Chapter 26 Part 2
The dorm leader, having a short temper, was about to retort angrily, but Wang Qiang gently pulled her back and whispered, “The graduate student’s mother.”
Her parents, when alive, envied the graduate student the most, and Mrs. Wang was known for being arrogant in the village.
[Isn’t this the middle-aged woman who asked the streamer for fetus gender-changing pills?]
[Seriously? The free clinic was nationwide, I heard thousands of people requested connections that day. What a coincidence that two patients from the same village connected?]
[Looking at Heng Heng’s smile, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.]
[Crazy old woman, being so smug, forcing your daughter-in-law to take gender-changing pills? Insane.]
Seeing her roommate’s mocking expression, Mrs. Wang sneered. “So what if my daughter-in-law is carrying a girl? They’re still young, they can still give me a grandson. But the Da Yong family will never have a son!”
Her words were truly unbearable.
Wu Heng said, “Go to the graves first.”
The girls, suppressing their urge to beat her up, went to the Wang family’s ancestral graves and soon saw two new graves, belonging to Wang Qiang’s parents, the cement ground still littered with ashes from Wang Qiang’s previous visit.
Her roommates, holding the phone for the live stream, stood at a distance, while Wang Qiang approached the graves alone.
Looking at the two graves, the girls felt apprehensive. These were, after all, Wang Qiang’s ghost parents, as confirmed by Wu Heng, and they were inside those graves right now.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Wu Heng’s gentle yet firm voice reassured the girls.
Wang Qiang turned towards the camera. Wu Heng instructed, “Draw two large circles with lime, spread the joss paper at the bottom, and place the gold ingots on top, counterclockwise.”
“Light the joss paper and tell your parents to ‘Lai Jun is here to collect the money!’ simultaneously.” He said the last part in the Nan Nuo dialect, which was quite different from Mandarin.
Wang Qiang and the netizens didn’t quite understand, thinking it was just a phrase for collecting money. The girl, being a quick learner, repeated the phrase, her pronunciation almost perfect.
She lit the joss paper with a lighter, the flames quickly spreading to the gold ingots on top, the ashes swirling in the gentle breeze.
Soon, two shadowy figures emerged, excitedly grabbing the gold ingots within the lime circles. The pale-faced man said excitedly, ‘These are high quality! I asked at the Bank of Heaven and Earth yesterday, these have the best exchange rate. One ingot can buy a large villa in the underworld!’
The woman with blood on her face accurately found two specific ingots. ‘These two are the best, hubby, one for each of us.’
Wu Heng quietly watched the couple, instantly recognizing that they died in a car accident.
Wang Qiang couldn’t see their faces clearly, only two blurry shadows, her body covered in cold sweat. “Dad, Mom? Is that you?”
[?? What? Why can’t I see anything?]
[I can’t see anything either. Don’t play tricks on us today, I’m scared!]
[Scared but also curious. Heng Heng hubby, say something, I’m afraid.]
[Her ghost parents are here? Not beating them up, but burning joss paper for them? I would make them penniless in the afterlife, fulfilling their wish!]
The ghost couple happily pocketed the ingots. They were finally rich! There were so many things to spend money on down there.
With this money, they could buy a large spirit house, a few acres of land, and even some servants and livestock.
Father Wang, staring at his trembling daughter, said smugly, ‘See? You need a son to burn usable ingots, Qiang Qiang is a son now.’
The two new ghosts were fixated on this thought. Their daughter had burnt joss paper for them many times before, but they couldn’t even exchange it for ten yuan. Today, they had so many gold ingots, it must be because they had taken that from Mrs. Wang’s son and given a replica to their daughter!
The female ghost said sinisterly, ‘Yes, maybe we’ll even have a graduate student son in the future.’
Ghosts, unlike humans, didn’t overthink things. They only knew that after their daughter became a son, they would have money to spend in the afterlife.
Look at all this money!
A gust of Yin wind blew down a leaf, and Wang Qiang and her friends felt a chill, as if they had entered an ice cellar, their hearts pounding.
