"Remember my longing, remember my love, remember that I wait for you day after day, I wait for you to come back to me, oh never forget me, oh never forget me~~"
The gramophone played a cheerful tune.
To the sound of the jaunty singing, Li Banfeng crept toward the door.
*I'd better get out of here.*
He had witnessed firsthand how vicious the old mantel clock was, and he knew he had nearly lost his life.
Yet this gramophone seemed vastly more dangerous than that clock.
Just as Li Banfeng reached the door, the gramophone's voice shifted.
In the blink of an eye, the lovesick maiden seeing off her sweetheart turned into a wandering songstress.
"Dearest, oh dearest, where are you bound?
Before you step out, take the trash all around,
The house is so small with no room to spare,
Oh dearest, for garbage there's no room in here~~"
She could even change the lyrics.
*Do I look like I'm in the mood to care about your damn lyrics right now?!*
Li Banfeng pushed at the door to leave, but a plume of steam barred his path.
"Dearest, there's truly no room for the trash!"
"I, uh, I'll take it out in a bit when I come back."
Li Banfeng tried to take another step, but the steam's temperature surged.
"Dearest, there's really no room for the trash!"
The singing grew colder and eerier, while the steam grew scalding hot.
Li Banfeng's chest was soaked in sweat, yet his back felt chilled to the bone.
He had no doubt that if he didn't clear out the garbage, the gramophone would scald him to death on the spot.
Under this duress, Li Banfeng turned back around. Using the firelight from the gramophone, he searched the room for rubbish.
In a corner, he found the scraps of cloth—the ones left behind by Chu Yunlong.
The ragged strips were sticky, covered in Li Banfeng's vomit. He shoved them all into a cloth sack.
*Did the gramophone clean up the vomit with those rags?*
*She's a clean freak!*
*Could this gramophone actually be a dwelling spirit?*
*The Portable Abode is my house, and I've already harmonized with it.*
*If I call out the gramophone's name, wouldn't she become my dwelling spirit?*
At this thought, Li Banfeng fixed his gaze on the gramophone, feeling his connection to the Portable Abode. As his breathing and pulse fell into rhythm with the house, he opened his mouth and called, "Gramo—"
*Wait!*
*What is her name?*
*She wouldn't just be called 'Gramophone.'*
*It's the same reason Luo Yuni wasn't called 'Mantel Clock.'*
Hearing that start of a call, the gramophone responded at once:
"Dearest, oh dearest, you wish me to sing,
Clear out the trash, and a song I shall bring~"
A wisp of steam drifted over toward the wreckage of the mantel clock.
In the gramophone's eyes, that was garbage too.
Li Banfeng dared not dawdle. He rushed to pack the shattered dial, the scattered gears, the snapped pendulum, the splintered wood, and the coiled mainspring into the sack before finally daring to leave the Portable Abode.
Stepping outside, he retrieved his key and let out a long breath.
No wonder the proprietor of Feng's Grocery Store had been willing to sell him the gramophone so cheaply.
No wonder he had thrown in so many freebies.
It turned out the gramophone was an unbonded dwelling spirit.
An unbonded dwelling spirit was no different from an evil spirit—and her power far exceeded Luo Yuni's, existing on a plane beyond Li Banfeng's comprehension.
*If I can't even say her name, what am I supposed to do?*
*No, I have to go to Shopkeeper Feng and demand an explanation!*
Just as Li Banfeng was looking for a spot to dump the trash, he felt eyes watching him.
*Danger!*
He could clearly sense the imminent threat.
*Get out! This is no place to linger!*
Li Banfeng steeled himself and took two steps forward, only for a man to abruptly materialize at the entrance of the main wing, blocking his path.
The man wore a white shirt and a grey vest. His chin was tucked, his eyes rolled upward, and his mouth was curled into a crooked sneer of a smile.
It was Luo Yuni's lover—and her murderer.
*Wasn't he hanging from the willow tree?*
*How did he get down?*
He wasn't the only one. Another man and woman appeared beside him, and behind them, numerous shadowy figures swayed back and forth.
A chilling draft swept across Li Banfeng's back. He glanced toward the window; several men and women were poking their heads inside through the frame.
Even more departed souls circled the building out in the courtyard, and some had half their bodies poking straight through the walls.
All the souls had come down from the trees. What was going on?
A moment's thought gave Li Banfeng his answer.
Normally, these souls were controlled by the dwelling spirit Luo Yuni, forced to do her bidding.
Now that Luo Yuni was gone, they were off their leashes.
Evidently, they found Li Banfeng very appealing. In the past, they had merely helped Luo Yuni feast, but now they wanted a taste of meat for themselves.
A woman lunged forward first, sticking out her tongue toward Li Banfeng's ear.
She took a liking to his scent.
Li Banfeng ducked to avoid her, but another man struck at him with a blade.
*Where did he get a blade?*
*Damn it!*
*The dagger!*
Li Banfeng had left the blood-drinking dagger outside the Portable Abode.
*Ghosts can wield that blade too?*
*Of course they can!*
Luo Yuni had used that very blade to exact her revenge.
The man slashed at Li Banfeng again and again.
Li Banfeng swung his sickle in retaliation, but the blade only sliced through empty mist.
He couldn't hit the ghost.
Yet the ghost could hit him!
Even the ghosts without weapons could strike a living person. One lunged and tore a strip of cloth clean off Li Banfeng's coat.
*What do I do?*
Li Banfeng dodged as he retreated, but he quickly ran out of room. A horde of souls pushed through the walls, surrounding him in seconds.
*Retreat into the Portable Abode?*
*With ghosts everywhere, where can I toss the key?*
*If one of these vile specters picks up the key, I'm done for!*
*No other choice—I have to fight my way out!*
Gritting his teeth, Li Banfeng prepared to break through.
