Chapter 48: Spirit of the House

"What a hero!"

Lu Chunying peered out again, staring at Li Banfeng for a long time, feeling the young man before her was incredibly imposing.

"Benefactor, please take care!" Xiao Yeci turned, hugged Lu Chunying, and quickly left the backyard, heading for the main gate.

Fighting a house spirit inside a house repairer's house? This person must be crazy!

Xiao Yeci led her daughter Lu Chunying out of the backyard. Upon reaching the front gate, Xiao Yeci looked back and couldn't help but sigh.

Lu Chunying said, slightly mockingly, "Stop looking. You're not attractive enough; a great hero like him wouldn't be interested in you!"

Xiao Yeci frowned, "Don't talk nonsense! You're so disrespectful!"

Lu Chunying snorted, "What do you mean, 'disrespectful'? Do you really think you're my mother? When we meet the Lu family, I'm going to tell them everything!"

Xiao Yeci gritted her teeth, "You dare! If you dare to say anything, we'll starve together, sleep on the streets together, and be sold to a brothel together. We'll see who cries then!"

Lu Chunying frowned, "If you want to pretend to be my mother, then change the way you talk. My mother never added those sounds to her speech."

"What sounds are you talking about? I told you not to talk nonsense!"

As they spoke, the two exited the residence and entered a stretch of woods.

Lu Chunying gently tugged on Xiao Yeci, whispering, "I remember this was a village when we came here. How did it turn into a forest?"

Rustling, whooshing sounds filled the air. Gusts of cold wind swept through, and the branches and leaves in the forest swayed, rustling continuously.

Xiao Yeci also grew tense, embracing Lu Chunying, "Something's not right. Let's go back inside the house first!"

The moment the mother and daughter turned around, the original residence had vanished. Around them was an endless forest.

"Where are we?" Lu Chunying clutched Xiao Yeci's arm tighter.

Xiao Yeci looked around, her expression calm, "This must be the house spirit's doing. We're probably still inside the house and can't get out for now."

"What do we do then?" Lu Chunying gripped her even tighter.

"Don't worry, I'll reason with it first. No matter its origin, as long as it understands reason, it should let us go!"

Xiao Yeci's expression was resolute. Standing behind her, Lu Chunying's fear lessened considerably.

Xiao Yeci began to reason with the house spirit: "Friend, I don't know where you came from, but the owner of this house is dead. You should also consider where you ought to go. The owner of this house committed too many heinous deeds. You were her accomplice. If the judge catches you and sends you to the underworld, you'll also be punished! I've read about it in books; I've seen the judgments from the Office of Punishment for Evil, and I've seen all sorts of torture instruments in the underworld. I've witnessed the suffering of ghosts there. Perhaps before, you were coerced by her, and your actions were beyond your control. But now she's dead, so why are you still committing such heinous acts? Friend, let us go. That would both absolve you of some sin and accumulate some merit. Why wouldn't you do it?"

The cold wind gradually subsided, and the branches and leaves in the forest were no longer so agitated. Xiao Yeci's reasoning seemed to have an effect.

Their journey so far had indeed been full of peril. This "mother" who wasn't her real mother had experienced complaints, quarrels, and many rifts with Lu Chunying. Yet, in every moment of danger, Xiao Yeci never hesitated to stand in front of Lu Chunying. Lu Chunying believed she was the most reliable person in the world.

"Come on, follow Mom!" Guided by instinct, Xiao Yeci walked straight ahead, with Lu Chunying following closely beside her.

They had barely taken two steps when a willow branch, with lightning speed, cracked against both Xiao Yeci's and Lu Chunying's faces.

Xiao Yeci covered her face, clenching her teeth to keep from crying. Lu Chunying was younger; she couldn't hold back, and tears fell.

Xiao Yeci took out a handkerchief, wiped the bloodstains from Lu Chunying's face, and said tenderly, "Don't cry, sweetie. I didn't get the direction right just now. We should have gone left. Come! Stay close to Mom!"

Each of their faces bore a bloodstain as they turned left in the forest, braving the night wind.