“This… this…”
Wu Heng reassured them, “Don’t be afraid, a registered civil servant from the underworld is here.”
Wang Qiang: “!!!”
[Registered civil servant? Black and White Impermanence?! Holy crap, isn’t that even scarier?]
[Wu Heng, you’re good at comforting people. But why is an emissary here?]
The two ghosts, holding their gold ingots, looked blankly at the shadowy figure emerging from the Yin wind. The figure wore white robes and carried a lantern with the words “I, Yin Messenger, Pay Up.”
Lai Jun, seeing the gold ingots in their arms, was enraged. He rushed forward and snatched them.
This money was his!
He clearly heard the person burning the joss paper call his name earlier, and two of these ingots were folded from the joss paper Wu Heng stole from him.
So this entire pile was burnt for him by Wu Heng.
‘How dare you steal from an Yin messenger!’ Lai Jun was furious. Traveling all the way from Nan Nuo village wasn’t easy, and now these two little ghosts dared to steal from him?
Wu Heng stealing from him was one thing, but even these insignificant spirits dared to do so, what was the point of him even working?
He was a local bully when he was alive, not some saint.
This damned Yin messenger job was already unpleasant, making his temper even worse.
The two ghosts were terrified. Although there were hundreds of these low-level Yin messengers in each town, and tens of thousands in each district, all under the control of the official Black and White Impermanence, they still instilled fear.
The underworld, unlike the human world, wasn’t governed by laws, it was more primal, power was worshipped.
Father Wang clasped his hands together, bowing repeatedly. ‘Master, this is the money our son, oh no, our daughter burnt for us, our retirement fund, you’ve mistaken us.’
Lai Jun glanced at Wang Qiang’s soul form, his anger intensifying. ‘Nonsense, that’s clearly a boy!’
The wind grew stronger, even blowing the grass off the graves.
Wu Heng spoke in the language of the underworld: ‘Lai boy, I returned your money, don’t bother me again.’
Zhou Yi hadn’t known the whole story back then, only thinking that Lai boy was bullying him by pushing him into the well, but Wu Heng knew about the Lai family’s affairs.
Although Lai Jun was spoiled by his family, the entire Lai family respected the only medical clinic in the village, Chengde Medical Clinic.
The live stream couldn’t see or hear Wu Heng speaking.
So it was really Wu Heng who sent someone to return his money. The rest was assumed to be interest.
Yin Messenger Lai sneered, whipping the two ghosts with his soul-snatching rope. Ghosts naturally feared it, their souls weakening with each strike.
The gold ingots in their arms scattered on the ground as they wailed, begging Lai Jun for mercy.
Yin messengers weren’t evil people in their previous lives, but they weren’t kind either.
The more they wailed, the harder Lai Jun whipped them.
Wang Qiang vaguely saw a figure in an official uniform whipping her parents, a sense of satisfaction rising within her.
Wang Qiang gathered her courage and shouted, “I’ve had enough of you! Giving me that disgusting thing, I don’t even want to be a man!”
Father Wang, while wailing, still managed to curse, ‘Unfilial daughter! What’s wrong with being a son? Aaaa—Master, have mercy…’
Lai Jun took a closer look and realized it wasn’t actually a boy, that had been forcefully attached. He whipped them even harder. ‘Altering the gender of your child’s soul, you’re truly impressive. I’ll hand you over to Lord Xie and have your entire family punished!’
Lai Jun glanced at the phone, as if making eye contact with Wu Heng.
Thanks to Wu Heng for the contribution, this would surely get him a promotion and a raise.
As soon as the Yin messenger spoke, the other spirits in the surrounding ancestral graves couldn’t stand it anymore.
One after another, they emerged from their graves, punching and kicking the couple while smiling obsequiously at the Yin messenger.
Master Yin Messenger, after punishing this couple, please don’t punish us.
