Auntie Wang wiped away her tears and stood up. “I don’t know. Mom was fine one moment, and then she suddenly collapsed. Her forehead was burning hot—scary hot! We couldn’t wake her no matter how we tried. Doctor He just came by, prescribed some antibiotics, and said… and said…”
Uncle Liu was practically dying of anxiety. “Said what?! Spit it out!”
“He said… it’s still best to take her to a big city hospital!”
After Auntie Wang finished speaking, Uncle Liu staggered back two steps. Xiao Wang quickly steadied him with a hand. He stared at the old lady lying on the bed inside, her face ashen and her breathing faint, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Their village was small, and Doctor He was the old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner at the clinic. He had real skills. If even he was recommending a trip to a big city hospital, the implication was clear—this illness was beyond his confidence to treat fully. Without a major hospital, it came down to fate: survive it and she’d recover; fail, and they’d be preparing her coffin.
But leaving this place wasn’t easy. The roads outside were all mountains, so they’d have to take a tractor to the town, then a bus to the city. Even at best, it would take a full day to get there. With the old lady in this feverish state, how could she handle that kind of ordeal?
Chen Ji followed them inside. He hadn’t really wanted to come in—something about Uncle Liu’s house felt oppressively eerie—but now that he was here, he couldn’t just stand at the door gawking. Seeing Uncle Liu unsteady on his feet, Chen Ji was about to ask Xiao Zhang if there was anything he could help with when Uncle Liu suddenly grabbed his wrist. The man’s face was full of desperate pleading. “Xiao Chen! Xiao Chen! Uncle knows you’ve got real skills. Can you take a look at Mom for us? She’s always been healthy—how could she just collapse like this?”
Chen Ji shook his head immediately. “Uncle, it’s not that I don’t want to help. I’m no doctor—how would I know these things? You should still…”
Before he could finish, Uncle Liu cut him off. “Just take a look! If you can’t tell anything, no hard feelings! The road to the city is so long—Mom can’t take it. Uncle’s begging you. Just look at her!”
With that, he bent his knees to kneel. Chen Ji couldn’t let him do that and hurriedly pulled him back up. “I’m really not a doctor… Uncle, like this: I remember the delivery truck is coming today. Quick, send someone to the village entrance to wait and see if they can give us a ride! I’ll go in and take a look.”
Xiao Wang was Auntie Wang’s nephew. Hearing this, he bolted straight for the village entrance. Chen Ji, half-pulled and half-pushed by Uncle Liu, headed deeper inside. The further in he went, the more oppressive it felt. When he saw the unconscious old lady on the bed, his heart sank. He spotted a wisp of black qi coiling around her body.
Not much, but dense and heavy.
Chen Ji recognized this black qi immediately—how could he not? He’d seen it just a couple of days ago on those pepper salt crispy ribs. When they came out of the wok, a clump of black qi had clung to them like carbon residue. They’d offered it before Grandpa Mountain Lord for a day, and the next day, it looked just like ordinary food.
“How is it?” Uncle Liu gazed at him with hopeful eyes.
Chen Ji frowned instinctively. He hadn’t expected this to connect back to him, but there was no helping it now. “Uncle Liu, take me around the house for a tour.”
Uncle Liu nodded repeatedly and led the way. The System Cat yowled excitedly in Chen Ji’s mind: 【Whoa whoa whoa, black qi! Actual black qi! And I can see it too! What’s up with your eyes, Chen Ji? Why haven’t I seen this stuff before?!】
Chen Ji replied inwardly: 【Probably like it says in the books.】
There was the Human Path for people, and the Ghost Path for ghosts. Previously, the snake spirit had dragged him into a place where everything looked like it had a horror movie filter. Later, during his fever, the colors in the Mountain Lord Temple had seemed off too, until he entered the main hall, saw the statue, and heard the Soul-Calming Bell. Only then did things normalize.
Chen Ji figured that horror filter was the so-called ‘Ghost Path.’ The first time he’d been pulled in, it had shocked his soul, leaving signs of ‘soul loss.’ That’s why he’d felt light and floaty one moment, heavy and dragged the next—like his soul was being yanked along. His soul had been scared right out of his body on a metaphysical level.
With his soul outside his body, he was no longer fully human, so he hadn’t seen things on the ‘Human Path.’ After the Soul-Calming Bell and the suppression from Grandpa Mountain Lord’s statue, his soul returned, and everything looked normal again.
His current state had a simple name: he’d opened his ‘Heavenly Eye’—or ‘Yin-Yang Eye,’ take your pick.
【Sounds so cool!】 The System Cat started dancing in Chen Ji’s head. Chen Ji snorted with a laugh. 【You like it? Here, have it.】
The System Cat shot back: 【Hey, don’t say that. Better to see it than not—at least you know when to run!】
Fair point.
Uncle Liu led the way ahead. Chen Ji already had a rough idea of where the problem lay. Sure enough, when they entered the kitchen, he saw all the pots, bowls, basins, knives, and cutting boards he’d asked Uncle Liu to discard a few days back—every single one still there. They were branded stuff he’d bought, not cheap, complete with logos.
Uncle Liu noticed Chen Ji’s gaze fixed on the stove and asked puzzled, “What’s wrong? Is the problem here?”
