Chapter 2: The Ghost in the Villa

My parents looked uneasy. In unison, they said, “A ghost.”

After dinner, the shock still hadn't left me.

No wonder Grandma had given me that protective pendant before she died.

It had kept me safe from a catastrophe this terrible.

Looking back, perhaps Grandma had foreseen not only the course of my life, but my future as well.

Just thinking about Sanjia Village sent a chill down my spine.

Several hundred people hanging themselves in one night was a horrific tragedy.

According to my parents, the disaster about to befall Xu Yang might be even more terrifying.

But why hadn't the pendant broken before? Why had it only shown a sign after Xu Yang and Liu Shuoshuo got together?

Could Grandma have foreseen even this?

As I marveled at my grandmother's wisdom, a phone call came in.

It was an unfamiliar number. I answered.

A gentle, smooth voice came through. “Xiaotang, are you all right?”

It was Xu Yang.

I immediately hung up and blocked the number.

I didn't dare have anything more to do with him.

After that night, I never answered another call from an unfamiliar number.

I was afraid of dying.

Liu Shuoshuo continued showing off her life as a rich man's wife online.

Luxury cars, designer watches, gold and jewels flowed into her bedroom as if they were water.

Perhaps she had grown bored of it all. She started looking for trouble with me again.

4

In the middle of the night, Liu Shuoshuo dressed to the nines in an expensive fur coat and sat on a luxurious sofa to livestream.

Netizens flooded into her room, praising her beauty nonstop.

Liu Shuoshuo smiled and nodded. “I'm bored tonight, so I thought I'd livestream and chat with everyone.”

She casually showed off a few designer handbags. Then, prompted by the comments, she brought me up again.

“Her? Maybe she was born without the fate to enjoy wealth. Her meal was served right in front of her, and she didn't even know how to eat it. Hehe.”

“Best friend? We used to be… But did she really think of me as one? She never told me when she and Xu Yang first met. She only told me after they were already together. Wasn't she afraid I'd steal her man? Women fighting over love—ha-ha.”

“Where is she now? Her family must be afraid of dying. They ran away the night Xu Yang and I got married. They were probably scared I'd become a rich wife and come back to take revenge.”

…

Watching the stranger on the screen, I couldn't help wondering how I had been so blind before.

Liu Shuoshuo was still making up stories about me, but some sharp-eyed viewers noticed something strange.

[Ms. Liu, did that wardrobe behind you just move?]

[I thought I was the only one who saw it. Why does it feel like something's in there?]

[Right? Streamer, go check. Maybe it's a puppy.]

At first Liu Shuoshuo didn't see the comments.

But soon they filled the screen, all warning her to be careful of what was behind her.

I had seen it, too.

The wardrobe behind her was ajar, leaving a narrow gap. Something that looked like an eye seemed to glimmer inside.

The angle was strange. If it was an eye, it was positioned at the very bottom of the wardrobe.

Liu Shuoshuo clicked her tongue in annoyance and pulled her fur coat tighter around herself.

“You people are always trying to scare me. There's nobody else in the villa tonight. Don't you dare try to frighten me.”

As if to prove she wasn't afraid, she clacked over to the wardrobe in her high heels.

“Look!”

She yanked the door open.

Crash—

A man dressed in black leather tumbled out headfirst, feet over his head, and hit the floor hard.

He wore a black mask. A pile of expensive jewelry clattered off him onto the ground. He was obviously a thief.

But instead of running, he trembled and curled into the corner, staring blankly with a greenish, ashen face.

“Ghost… There's a ghost… Don't kill me… Don't… don't…”

When he saw Liu Shuoshuo's pale neck, he let out a horrified shriek, dropped to his knees, and repeatedly kowtowed to her.

“I beg you, please don't kill me! I didn't mean to… spare me, spare me…”

He slammed his forehead against the floor until blood spread across it. Then he began kowtowing even faster.

Liu Shuoshuo froze at first. Then she clutched her chest and backed away, screaming as she ran.

“Help! There's a thief! Help!”

In the chaos, the phone livestreaming the scene was knocked to the floor. The camera couldn't show what happened next.

I watched the thief, terrified out of his mind. I was both shocked and afraid.

What had he seen to reduce him to this?

Thinking of what my mother had told me about Sanjia Village, I had a bad feeling.

Perhaps this was a sign that the great calamity was approaching.

Something unclean had to be in the Xu family's villa.

5

The news that a thief had broken into Liu Shuoshuo's home quickly became a hot topic online.

Xu Yang rushed home that night to comfort her.

I had been watching Liu Shuoshuo's livestream, but the moment Xu Yang appeared, I left.

A great calamity was coming. I didn't want anything to do with him.

Ding!

My WeChat chimed.

I picked up my phone. It was Su Wei.

Su Wei had been my college roommate. She knew Liu Shuoshuo, too—we had all shared a dorm room.

Su Wei: [Jiatang, I heard Liu Shuoshuo betrayed you. Don't be too upset.]

I wasn't particularly upset. I simply replied, Thank you.

Su Wei: [Liu Shuoshuo went too far. How could she steal her best friend's boyfriend? Jiatang, do you want to teach her a lesson? I have a great idea.]

I froze when I read that.

Hadn't Su Wei always been on good terms with Liu Shuoshuo?

I did hate her, but I didn't dare go near her now.

She was the woman sleeping beside Xu Yang.

I rejected Su Wei's suggestion, but she kept pressing me, hoping I'd take revenge.