After walking about ten meters, a willow branch struck them again, once more hitting their faces. Xiao Yeci shed tears, and Lu Chunying began to cry out loud. Now, their faces didn't just have one bloodstain, but two. The two bloodstains formed an 'X'.

"Mommy might have made a mistake. Let's go right instead. Come! Stay close to Mom!" Xiao Yeci firmly grasped Lu Chunying's hand.

"Mom, you go ahead first. I'll just follow behind you." Lu Chunying pulled her hand away from Xiao Yeci. She retracted her earlier thought. Xiao Yeci was completely unreliable.

***

Li Banfeng entered the old woman's room, examining every furnishing inside. There was a bed, a table, two chairs, and a wardrobe. The furnishings were simple. Li Banfeng scanned each item one by one, guessing which one might be the house spirit.

On the table was an old clock, completely devoid of any spiritual essence; clearly not the house spirit. Next to the old clock was a teapot that seemed quite spiritual. Could this be the house spirit? Beside the teapot was a sewing box. The spools of thread were neatly arranged, and the needles on the spools were also neatly inserted. It seemed to have the air of a house spirit. Next to the sewing box was a rolling pin, with flour evenly coated on it. It also showed traces of spiritual energy!

Which one was the house spirit after all? Li Banfeng felt quite conflicted. *I am a house repairer; there must be some mutual resonance between me and a house spirit.*

Dong!

The old clock chimed once. Li Banfeng glanced at the clock face. It was nine-thirty. This type of traditional old clock chimed once on the half-hour and chimed the corresponding number of times on the hour. For example, at nine o'clock, it would chime nine times. But at nine-thirty, it would only chime once!

That single chime just now interrupted Li Banfeng's train of thought in searching for the house spirit, which annoyed him greatly. He glared at the old clock and continued scanning the other objects in the room.

Finally, his gaze settled on a feather duster. He felt this feather duster had the most spiritual essence. Firstly, its color was quite vibrant; secondly, its feathers were very soft. Li Banfeng picked up the feather duster, preparing to use his house repairer's talent for a deep communication, when suddenly the old clock chimed, *Dong, dong, dong...* ten times in a row, and the sound was extremely loud, completely drawing Li Banfeng's attention.

Ten chimes? Li Banfeng looked at the clock face; the hour and minute hands pointed to ten o'clock. It was just nine-thirty a moment ago, and now it had instantly turned ten o'clock? Could it be... this old clock was broken? Just now, Li Banfeng had been thinking that his portable residence lacked a timekeeping device, and whether he should move this old clock there. Given this situation, this clock was unusable.

Li Banfeng communicated with the feather duster for a while but found that it gave no response. Next to the feather duster lay an iron mooncake box. The paint on the box was severely peeling, showing its age, yet it was spotlessly clean. House spirits love cleanliness, so could it be in this box?

Li Banfeng forcefully lifted the lid, only to find a stack of old, yellowed newspapers inside, appearing as if they could crumble at any moment. A house spirit couldn't possibly reside in newspapers, could it? Li Banfeng picked up a newspaper. Before he could even open it, this time, he truly felt a sensation. He felt as if the text on the newspaper was touching him. The tiny, fly-head-sized characters seemed to transform into worms, trying to burrow into Li Banfeng's fingertips.

It's really in the newspaper?

Click! Clack!

The pendulum's sound grew increasingly clear and bright, each swing directly tugging at his heartstrings. Li Banfeng put down the newspaper and looked at the golden pendulum. Illuminated by candlelight, the pendulum reflected faint images. Initially, the images were blurry, but after a while, they gradually became clear. Li Banfeng felt as if he was watching an old, sepia-toned film on the pendulum.

A beautiful woman in a cheongsam was drawing her eyebrows in front of a mirror. A man appeared behind her, took the eyebrow pencil from her hand, and gently stroked her eyebrows, stroke by stroke. After the eyebrows, he drew her lips. After the lips, he bit her lips. After biting her lips, he could bite something else. The two faced each other, biting each other for a long time, then the man moved behind the woman. The pendulum swung *click-clack*, becoming loud and crisp. The man had been holding the woman's shoulders, and during their struggle, his left arm encircled her neck, his right hand locking his left. His face pressed against hers, and he used his left shoulder to press against the back of her head, forcing her head forward.

