Chapter 8: 8

8 "Third Brother! I've come to save you!"

Zhang Huihui, upon seeing Xie Jingting, seemed really frightened, quickly composed herself, saying, "No, little brother, I was just scaring you, you actually believed it!"

"Please, have some common sense, ghosts don't come out until midnight, it's only ten o'clock now, where would a ghost come from?"

Xie Jingting: "......"

He opened the car window, stuck his head out and shouted angrily, "No, big sister, you're crazy, I don't even know you well, why are you scaring me for no reason!"

Zhang Huihui also laughed angrily at his straight-man traits, "Fine, fine, fine, sorry, okay!"

Xie Jingting patted his chest and let out a sigh of relief.

He was just saying, that Tushan Jiu is just talking nonsense.

Whatever knife-seller, he's looked into it, it's just a mysterious identity that a group of folk knife sellers added to themselves, just a marketing gimmick; how could it be as divine as grandpa said, maybe back then it was just a blind cat hitting a dead rat.

"Even Second Brother believes everything." Xie Jingting muttered discontentedly.

Suddenly.

The car moved.

Xie Jingting froze.

He didn't press the accelerator!

At that moment, he lifted his head and saw a white mist that had silently descended at some unknown time, surrounding his sports car.

With a "click", the car locked.

Outside the car, Zhang Huihui instinctively dodged the slowly moving car, pointed at the passenger seat, opened her mouth wide, her face filled with extreme terror.

Following her pointing direction, Xie Jingting turned around sharply, and a female ghost was right beside him.

The woman's eyes were blood-red, and her face had no trace of color.

She wore a bright red cheongsam, not the color of the cheongsam itself, but as if it had been stained with blood.

She stared fixedly at Xie Jingting, then suddenly curved her red lips, "Little brother, your car looks really nice, I like it, but you look even better, I want— to take you all~"

Xie Clan's old residence dining hall.

Elder Xie instructed the kitchen to prepare several Nan Cheng specialty dishes, "Little Jiu, I don't know your taste, I had the kitchen prepare a few dishes from each major cuisine, there are several Nan Cheng specialties in front of you, try them quickly, see if you can get used to them?"

"Okay, thank you, Grandfather." Tushan Jiu is a big eater.

She usually isn't picky about food, but she loves sweets.

Overall, Nan Cheng's cuisine is light, but the taste is still good.

After tasting, Tushan Jiu answered Elder Xie, "It's delicious, I like it, so I won't hold back?"

"This child, from now on this is your home, don't be polite, just like it, eat more." Xu Airu gave Tushan Jiu a bowl of soup and passed it over.

Tushan Jiu nodded, took it and said thanks, then thought and still gave them a heads-up, "I might eat a lot, people in our line of work need to be strong."

The people at the table simultaneously wondered, "Isn't a knife-seller a diviner? Why would they need great strength?"

However, they didn't ask further.

Thus, when Tushan Jiu finished her eighth bowl of rice, Elder Xie and Xu Airu both swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Xie Shiyu, on the other hand, showed no extra expression, merely tilted his head and asked her, "Another bowl?"

Tushan Jiu put down her chopsticks, arranged them, shook her head, "I'm full."

She is always straightforward and never pretends; when she's full, she puts down her chopsticks.

After spending these few hours together, Xie Shiyu seemed to have seen through her personality.

The group moved from the dining hall to the living room.

The servant brought after-meal fruit.

Tushan Jiu ate a few grapes, glanced at the time, sensed the knife given to Xie Jingzhou, did a quick calculation with her fingers, then frowned.

Indeed, a change occurred.

Today is this a "buy one get one free"?

It seems we still can't avoid going through this.

She looked at the restless Xu Airu, then turned to Xie Shiyu, leaned her body toward him, and whispered, "Xie Shiyu, can you drive me over? The situation with Third Brother has changed."

Xie Shiyu first blinked, not knowing why she made such a gesture, but seeing her furtive glances toward his mother when he lowered his eyes, he immediately understood she was wary of his mother being afraid of ghosts.

"Alright, let's go." Xie Shiyu stood up.

Tushan Jiu also stood up and walked toward the door.

