Chapter 50: Loyal Dog (Part 3)

Everything Shao Quan said at Wan Shi Zhai was against his true feelings. That little girl clearly liked Bingbing very much. It was impossible she would treat it poorly. The reason he acted so cold and unfeeling was nothing more than to have more opportunities to come, to see more glimpses.

Chen Jiu had thought Shao Quan would come at most once a week, just to show his concern. Unexpectedly he came more diligently than she imagined. It was just that he never stayed long. Generally he would buy some new toys or new clothes, have Chen Jiu pass them on to Bingbing on his behalf.

Sometimes Bingbing had already been taken out for a walk by Su Xiaoyu. Sometimes it was playing ball in the open space behind Wan Shi Zhai. Sometimes Shao Quan would just look at Bingbing for a moment and then leave. In short, he never spent time alone with Bingbing, nor did he intend to leave any deeper impression on it.

This day it was still raining. Bingbing and Chen Xiaoxuan were sleeping pressed together. Su Xiaoyu finished her homework, let out a long breath, and looked toward the door. That familiar energy body was still standing there, not leaving.

“Senior Sister, Uncle Zheng still won’t leave.” She turned her head to look at Chen Jiu.

Chen Jiu was doing the accounts, scratching her chin: “Su Xiaoyu, if you really want to handle this, then hurry up and learn your spirit communication skills properly. But I’m giving you advance warning.”

Su Xiaoyu nodded, solemnly opening “On the Dao: 600 Lectures on Taoist Introduction,” and continued studying.

Peaceful days flowed like water. Su Xiaoyu started summer vacation, and could spend more time at the shop.

Chen Jiu wasn’t actually so mean as to dock an elementary school student’s wages. In any case, most of Bingbing’s expenses were covered by Shao Quan. That monthly thousand yuan pocket money was still paid to her little junior sister as usual.

The sun tilted westward. Shao Quan came again carrying a bag of new things to see Bingbing. He entered, put the things down, and was about to leave.

Su Xiaoyu called him: “Uncle Shao!”

Shao Quan stopped his steps, turned his head to look at her: “What is it?”

Su Xiaoyu ran over with small steps, handing him a talisman paper drawn not very well: “This is for you, for protection and safety!”

Shao Quan didn’t really believe in these supernatural things, but it was after all the little girl’s heartfelt intention. So he didn’t decline, accepted it and put it in his pocket, saying: “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” Su Xiaoyu watched him leave, satisfactorily scoring her own performance, giving herself ten points.

Chen Jiu asked: “You secretly cast a divination for him?”

“Uh…” Su Xiaoyu became embarrassed, discovered by her senior sister. She thought for a moment, explaining: “I felt Uncle Shao’s luck hasn’t been very good these past two days. He’s Bingbing’s godfather. I hope he gets better.”

Chen Jiu: “Next time remember to charge money.”

Su Xiaoyu: “Yes!”

Although he had accepted it with solemn seriousness, a day later Shao Quan had completely forgotten this protective talisman.

He remembered it while hanging clothes to dry. By the time he pulled out that talisman paper, it had already become a wrinkled ball.

“…”

How to put it, this was probably also part of the unseen forces making him firm in his materialist ideology. But this thought itself was also quite unmaterialist.

Forget it, never mind. He had to catch a flight early tomorrow. Sleep early tonight.

However, just as he lay down in bed early preparing to fall asleep, strange things happened.

First came strange sounds from the ceiling. He frowned, listened intently for a while. It seemed to be the sound of marbles rolling. But he lived in a standalone house. There couldn’t possibly be anyone upstairs.

Shao Quan opened his eyes expressionlessly. Suddenly he remembered a more scientific explanation. Modern buildings are mostly reinforced concrete structures. During the day temperatures rise, and the steel bars and concrete inside the floor slabs expand from heat. At night temperatures drop, and they contract again.

This repeated thermal expansion and contraction accumulates stress within the materials. When the stress exceeds a certain critical point, tiny relative displacement occurs between the steel bars and concrete, or microcracks form within the concrete. This process produces short sounds similar to marbles bouncing, rolling, or metal colliding, transmitted through solid conduction, sounding like they come from upstairs.

Thinking of this, he closed his eyes again with peace of mind.

But things weren’t over yet. The marble sounds probably lasted a few minutes and then stopped. Immediately after, the living room transmitted the sound of something falling and rolling.

Now he really couldn’t lie down anymore. Whether it was human or ghost, he had to take a look.

So Shao Quan sat up, put on clothes, picked up a clothes drying pole, walked on tiptoe to behind the door, then suddenly flung the door open, turned on the light and shouted: “Who?!”

The living room was completely empty. Wind blew in through the screen window, making the curtains float. On the ground a plastic ornament rolled another circle, making the same sound as just now.

Shao Quan let out a long breath. So he had forgotten to close the window himself. The wind blew the ornament off the coffee table, and it rolled to the ground.

Truly scaring himself.

He went over and closed all the windows, carefully checked again, and put the ornament back in its original position. An inexplicable uneasy feeling rose in his heart. He didn’t know what this feeling was. He just felt that something was off with himself today.

