“What the hell are you doing?!” I couldn’t help but curse him. Then, I dashed toward the small cabin.

Li Mazi knew he had created trouble. He hurried to catch up with me.

He reached the wooden cabin before me and kicked the door open.

I followed closely behind him and shined my flashlight. There was no one in the cabin.

At this moment, we heard the roar of a car engine. I hurried to get out of the cabin and caught a glimpse of an unregistered car leaving.

I went to the road to check. There was a streak of blood on the floor where the car was parked. I dipped a finger in it. The blood was still warm.

That bastard knew that we were coming for him, so he fled...

“It’s my fault.” Li Mazi lowered his head like a kid that had made a mistake.

I shook my head. “I can’t blame you. This rascal was prepared. I underestimated him.”

Since we had failed, we felt down. We decided to return to the villa to sleep.

When we woke up the next day, Yuan Datou was exercising, and Xiao Li looked very happy. She told us that she liked Yuan Datou when he was lively and vigorous like now.

I gently smiled. “Brother, could you tell me what you did for the Taiwanese boss that an evil spirit started pestering you?”

He was startled when I asked him.

“Since that spirit has escaped, he will return to retaliate against you. For your safety, I hope you will cooperate with me,” I said.

“What?”

Yuan Datou was hesitant at first, but after I told him that, his face changed greatly. Xiao Li also coaxed him into telling me the whole story. Eventually, he told me the truth.

He had done a business deal with a real estate chairman in Taiwan. That chairman’s surname was Zhang, and he happened to be a descendant of General Zhang Xuecheng. After the liberation of the country, he fled to Taiwan and started his business. His business thrived with time. And now, as he had four generations in his family living together, he thought about clearing his ancestor’s name.

However, Zhang Xuecheng’s archived documents were placed in the ancestral hall of the Zhang family in Shenyang. The chairman in Taiwan couldn’t reach the place from his location. That was why he had used his connections to find Yuan Datou.

Yuan Datou and his gangsters boldly intruded the Zhang family’s ancestral hall. Not only did they take the Zhang family’s genealogy documents, but they also assaulted a few elders. Yuan Datou was pestered following that incident.

After listening to him, I rubbed my temples and asked skeptically, “What you’re saying is that the spirit didn’t know about the existence of Bai Xiya at first. He just randomly started to pester you, right?”

I thought I could explain the situation. Zhang Xuecheng didn’t want to leave the Zhang family’s ancestral hall, and he didn’t care about what the later generations thought of him, either.

“I think so.” Yuan Datou nodded.

I suddenly saw the light. Zhang Xuecheng’s biggest pride was that he was a descendant of the Zhang family. How could he be willing to leave the Zhang family’s ancestral hall?

If Yuan Datou got into trouble, that Taiwanese chairman wouldn’t fare well, either.

I asked Yuan Datou for the Taiwanese chairman’s contact number and called him.

When the line went through, I went straight to the matter and told the secretary that I wanted to talk to the chairman. The secretary hesitated and told me that the chairman wasn’t available.

I sneered. “Your chairman asked someone to steal some documents from the Mainland. It’s something related to General Zhang Xuecheng. I guess he’s being pestered by a ghost now. He can’t sleep or eat well, right? And he always feels like someone is following him, correct?”

The secretary kept silent for a few seconds, then told me to wait.

A moment later, an old man’s voice arose. His voice was weak, just as if he had a hard time in the past few days.

I hated to talk to this sort of rich people, so I just simply summarized what had happened to Yuan Datou and told him that he should return the item he took if he wanted to live in peace.

The chairman didn’t hesitate and agreed with me. I even felt joy and relief in his voice.

“Master, ever since that genealogy document came to Taiwan, we’ve been hearing people crying and bowls rattling every night. My wife and children were scared and moved out. I also wanted to move out, but no matter where I went, at around midnight, I’d hear that noise. I currently have to take sleeping pills.” The chairman sighed.

I exhaled in relief. No matter what, he was Zhang Xuecheng’s descendant. Zhang Xuecheng wouldn’t kill him. At most, he would scare him.

“Don’t worry. As long as you return the family’s genealogy document, your life will go back to normal,” I said.

Seeing that I had ended the call, Yuan Datou asked, “Master, how did it go?” He was really scared.

