Chapter 4: The Favor of Droplets

  "Brother, I beg of you to spare a drop of your precious blood, and I will repay you with a gushing spring," Li Yan's voice grew weaker and weaker, while outside the car, the wailing grew more intense, the vehicle swaying violently. I had never seen such a scene before, and was suddenly frightened out of my wits. What enmity, what grudge, what spirit blood, what gushing repayment? All I knew were two phrases I'd learned since childhood: "Six spirits gone, seven souls fled," - damn it all, just empty nonsense!

  Time was running out, and things were happening fast. Li Yan seemed to have used all her strength, popping up from the back seat, her bony white hand grasping my right hand, I had bitten my middle finger earlier, she put my middle finger to her mouth, I saw a drop of blood fall from the tip of my middle finger and drip into her mouth.

  I was frightened almost to the point of fainting, but Li Yan quickly let go of my hand.

  As my drop of blood fell into her mouth, she suddenly puffed up, her hair standing on end like the whiskers of an old Taoist priest I once saw, instantly straightening and smoothing out. Her face was like a balloon filling with air, swelling to full moon in an instant. Her red dress fluttered, her body quivering. My heavens! In the blink of an eye, before my very eyes, I witnessed a miracle. Li Yan regained her lovely appearance!

  Soft and gentle words, "Don't move, don't be afraid, I'm here." Li Yanyu's soft breath actually made my ear roots itch.

  A red shadow flashed by, and there was no one in the back seat.

  Suddenly, a red shadow flickered outside the car, and white mist rose. Intermittently, I seemed to see a black ball as big as a fist shaking, and a sharp white light flashing, with the red shadow darting back and forth, as if there was a skull head that had appeared out of thin air, and strands of white silk floating away from the red shadow. The howling stopped being fierce, and the car body slowly calmed down. The copper bell in my arms had been shaking non-stop, but now it was almost quiet.

  "Scared, huh?" The gentle and soft voice, Li Yan returned to the back seat, at this time everything calmed down, as if nothing had happened. If someone passed by now, they would definitely misunderstand, a man and a woman, stuck in the car on a deep night, must be having a romantic tryst.

  "Let's just say it, Li Xin." Li Yan's soft voice was no different from that of an ordinary person. "I've always known you, but you don't know me, and of course, you wouldn't even know I exist."

  It's just a normal conversation between two people who have met by chance.

  "There was a long time ago, you may not remember, that was when you accompanied your parents to sweep the grave of your uncle, and when you left, suddenly a gust of wind blew out the candles on several nearby graves. Your parents thought it was unlucky and urged you to hurry up, but you insisted on relighting the candles and carefully covering them with branches before leaving. For this, you were even scolded." Li Yan said, recalling an old event.

  To be honest, I don't remember. But such things must have happened. My grandfather lived in the countryside, and after a hundred years, the old times were still buried on the mountain. Every year, I followed my parents to sweep the tomb, burn incense, light candles, and set off firecrackers. Maybe I did something like that before.

  "You don't know, it was just when my sisters and I were reincarnating, the vengeful spirits of the Shadowless Gate blocked our reincarnation, extinguished the Mingluo Tower, but you happened to light it up, that's fate. So my sisters and I remembered you, let's talk about the past, do you still remember your mistake two years ago?"

  Now I remember, this matter is really etched in my mind. Two years ago, the company also sent me on a business trip, and everything was ready to go, just like now. At that time, I was still infatuated with Yu Zhen, that little vixen. To show my loyalty, as everyone knows, our unit had a period where we all bought insurance, and in the beneficiary column, I even filled in Yu Zhen's name. At the time, it was just a joke to tell Yu Zhen about, because this was just a routine action for everyone in the unit, and I didn't think much of it. But before boarding, I couldn't find my ticket anywhere, and I missed the flight. And yet, on that occasion, our plane actually had an accident, and even now, you can still look up the news about it. I'm just grateful to be alive.

