Otherworldly Merchant

Li Mazi said with a smile, “Nothing strange happened! I’ve been watching TV all this time.”

So, it was just a dream.

It was 5:00 AM in the morning. The sky was glowing bright. Li Mazi and I went out for some soya milk and fried buns for breakfast. When we returned, we noticed that the villa’s door was open.

My first thought was that some thief had broken in. I told Li Mazi to watch the door and call the police if something happened. Then, I quietly went inside.

However, I heard someone shrieking in the bedroom as soon as I stepped into the villa!

Holy crap! The mistress came back while we were having breakfast?

I immediately turned the door knob and opened the bedroom. I saw the mistress standing naked by her bed, her hair disheveled and her face showing extreme panic.

She jumped to hug me while she ranted, “Ghosts! There are ghosts!”

“Ghosts? What ghosts?” I pushed the mistress away, trying not to look at her body. I was really worried that I could lose control again; that could be really troublesome.

“Near the bed, right next to my bed!” She grabbed her own hair, screaming non stop.

Clueless, I went to the bed and checked carefully. There was nothing except for her bra and panties.

I tried to ignore her tempting looks as I threw the underwear back to her. “Put them back on!”

She finally reacted and looked at her body, quickly wearing the underwear. After that, she took a robe from her closet to cover the rest.

“Master, I-I did see the ghosts! There were several of them. They were sitting on my bed, looking at me. I was so scared I almost passed out.”

I looked at the mistress, who was scared out of her wits. I gave her a glass of cold water and asked her to drink it.

Ten minutes later, she finally pulled herself together. “Why am I here? I was at the hotel, wasn’t I?” It was the first question she asked me.

I spat the water I was drinking. “What? You don’t remember coming back?”

The mistress shook her head repeatedly. “No, I was staying at a hotel, but I was already here when I woke up. What happened? You… Did you do something to me?”

Then she looked down to see between her legs.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Things seem to be more complicated than we thought! Now, you should tell me about what you’ve experienced. Every detail counts, don’t leave out anything. Perhaps I can help you.”

The mistress hesitated for a while. Then, she started to talk to me softly.

While sleeping, she had heard someone calling her name. She opened her eyes and saw the ghost sitting on top of her. But it was different this time.

Usually, there would be just one ghost pressing on her body, but this time there were also several beauties sitting on her bed! Although they were all beautiful, their eyes seemed to be dead and their skin didn’t have any color. They looked like corpses wearing makeup in a funeral house. And, one of the beauties smiled at her, flashing her two long fangs.

The mistress was frightened. She wanted to run away, but she couldn’t move because the other ghost was pressing down on her.

Then, the ghost gave her a cold warning: she had to make us leave, or her torment would be even worse.

After talking, the ghost disappeared and she was able to move again. She screamed and jumped off her bed. We came back right after that, and that was when I saw her…

I began to sweat profusely after listening to the woman, as I also was fearful.

What I saw in the room was real. It really happened!

The ghosts described by the mistress were exactly the same as the ones I had dreamed about. It wasn’t a coincidence. It was impossible for it to be coincidental!

We had a big problem there. What were those ghosts?

Since I had never heard about anything similar, I decided to leave this matter for later. First, we needed to know how the mistress had returned to the villa.

It was good that there were cameras installed around the premises. I went to see the security guy to ask for surveillance recordings.

We saw the mistress on screen, wearing her nightgown with a grimacing face, walking step by step toward the villa. Her waist was bent in a strange manner, as if she were carrying many things on her back.

And, the gate opened by itself when she reached the gate of the village. The mistress was panting as she entered, and we couldn’t see the rest. However, I figured it wasn’t something nice.

The mistress saw the recording; she was so scared her legs turned into jelly. In the security room, she had almost kneeled in front of me, begging me to save her, her eyes teary.

However, I was at a loss. After all, I was just an otherworldly merchant and not a ghost buster.

To deal with ghosts, we would have to know their origins or identities.

I asked the mistress. “Did you buy something strange recently? Especially antiques.”

The mistress shook her head continuously. “No, I haven’t. My husband also doesn’t like to collect them. He dumped all the items the former owner had left behind.”

Then, I remembered that the mistress had just moved in recently. “Have you disposed of all the items the former owner possessed? Did you keep anything in your house?”

The mistress thought about the question carefully; but still, she shook her head with determination. “I hired a cleaning company at the time. They cleared up the entire house. After that, I moved my new stuff in.”

The mistress had equipped the place with brand-new furniture. There were no old items inside.

The mistress asked me, “Could it be some problem with the lights or the wiring? I didn’t change them.”

I almost burst out laughing after that. “How could the wiring be a problem? Unless your lights and wires were inherited from the Ming Dynasty.”

As we couldn’t find anything suspicious on the surface, we had to investigate the obscure areas. I ruled out the chance that someone was trying to harm the mistress and her husband, by means of planting some otherworldly item in the villa.

I asked the mistress. “Do you have any enemies? Or… Did the house come from a shady source?”

When I asked, the mistress stammered. However, she didn’t tell me any details. As soon as I saw her facial expression, I knew something was off. I hurried to press her for answers.

Under my questioning, the mistress finally told me the truth.

It turned out that the former owner didn’t want to sell them the house. Her husband had used his power to force the sale.

It was an important clue anyway. “Tell me, do you remember what the previous owner did? Did he or she know something about evil magic?”

The mistress shook her head. Apparently, she didn’t know anything about the former owner. As we couldn’t do anything else, we went to ask the security personnel.

The security guy seemed to have a bad impression of that mistress. He didn’t greet us with a nice attitude. “We just watch the gate. We didn’t know the previous owner.”

“Impossible,” the mistress’ face turned purple in anger. “You’ve been working here for eight or ten years. How could you not know the residents?”

"You got that wrong, sister. There are so many people coming and going. How could I go and visit each house to recognize their faces?” The security person talked coldly as he continued, “If you don’t have anything urgent, please leave. This is the security office. Don’t cause a ruckus here.”

The mistress was so mad that she was about to explode. I asked Li Mazi to see her out. Then, I handed the security guy a breakfast box, smiling. “That woman’s like a little pepper. Don’t mind her bad temper!”

“Anyway, her husband is a big official whose voice matters at the provincial level. My advice to you, brother, is to tell me everything you know! Or else, getting you fired is just a trivial matter to me.”

Hearing my tone, the security guy became anxious. Reluctantly, he said, “Actually, I hate her because of her arrogance... she just loves to look down on others. When she moved here, she pointed at me and talked haughtily. That’s why I didn’t want to tell her…”

Puffing his cigarette, the guy told me the truth.

It turned out that when the previous owner moved in, he had warned the security guy to not say a word about him if someone asked. Otherwise, a little security guy like him would be unable to bear the consequences.

He didn’t tell the mistress because of the former owner’s warning.

Indeed, the previous owner was problematic! 

“What does he do for a living? Why are you so afraid of him?” I asked the security guy.

The man sighed and said, “He’s a big boss working in a transnational trading business. I’m just a small worker. I wouldn’t dare to go against him. And, I don’t know why he wants to keep his identity a secret …”

Transnational trading?

I checked the neighborhood. It wasn’t luxurious or lavish. It was okay to keep a mistress there, but it was strange for a big boss with a transnational trading business to be living there...