Edited—

After this matter was concluded, by all rights they should have gone back.

But Lin Jue reminded them there was still one matter unresolved—the issue of opening the boxes.

The moment Shen Yiqiong heard the words “opening boxes,” he immediately expressed enthusiastic agreement. After all, if those boxes kept being sent over, they would still be caught by Lin Jue to open them. Before they left on this trip, their shixiong had repeatedly warned him, saying they must solve the problem at the root, and when they caught the person randomly sending boxes everywhere, they absolutely must not go soft.

Lin Jue took the address and phone number on the box and asked Yu He. Yu He looked at the address and said it was fake; that place no longer existed.

“I know it doesn’t exist, but there has to be some place from which the packages are sent out, right?” Lin Jue said. “Just check at the local courier company.”

“If there’s anything you need help with, just tell us directly.” Thanks to Lin Zhushui resolving the tunnel problem, Yu He was very happy and thanked them repeatedly. “Right, if you don’t mind, you can take Xiaomian along. He grew up here and is very familiar with the local customs and conditions. He might be able to help with something.”

“Sure.” Lin Jue said. “Since we’re already here, when the matter is over, let Xiaomian take us around to play.”

Yu Xiaomian smiled and said okay.

The next day they went to the address Lin Jue had copied down from the express delivery.

“The place we’re going to is actually quite famous locally.” In the car, Yu Xiaomian gave a simple introduction. “The place we’re going is called Qixinggang. There’s a local folk saying here: ‘Qixinggang has ghosts, Shangqing Temple suppresses evil.’ Qixinggang had quite a few deaths during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and became a mass burial ground. Later, after the Reform and Opening Up, development was happening everywhere, and the land there was also expropriated and expanded.”

“There’s actually this kind of saying?” Lin Jue said.

“That’s right.” Yu Xiaomian said. “They even specially built a Tibetan-style Bodhi Vajra Pagoda there specifically to ward off evil.”

He paused, then added: “But even so, the feng shui of that place is very bad. Quite a few incidents have happened. The most famous is the 711 bus incident.”

“711 bus?” Zhou Jiayu said. “What’s that?”

“711 is a bus route. At the time, a driver drove this bus route and directly plunged off a bridge at the Qixinggang area. Then the authorities also had people go look, and said it’s best not to have bus routes starting with 7.” Yu Xiaomian said, “After that, all bus routes starting with 7 here had their numbers changed.”

These things sounded quite mystical, but it was unknown whether they had any relation to the packages that had been continuously sent to them.

Lin Jue proposed going to the local logistics company first to see if they could find any clues.

Fortunately, they had the tracking number, so checking the logistics was relatively easy. They arrived at a certain branch office, holding the tracking number and wanting to check which specific branch sent it out.

Of course, the courier company people were unwilling to help them check at first. At this time, Yu Xiaomian’s home-field advantage appeared. After all, the Yu family was a major local feng shui household and had some connections with the authorities. A dozen or so minutes later, a few people came from the police station over there, greeted them, and then requested that the courier company people cooperate.

Only then did the courier company people help them check which specific branch sent the express delivery in Lin Jue’s hand.

But after checking, a new problem emerged. These express deliveries weren’t sent from the same place at all, but were scattered across several branch offices.

“Then could you trouble yourselves to help us check this phone record too?” Yu Xiaomian proposed another idea. “Isn’t this a landline? If we can find the address of this phone, we should be able to find the place sending the express delivery, right?”

This train of thought was quite reliable. A police officer from the police station called back to the bureau and checked the number Lin Jue provided.

“You’re quite familiar with official people.” Lin Jue said with a smile.

“It’s not that I’m familiar. Remember that tall guy who teamed up with me during the competition?” Yu Xiaomian said, “He’s the one from the authorities. His father is a department-level principal official here.”

“Then he still participated in the feng shui competition?” Zhou Jiayu was startled.

“His mother is from a feng shui family. Sigh, I won’t go into it. His family is especially complicated. But sometimes having him help out is quite convenient.” Yu Xiaomian laughed heartily, “He’s quite interested in these matters. I just need to buy him a drink to thank him when I have time.”

