Xiao Xia hesitated over whether or not to drop the case.
There were only two days until the trial and it was permitted to switch lawyers without justification. Furthermore, whether or not she could live with such a decision was another matter.
That’s right. In the beginning, she really wanted to withdraw because she was scared. It was only due to various circumstances and coincidences that she was forced to persevere. Her goal had always been to tough it out until she could hand it off. However, now that things had gotten to this point, despite her director having returned, she actually wanted to win this case. She had become furious at being tormented by that ghost, and also because she felt profound sympathy for Li Jing Ming.
She believed Li Jing Ming had definitely been possessed to have done something so heinous. But why did that ghost do such a thing? How was Li Jing Ming supposed to live with himself after committing such a heavy sin? Is it really better to save him? What if this case was handed over to someone else? Should she just let him be executed unjustly? Even if she decided to fight this case, how to do so was still uncertain. Unless she could prove Li Jing Ming had lost control of his actions and rational thought at the time, he wouldn’t be able to escape responsibility. No matter what, being possessed wasn’t a sort of mental illness. Furthermore, no one would believe such a thing.
Of course, Wan Li did his best to persuade her to drop the case. She understood he was doing it her for own good. However, she was irritated by Ruan Zhan’s sarcastic comments about it not being his problem anymore if something happened to her should she persist. She wanted to solve this case and shove it in his face. However, she also knew she couldn’t do it without this unfeeling person. This was because despite him not saying anything, she had finally felt safe after moving in to his place. There were no more nightmares or terrifying illusions.
All sorts of thoughts made her mind a mess. She was unable to decide anything the entire morning.
“I’ll decide after lunch.” She gave herself one final extension and looked out the window. Only then did she see the sky was as black as the bottom of a pot. It seemed a storm was coming.
The office door opened with a bang. Xiao Wang stuck his head inside. “Big Sis Yue.”
“Ah.” Xiao Xia was startled. She had become easily startled due to recent events, but still wanted to handle this spooky case? Even she herself thought she was being fanciful.
“Someone’s looking for you.”
“Oh, Doctor Wan is here to get lunch with me.”
“It’s not Doctor Wan. It’s an auntie. She says she’s your landlady.”
“Landlady?” Xiao Xia wasn’t expecting this. What did she want? Did the world war in her room two days ago get exposed? She walked to the lobby in confusion and saw her landlady standing by the window with her back facing her.
“Auntie Liu, are you looking for me?” She asked.
The landlady turned around. A flash of blue light flickered across her eyes and she started laughing silently.
Xiao Xia was scared stiff. All her blood rushed to her heart. This was without a doubt her landlady Auntie Liu, but her smile was rigid, weird, her muscles twisted. Xiao Xia was familiar with every detail….she had seen this on every ghost in her nightmares. It was like those paper dolls that get buried with the dead. Their expressions were all drawn on.
“Why seduce my husband?” The landlady said softly.
“Who on earth is your husband?” Xiao Xia was baffled, but still slowly edged towards the door.
“Why seduce my husband?” The landlady suddenly screamed. She pulled out a knife she was carrying and lunged with all her might. “Vixen, I’ll slaughter you. Who said you could seduce my husband, vixen?”
Since Xiao Xia had been ready to run, she managed to narrowly avoid the fatal blow. However, the landlady’s insanity terrified her and she could only flee mindlessly. She ran in extreme terror and the landlady chased after her doggedly. The entire office was in chaos and everyone was shocked. Some male lawyers wanted to stop the landlady but she was surprisingly strong. They weren’t able to subdue her.
“Vixen, I’ll slaughter you. Who said you could seduce my husband, vixen?” She shouted again mechanically.
Xiao Xia tripped over a chair in her panic, the pain in her ankle telling her that this wasn’t a dream. She wanted to climb up but the landlady had already rushed over and raised the knife.
“I told you not to meddle.” Her expression was suddenly no longer insane. Instead, it had become indescribably sinister. “Retribution has come.”
At this moment, Xiao Xia understood the landlady had also been possessed. However, she was already helpless and could only close her eyes as the knife plunged downwards.
