Sun Qing continued, "After I got off the train, I didn't go back to school right away. Instead, I went to the biggest tattoo parlor in the city to see if I could get the tattoo removed."

"Who knew that the owner would be stunned when he saw the tattoo on my body? He even called his master over."

"The old man looked at my back over and over again before asking me, 'Who tattooed this on you?'"

"I told him the truth, that my grandpa had tattooed it on me."

"The old man lowered his head and pondered for a long time before saying, 'Your elder used an ancient method to tattoo you. There are no more than five people in the whole country who know how to do it. There must be a deep meaning behind him tattooing this coffin on you. You'd better not wash it off.'"

"'Moreover, others can't wash off ancient tattoos even if they want to. Forcibly doing so will only bring disaster upon yourself. I don't dare to offend your grandpa. You should go back and ask him why he tattooed a coffin on you!'"

"When I heard him say that, I knew he must have guessed something, and I kept pestering the old man to ask him what my grandpa wanted to do."

"The old man couldn't stand my pestering, so he told me: tattooing a coffin is a life and death curse. It draws all the misfortunes of a person's life to happen within a few years. If you can't survive it, you'll die. If you can survive it, then the bad luck will turn into good, and you'll be able to do whatever you want."

"He also didn't know what was going on with the iron chains my grandpa tattooed on the coffin. I had to ask my grandpa about that."

"Finally, the old man asked me one more question: 'Do you rarely talk to your grandpa?'"

"Because of the coffin my grandpa tattooed on me, I had a kind of resistance to him in my heart, and I really rarely talked to him."

"It was then that I realized that I didn't really understand my grandpa. Even the fact that he tattooed a coffin on me, I had learned from a book. I had only read a few pages of that book before my grandpa took it away."

"My grandpa never mentioned that book either."

"I stayed at school for less than two months, and nothing really happened during those two months."

"Just when I was about to start my internship, my dad called me and said that he was going out to take care of something. He didn't say what it was, just that he didn't know when he would be back this time."

"At that time, I don't know why, but I felt that what my dad said was very wrong, so I asked for leave and went back to my hometown. Zhao Yuezhu knows about this."

After Zhao Yuezhu nodded, Sun Qing said, "After I returned to my hometown, my dad had already left. His clothes were all there, and his daily necessities were not missing. His passbook and bank card were all at home. It didn't look like he had gone out at all."

"I asked the neighbors, and they said that when my dad called me, someone had come to the house. No one saw what that person looked like."

"Some people who saw him said that the person was wearing a duckbill cap, which covered half of his face. He didn't look at people when he asked for directions, so no one saw what he looked like."

"However, they said that the person wasn't asking about my dad, but asking where I was. They thought I had gotten into some trouble at school, and the school had sent someone to find me."

"I couldn't find my dad, so I could only go back to school first. After I came back, the bad luck started."

"First, during my internship, I broke the company's equipment and had to pay them a lot of money. Then, all the bad things that could happen to me happened."

"I haven't been able to afford to eat lately, and I've been running into ghosts one after another, so I asked Zhao Yuezhu to help me exorcise them."

"That's pretty much it."

I thought for a while before saying, "Zhao Yatou, you're also someone who can communicate with spirits. What did you see those ghosts wanting to do to him?"

Zhao Yuezhu said, "Those ghosts didn't talk to me. I felt like they wanted to kill him. One of the ghosts in particular, I sent away several times but it didn't leave. It was like it had some deep-seated hatred with Sun Qing and had to kill him."

"If I hadn't taken a protective magical artifact from my dad, I might not have been able to find you here."

Zhao Yuezhu's relationship with Zhao Ci had eased?

That was a good thing, but I wasn't comfortable asking about her family's affairs, so I changed the subject, "Since your Old Zhao knew you were in trouble, why didn't he just help you directly? Or, giving me a call would have been better than letting you come all the way here yourself. How dangerous was that trip?"

Zhao Yuezhu said, "My dad said that this matter couldn't be discussed over the phone. I had to come here myself. It's a sign of sincerity when hiring a warlock."

Zhao Ci wasn't wrong about that.

The status of warlocks was in a very awkward state. Those who believed in you revered warlocks as gods, while those who didn't believe in you saw warlocks as swindlers.

The dignity of a warlock sometimes couldn't be demanded, only maintained through other means. Warlocks didn't take business over the phone, one reason being that they couldn't tell the employer's situation over the phone. Rashly agreeing might mean taking on a job they couldn't handle.

The second reason was that warlocks were showing that they weren't someone who could be summoned at will. Coming was a matter of goodwill, not coming was a warlock's pride.

Zhao Ci had good intentions.

As I was considering where to start looking for clues about Sun Qing's tattoo, Nie Xiao Chun waved at me from outside, "Li Po, come out here for a moment. I have something to tell you."

I was thinking about Sun Qing's matter and replied without thinking, "Just say it here! There are no outsiders."

At that time, I didn't notice that Zhao Yuezhu was smiling at me.