"Miss Yu Qiu, we've completed the task you assigned to us! Do you have any further requests?" Zhou Huan stood below as soon as he returned.

Dongzi broke off a cucumber from his neck and began chewing it loudly. When Dongzi started eating the cucumber, Yu Qiu's eyes widened in shock: "Where did this cucumber come from?"

"Oh, when we left your mother earlier, she secretly tied this cucumber around Dongzi's neck," Zhou Huan explained, noticing that Yu Qiu had recognized the token. In fact, he had ordered Dongzi not to touch the cucumbers at all since they appeared on his neck—yet their fresh aroma proved irresistible. Dongzi resisted until they reached the second-story building before finally taking one in front of Yu Qiu.

Blood streamed from Yu Qiu's eyes as she kept wiping it away, eventually staining her entire face with crimson streaks. Then came a strangled wail that shook through her chest.

Seizing this momentary opening, Zhou Huan raised his palm to strike an exorcist's seal: middle and ring fingers bent down with thumb hooked over them, wrist straightened perpendicular to forearm, then thrusting forward in one decisive motion. With his right hand he produced a talisman already inscribed with the character "Seal," which flew through the air guided by his palm-thrust directly onto Yu Qiu's forehead. Immediately white mist began rising from her crown—along with two half-dead bodies hanging upstairs and several corpses scattered about.

"Miss Yu Qiu, I'm sorry for this," Zhou Huan said, "but my method isn't to shatter your soul—it merely needs temporary containment. I promise you'll be reborn without any damage whatsoever. Just answer me plainly, what do you think?" To his regret, he had no choice after witnessing the worsening injuries of Li Tianxion and Li Zhi—the time for careful procedures was running out. He needed to resolve Yu Qiu's attachment to her current world within constraints that preserved her soul intact.

Though her spirit was bound in place, Yu Qiu continued struggling: "Master Zhou, I understand your actions. Please first cure my son's decaying body—after which I'd like to visit my mother before finally rebirthing myself."

"Rest assured," he replied with confident tone that carried through the room, "the remainder will be handled by us. Wait here while we deal with these others, and at midnight tomorrow night you'll both meet your mother. As for the reincarnation process..." His voice trailed off, but Yu Qiu could sense the certainty in his words.

Zhou Huan and Dongzi first lowered the two conscious figures from upstairs before moving several corpses downstairs. Then Zhou retrieved an altar tablet from the dumpling shop's interior, placing it directly before Yu Qiu while affixing a curtain across the wall to block out all light, cocooning her completely within its folds.

"Brother, why not simply bind her permanently?" Dongzi asked, though he knew little despite long exposure to Zhou Huan's work. "This way we could stay at Fushou Hall caring for him longer."

Zhou refused: "You don't understand—a soul capable of rebirth yet choosing not to cannot remain among living people too long in a permanent state."

After securing the scene, he called Policeman Xiao Li from the precinct office. While authorities took away the bodies and investigated upstairs—fascinated only by the tangled white curtain at the doorway—he approached Yu Qiu alone.

"Now I'll begin treating your son," he said, "then perform rituals to facilitate your rebirth."

"But Master Zhou!" she cried, emotionally charged despite her restraint. The appeal to maternal bonds had worked remarkably well—no harm done yet, no further escalation either.

"Even after rebirth is initiated," he assured her, rising to leave, "there will still be time for you to visit your mother."

As they walked far into the shantytown, her ghostly voice echoed: "Thank you!" The lingering resonance faded only when their bus pulled out of sight.

Zhou Huan returned to Fushou Hall with Dongzi cradling Yu Qiu's son in his arms. The child was already beyond speech—only labored gasps remained. Zhou opened the medicine cabinet, checking its contents before writing a prescription for Dongzi: "Go across Main Street to purchase these herbs. Get an extra bottle of Yunnan Baiyao medicinal water and some vegetable dumplings from the next shop."

"Why do we need Yunnan Baiyao specifically?" Dongzi wondered aloud as he left with money in hand. The curiosity pleased Zhou Huan, showing his apprentice had learned to ask questions.

"Just follow instructions first," Zhou said cryptically before setting up an altar array on his workbench: two stacks of talismans, a cinnabar jar, iron basin filled with yellow wine and rice dumplings soaking in it.

The workbench itself was specially commissioned from Old Mr. Wang when rebuilding Fushou Hall—its size sufficient to serve as sacrificial table during ceremonies. Zhou scooped rice grains into circular patterns on the bench surface, then mixed cinnabar paste with wine before inscribing twenty talismans sequentially. Finally he placed a single special talisman at the center of his rice circle.

"Brother, I'm back!" Dongzi returned quickly but carried a large bucket in one hand and herbs in another. Zhou frowned at this unexpected addition.

"What's that bucket for?" he asked.

Dongzi plopped down his load with a grin: "Today I did something really clever."

"Explain," Zhou demanded, intrigued by Dongzi's recent ingenuity. The apprentice unscrewed the container lid and declared proudly: "The pharmacy had only powder form of Yunnan Baiyao when we needed liquid solution. So I bought thirty boxes, poured them all into this bucket, then filled it with water! I even lectured the staff about how powder is just dried water!"

While Dongzi's monologue continued, Zhou finally silenced him with a sharp slap to his neck: "Enough chatter—help me prepare medicine."

The blow left Dongzi dazed but now compliant. Soon he was serving up decocted herbs as Zhou immersed dumplings in the soup and tossed talisman ashes into it.

"Dongzi," he ordered, "strip that child bare and bring him here."

This time the response was simply: "Okay." Within minutes, the boy's tattered clothes were off and he lay exposed on a bed of Yunnan Baiyao solution in an aluminum basin... when Zhou suddenly noticed something odd.

The patient wasn't actually male.