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

Late at night, in a ward at Qihe Hospital in Nanhai City, Xiao Jin was sleeping on Yun Mingyuan's hospital bed, while Yun Ziang was curled up asleep on the sofa next to her.

Yun Mingyuan was fast asleep when suddenly something kicked him in the chest. It wasn't hard, but the aim was perfect, kicking him right in the heart.

He groaned and opened his eyes. In the dim light of the bedside lamp, he saw a little foot wearing a cartoon sock arrogantly lying across his chest.

The owner of the feet was sprawled out in a starfish shape, the blanket had long been kicked to the ground, and the sleeping posture was so unrestrained that it looked like she was going to war.

This is the third time tonight.

The first time I was kicked in the waist, the second time I was kicked in the face, and now it's my heart.

Yun Mingyuan rubbed his temples wearily, then slowly sat up, supporting himself on the mattress, moving very quietly, afraid of waking the little darling beside him.

The ward was very different from what it was like in the afternoon.

Under the hospital bed, each of the four bed legs held a yellow talisman, the talisman paper carefully folded into a triangle with the pointed corner facing outwards.

Four red lines were strung between the feet of the bed, with a small copper bell tied to each line at intervals, and the red lines encircled the bed.

On the bedside table was a bowl of raw glutinous rice with three incense sticks stuck in it. A small amount of ash had already accumulated, and a very faint sandalwood scent floated in the air.

Five peach wood nails were hung on the wall opposite the bed with red ropes, their tips pointing downwards, arranged in an arc-shaped fan. A talisman was also drawn on the ground near the doorway using cinnabar mixed with black dog blood.

Xiao Jin arranged all of this herself before going to bed.

She called it a protective array.

At first, Xiao Jin and Yun Ziang were on high alert, staying by his bedside.

But as time passed, the ward remained quiet, and nothing unusual happened.

Xiao Jin couldn't resist the drowsiness any longer. Her little head drooped down little by little. At first, she struggled to lift her head, but eventually she just lay flat on the blanket, mumbling something indistinctly:

"Xiao Jin, take a short nap."

After that, there was no further sound.

Seeing this, Yun Ziang couldn't resist his drowsiness either. He moved from the chair to the sofa and lay down, and within a few minutes he was snoring softly and evenly.

Seeing that the two of them had fallen asleep, Yun Mingyuan simply turned off the lights and rested.

I slept for three hours straight.

If Xiao Jin hadn't woken him up, he would definitely have been able to sleep soundly until dawn.

"Even if you cast a spell... nothing happened, right?"

Yun Mingyuan muttered dismissively. He leaned against the headboard, looked down at Xiao Jin who was sleeping soundly on her back, and couldn't help but chuckle softly.

He lifted the blanket from under Xiao Jin's feet, shook it, and covered her with it again, gently brushing a stray strand of hair that had been ruffled on her forehead behind her ear.

The way the child looked while sleeping reminded him of Mingyue when she was little.

She slept like that, fearless and carefree, always sticking one foot out of the blanket.

Yun Mingyuan chuckled, then quietly lifted the covers and got out of bed. He bent down, walked around the red rope, carefully stepped over the red thread with the bell attached, and entered the bathroom.

The door wasn't closed properly; there was a crack.

After he finished using the toilet, he pressed the flush button, and the bathroom light suddenly flickered.

Yun Mingyuan looked up for a moment, then looked away and walked to the sink to turn on the tap to wash his hands.

He lowered his head, about to wash his hands, when he suddenly noticed that the water flowing from the faucet was not clear water, but dark red blood, which trickled down between his fingers and pooled in the white sink.

Yun Mingyuan abruptly pulled his hand back, his heart pounding in his chest.

He blinked hard, and to his surprise, the blood in the sink disappeared, and the water flowing from the faucet was still clear and clean, as if the scene just now was just a hallucination caused by his excessive sleepiness.

Normally, he would have thought he was seeing things.

But now... Yun Mingyuan looked at his fingers, which were wet with water, and lowered his eyebrows little by little.

He turned off the tap, dried his hands with a paper towel, and quickly walked out of the bathroom.

The moment Yun Mingyuan stepped into the protective array set up by Xiao Jin, and his feet landed within the area of ​​the bed legs covered with talismans, he finally felt a sense of security.

He exhaled, and just then, he heard a sound outside the window again.

"Tap, tap, tap."

It was neither too fast nor too slow, with a steady rhythm, like someone tapping on glass with their knuckles.

Yun Mingyuan stood frozen in place, a chill running down his spine to the back of his head.

But this is the twelfth floor, and there are no platforms or scaffolding outside the window, nothing at all.

He stared at the window with the curtains drawn, his expression tense, and his palms were sweating.

Yun Mingyuan realized that what was outside the window was probably not a person.

In an instant, the copper bell on the red rope by the bed emitted a very faint sound.

It wasn't the crisp tinkling sound of a bell being blown by the wind, but rather the dull, low sound of a copper bell gently vibrating on a red rope.

Immediately afterward, Xiao Jin sat up abruptly on the bed, her eyes still closed, and began to mumble, "Ah, it's here..."

Yun Mingyuan quickly walked to the bedside and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Jin, what's outside?"

Xiao Jin rubbed her face, squinted her eyes, and looked like she hadn't woken up yet. She didn't answer, but instead pulled Yun Mingyuan's hand over, held his rough palm with her two small hands, and pulled him to sit down on the bed.

