Chapter 11: Household Rules

  The female ghost's magical powers were obviously higher than Jin Niang's, and she was knocked out with a few blows. Jin Niang got up, her silver teeth chattering loudly, she brushed back her scattered hair, with an "I'm going to fight you to the death" look on her face, and pulled out two yellow talismans from her sleeves that were obviously longer than ordinary talismans.

  This talisman was all too familiar to Shi Yiran, he had been drawing it for the past few days, a talisman that enhanced physical abilities.

  Jin Niang urged the spiritual energy in her body to infuse into the talismans, and the two talismans seemed to have been given life, automatically wrapping around Jin Niang's arm and transforming into two light bands. Jin Niang launched another attack, with both speed and lethality completely different from before, she pounced forward at an extremely fast speed, directly using her hand to tear through the female ghost's abdomen.

  Standing behind him, Shi Yi'an saw very clearly how Jin Niang used her slender hands to tear apart the female ghost's body and squeezed out various internal organs. The scene was extremely spectacular. I don't want to eat her cooking again, Shi Yi'an thought with a tickling throat.

  The female ghost was naturally not afraid of this kind of physical attack, and with both hands grasping Jin Niang's arm, she pulled out Jin Niang's blood-soaked arm from her own abdomen. The bloody hole that Jin Niang had grabbed out healed at a visible speed to the naked eye. Jin Niang, in her current posture, flipped over and threw the female ghost on her back with an over-the-shoulder throw in front of her.

  "You think you can open a restaurant in my mother's place without even asking if I agree?" After finishing speaking, Jin Niang stuck a familiar object on the female ghost's body. It was exactly the same giant thunder symbol that Shi Yi'an had stuck on the female ghost's back before.

  Accompanied by a loud thunder, a lightning bolt directly pierced through the wooden roof of the small building and struck down. The female ghost didn't even have time to scream before she was struck and her soul scattered. Everything happened too suddenly, from Jin Niang starting to counterattack to the female ghost's soul scattering, it only took a few seconds.

  As the female ghost's soul dissipated, the bloodstains on the ground also disappeared. Shi Yi stood there in a daze, wiping away the cold sweat from his forehead and letting out a long sigh of relief.

  "Your brushwork is good, but your control over spiritual energy is too poor." Jin Niang said straightening up.

  "... Shi Yi's face was flushed with shame, unable to lift his head. With the same talisman, when he used it, it was like playing a prank of sticking notes on someone's back, but when Jin Niang used it, she could summon a thunderbolt to strike and kill the evil spirit."

  "It's okay, you're just starting out and it's not easy to draw the Qingxin symbol this well. Jin Niang comforted her, finding a small medicine bottle from the messy remains of the counter and cleaning up Shi Yi An's finger: "In the future, try not to use your own blood to draw symbols, using your own blood to draw symbols is very effective, but if you do it too much, you'll get addicted."

  "I want to have other options, and I shouldn't be so cruel to myself." The ten fingers were connected to the heart, and it wasn't until now that Shi Yian felt his fingers aching to the point of numbness. Several other fingers also throbbed with pain, especially after Jin Niang applied medicine, which made him want to cut off his entire palm and throw it away.

  "Ah, is this medicine expired or something? My hand is going to fall off!" Shi Yi'an winced in pain and tried to pull his hand back, but Jin Niang's mechanical talisman paper on her body had not yet dissipated. A pair of slender hands grasped his wrist like a pincer, rendering Shi Yi'an completely immobile.

  "You know what, this is a secret medicine that our family doesn't pass on to outsiders. It's guaranteed that your hand will be fine in three days." Jin Niang let go of Shi Yi An's wrist and tossed the medicine bottle aside, gazing at the roof that had been struck by lightning and sighed: "How much money would it take to fix this?"

  This Jin Niang, uses the Shifu family's body function enhancement talisman, the Shifu family's untransmitted secret medicine. Plus, Xiao Shu is already at that age and still unmarried. Suddenly, a dog-blood-soaked family ethics film officially started broadcasting in Shi Yian's mind. Shi Yian asked curiously: "What is your relationship with my uncle?"

  Jin Niang clapped her hands and stood up, saying: "I am his distant aunt."

