Otherworldly Merchant

Chuyi had a cold expression. “Let’s go. We should see where Mu Wan is staying. It’s possible that she has captured Li Mazi.”

I was startled. Mu Wan looked so vulnerable and weak. How could she capture Li Mazi, a grown man?

But I knew that Chuyi didn’t have the habit of telling jokes. I immediately followed him.

We obtained Mu Wan’s address from the hospital, and I disguised myself as an express delivery guy.

Mu Wan’s husband’s funeral hall had been set up. His family members cried until the sky became dark. As I was dressed as a delivery guy, I felt a little embarrassed when I entered the place.

After taking a deep breath, I went to Mu Wan’s mother-in-law. I asked, “Excuse me, ma’am, is Mu Wan home?”

After hearing Mu Wan’s name, her mother-in-law gritted her teeth angrily. “Mu Wan and my son have already divorced. Why have you come here to find her?”

“I’m here to deliver her package,” I answered.

Mu Wan’s mother-in-law stirred up immediately. “I knew it. I knew that that vixen bought some drugs online and poisoned my son! Otherwise, how could my son die at such a young age? Where are the goods she ordered? Where?!”

After hearing Mu Wan’s mother-in-law screaming, the relatives and friends who had attended the wake abruptly congregated and circled around me.

Shoot, I disguised as an express delivery guy but I forgot to prepare the package!

Since things weren’t going too well, I blurted, “I’m going out to fetch the stuff.” Then, I slipped into the car and drove away.

This family was really angry. They had even come up with the idea that the husband was poisoned. I guessed they had seen Pan Jinlian and Wu Dalang [1] too much.

Chuyi asked, “Why are you rushing out so fast?”

I sighed and told him about the situation.

He indifferently said, “Oh.” Then, he went back to pondering.

I asked him, “Where should we look for Li Mazi?”

“We can’t find him. We can only wait for him to come back…”

I was anxious. Li Mazi was captured. How can he come back by himself? 

“Do you think Mu Wan’s a merciless person?” asked Chuyi.

“We don’t know her true nature. A person who looks pitiful can be much more wicked than anybody else.”

Chuyi shook his head. “When I look at people, I don’t misjudge them. She won’t do anything to Li Mazi.”

I sighed reluctantly. Since he had said that, what did we have to debate about?

I quietly followed him back to the hospital and waited for Li Mazi to come back.

I made up my mind. If we didn’t see Li Mazi by tomorrow, I would call the police.

I had waited anxiously for the whole night but Li Mazi still hadn’t returned. I felt my heart heat up as if it was burning inside. “Should we report this to the police?”

Chuyi was also a little worried. Eventually, he gave me a nod.

I took my phone and was about to call the police.

However, when I checked my phone, I saw a message. Li Mazi had sent me a message! It read, “Pick me up at the hospital!”

Shoot, how come Li Mazi is at the hospital? I didn’t think much and called him. However, his phone rang for quite a long time. No one picked up.

Having no other choice, we had to go to the hospital where we had seen Mu Wan.

From a distance, we could see a man crouch at the back door. His arms hugged his knees. He looked as though he was sleeping.

It was Li Mazi!

I immediately ran forward. Li Mazi didn’t wake up. I slapped him twice, and he eventually opened his drowsy eyes, looking around in puzzlement.

“How did you get here and fall asleep?” I scoffed. “Do you know that we’ve had a difficult time looking for you?”

Li Mazi finally got a hold of himself. He nervously glanced around. Then, he pulled my hand and brought me to the car.

“It’s very, very bad. Little Brother Zhang, something very bad has happened…”

“What is it?” I asked.

Li Mazi gulped and said, “Mu Wan’s not a human. She’s a ghost!”

I was speechless. “Li Mazi, have you gone mad? What ghost? Mu Wan’s a living woman. How could a ghost walk around in broad daylight?”

Li Mazi was perplexed. “I saw her yesterday. She’s a ghost!”

Chuyi calmed Li Mazi down and asked him to tell us what had happened yesterday.

Li Mazi tried to calm his surging emotions and began to tell us the situation.

Yesterday, Li Mazi had followed Mu Wan to her husband’s house. Then, her mother-in-law insulted her in every way she could and shooed her out of the house. Under all kinds of grievances, she packed up and left.

