The hand hovered above the bamboo basket. Chen Ge turned slowly. He had noticed changes in his body for several days now.
He slept only three or four hours each night yet woke feeling fully alert the next day. His five senses sharpened remarkably in the dark, and his thoughts raced with unusual clarity. The only drawback was a persistent, inexplicable chill that no amount of clothing could ward off.
"So you've noticed it already." The old woman raised her arm, revealing row upon row of red cords bound around her wrist, each threaded with a jade bead. "The favor of a vengeful spirit — how can a living body endure it? Three years after the village was drenched in blood, perhaps because I spoke with them so often, my body began to show all manner of abnormalities. The most obvious was the drop in body temperature. No matter the season — spring, summer, autumn, winter — I could hardly ever feel warm."
The old woman described something Chen Ge had experienced himself, though there were differences between them.
Chen Ge lifted the bamboo basket holding A'Qing's child and walked over to the partition. "Grandma, it took three years of contact with the vengeful spirits before your temperature started to drop?"
"To be precise, it was ten years. Before that, like you, I didn't pay it any mind." The old woman's voice carried a gentle warmth. "Your condition isn't serious yet — you probably only started encountering them in recent years?"
"Recent years?" Chen Ge's eyelid twitched. After a moment's hesitation, he told the truth. "The first time I laid eyes on a vengeful spirit was just a few weeks ago."
The room fell suddenly silent. The old woman, perhaps because of her age, stuttered slightly: "A f-few weeks ago?"
"At most, less than a month." Chen Ge touched the back of his hand. Its temperature was noticeably lower than a normal person's.
"I live in a village crawling with evil spirits and talk to the vengeful ones regularly — it took three years before I noticed anything. You've only been seeing vengeful spirits for a matter of weeks. How could your temperature possibly change that fast?" Her voice was thick with confusion. "Did you offend a great number of them at once?"
"No." Chen Ge silently counted in his head. "Only about a dozen or so are connected to me."
The old woman absorbed this information and went quiet for a moment.
"Probably has to do with where I live. I live in a haunted house — in a sense, I eat and sleep alongside them." Chen Ge glanced back at his own shadow. "Oh, and there's a red-clad vengeful spirit hiding inside my shadow. She never leaves my side."
The old woman didn't say a word. She braced herself on her only arm and shifted backward, as though trying to put distance between herself and Chen Ge.
Noticing the subtle shift in her expression, a flicker of unease passed through Chen Ge. "Grandma, how did you deal with the drop in body temperature? If it's left unresolved, what happens down the road?"
"Our situations are different — I don't think I can help you." The old woman unwound a red cord from her wrist. "Long-term proximity to vengeful spirits causes yin energy to build up in the body. The beads on this cord are carved bit by bit from warm jade. Nurturing jade nurtures the person — wear it long enough, and the warm jade will balance the yin and yang inside you. Besides, you should spend more time in places full of living people. Get plenty of sunlight."
"I'll remember that." Chen Ge nodded. New Century Paradise was bustling with visitors during the day, and the crowds would only grow larger.
"Be careful with yourself. These legs of mine — I lost the use of them precisely because I let it go untreated." The old woman re-tied the red cord around her wrist. "I actually wanted to give you a few jade beads, but in your case, even handing over all my warm jade wouldn't do much good. The real key is what you do yourself."
She looked at the row of infants on the wooden bed. "There is a divide between the living and the dead. It's best not to have too much contact with them."
"Mm." Chen Ge felt troubled, but he had no good solution. He didn't tell her that the title of "Favored by Vengeful Spirits" was merely the beginning for him — after drawing five more vengeful spirits, his title would rank up!
"If there's nothing else, take the child and leave. The person conducting the ritual outside is Zhu Shumei — the successor I chose. She has a kind heart. As long as you don't deliberately show yourself to her, she won't give you trouble." The old woman raised her hand. "Once night falls in this village, all manner of demons and monsters come crawling out. Be watchful when you leave — don't enter any open doors, don't answer if someone calls your name, hide immediately if you see a light, and don't touch any coffins before you're out of the village."
After thanking the old woman, Chen Ge carried the bamboo basket back the way he had come.
He could feel a pure goodness radiating from the old woman, so he harbored no doubts about what she had told him.
"Just as I thought — those of us who carry the favor of vengeful spirits all possess a kind and pure heart."
Emerging from the tunnel, Chen Ge was hit by a wave of cold air. Only a single wall separated inside from outside, yet the difference was stark.
"You found the child? Let me hold him." Grandpa Bai took the infant and noticed a leaf-like object near the baby's mouth. He reached to remove it, but Chen Ge stopped him.
"That leaf seems to keep the baby from crying. Don't touch it."
They had lost some time in the old woman's home. Chen Ge gathered Grandpa Bai and Old Wei at the entrance to the ancestral hall and took out A'Qing's map. "The procession will pass by several wells outside the village. I just need to make sure we don't cross paths with them."
The three quickly plotted their route, left the ancestral hall, and slipped into the streets.
The ritual was still underway. The village had transformed dramatically — the vengeful spirits had awakened, and the stench of death hung heavy in the air. The old houses had turned grim and horrifying, as if their long-dead owners had returned tonight.
Sounds issued from within coffins. Footprints appeared and vanished on the deserted streets. The bloodstains on the walls seemed to grow fresher by the moment, as though the night from years ago was playing out once more.
Chen Ge and his companions rounded a corner. Grandpa Bai, cradling the child, suddenly stopped.
"Do you hear that? Someone seems to be calling my name?"
An icy wind brushed his face. Faintly, from somewhere nearby, came a woman's voice — she was calling out to someone.
Chen Ge remembered the old woman's warning and said to Grandpa Bai: "Pretend you didn't hear it. No matter what she says, don't answer."
The three pressed on. Paper money drifted across the village's once-clean roads. The white inverted fu characters on the doors of old houses fell away, and the door panels rattled, revealing spirit banners hanging behind them.
The woman's voice in their ears grew steadily louder, coming from every direction at once. Her exact position was impossible to pin down — only the fact that she was closing in.
"A red-clad ghost and countless tortured souls are hiding in this village. The red-clad one hasn't awakened yet, but these vengeful spirits will be scrambling to strike at us — to possess our bodies and use us to escape."
The vengeful spirits had awakened. Chen Ge knew that this location — rated three stars on the Screaming Index — was about to reveal its true horror.