  Shi Yi'an didn't expect to get such a mediocre answer, after all, they were distant relatives. Although Jin Niang was her younger uncle's aunt, she looked much younger than him. But since Jin Niang was her younger uncle's aunt, what should she call herself?

  "You can just call me Jin Niang like everyone else in Ghost City." Jin Niang continued.

  Before long, Xiao Shu picked up a bag and came back, looking at the messy hall, he was stunned at the door.

  "What's going on? What happened?" Little Shu took three steps in two strides and came directly to the front of Shi Yian, bowing his head to ask Jin Niang.

  Jin Niang took down the hairpin hanging on her head and said loudly, "Nothing, the talisman paper on the door is loose, a little ghost came to make trouble, next time you come back, draw a few more talismans for me to calm the house."

  Some things, even if Jin Niang didn't say, Xiao Shu understood. After all, the small building in Gui City had been open for over a hundred years, and it was always peaceful. Today, someone suddenly came to make trouble, and somehow it was all related to Shi Yian. Since Jin Niang didn't speak, Xiao Shu couldn't ask directly, so he said: "Alright, I'll take Yian back first. If she's not home by dawn, she'll probably be discovered by Old Master. The cost of the renovation will still be borne by me."

  Jin Niang helped up a long bench, sat heavily on it and waved her hand saying: "Get out of here quickly, I can afford the repair fee. You just draw the talisman paper well and bring it to me next month when you come, that's the greatest help for me."

  "Go."

  Shi Yi felt nothing when he was sitting, but now that he suddenly stood up, he realized that his back was aching slightly, probably due to the intense fight with the female ghost earlier. The small building had been turned upside down, but outside it was still bustling with activity, completely unaffected by the fierce battle inside.

  Shi Yi'an walked back on the road, hanging his head and following behind Xiao Shu. The things on both sides of the road no longer had the same charm as when they came. The two returned to the archway along the original path, passed through the archway, and returned to where they parked their car.

  Lao Lin saw the two of them returning listlessly and didn't ask much, immediately starting up the car.

  He dragged his exhausted body into the car, and for the first time, he felt that this cramped space filled with gasoline smell was so comfortable. He rested his heavy head on his arm, curled up his legs in the back seat. Now his whole body ached all over, and he remained in a daze, half asleep and half awake, as the car bounced along. When the car finally stopped in front of Shi's house, a faint light had already appeared on the horizon.

  When getting off the car, Shi Yian felt that his body ached more than before. His entire spine seemed to be connected into one piece, and with just a slight movement, it would make a cracking sound.

  Shi Yi An slowly got out of the car, stretched her waist and opened up her muscles.

  Young uncle arranged for Old Lin to drop off the car at the back door, and he and Shi Yi'an walked together to the front hall.

  "You go back and rest first, if there's anything else wrong with your body, come find me early." Xiao Shu said goodbye to Shi Yi'an in the main hall, reminding him before sending him off to sleep.

  "Well, I'll be off then." Shi Yi An's nose was getting stuffy now and he just wanted to return to Si Wei Ju, throw himself onto the bed and sleep.

  "Go."

  "Neither of you is allowed to leave." The old master of the Shi family emerged from behind the screen in the main hall, startling the two who were about to depart.

  The old man scowled and sat in the main seat, looking at the two people in front of him, asking: "Where did you go last night?"

  Shi Yi'an swallowed his saliva and glanced at the little uncle beside him. The little uncle scratched his nose, avoiding Shi Yi'an's gaze, and looked away. The two of them pretended to be mute, neither answering the old man's question.

  "Fourth brother, you want to go out and fool around, I've never stopped you, but who allowed you to take Xiao An with you?" The old man's voice was like a bell, and many ghostly servants who were passing through the main hall stopped in their tracks, peeking over to see what had happened.

  "Ah, Grandfather, it's not that Fourth Uncle wants to take me away, it's that I asked Fourth Uncle to take me there." Shi Yi'an hastily explained.

  "Don't take the blame for him, you have your own problems. Were you using Taoist magic at the foot of the mountain?" asked the old man.

  "Yes." Shi Yi thought of the talisman he had stuck on Jin Niang's forehead and replied honestly.

  The old man slammed his hand on the table and said: "Didn't your uncle tell you that without passing the test of the Shifu family, no one is allowed to use the Shifu family's Taoist skills at the foot of the mountain?"

