"My grandfather told me that those born during the Qingming Festival have extremely unlucky destinies! And for girls, whose element is Yin, the misfortune is compounded!"

"For such an extremely ominous fate, there is only one way to suppress the evil spirits within it!"

I paused, then said, word by word:

"The Calamity has shifted to a new palace!"

Seeing that Li Huai and Luo Tianhe both looked completely clueless and simply didn't appreciate the significance of the name, I could only explain:

"The 'Robbery Star' is an inauspicious star in astrology, representing calamity! The 'Shifting Palace' refers to the change in the position of a star, meaning that the calamity destined in one's fate is transferred to another person's natal chart!"

"So, it means taking the blame, bringing bad luck, or to put it bluntly, being a scapegoat?"

Li Huai suddenly realized.

"It means the same thing, but it's much more advanced than those. Moreover, the conditions for transferring the calamity are very strict. The person who transfers the disaster must be a close relative, preferably a brother or sister."

"Oh, so that's why you asked her if she had a twin sister. But it doesn't necessarily have to be a twin, an older brother or sister would also work, wouldn't it?"

Luo Tianhe felt he understood, but some parts didn't make sense.

"The reason for this ceremony is because her fate is too ominous; whoever bears it will die. Do you think her parents would kill their son or daughter, whom they've raised for years or even decades, for the sake of a newborn daughter? Use your brain!"

I snapped at them impatiently, and then continued:

"Moreover, if the person carrying her destiny dies and is reincarnated, that destiny will return to its original owner. So the fact that the girl has been able to live peacefully until now shows that the person carrying her destiny has not been reincarnated."

"So, just because she can't be reincarnated, they turned her into a ghost? That's too cruel!"

Li Huai's voice trembled slightly. As the unlucky guy who almost became a scapegoat, he was the most empathetic!

"So what would you choose if it were you? Would you abandon both daughters and let them be eaten by wild dogs or something, or freeze or starve to death? Or would you do nothing and raise them normally, only to have your family destroyed and them die a miserable death as well?"

"Is it better to sacrifice one daughter so that the other can grow up safely and peacefully, rather than suffer the loss of our family?"

Li Huai opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in the end he lowered his head and said nothing.

Like I said, that was definitely the best choice!

"So, what does this have to do with us going to save her? And, logically speaking, her fate is already sealed, so why is she still encountering ghosts?"

"I told you, defying fate is bound to bring divine retribution. Every action has its own destiny. Besides, if you were born into a demon, burdened with endless malevolence, unable even to be reincarnated, while your own sister or sister lives happily, wouldn't you feel immense resentment?"

"You're helping her so that the ghost bride can absorb her resentment?"

Luo Tianhe finally understood everything.

"That's right. First, gain her trust, then get her to cooperate with us in absorbing the resentment. Everyone gets what they want, and everyone's happy."

I waved my hand, stopping the taxi that was driving straight towards us.

"Alright, enough dawdling, or we'll be too late. I just called a car on the app, and it's here now."

"I have a bit of a phobia of taxis; I should have known better than to drive."

Luo Tianhe muttered to himself, but still walked towards the passenger seat. He was the most skilled, and if the driver really had bad intentions, he could control him in time.

"The last four digits of the license plate are 1309."

I gave the last three digits of my phone number, the driver glanced at it and confirmed it was correct, then stepped on the gas and drove toward Anning Girls' High School.

"These handsome guys don't look like teachers. What are they doing at Anning Girls' Middle School so late?"

This driver is quite talkative; he started chatting before I even settled into my seat.

"Oh, my sister goes to school there. I'm going to visit her. These two are my friends. They didn't have anything to do, so they came with me."

"Oh, I see. Young man, I've heard that Anning Girls' High School has a very high academic quality, with a university admission rate of over 70%. I'd also like to get my daughter in, but..."

The driver paused, looking troubled.

"But I've heard that Anning Girls' High School is rather unsettling, supposedly haunted? You young people might not believe in these things, but as a taxi driver, I've seen some strange things while driving at night, so I've been hesitant..."

It's clear that the driver loves his daughter very much.

Before I could even speak, Li Huai grabbed the sides of the driver's seat, leaned forward, and buried his head next to the driver, excitedly saying:

“Master, the rumors are true! I advise you not to send your daughter to that horrible place! It doesn’t matter if her grades are a little bad, she won’t lose her life.”

"To be honest, we went there because his sister called him crying, saying the dorm was haunted, so we..."

The car lurched violently, but thankfully I grabbed the door handle and steadied myself. Li Huai screamed as his head slammed into the seat.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry,"

The driver's voice came from the front; he apologized repeatedly, his tone somewhat panicked.

"I was so engrossed in listening that my hand slipped. Sorry, young man, I'm easily frightened, please don't scare me."

"I wasn't trying to scare you. How could I possibly make such a terrible joke in the middle of the night?"

Li Huai rubbed his neck and explained, "It looks like he was shaken pretty hard."

"You guys aren't ordinary people, are you? You knew that place was haunted and you still dared to go,"

The master was still somewhat shaken, but he didn't change his talkative nature.

"Oh, we work at the funeral home. Like our master, we're bound to encounter ghosts if we walk at night too often, so we know a bit about those things and have some experience."

Perhaps the driver had sparked Li Huai's desire to talk, because he even reached into my pocket, took a business card, and handed it to the driver:

"Here, these are our business cards. It's really not a prank."

The driver swallowed hard, gripping the steering wheel tightly with both hands, showing no intention of taking the business card.

Seeing this, Li Huai flicked two fingers, and the business card was tossed onto his master's dashboard.

When the driver saw the three red characters for "funeral home" on the business card, he felt like his soul was about to fly away.

As I watched the scenery rushing past the window, I noticed the driver had quietly sped up, probably wanting to get rid of us three plague-ridden creatures as soon as possible.

"But it's strange, this Anning Girls' High School is haunted, so why is its college entrance rate still so high? Did all the students with bad grades die? Does this ghost only harm those with bad grades?"

Luo Tianhe pinched his chin, completely baffled.

Then she turned to look at the driver.

"By the way, Master, how are your daughter's grades?"

"My daughter's grades are okay, there's no need for her to come here for further studies."

The driver started to stammer, probably regretting talking to us.