“Good evening, please allow me to smoke, old lady.” The voice of Lu Qingjia came from the television.
The ghostly old lady saw her own son on the screen, kneeling in a row, clearly in a hostage situation. Instantly, her earlier bravado in scaring the fat man vanished, and her face turned pale, even more so than the fat man had been.
She trembled, pointing at Lu Qingjia on the television: “You, you—”
Lu Qingjia casually pulled a chair over and sat down, crossing his legs, resting his hands on his knees, adopting a villainous posture: “How did I find your house?”
The ghostly old lady remained silent, but it was evident she was extremely curious about this.
Lu Qingjia chuckled: “When I notified your family about claiming the lost senile old man, didn’t he have his address and phone number written on him? Luckily, I have a good memory.”
“You were able to find the fat man in the real world, so I boldly guess that you are blood relatives, and should be able to contact your living self through them.”
“It seems my line of reasoning was correct.”
Upon hearing this, the ghostly old lady shot a venomous glare at her old man.
This old man had previously been hit by Lu Qingjia several times with bricks, his head flattened somewhat, and because of him, Lu Qingjia had swindled away several thousand, so naturally, he hadn’t gone to the hospital for treatment.
At this moment, the old man, with his flattened head, shrank back, not daring to meet the ghostly old lady’s gaze.
The ghostly old lady cursed, “Useless thing, always causing trouble.”
Beside her, a middle-aged man said, “Mom, what time is it? Cursing my dad won’t help, hurry and save us!”
A middle-aged woman next to him wailed, “Why did I end up with such a useless family? We barely got any money back, and now they’ve cleaned us out, and we’re still hoping for a dead old lady to help us.”
“We’re pitiful, just the two of us, suffering from a family of good-for-nothings.” As the woman spoke, she could no longer maintain her kneeling position, sitting back and slapping her thigh, crying, “Last night, they brought back a pack of fake bills and still dared to show off in front of me, wearing a paper watch all the way and didn’t even notice it was fake.”
“When I asked my brother for help, he sweet-talked me, and in the end, the two of them came back completely swindled, making me unable to lift my head in my own family.”
“Inside that money was also little Bao’s tuition for next semester, and the house is about to expire. If we’re unlucky, we’ll be left to drink the northwest wind—”
The woman’s voice was loud and melodious, at her age already quite skilled at wailing like a grave-digging old lady, making the atmosphere in the entire house even darker and more sorrowful.
Just as she was wailing, the woman suddenly trembled all over, letting out a painful scream that startled both the ghostly old lady and the fat man outside the television.
Lu Qingjia, sitting behind her, looked indifferent and said, “Who told you to change positions? Is kneeling too tiring?”
The woman, along with the men in the house and the old man, dared to curse, but they didn’t dare to speak against the intruder in their home.
Having just suffered, their rising anger instantly deflated, and they resumed their kneeling position, crying.
Although the ghostly old lady and her family felt relieved that the loud woman had quieted down, they couldn’t feel happy knowing their lives were in someone else’s hands.
Only the fat man’s mind took a turn, realizing that his brother had exposed their back, and his crisis had greatly diminished.
This deadbeat who had watched countless films suddenly found his thoughts turning lewd because of Lu Qingjia’s words, thinking, ‘Jiajia seems quite assertive when talking about positions, and that man looked quite impressive all over, I wonder if they—’
Before he could finish his imagination, he heard the ghostly old lady exclaim in horror, “How do you have the ghostly enforcer’s soul-binding rope?”
That stick-like object poking at him felt like a lightning strike; it was a stick that ordinary ghosts feared immensely, and no ghost would not recognize it.
This guy was a living soul, and it was absolutely impossible for him to obtain the soul-binding rope through regular channels.
Recalling how this guy had nearly bankrupted her family just three days ago, she gasped and looked at Lu Qingjia.
“You, you tricked the ghostly enforcer?”
At this moment, the old lady truly regretted targeting the fat man. Although soul coins were tempting, getting involved with a madman who dared to rob a ghostly enforcer was dangerous. If they were found out, with those enforcers’ unreasonable nature, would they have any good outcome?
The ghostly old lady hurriedly said, “No, no, we just wanted a little soul coin, who would mess around with a madman like you?”
“I’m done, I really am done. Tomorrow we’ll move, I don’t know you.”
As soon as she finished speaking, her son let out another scream.
Lu Qingjia slowly retracted the soul-binding rope, smiling, “Don’t, your family has been my guide in the underworld, bringing me a lot of knowledge, and every night kindly sending someone to receive me. Now you want to hide your accomplishments and fame? That makes me feel so embarrassed.”
The ghostly old lady’s family knew this matter couldn’t end well, and hurriedly said, “I know we were wrong, we were blind. Can we return the soul coins we took before?”
Although Lu Qingjia had swindled this family to the brink of bankruptcy, the old lady had carefully hidden the few thousand she had previously taken from the fat man.
If Lu Qingjia didn’t have the soul-binding rope, even if he came to chop them up with a knife, they would only grit their teeth and endure without returning anything.
After all, they were ordinary and couldn’t be killed. As long as they had that considerable amount of soul coins, their family could still live without worrying about food and clothing in the future.
Lu Qingjia said, “Returning the soul coins is just a prerequisite. Do you think such matters can be used as bargaining chips?”
The old lady trembled in fear: “What do you want?”
“Don’t be nervous, I just have a few questions to ask you, old lady.”
Of course, she was nervous; her family’s lives were all in his hands. With everyone kneeling and him sitting, any displeasure could lead to electric torture, and standing to speak would be a pain in the back.
