Otherworldly Merchant

Time passed by, and Chu Chu couldn’t hold it any longer. At this point, we didn’t hold out much hope to find the Night Dragon Bait.

Li Mazi’s only wish was to accompany her during the last moments of her life.

However, things were unpredictable sometimes. The moment we had given up on the Night Dragon Bait, unexpected news arrived!

That day, Chuyi called me and asked about Chu Chu’s situation. I was a bit sad and told him about her situation.

Chuyi pondered for a while then asked, “Is Li Mazi still looking for the Night Dragon Bait?”

Was there even a need to ask? If we had a clue then, of course, Li Mazi would try to find it!

I became excited. “Chuyi, do you have a clue?”

Chuyi nodded. “Yeah, I do. However, even if we obtain the Night Dragon Bait to help Chu Chu overcome this fatal danger, it would go against the will of the heavens. It will greatly affect Li Mazi’s karmic reward. Perhaps it will reduce his longevity.”

Li Mazi was already obsessed with the Night Dragon Bait. Even if he had to give all of his remaining years to Chu Chu, he wouldn’t bat an eye. He immediately asked Chuyi the details about the Night Dragon Bait.

Chuyi contemplated for a while. In the end, he gave us an address and asked us to go to that address to see a man who had a zither. This zither had the Night Dragon Bait’s aura, which meant the previous owner of the jade zither used to have the Night Dragon Bait.

If we used the jade zither to track to the previous owner’s grave, perhaps we could find the Night Dragon Bait.

Li Mazi was excited. “We’ll get going now.” Then, he went to bid Chu Chu farewell.

Chu Chu was teary and looked at Li Mazi. She asked him only one question. “For me, is it worth it?”

Li Mazi smiled and rubbed Chu Chu’s nose. “Of course it’s worth it. You’ve made me a real man. You’ve made me learn how to shoulder responsibility. That’s why I need to shoulder the happiness of the latter half of your life.”

Li Mazi planted a kiss on Chu Chu’s forehead then left.

It was a house in the Shunyi District of Beijing, the so-called ‘City of Movies.’

Chuyi told us that at first, the jade zither was just a prop kept in a prop master’s house. However, before the movie started filming, strange events happened in his house. The prop master then found an otherworldly merchant to deal with this jade zither.

The otherworldly merchant then sensed the Night Dragon Bait’s aura on the jade zither. Coincidently, he had just gotten a favor from Chuyi and happened to know that he was looking for this thing. That was why he notified his benefactor.

Chuyi had the otherworldly merchant give up on the task, transferring the case to us.

Although it was located on the Sixth Ring Road of Beijing, the ‘City of Movies’ was really bustling and lively. It was filled with many high-rise buildings and villas.

It was lunchtime. In this city that claimed more than one thousand acres of land, many walk-on actors and actresses, and even the main actors and actresses, lined up to receive their food. There were ancient generals, modern bandits, and any kind of characters one could imagine in the line. There was also a lot of high-technology equipment. If I wasn’t aware of where I was, I would have thought I had time-traveled.

We had planned to meet the client at the gate of the city.

Soon, a big, fat man rushed toward us. He’d only run several steps, and he was sweating already. After he knew our identities, he repeatedly apologized and said that he was very busy. “Can you eat lunch and wait for me at the inn? I have so much work to do in the afternoon.”

Li Mazi was enraged. “What is more important, your life or your work? Decide quickly!”

I knew Li Mazi wanted to seize each second to find the location of the Night Dragon Bait.

The prop master gave an embarrassed smile. He didn’t dare to offend us and asked for a day off at his studio. Then, he brought us to his house. We were surprised to see that he was living in a luxurious villa.

“Er, this villa isn’t mine. It belongs to a great director. He doesn’t live here so he let me rent the place to keep the props,” the prop master explained to us.

He began to tell us the story. One day, after he stored one of the props there, strange things started to happen at night time!

The crew had been filming a feudal drama recently, and they needed to rent a lot of ancient tools and props. One of the said props was a jade zither.

When the jade zither was first acquired, Old Cai, the prop master, had sensed something wrong. It was because most of the props used in feudal movies and dramas were roughly built. They could tell that they were just props. Quite the contrary, the jade zither had an ancient aura that gave people the vicissitude of old times. At first glance, they knew it was an antique.

However, because he had so many things to do, he didn’t have time to care about this trivial thing. He put the zither together with the other props in the living room.

Night came, and he was exhausted. He directly went to his bedroom on the second floor.

However, while sleeping, he heard someone playing the zither. The sound was low and somewhat hoarse, which gave the listeners a sad feeling. He was inadvertently mesmerized by this sound.

The sound amplified his negative moods, making him very sad. He couldn’t help but cry as he felt that his life was gloomy, without a beam of light. He had even thoughts about killing himself.

At the break of dawn, the zither finally stopped, and Old Cai was shivering in fear.

Some unknown zither had been playing for the whole night in his house. He didn’t found the music suspicious and was instead mesmerized by it.

After returning to his senses, he went downstairs to check. What he saw shocked him greatly.

Some animals lay dead near the zither. There were mice, cockroaches, and even snakes.

The zither was relocated as well.

At first, it was placed in the large pile of props. Now, it was placed neatly on the table. On the table was also a hedgehog, whose eyes were dreamy. It seemed it had been mesmerized by the zither sound.

Old Cai was scared out of his wits, but he didn’t think much about the situation. He just thought that someone had broken into his villa. He hurried to clean the dead snakes and mice.

But in the next moment, the animals suddenly jerked up and ran away disorderly.

The little animals hadn’t died yet. They were just so infatuated with the sound that they’d lost control of their bodies. Furthermore, all of the doors and windows were closed. He checked the surveillance cameras and saw that no one suspicious had entered the villa last night. Old Cai confirmed that the problem lay with the ancient zither and decided to return the item. However, when he called the prop company, the people there told him that the zither wasn’t theirs. They also said that the list of required items he had sent them didn’t include a zither. Old Cai immediately checked his list of props. Sure enough, there was no zither on the list. So, who had put this zither here?

Old Cai was stunned and understood that someone had wanted to harm him. He immediately contacted an otherworldly merchant, and after several twists and turns, he came to us. “For how long has this strange phenomenon going on?” I asked.