“Come on, this is MY rate. An honest one to boot!” I glowered at Lu Shengnan with tremendous exasperation. “What makes you think the rates charged by swindlers and hustlers are the correct ones?”

Only Lu Shengnan seemed to misunderstand me. She was thinking I was being too courteous. “Wow, I’ve known you for so long, Shiyan. This is the first time you’re so soft-spoken! I’m not a complete amateur! I know the market rates for exorcising spirits! They usually charge at least tens of thousands!”

Edelweiss and I broke into fits of laughter. “And were they effective?” “Urm…” Lu Shengnan stuttered, “Well, I know at least that those Huang Li went to were useless. Otherwise, she would never be forced to come to you. She had looked for more than ten of them, having spent hundreds of thousands for nothing!”

Wow, so being a swindler could still be such a lucrative calling, I almost burst into another fit of guffaws. I was pondering on ways to explain to a thickheaded Lu Shengnan when the door swung open suddenly and Chongxi’s voice came from outside, “Of course swindlers would charge higher! They don’t know if they’d be able to find another target before their money runs out! It’s call insurance!” He walked in, plump and stocky as he was with a slender and tall Xiao Yu following in tow. In his hands, he was carrying plastic bags of food.

Lu Shengnan looked at Chongxi. Obviously he remembered Chongxi this short guy and he screamed, “You! We met before! Do you remember me?” But Chongxi could only gape at her with a puzzled look on his face.

Knowing Chongxi, I introduced him and Xiao Yu to Lu Shengnan again. He must have long forgotten about Lu Shengnan, considering the last time they met it was during a dinner where he would have most likely reserved his attention to the food and Lu Shengnan then was present with a group of girls.

Chongxi and Xiao Yu took their seats and began eating. Xiao Yu was not much of a chatter, but she was attentive to detail. Time and again, she would pluck out slices of meat from her rice box to offer it to an oblivious Chongxi, who never stopped inhaling his food.

My head shook at my friend’s laughable antics and I turned to Lu Shengnan. “As you have heard, those who demand astronomical rates are most likely swindlers. They will slaughter any gullible prey with zero mercy. But we are the real deal. We would never charge exorbitant rates and at times, we even help people out of charity. Because we believe in karmic retribution.” Chongxi burst into stifled giggles, his head rising from his rice box with grains of rice stuck on his face, sniggering. “Remember the 1.2 million yuan that the foolish charlatan almost sold his life for?”

“Right on,” I chuckled at him and said, “Oh, yeah! I met the guy at Mount Changbai!”

“Huh?” Lu Shengnan interjected dubiously and I told her the tale about the swindler who had now become a tour guide to demonstrate how we charge our clients.

Lu Shengnan slapped her thigh and said, “All right! So you’d be coming with me later in the evening?” I rolled my eyes at her unbridled fervor. “Wait up. You have yet to tell me about the condition at Huang Li’s house. How else would you expect me to prepare?” “But she did not tell me anything about her house?” Oh, for the love of the gods, I groaned. But a confident Chongxi quipped, “Have no fear! Since when have we met with any problem that we had failed to handle?”

“But Lin Feng’s not back yet, I’m afraid,” I said, “Shouldn’t we wait for him?” As if on a cue, from outside the door, came Lin Feng and Yuanyuan’s voice. “You were not there,” Lin Feng was saying just outside the Center, “If only you’d seen Big Sister Lan’s sword telekinesis magic…” Chongxi and I looked at each other. Talk about impeccable timing. Obviously, Lin Feng must be bragging about his experiences to Yuanyuan again.

“Quit gloating out there, Lin Feng! Come in quick!” I yelled at the door. Hearing me, Lin Feng came in, wearing a broad grin on his face. “Your hearing must be really good to hear me from outside!” Then he saw Lu Shengnan and he hurried over to greet her.

I quickly introduced Lin Feng to Lu Shengnan who recognized him. The platoon leader during my university’s military training never stopped praising Lin Feng then so it had left quite an impression on her. More so, after truly meeting for the first time at the restaurant dinner where she found him tall and handsome.

Hearing about a new job, Lin Feng rubbed his hands together eagerly. “At long last! We have been idling for so long! What time are we leaving? Evening? All right. I’ll get my gear ready!” With that, he trotted upstairs. Lin Feng really took after his father’s fervent and enthusiastic demeanor, in contrast to Chongxi’s devil-may-care attitude. That left only me wondering that something felt amiss, although I could not quite put the feeling into words. So I could only dismiss my apprehension to the back of my mind for the moment.

With no objections from everyone, we agreed to Lu Shengnan that we would depart to Huang Li’s place in the afternoon. This time, we decided not to bring Big Sister along out of the inconvenience of chaperoning a she-fox demon and Edelweiss would remain at the Center.

Later that afternoon, we traveled with Lu Shengnan to a street called the Xinhua West Road. We parked our car just outside a street market and followed Lu Shengnan to her teaching center. She had chosen this place due to the bustling ambiance of the crowd in the vicinity to cater to younger teenagers.

“It’s mostly cigarettes, liquor, and clothing here? Look, there’s even a bridal photography agency. You should open a clothing store here so we can buy some from you next time, heh heh heh!” “Come on, no one would sell clothing in physical stores these days! People shop online for clothing!” Having parents who were business people, Lu Shengnan had displayed a flair for enterprising even since we first met in university. Selling snacks, cigarettes, liquor, and even musical instrument accessories between classes had become her main past time aside from joining me at internet cafes overnight for games during our campus life.

“This reminds me of how I used to follow you around campus peddling your wares,” I chuckled and said, “Are you still doing things like these now?” Lu Shengnan smiled. “Of course not. I can’t rely on such hawking trade to make enough money to pay my bills. It’s enough only if we’re doing it in school.”

We reached Lu Shengnan’s tuition center, a unit at the near-end of the street numbered 14-9. “This is the cheapest unit I could find here.” She admitted shyly. “My father did not give me much money, so this is the best unit I could find. A unit at the remote corner of the street, unlike your Center. Heh.” She unlocked the door and pushed through only to see a woman, her hair flowing long over her shoulders hurrying over to meet her. I instantly recognized Huang Li, the quirky girl from my first week on the campus. Only she, true to how Lu Shengnan had described her, had undergone a huge transformation.

One way or another, it was her poise—her air, her bearing—that had undergone an indescribable shift. Everything about her was different. She looked very much the same Huang Li from all those years ago, but the Huang Li then sounded nutty and weird and the Huang Li now before me seemed very distant—an aloofness or a remoteness that no one could penetrate.

Huang Li came forward and her eyes noticed me immediately. But she looked strangely placid as if I was a person whom she hardly knew, her eyes as still as a mirror. What the hell… I gasped to myself. As of right, after what happened that culminated in her leaving university, I should have been her most hated person. Having seasoned from the experiences I had had, I could safely say that I was now a better judge of character. There was hardly any change in my appearance since my graduation, so I was certain that Huang Li recognized me the moment she saw me. Yet, there was nothing in her gaze at me that indicated anger or any sort of swirling emotions. A gaze so reticent and taciturn as if I was but a mere speck of dirt.

Nevertheless, the look she gave me was so unnervingly unnatural that I could not help but feel wary. “It’s been so long,” I said first, “You’ve changed so much that I nearly fail to recognize you.” Unexpectedly, Huang Li replied indifferently, “Hmm. A lot, I must say.” She raised a hand, offering to shake mine.

I could only smile. I reach out to take her hand to shake it but as soon as I felt the tingle of my skin on hers, I felt a staggering heaviness in my mind that almost made me faint!

End of Volume