Edited—

The black shadows on the ceiling looked somewhat blurry, but one could still make out humanoid shapes. Zhou Jiayu immediately said, “Shibo, there are things on the ceiling coming this way—”

Lin Jue instantly took out talisman papers and casually handed one to each person, telling them to put them in their pockets. Zhou Jiayu had originally thought these talisman papers were for warding off ghosts. Who knew that the moment he took the talisman paper in his hand, the originally blurry shadows would reveal very distinct shapes. They were people with their heads tilted to the side. Their necks looked longer than ordinary people’s, twisted at crooked angles. Their faces displayed a kind of purplish-blue color, and their tongues were sticking out—the very picture of standard hanged ghosts.

Zhou Jiayu could see their specific appearances. The people beside him could see their blurry forms. The most miserable one was Jiang Xutao, who nearly jumped out of his skin after taking the talisman paper and seeing the black shadows, cursing a few words in local dialect that only natives could understand.

“Shibo, these are the hanged ghosts of the house.” Zhou Jiayu raised his head, describing their physical characteristics, basically confirming these people’s origins.

Lin Jue, however, furrowed her brows upon hearing this and suddenly said something was wrong.

Zhou Jiayu was just about to ask her what was wrong when he saw her suddenly take out a plastic bag from her pocket. That bag contained something similar to incense ash. Lin Jue reached in, grabbed a handful of ash, and threw it onto the second-floor corridor.

Those hanged ghosts didn’t come closer. Instead, they watched Zhou Jiayu and the others from afar, their footsteps continuously moving on the ceiling between the first and second floors. The scene was bizarre and terrifying.

The moment Lin Jue scattered the ash, Zhou Jiayu saw footprints rapidly appearing on the ash on the ground—dense and numerous, as if this entire floor was full of people.

“Ha, I knew there were more than just those few.” Lin Jue dusted the ash off her hands, lit a cigarette and held it in her mouth, then conveniently rolled up her sleeves—she performed these actions quite smoothly, looking like she had long since made them a habit.

“Holy shit, why are there so many people?” Shen Yiqiong stood beside Lin Jue and also saw those densely packed footprints on the ash.

“I’ve been thinking about a problem.” Lin Jue said, “If they could really take your lives outside, why force you to come back? Or rather, is there some necessary condition for them wanting to kill you?” As she spoke, she handed the bag in her hand to Zhou Jiayu and the others, having each person take a handful to scatter ash into the various corners of the corridor.

Zhou Jiayu also grabbed a handful and earnestly went to the right corner. After scattering the ash, in no time messy footprints floated up on it—this second-floor corridor was truly packed full of yin spirits.

“They’re all on the second floor. There must be over a hundred crammed in here.” Lin Jue observed the surroundings, then suddenly remembered something. “Where’s your daughter? With all this commotion, she’s still sleeping?”

Jiang Xutao said tremblingly, “I told her and her mother to hide in the room and not come out no matter how much noise there was…”

“Oh, which room?” Lin Jue asked.

Jiang Xutao said, “It’s the one on the right side of the corridor.” Before he even finished speaking, he saw Lin Jue stride to that room, reach out, and knock on the door. “Anyone there? Come out.”

After a moment, the door creaked open. Jiang Xutao’s wife’s face appeared from behind it. Her face was full of terror as she said in a trembling voice, “Is it resolved?”

Lin Jue shook her head. “Are you sure you want to stay inside and not come out? What if there’s something inside?”

“It won’t be.” The wife said in a small voice. “Those things only dare to be outside. They don’t dare enter the bedroom.”

“They don’t dare enter?” Lin Jue said. “I’d like to go into the bedroom and take a look. Is that okay?”

The wife and Jiang Xutao exchanged a glance. Seeing Jiang Xutao nod, she pulled the door open a crack, indicating for them to enter.

Zhou Jiayu followed behind Lin Jue and also saw the situation inside the bedroom.

This was a very ordinary bedroom. Besides that excessively large bed, there was nothing eye-catching. Zhou Jiayu saw Jiang Xutao’s daughter Yaya sitting on the bed in her nightgown. Her expression didn’t contain the fear one might imagine. Instead, she seemed somewhat numb, as if she had long since grown accustomed to these excessive disturbances at home.

Although there were no special decorations, this bedroom made Zhou Jiayu feel very uncomfortable. The moment he entered the room, he had a feeling of being stared at by many eyes. He looked around but couldn’t find the source of the gazes. He could only rub the hair on his arms. “Shibo, this room feels off. Why do I keep feeling like someone is staring at me?”