Noticing the person beside her hadn't followed, she turned her head to him, "Come on?"

"Yeah, coming right up." Xie Shiyu still thought she would go upstairs to get some stuff, like ritual implements.

He has seen those Daoist masters' rituals before; he remembered they always had to bring a lot of stuff.

Seeing the two about to leave, Elder Xie immediately understood and cautioned, "Be careful in everything, safety first."

After getting in the car, Tushan Jiu directly stated an address.

Xie Shiyu turned on the navigation.

As for Tushan Jiu's grandfather's abilities, he knows them and has witnessed them firsthand.

However, regarding Tushan Jiu's strength, he is temporarily unaware, but he can see confidence in her eyes.

The car drove out of the Xie family's old residence, speed gradually increasing.

The car interior was quiet.

Tushan Jiu glanced at Xie Shiyu.

Seeing him press his lips and stay silent, she blinked and said dryly, "Rest assured, with me around, Third Brother will be fine."

Xie Shiyu turned his head to glance at her, then turned back to face forward, "Mm, I trust you."

Tushan Jiu didn't know why Xie Shiyu could be so calm, and she couldn't help but praise inwardly: "No wonder he's a man of great fortune, even catching ghosts he's this composed."

If an ordinary person saw a ghost, they'd probably be scared stiff, jumping up and down—just like Xu Airu, who fainted at just hearing the words 'female ghost'. That's quite normal.

By now, Third Brother's heart must be going crazy, bouncing around like it's at a rave.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help finding it a bit funny, the corner of her mouth twitching, but she quickly returned to normal.

She couldn't laugh; as a sister-in-law, she had to maintain the proper demeanor.

"I can't, I can't—I really can't pull it."

Zhang Huihui felt she was exerting all her strength, as if sucking milk.

Xie Jingting lay back, half his body out the car window, wailing, "Don't let go, Zhang Huihui—Sis, you're my real sister, don't let go, please!"

Just then, after the car had moved a short distance, Zhang Huihui, not knowing where the courage came from, stepped forward a few steps, grabbed the collar of Xie Jingting through the open window, and tried to pull him out.

The female ghost in the passenger seat, seeing this, seemed to take interest in teasing them, she made the car stop instead of moving forward, just to watch the show.

Of course, she couldn't let her 'prey' escape.

Thus, Zhang Huihui and the female ghost's tug-of-war, she regarded it as the prey putting on a show before being caught.

After a while of pulling, Xie Jingting also figured it out: the female ghost was just messing with them.

He couldn't help feeling somewhat desperate.

Perhaps knowing he was doomed, at this moment his courage grew, and he turned to the female ghost to negotiate:

"Big Sis Female Ghost, can you spare me? I'll go burn money for you, lots of money—I'll not only burn money, I'll burn a house, a car, fridge, TV, washing machine for you—will that work?"

The female ghost looked disgusted and ignored him.

Xie Jingting, annoyed, said, "Big Sis Female Ghost, we have no grudge, why are you harming me?"

Upon hearing that, the female ghost narrowed her eyes, one side of her fiery red lips curling up, and said, "I already told you that earlier—weren't you listening?"

Xie Jingting was speechless; just now he was about to be scared into wetting himself by her—where would he have the presence of mind to listen to what she said?

The female ghost let out a chuckle, pleased with her new toy, in a good mood and good temper: "You want to know? Fine, I'll say it again—because——"

Xie Jingting turned his head, held his breath, and focused.

Zhang Huihui was also curious, leaning her head over, preparing to eavesdrop (for gossip).

"Because I've taken a liking to your car."

Xie Jingting and Zhang Huihui: "???"

"Are you okay?" Xie Jingting also snapped, "In ghost movies, don't you only mess with unclean things if there's a grudge?"

How come, with him, this female ghost just took a liking to his car and now wants to harm him?

Zhang Huihui was also speechless for a while.

The female ghost smiled, lifted her chin, and said, "At first I really did just take a liking to your car, but now I've also taken a liking to you, so I'll take both."

Hearing that, Xie Jingting didn't know whether he should be happy or not.

Heaven really wants him dead!

Suddenly.

An ethereal voice came from the other side of the white mist.

"Third Brother! I've come to save you!"