Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 43: Eight Chains

A single stone cast could stir up a thousand ripples. In the small courtyard, the atmosphere grew tense in an instant.

Having “teammates who were just some unlucky strangers from all over the country” was one thing but having “teammates who were murderers” was on a whole other level.

This time, even the usually chatty Jia Xu didn’t retort…

The fact that the Mid-Autumn E “cleanses evil people using taboos” was laid bare before them, and all the teams they had met along the way acted so human-like. It would be suspicious to keep denying it under these circumstances.

Fang Xiu toyed with the hem of his own ghost’s sleeve, appearing at ease. “When I was nine, I accidentally knocked someone off a cliff and also caused my grandma to die of anger. That means I’ve got two lives on my back, right?”

“Xiao Guan already confessed the life he owes. He ran a red light with his younger brother, causing his younger brother to die in a car accident.”

Hearing that even a “cause of death” like that counted, the tension in the courtyard eased just a little. Jia Xu clearly relaxed; Blondie clicked his tongue twice, while Mei Lan lowered her head deeply.

Peering through his slightly long bangs, Fang Xiu carefully scanned the courtyard.

After a brief silence, Cheng Songyun slowly took a breath. “Fine, I’ll spill too.”

“I couldn’t stand my husband and wanted to teach him a lesson. I found a way to make him fall down the stairs, but he ended up dying from the fall.”

Her gaze fell to the edge of the table, her vocal cords strained by remorse.

Fang Xiu could see that Cheng Songyun still harbored guilt over it.

Next to speak was Mei Lan, her eyes somewhat red. “I messed around with the family car and broke the brakes. It caused my parents to both… to both get into an accident.”

After saying this, she bowed her head again, wringing her hands anxiously.

Blondie swallowed the last bite of his fried dough stick, looking like he was just chiming in for fun. “As for me, back in my village, I got into a big brawl and ended up beating someone to death.”

Fang Xiu was curious. “The police didn’t catch you?”

“We were only eleven or twelve at the time, and besides, a bunch of people were fighting. No one knew it was me who delivered the lethal blow. In the end, each family threw in some money, and that was that.” Blondie sounded totally unconcerned.

The group fell silent for a while, all eyes drifting to Jia Xu.

As the last to confess, Jia Xu swept his gaze around. He looked rather regretful. “My ex-girlfriend killed herself because of me, and the Underworld probably pinned that on me.”

Mei Lan frowned. “What do you mean ‘killed herself because of you’?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t do anything to her.”

Jia Xu quickly raised both hands in defense. “We broke up on normal terms, but she refused to accept it. She already had depression, so this is basically a misfortune for me, okay?”

Fang Xiu said nothing, merely squinting at Jia Xu with a smile. Under the pressure of that smile, Jia Xu finally felt uneasy and reluctantly added, “Fine, I’ll admit it… I did say some pretty harsh things at the time.”

“But I had no choice. You guys don’t know how much money she tried to get from me. I was struggling too.”

Blondie: “Got it. A sugar daddy wanted out, so she went with the whole crying, fighting, threatening to hang herself routine?”

Jia Xu didn’t deny it. He simply changed the subject. “No wonder we ended up in the same team. Looks like we’re all under the category of ‘accidental homicide’.”

Fang Xiu paused fiddling with his sleeve. “Makes sense.”

…Or not, Fang Xiu thought to himself.

Setting aside everyone else, Fang Xiu’s crime was definitely not an “accidental homicide”.

He himself hadn’t told the truth, so others might not have told the whole truth either. Observing them in turn, Fang Xiu had a decent guess: aside from Guan He and Cheng Songyun, the other three more or less were hiding something.

Best to leave it at that for now. There was plenty of time in the future.

Fang Xiu stood up. “I’m going back to get a good night’s sleep. If the sky falls, don’t bother me.”

Bai Shuangying initially assumed Fang Xiu was just making excuses; unexpectedly, the guy really did go back to shower and then slept like the dead. He skipped both lunch and dinner, and still hadn’t woken up when the sun went down, clearly planning to sleep straight into the next day.

Sure, he was low on energy after that ritual, but this was excessive!

Bai Shuangying, lying around on the ceiling, had a brand-new understanding of how delicate this person could be.

He had to admit that after baring it all that one time, Fang Xiu slept much more unrestrainedly.

He was sprawled on the bed at an odd angle, half the blanket tangled around his legs. His oversized red T-shirt had ridden up at the hem, revealing an abdomen covered in knife scars.

His messy bangs had fallen aside, exposing an innocent-looking face. Watching him, Bai Shuangying couldn’t help recalling his concerns about the seal…

Last time the seal loosened, Fang Xiu desperately craved a friend’s companionship, and Bai Shuangying had touched Fang Xiu’s head.

