Otherworldly Merchant

What happened proved that my trick worked. The legs began to pace anxiously. And, as the smoke engulfed them, a human body started to form above the pair of legs.

Of course, that upper body was made of white smoke.

His face was bearded as he wore something similar to the loose-sleeved robe from the Qin or Han Dynasty. There was a sword at his waist, so I assumed he was a warrior.

The spirit dwelling in the Ban Liang coin was that of a warrior.

The smoke seemed to provoke him as he stared and walked toward us. I immediately patted Yin Xinyue’s shoulder, signaling her to use the peach wood stick to counterattack. At the same time, I grabbed a handful of refined salt, ready to throw it at him.

However, the warrior seemed scared of us. After hesitating for a while, he changed direction, walking toward the wall clock.

Everything happened in just the blink of an eye. He vanished into thin air.

I guessed that he’d entered the Ban Liang coin and sighed in relief. We had safely passed the night. For now, the ship owner would be relatively safe.

I let him go, and he quickly spat out the salt in his mouth.

Even after he had vomited, he couldn’t clean his mouth. Thus, he squatted in a corner, trying to use his fingers to make himself vomit more. The salty taste in his mouth prevented him from talking, his face ashen.

And now, our biggest enemy was the ship owner’s wife.

I knew how to deal with otherworldly items, but it was more difficult to deal with human beings. What should we do now? As the ship owner’s wife seemed determined to kill us, our chances of survival were slim.

We were imprisoned in this room, just like turtles in a jar.

Li Mazi breathed heavily, sitting on the stairs and cursing. However, the person on the other side of the door was stubborn. She didn’t care about our shouting and screaming.

I knew it wasn’t a solution to stay idle here. There wasn’t much oxygen in the room, and we had exhausted a lot of it after burning the shirt and the rhino horn. I had already started to struggle to breathe.

I cleared my mind to think of a solution. Eventually, in my despair, I thought of something. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Yeah, let’s do that!

After making up my mind, I rushed forward and pulled the ship owner up.

I checked and found he had almost recovered. However, his mouth was full of saliva. I guessed it was because of the salt.

I asked, “Are you okay now? Can you talk?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Alright, he could talk. I heaved a sigh of relief. Then, I gave him the rhino horn. “Next, you’ll have to strictly follow my instructions. Perhaps we have a chance to survive!”

The ship owner gave me a slight nod.

I asked, “Do you have any personal items of your wife with you right now? Something very close to her. We can use it to make the Ban Liang coin recognize her as its new owner.”

The ship owner hesitated for a while. Then, in front of us, he took off his shirt. I was baffled when I saw that he was wearing a bra.

This shocked me, and Li Mazi also dropped his jaw in shock, staring at the ship owner.

The man blushed, telling us that he had transvestism and liked to wear women’s clothes.

I reassured him, “No problem. I don’t judge people with quirks. Actually, if you didn’t have transvestism, I’m afraid our plan wouldn’t have worked!” I suspected that the ship owner and his wife wanted to divorce because of this.

The ship owner did as I asked. He bit his finger and dripped a drop of his blood on the Ban Liang coin. Then, he used the bra to wrap the coin tightly. To prevent the spirit living inside the coin from getting out, I even put the peach stick and refined salt on it.

The ship owner kneeled as I lit two cigarettes, putting them before the Ban Liang coin.

The ship owner was on his knees and started his prayer, “Everything has an owner. I divorced my wife, Pangshi, and all of my properties now belong to her, including this Ban Liang! You don’t belong to me now, please don’t pester me. Otherwise, you’ll receive divine retribution! Now, I’m going to use my blood to send you off, I hope you will leave satisfied…”

After praying, he proceeded to do three kowtows and nine salutes. And when everything was done, the ship owner looked at me worriedly.

I signaled everyone to silently observe the Ban Liang coin.

After around two minutes, I saw the bra that was wrapped around the coin suddenly move. It looked like someone using his fingers to dig a way out.

