Chapter 5: Catching Ghosts

  Mr. Ma opened several boxes on one side, took out some miscellaneous items that were commonly seen on TV, such as talismans, copper coins, candles and incense, and placed them all on the dining table of Hua Ou. He also took out two opaque bottles from the last box.

  Mr. Ma didn't notice that Hua Qi was quietly hiding outside the door, leaving a gap to sneak a peek.

  Mr. Ma lit the incense and candles, burned a talisman and threw it into the air, at which point they heard someone speaking loudly, and slowly made out that it was the sound of quarreling. Immediately, several shadows appeared in the living room, completely disregarding the presence of others, and began to quarrel among themselves. Hua Ou stared blankly at the scene before him, then reacted and started to feel afraid, but Mr. Ma comforted him in a timely manner, telling him not to be afraid.

  After the figure became clear, Mr. Ma burned another talisman. At this time, several ghosts seemed to have just discovered someone else's existence, and they were in a state of confusion as if they had just woken up from a dream. Mr. Ma then burned another talisman and asked: "Several ancestors, why are you still lingering here? Why haven't you gone to the underworld to report?"

  One of the ghosts said, "What's going on? How come I don't know anything? All I knew was that I fought with them and then fainted for a while. When I woke up, it was just now. Was it you who called us back?"

  Just as he finished speaking, another ghost chimed in and said: "From what I hear, we aren't dead yet, are we?"

  Mr. Ma smiled after hearing that and said: "Everyone, do you still remember when you quarreled? Say the year, month and day. And why did you quarrel?"

  At this time, the first ghost said: "What year is it? We've been dead for a long time?"

  Mr. Ma said: "This year is 2013, which year are you talking about?"

  The first ghost was stunned and said, "Isn't it 2010? This kid borrowed 50,000 yuan from me in 2009 and promised to return it within half a year. It's been over two months now and he still hasn't mentioned returning the money, so I came to settle accounts with him. Unexpectedly, this kid refused to give me any money, so I said let his wife compensate for him but he didn't agree, and we ended up fighting."

  "How did you die then?" Hua Ou couldn't help but interrupt and ask.

  Mr. Ma glared at him and then turned his head to let them continue speaking.

  At that time, the second ghost speaking continued: "I don't know either, I just saw them pull out a knife from their waist to chop me, so I said who's afraid of whom, then went to the kitchen to grab a cleaver. Unexpectedly they really dared to make a move, and we started chopping each other. My wife was afraid I'd get into trouble, came up to mediate and told us not to fight anymore. Don't know who chopped my wife...I got angry and my blows became more vicious. Was it at that time...?"

  At this time, the first ghost was about to hit him, and the second ghost quickly dodged to one side. The two groups of people immediately drew their swords and were about to fight again. At this time, Mr. Ma stopped them, saying: "You all stop quarreling, a dead person cannot be revived, I think you should just let it go, I'll think of a way to send you both to the underworld to be reincarnated. Don't bring the grudges from when you were alive down there."

  The first ghost was unwilling after listening, saying: "How can that be, what about the 500,000 yuan he owes me? It's gone? No way, pay back the money first!"

  "Hey, things aren't like that. You're already dead, and whatever grudges you had when you were alive should have dissipated by now. It's been three years since you passed away, so whatever issues you had, the living members of your family must have taken care of them for you. If not, just tell me how to contact your family and I'll ask them to burn more paper money for you."

  Inside, Mr. Ma is trying to mediate the conflict between the two ghostly spirits so they can leave the mortal world and be reincarnated in the underworld. At this time, Huaji, who was hiding at the door, felt that she couldn't move anymore, and also felt colder and colder.

  Hua Qi wanted to take a look around to see if there was anything unusual, but she found that even her eyeballs couldn't move. Just as she was desperately trying to struggle free from this immobile feeling, the corner of her eye caught a glimpse of two figures floating up from the stairs beside her.

  Why was she so sure that it was a ghost? Because she could hear Mr. Ma negotiating with the two ghosts in the house, but couldn't hear the footsteps of the two people on the stairs.

  Not only was there no sound of footsteps, but Huaji didn't even hear the sound of breathing, and she couldn't even sense the presence of two people. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, Huaji would have had no idea that these two people had ever appeared.

  When the two silhouettes floated to Huaji's side, three pairs of eyes met together. The two silhouettes, which could be confirmed as ghostly shadows, looked surprised and seemed not to believe that a human being could see them. The two ghostly shadows exchanged glances with each other, seemingly disbelieving their own eyes. They then communicated in a language Huaji couldn't understand, glanced at her once more, and floated into Huaye's room, leaving Huaji behind.

  Then Hua Qi lost all sense of awareness, unable to hear the sounds in the room or move her body, which felt numb, yet her mind remained clear.

  She didn't know what was happening inside, Huaji felt anxious, not just wanting to see the outcome of this matter, but more importantly, her younger brother was still in the house. She didn't know if her younger brother had seen the two ghosts that had just entered, or if they could move. Unconsciously, tears began to flow from Huaji's eyes.

  After a while, maybe just a few minutes, or maybe longer, at the moment when Huaji felt that she had lost all sense of time, she found that it was not so cold around her anymore. Her eyes also felt very uncomfortable due to not blinking for a long time, dry and gritty, and she involuntarily blinked several times before realizing that she could move again.

  As soon as she regained her freedom, Huaji rushed into the room and saw that her little uncle was fine and had no problems, but he looked confused. Only then did Huaji breathe a sigh of relief, feeling that her heart, which had been hanging high, returned to its rightful place. After putting her mind at ease, Huaji quickly asked Mr. Ma what was going on.

  Mr. Ma took several deep breaths and paused for a while before saying: "It was really close just now, where did those ghosts go? Did they leave?"

  Hua Qi only then noticed that the house was spotless, with nothing in it except for the four of them. She turned to Mr. Ma and said: "It's gone, has it left? Just now I was peeking at the door and saw two ghosts enter our house, what's going on? Why did I feel like I couldn't move when they came?"

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