Shocking! A master of metaphysics has been mind-reading!

There are generally two ways to deal with encountering a water ghost. One is to disperse it and make it disappear from the human world. The other is to guide it to reincarnate. The first method is extremely simple and anyone with real skills can do it. The second method is very difficult. You must capture it first and then guide it without harming it.

The shop owner didn't dare to delay and quickly said, "I didn't dare to contact you directly because I was afraid you wouldn't answer. I wanted to make this more complicated to attract your attention. I think you're very high-profile and like to hear people flatter you, so I guessed you like challenges, which is why I set it up this way."

Xia Wange raised an eyebrow.

Why is this person both praising and criticizing her?

How was she being high-profile?

She is very low-key. She has only been in the industry for half a year, but she has already resolved one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight major issues. She is really low-key.

"Continue," Xia Wange said calmly. "From what I understand, more than one master has taken on the task only to say they couldn't do it. What was the reason?"

Seeing that if he didn't answer, Xia Wange would turn around and expose the Lu Gen he was raising, the shopkeeper quickly said, "It's because that water ghost is different from other water ghosts. She's too pitiful and has never harmed anyone. The masters can't bring themselves to destroy her, but guiding her to reincarnate is too difficult. She's too timid, so they can't catch her at all. That's why they refused after investigating."

"Too tragic?" Xia Wange caught the key words in the shop owner's words. She stared at the shop owner for a moment, just as she was about to use threats and inducements again, the shop owner of the tobacco and liquor store suddenly knelt down. The sound of his knees hitting the ground was extremely loud, which startled Xia Wange, and she quickly turned to the side.

This unexpected turn of events left Xia Wange completely baffled.

"Don't kneel before me like that! Get to the point! I won't budge, don't try to morally blackmail me," Xia Wange quickly said. "Get to the point!"

This time, the shop owner didn't hide anything anymore, but instead talked on and on about it.

"The village where I grew up was a typical poor and remote place. It was where local customs and traditions were followed, and the village chief and elders had a lot of say."

"When I was a child, I heard that there was a crazy woman in the village who was always wandering around. My parents wouldn't let me get close to her. When I was a child, I would play around and I would hear the village aunties talking about that crazy woman."

"I was only five or six years old at that time, and I didn't understand much. I only learned bits and pieces of what they said. They said she was a jinx, the unluckiest person in the village."

"They said she was a normal person at first, with a normal mind. She was the wife of an old man in his forties in the village. She got pregnant when she was fourteen, and after a lot of hardship, she gave birth to a child, but the child died a few days later. I heard that the old man even cursed her, saying that she was unlucky."

"Later, the aunties said that because she lost her child, she was disliked by her husband's family. She didn't even have a proper postpartum period and went out to work. In the dead of winter, she was wearing very little clothing and fainted from the cold outside. Later, she developed a high fever, and the village doctor who was a quack doctor came but couldn't cure her. She became mentally impaired from the fever."

"The aunties also said that this was just the beginning of the crazy woman's hard life. After she became mentally unstable, her husband's family disliked her even more. She used to be able to live in the house, but later she could only live in a thatched hut outside. Perhaps because her first childbirth damaged her body, the old man thought she was useless and kicked her out."

"Back then, I asked the aunties in the village, 'Don't her parents come to see her?' The aunties said that her parents didn't want her anymore."

"At that time, I really felt that this person was so pitiful. She didn't even have a father or mother anymore, so I often secretly gave that woman candy. When I got a little older, my family moved to the county when I started elementary school, and I only went back to the village during winter and summer vacations."

"I later heard that she ended up living in a tile-roofed house at the entrance of the village, relying on the villagers for help. Uncles and elders from the village would often secretly bring her food."

At this point, the shop owner paused, his voice low, "Back then, I didn't understand what the excited expressions on the aunts' faces meant when they talked about this. I naively thought that she had found a place to stay. My parents hated her. Whenever she lingered near my house, my parents would chase her away."

"Later, I heard that she fell into the river and drowned, and her body was never found. But when the aunties in the village talked about her this time, their tone became mysterious. They said that she had become a water ghost."

"When old men from any family passed by, they could often hear splashing sounds from the water, as well as women's screams. Because of this, even though taking that riverbank would get them into the village faster, no one dared to go that way anymore, and gradually the road along that riverbank fell into disuse."

"Later, I heard that the health of everyone in the village was getting worse and worse. Many people died of cancer before they were even in their forties. Experts came to investigate and found that a factory had secretly discharged wastewater containing heavy metals into the river because almost no one passed by it, polluting the water source and causing everyone to get sick."

"Soon, the villagers were either dead or gone."

"A few years ago, my parents were seriously ill and asked me to go back to the old house to get something. In my haste, I took a shortcut and walked along the river. When I was almost past it, I felt something tightly wrapped around my feet and pulling me down. But just as I was about to be dragged into the water, it let go of me. I was still in shock and ran home, only to find that my legs were covered in cuts."

At this point, the shop owner paused, his eyes tightly closed, seemingly trying to calm himself. "Master Xia, wouldn't you say this is a case of 'the vengeful have their culprit, the debtor their debtor'? If she hadn't died in that river and become a water ghost, frightening those wicked people, the path along that river wouldn't have been abandoned, and the water pollution problem might have been discovered much earlier. Master Xia, wouldn't you say this is retribution?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Wange paused slightly. She scrutinized the shop owner for a moment. "Judging from your appearance, you are not an only child, and your family ties are weak. Both your parents have passed away. You have broken lines on your eyebrows and shallow scars, indicating that you have an older sister who died before reaching adulthood. Your sister's life story is even more tragic. If I'm not mistaken..."

"Yes, that water ghost was my sister." The shopkeeper's voice was calm, but it wasn't hard to see his body trembling beneath his restrained emotions. "They say water ghosts can only be reincarnated by finding a substitute, and the substitute she should have found was me, but she deliberately let me go!"

In no time, the tobacco and liquor store owner's eyes were filled with tears, and the burly man weighing over 200 pounds cried like a child.

"My parents sold her to that bachelor as a wife just to spend money to have me! They really sold her! They didn't care about her life or death at all, treating her like a commodity—money and goods settled, life and death irrelevant!"