  "In fact, you have always had a narrow escape in your fate, but you didn't know that it was us who saved you. You were in charge of the company's large amount of cash inflows and outflows, and Wú Yīng Mén thought of many ways to confuse you and make you embezzle funds for their own use on Guang Yang Road. However, you remained unmoved, which is also why your girlfriend said that you're poor despite being surrounded by piles of money. It was your own nature that saved you, and this made us even more convinced that you are a person with the blood of a righteous spirit. This is what ordinary people call fate. So, it's fate, we were destined to be together."

  In a daze, I seemed to have figured out some clues. An unintentional act in my childhood had inadvertently tied me to the underworld. What Li Yan said wasn't wrong either. Due to the special nature of my job, if one's mind isn't firm, following some people's unwritten rules, embezzling a few million here and there would be very easy. But I never did, so I have very few friends. Many people approached me at first but eventually left me and cut off ties, saying that I was unapproachable. Those who stayed were true friends, like Director Qian.

  "So Yu Zhen is also one of those 'Wu Ying Men' you mentioned?"

  "Just don't mention her, you'll understand later." Li Yan continued: "Don't be afraid, actually our Yin realm has some rules that are the same as your Yang realm. As for our branch, we're divided into two major sects: Zhenglingmen and Wuyingmen. The blood bats you saw are all small fries from Wuyingmen, desperately trying to upgrade their spirits to become evil ghosts. Evil ghosts are what you ordinary people call 'demons that take human lives and roam the countryside'. If an evil spirit doesn't upgrade its spirit to become an evil ghost, it will eventually turn to dust. But Wuyingmen is always suppressing them because evil spirits are easier to control and use. Controlling evil ghosts requires a high-level soul spirit. As for us Zhenglingmen, we only create good things in the world and don't harm people. Wuyingmen is different, on the surface they pretend to be saviors, saying that human desires are too strong, and human hearts are hard to satisfy. They claim to want to replace heaven's will and open up the great Yang. But in secret, they're desperately using some people with strong desires and greed to find spirit swords, in order to achieve their goal of unifying the Yin realm. Actually, one of our Zhenglingmen's major missions is to prevent the spirit sword from falling into the wrong hands, stirring up a bloody storm in the Yin realm, and harming the Yang realm."

  As I listened to Li Yan, I felt a chill run down my spine. For no reason at all, it seemed that this unclear and inexplicable thing was related to the Zhenglingmen and Wuyingmen.

  Recently, there have been rumors in the Yin realm that the Spirit Blade will appear, so the Wuying Gate planned a major Yang-transcending operation to force the appearance of the Spirit Blade. I've been preparing for this for many days and am really exhausted. As a yin spirit, if I don't transcend to yang in time, I'll turn into white bones. I didn't want to disturb you, but you're also the person I trust most. Li Yan's voice was as soft as silk when she said this last sentence, and my heart couldn't help but move. It seems that ghosts can be good or bad too; if Li Yan weren't a yin ghost, she'd actually be a pretty good choice. Pfft pfft pfft, what kind of thoughts are these?

  "Your righteous blood can ensure my safe passage in the mortal world. Don't worry, I will repay you for life." Li Yan said again.

  I waved my hand hastily and said, "No need for that, really no need." In fact, what I meant to say was, oh my aunt, I'm just a poor man who can barely make ends meet, how could I possibly afford to talk about grandiose things like saving the world or spiritual swords, or even forcing spiritual swords to appear and all that nonsense. Just keep those ghosts away from me, I just want to be good friends with Old Qian, find a gentle wife, have kids, and live a warm life, that's really my ideal.

  Li Yan seemed to have seen my thoughts, and smiled gently. Good heavens, she was as lovely as a peach blossom. Damn it, even the best cabbage is ruined by pigs, what kind of ghost did I imagine? It reminded me of a joke I often told, "Die under the peony flowers, and even as a ghost, you'll be elegant." It seems this saying isn't just empty words after all.

