Chapter 0044 Possession
I sneered and said, "Of course it worked. If it hadn't, how could I have come back?"
Wang Jiao smiled and pulled up a chair. "Why are you talking like that? Sit down, sit down. I'll get you a Coke."
I put my hand up to stop her. "No need. Sun Xicai, you're really something. You had the nerve to scheme against me?"
Wang Jiao looked confused. Sun Xicai smiled and said, "Brother Tian, why are you so angry? Coming here and taking it out on me?" Fury surged in my heart. I immediately flipped the mahjong table over. The four players quickly stood up. Sun Xicai was furious. "What are you doing? I was winning so many chips today!" A sturdy young man glared at me. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
I pointed at him. "It's none of your business. Get out of here! Don't think just because you're strong that you won't know how you died. Believe me?" The sturdy young man naturally didn't believe me. He grabbed my collar and was about to throw a punch, but Sun Xicai and Wang Jiao pulled him away. Wang Jiao used her eyes to signal the three of them to leave first. The three guys walked out sullenly. The sturdy young man turned back and glared at me fiercely before leaving. "You wait!"
After everyone left, Wang Jiao anxiously asked, "Brother, what exactly happened?"
I pointed at Sun Xicai. "Kid, you're really something. You claimed to be getting me business to solve a village problem, but secretly, you set a trap for me, making me poisoned the moment I arrived, forcing me to call for help. What if I hadn't found anyone? Would I have been trapped and suffered a slow death in that poor village for the rest of my life?"
Sun Xicai rolled his eyes. Wang Jiao asked suspiciously, "I don't understand." I explained the whole situation to her in the simplest terms. Wang Jiao immediately expressed disbelief. "Brother Tian, that's your prejudice. Xicai has many flaws, and you don't like him. But how could he do something like that? That's heartless!"
"I've always said it. Brother Tian has never liked me from the start. It's fine if you don't like me, but you keep trying to get at Jiao Jiao. You won't even spare your own cousin's wife. Are you even human?" Sun Xicai took the opportunity to lash out.
Wang Jiao was unhappy. "Brother, you've been in this business for over a year. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Do you have to take out your anger on someone every time you mess up? Forget it, let's just let this go. Nobody mention it again."
Sun Xicai sneered. "He's a big businessman, a giant in the amulet industry. Who the hell am I? I'm just a nobody everyone can step on. Am I a cockroach?"
Wang Jiao's face darkened. "Look how useless you are. People look down on you for not doing proper work, and they still look down on you when you do. You'd be better off dead!"
I didn't say anything either. I pulled out my phone, brought up the call recording, turned the volume to maximum, and started playing it.
Sun Xicai's face changed instantly upon hearing the first sentence. After the last sentence, Wang Jiao stared wide-eyed at Sun Xicai. She took my phone and replayed the recording two or three times before reluctantly putting it down. Sun Xicai was still pretending. "No, what... what is this thing?"
I smiled. "You should ask yourself. What do you think you are?"
Wang Jiao shouted, "Explain yourself! Hurry!"
Sun Xicai stammered, "I... I don't know! Where did this recording come from? Who the hell forged it?" I shook my head, smiling helplessly. Wang Jiao was panting with rage, pointing at Sun Xicai. "I'd recognize your voice even if it were burned to ashes! You explain this clearly, or we're not finished today!" Wang Jiao grabbed a nearby water glass and smashed it on the floor.
I calmly asked, "Sun Xicai, even if you were momentarily confused, you couldn't have failed to foresee the consequences. If I really hadn't found anyone to save me, I would have suffered a slow, painful death. Were you that blinded by money at the time?"
Sun Xicai remained silent for a long time, expressionless. Finally, he chuckled. "Brother Tian, I absolutely believed you could find someone to save you, really. You are my idol!" Wang Jiao was about to hit him. I grabbed Sun Xicai by the collar. "You nearly killed me, kid. How do we settle this score?"
"However you want to settle it. Why don't you just kill me?" Sun Xicai replied with a playful smile. Just as I was about to curse him, I suddenly noticed that the Five Poisons Oil necklace on my chest had turned pitch black. I was very surprised. I hadn't brought any amulets or Guman Thongs with me this time, so why would it turn black? I looked at Sun Xicai. His neck was bare. I asked cautiously, "Are you wearing an amulet?"
