Chapter 96: with translation of chapter title

96 Is the target to kidnap their corpses for disposal?

There were few lights in the early morning.

But over the past year, the Song family has always kept one light on.

Seeing his mother again, Song Jiu'an found her hair almost completely white.

In her forties, half of her white hair turned from grief over her husband's accidental death seven years ago, the other half from his departure a year ago.

Now her only support is her young son.

Mother Song did not let Lan Yi's family in.

She impatiently said, 'You family are sick, not sleeping in the middle of the night, coming to knock; if you wake Dou Dou, I won't let this go!'

Beside him, Song Jiu'an looked at his once gentle mother, now so irritable, and felt a pang of pity.

Looking past her into the house, the first bedroom opposite the living room was his.

That bedroom's light was on, the door open, clearly she had just come out of it.

At this hour, she still hadn't slept.

Lan Yi glanced at Song Jiu'an's expression, her eyes sore again.

She sniffed, held back tears, and looked at Mother Song: 'Aunt Song, I have something to ask you, Jiu'an...'

Those three words, 'Song Jiu'an,' are now the most unbearable for Mother Song to hear, especially coming from Lan Yi's mouth.

Her face darkened instantly, she warned in a low voice: 'Shut up! Lan Dashan, quickly take your daughter away, or I'll chase you out with a broom!'

Saying that, she made a move to close the door.

Seeing this, Lan Yi quickly reached out to stop her.

Mother Song's eyelid twitched, and she immediately halted her motion.

She glanced at Lan Yi's hand and said, 'Are you sick? If you don't want your hand, chop it off yourself, don't try to extort me.'

Lan Yi: 'Auntie, Jiu'an has come back, he's right by my side.'

Mother Song froze for a moment, then her thoughts turned to violent anger.

She shoved Lan Yi away harshly, face grim, silent, about to shut the door.

Song Jiu'an reminded Lan Yi, 'Yiyi, incense, rhino horn incense.'

Lan Yi looked at Song Jiu'an and then remembered the small piece of incense Tushan Jiu had given her.

She blocked the door again: 'Godmother, I have a way to let you see Brother Jiu'an!'

The term 'godmother' left Mother Song somewhat dazed.

Since Song Jiu'an's death, she had never allowed Lan Yi to call her that again.

Lan Yi's longstanding guilt made her obey Mother Song, refraining from calling her godmother or mentioning Jiu'an in her presence, lest she upset her.

But today she repeatedly broke those taboos, so she said Jiu'an was beside her, and she had a way to let herself see him......

Lan Yi rummaged her pocket, found the rhino horn incense no bigger than a pinky nail, held it carefully, and said, 'Godmother, I need a lighter; this rhino horn incense was given to me by the master—once lit, you'll all be able to see Brother Jiu'an.'

Mother Song still didn't quite believe it, after all it was too fantastical.

Her son has been dead for a year; it's not like the seventh-day soul return—how could this be possible?

Lan Yi grew anxious, turned to Song Jiu'an: 'Jiu'an, could you stir up a wind like you did at noon today?'

She didn't know what a yin wind was; she just wanted Mother Song to believe her, to get a response from Jiu'an.

Song Jiu'an stepped forward and gently stroked the extra wrinkles at the corners of his mother's eyes.

Mother Song only felt a cool breeze brush her cheek.

In an instant, her eyes widened, her voice softened: 'An, An'an? Is it you? Really you?'

'Mom, it's me.' Song Jiu'an replied.

But Mother Song couldn't hear him speak, so Lan Yi quickly nodded and said, 'Brother Jiu'an, speak, it's him, godmother, find me a lighter to light the incense, then you can talk.'

Mother Song, hearing Lan Yi's words, let them in, then hurried back to the living room and rummaged in a drawer for a lighter.

The rhino horn incense burned, and the living and the dead could communicate.

The Song household's door closed; that night, both families stayed awake all night.

The one who untied the bell has come; this knot will soon be undone.

That night, Nan Cheng was far from peaceful.

Either thunder rumbled here twice, or lightning flashed there twice.

Plus a strange strong wind snapped the roadside trees.

In short, those still awake were astonished by this recent weird weather.

By contrast, Tushan Jiu, who had not scheduled herself any overtime, slept so soundly.

Before sleeping, she had once cast a divination.

That divination was for those 'competitors' who were working overtime.

The constant hexagram, line nine four: field without fowl.

Now she slept even more soundly.

The dawn light had not yet reached the ground, because today Nan Cheng was overcast.

Three men walked out of Nan Cheng Airport's exit.

The man on the left wore a full beard; the man on the right was tall, thin, and fair-skinned.

The youngest-looking man in the middle wore a white high-neck sweater with jeans, making him the tallest and most handsome of the three, but his expressionless face gave him a somewhat austere air.

Xiang Qilong rolled his suitcase, muttering involuntarily, 'Really unlucky; I should have gone to Li Cheng first.'

That's right; after they called Tushan Jiu that day, they chose to go to Li Cheng first.

As a result, upon arriving in Li Cheng and getting off the high-speed train, while on the highway, a car passed in the opposite lane, and they immediately sensed the aura of that corpse.

Moreover, the point is, besides that, there is also a strong presence of yin qi.

They were all dazed, thinking, 'Is this a ghost that picked up their corpses and even abducted them?'

Alright, they admitted that the corpse they lost was that of a handsome young man.

Furthermore, his soul was recalled by them, and they also performed a treatment to dispel the yin qi; aside from having no heartbeat or breath, he is practically indistinguishable from a fresh person, so being mistaken is understandable.

But this only applies to ordinary people, alright.

So that ghost clearly knew the other party was a ghost, yet still abducted!

What the heck, is this like attracts like, abducting their corpses as a partner?

Really, never seen before in a lifetime.

Fortunately, their young sect leader was cautious by habit; besides that soul-suppressing talisman, they also placed the Xiang family's unique evil-suppressing seal on the recalled soul; otherwise, this corpse having been lost for so long would have long turned into an evil-infested zombie.

A corpse-chaser losing a corpse isn't something that can be simply retrieved.

Not only do the family need consolation, but the corpse's own soul also requires many complicated rituals to be liberated.

But once missed, it's missed; on the highway going the opposite direction, even if they wanted to chase, they couldn't catch up.

Just then, they received another notice from the office saying the underworld had a rift—ah, nope, wrong—actually a once-in-a-thousand-years underworld rift had appeared, requiring those of them who hadn't signed up for the exam to go to Nan Cheng to take the test.

The priorities were clear at a glance, so they hurriedly booked plane tickets and rushed to Nan Cheng.

The sword-borrower was also in Nan Cheng; for the more important exam, Xiang Yichu decided to first go to the Nan Cheng office to obtain a temporary law enforcement certificate, then go find the sword-borrower Tushan Jiu to borrow a sword, calculate the corpse's location, and then have Xiang Qinglong and Xiang Baihu bring it back.

Meanwhile, he stayed in Nan Cheng to participate in this exam.