The anomaly initially came from the antique shop.
On that day, the street was as packed as usual with people who came to consult me. The regular customers couldn't even get in, and the antique shop owner felt cheated. He shouted that they could line up, but they couldn't block his aisle, or they would have to buy something from him.
Most of the people there were either from Baxi Bank or Jinxiuyuan. They were wealthy people who had seen many precious things before. They knew at a glance that the antique shop's goods were no better than the ones sold at the street markets. No one paid attention to him, which made the antique shop owner very angry.
Just then, he heard a voice behind him: "These people are not obedient."
The voice was very childish, like a little girl's. The antique shop owner thought the child was quite sensible and turned to see who it was. To his surprise, he saw a blue and white porcelain vase flying out of the store and aiming for the people at the door.
The antique shop owner was startled. The vase flew into the crowd and shattered, scaring everyone who was waiting in line.
These people were usually very arrogant and demanded an explanation from the antique shop owner.
The antique shop owner was still upset about the vase—he had just bought it from a workshop last week and planned to sell it as an early Qing vase—so he turned around to see who had thrown his things.
Before he could react, he was pulled outside by the customers who had been hit. At that moment, another vase flew out of the store, followed by one item after another, raining down on the street as if someone were throwing them. No one could see who was doing it—all they saw was that the things in the store were flying!
The people who came to consult me were superstitious, and someone shouted, "There are ghosts!"
That shout was like thunder before a rain, scaring all the customers away in seconds. The antique shop owner didn't know what was going on either. All he knew was that he was upset about his things, so he went back inside to check if someone was playing a practical joke on him.
Just as he turned around, he saw a reflection in the mirror on the door: behind him, a little girl in a red cotton-padded jacket stood with a mischievous smile on her face.
It was hot outside in the summer, so how could anyone be wearing a cotton-padded jacket?
He quickly turned around again, but no one was there—it seemed like the little girl in the red jacket only existed in the mirror.
The antique shop owner almost peed in his pants at this sight and ran out with a scream. At that moment, the gold shop owner was peering out to see what was happening, and suddenly he heard a loud noise behind him. He turned around and saw that the glass cabinet had exploded and all the gold necklaces and bracelets inside had flown out, hanging from tree branches and house beams.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
This scared the gold shop owner—and he also heard a voice inside his store: "It's stuffy in here; let's let the things get some air."
In a blink of an eye, he saw a red figure quickly running out of his store.
The other shops were also affected in much the same way. All the goods inside their stores flew out, scaring their owners and causing them to panic. They gathered together to discuss what had happened and realized that only my store had been left untouched. The antique shop owner made a quick decision and said that they should wait for me to come back and figure out what to do!
At this moment, Mr. Gao also arrived and whispered, "I used the divination mirror just now—I saw a little girl in a red cotton-padded jacket crouching by your door, like she was waiting for you, but you never came. She got bored and went to cause trouble somewhere else. She just settled down."
No wonder Mr. Gao asked if I had pissed anyone off!
He also mentioned that using the divination mirror was very taxing on him—it was part of his herbal medicine business—and that he could only use it once a month at most without causing eye problems. We didn't use it unless absolutely necessary.
I mulled over what had happened—a little girl in a red cotton-padded jacket? That should be "a little ghost causing trouble".
This was another tactic commonly used by shadowy figures.
The old man had said that the so-called “negative” exorcists in the old times, who wanted to make money, would not look for jobs like ordinary exorcists. Instead, they would find out which local families had luxurious houses and then predict that those families were going to have a disaster. If they were willing to pay a large sum of money, they could be rid of the disaster. If the rich families knew about this and paid in advance, the negative exorcists would simply leave. But if they didn’t believe it and chased the negative exorcists away, they would be left with a contact number. They would be told that if there was a problem, they could go to a certain place and find them. Then they would start to use little ghosts to cause trouble. With the help of the little ghosts they raised, they would go into people's houses, smash things, scare people, and create havoc. People who had never seen such things would be terrified, and then they would remember the exorcist who had predicted the disaster and invite them back as if they were gods, providing good food and drink and paying more money. This kind of behavior in the industry is called “poisoning”, which is similar to playing tricks on yourself.
Now I suddenly remembered the evil spirit who was killed by the little ghost during the event of the aborted sacrifice. After that, both me and Cheng Xinghe realized that there was a trace of evil in the hospital. At that time, we thought it was just a warning. But now there really was someone who came here to seek revenge.
I turned around and saw that the little ghost was eating my porridge from this morning. The little ghost was sitting next to the drainage channel under the eaves, looking like a little girl with pigtails who was about seven or eight years old. She had no shoes on her feet and was barefooted, which made her look even more pitiful.
Cheng Xinghe said that he felt sorry for her. I didn't know what he meant by that, but I could tell that he was serious.
Just as I was thinking about what to do next, I suddenly felt something cold and wet on my shoulder, like a hand. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end – I had never seen such a fast ghost before!
Without hesitation, I twisted my wrist to pull out the seven-star dragon spring, but to my surprise, I couldn't pull it out! I reached out and felt something cold and thin all over my shoulder. It was hair! It had wrapped the seven-star dragon spring! I still made a mistake – this little ghost was even more powerful than the twenty-one oil ghosts!
At this moment, I saw Cheng Xinghe's face change and he shouted: "Be careful! She's opening her mouth! Look at those teeth!"