Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

With trembling hands, Li Qiang pulled out his contacts and immediately dialed his uncle's number.

"Hello, Uncle?"

"Hey, Qiangzi, what brings you to call me today?" came my uncle's cheerful voice from the other end of the line.

"Uncle, my parents have gone to work in the city, and my grandfather lives alone at home. I'm feeling uneasy. Could you please go to the old house and take a look? I want to say a few words to my grandfather."

"Okay, no problem. I'll be right there, and I'll call you back when I get there."

"Okay, I'll wait for your call. Five minutes will be enough. Your house is only a three or four-minute walk from the old house."

After hanging up the phone, the long wait began.

Li Qiang paced back and forth in the room, his palms sweating profusely, his eyes fixed on his phone screen, each second feeling like an eternity.

He desperately suppressed the unease in his heart, repeatedly reassuring himself that Grandpa would be alright and nothing would happen.

They agreed to call back in five minutes, but only three minutes later, my phone suddenly rang.

Li Qiang's heart skipped a beat, and he felt a chill run down his spine. Rural people are always frugal with phone bills, always waiting for others to call back. His uncle calling first couldn't possibly be anything good.

He hurriedly pressed the answer button, but instead of the expected casual greetings, he heard his uncle's choked, sorrowful sobs.

"Qiangzi...please come back soon, your grandfather...is gone."

"What?!"

Li Qiang loosened his grip, and the phone almost fell to the ground. He froze on the spot, his mind blank.

"H-How could this be? I just asked you to go and take a look..."

"I rushed to the old house as soon as I got your call. The gate wasn't even locked. When I pushed it open, I saw that the old man had fallen off the bed and was lying on the ground. His body was stiff and he was starting to smell... It looked like he had been gone for several days." My uncle's voice was full of heartache and helplessness.

"No...it's impossible..."

Li Qiang muttered to himself, all his strength drained away in an instant, and he slumped heavily into the chair.

Tears welled up unexpectedly and streamed down her cheeks.

The grandfather who raised him from childhood, who loved and protected him, the grandfather he thought was always healthy and waiting for him to come home, had passed away alone in the old house for several days, and no one knew.

On the other end of the phone, my uncle sighed, "I need to inform your parents as soon as possible. You should buy a train ticket and come back to handle the funeral arrangements."

After saying that, the phone was quickly hung up.

The live stream room fell silent; there was no more mockery, only sighs and heartache filling the screen.

Behind Li Qiang, the gaunt old man's spirit gazed at his weeping grandson, his eyes filled with tears, heartache, and an irreparable regret.

The old man looked at his grandson, who was crying his eyes out, and felt so sorry for him that he wanted to go forward and reach out to wipe away his tears.

But when the fingertips reached out, they passed straight through Li Qiang's body, leaving nothing but emptiness, unable to feel even a trace of warmth.

He stood frozen in place, only then realizing that he was gone, a wandering ghost, and would never again touch or hold the grandson he had loved since childhood.

The old man's eyes were filled with melancholy, and his heart was filled with reluctance to part.

On the day he passed away, he had just finished working in the fields in the early morning. When he returned home, he felt heavy-hearted and lay down to rest. He thought of getting up to find some medicine, but as soon as he stood up, he suffered a sudden heart attack, collapsed straight down beside the bed, and never got up again.

The old house was empty, and he was the only one left.

My uncle's family is busy building a new house, and he's been so busy every day that he's long forgotten about visiting the elderly.

If Li Qiang hadn't made that call today, who knows how many more days this lonely old man would have remained lying in that cold old house, unattended and forgotten.

At this moment, Shen Jingshu slowly spoke, breaking the somber mood in the room: "Li Qiang, stop crying. Your grandfather is here. He has something to tell you."

Just now, the old man's spirit discovered that the girl wearing a mask in the live broadcast room could see him.

He hurriedly floated to the screen and bowed repeatedly to Shen Jingshu, pleading with her to give his grandson some instructions.

Shen Jingshu looked at the old man's earnest eyes and nodded gently in agreement.

Looking at Li Qiang, whose face was streaked with tears, she relayed the old man's last words, word by word:

"Your grandfather said that life and death are predestined, and you don't need to be too sad. He has lived a full life and is already content. His only regret in this life is that he couldn't see you get married and have children."

"The person he couldn't let go of the most was always you. So after he passed away, driven by this obsession, he searched all the way to the city and stayed by your side every day. These days, he watched you leave early and return late, being exploited by your boss, having to revise plans late at night, eating takeout and instant food for every meal, and his heart ached terribly."

"He told me to tell you that you must take good care of yourself from now on, eat less junk food that has no nutritional value, and cook yourself a hot meal when you have time. If the work in the city is too tiring or you feel wronged, don't force yourself to endure it. Go home and find a stable life."

After hearing this, Li Qiang could no longer hold back. He cried out in heart-wrenching sobs, repeatedly calling out, "Grandpa... Grandpa! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have been so focused on work, and I shouldn't have stayed away from home to see you for so long..."

A human and a ghost, separated by the realms of Yin and Yang, faced each other with tearful eyes, their grief beyond words.

After a long while, Li Qiang finally calmed down a bit. With red eyes, he looked at Shen Jingshu with a glimmer of hope: "Anchor... can I... can I see Grandpa one more time? Even just one glimpse would be enough."

Shen Jingshu gently shook her head, her tone calm yet carrying an unyielding indifference: "Humans and ghosts are on different paths, separated by the realms of Yin and Yang. You are a mortal, so you cannot see him. The underworld officials will come to guide him in a moment, and I will send the old man off peacefully to be reborn in the next life."

Shen Jingshu's clear, cold voice rang out again, relieving Li Qiang of all his psychological burden: "Li Qiang, your insomnia and lethargy these days are not entirely due to work fatigue. The old man's spirit is with you day and night. Humans and ghosts are different, and his yin energy is too heavy. After being affected by it for a long time, you naturally can't eat or sleep peacefully."

"After the old man passes away tonight, you should immediately return to your hometown to handle the funeral arrangements. At that time, you only need to bask in the sun more often at noon every day to dispel the lingering gloom on your body, and your sleep will naturally return to normal."

"Okay, thank you, host..."

As soon as Shen Jingshu finished speaking, she slightly bent her fingertips to form a hand seal, picked up a yellow talisman with her other hand, and lightly touched it with her fingertips. The talisman instantly ignited with a pale golden flame.

Her expression was calm, without any complicated rituals. She simply watched the talisman burn out in her palm and softly recited a mantra for summoning souls.

In an instant, a pitch-black vortex appeared out of thin air in Li Qiang's rented room. The edge of the vortex glowed with a very faint light, and the airflow was quiet and silent.

Only Shen Jingshu could see this scene; the viewers in the live stream and Li Qiang, who was inside the room, were completely unaware.

There was one exception—Lu Jingxing, who stayed in the live stream room the entire time.