This place was somewhat far from the bustling city center. Everywhere were relatively old buildings.

This place was different from the flat north. Everywhere one could see continuous mountain ranges. The buildings in the city were also constructed on uneven terrain, thus appearing especially three-dimensional.

Today’s temperature was slightly cooler. The scorching sun was gone from the sky. Blue sky and white clouds—finally there was the feeling of crisp autumn air.

While checking the phone number, they sat in a roadside teahouse watching the people coming and going on the street. When it was time for meals, the street was permeated with the unique aroma of hot pot. Yu Xiaomian proposed finding a place to eat first, waiting for news while eating.

Of course, to avoid discomfort in a certain area, they ultimately chose an ordinary home-style restaurant. Although during this time Yu Xiaomian strongly recommended a local “jianghu cuisine” restaurant, Lin Jue still tactfully refused.

“But it’s really delicious.” Yu Xiaomian said, “They also have non-spicy dishes there.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What dishes aren’t spicy?”

Yu Xiaomian said, “Tomato and egg soup.”

Shen Yiqiong excitedly retorted upon hearing this: “You’re lying. The tomato and egg soup I ate the day before yesterday clearly had green peppers in it.”

Yu Xiaomian: “…That boss wasn’t authentic.”

But in the end, the outnumbered Yu Xiaomian still compromised and had an extremely bland home-style meal with them. The heaviest-flavored dish in this meal was a plate of red-braised pork. After eating, Yu Xiaomian wilted by more than half.

Before they even finished eating, the police station called them, saying they had found the landline’s address.

Yu Xiaomian noted down the address and discovered this place was quite close to them, seeming to be in a rather remote alley nearby. It would take just over ten minutes to get there.

“When I find this person, I definitely have to beat him up.” Shen Yiqiong said.

“What if you can’t beat him?” Zhou Jiayu took a sip of soup.

“If I can’t beat him, don’t I still have my son?” Shen Yiqiong reached into Zhou Jiayu’s pocket and touched Xiao Zhi hiding inside.

After eating, the few of them quickly rushed to the address Yu Xiaomian mentioned.

The place where the address was located was full of old-style architecture. Every city has places like this—dilapidated, dirty and messy, completely incompatible with the glamorous side of the city.

“It should be around here.” Yu Xiaomian said holding the address, “I’ll go ask a passerby.” He went into a small shop and asked the proprietress inside about the address.

“Why are you going there?” The proprietress spoke in pure dialect. When she saw the address in Yu Xiaomian’s hand, her expression was a bit unnatural.

“This is a relative’s address.” Yu Xiaomian lied. “Previously he gave me the address and told me to come play, but I never had time. Now I’ve finally squeezed out some time to come over.”

Hearing these words, the proprietress looked Yu Xiaomian up and down with full suspicion.

Yu Xiaomian put on an especially sincere expression. One had to admit, appearance was truly quite deceptive. Yu Xiaomian had delicate and fair features; no matter how you looked at him he didn’t seem like a bad person. Instead, he looked like an inexperienced student, making people wonder if he was the one being deceived.

“This is really your relative?” The proprietress said, “But his mind isn’t very good. People around him aren’t willing to approach him. All day long he’s muttering mystical nonsense. He can curse at a rock for half a day. If you’re going to find him, I advise you to be careful. Nowadays, crazy people killing people isn’t illegal.”

They hadn’t expected this kind of situation. Yu Xiaomian thanked her without showing anything on his face, saying he would go check out the situation first.

The proprietress was quite enthusiastic too, saying some more about this person—how he currently lived alone, often rummaged through the garbage heap next door, and sometimes at night you could even hear him crying and shouting.

Yu Xiaomian had pretty much gathered the information. He bought a few popsicles to support the proprietress’s business, then came out of the small shop and relayed what he knew.

“Good thing you came along.” Lin Jue said with a face full of sighs. “I could only understand half of what the proprietress said.”

“Hahaha.” Yu Xiaomian said, “The people here are quite enthusiastic, but language is truly something that can’t be helped. Are we going directly over?”

