Chapter 89: Liar
It was Li Mu’s first time meeting someone who worked as a gravekeeper, so he was especially curious about the old woman in front of him.
And not only that, this old woman was also a shaman.
So... could she also see ghosts?
Even though the shaman looked thin and spooky in the dark, like a ghost herself, her voice was warm and kind when she spoke. “Did I scare you, old lady like me?”
“No,” Li Mu shook his head.
“I happened to be invited down the mountain by someone, and passed by here. I thought I’d stop to take a look,” the shaman said with a shy smile.
Uncle Lin walked up to chat with her for a bit, and then the shaman turned to leave.
But Li Mu’s curiosity was already burning, he couldn’t help but ask, “Can I come with you and take a look too?”
Since the shaman had been invited down the mountain, it was probably to deal with a ghost, right?
He wanted to see how other people got rid of ghosts.
He had already seen how Chen Yi did it, that guy seduced a female ghost, and when things got tough, he made ghosts fight each other. Then at night, he used up his own strength to keep going. It really changed Li Mu's impression of the act of ‘exorcising.’
“You’re already bored of being here, aren’t you?” Uncle Lin glanced at Li Mu and understood. He then looked at the shaman with a hopeful expression.
The shaman seemed friendly enough. She nodded and said with a smile, “It’s fine. The young one just wants to see something new. Come along.”
Li Mu quickly walked up and followed behind the shaman, carefully going down the mountain path.
This shaman looked exactly like what Li Mu had always imagined a ghost-exorcist would be like.
She was dressed in a long, gray robe, carried a wooden staff and sword, and had long white hair. Just looking at her, you’d think she was a real traditional ghost-hunter master.
Now look at Chen Yi... he needed to bring a gun to exorcise ghosts, and even used his looks to get help from female ghosts.
As they walked, Li Mu couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked, “What are you going down the mountain for this time?”
“To do a fortune-telling,” the shaman replied gently, patiently explaining, “A family wants to know if their daughter-in-law is having a boy or a girl.”
Oh, that’s it?
Li Mu was surprised. He had thought it would be something ghost-related.
“So, how do you tell?”
“I’ll invite a spirit to enter my body. Then their ancestor can come take a look and let them know.”
Li Mu was even more confused.
From what little he knew about ghosts, he had heard that so-called “inviting a spirit” was actually just inviting a ghost. People said that real gods didn’t take over human bodies, so anyone who showed up was probably just a ghost.
Basically, a ghost enters someone’s body and uses that body to talk to others.
If this kind of thing was used in criminal investigations, maybe it could be useful.
It did kind of make sense. After all, he had a “spirit” inside his own body. Xiao Jing often took control of him to talk with Yu Fan.
But still, how would a ghost know whether a baby is a boy or a girl?
Li Mu’s curiosity burned even brighter. He was even more eager to see what would happen.
After coming down the mountain, the two of them arrived at a house in the village.
This family seemed pretty rich for the area. They lived in a small courtyard house, and when they arrived, quite a few villagers had already gathered to watch.
In the center of the yard, a few older folks saw the shaman and quickly came forward to greet her.
Li Mu blended into the crowd, playing the role of just another curious bystander.
But unlike the others, who were just watching, Li Mu kept looking around, searching for signs of the ghost that was supposed to enter the body. But he didn’t feel any sudden chill in the air, and he didn’t see anyone that looked like a ghost.
“Quiet!”
The noisy crowd suddenly fell silent. Under the direction of several older people, a young woman in her twenties was helped out of the house and seated on a chair in the center of the yard.
This must be the pregnant woman.
Looking at her flat belly, the baby inside probably wasn’t fully developed yet. Even hospitals with the most advanced technology couldn’t tell the baby’s gender at this stage, and besides, hospitals didn’t allow gender checking anyway.
The shaman stood in front of the pregnant woman, her expression becoming serious.
Li Mu also widened his eyes.
“Spirits of Heaven and Earth~”
With a wave of her hand, countless talisman papers flew into the air, and then she started swinging her wooden staff. Moving quickly like a monkey, she circled around the pregnant woman, jumping and dancing.
She didn’t seem like an old lady at all.
She muttered fast and unclear words, and sometimes she hit the ground with her staff, sometimes she raised it high above her head. Her expression looked almost crazy.
Suddenly, she stopped moving, pulled out the last talisman paper from her clothes, and ran toward the sky. The paper caught the wind and caught fire.
The crowd gasped in surprise.
She has some skills!
Li Mu focused even more on the shaman’s actions, thinking maybe he should recommend Yu Fan and Chen Yi come here to learn.
But just then, the shaman suddenly froze in place, completely still.
She fell backward stiffly, making a loud thud as she hit the ground.
The crowd gasped again, but no one dared to approach her.
A moment later, the shaman suddenly sprang up, sitting up like a fish leaping from the water. However, her expression was now completely confused. She looked around and asked, “Where am I?”
“???” Li Mu was confused and didn’t know what was going on.
Did the ancestor spirit possess her?
But this didn’t seem quite like his own experience.
Could she be a fraud?
He hadn’t seen any ghosts.
But the shaman had completely changed her attitude. After getting an understanding of the situation from the people nearby, she became very happy and said, “I’m from the Xu family. After so many years, it’s finally so prosperous!”
She grabbed an elderly man, probably around eighty years old, and said, “You’re Xu Aiguo, right? It’s you, right?”
The old man trembled with excitement, wiping away a tear. “Yes, Grandpa!”
“Grandpa, please tell me, is our new daughter-in-law having a boy or a girl?”
The shaman looked at the pregnant woman, who was now totally confused and scared, and said confidently, “It’s a boy!”
“......”
Li Mu watched the scene unfold and completely lost interest in staying to watch.
He wasn’t stupid. At first, he thought the shaman might be capable, but now he realized she was probably just a fraud.
And the people around, most of them likely didn’t believe in this kind of superstition either. They were just watching for entertainment. After all, most people had received nine years of compulsory education.
In the whole yard, probably only a few old men who had been involved from the start actually believed the shaman.
Oh, and him, the fool.
Li Mu sighed softly, feeling quite embarrassed.
He really believed it.
After the whole drama, the shaman happily collected the money and walked out of the Xu family’s courtyard with Li Mu.
Li Mu hesitated but finally asked, “Are there really ghosts in this world?”
He already had an answer in mind but wanted to test the shaman.
“Of course there are ghosts!” the shaman replied seriously. “People have three souls and seven spirits. When a person dies, their soul is taken to hell…”
So she’s definitely a fraud, right?