Otherworldly Merchant

Li Mingming didn’t dare to sit on the sofa alone. He stood up and followed me.

I didn’t open the bedroom door because I was afraid of alarming the evil things inside. I just peeped through the slit.

However, the place inside was filled with smoke, which hindered my vision.

I thought it over and didn’t have any other options. I decided to slowly push the door open.

The moment I pushed the door open, thick smoke blew in my face. At the same time, I saw that the window curtains were burning!

The flame had the shape of a person; it was twisting and rolling in pain, looking miserable.

When Li Mingming called me and asked if I had a fire extinguisher in my house, I finally reacted. I ran to the door and grabbed the fire extinguisher to put out the fire.

As I dealt with the burning window curtains, I discovered the cause of the fire. There were several cigarette butts underneath the curtain.

The strange thing was that when I used the fire extinguisher to put out the flames, the jet was so strong that even the window was pushed open. However, the cigarette looked as if they were fixed onto the glass, with their butts pointing downward, almost looking like joss sticks. Anyway, although the cigarettes weren’t burning anymore, their remaining lengths were different.

There were three long cigarettes and two short ones, which reminded me of a very unfortunate proverb: Three long and two short, unexpected misfortune would come.

Crap, that man just gave me a warning. If I get involved in this, I’m afraid something bad will happen to me...

Since that man could burn the cigarettes and create such a mess, he had to be a powerful ghost.

As Li Mingming was about to pick up the cigarettes, I stopped him and took out a lighter. I ignited the five cigarettes one more time.

At the same time, I asked Li Mingming to kneel down and apologize. If we were able to burn all the cigarettes down, it meant that the man had accepted Li Mingming’s apology.

However, the cigarettes seemed to be as hard as iron. No matter how hard I tried to burn them, they didn’t ignite.

It seemed the man didn’t want to accept Li Mingming’s apology.

Li Mingming was still pounding his head, his forehead bleeding. I pulled him up and prevented him from hurting himself further.

Li Mingming was anxious and worried as he looked at me. “H-he… Did he forgive me?”

“No, but let’s go now. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

It seemed those ‘old ghosts’ had followed Li Mingming to my antique shop. I didn’t want them to burn my shop down, so I stayed awake the whole night with the fire extinguisher in my hands.

Li Mingming asked, “Why don’t you try to expel those ghosts?”

I explained, “The evil spirits that came here with you aren’t the cause of your trouble. Your Yang energy is low now; this might have attracted their attention.”

“But how come all of them are the ghosts of old men? Is there any reason behind it?” Li Mingming asked.

“Er… I’m not sure. Bumping into ghosts is something very random, so it might just be a coincidence.”

Actually, I was also puzzled. Maybe it was a coincidence that he had bumped into some ghosts, but it was impossible for all of them to be the ghosts of old men!

Ghosts were spiritual entities without much intellect. It was very strange that those old ghosts decided to gather together just because another old ghost was there.

However, I couldn’t figure out the reason and got a headache. Eventually, I didn’t think about it anymore and decided to wait until the morning to go to Li Mingming’s house and see if we could find an otherworldly item there.

Nothing strange happened during the night. Early the next morning, I got in Li Mingming’s car and headed toward his house.

Li Mingming’s house wasn’t far, and it was located in a nice neighborhood. I felt strange. How could a small law enforcement officer like him afford a house in Beijing? The land there was very expensive!

It was a hundred square meter house with two bedrooms and a living room. The interior of the house was from luxurious brands and the geomancy wasn’t bad. Perhaps he had invited a master to survey the land first.

I checked the house and didn’t see any old items. The otherworldly item wasn’t in this place.

“You told me that your parents left you some items, right? Where are those old items?” I asked Li Mingming.

“They’re all in the basement,” Li Mingming answered.

Li Mingming took me to the basement of his house. Inside the basement was some old and shabby wooden furniture.

“I didn’t want to throw it away. After all, it’s part of my childhood memories,” said Li Mingming.

I rummaged around. Most of the stuff was from forty or fifty years ago and couldn’t even be considered ancient.

It seemed I’d have to wait until tonight to discover the source of these paranormal activities.

After breakfast, I decided to visit Li Mingming’s father’s grave.

I guessed that his father’s ghost was controlled by something. He was now a puppet.

A tiger would never eat his cubs, so no matter how furious his father was, he would not harm Li Mingming. I knew it because Li Mingming was a filial son.

Li Mingming’s father’s graves were both located at the foothill in the suburbs, where a small river passed by. This type of setup was called ‘Waist Jade Belt’ in geomancy. If he was buried here, his descendants would have plenty of money. I felt that Li Mingming being able to buy that lavish house was definitely related to this setup.

“When my father was alive, he was afraid of fire the most. That’s why I followed his will and testament to not cremate his remains and buried him in this area,” Li Mingming told me.

His father’s previous grave was flooded. That was why he had relocated him here.

I walked around the new grave and didn’t see anything strange. This grave shouldn’t have been tampered with.

After Li Mingming relocated his father’s grave, his father no longer came to him at night; this could explain why.

I asked him to take me to the previous grave in hopes of finding some clues.

The old grave was filled and leveled, but we still saw water oozing. Perhaps the underground stream hadn’t dried up yet.

I followed the direction of the underground stream and eventually found a small river.

The small river was around a dozen meters away from the grave. In theory, this kind of small river and its calm waters couldn’t create an underground stream. Was the underground stream manmade?

After pondering about the absence of Li Mingming’s father’s ghost, I came to a conclusion in my mind. I asked Li Mingming to jump into the river and see if he could find any underwater canal.

Shortly after, Li Mingming found a hidden canal that led to the underground stream. Enraged, he cursed, “Shoot, this underground stream is manmade. The entrance has a concrete pipe. Someone purposely flooded my father’s grave!”

My guess was correct.

“You should think carefully. Have you ever offended anyone? Or, did your father have any enemies?” I asked him.

Li Mingming was a little puzzled. “I can’t tell for sure but my father shouldn’t have any enemies. I have some people who dislike me, but not enough to harm me, I guess?”

“Okay, when we get home, make a list of these people. We need to see who might have a grudge against you. We might find something unexpected,” I said.

“All right,” Li Mingming answered helplessly.

On the way back, I saw an old man holding an iron shovel. When he saw us, he immediately walked in another direction.

My sixth sense told me that the man was suspicious. After befriending Chuyi for quite a long time, I had learned how to read people.

I signaled Li Mingming to halt. “Do you know that old man?”

Li Mingming recognized the man. “Yeah, I know him. That old man sells roasted sweet potatoes by the street. What about him?”

“Ask him why he has come here with a shovel and why he avoided us when he saw us.”

Li Mengmeng said, “Ah, it’s nothing. He exploits the wasteland by the foot of the mountain to grow sweet potatoes. I think he’s going to dig up some sweet potatoes. Peddlers always try to hide from law enforcement officers, right? I guess he’s just too sensitive.”

“Is there any grudge between you two? Why did he avoid us?” I asked.

Li Mingming hesitated then said, “Sort of, but it’s trivial.”

I had no idea where the otherworldly item was, so I had to latch onto any trace or clue I could find. As such, I asked Li Mingming to tell me about the ‘grudge’ between them in details.