The gluttonous little boy is four and a half years old, and even the wealthy family kneels down and

Butler Qin paused for a moment, his gaze shifting between Li Dou and Xiao Jin, before finally nodding: "Then the four of you, come with me."

He turned and pushed open the side door of the reception room, leading the four of them through a long corridor covered with a dark carpet and up to the second floor.

On the wall at the corner of the stairs hangs a splashed-ink landscape painting, its brushwork masterful, and the signature is that of Mr. Lin in his early years.

Yun Ziang glanced at it a couple more times as he passed by, and silently estimated the price in his mind.

Butler Qin stopped in front of a double door made of walnut wood, knocked three times gently, and then pushed the door open and entered.

The study was large, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on three walls. In the center stood an old mahogany desk with several documents and an open notebook on it.

Behind the desk sat a middle-aged man in his early fifties, with slightly graying temples and a heavy layer of weariness between his brows.

Standing next to him was a handsome young man, who looked to be no more than twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He was dressed in plain Chinese-style casual clothes, with the cuffs rolled up twice, and a string of dark red prayer beads wrapped around his wrist.

"Chairman Lin," Butler Qin bowed slightly, "someone in this batch has noticed Miss's condition."

Lin's father raised his head, his gaze passing over Butler Qin's shoulder and landing on the people behind him.

His gaze lingered on Li Dou for a moment. Li Dou was wearing a Taoist robe and was in his early forties. He did indeed look the most like a master.

Lin's father hurried out from behind the desk, grabbed Li Dou's hand, and shook it vigorously, his voice filled with suppressed urgency: "Master, you've finally arrived! My daughter's condition..."

"No, no, no," Li Dou's expression instantly turned extremely awkward. He quickly withdrew his hand and stepped aside. "Chairman Lin, it wasn't me. It was this young master who noticed."

He stepped aside to let Xiao Jin move to the front.

Mr. Lin looked down and met the eyes of a little girl with a round bun hairstyle.

Little Jin looked up, blinked her eyes, and waved her little hand at him: "Hello, Uncle Lin, my name is Yun Fengjin."

Lin's father's hand froze in mid-air. He looked at Xiao Jin, then at Li Dou, his expression shifting between shock and confusion. His lips moved several times before he managed to squeeze out a sentence:

"This...this is still a child."

"Uncle Lin, don't underestimate Xiao Jin just because she's young," Xiao Jin said earnestly, "Xiao Jin knows a lot of things!"

The young man next to her also glanced sideways, his gaze falling on Xiao Jin with a cautious look.

"Chairman Lin," Yun Zi'ang took a step forward, placed his hand on Xiao Jin's shoulder, and said with certainty, "she's my great-aunt. She was the one who saved Liu Kaile when he was in trouble last time. Don't let her young age fool you, she's really capable."

Liu Kaile nodded vigorously beside him, the amulet around his neck swaying slightly: "Yes, Chairman Lin, I'm the one she saved. If it weren't for the little master, I don't know where I'd be right now."

Li Dou added in a deep voice, "I can testify. I have personally witnessed the young master's skills."

Lin's father's expression changed several times before he finally turned his gaze back to Xiao Jin, his lips pressed tightly together, and he remained silent.

The young man finally spoke, his voice calm and measured, carrying a maturity beyond his years: "Young man, how did you figure out that Miss Lin was arranged into a ghost marriage?"

Xiao Jin looked at him and said matter-of-factly, "The way my sister walked in the video, the way she combed her hair, and the red light on her ankles are all rituals for a ghost marriage."

"A possessed spirit won't walk like that, nor will it leave on its own. Only a ghost husband who has formed a pact with the spirit will come to examine the bride."

She paused, tilted her head, and said, "Besides, you've brought so many people here, it must be because this matter has dragged on for a long time. If it were just ordinary ghost possession, those masters would have dealt with it long ago."

As the young man listened, his gaze slowly shifted from Xiao Jin's face to Li Dou, then to Lin's father, and finally back to Xiao Jin's face.

The scrutinizing gaze was no longer one of assessment, but rather a subtle surprise. He remained silent for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, "Who is your master?"

"My master's name is Yun Zhenglu." Xiao Jin puffed out her little chest, her tone carrying a hint of pride.

The young man frowned, quickly flipping through the names of the living predecessors in his mind, but couldn't find a corresponding name.

He didn't ask any further questions, but simply nodded slightly and memorized the name.

"Master Kongzheng," Lin's father turned to the young man, his tone hesitant, "what do you think of this..."

Kong Zheng withdrew his scrutinizing gaze, his expression returning to composure.

He looked at Mr. Lin and said in a low voice, "Mr. Lin, my master won't be able to arrive for at least another week. As you know, Miss Lin's condition may not allow her to wait that long."

"Since this young nun can see the root of the ghost marriage at a glance, why not let her try first?"

After a moment of silence, Lin's father finally made up his mind and turned to Yun Ziang and Liu Kaile, saying, "My two young friends, it's not that the Lin family is unreasonable, but my daughter's current condition makes it inconvenient for too many people to visit her."

"Please wait downstairs. If you need anything, please let us know."

Although Yun Ziang was reluctant, he knew his limits.

He handed Xiao Jin's little schoolbag to Li Dou, and gave him a meaningful look, the meaning of which was very clear:

You take my little aunt's things.

Li Dou accepted it expressionlessly without saying a word.

Kong Zheng led the two out of the study and continued down the corridor to the third floor.

The higher you go up the stairs, the quieter it gets. The windows on both sides of the corridor are all covered with heavy curtains, making the light dim.

