Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Every time the door banged, my heart throbbed. The Sirius Whip was useless now, and I wasn’t sure if the Yin and Yang Umbrella could deal with those 

zombie

s

. Even if it worked, it couldn’t protect the three of us. 

Furthermore

, the despicable couple was waiting for us outside. 

At this

 moment, I heard 

Senior Shu

’s voice. “

G

randson, yo

u’re about to die again

?” 

“

Can’t you see

 what time is it? You still have the mood to tease me!” I answered instinctively. However, I 

soon understood that

Senior Shu

was

 here. We 

were

 saved! 

Excitedly, I looked around the room and saw a big,

grey rat in 

one

 corner. It was 

Senior Shu

’s life-bound rat. 

It seemed the despicable old man was around. 

“Brother rat, please tell the old man that I can’t 

hold them back anymore.

” In this dangerous situation, I 

wasn’t in

 the right mind to care about my words. It was also the first time I thought th

is

 fat, old rat looked so cute. 

The rat squeaked twice and crawled into 

a

 rat hole. Then, I saw a small

silver bell on its tail. 

If 

Senior Shu

 had 

used

 his life-bound rat to 

send

 me this bell, 

the item w

ould definitely help me. I carefully 

removed

 the bell 

from

 the rat’s tail and observed it. Even if th

is

 little treasure 

was

 powerful, I didn’t want to be caught unprepared. 

Fortunately, I had spent a lot of time 

learning

 about otherworldly items with my grandpa when I was young. Soon, I recognized that this bell was the 

Illusory Mind Bell

. 

The 

Illusory Mind Bell

 could control people’s minds. 

A person

 with a dark heart would 

feel

 a head-splitting pain 

while

 listening to the bell

, while t

he ones with a clear 

conscience

 would feel strangely comfortable. Moreover, it could 

expel evil spirits

 and invite good fortune. 

With this thought, I sat down cross-legged and started to read the Sacred Text of Daoism. I needed to calm my mind. 

Then, with a loud bang, the door spr

a

ng open. The 

zombie

 had succeeded in 

coming

 in

.

 Li Mazi and Zhang Henshui were 

blocking them

with sticks

. I knew we couldn’t wait 

any longer

. I got up and slowly jingled the bell. 

Ding ding ding!

When the 

zombie

s

 heard the bell jingle, they halted

.

T

he

y

looked 

bewildered. Then, they dropped their 

arms and started

 look

ing

 like paper dolls again. 

“Follow closely behind me,” I shouted. “

When

 we get to the yard, Li Mazi, take 

B

rother Zhang 

and flee

!”

Then, I ran out of the house.  

The

Illusory Mind Bell

 probably 

wouldn’t

 work on that man since he had earned his living with magic illusion. 

Indeed, when I got out of the house,

the 

zombie

s

 were standing still. The woman wearing the black silk veil had slumped on the ground

, but 

she still held

the cotton yarn net

 tightly. 

However, t

he migrant worker was nowhere to be seen! 

It seemed the 

Illusory Mind Bell

 was ineffective 

against

 him. I 

decided to ignore him

 and asked Li Mazi to pick up the cotton yarn net. 

“If I 

wasn’t

 a nice person, I would have 

slapped

 you a hundred times!” Li Mazi scolded the woman

, who was 

sitting helplessly on the ground. He picked up the net and tried to break it. However, after a long time, the net was

 still intact. Meanwhile, 

Li Mazi had to gasp for his breath. 

“It’s impossible to tear it, you idiot!” I had started to doubt Li Mazi’s intelligent quotient. I gave 

him the

Illusory Mind Bell,

 then received the net to check it. 

This net was ancient

. F

rom the symbols carved on the handle, 

it was

 possibly the bird 

seal

 from the State of Chu. 

If it 

was

 a genuine item 

that dated

 back from the Chu era,

it would be priceless even though it was just a broken net. However, 

because

 it could control those 

zombie

s

, I had to grit my teeth and destroy it

. I took 

out the lighter to burn the net into ashes! 

While I was burning the net, the veiled woman started to struggle angrily. She wanted to stop me. Li Mazi immediately jingled the bell, 

which gave

 her no 

chance

to move

. 

Indeed, after the net was burned, the 

zombie

s

 suddenly ignited and burned. From the popping sounds emitting from them, I found something strange. I came to check and found that all the 

zombie

s

 were paper dolls. 

It turned out that our original guess was correct. I

 then concluded that

 those drowned ghosts had 

possessed

 the dolls. 

When the net was completely burned down, the veiled woman’s eyes rolled to the back of her head

 as she lost 

consciousness. I hurriedly attached a spirit talisman to her body to save her, then asked Zhang Henshui and Li Mazi to tie her up. 

After those paper dolls were burned, I was afraid that the man would cast his magic illusion

 on me

 again. However, he didn’t return. 

When we 

reached

 the village and passed by the old locust tree, someone suddenly blindfolded me. I was startled at firs

t. Then, 

I became excited

.

 “You

 damn

 old man, where have you been lately?” 

“Kiddo, watch your 

mouth

! Call me grandpa!” 

Senior Shu

 let go of me and kicked m

y 

butt. 

I sniggered and rubbed my hands. “Grandpa, thank you so much.” 

“

Y

ou

’re finally speaking the human

 language!” 

Senior Shu

 stroked his

mustache. “When I passed by this village, I felt something was wrong, so I sent my life-bound rat to scout around. It happened to see you guys trapped by the paper dolls. As such, I asked 

it

 to give you the 

Illusory Mind Bell

.” 