The expected pain didn’t come. Instead, she heard the landlady’s unresigned roar. She opened her eyes and saw that Ruan Zhan had grabbed the landlady’s neck from behind with one hand while holding down her struggling, knife-wielding hand with his other.
“Wan Li.” He called out.
Wan Li rushed over from the other side and very violently wrested away the knife and pressed the struggling landlady onto the desk. Ruan Zhan’s back was towards the others. Only Xiao Xia saw him chanting something as he slapped his palm down on the crown of the landlady’s head.
“Go straight home.” He ordered.
Xiao Xia was astonished as she watched the landlady’s malicious expression become sluggish. When Wan Li released her, she ran out like the wind.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s all a misunderstanding.” Wan Li pulled Xiao Xia up and reassured the people who had rushed forwards. “That was my patient. She has some prejudice along with flights of fancy.”
“She wouldn’t have imagined you to be her husband, right?” Xiao Wang said.
His joke made the frightened and indecisive group start laughing.
“That’s right. That’s why she came after the innocent Xiao Xia. Everyone knows I treat Xiao Xia well.” Wan Li’s casual admittance made everyone relax.
Director Pan looked at the smoke-filled battlefield and furrowed his brows.
“Doctor Wan,” He called to Wan Li, “Please remember your clinic is on the fourteenth floor, not here. I don’t wish for this to happen again.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Then it’s fine. We’re a friendly group here.” Director Pan nodded before looking at his still frozen subordinates, “Snap out of it and tidy things up. What a mess. And you…” He pointed at Xiao Xia, “Don’t bring your personal matters into the office in the future.”
Xiao Xia hurriedly nodded like a chick pecking rice. Then, she didn’t bother with cleaning up the aftermath and directly brought the two men into her office.
“She was possessed by that ghost.” She announced.
“Obviously.” Ruan Zhan replied indifferently.
“Looks like you only managed to seal it away that day. It was able to remove your seal so quickly?” Wan Li asked worriedly.
“Also obviously.”
Xiao Xia was a little unsatisfied with his indifferent attitude, “That’s it? I mean…aren’t you going to help banish that ghost from her? You should able to, right? Where did she run off to?”
“You’re really carefree. She was trying to slaughter you a minute ago.”
“She was possessed and didn’t know what she was doing.”
“Just worry about what you are doing.” Ruan Zhan retorted coldly. He had made a trip to a certain someone’s house this morning and had a bad feeling after getting back. He hurriedly did a divination before hurrying over to avert the calamity. It seemed someone wasn’t grateful at all.
“It’s not that Ah Zhan isn’t willing to help exorcise the ghost.” Wan Li smelled the gunpowder and hurriedly smoothed things over. “This ghost is very powerful. If we act without preparation, it would harm the vessel, in this case your landlady. If we screw up, someone could die.”
“So that’s the case. Then…I apologize. Call it my mistake for misjudging a good person.” Xiao Xia knew to apologize when she was mistaken. However, she still didn’t understand. “But it’s daytime. Why would it come out to cause harm?”
“When it possesses someone, it won’t fear the daylight that much. It’s just easier to control its vessel during the night. But today….” Ruan Zhan looked out the window at the sky which was dark as night, “This sort of weather gave it the opportunity.”
“This means that it hid itself in another apartment after suffering defeat at your hands. It’s also really good at hiding and can conceal itself from you.” Wan Li said.
“Isn’t it all because a certain someone’s level isn’t high enough in this RPG game?” Xiao Xia naturally wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to give him crap.
Ruan Zhan glared at Wan Li. It’s all his fault for blabbing. Wan Li pretended not to notice their situation and continued asking: “Why would it choose the landlady? I heard that she lives on the first floor. It took quite the detour.”
“Because the landlady knows about Miss Yue’s situation. Since it couldn’t possess Miss Yue, it could only find another way to kill her.”
“What does that mean?” Xiao Xia recoiled. “It won’t let me off?”
“Don’t you understand?” Wan Li interrupted. “As long as it’s around, you’re in big trouble. Ever since you accepted this case, everything was targeted at you. I don’t know why it made a move on Li Jing Ming, but you are probably a hindrance in its plan. Therefore, it wants you dead no matter what. It’s still better to drop this case.”
After all the twists and turns, this was still the question!
