Mr. Vương had once had a lover—not his current wife—back when he was still working as a laborer at a construction site.
Near the site was a little eatery, and the owner often brought meals to the workers.
There weren’t many women at construction sites, and it was easy to understand how a bunch of young men full of energy might get up to something.
But the woman who owned the place was already married.
The two of them carried on in secret so often that her husband eventually found out.
He came to the site to confront them. After a few rounds of arguing, things turned into a fight. Vương was still young then and had the strength that came from working at the site every day. He broke the husband’s leg.
After that, Vương ran away. Back then, construction workers were paid by the day, in cash as soon as the work was done, and no one had to register their real names.
So no one could track Vương down.
At the time, he wasn’t worried in the least. He just moved to another construction site and carried on working.
Nearly a year later, somehow the eatery’s owner found Old Vương and brought a child with her.
It was a little girl. She said, “I gave birth to your child. If you’re going to raise her, you can take care of it yourself.”
At this point, Old Vương even pretended to wipe his eyes.
“Would you quit rubbing them? Your eyelids will swell up. Keep talking.”
Old Vương cleared his throat and continued.
At first, he’d planned to raise the child, but people would gossip about a man raising a little girl, and it wouldn’t be convenient, either.
On top of that, the girl had a congenital condition and couldn’t open her eyes.
He’d asked around at the hospital. Medicine wouldn’t help; she’d need surgery, and the operation would cost tens of thousands. Old Vương didn’t have that kind of money.
“What happened next?”
“Then… then I abandoned the baby.”
“What? You abandoned her?”
“I… I had no other choice. There really was nothing I could do back then. I could barely take care of myself, and I had an elderly, sick mother at home. How could I possibly raise a child? A child born with a disability would only suffer, so it would’ve been better to…”
My fist clenched tighter. I wanted to punch the bastard to death right there.
“Damn it, where did you leave her?”
“Well…”
“Bang!”
Linh Nhi kicked open the bedroom door and stormed out. “You’re a piece of trash! You abandoned your own child!”
Old Vương hadn’t known there was anyone else in my home. “Th-this… Great Master, do you have a guest? Well, I have something to take care of, so I won’t bother you any longer. I’ll come by another day, and we can talk about this some more.”
I didn’t stop Old Vương. With someone else there, he definitely wouldn’t say anything more. It looked like I’d have to pay him another visit soon.
Linh Nhi clenched her little fists, wanting to rush over and beat Old Vương up, but she stood there for a long time and still couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Linh Nhi was an abandoned child, too.
Maybe Old Vương’s words had hurt her.
I watched Old Vương’s retreating figure and saw black smoke rising from his back. If it wasn’t dealt with soon, his family was likely to meet with disaster.
“That bastard. Serves him right if he has bad luck!” Linh Nhi was still pouting angrily.
“Evil deeds bring retribution. This fat Vương has no children, and it must be because of the abandoned child’s ghost. Now it’s not just a matter of him being childless—even his life is in danger.”
“Then why are you helping him?”
“I have to. I’m a Daoist priest of Mao Shan. I can’t just let a ghost child kill someone.”
“A ghost child? But the person clinging to his back was a woman.”
7.
A woman?
Why couldn’t I see her? All I could see was black smoke on Old Vương’s back, so I thought it was a ghost child.
And how could Linh Nhi see her?
“You… you’re sure?”
“I’m sure. When that fat man left, the woman even turned around and looked at me. I… I was so scared. If I hadn’t been scared, I probably would’ve hit him.”
That fat old man was hiding something from me again, wasn’t he?
I looked into Linh Nhi’s eyes. It couldn’t be. I couldn’t see through that black smoke—so how could Linh Nhi see the woman?
Could this girl be pretending to be weak to fool me? Was her cultivation even higher than mine? No way!
She was just a beggar who’d lived behind the mountain. My master had taken her in at the temple because he felt sorry for her. I’d never seen him teach her a single Daoist art since I joined the sect.
Innate Spiritual Eyes, also known as innate spirit sight!
There was only one explanation. Linh Nhi had lived on Mao Shan, a place where there were no demons, so we’d never discovered her special ability.
Innate spirit sight was similar to yin-yang eyes, but more advanced.
Yin-yang eyes could only see demons, while innate spirit sight could see through all illusions.
