On the way back holding the ginseng doll, Jiang Luo was still thinking about the Fated One. But as he walked, he noticed his sleeve had gotten wet.
Looking down, he saw the ginseng doll pitifully using his sleeve to wipe its tears, sneaking glances at him as if waiting for Jiang Luo to notice it was crying.
Jiang Luo chuckled, lips curling in amusement, but he was cold-hearted and deliberately pretended not to see.
The ginseng doll grew anxious, tugged at his sleeve, and whined in its babyish voice, “Can you let me go?”
Jiang Luo smiled kindly. “Nope.”
The ginseng doll started crying, “But if you don’t let me go, I’ll get eaten!”
Jiang Luo replied pitifully, “But if I let you go, I’ll get my leg broken.”
The ginseng doll froze—clearly not expecting that someone wouldn’t fall for its act.
Jiang Luo’s expression changed, and he flicked its forehead with a smirk. “Little brat, playing pitiful doesn’t work on your big bro. If you want people to spare you, pretending to be cute won’t cut it.”
The little ginseng seemed to fall into thought.
***
In the living room, after Jiang Luo left, Feng Li took the seat of honor and looked at Jiang Luo’s classmates. He said calmly, “Speak.”
Wenren Lian said, “While you were away, Chi You came to find Jiang Luo again. He even appeared publicly during our dinner last night. But the meeting wasn’t all bad—Jiang Luo had a falling out with Chi You. He’s starting to wake up.”
Feng Li’s expression didn’t change. He rubbed his thumbs together for a moment. “How many times have they met?”
Wenren Lian gave a conservative estimate: “At most twice.”
He smiled and added, “Jiang Luo is always with us—either on school tasks or in the dorm. A human’s movements can be tracked, but ghosts are unpredictable and impossible to guard against.”
The implication was clear: Chi You had been the one seeking out Jiang Luo; it wasn’t Jiang Luo’s fault.
Whether Feng Li believed it or not was unclear. He said, “Since you’re all here at the Heavenly Master Residence, stay for a few days. Tomorrow there’ll be a public teaching at the altar—I’ll inform your school.”
The group exchanged glances.
Aside from Qi Ye, who had been suddenly called home last night, and Dead Ghost who couldn’t come, everyone else was present.
Zhuo Zhongqiu smiled graciously and took the lead. “Then we’ll trouble the Heavenly Master.”
Feng Li turned to the side. “Wudu, go arrange rooms for them.”
Soon, the living room was empty except for Feng Li. He closed his eyes and waited patiently. Before long, he heard Jiang Luo’s footsteps.
“Teacher,” Jiang Luo said, “Grandmaster said he didn’t want a ginseng doll that’s already developed a spirit.”
Feng Li’s breath was shallow. After a pause, he said, “When your senior brother returns, have him deliver another one.”
“As for this one…”
Before he could finish, the ginseng doll suddenly chirped, “Daddy!”
Both Feng Li and Jiang Luo were stunned. They looked at the ginseng doll, which clung to Jiang Luo’s finger and said tearfully, “Daddy, you have to protect me!”
Quick learner.
Jiang Luo twitched at the corner of his eye. Feng Li seemed to chuckle and said, “You keep this one for now.”
“…Yes,” Jiang Luo answered.
After he agreed, Feng Li added, “Your life-preserving talisman activated.”
Jiang Luo nodded and humbly asked, “Teacher, what exactly is this life talisman? It brought me straight here to the Heavenly Master Residence.”
“It’s a talisman that every direct disciple of the Heavenly Master Residence receives, personally written by the Heavenly Master. When you’re in extreme danger, it activates,” Feng Li stood up, walked over to a wooden cabinet, and took out a willow twig. “Each disciple only gets one.”
Jiang Luo looked at the willow twig in his hand and felt a twinge of anxiety. “Teacher…”
Feng Li turned, eyes sharp. “I told you—if I saw you meeting with a malicious ghost again, I’d break your legs.”
Jiang Luo said aggrievedly, “You were away, and when the malicious ghost came for me, I couldn’t find you.”
Before Feng Li could respond, Jiang Luo continued dejectedly, “I’ve realized what kind of person he is… but he wouldn’t let me go. That’s when the talisman activated.”
“Teacher,” Jiang Luo wiped at his eyes, “I’ve come to my senses. You were always acting for my sake. I see that now. I won’t be fooled by Chi You again.”
“…” Feng Li tossed the willow twig aside. “As long as you understand.”
Jiang Luo had just smiled when Feng Li added, “But he came to see you and you didn’t tell me. That’s still a mistake. Never mind the rest—go to the isolation room and reflect for a day.”
Jiang Luo had previously avoided tattling on Chi You to keep up his “hopelessly devoted” act. He’d subtly hinted at it to Wenren Lian so he could inform Feng Li. But Feng Li was even stricter than he’d imagined—no broken leg this time, but now it was solitary confinement.
This kind of rigid nitpicking and harsh discipline didn’t sit well with Jiang Luo.
He lowered his head. “Understood.”
The isolation room was located in the most remote corner of the Heavenly Master Residence, and few ever went there.
Jiang Luo had never been there before; it was Zhou Wudu who escorted him. Zhou Wudu looked at him sympathetically and asked, “How long did the teacher say you have to stay in there?”
Jiang Luo said slowly, “One day.”
“One day? That’s nothing,” Zhou Wudu said. “All of us disciples have been confined by the master before. It’s called a confinement room, but it’s really more like a meditation chamber. Just no internet, no books, the only way to pass time is by zoning out or meditating. Aside from being boring, it’s not so bad. The bathroom and shower are all there. Just stay put, I’ll come get you tomorrow morning.”