As he spoke, he distributed the popsicles to Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong. Lin Jue helped Lin Zhushui refuse, saying he didn’t eat popsicles, and that both of hers were fine.

After eating two bites of popsicle, Lin Jue said, “Then let’s go directly over.”

Anyway, Lin Zhushui was here now. Even if that person had some problems, it was impossible for any major disturbance to occur.

But speaking of which, ever since returning from the tunnel yesterday, Lin Zhushui hadn’t spoken much. His expression was especially cold, clearly in a bad mood.

As for why he was in a bad mood, Lin Jue glanced at Zhou Jiayu beside her happily munching on a popsicle, and didn’t know what she should say.

That person lived in a bungalow nearby. The surrounding environment was extremely poor. Not far from the house was a stinking ditch emitting a foul odor. From far away one could smell that nauseating scent.

This bungalow also looked quite dilapidated. The walls were covered with moss and mud spots. It was the kind of building where one look at the outside would make you absolutely not want to go in.

Before knocking on the door, Lin Jue looked inside through the window. The window was closed and the curtains were drawn, but she could see some of the interior situation through the gaps.

“He doesn’t seem to be here.” Lin Jue was a bit worried there was no one in the house.

“Let’s knock first and see.” Who knew if the matter of opening boxes had left too great a shadow on Shen Yiqiong—his courage had also grown. He proactively proposed knocking on the door.

“Mm.” Lin Jue indicated for him to go.

Shen Yiqiong walked to the door and knocked three times with a dong dong dong, shouting, “Anyone there?”

No one responded. The house was completely silent, as if no one was answering.

“Anyone there?” Shen Yiqiong paused for a moment and increased the force of his hand. As a result, whether it was because his strength was too great or the wooden door before them was truly too poor in quality, after just a dozen or so knocks, everyone heard a creak sound. This wooden door actually couldn’t bear the burden and fell down.

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Shen Yiqiong looked at his hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: “I didn’t use too much force, I just knocked a few times…”

Lin Jue looked at his right hand and said with deep meaning: “As expected of someone who has been single for over a dozen years.”

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Lin Zhushui: “…”

Her single sentence directly caused the three of them to be hit by friendly fire. Only Yu Xiaomian laughed heartily.

Since they had already reached the door and the door was open, not going in to take a look seemed inexcusable no matter what. So after a brief discussion, Lin Jue decided to go in and look.

This house looked quite dilapidated from the outside. Coupled with the proprietress’s description from the small shop earlier, Zhou Jiayu had originally thought the inside of the house wouldn’t be very clean either. He hadn’t expected that after coming in, he would discover the house was very tidy, looking like it was frequently cleaned.

“Anyone there?” Shen Yiqiong, who had knocked the door panel off, was the most guilty one. He called out, “We’re coming in!”

No one. It seemed the owner of the house had gone out.

After entering the house, Lin Jue didn’t rummage around everywhere either. Instead, she went straight for the phone, picked it up, and dialed her own mobile phone. Her mobile phone rang, and the screen displayed a number—the one left on the express delivery.

“It’s him! Found him!” Lin Jue said.

“Finally found this bastard.” Shen Yiqiong rolled up his sleeves. “Are we waiting here for him to come back?”

Lin Jue said, “Mm… You first prop the door panel back up. Otherwise, if that person sees the door has fallen when he comes back, he won’t dare come in.”

Shen Yiqiong nodded and went to the doorway.

They each found a place to sit in the house, waiting for the owner to return. Zhou Jiayu observed the situation in the house. This was a very ordinary room—ordinary decorations, ordinary furnishings. He couldn’t see anything full of违和感. On the dining table near the wall was even a plastic bottle with a few bundles of vibrant wildflowers stuck inside, adding a few splashes of bright color to the room.

If he hadn’t known what the owner of the house had done, Zhou Jiayu probably would have thought this person was full of love for life.

After waiting for about half an hour, hurried footsteps came from outside, accompanied by a young man’s low roar: “Stop following me, aren’t you annoying? I’ve already helped you do it—did you hear me or not—” He seemed to be chased by something. Rushing to the door, he directly pushed hard.

