Yin Yang Rogue

  I furrowed my brow, just about to say something, when suddenly Fatso grabbed me with a look of horror and terror on his face. I followed his gaze and saw that in the empty space ahead, there was a half-transparent shadow standing there, looking like it was six or seven years old, but its body was blurry and its outline unclear. It had a vague shape to it.

  Standing in front of us, head down, hair hanging down on both sides, face can't be seen clearly. Liang Yuhao also saw it, then a shock, shouted: "Ya Ya?"

  I heard him say that, and I thought this should be the real deal. But when the girl lifted her head, I was startled because half of her face was so disfigured, with blood and flesh blurred together. This clearly was a girl who had died a violent death, it's absolutely impossible for it to be YaYa, YaYa is still alive.

  The little girl slowly raised her head, looked at us with a strange gaze, and suddenly cracked a smile. Her incomplete and asymmetrical face appeared even more eerie because of that smile. She stretched out her snow-white small hand and pointed at us: "Are you guys here to play with me too?"

  I felt that there was no resentment on this little girl's body, so I opened my mouth and asked: "Little sister, what is your name? Do you know YaYa?"

  The little girl stopped smiling, nodded, and curiously asked: "My name is Niu Niu, do you know Ya Ya too?"

  I sighed: "Yes, we are her family, and we need to take her home."

  Niuni suddenly opened her mouth, looking very angry. The broken face with such an expression, under the pale moonlight, had a chilling and terrifying aura that made one's hair stand on end.

  "No, you can't take her away. She's my friend and she has to stay here with me." After saying that, she took a slow step forward. Only then did we see that behind her back was a transparent little girl, looking dazed and confused, who was YaYa.

  Liang Yuhao shouted: "Ya Ya, I'm your little uncle!" After finishing speaking, he was about to pounce over, but his movement enraged Niu Niu. Niu Niu stretched out her small hand and let out a loud cry, her entire face twisted in anger. I only felt a whirlwind of dark air swirling around us. Then Liang Yuhao was thrown out, heavily crashing into the nearby corn stalks, groaning for half a day before getting up.

  I took a deep breath and looked at Niu Niu saying: "Niu Niu, aren't you going home?"

  Niang's eyes showed a nostalgic and resentful expression: "I don't have a home, I don't want to go back home either, Yaoyao doesn't want to either, Yaoyao will stay with me."

  Niang Niang's soul behind her has always been in a daze, I know it's because Ya Ya is not a complete soul, just a single soul with low self-awareness.

  I walked over, sighed, and then took out a stick of incense. The offering of incense is often particular, just like Buddhist families generally offer sandalwood incense, while Taoist families often offer "clear incense". It's the same principle as when worshiping the Three Pure Ones, offering three sticks of incense.

  Because the Taoist school emphasizes self-cultivation, the boundary between gods and ghosts is not so clear. For example, in the Northeast, there are "Fox Huang Bai Liu Hui" five big fairy children, it's not right to say they are fairy families, because they belong to Yao Xiu, also belong to "earthly immortals", while like Sanqing Zushi that belongs to "upper immortal", is already ranked among the immortals.

  Many evil spirits or wild ghosts also want to be worshipped, because with the incense and fire, they can become more and more solid, and their powers will also become stronger. Just like the "Blood God" I once encountered, it's called a god, but actually it's just a kind of ghost, deceiving people into offering sacrifices to absorb their faith for its own use. And the Landlord is a typical earth immortal.

  So Taoist worship often uses "incense", which can be accepted by both gods and ghosts. I lit a stick of incense for Niu Niu, and she took a deep breath, seemingly very pleased, her face gradually calming down.

  I said to her: "Niu Niu, I don't want to hurt you, but Ya Ya we have to take away. If you're willing, I can help you. Tell me about your situation, okay?"

  Niang Niang looked at me with a hint of confusion, then glanced at the incense in front of her, seemingly thinking that I didn't seem like a bad person. She nodded and asked: "Can you really help me?"

  She nodded firmly. She tilted her head to look at me, as if to see if I was deceiving her. It wasn't until after a while that she began to speak in a gentle tone.

  Originally, Niu Niu herself didn't know that she had already died. She was playing outside and ran far away, unexpectedly getting hit by a passing car. She saw the car coming because it was late at night. The truck driver was from the city, and she called him Uncle Liu. Sometimes he came to the countryside to collect goods, and Niu Niu had seen him several times. Niu Niu went over to talk to him, but Uncle Liu ignored her, his face looking very bad. I immediately inferred that he must have seen someone get run over and was scared out of his wits.

  According to Niu Niu's account, the man started messing with something on the ground. On the ground, there was a badly mangled person who had been run over and crushed. The driver looked around and saw no one watching, so he took out a large canvas bag from the car, dragged the thing into it, and threw it into the vehicle. Then he scattered a lot of dirt on the dirt road to cover up the bloodstains.

  After walking for a while, they found the cornfield and took out a shovel. They casually dug a hole next to the cornfield and buried the body of Niuniu in it before leaving.

  Niang Niang said that at the time, she didn't know what was going on either. She just followed the car in a daze, and she didn't even know why she was following it. Later, when they arrived here, she saw "Uncle Liu" busy for half a day. No matter how she tried to talk to him, he ignored her. Then suddenly, she wanted to go home, but found that she couldn't leave.