“Mm… I have that feeling too.” Lin Jue also had that feeling. She seemed to be searching for something too, but ultimately failed.

“Don’t you feel like you’re being stared at?” Lin Jue asked Jiang Xutao’s wife.

The wife tucked the hair by her ear, her voice soft. “Yes, but those things don’t dare enter the bedroom. It’s better than staying outside, right?”

That did make sense. Being watched was better than being pinched.

Those things began running wildly on the ceiling again. The thump thump thump sounds made one’s whole body grow cold. Jiang Xutao couldn’t take it anymore and sat on a nearby stool, panting heavily.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t discover anything strange in the room, but he suddenly noticed that Yaya, lying on the bed, seemed to be playing with some toy.

Looking carefully, Zhou Jiayu saw that it was a Barbie doll. Its yellow hair, painted facial features, and plastic limbs all made it look very artificial. Yaya held the Barbie doll in her embrace, speaking softly to it.

This Barbie doll was very ordinary. But when Zhou Jiayu noticed it, he felt that the doll was full of an indescribable sense of wrongness, as if… something wasn’t quite right.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Mr. Jiang, did you buy this doll for your daughter?”

Jiang Xutao didn’t understand why Zhou Jiayu suddenly mentioned the Barbie doll, but he nodded. “Yes, she’s liked dolls since she was little.”

“Has she always slept holding this doll?” Zhou Jiayu said. “Can I take a look at that doll?”

Jiang Xutao said, “Of course.” He didn’t feel there was anything wrong with the doll in Yaya’s hands, so he stepped forward and said, “Yaya, let Daddy see the doll, okay?”

Yaya, who had been curled up under the covers, immediately shook her head in panic upon hearing this.

“Yaya?” Jiang Xutao continued to coax her. “Be good. I’m just taking a look. Daddy won’t touch the doll. I’ll give it back to you in a moment.”

Yaya hugged the doll tightly and still refused.

Jiang Xutao seemed somewhat at a loss with his stubborn daughter. But seeing that Zhou Jiayu had no intention of giving up either, he gritted his teeth and said, “Yaya, be good. Daddy is only looking for a moment.”

As he spoke, he reached out and forcibly pulled the doll out of Yaya’s embrace.

Yaya grabbed the doll tightly and wouldn’t let go, but she couldn’t resist Jiang Xutao’s strength. After the doll was pulled away, tears rapidly accumulated in her eyes, and she burst into loud wails.

Jiang Xutao could only harden his heart and pretend not to see. He handed the doll to Zhou Jiayu and said, “Please look.”

Zhou Jiayu took the doll, feeling a bit apologetic in his heart. After all, if this doll really had no problem, he felt like he was somewhat bullying a little kid.

“What’s wrong with the doll?” Lin Jue trusted Zhou Jiayu’s spiritual sense. She knew he must have felt something was wrong before asking for the doll.

“I don’t know. It feels off.” Zhou Jiayu examined the doll’s body. “But I can’t put my finger on that feeling…”

But after looking carefully, the doll didn’t seem to have any abnormalities. Yaya nearby was still wailing loudly. Zhou Jiayu was hesitating over whether to return the doll to the little girl.

Shen Yiqiong, standing at the side, suddenly said, “This doll can be taken apart, right?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I’ve never played with one. Can it?”

Shen Yiqiong: “…What do you mean? I haven’t fucking played with one either.”

Zhou Jiayu said stop pretending.

Shen Yiqiong gritted his teeth in anger.

After confirming with Jiang Xutao, he said this doll could indeed be taken apart. You could even switch out its hands and feet to make different poses.

So Zhou Jiayu grabbed the doll’s lower body and upper body and pulled slightly. The doll was split in half.

With a click, the moment the doll’s body separated, a short thing fell out from inside and landed on the floor.

At first, Zhou Jiayu thought it was a stick. However, after Lin Jue picked the thing up, he discovered it wasn’t a stick but a bone—a slender finger bone.

“A finger bone.” Lin Jue held the bone and said with certainty. “A woman’s pinky finger.”

Jiang Xutao completely hadn’t expected that there would be such a thing inside his daughter’s doll. His face instantly turned iron-green. He turned to look at Yaya, who was still crying. “Yaya!! What’s going on!!”

Yaya kept crying and refused to speak.

“Yaya, where did you get that bone—” Jiang Xutao was also somewhat anxious. He reached out and grabbed Yaya’s arm. “How can you casually stuff this kind of thing inside a doll? Where exactly did you get it from!”

