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墨書 Inktalez
"My brother is in this line of work, so we do have some exchanges from time to time," the Fat Daoist said with a chuckle as he looked at me. "I never expected you to have such a background; it seems your family has some capabilities."
I smiled but didn't respond, recalling the strange things he had said when he captured the second spirit. I asked him what they meant. Ma Rulong's expression stiffened for a moment, then he smiled again and said, "It's nothing, just a unique spell. Don't pay it any mind, hahahaha..."
I felt that his laughter was forced, as if he were trying to cover up his own unease. I asked him why he didn't just use the Palm Thunder to expel the spirit. Ma Rulong looked at me for a few seconds, then said seriously, "Heaven has a virtue of cherishing life. As practitioners, we cannot act recklessly with thoughts of killing. My Palm Thunder is too powerful; if I'm not careful, I might accidentally kill the spirit. Normally, I wouldn't dare to use it casually."
I replied, "But you used it more than ten times the first time."
Ma Rulong fell silent for a few seconds again, then waved his sleeve and said to me, "There's no point in continuing this conversation. I take my leave!"
With that, he turned and quickly walked away. From the way his legs moved, it looked like he was running. I felt confused; he really did use it more than ten times—why say there was no point in talking...
Ma Rulong left cleanly and efficiently, but at Hu Xiaoyi's insistence, I stayed another day. It wasn't until another night passed and it was confirmed that Qin Zhenzhen was no longer "acting up" that he let me go. I felt quite frustrated; I came to Heze for a vacation but ended up feeling so exhausted. Later, Hu Xiaoyi called to tell me that Qin Dad had sold that drum set at a low price. Originally bought for over seven thousand, the discounted price was unimaginable. If DW Company knew their drums were being treated this way, they would probably be even more upset than I was.
However, before selling it off, Qin Zhenzhen went to the market and picked out a piece of fine leather to repair the broken drumhead. Although the sound quality might be slightly different, at least on the surface, it looked fine. Her actions clearly weren't aimed at fetching a good price; rather, it seemed she was influenced by the spirit within the drum. Even after the spirit was captured, her subconscious still hoped for the drum to remain intact.
I wasn't quite clear on what exactly happened with those two spirits. Out of curiosity, I called Ma Rulong to ask if he could find out more details.
Ma Rulong said that after returning, he used Maoshan secret techniques to inquire about them. The two spirits were once a couple who loved music very much. However, due to differences in their family backgrounds, their parents disapproved of their union. The young couple decided to take matters into their own hands and moved out of their homes into a small rental house.
Although they lost the support provided by their families, they didn't give up hope for life; instead, they were happy to gain their freedom. To celebrate, they used their savings from frugal living to order a drum set from DW Company. Although it was the cheapest kind available, it was still an amazing gift for them. Under normal circumstances, they should have ended up together eventually, and their families would come around and stop obstructing them so that they could live happily ever after.
In fact, on the night after the drum set was delivered to their home, they encountered a drunk man. The drunk man, seeing the girl standing at the door, became inappropriate. What man could tolerate such an insult? He immediately got into a fight with the drunk. It is unknown how ruthless the drunk was, but he charged into the kitchen and stabbed the man to death with a knife. During the struggle to stop him, the girl was also stabbed multiple times. By the time the neighbors rushed over to see what was happening, the couple had already left this world in a pool of blood.
Of course, the drunk was brought to justice and faced legal consequences. The elders from both families were deeply regretful upon learning about this incident. If they had not been so stubborn and fixated on social status, this tragedy might have been avoided. When they came to collect the belongings, they discovered the drum set. Knowing that it would remind them of their lost loved ones, they decided to sell it to a recycling station.
What happened next is likely known to everyone. The instrument store's boss saw this custom DW drum set and bought it, later selling it to Qin Zhenzhen. They were unaware that the couple had loved this drum set dearly. Just as they were filled with hope for life, they met with an unexpected and tragic end, leaving their resentful souls unable to find peace, which then attached themselves to the drum set.
