"Why shouldn't I be allowed to go?" the old woman complained, clearly displeased.
"A ritual without sincerity is nothing more than empty gestures, no matter how fine the paper offerings are," Song Miaozhu said calmly. "You care more about the compensation money than the person buried in the ground, don't you?"
"You..." The old woman was momentarily at a loss for words.
She still thought the verdict in the case was completely ridiculous. How could a court rely on ghost testimony? This had to be fraud!
"Mom! Just wait downstairs for us!" The dorm manager pulled her mother away and only returned once she was gone. "Sorry, Master Song. My mom's a firm materialist. She wasn't there that day, so she still doesn't believe in ghosts."
"Choose quickly," Song Miaozhu said, glancing at the time. "I still need to check out the shop next door."
It wasn't easy for her to come all the way to town. She figured she might as well settle all her errands in one trip.
Once the dorm manager selected the paper crafts, paid, and left with Captain Li, Song Miaozhu rolled up the spirit paper she'd been working on, secured the store lock, picked up a rattan switch, and walked toward the escape room next door.
"Boss Song, you're here!" Cheng Ziyang greeted her enthusiastically. "How many people are in your group? We've got three themes available right now: Haunted Manor, The Blood-Red Wedding Dress, and Paper Servant Village. Which one do you want to try first?"
"Just me," Song Miaozhu replied. "Let's skip the small talk. Take me to your surveillance room. I need to check something."
"???"
Cheng Ziyang looked utterly confused. "You want to check out the set first? That ruins the suspense!"
Song Miaozhu pulled him away from the store entrance before speaking in a low voice. "I think a real ghost snuck into your haunted house. Some of the guests who came out earlier were tainted with Yin energy. Some even had traces of resentment on them."
"Wha—" Fear and fascination warred on his face. "Ghosts are real?!"
"...Is that really your takeaway from this?" Song Miaozhu said dryly. "Thank god you only operate daytime. A resentful spirit means a violent death—they're nastier than regular ghosts."
Hadn't the Japanese ghosts on Ghost Mountain proved that? Their grudges fueled endless malice.
Only now did Cheng Ziyang get serious. "Are the guests in danger?"
"Not at the moment," Song Miaozhu said. "Only the group I saw earlier had a slightly heavier Yin aura. The others were just lightly affected. A bit of sunlight should clear it right up."
Cheng Ziyang let out a sigh of relief, though curiosity soon returned. "Boss Song, that stuff people say online... is it true? Are you really some kind of spiritual master?"
"Something like that," she replied. "I can't go into too much detail, but you'll understand soon enough."
Master Ghost has not been selected yet, so she'd been diligently following the SEIU's video lessons in the meantime, even watching their latest intelligence updates.
Judging from the information released, the SEIU was preparing to roll out practical cultivation arts into primary and secondary education nationwide. Experts from different fields were already collaborating to write the textbooks. Coupled with the current online buzz around miraculous healings, it probably wouldn't be long before the existence of spiritual energy was officially confirmed.
Cheng Ziyang didn't grasp the full meaning of her words. He just thought she didn't want to talk too much about her mysterious background. After all, spirit masters always seemed shrouded in secrecy. Still, since something supernatural had happened in his shop, he figured it wouldn't hurt to tag along and observe.
"Let's go then, Boss—no, Master Song. I'll take you to the surveillance room," Cheng Ziyang offered. "But will the cameras actually catch anything? Don't ghosts avoid electronics? Maybe we should just clear out all the guests and staff for now and take you inside ourselves?"
"The cameras will do for now," Song Miaozhu said. "Let me assess the situation first. If it's serious, we might need to quietly evacuate the remaining people to avoid a panic. That could hurt your business."
After all, most people who liked horror movies and haunted houses didn't actually want to meet a real ghost. Cheng Ziyang, on the other hand, was clearly a special case.
Since his business was on the line, he took it seriously and nodded solemnly. The surveillance room had several employees monitoring the feeds, keeping an eye on the guests and instructing the NPC actors when to jump out and scare them.
Cheng Ziyang often dropped by to oversee things himself, sometimes even directing the ghost actors in person. So when he brought Song Miaozhu in, the staff merely greeted them and let them watch in peace.
She examined each camera feed one by one until her gaze stopped on a vertical coffin. A blood-red wedding dress was draped inside the coffin, hanging motionless. It radiated intense Yin energy, along with a dense layer of resentment. In another camera feed, a rope swayed gently from a ceiling beam. Below it stood a small stool, and on the stool rested a pair of red embroidered shoes. These shoes, too, carried heavy Yin aura—and even stronger resentment. That was it. The source of the problem was clearly the dress and the shoes.
Song Miaozhu gestured for Cheng Ziyang to step out with her.
"Let's talk in my break room," he suggested. "No one else will be there."
Once they got inside, he immediately asked, "Master Song, what did you find?"
"It's manageable. The red wedding dress and the embroidered shoes—those are the issue. They were likely taken off a corpse," she explained. "But fortunately, their owner isn't a malevolent spirit."
"What? Taken from a corpse?" Cheng Ziyang was aghast. "I bought them at an antique market. Don't tell me I crossed paths with grave robbers? That's disgusting—what a vile thing to do!"
"Well, even if the ghost isn't malevolent, being disturbed like that would naturally make her upset. And there are still guests in that room. I should clear them out immediately!" Cheng Ziyang said anxiously.
"No need. Just take me inside so I can remove the items. The spirit attached to those objects has already passed into the afterlife. The guests may have handled her dress or shoes a bit carelessly, which made her angry, but all she did was let off a little resentment. Honestly, she's being very polite about it. Once we remove the dress and shoes, everything will settle down."
Those items had been worn on a corpse for so long that they formed a deep connection with the ghost, functioning like a bridge between her spirit and the living world. Song Miaozhu had watched the camera feed carefully. When there were no guests in the room, the dress and shoes merely emanated faint Yin energy, like any burial site.
But once a guest tried to touch them, the spirit got angry and cursed. And even then, she only shouted a single word: "Lecher!" Then she broke down crying. That outburst had released the bulk of her resentment.
It was honestly kind of pitiful. But if things continued like this, the accumulating resentment might eventually cloud the ghost's mind, pushing her to lash out.