Chapter 4: The Vanished Beauty

  When I heard Mao Bin say he was going to start summoning souls, I hastily turned off the lights and stood beside the switch, holding my breath and concentrating, leaving the empty space in the middle for him to perform.

  Mao Bin first drank all the water in the sea bowl, then raised his head and sprayed the water into the air with a "poof" sound. He continued to chant and swing the sword in his hand. Before long, the yellow paper talisman suddenly ignited on its own!

  I stared blankly at this incredible scene, speechless.

  He used the burning talisman to light the candle, then shook off the ashes of the talisman paper into a large sea bowl. Next, he lit the sandalwood with the candle.

  Then he let out a strange cry, one hand grasping the soul-calling banner standing by his side, and the other waving the wooden sword. He started dancing. This must be what they call "dancing with gods". Looking at his lively dance moves, even if he were to participate in a dance competition show, I reckon he could get into the top three.

  I stared at the wooden sword, although it had been burned by the talisman paper, it didn't turn black. This magic is really amazing.

  In the air, there were the smells of sandalwood, burning paper and wax candles, as well as some indescribable odors, all mixed together. The whole room echoed with Maobin's murmurs, his voice rising and falling in a vague, wordless chant. His sleeves fluttered in the breeze, causing the candle flames to flicker unsteadily. In the dim light, his shadow danced wildly around the room, now bright, now dark. The smells, sounds, and shadows blended together, creating an eerie atmosphere that was even more sinister than usual.

  Singing and dancing for a long time, my heart had already been made to feel uneasy by him. Suddenly, he pointed at the person on the bed with his sword and called out three times: "Xiao Lü Qi, where does your soul want to go? Hurry back!"

  Three cries had passed, and Cao Bin's whole body suddenly shook violently, scaring me. The candle flame flickered, almost going out.

  After a moment of silence, Mao Bin spoke in a hoarse voice and asked me to turn on the light, saying that the Buddhist ceremony was over and the soul had returned.

  I let out an exclamation of admiration and hastily turned on the light.

  Mao Bin poured the ash and soil from the incense burner into a large bowl, handed it to me and said: "Householder, use boiling water to rinse these, and have her drink them. Use hot water to flush and massage her joints according to my method, and she will recover her senses in three days. Hmm, that's all, I'm leaving."

  I nodded and took the bowl back, carefully putting it into the kitchen cabinet.

  Taking advantage of the situation, Mao Bin put the money on the table into his pocket.

  I bowed and said: "If she wakes up three days later, I really don't know how to thank you, Master Dao."

  "Thanks are unnecessary, just give me the other 15,000 and we're square."

  I hastily asked him where he was living now and promised that when I got there I would definitely visit him in person and hand over the money with both hands.

  Mao Bin looked at me and said, "What era are we in? We who do traditional craftsmanship also need to keep up with the times, right? No need for you to run an errand, I have a bank account, just transfer it to me from Alipay."

  I nodded and walked to the small table, picked up the messy pile of magazines, and underneath it was something. I pressed on it and turned back to Mao Bin, cupped my hands in respect and said: "Unexpectedly, Master Dao uses Taobao too, that's great, no need for you to run to the bank."

  Mao Bin looked at me strangely and asked: "Huh? What does it mean?"

  I picked up the book-covered thing and walked to the window, pulled it open and said: "After one session of Taoist rituals, you can earn so much. It's really enviable. I've been tight on cash lately, please Master Tao return that 15,000 yuan to me, and then transfer some money from the account to my Alipay."

  Mao Bin's eyes narrowed, looking at me like I was crazy: "What the hell do you mean?"

  I sneered: "I let you give me some money to spend, what's wrong with that? Can't you understand?"

  "What right?"

  "What's the point? Spending money to get rid of it, do you understand?"

  "What calamity? What calamity does this humble monk have?"

  I smiled and said: "You didn't have a way in before you walked through this door, but now you do."

  I looked at Mao Bin with a puzzled face and continued: "Do you think I'm stupid? You're messing around like this, and I'll give you 15,000? Three days later, where will you run to, how do I know?"

  "Alright, no need to mention the other 15,000. You've already made 15,000 in just over 10 minutes tonight, isn't that enough? As for the other 15,000, if she wakes up, you'll get it; if not, haha, I think you won't mind either way. After all, you've already got 15,000 in hand."

  Cao Bin was just about to mention the other 15,000, but was suddenly interrupted by me. The words that were about to come out of his mouth were forcibly swallowed back in.

