A little girl not even as tall as Xu Qing's leg looked up at the towering young man like a mountain and said with clear eyes: "Sect Leader."
"..."
Alright, merging them together isn't out of the question, at least it proves that this girl has a good memory and a promising future.
After being blessed by the incense of Bao Sheng Temple, the current little Shiyue can now manifest and be seen by people, though Shiyue never realized she had become a ghost.
The little girl's understanding still stays at the level where she was abandoned by her family and her father didn't want her.
When her father, Qiao Fang, returned to Linjiang County from Jin Sect and passed by the street where the old pagoda tree was, Shiyue once ran around him, trying to pull his clothes to get him to look at her, but he seemed not to want her and wouldn't lower his head to look at her.
Even at this point, the little girl hadn't realized she was dead; she only felt that her father didn't want her anymore and she had become a homeless wild child.
Xu Qing took the newly adopted little girl, traveling non-stop, and when they returned to Linjiang County, the sky had yet to brighten.
Passing by the old pagoda tree, Shiyue went forward, knelt down, and kowtowed a few times. Though her understanding was still shallow, she knew who was kind to her and who had been gracious to her.
Xu Qing didn't rush her, waiting until she finished paying respect to the old pagoda tree, Shiyue then turned and walked to the entrance of a food shop on the opposite side of the street.
She stood and stared at the door of the shop for quite a while.
Xu Qing approached and asked: "What's wrong?"
The little girl tugged at Xu Qing's sleeve, raised her head, and said: "Head, food."
Head... food?
The sentence was so incomplete that even Xu Qing, let alone a divine being, couldn't figure out what it meant.
Xu Qing inquired carefully, but the little girl gestured for a long time without making herself clear.
Enough! This little ghost probably needs to be enrolled in a class quickly too.
Xu Qing pondered the child's education problem while reflecting on the little girl's words.
Although the child's ability to express was lacking, Xu Qing could more or less piece something together.
Head might be literal, and the hunger Shiyue mentioned meant someone gave her food, also literal.
Ghosts eating offerings and consuming incense candles have always been common practice, and earlier Xu Qing served Chen Liu'Er and Shiyue green bean porridge, which turned sour in front of Shiyue because the 'vitality' in the porridge had been consumed.
But combining head and food together becomes somewhat Hell-like.
Xu Qing asked her: "When you're hungry, did the people from this food shop ever bring you food?"
Little Shiyue nodded.
"So are you now wanting to thank them?"
Little Shiyue nodded and then shook her head.
"..."
"They're gone."
Finally, just when Xu Qing was at a loss, Shiyue refreshed with a new sentence.
So tired! Raising kids is exhausting!
Xu Qing understood what 'gone' meant coming from her; whenever little Shiyue mentioned Mrs. Ye after she died, she always said her mother was gone.
Translated, it means the person who gave the little girl food had died.
A person who served food to ghosts? Xu Qing's interest was piqued, so he took out the Corpse-Seeking Compass and paced back and forth around the food shop in front of him.
As long as the dead weren't transported far away for disposal or burial, they couldn't escape the search of the Corpse-Seeking Compass.
Moments later, the Corpse-Seeking Compass pointed to a direction.
Xu Qing climbed over the outer wall and arrived at the backyard of the food shop, where a plot of land showed obvious signs of having been recently turned.
Moreover, elsewhere in the vegetable garden, various seasonal vegetables were planted, but only this area had not a blade of grass growing.
Xu Qing took out a spade and began working as a diligent gardener.
When he dug three feet deep, a corpse dressed in a short vest appeared before Xu Qing.
"..."
Xu Qing was momentarily silent, wondering if burying bodies was trending lately. Counting the two corpses from the Qiao family, this was already the third corpse he had dug up.
It seemed his forensic doctor's shop had opened in vain; rather than seeking him, the Funeral Master, for help, people were starting to self-taught burials!
Xu Qing jumped down into the pit, placing a hand over the corpse, determined to see what was going on.
Such irregular practices in supply channel disruption must not become widespread!
The corpse before him, when alive, wasn't anything special; it was a shop assistant in this food shop.
The food shop was small, just such a store clerk, taking care of customers and cleaning the place were all his duty.
That day, the clerk worked late into the night, just about to close the shop door when he heard a child's voice coming from the street.
"Mom, where are you, be good and listen..."
Upon hearing it, the clerk's heart instantly filled with compassion.
In the middle of the night, a child got lost, it would be disastrous if traffickers abducted her!
Why not bring her to the food shop, and once her adults come looking for her, I'll send her back.
The clerk put down the doorboard and followed the sound, arriving under the old pagoda tree. Through the moonlight, he faintly noticed the dimly figure of a little girl, seemingly translucent like a cicada wing, moving back and forth.
Startled, the shop clerk suddenly realized he had encountered a ghost! That wasn't a lost child, that was clearly a little ghost intent on harm!
When the shop clerk turned around to run back to the food shop, the voice changed again.
"Hungry, so hungry, really want to eat..."
The shop clerk dared not turn back, holding his breath as he ran back to the shop.
Tossing and turning sleeplessly all night, by the next day, the clerk with dark circles under his eyes took a few buns, an incense stick, and some ritual money, stealthily heading to the old pagoda tree, kneeling and prayed:
"No matter what kind of ghost immortal you are, treat this meal as my invitation, may you eat your fill and show mercy, turn elsewhere, don't stay here. Otherwise, I'll have to go home and farm..."