Taken Care Of

The next morning, Gong Kai arrived at Wen Ning's shop right on time with Zhou Hu.

Wen Ning had deliberately left his morning free of lessons, waiting for them to arrive.

A young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six followed behind Gong Kai. He was short and wore black-rimmed glasses, huddling behind Gong Kai as though ready to dodge bird droppings falling from the sky at any moment.

Wen Ning glanced up at him, and even the mop in his hands stopped moving.

This man really was unlucky. A dark cloud hung over him, turning the space above his head pitch-black.

Wen Ning had not been able to see such things in the mortal world before, but now that he was an Earth Immortal, it was impossible to miss Zhou Hu's condition.

An ordinary person plagued by this cloud of bad luck for a week would already have landed in the hospital. Zhou Hu had endured it for a month and was still up and about. Wen Ning could only put that down to the truly impressive merit his grandfather had accumulated during his lifetime.

"Wen, this is Zhou Hu."

Gong Kai pulled Zhou Hu out from behind him and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't be scared. He's a close buddy of mine. His shop might look shabby, but he's got some serious connections."

Zhou Hu forced a smile that looked worse than crying. One lens of his glasses was cracked, and the left arm had several layers of clear tape wrapped around it.

"Wen."

Zhou Hu sounded dispirited. Clearly, he had spent plenty of time sighing lately.

"Gong Kai said you knew someone who understood this stuff, so I... I came. Please don't laugh at me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm really out of options. Yesterday, I went out to pick up a package, and the parcel locker's screen went black the instant I touched it. That exact instant. It worked for everyone else, but when I touched it, it went black. Out of all the parcel lockers in the complex, only the one I used broke."

"It's not ridiculous."

Wen Ning put down the mop and motioned for them to sit.

He did not beat around the bush with Zhou Hu, getting straight to the point.

"Zhou Hu, I think I already know what's caused your bad luck this past month."

Zhou Hu nearly burst into tears. Heaven only knew how he had survived that month. It had been unbearable.

"But to deal with it, we'll have to visit your grandfather's old house. How far away is your hometown?"

"An hour by car,"

Zhou Hu said.

"The old house has been empty since my grandfather passed away. Nobody lives there."

"Then let's go."

The three of them took a taxi. Zhou Hu sat in the front passenger seat, while Wen Ning and Gong Kai sat in the back. Throughout the ride, Zhou Hu nervously picked at his fingernails and occasionally looked out the window, probably afraid of another accident.

Gong Kai, on the other hand, was quite relaxed. He leaned against the seat and scrolled through his phone, occasionally glancing up at Wen Ning.

After almost an hour, the car finally stopped in a village on the outskirts.

The village was small, with a few dozen households scattered around. Most people had moved away, leaving only a handful of elderly residents still looking after their old homes.

Zhou Hu's grandfather's old house stood at the far end of the village, a single-story rural home.

Wen Ning got out of the car and stood at the courtyard gate. Even before going inside, he could already sense that presence.

That lingering stench of old blood.

The Five Thunder Righteous Method in his dantian began circulating on its own, and faint streaks of lightning flickered in his palm.

"You two wait outside."

Wen Ning pushed open the courtyard gate and spoke to the two behind him without looking back.

"No matter what you hear, don't come in."

Although neither of them could sense anything specific, merely approaching the house made their hair stand on end. A chill shot from the soles of their feet straight to the tops of their heads.

Gong Kai was about to say something, but then thought, If Wen dares to go in, he probably knows what he's doing. If things really go wrong, we'll rush in.

Wen Ning stepped into the courtyard. The door was unlocked and opened with a push. Dust covers draped the furniture, and several cardboard boxes were piled in a corner.

Someone crouched by the wall—though "someone" probably was not the right word. He wore a tattered Japanese military uniform, with a hole in his chest.

His head was lowered, and he kept muttering a few phrases in Japanese that Wen Ning could not understand.

The Five Thunder Righteous Method in Wen Ning's dantian throbbed wildly, and the arcs of electricity in his palm crackled.

He had no intention of wasting words on this thing.

Wen Ning kicked aside a cardboard box blocking his path and turned his right hand over. The electric arc in his palm suddenly surged, expanding from a single streak into a whole swath. Golden lightning burst through the dim living room.

The Japanese soldier's ghost jerked his head up, revealing a face devoid of features except for two dark eye sockets and a mouth split all the way to his ears. He was still muttering that phrase Wen Ning could not understand.

The instant he saw the golden lightning in Wen Ning's hand, his entire spectral form sprang from the corner with startling speed.

Wen Ning gave him no chance to show off. The Five Thunder Righteous Method shot from his palm, turning into a golden lightning whip that swept an arc through the air and struck the ghost squarely across the back.

The ghost let out an agonized scream, then was forcibly whipped down from the ceiling.

While cultivating in his shop, Wen Ning had practiced his aim by zapping mosquitoes with electric arcs. That practice had finally paid off.

The Japanese soldier realized he had no way to fight back.

He forced out a sentence in stiff Chinese.

