The old man's cloudy eyes darted around, and he pulled his wrist back half an inch.

"No need, no need, my old bones can't take any more strain."

Li Xiulan suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

He smiled and said, "Dad, they meant well. They just wanted to take a look. Don't you always say your knees hurt so much you can't sleep? It's not like you'll lose a piece of flesh just by looking at them."

Although Li Xiulan didn't know what I was going to do, she cooperated with me very well.

The old man reluctantly extended his hand.

When my palm was facing up, I saw that the wood chips embedded in my palm lines were exactly the same as the broken lacquer in the red cloth bag.

The moment my fingertips touched his very skin, a chill crept in through my fingers.

At the same time, it gave me a jolt.

There was no pulse under the skin; instead, it felt like pressing on a piece of soaked tofu skin—soft, limp, and lifeless.

"You have a typical case of arthralgia."

I deliberately put on a stern face and pressed the Taiyuan acupoint on the inside of his wrist with my thumb: "Your pulse is deep and thin, like a spider's thread. Your yang energy is severely deficient. Did you always work in damp places when you were young?"

The old man suddenly grinned, revealing a gap in his missing front tooth.

"Brother is right! When I was young, I worked in a textile factory carrying cloth and was soaked in water all day, which caused me to develop health problems."

He suddenly twisted his wrist, and his withered, twig-like fingers swept across my palm with astonishing force.

"But lately my leg has been hurting strangely; at night I always feel like something is gnawing at my bones..."

I pressed his Chize acupoint, and the sensation was like pressing on cotton wool soaked in cold water.

"This is a case of arthralgia affecting the collaterals. When I was young, cold and dampness entered my body and were not cured. Now that the weather is cold, my blood and qi are not flowing smoothly. Where there is free flow, there is no pain; where there is pain, there is no free flow. We need to use the method of warming the meridians and unblocking the collaterals, otherwise I won't even be able to walk in the future."

Li Xiulan playfully patted the old man's hand: "Dad, I told you not to always sit in the pavilion in the wind, but you wouldn't listen! I should have taken you to the hospital last month..."

Why go to the hospital!

The old man grinned stubbornly, his toothless, slit mouth stretching to his ears: "The medicine the doctor prescribed isn't as effective as the porridge you cooked!"

Li Xiulan clutched the hem of her clothes, wringing her hands anxiously: "Master, what should we do to treat this? Should we prescribe some medicine?"

"Soak your feet first."

I took out a mugwort sachet and put it in the old man's palm: "Mugwort warms the meridians, and Sichuan pepper dispels cold. Soak it for 15 minutes before bed every day."

His gaze swept over the ivy climbing the wall outside the pavilion, and he smoothly changed the subject, "Look at this vine, only by having deep roots can it withstand wind and rain. People also need to be grounded, don't always sit on stone benches."

Before he finished speaking, several old men fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans gathered around.

The man in the blue cloth shirt squinted at me, looking me up and down, and asked suspiciously, "Old Zhou, what's going on here? A new acquaintance?"

"The neighbors who just moved in!"

Li Xiulan's father-in-law patted my shoulder, wood chips falling from his wrist: "He's a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, his pulse diagnosis is very accurate!"

The old man wearing a straw hat immediately stretched out his arm: "Doctor, I can't lift my shoulder on rainy days, could you take a look?"

I pressed his Quchi acupoint, and felt a distinct nodule at my fingertip.

"For frozen shoulder, do wall climbing exercises more often and don't always hunch your arms."

He then looked at another elderly person's tongue and said, "A bitter taste in the mouth indicates excessive liver fire. Eat less fried food and try some chrysanthemum and goji berry tea."

The elderly people exclaimed in amazement, some even slapping their thighs: "Amazing! I've been to the hospital for six months and they still couldn't diagnose my problem!"

I smiled and waved my hand, then stood up as the lively atmosphere continued: "Brothers, I still need to tidy up the house, let's chat another day!"

...

Li Xiulan's home is on the fourth floor of Unit 3, but I deliberately turned towards Unit 2.

Just as I reached the corner behind the ivy wall, I heard hurried footsteps approaching.

She ran breathlessly: "Did you...did you touch something?"

I looked back and saw the old man sitting around a stone table with several other old men, chatting with their backs to us.

They're probably discussing what just happened.

I took a deep breath and stared at her trembling eyelashes: "You need to be mentally prepared."

Li Xiulan's breath caught in her throat, her fingers gripping the red cloth bundle tightly until her knuckles turned white: "Please speak... I'm listening."

"Your father-in-law has no pulse at all."

I lowered my voice and glanced at the pavilion out of the corner of my eye: "A living person can't be without a pulse. The feel of his skin... is like an empty shell."

Her pupils contracted sharply, and she staggered back half a step, her back slamming into the brick wall covered with vines.

"You...you mean my father-in-law is dead? But how could that be? This morning he drank the porridge I cooked!"

"After that cabinet was moved into the house, did he seem like a completely different person?"

Li Xiulan suddenly grabbed my wrist, her nails digging into my skin: "You mean... my dad... really... you're not lying to me? He... he... he..."

She couldn't bring herself to say the rest; her body was trembling violently.

He is dead.

I looked directly into her terrified eyes: "What's in the pavilion now is just an empty shell controlled by the evil creature in the cabinet."

"How could this happen... How could this happen!"

Li Xiulan staggered back half a step, then suddenly opened her eyes wide, her voice trembling with tears.

"Then what about my husband, my mother-in-law, and Huwa...?"

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly covered her mouth, and large tears streamed down her face, falling onto her clothes.

Just as she turned to run back, I grabbed her arm.

"Going back now is too dangerous! Think about it, why are you the only one who can still move normally?"

"Let me go! My son is still at home!"

She struggled frantically, her hair tie snapped, and her disheveled hair clung to her sweat-soaked face: "Tiger Boy is only eight years old, he doesn't understand anything!"

"Precisely because he doesn't understand!"

I gripped her wrist tightly, my nails almost digging into her flesh: "If they're all controlled by evil spirits, going back now would be like throwing yourself to the wolves! Do you think the two of us can snatch someone from a ghost?"

Li Xiulan froze, her chest heaving violently: "Then what should I do? Just watch..."

"Stay calm first."

I lowered my voice and caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye that the old man in the direction of the pavilion had turned to look this way.

"That thing can control corpses, which means it needs time to maintain its form. Let's find out the situation first and prepare the magical artifacts..."

"It's too late!"

She suddenly screamed hysterically, "By the time we're ready, Tiger Cub will already be..."

Just as they were struggling, a sharp shout rang out from behind: "What are you doing!"

I turned my head and saw an old woman carrying a vegetable basket, her gray hair casually tied with a faded red cloth strip, and her cloudy eyes wide open.

"mom……"

Li Xiulan's voice trembled.

She quickly lowered her voice and said, "This is my mother-in-law."

The old woman rushed over, slammed the vegetable basket to the ground, and pointed at my nose while cursing loudly.

"You shameless old man! Bullying a woman in broad daylight! I think you're tired of living!"

She cursed, spitting as she spoke, her dialect mixed with profanities: "You old geezer, why don't you take a piss and look at yourself in the mirror!"