Chapter 41: Midnight Mirror (Part 4)

Xu Ting sighed: “Little sister, I’m really afraid of scaring you if I say this out loud… Do you want to stop listening first?”

Zhou Danni looked even more timid than Xu Ting. She immediately hugged Xu Ting’s arm tightly and said, “Then I won’t listen, I won’t listen. Let’s just buy a calming talisman.”

“I’m not trying to pour cold water on you.” Chen Jiu was also somewhat helpless: “But according to the latest deductions, at your current stage, a calming talisman probably can’t solve this anymore.”

Connecting this to Song Yang’s reaction, Chen Jiu vaguely realized something: calming talismans could deal with this type of sleepwalking, but only in the early stages. When it developed to the point where Song Yang and Zhou Danni already had self mobility and aggression, the calming talisman’s effect was like a small sorcerer facing a big one.

The host’s body was indeed soothed into deep sleep by the calming talisman, but the body was already gradually being occupied by “it,” capable of self manipulation and movement.

So many people in Qiu City came to buy calming talismans. Could some of them be people with the same symptoms as them? And how did everyone get affected?

Whether this type of sleepwalking was contagious was still only being discussed in a small range on feng shui forums. It hadn’t caused any widespread panic in real terms, meaning that currently “it” was causing limited harm to people. As long as they could quickly find the source of transmission, they could stop the damage in time.

Chen Jiu counted on her fingers for a while, thinking it was really a loss. If everyone could come to her in time to commission her services, she didn’t know how much more she could earn.

Zhou Danni heard these words and immediately showed a despairing expression, collapsing limply into Xu Ting’s arms: “There’s no saving me? What should I do? I’m still young, I don’t want to go to a psychiatric hospital…”

“Alright, don’t panic first. For now, think back: what were you doing in the days before these symptoms appeared?” Chen Jiu asked.

Zhou Danni leaned against Xu Ting, bitterly recalling. After a long while, she said: “It seems like nothing much, just eating, sleeping, working, playing on my phone…”

Xu Ting empathized: “That’s how us homebodies are.”

“You didn’t go anywhere else?” Chen Jiu raised an eyebrow.

Zhou Danni thought again and said: “The mall? The amusement park? The supermarket? The snack street?”

The three of them fell silent.

The curtain of the small partition was lifted by a crack, and a male voice weakly said: “Otherwise, let’s check our itineraries for those days against each other. What if there’s a place in common?”

The two girls didn’t know Fang Lei was behind them. They immediately screamed and hugged each other.

Fang Lei: “…”

The four of them sat down again. Fang Lei was asking Song Yang about his detailed itinerary on his phone while writing it down on paper. Zhou Danni was biting her pen cap, struggling to recall.

Xu Ting leaned close to Chen Jiu and whispered: “Little Jiu, who is this little brother?”

“Prey to be slaughtered.” Chen Jiu answered quietly: “Rich.”

Xu Ting: “… No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

Chen Jiu showed an expression of sudden realization, then roughly narrated to her what had happened on Fang Lei’s side.

Xu Ting scratched her arm, murmuring: “Exactly the same, exactly the same. They definitely got possessed, they encountered the same thing…”

A university student, a new working adult. These two samples were found at just the right time. Their recreational methods hadn’t completely diverged yet. There were a few overlapping paths, then mostly separate daily routines.

Crossing out several different locations, only xx City and xx Amusement Park remained.

Fang Lei scratched his head: “Then let’s keep eliminating. Entertainment items, and specific shops.”

“Ah…” Zhou Danni painfully held her head: “I don’t remember that clearly.”

Fang Lei helplessly said: “There’s no other way right now. We can only try this.”

The two of them scratched their ears and cheeks. Chen Jiu and Xu Ting browsed the latest related public opinion together.

“A lot got deleted.” Chen Jiu scrolled through her phone screen, sighing: “The regulators are stepping in.”

Xu Ting frowned: “That means the situation is more serious than we imagined. Who knows what more terrifying things they’ll do in their sleep in a few more days.”

After struggling to recall for another half hour, Zhou Danni broke down: “I really don’t remember! That’s all!”

“Alright, alright, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter if you missed some. This isn’t an exam, right? If this path doesn’t work, there will always be other ways.” Chen Jiu patted Zhou Danni’s shoulder and back comfortingly, speaking gently.

Zhou Danni pouted and hugged her, silently emptying her mind.

Chen Jiu compared the text on the two sheets of paper, pointing at one place and asking Fang Lei: “What did you go to this club for?”

Fang Lei said: “Uh, university social gathering.”

Chen Jiu looked at Zhou Danni again. The latter revealed a bit of her eyes through her fingers and weakly said: “The organizer, that handsome guy, said only university students could go.”

Fang Lei suppressed a laugh. Looking at the time, Zhou Danni and he hadn’t gone on the same day, so no wonder they didn’t recognize each other.

