I kind of regret replacing the old TV in the living room now.
Just like every human has quirks, ghosts also have the right to develop odd hobbies, and Anwina was no exception. This maid, who always stays at ho cleaning and washing, had three big hobbies. First, to be a perfect maid; second, to sing "Sin’dorei Elegy" in the living room at midnight, and third, to appear from various places, especially popping out from the TV screen. The new large LCD TV in the living room, though rely a decoration for soone used to holographic terminals, seed like a new toy for Anwina. Yesterday, the maid even traveled back and forth through it dozens of tis until she got stuck inside it, which was really bad, especially since the Sphinx appeared on the screen at the ti, and I almost couldn’t believe how adorable the Egyptian Pharaoh looked.
Today I first went to the research center in the morning to visit that "Female Ghost" being studied all around. She, or rather it, appeared stable. That thing didn’t seem to have any sentience, even the basic reflexes were a ss. Two ravens tried various thods to establish communication, all ending in failure. According to the Magic Girls, with those thods, even an ant should have shown so reaction, yet that "Ghost" still maintained its sleep-wake cycle without discernable patterns. This indicated that the being was not an Evil Spirit, not a ghost, and not even the "Elf" that Ling ng had guessed—it was just an Energy Life, nothing more, with a few reflexes and mobility capabilities. It had no thoughts and didn’t co from any human’s lingering resentnt, and the ravens couldn’t clarify how this being ca into existence—
"The experintal subject looks like a single-cell organism among energy beings."
Raven 085 said so.
Lin Xue also took a peek at that "Zhenzi", mainly to find out where it ca from. The peek wasn’t successful; it seed as though it just popped out of thin air, without any traceable origin, unscientifically.
After confirming the reality of the supernatural events and listening to Lin Xue’s advice, Sandora had already dispatched hundreds of experienced Imperial Agents to collect similar haunting rumors throughout the city, including recent urban legends and historically classic haunted houses. We hoped to formulate so laws from these and ideally pinpoint the general area where all this originated. Of course, if anyone happened to be present during a supernatural occurrence, that would be even better—we would gain firsthand information. In order to increase the chances of this happening, I even sent Cu Chulainn and Di Lumu Duo to the new and old districts... believing that their involvent would concentrate the supernatural events.
But you have to admit, so things aren’t just about combat ability; as Miss said, Sun Wukong can’t solve a simple linear equation either. Right now, I only hope that those guys, who like to shoot first and ask questions later, can keep themselves out of trouble; dealing with supernatural events is one thing, but solving violent disturbances is another.
And while the soldiers began their mission, their leader wasn’t idle either; in a sense, we were facing firsthand supernatural recordings more directly than they were.
The current ti was 9:30 in the morning, and the location was still the frustrating old town district "Boundless Love" new headquarters. Surprisingly, Qianqian still seed interested in continuing this ga today. Her passion for sothing had lasted over 72 hours, which filled with a pessimistic view of the entire world. There would be a Seeker arriving this morning, a "transaction" Lin Xue had helped arrange. There were still several minutes left until the scheduled ti, and I was using this ti to teach rcury Lamp how to write the nas of the Rose Maiden Doll family - she planned to write a letter to her sisters soon, even though those noisy little dolls had just co over to play the previous day.
"Ugh, Chu i is such a hassle; her na is the hardest to write!" rcury Lamp, clutching a custom-made small pen with a dot or two of ink on her fingers, impatiently poked her practice book with the pen tip while muttering, "My na is much easier to write."
Lilina sat nearby, watching. She had lost interest in the receptionist job within forty-eight hours and now acted as the office mascot. Faced with rcury Lamp’s frustration, she certainly didn’t forget to kick her while she was down: "Pfft. That’s because you’re a dummy. Even writing is so hard for you, figures—dolls are just dolls, with nothing but stiffness in their heads."
rcury Lamp imdiately threw her pen to one side, jumped onto the arm of the couch, and yelled loudly: "Dummy! Idiot! Old lady! Say that again!"
Lilina couldn’t resist fighting with rcury Lamp if she wasn’t itchy: "Say it? Sure. Calling others dumb all day—you’re so arrogant! Aren’t you just a princess? Well, I’m a mother too—you, a doll who even writes her na wrong!"
"Lilina had just finished speaking when rcury Lamp transford into a black shadow, pouncing amidst the flying feathers. 92.3 and one ter zero-nine tangled into a ball on the carpet as they did every day at this ti. Initially, rcury Lamp had the upper hand, but Lilina suddenly summoned a vine to trip the unsuspecting Doll Girl, then she swiftly pounced on top of her, pinning rcury Lamp firmly in place. Lilina then frantically twisted a brass key into the keyhole on Doll Girl’s back."
"rcury Lamp couldn’t tolerate such a defeat. On the spot, she let out a delicate shout, flailing her arms and legs, tearing a hole in the carpet..."