With a bang, the wooden door that was originally leaning against the doorframe fell to the ground in response. The people inside the house and the person outside the house stared at each other.

“Who are you? What do you want breaking into a private residence?” The man’s face showed panic. From his appearance, he looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He wore a washed-faded T-shirt and jeans. His hair was somewhat long, covering his eyes, but his overall temperament didn’t look gloomy.

Lin Jue said, “Shen Yiqiong, go!”

Shen Yiqiong let out an ao and pounced out, grabbing the man’s arm: “Since you’re here, don’t think about running!”

Man: “…” The panic on his face became even more obvious.

Lin Jue said, “Drag him in!”

Shen Yiqiong forcibly dragged the man into the house.

Watching this scene, Zhou Jiayu suddenly felt that Shen Yiqiong was especially like a dog—a dark-skinned one that especially liked to frolic around.

The man’s body was somewhat thin; he actually wasn’t a match for Shen Yiqiong and was forcibly dragged into the house by him. Looking at this roomful of uninvited guests, his face turned pale with fright: “I don’t know anything. Don’t look for me!”

Lin Jue said, “We haven’t even asked you anything yet, and you already don’t know anything?”

The man stopped talking.

Lin Jue casually placed several express delivery slips she had collected on the table: “Did you send these?”

The moment the man saw the express delivery slips, his face changed. He mumbled a few sentences, but spoke too quietly for them to hear clearly.

“Speak up.” Lin Jue slapped the table. “You have the guts to send us these strange things, but no guts to admit it. Do you know how badly we were scared?”

Hearing Lin Jue’s words, Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong’s expressions both twisted slightly. In their hearts they thought, Shibo, you weren’t saying this when you were opening boxes a few days ago. Those boxes brought you so much joy—touch your conscience and think about it…

“It really wasn’t me who sent them.” The man spoke louder this time, his face full of grief. “I don’t even know what’s inside them.”

“If it wasn’t you who sent them, why is your home phone number left on them?” Lin Jue pointed at the landline. “I’ve already confirmed this phone is exactly the same as the one on the express delivery slip. Explain?”

The man opened his mouth, and finally squeezed out a sentence: “They forced me—”

“Forced you?” Shen Yiqiong said unhappily. “Who would force you to send express deliveries? The courier company?”

Man: “…”

Zhou Jiayu held back his laughter from the side.

“They forced you?” Hearing this, Lin Jue didn’t continue speaking harshly either. Instead, she showed a thoughtful expression: “Who forced you?”

The man’s eyes began to wander. He muttered, “Even if I told you, you definitely wouldn’t believe me.”

Lin Jue said, “What a joke. You haven’t even said it yet, so how do you know we won’t believe you?”

“Fine.” The man suddenly gained courage, and his voice also grew louder. He said, “It was the few jars outside that forced me to send them to you!!”

Everyone: “…”

“Jars?” Zhou Jiayu didn’t quite understand what the man meant. “What do you mean jars forced you to send them to me?”

“Just jars, water jars.” The man said.

No one spoke. Clearly they were all thinking about what this “jar forcing” meant…

In the end, it was still Lin Zhushui who opened his mouth and said: “Let’s go take a look first.”

“Looking is a waste of time.” The man seemed to see that they had no intention of laying hands on him, and his voice also grew louder. “You guys can’t see them anyway.”

“How do you know we can’t see them.” Lin Jue said.

The man considered for a moment: “We can go over, but you have to promise me one request first.”

He hadn’t expected that before the matter was even settled, he would have the guts to make a request. Hearing this, Shen Yiqiong started rolling up his sleeves again. The man hurriedly said: “My request is that you at least have to install my door panel back up. Otherwise, after everyone leaves, what if my house gets robbed?”

Shen Yiqiong had his sleeves rolled up halfway. Hearing this, he deflated like a punctured rubber ball and looked pitifully at Lin Jue.

Lin Jue had a face full of helplessness: “…Otherwise, you and Yu Xiaomian stay here and wait for someone to come repair the door. We’ll go with him to take a look?”

