"What? You've got guts, Zhou Huan! Playing hardball with me, I'm not done with you!" Li Guang stood outside the villa, just returned, utterly stunned, cursing Zhou Huan in fury.

"Little Li Zi, what's happening outside?" Xiang Jiao inquired from within the sedan chair.

Li Guang jumped off his horse and bowed respectfully before the carriage. "Madam, that brat Zhou Huan is using the Soul-Summoning technique."

"Excellent. Then we shall wait. I refuse to believe this rabble of lone spirits can withstand the sun," she replied. Then, lifting the curtain, she gazed wistfully at the wandering spirits and sighed, "Ah, Zhou Huan, Zhou Huan, you won't stop until our Sun family is utterly ruined, will you?"

"Madam, perhaps we should just disperse these spirits!" Li Guang remained impeccably respectful.

Xiang Jiao gave a bitter laugh. "Even with immense power, we could never clear them all. For every one we dismiss, two more appear. Even if we managed to clear them by dawn, we wouldn't have time to return to the villa. Let's just hope they haven't found our things, so we can have some peace."

Hearing this, Li Guang also managed a weak curl of his lip, falling silent.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Three trails of ghostly fire zipped past Li Guang's side, then began circling him and Xiang Jiao.

"Madam, look at these ghost fires!" Li Guang poked his head into the carriage.

Xiang Jiao lifted the curtain and stepped out of the sedan chair with a slight tremor, observing the three ghost fires. She bowed her head, speaking with evident distress. "Elder Brother spirits, please, don't follow us. We only came out to stage this marriage to fool Zhou Huan. We truly meant no harm to him; we just wanted to cast an illusion to make him leave our Sun family villa alone."

"Madam, they won't understand a word you say. Allow me!" Li Guang suddenly channeled energy, drawing a talisman, which he burned and scattered the ashes. The paper dust rained down near the ghost fires, sparking brilliantly, causing the spectral flames to waver and dissipate.

Xiang Jiao looked at Li Guang in agony, spitting out a yellowish substance. "Da Guang, stop attacking them! Didn't you promise me you would never use exorcism arts again?"

"I must use them now, and I will have to use them later, because of Zhou Huan, and because Madam's condition stems from that corpse. Once this is over, and we can live our lives in quiet contentment, I will discard all these tricks I possess." A hidden fire seemed to burn in Li Guang's eyes, yet it was clear he didn't want to reveal it to Xiang Jiao.

"Very well. We will wait here, then. We'll go back when the sun is up." Having spoken, Xiang Jiao moved to re-enter the sedan chair. An attendant handed her a tissue, and she began wiping the yellow fluid from her lips.

Li Guang, however, stood with his back to her, carrying her, his face fixed in a mask of suppressed rage toward the multitude of ghosts beyond the villa gates.

Zhou Huan drove his vehicle rapidly back to the Fushou Hall. Upon entering, Dong Zi was sprawled on a chair, sound asleep.

"Dong Zi, wake up! Get up, quick!" Zhou Huan called out, simultaneously shaking Dong Zi’s shoulder.

Dong Zi blinked his small eyes open, his face haggard as he looked towards Zhou Huan, speaking in a voice thick with sleep. "Brother Huan, you're back!"

"Are they all back?" Zhou Huan asked urgently, worried that Shi Bingyuan and Hong Kun might run into trouble upon leaving, and unable to call them as their presence at the villa would give them away.

"Brother, where has everyone gone? A whole swarm of lone ghosts came through the house just now. I figured, the ghosts arrived, and the people vanished." Dong Zi grumbled.

"Not a single person returned?"

"Not one!" Dong Zi jumped off the chair as he spoke. "Brother, look—where did all these lone spirits come from? They aren't here to cause us trouble, are they?"

Zhou Huan followed Dong Zi to the area near the offering table and saw dense clusters of ghost fires floating erratically in mid-air. Zhou Huan frowned deeply and shouted at them. "You truly are insatiable! You took the money and were supposed to leave! I only asked you to stand guard, and now you chase me to my own home demanding more?" After speaking, Zhou Huan pulled a stack of talismans from beneath the offering table.

"If you won't leave, then I, Zhou Huan, will send you back today." Zhou Huan turned and yelled to Dong Zi, "You write the charms, and I'll perform the rite!"

Dong Zi’s eyes glazed over as he looked at the talismans in Zhou Huan's hand, then he seemed to dry-retch slightly. "Brother, I wrote nearly a hundred talismans just catching them earlier. Seeing more makes me feel sick."

"I told you to keep writing! Forget the nausea; just get rid of this horde first." As soon as Zhou Huan finished speaking, he began mixing ink, adding gold powder—because the incantations he was about to use were Buddhist in origin, they usually required inscription with gold dust.

"Come here, go there, vanish in the wind and rain!" With these words, he flicked his brush tip outward: "Soul Return!"