He spoke as Jiang Luo listened. Jiang Luo followed him, carrying his bedding, to the confinement room.
The confinement room looked more like a prison cell. Iron doors lined both sides of the hallway. Zhou Wudu clearly knew this place well — he quickly found a room with good sunlight and ventilation. After Jiang Luo put down his things, Zhou Wudu patted his shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after your friend. You can spend the time here practicing talismans or writing — it’ll go by fast.”
Jiang Luo looked around the room and nodded. “Thanks, senior brother.”
Before leaving, Zhou Wudu even gave him a bag of spicy chicken feet. Once the iron door closed, Jiang Luo was left alone.
The room was simple — just a bed and a set of table and chairs. On the upper part of the wall was a small window, through which sunlight streamed in, dust motes dancing in the golden light.
Jiang Luo made his bed and checked the bathroom. It was small, but clean enough.
A small ginseng doll crawled out of the bedding. While Jiang Luo wasn’t paying attention, it climbed up the wall and nearly escaped through the window, only to be caught by Jiang Luo in one swift grab.
Jiang Luo let out a cold laugh. “My dear son, where do you think you’re going?”
The ginseng doll wailed loudly. Jiang Luo tossed it into a cabinet in the desk and locked it in. Then he laid down on the bed, ready for a nap.
When he woke up, the sunlight outside had turned a soft golden hue. Jiang Luo estimated it was already past four in the afternoon.
At dinnertime, his friends came to visit. Along with their mixture of pity, concern, and schadenfreude, they also kindly brought him purified water and a meal.
Wenren Lian looked very guilty. In a low voice, he said, “Jiang Luo, I’m sorry. I told the Heavenly Master about your meeting with Chi You.”
Jiang Luo replied easily, “It’s fine. You meant well.”
Wenren Lian sighed. He hadn’t expected that even painting Jiang Luo as innocent wouldn’t save him from being punished by Feng Li. These noble families always had too many rules.
“I brought you the things you asked for,” Wenren Lian said. “They don’t allow too much to be brought into the confinement room, so I left them in your quarters.”
Jiang Luo thanked him.
They stayed outside the confinement room with Jiang Luo for half an hour before being politely ushered away by the disciple guarding the area. The room returned to silence. As the sky darkened, Jiang Luo wrote a few talismans, then went to sleep again.
He was in a light sleep when the thing inside the desk drawer became restless. Jiang Luo cracked an eye open just in time to see the ginseng doll crawling out of the drawer and squeezing through the vent under the iron door.
Jiang Luo shut his eyes again, unconcerned. He wasn’t worried the doll would run off.
At night, the gate outside the confinement wing would be locked. No matter how far the ginseng doll ran, it couldn’t leave the compound.
He leisurely prepared to drift back to sleep — but then came a sudden thump from outside. The ginseng doll tumbled back in through the vent, sobbing as it scrambled to the bedside, frantically climbing the sheets and burying itself in Jiang Luo’s arms, trembling violently. “There’s a ghost outside!”
It was covered in black grime, from who-knows-where. Jiang Luo wrinkled his nose and tossed it aside, saying lazily, “How could there be ghosts in the Heavenly Master Residence?”
The ginseng doll kept shivering, its tears soaking through a patch of Jiang Luo’s blanket like a kid who’d wet the bed. Jiang Luo expressionlessly picked it up and carried it to the bathroom, where he set it in the sink to wash.
As the black filth washed off, Jiang Luo noticed the water turning faintly yellow.
It looked a little like ginseng tea.
The doll stopped crying and asked in a small voice, “Aren’t you going to drink it?”
Jiang Luo said, “Drink what?”
The doll replied matter-of-factly, “My bathwater, of course.”
“…” Jiang Luo pushed the doll back underwater.
It floated back up a moment later, just in time to see Jiang Luo draining all the water from the sink, a look of deep pain appearing on its face.
Once it was clean, Jiang Luo noticed a bite mark on its back. He frowned. “You got bitten?”
The ginseng doll shuddered. “There’s a ghost down here — she tried to eat me!”
Impossible.
Even Chi You, that vicious ghost, had only possessed Senior Brother Qiao. What kind of ghost would dare act so wildly inside the Heavenly Master’s own estate?
Sensing Jiang Luo’s doubt, the ginseng doll shouted, “It’s true! A female ghost! She’s locked up underground. I fell down there and she grabbed me. Her nails were long, her breath stank — she almost bit me in half!”
Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow. “Underground?”
He hadn’t known there was an underground area below the confinement room.
Now he was intrigued. He picked up the ginseng doll and walked to the door, peeking through the ventilation slits at the top.
The hallway was pitch-black and deathly still. Of all the confinement rooms, only his had the light on.
At this time of day, Jiang Luo was the only one being held here.
He whispered, “Where did you fall underground? Shh, quietly.”
The ginseng doll covered its mouth and pointed a whiskered hand toward the end of the corridor.
Jiang Luo asked again, “Then how did you escape after she grabbed you?”
“She was chained up,” the doll whispered. “I kicked her in the face and used it as a springboard to jump out.”
He sounded very confident. Jiang Luo thought for a moment, then quietly activated his Yin-Yang hoop.
A golden mouse dashed like the wind toward the end of the corridor — then quickly ran back, shaking its head repeatedly.
The ginseng doll was so frightened by the mouse that it dove straight into Jiang Luo’s arms.
Jiang Luo pulled it out, flicked its forehead, and lazily said, “Little kids who lie get cooked and eaten by grown-ups.”
The ginseng doll wailed, “I really wasn’t lying!”
