The Mysterious Card Maker: Starting with Zhang Jiao's Deification

Lin Fan opened his mouth, then swallowed the words that were about to come out. A house defense card—something he wouldn't even dare to dream of—was as easy as buying a cabbage in this young lady's mouth.

"Alright, but before that, there's something I need to make clear first."

"What is it?"

"You can stay next door, but if I tell you to leave, you have to leave. No bargaining." Lin Fan's tone became serious.

"Why?" Qin Muyao was taken aback.

Lin Fan didn't answer immediately. He glanced at the door; the strange eye on the threshold was embedded in it, watching the two talk.

He gestured with his chin in that direction, and the threshold, as if sensing something, shrank back, its eyes darting towards the doorway.

"The Card Association checked you three times, but couldn't find any marks." Lin Fan withdrew his gaze.

"But they themselves said they can't rule out the possibility of 'low-concentration strange markings.' What if you really do have that stuff on you, but it just hasn't been detected yet?"

Qin Muyao opened her mouth, as if to say something.

"Go back to the Qin family." Lin Fan didn't give her a chance to speak. "Someone will protect you. If anything really happens, your Qin family can handle things better than I can."

He paused, his voice lowering slightly, "If you stay here and get marked, the strange creatures that will be attracted will be too much for even me to handle. At that point, not only you, but I won't be able to escape either."

Qin Muyao didn't mince words and said decisively, "I agree, but it has to be something really important. You can't just kick me out because you don't like me."

"How could I dare to dislike you?" Lin Fan muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"It's nothing. Shall I contact the landlord for you now?" Lin Fan said, waving his phone.

"OK."

After receiving Qin Muyao's affirmative reply, Lin Fan turned and walked towards the door.

A short while later, Lin Fan pushed open the door and returned.

At this moment, Qin Muyao was squatting on the ground studying the threshold ghost. The latter was embedded in the door frame, its eyeballs rolling around. It dared not look at her for too long, nor dared not look away, for fear that she would call out that dark-faced man to attack it with a spear.

"Did you find out?" Qin Muyao stood up.

"Hmm, the room next door is bigger, 800 a month, one month's rent as deposit and three months' rent in advance." Lin Fan closed the door. "The landlord has been scared by the strange things lately, so he won't be coming over. He'll sign the contract online later."

"It's nothing."

"We're responsible for cleaning up next door ourselves."

"We can just hand it over to the housekeeping company tomorrow!" Qin Muyao waved her hand dismissively, her gaze returning to the doorstep monster: "Is it this ugly thing that's blocking that monster?"

"Yeah." Lin Fan glanced at the strange threshold. "I wonder if that weird thing will appear today."

He turned around and went to the corner, pulled out two buckets of instant noodles, waved them at Qin Muyao, and when she nodded, he opened the packaging and tore off the seasoning packets one by one.

"What's wrong?" Qin Muyao sat back down in her chair, watching him bustling around. "Judging from your tone, it sounds like you're hoping that strange thing will appear today?"

Lin Fan didn't answer immediately. He poured hot water into the instant noodle cup, sealed it with a fork, then took out his phone, found a news article, and handed it to Qin Muyao.

"Didn't you see today's news?"

"I spent the whole day cooperating with the Card Association on inspections, I didn't have time to look at my phone."

Qin Muyao took the phone, and the headline on the screen made her eyelids twitch: [Large-scale "collective dream" occurs in Fenglinwan Community of this city; thirteen people die]

Her fingers paused.

"Thirteen people died in our building yesterday." Lin Fan's voice was calm, but his fingers gripping the instant noodle cup were slightly white. "It was probably that stuff that dried out."

He pushed the instant noodles in front of Qin Muyao and said, "If she comes today, we can shut the door and fight the ghost, so she won't go out and harm people again."

How can you be sure she'll show up again?

"Because this isn't the first time she's been here." Lin Fan's gaze turned to the window, to the spot where the handprint had appeared earlier.

"What are you looking at? Is that weird thing coming?" Qin Muyao followed Lin Fan's gaze, but could see nothing except for the lights in the distance.

"No, if something strange happens, the threshold ghost will handle it."

"Can that ugly thing be dealt with?"

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, there shouldn't be any problems." Lin Fan glanced towards the door. Yesterday's eerie creature was driven away by the threshold ghost. When she comes back, all she has to do is close the door, and it won't be able to escape even if it wants to!

After the two finished their instant noodles, they threw the paper bowls into the trash can, and the room became quiet, with only the occasional sound of fingertips touching the phone screen.

九点

ten o'clock

11 o'clock

Nothing happened.

Qin Muyao leaned back in her chair, yawned, and her eyelids started to droop.

"Why don't you take a nap first?" Lin Fan said. "They might not come today, and if there's any commotion, there's always something fishy going on."

"No need, I'm not sleepy." Qin Muyao yawned again as soon as she finished speaking.

"Let's get some sleep!" Lin Fan said again. "Maybe if we don't sleep, the strange thing won't happen."

"So now..." Qin Muyao looked around the small rented room, "I'll sleep in the bed tonight, where will you sleep?"

Lin Fan pointed to the chair Qin Muyao was sitting in: "The usual place. Anyway, it's only for one day, I'll just sleep in it for one more night."

Qin Muyao looked at the swaying wooden chair beneath her, then at Lin Fan. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only uttered an "Oh."

Lin Fan turned off the lights, plunging the room into darkness.

"Lin Fan." Qin Muyao suddenly spoke in the darkness.

"Um."

"Do you think that eerie thing will come tonight?"

"I don't know." Lin Fan put his arm behind his head. "If they don't come, they don't come. It would be best if they did!"

There was a few seconds of silence.

"Lin Fan".

"What's wrong now?"

"Where does it hurt?"

Lin Fan tilted his head and looked at Qin Muyao. "It's not uncomfortable. Let's go to sleep!"

Qin Muyao didn't speak again, and Lin Fan closed his eyes as well.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but just as he was drifting off to sleep, a faint sound came from the doorway, as if afraid of disturbing something.

"grown ups......"

"My lord," the gatekeeper called out several times in a row, his voice filled with urgency.

Lin Fan opened his eyes. The light from the streetlamp seeped in through the gap in the curtains, casting a thin white line on the ground. Qin Muyao's even breathing could be heard from inside the room; she was fast asleep.

Lin Fan stood up from his chair and lowered his voice to ask the person on the threshold, "What's wrong?"

The ghost peeked half its head out from the door frame and whispered, "Sir, that ghost from before is here."

Lin Fan frowned. "Let them in since they're here."

The threshold ghost didn't move. His expression was a bit strange, and his mouth opened and closed repeatedly, as if he was considering how to speak.

"Sir," he finally managed to say, "it seems there's more than one person who came this time."

Lin Fan paused for a moment.

"What do you mean?"