[Hold him tightly in your arms]

Bai Zhun was taking a late afternoon nap when he instantly awoke upon yellow bird’s “death.” Just as he was wondering where Huo Zhenye was, Huo Zhenye himself delivered the news.

The rickshaw puller was waiting at the door. Bai Zhun got into the rickshaw, and Ah Xiu hurriedly followed.

The rickshaw sped out of Yuqing Valley and stopped in front of Shengxin Hospital.

Right after Huo Zhenye finished his call, he heard Xu Yan gasp lightly behind him. Xu Yan lifted Huo Zhenye’s suit jacket and saw Little Kai, wrapped inside like a puppet.

Xu Yan took out his stethoscope. “Brother Huo, whose child is this?”

“This child was kidnapped. When we rescued him, he was already like this.”

Little Kai lay on the hospital bed in a rigid posture, his hands tightly pressed against his legs, his body stiff and straight. If not for the slight twitching of his head, he would seem like a corpse.

Xu Yan listened to Little Kai’s heartbeat. It was abnormally slow. Children’s heartbeats are usually faster than adults’, but Little Kai’s was only half that of a normal adult’s.

“He must be rescued immediately.”

Before Huo Zhenye could speak, the door was pushed open. Bai Zhun entered in a wheelchair, his eyes scanning Xu Yan.

“Tsk, getting quite close,” he said with a frown, addressing Huo Zhenye, “Aren’t you alive and well? Then why call to save a life?”

Huo Zhenye pointed at the child on the bed. “What should we do about this?”

Bai Zhun glanced over, frowned, and rolled his wheelchair to the bedside. He reached out and touched Little Kai’s forehead. The child’s body was cold to the touch—his vitality was rapidly draining.

“The soul is lost; this is quite troublesome.”

“Is there a way?” Huo Zhenye, who had rushed in holding Little Kai, was disheveled and sweaty, his expression full of concern as he looked at Bai Zhun.

Bai Zhun looked into his eyes, closed his eyes briefly, and seemed to consent.

Huo Zhenye relaxed and smiled, relieved.

Xu Yan stepped aside, frowning at how they had wasted time. “Brother Huo, you studied medicine yourself, you should know how crucial timely rescue is. Why are you—”

Bai Zhun moved his wheelchair aside. Huo Zhenye nodded, “Then save him, I’m counting on you.”

Xu Yan and the nurse wheeled Little Kai into the emergency room.

“You studied medicine?” Bai Zhun suddenly asked.

Huo Zhenye coughed, a little embarrassed—he had indeed gone to England to study medicine.

“So, turns out you’re a man with a scalpel too.” Bai Zhun’s smile was faint, but he quickly turned serious. “Saving him isn’t hard. He just needs someone closest to him to call back his soul—the sooner, the better.”

The longer a soul has been lost, the harder it is to retrieve. And even if it’s brought back, if the three souls and seven spirits are incomplete, the person may end up a fool.

“But… Little Kai’s family are all religious.”

Bai Zhun scoffed, “What, Western stuff is called faith, and our ancestors’ ways are just superstition?”

Little Kai’s parents rushed to the hospital after hearing the news. When they learned that no matter how hard the doctors tried, their son’s heartbeat continued to slow, his mother collapsed in tears.

Huo Zhenye had no choice but to play the “charlatan.” He walked over to Little Kai’s father and said, “Mr. Cheng, if the current treatment doesn’t work, are you willing to try something else?”

Before Mr. Cheng could respond, Mrs. Cheng rushed forward and grabbed Huo Zhenye’s hand. “Mr. Huo, anything—whatever it takes, we’ll try anything!”

“What’s afflicting Little Kai is a loss of soul. We need a close relative to call it back.”

“Calling the soul?” Mr. Cheng’s expression changed—this was simply absurd.

Seeing the disdain on his face, Huo Zhenye said, “Isn’t lighting white candles and praying just as ridiculous? Little Kai doesn’t have much time left.”

Mr. Cheng still hesitated, but Bai Zhun was already growing impatient: “Are we saving him or not? If not, I’m leaving.”

Little Kai’s older sister tugged at her father’s sleeve. Her eyes were a clear green, and she had remained silent the entire time. Now she said to her father, “I saw… under Little Kai’s bed, it was full of gray shadows.”

