He didn't reply for a long time, but his arms hugged me tightly.
"Elder brother, what have you been up to lately?"
Ming Si was silent for a while, and responded softly, "Busy seeing you every day."
I was taken aback. I looked up at him and met his faint eyes. He smiled.
"Of course you would not have been able to see me without removing your blindfold."
"You mean, you had come to see me?"
"I had been looking at you from a distance."
My heart skipped a beat. No wonder I couldn't sense his presence.
He smile deepened and took my left hand. He used the tip of my index finger and stroked the skull on the ring three circles anti-clockwise and three circles clockwise. The ring suddenly shot out a silver beam of light as thin and long as a sharp dagger.
I was taken aback.
"What is this?"
"Nether Blade."
Ming Si looked down at me and frowned slightly, "I had taught you the way to use the Nether Blade previously."
"When did you teach me this?"
I almost dropped my jaw.
He was also surprised, and said, "I taught you when you were ten years old. Didn't I let you use the Nether Blade to deal with ghosts attached to Silly Er? What's the deal? You didn't remember?"
I was dumbfounded. It wasn't that I didn't remember it. I had never even heard you mentioning the Nether Blade. I only remember you saying that this skull ring can prevent any ghosts from possessing my body and it can also strike the ghosts out from the humans they possessed. I tried it out once but it didn't work. I guess I didn't use it properly.
After I asked him in detail, it only came to me that Ming Si did teach me this method when he came to find me that night ten years ago. However, I might have fallen asleep and did not listen to what he said completely. I recklessly went to find Silly Er the next day and nearly got strangled to death by Silly Er. At that time, I complained that Ming Si had tried to harm me!
Now that I thought about it, it was quite funny.
"Is Xu Zixi still pestering you?" He asked me suddenly.
I nodded heavily, "She keeps pestering me in my dream every day. She came again last night and…"
"Ghost infant!" he exclaimed, beating me to it.
I was not surprised, he always seemed to know everything.
I asked him the origin of the ghost infant, and he said, "That ghost infant is a yin fetus conceived by a combination of human and ghost. He was choked to death by his biological mother when she gave birth to him three months into the pregnancy and she threw him into the well. That's why he has so much resentment."
At this point, his complexion sank slightly; his aura became cold and quiet.
I felt that his expression was not right and asked him what was wrong, but he shook his head and said that everything was okay.
"Don't participate in anything about the ghost infant. I'm afraid your aunty may not be able to help him too."
"What about you?" I looked at him blankly. Even though I knew that he had limited authority and was unable to control the ghosts that do evil deeds in the mortal world, I still looked at him hopefully.
"I never interfere with anything that has nothing to do with me," his gaze was cold.
I continued asking, "What if I am the one who was burdened by the ghost infant? Would you not care too?"
"Don't ask hypothetical questions."
"Since it is a hypothetical question, you should answer it hypothetically."
He stared at me with his eyebrows furrowed for a long while, his thin lips opened slightly, and he said coldly, "You are testing me."
"I just wanted to know if I am an important person to you, if…"
I didn't know what to say. I stopped the words at the tip of my tongue and swallowed it back into my stomach abruptly.
He narrowed his gaze and steadily jumped from the bed to the ground with ease. His hands shifted to his back as he walked slowly to the desk and looked down to read my homework that was halfway done.
'"It seems you still have a lot of homework to do. I won't bother you anymore."
As he finished his words, he disappeared in a flash.
I opened my mouth but before I could stop him, I was the only one left in the empty room.
His attitude was so indifferent, it made me uncomfortable.
I didn't think I had asked any unreasonable questions. He didn't even bother answering a hypothetical question. It might be that I don't really mean much to him.
Thinking of this, my mood plummeted.
I slowly got out of bed, walked towards the table, sat down, and continued to do my homework.
...
After dinner, I lay in bed early and listened to the sound of my aunty burning incense and chanting Buddhist prayers. I closed my eyes in peace. Feeling that the blindfold was annoying me a little, I took the blindfold off.
There are God statues on the door, and there is Bodhisattva in the house. Sinister entities wouldn't be able to enter.
However, thinking of my nightmares throughout the whole night, I suddenly didn't dare to sleep again.
I opened my eyes wide and tried to hang in there to not fall asleep. After midnight though, I was so tired that my eyelids kept drooping. I couldn't help but close my eyes and I fell asleep. My mind was in a trance and I could hear the sound of a baby crying. It was like the sound of a wild cat wailing, sending chills up my spine.
"Dong dong dong dong-"
Someone was pounding on the door loudly.
"Ji Li, Ji Li, open the door…"
Old Lin shouted from outside.
I suddenly woke up and realized that someone was really in the courtyard knocking on the door, shouting. I quickly got up and turned on the light in the room. It was followed by the sound of my aunty wearing her slippers to open the door and she walked out.
I got out of bed, looked out from the window, and found that Old Lin had come again with Lin Xiao on his back.
The swollen ghost infant was still riding on Lin Xiao. As for Lin Xiao, his body was swollen and his skin was glowing. I could hardly recognize him.
The ghost infant and Lin Xiao's lips were acting almost the same. They cried one after another and their voices were loud and piercing as if it struck across the sky. It was as if it could startle the universe and move the gods.
I shivered when I heard Old Lin's crying voice, "Ji Li, I tried the method you said, and I did everything according to your instructions, but Xiao is not getting better. He started crying again in the middle of the night, and his body became even more swollen than before. Can you please take a look again and think of a solution?"
The light from the room spilled into the courtyard through the window. With the light, I clearly saw my aunty's troubled face.
"I can't help it either. I can't deal with the ghost infant. I can only ask someone else to do it."
"Then please ask an expert," Old Lin was so anxious that he nearly cried..
Lin Xiao was the only child in their family. The old couple treated him as their life-line and vowed to save their child no matter how.
Aunty reluctantly invited Old Lin into the house.
I squinted my eyes and looked at the courtyard gate. The two God Statues were missing. No wonder the ghost infant could come in.
Thinking about it again, it seemed that there were no God statues on the door the day I came home. I shivered in hindsight and hurriedly climbed back to the bed to wrap my body tightly in the blanket.
I heard the voice of my aunty chanting Buddhist prayers in a low voice. I couldn't hear what she was chanting but it was mixed with Lin Xiao's intermittent crying. My scalp tingled and I could feel my hair standing on its end.
There was a smell of burnt joss paper in the air; I could hear Old Lin's sobbing faintly too.
But suddenly, something poked my head.
"Come out, let's talk about life," A young voice crossed the blanket and penetrated into my eardrum.
Thinking that it was the ghost infant, I immediately shuddered.
"If you don't come out, I will go in," The threatening voice came again.
I forced myself to lift the blanket away. What appeared in front of my eyes was a delicate-looking baby boy. He was naked and stood straight with two short and fleshy legs; it had a round belly and a round face.