The manor was right in front of them.
Since he chose to return, Jiang Luo had to pretend to be indifferent as if nothing mattered after soaking in the Tianbi Pool’s water.
After a flash of insight, Jiang Luo thought that using this cold, aloof demeanor to deal with the malicious ghost might satisfy his desire to calmly sit back and wait.
He’d been cleansed of all passion and desire, so how could he still use the malicious ghost to stir up his desires?
The malicious ghost must be the one to come looking for him.
Jiang Luo stopped walking.
When he stopped, the people behind him naturally stopped as well.
He turned his head and looked at his companions.
Along the way, his face had been expressionless. But Jiang Luo had lost so much blood that his complexion was pale, showing a rare weakness. Seven parts real, three parts acted. The sudden vulnerability of someone usually so reliable and strong made Lu Youyi and the others worry deeply.
But for some reason, since just now when they first met Jiang Luo, he seemed much colder. Although he spoke to them, he wasn’t very happy to see them, and his silent moments grew longer.
Then Jiang Luo spoke again: “Do you know the Fated One?”
The group looked at each other, confused. “…Fated One?”
Even Zhuo Zhongqiu, the future heir of the Zhuo family, had never heard of them. They turned their eyes to Wenren Lian, who was usually well-informed. Wenren Lian was unusually silent for a moment.
“I haven’t heard that name before. Is it a person?”
They didn’t know who the Fated One were, but Teng Bi’s face, expressionless as always, suddenly tensed and his pupils contracted sharply.
Jiang Luo caught the reaction. “Yes, it’s a person. A few hours ago, he and I went to soak in the Tianbi Pool’s water.”
“After soaking, I did feel refreshed,” Jiang Luo said calmly, “But I also felt somewhat unmotivated, not really wanting to talk.”
He was setting up a reason for his upcoming personality changes.
Jiang Luo didn’t want to tell Lu Youyi and the others about his previous ordeal. The fewer people knew, the better his chances of tricking the Fated One and Daoist Wei He, preventing them from learning he’d regained normal emotions.
None of them thought much of it. “Maybe you caught a cold, or your throat hurts?”
“By the way, how did you get injured and lose so much blood?”
Jiang Luo brushed off the questions and turned the conversation back to the Fated One. His previously flat tone now showed some ups and downs and genuine respect in his words.
Teng Bi took notes carefully but grew increasingly alarmed. Distracted, he walked a few steps forward, when suddenly he felt a tremendous force rushing toward him. The next moment, the formation at the manor’s gate suddenly flung him dozens of meters away.
Teng Bi clutched his chest, blood spraying from the corner of his mouth. Lu Youyi shouted, “Dead ghost!”
Swallowing the blood, Teng Bi decided, “This formation blocks the living and the dead. I’ll wait for you all at the foot of the mountain.”
Jiang Luo said, “There’s also a formation on the way down.”
Teng Bi replied, “I have a way.”
He turned and hurried off, presumably to find his master. Jiang Luo’s lips curled in a faint smile and he reminded him, “Dead Ghost, clean up the snow stained with my blood. Don’t let others find out.”
Teng Bi’s eyes lit up and he nodded, “Got it.”
There was a formation here, so neither he nor his master should be able to enter. But with Jiang Luo’s blood, many things could be done. At least the blood could enter dreams.
Watching Teng Bi disappear, Jiang Luo was satisfied and pulled back his gaze. After telling Lu Youyi and the others not to mention his injury, he entered the manor with his companions.
***
When Lian Xue heard that Zhuo Zhongqiu and the others had arrived, she happily came out to greet them. Daoist Wei He didn’t come out to meet these youngsters but instructed the servants to take good care of them.
As the host, Lian Xue wanted to show them around. There wasn’t much to see on the mountaintop, so she planned to take them to the little spring of the Tianbi Pool. But she found the spring behind the courtyard was fenced off and no entry was allowed today.
Lian Xue didn’t know why the spring was closed and went to ask Daoist Wei He. “Senior Uncle, why is the spring in the back mountain closed off?”
Daoist Wei He replied slowly, “You should ask your senior brother Jiang Luo. I don’t know where the filth on him came from; it’s so thick it’s scary. After he used the spring today, let it rest well. When he recovers, we’ll continue to cleanse the filth from Jiang Luo’s body tomorrow morning.”
