She Makes Me Believe in Science - Chapter 21

Song Qian stood up abruptly. She wanted to reach out and grab Ji Wuxin, but when she turned her head, there was no sign of anyone else. The entire carriage was empty except for her and the old woman cradling her own head.

The old woman slowly shuffled out from the window seat, her body so extremely hunched that she was nearly folded in half. She held her head high with both arms, bringing it level with Song Qian’s gaze.

“Little girl, I’d like to borrow something from you.”

Song Qian slumped back into her seat, her fingers gripping the blue fabric of the cushion tightly. She didn’t dare answer. Over the past few days, she had picked up some knowledge about these things; sometimes, if a stranger speaks to you in a dream, you must never answer, or you might not be yourself when you wake up.

“You’re so young. How about lending this old lady twenty years of your life?” The old woman’s eyes were half-squinted and her lips curled into a smile, looking eerie and mismatched.

Borrowing life!?

Seeing the old woman approaching step by step, Song Qian closed her eyes and tried to shrink back as far as she could. “Don’t come over, don’t come over…”

Lin Qing, watching Song Qian burrow into his arms, nearly jumped out of his skin, but sitting in the corner, he was squeezed so tightly he had nowhere to retreat.

Across from them, Ji Wuxin’s gaze looked ready to swallow him alive.

“Take your hands off her!”

Lin Qing looked up, ready to burst into tears. He wanted to let go too!

“Sensen? Sensen!?” Song Fu, sitting opposite them, woke up as well. Seeing Song Qian with her eyes shut and her face covered in sweat, he couldn’t help but worry.

“Is she having a nightmare?”

Snapped awake by the words, Lin Qing immediately fished a talisman from his pocket, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into Song Qian’s mouth, tilting her chin to make her swallow it.

Maintaining this hold, Lin Qing used his free hand to unscrew a water bottle and poured a bit on the table. He slid two fingers through the water and then pressed them firmly onto the center of Song Qian’s forehead.

Song Qian gradually quieted down. Lin Qing pushed her back into her original seat and turned to rummage through his bag.

Ji Wuxin’s expression shifted as she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Song Qian huddled in Lin Qing’s old spot, sobbing softly. She was curled into a tight ball, not daring to look up.

Seeing Song Qian like this made Ji Wuxin feel terrible, especially since she hadn’t been by her side.

Just as she was about to step forward and hug her, Ji Wuxin’s gaze sharpened. She reached out, grabbed something, and slammed it down. A ball-like figure was sent crashing heavily onto the floor.

The old woman, who had been trying to escape, wailed as she hit the ground. The sound was piercing and unpleasant, like sharp nails dragging across a smooth floor, grating on the nerves.

Ji Wuxin stepped forward and stomped down hard, her tone icy and dangerous: “Were you the one scaring her just now?”

The old woman clutched her head tightly, trying to tuck it into her chest like a turtle. Ji Wuxin wasn’t about to let her have her way; the moment she tried to hide her head, Ji Wuxin grabbed both of her arms and yanked them backward. The sound of snapping bones was enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle.

“Were you the one scaring her?”

The old woman’s arms were pinned behind her in a grotesque position. For a human, those arms would be ruined, but for a ghost, it was just a matter of popping the shoulders and twisting them back. Faced with such a ruthless woman, the old woman didn’t dare try any more tricks.

“I… I just wanted to play with her a bit.”

Song Qian had looked up at some point. Hearing the old woman’s excuse, she forgot to wipe her tears and started shouting at her. She exhausted every curse word she knew before finally yelling in a rage: “She wanted to borrow my life!”

“Borrowing life?” Ji Wuxin repeated the words, looking like some profound, otherworldly master.

After pondering for a moment and confirming she had no idea what that meant, Ji Wuxin pressed her foot down even harder, gritting her teeth. “You dared to try and borrow her life?”

Since she didn’t know the specifics of “borrowing life,” she just took it at face value.

In that moment, Ji Wuxin’s image grew significantly taller in Song Qian’s heart.

