Seeing how seriously her mom was discussing spiritual energy with her childhood friend, Chen Shuanghe was completely baffled:
"Wait, Mom! You actually believe this stuff?"
At this point, Auntie Chen saw no reason to hide it anymore:
"You have no idea about Miaozhu's family's abilities! Back when your dad's grave was flooded, I didn't want you kids getting curious and meddling with things you shouldn't, so I asked her not to tell you! At the time, we had dreams—your dad came to us!"
"!!!" Chen Shuanghe was stunned. "Mom! Is Miaozhu your childhood friend or mine? How do you know more about her than I do?"
Memories of visiting the grave resurfaced, and she turned to Song Miaozhu: "You saw my dad?"
Song Miaozhu nodded. "When I first came back and visited your shop, he was following behind you. He was soaking wet and told me the tombstone was cracked, water had seeped in, and he couldn't stay there anymore."
Chen Shuanghe's jaw dropped. She looked back at her mom. "And you knew too?"
"Yes. Interacting with spirits can shorten your lifespan! It's better not to know these things!" Aunt Chen was still worried. "Miaozhu, won't we be in danger if this keeps up?"
"Spiritual energy can repel ghosts. Once you've cultivated enough, you shouldn't have to fear them anymore. Until then, if any spirits bother you, just let me know—I can drive them away! Avoiding this won't help. As spiritual energy revives, ghosts will grow stronger in the mortal realm. Being able to see them is safer than not."
Knowing Aunt Chen had always avoided supernatural matters, Song Miaozhu reassured her:
"Spiritual energy has benefits too! Have you heard about that Su embroidery master online who recovered from cancer? That was also related to spiritual energy."
"I know about that! So spiritual energy can heal illnesses too?" Aunt Chen immediately felt more at ease. "Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all!"
"Wait, Miaozhu, you've always been able to see ghosts? So that ghost cat you mentioned before…" Chen Shuanghe finally put the pieces together.
"It was real," Song Miaozhu confirmed.
"Then when can I see them? I want to visit my dad!" Chen Shuanghe said.
Her father had passed away when she was very young, and she could barely remember his face now.
"It's hard to say. My 'Heavenly Eye' opened before the spiritual energy revival."
Miaozhu looked at her seriously. "But I do know that if you want to open your Heavenly eye sooner, stop fussing making the same damn stir-fried pork with chili over and over. So far, that's the only dish you've made that can attract spiritual energy. And the energy's not even entering you, it's entering the food!"
"What? Just one dish?" Chen Shuanghe was stunned. "Didn't you say the better your skills, the easier it is to attract spiritual energy? None of my other dishes work?"
"They're not completely ineffective, but they're not as good as your chili-fried pork," Song Miaozhu admitted.
Chen Shuanghe: "..."
This was an even bigger blow than finding out her mom and best friend had been keeping secrets from her.
"What about me?" Aunt Chen asked, suddenly curious.
"The dishes you just made were the same—they attracted energy, but only into the food, not into your body."
"I thought I'd perfected my signature recipes by now. Turns out I've still got a long way to go!"Aunt Chen let out a deep sigh. "Shuanghe, we're switching places in the kitchen tomorrow!"
Chen Shuanghe: "..."
Great. Now her mom to was canceling her retirement and coming back to compete for the kitchen again!
Sensing the brewing domestic war, Song Miaozhu quickly took her leave. Before she even reached the shop's front door, she could hear mother and daughter already arguing over who would cook tomorrow.
She rode her e-bike back to Huaihua Alley.
After folding some golden lotus flowers in the shop, she headed to the ghost shop's warehouse at 11 p.m. to practice paper crafting. With more and more examples of spiritual energy absorption emerging, Song Miaozhu had been working harder than ever on her paper crafts.
Though industrialization had led to the decline of traditional crafts, there were still plenty of skilled masters out there. Her own skills couldn't compare to those veteran artisans, and the spiritual energy she attracted was far less than theirs.
Even if those masters needed more spiritual energy to nourish their bodies and couldn't even see it yet, Song Miaozhu worried that despite her early advantage in knowledge and heritage, her lack of technical skill might cause her to fall behind as spiritual energy continued to revive.
After all, the time between the initial spiritual energy revival and the full surge of the spiritual tide was limited. She didn't know exactly how long it would last, but eventually, spiritual energy would wane, leading to an Dharma Ending Era.
If she didn't achieve significant cultivation before the spiritual tide ended, then once the era of decline arrived—with no spiritual energy left and her own spiritual power depleted—she would be left with nothing but death.
Having learned about the spiritual revival early and being ahead in cultivation, how could she accept such an outcome?
The only thing she could do now was improve her paper crafting skills.
Fortunately, both employees at the ghost shop were now fully trained and could handle everything on their own. Song Miaozhu only needed to prepare product information for online orders, purchase them, and have them delivered to the warehouse. With that done, she still had plenty of time to practice paper crafting.
The next day, as more spiritual energy merged with her eyes, Song Miaozhu's vision changed again.
At first, she didn't notice anything unusual. But while eating and scrolling through her phone, she came across a livestream by the "Intangible Heritage Bamboo Paper Family" featuring Grandpa Wu Zhuxiang—and suddenly, she spotted a faint gray aura around him that didn't look good.
The aura was darkest around his chest, almost turning black.
Song Miaozhu stood up to check herself in the mirror and realized that her entire body, except for a coin-sized spot between her eyebrows, was emitting a faint, colorful glow—just like spiritual energy. This glow, like spiritual energy, seemed to exist on another layer of her vision, not obstructing her sight.
Realizing this glow might be the mark of spiritual energy merging with her body, she went back to watch Master He's embroidery videos. In the videos recorded after Master He's pancreatic cancer diagnosis, she too had a faint gray aura, darkest around her upper left abdomen.
But as she embroidered and spiritual energy merged with her body, the dark gray aura gradually faded. In the most recent video, the aura around her upper left abdomen had lightened to the same faint gray as the rest of her body.
Discovering this, Song Miaozhu immediately called Zhao Mumu:
"Mumu, point the camera at Grandpa Zhao. I need to see something."