Jiang Luo thought to himself, sure enough, tomorrow he had to soak in that disgusting water again.
He noticed Daoist Wei He’s gaze on him but remained expressionless, uninterested in their conversation, showing an indifferent attitude.
It really worked…
Daoist Wei He sighed and no longer looked at him.
Even Lian Xue understood Jiang Luo’s uniqueness. After hearing this explanation, she no longer asked further. But besides asking about the small spring pool, she still had one thing she wanted to ask.
The two senior uncle and disciple clearly had something to talk about, so the others tactfully left the quiet room. Before leaving, Jiang Luo lightly moved his arm; a flash of golden light appeared without a trace, and a mouse quietly shrank into a corner of the wall unnoticed.
The door was closed, and after everyone left, Lian Xue finally spoke: “Senior Uncle, I have something I can’t understand.”
Daoist Wei He put down his teacup and sighed slightly, as if expecting this, and said, “Ask.”
“Why don’t the elders teach us anything other than medical skills? We don’t even have ways to protect ourselves. If we meet danger, can we really survive?”
Since the snowstorm crisis, Lian Xue had been worried about this question because from it she saw the future hardships the Lian family would face. “At this rate, can the Lian family still hold onto the Tianbi Pool?”
Daoist Wei He was silent.
“Lian Xue…” The old man sighed and softened his voice, “Come here, in front of your senior uncle.”
Lian Xue pressed her lips and took a step forward.
Daoist Wei He touched her hair and said wistfully, “My generation, and the generation before me, learned far more than you do now. Not only medical arts, but also how to strengthen the body, and understand spells and talismans. Mastery of mountain, medicine, fate, physiognomy, and divination—there were many who excelled in all five. Your great senior uncle Lian Peng was once a prominent figure in the metaphysics world a hundred years ago.”
“But times have changed,” Daoist Wei He returned to reality, looking at Lian Xue with love and pity, “Your generation is not suited to learn those other things.”
Lian Xue frowned. “Who says we’re not suited?”
Daoist Wei He avoided answering and babbled on, “But don’t be afraid. If a life-or-death crisis really comes, there will be someone among you who can protect you. You will never suffer accidents… That’s when it becomes a matter of ‘have to’.”
Lian Xue did not quite understand. “Senior Uncle?”
Daoist Wei He said, “Go out.”
Lian Xue hesitated for a moment, then slowly turned and left. The golden mouse brushed past her feet, running out the door with her.
***
Jiang Luo listened to the entire conversation in the quiet room.
He rubbed the mouse’s head rewardingly. The mouse squinted its eyes, transformed into encrypted text, and returned to the Yin-Yang hoop.
Jiang Luo noticed that each of these six great families seemed to harbor many secrets.
In the Heavenly Master Residence, Feng Li’s parents were taboo, and beneath the detention room was a dungeon holding people; in the Buddhist sect, Ge Wuchen had betrayed them, killing master and senior uncle; the Qi and Chi families were obviously in cahoots, inseparable from each other. Even the seemingly ascetic and pure Lian family had mysteries outsiders could not glimpse.
Were there connections behind all this?
Jiang Luo’s mind wandered absentmindedly. Occasionally, he looked up. The clock’s hour hand slowly pointed to seven o’clock. On a winter night at seven, the sky was already pitch black.
It was time to go to bed.
Jiang Luo’s eyes flickered. He couldn’t tell if it was anticipation or something else. Slowly, he laid down on the bed. After covering himself with the quilt and staring for a while at the dark ceiling, he quietly closed his eyes.
It was time to use the malicious ghost.
In the darkness, a fleeting smile lifted the young man’s lips, then quickly faded back to cold indifference.
***
When his consciousness cleared again, Jiang Luo heard the creaking sound of the ceiling fan turning overhead.
He did not immediately open his eyes, instead continuing to listen to the sounds around him.
It was noisy: besides the fan, there was the whispered conversation of others. It was Lu Youyi, Zhuo Zhongqiu, and the others.
The air smelled of sweat and food mixed together, mingled with the familiar scent of youth.
Jiang Luo moved his fingers. The tabletop was smooth and flat. His fingertips brushed forward and touched a book.
He was in a classroom.
Jiang Luo finally opened his eyes.