She spoke softly, "Nephew, do you still remember the purifying mantra that Xiao Jin taught you this afternoon?"

"Just close your eyes and keep chanting. Leave the rest to Xiao Jin. Once Xiao Jin has finished tidying up, you can open your eyes."

Yun Mingyuan, a man in his fifties, was being coaxed onto the bed by a four-year-old girl as if she were a child, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

He hesitated and turned his head to look at the window again, but Xiao Jin had already reached out her two little hands and grabbed his head, turning his face back to meet her big, open eyes.

Xiao Jin shook her head vigorously: "There's nothing outside the window. Just close your eyes."

After saying that, she reached out and covered Yun Mingyuan's eyes.

Those little hands were warm, and their chubby palms were pressed against their eyelids, blocking out all the light.

Yun Mingyuan was silent for a few seconds, then coughed softly and closed his eyes.

His lips twitched slightly, and in the end, he slowly recited the mind-purifying mantra that Xiao Jin had taught him that afternoon in an unnatural, hoarse voice.

Xiao Jin smiled and slowly withdrew her hand. "Nephew, my good boy."

As she spoke, she turned around, and the smile on her face vanished completely the instant she turned.

She was right when she said there was nothing outside the window.

Because that thing was no longer outside the window.

It's already inside.

Xiao Jin slowly raised her head and looked at the corner where the ceiling met the wall, where a black shadow was lying quietly.

The shadow was initially just a blurry, shapeless mass of dark color, then it slowly wriggled, like a crumpled and unfolded cloth, with limbs extending out of the shadow.

It is long and thin, with reversed joints and sharp claws at the tips.

Next was an enormous head, nearly twice the size of the body, with a large head and a small body. It was completely naked and hairless, with skin that was a rotten bluish-gray color, gleaming dimly in the shadows of the ceiling.

It twisted its body, slowly turned its head, and revealed a deformed face.

Its eyes were two dark, gaping holes, and its mouth stretched to its ears, but there were no teeth inside, only a bottomless darkness.

Then it bared its teeth at Xiao Jin, "Hehe—"

Xiao Jin wasn't scared at all.

She put her short arms on her hips, glared at the monster hanging upside down from the ceiling, and fiercely scolded, "You can't bare your teeth at Xiao Jin!"

"Holy crap!!"

The Yin Infant Spirit let out a piercing scream, its limbs crawling rapidly across the ceiling like a startled gecko, before leaping down and pouncing straight at Xiao Jin and Yun Mingyuan.

Xiao Jin, with her small frame, stood in front of Yun Mingyuan. The moment the Yin Yingling lunged at her, she dodged its sharp claws, grabbed its slender ankle, swung it up, and slammed it to the ground.

Yin Yingling crashed onto the tiled floor with a dull thud. Before she could even roll over, she had already straddled it, her two short legs pressing down on its body. One hand gripped the back of its neck, while the other clenched into a small fist and began to pound it hard on the back of the head.

The Yin Infant Spirit struggled desperately, its sharp claws scraping against the tiles with a piercing shriek, but Xiao Jin's pressure on it was like a small mountain, leaving it completely unmoved.

After a few punches, Yin Yingling stopped struggling and let out a low wail, like a wild dog that had been beaten into submission.

Xiao Jin took a red rope from her pocket and deftly tied the Yin Infant Spirit's limbs together. Then, she grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, lifted it up, looked at its deformed face from left to right, and asked in a gentler tone:

"Who sent you? Why are you trying to harm my nephew? Tell Xiao Jin, and Xiao Jin will let you go."

Yin Yingling bared her teeth at her, uttering a muffled and hoarse syllable, like a baby's babbling.

Xiao Jin asked again, "Where is the person who cast the spell? What does he look like?"

Yin Yingling bared its teeth again, the sounds coming from its throat still being just babbling noises, without any formed language.

Xiao Jin frowned. "Oh no, Xiao Jin can't understand a single word."

She stared at the Yin Yingling for a while, then leaned closer to smell it.

This thing is not a complete soul at all; it was created by someone using corpse oil and the resentment of a stillborn fetus, and it has not developed any intelligence.

She originally intended to capture the sorcerer alive and extract information from it about the location of the person who cast the sorcery.

But now that we've caught it, it can't talk at all.

Xiao Jin wrinkled her nose in annoyance, picked up the Yin Infant Spirit and shook it, as if weighing a tool that wasn't quite right for her.

She rolled her eyes, then suddenly her gaze lit up:

"Since you can't speak, then just lead the way."

"You can't possibly not know the way home."

Xiao Jin took out a blank yellow talisman from her small cloth bag, dipped her fingertip in a little cinnabar, and quickly drew a Qi-chasing talisman on the talisman.

After completing the talisman, she patted it onto the back of the Yin Infant Spirit. The talisman adhered to the bluish-gray skin, and the cinnabar pattern glowed slightly before disappearing into its body, leaving only a very faint dark red mark on its back, as if it had been branded.

This talisman contains a wisp of her aura. As long as the Yin infant spirit returns to the person who cast the curse, she can follow the aura of the talisman to find him. Even if he is hiding underground, she can still dig him out.

"Hehe," Xiao Jin clapped her hands, satisfied, "I'll put you back when it's just getting light."

"You need to stay quiet now."