“Old Jiang, you’re hurting Yaya.” The wife was still relatively calm and hurriedly intervened.

Only then did Jiang Xutao calm down. He let out a breath and apologized to Yaya repeatedly. But his expression still contained some agitation. His reaction to this finger bone was especially intense.

Zhou Jiayu remembered when he looked at the marks on Jiang Xutao’s arms earlier, that handprint seemed to be missing a finger. He estimated that the dirty thing haunting them had an inseparable relationship with this finger bone.

The wife coaxed her daughter. After a good while, Yaya finally stopped crying. But she still reached out for the doll. After Lin Jue inspected the doll and confirmed there was nothing else inside, she returned it to her.

“Doll, doll.” Yaya called out like this, reaching out to gently stroke the doll’s head.

“Yaya, tell Daddy. Where did that bone come from?” The wife wiped her daughter’s tears and asked in a gentle voice.

Yaya hung her head and didn’t speak.

Fortunately, the wife was very patient. After asking several more times, Yaya finally opened her mouth. She said, “Up in the attic.” After pausing for a moment, she said something that made everyone’s scalp go numb. “There are lots of them.”

“Let’s go. Let’s take a look at the attic.” Lin Jue said, “Bring Yaya along too.”

Jiang Xutao’s expression was extremely complicated right now. Clearly, he hadn’t expected his own daughter to be involved in this matter too. The wife sighed, picked up Yaya, and said, “Let’s go.”

Yaya’s expression was still timid. She shrank in her mother’s embrace, looking at the people around her and holding that Barbie doll tightly.

The few of them quickly reached the attic. The attic was small and seemed like very few people came here. Jiang Xutao took out a key and opened the door. Zhou Jiayu noticed that the floor was covered with very evenly distributed dust. It looked like no one had entered for at least a month.

“Yaya, where is that thing?” The wife continued asking.

Yaya pointed at a corner.

Everyone gathered around in the direction she pointed.

The attic was used to store miscellaneous items. There were also many messy things in the corner. Zhou Jiayu saw several paintings, some unused furniture. Zhou Jiayu also saw a wooden crate. He had originally thought that the thing Yaya spoke of was inside the crate, but after opening it, he discovered that the crate only contained old books.

“I don’t see anything.” Lin Jue looked around but didn’t see the finger bones Yaya mentioned.

“Yaya?” The wife looked at her daughter again.

Yaya said in a soft voice, “Inside the wall corner…”

Zhou Jiayu heard this and vaguely thought of something. He directly moved aside all the miscellaneous items and looked at the wall corner. Sure enough, at the pointed wall corner, a small piece of the white wall had peeled away, revealing the gray cement inside. And embedded within the cement were white things.

After squatting down and looking carefully, Zhou Jiayu discovered that it was a row of finger bones arranged very neatly.

“Here!” Zhou Jiayu called out.

Everyone heard his voice and gathered over to see those rows of bones embedded in the wall. These bones clearly belonged to different people, yet they were arranged in a very orderly pattern, densely embedded into the wall one by one. And outside the bones were some yellow talisman papers. Lin Jue looked at the talisman papers but couldn’t recognize their origin. However, she could more or less guess their function.

“Do you have something like a hammer? I want to hammer it open a bit more and see.” Zhou Jiayu observed this wall and felt that there was definitely more behind the wall than just this exposed part.

“Yes, there is one in the attic.” After seeing the finger bones, Jiang Xutao’s face grew even worse. He turned around and found a hammer in another corner of the attic, then handed it to Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu took the hammer and knocked away. Soon, the wall surface peeled away, revealing what was behind the plaster.

“…What is this?” Zhou Jiayu saw what was embedded in the exposed cement. “Talisman papers?”

“They are talisman papers.” Lin Jue was certain. “Wait, don’t hammer anymore. There’s something behind these talisman papers. It’s not appropriate to break it open right now.” She rubbed her chin. “Why does it feel like these talisman papers are being used to suppress the dirty things below?”

There wasn’t just one talisman paper. They were neatly stacked behind the wall, separating the brick wall from the plaster.

Lin Jue said to leave it alone for now and go to sleep first. Tomorrow morning, Jiang Xutao should call a construction crew to come directly and smash open all the walls in the attic to see what was behind them.

Although Jiang Xutao said okay, he also looked like he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Lin Jue, however, was quite open-minded. She said since those things didn’t dare to lay hands on them, they should go back downstairs and take another look, gaining more experience…

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself, what fucking experience could still be gained from this.

