Little Taotie and Hua Jinyan were brought back to the Ancient Castle by Lou Lan, who then called their parents to tell them the two kids wouldn’t be coming ho tonight.
Little Taotie didn’t interrupt while Lou Lan was on the phone. She waited until Lou Lan finished and then asked, "We can’t go ho tonight? Why?"
Lou Lan gently patted her head. "It’s already very late. Going back now would be a hassle."
She didn’t answer Little Taotie’s question head-on.
Little Taotie pursed her lips. She could see the tiredness in Lou Lan’s eyes and nodded obediently.
The Ancient Castle had no shortage of places to sleep, and Little Taotie and Hua Jinyan picked a room with a double bed.
"You two are going to stay in the sa room?" Lou Lan’s expression was a little strange, but it quickly went back to normal.
Hua Jinyan nodded.
Little Taotie said in her soft, childish voice, "We can chat and fall asleep."
Lou Lan went to check on the three corpses, and Little Taotie and Hua Jinyan had already washed up.
Little Taotie lay on her own bed; if she turned her head, she could see Hua Jinyan. "Today, were you scared?"
Hua Jinyan narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, scared."
In fact, his state of mind had been calm the whole ti, without any real fluctuations, let alone fear. Maybe because he’d been able to see Ghosts since he was little—especially the ones who died in really horrible ways—he’d long forgotten what it felt like to be scared.
He didn’t think Little Taotie would ask this kind of question for no reason. The only reason she would was because she wanted so kind of emotional resonance.
If he answered that he wasn’t scared, he might just force all the things she wanted to pour out back down into her chest.
Sure enough, when she heard Hua Jinyan say he was scared too, the little girl let out a long breath of relief, then started muttering about her ntal journey: "If it weren’t for Feng Qi reminding , I definitely would’ve been crushed to death by those vines made from dead branches. At the ti, they’d already wrapped up my whole body, and the vines were moving toward my neck."
"Give Feng Qi an extra chicken leg," Hua Jinyan said.
"Pfft!" Little Taotie giggled. "Let him sll a big chicken leg!"
As if thinking of sothing, Little Taotie’s smile faded and her expression turned serious. "Those three big brothers who went into the Ancient Pagoda with us today—where did their souls end up?"
Originally, Little Taotie had hoped the three of them had already gone on to reincarnate, but after seeing those three candles suddenly light up at the bottom of the Ancient Pagoda, she felt that was unlikely.
Even when a Ghost Enforcer cos to take soone, they only take those whose ti is up.
People who died an unnatural death mostly hadn’t reached the proper end of their lifespan yet.
If that’s the case, then they can’t be taken away right away. Maybe it would take several seven-day cycles before they’re taken, or maybe the Ghost Enforcers will wait until they’ve wandered around long enough to burn out their lifespan before taking them.
"Inside the candles." Hua Jinyan’s answer was crisp and clean.
"In the candles? What makes you say that? Why are you so sure there’s sothing wrong with the candles?"
"Call it a kind of intuition."
"That doesn’t work!" Little Taotie wagged her finger. "Guesses without any basis are just ssing around."
"Who taught you to say that?"
"Don’t worry about who taught . Just tell why you’re guessing that. Is it really just so random intuition?"
"Yeah. It’s just a kind of intuition. But my intuition rarely turns out wrong."
Little Taotie half believed him, half didn’t, and muttered, "If those three candles are the three big brothers’ Ghosts trapped inside, then what about all the other candles? There were so many burning candles... Are they all sealing a Spiritual Body? How many Spiritual Bodies would that be?"
Hua Jinyan said, "Maybe you’re not wrong. A lot of Spiritual Bodies could be sealed in the candles. But more than that, it feels like they’ve been turned into candles themselves by so thod, and the burning candles are like batteries, powering the entire Ancient Pagoda’s lights."
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