Mu Wan walked on the streets by herself then stopped to buy two steamed buns. Li Mazi pitied her.

The longer Mu Wan walked, the more remote the area she had entered. Li Mazi followed her and lost track of the time.

Early in the morning, the fog started to shroud over Beijing. It was also getting thicker and thicker, which made it easier for Li Mazi to stalk the woman.

He was only a dozen meters behind her. Perhaps she was too absorbed in her sorrow, so she didn’t notice that he was stalking her.

Eventually, Mu Wan got on a bus and left. Li Mazi quickly caught a taxi and followed her.

When Mu Wan got off the bus, Li Mazi was scared out of his wits.

He was in front of the most famous haunted house in Beijing – Chaonei No. 81! [2]

Mu Wan stood at the door for a while then entered the mansion.

Beijing had changed a lot and there were traces of human activity everywhere, but this mansion at Chaonei No. 81 was an exception. The nearest building had turned off its lights, which left only several street lights to illuminate the haunted house.

Li Mazi gawked at the situation. Mu Wan was entering the haunted house. He didn’t follow her but stayed outside to rest and see what the woman would do next.

At the moment, Li Mazi didn’t associate Mu Wan with any ghostly entity. He simply thought that the woman was very pitiful. Her husband’s family discarded her and she didn’t even have money to rent a lodge. Now, she had to stay the night inside an abandoned, haunted house.

However, the moment Li Mazi turned around to leave, he heard Mu Wan weep in the haunted house.

Mu Wan’s crying softened Li Mazi’s heart. She was just a lonely woman who was staying in a haunted house late at night. It wasn’t strange for her to be scared. Li Mazi walked toward the mansion. He thought of arranging a good hotel for the woman to stay in and wanted to give her some money. Then, he would talk to her and learn her story. It was a good plan, wasn’t it?

However, as soon as Li Mazi came to the door, he heard Mu Wan’s voice come out of the house. She said, “Why are you following me?”

Li Mazi was scared and shivered. He was busted. So, he made up his mind and walked in, ready to explain his story to Mu Wan.

However, when Li Mazi came to the lobby, he almost peed his pants.

Mu Wan was hung by a red sheet of fabric. Her body was suspended and her eyes bulged out. She gazed at Li Mazi with deep resentment.

Her delicate features had become vicious and scary. She had blood oozing out of her seven orifices and wore a red dress. Whenever the wind blew, she swayed hard…

Then, six silhouettes stood by Mu Wan. Li Mazi didn’t see their faces but he clearly saw them flying toward him. They sneered coldly at him.

Under such circumstances, even if Li Mazi had more courage, he would still be terrified and go crazy. Li Mazi screamed and felt that the blood in his body had frozen. Everything went black, and he fell unconscious.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw us.

While telling us the story, Li Mazi was still frightened. His body was shivering.

I was also scared. “Chuyi, what do you think? Is Mu Wan a ghost or a human?”

Chuyi asked Li Mazi, “Why didn’t you break the little peach wood sword?”

Li Mazi answered, “I did. It was broken earlier. I heard that peach wood could expel evil so I threw its pieces to those shadows.”

"What happened after that?” asked Chuyi.

“Um, nothing, because I fainted,” said Li Mazi.

“The peach wood sword you threw at those shadows didn’t do anything?” asked Chuyi.

Li Mazi hesitated for a while then shook his head. “They seemed like they weren’t afraid. I don’t think the peach wood sword worked on them.”

Chuyi took a deep breath then said to me, “Let’s go. We’re going to Chaonei No. 81.”

I immediately nodded and brought Chuyi to the car. We headed toward Chaonei No. 81.

I had watched “The House That Never Dies” [3] starring Ruby Lin, so I knew some things about the building’s history. It seemed it was built in the Qing dynasty for a foreign merchant, who later moved out due to some deaths that happened there.

Later on, the people who lived there all died in strange ways. Some committed suicide with a pair of scissors. Some were burned and others drowned in the bathtub. Eventually, people started to believe that this building was a haunted house.

What did Mu Wan have to do with this haunted house?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Jinlian

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaonei_No._81

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_That_Never_Dies