9
That evening, Hoàng Kiều Kiều invited a group of Taoist priests over.
They were dressed in proper robes, each carrying all sorts of ritual implements.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều lifted her chin arrogantly. “Whoever gets rid of the ghost for me will get a million.”
Lý Diễm chimed in. “I’ll add another five hundred thousand!”
At that, the Taoist priests’ eyes lit up.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều pointed at me. “She’s the one who summoned the ghost.”
I slowly took a sip of my rice milk coffee and gave the Taoist priests a casual glance.
One of them came over and looked me up and down with disdain. “I hear Miss Kiều Kiều says you’re a ghost merchant? What a joke!”
“Ghost merchants vanished a hundred years ago! For a woman to practice this trade, she’d need an abundance of yin energy and powerful spiritual energy. Looking at you, you’re just an ordinary girl. You’re more likely using some evil magic to hurt people!” He scoffed, his face full of mockery.
I found that amusing. Taking another sip of coffee, I said coolly, “Can you see the ghost covering your eyes?”
The Taoist priest’s expression changed at once. “Nonsense!”
But a moment later, panic spread across his face. “Why can’t I see anything? Why is it so dark? I can’t see a thing!”
He frantically pulled out all sorts of yellow talismans and scattered them everywhere without a second thought.
But he had no idea that the ghost was sitting on his neck, grinning hideously as it covered his eyes.
By now, all the Taoist priests were in a panic. The dorm room window, which had been open, suddenly slammed shut. The temperature in the room plummeted, and everyone’s breath came out in white clouds.
Those half-baked Taoist priests frantically whipped out their ritual implements and swung them around wildly, but never hit a thing.
I calmly munched on sunflower seeds, looking thoroughly entertained.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm clung to each other in terror, their faces ashen.
A woman’s mournful wails echoed through the room, again and again.
Suddenly, Lý Diễm let out a bloodcurdling scream.
She was yanked into the air as if someone had grabbed her hair and pulled hard.
Lý Diễm sobbed and begged the Taoist priests to save her.
But the ghost had covered their eyes, and all they could do was spin around in circles.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều stared at the scene, frozen with fear.
“Kiều Kiều, help me!”
She shrieked, but Hoàng Kiều Kiều had already fled to a corner of the room, too afraid to come near.
The force pulling Lý Diễm by the hair grew stronger and stronger, leaving her suspended in midair.
Lý Diễm’s panicked gaze finally landed on me, calmly eating sunflower seeds.
As if she’d found a lifeline, she cried, “Tô Nhân! I was wrong! Help me!”
I calmly spat out a sunflower seed shell and looked at the ghost gripping her hair. It was a female ghost with a deathly pale, ashen face.
In an instant, I recognized her. She was the woman whose photo I’d seen on the school forum.
I’d heard that Lý Diễm had suspected the girl of trying to seduce her boyfriend, so she’d deliberately made life difficult for her at every turn. She’d even killed the girl’s family dog, cooked it into dog-meat soup, and brought it to her to eat. And that wasn’t all. Lý Diễm had maliciously altered photos and spread rumors that the girl was a prostitute. In the end, the girl couldn’t take the pressure. Her mind broke, and she hanged herself.
Seeing Lý Diễm’s pleading gaze, I said calmly, “When a vengeful ghost comes for you, the living should stay out of it.”
“If you’d sincerely admitted your wrongdoing before, I might have been able to save your lives. But now, every grievance has its source and every debt its debtor. The protective flames on your bodies have been extinguished, and the wronged spirits who once dared not come near have returned to claim your lives.”
“Help me, you bitch! Save me!” Lý Diễm seemed not to understand what I was saying. Instead, she cursed me viciously.
I sighed and shook my head. Just then, the window flew open. An invisible force yanked Lý Diễm’s body, leaving half of her dangling outside.
She screamed in panic, “Kiều Kiều! Kiều Kiều, help me!”
10
Hoàng Kiều Kiều huddled in the corner, trembling like a leaf, too afraid to step forward.
Less than a minute later, Lý Diễm was violently dragged out the window.
I heard a dull thud from the courtyard below.
I went to the window and looked down. Lý Diễm’s body lay motionless in a pool of blood. Her posture was grotesquely twisted, and her eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets.
Witnessing Lý Diễm’s horrific death, Hoàng Kiều Kiều was so terrified she wet herself. Only then did she truly believe what I’d said.
Her gaze darted to the Taoist priests, who were still spinning in circles with the ghost covering their eyes. Her face pale, she crawled over to me.
