They All Say I've Met a Ghost

34

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Xiao Ning stuck all the talismans he'd taken off me onto the inside of the yellow robe, then handed me the peach wood sword. With a serious expression, he said, "I'm afraid Duan Youlian has gone mad. Even Teacher Liu, a ghost with such deep magic, was taken by her. We can't underestimate her. That sword will be more effective in your hands than mine, so I'm leaving it to you. If necessary, bite through the tip of your tongue and spray a mouthful of blood into her face. It'll be enough to save your life."

He took out a bunch of little flags from his satchel, which looked to me like party decorations. He recited, reading out each flag. I counted: eight by eight, sixty-four flags.

"This is an Eight Trigram Yin Yang array, an implement that can transform Yin into Yang and trap ghosts in its array. In the past, the ancestors of the Maoshan Sect used it to deal with a powerful yaksa. It's a pity that with my skill, I can't give full play to the power of the array. " Xiao Ning looked like he was ready to go out and stake his life. His lips were even turning white.

I was quite speechless. "It's only... a student skipping class... Skipping class is normal, I skipped class when I was in my first year of undergrad. The teacher called roll that day and took ten points off my final exam. I didn't dare to skip again after that."

"Don't worry," said Xiao Ning solemnly. "Even if I'm destroyed, I won't let any harm come to you."

I really was speechless to the point of tears. Why did looking for a truant student have to be such a production?

Xiao Ning said Duan Youlian was a water ghoul. The most likely possibility was that she had returned to the place where she died, which was the river outside of H City.

H City had been established beside the river, and in the past the river really was outside the city. By now it had been fully brought into the bounds of H City. The river banks were covered with upscale residential estates, which you couldn't get into however much you wanted. We looked for a long time before we left the range of the villas. Then there were guardrails around the river, with signs saying: "Danger: deep water; swimmers will be fined 500 yuan."

"Duan Youlian may be at the bottom of the river." Xiao Ning narrowed his eyes. "If we want to find her, it may be necessary to dive in."

Then he was going to take off his clothes and jump into the river. I grabbed him and said, "No, no, don't, don't you see the sign? There's a fine. And there have been security cameras along the river for the last five years, they’ve basically achieved full coverage. I think the possibility of disposing of a body here is very small. How about you take your compass... compass of evil and search with it."

In recent years, in order to maintain a beautiful environment for the villa estates, and to strengthen sewage treatment, H City had sent people to salvage garbage from the river every day. To be honest, ten years ago it would have been possible to sink a body in the river, but ten years after... it would be pretty hard. The cleaning squad would come along and scoop it up...

In the past, it had also been common for swimmers to drown in the river. In recent years strict measures had been taken. Security guards patrolled the river every two hours. Rather than being caught and fined, it was better to go to the swimming pool.

I finally persuaded Xiao Ning not to jump into the river. He took out his compass of evil and searched all over with it. I was afraid he would only pay attention to the compass, lose his footing, and slip into the river, so I took his arm. We walked slowly along the river, blown by a gentle breeze.

After we’d walked for about half an hour, several security guards came up to us and said, "You two, we've been watching you on the security camera footage for ages. What are you doing? Swimming is forbidden here!"