After filtering several locations and events, Chen Jiu finally looked at a bar, puzzled and rubbing her chin: “Hiss, you two don’t look like you can drink much. Never judge by appearances.”

Fang Lei quickly waved his hand, explaining: “This bar is a quiet bar. Not that kind of wild place.”

“Why are you nervous?” Xu Ting laughed.

Zhou Danni was braiding Xu Ting’s loose long hair, listlessly saying: “There’s a handsome guy performing there. Sometimes when I feel too much pressure, I go to listen to him sing.”

“Oliver?” Fang Lei asked.

Zhou Danni finally came back from her empty state and gave him a hesitant, uncertain look: “You know him?”

Fang Lei said: “He’s also a graduate from our school. Many junior girls go to support him. Song Yang’s girlfriend really likes this Oliver. He went to accompany his girlfriend.”

Speaking to this point, everyone fell quiet for a moment.

Chen Jiu raised an eyebrow, pointing at the bar on the paper: “Let’s investigate this place.”

“I probably don’t need to go, right?” Fang Lei showed a shy smile.

Chen Jiu said: “You all arrange it however you want. Just make sure you stay safe.”

Zhou Danni heard a bit from Fang Lei about Song Yang’s behavior the past few nights. Knowing her own behavior was probably on par with that guy, she said with some lingering fear: “Boss sister, it’s not that I’m afraid of what might happen to me… I’m mainly afraid I might hurt Sister Xin. Is there any way to temporarily avoid this situation?”

“Simple.” Chen Jiu said.

Everyone looked at her expectantly.

Chen Jiu spread her hands: “Just don’t live together for now.”

“…”

Zhou Danni exclaimed, praising that it made sense.

Xu Ting took the opportunity to rescue her hair from Zhou Danni’s hands, stood up and said: “Then it’s settled. I’ll move out temporarily for a few days. Danni, remember to lock all the doors at night.”

Zhou Danni nodded with a reluctant face.

Before leaving, Chen Jiu carefully gave detailed instructions while packing her tools. Fang Lei listened solemnly and nodded. But then he saw Chen Xiao Xuan jump to his side, extending a paw and placing it on his knee.

Chen Jiu turned around and saw this, praising: “Good boy! Take good care of this uncle!”

Chen Xiao Xuan happily raised his tail.

Fang Lei: “…”

…

That night, at Shi Yin Bar.

Only one third of the spotlights on the ceiling were on. The light beams slanted across the stage, drawing a fan shaped bright area on the floor. Oliver sat on a tall stool.

He was about twenty three or twenty four, with deep set eyes and eyebrows, and slightly downturned corners of his mouth. He looked a bit cold.

Most of the audience sitting below were young female viewers, probably all there because of his reputation.

Oliver tried a few chords. His slender fingers plucked the strings. He tilted his head to listen for a moment, then leaned close to the microphone and said in a lazy, husky voice: “First song tonight, North.”

Below the stage, someone clinked glasses. Ice cubes tinkled in the glasses. A girl laughed softly, not loudly. Someone had already laid down, face buried in their arms, not knowing whether they were drunk or asleep.

Chen Jiu and Xu Ting mixed among these entranced girls, slightly lowering their heads and hiding their faces behind two glasses of juice, observing their surroundings.

“The auras are too mixed. Hard to find.” Chen Jiu complained in a low voice.

Xu Ting asked curiously: “Little Jiu, in your line of work, do you usually find things by smelling?”

Chen Jiu: “Um… It’s not quite like that. Using a more scientific explanation, the qi of living things exists in another dimension. This qi is invisible to the naked eye. When we enter the Dao, the first thing we learn is how to briefly enter this dimension. But someone like Xiao Yu who can see it naturally doesn’t need to learn.”

Xu Ting clapped lightly, looking at her with some admiration.

After a moment, a boy who looked like a university student approached Xu Ting and started chatting her up. He looked quite experienced, but once Chen Jiu put her arm around Xu Ting’s shoulder, she quickly stared him down.

“I didn’t know you two…” The boy smiled awkwardly, raising his glass toward Chen Jiu: “Sorry about that.”

Xu Ting never imagined that coming to experience a day in the life of a feng shui practitioner would also involve facing this kind of test. She wiped sweat and said: “Thank you, Little Jiu.”

“You’re welcome.” Chen Jiu withdrew her hand, her gaze drifting back to Oliver on stage.

When the song reached the chorus, applause thundered below the stage. Chen Jiu looked around, feeling that they were all excited in a somewhat abnormal way.

Xu Ting noticed her discomfort and explained: “Fans are all like this. Do you have a celebrity you like? I used to go to offline events for my idol. Fans there were much crazier than this.”

Chen Jiu’s expression still showed some incomprehension, until Oliver looked into her eyes, then hastily looked away.

“…”

“…”

Chen Jiu suddenly stood up. The girl behind her pulled at her: “Hey hey hey! You’re pressing on me!”

Chen Jiu glanced at her and lowered her voice: “Don’t make eye contact with Oliver. I suspect he has a problem.”