Qi Gu could not be bothered with what he was saying. He had only glanced at him once the entire time before telling the others, "Everyone, stand back a little, so she doesn't enter the wrong body."
Everyone hurriedly backed away until they stood more than ten meters from Qi Gu. He paid particular attention to Lin Hanzhi, whose body was the weakest. Only after making sure he was far enough away did Qi Gu have Sha Chuan stand in the center of the clearing. Then, using the empty milk container he had just finished drinking from as a pen, he traced an enormous circular chart in the dirt.
-Anyone who knew the subject would have recognized at a glance that what Qi Gu had drawn was a fate chart calculated from Xu Xue's birth date and time, accurate down to the last detail.
The moment the fate chart was completed, wind and mist rose abruptly through the mountains. Leaves shook violently, lending an even greater sense of desolation to Qingji Mountain, already terrifying at night.
"Heaven above, the underworld below, through one whose birth chart is close to yours, come now into this body!" As the incantation ended, the wind and mist surged, enveloping Sha Chuan in the center.
At first, Sha Chuan looked panicked and tried to flee, but he soon discovered that, for some unknown reason, his feet were firmly nailed to the ground. Unable to move an inch, he could only watch as the damp, cold mist swept toward his face and swallowed him whole.
About seven minutes later, the mist dispersed. Sha Chuan's expression within the formation shifted from terror to confusion and uncertainty as he looked at the people before him. "Who are you? Where is this? Aren't I supposed to be in the underworld, waiting for my number to come up for reincarnation?"
The features were clearly still Sha Chuan's, yet the moment the face moved, the impression it gave was worlds apart.
"Don't be afraid. This is a paranormal investigation variety show. At your parents' request, I've temporarily borrowed you from the underworld. Do you have any grievances you want to tell us about?" Qi Gu's expression was impassive, but his voice could be called gentle.
At any rate, he had never spoken to Sha Chuan in that tone.
Xu Xue froze for a moment, then her face came alive. "You mean, if I talk to the camera now, my parents and lots of viewers can see me?"
She was still as bright and sunny as Jiang Huaguo had described, with nothing about her suggesting she had died by suicide.
"Yes."
"Xuexue, it's me. It's Dad."
"It's... Mom." The voices rang out over the phone's speaker, trembling and anguished, yet also excited at having a long-held wish fulfilled.
"Dad, Mom!" Xu Xue cried out the names she had lost all chance of calling again, and tears instantly streamed down her face.
She regretted it. She had regretted it long ago.
That was why her soul had lingered outside the window of her parents' master bedroom countless times. But her parents were both public servants, surrounded by righteous energy, so every time she approached their bedroom, that energy repelled her, preventing her from getting any closer.
-This was also why Xu Xue's parents had been forced awake countless times just as they began dreaming of their daughter.
"Mom and Dad are here. We're both right here. Xuexue, if you've suffered any injustice, tell us. Your mom and I, and all these viewers, will make sure you get justice!" her father said in anguish.
"I killed myself... because I was sexually assaulted by the boss of the influencer incubator company Sha Chuan signed with. That day, Sha Chuan asked me to go with him to discuss his contract. I'd wanted to stay home and study, but Sha Chuan said I had a share in his account, and the company's boss wanted me there for an assessment too, so I went with him. Everything went normally during the assessment. After signing the contract, we went to a karaoke place to celebrate. I can't really drink, so I only ordered a glass of very low-alcohol fruit wine, but after drinking it, I felt terribly dizzy. Then the boss told Sha Chuan to go downstairs and line up for him at that viral skewer place called Flaming Hot Skewers... and it happened. I wanted to call the police right away, and I kept all the evidence I needed to keep. But after Sha Chuan came back, he held me, crying and apologizing while telling me not to report it."
"He said there were so many similar victims online, but they never received the compassion and respect they deserved. Instead, their looks and clothes became talking points for people to judge... and if I were the one being judged, it would break his heart. Then there were my parents. They're both public servants. If people dug up their identities, they'd definitely be affected. How would they face anyone then?" Having died once, Xu Xue looked considerably calmer recounting these events than she had when hearing her parents' voices.
"In the end, I only saved the evidence to cloud storage and never reported it. After that, Sha Chuan took meticulous care of me and went along with everything I wanted, but he still inevitably hit my sore spots. My mental state got worse every day, until that day when I lost control of my emotions and couldn't control my actions at all. On impulse, I went up to the rooftop." As she spoke, Xu Xue thumped her head hard. "My brain really short-circuited back then. I'd backed myself into a corner. Thinking about it carefully now, wasn't it just like getting bitten by a dog? Why did I have to jump... You have no idea how much dying that way hurts. When you fall from that high up, your bones break and pierce through your flesh, but your mind is still perfectly clear..." Xu Xue deeply regretted her choice back then.
Had she known, she should have chosen to call the police.
So what if people talked? It was better than bottling it all up until it made her ill.
She was not the one at fault.
And what kind of decent people would gossip about her and look down on her over this?
Since they were all trash anyway, why should she care how they saw her?