“There’s no need to worry. That chairman agreed to return the genealogy document! You should return it to the place you took it. And, you have to find the elders you hurt and compensate them. That’s how you can cut off the bond between you and the evil spirit. He won’t come to haunt you later.”

Yuan Datou shyly asked me about the commission. Li Mazi rolled his eyes and half-joked with him. “Do you need to ask? Don’t you have a number in mind?”

“I’m afraid it might not be enough.” Yuan Datou laughed and nudged Li Mazi.

In the end, he paid three million renminbi. We became friends, and later on, I had a chance to go to the Northeastern area and visit him. During that visit, I learned that he had sold his villa to obtain the money to pay me.

From that day onward, he dismissed his gangster band and became an honest businessman. Although he wasn’t filthy rich, he didn’t need to worry about making ends meet.

After receiving the payment, Li Mazi and I stayed in the Northeast for one week. Yin Xinyue, Ru Xue, and Li Meng also came.

As we didn’t have anything to do, we decided to travel. A week later, the genealogy document the chairman had sent arrived. I gave it to Yuan Datou, who then traveled during the night to return it to the Zhang family’s ancestral hall.

When everything was done, Li Mazi and I felt somewhat embarrassed. Ever since we had started working in this business, this was the weirdest case we had encountered. The victims and the otherworldly item were dealt with, but we didn’t know where the evil spirit was…

It seemed like everything was fine. However, I knew it was just the calm before the storm.

After Xiao Li’s ancestor forced him away, Zhang Xuecheng’s ghost didn’t reappear. It proved that someone was still controlling him. I knew that whenever they had the opportunity, the people from the Longquan Villa would come and try to kill me.

When we returned to Wuhan, we had a few peaceful days. Later on, Li Mazi and I often felt that people were stealthily lingering around my antique shop.

However, every time we went out to see who it was, we didn’t see anybody. If things kept going this way, we would be exhausted before the other party even took action.

I decided to call Chuyi. After he listened to my story, he said coldly, “They’re courting death!”

Then, he hung up the call. Chuyi always had an unruffled tone. However, this time, he was enraged. From his rage, I felt I was in grave danger. I decided to close my shop for a while.

I would stay in the shop all day long with Li Mazi. We had discussed and decided that we wouldn’t do anything until Chuyi arrived.

Although I calculated all the possibilities, the situation was leaning in the direction I didn’t want the most.

After talking to Chuyi, Li Mazi and I started to live in seclusion. According to Chuyi’s character, he would come here within three days.

Unfortunately, a week had passed and he had neither come nor contacted me. Li Mazi kept nagging me to call him.

“He won’t ignore us. Rest assured.” I completely trusted him.

I was sure Chuyi had something more important to do. That was why he hadn’t arrived yet. After he was done with his stuff, he would come here.

Li Mazi pouted and said nothing.

As Yin Xinyue and Ru Xue had work to do, they couldn’t hide with us. I decided to make them stay with their companies.

One afternoon, Li Mazi and I had lunch and drank a bit as we often did. I took a nap afterward.

At around twilight, I got up because of the urge to use the toilet.

When I returned to my room, I saw that Li Mazi’s room was open. I wondered if he had changed his habit since he liked to sleep with his door closed. However, when I went there to check, his bed was empty. Li Mazi wasn’t in the room.

“Li Mazi, where are you?”

I was still a little tipsy. I checked around, thinking that he had laid his eyes on my antiques.

I called his name several times, but no one answered. I suddenly sobered up and went back to his room and touched his bed. It was cold.

This meant that Li Mazi had left quite a long time ago. I found my phone and called him. Although his phone rang, no one picked up the call.

I suddenly felt anxious. Although Li Mazi looked unreliable, he was always dependable when we had to deal with important matters.

I was certain that he didn’t leave because of boredom. I put on more clothes and turned on my computer to check my shop’s cameras.

On the screen, Li Mazi looked in a hurry. He walked out of the antique shop and hastily stopped a taxi. He looked like he had something urgent to do.

As Li Mazi always cared about his life, there weren’t many things that made him worried that much.

I called Ru Xue. She picked up the phone quickly. “Yes? Is something the matter?”

Her voice sounded normal. She wasn’t what he was concerned about. In that case, something must have happened to Li Meng!