Xu xiao was a third-rate psychic. His daily grind involved hustling readings—palmistry, tarot, you name it—from a rickety table on a street corner, all to keep his three demanding shorthair cats in the Fancy Feast they felt entitled to. He claimed to glimpse fate, master energy flows, and banish “unclean entities.” Buyer beware. One day, a young man with an unsettling aura approached the stall. “Read my fortune.” The voice was flat, chilling. Xu xiao didn’t bother looking up. “Usual? Luck? Health?” His mind was on cat food budgets. “Love.” The young man stated. Xu xiao reached automatically for the proffered wrist to check the lines. The moment his fingers touched that unnaturally cool skin, his blood turned to ice. A single phrase exploded in his mind: Holy Hell! He saw ghosts—really saw them. His vision shattered and reformed. Translucent figures wailed as they drifted through the air. Twisted shadows crawled along the pavement. A hanged man swayed grotesquely from the streetlight across the way. A horrifying, high-def panorama of the restless dead, replacing his usual fuzzy hunches. What the actual f—? Before Xu xiao could process this terrifying “gift,” the young man spoke again, tone still disturbingly casual: “Also, Medium. My house has a problem. A nasty spirit. Can you remove it?” Every instinct screamed Danger! This guy was trouble wrapped in enigma. One touch and boom – spirit sight? His “nasty spirit” had to be apocalyptic-level. Xu xiao opened his mouth to refuse. This was way above his pay grade. Then— “Cha-ching!” The crisp notification sound from his phone. Xu xiao glanced down. His breath hitched. Banking app alert: a massive deposit had landed. The number of zeros was enough to keep him and his feline overlords in luxury for months. Poverty trumped prudence. Xu xiao’s head snapped up, eyes blazing with newfound fiscal devotion and a dash of reckless bravado. He thumped his chest. “You got it, man! Consider it gone! If I don’t bag that ghost…” He leaned in conspiratorially, “…I owe you myself.” (Mental footnote: Yeah, right. Like I’d stick around.) The strange ability to see the dead, bestowed by the mysterious young man, turned Xu xiao’s “cleansing” business into a goldmine. He could pinpoint spirits, making his “banishments”… highly efficient. Yet, bafflingly, the young man’s house remained stubbornly, eerily clean. Not a single wisp of ectoplasm. The infamous “nasty spirit” was a ghost… in the metaphorical sense. It all came crashing down during a supposedly routine job that led Xu xiao deep into the crypt-like basement of a derelict church. He’d underestimated his quarry. Cornered by a hulking entity reeking of sulfur, its fangs dripping corrosive slime, Xu xiao stared into a maw wide enough to snap his head clean off. Suddenly— A shadow blurred past. The young man! Moving with unnatural speed, he gripped the raging spirit’s shadowy throat—bare-handed—and, before Xu xiao’s petrified eyes, wrenched it apart like rotten cloth. Foul black ichor and spectral debris sprayed the crumbling walls. The young man flicked viscous gore from his fingers and turned. Ignoring the horde of lesser spirits drawn by the c*****e and swirling with hungry malice outside their immediate circle, he closed the distance to where Xu xiao cowered. That bloodied hand shot out, pinning Xu xiao hard against the damp, unforgiving stone wall. His body formed an inescapable cage of shadow. Leaning down, his breath cold against Xu xiao’s ear, the young man’s low voice held more terror than the combined shrieks of the surrounding entities: “Still haven’t found that spirit in my house, Medium?” A deliberate pause. Ichor smeared Xu xiao’s cheek from a careless touch. “So… when do you plan on paying your debt? When do I collect… you?” The cold touch and the implication froze Xu xiao’s core. —Oh, Fk! We are SO screwed!** Xu xiao squeezed his eyes shut, the last shred of denial obliterated. He’d found it. The immensely valuable “nasty spirit” he’d been hunting… was standing right in front of him. This terrifying, impossible creature hadn’t wanted an exorcism from the start. His target, all along, had been Xu xiao himself.