Later, when Qin Zhenzhen and a neighborhood child fought over a drumstick and broke one of the drums, it angered the souls of the couple, leading to their revenge.
From this perspective, they cannot really be considered evil spirits; rather, they are more like entities acting in self-defense. Therefore, after learning about these two spirits' background, I expressed some polite requests to Ma Rulong. Ma Rulong reassured me: "Don't worry; they are not inherently evil spirits and have not done anything wrong. I won't do anything about them. If you don't believe me, you can come find me; there will be an Extradition Ceremony soon, and you can witness it yourself."
I asked what an Extradition Ceremony was. Ma Rulong explained that it is a simplified version of the Water and Land Ritual. The latter involves many Daoist and Buddhist practitioners coming together for large-scale ceremonies; wealthy families often hold such rituals to honor their ancestors. However, Ma Rulong is a solitary figure who simply wants to send off spirits using Soul Lanterns for reincarnation; he calls it an Extradition Ceremony for a nicer touch.
According to him, when the lanterns rise into the sky, it will be a magnificent sight. I felt intrigued and asked for details about the time and place so that I could attend if possible.
When I returned home, my grandmother asked how my trip to Heze went. I replied that it was quite good and that I even encountered cockfighting ghosts. My grandmother thought I was joking and laughed heartily, saying it was great that I was gaining experience and would become a significant person in the future.
Just as I was about to discuss with her whether I should sell vegetables or fruits after graduation, Qin Senior Sister suddenly called me. She asked if Zheng Xuejie's Amulet needed recharging since ever since she fell from a building and miraculously woke up after suffering a head injury, she hadn't encountered any misfortune again. Qin Senior Sister wondered if perhaps too much blood had been spilled, causing the spirit within the Amulet to flee.
I replied that it couldn't be possible; logically speaking, that spirit should retaliate even more fiercely instead. Could it be that Zheng Xuejie hadn't shared her misfortunes with them?
Qin Senior Sister confidently stated that wasn't possible because she frequently visited Zheng Xuejie's home during this time—not only to check on her recovery but also to observe any changes with the Amulet. So while she might not know everything about Zheng Xuejie's current situation, she was at least 70-80% informed about it. This left me puzzled: would angering the spirit within the Amulet lead to an interruption in its revenge? Qin Senior Sister speculated that perhaps Zheng Xuejie's fall made the spirit feel that enough revenge had been taken, thus dissipating its resentment.
This was the only possibility we could think of; if that were indeed true, it wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.
However, Qin Senior Sister complained again that ever since the incident, Zheng Xuejie’s temperament had changed drastically. She used to be lively and carefree, doing everything without a care in the world. Because her family had some money, she loved to have fun without any reservations. While she was cheerful and optimistic, to put it simply, she was a bit scatterbrained. But now, she acted like a resentful woman, finding fault with everything around her. If anyone made even a small mistake, she would explode in anger, even if it had nothing to do with her.
I said it might be because she had been hurt and now had psychological scars; perhaps she would get better after some time.
Qin Senior Sister expressed hope that this would be the case. The few of them, good friends, now didn’t dare to go find Zheng Xuejie to hang out anymore. It felt like that girl was becoming more and more unfamiliar, almost as if she had turned into a different person. By the way, she asked me when the Four-Faced Buddha she wore would help her sister wake up.
Thinking about this matter gave me a headache, but I couldn’t just brush it off casually. I could only advise her to hold on and be patient; one day the clouds would part and the moon would shine through.
After hanging up with Qin Senior Sister, I thought for a moment and called Second Uncle. Recently, Second Uncle had been quite annoyed with me. The first thing he said was, “What do you want from me this time?”
I chuckled awkwardly and replied, “You’re not a beautiful woman; who would want anything from you?”
“Stop talking nonsense! Do you want me to beat you up?” Second Uncle said. “You’re always trying to get me to spend money on your affairs or asking all sorts of questions. So tell me, what troublesome matter have you encountered now? But let me make it clear: I don’t have time to help you right now; I have very important business to attend to!”
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