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

So in the end, things were decided just like this. Two people, one black and one white, were left in the house. Yu Xiaomian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, making a phone call to have someone come repair the door panel.

The man, on the other hand, led the three of them to see the jars he spoke of every day that forced him to send express deliveries.

This matter sounded too fantastical. Fortunately, Zhou Jiayu was no longer the naive civil servant he once was, so his mood was still relatively calm.

The man led them winding around small paths for about a dozen or so minutes, arriving at a small plaza.

At this time, there were still some nearby residents in the plaza. When these residents saw the man, they all showed disgust. The man didn’t mind, seemingly accustomed to this kind of treatment. He walked forward a few steps and pointed at several cylindrical objects on the plaza: “Look, the jars are there.”

Zhou Jiayu raised his eyes and looked. Indeed, he saw seven jar-like objects standing on the plaza. These things were scattered across the plaza in the shape of the Big Dipper. The jar mouths were all sealed, but Zhou Jiayu could still see faint purple aura lingering above them.

“I don’t know if you guys can see them or not.” The man said this, walked to the side of one jar, and then forcefully knocked on the jar mouth, saying, “Come out, people have come looking for you!”

No one responded.

His reaction was too much like a lunatic. The people around all detoured around him, their eyes carrying panic mixed with disgust.

The man didn’t care at all. Instead, he lowered his head and continued shouting at the jar, “Did you hear me? Hurry up and come out—otherwise I won’t send express deliveries for you anymore.”

Zhou Jiayu was thinking about who exactly he was talking to when he saw something like a snake crawling out from where purple aura filled the jar mouth. No, that wasn’t a snake. It was a small dragon.

With deer antlers on its head and five claws beneath its feet, a small golden dragon actually crawled out of the jar.

Zhou Jiayu was directly stunned silly. Lin Jue and Lin Zhushui beside him, however, didn’t show much change in expression. Seeing Zhou Jiayu’s especially strange expression, Lin Jue said, “Guan’er, you can see it?”

Zhou Jiayu nodded: “I saw a small dragon.”

Lin Jue said, “Oh, I can’t see it too clearly. I probably need a formation to enhance my vision to see it. But there are too many people here; it’s not suitable.”

“You can see it too?” Hearing what Zhou Jiayu said, the man showed an expression of wild joy, “I said I’m not crazy, but they insist I’m crazy!!”

Speaking to this point, Zhou Jiayu also understood. Presumably the young man before him also had talent in this area. It was just that his luck was comparatively bad—he hadn’t encountered a suitable guide, and was instead treated by the people around him as a lunatic who talked to himself. Previously, the small shop proprietress had said he talked to rocks every day, muttering mystical nonsense. It was probably because of this.

“I saw it.” Zhou Jiayu saw that small golden dragon lying on the jar, its eyes continuously glancing at Lin Jue. He said, “Then why did he send these things to us?”

“How would I know.” The man said, “I asked it, but it refused to say. Sigh, the express delivery fees were my hard-earned money from selling scrap…”

Zhou Jiayu had no choice but to ask the small dragon. He first greeted it, saying, “Hello.”

The small dragon glanced at him, arrogantly raised its chin, and gave a hmph.

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

“What is it?” Lin Jue couldn’t see or hear and was baffled.

Zhou Jiayu said, “It’s nothing…” He showed a helpless expression and then said: “Little dragon, why did you send these things to us?”

The small dragon had a face full of disdain: “I didn’t send them to you at all.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Huh?”

The small dragon said, “Hmph, ask her yourself. What good thing did she do? Does it still need me to say?” Although its tone was unkind, those beautiful golden eyes were staring fixedly at Lin Jue.

Zhou Jiayu could only turn his head to look at his shibo.

Lin Jue felt a bit guilty being looked at: “Guan’er, why are you looking at me?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Shibo, why don’t you think about whether you did something bad here before…”

Lin Jue let out a dry cough, her expression a bit awkward: “I’ve done too many bad things. I can’t quite remember clearly.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu happily licked his popsicle.

Lin Zhushui fell into contemplation upon seeing this.

That night, after a long night, when Zhou Jiayu got up the next day, his mouth was swollen…