Chapter 17

Ke Xingzhou picked up the cat carrier and turned around, only to meet three difficult-to-explain gazes.

He blinked, touched his face in confusion, and asked, "Is there something on my face?"

The two humans and the one ghost all shook their heads in unison, then lowered their gazes, their expressions dazed as they stared at the cat carrier in Ke Xingzhou's hands.

Ke Xingzhou followed their gazes and looked at the cat carrier in his hands. He didn’t see anything wrong— it was a well-known pet brand’s new cat carrier. He had thought it was too expensive to buy at first, but after examining the product for a long time, he had memorized all the details. It was almost an exact replica.

The only difference was that instead of a kitten or a puppy inside, it contained a miniature vengeful ghost.

Ke Xingzhou casually placed the cat carrier with the female ghost inside to one side, intending to take it with him once Lu Li arrived, and then walked up to Ke Yuanbai.

He reached out. "Give it to me."

Ke Yuanbai was momentarily stunned before he realized Ke Xingzhou was referring to the little cow kitten. He quickly returned the cat to him.

Now that it was safe, Ke Yuanbai took the opportunity to observe the kitten. He noticed that the little kitten, except for not having opened its eyes, had a talisman wrapped around its round belly.

However, he must have been too nervous earlier, as his palms had sweated, and the talisman had gotten wet. The cinnabar characters on it had faded, no longer gleaming.

Ke Yuanbai awkwardly apologized, "How much was this talisman? I'll pay for it."

He was no longer the same person he was before. If this had happened before today, he wouldn’t have even considered paying for it. Even if Ke Xingzhou had said the talisman came from some famous temple or was a precious item consecrated by a master, he would have scoffed at it.

But now, Ke Yuanbai couldn’t help but wish he could buy more talismans, covering his whole body, just to prevent being plagued by ghosts and evil spirits again.

Ke Xingzhou, however, was unexpectedly easygoing.

He checked the condition of the little cow kitten, removed the old talisman from it, and replaced it with a new one. In an unusual act, he didn’t accept any money from Ke Yuanbai.

"You saved it, so I won’t take your money. If you like, you can adopt it once it’s weaned."

Ke Yuanbai froze for a moment and carefully considered Ke Xingzhou’s meaning. "You want me to adopt it?"

A flurry of thoughts flashed through his mind, wondering if the cat could be his guardian spirit, protecting him from evil spirits.

But Ke Xingzhou immediately saw through his hesitance and couldn’t help but feel speechless. "Aren’t you an atheist? Why are you acting more superstitious than me? This cat won’t bring you luck. If you don’t like it, it’s fine. I can still afford to raise one cat."

He didn’t tell Ke Yuanbai that, in order for him to return to the Ke family with legitimacy, the Ke family had spent 5.2 million to force him out. This program was part of the deal that severed their ties.

Ke Yuanbai, seeing his serious expression, realized he wasn’t joking. After a moment of hesitation, he still declined.

He really didn’t like little cats or dogs. Growing up in an orphanage, he had used all his energy just to climb up the ladder. He simply didn’t have the heart or mind to think about anything else.Once Ke Yuanbai's identity as the Ke family's second young master was revealed, he had already received offers from several talent agencies. After this show ended, his schedule would only get busier.

Raising a fragile little life at this point would be irresponsible—to both the animal and himself.

Ke Xingzhou didn’t push the matter.

As he had said, it was just a cat—he could afford to raise it.

His gaze shifted to An Heguang, who immediately brightened up and asked excitedly, “Ke Xingzhou—no, Master Ke! Is the female ghost handled now? She won’t open the cat carrier and escape, right?!”

Ke Yuanbai also looked at Ke Xingzhou with a complicated expression after hearing the question.

His previously scientific worldview had completely shattered after last night and what had just happened. Now when he closed his eyes, all he could see was the horrific blooming flower of flesh after the female ghost’s face split open, and the effortless way Ke Xingzhou had subdued her.

Ke Yuanbai was thoroughly convinced by Ke Xingzhou now.

Under their expectant and nervous gazes, Ke Xingzhou shook his head. “She won’t.”

The talisman might look like a cat carrier, but in reality, it was merely shaped that way by his own will. It didn’t have any of a cat carrier’s actual functions, so naturally it couldn’t be opened like a normal one.

Unless the female ghost had a death wish and decided to take the carrier down with her.

Ke Yuanbai then asked, “Why didn’t you just destroy her? And what about this one…”

His gaze fell on the male ghost. Although Ke Xingzhou had said before that this ghost was a ‘benevolent spirit’ and apparently hadn’t done anything bad, the truth was that Ke Yuanbai had indeed been harassed by him the previous night.

Even though his worldview had been completely reconstructed, he still couldn’t accept the idea of a male ghost hanging around him all the time.

The male ghost was terrified when he noticed the look. “I’m innocent! I mean, sure, I acknowledged her as my leader, but I only joined the group a month ago! I’ve never hurt anyone! I’m clean!”