I sighed in relief. It meant the coin had listened to the ship owner.

I hurried to unwrap the bra. After I checked and found that his blood had seeped into the coin, I could finally rest assured.

As it had accepted the ship owner’s blood offering, from now on the Ban Liang coin wasn’t related to the man anymore.

Now, it was time to deal with his black-hearted wife!

The ship owner went to the door and knocked. “Juan, I know you’re there. We used to be husband and wife, why are you being so heartless?”  

Silence was the only answer to his question.

“As long as you let me out, I promise I will never pursue this matter. Moreover, I don’t have any evidence to accuse you of murder. You can rest assured…”

Still, no one answered him. It seemed that she had resolutely made up her mind. She really wanted to kill us all.

The ship owner became desperate.

“Hey Juan, I’ll tell you this — I still have a sum of money in my account. If you let us out, I will send you that money. How does that sound? If I die, my nephew will get the money. You know, I hate my brother’s family the most, because they are so greedy. I prefer to give you that money than giving it to them.”

I seemed to hear someone sighing outside. I felt reassured.

The ship owner’s wife was moved.

As long as she was greedy, we could solve it with money.

“You don’t believe me, right? That’s okay. I’m going to give you my bank account and password. You can log in online and check the balance. Then you can confirm if I’m telling the truth,” declared the ship owner.

The ship owner’s wife finally spoke up, “You bastard! You really hid money from me! Give me the account and password, I’ll check.”

“Sure,” the ship owner answered and told her the account number and password. I could hear the hurried footsteps outside. That woman couldn’t wait as she rushed away to use her laptop to check the balance in her husband’s account.

Soon, she returned, spewing foul curses. “You bastard, you still have a lot of money! Hmph, tell me, did you keep a mistress?”

“No, I didn’t,” replied the ship owner. “If that money is transferred to your account before I die, it’s yours; my brother’s family can’t touch it. Only then I can be reassured.”

“However, I have a small wish. If you can grant this wish of mine, I will give you my USB-Key.” The ship owner slowly baited the woman.

"Spit it out then. What’s your wish?"

“We’ve got a girl here. She’s pregnant. I beg you to let this innocent woman go,” pleaded the ship owner. “Don’t worry, we’ve been tormented to the point we can’t do anything to resist…”

“In this situation, yet you still have the mood to care about others? It’s not in your nature!”

When Yin Xinyue heard the ship owner declare that she was pregnant, she pinched my arm. She knew that it was I who had instructed him to say that. I gave Yin Xinyue a reluctant smile, signaling her not to make a sound. We shouldn’t let the woman doubt that we were trying to deceive her.

“All right, I’ll tell you the truth. Honestly, the baby is mine. I will give you all of my assets. I just hope that after the baby is born, you will give him eighty or a hundred thousand renminbi as maintenance fees. Compared to the sum in my account, this amount is just pocket change. Please consider this.”

“You did have an affair! And she’s pregnant!! You bastard, I hate people who betray me the most. You must die! You must die!”

"It’s okay that I have to die. As long as the baby is alive, everything is fine,” said the ship owner. “Think about it carefully. If you grant my wish, you will have the money, and I will have my heir. For this useless life of mine, will you just stand and watch that huge sum of money fall into my brother’s hands. Are you willing to do that?” Then, he kept quiet.

A long while later, the ship owner’s wife finally spoke up, “All right, I agree. However, you must first transfer the money to my bank account. And I want you to write your last words, saying that the kidnappers killed you. It’s not related to me.”

“No problem,” the ship owner said, “but you must swear that you will bring the girl out.”

“Okay, I swear that I will take the girl out of there.”

“What if you can’t do that?” asked the ship owner.

“If I can’t do that? Well, may I choke to death in that secret chamber just like you.”

The ship owner smiled, and I heaved a sigh of relief. She had just stepped into the trap.

At the moment she made the pledge, I clearly saw the Ban Liang coin move. It meant her promise was in effect from then on!