After

 that ghost impersonating event, I didn’t dare to sleep again. I wanted to talk to Yin Xinyue, but I didn’t know how to face her. Eventually, I decided to call Li Mazi. 

Fortunately, he hadn’t slept yet. “Hey bro, I’m on a train to visit Chuchu

’s grave

. How are you doing?” 

“I’m doing okay. It’s hard to fall asleep 

at night these days

.” I pretended to be 

alright. I smiled and chatted with him.

 I swallowed what I wanted to tell him down my throat. 

Li Mazi 

was a sensitive person

. If he knew that I 

had

a

 problem, I was sure he would come here to help me right away. 

“Hey, you have to come home soon and take me to conquer more otherworldly items!” His voice was cheer

ful.

After l

istening to him, I felt touched. I 

was

lonely

 and 

wanted

 to quit this business at times, but in the end, I couldn’t.

 Being an o

therworldly 

merchant wasn't

 just a profession

;

i

t was my life. If I left it, I would find no one to talk with. 

I had lived for almost thirty years and I had never been this lonely before

. T

he night was so long. E

very

 second 

that passed

 by was 

a

 second I was tortured. 

When the East became bright and the first beams of sunlight shone, I 

l

eaned back and slept. It was a good sleep

 as 

I didn’t have any bad 

dreams

. However, I was awoken by the noise outside. The workers had returned to their jobs. I checked the time. It was noon already, and Chuyi hadn’t returned. I was worried,

 so I decided to call 

him. 

The call 

went

 through soon. Chuyi’s voice came from the other end of the line weakly. “

I’m o

n 

my

 way back. Don’t worry.”

Indeed, he came back shortly after. His Kumamon 

t

-shirt was torn, and there were streaks of blood on his face. 

“There

 are

 no mermaid’s 

tears

 here.” He breathed out when he got into the car. Then, he asked me to drive home while he 

slept

in

 the back seats. 

After

 yesterday

’s events

, I

’d already lost 

my hope 

of finding 

the mermaid’s 

tears

 here. After 

l

istening to him, I didn’t feel 

that

 disappointed. 

We reached Yin Xinyue’s village by twilight. I stopped at the village entrance and woke Chuyi up. 

“I fought with him, but none of us 

dared to

 kill the other

.

 Anyway, he told me that the Dragon King Village doesn’t have the mermaid’s tears, but another secret. However, he didn’t tell me what

 this secret is

.” 

Chuyi

was still tired. I knew he was talking about the old man. I nodded as I understood. 

“Since we can’t find the mermaid’s 

tears

 within a short time, we must find another solution to keep your parents alive.” 

“What do you mean?” My eyes brightened. If he said so, he 

must have a

 solution! 

Chuyi nodded and added, “This year, when the Gates of Hell open on July 15

th

, there will be a mysterious trading conference. It’s held by the otherworldly merchants’ Circle. There will be countless masters, monsters, and even thousand-year

-

old ghosts. They will trade rare herbs, pellets, cores, otherworldly items, and magic weapons. I think we can find the mermaid’s 

tears

 there.” 

It wasn’t even February yet. 

This

 meant we had to control my in-laws’ sickness for half a year

, but

 normal methods couldn’t 

buy us that much time

. Chuyi had considered for a long time before he came up with 

a

 solution: we would use the fate-swap method

, as Senior Shu

 had done. We would find two animals to swap their fates with my in-laws. 

However, there 

was the

 possibility that those animals couldn’t endure 

it 

until July 15

th

. 

If that happened,

 my in-laws’ fates would be gone with them. To 

be sure

, Chuyi decided to

 bring here

 the fox spirit we had subdued 

in Japan

. At the same time, we would borrow 

Senior Shu

’s life-bound rat to use. 

“Thank you, Chuyi.” I thanked him. Chuyi smiled, then directly drove away without visiting my in-laws

’ 

house 

a

 second time. 

I lingered for quite a long time to gather the courage to go home. I thought that the first thing Yin Xinyue would ask me about was the water nymph’s tears. 

“Brother Zhang, you’re back

!

 Are you hurt?” Unexpectedly, she worried about my well-being first. 

I shook my head, then told her what Chuyi had told me. 

