She Makes Me Believe in Science - Chapter 23

Song Qian had intended to ask Ji Jiusheng about the jade after dinner, but halfway through the meal, a middle-aged man suddenly came running into the house, shouting.

“Auntie Song! Auntie Song! Come out quickly, something terrible has happened!”

The middle-aged man seemed surprised to see so many people upon entering. He froze for a second, then anxiously bypassed Lin Qing to reach Song Qian’s grandmother.

“Auntie Song! Xiuhe drank poison!”

“What!?” Grandma Song dropped her chopsticks, seeing that he was drenched in sweat and clearly wasn’t lying. “She was just chatting with me yesterday, and she seemed fine.”

“I know! This morning she was even sewing a shirt for me, saying mine was too ragged and that she was going to the market to buy a new one. Who knew she’d come back with a bottle of pesticide and drink it!” The man’s lips trembled, and he looked ready to burst into tears.

“Then why did you run to my place!?” Grandma Song glared at him and said urgently, “Get her to a hospital, fast!”

The man glanced uneasily at the young strangers in the room and whispered, “You know how things are in the village right now. Showing up at the hospital would attract too much attention.”

“And…”

The man hesitated, looking back and forth. Grandma Song, who had no patience for people who beat around the bush, set her bowl down and scolded, “And what!? She’s your wife! There are no outsiders here.”

Grandma Song had lived in Weishui Village for so long that she had essentially watched everyone in the man’s generation grow up. Admonished, the man stomped his foot and blurted out, “And Xiuhe said she saw her!”

“When I got back, I caught her just as she drank the poison. I forced her to drink a ton of water, and thankfully she vomited it all up. Once she cleared her head, she grabbed me and started crying, saying she saw her!”

Grandma Song’s face turned grim. She whispered, “Again… she’s back again…”

“She?” Lin Qing seemed to catch a hint of something.

Grandma Song and the man looked at Lin Qing simultaneously, their eyes filled with varying degrees of the same guarded suspicion.

Startled into silence, Lin Qing lowered his head and focused on his rice bowl.

“Little Taoist, why are you so scared?” Ji Wuxin glanced at the newcomer. The man had a very long scar on his left hand, and to her eyes, the surface of that scar was wrapped in a layer of cold, pitch-black ghostly energy.

“You aren’t wrong, this man is carrying an extremely heavy ghostly aura.”

Song Qian could hear her. She had a vague impression of this man; he was called Wang Dachuan. He used to be a troublemaker in his youth, but he’d settled down after getting married.

“Grandma.”

“What is it, Sensen?”

“On the way here, we heard…” Song Qian glanced at the pale-faced Wang Dachuan before continuing, “A body was hauled out of the village well, a woman. Could the ‘her’ Aunt Xiuhe mentioned be the one from the…”

“No! It wasn’t!” Wang Dachuan suddenly shouted, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Song Qian. “That’s all just nonsense from outsiders!”

Slam!

Grandma Song was fiercely protective of her own. She wasn’t about to let him yell at Song Qian like that, so she slammed her hand on the table. “Dachuan!”

“Auntie Song…” Wang Dachuan’s knees buckled, and he knelt right there, grabbing the hem of Grandma Song’s trousers while weeping bitterly. “I beg you, please save me and Xiuhe.”

Grandma Song tried to pull him up, looking troubled. “I don’t understand those things. What use is begging me?”

Wang Dachuan looked up, then suddenly turned to Song Qian. “You! You know! Back when Sensen… mmmph!”

The moment Wang Dachuan mentioned Song Qian, everyone at the table looked over. Even Ji Wuxin grew interested and stopped yawning; there was a story here.

Grandma Song had shoved a mantou into Wang Dachuan’s mouth, cutting his words off completely.

Lin Qing hesitantly reached out to interrupt them. “Where is your wife now? Perhaps… I could take a look.”

Grandma Song glared at him, signaling for him to sit back down. “Children shouldn’t talk nonsense!”

Although she didn’t particularly like this boy who had suddenly appeared, this matter was far from simple. Why should a mere youngster get involved?

Lin Qing quickly pulled talismans and a peach-wood sword from his satchel to prove himself. “I… I understand these things!”

Grandma Song was slightly shocked. She stole a glance at Ji Jiusheng. Song Qian had brought back someone who understood the occult; it seemed the plan from back then might have actually worked. The two elders shared a knowing smile.

“It’s true, Grandma. My friend really does know a lot about this.”

“Really! You understand!?” The man let go of Grandma Song’s trousers and scrambled up to grab Lin Qing’s hand.

Of everyone at the table, only Ji Shixing was confused from start to finish. She had a rough idea of what was happening, but she didn’t dare confirm her suspicions.

Later, as the group headed toward Wang Dachuan’s house, Ji Shixing sidled up to Song Qian and whispered, “Were you guys… just talking about… ghosts?”

Song Qian could tell she was terrified, and a bit of mischief rose in her heart. A faint smile played on her lips, and she drawled her words out, “That’s right”

“And, she’s right beside you right now”

“Ah!” Ji Shixing jumped in fright, grabbing Song Qian’s arm and leaning her entire weight on her.

Song Qian: Dammit, this backfired.

“Hey, let go of me. If you’re so scared, go home. Why did you even follow us?”

Ji Shixing shook her head frantically. “No, no, no! I’m not letting go!”

Song Qian rolled her eyes, trying to pull her arm away but failing.

As she was pushing Ji Shixing’s head away to make her let go, Song Qian caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of her eye.

…Crap. She forgot that ghost was still right there.

Ji Wuxin had just been analyzing the strength of this particular ghost with Lin Qing, only to turn around and see Song Qian flirting and tangling with another woman!

