Chapter 1 - The Witch Entered the City

HAI CITY - NIGHT

A train station welcomed another wave of alighting passengers. Like a swarm of bees, the crowd squeezed through the gate. Amidst the crowd, a slim figure looked particularly striking, causing passersby to glance back at her unwittingly.

It was a young girl, approximately 1.6m tall, wearing ethnic clothing

Ethnic clothes were mostly bright and colourful. Her clothes were exquisitely designed-filled with embroidery and pearls, they glistened under the station's neon lights—they were beautiful and imposing at the same time.

Wu Miaomiao took out a slip of paper given by her master. She took a look at the address on the paper then at the buzzing crowd surrounding her. She could not discern where to head to for a moment.

"Young lady, are you waiting for someone?" A security officer who had been monitoring Wu Miaomiao for some time, noticed that this young lady had stood rooted to the ground for a significant period of time after exiting the gate.

"Hello." Wu Miaomiao saw someone approaching and greeted politely.

"Hello hello." The security officer saw the adorable and lovely Wu Miaomiao, reminiscent of his own daughter who was currently studying in high school, and smiled more warmly at her. "I noticed that you have been standing here and have not moved for quite some time, are you waiting for someone? Or are you lost?"

The young girl's unique disposition was in stark contrast against the city's clamour, with one look, one could tell that she had not been in a city much.

"Not waiting for anyone," Wu Miaomiao shook her head and passed him the address slip in her hand, "I am going to this place."

The security officer took the paper slip and looked at it. "Oh Qinghu District, this location is quite a distance away, it takes more than an hour to get there by train, very complicated..."

Wu Miaomiao listened attentively.

"Young lady, is this your first time to Hai City?

"Yes." Wu Miaomiao nodded her head meekly.

"Any relatives in Hai City?"

"Yes, over here." Wu Miaomiao pointed at the slip of paper.

"Then why are your relatives not coming to fetch you?" The security guard couldn't help but worry about her. This young lady was attractive and seemed to have an innocent mind. Plus, the public security in Hai City was not that great recently. Why were her relatives not fetching her even though she arrived here via a late night train?

"He doesn't know that I'm here. I'm here to look for him." Wu Miaomiao explained.

"There are public phones here. How about calling him and asking him to fetch you?" "I tried calling, his phone was off." Wu Miaomiao replied.

"I see... "The security officer pondered before replying. "To head over there from here you will need to change 3 different subway lines. After exiting the subway, you probably will still need to search around for the location. Why don't you take a taxi instead, you can have the driver take you directly to the entrance of the district. Even though it's a bit expensive, it is safer this way."

"Okay." Wu Miaomiao took back the slip and asked politely, "Excuse me, where should I go to take a taxi?"

"Heh, one should help to the very end. Let me bring you over."

The security officer escorted Wu Miaomiao all the way to the taxi queue entrance. "Enter through here and queue together behind them, wait for the taxi to arrive and you can head in directly."

"Thank you uncle." Wu Miaomiao took out an exquisitely-made doll from her bag and passed it to the security officer, "This is for you, I wish you sweet dreams."

"This doll is wonderfully made." The security officer did not refuse the gift. He knew that children from the mountains had simple and straightforward characters. If he were to reject, she would be disheartened. "Are you from the Miao clan?"

"No? I'm from the Wu (Witch) Clan." After replying, Wu Miaomiao lifted her bag and headed towards the queue.

"Wu clan? Was there such a clan among the 56 ethnic groups?" The security officer kept the doll in his pocket and continued with his work.

Wu Miaomiao queued for a while before getting into a taxi. She passed the paper slip to the driver who took a look at it and drove off without a word.

Along the way, Wu Miaomiao stared unblinkingly at the neon lights outside the windows, she lifted her head towards the night sky. A sense of unfamiliarity that she had been suppressing all along emerged as she mumbled, "Can't see the stars."

She first had to ride on her fellow villager, Uncle Niu's, motorcycle to the county from her house. Next, a long-distance car ride to the provincial capital. Afterwards, she bought a train ticket towards Hai City. This entire journey took more than 30 hours, all to look for her fiancé in Hai City

Her master had passed on due to old age about a month ago. Before passing, her master had given her a slip of paper, "As you know, Master arranged a marriage for you when you were a baby. We, the Witch Clan, have always followed the way of matrilocal marriages. There has never been any instance where our women marry into the groom's family. I initially wanted to wait until you were of age before getting that family to send their son over for marriage."

"But after all these years, Master has come to the realisation that your life is your own. I cannot restrict your freedom just because you are the last in line of the Witch Clan. Therefore, decide for yourself if you want this marriage. You can find him at this address Otherwise, exchange the keepsake for a sum of money. Previously when Master saved his life, I did not accept any payment from their family as I wanted him to be your child groom."

Wu Miaomiao was not saddened by her master's passing. She had foreseen this day a year ago-As witches, they were well-acquainted with Yin and Yang. Furthermore for them, death was just a brand new beginning

"I was just 2 years old at that time. Why did you think about my marriage during then?" Wu Miaomiao asked curiously

"Because that kid was too pretty, he was such a lovely bundle of blackness! If you were to see him, you would definitely like him too."

Wu Miaomiao was speechless.