  Shi Yi stood there blankly and said a sentence: "I don't remember."

  The elder brother's lecture was boring, and Shi Yian also listened to it from time to time. He vaguely remembered that the elder brother had mentioned something, but at that time he thought to himself, anyway, he couldn't go down the mountain, so he didn't pay much attention. When the incident occurred, Shi Yian was already a bit flustered, who still remembered what the family rules of the Shi family were? Being able to keep his life safe was the most important thing.

  "He doesn't remember, and neither do you?" The words suddenly turned sharp, pointing directly at Xiao Shu.

  Young uncle didn't dare report the truth about what happened on the other side of Ghost City, so he could only follow along and pretend to be confused: "Ah, it's been too long, I don't really remember either, haha."

  The old man was so angry that his beard kept twitching, and he slammed the table and shouted: "Since neither of you remembers, go to the ancestral hall to recall the family rules! Cough cough."

  Half an hour later, Shi Yi'an and Xiao Shu knelt side by side on the cushion in the ancestral hall of the Shi family, with the family rules hanging in front of them. When the old man was there, the two people were still kneeling to a certain standard, but as soon as the old man left, the two people became like they had their bones extracted, and collapsed into a heap.

  "Hey, you two, don't slack off." Shi Yihang sat on a rattan chair outside the ancestral hall, sipping hot tea and tapping the rattan strips on the ground with a loud crackling sound. He occasionally looked up towards the outside of the courtyard to prevent Old Master from making another sudden move. Although Shi Yihang was called by Old Master to supervise them, he was actually in cahoots with the two of them, just sitting on the rattan chair and helping them keep watch.

  "Yawn, I'm done, I need a nap." Shi Yi'an exerted his willpower to relax his muscles, laid down flat, and used his hands to fold the kneeling cushion in half as a pillow under his head. He lay down on the cool brick floor of the temple, wearing his clothes. The cool air emanating from the brick floor was like a thousand needles piercing through his clothes, stabbing into every bone and nerve. He closed his eyes, feeling that the entire world was spinning and dancing in colorful chaos. In a daze, he felt someone nudging his arm, seemingly his younger uncle, then heard him say: "Hey, let's do this, you pretend to be sick, and I'll send you back to Si Wei Ju."

  Pretending to be ill, Shi Yi thought of saying to her brother-in-law, I don't need to pretend anymore, I'm really sick now, save me.

  But Shi Yi'an's words couldn't be spoken, his throat was on fire, his dry and cracked lips moved slightly, he didn't even have the chance to ask for help before slowly sinking into darkness.

  When Shi Yi An woke up, what he saw was the top of his bed canopy. Beside him, Shi Yi Xing was reading a book. Seeing Shi Yi An wake up, he smiled gloomily and said: "Sleeping beauty, you're awake? If you didn't wake up, I would have kissed you."

  "How did you get into my room?" Shi Yi'an said as he reached out to touch his phone, ready to check the time.

  "You're still playing dumb with me? Who was it that was burning like a fireball on the ground in the ancestral hall, shaking like a sieve?"

  Reminded by Shi Yi, Shi Yi An finally remembered that he was reciting the family rules behind the ancestral hall at that time, and then he seemed to have fallen asleep.

  "It's just a cold, your uncle said to wait for you to wake up and let you drink this bowl of medicine." Shī Yì Xíng used the back of his hand to push the medicine bowl on the bedside table in front of Shī Yì ān.

  Shi Yi An picked up the medicine bowl and placed it under her nose to take a sniff, her whole face scrunched up like a used tissue.

  "Don't dawdle, drink up quickly, it's even harder to drink when it gets cold." Shi Yi urged.

  Forget it, good medicine is bitter to the mouth. Shī Yì took a deep breath and swallowed the medicine in one gulp, then couldn't help but dry heave twice. Shī Yì stood up and put away the medicine bowl, saying in a low voice: "Your fever has almost subsided, if you need anything, just call for Yun Mò to help you. As for what happened with your Taoist magic at the foot of the mountain, Grandfather said that since it was a matter of life and death, he'll let it slide this time. However, before you've mastered it, don't even think about going down the mountain."

  Shi Yi An smiled wryly and said: "Before I've learned enough, even if you drive me down the mountain, I won't leave."

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