“Don’t look at me like that. What can I do if she won’t let go?” Song Qian saw that Lin Qing and the others had already entered Wang Dachuan’s house. With only her and Ji Shixing left outside, she didn’t bother hiding her speech when talking to Ji Wuxin.

Ji Shixing could tell the sentence obviously wasn’t meant for her. She asked in a trembling voice, “Who… who are you talking to?”

Can she talk to ghosts…

The moment the thought surfaced, Ji Shixing felt someone yanking on her arm with immense force. She thought it was Song Qian, but when she looked down, Song Qian wasn’t even touching her; both of her hands were hanging at her sides.

“Aaaaaahhh!!!” A ghost!!!

If Ji Shixing’s hair were any shorter, it would have stood straight up. She screamed and bolted in the opposite direction. Who cared about this place? She was never coming back!

Ji Wuxin patted her hands, satisfied with her victory, and gave a cold snort before glaring at Song Qian.

Facing that murderous gaze, Song Qian walked into the house with her head held high.

Ji Wuxin’s eyes went even wider. What’s her deal!? Not even a single word!?

Upon entering, Song Qian realized half the village was already there. Wang Dachuan’s wife, Xiuhe, was leaning back in a chair. Her eyes and lips were turning black, and her mental state was clearly deteriorating.

“What a sin! How many is this now!”

“I know. If this keeps up, can people even live in this village?”

“If you ask me, we should rebuild the Lady’s Temple. Everything was fine and peaceful before, but ever since the temple was torn down, all sorts of trouble has started! The Lady is punishing us!”

Song Qian looked at the white-bearded old man who had spoken last. He leaned on his cane, shaking his head incessantly.

“What Lady’s Temple? Total feudal superstition,” Ji Wuxin remarked, propping up her chin. She turned only to find Song Qian looking at her with a complicated expression.

“What is it?”

Song Qian really wanted to say, Aren’t you the best possible example of a ‘feudal superstition’? On second thought, with so many people around, she kept quiet.

Lin Qing knelt in front of Xiuhe, pricked her middle finger to draw a drop of blood, and smeared it across her lower lip.

“What’s he doing?”

“No idea. I heard this kid has some psychic abilities.”

“So young? Is he reliable?”

“Who knows? With Xiuhe like this, who else can Wang Dachuan find? The village spirit medium already said she won’t touch anything involving our village.”

The villagers discussed the matter loudly. Song Qian frowned as she listened. When she was little, she’d heard of a very skilled fortune teller in town—some called her a spirit medium. Why wouldn’t she take cases from Weishui Village?

“Get over here!”

A low, sharp scolding reached Song Qian’s ears. She looked up to see Song Fu, who had returned with her, covered in bruises and being dragged along by a middle-aged woman.

Did he get beaten up? The woman dragging him was likely his mother.

The two didn’t notice Song Qian; they just squeezed to the edge of the crowd to watch Lin Qing’s movements.

Song Fu’s mother watched the scene anxiously, then hit Song Fu with a look of disappointment. “If he really is capable, we’ll beg him for help! If it weren’t for your idiocy, would your father have broken his leg!? Would you have been scammed out of over a hundred thousand yuan!?”

A hundred thousand yuan was no small sum for a young man. Song Qian had guessed Song Fu was having a rough time lately, but she hadn’t realized he was in this much trouble.

It seemed Song Fu’s mother had heard about Lin Qing and came to see if he was the real deal, hoping to clear away Song Fu’s bad luck.

“Whoa!”

“The blood is black!”

The crowd suddenly let out a gasp. Song Qian snapped back to attention and saw Lin Qing standing aside with his peach-wood sword. The talisman in his hand had mostly burned away. Xiuhe was kneeling on the floor, vomiting up mouthfuls of black blood that looked like ink, filled with thick, viscous debris.

The blood reeked so badly that most people were driven out of the room. Wang Dachuan, who was guarding Xiuhe, turned pale and began to dry heave.

Once Xiuhe had finished purging the black blood, she slumped weakly on the floor, though her complexion looked much better than before.

“The pesticide and the ghostly energy have been purged. She’ll be fine after resting for half a month,” Lin Qing said as he packed his things. “Also, stop eating offerings.”

“Offerings?” Xiuhe searched her memory, clutching her chest and shaking her head. “I never ate anything like that.”

Offerings weren’t meant for the living; why would anyone eat them?

Lin Qing glanced at the contents of the black blood but said nothing more.

Watching his reaction, Xiuhe suddenly turned to the still-heaving Wang Dachuan. “Wang Dachuan! you old scoundrel! The things you brought back that day… were those offerings!?”

Wang Dachuan hadn’t expected to be caught like this. He tugged on Xiuhe’s sleeve and whispered, “There are so many people here.”

Grown men cared about their dignity, and although everyone knew he was henpecked, he wasn’t happy about being yelled at so openly.

“So what if there are people here!? You fed me offerings and now you’re afraid people will find out!?” Xiuhe had a fiery temper; she stood up and slapped Wang Dachuan right then and there.

The onlookers winced at the sight and were disgusted by the black blood on the floor. With only a few people left in the room, Grandma Song walked to the door and told the crowd outside, “Everything’s fine, you can all go now.”

She slammed the door shut. After a few moments of grumbling, the noise outside faded away.

Thud!

With the door closed, Song Fu’s mother dragged him down to kneel directly in front of Lin Qing.

“Master! I beg you, save our family!”

Song Fu struggled, trying to stand up; he had never knelt before someone his own age.

His mother slapped him, sending his head snapping to the side. “You dare move!?”

“Please, stand up. There’s no need to kneel to me. Just tell me what’s wrong; if I can help, I will!” Lin Qing felt a headache coming on. Why did people start kneeling the moment something went wrong?

Reassured, Song Fu’s mother pulled him up.

“Master, our family’s Guardian Spirit… has vanished.”