WBICDPH Chapter 22 Part 1

Chapter 22: Night Talk at the Spring Pavilion

Liu Fuxin was fairly tall and slender, with a clean, understated gentleness to her features that put people at ease.

Her male disguise was convincing enough—at least at first glance, Lin Jin truly couldn’t tell whether she was a young woman or a refined young gentleman. The madam’s ability to see through her at once meant she genuinely had some skill.

Han Ao, standing nearby, was already reeling from the sudden revelation. He stared blankly at Liu Fuxin for a moment before realizing how rude that was, and quickly turned his gaze away. Lavishly, he used a sound-transmission talisman to message Lin Jin:

[I’m seriously impressed. Why didn’t you say earlier that it was Liu Fuxin?! Wait—how did you even know it was her?!]

[Aren’t you her biggest fan? How could you not recognize her?]

Lin Jin also felt the situation was a bit awkward.

[It’s written in the book. When she travels among mortals, she often appears as a young man in white, and her magical artifact is a pair of twin bracelets—it’s practically her signature.]

Han Ao froze, then looked at Liu Fuxin’s left wrist. Sure enough, she was wearing two slim bracelets, one silver and one jade, stacked together.

[No, I know that much, but who pays attention to whether someone that far removed from their life is wearing bracelets? You’re way too observant. You recognized her just from that?]

[I didn’t dare be sure at first either. That’s why I had you come over to keep her here, and only confirmed it after I got closer—because she only has a piercing in her left ear.]

Liu Fuxin didn’t have many appearances in the main text, but the author had specifically mentioned that only her left ear was pierced. Lin Jin had once thought it was some kind of foreshadowing, but by the end, it was never explained. That lingering irritation made him remember the detail especially clearly.

[Fine, you are observant. But in the plot, doesn’t she appear much later? Why is she showing up so early now?]

It wasn’t really Han Ao’s fault for failing to recognize her. In his understanding, Liu Fuxin simply didn’t belong to this point in the timeline, so among all the possibilities he’d imagined, “this person is Liu Fuxin” had never been one of them.

[But we’re no longer strictly inside the plot. This is what I mentioned before—this world is strange. It’s clearly built on the framework of the story, yet beyond the written text, it has its own developments. Everyone, inside or outside the plot, has their own life. It’s just like…]

Just like the real world.

At that moment, the sound-transmission talisman ran out of power. Lin Jin stepped forward and bowed to Liu Fuxin once more.

“Sorry, Miss Liu. We didn’t mean any offense. My friend here is just… a bit nervous.”

“Yes, yes—um, Miss Liu, I am Han Ao of Misty Rain Mountain. It’s an honor to meet you!”

Han Ao was like a diehard fan who had suddenly met his idol in person. With the real person standing right in front of him, he stammered and didn’t even dare raise his eyes to look at her.

Liu Fuxin curved her lips slightly and gave him a small nod.

“It’s all right. As long as the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”

She paused, then asked:

“You mentioned a ghost cultivator just now—what did you mean by that?”

Han Ao immediately tensed up when she spoke to him and couldn’t explain clearly, so he patted Lin Jin, signaling for him to take over.

Lin Jin sighed inwardly at his lack of composure, then explained honestly:

“We accepted a task from Misty Rain Mountain. It concerns a missing persons case in Zhongyun City, which appears to be connected to a ghost cultivator.”

Liu Fuxin looked somewhat surprised.

“Is it the Mantingchun case?”

“That’s right.”

“There is indeed something strange about Mantingchun. The case has been buried for many years—I thought no one would look into it anymore. I didn’t expect to meet the two of you.”

She lifted her gaze toward the brightly lit building nearby, a glimmer of light reflecting in her eyes.

“I’ve also been investigating this case these past few days. I might be able to help. I recall that task bamboo slips from Misty Rain Mountain usually record some basic information—may I take a look?”

“Of course.”

Lin Jin took the bamboo slip from his robes and handed it to her.

Liu Fuxin accepted it and skimmed it briefly, a trace of surprise flashing through her eyes.

“A ghost cultivator—Qinghuo?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

After a month of introductory classes at Misty Rain Mountain, Lin Jin and Han Ao had a solid grasp of basic theory. For instance, Lin Jin knew that ghosts were divided into four ranks: White Shroud, Qinghuo, Soul-Stealer, and Red-Clad.

White Shrouds were the lowest rank and the least harmful—ghosts lingering in the mortal world due to unresolved obsessions. They appeared only when yin energy was heavy, drifting about in a daze without intelligence and incapable of harming anyone. Qinghuo were stronger, with partially awakened intelligence and far greater soul power. They could maintain basic forms and use simple techniques. The “ghost fires” often seen in graveyards were usually their work, hence the name.

Above them were Soul-Stealers and Red-Clad ghosts. At the Soul-Stealer level, ghosts were fully intelligent and capable of possession, even cultivating with ghostly bodies. Red-Clad ghosts were the infamous vengeful spirits, steeped in resentment, difficult to subdue, and guilty of countless deaths—such entities could only be destroyed.

Qinghuo were considered low-ranking ghosts. Even as a third-tier task, the difficulty wasn’t particularly great, so Lin Jin didn’t understand why Liu Fuxin seemed puzzled.

She handed the bamboo slip back and smiled faintly.

“According to what I know, the number of women who have gone missing because of this ghost has already reached six. I originally thought it would at least be a Red-Clad ghost or a Soul-Stealer. I didn’t expect it to be only Qinghuo.”

“It could be a mistake in the records. After all, it’s marked as ‘suspected,’” Lin Jin replied.

He took out several pages of documents.

“Other than this, the bamboo slip had almost no information. We spent the entire day at the city administration office, going through records, and only then confirmed that the disappearances are linked to Mantingchun. These six women went missing at different times, but they all came from there.”