From the voice and the words, I could tell without even looking that it was Su Qing. Although I had only met her once, her bold and sharp nature had left a deep impression on me.
Perfect, she’s a Taoist priest, so maybe she can help with the corpse fetus situation.
When Su Qing walked in, she immediately scolded me. "What, you owe me 20,000 yuan and you're complaining to my sister? I’m going to pay it back!"
I told her to put the money aside for now and pulled her over to ask if there was any way to solve the corpse fetus problem. If she could, we could delay the payment for a few days.
I had already given her my bank account. If she had money, she could’ve sent it to me directly. Since she didn’t, I figured I might as well have her help clear my debt instead of bothering Zhang Qing, which would be a hassle.
"Corpse fetus? This serious? Is it you?" Su Qing frowned and looked at Xu Meng.
Xu Meng wiped her tears and nodded, explaining everything that had happened to Su Qing.
Su Qing looked furious. "This is despicable! They treat women like tools. Whether you abort it or give birth, the mother’s body will be severely harmed. In the worst case, she could die. In the best case, she will suffer from chronic illnesses and will have difficulty having children in the future. Borrowing a body and giving birth to a child for a dead man? This is a conspiracy that treats women as nothing more than vessels. It's utterly disgusting."
Despite her anger, Su Qing’s eyes were filled with sympathy as she looked at Xu Meng. Even though she didn’t know her, she still felt the injustice and wanted to help.
I told her that anger alone wouldn’t solve the problem. The real issue was what to do with the corpse fetus. Could Taoist priests do anything about it?
Su Qing thought for a moment. "The corpse fetus definitely needs to be aborted. It absolutely cannot be allowed to be born."
"The problem is that aborting the corpse fetus is very harmful to the mother. There will be residual corpse energy left in her body, and she will inevitably become weak, suffering from illness after illness in the future."
"However, there is something Taoist priests use called ‘Corpse Dissolving Water’ which can expel the fetus with minimal harm to the body."
"Corpse Dissolving Water?" I shivered at the sound of it. Isn’t that the stuff used to dissolve bodies? Just pour it on a corpse and it’ll melt, bones and all, turning it into a puddle, almost like sulfuric acid.
Su Qing clarified, "No, this Corpse Dissolving Water is different. It’s specially made to deal with corpse fetuses. It’s brewed using the morning dew from the first and fifteenth of each month, mixed with Corpse Dissolving Talismans."
"Morning dew is the most abundant in Yang energy, especially on the first and fifteenth. When combined with the Corpse Dissolving Talisman, it can dissolve the corpse fetus in Xu Meng’s belly without causing too much harm to her body. However, there will still be some damage, but it can be recovered later."
"Unfortunately, this dew is hard to collect. You have to wait for the right days. Today is already the 8th, so we’d have to wait until next week. Also, the Corpse Dissolving Talismans cost around 5,000 yuan each."
At this point, Xu Meng didn’t care about the money. If it could remove the terrifying corpse fetus, she would pay anything—even 50,000 yuan wouldn’t be too much. But with the first already passed, we’d have to wait until the fifteenth for the morning dew.
At least there was hope now. Xu Meng’s face softened a little.
Just as we were discussing this, a sudden cold wind blew in, rattling the windows and doors. A black shadow appeared outside, crouching on all fours in a terrifying pose. It twisted like something out of a horror film, resembling a figure straight out of a ghost movie, like Sadako from The Ring, seemingly about to crawl toward us.
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"Shit, a ghost! Boss!" Dwarf Xing screamed in terror, scrambling behind me.
I was a little surprised. Wasn’t he just confidently talking about ghosts earlier? Now he was shaking in fear, nearly peeing himself.
Dwarf Xing explained that while he knew the theoretical knowledge, he didn’t know how to deal with ghosts. And this ghost was too terrifying.
I said there was nothing to fear. Xu Meng had the Ghost-Requesting Yasha tattoo, and with a Taoist priest here, that ghost wouldn’t dare come in.
I was right. The ghost was stuck outside, posing, looking like it was trying to scare us, but it didn’t dare enter.
"Ah, so you're the one who got her pregnant with a corpse fetus? Hmph, you have the guts to do it but not the guts to come in? You’re headed straight to hell when you die, and you won’t be able to reincarnate," Su Qing scolded.