When Xiao Jin reached the door of the innermost room on the third floor, she stopped and looked down at the floor in front of the door.

Several talisman papers were pasted around the door frame, a row of copper coins were embedded in the gap under the threshold, and a red thread was tied to the doorknob with the end hanging down and tied in a seven-treasure knot.

She exclaimed "Huh?", squatted down to take a closer look, and looked up at Kong Zheng, saying, "Your formation is quite good. The Seven Stars suppress evil, the copper coins stabilize the energy, and the red thread locks the door... It can protect the yang energy inside from dissipating and also block the yin energy from invading from the outside."

"Is this a technique used in your mountains?"

Kong Zheng glanced down at her, a hint of surprise in his eyes: "You recognize this formation?"

"I recognize it," Xiao Jin stood up and patted non-existent dust off her knees. "My master taught me."

"However, the knot you tied is slightly crooked. If you move it half a bit to the left, the effect of drawing in qi will be better."

Kong Zheng stared at her for two seconds, said nothing, and then pushed open the door.

The room was dark.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, with only a small nightlight on the bedside table emitting a dim yellow light.

A faint sandalwood scent permeated the air, mixed with a heavier, decaying sweetness.

There was a person lying on the bed, and if you didn't look closely, you would hardly recognize that it was a living person.

Lin Yu's hands and feet were tied to the four corners of the bed with red ropes. Her whole body was buried in the thick quilt. Her exposed wrists were as thin as withered branches, and her skin had an unhealthy waxy yellow color, clinging tightly to her bones.

Her cheekbones were high and prominent, her eye sockets were deeply sunken, and her lips were dry, cracked, and pale. She looked as if something had drained her dry from the inside out.

Xiao Jin looked at the person on the bed in surprise, and the smile on her face disappeared.

Li Dou gasped, his voice choked with fear: "How did it get like this...?"

Kong Zheng stood at the foot of the bed, his tone calm: "When I came over, she was already like this. I could only keep her alive for now."

"The formation at the entrance can only block things from the outside; it cannot solve the fundamental problem."

Xiao Jin didn't say anything.

She ran to the bedside with her short legs, stood on tiptoe, and gently opened Lin Yu's right palm.

In the center of the palm, a dark red line runs diagonally from the base of the thumb to the inside of the wrist.

Yinqi pattern.

She pried open Lin Yu's eyelids to look at her pupils, reached out to check her chest and breath, and then pinched the temperature of her fingertips.

After doing all that, she pulled her hand back, and her little face fell.

"Her soul is lost."

Kong Zheng nodded: "When I arrived, I found that her soul had already left her body. The Lin family said that the last time she was conscious was four days ago. Before that, she was just sleepwalking, and four days ago she suddenly couldn't wake up."

Li Dou instinctively asked, "What about summoning the soul? Can that bring it back?"

Kong Zheng shook his head: "I've tried. I can't get them back."

Li Dou opened his mouth, wanting to say that this young master was very skilled at summoning spirits, but he swallowed the words back.

He had personally witnessed Xiao Jin opening the Yin Road during the day to pull Liu Kaile back from the Bridge of Helplessness, but this time even Kong Zheng said he couldn't call him back, so the situation was probably even more troublesome than last time.

He looked at Xiao Jin, only to find that she had already raised her left hand, her thumb rapidly tapping across the knuckles of the other four fingers, her brows furrowing more and more tightly.

After a moment, she lowered her hand, raised her head, and said in a tone that was no longer as soft and gentle as usual, "We can't bring her back because her soul is imprisoned."

Kong Zheng's gaze fell on her, and he nodded: "That's what my master said too."

Xiao Jin said, "He must have been locked up by that wicked ghost husband. He refuses to release him, so his soul can't come back."

Kong Zheng frowned slightly: "The Lin family was completely unaware that Lin Yu had been forced into a ghost marriage."

"No one has revealed Lin Yu's birth date to outsiders."

"A ghost marriage isn't just about birth dates," Xiao Jin shook her head. "If you personally accept the male ghost's betrothal gifts, that counts as a marriage."

"The token doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of paper with the eight characters written on it—it can be anything. A ring, a necklace, a brooch, as long as it's imbued with the yin energy of that vengeful ghost, it's a betrothal gift."

As long as the token can be found, Xiao Jin can follow the evil aura to find it.

Kong Zheng's eyes flickered slightly. "But I couldn't find the token."

He had thoroughly searched Lin Yu's room, checking the jewelry box, bedside table, dressing table drawers, and even turning over the mattress and the top layer of bedding in the wardrobe, but found nothing unusual.

All of Lin Yu's accessories were the same styles she usually wore, and none of them looked suspicious.

Just as he was about to speak, Xiao Jin suddenly sat cross-legged on the ground, took a deep breath, her chest puffed out, and then closed her eyes, like a little dog trying to find its way in the air.

She closed her eyes, inhaled, and slowly turned her head, as if communicating with something.

A few seconds later, she suddenly opened her eyes, jumped up, and ran towards the dressing room.

The walk-in closet is large, with seasonal clothes hanging on both sides, neatly stacked shoe boxes at the bottom, and a full-length mirror and a row of drawers at the very back.

Xiao Jin plunged headfirst into the pile of hanging clothes, completely submerged in them.

When Kong Zheng and Li Dou followed them in, they only saw a small bulge in the pile of clothes. The small bulge was moved from the left to the right, then from the right to the corner, and finally stopped in front of the innermost drawer.

The drawer was half-open, and a few silk scarves were haphazardly stuffed inside.

Xiao Jin was lying on top of the drawer, her little hands rummaging through the pile of scarves, when she suddenly let out a bright shout: "Found it!"