand with a small knife there, smeared the blood on the vase, and then lit the paper with Zhan Huitian's birthdate and time, throwing it into the vase.

The flame in the vase instantly turned from yellow to black. After burning for a while, the flame disappeared.

Her hand was still bleeding, but she seemed to feel no pain. She raised the vase and threw it from the building.

The sound of the vase shattering echoed from below, along with a string of loud curses, but Zhan Ni paid them no mind.

After that, she stood on the edge of the building, gazing down. One more step forward and she would fall. A voice in her head urgently urged her to move forward.

But she couldn't take that step.

Before jumping, she wanted to make a phone call. Who should she call?

Liu Mumu received Zhan Ni's call for the second time. After waiting for a long time, there was no sound from the phone.

She had to speak first, "Zhan Ni, is something wrong?"

The previous call had been inexplicable, and this one was equally strange.

"Do you know? I've always hated you," Zhan Ni suddenly said.

Liu Mumu frowned. What was going on?

"Why aren't you helping me? Isn't it just about money? I have plenty of money now."

Liu Mumu could tell something was wrong. She casually tossed a coin in her hand, placed her hand on it, and closed her eyes. A scene flashed in the darkness.

She rushed out with her phone, looked around, saw Dong Yue in the living room, and sprinted downstairs, pointing at the phone on the coffee table, asking her to unlock it.

Dong Yue, not understanding, handed the unlocked phone to Liu Mumu.

Glancing at the time displayed on the screen, Liu Mumu continued to speak with Zhan Ni on the other end of the line.

She said, "There's a reason I'm not helping you. It's not just about money."

Zhan Ni seemed not to hear what she was saying, talking to herself, "I don't need your help anymore. My dad is dead, my brother is dead. Everything they left behind belongs to me. I know you're jealous of me."

"Yes, of course, I'm jealous of you."

A minute passed. Liu Mumu retorted, "Do you know why?"

"Because I've always been better than you," Zhan Ni's voice was sharp.

"Yes, you are very good. When I divined for you before, I also divined some other things, but I didn't tell you."

Time was passing too slowly, and Liu Mumu was getting impatient, wishing she could fast-forward the phone's clock by four minutes.

"What did you divine?" Zhan Ni seemed to have piqued her interest. At this moment, curiosity overshadowed the urge to jump off the building.

"I divined that your financial fortune is exceptionally strong, which is why I didn't want to tell you. Also..."

The two chatted aimlessly for a full five minutes. Zhan Ni stood there, her attention completely captivated by Liu Mumu's words, listening to her talk about how brilliant her future would be and how insignificant she was. She didn't notice at all that someone had ascended to the rooftop.

"Three, two, one!"

As Liu Mumu counted down in her mind, a "bang" suddenly sounded from the other end of the phone, like something heavy hitting the ground, and then the call was disconnected.

While other matters remained uncertain, Zhan Ni had likely been saved.

At this moment, perhaps she should call the police for him?

While calling the police, she also divined for herself, and the omen was extremely inauspicious. She had clearly just done a good deed, and Liu Mumu was indignant.

Fang Chuan received a message from Zhan Ni at 10:20 AM. She wasn't at the Zhan family's residence but at the hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital, Zhan Ni was still in the emergency room. Outside the emergency room, a middle-aged woman was standing there, constantly cursing, spitting everywhere, as if trying to drown Zhan Ni inside.

Her curses were truly unpleasant, so Fang Chuan had no choice but to step forward and interrupt her.

"Hello, I'm a police officer. Did you call the police?"

The woman finally stopped talking. She took Fang Chuan's badge and examined it carefully, still skeptical, "Are you really a police officer?"

"Yes, could you tell us what happened?"

The woman immediately became interested in this question and her chatterbox reopened, "Officer, aren't you angry? We were playing mahjong downstairs, and that young girl suddenly threw a vase down from the rooftop, nearly scaring us to death. Fortunately, no one was passing by, otherwise, she would have killed someone."

The woman looked terrified.

"And then?"

"Then I saw her standing on the rooftop. I don't know when she sneaked up there. It was simply terrifying," the woman patted her chest. "I quickly called the police, and I was worried she would jump before the police arrived.

It's hard to rent out houses now. If someone dies, this entire building will become a haunted house, and the rent prices will definitely drop. So I ran upstairs and, when she wasn't paying attention, I used a clothes hook to pull her down."

After speaking, she emphasized again, "Officer, I really just wanted to save her at the time. Who knew that when she fell, she landed directly on the back of her head."

Fang Chuan was silent for a long time. The woman's act of saving someone was indeed commendable, but her reason was truly hard to describe – to save property values?

In this world, even a woman who owned a building was this desperate.

The woman secretly looked at his expression and asked, "Officer, you won't hold me responsible, right?"

"Don't worry, this is considered a good deed."

Fang Chuan comforted her and walked towards the doctor who was coming out.

He briefly inquired about Zhan Ni's condition. The doctor said it wasn't serious, just a concussion.

However, after the examination, they found abnormalities in her brainwaves, and the cause had not yet been found. She probably wouldn't wake up anytime soon.

Then the doctor handed him a bag of items. These were Zhan Ni's personal belongings that were collected when she was brought to the hospital, including her phone.

Fang Chuan picked up the bag and handed it to the police officer behind him, asking them to take it back for examination. He then left two police officers to guard the sickroom, ready to take her statement as soon as she woke up.

At 11 AM, Qing City High-Speed Rail Station was bustling with people. In the waiting room, rows of seats were all occupied.

In a corner, Mr. Ning placed a luggage bag at his feet. He sent a message on his phone: The witchcraft tool is destroyed, the Zhan family has been cleared, you can start to cast your net.

A few seconds later, a message popped up: Well done, you can come back now. Have a safe trip.

Seeing the message, Mr. Ning's face revealed a hint of a smile. He took out his SIM card, broke it, and threw it into the flush toilet in the nearby restroom.

A gurgling sound echoed, and no trace could be found.

The mission was over, and the train to leave Qing City would arrive at 12:05 PM.