Just as I was finishing my essay, I caught sight of a bulky shadow out of the corner of my eye. It crawled slowly into the exam room next door. An unnaturally long neck, a grotesquely thick waist. And a foul stench. The smell spread over here with the damp air from the rain.
But everyone could only smell the stink. No one could see anything.
I looked up…
And there was nothing there anymore.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the exam.
The test-takers filed out of the exam rooms.
Someone grumbled irritably, “Did the drain just clog? Why does it stink so bad?”
But just then, they noticed the nearby restroom had been cordoned off.
Two proctors stood in front of the door, their faces pale.
“The toilet’s clogged. Use another one.”
One of the exam officials spotted me and immediately looked as if he’d found a lifeline. “Classmate An! Come take a look!”
As it turned out…
In the middle of the exam, Zhang Yan had suddenly developed severe stomach cramps.
Unable to hold it in, he asked to leave.
But when he got to the restroom…
He couldn’t go.
They were getting ready to take him to the hospital, but just then, Zhang Yan collapsed onto the floor and strained out something.
Something small, wrinkled, purplish, hairy… and with eyes.
Its little round eyes rolled around.
The proctor thought it was a cheating device Zhang Yan had smuggled in.
But right after that… the thing drawled, “Daddy…”
The next second…
Zhang Yan “gave birth” to another one.
He writhed in agony, “giving birth” to nine of them in total.
The nine children were all joined by umbilical cords, and gradually…
They merged into a nine-headed monster.
Their necks weren’t human—they were snake bodies, grotesquely joined together.
But the horror didn’t end there. Water began seeping back up from inside the drain.
The stench was overwhelming.
From within, a deathly pale hand slowly reached out.
The sight nearly made the proctor faint on the spot. He wanted to run, but his legs had rooted themselves to the floor; he couldn’t lift them.
He could only stare as something soft, rank, and slick as an octopus squeezed its way out of the drain.
And that thing…
Was Huo Weiwei.
Zhang Yan shook violently. His tongue seemed to be pulled tight, and he couldn’t get a word out.
The pen he’d brought to the exam fell to the floor.
Huo Weiwei was still struggling to get out, her lower body trapped in the pipe.
When she saw the pen fall, she ordered her “children” to pick it up.
The nine-headed children rolled together like a lump of meat…
Their misshapen, filthy bodies rolled and crawled forward, reaching out with arms and legs.
The vernix on their heads dropped all over the floor.
Their wrinkled faces all wore twisted smiles that made one’s hair stand on end.
One hand fought with another. Vernix dripped down, sticking to the pen.
All nine mouths cried out at once, “We got it!”
Just then, Huo Weiwei finally crawled out of the drain.
She smirked. “What are you standing there for? Tell Daddy to finish his exam! When he’s done, he can take us home!”
Zhang Yan trembled all over, his lips pale. He couldn’t speak.
Huo Weiwei went on, “Didn’t you say… you loved me most? That you didn’t care about my background? That as long as you had me, you’d have everything you needed? You also said… as long as I gave birth to a son, everything would be fine?”
“Look! I’ve given you nine sons! Is that enough?”
“Weiwei…”
Zhang Yan couldn’t get the words out. He was so frightened he wet himself, and the stench of urine filled the air.
“I was wrong… I was wrong… I’m sorry! I really did want to marry you! But you know what my family is like…”
“My mother would never agree… I had no choice…”
Huo Weiwei took a step forward.
“Do you know how much trouble I went through to come see you? There were talismans and wards all around that place. I couldn’t get out. The only way was to crawl up from below.”
“From the place I hated most. From the place where I died.”
“Did you not even want to hold me… just once?”
Zhang Yan fell back onto the floor and screamed in terror, “Don’t come any closer! Stay back!”
Huo Weiwei laughed when she heard that. Her laughter grew louder and louder. Her eyes brimmed with despair and rage.
“You wanted me? You’ve got me. You wanted sons? I gave you sons!”
“Well? Are you going to go back on your word now?”
Zhang Yan stammered, frantic with fear. “Spare me!”
“Spare me! I’ll give you as much money as you want!”
Huo Weiwei glared at him and shouted, “Who wants your money? Do you think I really cared about your money?”
“If it weren’t for the way you treated me… how could I have fallen in love with you?”
“I never thought… you were nothing but a liar!”
The more she spoke, the more agitated she became.
She reached out, grabbed the lump of flesh with nine heads, and tore it in two.
She hurled one half at Zhang Yan, who was nearly unconscious by then.
The other half, she cradled in her arms and slowly crawled back down into the drain.
And so.
Zhang Yan was frightened to death on the spot.
At the moment of his death, the clock read exactly 10:59.
That grotesque lump of flesh stayed pressed against him until his very last breath.
The protective talisman around his neck. The warding paper figure on his chest. All of them… turned to ash.
A deception.
It had all… been fake.
By the time I went in, there was nothing I could do to save him.
His breathing was faint.
He could still see me, his eyes filled with pleading and regret. But he couldn’t speak anymore.
I shook my head.
The false look of pity on his face turned to despair in an instant.
The next moment, he stopped breathing. His eyes were wide open, and he died with them still staring.
I pulled the hairpin from my hair and made a cut across my palm. Blood ran down, and I quickly drew a talisman with it.
I walked over and gently closed his eyes.
At once, half the baleful energy dissipated.
He… could no longer become a ghost and cause trouble.
One day later.
Huo Weiwei and the remaining half of her child disappeared into the drain.
Three days later.
My exams were over.
A distant relative—a cousin I hadn’t spoken to in a long time—called me.
“Do you remember Hu Xin, the man who used to live next door to you? He suddenly came back two days ago. As soon as he got home, he knelt outside your gate and demanded to see the family patriarch.”
