White temples

"Don't be afraid." Si Mucheng stared at the knife in the fried food stall owner's hand, moved forward a little, and shielded Wen Ya behind him, while whispering to reassure her, "I've trained, don't worry, this man is no match for me."

But the wound he was covering was now bleeding profusely, the scarlet blood flowing down his arm, forming a winding stream, dripping onto the ground drop by drop.

"...overestimating oneself." When a mentally ill person goes mad, they cannot be dealt with using normal thinking, let alone when the other party has a weapon.

Wen Ya lowered her eyelids, her hand gestures changing.

Si Mucheng didn't hear clearly and quickly glanced at her: "What... what are you doing?"

Wen Ya didn't say anything. She took out a few talismans, closed her eyes and chanted a spell. The talismans flew out.

Si Mucheng was puzzled, but he didn't press for details. He simply confronted the fried food stall owner warily.

One talisman after another flew out, but the fried food stall owner ignored them. Strictly speaking, he was in a state where he couldn't perceive any changes in his surroundings. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at Wen Ya, muttering, "Playing me? I'm going to kill you... kill you all!"

Fearing a sudden attack, Si Mucheng dared not relax for a moment, his muscles tense.

Wen Ya didn't care about the situation at hand and quickly threw out the talisman in her hand. If there were any fellow practitioners present, they would definitely be able to see that Wen Ya's talisman landed on the ground in the eight palace positions, and there were also corresponding talismans on the wall, vaguely forming an array, with the fried food stall owner at the center of the array.

Wen Ya held the last talisman between her fingers and looked up at the man. After such a long standoff, the man was growing increasingly agitated, and the bloodied knife was ready to strike.

Wen Ya stared at the knife, as if she had made up her mind, and threw out the last talisman. If this talisman landed in the Kun position, the formation would be complete. Wen Ya waited with a grim face for the talisman to land.

But then a sudden change occurred; a pebble flew in from outside and flew straight at the talisman.

Wen Ya's heart sank as the talisman was knocked away, and the magic array failed to be completed!

The moment the talisman fell, a tall figure swept in. The man wielding a sharp knife sensed it, but it was too late. The newcomer knocked the knife from the man's hand with a single move, and seeing this, Si Mucheng immediately stepped forward to help subdue the man.

Everything happened so fast; in an instant, the situation reversed completely. Wen Ya hadn't expected that the situation where she was just forced to set up a formation would be so easily resolved. The man was pinned to the ground with his hands tied behind his back, and although he was still swearing, it was just impotent rage.

Wen Ya saw the stone that had knocked her talisman off, but then realized that what had fallen to the ground wasn't a stone, but a delicate jade pendant. It just looked vaguely familiar.

As she was pondering, Si Mucheng was already greeting someone: "Hey, thanks a lot, brother. I really wouldn't know what to do without you. This guy is really crazy."

The newcomer's voice was cool and indifferent as he said, "You're too kind."

Wen Ya suddenly looked at the man, her gaze meeting his amber eyes. Her voice held a hint of surprise: "Jiang Shuo?"

Si Mucheng exclaimed, "Wow! Xiaoya, do you know her again?"

Wen Ya didn't answer, but continued to look at Jiang Shuo: "How did you end up here?"

Jiang Shuo's expression was calm, but his eyes revealed a hint of sternness. He said coldly, "If I hadn't come, how would I have known about your outrageous behavior outside?"

Wen Ya knew he was implying something, so she turned her gaze away, her lips twitching slightly before she said, "I'm confident I can handle this."

"Are you confident? Wen Ya, there are ordinary people here. If you summon evil spirits, these ordinary people will be dragged into the evil spirits' illusion. One slip and they could lose their lives. Did the Jiang family's ancestral teachings ever instruct you to treat human life as worthless?"

Such a question was already quite sharp, and it was especially serious coming from Jiang Shuo. Wen Ya remained silent.

Si Mucheng looked around, wondering why the two had suddenly started arguing, and it was clear that this person had a close relationship with Wen Ya. He suddenly laughed: "What's wrong? Everything's resolved, stop arguing. Now, what should we do?"

He pressed down hard, making the fried food stall owner cry out in pain.

Jiang Shuo took a deep breath, quickly composed himself, and nodded to Si Mucheng: "The police will be here soon."

Upon hearing this, Si Mucheng finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God."

Wen Ya remained calm. She had heard before that the Jiang family had reached some cooperation with the government, and it seemed that the cooperation was currently quite stable.

None of the three spoke again; for a moment, only the sound of the fried food stall owner cursing could be heard.

Shi Lu stood timidly to the side and asked softly, "Will my body... be here?"

Before Wen Ya could answer, Jiang Shuo suddenly said, "Are there ghosts here?"

Si Mucheng quickly replied, "Yes, it's the victim of this madman. Xiaoya said this place is very likely the primary crime scene."

Jiang Shuo glanced at Si Mucheng before saying thoughtfully, "Zhao Wentian said you took in a disciple who also has the ability to see ghosts. It seems this is the one. Truly rare."

