Chapter 26: Wearing the Way

  "...then...when you first see those things...are you scared?" Su Tong had encountered several frightening incidents in the past few days, each time with a heart-pounding feeling. She didn't know if her reaction, which was completely devoid of immunity, was because she was inherently timid or if ordinary people would also be the same way.

  Seeing a ghost is not as common as going to the mall or watching a movie, and except for Tang Wei telling him that he has yin-yang eyes, others may have had similar experiences but are unwilling to believe in such strange things and supernatural phenomena. In order not to be treated like a mental patient, Su Tong can only ask Tang Wei about his doubts regarding seeing ghosts.

  Tang Ao thought for a moment and nodded: "The first time I saw it, I was indeed frightened. I remember that at the time, I had just recovered from an illness and was still in the hospital. One night, I woke up to the cold around midnight and found that my quilt was hanging on the ground. I hurriedly wanted to pull it up, but couldn't move it. When I looked again, a man was sitting beside my bed, stepping on my quilt with his foot, so I couldn't pull it up."

  "My goodness..." Su Tong subconsciously covered his mouth with his hand, listening with extreme tension.

  "I was indeed startled at the time, but I didn't think that I would get sick and open my yin-yang eyes. I thought it was someone from another room who had walked in by mistake. I asked him what he wanted, and he said to get up because I was sleeping in his bed. He told me to give back the bed, but I ignored him. He came over and pushed me, and eventually threw me onto the floor. At that time, I was quite angry, but my body was weak, so I couldn't do anything to him. I sat on the floor and pressed the call button. When the nurse on duty rushed in, that person suddenly disappeared. It wasn't until then that I was truly startled.

  Later, I encountered several similar incidents. For example, in the middle of the night, I would see someone walking over from the wall beside my bed, or a face would emerge from the sink while I was washing my face. At first, I was often startled, but later I discovered that except for a few vengeful spirits who might pose a threat to our safety, most ghosts lingering in the mortal world are harmless to us. They are just looking for a way to leave or have some unfinished business and don't want to disturb the living.

  You shouldn't be able to see them originally, but recently you've been startled one after another, and you've provoked a vengeful spirit, so you can see those things now. The probability of encountering them is also quite high..."

  Tang Ao was talking and suddenly realized that Su Tong had not spoken for half a day, fearing that she was too scared to speak, so he quickly stopped speaking. He turned his head to look at her and found that Su Tong had fallen asleep at some point, with her head leaning against the car window. Tang Ao carefully pulled over and adjusted her posture, then covered her with the clothes he had draped over the back of his chair. Throughout the process, Su Tong slept soundly and did not wake up, probably because she was exhausted from being frightened and shocked earlier, and finally couldn't hold on anymore.

  When Su Tong was woken up by Tang Ao, the car had already stopped downstairs. Tang Ao supported her to take the elevator upstairs. When they reached the door of their home, she suddenly realized a problem - could she really go back to this home?

  This question should be asked of Tang Ao, for now there is no one more qualified than him to speak on this matter.

  Tang Ao's answer was also very straightforward.

  "No way." He shook his head at Su Tong, raising his wrist to show her the time on his watch. "It's already past one in the morning, exactly when yin energy is at its peak and yang energy is at its weakest. If I let you go home now, it would be like sending you to your death. The thing in your house can hide its yin energy very well, which means it's definitely not an ordinary vengeful spirit. It has been able to control itself for years, so even if I were to go, I wouldn't dare to recklessly try to force a confrontation during this time of strong yin energy. Last night was just a temporary measure; I originally planned to wait until you fell asleep and see if the vengeful spirit would reveal its true form or show itself. But it clearly intentionally hid from me and didn't want me to discover it. You've already had a big scare today, and your yang energy is weak to the point of being unbearable. No matter what, we can't take any more risks."

  "Where am I going to live?" Su Tong was getting anxious, she hadn't thought about this at all on the way here, her mind had only been focused on leaving that hotel where she almost lost her soul, and leaving Zhang Min, without considering where she would stay when she came back. After last night's scare, she didn't dare to go out and live in a hotel again, it left her with some psychological trauma.

  "Live in my house."

