Seeing the shadow, Ning Haoyu and I yelled simultaneously, "Who's there?!"
The shadow didn't answer. Instead, it swooshed into a crouch and darted towards a corner of my little shop.
Its speed was unnaturally fast – not the kind you achieve while bent over.
Seeing it flee, Ning Haoyu and I found our courage. We both charged towards the corner. As I ran, I cursed, "Goddamn it, stealing from me? Know what this place used to be? A funeral clothing shop!"
The moment the words "funeral clothing shop" left my mouth, a sudden chill ran down my own spine.
Ning Haoyu nudged me lightly. "Were you scaring it, or me?"
Talking, we flanked the shadow, trapping it in the corner. I shone my flashlight. It was squatting there, facing the wall.
The shadow had a head of white hair and was wearing dark, indistinct cotton clothes. Wait... cotton clothes? It was summer! Could it be... funeral clothes?
The thought struck both Ning Haoyu and me simultaneously. We both involuntarily took a step back.
"Who are you?" I demanded, waving the flashlight beam shakily over the shadow.
Now that I focused, I saw, to my horror, that the flashlight beam passed through its body, illuminating the wall behind. And no shadow fell on the wall itself.
As I gaped in disbelief, the shadow moved. Its hands suddenly gripped the wall, and it began to scuttle up the surface like a gecko.
That wasn't all. Reaching the ceiling, its entire body seemed to sink into the plaster, vanishing without a trace.
Ning Haoyu and I were left standing there, dumbfounded.
Ning Haoyu swallowed hard. "Did you see that, Chu Yi?"
I swallowed too. "Saw it. I'm not blind."
We stood frozen for a moment, spines tingling with cold dread, then hurriedly retreated from the shop, locking the door securely. Ning Haoyu asked me what to do. I shook my head. "Never dealt with this before. That thing... must have been a ghost."
Before, I'd only heard Grandpa talk about ghosts and monsters. I'd never seen one myself, always assuming they were just stories. But now, I'd encountered one…
My thoughts were a jumble when Ning Haoyu nudged me again. "Hey, it went into the ceiling. Could it be upstairs? Whose room is right above your shop?"
His words hit me like a bolt. It hadn't just run away; it might have gone straight into the room above – the room of that KTV woman.
I told him this. Ning Haoyu's eyes widened. "Could something happen? What if someone dies up there? You'd never rent this place out again!"
"Pah!" I cut him off. "Don't jinx it! Come on, we're going up. Cutting off my income stream? Even if it's a ghost, I'm gonna deal with it."
Ning Haoyu tried to grab me, but I was already marching up the stairs. Seeing he couldn't stop me, he reluctantly followed.
We quickly reached the KTV woman's door. The light inside was off. Dead quiet. No sound. Had something happened?
Ning Haoyu whispered, "What now?" I thought for a moment, then knocked.
A moment later, her voice came, laced with fear: "Who is it?"
I kept my voice low. "It's me. The landlord."
Her voice relaxed slightly. "Oh, Landlord... I'm not feeling well today. That time of the month. Maybe come back another time?"
She'd misunderstood.
Ning Haoyu shot me a look. "You come here often?"
I snapped back, "Bullshit! First time! Pah pah pah! Not 'first time'! We're here to catch a ghost!"
My voice rose in urgency. The KTV woman must have heard. "Landlord? There's someone else? Did you say... ghost? Is there a ghost here?"
I quickly backtracked. "No, you misheard! We said 'thief'! Someone broke into the shop downstairs! I'm just checking if anyone up here saw anything."
Since I'd said it, I roused all the second-floor tenants. Everyone seemed fine. No one had seen the shadow. After some commotion, I announced the thief must have fled, told everyone to check for missing items, and said we'd report it tomorrow.
No one reported anything missing, so the matter was dropped.
Back downstairs, Ning Haoyu refused to sleep alone. He insisted on bunking with me. Honestly, I didn't want to be alone either. So we squeezed into Grandpa's room for the night.
Neither of us slept much. We kept thinking about the shadow. Every little noise made us jumpy. It was nearly dawn when we finally drifted into a fitful sleep.
We woke around noon.
The first thing we did was rush to the shop to see what was going on.