With a faint expression, he raised himself up from the desk. Familiar faces appeared before him—indeed, it was Ye Xun and the others.
But their eyes toward Jiang Luo were full of disgust, clustering in small groups as if excluding him. Lu Youyi even gave him several glaring looks. This attitude clearly matched how they had treated the original Jiang Luo in his memories.
As a ghost, scaring people in dreams was a basic skill for every ghost. The malicious ghost dragged people into dreams, so Jiang Luo naturally could not control the dream scenes.
Had he returned to the classroom a year ago?
“Students,” a familiar low voice sounded from the front, “Let me check how well you learned last class.”
That voice…
Jiang Luo’s brow twitched as he looked up.
He met a pair of sticky, snake-like eyes.
Chi You was dressed sharply in a suit. The rose pin Jiang Luo had thrown into the lake was somehow back on him. Not only that, he wore gold-rimmed glasses, held a pointer stick, and donned new white gloves, looking every bit a serious teacher.
Beneath the glasses, his eyes flickered with some stirring as he looked at Jiang Luo.
This was Chi You’s look as a teaching assistant at Baihua University.
Jiang Luo carefully observed him and almost smiled.
He had to admit, Chi You looked quite proper.
Yet Jiang Luo, pretending to be indifferent, calmly stared back, as if Chi You could not interest him either.
The handsome teacher’s fingers moved lightly. The slender pointer stick waved in front of everyone for a moment. He smiled lightly, but the smile carried danger and strangeness: “Jiang Luo, answer me—what did I teach you last class?”
The people in the class turned their heads to look at Jiang Luo sitting in the middle, waiting for him to stand and answer the question.
Jiang Luo slowly stood up, lowering his eyes, and said calmly, “I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?” The teacher’s voice dropped, a few hints of coldness creeping in. “Come to the edge of the podium.”
Jiang Luo hesitated for a moment, then walked toward the podium.
He was laughing inwardly, watching Chi You’s face change was one of the greatest pleasures in his life. Playing with the malicious ghost like this with a calm, indifferent facade seemed even more fun than he had imagined.
Chi You watched Jiang Luo walk closer and closer.
The young man with black hair seemed to have lost the light in his eyes, cold and indifferent without desire, doing whatever was asked without feeling anything.
But when the corner of his eyes swept past Chi You, it was like an invisible hook, making Chi You’s attention on him even stronger, and a brutal desire surged up.
Teng Bi had told Huali that Jiang Luo had soaked in the Tianbi Pool together with the Fated One.
The Tianbi Pool had almost changed his enemy completely.
The malicious ghost’s smile grew even more sinister. His lips curled high, and his slender fingers danced and slid up from the bottom of the pointer stick, exuding a mysterious charm intertwined with darkness. He pointed at the blackboard with the pointer stick, the handsome teaching assistant’s tone rising slightly, “Since you can’t answer what was taught last class, then write down the answer to this question.”
“If you still can’t write it this time—” he drew out the sound, “the teacher will have to take some measures to make you study seriously.”
Jiang Luo looked at the blackboard.
At some unknown time, a question had appeared on the blackboard: When the teacher brought you out of the mirror world, what conditions did you agree to?
Below it was a row of neat blank spaces waiting to be filled.
Among the students below, someone read the question aloud.
“…What conditions did you agree to with the teacher?”
“Hm? I’m curious. What could the conditions be? What deal did the teacher and Jiang Luo make?”
Being exposed to such shame in public would make anyone feel helpless.
Jiang Luo knew this was the malicious ghost trying to provoke his emotions, trying to wake him from his state of desirelessness and cause some stir. But the more that happened, the more Jiang Luo wanted to pretend to be like a dead lake.
—Anyway, this dream was just beginning. Jiang Luo wasn’t in a hurry; he could indulge his own dark humor.
He stared at the question for a while. Just when Chi You thought he wouldn’t write an answer, Jiang Luo put down his chalk.
The scraping of chalk on the blackboard was strong and clear.
Those below continued reading: “Teacher, demands, with me, have, sex.”
Jiang Luo put down the chalk and turned to look at Chi You, calmly saying, “These are the conditions you asked for.”
Author’s note:
Chi You: So angry! My wife suddenly changed! I want to provoke him to be mad in the dream!
Author: …You just need to tease him a bit…
