Otherworldly Merchant

Lunch and dinner were takeaways that Yin Xinyue had ordered. She was rich and didn’t care about such a small amount of money. Moreover, she’d definitely be displeased if I decided to pay her back.

When night fell, I placed the jade lamp at the front of my antique shop, and at around 11 PM, that cold wind started to blow again. 

I gathered all the paper objects I’d bought in the morning and set them on fire, placing a mirror in front of them. 

Then, I started to observe the scenery reflected in the mirror.

At first, everything was normal. But, as time passed, the flames in the mirror became blood red, starting to burn more fiercely. The flames rose higher and higher, increasing the surrounding temperature. 

Thereafter, I saw a red shadow within the flames. 

It was the spirit of the item. I observed with rapt attention, but I was scared out of my wits when the spirit walked out of the flames.

Her body was dripping with corpse oil, looking like a rotten tangerine, and her face was especially scary: yellow skin, half bald, lips burnt away, and teeth clearly visible.

I couldn’t help but gasp in horror.

Seeing her so close to me, I had goosebumps all over my body.

I looked at Yin Xinyue through the mirror; she stood beside the flames, perfectly calm. 

She had no idea what was going on since there was no way to see the ghost with the naked eye, and my body was blocking the picture in the mirror.

It was time to act. “Yin Xinyue, now!” 

Yin Xinyue took out a lighter and lit the lamp. 

Inside the jade lamp was the ‘wonder oil’ I’d bought in the black market earlier today, which was also known as ‘corpse oil’.

Since I didn’t want to scare her, I told Yin Xinyue that it was just normal lamp oil.

Seeing the ghost closing in on me, I was scared to no end, but didn’t dare to act rashly as I was afraid of alarming it. If that happened, everything would’ve been for naught.

Luckily, Yin Xinyue was able to light the jade lamp in time.

The ghost glanced at me, somewhat aggrieved, and eventually turned around, entering the lamp. 

The lamp’s flame danced wildly and finally pointed outside.

I was delighted and told Yin Xinyue to follow the flame. She didn’t waste time and followed my orders.

The reason I’d asked her to hold the jade lamp was that she was a woman. She had a strong Yin attribute, and she wouldn’t scare off the female ghost in the lamp. 

I kept a distance of three meters from her and followed at a moderate pace.

Shortly after, we left the antique street and headed toward a deserted area. 

I furrowed my brow and thought to myself: This is somewhat unexpected. Wasn’t the female ghost supposed to head back home? There’s only an abandoned school in this direction...

I took a deep breath, afraid that things might get dangerous. Yin Xinyue’s safety worried me the most.

The flame gradually became red, another reason to worry. The female ghost is definitely not heading home. Is there something in that abandoned school that she’s concerned about?

It was very quiet along the way, and stray cats would pop out once in a while and scare us to death with their shrill cries.

Eventually, we got to the abandoned school and stopped at the entrance. Just as I was wondering what was going on, a shrill cry was transmitted from the other side of the iron gate.

Next, a white shadow fell from the iron gate, landing right at my feet.

I gasped and saw that it was a white cat.

The white cat was skinny and covered with filth, no different from a stray cat. 

I figured out what was happening. This cat is what the female ghost was worrying about… is it her pet?

The white cat knelt using its forelegs and kowtowed to us. Then, two trickles of tears rolled down from the corners of its eyes.

Yin Xinyue looked at me, worried. I nodded and signaled her to keep following the flame. 

This time around, the flame was pointing in the direction that we’d come from.

As such, we could only head back, with the dirty white cat following behind. The jade lamp finally led us to a villa. 

I heaved a sigh of relief. If I’m not mistaken, this should be the ghost’s home.

I took a deep breath and went forward to knock on the door. 

The interior of the villa was dark. It seemed that the owner was already fast asleep. 

Should I shout and wake the owner up?

After knocking several times, I finally heard the sound of footsteps. I thought that the other party would open the door, but they just paced back and forth in the living room without turning the lights on.

I frowned. Did we come to the wrong place…?

I looked at the lamp’s flame, and it was still pointing at the villa. So, it was the right place.

When I was at my wit’s end, the gentle voice of a woman came from the villa. “Who’s there?”

“Hello, may I ask if any of your family members are missing?” I hurried to ask. 

After a moment of silence, the rude voice of a man said, “No, you came to the wrong place.” 

Shortly after, we heard the muffled cry of a woman. When I heard the cry, my scalp went numb. It didn’t seem like the cry of a human, but the howling of a ghost instead.

Yin Xinyue tugged on the hem of my shirt and asked, worried, “Brother Zhang, the flame is dying. What do we do?” 

I checked the lamp, and the flame was flickering as if it was about to extinguish. 

I had a headache. If the flame died out, the female ghost would be free to roam around, which would put us in great danger. 

I told Yin Xinyue, “Don’t let the flame die out. Let’s leave this place first, there’s something wrong about it.” 

I turned around and left, with Yin Xinyue closely following me. 

But, right at that moment, the faint voice of a woman arose from the villa. “Don’t leave! Hehe… don’t leave!” 

I was even more sure that there was something wrong with the villa!

I cursed at the ghost in the lamp. I went through all this trouble to fulfill your last wish, but you actually brought me to a haunted house?! Fuck you!

After two steps, Yin Xinyue cried out, “Brother Zhang! T-The flame died out…” 

“What? It died out?” I frowned and turned around to check. Sure enough, the lamp’s flame had completely died out. 

My face darkened.

I grabbed Yin Xinyue’s hand and shouted, “Run!”