Hearing this, her parents immediately broke down in tears. "It's all our fault. We were too strict with you, and that's why you never came to us first when something happened... If we'd been proper parents and you'd told us about this, I would have taken you straight to the police station."
"Silly child, at our age, you're what matters most to us... What could other people's gossip possibly count for?" The older couple were overcome with remorse and grief, unable to contain themselves.
Jiang Huaguo had never imagined that her close friend had gone through something like this. Her eyes reddened as she watched Xu Xue on the livestream, her heart aching beyond measure.
[That poor girl. Is Sha Chuan sick in the head? Why did he stop you from calling the police?]
[If she'd reported it, none of what happened afterward would have happened.]
[Waaah, her parents are genuinely wonderful. They didn't blame their daughter. They felt they hadn't done enough. Such a good family.]
[Doesn't seem like Sha Chuan really did anything wrong here? What he described really is common in today's society, isn't it? He only said it to protect his girlfriend.]
[Sigh.]
Just as everyone was lamenting what had happened, Qi Gu suddenly said, "That probably isn't the whole truth yet."
The black thread representing the bond between Sha Chuan and Xu Xue had remained entwined with a third person's thread. And that thread's karmic connection to Sha Chuan was not even any weaker than the one between Sha Chuan and Xu Xue.
"Think carefully again. When you were at the karaoke place, did Sha Chuan really do nothing unusual?" Qi Gu's question was direct, but his voice remained gentle.
Xu Xue lowered her head, sinking deep into her memories.
After a long while, she looked up. "That day... I think after I drank, Sha Chuan asked me three times, 'Are you okay? How did just a little fruit wine make your face this red?' Things like that?"
Now that they had reached familiar territory, Qi Gu quickly asked, "If I remember correctly, that Flaming Hot Skewers chain only stays open until eight in the evening. Did you go to the karaoke place at eight?"
Xu Xue thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No. I remember it was already past eight when we arrived. After we'd been drinking for a while, it must have been nine."
"So that means Sha Chuan should have come right back up after going downstairs and finding the viral restaurant closed. Instead, he waited until... it was over before coming back." Qi Gu's voice was icy. When he looked at Sha Chuan's body, it was as though he were looking at something filthy he could not get far enough away from.
[He really picked Qi Gu's comfort zone to lie about. As a foodie, how could he not know when a viral restaurant closes?]
[Why does something about this deduction process seem a little off...]
[So, in other words, Sha Chuan and the boss were in on it together and deliberately lured Xu Xue into a trap? Holy shit, that's so disgusting, aaaaah!]
[Please, girl, how about you just control Sha Chuan's body and jump off the cliff right now? We'll absolutely pretend we saw nothing.]
[Urgh, this is so disgusting I'm about to throw up my New Year's Eve dinner.]
[Flaming Hot Skewers' owner: What a blessing you are to me.]
Xu Xue had also worked out the crucial point. Her expression turned utterly ghastly. It felt like getting halfway through a milk tea and discovering a cockroach laying eggs at the bottom.
Worse still, she had even chewed up those cockroach eggs, thinking they were free toppings from the shop.
[So that's why Sha Chuan kept telling her not to call the police and took such good care of her.]
[So that's what happened!]
[Oh my god.]
[I'm so furious my lungs are going to explode, aaaah!]
[I spotted something important. Hasn't Sha Chuan always been good at psychological manipulation? Could he have used this as another way to manipulate her, treating her well while using what happened to make her feel inferior, so he could control her better?]
[You up there... what kind of psychology master are you?]
[When you put it that way, it does seem plausible.]
[Hiss! Vicious, absolutely vicious. Forget "a woman's heart is the most venomous." I think a man's heart is the most venomous.]
[Sigh, but Sha Chuan definitely won't admit it himself.]
[Even if that's really what happened, they still couldn't convict him of murder, could they?]
[My blood pressure is higher than Qingji Mountain today.]
[So is there really no way to make Sha Chuan confess himself?]
After reading the comments on the screen, Qi Gu thought for a moment. "It's not impossible. There have been precedents in the Judge of the Underworld Hall for recruiting living people to work part-time at night as judges, hearing ghosts' cases. Fearing that the living might show favoritism or cheat, the Judge of the Underworld would have the living judge swallow an Iron Pellet to steady their mind before hearing cases, preventing such misconduct. If we can make Sha Chuan swallow one, he'll only be able to speak the truth." ①
[Can we get our hands on that thing, then?]
[You're dreaming. He just said only the Judge of the Underworld Hall has it. Master Qi may be amazing, but he can't get their stuff, can he?]
[Sigh, so there's no hope.]
A trace of nostalgia appeared on Qi Gu's face. "When I read about it in the ancient texts, I was very curious about this Iron Pellet, so I went to ask Shifu. He said he happened to have one and gave it to me... But I haven't found an opportunity to try it in all these years, so I don't know whether he was telling the truth. The old man's always been a braggart."
With that, he tipped an Iron Pellet out of the Purple-Gold Gourd. It was shaped like a sparrow's egg and weighed about two units. ②
Countless intricate patterns covered its surface, and it was giving off a cold, sinister aura.
The scrolling comments froze for a moment, then immediately began streaming past in a frenzy.
Before you continue