The family patriarch refused to see him. He only told him to go home and follow the instructions I’d given him before: “Wear a mirror over your face for seven days straight, then spend forty-nine days recuperating at a temple. After that, abstain from meat for three years.”
As it turned out…
He only wore itthe mirror for two days.
He’d just sold his daughter for money. Even though he hadn’t received any bride price, the money he’d brought home was far more than that.
Everyone knew he’d come into money. Pretty young women competed to flatter him, and before long, their sweet talk had gone to his head.
That night, wanting to be alone with them… he took off the mirror.
In the middle of the night, while he was fast asleep, he suddenly felt something cold and wet drip onto his face.
At first, he thought the ceiling was leaking and reflexively opened his eyes.
But this time, his eyes flew wide open and wouldn’t close again.
The woman sleeping beside him only heard him scream Huo Weiwei’s name and mutter something about “not wanting grandchildren.”
I turned to look at the daffodil that had once been drenched in Huo Weiwei’s ghostly blood.
Now…
A stunning white flower had blossomed there.
It wasn’t a night-blooming daffodil. This flower would never wither.
Huo Weiwei’s corpse hadn’t simply turned into baleful energy. It had truly been possessed by it, with only her seven po still remaining.
Gradually, she would lose consciousness, become a soulless corpse, and finally vanish as her flesh rotted away.
But Huo Weiwei was different.
She was still conscious.
She could even control the wronged spirits of unborn children.
That night, at the funeral home…
Just as she was about to turn into an evil spirit, I’d warned them: “Put the body in the cold room. Don’t turn it over for seven double-hours. And don’t let it see the moonlight.”
But someone had gone against every one of my instructions. I couldn’t think of anyone else who would have done it.
Because in the end, Huo Weiwei’s corpse appeared right at the Zhang family’s home…
Crawling out of the upstairs bathroom.
Zhang Yan’s mother went mad on the spot. She cursed and screamed at the air: “Give me back my son! Give me back my son!”
As for Mr. Zhang, his stroke had left him almost completely unable to move.
He grew more and more irritable, spending all day taking his anger out on the nurses and housekeepers.
Before long, the new caregiver had been driven away by his scolding, too.
Then the housekeeper noticed something eerie: Zhang Yan’s mother’s belly had begun to swell… as if she were pregnant.
Sometimes she hugged her belly and cried; other times, she hugged it and laughed.
“I shouldn’t have been so cruel… I shouldn’t have killed you with my own hands… I was wrong…”
From that day on…
The sound of children crying could always be heard in the room.
They whimpered, “Grandma… Let us be born… We’re your own grandchildren…”
When I arrived at the Zhang family’s home, the moment I saw the villa in front of me, a chill ran down my spine.
This place had once had superb feng shui: “A low embankment in front and a hillock behind, bringing virtue.”
In other words, you had to climb a high step before entering the house, symbolizing the ancestors’ blessings protecting their descendants.
But now…
The front steps had been remodeled into a raised platform, so you had to walk down from it to enter the house.
Two square ponds had been added on either side.
And in the middle…
A dog was tied up.
Wasn’t this a textbook coffin-pit weeping-sha formation?
Did the feng shui designer have some deep grudge against the Zhang family?
I looked inside the villa…
Baleful energy surged out in waves.
The rich scent of flowers couldn’t mask the smell of corpses inside.
I hadn’t even had time to ring the doorbell when someone suddenly called my name from behind.
I turned around… It was that man surnamed Lü.
He smiled casually.
Today, he wore ordinary clothes, his hair neatly combed, which made him look even more like a young scholar.
He wore two earrings, and his hair was a different color now, too.
“Master An, I’ve heard so much about you.” He watched my reaction closely.
“Only recognized me now?” I said with a cold laugh.
This man… had pretended not to know me from the start. He’d deliberately acted arrogant and isolated me. Then he’d gone out of his way to move in next door to me.
All of it…
Had been part of his plan.
“Who hasn’t heard of the An Thanh Linh family? I apologize for my earlier discourtesy.”
He slowly looked at the villa in front of him. “But, Master An, karmic debts must eventually be repaid. The Zhang family’s ancestors committed too many sins, and their descendants failed to cultivate virtue. This is the price they have to pay. Staying here was their choice, too.”
He stepped aside to let me pass. “But whether you want to subdue them, and how you choose to do it… that’s entirely up to you, Master An.”
Then he smiled faintly and asked, “Aren’t you going to ask my name?”
His face was handsome, with a touch of youthful nonchalance.
“Unfortunately… neither I nor anyone else is fated to stay together for more than nine years.”
I replied coldly, “No need.”
He sighed, pretending to be hurt. “How sad. I’m Lü Loan. Loan, as in the Loan River. Water nourishes wood.”
Lü Loan… The man who called himself the “orthodox master” of feng shui.
He specialized in punishing those who seized dragon veins and violated the secrets of Heaven.
I never expected… he’d be so young.
After he left, I reached out and rang the villa’s doorbell.
From inside, a soft voice drifted out: “Good little one… There, there. Let Grandma eat a little more… Hurry and be born for Grandma, okay?”
Right after that came Huo Weiwei’s hoarse, mechanical voice: “Mom, Dad… Dinner’s ready.”
Zhang Yan’s father snapped, “What kind of cooking is this? You haven’t even turned on the stove!”
Huo Weiwei replied indifferently, “Then turn it on.”
“BOOM!!!”
A huge explosion tore through the air. Every pane of glass shattered instantly. Flames erupted, engulfing the entire villa.
After the fire, the qi in this place would be completely transformed.
Everything would begin again.
A place with superb feng shui would emerge.
It was just that I didn’t know who would move here next…
—THE END—