Chapter 28: Remuneration

“Ah?! It’s already reached here!” I exclaimed in shock, stumbling back several steps and nearly knocking over a pile of mysterious objects on the shelf. I knew the Painted Skin Ghost was relentlessly pursuing me, but I hadn’t expected it to come this quickly.

“Senior Mo, you have to save Xiao Ge!” Ou Qingqing immediately pleaded with Mo Qingyan. If there was any chance to repel the Painted Skin Ghost—or even defeat it—it rested with her.

I also turned my hopeful gaze toward Mo Qingyan. Xiaoqing’s admiration, Mo Qingyan’s prior analysis, and the research she had consulted all suggested that she had a deep understanding of the Painted Skin Ghost and might be the most capable person to handle it.

“Don’t worry. It can’t get in right away. First, I need to know what you want—do you want to repel or kill the Painted Skin Ghost, or retrieve your skin and return to your original identity?” Mo Qingyan asked.

“Can I even return to my original form?” I asked in surprise. Of course, I wanted to go back to being Luo Xiao; I’d been living as a boy for sixteen years. There was no way I could adjust to being female so quickly.

“Hmm… I’m not sure,” Mo Qingyan admitted.

“Huh?” Xiaoqing and I both looked at her in disbelief. Not sure? Then why even bring it up? Are you teasing us?

“I told you, you’re the only ghoulized Painted Skin Ghost case ever recorded. There’s no precedent, so I honestly don’t know if you can return to your original form,” Mo Qingyan said slowly.

“All I can speculate is this: since you can fuse with human skin, if we manage to capture the Painted Skin Ghost alive and retrieve your skin, you should be able to wear your original form again. But this is just a hypothesis, not guaranteed,” she added.

At first, my heart leapt. Capture the Painted Skin Ghost, reclaim my skin, return to being a man… It sounded almost too good to be true. But I quickly sobered. The ghost had nearly cornered me into despair; surviving alone was already a huge stroke of luck. Did I really have the right to hope for a full capture? Could Mo Qingyan even pull that off?

“Senior Mo, do you have confidence that you can capture the Painted Skin Ghost?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. I rarely deal with ghosts directly, and I’m no professional exorcist or Taoist. How could I be confident in capturing one?”

My heart sank. According to Mo Qingyan, she wasn’t a ghost hunter. At most, she was a knowledgeable enthusiast, not an expert. Perhaps Xiaoqing’s extreme admiration had made me overestimate her abilities.

“Then… do you have any way to help me escape the Painted Skin Ghost’s pursuit?” I asked tentatively. Even if she wasn’t a professional, she was the person I knew who understood the most. I had no choice but to rely on her.

“I might not succeed, but I’ll try to find a feasible method for you,” Mo Qingyan replied. I was puzzled—she had no confidence in herself, yet claimed she could find a solution?

Xiaoqing interjected urgently: “Senior Mo, stop holding back! The Painted Skin Ghost is right outside, watching us. Use your Fuji technique to point Xiao Ge in the right direction!”

Fuji? I vaguely remembered hearing about it. Xiaoqing had said that Mo Qingyan used Fuji to foresee that she might be caught up in danger and advised her not to interfere with me. Xiaoqing had come anyway, and my failure to heed her advice had led to this disaster.

“If I had listened, and not met Xia Yubing, the Painted Skin Ghost might have assumed I was aware of its presence and chosen a different target. Now, because I consumed part of it, we’re at a deadlock,” I thought.

“What is Fuji?” I asked. It sounded formidable—able to predict danger before it happened. Some kind of divination spell, perhaps?

“Fuji is one of the oldest shamanic arts, a method of seeking divine guidance. I don’t have that skill per se; all I can do is Pen Spirit,” Mo Qingyan said humbly.

Pen Spirit? I’d heard of it before—a game popular among girls, used to ask about fate or relationships.

“Pen Spirit is basically a simplified form of Fuji. Both predict the future, so it’s the same,” Xiaoqing said.

“No. Pen Spirit is Pen Spirit; Fuji is Fuji. They’re related but not interchangeable. The spirits I can summon are merely supernatural oddities—they’re risky and can’t truly divine fate,” Mo Qingyan said seriously.

“But Senior Mo, your predictions have been accurate before! You even guessed exam questions correctly,” Xiaoqing said, still admiring her greatly.

“That wasn’t me knowing the answers, and it wasn’t fate. Only the spirits know, and even they can’t know the true course of destiny. They only told me that you might get into danger because a Painted Skin Ghost is lurking in the school,” Mo Qingyan explained firmly.

“Pen Spirit isn’t orthodox. Even if the spirits aren’t tricking or harming you, their guidance isn’t necessarily accurate. My interpretation could be wrong too. Blind faith in Pen Spirit only brings harm,” she emphasized repeatedly.

Through her conversation with Xiaoqing, I realized Mo Qingyan intended to use Pen Spirit to find a solution to deal with the Painted Skin Ghost.

“Senior Mo, please help me. I’ll be forever grateful. If we can capture the ghost, great; if not, at least eliminate it completely!” I said resolutely.

“Okay. But first, let’s discuss compensation. What can you offer me?” Mo Qingyan suddenly asked.

“Compensation… now?” Xiaoqing asked anxiously, and I was surprised as well.

“Of course. Even exorcists hired to capture ghosts require payment. Whether dealing with the Painted Skin Ghost or using Pen Spirit, I take great risks. Compensation is standard,” Mo Qingyan explained bluntly.

I remembered—Mo Qingyan had only just met me today. She wasn’t Xiaoqing and couldn’t help unconditionally, especially for such life-threatening matters. Asking for compensation was fair.

I steeled myself and said, “I can’t offer payment right now, but if you save me, I’ll be eternally grateful. I’ll do anything for you in the future.”

I thought it was an empty promise, but surprisingly, Mo Qingyan smiled. “That’s enough. It’s a deal.”