Several ghost fires drifted slowly to the ground, instantly liquefying into pools of greenish-yellow sludge.

The master and apprentice worked in tandem: one busy writing charms, the other chanting spells and burning the papers. The writer tried to work faster; the burner wanted to burn them faster.

"Brother Huan, I'm back!" Xiao He called out before she even stepped inside the Fushou Hall door.

The men inside were deep in their task; neither of them could stop right then. The sky was beginning to lighten. Zhou Huan burned the final talisman, one meant to deal with the trivial concerns of these minor spirits' lives.

Zhou Huan declared, "Boreh Diling San Tong Ling." He then grabbed a handful of glutinous rice, and with three quick motions, threw the handful of rice onto the ghost fires. Upon closer inspection, Zhou Huan's method was strikingly similar, almost indistinguishable from Li Guang’s.

However, Zhou Huan truly felt Li Guang was no simple man, as they were employing the long-lost Demonic Needle Illusionary Art, developed by an old Taoist from the South. Zhou Huan had learned of this from his predecessors, and he had since verified its existence, having personally witnessed someone use actual embroidery needles to seal acupuncture points to cure the sick, resulting in an instantaneous recovery.

Xiao He entered the room, saw Zhou Huan and Dong Zi busy, and took a seat to wait for Zhou Huan.

Zhou Huan was swift. Dong Zi eventually counted the remaining traces of ash and then looked up blankly at Zhou Huan. "Brother, no way. In just a short time, we've banished over four hundred ghost fires."

"En. Go prepare breakfast; they should all be arriving soon." Zhou Huan was inwardly anxious, but since Hong Kun and Shi Bingyuan hadn't shown themselves, he couldn't display any impatience. Especially in the Funeral Master profession, seniority was paramount, so Zhou Huan maintained a composed expression.

"Brother Huan, I have good news!" Xiao He spoke up, her voice light and cheerful. She had been happily occupied with her phone, reading the day's electronic newspaper while Zhou Huan performed his rites.

Hearing Xiao He call him, Zhou Huan couldn't help but feel pleased. No matter how serious his face, he had to be courteous and completely agreeable to his fiancée.

"What happy news has delighted Madam Xiao He so much?"

Xiao He deeply understood his deference and felt the profound love between them. "I'm telling you, our case has progressed! We've found the owner of that hand."

"What? Are you sure whose hand it was from the funeral home?" Zhou Huan asked, suddenly tense. Everyone wanted to conclude this matter concerning the Sun family without further delay.

"Sun Zhi. The fracture point on his hand matches the fracture point on the hand found at the funeral home perfectly. And we ran DNA tests; the hand belongs to him. But Sun Zhi is oddly denying that the hand is his," Xiao He explained the situation's development.

Zhou Huan narrowed his eyes, smiling faintly at Xiao He. "Madam, what's the deal with Sun Zhi then? How did his hand end up severed in the tomb?"

"That's not urgent. They are escorting Sun Zhi back now; he should arrive by morning. We can go together then and see what exactly happened to this fellow in the graveyard?" Zhou Huan felt relieved by this news; it was the crucial turning point. Once they understood Sun Zhi’s events, finding the rest would be easy.

Dong Zi brought a large pot of congee and a big basin of seasoned cabbage and arranged them on the dining table. Turning back, he brought in a large sack of steamed buns and set them down. "Brother, Sister, time to eat."

"En, Xiao He, you eat something; you have to lead the main interrogation later today." Zhou Huan was always deferential to Xiao He.

Xiao He went upstairs to change into her sleepwear and then came back down. Zhou Huan, holding his chopsticks, watched her go upstairs and then dawdle for a while before finally coming down. For Zhou Huan, this was a minor torture—waiting without being able to eat, yet not daring to complain. However, this waiting was the only happiness he felt in that moment: waiting for Xiao He.

"Let's eat!" As soon as Xiao He spoke, Zhou Huan began picking up his chopsticks. Dong Zi had disappeared again; only Zhou Huan and Xiao He remained in the room.

The atmosphere between the two began to heat up; the electrical charge in their gazes was too active. Halfway through the meal, Zhou Huan and Xiao He seemed unable to hold back any longer. They dropped their bowls and chopsticks and called out to Dong Zi, "Dong Zi, clear the table, and mind the door!"

"Got it!" Dong Zi shouted his acknowledgment from the kitchen.

Zhou Huan and Xiao He went upstairs and closed the door. He pulled Xiao He close, his gaze crackling with energy as he looked into her eyes. Then, he forcefully gripped her slender waist. His two rosy lips slowly moved toward Xiao He's, finally pressing against her face, her ear, her mouth, her neck...

Their breaths grew ragged; the blood surging within them accelerated. Helping each other undress, the excitement, the thrill, sent every sense soaring to a peak.

Just then, someone downstairs shouted loudly, "This is horrifying! How could he do such a thing?"