This thing is really scary, I'm wondering if this old lady has cast a spell on me or something.

  Only saw that Huang San Tai Nai puckered up the cheek with wrinkles and said to me: "Don't worry, the medicine won't kill you. I think you're not bad for a young generation like you, so I'll give you this thing, it's all good for you and no harm. This is something ordinary people can't even dream of, how about that? Don't you quickly thank me?"

  After hearing this sentence, I thought to myself, "What the heck is the use of this disgusting nail polish that you still haven't told me about? How am I supposed to thank you?"

  "So I asked in a hurry: 'Ignorant little guy, don't you know about my skills?'"

  After saying this, it told me the use of my little fingernail that had been painted black. As mentioned earlier, these horse fairies have different skills, some are good at deceiving people and some are more sinister, the deceitful ones are similar to Wen Shu, they only know how to cheat and deceive people, while the more sinister ones have various abilities, such as predicting fortune or misfortune, catching ghosts, diagnosing illnesses, and the most evil kind is the 'Old Hu Family', who are naturally cruel and can help you harm others.

  And the specialty of this Huang San Tai Nai in our house is that she can diagnose and cure illnesses. The incense ash she just grabbed from the small censer is the essence of all these years of worship, and after applying it to my little finger nail, this old lady spat three mouthfuls of immortal energy onto it, leaving her skills on my little finger nail.

  Because I didn't agree to be Ma's apprentice earlier, I wasn't qualified to invite the immortal, but after this ordeal, my little fingernail has acquired some of Huang San Ta Nai's skills.

  As soon as I heard that, I was overjoyed and thought to myself, "This is great! To think that every time I fight with ghosts, I at least get injured. With this little fingernail, how much money will I save? Haha, it's really a useful thing! Who knows, maybe in the future I can even use it to make money! If this thing can cure all diseases, that would be too exciting!

  So I hastily said to Huang Santai: "Thank you, Granny! You gave me such a precious gift, but I don't know how powerful this fingernail is? Can it cure cancer and AIDS? Why don't you trouble yourself to paint the remaining nine fingernails for me?"

  Huang Santai smiled and said to me, "Young man, don't be too naive. Although I've shown you my magical powers, you're not a disciple of the Ma family after all. This nail can only cure minor illnesses like wind chill, and stop bleeding. Do you understand?"

  Can't help but say, the heavens are really unfair to me. Every time I face a new adventure with great hope, suddenly it gives me a setback. This is simply unpredictable. I thought this black nail was something amazing, but in fact, it's just equivalent to a few aspirin and some band-aids.

  To put it bluntly, this is simply useless!

  I finally understand that those online stories are all nonsense. The protagonists' adventures, one more incredible than the last, either getting some treasure and then killing everyone in sight or obtaining some divine power and instantly destroying the universe... it's all fake, just daydreaming. But I've really had a few strange encounters myself, and each time was more unlucky than the last.

  That's just life!

  I looked at my black fingernails with a wry smile, and the more I looked, the more disgusted I felt. How could they be so effeminate!

  I couldn't help but laugh and cry as I said to Old Lady Huang, "Well... thank you so much, I still have some things to attend to, I won't disturb your quiet cultivation, so I'll take my leave now."

  I really don't want to stay by this old lady's side for another moment, it's better to hurry back home and eat dumplings, that's the right thing to do on this New Year's day. Sigh.

  Huang San Tai Nai nodded and said to me: "Well, go back now. If you want to become Ma's apprentice in the future, come find me again."

  After that, the old lady floated to the wall, jumped up and disappeared. The warehouse was left with only me, I sighed, walked out of the warehouse and back into the house.

  My family was having dinner for the New Year's Eve, and my grandmother saw me coming back. She complained to me a bit: "You went out so late, what were you calling about? Come quickly and have some dumplings."

  I smiled at my grandmother and sat down at the table, curling up my little finger because I didn't dare let my family see my black fingernails, so I quickly picked up my chopsticks and ate the dumplings hastily before returning to my room.

  Lying in bed, I could still hear the sound of mahjong being played by my elders nearby. As I stared at this small fingernail, my mind became a mess again. I really didn't expect that on New Year's Day, things wouldn't calm down. It actually made me aware of that matter. I hope heaven will bless us so that those three Taoist priests can find the tobacco pipe and cauldron as soon as possible. If some kind of monster is really born, it would be a huge mess! Not to mention other places, but in Harbin, Old Yi and I are already struggling to take care of ourselves, how could we have the energy to suppress demons and monsters?

  Can't help but say, why are there so many people acting out of the blue these days? Are they tired of living a good life? Or do they have psychological problems, stealing 'taosui pi' and 'bai ren yuan' for no reason?

  Isn't this annoying? And that beast who let the female ghost go, damn it, what's the point of releasing a female ghost for no reason, causing me and Lao Yi to be worried and frightened for two years, and now there's still no clue.

  It's better to be an ordinary person, after all, ignorance is bliss, at least you can live a down-to-earth life.

  I suddenly have a feeling that if I can get through these two years, I'll return to Heilongjiang. I really don't want to live in fear and anxiety anymore. When the time comes, even if I'm just selling things on the street in Heilongjiang, it's still a stable life.

  Alas, forget it, no use thinking about it now. I stared at my shiny black fingernail and remembered what Old Lady Huang said - that this nail could stop bleeding. I suddenly became curious, so I sat up and used it to scratch the back of my left hand hard.

  The back of my left hand had been slashed open, and blood began to seep out. I started staring intently at the wound, waiting for the moment when a miracle would occur.