“Oh, 

there’s something

wondrous

 in our fates, grandpa!” While 

flattering

 him, I discreetly put the 

Illusory Mind Bell

 into my pocket. 

T

his old man had so many treasures

; i

t was good if I could take some from him for free. 

He spotted me. Then, he and I 

started pulling

 back and forth like two kids competing 

for

 a toy. In the end, with Li Mazi’s support, I successfully subdued 

Senior Shu

. 

“You rascals! 

Had I

 known 

earlier

, I would have ignored you. I would have let that guy drown both of you!” 

I later 

learned

 that the migrant worker 

was forced to let us go

. 

Since

Senior Shu

was watching 

his moves, he was scared

 and ran 

away. 

Senior Shu

 had planned to depart 

after

 I was saved. However, when he 

learned

 that the 

spirit

 we 

had

encountered

 was the famous Qu Yuan, he decided to stay and help this great patriot. 

The woman in the black veil woke up the next day. 

Her eyes no longer showed her grudge

. It was replaced by worr

y

. It was rare 

for

Senior Shu

to use his

 senior tone of voice to teach someone. “Little girl, tell me what

’s going on

. Perhaps I can help 

him

.” 

Of course, 

Senior Shu

was talking about

 Qu Yuan.

After the veiled woman listened to him, she pondered for a while then said, “I used to have a happy marriage. That migrant worker is my husband. One day, we went to a park

. W

hen we came home, we both had a strange dream of a man wearing a long robe. However, he only had half of his head left

. T

he other half was made of gold. It sparkled dazzlingly.

 W

e dreamed about him all the time

. Each time, h

e would cry and tell us how aggrieved he was, how unwilling he was. That’s how I 

discovered that

 the person we 

were dreaming

 about 

wa

s Qu Yuan.” 

It turned out that after Qu Yuan jumped into the river with the rock, the fellows around tried to save him. To protect his body from the fish and shrimps, they even threw cooked rice into the river. 

However, they 

retrieved

 his body only after three days

. By that time, half 

of his head was gnawed by the fish. Qu Yuan’s daughter spent the rest of her life 

making the other

 half of his head 

out of

 gold. 

P

eople admired 

his

 filial daughter. They praised her with the saying, “Nine sons couldn’t bury their father

, but on

e daughter could make 

him a

 golden head.” 

When King Chu Xiang heard about this story, he was embarrassed

. H

is embarrassment 

then

 turned into anger. He wanted to unearth Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan’s daughter was afraid that her father would be troubled while resting. She went to a high mountain and used a sieve mesh gauze to shake the sand and dust to create a few mounds. 

While

 she wearily dozed off, she 

dreamed of

 an old man 

getting

 out from the ground. The old man then knocked his staff on the ground eleven times. Afterward, eleven mounds that looked exactly like Qu Yuan’s grave mound appeared. When King Chu Xiang sent his men to unearth Qu Yuan, they couldn’t figure out which was 

the

 real tomb… 

“In 

another

 world, you didn’t know that you are Qu Yuan’s descendant. Did Qu Yuan 

appear

 in your dream to ask you to take revenge for him?” I caught the 

keyword

. 

The woman shook her head. “No, he didn’t ask us to take revenge for him. He just wanted his body to be relocated to the public cemetery of the State of Chu.” 

It was the

 couple that wanted to take revenge for their ancestors,

 so

 they took the initiative to harm Zhang Yi’s descendant, which happened to be Zhang Henshui. 

“If you repay a grudge with a grudge, when will it end? Why do you and your husband have to live in difficulty like this?” 

Senior Shu

 sighed. I shook my head, but there was still another question on my mind. 

Why did

 Qu Yuan 

request

 to have his remains buried 

at the State of Chu’s public cemetery

?  

“Later on, King Huai of Chu’s grandson 

gave

 justice back to Qu Yuan. He built a cenotaph

. It’s 

where Qu Yuan’s old clothes and relics are buried. It’s in the park in the suburbs,” explained the woman. 

I got the clue now. “Is the big 

locust

 tree where Qu Yuan was buried?” 

“Yes,

 that’s correct.

” She nodded. 

I sighed emotionally. Although Qu Yuan 

was

 exiled by King Huai of Chu, even after he died, 

he still

didn’t give up on

 his courtier’s responsibility. He was worthy of receiving people’s admiration.  

In the end, 

Senior Shu

 and I spent five million renminbi to invite the best construction team to unearth Qu Yuan’s remains from underneath the old locust tree. We then buried him in the Chu State’s cemetery with the black rock he had 

carried

 with him to the river. Moreover, we decorated the plain-looking park

 and gave 

it a better look. 

After the relocating ceremony was done, I thought

, 

W

hen Qu Yuan’s 

spirit

 face

s

 the black rock, he 

won’t

 feel resentful or reluctant, right? He 

will

 feel infinitely proud.

Th

at

 rock was the witness 

of

 his loyalty

. It 

hadn’t worn out even after several thousand years. 

After this case was done, Li Mazi and I 

didn’t accept

 any other cases for a while. We traveled across the country, from North to South, trying to find a modern version of Qu Yuan. 

This person must be loyal and patriotic. 

This person must be principled and incorruptible. This person must be honest and tell no lies.  

However, 

in

 the end, we didn’t find anyone. I asked 

Senior Shu

, “Why

 couldn't

 we find 

such

 one person?” 

He pondered for a long time then asked, “

These days, d

o people still 

have

 the concept of 

‘

country

’

 in their heads?”  

I suddenly 

felt like crying!