Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Fame Part II [Catching Bugs]

Do ghosts not have shadows?

Not necessarily.

This answer could easily be given by any student in the spiritual academy who has no practical experience.

But what kind of ghost lacks a shadow, and what kind has one?

If asked, they would not be able to give a satisfactory explanation.

Chen Xiu, Zhou Jingren, and the others were the same.

This answer, whether in academic circles or industry, lacks a universally accepted standard.

However, having encountered the ghostly officials, Ming Yue knew—

At least the Black and White Impermanences do not have shadows.

On a deeper level, Ming Yue also wondered, since the Impermanences are highly skilled beings with thousands of dharma manifestations, perhaps their dharma bodies and true bodies are different? Or perhaps not?

So, under the moonlight, the butler Zhou Lu, who also had no shadow, could he be a practitioner on the same level as the Black and White Impermanences?

Since yesterday afternoon, after encountering the White Impermanence on the high-speed train, this question had been lingering in Ming Yue’s mind.

However...

There was no answer.

On second thought, if Zhou Lu is so powerful, and Ming Ye can have him obediently holding an umbrella for him, does that mean Ming Ye is even more remarkable?

Thinking about it this way, Ming Yue felt happy.

After confirming with the butler Zhou that the phone had signal, Zhou Lu gave the stunned students behind him a meaningful glance before turning to leave.

The moonlight, like water, coated his body, leaving no trace.

He moved quickly, and it was unclear whether his legs were made of flesh or something else. The vast wilderness seemed to shrink into a small black dot in the blink of an eye, and he soon caught up with the master.

The students: “…”

Stunned and speechless, frozen in place.Both groups trembled, almost eager to leave first.

Ming Yue turned her face.

"......"

In the wilderness, the two sides silently stared at each other for ten seconds.

Chen Xiu was the first to recover his composure. He cleared his throat and said, insincerely: "Ming Yue, your family has a lot of talented people, huh?"

Ming Yue nodded naturally: "Of course."

With the conversation opened, everyone became more lively.

Zhou Jingren jogged up and ruffled the little junior's hair, saying, "King of Hell! Junior, your butler should introduce himself to us when he has time!"

"I've never seen a living person without a shadow in my entire life!"

Zhou Jingren purposely stressed the words "living person."

"You don’t have to beat around the bush, Senior."

Ming Yue smiled, calm and confident:

"Uncle Zhou isn’t exactly a living person."

"However, I don’t know which ghost he is."

"He’s an elder in my family..." Ming Yue counted the years on her fingers as she looked up at the sky. The moon silently gazed back at her, and then she said: "It's been ten years."

The other four: "......"

Zhai Dan decided to use her feminine advantage and get closer, "This won’t do, Junior."

"Even if your yang energy is strong, being around ghosts all the time will inevitably corrode you with yin energy." After all, yin energy should never be lingering around the living.

"Moreover, your brother doesn’t even have the ability to see ghosts."

Zhai Dan spoke clearly.

Ming Dinghai’s talent and abilities were well-known in the industry.When the eldest son of the Ming family was born and grew up, many in the industry were eagerly waiting to see what kind of extraordinarily talented young man he would become.

What happened?

He didn’t even inherit the ability to see ghosts.

This isn’t a secret.

As the Ming family became more famous, the criticism and sense of shame that Ming Ye had to endure grew deeper.

Ming Yue obediently nodded:

"Senior, you're right, I understand."

"But my family has always been in this kind of environment, with more yin energy than yang."

"It's not just Uncle Zhou."

"When I was younger, I didn't know any better, but as I grew older, I realized—" Ming Yue spread her hands, fully expressing her carefree and blunt nature:

"—I've already turned out this way, so I don't care about it anymore."

Zhai Dan: "......"

Zhai Dan felt her language skills were being put to an unprecedented test.

She struggled to ask: "What does 'more yin energy than yang' mean?"

Also, what does it mean that not just Uncle Zhou is... my god! Sister Dan screamed inside.

Ming Yue tilted her head and smiled, winking at her senior.

Yan Jun, who had interacted with Ming Ye and knew some of the inside information, sighed in his heart and realized Ming Yue's mischievous nature.

It's not a good habit to make such jokes.

But if you're the one making the joke, there's no harm in enjoying it.

"Doesn't Senior and Senior Sister know?" Ming Yue laughed, fully bringing out her dramatic flair.

"The old house of the Ming family is originally a house of yin.""Our family lives in a yin house, and between the old ghosts in the house and the living people, it's still uncertain who's in the wrong and who's not," Ming Yue said.

The three senior students: "......"

The three big boys looked like their souls were about to fly out of their bodies.

Ming Yue wagged her tail, feeling happy inside.

Yan Jun couldn’t stand it and whispered, "What's so proud about this?"