“I know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have taken things from your stall without asking. Please save me!”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều clung to my leg, tears and snot streaming down her face.
I looked at her coldly, unmoved.
“I’ll give you as much money as you want! When I called you a filthy pauper, it was because I was jealous of you!”
“I was jealous that you got better grades than me and were prettier than me…”
“I was even jealous that all the boys at school liked you!”
“I really know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have bullied you. Please save me! I don’t want to die…”
“I’ll change. I’ll be a good person…”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều burst into heartbroken sobs.
I frowned and let out a soft sigh. As much as I disliked her, she was still a human life.
I noticed the two flames on her shoulders had been extinguished. Countless ghastly pale faces had appeared around her, their ferocious eyes fixed on the last flame between her eyebrows.
I said, “If you truly want to make amends, I’ll tell you what to do. From now on, you must apologize to everyone you’ve bullied and make things right with them.”
“And at exactly midnight tonight, prepare offerings ten times over and place them at a crossroads to atone to those wronged spirits.”
At that, Hoàng Kiều Kiều nodded vigorously, like a chicken pecking at grain.
“I agree! As long as I survive, I’ll do anything!”
I continued, “But first, you must be free of any outstanding grievances or debts. Otherwise, I can’t save you either.”
A hint of unease flashed in Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s eyes, but she quickly nodded.
After the Taoist priests left, the dorm settled back into silence.
Perhaps Hoàng Kiều Kiều was truly frightened, because she did as I said, apologizing one by one and promising to make amends to everyone she had bullied.
None of the people Hoàng Kiều Kiều had bullied accepted her apology. After all, the things she had done were truly too awful.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều managed to hold out until midnight, then went to the crossroads outside the school gate as I had instructed. I followed behind her. The night was eerily quiet.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều prepared ten times the offerings I had told her to bring.
“This… should be enough, right?”
She asked, trembling.
I looked straight into her eyes.
“Are you sure you’re not carrying any unresolved debts to the dead, like they are?”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều hurriedly nodded. “I only liked bullying people a little, but I’ve never killed anyone!”
Seeing how firmly she insisted, I forced open the Gates of Hell.
As soon as the Gates of Hell opened, countless chilly white figures appeared. The offerings on the ground dwindled at an astonishing rate as a horde of ghosts fought over them.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều couldn’t see the ghosts, but she could see the offerings gradually disappearing.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Tô Nhân, they’ve forgiven me, right?”
I shook my head and pointed at her back.
Several children with horrifying faces clung to Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s back. Their shrill cries rang out.
“Are you sure you aren’t carrying any unresolved debts to the dead?”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s face stiffened.
I realized the flame between her eyebrows had gone out.
Right after that, the children broke into strange smiles. They opened their mouths, revealing sharp teeth, and tore into the flesh on Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s body.
She couldn’t see anything and could only scream in terror. “Tô Nhân! Something’s biting me!”
11
A bloody chunk of flesh was torn from Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s leg. The pain nearly made her pass out.
“Tô Nhân! You liar! Didn’t you say they’d forgiven me?”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều glared at me with hatred.
I replied coldly, “They may have forgiven you, but you lied to me.”
“You’re carrying more than one unresolved debt to the dead.”
“You probably killed all these children.”
“They’ve come back to take your life!”
At the bloody sight before me, I couldn’t help turning away.
At first, Hoàng Kiều Kiều could still curse at me, but her voice gradually weakened. In the end, not a sound could be heard.
When I turned back, Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s eyes were wide open, and not a patch of skin or flesh remained intact on her body. The ground was covered in blood and scraps of flesh—a horrifying sight.
The children were suddenly enveloped in golden light, then crawled, satisfied, into the Gates of Hell.
The gates slowly closed and disappeared from sight.
I sighed, shook my head, and headed back to school.
Three days later.
I finally learned where the children had come from.
The police had found the skeletons of three infants in the garden of Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s home.
It turned out that, afraid the children her stepmother gave birth to would take her place in her father’s heart, Hoàng Kiều Kiều had secretly killed them.
Taking advantage of her stepmother’s distraction, she deliberately pushed one of the children into a pack of feral dogs.
She drowned the other two children.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều had never let anyone tend the garden before. Even her father had never imagined his daughter could be so cruel.
The police discovered what had happened because her stepmother heard children crying in the garden and called them.
Afterward, Lý Khả and I were moved to a new dorm. Our new roommates were very friendly, and we all got along well.
I was also busy preparing goods for my next deal.
After all, I had to maintain my reputation in the world below, didn’t I?
—THE END—