Chapter 134: The Memory Spirit

  Pan Linkai pushed open the window. 

  Outside, the night was deep and oppressive. 

  The sky was pitch black, and the neon lights of the city felt impossibly far away. 

  Pan Linkai didn't care about anything anymore—he just wanted to escape. 

  *Knock, knock, knock.* 

  The knocking continued. 

  "Lin Kai, are you okay? Say something." 

  The clear, urgent voice of Lu Fei momentarily brought him back to his senses, but he quickly shook his head, regaining his resolve. 

  "I won't fall for it again!" 

  With a bitter laugh, he gripped the window ledge. 

  At that moment, the door slammed open. 

  Two figures burst into the room. 

  "There he is!" 

  "Lin Kai, don't do anything stupid!" 

  Lu Fei's loud command came just as a tall figure rushed forward and pulled Pan Linkai back from the window. 

  "Don't touch me! Stay away from me!" Pan Linkai screamed, struggling violently in terror. 

  Fortunately, Tiger's strength was enough to pin him down. 

  "Lin Kai, get a grip!" 

  Lu Fei infused his hand with magic and slapped Pan Linkai's face twice. 

  The shock jolted Pan Linkai, and he stared at Lu Fei, red-faced and trembling. 

  "Y-you're really Lu Fei?" 

  "Does your face hurt?" Lu Fei asked. 

  "Yes." 

  "Then it's real." 

  "…?" 

  Pan Linkai blinked in confusion, then looked at Lu Fei and Tiger. His eyes reddened, and tears began to well up. 

  "Lu Fei, you're finally here!" 

  Tiger released him and wiped the sweat off his forehead. 

  "Brother, you're harder to handle than a pig on New Year's Eve!" 

  "I thought you were ghosts…" Pan Linkai said sheepishly, standing up and trembling as he tried to steady himself. "Lu Fei, when the call disconnected, I thought you weren't coming to save me. I kept trying to call, but I couldn't get through, and then…" 

  "I didn't hang up. I thought you hung up on me. When I tried calling back, I couldn't reach you either. Luckily, I got your address from the class monitor," Lu Fei explained, frowning slightly. 

  "Why did the call disconnect? Was it…?" Pan Linkai shuddered, his fear returning. "Then later, when I called, it wasn't you who answered—it was a ghost pretending to be you! It tried to trick me into opening the door. I almost believed it…" 

  "A ghost pretending to be me?" Lu Fei said thoughtfully. "Where's your phone?" 

  "I threw it in the living room—I was too scared to hold it." 

  "Let's check it out." 

  Lu Fei turned and walked to the living room. He quickly found the shattered phone lying on the floor. 

  Picking it up, he examined it closely. His expression turned strange. 

  Pan Linkai followed nervously. 

  "Lu Fei, how can I make Haitao stop haunting me? Should we just destroy his phone? I can replace it for his parents." 

  "It's not Haitao's phone," Lu Fei said, holding up the blood-stained phone from his pocket and comparing it to Pan Linkai's broken phone. "Haitao's phone has been with me the whole time. It hasn't caused any trouble—the messages and calls didn't come from it." 

  Pan Linkai looked baffled. 

  "Then what's going on?" 

  "The problem lies with your phone." Lu Fei held up the shattered device. It was faintly surrounded by tendrils of black energy, though invisible to Pan Linkai. 

  "Mine?" 

  Pan Linkai stared at his phone in shock. 

  "But wasn't Haitao the one sending me those messages?" 

  Lu Fei considered for a moment and explained, "Think of it this way: Haitao's phone was indeed contaminated by something unclean, but that entity later transferred to your phone." 

  "What?" 

  Pan Linkai felt like his brain had short-circuited. He understood every word but couldn't make sense of them together. 

  "There's a ghost hiding in your phone," Lu Fei clarified. "It's been using calls and messages to scare you, chipping away at your mental state until you're driven to suicide." 

  "A ghost… in my phone?" 

  Pan Linkai recoiled, his eyes wide with terror. 

  "How did my phone get haunted?" 

  "Because you visited Haitao's house," Lu Fei replied. 

  "But you went there too! Why didn't it go after you?" Pan Linkai asked miserably. 

  "Think back—when Aunt Guo brought out Haitao's phone, weren't only the two of us there?" 

  "Yes…" Pan Linkai nodded, his face clouding with misfortune. "But you're a Taoist practitioner. Of course, the ghost wouldn't dare target you." 

  "That's not the reason," Lu Fei said. "The ghost was likely drawn to you specifically." 

  "What?" Pan Linkai's mind froze again. 

  "This entity is a special kind of malevolent spirit. Unlike others with fixed forms, this one is born from longing and resentment—it's called a Memory Spirit. It attaches itself to objects and lingers near those who dwell on it the most." 

  Lu Fei's expression turned contemplative. 

  "It's like the law of attraction: the more you think about Haitao, the more it clings to you." 

  "This is ridiculous!" Pan Linkai finally understood, but the realization left him feeling utterly defeated. 

  The entity had latched onto him because he couldn't let go of Haitao's death. 

  "Aunt Guo was affected the same way," Lu Fei continued. "That's why she received 'calls' from Haitao and started acting irrationally. Once the dark energy on her phone was dealt with, she began to recover." 

  Memory Spirits lose their power once exposed. 

  "Lu Fei, can you get rid of the spirit on my phone too?" Pan Linkai pleaded. 

  "Of course, but we have to follow the rules of the Evil Pawnshop," Lu Fei said with a smile, pulling out a pawn ticket. "To resolve the problem, you'll need to pawn the haunted item to me. Since your phone has no monetary value, it'll be a live pawn." 

  "Whatever it takes!" Pan Linkai quickly filled out the ticket and signed it. 

  The terms were simple: one-day live pawn, service fee 5,000 yuan. 

  It was everything Pan Linkai could afford—his entire monthly salary. 

  Lu Fei didn't mind. He wasn't doing it for the money. 

  Infusing his jujube wood stick with magic, Lu Fei tapped the shattered phone lightly. 

  The black energy dissipated instantly. 

  "All done. No more problems," Lu Fei said, handing the phone back to Pan Linkai along with a copy of the pawn ticket. 

  Another cursed item had been dealt with. 

  As they left Pan Linkai's apartment, Lu Fei felt a sense of accomplishment. 

  Sometimes, helping others had unexpected rewards. His collection of cursed items was now up to eight—one step closer to his goal of a hundred. 

  Later, he returned Guo Haitao's phone to Aunt Guo. 

  She had regained some clarity and was calmer, though the grief of losing her son would haunt the couple for the rest of their lives. 

  The phone issue was resolved, but the mystery of why Guo Haitao had died in the school's haunted dorm remained unsolved. 

  Lu Fei decided he'd visit the school when he had time. 

  After all, who knew? He might encounter more cursed objects there. 

  Just then, an unexpected customer arrived at the pawnshop. 

  The man wore a white robe and carried a peachwood longsword on his back. 

  "Is Shopkeeper Lu in? I've got a big deal for you!"