He anxiously looked to Ke Xingzhou, trying to persuade him with an expression full of sincerity.

He had to be cautious—after all, the “leader ghost” he had followed was strong enough to command other evil spirits, and yet she hadn’t even lasted through a single spell from Ke Xingzhou. If he didn’t behave, he’d just be asking to get obliterated.

Luckily, Ke Xingzhou gave him a once-over and clearly wasn’t very interested. “He’s a benevolent ghost. He doesn’t carry the karmic taint of wrongdoing. Even the underworld’s enforcers wouldn’t bother with him.”

“What about the female ghost then?”

“The underworld has its own protocols,” Ke Xingzhou replied simply. “It’s not our place to interfere too much.”

In truth, Ke Xingzhou was extremely curious about his past life and needed Lu Li, an insider from the ghost realm, to help him. That’s why, whenever he could trap a powerful ghost, he would keep it and pass it along to Lu Li later.

But Ke Yuanbai and the others didn’t need to know that.

He still had to wait with the female ghost for Lu Li to arrive, so he couldn’t appear in public just yet. The other two didn’t know his plans and just assumed he had unfinished business.

The atmosphere suddenly grew awkwardly silent, and both of them started shuffling their feet in discomfort.

Fortunately, An Heguang had a flash of insight and broke the tension with a question: “You really saved us this time. I was blind before and didn’t treat you with the respect you deserve. Please don’t hold it against me. By the way, how do you usually charge for a ritual like this, Master Ke? If I don’t have enough on me now, I can have someone bring more.”

Charge?

Ke Xingzhou hesitated.

Just moments ago, while he was subduing the female ghost, three streams of golden light had flown from Ke Yuanbai, An Heguang, and the little cow kitten into his own merit-gathering golden aura.But only Lu Li knew how the merit-gold light was calculated—not even the underworld fully understood it.

Ke Xingzhou himself had no idea how much he should charge.

If he charged too much, it would cost him merit; if he charged too little, he’d be unhappy with it. After thinking for a moment, Ke Xingzhou simply waved his hand. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Lu Li’s merit calculation program was still being tested. To collect more data, he’d definitely be coming up every day. Once Ke Xingzhou met with him, he’d know how much he ought to charge.

An Heguang didn’t know any of this. He just assumed something else would happen between now and tomorrow, which immediately put him on edge.

But Ke Xingzhou said nothing further.

He had a belly full of questions, but didn’t know where to start. Scratching his head, his gaze drifted to the cat carrier’s viewing window—and when he met the female ghost’s now much more normal-looking face, he suddenly froze.

He muttered uncertainly, “Hang Huining?”

As soon as he said the name, he seemed to stop being afraid. His hand, which had been gripping Ke Yuanbai’s clothes, loosened, and he leaned in to get a closer look.

“It really is you!”

Ke Xingzhou raised an eyebrow. “You know her?”

“Of course! Don’t you?” An Heguang’s expression was odd. “She used to sing at the Spring Festival Gala every year when we were kids—she was my parents’ goddess back in the day!”

Ke Xingzhou didn’t react much to that, but Ke Yuanbai did remember something.

After being taken away, he had grown up in an orphanage. When the director taught them songs, aside from children’s songs, they often played oldies with a nostalgic feel—many of them were Hang Huining’s songs.

But due to the orphanage’s limited resources, the kids mostly watched cartoons and rarely saw music videos. He only ever saw Hang Huining during the Spring Festival Gala.

The key point was—Hang Huining had left the entertainment industry over a decade ago.

If she hadn’t been hugely famous, and if the director hadn’t been such a fan, Ke Yuanbai definitely wouldn’t have remembered her.

Even so, a decade ago, Hang Huining would’ve been at least 40. Yet the female ghost before them looked no older than her early twenties.

Even if she’d died soon after retiring, it would’ve been impossible for her to look this young!

An Heguang clearly realized this too. He snapped back to attention and looked at the female ghost in the cat carrier with confusion and doubt.

“Do female ghosts these days have appearance anxiety that bad?” he asked Ke Xingzhou uncertainly. He leaned in to examine her more closely and sighed, “You ghosts sure have top-tier plastic surgery! You can’t even tell she had anything done!”

The female ghost: “……”

As a dignified leader-ghost, being locked in a cat carrier was already humiliating enough—now she had to be insulted by this snot-nosed brat?

She was furious, but with the cat carrier blocking her, she couldn’t do anything to An Heguang on the outside. She could only grit her teeth and snap back, “Is it not possible that I’m the real Hang Huining, and the one you saw was the fake?”

“No way!” An Heguang blurted out. “Hang Huining has been famous for over thirty years—her singing voice has always been beautiful, never changed! And besides, if you were really Hang Huining and someone else stole your identity, how could your husband and family not recognize you?”

He shouldn’t have said that.

As soon as he did, the female ghost’s barely restrained resentment flared up again. Her eyes turned blood-red.

“Them? Hah. Of course they knew! They couldn’t wait for me to step aside for that woman!!”