Chapter Twenty-One: Establishing the Altar and Performing the Ritual

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Le Dong stared at the flickering word "Dad" on the phone screen, his finger frozen mid-air.

That title reminded him of Butler Ma’s words to Madam Hu about “our family of three.”

In a daze, a terrifying suspicion exploded in Le Dong’s mind—could the chubby delivery guy be the child of Butler Ma and Madam Hu?

“Dongzi?” Cai Kun nudged him with an elbow from in front. “What’s wrong?”

The voice snapped Le Dong back to reality. Just as he was about to pull out his own phone, the chubby guy’s phone in his hand suddenly vibrated, and the signal instantly turned gray after the vibration.

“Lost signal again!”

Cai Kun turned his head with a frustrated tone. “That’s too fast. Only a few dozen seconds, and it’s gone?”

Le Dong nodded, staring at the message box that popped up after the vibration on the chubby guy’s phone—it was a text from the person labeled “Dad.”

The message was brief: Still sleeping? If you don’t come by ten, it won’t just be me who’s affected!

“Ten o’clock… ten o’clock…” Le Dong murmured repeatedly, wondering what could be happening at ten if it was really from Butler Ma.

“Hey! The ritual is about to start, move it!” Zhao Zhenren’s sharp reprimand came from the living room. Le Dong hurriedly put away the phone, suppressing his doubts, and ran back to the living room with Cai Kun.

At this moment, the living room had reverted to the scene from that day—the heavy scent of incense made Le Dong cough incessantly.

In front of the altar, hung was the portrait of Old Master Hu. Zhao Zhenren wore his ritual robe, holding a peach wood sword, chanting quietly behind the altar.

Mr. Hu, clad in a silk robe, knelt before the portrait. Behind him knelt Xiao Zhang and Hou Kui, while Butler Ma stood in the corner with his hands behind his back, a faint smile playing on his lips.

At this point, everyone in the villa had gathered except Madam Hu.

“Hey, what are you dawdling for?” Zhao Zhenren glared as the two entered. “When moving a yin house, you have to notify the deceased in advance. Hurry up and kneel!”

Le Dong and Cai Kun said nothing and knelt straight down behind Xiao Zhang. Zhao Zhenren then raised the wooden sword, rang a bell, and muttered an indistinct incantation for over half an hour.

Le Dong’s knees were already numb from kneeling. He discreetly glanced at the antique clock on the wall—it was 9:50.

Ten minutes to ten!

Le Dong quietly withdrew his gaze, tension straightening his spine. With a sidelong glance toward Butler Ma in the corner, the lean old man seemed less composed than usual, frequently looking out the window with a hint of anxiety on his face.

Dong…

The clock chimed, and the hour hand pointed to ten.

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Almost simultaneously, Zhao Zhenren stopped his chant and suddenly raised his voice: “In relocating the Hu family’s yin house, may the descendants prosper, may the earth-moving lucky star be safe!” He slammed the ritual sword heavily onto the altar as if issuing a command. “Hu family men bow to thank the ancestors, the earth-moving lucky star bows to give thanks!”

As soon as the words fell, Mr. Hu immediately kowtowed. But behind him, Hou Kui suddenly straightened up and reached into his pocket with his right hand.

Le Dong, kneeling behind, eyes sharply contracted. That movement meant...

Just as Le Dong was about to see what Hou Kui pulled out from his pocket, Butler Ma suddenly began coughing violently.

“Zhao Zhenren, this is too suffocating. I’ll open the window, cough cough!”

Almost at the same time, Xiao Zhang reached out and tugged Hou Kui’s arm: “Brother Hou, it’s the earth-moving lucky star. Hurry and kowtow.”

Faced with Xiao Zhang’s action, Hou Kui’s hand froze mid-air. He turned to meet Le Dong’s gaze, the muscle on his face twitching a few times before pretending to scratch an itch and bending down to kowtow.

But Le Dong clearly caught the fleeting murderous gleam in his eyes—this damn man, even if not a killer, was no good!

After the kowtowing, Zhao Zhenren stood before the portrait, looking around awkwardly, as if an actor suddenly told to change the script midway through a performance.

The awkward atmosphere did not last long before Mr. Hu, still kneeling, suddenly broke the silence.