A rear naked choke! This wasn't a playful choke. This was an eye-gouging choke!

Li Banfeng was still analyzing the technical difficulty of the move, but the woman in the image stopped moving. She was choked to death. The man withdrew, got dressed, and quickly vanished from the scene. The woman's corpse remained in the room. The image seemed still, but light and shadow shifted. Dawn and dusk, day and night alternated. The woman's corpse slowly decayed, covered in maggots. Until one day, her corpse was discovered and moved away from the center of the scene. Many people came and went, of unknown origin. They emptied everything in the scene, including numerous pieces of jewelry and large sums of cash. Only when the scene was completely empty did this story seem to end.

But what did this story signify? Why did this old clock show me this story? As he pondered, Li Banfeng realized the story wasn't over!

In the empty room, a woman appeared – the woman who had died earlier. The woman was doing her makeup, smiling as she did so. Inside the house, the woman who had been strangled reappeared. She was doing her makeup. There was no mirror in the room, so she was doing her makeup facing Li Banfeng. Her charming smile made Li Banfeng feel a strange sense of familiarity. This must be the house spirit, right?

The woman suddenly vanished. A man appeared in the scene. Although his attire had changed, Li Banfeng still recognized him: he was the woman's killer. He seemed to be searching for something, carefully feeling along the floor until he found a hidden compartment and retrieved a knife from it. Li Banfeng recognized this knife; it was the old woman's cherished short blade, now tucked into his belt. The man was very excited; this was the knife he had been looking for. He lightly brushed his finger over the blade, but unexpectedly, the hilt vibrated violently, slipping from his grasp. The short blade floated, suspended in front of the man. The man was utterly terrified, supporting himself with his hands as he rapidly crawled backward. He crawled too slowly. The short blade shot towards the man, slicing across his throat, and blood gushed out. The man clutched his throat, struggling desperately. His appearance was very similar to the woman's struggle in her final moments.

The woman's figure slowly reappeared in the scene. She continued doing her makeup with a charming smile. She ignored the man struggling on the ground. Her eyes remained fixed on Li Banfeng, with a gaze that held a slightly sweet, yet chilling coldness.

*Just do your makeup. Why are you always looking at me? Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor. It wasn't me who killed you!*

Li Banfeng wanted to shift his gaze, but then saw the woman put down her comb, pick up something that looked like a key, and extend it towards him. What is she doing? Is she going to attack? If this woman was the house spirit, did he have to defeat her to subdue her?

Li Banfeng was on high alert, but then he saw the woman open a glass cover and slowly turn the key. Li Banfeng looked closely for a long time and realized it wasn't a key in the traditional sense; it was a winding key for the old clock. The woman wasn't doing her makeup facing Li Banfeng; she was doing it facing the clock. The woman's room hadn't been emptied; one thing had remained: this old clock. Li Banfeng hadn't watched this film from a spectator's viewpoint; he had witnessed everything from the clock's perspective.

The woman drew her eyebrows, applied lipstick, then lifted her head, parted her red lips, and softly asked: "Am I beautiful?"

This was the first time Li Banfeng heard the woman's voice. Was she asking the clock, or was she asking me? The woman's eyes were full of eager expectation. Li Banfeng pondered for a moment, then replied, "Beautiful."

The woman smiled, clearly satisfied with the answer. Next, she asked another question: "Do you know my name?"

Li Banfeng thought for a moment, then looked down at the iron mooncake box. He took an old newspaper from the mooncake box. On the second page of this newspaper was a news article. Every word on the article was constantly trembling. The headline of that news article read: "Famous Courtesan Luo Yuni Dies Horribly in Her Residence."

The woman asked again, "Do you know my name?"

Li Banfeng nodded, "I think so."

"Look at me, keep looking at me, and speak my name. Then I will be yours." The woman's smile became even sweeter.