So the group returned to the first floor. Zhou Jiayu lay on the sofa and watched with his own eyes as those few hanged ghosts ran around on the ceiling. He even counted them. These hanged ghosts indeed numbered twelve, from young to old. They should be that whole family who had the accident in this house before.

The others couldn’t see as clearly as Zhou Jiayu, but they were also extremely annoyed by that thump thump thump footsteps sound.

In the end, before Zhou Jiayu couldn’t take it anymore, Xiao Zhi, hidden in his pocket, got pissed first. Ever since the Mount She incident, Xiao Zhi’s temper had worsened quite a bit—especially when facing outsiders.

Xiao Zhi rushed out from the pocket and directly began climbing up the wall. The others were originally chatting when they watched with their own eyes as Xiao Zhi charged up to the ceiling and began rolling up his sleeves again.

Zhou Jiayu watched with his jaw dropped. After rolling up his sleeves, Xiao Zhi grabbed one of the hanged ghosts and swallowed it in one bite.

Zhou Jiayu: “Holy shit—”

The others’ reactions were about the same as Zhou Jiayu’s: “Holy shit—”

“Xiao Zhi!!” Zhou Jiayu said angrily, “Why are you eating random things! What if you get a stomachache!”

Everyone else: “…” Isn’t the focus wrong??

Xiao Zhi ate three in a row. His originally flat belly bulged out. After letting out a burp, he returned to Zhou Jiayu’s side, humming and grumbling as he lay down on Zhou Jiayu’s lap.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Don’t eat random things! These are unclean and unhygienic—aren’t you afraid of eating something bad?”

Lin Jue looked at Zhou Jiayu and felt he was just like a worried parent watching his precious son eat dirty street food.

“Not tasty.” Xiao Zhi was even aggrieved. “Noisy.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Good boy. Endure a little longer and it’ll be dawn.”

The two of them were having a deep father-son moment here, while Jiang Xutao, sitting nearby, silently shifted a bit away, his eyes full of terror as he looked at Xiao Zhi.

Fortunately, after Xiao Zhi got angry, those dirty things that had been running all over the ceiling grew much quieter. Zhou Jiayu didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he always felt that after Xiao Zhi climbed up, those few dirty things’ expressions carried a bit more fear.

After enduring through the night, it was finally dawn. Early in the morning, the construction crew Jiang Xutao booked arrived.

After arriving, the construction crew began taking tools to demolish the walls in the attic on the rooftop, just as Lin Jue had instructed.

Although they had already mentally prepared themselves, when they truly saw what was behind the walls, everyone’s hearts still trembled. One could only see that on the surface of the cement walls, rows of neatly arranged human bones were stacked. These bones clearly belonged to different people, yet they were embedded into the wall in a very orderly pattern, densely packed one by one. And outside the bones were some yellow talisman papers. Lin Jue looked at the talisman papers but couldn’t recognize their origin. However, she could more or less guess their function.

“Should we call the police?” The foreman was quite frightened after seeing so many bones, and the workers were unwilling to keep working.

“Call them.” Lin Jue agreed.

So Jiang Xutao called the police. Lin Jue then took a turn around the first and second floors. After she was done, she told Jiang Xutao an unfortunate piece of news: “I suspect those bones are on both the first and second floors.”

Jiang Xutao shuddered. “You mean…”

“Yes.” Lin Jue said, “Your entire villa is wrapped in human bones.”

Jiang Xutao nearly fainted upon hearing this. He still seemed somewhat disbelieving and insisted on having the foreman open a hole in a wall on the first floor. The result was that it was fine if he didn’t open it, but once opened, he really did see the bones Lin Jue spoke of. The most terrifying thing was that what was embedded in the first-floor walls were human skulls. After peeling away the wallpaper, one could see white, ghastly bones neatly embedded in the walls. The skulls were large and small, old and young. Just the opened section alone had more than ten of them.

“This house needs to be demolished immediately.” Lin Jue said, “The floorboards are probably also full of human bones.”

Jiang Xutao’s face looked terrible. He sat on the sofa smoking one cigarette after another, unable to speak. It wasn’t until the police arrived that he asked Lin Jue another question. “Miss Lin, look… now that the walls have been opened like this, will those things just come out?”

Lin Jue waved her hand and said it was fine. In a moment, she would draw a talisman formation here to release the souls. However, the resentment here was very great. She suggested Jiang Xutao find a monk to perform a purification too, and conveniently gave Jiang Xutao Hui Ming’s contact information.