"You Chinese pigs! General Yamamoto will avenge me! He'll slaughter every last one of you!"

Seeing that the soldier still dared to speak, Wen Ning immediately intensified the electrotherapy, shocking him until he was nearly cooked.

When the ghost was about to die a second time, Wen Ning stopped and channeled magical power into the Summoning Talisman in his pocket.

As his power flowed into it, a fissure silently opened in the ground behind him.

Two figures slowly rose from the fissure. The one on the left wore a black suit, and the one on the right wore a white suit. Both wore sunglasses and carried a chain, its end trailing on the ground.

Their appearance was nothing like the Black and White Impermanence Wen Ning had seen in television dramas. They had neither long tongues nor tall hats, looking more like bodyguards attending a business meeting.

Meng Jiang had told him before that the Underworld had long since undergone reforms. These days, its Ghost Messengers wore formal attire on field assignments.

Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu had even won the best-dressed award when they attended the Three Realms judicial system's annual conference as Ghost Messengers.

White Impermanence took off his sunglasses and addressed Wen Ning.

His tone was courteous yet thoroughly professional.

"Xie Bi'an pays his respects, honored immortal. This is my partner, Fan Wujiu. We received a message through the Summoning Talisman that a foreign spirit lingering in the mortal world required ferrying to the Underworld. We're here to take him into custody."

Black Impermanence also removed his sunglasses and nodded expressionlessly, giving the chain in his hand a slight shake.

His gaze passed over Wen Ning and landed on the Japanese soldier behind him. He frowned.

Wen Ning pointed at the ghost, who was barely hanging on.

"He's right here. Also, while this soldier's spirit was spewing abuse just now, he mentioned someone called Yamamoto. Question him and find out who this Yamamoto is, and whether any other Japanese soldiers' lingering spirits have gathered in the mortal world."

Xie Bi'an looped his chain directly around the soldier's neck, as though leashing a dog.

"Rest assured, honored immortal. The Underworld has an ongoing special operation to deal with foreign spirits lingering in the mortal world. There are simply too many, so investigating them takes time. With this lead, we can follow the trail and find out exactly who this Yamamoto is."

He then took a business card from his pocket and offered it to Wen Ning with both hands. The card had silver lettering on a black background, with two lines printed on it: Underworld Ferrying Division Special Action Group, Xie Bi'an.

Below them was a phone number beginning with three zeros.

"These are my contact details. Should you encounter another situation requiring an Underworld field assignment, honored immortal, you can call this number directly."

Xie Bi'an's tone had none of the sinister, terrifying airs Wen Ning had imagined an Underworld officer would have.

Wen Ning thought, The Underworld really has modernized thoroughly. They even have business cards now.

Xie Bi'an put his sunglasses back on and flicked his wrist, dragging the soldier along as he and Fan Wujiu retreated into the fissure in the ground.

The fissure closed soundlessly, leaving not a single trace.

Silence returned to the old house's living room. The lingering resentment had completely dissipated, and sunlight streamed through the window, brightening the room.

Wen Ning also found the soldier's arm bone and reduced it to ash with the Five Thunder Righteous Method.

He searched the old house once more and finally found the military medal in the bedside cabinet in Zhou Weiguo's bedroom.

It was identical to the one the old man had worn on his chest in the Underworld, except this one was real.

Wen Ning stood holding the medal for a while. Remembering Zhou Weiguo's ramrod-straight back as he sat on the bench in the reincarnation hall, he carefully tucked the medal into his pocket.

He pushed open the front door and walked out, casually tossing the ashes into the wind.

Outside the courtyard, Gong Kai and Zhou Hu were squatting by the gate.

The moment Wen Ning opened the gate, the cloud of bad luck above Zhou Hu's head vanished, as though someone had lifted away a black veil, leaving not a trace.

Though Zhou Hu could not see any of this with his own eyes, he distinctly felt different. The stifling pressure that had weighed on his chest for a month suddenly eased, the burden on his shoulders vanished, and even his breathing grew easier.

He raised his head and looked at Wen Ning as he emerged from the old house.

"Wen, I..."

Wen Ning walked up to him, dusted off his hands, and said,

"It's taken care of. You won't have to suffer that bad luck anymore."

Then he took the military medal from his pocket and placed it in Zhou Hu's hand.

"Your grandfather asked me to give you this. He said to keep it as a memento and not to spend all your time worrying about him."

Zhou Hu lowered his head and looked at the medal in his hand for a long time without saying a word.

Only after a good while did Zhou Hu regain his composure. He carefully placed the medal in his breast pocket and pressed his palm against his chest.

He looked up at Wen Ning. The past month had been so hard on him that his eyes reddened, but his expression was already far more relaxed than when he had arrived.

"Thank you, Wen. Thank you so much."

After speaking, he even bowed to Wen Ning.

"Gong Kai said the fee was 18,888. I don't have that much on hand right now. I'll transfer it to you when we get back."

"We can talk about that later."

Wen Ning waved a hand and turned toward the mouth of the alley.

"There's no rush about the money. Let's head back first."