To Raise a Soul 33.2

As Master Qiu got older, he became peace-loving. He lived alone in the big master bedroom in the corner of the villa’s first floor. He didn’t like to trouble his children so he only had a single caretaker to watch over and care for him.  

Yu Zhen followed behind Yin Yan, listening to Yin Le grumble about the Qiu family. As he listened, Yu Zhen frowned at the negative and hostile energy that he felt in the air.

The Qiu family must have a ghost in their villa. It’s not just one either, and their resentment is strong. However, Yu Zhen wasn’t quite able to accurately pin down the ghosts’ locations. The atmosphere in the Qiu residence was too strange, affecting his perception.

The door to Master Qiu’s room was left wide open, likely because there were guests visiting. Although, in fact, there was someone standing guard at the door. When they saw Yin Yan approaching with company, they immediately welcomed the trio and, at the same time, loudly notified Master Qiu of his guests’ arrival.

“Ah, it’s Xiao Yin and Xiao Le?” the bedridden old man enthusiastically greeted them.

As the old man was too weak, he watched from the bed as the trio entered. Eager to feed his guests, he also had the caretaker bring in the fruits and refreshments which had been prepared earlier. 

Yin Yan sat down and politely said,“Grandpa, how have you been lately? We didn’t visit the last time you were ill. We’ve been unfilial.” 

The old man quickly waved his hand and said, “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. I understand, you young ones are busy with work and school. This one must be Xiao Zhen. He’s a good looking child. Here, in the future, you have to live out good days with Yin Yan.”

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

Yu Zhen accepted the red envelope with a feeling of surprise.

After listening to Yin Le’s previous complaints, he had expected Old Master Qiu’s attitude towards them to be bad, but reality was unlike his expectations. 

“Grandpa! What about my red envelope? I also want one!” Yin Le rushed closer and stuck out a hand, acting out the behavior of a willful child.

Amused by Yin Le’s actions, Old Master Qiu light-heartedly scolded him then happily handed over a red packet. He appeared to be in much better spirits than a few moments earlier. 

The old man was not in good health and he needed a lot of rest so, after only speaking for a short while, the three visitors left.

After leaving the room, Yin Le immediately dropped his smile. He sighed deeply and said, “In the past, I used to think he was hateful. But now, I only feel that he is quite pitiful.”

Yu Zhen became more confused so Yin Yan explained, “Grandpa has dementia. He’s forgotten many of the things that he’s done. In his memories, he’s a kind old man who loves his children and grandchildren.”

“Kind old man, tch… he can’t remember any of the bad things, but we still remember them. If I could lose my memories too that would be great,” Yin Le sighed. It looks like this kind of acting is quite hard for him. 

Yu Zhen finally understood Qiu Feiqian’s words when she had said that “he treats you quite well nowadays”. Her “nowadays” referred to the time after the old man had lost his memories. Before the old man forgot his past, Yin Yan and Yin Le were unlikely to have been loved by the old man. 

When the three returned to the main living room, Qiu Feiqian’s sister, Qiu Feiting, had already arrived with her family.

Qiu Feiqian and Qiu Feiting were three years apart in age. Two years after Qiu Feiqian had married Yin Hexiang, against their father and brothers’ opposition, Qiu Feiting escaped from the family’s grasp. She didn’t take a single cent of the Qiu family’s money as her dowry when she married her husband.

Her husband was a foreigner and they were fellow students from when she studied abroad. Her husband’s parents were doctors and his family’s financial situation was relatively good. However, compared to the Qiu family of back then, there was still a big difference between their statuses, so Old Master Qiu strongly opposed their marriage. He had almost arranged for Qiu Feiting to marry into a family which had been friends of the Qiu family for generations.

After her ‘elopement’, Qiu Feiting had only kept in contact with her sister. It was only following Old Master Qiu’s loss of memories that she gradually rebuilt the relationship with the Qiu family.

Like Qiu Feiqian, Qiu Feiting was a sharp person, and she was even better at arguing than her sister. Because she lived abroad, and was only there to visit her father, there was no mutual benefit from interacting with her brothers. Therefore, whenever her ‘fault finding’ brothers and sisters-in-law said something, she would fiercely retort without holding anything back. 