Sun Xicai said, "Ah, no!"
I took off the necklace and stepped back a few paces—the color lightened. I moved closer to him again—it turned pitch black. I stared at him. "You're lying to me again? Are you wearing a black magic amulet (Yin Pai)?"
"No, really!" This time, Sun Xicai's expression didn't look like a lie.
I asked again, "Anything else? Takrut, wealth-attracting tiger, any tattoos?"
Sun Xicai smiled bitterly. "I never get tattoos. Want me to strip so you can check?" He started taking off his clothes. I didn't stop him. I let him take off his T-shirt. Sure enough, there were no tattoos on his body. I held the necklace against his body. It was extremely dark in color. My brain was racing. I vaguely felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't figure it out immediately. So, I pretended my anger hadn't subsided. "Greedy bastard, learn your lesson for the future, or you'll harm yourself! I'm leaving!"
Sun Xicai put on his clothes indifferently, a strange smile on his face. I quietly winked at Wang Jiao. She said, "Brother, I'll see you out."
After leaving the amulet shop and walking about thirty meters, making sure Sun Xicai couldn't hear our conversation, I stopped. Wang Jiao said, "Brother, I'm so disappointed in him. How could he do something like that?"
I asked her, "Jiao Jiao, in the last half month or so, besides the message you left for me on QQ that day, has he shown any other anomalies?"
Wang Jiao blushed, thought for a moment, and said, "I think so. He's matured recently. Before, he was very unreliable, always noisy and failing at everything. Now, he doesn't talk as much nonsense, and he's much more composed than before. Brother, what are you trying to tell me?"
I wanted to tell her my suspicion, but I was afraid she would panic. If my guess was correct, it might put her in danger. So I sighed. "Nothing. Maybe he's gotten smarter after running the amulet business for a few months. Just keep a close eye on him in secret. If he does anything particularly strange, don't forget to tell me privately." Wang Jiao nodded repeatedly.
As I hailed a taxi, Wang Jiao suddenly stopped me and told me something. It was about two or three days after the urn incident was resolved. One morning, Wang Jiao woke up and found Sun Xicai covered in wet, dirty water marks, water grass, and mud. He smelled fishy and foul, like he had fallen into a river and crawled out, soaking the bed. She immediately woke up Sun Xicai and asked him what happened, but Sun Xicai himself couldn't explain it.
Back home, lying in bed that night, I kept thinking about the whole sequence of events. From the beginning of the urn incident until today, I felt that something didn't quite add up. Sun Xicai, despite his many faults and love for petty gain, wouldn't dare to scheme to hurt me. Yet now, he not only dared to do it but also showed no fear. Why? The Phra Ngang amulet that had already been imbued with a spirit suddenly lost its spirit, and now there was clearly a spirit within Sun Xicai. Combined with the strange incident Wang Jiao mentioned, could the ghost of the eighty-one-year-old Zheng Yonggui have truly entered Sun Xicai's body? How did it get in?
I called Frank Fang and told him the whole story from start to finish. Frank Fang said, "No wonder the Phra Ngang you gave me wasn't imbued with a spirit. So that's what happened. I'll forgive you then."
I smiled bitterly. "Brother, I'm not asking for your forgiveness; I need your help to analyze this."
Frank Fang laughed heartily. "It's obvious. He's been possessed by a ghost. That urn couldn't be gotten rid of because Sun Xicai himself brought it back every time."
"What? Why did he bring it back?" I was astonished.
Frank Fang said, "He didn't bring it back because he couldn't bear to lose it, but because he was influenced by the spirit. Only when the urn was near Sun Xicai could the spirit continue to erode his soul, eventually possessing his body and completely controlling him."
Although I was mentally prepared, I was truly unwilling to hear this conclusion. Frank Fang said, "The spirit of a man who died at the Mo Yang age is one even Arjan masters don't want to touch. It's even more formidable than a newly deceased bride!" I didn't understand. He had already lived to eighty-one; his life was fulfilled. Where did such intense resentment come from?
Frank Fang snorted. "You don't understand a thing. The Yang energy in a Mo Yang man's body has been completely exhausted. If he had continued to live, the Yang energy would have slowly started to recover. But if he dies precisely at the age of eighty-one, that ghost becomes a bottomless pit that specifically absorbs Yang energy. Anyone who gets involved cannot escape. It's stickier than flypaper."