Inside, we found the desk – which had been clearly pulled askew last night – was now perfectly centered in the room again. Positioned almost exactly as we'd left it yesterday. As if the whole night had been a bad dream.
Ning Haoyu circled the desk twice. "What the hell?"
I shook my head. Ning Haoyu continued, "Chu Yi, look... maybe we should just burn this damn thing. It's too creepy. I don't wanna be the reason you get hurt."
I walked around the desk too. "Burning it might make things worse. That ghost seems tied to this desk. If we burn it, it might haunt us forever. The best way is to try and send it away properly."
Ning Haoyu looked at me. "You know how to do that?"
I shot him a look. "Grandpa taught me. But back then, I just treated it like stories. Didn't pay much attention. Don't know if it'll work. But before I try to send it away, there's one more thing I have to do."
Ning Haoyu asked what. I took a deep breath. "Read its fortune."
"Are you crazy? Read a ghost's fortune?" Ning Haoyu shoved me.
I gave a bitter laugh. "It's one of Grandpa's rules. He said if I ever encountered a ghost and wanted to send it away, I had to read its fortune first. Back then, I thought he was talking nonsense. Now? I feel like I'm losing my goddamn mind."
Ning Haoyu patted my shoulder sympathetically. "What did your grandpa used to do, anyway?"
I couldn't answer that. I didn't really know myself. He said he was just a fortune teller, a powerful one. But what did fortune telling have to do with ghosts?
We were still talking in the shop when a sudden thud thud thud erupted from upstairs. Someone was stomping hard on the floor.
The noise grated on my nerves. I yelled up, "Are you nuts?!"
My shout didn't stop it. The stomping intensified: THUD THUD THUD…
Now I was furious. Challenging the landlord?
Ning Haoyu and I charged back upstairs, heading straight for the KTV woman's room. The noise was definitely coming from there.
On the landing, we saw all other doors were locked. Only her door was open. Wide open. She stood in the doorway, hands gripping the frame, head hanging low, hair obscuring her face. Her feet were pounding the floor near the threshold: THUD THUD THUD.
I lunged forward, grabbing her wrist. "What are you doing? Lost your mind?"
Her skin was ice cold. The moment I pulled her hands from the doorframe, I let go.
The sudden movement stopped her stomping. But her head remained bowed. She didn't speak. Didn't move.
Ning Haoyu murmured beside me, "She's not right."
I didn't need him to tell me. So I kept my voice calm, gentle even. "Hey... miss... what's wrong..."
Before I could finish, her head snapped up.
Half her face was caked in white makeup, the other half sallow. At first glance, it looked like a yin-yang face.
Her appearance startled me so badly I almost screamed "GHOST!" right in her face.
Her eyes were terrifyingly different too. Usually, she looked at me with a smile, eyes crinkling. Now, she stared straight at me, eyes wide with pure hatred.
Worst of all, she started grinding her teeth right in front of me, as if she wanted to devour me.
In that instant, I quickly scanned her face. Her Yintang (the spot between the brows) was pitch black, thick with misfortune – the sign of dark energy invading her body. In other words, this woman was possessed.
Moreover, the Palace of Sickness and Calamity – the area between the eyes, just above the nose – was crisscrossed with fine lines. A sign of serious illness. This possession would bring her a devastating sickness.
Her eyebrows – the Palace of Longevity in physiognomy – were showing signs of thinning. This meant the coming illness would likely shorten her life, perhaps even kill her outright.
The more I saw, the more horrified I became.
Ning Haoyu pushed me. "Let's go downstairs. She's not right."
I grunted in agreement. But as I turned to leave, I spun back abruptly. With my thumb, I jabbed hard at the philtrum groove beneath her nose (the Renzhong point).
The Renzhong point is linked to consciousness, a gateway to rouse the spirit. This jab was meant to shock her true awareness awake.
This wasn't a normal jab, either. It contained a surge of energy – a breathing technique Grandpa had taught me. Though I could barely sense "Qi" myself, I put everything I had into it.
Thankfully, she was unprepared. My strike didn't fully wake her, but it stopped the frantic stomping. Her body went limp, collapsing to the floor.
Ning Haoyu gasped. "Did you knock her out?"
I cut him off. "Shut up and help me carry her inside. I need to see if Grandpa's method actually works."