They surged in clusters, she said while crying. Mrs. Cheng hugged her daughter tightly and looked at Bai Zhun in fear and confusion.

“When a soul leaves, something else always tries to move in,” Bai Zhun said darkly, then swept his gaze over the family.

Mrs. Cheng no longer cared what her husband thought. She immediately turned to Bai Zhun and said, “Sir, I’m willing—I’ll do the calling.”

“You can’t.” Bai Zhun gave her a glance and shook his head.

“Why? I’m his mother. Isn’t a close relative enough?” Mrs. Cheng burst into tears, clutching at her collar, terrified her son might die.

“You just recovered from a serious illness—you’re unstable.” If one’s own soul isn’t steady, calling out could cause them to lose their own as well.

It was true—Mrs. Cheng had just recovered from illness. Before the news came, she’d been bedridden. Upon hearing that her son had been found, she had gotten significantly better, even managing to leave her bed and make it to the hospital.

That Bai Zhun knew even this made the family begin to believe in him more.

Mr. Cheng said, “Then I’ll do it. Tell me how.”

“You can’t either. Your fire is too strong—you’ll scare the soul away.” Bai Zhun pointed to the little girl. “She’s the right one.”

So Mr. Cheng stayed behind at the hospital to watch the doctors try to keep his son breathing, while Mrs. Cheng, her daughter, Bai Zhun, and Huo Zhenye returned home.

They set up an incense altar and used ashes from the censer to draw a circle. They had Cheng Junyi stand inside—this was Little Kai’s most familiar place, with the person he trusted the most.

“Bring out the thing he cherishes the most.”

Cheng Junyi picked a toy car. Bai Zhun tied a red string around her waist.

Cheng Junyi was only ten years old. She held back her tears and, before stepping into the circle, she took a milk candy from her pocket and handed it to Bai Zhun. It was something she’d specially brought to the hospital to give to Little Kai.

Bai Zhun examined the candy. The parents in this family were unremarkable, but the kid possessed some cleverness.

Just when Huo Zhenye thought Bai Zhun wouldn’t take it, he saw him reach out, take the candy, and deftly unwrap it with both hands before popping it into his mouth.

While sucking on the candy, he said to her, “Don’t be afraid no matter what you see. You must not go beyond where the red string holds you.”

Cheng Junyi stepped into the circle. Once the incense was lit, she began to feel drowsy. She tried hard to stay awake, reminding herself she needed to find her little brother, but she couldn’t hold on.

Her head drooped, and she fell asleep.

When she opened her eyes again, the circle was gone. The red string was gone too.

She remembered clearly that she had to find her little brother. She ran out the door in a few steps, clattering down the stairs, heading for the places where Little Kai often played.

Mrs. Cheng saw her daughter lower her head—and then the front door of the house opened on its own. Alarmed and suspicious, she was about to close the door when Bai Zhun said, “Leave it open.”

If she closed it, neither of the siblings would be able to come back.

Hearing this, Mrs. Cheng quickly braced herself against the door with her body, not daring to blink as she stared at her daughter in the circle and the stick of incense.

Mr. Bai had said: once the incense burned out—whether she returned or not—they must pull her back.

Cheng Junyi ran through the alley and onto the street. Everything around her was gray—the sky was gray, the ground was gray, the buildings and stores were gray, and even the passersby were all gray and hazy. Only a faint red glow shimmered from her body.

All the passersby turned to stare at her.

Cheng Junyi bit her lip to keep from crying. She was terrified, but she kept running and running, searching everywhere for her little brother’s figure.

She opened her mouth and shouted, “Little Kai! Little Kai!”

Those gray, misty people started closing in on her, reaching out to touch her. But something about her seemed to scare them off—before they could make contact, they were repelled by a force and scattered like shadows.

Cheng Junyi ran fast—and she didn’t feel tired at all.

She searched all around the house and even went to the park the family usually visited on Sundays, but still, there was no sign of Little Kai.

At last, Cheng Junyi went to the church. The giant cross emitted a pale, hazy glow. She didn’t find Little Kai, but she saw Song Mingjie.