In the past few days, he’d been staying by Fang Xiu’s side as a “friend”, and he had patted Fang Xiu’s head many times, yet the seal never budged.

He thought perhaps the physical contact wasn’t the issue; the problem might lie in the notion of “friend”.

Bai Shuangying had never had a friend before. He had no clue where it all went wrong. Hence, when the Mid-Autumn E was broken, he deliberately went over to observe.

That E had a lot to do with the concept of “friend”, so surely he could learn something. But after a good look, he only felt even more perplexed.

Li Shuo and Lin Ge barely had anything in common. They didn’t spend all day glued to each other, nor did they keep in constant correspondence. All they did was share a meal on Mid-Autumn Festival, which was less intimate than what he and Fang Xiu had.

…Could a “real friend” require dying together?

Bai Shuangying did recall that saying, “May we die on the same year, same month, and same day*.” But Fang Xiu didn’t seem to want to drag him into death together. Whenever something happened, Fang Xiu was always the first to charge forward.

*This line is from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where Liu Bie, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei became sworn brothers. 

…Or maybe the seal’s loosening was due to some other factor?

Bai Shuangying had never encountered such a troublesome case. He continued staring down at Fang Xiu’s face, as if trying to extract answers from the person’s flesh. But in his heart, he knew that as a complete novice in the metaphysics, Fang Xiu was probably even more confused than he was.

Under Bai Shuangying’s scrutiny, Fang Xiu murmured in his sleep, “Lamb skewers… grilled cold noodles… Bai Shuangying, you should have some too…”

Bai Shuangying: “……”

He suddenly had a bizarre thought.

Li Shuo and Lin Ge always had a Mid-Autumn meal together. Fang Xiu liked to prepare food for him. Could it be that Fang Xiu really just wanted “to eat with a friend”?

This is someone who would con a ghost immortal for a bit of interest; could his wish be that simple?

Crack.

An invisible chain snapped in response. This time, eight entire chains broke at once.

Bai Shuangying: “???”

Eight chains? Eight chains…!

Shocked, Bai Shuangying nearly fell off the ceiling.

He quickly clutched his collar, counting again and again. There was no mistake; exactly eight of them.

So his previous assumptions were wrong. The key to unsealing wasn’t about “acting like a friend in Fang Xiu’s presence” or “earning Fang Xiu’s approval as a friend”.

After all, this time he hadn’t even touched Fang Xiu. Fang Xiu himself was sound asleep, clueless about any external changes.

But the root cause of the unsealing still seemed to lie in Fang Xiu somehow.

Given the momentum, Bai Shuangying tried while the iron was hot. He floated off the ceiling and reached down to pat Fang Xiu’s head. He patted gently, then firmly, several times, but no more chains snapped.

Worse yet, Fang Xiu clutched at his sleeve, hugging it tightly in his sleep. “Cold noodles…”

Bai Shuangying: “……”

Bai Shuangying tugged at his sleeve but couldn’t free it.

Then Bai Shuangying made a huge mistake. He reverted to his true form and tried to flow out of Fang Xiu’s grip. But the moment his form changed, Fang Xiu felt the shift in texture, instinctively tightening his hold and hugging him with all four limbs.

Now Bai Shuangying had become a proper body pillow, locked in Fang Xiu’s arms. Fang Xiu even absentmindedly bit a piece of his true form, nibbling lightly with his teeth, seemingly quite pleased with the “taste”.

Bai Shuangying: “……”

Isn’t this guy supposed to be a light sleeper? For a moment, Bai Shuangying considered turning back into human form.

But then he remembered those eight broken chains.

It would be better to stay as he was. He shouldn’t use force or dwell on this disrespect. Let’s just consider it a reward for unlocking more of the seal, Bai Shuangying thought with an inward sigh, ceasing his struggles.

The bed was nice and soft, Fang Xiu’s body warm. Overall, it wasn’t the worst feeling.

……

Fang Xiu slept wonderfully.

Before sleeping, he’d been thinking about heading out and had compiled a list of foods he wanted to eat. So, sure enough, he dreamed about a bustling food street.

In that dream, Fang Xiu ate to his heart’s content.

He loved glutinous rice dumplings best: they were cold and soft, with a unique texture. But no matter how he bit down, he couldn’t tear off a piece. His jaw started to feel a bit sore.

In a daze, Fang Xiu rolled over, tugging at his blanket.

Hmm, did the Underworld upgrade his bedding? The blanket was as light as goose down, silky as water, just like Bai Shuangying’s true form…

Fang Xiu: “……”

Wait, that texture was a little too similar. With trepidation he opened his eyes.