Si Ling and Ye Mei had suffered many losses under her harsh words and no longer dared to provoke her. This meant that once Qiu Feiting had arrived, the atmosphere in the Qiu family home became a little more harmonious and nobody said tactless words. 

“This is Xiao Zhen? Come here, let Aunty have a look at you.”

As soon as the trio arrived, Qiu Feiting’s attention immediately fell on Yu Zhen and she beckoned him over. She didn’t wait for a greeting from Yu Zhen before pulling out a thick red envelope and stuffing it in his hands. She smiled and continued, “Not bad, not bad. I like gentle and good looking men. Unlike that one from my family. He looks like a bear, just like his father. I heard you know how to make perfume? Is it the one my sister is wearing? I could smell it as soon as I entered the room.”

Yu Zhen, unable to resist her enthusiasm, accepted the red envelope, greeted her as ‘Aunty’, then nodded his head and said. “If you like it, I can also make a bottle for you.”

“That’s great! Now I don’t have to fight with my sister over it.”

Qiu Feiqian laughed and patted her back, ignoring the awkward Si Ling and Ye Mei who watched on from the side. Then she turned to Yin Yan and said, “So you’ve met your grandpa. How is he?”

“In rather good spirits. We were worried about disturbing his rest so we left after saying a few words.”

Qiu Feiqian nodded before calling out to her husband who had been locked in conversation with her brothers. She gestured for him to come over so they could visit the old man with Qiu Feiting and her husband.

Qiu Feixiong was engrossed in the conversation, so the interruption left him feeling somewhat unhappy. However, as the guests should visit the old man, he also got up to follow them.

In an instant, the living room was emptied of people. Yin Le looked between the unmoving Yin Yan and the hesitating Yu Zhen, then he stepped backward and flopped down onto the couch. “Sit. Grandpa’s room doesn’t have a lot of space. Let’s not go and take up more of it.”

Yu Zhen sat down and when he looked up, he noticed the figure of a child dashing around a corner. Thinking that one of the children had woken up and come downstairs, Yu Zhen was about to call for a housekeeper, however, Yin Yan grabbed his hand. 

“It’s a baby spirit.”

Yin Yan had turned towards Yu Zhen and whispered in his ear, preventing Yu Zhen from moving.

Baby spirit?

Shocked, Yu Zhen looked at the corner again but didn’t see the small figure. He slowly began to tense up.

Among the many stories that his grandfather had told him, the stories which had left the deepest impressions on him, which was to say the stories he was most scared of, were the ones about baby spirits. 

Baby spirit, as the name implied, was the spirit of a baby that died before its birth, or died shortly after its birth. In his grandfather’s stories, baby spirits were ignorant, pure, and benevolent beings. As long as ceremonies were performed to help them pass on, they could re-enter the reincarnation cycle.

But there were also a small number of baby spirits who were especially wicked and carried grave resentment. Those spirits could find their birth parents. Then, they would linger, drawing bad luck and disasters to their parents. That type of baby spirit was often formed from an abnormal death and normal ceremonies to help them pass on were useless.

No wonder the negative energy here is so strange. When a baby spirit forms, it has a lot more power than an ordinary ghost. And if it stays at the home of its blood relatives, it can affect the family’s fortunes and feng shui¹.

A coldness spread through Yu Zhen’s heart. From the hostile and negative energy he had felt earlier, the baby spirit must have already lived in the Qiu family home for a long time and been feeding on either the yang energy² or the lifespan of its biological parents. 

“Oh, isn’t this my cousin who was so desperate over a woman? Why are you holding hands with a man? Did you realize you’re not good enough for a woman so your self-respect suffered a hit? Did you spend money on a boy toy?”

A strange male voice filled with malice rang from the stairs. Yu Zhen’s heart dropped a notch when he heard the voice, but when he looked up his heart sank even further.

Yu Zhen was focused on a spot behind the man in pajamas. A female ghost had her arms wrapped around the man’s neck as she leaned against the man’s back. Hostile energy curled around the man, completely encasing him within it.

Without noticing, Yu Zhen tightly grasped Yin Yan’s hand and his expression became solemn.