The car pulled over to the side of the road, and Huo Ning curled her lips in satisfaction.  

Just moments ago, sixteen thousand yuan had landed in her pocket.  

The driver carefully cradled the eight protective talismans he had bought from Huo Ning, his eyes brimming with tears as he looked at her. “Master, thank you!”  

“I thank you on behalf of my wife, my two sons, my parents, and my in-laws!”  

Huo Ning waved her hand and closed the car door. “No need for thanks.”  

Later, when the driver returned home, his family nearly called the police in anger upon learning he had spent sixteen thousand on eight talismans—until he showed them the eerie footage from the car’s dashcam. Only then did they fall silent and carefully tuck the talismans close to their bodies.  

But that was a story for another time.  

At the moment, Huang Xiu stood by the roadside holding Lin Shuangshuang’s hand, looking at Huo Ning with unease.  

“Master Huo, I was too afraid to leave my daughter home alone, so I brought her down to meet you. Is that… alright?”  

Huo Ning shook her head. “It’s fine. Right now, her yang energy is weak. Some sunlight will do her good.”  

Lin Shuangshuang’s face was still pale, but her spirit had improved significantly.  

“Master Huo, thank you. If it weren’t for you this time, I might really have died.”  

Huo Ning waved her off. “It’s too early to say that. Let’s go—first, we’ll meet the vengeful ghost who’s been haunting you.”  

“But if either of you are scared, you can hide.”  

Lin Shuangshuang shook her head. “I’m not afraid. I’ve already seen her in my dreams.”  

“These past few days, I’ve been having the same nightmare—trapped in a space I can never escape, with a woman in red chasing me.”  

Huang Xiu tightened her grip on her daughter’s hand. Though frightened, she mustered her courage and said, “Master, I… I’m not scared either.”  

“If you’re not scared, then good.”  

Huo Ning gave an indifferent hum and glanced at them, offering a kind reminder. “Oh, by the way, there’s something I should tell you. There’s going to be more than one ghost in your house later.”  

Huang Xiu: “…”  

Lin Shuangshuang: “…”  

“But don’t worry. With me here, it’s no big deal.”  

Huang Xiu and Lin Shuangshuang let out a sigh of relief.  

Huang Xiu lived in the affluent district of Ye City, in a standalone villa with its own small garden.

Huo Ning followed them to the center of the garden.  

Huang Xiu dug up the yin amulet buried beneath the peach tree and exposed it to the sunlight.  

Her heart burned with hatred, wishing the vengeful ghost who had harmed her daughter would vanish into nothingness right then and there.  

Huo Ning took a sip of the soda Huang Xiu had handed her when they entered the house.  

Orange-flavored fizzy drink—pretty tasty.  

Her gaze fell on the yin amulet as she spoke, “Step back behind me.”  

She raised her hand and formed a seal, summoning the red-clothed vengeful ghost from the yin amulet, along with the female ghost and the ghost infant from the gourd.  

Lin Shuangshuang gripped her mother’s hand tightly in fear, staring at the pale-faced ghost in red.  

“Mom, it’s her… the woman who kept chasing me in my dreams—it’s her.”  

Dressed in a red dress, her face deathly pale but still quite pretty—there was no way she could mistake her.  

As for the other ghost in white, holding the ghost infant, she didn’t recognize her.  

Huang Xiu hugged her daughter, about to say something, when her phone suddenly buzzed incessantly with notifications.  

She pulled it out and saw that her inbox was flooded with private messages asking whether Huo Ning had arrived at her house yet and when she would start streaming.  

Huang Xiu looked up and asked respectfully yet cautiously, “Master, the netizens are asking when you’ll go live. Should we start now?”  

Huo Ning thought for a moment. “Go ahead.”  

She pulled out her phone from her pocket and pointed the camera at the three ghosts.  

The thousands of viewers who had just flooded into the stream were nearly scared out of their wits.  

[Holy shit! Host, what the hell are you doing? Starting off this strong right out the gate?!]  

[666, I give full marks for the makeup effects.]

[Are you fucking blind? Can’t you see those two female ghosts and the little ghost don’t have shadows?!]

[This is my first time watching a livestream—I came for the drama but ended up seeing actual ghosts. Holy shit! I can brag about this for life!]

[Host, Zheng Yunfan just held a press conference. They said all the rumors online are false and that they’ll take legal action against the rumor-mongers. Looks like they’re planning to sue you!]  

[Hope the rumor-spreading bus hostess gets thrown in jail, hehe!]  

[Got exposed, huh, bitch? I knew our Brother Yunfan was innocent!] 