Zhou Jiayu always felt that Lin Jue’s sales pitch was especially smooth, so he quietly asked about it in private.

“Anyway, Jiang Xutao isn’t lacking in money.” Lin Jue said quite righteously. “We’re in the same trade; we should help each other out… Besides, whether Hui Ming is willing to take the job is his business, right?”

That did make sense, Zhou Jiayu thought. The feng shui industry’s service was becoming more and more developed nowadays.

After the police arrived, they quickly inspected the scene and peeled away all the remaining wallpaper.

They didn’t know until they peeled it, and they got a shock when they did. It was really just as Lin Jue had predicted—almost every floor’s wallpaper had densely packed bones behind it. Heaven knows how many people had died in this building. No wonder at the time when Lin Jue scattered incense ash on the second floor, she saw footprints all over the ground. Zhou Jiayu had been wondering where so many dirty things came from. Now looking at it, those footprints indeed had a reason.

The police were clearly also frightened by the number of victims and immediately launched an investigation. During the investigation period, Jiang Xutao was very nervous. However, what he was nervous about wasn’t the police, but rather afraid that after leaving this house, the situation from that night would happen again.

Fortunately, when spending a night at the police station, Jiang Xutao slept soundly and wasn’t woken up by any strange sounds again. And his wife and daughter, at the hotel next door, also didn’t have any more bluish-purple marks appear on their bodies.

The thing Jiang Xutao worried about most seemed to be resolved just like that.

As for who embedded the finger bones in the room, the biggest suspect right now was the house’s first owners, that couple for whom no information could currently be found. Although Jiang Xutao knew their general information, there were no specific leads. Whether that couple’s names were real or fake, and where they went after leaving this house, were all uncertain.

Lin Jue, however, guessed that the family of twelve who died tragically before might have some connection to this house. The talisman papers in the walls locked up most of the yin spirits. But after the wall in the attic was damaged, the yin spirits slipped out from there, bewitched Yaya into entering the attic, and hid a finger bone inside the doll’s body.

This was probably the reason why Jiang Xutao and his family were pinched all over with injuries after moving out. As for why those yin spirits insisted on forcing Jiang Xutao’s family to move back, Lin Jue felt that those dirty things didn’t have the ability to kill people outside. At most, they could leave some marks on a person’s body. Only by forcing people back into the house could they continue to the next step…

Fortunately, Jiang Xutao reacted quickly and soon found people capable of handling this matter.

The matter ended just like that. Jiang Xutao expressed his utmost gratitude to Lin Jue. Of course, the remuneration was definitely not lacking. As for what exactly the remuneration was, Zhou Jiayu didn’t know.

When leaving, Zhou Jiayu saw Jiang Xutao’s daughter Yaya holding her doll in her mother’s embrace. She looked at the group who was about to leave, her expression carrying some hesitation.

Zhou Jiayu walked over, squatted down, and asked her what was wrong.

Yaya lowered her head to look at her doll, then said a sentence. She said, “My doll, will it not be able to speak anymore from now on?”

Everyone: “…”

Zhou Jiayu was quite calm. He reached out and stroked her head, saying gently, “Yaya, don’t you want to play with other little kids? Other kids are more interesting than dolls.”

Yaya said, “But they will hate me.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Yaya is so cute. They won’t hate you.” He took out a paper crane from his embrace and placed it in Yaya’s hand. “Uncle will give Yaya a little gift, okay? This paper crane can protect Yaya. When there’s no one around, it can even fly.”

Yaya looked at the paper crane, revealed a smile, made an affirmative sound, and carefully put the paper crane into her pocket. Jiang Xutao and his wife probably thought Zhou Jiayu was coaxing a child and didn’t take his words to heart. But Lin Jue and the others knew clearly that Zhou Jiayu wasn’t lying.

“Let’s go, Guan’er.” Shen Yiqiong called out from behind.

“Okay.” Zhou Jiayu stood up, turned around, and left with them.

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu sent a text to Lin Zhushui, who was away on business: I miss Sir.

Lin Zhushui replied: What do you miss about me?

Zhou Jiayu was still thinking about what Lin Zhushui’s words meant when he saw Lin Zhushui’s next message: Do you want to kiss my eyelashes again?

Zhou Jiayu blushed hopelessly.

The little paper person can be imagined as the little paper person from Onmyoji—flat, with stick-figure facial features. When lying on Zhou Jiayu’s shoulder or hiding in his pocket, he will seriously fold himself neat and tidy first.