Wang Qiang saw everything clearly, even her grandfather kicking the hardest, the grievances of these past few days washing away, a sense of exhilaration filling her. She couldn’t help but shout,
“What’s wrong with being a girl?! Why isn’t our ancestral grave emitting smoke? Have you ever reflected on yourselves?! After so many years, the grave still isn’t emitting smoke, are you even taking your ghost duties seriously?!”
“Instead of using all your Yin qi to make that disgusting thing for me, why not use it to make our ancestral grave emit smoke.”
“I’m telling you now, if I don’t get into Tsinghua or Peking University next June, you ghosts will be held responsible!”
Instead of worrying about not receiving the joss paper burnt by their daughter, they should focus on why their ancestral grave wasn’t emitting smoke while others were!
The more Wang Qiang spoke, the angrier she became. They had given her a fake, a knockoff.
[Holy crap, so the girl really saw it?]
[I can’t see anything, I only see the soil on their graves rolling down, there’s no earthquake there, right…?]
[Seems like they’re being beaten up badly, are they being pressed against the gravestones and pummeled?]
[Holy crap, Heng Heng really does have connections in the underworld, doesn’t he? Did he summon this Yin messenger?]
[Well done! Streamer.]
The couple, beaten to a pulp by their ancestors and a foreign Yin messenger, their souls weak and scattered, could only lie on the ground, wailing.
‘We were wrong, we were wrong, we won’t dare to do it again.’
Wu Heng asked, “Where is that thing you took?”
‘Hidden in our grave, Father Wang wailed. ‘We’ll appear in Mrs. Wang’s dream and return it to her son…’
Wang Qiang was horrified. “That thing on me was really a replica made from a graduate student?!”
Wang Qiang had never imagined her dead parents were so skilled at making knockoffs.
Her dorm leader, standing at a distance, burst out laughing. “Wasn’t that lady being all smug just now? Now she’s screwed.”
Wu Heng, seeing the barrage comments filled with laughter, and enthusiastic netizens urging the girls to take the camera to Mrs. Wang’s house, wanting to see her reaction, said, “Wang Qiang, walk a hundred steps forward, there’s a well. Draw a bucket of water, boil it, and take a bath. The Yin qi will dissipate.”
The well water tonight was incredibly Yin, and the two new ghosts couldn’t match its power, so their Yin qi would naturally fall off.
Wang Qiang was overjoyed. Who would want that disgusting thing on their body, especially when it was made from their parents’ Yin qi?
She had been feeling disgusted lately, and the fact that it was her dead parents made her even more upset.
Being cured was the best outcome.
But…
Wang Qiang hesitated and asked awkwardly, “Now that I’m cured, wouldn’t Brother Wang be…permanently…you know? He’s a good person, he even helped me with my homework a few times.”
Wu Heng said, “Don’t worry about him, tonight is the Hungry Ghost Festival, the Yin qi is strong, it can’t make him a eunuch.”
Besides, some people had to pay the price for their actions.
Reassured, Wang Qiang and her roommates kicked the graves twice more and went to fetch well water a hundred steps away.
Wu Heng thought for a moment and sent Li Hao a message on WeChat.
Li Hao and his friends, still feeling dejected that Wu Heng hadn’t used their new well, immediately jumped up like they had been injected with chicken blood upon receiving his message.
Soon, they found the bridge and saw a young man lying there, the Taoist priest who had swallowed spider silk in the tertiary hospital ward.
He looked no different from a homeless person.
Li Hao handed Chen Zhao his ringing phone. “Doctor Wu is looking for you.”
Chen Zhao spat out a blade of grass and sneered. Asking for a favor and still acting so smug?
Wu Heng, after answering the call, went straight to the point. “Fellow Daoist Chen, there’s a minor ailment I need you to treat…”
Chen Zhao sat up straight, his handsome face radiating righteousness. He said calmly, “I’m an official Taoist doctor of the Xuanmen, I don’t treat patients privately, that would be against the rules.”
Wu Heng: “Five thousand yuan.”
Chen Zhao immediately jumped to his feet. “Senior, as a doctor, I have no right to choose my patients! Where is the patient? I’ll go immediately!”