"Senior is also worried about you."

Ming Yue immediately stopped when she saw the situation and grinned at the class leader, "Got it."

She then sincerely apologized to the three seniors who looked like they had just stepped onto a grave.

"Sorry, seniors, I was just messing around."

"But what I said is true."

The one-eyed girl Ming Yue blinked her golden single eye, being very honest.

Chen Xiu felt a snake-like thought slither through his mind.

His graduation thesis contained aspects of the history of ghost slayers in South China, and the Ming family was an indispensable, absolutely unerasable part of it.

At this moment, the conversation had opened up, and it was a good opportunity.

The person involved was right in front of them, and once the opportunity was missed, it would be gone.

If he could get some 'other' details, revisions of historical records, wouldn't they fall into his hands?

The president of the Spirit Institute’s mind raced, his little plan clicking away.

Chen Xiu didn’t hide his intentions. He mentioned his thesis to Ming Yue, took out paper and pen, and asked frankly.

The others secretly perked up their ears.

Ming Yue was taken aback and looked around at the moonlit wilderness, "Right here?"

Chen Xiu lit a cigarette, revealing a slight smile: "There's no better time than now.""Don’t worry, if it’s inconvenient to answer, just let me know directly, I won’t press further."

Ming Yue: "……"

Considering that they had walked such a long distance from Baoshan Hospital and had worked so well together, Ming Yue found it hard to refuse this request.

"Alright," Ming Yue nodded, keeping her word.

— Ming Ye and Zhou Lu, who had just walked for less than half an hour, would never have expected that, in such a short time, the little tail behind them would have sold them out.

The five of them sat on the ground. The cold wind howled around them, the stars and the bright moon above, and the wilderness was quiet.

Chen Xiu gathered the information quickly, just a few questions.

"What’s the deal with the yin house?"

"When my family moved to Jinling City ten years ago, my elder brother chose this house," Ming Yue answered, but didn't say any lies.

"Why didn’t you choose a yang house?" Chen Xiu twirled his pen.

"Jinling City is an ancient city, and it’s a place where yin and yang businesses are quite developed. It’s a well-known haunted city in China, with so many powerful families. It was definitely not easy for us to get in," Ming Yue replied, throwing in some sarcastic remarks, "In our line of work, when selecting an old house, we look at the feng shui and ancestral veins. Senior, do you think with such a good yang house, my family would have been able to even pick it? Our foundation is shallow."

"How long has Jinling City’s history been?"

"Quite long," Ming Yue added, nodding.

Chen Xiu took note.

If we’re going to count, the Ming family’s history is long, but they had fallen for a long time. It was only in the generation of Ming Dinghai that they had managed to rise again, and even that wasn’t easy. "But the yin house is full of ghosts. It’s essentially a death sentence to go in."

Ming Yue scratched her chin. "Yeah, true."

"You’re right, Senior."

"Otherwise, the good location in the northern part of the city, where the old dragon vein meets the yin energy wind tunnel, wouldn't be available for my family to claim."

Chen Xiu: "……"

Chen Xiu: "So, why then?"Ming Yue picked at the dead skin on her fingers, not really knowing why:

"I don't know either."

"Anyway, Uncle Zhou said no one had taken over the house for many years, and no one had claimed it. My brother came and took it."

Chen Xiu: "……"

The other three: "……"

Yan Jun couldn’t listen anymore and decided to smooth things over for Ming Yue: "So, what you mean is, the butler we met earlier is actually the guardian ghost of your family’s house?"

Ming Yue shook her finger, "He wasn't originally."

"After my brother made him submit, that’s when he became one."

"……" Chen Xiu felt like he couldn't ask any more questions. Initially, he thought the issue with the yin house might be related to the previous generation of the Ming family, but who would’ve thought he would uncover a legend of this generation instead?

"Your brother is an ordinary person, right?"

Ming Yue nodded: "Yes, an ordinary citizen, Ming Lao Da."

Well, that killed the topic.

Chen Xiu: "……"

Ming Yue kindly made a summary: "If it weren't for my brother taking over the old house, how could those big shot ghost hunters in the north of the city so easily accept our family settling in?"

"It’s clearly that they couldn’t deal with Uncle Zhou and the others, and when my brother took care of them, they were forced to acknowledge us."

She noticed Chen Xiu’s strange expression and that he wasn’t taking notes, so she kindly reminded him: "Senior, you should write this down. This part could definitely be the rise of the new wealthy ghost hunters in Jinling!"

New wealthy.

You are so humble.

Chen Xiu: "……"

The others: "……"The group displayed expressions that seemed ready to choke.

Chen Xiu put away his pen and paper, sneering: "I learned a trick on how to subtly brag about having power and money."

If an ordinary person were put down face-to-face like this by such a sharp-tongued senior, they might feel embarrassed.