  Niu Niu was very scared at the time, and just wanted to wait for her family to come pick her up. Many times when Niu Niu played outside late, her family would find her and then pinch her ear to pull her back home. But this time she waited for a long time, and finally waited until her family found her, she ran in front of them and talked to them, but they just like Liu Shu Shu, ignored her.

  Niang Niang was scared and wanted to cry. She shouted loudly: "Dad, I won't run around anymore, don't be angry with me, don't ignore me, take me home!"

  But no matter what she said, her father just ignored her and walked away after a circle. Niu Niu still had a glimmer of hope in her heart at that time, thinking that her father was angry with herself and would come to pick herself up in two days.

  But no matter how long she waited, it never came. Niuniu felt that her family didn't want her anymore, so she started to hate her dad and mom. Why didn't they want her? She missed home, but every time she thought about being abandoned by her family, she didn't want to go back home again. So she stayed here in this conflicted state.

  Until recently, she met YaYa. YaYa could see herself and talk to herself. She thought YaYa was here to play with her, so she kept her here and wouldn't let her leave.

  Liang Yuhao suddenly exclaimed: "Niu Niu? Are you the daughter of the Chen family from the neighboring village?"

  I asked Liang Yuhao what was going on, and he told us that more than a month ago, the Chen family had lost their daughter and came to their village to look for her but couldn't find her. They thought she must have been kidnapped by human traffickers, so they just dropped it.

  It's not unusual for children in rural areas to be kidnapped, but the Chen family didn't know that their daughter was already dead.

  I nodded and said, "Niu Niu, would you like to go home with your brother? Your dad and mom didn't abandon you, they've been looking for you all along. It's just that you're already dead, and the living and the dead are separated, so they can't see you."

  When I said this, Niu Niu was stunned and then showed a very terrified expression: "Am I dead?"

  I nodded: "Don't be afraid, brother will take you home, and it won't take long before you'll be reincarnated, just like a person who has slept for a while, you'll wake up again. Otherwise, you can only stay here alone, with no one to play with, Yaya also needs to go home, listen to brother's words, okay?"

  Niang Niang suddenly burst into tears: "It turns out they can't see me, I was wondering why they ignored me, I wrongly blamed my dad, my dad wouldn't abandon me."

  I comforted Niu Niu's emotions, then took out two soul flags and had Niu Niu and Ya Ya attach to them. I brought the two souls back home with Jiang Pangzi and Liang Yuhao.

  We slipped into the house quietly, without startling anyone. Jiang Pangzi finally seemed to have come back to his senses; this was the first time he had seen a real ghost, and at that moment he was so scared that he almost wet his pants, but now he was excited, pulling my arm and asking me questions, and insisting on calling me master.

  I ignored him. After a night of fuss, I was already feeling very tired. Liang Yuhao remained silent and didn't speak, only gazing at me with gratitude. I don't know what he's thinking.

  The next morning, I woke up early. Jiang Pangzi and Liang Yuhao were sleeping soundly, probably because they were too tired from messing around until midnight. I didn't wake them up, got out of bed by myself, greeted Liang Hongyu and her husband in the front yard, then went to the backyard to practice a set of Wu Xing Quan. This is an unbreakable rule.

  After finishing my fist, I saw Liang Hongyu and her husband standing at the door, looking at me with a hesitant expression. They seemed to want to say something, but didn't dare disturb me.

  I smiled at them: "Don't worry, I'll take care of YaYa's matter."

  After hearing my words, the couple finally put their minds at ease. They warmly invited me to have breakfast with them. I asked them not to disturb Jiang Baozi and Liang Yuhao, letting them sleep a little longer, as there were still some things to prepare.

  I told Liang Hongyu: "Sister Hongyu, go find something for me. I need a broom with no hair on it, it must be the kind that has been used for a long time and the head is already worn out and has no hair left. Cutting it off won't work, it has to be naturally hairless. Then find a piece of red cloth that a boy has used as a diaper. It has to be a red diaper that a boy has peed on."

  Liang Hongyu nodded repeatedly: "These are easy to find in our village, what else?"

  I had Liang Hongyu prepare some rice water and put it in the courtyard to dry under the sun. I'll use it this afternoon. Then, I said to Li Shanmin:

  "After a while, I'll make a paper flag, this thing is called a soul-guiding flag. When I let you go, take this paper flag to the crossroads and wait for my call to burn it, then just burn it."

  The two of them started to get busy, and the rice water was ready first, with rice bubbles inside. I took out three copper coins from my pocket and threw them into the rice water. Then I calculated the time again, and it was between 5 pm and 7 pm, which is the most suitable time for doing this. At this moment, Jiang Pangzi and Liang Yuhao woke up and saw me rushing over to them.

  I said to them: "You two pack up and follow me out to the neighboring village to take care of something."

  Jiang Pangzi and Liang Yuhao understood, knowing that I was going to deal with Niu Niu's affairs. They quickly gathered their things and followed me out the door. Under Liang Yuhao's guidance, I soon found myself in front of Niu Niu's house.

  We knocked on the door of Yaoyao's house, but no one answered. Jiang Paozi came over and pounded on the door with all his might, and a man's impatient voice finally came from inside: "Who is it? What are you pounding for?"