Song Mingjie was gray too, but he stood beneath the cross in the church courtyard. When he saw Cheng Junyi, he smiled at her.

“Song Mingjie! Have you seen my little brother?” They were both in the choir, lighting candles and singing at Christmas. Song Mingjie had even given her a Christmas gift once.

Song Mingjie waved at her, and Cheng Junyi followed behind him. They ran to a Western-style villa. He stood at the gate, pointed inside, and told Cheng Junyi her brother was there.

Through the garden gate, Cheng Junyi saw that Little Kai really was inside. The sliding glass door was open, and Little Kai was playing with another child.

Little Kai was riding a bicycle, going around and around the garden in circles.

Cheng Junyi shouted loudly through the gate, “Little Kai, come here now!”

Little Kai vaguely heard his sister’s voice. He turned his head and stared at the gate for a while, as if he saw her—but he didn’t move at all.

Cheng Junyi panicked. She pushed open the heavy iron gate and had just lifted her foot to step inside when the red string around her waist suddenly lit up, glowing brightly and pulling her back, refusing to let her go any further.

She jumped up and shouted into the garden, “Little Kai! Come over here! Look at your toy car!”

She held up the toy car with one hand, but it no longer had any appeal to Little Kai. The garden was full of toys, all ones he’d never played with before. There was even a cake with candles lit—they were about to sing the birthday song.

Little Kai couldn’t hear his sister at all. The other child ran circles around him, and when that child passed by the gate, he turned and grinned at Cheng Junyi with an eerie smile.

Cheng Junyi was both terrified and anxious. She started struggling against the red string, desperately trying to run into the garden. She wanted to take her brother back.

But the string was tightly wound around her waist. Cheng Junyi reached back and untied it. The red string immediately went limp and dropped to the ground. Song Mingjie stared at her in shock.

Cheng Junyi ran into the garden, grabbed Little Kai, and gave him a light smack on the forehead with a “pa!” sound. “Little Kai! Why are you being so disobedient!”

Little Kai finally came to his senses. He looked at his sister with a dazed expression, then at the unfamiliar house around him. He held her hand tightly and said, “Sister… I’m scared.”

Cheng Junyi rubbed his head again, took his hand, and started walking out with him.

Just then, the child who had been standing in the shadows—with a vague and blurry figure—suddenly laughed. His shadow split into many pieces and blocked the path in front of the siblings. The iron gate, which had just opened, now slowly began to close.

Only an inch of incense remained. The red string had been trembling subtly from the beginning—and now it suddenly went limp.

Bai Zhun narrowed his eyes and frowned. He said to Mrs. Cheng, “Call your daughter’s name. Yell at her.”

Mrs. Cheng couldn’t even open her mouth. Bai Zhun gave her a sharp glare, snapping her out of it.

She opened her mouth and scolded loudly, “Cheng Junyi! Where the hell did you run off to again! Why haven’t you brought your brother back for dinner yet!”

Her scolding turned into sobbing.

The voice pierced through the gray mist and echoed above the sky. Cheng Junyi gripped her little brother’s hand and dashed toward the iron gate. The gate was about to close.

It looked like they wouldn’t make it in time—until a small leather shoe kicked the gate open.

Song Mingjie had left them a gap. He handed the red string back to Cheng Junyi and waved goodbye to her.

The incense ash broke.

The girl opened her eyes. Mrs. Cheng immediately pulled her daughter into her arms, touching her cheeks and checking her body.

Cheng Junyi looked as exhausted as if she’d just run a marathon. She panted for breath and smiled as she told her mother, “I sent Little Kai to the hospital.”

Outside the window came a loud voice: “Mrs. Cheng! Mr. Cheng called—your son woke up!”

The call had come through to the small shop at the end of the alley. The shopkeeper shouted the news so loudly that everyone in the neighborhood heard it and began congratulating her through their windows:

“Congratulations, Mrs. Cheng! You can finally stop worrying!”

Bai Zhun’s lips were pale, his energy drained. Huo Zhenye took off his suit jacket and draped it over him, then picked him up.

Holding him in his arms, his lips close to Bai Zhun’s ear, he whispered:

“Rest for a bit. I’ll take you home.”

Bai Zhun still clearly had strength left, but at that moment, his eyes fluttered closed.