Su Qing’s sharp words seemed to anger the ghost, and it began crawling slowly toward us, the wind growing stronger.
Clearly, the ghost had overheard us planning to abort its child and had gotten agitated. It came out to try and scare us, but as soon as it did, Su Qing gave it a good verbal thrashing, and it became enraged, wanting to take us on.
Su Qing wasn’t afraid. With a cold snort, she quickly took out a yellow talisman with her right hand, muttering a chant under her breath.
Her speed was incredible—any guy who dated her would be lucky!
Before the ghost could respond, we suddenly heard a loud "Zha!" and a black shadow appeared on the wall.
The shadow held a scepter and had a grotesque, long-fingered face with sharp fangs.
The ghost froze, trembling, casting a reluctant glance at us before slowly retreating.
Immediately, the cold wind vanished, and the ghost disappeared. The shadow on the wall also vanished.
"Heh, see? That ghost was scared of my ghost tattoo, not your Taoist priest powers. When it comes down to it, it’s still up to me!" I said triumphantly, but before I could enjoy my victory, Su Qing stomped on my foot, causing me to yelp in pain. Tears nearly sprang to my eyes.
"Hmph, you were hiding behind me earlier!" Su Qing crossed her arms, a look of disdain on her face.
I decided not to argue—after all, I wasn’t going to win against her.
After the ghost left, everything outside calmed down. I reassured Xu Meng that there was nothing to fear. With the Ghost-Requesting Yasha tattoo, the ghost wouldn’t be able to get close. All we had to do was wait seven days, and then we could get rid of the corpse fetus.
Xu Meng nodded, thanked us, and drove off in her Honda.
I couldn’t help but sigh. Xu Meng’s life had been so tough already, and now this. It was heartbreaking.
"What's the matter? Feeling sorry for her? Want to marry her? You get a two-for-one deal, all for the low price of blood!" Su Qing teased.
Marry her? Now that Xu Meng’s issue was half-solved, it was time to deal with the money. I held out my hand, asking when she was going to pay me.
Su Qing slapped my hand away. "I don’t have any money right now. My allowance is just 10,000 yuan a month, and I’ve already given you all of this month’s. The remaining 20,000? Even if I don’t eat or drink, it'll be two months before I can give it to you."
I wasn’t happy with that. She’d said she could delay payment for a few days, but now she was talking about delaying it for two months.
Su Qing told me not to push my luck. It was already generous of her to agree to pay me, considering how expensive my ghost tattoos were. If her sister, Su Yu, hadn’t forced her to come, she wouldn’t have bothered with me.
I said, "One price for one service. The tattoo is expensive, but you have to admit, it works."
Once I mentioned the effect, Su Qing fell silent. Ever since she got the Dream-Eater tattoo from me, she hadn’t had any more nightmares and could finally sleep soundly at night.
I smiled. "See? The tattoo has already given you the result you wanted, so now you have to pay the price. Since you don’t have the money, you can pay with your body."
Su Qing immediately became agitated. She grabbed my ear and scolded me, "Ugh, I knew you were a filthy pervert. Two thousand bucks and you’re trying to take advantage of me? Are you looking for death?"
Dwarf Xing saw things were getting out of hand and rushed to stop Su Qing, fearing my ear might actually get ripped off. But Su Qing didn’t care and twisted harder.
"Ow, ow, it hurts! Let go! I didn’t mean that! I meant you could stay and help me pay off the debt!" I quickly explained.
Su Qing was a Taoist priest and could help in many ways. Worst case, with her beauty, she could help me bring in some clients.
"Hmph, why didn’t you say so earlier?" Su Qing finally let go, but my ear still felt like it was about to fall off.
Just then, there was a sudden "Pffft!" sound, and several eerie green ghost flames appeared outside.
Guided by the ghost flames, a few eerie paper men carrying a sedan chair slowly descended in front of the tattoo shop.
The four paper men were dressed in ceremonial burial clothes and wore strange rouge on their faces. They moved like real people.
The sedan chair they were carrying was also made of paper, matching the dark night. It looked incredibly terrifying. I couldn’t see who was sitting inside, but the scene sent chills down my spine.