"Damn! Don’t use such... such underhanded... haha, it tickles so much... Damn it! Stop now... don’t twist any more! It’s tickling to death! Stupid human, don’t just stand there watching!"
rcury Lamp’s words reminded , and I quickly went forward, tossing Lilina aside and took over twisting the key myself.
"We wrestled around for more than ten minutes. Lilina gleefully gathered a bagful of things from the scene with plans to make a pillow. I ended up with a head full of bite marks, and rcury Lamp, still trembling, glared at the key in my hand with the eyes of a class enemy before angrily flying off to another room. Just less than a minute after the doll left, there ca a knock at the door, and today’s scheduled ’business’ had arrived."
The one led inside was a slightly overweight middle-aged man wearing a fitting suit, glasses, slightly bald with ticulously combed hair on the back half of his head, exuding a sharpness of a small company leader or a businessman. He also carried a small leather case, which seed to hold sothing precious.
After being brought in, the middle-aged man nervously thanked the door-like "company security" behind him, then he turned to marvel at the carpet hole which seed to have been mauled by a hundred cats as well as the black feathers scattered all over the room. A little Loli, who looked no older than ten, was collecting these items in a bag.
"Excuse , is this the company that deals with supernatural events?"
The middle-aged man cautiously placed his leather case by the door and asked from a distance.
"Almost, different industries call us by different nas," I nodded, gesturing for him to take a seat on the sofa. He carefully lifted his case, wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead, and said with a nervous laugh: "I’m a bit nervous. I’m just an ordinary person; I never imagined I’d engage with people like you...uh, no offense, I an people involved in such impressive tasks. Ah, little girl, no need to prepare tea...Oh, it’s not for ."
Lilina, holding a cup, gave the average-looking middle-aged uncle a disdainful glance then slurped her tea as she climbed onto the couch to play gas. Who would expect this guy to entertain the guests?
The middle-aged man talked for a while, mainly introducing himself. During the conversation, I felt that he might have mistaken "Boundless Love" for a modern Maoshan Daoist who practices exorcism — like those who predict using computers. But it’s alright, since in our gang there really is one who can look into people’s eyes at night and say, "By observing the heavens tonight, I foresee a violent disaster for you soon. Only by giving the last green bean cake on the table will you avoid misfortune," and the only difference between her and those computer fortune-tellers is her higher success rate.
We chatted briefly, but the middle-aged man was clearly more anxious to resolve his issue. So, wiping his shiny forehead, he continued, "Here’s the thing, recently sothing enchanted has beco attached to . Have you ever heard of porcelain dolls that return ho?"
I imdiately nodded, "I haven’t heard of it."
"Er..." He choked for a mont, seeing that both Qianqian and I weren’t joking, his expression grew rather strange, but considering our place was much better decorated than those computer fortune-tellers, he decided to trust us a bit more and explained, "It’s a kind of porcelain doll, the old-fashioned, hand-fired festive dolls. If they are normally kept in the living room and often cleaned, they will gather spiritual energy. The more diligently the family head takes care of the doll, the more positive energy the doll receives, the greater the spiritual energy grows and eventually, the doll becos a mber of the family — unexpellable. If the family head betrays their gratitude and tries to dispose of the doll, they will surely return, no matter how far you throw them, they will return to the house within seven days. And if the doll is accidentally broken, the whole family will not have peace as if they’ve offended a demon..."
"Are you the one plagued by the porcelain dolls?"
I asked, my eyes involuntarily glancing at the leather suitcase by his feet.
The middle-aged man nodded, solemnly opened the suitcase, and took out a pair of old-fashioned chubby dolls, a boy and a girl, both eerily pale. Each doll’s neck was tied with a rope fashioned from yellow satin, dimly revealing densely packed Ten Thousand Character Talismans. Near the dolls’ necks, there hung a gleaming silver cross. One bore the Zero Machine, and the other was impaled with QB.
"It’s these dolls. Oh, the ropes weren’t originally there; I bought them under Erli Bridge, thinking they were just playful ornants. But the day after the dolls beca haunted, they ended up like this on their own, and I’ve been too scared to remove them."
No, you don’t need to explain; we already understand what happened. The efficiency of those Imperial Soldiers is truly unmatched.
"These dolls were left by my mother. I rember them being in our old family house from when I was little. My mother adored these dolls, always keeping them in the living room and cleaning them daily. She instructed the family never to throw them away, to keep them as heirlooms. So after my mother passed away, I kept them, and all was well. Last month, I moved and took the dolls with , but they didn’t quite fit with the Western-style furniture in our new ho, and my spouse thought they looked out of place in the living room, so they were moved to a corner of the study...Yet the very next day, they found their way onto the living room shelf!"
The middle-aged man smacked his lips but did not seem terrified, perhaps because after a month, the initial haunting had lost its edge.
"My family found it odd, but everyone denied moving them. My spouse is faint-hearted and got quite scared. The afternoon of the next day, she locked the dolls in the storeroom. This ti it was even creepier—less than two hours later, after we had finished eating, the dolls had returned!