Sure enough, the thing covering him wasn’t a blanket but a certain liquified ghost.

Bai Shuangying, still in his true form, lay there in a defeated sprawl. Amid those swirling, shifting blotches of color, the single crimson mole stood out starkly.

Noticing Fang Xiu was awake, that mole inched closer, holding countless unspoken words in its silence.

Fang Xiu slowly spat out the part of the “blanket” he was biting, forced to learn the true ingredients of his “glutinous rice dumpling”.

The patch of Bai Shuangying’s body he’d been chewing on was now warm from his breath…

Luckily, Bai Shuangying didn’t immediately revert to human shape. He slowly oozed back up to the ceiling before taking on his human form.

One corner of his sleeve was crumpled and slightly damp.

Fang Xiu blushed a bit: “……”

Bai Shuangying: “……”

Fang Xiu rubbed his face, acting as though nothing had happened. “Good morning.”

Bai Shuangying: “…Mm.”

He didn’t seem inclined to pursue the matter any further. What a relief.

Then again, Bai Shuangying had been on the ceiling, out of reach, so obviously he had approached first so they were equally responsible!

Cheered by this reasoning, Fang Xiu jumped out of bed and did his usual inventory.

His jade Buddha amulet was still intact; the meal card unscathed; the small token and bagua mirror weren’t too useful and could be turned into meal card points.

He’d previously turned the Five-Emperor coins from Yan Jing into a longevity lock for Guan He with Bai Shuangying’s help. Lao Jin’s coin had been destroyed. Now the ones he carried belonged to Da Shun and Ma Zi.

Fang Xiu gave his Comrade Bai a hopeful look.

With no real emotion, Bai Shuangying explained, “The Five-Emperor coins bind themselves to their master. But since you brought them back to the Tower, you can ask the paper figure to cleanse them for you.”

“They only confuse weaker evil spirits and can only partially control them. Best used for self-defense.”

Fang Xiu jiggled the coins. “Seems like I don’t really need them.”

Might as well give them to Cheng Songyun and Guan He. At least those two had been honest in confessing their sins.

Bai Shuangying frowned slightly. “Keeping them could still be useful. Why not hold on to them?”

Fang Xiu: “Because I have you. Your stealth is pretty incredible.”

Bai Shuangying stopped frowning. “True… They’re not all that useful.”

Fang Xiu couldn’t help but chuckle. Then he took out two final items of “loot”: a small, bloodstained whistle and a Polaroid photo that might as well be a cursed object.

One was Bai Shuangying’s first gift to him, the other was a memento from their first shopping trip.

Technically, he could have used the whistle or the token to summon evil spirits when he was fooling Lao Jin, but he couldn’t bring himself to use the whistle. Bai Shuangying had personally given it to him.

In the end, Fang Xiu propped up the photo with the whistle, placing them on the little altar table near the room’s door.

Right beside that paper flower from the temple fair.

While he’d been asleep, the flower vase had been swapped from a soda bottle to a white porcelain one they’d picked out together, which really classed it up.

Fang Xiu carefully adjusted the angle of the photo. Though it looked scary on closer inspection, at a quick glance it had a certain warmth.

Nice, Fang Xiu thought.

After watching for a bit, Bai Shuangying leaned over and adjusted the paper flower a fraction, letting it tilt toward the photo.

Yes, that looked better, Bai Shuangying thought.

……

That morning, the paper figure didn’t come knocking. Around breakfast time, Fang Xiu stepped out with Bai Shuangying.

No sooner had they emerged than they saw the paper figure in the courtyard. Its entire body was creased, the paint on its face had run from crying making it look extremely fragile, as if even a slight breeze could blow it away.

Seeing Fang Xiu, the paper figure trembled and gave him a bow.

“I-I wronged you. I was the one who tampered with the Mid-Autumn ritual… sorry, so sorry.”

It seemed its boss, big sister, had punished it severely, considering its upright attitude.

Fang Xiu pondered for a few seconds, then smiled. “Your boss and I have already discussed compensation, and you’ve been punished. Since you’ve apologized, let’s call it even.”

Overjoyed, the paper figure bobbed its head frantically. “Er, I-I see now that my judgment was poor, and you truly have a kind heart!”

It had expected Fang Xiu would give it a hard time, given his cunning nature. Who would’ve thought he’d be so magnanimous? 

If Fang Xiu was willing to forgive, Lady A’Shou probably wouldn’t punish it further… thinking back on being crumpled into a ball and kicked around at dawn, the paper figure felt like crying all over again.

Fang Xiu beamed. “No need to be so formal. Anyway, about my reward for dealing with the Mid-Autumn E, is it ready?”

