Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nothing More

I nodded after listening and said, "I'm sorry for the trouble, please take this as a small token of my appreciation."

I handed him a hundred-yuan bill. The nursing assistant was stunned. "This... this is too much."

I smiled and said, "It’s not much. I might need your help again in the future, so let’s just consider this a way of making friends."

After the nursing assistant left, showering me with thanks, the young man who had been waiting nearby couldn't wait any longer. "Young Master San, I’ve been hanging around the hospital lately. If you have any questions, just ask. I know everything."

I smiled. "About ten days ago, a young man named 'Little Bean Sprout' brought an old man and a child here. What happened afterward?"

The young man replied, "You wouldn't believe it, but I actually saw everything that happened."

After the old man was angered to the point of fainting, he regained consciousness shortly after. He sat on the ground, covering his face and wailing. "What a tragedy! I never should have passed those secret arts on to your father!" he cried. "Your father is trying to get you killed!"

The child was completely bewildered, shouting, "Grandpa, what are you talking about?"

The old man kept crying while pulling the child away. "Come on, go with me! Even if I die, I won't let that monster get his way."

The old man didn't go far; he rented a courtyard nearby and settled in. The next day, he went out to buy a lot of food and daily necessities. It looked like he planned to stay for a couple of weeks.

The old man and the child never came out again after they moved in.

I interrupted him there. "Are you sure?"

"Sure, I'm sure!" the young man insisted. "If any of this is wrong, you can cut my head off."

I nodded. "Where is that courtyard? Take me there."

The young man looked troubled. "Young Master San, I can take you there, but I can only lead you to the entrance of the alley. I don't dare go near that courtyard."

"Before that old man moved in, the alley was quite peaceful. Apart from a few wandering spirits, there wasn't a soul around."

"But after he moved in, you couldn't go in anymore. Not only did he never come out, but the wandering spirits in the alley didn't come out either."

"My home is also in that alley. If I hadn't been out for a stroll, I might have been trapped inside by now."

"I’ve been circling around trying to get home these past few days. Why else would I be so sure that the old man never left?"

"I see!" I pulled out two hundred yuan and handed it to him. "What you've told me is very useful. This is for you. Just take me to the entrance of the alley and tell your friends nearby to stay away so they don't get hurt."

"You got it! It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Young Master San. Right this way!" The young man was grinning from ear to ear. He thought for a moment, then pulled out a wad of underworld bank notes and handed them to Little Bean Sprout. "Bean Sprout, here's a little something..."

Little Bean Sprout waved him off. "We don't do that when working for Young Master San. Just go back and spread the word that Young Master San is a man of honor; that’s enough."

"No need to tell me twice!" The young man patted his chest. "Within three days, if there’s any wandering spirit in the whole province who doesn't know Young Master San's name, you can change my surname to yours."

"Get lost!" Little Bean Sprout rolled his eyes in annoyance.

As they were talking, the young man suddenly stopped. "Wait, where did the alley go? How come I can't find it?"

"Young Master San, wait a second!" He ran back and forth on the street twice before stopping about five or six meters away from me. "The alley is here."

Little Bean Sprout walked over and took a look. "Your family calls this an alley? This is just a narrow passageway!"

Normally, even the narrowest alley should be wide enough for a handcart so that residents could move their belongings in and out easily. But this passage was only wide enough for one person to squeeze through; even a slightly heavy person would have a hard time navigating it.

Little Bean Sprout pointed at the entrance. "I don't even need to go in to know that the doors of the houses in here must open inward. If they opened outward, no one would be able to open their door. You aren't just finding some random place to fool us, are you?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare!" The young man waved his hands frantically, terrified.

I turned to the young man. "Was this alley like this before?"

The young man scratched his head. "It wasn't like this before! It used to be wide enough for a small truck to drive through without any trouble. Who knows how it ended up like this in just one night?"

I raised my hand and pressed it against the wall. With a surge of strength, my fingers dug into the masonry, and I gripped the edge of a brick, tearing it clean out of the wall.

The moment the brick was in my hand, water began to seep from the crack in the wall. I brought the brick to my nose and sniffed it. "Is there a cemetery nearby?"

The young man shook his head. "No, the cemetery is far from here."

I asked again, "Did that old man find this courtyard directly, or did he search the area a few times first? And how many families live in this alley?"

"He didn't come directly, but it didn't take him long either," the young man said. "There’s no running water in this area, so the houses are hard to rent out. Even laborers don't like to rent here. Only his family lives in this alley."

I nodded. "Alright, you can go back now. Bean Sprout, can you contact people outside the province? Ask them to help me track down Zong Zheng's whereabouts over the years."

Little Bean Sprout looked troubled. "Young Master San, you know how it is—wandering spirits have their own territories. It’s not easy to get news from outside the province. I’ll try!"

"If you can't find anything, keep an eye on the Tang siblings. Watch them closely, and if there's any sign of movement, come back and tell me immediately!" I didn't hold much hope for getting news from other provinces, so I had to put more effort into watching the Tang siblings.

After Little Bean Sprout left, I turned to Ye Huan. "What do you think?"

Ye Huan shook his head expressionlessly. "You handle the thinking."

I sighed helplessly. "Can't you use your brain for once? People call pretty faces 'airheads'—what exactly is big about you?"

Ye Huan touched his face. "Before I met you guys, I was fine. Since meeting you, my face seems to have grown thicker!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was clearly implying that Yuan the Thief and I were shameless!

Ye Huan blinked at me. "Er Gou, why are you squinting?"

"I'll deal with you later!" I said. "Judging by the current situation, it seems Zong Ren deliberately created the 'Black Tiger Curse.' Moreover, he intends to cast this curse onto his son, Zong Hanlin."

"But he didn't dare do it from the start, fearing his father, Zong Zheng, would notice something and disrupt his plans. That’s why he hid Zong Hanlin's birth date and covered up the existence of the Black Tiger Curse from back then."

"Now that Zong Hanlin has turned eighteen, it must be time for him to lure the curse into his son's body."

"However..."