“My father… the photo…” Mr. Hu pointed at the portrait behind Zhao Zhenren and exclaimed.

Le Dong turned aside slightly, his gaze passing the equally stunned Zhao Zhenren to the kind face in Old Master Hu’s photo.

Originally a black-and-white portrait, two bloody handprints appeared out of nowhere, covering Old Master Hu’s face in a terrifying crimson.

“Zhao Zhenren… what’s going on here?”

Stunned, Zhao Zhenren’s expression visibly steadied when he heard Butler Ma’s question from the corner.

“Blood-stained hands on the face? This is serious…” Zhao Zhenren exaggeratedly wiped cold sweat. “Normally, with my skill in setting up the altar, I can definitely cleanse some of your father’s yin energy, or at worst, delay until an auspicious day.”

After speaking, he helped the sweating Mr. Hu to his feet and continued:

“But since this is happening now, it means your father’s yin energy is still too heavy. We’ll have to open the altar again tomorrow, or there may be unforeseen changes…”

Mr. Hu’s lips trembled in fear at the last words. He nervously grasped Zhao Zhenren’s wrist.

“Open it! Open it! Master, open it as many times as needed!”

Zhao Zhenren laughed and agreed, moving Mr. Hu away from the portrait. Le Dong took the chance to stare at the bloody handprints. The more he looked, the more something felt off, because beneath the glass frame of the portrait, it seemed there was a small piece of paper tucked in…

Before he could make sense of it, Mr. Hu began trembling again, pleading:

“Master, maybe tonight, you could also cleanse my wife’s yin energy. Otherwise, sleeping in the same room with him…”

Zhao Zhenren didn’t answer immediately but looked around thoughtfully.

“Yes, yes, let’s try it.” Suddenly, Butler Ma interrupted. Zhao Zhenren readily agreed. Seeing this, Mr. Hu waved slightly, and Butler Ma skillfully turned and went upstairs.

After a moment, Madam Hu came down the stairs stiffly, still silent, standing before the altar. Zhao Zhenren swallowed nervously, his hand shaking as he wielded the ritual sword, finally mumbling with his eyes closed.

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Madam Hu’s abnormality caught Le Dong’s attention. The more he looked, the more he noticed something strange. Even Cai Kun beside him caught Le Dong’s unusual gaze and teased, “What are you staring at?”

“How old do you think Madam Hu is?”

“Sixty something? No, maybe fifty something. Why?”

“I feel like she looks more like twenty something.”

“Well, she takes good care of herself, looks young…”

“No, I’m not talking about her face. I mean… she’s even firmer than someone in their twenties…”

Le Dong’s expression was serious, eyes fixed intently on a certain spot on Madam Hu, his finger pointing at his own chest.

Because Madam Hu’s chest looked unnatural, as if two buns had been stuffed under her neck by mistake.

“Hey, you’re really paying attention…”

Cai Kun clearly didn’t take it seriously, covering his mouth to laugh secretly, his eyes mischievously glancing at Mr. Hu’s reaction.

But after he looked away, a few seconds later, he shuddered, his trembling fat hand hastily grabbing Le Dong’s sleeve:

“Dongzi… you, you look at the stairway entrance. I keep feeling like something is watching us. I don’t dare look closely. You check it out…”

Le Dong was interrupted and frowned, turning his head to look.

Following Cai Kun’s indication, in the dark corner of the staircase, two faint red shadows flickered. Le Dong hardly needed effort to recognize the ghosts of Su Juanjuan and Hu Dawei.

“Sigh… Old Cai… those two things are here again…”

Le Dong sighed, clutching the copper coin in his pocket. Cai Kun tensed up as well, feeling the coin might not be enough and quietly tore off a few ghost talismans from the altar.

“Dongzi… if things get bad, we can run to the small hill behind the villa. Ma the blind man might still have some insight…”

Cai Kun whispered his advice, but Le Dong didn’t hear much because he saw the faint spirits at the stairway entrance suddenly vanish like frightened mice.

Le Dong was elated, thinking they must have sensed the coin’s power. But then a sudden, inexplicable unease chilled his heart.

Instinctively, he reached for the coin in his pocket but found his hand trembling uncontrollably—not from fear, but a primal response to the presence of a far more powerful being descending…