Seeing the ghostly old lady silent, Lu Qingjia asked, “How did you know the fat man had soul coins on him?”
As soon as he said this, Lu Qingjia clearly saw the ghostly old lady’s face stiffen on the screen, and even the row of ghosts kneeling in front of him became cautious.
The ghostly old lady came back to her senses and quickly covered up her moment of abnormality, saying, “I saw this little fat man at the station that night.”
“He was standing there foolishly, like a lost lamb. That road was originally for the ghostly car to send new souls to report to the ghost gate. He didn’t even know to get on the car when it stopped. I could tell he was a living soul who had wandered in, so I went over to trick him.”
After hearing this, Lu Qingjia laughed and said, “So you relied on experience and luck?”
The ghostly old lady nodded quickly, but the response to her was another scream from her son.
The ghostly old lady cried out in terror: “I already told you, why are you still tormenting my son? You have no humanity~~~”
The one without humanity replied, “But as far as I know, living souls don’t have soul coins on them.”
The ghostly old lady’s face turned white—
Lu Qingjia continued leisurely, “From the beginning, I was curious. According to the fat man, he stood there foolishly for almost half an hour before meeting you, and by then, he had already put his money back in his pocket. I even guessed that perhaps every living soul in the underworld would have their own soul coins until they spent them.”
“But after going back and forth for so many days, aside from the fat man’s money, I haven’t seen any of my own soul coins, which is interesting.”
“Then I asked the wandering souls and found out that living souls who accidentally enter the underworld don’t have soul coins because their lifespan hasn’t ended. Only certain living souls whose lifespans should have ended but have extraordinary luck extending their lives will have soul coins.”
“And the proportion of such souls among the living souls that accidentally enter the underworld is quite low, one in a thousand would be good.”
Lu Qingjia smiled and said, “So you’re telling me you thought he was a clueless living soul and went to cheat him?”
The ghostly old lady’s family had seen the cunning of this robber before; after all, their family had been swindled to bankruptcy, and he could even get the soul-binding rope that was usually close to the ghostly enforcers.
The previous scam was like showing off a big knife in front of Guan Gong.
But when it came to their family’s survival, the ghostly old lady still held onto a glimmer of hope.
Lu Qingjia also knew very well that after hinting that he wasn’t easy to fool, he immediately cut off one of the ghostly old lady’s son’s fingers and threw it in front of the screen.
The ghostly son screamed repeatedly, and the ghostly old lady instinctively reached out to catch it, but the separation between the realms made it futile.
Lu Qingjia said, “Relax, this is just a little flesh wound. I asked about the medical prices in the underworld, and this little repair won’t cost much.”
Saying this, he smiled again: “But then again, for your family doing a no-cost business, losing a finger doesn’t affect your business scope.”
Then the old lady saw the robber switch the soul-binding rope to a lasso mode, gesturing towards her son’s arm: “But if you lie again, it won’t be a small knife anymore.”
The soul-binding rope, as a weapon capable of killing ghosts, caused permanent damage.
The old lady was terrified, her heart racing, and hurriedly said, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
“I have a skill; as long as I’m careful, I can see through others’ true origins. Whether they are living souls or souls with extended lifespans, whether they have used methods to conceal their appearance, I can see it at a glance.”
After hearing this, Lu Qingjia showed no surprise, as if he had anticipated it.
This family, lazy and unproductive, from old to young, lived quite well in the underworld and had some assets. This was not something their clumsy scams could achieve.
Looking at the ghostly old lady’s son and daughter-in-law’s attitude towards the ghostly old man, they didn’t seem like filial children, but the whole family was clearly centered around the ghostly old lady, indicating that she held the key to their family’s survival.
After the ghostly old lady finished speaking, she cautiously said, “I’ve told you everything; can you let our family go now?”
Lu Qingjia’s expression was warm: “Hmm, no problem, just give me your ability.”
The ghostly old lady’s skin crawled, and her face became more terrifying than when she had deliberately scared the fat man.
This ability could be transferred to others, something their family didn’t know, only the ghostly old lady understood.
Because she knew that her son and daughter-in-law were unreliable, just like the coffin fund; as long as she held it in her hands, her children would still treat her well. Once given away, they wouldn’t care about the two old folks anymore.
But how could a living soul who had only been to the underworld a few times know about such life-threatening matters?
Looking at the robber’s expression, he seemed incredibly certain.
The ghostly old lady broke out in a cold sweat: “You, you said what I don’t understand.”
Lu Qingjia pressed the soul-binding rope against her son’s head: “No, I think you understand.”
In an instant, the two sides of the screen fell into silence, with only the sound of the fat man’s breathing audible.
The ghostly old lady’s eyes turned red, and suddenly, with an agility that didn’t match her age, she lunged towards the fat man, extending her hand, her claw-like fingers sprouting long, sharp nails.
The color was a dirty gray-brown, twisted and menacing, but very sharp, directly pressing against the fat man’s throat.
The ghostly old lady’s voice sounded like a windbag: “Hehe, little brat, don’t get too greedy. I’m worried about my family, you should also take care of the little fat man.”
The ghostly old lady was still quite confident; although her whole family had been taken down, she only had one.
But usually, those who dared to risk their lives to help in the underworld had some special connections, and both sides had their concerns. If she took a step back, the soul coins would still be returned, and the robber would have to agree.
Before her beautiful dream could finish, she saw blood splatter on the television screen, and a bloody arm fell to the ground.
Lu Qingjia shook off the blood from the soul-binding rope, smiled at the television, and his voice, clear amidst the ghostly son’s shrill screams, reached the old lady’s ears—
“Old lady, this is what we call a threat.”
