Chapter 49: Seeking Auspiciousness

“Hmm… Ning Zhe? Are you listening?” In the monitoring room, Feng Yushu stared at the pitch-black screen, her heart uneasy.

“I’m here.” Ning Zhe’s voice remained calm, devoid of emotion yet reassuring: “Alright, Auntie, I’m going to cut the power now. Leave the monitoring room immediately. We’ll meet Bai Zhi on the second floor. I’ve found a way forward—later, cooperate with me. We’re going to kill that ghost.”

“Huh? Already…?” Feng Yushu was surprised. She felt she hadn’t done anything, yet Ning Zhe had solved every mystery—pure speedrun.

After a moment’s thought, she ultimately chose to trust him: “Alright, I’ll go find her. You be careful too.”

With that, she cut the power to the monitoring room and hurried out under her umbrella.

Ning Zhe slipped Security Officer Li’s phone into his pocket, glanced at the sealed electrical panel embedded in the wall, then at Old Li—limbs broken, sprawled on the floor, exhaling more than inhaling. From Old Li’s memories, he pulled out some interesting tidbits, like finding a joke book in a long-abandoned corner of the school library—useful later.

Ning Zhe closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Alright. Let the game begin.”

In the dressing room on the first floor of the castle, Xie Yaoan and Liu Yunzhi waited nervously. Faint light seeped through the curtain gaps—not moonlight, for there was no moon inside the enclosed Bishushanzhuang—but the streetlamp glow from the distant lawn. Outside the door, the dim crystal chandelier cast an ambiguous halo.

But soon, even this last light vanished. With the power cut, the entire castle sank into a thick, ink-like pool of darkness.

“Brother Li really turned off the power.” Xie Yaoan’s voice carried excitement. Though she didn’t understand the mechanics, she knew the most basic rule: hiding in darkness kept you safe from the ghost.

Now the whole estate was pitch-black—Old Li had manually expanded the safe zone to cover the entire castle.

Only the outdoor electric grid remained active—that was Tian Chengyun’s responsibility.

“Great, now we can go out…” Xie Yaoan leaned against the wall, clutching her phone to her chest.

Watching her enthusiasm, Liu Yunzhi frowned.

Xie Yaoan was young, like Tian Chengyun, a recent college graduate without a job. But while Tian Chengyun took a security job to drift through life, Xie Yaoan had been studying for civil service exams—though she hadn’t passed.

In the end, both ended up working at Bishushanzhuang—one as a receptionist, the other still as a security guard.

Unlike Xie Yaoan, a sheltered young girl with no real-world experience, Liu Yunzhi, a high school graduate, had held many jobs. Though their ages were similar, her life experience was broader, her personality steadier, her thoughts more meticulous.

Liu Yunzhi nudged Xie Yaoan’s relaxed shoulder and whispered: “Hey, don’t you think this is strange?”

Xie Yaoan looked puzzled: “What’s strange?”

Liu Yunzhi shook her head and showed her phone screen: “Look for yourself. While we’ve been hiding here, I’ve called my family outside dozens of times—WeChat, QQ, text messages… I tried everything. No calls go through, no messages send, no network.”

“Maybe the signal’s being blocked,” Xie Yaoan mused. “I remember the innermost rooms in the castle have small signal jammers—installed by the boss for business meetings, to keep things confidential.”

Perhaps someone panicked and accidentally turned up the jammer’s power. Or perhaps it was deliberate.

“That still doesn’t make sense,” Liu Yunzhi said. “Didn’t you just take a call from Brother Li?”

Xie Yaoan’s expression froze: “Oh… right…”

Earlier, she’d been terrified. When she saw Brother Li’s call, she’d only felt excitement—and in that rush, she’d overlooked this detail.

“Why can’t we call out, but Brother Li can call me?” Xie Yaoan couldn’t figure it out. “Let me call you.” Liu Yunzhi dialed her number.

A moment later, Xie Yaoan’s phone rang.

“It really works?” Surprised, Xie Yaoan quickly hung up and tried calling her family outside—but the screen showed no signal. She slumped again: “What’s going on? We can call inside the estate, but not reach outside?”

Add to that the light-attracted, invisible ghost—and the whole world seemed tilting toward the supernatural.

Tap-tap—

Suddenly, a crisp knocking sound shattered the dressing room’s silence. Both women tensed. Xie Yaoan curled into the corner, hands over her face, shoulders trembling: “What’s that sound…?”

Liu Yunzhi’s face grew grim. She turned off her phone and, using the faint light seeping through the curtain, stared toward the sound’s source.

It was a wide mirror wall—a single giant mirror, like those in ballet studios.

The sound had come from the mirror wall.

Xie Yaoan crouched on the floor, face buried between her knees, motionless. But Liu Yunzhi knew running away was useless. Just like when the ghost hunted them—if she hadn’t followed Tian Chengyun to this dark safe room, but had instead cowered in place, she’d be dead already.

But what could she do now? Go out? No… that might kill her faster. Tian Chengyun hadn’t turned off the outdoor grid yet—the streetlights outside were still on. Outside might be even more dangerous.

Liu Yunzhi cautiously rose halfway, peering toward the mirror wall. Nothing was there—only her and Xie Yaoan’s blurred reflections on the glass.

Her own reflection crouched too, but for some reason, the dim, indistinct figures gave her an inexplicable sense of unease—as if some strange psychological suggestion lingered.

She dared not look longer. She already knew what to do.

She crept slowly to the bed and pulled the curtain shut completely, sealing every gap. Instantly, the dressing room plunged into total darkness. The mirror reflections vanished.

The eerie feeling dissolved into the dark, gone entirely.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mirror wall, Ning Zhe quietly withdrew his gaze from the one-way mirror.

He wore a brand-new men’s suit—fine fabric, but the loose cut didn’t fit his frame.

Ning Zhe pulled several crisp red bills, still smelling of ink, from the suit’s pocket and slipped them into his pants. Then, from the body of the overweight man lying on the floor—the suit’s owner—he took a jade-and-gold watch and fastened it to his wrist. The pure gold dial’s edge was covered in tiny scratches.

“Lucky break. Got myself a life.” Ning Zhe, dressed in the ill-fitting suit and wearing the gold watch utterly mismatched to his demeanor, slipped away quietly.

The impersonation of Liu Yunzhi went flawlessly—smooth, seamless, perfect. His luck had never been this good before.

Believing in the Snake God really works. — Today’s Auspiciousness:

[Favorable: Marriage, Groundbreaking, Planting, Acquiring Clothes, Acquiring Wealth]

[Avoid: Drinking, Lighting Fire, Cutting Trees, Building Dams, Constructing Houses]

(End of Chapter)