The paper figure straightened, leaping onto the incense burner. “The Mid-Autumn E is dispelled. The one who dispelled it shall receive extra rewards—”

“It was dispelled by Fang Xiu, and we have a substantial prize—”

That said, it ignored the other people’s reactions and returned to Fang Xiu. “Which anomaly would you like to pick? If you’re not sure, I can explain them all…”

“I want Li Shuo’s fire-starting ability,” Fang Xiu declared.

Remembering what happened with the Weishan E, the paper figure was more composed this time. “Well… please think carefully.”

“Li Shuo controlled flames expertly because of his entanglement with the Mid-Autumn E. If you take that power now, at most you’ll only be able to produce fire for light or ignition. It won’t be enough to harm evil spirits.”

Guan He had learned his lesson and kept quiet.

But Blondie couldn’t help speaking up. “Exactly, exactly. If you want to light a fire, just buy a lighter. Right?”

Having learned from the last ritual, Jia Xu didn’t openly butt heads with Fang Xiu. He turned to Mei Lan instead. “I feel that ‘imprisoning evil spirits’ or ‘forcing them to fight each other’ would be more practical than conjuring fire.”

Mei Lan quietly turned away, carrying her bowl a bit farther.

“It’s enough if I can produce a flame. I just think it’s really cool,” Fang Xiu replied with perfect seriousness.

The paper figure didn’t ask him to wait this time. Clearly, it had long prepared a thorough plan.

Its finger tapped Fang Xiu’s left arm again, leaving a crimson Li trigram symbol. Like the previous Kan trigram, it sank into Fang Xiu’s skin after a few seconds.

When bestowing the power, the paper figure explained in detail, “The Mid-Autumn E is of the fire element. All you have to do is picture a flame in your mind, and you can summon ‘ghostfire’. It can ignite from thin air and won’t go out when doused with water… but be careful… If you’re too close, you can still get burned.”

“And just like your other ability, this skill will vanish once the rituals are over.”

Fang Xiu spread out his right hand, imagining a Mid-Autumn firework.

Instantly, a tiny flame flickered in his palm. It popped in the air like a firework, scattering countless sparks of scarlet light.

“It’s pretty much what I had in mind… This is so cool.” Fang Xiu lowered his hand, satisfied.

The paper doll forced a bitter smile. “As long as you’re happy.”

“By the way, your Qiankun Pouch is in production. We’ll hand it over to you before the next ritual begins,” the paper figure added.

With everything nicely arranged, Fang Xiu didn’t have anything else to say.

The paper figure then moved back to the incense burner, announcing loudly as usual, “Congratulations to everyone! The second ritual is now over, so please rest at your leisure!”

“After breakfast, we’ll open up the treasure vault for you all. Each person may pick out one ideal magic weapon. That weapon will be fully bound to you, and no one else can steal it!”

Hearing mention of magic weapons, everyone’s spirits lifted. Fang Xiu sat down at the table, happily enjoying his meal.

Jia Xu helped himself to a bowl of shrimp wontons, sneaking glances at Fang Xiu. He noticed Fang Xiu wasn’t taking any special measures against him, as if yesterday’s unpleasantness were forgotten.

Fang Xiu was indeed shrewd enough to know it was best not to divide the team. But at the same time, Fang Xiu seemed less inclined to conceal his own capabilities, not at all letting Jia Xu take the leader’s seat.

That wouldn’t do.

Jia Xu was fully aware of how important leadership was. If he was marginalized, he’d end up as some grunt. And once he was stuck doing errands, he’d be forced onto the front lines, facing the greatest danger directly.

He’d hustled for years to get where he was and lucked into a big break, finally achieving his current social status. He couldn’t let a woman bring him down. Otherwise, his life’s efforts would be a laughingstock.

But he’d put in almost no effort in the first two rituals and still got through them safely, even receiving compensation from the Underworld.

Lady Luck was clearly on his side, Jia Xu thought.

He simply hadn’t done his best in the first two rituals. Next time, he would show his true skills and reassert himself as the team’s leader.

At another table.

“What are you thinking about?”

Bai Shuangying, having just broken eight chains, found Fang Xiu even more intriguing.

“I’m thinking that the Mid-Autumn Festival is just over, which makes it perfect timing for something.” Fang Xiu’s mouth was stuffed with flatbread, so his words were a bit muffled.

“This season is ideal for pruning. Some branches grow too crooked and will only hinder the plant’s growth.”

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The author has something to say:

Next chapter: a date!!!

No wonder it’s a three-day break; it really feels like they’ve had a long time to relax. Also, with the six-person team lasting this long, it’s about time for some casualties (……

Current Xiao Fang: My own ghost tastes so good, nom nom.

Future Xiao Fang: My own ghost tastes so good, smooch smooch.

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