I put her messages on Do Not Disturb.

My parents had been extremely tense these past few days. They kept going out to buy supplies, day after day.

The house was piled high with rice, oil, food, flour, vegetables, and fruit. They had even bought plenty of vegetarian food and snacks for me.

I asked in surprise, “Mom, Dad, are we stockpiling for the apocalypse?”

Dad put my favorite drinks in the fridge and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Stop reading so many apocalypse novels. But this time, it's not far off.”

Mom continued, “For the next month, none of us can go outside. Ask your boss for leave, too. If he won't give it to you, quit. Staying alive is what matters most.”

“We have to cut off everything that could be affected by this calamity!”

“And another thing…” Dad turned to look at me. “I know that awful best friend of yours has been livestreaming. You're not to watch her anymore.”

I nodded. Right in front of my parents, I blocked Liu Shuoshuo's account.

Dad took a stool and sat on the balcony, slowly smoking.

He looked at the fiery red clouds in the distance, his expression heavy as he let out a stream of smoke.

“Someone's going to suffer this time.”

Our family began staying behind closed doors.

My parents only gave vague details about Sanjia Village, never anything specific.

But if hundreds of people could hang themselves all at once, who else could have done it but ghosts?

Meanwhile, Liu Shuoshuo and Xu Yang's life kept getting more and more luxurious.

By day, she went shopping and ate at high-end restaurants. At night, she and Xu Yang threw parties on a yacht.

It all looked so dazzling—until, in the middle of the month, it happened.

There was a ghost in the Xu family's villa.

The news spread like wildfire online. Although I had blocked Liu Shuoshuo's account, I heard about it from gossip pages and other streamers.

The Xu family all lived together in a huge villa.

One night, Liu Shuoshuo woke in the middle of the night and heard crying while still half asleep.

She was too groggy to pay attention at first.

But the crying grew louder and more mournful, shrill as a knife scraping against something.

Only then did she notice it was coming from the balcony of her room.

But that balcony was on the fourth floor!

She hadn't drawn the curtains before bed, so she glanced over.

A woman in a white dress sat with her back to Liu Shuoshuo, her waist-length hair hanging down, hugging her knees as she cried.

Liu Shuoshuo screamed at once. But when the servants and housekeeper came running, the balcony was still locked, and there was nothing there.

6

The Xu family all thought she'd seen things.

Until the second incident.

Xu Yang's younger brother had a habit of sleepwalking.

That day, in a dream, he saw a girl in white crouching beside the villa's swimming pool.

Curious, he went over and lightly tapped her shoulder.

The girl suddenly began laughing. Her shrill laughter grew louder and louder, echoing through the villa.

By the time Xu Yang's brother came to his senses, she was gone.

He searched everywhere, then suddenly felt something yank him toward the pool.

In the water, he couldn't make out the girl's face. But two of her fingers hooked straight into his eye sockets, as if she meant to gouge his eyeballs out.

His desperate screams drew the attention of the security guards, who rescued him.

One incident might be a coincidence. But one thing after another couldn't possibly be coincidence.

Liu Shuoshuo told these stories on her livestream.

Although Xu Yang later scolded her, saying she shouldn't air the family's dirty laundry, the rumor that the Xu villa was haunted had already spread across the internet.

After hearing a blogger explain what had happened, I felt a chill creep down my back.

Was something so frightening still only an appetizer?

I couldn't imagine what could be worse than an entire village being wiped out in one night.

I took the jade pendant, broken in half, out of the drawer.

Looking at it, I couldn't help feeling grateful for Grandma's foresight.

Suddenly, my phone rang.

It was Su Wei.

I answered.

“Hello, is that Jiatang?”

“Yeah. What's up?”

“Well… Jiatang, you know what's been happening at Liu Shuoshuo's house, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you thought about it? Do you think someone is taking revenge on her? Otherwise, why would the Xu family suddenly keep seeing ghosts?”

I frowned. “Are you saying I did it? I didn't.”

Su Wei kept talking. “No, no… I mean she did bad things, so she got what she deserved. Oh, Jiatang, I heard your grandmother was a famous fortune-teller in the area. Everything she predicted came true.”

“I know she's passed away. I just wanted to ask if anyone in your family inherited her gift, or if you know a truly powerful Taoist priest?”

“No.”

I hung up.

My gaze darkened.

I had only ever told one person that my grandmother was a fortune-teller: my best friend, Liu Shuoshuo.

From Su Wei's words, and everything that had happened to Liu Shuoshuo lately, I could basically guess that Su Wei was a spy Liu Shuoshuo had sent.

She had probably hoped to pry information out of me over WeChat so Liu Shuoshuo could air my dirty laundry online, but it hadn't worked.

Now that things had gone wrong, she wanted to use me to deal with them.

No chance.

She was dreaming.

At dinner, I told my parents about the call.

They frowned, lost in thought.

After a while, Dad spoke. “Your grandmother foresaw this, too.”

I nearly choked on my food and quickly took a sip of water. “Good grief! Grandma really was a divine being!”

“This great calamity can't be avoided. The jade pendant Grandma left could only shield you from disaster. Everyone else has to depend on their own fortune.”

“As for that awful best friend of yours…” Dad sighed. “Have someone tell her to seek out a master at the temple on Mount Xiyi, south of their city.”

“Whether it works in the end will be up to her.”

7

Dad really did have a kind heart.

Truthfully, at first I hadn't planned to save Liu Shuoshuo.

But since the conversation had gone this far, I nodded.