Before the words finished leaving his mouth, he spotted the familiar items on the stove and turned pale with shock. “This… this…”
He looked at Chen Ji nervously. “Xiao Chen, this… this…”
Chen Ji waved it off. “First, burn every dish that’s been cooked or chopped with these. Then pack this set away.”
“Got it, got it!” Uncle Liu nodded vigorously. “Anything else? Mom, she…”
What could Chen Ji do? He only knew some minor tricks, and this was partly his fault—knowing those things were unclean, he shouldn’t have delegated the disposal. He should have waited until he was better to toss them himself. Now he had no choice but to improvise. First, get her to the hospital via the delivery truck.
What did Grandpa’s notes say? The old lady had been tainted by evil qi, but… the notes didn’t specify treatment! Chen Ji went with rice and salt as a starting point—try that first!
“Where do you keep the rice and salt at home?” Chen Ji asked. Uncle Liu immediately rummaged in the kitchen. Chen Ji thought for a moment and added, “Light a fire outside.”
Uncle Liu did so at once. They used a wood-fired stove, which normally took time to heat, but today they had no patience for that. He quickly piled up firewood in the yard, tore strips from a bedsheet to ignite it. Chen Ji had him fetch a big pot and roast the rice and salt until hot.
Chen Ji was clumsy at these chores—better to let Uncle Liu handle it. Spotting some small burlap sacks nearby—probably sewn for the little girl to use as play beanbags—he filled them separately with the hot salt and rice. Uncle Liu helped, and soon they had eight small sacks ready. Chen Ji took them, muttering incantations under his breath, then singed each one over the fire.
The burlap didn’t catch easily. Chen Ji pocketed the sacks and headed back inside. Auntie Wang looked anxious. When he entered, she instinctively stepped back a couple paces. The sacks weren’t scalding anymore—safe against the skin. Chen Ji placed them around the old lady’s body, two by her left and right hands.
He was just about to check if the black qi had reacted when Auntie Wang exclaimed, “Hey?! Mom’s face looks better!”
The System Cat’s voice chimed in too: 【Chen Ji! It’s working! Really working!】
Chen Ji glanced over. Sure enough, the black qi was burrowing into the sacks, and fast! The old lady’s face lost its ashen pallor. He breathed a silent sigh of relief—good, it was effective!
If this nonsense cost a life, he’d be wrongly accused beyond words.
Uncle Liu’s expression was complicated. He reached out to touch the old lady’s forehead, but Chen Ji stopped him. “Don’t touch. Wait a bit longer and try then. Uncle, this is just a stopgap folk remedy. You still need to get her to a proper hospital!”
Uncle Liu was a devoted son and immediately agreed, holding still. Chen Ji examined the old lady carefully. In that short time, the black qi on her had nearly vanished. For some reason, he glanced back at the sunshine outside. Two phrases rolled on the tip of his tongue, but he held them back.
He’d instinctively thought some sun would help even more—sunlight would fix it. But the old lady was elderly; better not say it. She’d get plenty of sun on the delivery truck ride. No need to mention it now, risking her catching a chill.
He trusted metaphysics now and then, but science forever. Sick people needed doctors—no sense dragging a feverish elder out for wind exposure.
Xiao Wang called. Chen Ji, standing nearby, overheard: “Uncle! The delivery guys say it’s tricky! What if there’s no space on the truck…”
Uncle Liu bristled with anger, ready to curse. Chen Ji signaled for the phone, and Uncle Liu handed it over without thinking. Chen Ji spoke to the other end: “Put the driver on.”
Xiao Wang agreed, and Chen Ji continued: “Five thousand to the city hospital. If something happens, fifty thousand hush money. Deal?”
The driver paused, then said, “Done. Where’s the patient? I’ll bring the truck over!”
“The house at the village end.” Chen Ji hung up.
Uncle Liu was stunned. “What? Fifty thousand?! That’s too much, Xiao Chen. How can we impose like that? Those guys are greedy, always after money—how can they even ask that?”
Chen Ji made a halting gesture. “Life comes first.”
“I’ll cover the money.”
Uncle Liu nearly knelt again. Chen Ji waved him off. “That’s that.”
Chen Ji stepped forward, removed the sacks—which had gone from hot to ice-cold—and bagged them in plastic. He then went to the kitchen, gathered up the pots, bowls, and utensils, and carried them out.
By the time he emerged, the delivery truck had pulled up. Uncle Liu and the others were loading the old lady aboard. Chen Ji added the driver on WeChat, transferred two thousand as a deposit—balance on photo proof of delivery—and urged them to get going.
He stood in the sunlight, its warmth soaking into him.
Alright, no packages today anyway, and he couldn’t lug these items plus poultry. Back to the mountain it was.
Chen Ji asked: 【Xiao Ba, any egg yolk pastries left at home?】
【Plenty.】 The System Cat, puzzled: 【Several boxes still.】
Chen Ji didn’t care for them— he’d bought the pastries mostly for it. But with all the tempting new snacks lately, the System Cat barely touched them.
【Mm.】 Chen Ji said: 【Requisitioned.】
【I’ll pull some out for you… but restock later, okay?】
A hint of amusement flickered in Chen Ji’s eyes: 【Deal.】
That night.
A slender shadow darted to the Mountain Lord Temple’s entrance.
A tiny nose twitched. Big, round black eyes stared unblinking at the yellow plastic bag before it.
So fragrant! So good! Wuu!
Egg yolk pastry!
Your Grandpa Huang has arrived—!
