“Damn it, good thing I didn’t learn the immobilisation spell or have time to read that *Five Curses Manual*, or I wouldn’t have the luck to boost my medical skills.”
“Nerve damage, hard to recover, blood energy doesn’t seem to help, but Taoist true qi can strengthen meridians, so it should be repairable. I’ll ask Qingyan later.”
“Two worlds, and this time Qingyan isn’t here to help with acupuncture. It’s all on me.”
“Damn it, there’s another problem: how do I convince Lin Wan to let me perform acupuncture?”
“Even if I sweet-talk her and she doesn’t object, how do I convince her mum?”
“Ugh, so annoying, what do I do? Someone, give me some advice!”
Grumbling to himself, Lu Zheng found a chain estate agent, secured a flat, paid the rent, hired a cleaner, and bought a pile of household goods, making it move-in ready.
The flat was in a mid-range city centre estate, with convenient transport and a pleasant environment.
By the time Lu Zheng had sorted everything, it was completely dark.
“Night’s fallen, huh!”
Leaving the estate, Lu Zheng muttered to himself, “Dark moon, high winds, perfect for ghosts to roam!”
“Lin Wan’s injury is urgent, but she’ll still be in the hospital for a few more days.”
“But Liu Yifan’s case is more pressing. If I let you live comfortably, I’d be the most pathetic cheater in all the realms.”
“Take it slow. There’s still some time before Lin Wan’s recovery. We’ll deal with this gradually.”
“Starting tomorrow, if I let you die painlessly, I’d be utterly useless!”
He’d tested it before: as long as he could carry it, living things could cross worlds too.
With that in mind…
Back home, Lu Zheng crossed over, grabbed a brass bell from the drawer, and crossed back.
*Jingle jingle—*
Lu Zheng shook the bell, and a gust of eerie wind swept through the room.
A ghost child, looking about five or six, suddenly appeared in the centre of the room.
White pupils, expressionless face.
*Jingle jingle—*
The ghost child vanished just as suddenly.
…
The next day, Lu Zheng first went to the hospital, handed the flat keys to Lin Wan’s mother, and spent half the day with Lin Wan.
During this time, Lin Wan didn’t reject his kindness or mention returning to her hometown, clearly having made her decision.
After lunch, Lu Zheng took his leave and soon arrived at Longxia Group.
Longxia Group was in Haicheng’s East Beach, a hub of high-end office buildings, occupying the 50th to 53rd floors of one.
“Bloody rich!”
Lu Zheng didn’t go inside, instead finding a nearby open-air café.
Ordering a coffee, he casually flipped through *The Great Compendium of Acupuncture*, occasionally glancing at the building opposite.
Lu Zheng’s serious reading and striking presence drew attention, with three women approaching to chat him up that afternoon.
He politely brushed them off.
At 4 p.m., Lu Zheng’s eyes narrowed as Liu Yifan appeared.
Holding a Starbuckers cup, he hugged a woman who approached him.
New companion, not the one from last time.
Tossing the cup into a roadside bin, Liu Yifan got into a Porsche parked nearby with the woman and drove off.
Closing his book, Lu Zheng stood up.
He pulled a folded qi-tracking talisman from his pocket, holding it in his palm, and crossed the road while forming hand seals.
By the time he reached the bin at Longxia Group’s entrance, he’d completed the spell, capturing the qi from the Starbuckers cup.
Without pausing, Lu Zheng walked past the entrance, around the next corner, and hailed a taxi to leave.
…
Liu Yifan had been annoyed before but was now elated. Though that female officer had put him on the police’s radar, he didn’t care.
Why? No evidence!
“You made me uncomfortable for a moment, so I’ll make you miserable for life. Fair, right? Who told you to mess with someone so far above you?”
“Pity I can’t touch the real culprit for now. Oh well, turning a beautiful woman into a paraplegic isn’t a bad deal, haha.”
“I’d love to visit her and offer condolences. Would she be so shocked she’d stand right up?”
Liu Yifan, with his new companion, dined at the Italian restaurant KASAMUVA, savouring black truffle and A5 steak while glancing meaningfully at Lin Wan’s usual spot.
He didn’t notice a tall figure standing in the shadows across the street, out of the streetlamp’s glow.
…
At 7 p.m., Liu Yifan and his companion left the restaurant and headed to a bar.
After a wild night, they arrived at the Waldorf Hotel just before 11 p.m.
Booking a room, he drunkenly groped his companion in the lift.
Out of the lift, swiping the keycard, closing the door.
Breathing heavily, Liu Yifan began tugging at her clothes.
“I want a shower~”
The woman playfully grabbed at him, then giggled, slipping out of his grasp.
She stripped as she walked, standing naked by the bathroom door.
Turning, she winked at Liu Yifan, beckoning, “Don’t you dare sneak in to peek~”
“Little minx, quite the tease!”
Liu Yifan grinned, starting to undress.
Halfway through, a cold breeze hit him, making him shiver.
“Bloody hell, is the air-con on full blast?”
Cursing casually, he shrugged it off, finished undressing, and headed for the bathroom.
But…
As he stepped forward and looked up, he saw someone standing between him and the bathroom!
A child of five or six, dressed in a blood-red vest, a gold-red cap on its head, floating half a foot off the ground.
Liu Yifan froze, his heart skipping a beat.
Pale face, greyish-blue lips, pupil-less white eyes, expressionless, staring coldly at him.
“Ah!!!!”
A scream echoed through the room.
*Bang!*
The bathroom door flew open, and the woman rushed out in panic, “Yifan?”
Liu Yifan had fallen backward to the floor.
Hearing her voice, he looked up, but the child was gone.
“Huh, disappeared?”
Liu Yifan panted.
“Yifan, what’s wrong?” The woman, heedless of her nudity, hurried to his side and helped him up.
“I… I bloody… I think I hallucinated…”
“Hallucinated? Like a superhero?”
“Superhero my arse, damn it, something’s off. This room’s not clean,” Liu Yifan shook his head, “Let’s switch rooms!”
As he spoke, he looked up again and saw the figure at the bathroom door once more.
“Ah!!!!”
