Chapter 18: The Scapegoat Specialist

The little boy hiding in the weeds trembled with fear.

She won’t be able to see me now, will she?

No, she won’t, she won’t...

But Lu Qingfei grabbed him by the back of his collar without any hesitation.

“You little brat, what are you doing?”

The boy was utterly shocked, as if he had caught the scent of death itself.

He never imagined that not only could she see him, she could even touch him.

“Help! There’s a scary sister! Help!” The boy cried out in terror, then burst into tears, looking up at the sky, “Mom, help!”

“Mom—!”

Strange Sister Lu Qingfei: “……”

Lu Qingfei inspected him—his nose was bruised, his hair was soft and tousled, clearly yanked by someone, especially messy, making him look wretched and pitiful.

She let go of him.

The boy immediately stopped crying, his damp amber eyes lifting a little, cautiously watching Lu Qingfei.

“Sister, please don’t take my money, it was given to me by my family.”

Lu Qingfei glanced at the tombstone, then withdrew her gaze after two seconds. “Your family?”

“Mm-hmm!” The boy replied in his childish voice. “There used to be a strange uncle who stole my grave and beat me up. He hasn’t come lately, so I can stay here now.”

Lu Qingfei asked, “What’s your name?”

“I can’t tell you.” The boy lowered his head, but his eyes were fixed on Lu Qingfei’s hands, as if nailed there.

“If you tell me, I won’t take your paper offerings.”

He was half convinced, half doubtful. “Really?”

Lu Qingfei nodded. “Of course. I never lie.”

“Tao Jin.”

Lu Qingfei was silent for a moment.

The next second, she bent down and continued picking up the paper offerings.

Seeing this, Tao Jin stomped his feet in anxious protest. “Didn’t you say you don’t lie?”

Lu Qingfei replied, “I don’t lie, but I do fool ghosts.”

“You… you’re bullying ghosts!”

Lu Qingfei stepped on the edge of the grave, stretching her arm to pick the paper offerings caught atop the grass.

Tao Jin looked as aggrieved as a three-hundred-pound chubby child. “Why are you stepping on my grave?”

Life is hard, the little ghost sighed.

Lu Qingfei tilted her head and pointed at the name carved into the tombstone. “Look for yourself—is this your grave?”

Tao Jin shuffled closer, frowned as he looked for a while, then gazed at Lu Qingfei, utterly confused. “I can’t read.”

“……” Lu Qingfei spoke calmly, “You can count, right? Look at how many characters are in the name. How many are in yours?”

Tao Jin counted on his fingers, taking a while to figure it out. “Oh, I only have two characters in my name, and his has three.”

Lu Qingfei said, “Now you know why that strange uncle beat you up.”

Tao Jin suddenly understood, mortified with shame. He bowed deeply to the grave, apologizing with all his might. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

Lu Qingfei said, “No need to apologize. He was wicked, and deserved his fate.”

She had dealt with that fierce ghost herself last time.

“Sister, do you know where my grave is?” Tao Jin followed behind Lu Qingfei, asking.

“No,” Lu Qingfei replied without hesitation.

Not every paper offering could be used for talismans. Lu Qingfei selected the ones she wanted, then hurried back to Tianji Sect to prepare for a new livestream.

Night had fallen, stars glittered like scattered silver across the velvet sky, mingling with the bright moonlight.

Lu Qingfei walked back step by step under the watery moonlight, Tao Jin trailing behind her, chattering nonstop.

“Sister, can you help me find my grave?”

A child ghost searching for his grave, like a tadpole looking for his mother.

“I can’t find the way back to my grave.”

“The ghost lord said Uncle Black Impermanence and Uncle White Impermanence would come for me, but I’ve waited through so many nights and days, and they never showed up.”

“Sister, I want to go back to my grave and rest quietly. Can you help me?”

Within Tianji Sect there were protective arrays; monsters and ghosts could not enter.

Tao Jin stopped outside the sect, gazing pleadingly at Lu Qingfei’s silhouette. “Sister…”

His voice was low, filled with despair.

Lu Qingfei paused, turned around, walked over to him, squatted down, and arranged a few stones into a small triangular mound.

“There, you’ve found your grave. Rest in peace.”

Tao Jin said, “…Sister, I’m a child, not an idiot.”

On the steps, a tall figure appeared, standing with a straight back and proper posture.

Xie Yunji looked down at Lu Qingfei below, his brows slightly furrowed, the corners of his long eyes hinting at a trace of displeasure.

“Junior Sister, what are you doing?”

His voice was like a stream in February, cold with the thaw of ice and snow.

Lu Qingfei turned her head, looked up the stone steps, met Xie Yunji’s gaze, and after a moment, turned back. “Senior Brother, I was just…”

The Tao Jin who had been standing before her vanished.

“…It’s nothing,” Lu Qingfei corrected herself.

Xie Yunji gave her a meaningful glance, said nothing, and turned to enter the sect.

“Senior Brother, what’s for dinner tonight?” Lu Qingfei hurried after him, smiling.

“Food.”

Senior Brother, who guarded his words like gold, did nothing to dampen Lu Qingfei’s appetite.

With a limited budget, dinner was simple: one meat dish, three vegetables, plus the sour plum soup that the junior sister liked.

The sect leader was focused on reading a book titled “Mother Pig Production and Health Techniques.”

Raising pigs was a technical skill—a matter of survival.

A master who doesn’t raise pigs isn’t a good master.

After eating and drinking her fill, Lu Qingfei cheerfully told the sect leader and senior brother, “I’m off to the Library Pavilion.”

The sect leader nodded, senior brother remained silent.

Night enveloped Tianji Sect, a dark cloud drifted across the heavens, brushing lightly over the moon, dimming the world.

Originally, the Library Pavilion had nine floors, but now in modern times it had only three.

Lu Qingfei used to love going up to the eighth and ninth floors, where the books and classics were most abundant, especially the cultivation methods for talismans and techniques.

She set up the necessary equipment, adjusted the angles and lighting, and brewed herself a cup of tea—the leaves unfurled slowly in the water, drifting like gentle fish.

She sat leisurely in her chair, opened the Whale Platform, and browsed the latest trending livestream topics.

The platform was dominated by three pillars: e-commerce, social, and content.

Lu Qingfei focused mainly on content, with e-commerce as a supplement.

Handsome men and beautiful women singing and dancing remained eternally popular themes.

Singing?

Lu Qingfei shook her head.

Dancing?

Sword dancing would be better.

Lu Qingfei shook her head again.

She decided to stick to cultivation.

Suddenly, she saw a new topic in the livestream community:

#Is Liu Zhenyan V really going to connect with a new streamer?#

[Impossible! Definitely a slip of the hand! Look at all those celebrities who make mistakes! Old Liu absolutely slipped!]

[Old Liu’s new media account isn’t even managed by him. It’s definitely some lazy intern watching livestreams and accidentally clicked it!]

[Intern: Professional scapegoat, I’m really done.]

[This newcomer’s stream has nothing special, not even four-digit followers. What could possibly qualify her to connect with Old Liu? Unless she’s Whale’s heiress!]

.....

Lu Qingfei skimmed through at lightning speed.

Then ignored it.

Few had replied, but all were skeptical.

A message popped up on the Whale Platform backend.

Liu Zhenyan V: [Streamer, can you start your stream on time later and connect?]