Was it because he had gone to that Wan Shi Zhai too much recently, being influenced by what he saw and heard, and started believing in these supernatural things?

Shao Quan smoothly transferred the reason for his unease outward, rubbed his neck, and returned to his room.

If the first two incidents could still barely be explained by scientific reasoning, then the final incident that happened tonight could be said to completely shatter Shao Quan’s worldview.

In the middle of the night, he was suddenly awakened by the sound of running water from the bathroom.

He opened his eyes groggily, turned on the light in his room. When he realized where this water sound was coming from, his whole body jolted, completely awake.

He clearly remembered that before falling asleep he had definitely turned off the faucet tightly. So why was there the sound of running water in the bathroom at this moment?

Shao Quan immediately broke out in a cold sweat, palms wet. He picked up his phone, entered 110, picked up the clothes drying pole leaning against the headboard, and carefully approached the bathroom.

Listening outside for a moment, besides the water sound there was no other movement in the bathroom. No breathing sound other than his own. This discovery made him even more terrified.

He closed his eyes and thought for a long time. Then he steeled himself and rushed into the bathroom, shouted loudly, waved the clothes drying pole a few times, only to discover that in the bathroom there was no living creature of any other form besides himself. He quickly went over and turned off the faucet, then quickly retreated from the bathroom.

Waited a few seconds. Everything normal.

Letting out a long breath, Shao Quan discovered his hands were even trembling a bit. He deleted the 110 on his phone screen, and instead called Chen Jiu.

He didn’t know whether Chen Jiu had fallen asleep at this hour. But right now he had no one else he could turn to. He could only place his hopes on this half-familiar Wan Shi Zhai boss.

But fortunately Chen Jiu was a qualified internet-addicted young woman. This hour was truly still early for her. It was precisely the good time to be battling fiercely in a game.

Seeing it was Shao Quan calling, she knew he must be in urgent need. So she decisively cut the game, pressed the answer button.

“Boss Chen, although I…” Shao Quan’s voice was a bit dry. He paused a few words, then directly said: “Forget it, my house seems to be haunted.”

Chen Jiu’s eyes lit up. Business had arrived just like that. This girl Su Xiaoyu really had some skill. She hadn’t studied for many days and already calculated accurately.

“Send location.” Chen Jiu said briefly.

She sprang up from bed with a carp-like flip. When getting out of bed she accidentally swept the sleeping Chen Xiaoxuan down too. While packing magical tools into her bag she apologized to her son repeatedly. Chen Xiaoxuan saw its mother was leaving, unwillingly meowed, circled a few times, and still jumped onto Chen Jiu’s shoulder.

“Fine, fine.” Chen Jiu put on clothes, brought work supplies, patted her son’s head: “Let’s go together.”

Going downstairs past Bingbing’s little nest, Chen Jiu moved her hands and feet very lightly, afraid of startling this big one too.

Shao Quan turned on all the lights in the house, turned on the television too, to have some sound. Wrapped in a blanket, his face ashen, he sat in the living room waiting for Chen Jiu to arrive. Fortunately Chen Jiu rode her little electric scooter very fast, and Wan Shi Zhai wasn’t too far from here. In a dozen or so minutes she knocked on Shao Quan’s door.

When coming, Chen Jiu was still thinking that it was normal for this kind of standalone big house to be haunted. Without much human presence it was easy for other things to breed. But she hadn’t expected that upon opening the door she would immediately sense the culprit.

A certain familiar energy body was crouching in the corner of the living room.

Shao Quan welcomed her in, opening with an apology: “Boss Chen, I’m very sorry for calling you over so late. But encountering this situation, for a moment I didn’t know who I should look for.”

After that he had no other nonsense, as concisely and clearly as possible narrating the three incidents he had encountered tonight.

Chen Jiu listened to him speak while sweeping her eyes over that corner where she sensed abnormal energy fluctuations. She cleared her throat, putting on airs as she said: “Mr. Shao, there is indeed something unclean in your house. But it is very weak. It poses no threat to your life. Please rest assured on this point.”

Shao Quan wasn’t certain whether her words were true or just meant to comfort him. But his heart did feel somewhat better. He nodded and asked: “Then how should I handle this next?”

“Leave the rest to me.” Chen Jiu showed a bit of a smile: “Oh, but I still need to inform you about the price first.”

Shao Quan smiled bitterly: “Please do as you wish. You should be able to tell I’m not someone who minds the price too much.”

Chen Jiu: “That’s good.”

Using the reason that she needed to perform rituals alone, she handed Shao Quan a protective talisman with more proper handwriting, invited him to another room, then sat in the living room concentrating and calming herself. After that she clearly saw that figure with her spiritual sight.

“Ha ha, Mr. Zheng.” Chen Jiu greeted him: “Finally we meet.”

“Ha…” Zheng Siyuan looked up and saw Chen Jiu, shocked: “You can see me?”

“Of course.” Chen Jiu approached, saying: “As Bingbing’s godmother, I am very happy to see you. But as Mr. Shao’s bodyguard, I must ask you to leave.”

Zheng Siyuan looked at her in difficulty, silent for a long time, asking: “Can I just stay for one night?”

thing completely overturns one’s fundamental understanding of reality.