  Su Tong was a bit embarrassed, not that she didn't trust Tang Ao's character, but after going through so much in the past two days, if it weren't for his timely assistance several times, her current situation would be unbearable to think about. However, trusting him didn't mean that as a young girl, she could accept his invitation without any shyness and go live with her male neighbor, especially since she had also caused Tang Ao a lot of trouble in the past few days.

  It seemed like Tang Ao had seen through Su Tong's concerns, so he smiled and said, "Let's go, don't be polite to me anymore, unless you have a better choice at the moment."

  Needless to say, the answer must be no. If Su Tong had a better choice, he wouldn't feel so troubled now. At this late hour, it's not suitable to disturb either friends or colleagues at home.

  Su Tong nodded in agreement with Tang Ao's proposal, and Tang Ao took out the key to open the door for her. He helped her sit down on the sofa and busied himself making a calming tea for her to drink. As Su Tong sat on the sofa, she felt her eyelids growing heavy and her mind becoming increasingly muddled. Her consciousness began to blur, but in her heart, there seemed to be an inexplicable flame burning, causing a scorching sensation that was extremely uncomfortable.

  She hadn't even realized what she wanted to do, but her body had already taken the initiative to stand up on its own. Just a moment ago, it was so weak that it was hard to stand steadily, but now standing up seemed effortless again. Her heavy body suddenly felt light and airy, as if there were no burdens at all. She walked towards the kitchen with light steps, walking behind Tang Ao who was boiling water to make tea, her two arms gently wrapping around his waist from behind.

  Su Tong didn't know why she was doing this, and why she had to do it. Her consciousness was in a daze, as if she was half asleep and half awake, and her body was even more out of control.

  Tang Ao had just seen Su Tong walking over and was about to ask how her physical strength was recovering, but in the next second she was stunned by Su Tong's actions, her whole body stiffened, and the water bottle in her hand didn't know whether to put it down or not, just held it in mid-air, motionless.

  Su Tong closed his eyes, tiptoed, and brought his nose close to Tang Ao's ear, took a deep breath in, and then exhaled, blowing hot air onto Tang Ao's cheek, causing a tingling sensation.

  "Su Tong, what's going on..." He slightly furrowed his brow and asked tentatively. As a normal robust man, when a girl he had some feelings for made intimate advances towards him, he would probably feel a little excited, just like any other man would. However, if this were under normal circumstances, Tang Ao couldn't guarantee how long he could hold back. But at this moment, his mind was clear about two things: Firstly, since he started paying attention to Su Tong as his neighbor, he didn't know her very well, but at least he had some understanding of her. This girl was definitely not the type to be overly passionate and impulsive, making such moves in their current situation and relationship. Secondly, normally speaking, Su Tong's physical strength shouldn't have recovered so quickly. Just a while ago at the door, she was still so weak, but within less than ten minutes, she suddenly had the energy to stand up and make all these unusual movements. The most likely explanation was that she, like Zhang Min, had also been possessed by something evil.

  He put down the water bottle, pulled open Su Tong's arms around his waist, turned around, wanting to see if her pupils were also dilated. As soon as he turned around, Su Tong's two hands broke free from his loose grip, hooked around his neck with one foot, closed her eyes and kissed him. Tang Hao didn't even bother to pull away the hand that was hooking his neck, hurriedly cupped Su Tong's face instead, not letting her really get close.

  This matter of intimacy with Fang Ze didn't bring him any loss, but if he couldn't stop himself, once Su Tong regained his senses, it would likely lead to big trouble.

  "Sutong, can you hear me? Open your eyes and look at me." Tang Ao held back his temper, supporting Sutong's face with one hand to prevent her from really coming closer, while calling out her name with the other, hoping she would regain some of her senses and cooperate with him. However, it seemed to have little effect. Sutong, regardless of everything, still wanted to come closer, her two eyes tightly shut, refusing to open them no matter what.

  Seeing that it was still useless to hold his face, Tang Ao's heart was also a bit anxious. If the person in front of him was Zhang Min, the man who had just been called, he could still take action and use force to subdue him. However, now that it was Su Tong, this was absolutely impossible.