Si Mucheng was pleasantly surprised: "Brother, you know Brother Zhao too!"

Wen Ya finally spoke, coldly saying, "If you're injured, then keep quiet."

Si Mucheng immediately shut his mouth, sensing Wen Ya's subtle attitude.

At this point, the police finally arrived, and the rest of the matter was left to the police.

It's unclear what Jiang Shuo said to the police, but no one questioned Wen Ya and Si Mucheng about why they were in the abandoned factory; it was as if everything was perfectly normal. A junior policeman, seeing that Si Mucheng was injured, even offered to take him to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Wen Ya had more questions for Jiang Shuo, but since Jiang Shuo was talking to a police officer, she couldn't go over. Si Mucheng's injury had already been aggravated, and his wounds had worsened when he and Jiang Shuo subdued the madman, leaving his arm covered in blood and a bloody mess. Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, Si Mucheng's face was paler than usual when he looked up at Wen Ya.

Wen Ya hesitated for only a second before getting into the car and going to the hospital with Si Mucheng.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the young policeman greeted them and left. The doctor who treated Si Mucheng's wound assumed he was also a policeman and frowned as he cleaned the wound: "Such a big cut, and there must have been secondary injury. This needs stitches. How did it get like this? Young man, don't think you can risk everything just because you're young. Your health is your most valuable asset."

Si Mucheng smiled and said, "I know, sister. Isn't this doing a good deed for the people?"

The emergency room doctor, who looked to be in her forties, beamed when Si Mucheng called her "sister." She glanced at Wen Ya beside her and said, "I know your professions are special and you're all brave, but don't you think about your families too? Look at your girlfriend, she's worried about you."

Upon hearing this, Si Mucheng turned to look at Wen Ya, only to see her with a rare, dazed expression, her brows slightly furrowed, clearly worried.

He immediately burst into laughter. The doctor, seeing him like this, was both amused and exasperated: "You're still looking good with such a serious injury." She handed the prescription to Wen Ya and said to her, "Here, little sister, go pay the fee. You can scan the code."

Wen Ya paused for a moment, then hesitated before taking the bill. Si Mucheng immediately saw through her thoughts and took the payment slip from her hand with a grin: "It's okay, I can scan the code myself after I'm done processing it."

The doctor, assuming he was reluctant to let his girlfriend travel back and forth, couldn't help but tease him, "Your relationship is really good, you must be young."

"Sister, you're not that old!"

Wen Ya didn't know why Si Mucheng could always get along so easily with strangers, always cheerful, even when he was injured. Where did he get so many smiles?

After the wound was treated, Si Mucheng took the form, said goodbye to the doctor, and walked out of the hospital with Wen Ya. Wen Ya hesitated for a moment before saying, "Don't we need to pay the fees?"

Si Mucheng waved his phone: "Now you can pay by simply scanning the code."

Wen Ya genuinely didn't understand. She watched curiously as Si Mucheng skillfully operated his phone. His left arm was bandaged, but he acted as if nothing had happened. Wen Ya stared at his arm and said, "Shouldn't it be in a sling?"

"What?"

Wen Ya made a gesture: "Shouldn't an injured person be kept in a sling?"

Si Mucheng laughed again: "That's only used to fix a broken bone, right?"

Wen Ya pursed her lips: "I don't understand these things."

Si Mucheng noticed her emotions, put away his phone, and looked down at her: "Xiaoya, just now at the factory, before that guy appeared, were you setting up an array? What array? I've never seen the pattern on the talisman before."

Wen Ya remained silent for a moment before saying, "It's a spirit summoning array."

Si Mucheng was stunned for a moment: "...Can you still summon spirits?"

"Yes, it is... an ancient formation used to summon evil spirits. I only saw it in my grandfather's collection of books and have never used it. This formation is very dangerous, and no one in the world uses it nowadays."

Si Mucheng had certainly witnessed the danger of evil spirits, and he joked, "Xiaoya, how do you know so many strange and unusual magic arrays?"

Wen Ya didn't answer, but said, "Jiang Shuo is right, I was inconsiderate."

Summoning the evil spirit could indeed restrain the madman, but it would be easy to dispel it and it would take effort. Besides, she wasn't sure how dangerous the evil spirit she summoned was; she had indeed been overconfident.

"It was just too dangerous at that time."

Si Mucheng nodded: "That's right. So, when dealing with scum like this, we can take some drastic measures, after all, the situation is urgent."

Wen Ya suddenly looked up, and Si Mucheng winked at her with his right eye: "But I really have practiced, and I can really beat him."

Wen Ya was speechless for a moment: "You're the one who ended up in the hospital."

"Hey, this is... an accident."

“But,” Wen Ya’s eyelashes fluttered, “you wouldn’t have gotten hurt originally.”

Upon hearing this, Si Mucheng was overjoyed and said, "Do you think I'd see him bullying you?!"

Wen Ya sighed, "I'm sorry, I caused you to get hurt."

"No, please," Si Mucheng said, his puppy-dog eyes moist and shining. "It's only natural for me to protect you."