Huo Ning ignored Zheng Yunfan’s rabid fans, merely curling her lips coldly.  

“Zheng Yunfan still dares to hold a press conference?”  

“Is he trying to announce to the entire media just how shameless he is?”  

The red-clothed vengeful ghost from the yin amulet suddenly jerked her head up at the mention of Zheng Yunfan’s name.

Meanwhile, the white-clothed female ghost looked utterly bewildered.  

Holding the ghost infant, she stared blankly at Huo Ning, then at the red-clothed vengeful ghost and the Huang Xiu mother-daughter pair, completely confused about what was happening.  

[I’m blind, I repent—why do I find that white-clothed ghost girl kinda adorable?!] 

[Being this naive will only get you killed!]  

[Humans shouldn’t… at least… not like this!]  

[What’s up with the red-clothed ghost? Why did she react when Zheng Yunfan’s name was mentioned?]  

[Maybe… she was a fan of his when she was alive?]  

Seeing this comment, Huo Ning smirked.  

“Her name is Song Tingting. She was indeed Zheng Yunfan’s fan when she was alive, but you only got half of it right.”  

[Song Tingting? Why does that name sound so familiar? Hold on, let me Baidu it!]  

Huang Xiu couldn’t care less who Song Tingting had been a fan of.  

All she wanted was to grind this thing that nearly killed her daughter into dust.  

“Why did you target my daughter?!”  

When Song Tingting had possessed Lin Shuangshuang earlier, she’d been utterly unrepentant. But now, facing her victim, she actually seemed a little guilty.  

“It wasn’t me who wanted to harm your daughter. I just needed a substitute, and your cousin and her daughter were the ones who chose her for me.”  

The white-clothed ghost hugged the ghost infant, looking lost as she asked Huo Ning,  

“Master, who was the one who really killed me?”  

Huo Ning took a sip of her soda and pointed at Song Tingting in her red dress.  

“Her.”  

The white-clothed ghost’s gaze turned sharp with hatred, like a knife stabbing straight at Song Tingting.  

“I had no grudge against you! Why did you kill me?!”  

Tears welled up in her eyes. “I was seven months pregnant at the time!”  

Song Tingting’s pitch-black eyes stared back, then slowly shook her head.  

“You’re Zhou Man, right? The one who wanted you dead… wasn’t me. It was Yu Qingxue.”  

Zhou Man froze. “What are you talking about?!”  

“Yu Qingxue was my boss’s wife—why would she want me dead?”  

Huang Xiu and Lin Shuangshuang exchanged glances, both frowning deeply.  

Yu Qingxue?  

Wasn’t that Huang Xiu’s niece (Lin Shuangshuang’s cousin)?!

Song Tingting didn’t notice the looks Huang Xiu and her daughter exchanged. She simply stared at Zhou Man, her lips curling into a mocking smile.  

“Probably because you were the mistress, trying to use your pregnancy to climb up the social ladder, and she felt threatened.”  

Zhou Man was so furious she nearly dissipated into thin air.  

“Bullshit! I had a happy family, my husband treated me well—why the hell would I ruin that to be some side chick for that greasy Zhao Kai?!”  

Song Tingting frowned.  

“Don’t rush to deny it. It’s not like I don’t have proof.”  

After being turned into a vengeful ghost and sealed into the yin amulet, there had been a period when Song Tingting had lost her consciousness.  

She couldn’t remember anything about her past life, not even who she was.  

Every day, trapped inside the amulet, her only purpose was to accept her master’s offerings and fulfill their wishes.  

Because of that, she remembered every single detail of the tasks her master assigned with crystal clarity.  

“That night, Yu Qingxue was asleep when she suddenly received an anonymous email. I saw with my own eyes how her face instantly turned pale.”  

She shot Zhou Man a disdainful look, as if unable to comprehend how someone could be so shameless about being a mistress.  

“That email was packed with intimate photos of you and Zhao Kai.”  

“Some showed you two naked in bed, others… well, let’s just say the locations weren’t limited to the bedroom. The kitchen, the bathroom—you name it. There were even photos of him accompanying you to prenatal checkups.”  

After Yu Qingxue married into the wealthy Zhao family, Zhao Kai had barely paid her any attention, spending his nights partying and rarely coming home.  

Having been neglected for so long, then suddenly receiving those photos—how could she not lose her mind?  

Song Tingting locked eyes with Zhou Man and said, word by word:  

“Yu Qingxue was afraid that once you gave birth, Zhao Kai would kick her out. So she ordered me to attack you on your way to the prenatal checkup.”