“Let me go, let me go, we’re both ghosts, have a heart.” The old woman squeezed her eyes shut and managed to force out two tears.

Song Qian had been terrified; there was no way she’d let her off that easily. Just as she was about to say something, a sharp pain in her middle finger pulled her right back to reality.

Seeing Song Qian wake up, Song Fu released his grip on her finger and laughed. “There we go, she’s awake. I told you my method would work.”

Lin Qing shot a glance at the dark-faced Ji Wuxin, who was staring right back at him.

“A ghost was just let go by you two.”

Song Qian used her eyes to signal Lin Qing toward the corner where the old woman had been. There was no one there now, as if no one had ever been there at all.

Lin Qing’s expression turned solemn. He raised his right hand and began counting rapidly on his fingers, looking exactly like an old swindler fortune-teller on the street.

Song Fu seemed curious about the movement. “Can you really calculate these things?”

The young couple nearby had been watching the whole time. The boy let out a sneer. “What era is this? Still doing all this feudal superstition.”

The two girls opposite them didn’t agree. One chimed in, “You don’t have to believe it, but shouldn’t you at least be respectful?”

Hearing this, Song Fu seemed to remember something. His face instantly soured as he spoke with hidden meaning: “You really should believe in these things.”

The boy rolled his eyes at them and opened a game on his phone, muttering, “Unbelievable. I go out for a trip and run into all these old fossils. If there really is a ghost, tell her to come find me. I’ll have a nice long chat with her.”

The words were too arrogant. The girl beside him frowned and gave him a nudge.

The boy immediately changed his tone, grinning as he kissed the girl. “Don’t be scared, baby. I’ve got plenty of ‘Yang’ energy. I’ll protect you.”

Lin Qing stopped his finger calculations, his expression grave. “The ghostly aura hasn’t dissipated. She’ll be back.”

Song Qian’s voice went up a notch: “She’s coming back!?”

The ghost had targeted her the first time. If she came back and actually borrowed her life, Song Qian didn’t want to die young.

“Everyone try to stay awake. She’ll likely target the younger ones.” Lin Qing didn’t speak loudly, but the couple and the two girls heard him. The two girls silently shuffled closer together; Lin Qing’s serious demeanor made them feel they had to believe him.

It was only past eight in the evening; the night was still very long.

At Ji Wuxin’s insistence, Song Qian and Lin Qing swapped seats, so Ji Wuxin was sitting between the two girls.

“Beer, drinks, mineral water! Peanuts, seeds, congee! Come on, tuck your legs in, let me through.”

The attendant’s voice drifted closer. Song Qian browsed articles on her phone, mostly about strange occurrences people had encountered.

“You like reading these? I can tell you stories,” Ji Wuxin said, leaning on her shoulder as she watched her swipe through page after page. She had heard many stories from ghosts about when they were human—old ghosts, young ghosts, she’d heard them all, and they were much more exciting than these articles.

“No thanks, talking to myself is too weird.”

Lin Qing pulled out all sorts of strange items from his bag: drawn talismans, blank paper, a compass, a small peach-wood sword, and so on. Everyone passing by to the toilet stole a glance at him, and a few even asked curious questions.

Song Fu wasn’t in great spirits; he was clearly drowsy. If Song Qian hadn’t kept chatting with him, he probably would have fallen asleep on the table.

The night grew deeper.

The boy put away his phone, shook out his aching hand, and yawned before heading to the toilet. His girlfriend looked toward Lin Qing’s side, feeling a bit scared and wanting to call her boyfriend back, but then she wondered if she was being too superstitious. With so many people in the carriage, what could happen? Thinking this, she pulled her hand back.

Once the boy left, Song Qian saw the woman in the black trench coat again. The woman was still in the same position, her prayer beads turning rhythmically, seemingly unaffected by anything around her.

The bolder of the two girls walked over and whispered, “Master, could… could we have two talismans?”

Lin Qing let out an “ah,” a bit confused as to why she wanted his talismans; those ones were mostly useless.

The girl thought he was going to charge her and flushed slightly. “You… you can charge us if you want.”

