Chapter 24: Let

He Jiaqing exclaimed in surprise: “Why did you leave the item at the station?”

Li Banfeng sighed: “This story is a long one.”

Li Banfeng stood at the door, hesitating whether to enter.

He Jiaqing had already shut the front door.

If he didn’t go in now, it would be the same as openly breaking ties.

If he broke ties openly, could he even survive?

“Come inside and talk,” He Jiaqing led Li Banfeng into the entrance hall. Li Banfeng had traveled all day; his leather shoes were caked with mud and water. After taking two steps inside, he left two muddy footprints on the rug.

He Jiaqing glanced at the rug. Li Banfeng smiled awkwardly and quickly kicked off his shoes.

In fact, his socks were no better off—during his struggle with the black cat, mud and water had seeped into his shoes, dried on the journey, and now hardened into shape.

Li Banfeng slipped on slippers and handed the feather duster to He Jiaqing.

He Jiaqing took the duster, puzzled by its meaning.

Li Banfeng said: “It’s my token of respect.”

He Jiaqing held the feather duster and shook his head, sighing: “Banfeng, you’re never serious.”

Li Banfeng’s expression turned solemn: “Bringing a gift when visiting—isn’t that proper?”

He Jiaqing sighed helplessly and tossed the feather duster into a corner of the living room. This reminded Li Banfeng of something Mrs. Wu from Fuli Academy had once said:

People who are particular never place a feather duster in the living room—it invites trivial troubles.

Now was not the time to think about feather dusters.

He Jiaqing led Li Banfeng into the living room. Li Banfeng sat on the sofa.

Though the mansion was grand, it had no electricity. He Jiaqing lit a candle on the coffee table and asked about Li Banfeng’s journey.

“Banfeng, I sent you messages all along the way—why didn’t you reply?” He Jiaqing poured Li Banfeng a cup of tea.

“At Pantai Kan, my phone died, the train broke down, and I couldn’t charge it—I never saw your messages.” Li Banfeng lifted the teacup to drink, but when he brought it near his nose, he smelled a fishy stench.

“Is this water you keep goldfish in?” Li Banfeng frowned.

“Nonsense! What do you mean goldfish water? This is premium tea! I wouldn’t even offer it to ordinary guests!”

“So it’s good tea,” Li Banfeng lifted the cup, mimicked drinking, but didn’t actually sip—the tea level didn’t drop.

He Jiaqing said: “I heard the train had an accident. I was worried you’d go hungry on the way—I’ve been anxious these past few days.”

Li Banfeng smiled: “I had food, but the things I saw along the way were bizarre. Jiaqing, you haven’t told me yet—what exactly happened? Where are we? Who’s lying in that hospital bed?”

He Jiaqing chuckled: “There’s a lot to this story—it would take three days and nights to tell. I heard the train arrived yesterday—why did you only come to me today?”

“I was just…” Halfway through his sentence, Li Banfeng heard a sound from the entrance hall.

He Jiaqing also turned toward the entrance hall—there was indeed a faint rustling of footsteps.

The two walked together to the entrance hall, looked around, saw no one—only a spotted cat, huddled beneath the shoe rack, eating from its food bowl.

Li Banfeng asked: “I just saw a black cat—why is there a spotted one now?”

He Jiaqing laughed: “They’re all stray cats from the neighborhood. They used to live in the old mansion, but when I moved back, I took over their home—”

“I felt sorry for them, so I feed them every day. This mansion is huge, and I live alone—having them around isn’t bad.”

Li Banfeng stared at the cat’s food bowl—it contained an unidentifiable paste, definitely not fish, yet it still emitted a fishy stench.

Why did everything smell fishy today?

Was his nose broken?

Li Banfeng scanned the entrance hall again and suddenly noticed the bright, vivid feather duster he’d brought.

The feather duster had originally been placed in a corner of the living room—but now it sat beside the shoe rack.

Following the duster to the shoe rack, he saw his muddy leather shoes had been cleaned—no mud, polished to a shine.

Looking at the rug, it was spotless, dust-free.

The two muddy footprints he’d left upon entering were gone.

“Banfeng, what are you staring at?”

Li Banfeng smiled: “I was watching the cat.”

“Why watch it? You’re hungry, aren’t you?” He Jiaqing chuckled. “Sit down—I’ll cook you a bowl of meat soup.”

