I am Ji Yuheng, the poorest spirit medium in the Dayin Dynasty, and I have a chatterbox little ghost named Ayuan by my side.
One day, a cold-faced prince in fine clothes barged into my shop and tossed down a bag of gold. “Investigate a case. Double the pay.”
I didn’t even look up. “I only take cases involving the dead. Living people can get lost.”
He sneered and pressed his sword to my throat. “What I want investigated is precisely the kind of ‘thing’ the living cannot see!”
Ayuan curiously poked his gleaming sword. “Aheng, how many meat buns could this shiny thing buy?”
The deeper we dug into the case, the more it drew us into the secrets of the previous dynasty.
When the cold-faced prince was gravely wounded and on the brink of death protecting me, Ayuan sobbed so hard he hiccupped. “Don’t die! If you die, who’ll give Aheng double the gold?”
The prince coughed blood and laughed in disbelief. “...You little brat, I’d give you all the money I saved for my coffin to buy candied hawthorns...”
I clenched his bloodstained lapel. “Xiao Wujiao, you owe me. You’ll have to pay it all back, even in your next life!”