“But…” Lin Qing wanted to say they were free.

“Those scraps of paper of his aren’t even as valuable as the ones in the toilet bin.”

In the toilet bin… weren’t those for wiping…

Lin Qing’s face turned bright red as he looked angrily toward the source of the voice. It was the woman in the black trench coat.

“If you don’t understand, don’t talk nonsense. I never said I wanted money.”

The woman slowly opened her eyes. The prayer beads in her hand stopped at the center bead, which appeared to have some cracks and wasn’t as smooth as the others.

“Understand? How many people in this trade actually understand? What counts as understanding? Junior, did your Master never teach you not to show off like this in public?”

The string of questions left Lin Qing speechless. He looked at the items laid out on the table and, blushing, packed them all away.

He admitted he was showing off a bit; he wanted that boy to know that ghosts and gods are to be feared.

Lin Qing stood up and bowed to the woman. “The Senior is right to scold me.”

The woman nodded and closed her eyes again, the beads turning once more, though this time she was muttering something under her breath.

Meeting a senior and getting scolded dampened Lin Qing’s mood.

After a while, the boy returned from the toilet. Seeing Lin Qing’s clean table, he mocked, “Oh, can’t keep up the act anymore?”

His girlfriend had witnessed everything and pulled on him, telling him to stop.

The boy didn’t speak, but he kept tsk-ing and shaking his head, curling his lip at Lin Qing in disdain.

Why bother posing? You had to pack it up in the end. Just a charlatan. And he somehow has such a pretty girlfriend.

Aside from the boy who had gone to the toilet, no one else dared to sleep. Song Fu was so tired he stood straight up for a while, like a soldier on guard, which made Song Qian laugh several times.

Each time, Ji Wuxin would grumpily block Song Qian’s view. “Is it that funny?”

“Don’t sleep.” The boy’s girlfriend saw him nodding off and looked ready to cry from fear.

“Stop it, baby, I’m exhausted.” The boy grabbed her hand to keep her still and leaned his head on her shoulder, falling into a deep sleep.

The girl looked helplessly at the woman in the black trench coat, but seeing no reaction, she turned to Lin Qing.

“Master…”

Lin Qing knew the woman was much more skilled than he was, so he didn’t dare try to be a hero and stayed put.

The two girls opposite them shrank further into their corner, leaving half their seat empty.

The carriage became exceptionally quiet. Even the previous snoring had stopped. Everyone realized something was wrong and looked at each other in terror; being scared together was better than being scared alone.

The two girls were shaking like leaves, hugging each other so tightly their eyes were squeezed shut.

The sleeping boy suddenly twitched. His grip on the girl’s hand loosened as he began flailing his arms in front of him, muttering something incoherent. The tears suddenly streaming from the corners of his eyes told everyone that his dream was far from normal.

Lin Qing hesitated, glancing at the woman.

“Do what you must. Don’t worry about me.”

Hearing this, Lin Qing immediately pulled his things out again. He slapped a freshly drawn talisman onto the boy’s chest and formed a hand seal. A small peach-wood sword hovered right in front of the talisman. Lin Qing set his compass down in a single, fluid motion.

“By the six Wu and six Ji, let evil spirits stop. By the six Geng and six Xin, let evil spirits depart. By the six Ren and six Gui, let evil spirits be destroyed!”

The boy’s body continued to twitch, but his flailing arms slowly lowered until they were crossed over his chest in a highly defensive posture.

Lin Qing frowned; the boy’s hands were blocking the talisman.

“He! He’s… he’s smiling!” Song Fu pointed at the boy and cried out.

Song Qian looked over. Sure enough, the boy had a twisted, triumphant smile on his face, as if mocking Lin Qing’s inadequacy.

In the next second, the hands guarding his chest slammed down, and the talisman was ripped away!

The boy raised his hand and opened his fingers. The crumpled talisman rolled to Lin Qing’s feet. Lin Qing’s face turned grim as he gripped his compass; that crumpled paper felt like his own pride being trampled.

“Watch and learn.”