Yet after a single step, every ghost in the room vanished without a trace.
*Did they leave?*
*Intimidated by my momentum?*
*Nonsense!*
The danger still lingered close by; Li Banfeng could feel it.
He sprinted for the door, only to find the spirits waiting there with mocking smiles, blocking the exit.
They manifested and dissolved at will.
These wicked ghosts were toying with him, savoring the panic of a trapped beast.
The male ghost slashed with the dagger again. In desperation, Li Banfeng raised the cloth sack to parry.
The blade ripped the sack open, spilling the broken debris across the floor.
The ghosts froze for a moment, then scrambled backward. They had caught sight of the snapped pendulum.
That pendulum was Luo Yuni's relic.
*They retreated!*
*They're afraid of it!*
Li Banfeng's eyes lit up. He seized the chance to scoop up the pendulum, hoping to force his way through the circle of spirits.
Yet the ghosts quickly halted their retreat. They stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at him.
*Are they stunned?*
Li Banfeng stepped forward and planted a kick into the chest of the man with the dagger.
There was solid resistance—he had definitely landed the blow.
*I hit him?*
Yet the sensation was strange, like plunging his foot into thick, sticky mud.
It truly was like kicking into deep mire; Li Banfeng couldn't pull his right foot back out!
The ghost had deliberately let himself be struck to trap him.
Shifting between ethereal and solid, materializing and vanishing in the blink of an eye—Li Banfeng had never realized ghosts could be this sinister.
The ghost's form wrapped tightly around Li Banfeng's leg, and he raised the dagger to hack it off.
Li Banfeng thrust the pendulum forward, its faint golden glow washing over the man's face.
The dagger froze midair. The male ghost gazed blankly at the pendulum, unable to bring the blade down.
Li Banfeng struggled with all his might, but his right leg remained ensnared, and the surrounding spirits began closing in again.
There was no other way.
Li Banfeng quickly turned the key. Left with no alternative, he had to take shelter back in the Portable Abode.
Crossing the threshold, he braced himself against the doorframe and yanked his leg free from the male ghost's grip. Just as he went to shut the door, he realized the key was still in his hand.
He couldn't leave the key inside the Portable Abode under any circumstances. He would rather an evil spirit pick it up than leave it inside, or he would be trapped forever.
Li Banfeng instantly tossed the key outside, but by then it was too late to shut the door. The horde of spirits rammed against the panels and barged inside.
A howling gale rose as the ghosts poured in like a tidal wave.
By the time the door slammed shut, over a hundred souls were crammed into the Portable Abode, overlapping in dense layers.
A hundred pale, hollow-eyed faces stared fixedly at the pendulum in Li Banfeng's hand.
*I shouldn't have brought this thing inside.*
The pendulum kept them at bay for the moment, but fear was not the only thing they felt toward it—they were captivated by it.
Holding the pendulum high, squeezed into the sea of restless dead, Li Banfeng racked his brain for a way out.
*A way out?*
*Is there one?*
*Hiss, hiss, hiss—*
*Clang-clang-clang!*
The gramophone was still spinning, but this time, it wasn't a song that rose from the horn—it was the crashing rhythm of gongs and drums.
*She can do opera too?*
Of course she could.
Playing opera on a gramophone was all the rage in Puluo Province.
Among the records Shopkeeper Feng had given him, two were highlights performed by renowned opera stars.
As the tempo of the drums and cymbals built, a clear, crisp *dan* vocal rang out:
"Husband~~~ You went to the market to buy groceries, did you!"
"Buy groceries..."
*Does this look like buying groceries?!*
Li Banfeng didn't know how to sing opera, so he figured he would just roll with whatever she said.
"Aiya~" the gramophone warbled again. "The produce looks fair, but alas, it's not quite fresh~~"
The high, drawn-out note lingered in the air as dense steam rolled through the Portable Abode.
The ghosts grew restless. Terror seized them.
Some dashed for the door, but it was already too late.
The steam surged to a violent boil as the gramophone unleashed a furious crescendo of gongs and drums.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
As though swept into a giant net, more than a hundred departed souls were hauled through the air amid wails and shrieks, funneled in one clean sweep straight into the horn. Only Li Banfeng remained unharmed, standing quietly beside the machine.
*Eaten?*
*She ate all those souls?!*
*So that's what she meant by 'buying groceries'?!*
*Clang-clang-clang!*
The singing resumed:
"Husband~~~ You dote on your humble wife so, filling my heart with joy.
Yet as the old saying goes, thrift breeds success while excess brings ruin. True love between husband and wife should flow quiet and long; henceforth, you must not squander so lavishly~ Oh my, *buuurrrp*~"
A puff of steam vented from the horn as the gramophone let out a hearty burp.
Li Banfeng edged toward the door step by step, improvising a line of stage dialogue: "Since my lady is full, pray take your rest!"
"My thanks for husband's tenderness. Truly, this humble wife is worn to the bone!" The firelight died, the steam drifted away, and the gramophone fell silent.
Li Banfeng hastily slipped out of the Portable Abode, snatched up the key, and sank down by the doorframe, panting for breath.
He was still gripping the pendulum. He had meant to throw it away, but then considered that it might have other uses.
Finding a clean sack, he tucked the pendulum inside. After a moment's thought, he realized he had forgotten something else.
Inside the Portable Abode, the dagger that favored drinking blood at the Zi hour still lay on the floor.
The gramophone had devoured the spirits, but it hadn't touched the blade.
*Hiss, hiss, hiss—*
The petals of the bronze lotus unfolded one by one. With a sudden swirl of wind, the dagger was drawn straight into the lotus's core.
Chapter 51