The Witch Clan had always revered the color black. When they headed out to work, they loved to wear a black mantie over their clothes. The pets they chose were also black. Her master, in particular, was obsessed with it. No matter black pigs, black dogs, black cats, black rabbits, as long they had a sufficiently saturated black colour, she would bring them back home to keep

In that case, this child groom that I have must be exceptionally black

After her master passed on, Wu Miaomiao did not have any other close relatives around. Even though she had not met him, this supposed 'fiancé that was the purest of blacks' was an existence that her master had been harping on about ever since she could start forming memories. As such, Wu Miaomiao was not particularly adverse towards her fiancé. Besides, this could be counted as fulfilling her master's final wishes before passing on. Wu Miaomiao felt that bringing him back to marry was not a huge issue and so after she completed her high school examinations, she carried her school bag and headed to Hai City.

"Young lady, we have arrived." Once the taxi reached the destination, the driver reminded Wu Miaomiao who was staring into space on the backseat.

Wu Miaomiao expressionlessly took a look outside the window, paid the fare and alighted

The taxi did not enter into the district, instead it stopped just outside its entrance. The property management of the district was extremely strict. Since she did not have the access card nor was able to get in touch with a resident, Wu Miaomiao was stopped outside the district.

Wu Miaomiao had not imagined that just meeting her fiancé would be so difficult and was stunned motionless. A pair of innocent eyes stared deeply at the security guard who had stopped her, as if the security guard would relent and let her in if she stared long enough

"Young lady, don't look at me like that. We have rules over here. Only the residents are able to enter. You should give your friend a call to ask him to come fetch you." The security guard started to become nervous after being stared at by Wu Miaomiao.

He was not cowardly, but he was stared at fixatedly late in the night by a young lady who was as white as a sheet with pitch dark eyes. She also wore weird clothes and did not speak. If one did not look carefully, he would have thought that a vengeful ghost came from somewhere wanting to take his life

"If not... I could get my colleague to go up and ask on your behal? What's your name and your relationship with the resident Asked the security guard

"My name is Wu Miaomiao, I'm his fiancée Wu Miaomiao replied seriously

"Fi fiancée? Young lady, are you even of age? Could it be that you came out to meet your online friend behind your parents back?" He knew that nowadays there were a lot of soumbags cheating young girls online

This Ji Langfellow sounded especially similar to those guys-giving an address to little girls and letting them travel over from far away to look for him, then they would go missing with their phone turned off. The most crucial point is that this young lady did not even know what her fiancé looked like. Come to think of it, these days, are underaged children still being matchmade?--This is definitely an online scam.

Wu Miaomiao did not answer and continued staring at the security guard.

"Fine, I will get someone to knock on the door for you." The security guard contemplated escorting the young lady personally later on, should it really be a case of meeting an online friend, he would immediately call the police. In any case, the police station was just across the road

The security guard took out a handheld transceiver and called his colleagues who were patrolling in the district to help knock on the door. "Is there anyone near Building 11? Could you go to unit 801 and knock to check if the owner is home."

About 5 minutes later, there was a reply from the transceiver, "The owner is not around."

"See, there is no one around, how about you come back later? It's going to be Opm soon. Later about 10pm he will definitely return home for sleep. You could go and eat something first and come back awhile later. The security guard suggested

Wu Miaomiao remained silent for a moment turned around and headed towards the zebra crossing behind.

"What happened to that young lady?" Another security guard came over from the side.

"Was probably cheated to come over and meet an online friend. The security guard replied.

"Doesn't seem so to me."

"What happened?"

When she walked over earlier and looked at me, her eyes were particularly hostile."

"That's because you looked too aggressive, and the little girl became scared and didn't want to talk to you."

In the police station across the road, Ji Lang was recording his statement with a black face

"Was this person beaten by you?' Asked the police officer

"Yes." "You sure are truthful. Tell me, why did you suddenly beat up this person?" "Didn't like him!" Ji Lang replied.

"You don't like him? Why do you dislike so many people everyday?" The police officer became enraged when he heard the familiar excuse given by Ji Lang. "Let me tell you, this is not your first time, you already have a criminal record, if someone were to sue you, it'll be very easy..."

"Criminal record? I have a criminal record?" Ji Lang glanced at the police officer

That was the most infuriating point, this fellow was very abnormal. Every few days he would start bashing people up on the street, but every time they were brought to the police station, the victim would refuse to file a report. In the end, this fellow did not have a single criminal record on his file

"You will definitely leave one this time." The police officer could no longer bear looking at this ridiculously arrogant criminal. He turned, looking at the victim whose face was beaten black and blue, saying, "Buddy don't worry, for your case, I would definitely..."

"If... if I don't make a police report, can I leave?" That person asked cowardly.

"What did you say? Didn't you hear what he said earlier? He already admitted that he struck you!" The officer exclaimed in disbelief

"I should be beaten up, I deserved it. Police officer, I don't want to make a report, can I leave now?"

Ji Lang let out a laugh. It was uncertain if he was scoffing at the police or mocking the person he had beaten up.

No matter how much the police tried to convince the victim, he was unwilling to file a police report. In the end, they could only watch Ji Lang casually leave.

Exiting the neighbourhood police station, Ji Lang started to cross the road to head home. When he reached the zebra crossing, a young girl wearing ethnic clothes was talking towards him from across the road.

Had he bumped into a ghost again?

Humph

It looked like this ghost wasn't that weak-daring to come so close to him