The woman sitting nearby suddenly spoke. In one stride, she was in the aisle. Her legs were incredibly long, making Lin Qing look quite ordinary in comparison.

The woman was ruthless. She directly dislocated the hand the boy had used to rip the talisman. Song Qian suspected she did it on purpose, as the woman could have easily subdued him without breaking his arm.

She didn’t use a compass or a wooden sword. She simply pressed her string of beads against the boy’s chest and delivered a powerful punch. Then, she bent down, picked up the crumpled talisman, and unceremoniously stuffed it into the boy’s mouth.

With a sharp jerk of her hand, the boy’s head tilted back, and his throat moved.

The boy stopped moving.

“Done.”

The woman turned around, removed a pitch-black bead from her string, and handed it to Lin Qing. “Keep this safe.”

Lin Qing knew the ghost that had been trying to borrow a life was inside. He quickly tucked it away in a small box.

Song Qian saw the woman’s face clearly for the first time. She was undeniably beautiful, and her “don’t come near me” aura added an air of mystery. What curious Song Qian most was her left eye; it was entirely white, without a speck of color.

“Little girl, it’s impolite to stare like that.” The woman glanced at Song Qian and then at the hostile-looking Ji Wuxin beside her. Her lips curled slightly. “How interesting.”

“She can see me too?” Ji Wuxin was surprised. Why were there so many people who could see her lately?

Seeing how powerful the woman was and that she could see ghosts, Song Qian quickly pulled Ji Wuxin behind her, afraid the woman might think she was a ghost and try to capture her.

“Senior, how should I address you?” Lin Qing’s attitude was incredibly respectful; after that display, he knew he’d run into a true master.

The woman waved him off. “You don’t need to know who I am. If we meet again, it’ll be fate.”

As soon as the woman sat back down, the boy snapped awake. He slumped in his seat, gasping for air. He tried to wipe the sweat from his brow, but found he couldn’t lift his right arm at all; moving it caused agonizing pain, and his chest felt like it had been punched repeatedly.

“Baby! Baby!” He turned frantically to find his girlfriend.

“I! I just dreamed…”

The girl gripped his other hand, her expression complicated. “That wasn’t a dream.”

The boy’s mouth hung open. He looked at the two girls huddled together, then at the young man he had mocked, who was still holding a compass and a wooden sword. The scruffy man opposite him dodged his gaze. All the anomalies pointed to one fact—he really had encountered a ghost.

He remembered clearly how that old woman in the dream had grinned and asked to borrow his life. Her skeletal hands were incredibly strong, and he couldn’t break free. Then, for some reason, the old woman had screamed and vanished.

He swallowed hard in fear. He didn’t want to admit it, so he stubbornly pulled his hand away from his girlfriend. “It was just a dream, just a nightmare. What’s there to believe? I don’t know what you’re all so afraid of.”

The two girls opposite him rolled their eyes. How could anyone be like this? Instead of thanking people, he was still being cynical.

Lin Qing wasn’t as angry this time. He packed up his things and sat back down.

Everything returned to normal. Snoring filled the carriage once more. No one paid any attention to the boy’s occasional attempts to salvage his pride; even his girlfriend turned away, refusing to speak to him.

As dawn broke, the woman in the black trench coat and the two traveling girls got off the train. The woman casually gave the girls two prayer beads before her slender figure disappeared from sight.

Lin Qing murmured to himself, “I wonder if I’ll ever see her again. She was amazing.”

Song Qian handed him some bread. “Don’t be down. You were pretty great too.”

“Thanks.”

After a few more hours on the train, they arrived at the Weishui Town station. There were small cars for hire at the entrance that would take you right to your doorstep if you paid enough.

Since Song Qian and Song Fu were from the same village, they shared a car. They didn’t have much luggage, so they set off quickly.

The driver was a chatty middle-aged man in his forties or fifties.

“You’re heading to Weishui Village?”

“Did you hear about the big thing that happened there recently?”

“What big thing?”

“I heard a female corpse was hauled out of that sacred well in your village. After that, a bunch of people got sick for no reason. Is it true? Is that why you’re back?”