  Tang Ao held Su Tong's position with one hand, not letting her get close, while the other hand quickly turned on the faucet above the sink next to him and splashed a bit of cool water onto Su Tong's face. Perhaps it was the temperature of the cool water that stimulated her, Su Tong subconsciously opened her eyes, and both of her pupils were in a dilated state, with no focus, even though she seemed to be looking at Tang Ao, but somehow didn't seem to have any focal point.

  "Su Tong, where are you uncomfortable? Tell me." Tang Ao furrowed his brow and asked softly.

  Su Tong burst out laughing and leaned into Tang Ao, saying: "I'm uncomfortable all over my body, it feels like I've been burned by fire, can you take a look at me and help me treat it?"

  "Alright, I'll help you with that." Tang Ao let out a sigh and released the grip on Su Tong's hand. Su Tong took advantage of the momentum to climb up his neck and pecked him again on the cheek. Tang Ao wrapped his arm around Su Tong's neck from behind, stretched out his palm, hesitated for a moment as he carefully controlled the force, before swiftly and accurately striking Su Tong's left shoulder blade with a chopping motion.

  Su Tong didn't even have a chance to hum, her whole body went soft and was caught by Tang Ao, who didn't let her fall to the ground. Tang Ao gently picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, laying her down on the bed. He then turned around and walked out of the bedroom door, entering his study.

  After a while, he came out of the study with two talismans in his hand, which he had just drawn with cinnabar according to the records on that book of talismans. Since opening up this skill, he had also tried drawing different types of talismans with various effects from that book of talismans, and each time he learned how to draw a new type of talisman, he would immediately remember it without needing to look at the book again. Moreover, the effect of the talismans was still quite satisfactory. This time, what was needed for Su Tong's sake was a type of talisman that was even more complicated than any of the types he had tried before, specifically used to drive out evil spirits' interference and control over human minds. Tang Xiao had never tried it before, and his heart felt a little uncertain.

  He tiptoed to the bedroom door, pressed his ear against it, and listened carefully to the sounds inside. There was no movement, so he slowly pushed open the door and went in. Su Tong was still asleep on the bed, her posture exactly the same as when Tang Hao had put her down earlier. It was clear that she hadn't woken up at all, which was what Tang Hao had been hoping for. If she had woken up and continued to cling to him like an octopus, he really wouldn't have had the heart to be ruthless and give her another blow on the back of her neck.

  He walked to Su Tong's side, reached out and touched her forehead. Su Tong's forehead was cool and dry, without any sweat, and even her normal body temperature was a bit low. Tang Ao sighed, this girl had been through too much in the past few days, and if this spell worked, it wouldn't be a pleasant experience for her either. It seemed that from tomorrow on, she needed to thoroughly sort out the causes and effects of these strange events, and solve them from the root cause. Otherwise, if things continued like this, not only would someone with weak yang energy like Su Tong be worn down, but even someone with strong yang energy might also be tormented into decline.

  Tang Ao unfolded the talisman and placed it on his palm, pressing it onto Su Tong's forehead. As soon as the talisman touched her forehead, she shuddered violently, as if scalded. Tang Ao dared not relax, fearing that he might fail at the last moment, so he kept his hand firmly pressed against Su Tong's forehead. Su Tong's body began to tremble, her teeth clenched tightly, and tiny beads of sweat appeared on the tip of her nose. Her hands were clenched into fists. After about ten minutes of this turmoil, Su Tong's body slowly relaxed, her breathing slowing down from rapid to calm. Except for a slightly flushed face, there was nothing unusual about her, even her forehead had returned to normal temperature.

  Tang Ao let out a sigh of relief, moving his hand away. The talisman in his palm was dampened by Su Tong's sweat, the characters on it somewhat blurry and unclear. In the center of the paper, there were some faint black marks.

  Tang Ao looked at the blackened talisman paper, thinking about Su Tong's behavior just now, and frowned, as if he had thought of something. He helped Su Tong cover herself with a quilt, sat on the bed for a while, until he was sure she was fine, then quietly got out of the room and closed the door.

  Follow the official QQ public account "LOVE" (ID: love) for the latest information at any time.