Li Banfeng returned to the sofa, picked up the teacup, and poured the tea onto the rug.

He wanted to see what would happen.

Less than two minutes later, the tea on the rug had dried—no trace remained.

He Jiaqing was busy in the kitchen. Beneath the cabinet lay a white cat, fast asleep.

On the cutting board rested a skinned animal, about a foot long.

He Jiaqing sliced off several pieces of meat and dropped them into the pot.

The slices were thin—he hesitated, reluctant.

But after a moment’s pause, He Jiaqing smiled.

He whispered to himself:

Tomorrow, I won’t need to eat this anymore.

Tomorrow, I won’t need to stay here anymore.

He Jiaqing laughed more brightly, then cut off most of the cat meat from the board and tossed it into the pot.

“Banfeng, here’s your soup,” He Jiaqing placed the bowl before Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng stared at the soup and smiled: “Too hot—let it cool first.”

He Jiaqing noticed the teacup was empty: “You’re really thirsty—I’ll brew you another cup?”

Li Banfeng shook his head: “No need. I’m not used to such fine tea.”

After some small talk, He Jiaqing returned to the matter at hand: “Why did you leave the item at the station?”

Li Banfeng gave a bitter laugh: “That’s your question. What exactly was that thing? It had people chasing me all the way! If I hadn’t left it at the station, I never would’ve made it to your house!”

He Jiaqing froze: “Someone followed you all the way to Yaowang Gou?”

“Yes! Right after leaving the station, two men said they’d kill me—I ran in panic, bumped into everything, finally found a rickshaw driver and escaped. Guess how much he charged me?”

He Jiaqing thought a moment: “Depends on whether it had a steam engine.”

“You know about steam engines!” Li Banfeng exclaimed in surprise. “He said his rickshaw had one—cost five hundred.”

He Jiaqing nodded: “Five hundred isn’t expensive. A steam-powered rickshaw isn’t ordinary—price is fair.”

“Fair?” Li Banfeng winced. “You don’t know how painful it was to hand over that money.”

“Don’t worry—I won’t let you get cheated. I’ll pay you back.” He Jiaqing immediately pulled out three thousand yuan and shoved it into Li Banfeng’s hand.

Li Banfeng didn’t refuse—he slipped the money straight into his wallet.

“Jiaqing, if you’re in a hurry, let’s go to the station now and get the item back,” Li Banfeng wanted to leave the house as soon as possible.

“No need. We’ll do it tomorrow morning. Banfeng, drink your soup!” He Jiaqing didn’t seem in a rush.

Li Banfeng lifted the soup bowl and smelled the sharp fishy odor again.

The spotted cat finished eating, walked to the living room window, and yawned.

Li Banfeng set down the soup bowl and yawned too.

The spotted cat curled up and fell asleep by the window. Li Banfeng rubbed his eyes—he was about to drop off.

“Banfeng, are you sleepy?”

“A little…” Li Banfeng rubbed his eyes.

He Jiaqing stood: “I’ve prepared your room. Come upstairs with me.”

Li Banfeng followed He Jiaqing upstairs. The second room on the left was his bedroom.

The room was spacious. The window was closed; vines hanging from the ceiling swayed gently in the night breeze before the glass.

“This room feels stuffy—can you open the window?” Li Banfeng asked casually.

“The window hinges are rusted shut. If you’re hot, take a bath—the bathroom’s on the second floor, at the end of the hall.”

“No bath. I’m tired.” Li Banfeng didn’t even take off his clothes—he collapsed onto the large bed.

The bed was over two meters wide. Since coming into this world, he’d never slept on anything so large.

He Jiaqing frowned: “I prepared pajamas for you—your clothes…”

Li Banfeng’s clothes were caked in mud. Seeing He Jiaqing’s displeasure, he quickly stripped off his clothes and put on the pajamas.

He Jiaqing took the clothes: “I’ll wash them for you.”

“That’s too much trouble.”

“We’re brothers—what’s the point of being formal?” He Jiaqing picked up Li Banfeng’s clothes.

Damn—he took my clothes.

Good thing the key wasn’t in them.

“Jiaqing, after all this, you still haven’t explained anything!” Li Banfeng yawned.