But Ming Yue was no ordinary person.

Her performance at this moment was truly impressive.

She skillfully diverted the topic and applied what she had learned.

With a serious face, she said, "Thank you for the feedback, Senior."

"The Ming family has money, all thanks to my older brother's management skills."

"I'm just a useless parasite, not worth any praise."

"I’ll definitely pass on your exact words to Ming Lao Da when I get home, and make sure he learns his lesson."

"Let him study hard and become a new era’s ideal young man."

Chen Xiu: "……"

Chen Xiu almost choked on his own saliva.

"Please don’t," he sucked on a cigarette, extinguished it, and threw it on the ground, laughing helplessly. "I don’t want to have my name attached in front of your brother."

"If I get remembered, people will think I’m bullying his sister."

Nearby, Zhou Jingren teased him: ‘Then what were you doing earlier?’

Chen Xiu, thick-skinned, pretended not to notice.

Later that night, the group chatted idly as they crossed the vast wilderness and headed toward the Jinling city area.

Ming Yue had a great day.

She learned a lot, broadened her horizons, and at the same time, deeply strengthened her courage—

Aside from being noted by the Ghost Hunter Association, everything else was wonderful.But how the other students felt, was another matter.

—At least, there was one thing they all knew and kept in their hearts.

The Ming family had never been in a state of decline.

Ming Dinghai and Li Lan, the couple, left the most valuable legacy for the ghost-hunting industry.

Two children.

A pair of siblings.

Ming Da, unfathomable.

Ming Er, explosively talented.

This truly made people look forward to the future of the Ming family.

However, the aftermath of the incident did not end there—

After Ming Yue returned home, how she kneeled in the Ming family’s ancestral hall, crying her heart out as she wrote about the events, shocking the guests who were paying respects to the family, causing them to tremble—let's put that aside for now.

In the end, after reading Ming Yue's 9,000-word record of blood and tears, the matter was closed on Ming Ye's end.

The next day, after submitting the record, Ming Ye tossed a book of incantations at her.

The pages of the book were so worn out that even a bit of pressure could turn them into powder.

Ming Yue took it with fear and trembling.

Ming Ye prepared the yellow paper and vermillion ink and patted Ming Yue's head.

"During the winter break, get up at six every day, and write ten talismans."

"Finish this book during the break, do you hear me?"

So next time, she wouldn’t be scared out of her wits by some little ghost.

Ming Yue: "……"

The bewildered look on her face greatly pleased her brother, and he turned to leave.Behind her, Ming Yue slumped in dejection.

This was no longer her brother.

This was clearly half of her father.

And it wasn't over.

As the New Year approached, on the night before the Chinese New Year, while Ming Yue was diligently drawing talismans, waiting for the New Year's Eve dinner, she was suddenly called by Bai Linlang through a phone call. The moment she heard, Bai Linlang's penetrating voice made Ming Yue instantly pull the phone a meter away from her ear:

"Ming Yue! Are you trying to fly to the heavens?!"

Bai Linlang's voice sounded so urgent that Ming Yue became anxious: "What's wrong, Section Chief?"

Bai Linlang was worried sick about her: "The holiday is only halfway over, and you've already caused trouble."

Ming Yue defended herself: "By the heavens! I’m about to be tortured to death by my brother, the skin-peeler, how would I have time to cause trouble?"

"...No, wait, I never cause trouble!"

A sound of a table being slammed could be heard from the other side of the phone. "Check the institute's website! Also, check the forum!"

"Wait... First, look at the official website of the Ghost Hunter Association!"

Ming Yue was puzzled but felt something stirring inside her.

Her computer was nearby, so she opened the official website of the Ghost Hunter Association.

The website had a black background with red text, resembling an underworld forum.

When she clicked in, she saw a red banner at the top of the page with the latest penalty notice:

【Penalty Notice No. 8769】

【Punished Entity: Jinling University Fengling Institute】

【Reason for Punishment: Unlicensed students participated in the Bao Mountain Hospital ghost fusion incident in the Bao Mountain district of Jinling】

【Event Rating: A-】

【Involved Parties: Ming Yue, Chen Xiu, Yan Jun, Zhou Jingren, Zhai Dan, Jun Weiran, Xi Cheng’en...】【This is hereby announced, hoping that all spirit institutes will take heed and avoid repeating this mistake.】

At the bottom of the red banner page, it showed that the page views had already exceeded thirty thousand.

On the phone, Bai Linlang was incredibly angry, still ranting.

She was genuinely afraid that her roommate might one day die in some unknown corner, with no one to recover the body.

Ming Yue turned a deaf ear: "……"

After a long pause, she furrowed her brow and said, "Why is my name at the top?"

Bai Linlang: "……"

Bai Linlang felt suffocated: "Is this really your only thought after reading it?"