It made sense. Ordinary people could only see wavelengths of light between 390 and 780 nanometers, while innate spirit sight could perceive a much wider range.
No one knew exactly how wide. Once I’d dealt with the matter at hand, I could study Linh Nhi’s eyes more closely and write a paper to see if I could get it published in an SCI journal.
There was another theory that the range of innate spirit sight could be adjusted. Normally, it could be set to the same range as ordinary human vision. When needed, that range could be expanded—a state called “spiritual sight.”
That idea was pretty far-fetched; no one had ever proven it.
Maybe only someone with both innate spirit sight and high cultivation could do it.
Anyway, I’d found a treasure. I could take Linh Nhi along when I went ghost hunting from now on. Those demons wouldn’t stand a chance of getting away.
I didn’t tell Linh Nhi she had innate spirit sight, partly because I was afraid she’d panic, and partly because it would be hard to explain. To help her understand the concept, I’d probably have to start with high school biology.
After a lot of coaxing, I finally brought Linh Nhi to Old Vương’s house. It hadn’t mattered before, when I didn’t know, but now that I knew she had special eyes, I had to bring her along.
Old Vương looked puzzled when he saw me bring Linh Nhi again.
“Don’t worry. Linh Nhi’s family. She’s… she’s my little sister…”
“Your little sister?”
“My little sister!”
“No, no, sorry. Daoist priests can have little sisters?” Old Vương asked, bewildered.
“You think I was born a Daoist priest?”
Once he was sure Linh Nhi wouldn’t reveal his secret, Old Vương began telling me about his past again.
After that, his life gradually improved. He seized a few important opportunities and became successful.
He bought a big house so his mother could live comfortably.
A few years later, his mother’s health began to decline. Someone had told her to go burn incense on Mao Shan, and to his surprise, her health improved considerably.
Influenced by his mother, Old Vương came to believe in feng shui, too.
Once his career had settled down, he married his current wife, but they never had any children.
“Great Master, after what you told me the other day, I really think that child from back then may have come back to take revenge on me. Please, Great Master, help me get rid of it.”
“Have you… offended any women over the years?”
“Women? No, no. After what happened, I wouldn’t dare fool around again. The only woman I can think of offending is the woman who owned that shop back then. But I gave her some money last year to keep quiet, because I was worried it might hurt the company. There haven’t been any other women.”
Judging by Old Vương’s expression, it didn’t seem like he was lying this time. Then why was there a woman on his back?
“Take a look behind him. Is it still that same woman?” I whispered in Linh Nhi’s ear.
Linh Nhi walked around behind Old Vương and nodded to me.
Old Vương looked around, visibly uncomfortable with Linh Nhi staring at him.
“Great Master, I’m really telling the truth this time. I’m not lying about a single thing.”
Just then, an older woman brought us a plate of fruit and a plate of pastries.
“Linh Nhi, take a look at her.”
I looked at the woman. Nothing seemed unusual, but that didn’t mean Linh Nhi wouldn’t see something.
“Is there anything wrong?”
“Yes. There’s black smoke above her head, but it’s very, very faint.”
I knew it. The woman didn’t look suspicious, but Linh Nhi could still see it.
I looked at the woman again. Hm?
Then I looked back at Linh Nhi. Hmm, maybe I’d imagined it.
Old Vương kept blinking. The way we were whispering must have made it look as if we were plotting to swindle him.
“Your mother’s been in pretty good health lately, hasn’t she?”
Old Vương stared at me. “Yes, she’s been very well lately.”
“What about your father?”
“My mother said he died not long after I was born. She hardly ever talks about him, and I don’t know how he died.”
We searched all over Old Vương’s house but didn’t find anything seriously wrong. After saying our goodbyes, I told him to wait for my news.
“How did you know that woman was Fat Vương’s mother?” Linh Nhi asked curiously.
“In the Daoist tradition, there’s a technique called qi-reading. Besides revealing someone’s recent fortunes, it can also show the connections between blood relatives.”
“Will you teach me?”
“Sure. Start with advanced math first.”
“No, no. I don’t want to learn anymore.”
“Hahaha…”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to teach Linh Nhi. This technique was just very difficult to learn; you couldn’t master it in a moment.
Just then, my phone rang. It was Lâm Nam. What did he want with me?