“It’s good. As long as my parents are safe, just do 

whatever is needed

.” 

I didn’t know if she wanted to comfort me or what, but her emotions 

were

 stable. Yin Xinyue didn’t cry as she had done before. 

For the 

next few days

, I made 

a

 special ointment for my in-laws every day. After a few days, Chuyi came back with the fox spirit and the life

-bound

 rat. He held a ritual with some spells to swap their fates. 

After everything was done, Chuyi finally 

let out a sigh of

 relief. “If nothing unexpected happens, for the next six months, they will be 

alright

. Now, 

w

e

just need to wait for the Gates of Hell Trading Conference on July 15

th

.” 

I knew 

that nothing unexpected 

would happen because 

Senior Shu

 had been swapping his 

fate 

with his life-bound rate for quite a long time, and he had no problems. 

After listening to me, Yin Xinyue didn’t look worried anymore. She still had work to do, so we couldn’t stay in her hometown for a long time.

We stayed

 for a few more days. 

After c

onfirming that nothing unexpected would happen, we were 

ready

 to go back to the city. I wanted to make Chuyi my guest for a few days, but he refused a

nd said 

that he needed to return to Dragon King Village to solve 

an

 issue. 

“You should be careful, then

,

” I told him.

I didn’t ask him what he wanted to do, just 

as I

 didn’t ask him what had happened on the night he locked me inside the car. Everybody had 

a

 secret th

ey didn’t want others

 to know. We could just wish him well

.

When

we returned

 to the city, Yin Xinyue was busy again with her work. She rarely came home. I started to resume my lonely life

and felt even 

lonelier

 now. 

Fortunately, Li Mazi came to the rescue with a new business deal. Moreover, the client was near Wuhan. My interest was aroused after listening to him. “Mazi, give me the address.” 

Li Mazi was always stealthy

, hi

s voice despicable

 as he said,

 “Little 

B

rother Zhang, you have to take me with you. Otherwise, I’ll swallow the address down my tummy!”

Then, he closed his eyes as though he was a dead pig that wasn’t afraid of boil

ing

 water. 

I 

had 

almost cracked mentally these days

, so 

I 

wasn’t in

 the mood to joke with him

.

 I agreed to take him with me. 

“Well, it’s in a village called Baijia.” 

We departed. 

On

 the way, I was bored, so 

I asked, “Where did you get this case?” 

It was like magic

; 

whene

ver

 I needed 

a case

 the most, this cunning man could always come with 

a

 big deal. 

Li Mazi sniggered. “On my way back after visiting Chuchu

’s grave

, I saw a sullen-faced man on the train. You know my strength, right? I’m good at 

reading

 people

’s

 faces and guessing their 

intentions

. I felt that the man 

was

 in trouble. I started to chat with him. Indeed, he 

had a big

 problem. H

i

s name is He Kui. He went to the South to pray 

to

 the Bodhisattva there.” 

It turned out that so many strange 

things happened to

 the man

’s 

family after his father passed away. First, his wife had an accident, which 

resulted in

 her miscarriage. Then, He Kui lost his job in the city. 

Feeling h

elpless, he had to take his family back to the countryside to live. 

Even 

after that

, they didn’t find peace. At night, when He Kui’s wife slept, she would dream about her late father-in-law, who cried and shouted at her face. 

He Kui’s wife had always looked down on her in-laws. She disdained the old man because he was just a farmer from the countryside. She had thrown the eggs that her father

-in-law

 had to labor 

for 

into the trash bin

. S

he even sent him out of the house in the middle of a snowy night. 

When He Kui heard the situation from his wife, he hurried to his father’s grave to burn paper money

, begging 

him to forgive his wife. 

However,

 it didn’t work. The situation had turned even worse. In the end, his wife didn’t dare to sleep anymore. 

They had endured the situation, but the next incident made He Kui 

loathe

 his father completely.

After a long time, his wife finally gave birth to a baby girl,

 b

ut the child was 

very

 weak. They took the little girl to the hospital to check. The doctor said she was all right, but the little girl kept crying as though she saw something very scary. 

The couple thought that it could be the ghost of their old man who stayed nearby and 

scared

 the child. 

Feeling h

elpless, He Kui had to go to the South Sea to visit and implore the Goddess of Mercy!