  I sneered, "Your trick is outdated. Spitting water to humidify the air, your three talismans are coated with white phosphorus. The ignition point of white phosphorus in humid air is only 30 degrees, and it can be ignited by simply shaking it. That wooden sword, you secretly applied alcohol to it, didn't you? No wonder it doesn't burn black. I've smelled the burning smell of white phosphorus and alcohol a long time ago. Hehe, then you just jumped around casually, creating a terrifying atmosphere, trying to cheat me out of 15,000 yuan? Let me tell you, this is fraud. According to Shanghai's regulations, fraud exceeding 4,000 yuan constitutes a serious crime, punishable by up to three years in prison. Prison welcomes you. The evidence is here." As I spoke, I raised the pinhole camera that was just covered under the magazine.

  Mao Bin's face turned white in an instant.

  "This camera has already captured your act of taking the money. As for the amount involved in the fraud, I just mentioned it when I put it on the table: 15,000. You didn't deny it, that's equivalent to admitting it yourself. And this camera also recorded you saying you wanted another 15,000... Hehe, if we calculate it, three hundred thousand is already a huge amount of fraud, punishable by imprisonment for three years to ten years. You can deal with it yourself."

  I lazily finished speaking and coldly looked at Mao Bin who was stunned on the spot.

  A fierce anger flashed in his eyes, as if he was about to erupt into violence.

  I'm standing by the window now, with my thumb pointing backwards at the open window, and I say with a smile: "Don't try anything funny, if I shout, you'll definitely not be able to run away."

  Mao Bin finally calmed down after hearing this. Suddenly, he laughed and said: "Do you think I'm a law idiot? I've been in this business for a long time, what waves haven't I seen? The woman on your bed now is no different from a dead person. Do you want to shout? Okay, then you can shout for people to come and see what you're hiding. Private corpse hiding, haha, are your sins lighter than mine?"

  I was shocked on the spot. I didn't expect that this guy also understood law. No mistake, stealing and hiding a corpse, imprisonment for three years. Perfectly fine.

  Mao Bin saw my shock and knew he had turned the tables on me, feeling very pleased. He waved the money in his hand and said: "Like this, I'll take 5,000 yuan, watch me count it. The move I just made, although you exposed its true nature, but let me tell you, I'm not a pure swindler. You do as I say, maybe there's something in it for you. So, 5,000 yuan, you won't lose out. I'll take the money and leave, from now on we have nothing to do with each other. Otherwise, we can both go into the game together, you weigh your options carefully."

  I suddenly changed my lazy expression, pointed to the laptop on the table and said: "Alright, 5,000 yuan is it? Ha ha, you've mentioned this amount too. Go ahead, open that laptop and transfer 5,000 yuan to my Alipay account."

  Mao Bin's eyes widened and he said: "Are you out of your mind? Aren't you afraid of going to jail?"

  I burst out laughing, took two steps forward, grabbed the bed sheet covering the bed and yanked it off violently.

  Mao Bin's eyeballs almost popped out. What was covered with the bed sheet wasn't Xiao Luqi, or rather, it wasn't a person - but a 1:1 size inflatable doll that a lonely man used to satisfy his desires.

  Mao Bin was furious and suddenly bent down to look under the bed. He found that there was nothing under the bed.

  He stood up and gritted his teeth: "So, there was no one who wanted to summon the soul from the very beginning! You've been trying to cheat me all along!"

  I let out a deep "hmm" and said, "You Jianghu practitioners, nine out of ten are scammers, and the other one is in training. Do you think I don't know your tricks? Not only do you scam people who come to have their fortunes told for money, but you also ask for their names and birth dates, and then call their parents to scam them too. When you mention their name and birthday correctly, their parents get worried about their child, and of course they'll pay up obediently. With your kind of character, you just asked me what my birth date was earlier - do you think I'm stupid enough to tell you? Let me tell you, when I heard people talking about those two mysterious old men, I felt something fishy, so I went to investigate. I found the posts about the two old men playing chess in raincoats on Shanghai's local BBS forum, and discovered that they all came from the same IP address. That raised my suspicions - you're intentionally spreading rumors to attract people to seek them out, and then pretending to be their disciples to scam them, right? I don't know if you set up that stone table or not, but those two pairs of footprints, I think they were probably made by you using some kind of acid to corrode the cement floor into footprint shapes.

  "Nonsense! Even if it's hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, once spilled on the ground, it would flow everywhere. How could it possibly form a footprint shape!" Ma Bin yelled at me, pointing his finger, "You're framing me!"

  I knew he was like this, must have hit the last painful spot, and his spirit was about to collapse. So I said viciously: "You, don't pretend with me. Just find a piece of rubber skin, bend it into a footprint shape, pour the corrosive stuff in, and naturally it won't flow everywhere. Are you insulting my intelligence?"

  Mao Bin's face was exposed with all his hidden cards, his eyes filled with endless fear, and he trembled to ask: "You... what do you want to do?"

  I pointed to the inflatable doll on the bed and said, "You're right, I'm going to take you down. Today, I'll be a fake fighter and put an end to your deceitful tricks. I don't want anything else from you, just transfer 5,000 yuan as hush money, not one cent less."