  Fifteen minutes later, my eyes felt a bit sour from being open, and that small mouth finally closed little by little. I swear, at the time I really wanted to find a pair of scissors to cut off those disgusting black fingernails.

  It took fifteen minutes to recover, is this what they call divine intervention? It seems like anyone with a bit of skill could have done it. Dammit, I feel like I've been played by that Huang San Tai Nai.

  They say time is merciless, and people are the same. You say I'm a big boy in my twenties, originally with five flaws and three shortcomings, and now my little fingernails are long, and it seems like I've applied a layer of black nail polish, making others think I'm a "second-rate person". Who can I reason with?

  Forget it, thinking about these things is useless anyway. Since I've come, I'll just make do with my situation. Thinking that heaven won't starve a blind man to death, I fell asleep in a daze.

  It's strange to say, but I had that dream about the escaping female ghost again. This is a dream I've had many times before. She still has her back to me and walks forward slowly, while I always end up chasing after her in a daze. When I finally grab her shoulder, as expected, I wake up.

  What does this broken dream mean, I opened my eyes and it was already the first morning of the Lunar New Year. Damn it, the first dream of the new year is still a nightmare, looks like this year won't be any better either.

  I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and suddenly remembered Old Wen's catchphrase: "Daydreams foretell good or bad fortune." Bah! I shook my head hastily - it seems that spending too much time with that old swindler has started to rub off on me. This won't do. What does that old guy know anyway?

  Luckily, the past few days after the New Year have been pretty calm, nothing's happened, and I've just been staying at home watching "Journey to the West". And that other one, "The Sequel to Journey to the West", looking at the monkey on TV who has a neck like someone with cervical spondylosis, can't even turn his head, doesn't even open his mouth when speaking. I once again felt the power of domestic TV dramas, the fight scenes are just like they're stuck on repeat, one shot can be replayed 5 or 6 times, it's ridiculous. The scariest part is that theme song, "I want to become immortal, happiness without bounds~~~". Can't understand how such a reactionary song could pass the audit.

  On the sixteenth of January, several elders in my family went to visit Liu's house on Mortar Mountain again. Of course, I followed them there too. The old courtyard of Liu's house was still as big as it was a few years ago, with chickens and ducks wandering around everywhere. However, time is unforgiving, and Old Lady Liu had even more white hair than before. Moreover, she seemed to have some cognitive issues - when she saw us arrive, although she still recognized us, she grabbed my grandfather's hand and kept muttering: "Have any of you seen my son outside? He went out to work so many years ago, why hasn't he come back yet?"

  My elders saw the old lady like this, and they hastily persuaded her, telling her some kind words of lies, no more than your eldest son is now making a name for himself outside, and he will come back after earning a lot of money.

  Alright, alright, old lady. Liu Ershu invited us to that house and indeed, there was no news about Liu Xi or Liu Dage at all. It's just that a few years ago, someone from the village who went out to work said they might have seen Liu Dage in Harbin, but it's just speculation and not confirmed.

  At this time, Liu Yudi called me out and went to her room. After returning home, Liu Yudi removed her light makeup and now had a bare face, looking very real.

  She told me that thanks to the sausage I gave her that day, the old lady praised her for bringing something back during the New Year and thought she was sensible, so this little girl especially thanked me.

  She sat on the bed, I sat on the stool, and while telling her it was nothing, I took stock of this small room, a typical girl's room with many dolls and toys, but the arrangement of these items was quite attractive to me. I had seen this in the ancient books at Wen Shu's store, which seemed to be a Feng Shui layout. A small fish tank hung from the window, with a small red fish swimming inside. If I wasn't mistaken, this seemed to be the "Golden Carp Turning into Dragon" formation.

  Of course, this device is not really able to turn that small red fish into a dragon, it's just a good omen for people with water fate, Liu Yudi is 'dry lotus getting water' fate, but this water is dead water, although clear but not dynamic, however, if there is such a Feng Shui device in the house, the water will become dynamic with fish.

  This must be Liu Ershu's doing, it's really pitiful for parents all over the world.

  In the afternoon, we set off back to Longjiang. Liu Yudi asked for my Harbin mobile number and said that if I had nothing to do, I could go find her to play. I nodded to her. To say that she and I have been quite compatible since childhood, after all, our attributes are mutually beneficial, I am wood and she is water.

  As for me, I have a typical petty bourgeois mentality. When something happens, I start thinking wildly. In my heart, I think that this girl is now so beautiful and it's really beyond my expectation. If something else happens between us, that would be great!

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but smile wryly. Forget it, they say when you're full and warm you think of romance, but now I still have the appearance of a short-lived person from two years ago, and with five weaknesses and three shortcomings weighing on me, even taking a deep breath is difficult.

  Forget it for now, let's think about how to find that female ghost when we return to Harbin the day after tomorrow first.

  I gazed out of the car window at the desolate Boluo Mountain, with its rolling hills. Although the mountains here are not particularly high, they have a unique beauty. In early spring, the snow had melted, leaving only the bare mountain ridges presenting a dark color.

  The afternoon sunlight shines through the car window and hits my face, warm and cozy, giving me a sense of laziness. The car is heading in the direction of Longjiang, but at this moment, I still haven't found my own direction.

  Let's take it one step at a time, don't worry about how far this step is, I've always been comforting myself like this.

  The scenery outside the window is constantly retreating, and a new year has begun like this.

  (Volume 2 ends, thank you for everyone's support, updating Volume 3 tonight.)