Chuyi said, “You’ve provoked the quilt. We can’t leave now. We must solve this problem first.”

I felt much safer with the mysterious man here. I asked, “Do you have a plan?”

The mysterious man said, “We must find the old man first.”

We recovered then returned to the village.

After a whole night of soaking in the water, my legs were all numb. I had to limp all the way back.

The man furrowed his brows. Eventually, he came and supported me.

At this moment, my entire body was exhausted. My head spun, which made me feel dizzy and nauseous. I vomited several times. I started to hate the old man even more. I swore that I would give him a good lesson if I got my hands on him.

However, when we arrived at the small lodge, the old man wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Li Mazi gasped indignantly. He cursed the old man and wished him a horrible death. I was also upset. If I couldn’t vent this anger, I would have to keep it in me for the rest of my life.

Chuyi didn’t fluster. He found a chair and sat down. “Don’t worry. That old man will come back tonight. Just wait here and you’ll see him.”

I was very tired. I laid on the old man’s dirty bed and slept with all of my clothes on.

Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue didn’t want to stay in this filthy place so they returned to the hotel.

I felt fully protected with the mysterious man here. I had a great sleep and slept until the night came.

When night fell, I was awakened by some strange squeaking noise. I opened my eyes and found Chuyi with his sword on his back. He was gazing at the corner of the room. The squeaking noise came from the remote corner.

Looking at me, he said, “Come and get the old man out.”

I didn’t understand him and scanned the room. “The old man? Where is he?”

The mysterious man pointed at the corner and on the ground was an old brick. Curiously, I walked over and picked up the brick. Then, I found a mouse hole behind the brick.

I couldn’t see anything through the mouse hole because it was too dark. However, it was true that the squeaking noise came from this hole.

Is Chuyi asking me to get the old man out of a mouse hole? What does he mean? The old man’s a mouse spirit?

Is he a mouse staying idle in his hole during the day and turns back to his human shape at night?

Before I could ask any questions, the man waved his hand and signaled at me to not talk. Then, he asked me to pee into the mouse hole.

I didn’t care if the old man was a mouse spirit or not. I could take a little revenge here, so I felt very pleased. Immediately, I peed into the mouse hole.

Before I could finish, a silhouette dashed out of the mouse hole. Well, if it wasn’t a big mouse, what else could it be?

When I saw a big mouse, I was startled.

The mouse was as big as an adult’s arm. Black hair covered its entire body. It had two small but congested eyes that checked the room stealthily before fleeing towards the door.

The moment the mouse reached the door, Chuyi took action. He raised his hand and sprinkled some white powder around the mouse.

After encountering a sprinkle of white powder, the big mouse didn’t dare to move. Pretending to be pitiful, it looked at the man and hoped that he would release it.

Of course, Chuyi wouldn’t let it go. He said calmly, “Wait here. The old man will come home soon…”

I was surprised and asked the mysterious man, “What does this mouse have to do with the old man?”

I felt like the old man and the mouse were alike. They both had a pointy mouth and cheeks, and even their habits and routines were the same. They were both filthy and ragged, and their places were always filled with some sour smell.

When Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue came, they saw me holding the mouse by its tail. Li Mazi burst out laughing. “Little Brother Zhang, what do you want with this mouse? Do you want to use it to ease your hunger tonight?”

I gave Li Mazi a fierce glance. “You came and didn’t bring me anything to eat. I’ve been starving for the whole day.”

Yin Xinyue smiled. “Of course, we couldn’t forget about you.”

Then, Yin Xinyue took out two boxes of rice and stewed chicken from her car. I was starving. I threw the mouse to Li Mazi and asked him to hold it by its tail. Chuyi and I began to dig into our rice boxes.

Meanwhile, Li Mazi kept asking why we needed to keep holding the mouse by its tail.

The mysterious man was annoyed and said, “That old man has swapped his fate with that mouse. In other words, the old man exists as the mouse, and the mouse exists as the old man. When his enemy found his whereabouts, they would have to look for the mouse and not the old man himself. That’s how he was able to survive until now.”

Li Mazi rolled his eyes. “Does that really work?”

Chuyi nodded.

Bewildered, I asked him, “In the event that the mouse is killed, will the old man die as well?”

The man answered, “It’s not easy to kill this mouse. Moreover, even if we can kill it, the old man could still swap his fate with another mouse.”

Unless his longevity came to an end, the others would find it very hard to take his life…

Feeling pensive, I nodded.

Since we had this mouse in our grasp, it wasn’t different from holding the old man’s life in our hands! We didn’t need to worry about him not showing himself!

Later that night, Chuyi sprinkled some white powder around the room then asked Li Mazi to release the mouse.

The mouse curled up its body inside the white powder circle and didn’t dare to move. Its round eyes rolled around.

Around more than ten minutes later, the mouse couldn’t stay calm anymore. It rushed around, digging and biting. It was trying to get rid of the circle.

However, how could it escape the circle so easily? Everything was in vain, and it had to stay put.

I was surprised and asked the man, “What’s going on?”

“The old man’s nearby.”

Li Mazi immediately felt enraged. He picked up a stick on the ground and spat coldly, “Old man, show yourself! Otherwise, I will pound this mouse to death!”

Awkward laughter was heard from the door.

The door opened. The old man wearing a coat entered the house. He looked at Chuyi and greeted him respectfully. “Chuyi, why are you here?”

Chuyi snorted. “If I didn’t come, would they still be alive and be able to stand here?”

The old man felt embarrassed and rubbed his head. “Don’t be mad. I didn’t know they were your friends.”

Li Mazi and I surrounded the old man, threatening him.

His face paled. “Friends, please don’t get mad. I did that for your own good!”

I clenched my teeth and seethed in anger. “You bastard! You did it for my own good? What’s good in it for me?”

“If you won’t tell us the truth, then I will tear you apart today!” Li Mazi rolled his eyes and looked really scary.

The old man said with a smile, “Oh, you didn’t know? Someone’s stalking you. I just thought that rather than letting you die in their hands, it would be better if you could help me a bit first. You’d also accumulate some virtue this way. Moreover, if you fell into their hands, you would have met an extremely tragic end.”

I was dumbstruck. What the old man was talking about just now and what Chuyi had told me was obviously the same matter.

Chuyi seemed to care about this matter even more than I did. He asked immediately, “Do you know who is investigating their whereabouts? Tell me.”

The old man said, “In the circle of otherworldly items, only the Longquan Villa has this ability. Didn’t you know this?”