  Li Yan ignored me and continued: "Now you can't back down either. The reason I said I'd repay you for life is because I'm the one who pulled you in. If I hadn't helped you cross Yang, you wouldn't have made it this far. But also have to admit that it's also fate, as I mentioned earlier. You happened to coincide with Wuying Gate's intention to cross Yang due to a moment of great hatred, and there's been a strange grinding sound in your mind all along, right?"

  I nodded in agreement, indeed it was so.

  "That's right, your mind was occupied, fortunately you were in a state of spiritual protection, otherwise there would have been big trouble." Li Yan said.

  My heart was startled, indeed, at that moment I really wanted to take a knife and cut down Yu Zhen's little demon and that dead fat man. Indeed, I had this thought, but isn't this also a normal human reaction? Your girlfriend is being hugged by someone else, can you remain calm?

  "I can't tell you too much now, I'm afraid you won't be able to take it. Let me just give you a rough idea. The Qing Shan Dao Zhang you've been relying on is actually not even worthy of the Peach Wood Sword, let alone the Gui Yang Knife. There are three types of spiritual knives: the Gui Yang Knife took the life of Xiao Jiao Luo, the Gui Yin Knife transformed into the yin body of the big and small fierce ghosts, and the Gui Ling Knife exterminated all the souls in the underworld. In the future, we'll have to see our fate, one step at a time. I'm leaving now, when daylight comes, I won't be able to move again, and next time I'll have to borrow your help to cross over, and scare you half to death again... I really feel sorry for you!" Li Yan's eyes seemed to have a hint of human moisture in them.

  Unconsciously, I found it was already 4:50 in the morning.

  This is what it means to see a ghost, but why did I suddenly feel reluctant to part with him?

  Body follows sound, red shadow floats, instant disappearance.

  Now I'm the only loser left, with a small car that has always been faithfully and gently accompanying me.

  Forget it, forget it, indeed, things are unpredictable, and misfortune is lurking!

  Start, slide, accelerate, I drive towards my rental house.

  I pressed the copper bell in my arms, quiet and peaceful. If it weren't for the copper bell reminding me of everything that happened in the past day and night, I would really want to delete all memories, leaving only the moment when Li Yan spoke warmly to me.

  The phone suddenly rang, and when I looked at the time, it was 5 o'clock in the morning. It was that old Qian guy.

  As soon as the call was connected, Old Qian's voice came over urgently, "Something's happened, hurry up, don't be late, get to the company quickly!"

  "What's wrong with you? What happened?" I asked.

  "The finance office has been robbed!"

  "Ah?" This is even scarier than being frightened by a ghost.

  Accelerate towards the company.

  It's just five o'clock, but the company courtyard is already surrounded by police. As a major taxpayer in this city, we have to put on a good face.

  As I rushed into the yard, Old Qian grabbed me and said: "What the hell, this has never happened in the finance department before!"

  Old Qian took another look at my pale face and said, "You're scared out of your wits, don't be afraid. This robber is the real crazy one, a brainless idiot. He robbed the finance department, where the alarms are loud, but he can't even get his hands on anything. It would've been better if he had robbed a small shop instead."

  Lao Qian is telling the truth, our unit's financial department doesn't even have any cash on hand. I've been doing this job for a long time and I know that according to business regulations, we should settle accounts daily, but inside it's all just a bunch of accounts, who knows what kind of mess they've made, it's going to be a big headache for us. The financial department has encountered thieves, can't let the whole place get stirred up. Even if you're going to steal, you have to use your brain.

  The company's leaders all came, and the scene has been investigated. Old Qian took me, the police, and the night shift security guard to the police station to verify the situation. Old Qian was smiling ambiguously, so I nudged him with my elbow. Old Qian whispered in my ear: "Nothing's going on, damn it's just weird, but the hot bed has turned into a cold noodle soup, damn, we've caught him."

  I didn't respond. We all went into the police station together, sat down, and asked questions as usual.

  The company leader, Old Qian and I all said we were acting according to the rules, that's what we've always done. The security guard was so wronged that he cried, saying it's true that someone has been watching the monitor and urinating in shifts.

  The police also nodded and said this matter was really strange.