“Get some rest first. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

Li Banfeng lay on the bed, squinting at He Jiaqing, then suddenly asked: “Did you ever see the birthmark on Song Laoshi’s peach?”

He Jiaqing smiled: “Of course I did. You want to see it?”

Li Banfeng smiled: “I do—but I’m afraid Song Laoshi won’t let me.”

“You lecher!” He Jiaqing took Li Banfeng’s dirty clothes and left the bedroom, closing the door. He reached into Li Banfeng’s pocket and pulled out his wallet.

The wallet contained Li Banfeng’s identification—with it, he could retrieve the stored item from the station.

Downstairs, He Jiaqing went to the kitchen and poured Li Banfeng’s uneaten soup into the garbage bin.

This soup can’t be drunk—it has seasonings in it.

He grabbed the cat’s remains from the cutting board and gnawed raw meat straight off the bones, blood dripping drop by drop from the corner of his mouth.

I’ll never have to eat this again.

By tomorrow morning, I’ll never have to eat this again.

Just now, Li Banfeng suddenly mentioned the birthmark, nearly catching him off guard.

This lowlife—if I hadn’t reacted fast, I’d have blown my cover just now.

He’d already blown his cover long ago; he just hasn’t realized it yet.

Li Banfeng saw Song Laoshi’s birthmark—He Jiaqing knew about this.

This was Li Banfeng’s final verification.

From the moment he walked in, Li Banfeng spotted the flaw.

The person living in this house isn’t He Jiaqing—he doesn’t even recognize Li Banfeng’s backpack.

That backpack was given to Li Banfeng by He Jiaqing, bought off a street vendor.

Who is he really?

Where is the real He Jiaqing?

Now isn’t the time to think about that—now we must ask: can we even survive and get out?

Li Banfeng opened his eyes and looked at the candlestick on the table.

His house has no electricity—how did he charge his phone?

If his phone was dead, how did he send me that message?

Li Banfeng sat up and stared at the slippers on the floor.

The filthy socks had left plenty of mud on the slippers, but now all that mud was gone.

He recalled what Ma Wu had said:

The house spirit loves cleanliness—it will find a way to clean up anything unclean.

There is a house spirit in this house.

He remembered the peddler’s words:

If a house spirit is abandoned, it turns into a vengeful spirit—it lures others into the house; anyone who spends one night inside becomes its prisoner.

Unless someone comes to replace the imprisoned person, the house spirit will hold them captive until death.

There was another passage:

‘The Watcher likes to hang hooks on phones…’

This man is a Watcher.

He knows the state of my surroundings, and he’s been able to keep sending me messages because he’s a Watcher—he used Watcher magic to track my phone, which is what the peddler meant by ‘ear that hears from afar.’

He deceived me, lured me all the way to Puluozhou—he’s trapped by the house spirit, become its prisoner, and tricked me here to be his replacement!

Li Banfeng got off the bed and reached for the window, carefully testing it a few times.

The window won’t open.

Li Banfeng had already entered the basics of House Cultivation and Travel Cultivation; his strength far surpassed an ordinary person’s, yet he could clearly sense that he couldn’t open this window—the window bore the house spirit’s power.

If I can’t get out through the window, can I get out through the door?

The man pretending to be He Jiaqing won’t let me leave—he’d die before he’d let me go.

Can I beat him?

That’s uncertain—I probably can’t beat him, but he likely doesn’t have full confidence in subduing me either.

Though he’s a Dark Energy user, and though his cultivation base is certainly higher than mine, under the house spirit’s control, he’s probably restricted in some way—otherwise he could’ve just tied me up and left me here until morning.

But even if I could beat him, would I definitely get out?

If I can’t open the window, I probably can’t open the door either.

Then the fake He Jiaqing and the house spirit will conspire against me—I’ll be completely trapped.

As he pondered, Li Banfeng heard a faint rustling, scraping sound.

Leaving the bedroom, Li Banfeng found the sound coming from the bathroom.

It was the cat’s footsteps—he recognized them.

I’ve got an idea.

Li Banfeng walked to the bathroom door, revealing a faint, barely noticeable smile—when suddenly He Jiaqing appeared beside him.

‘Banfeng, you’re not asleep?’

Li Banfeng smiled: ‘I was asleep, but I woke up needing the toilet—wanna go together?’

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Two chapters today, four thousand characters each.

(End of Chapter)