This went on, back and forth several tis, with the dolls always returning on their own. My spouse was nearly sick with fright. I knew it was the dolls haunting the place, and that even our new ho couldn’t contain them, so I sought monks and Taoists outside. We all sought shelter downstairs at night while the monks and Taoists perford exorcisms—later, two monks went mad, three Taoists fled, and a fellow nad Liu the Scoundrel even took my TV when he left. That’s when I realized I had to solve this myself, or there wouldn’t be enough stuff at ho for them to steal. Yet I dared not destroy the dolls, fearing the evil spirits might turn on , so I drove them to a landfill far outside the city. That place was several tens of kiloters from my house."
The middle-aged man hadn’t finished speaking when I already knew, the dolls had co back.
"The dolls ca back, each with a half-orange peel on its head sitting in the living room, confirming they really did co back from the landfill, and they had returned before I even got ho!
After several more attempts, taking them farther away each ti, they always managed to return by themselves. Finally, I had no choice but to sell them to an old classmate from Yunnan for two thousand yuan—that guy had stolen my eraser back in primary school. Guess what happened next?"
The middle-aged man put on a cliffhanger, then continued sheepishly under my and Qianqian’s sharp gaze.
Turns out, in the middle of the night, his phone rang. A child’s voice crisply said over the phone that they were siblings at the train station, asking him to co pick them up...
"I take out the batteries every night to charge, there’s no battery in the phone!" the middle-aged man spread his hands, "Later, I drove there, and sure enough, they were outside the train station; inevitably, I had to personally welco them back. I’ve also tried several tis to bury them in the ground, send them to temples, and especially sell them many tis. I sold them to Sichuan, Henan, and even Buenos Aires! None of it worked, they returned even faster than the day’s flights. Initially, when I sold them off, the next day I had to pick them up from the train station. Later on, getting tired of fetching them, I just led them to the bus station and let them figure out the public transport to get ho on their own... Last week, I even carved a small door under the main door at ho, so they could enter on their own at night without calling at godforsaken hours. The more I sold them, the more accustod they seed to get; I even set up a Taobao account for them and opened an independent account; for every sale, they could earn ten percent commission, though I have no idea what dolls would want money for. I also planned to install voice recognition software on the computer to let them generate good reviews for themselves... Hey, where are you guys going?"
I pulled Qianqian towards the next room, "We are a charitable organization, don’t push your sales on us!"
The middle-aged man quickly realized his blunder and stood up to greet, "No, no, no, I’m just talking too much, just discussing the origins of these dolls. I just want to ask for your help to get these two dolls to stop following ..."
I turned around, surprised, "Are you sure? You seem pretty happy with the buying and selling."
The middle-aged man wore a look of distress and spread his hands, "Ah, I am not afraid, but my wife can’t take it anymore. I was actually planning to change cars before looking for soone to handle this..."
I looked at the uncle with admiration and thought to myself that real heroes indeed erge from the ordinary folk. He just wasn’t in the right environnt; if he had been in the United States, even Bill Gates would have had competition by now.
I took the pair of porcelain dolls and examined them closely; to the naked eye, they seed ordinary, but I still sensed an extrely weak energy fluctuation from their surface. This indicated that there really was sothing attached to the dolls, and based on what the middle-aged man had said, these dolls were capable of communication. Suddenly, I beca curious.
"Aren’t you afraid of the dolls seeking revenge if you handle them in front of them?"
"No worries," the middle-aged man grinned, "the dolls don’t mind. I’ve spoken about this in their presence even when I sought help from monks and Taoists."
Uncle, were you brothers with Zhang Fei in your past life? That courage is extraordinary!
Next, Qianqian and I inquired from the uncle about how to communicate with the dolls. Unfortunately, though they could speak through so electronic devices, they needed to do so only after sunset. For now, the dolls remained rely as ornantal.
"Just go ho, leave the dolls here. They won’t bother you anymore." I said as I placed the porcelain dolls, whose energy fluctuations were detectable but attributes yet undetermined, into a specially made box, preparing to take them back for further research.
"That’s it?" the middle-aged man looked incredulously at the silver tal suitcase I used to carry the dolls. The reflective surface of the tal suitcase shone brightly, with no Ten Thousand Character Talisman, no Cross, not even a Prototype or QB, making him doubt if this contraption could truly suppress evil spirits. This was a man deeply poisoned by the tales of Erli Bridge, his worldview subtly distorted, "Well, about that, I said these dolls can’t be locked up, they just run away the next day — don’t you guys need to perform so sort of exorcism or anything?"
"Ah, right, I forgot about that," Qianqian happily got up and called loudly toward the lounge area, "San Xuan True Master! Master of Extinction! Master Sanzang! Sister Magasa! Co out and sing!"
I hurried to stop her, but unfortunately, I was too late—then a group of religious figures scared the uncle completely senseless. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to cast your recomndation and monthly votes at Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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