I can rewind time to prevent death

Both of their cell phone flashlights were turned on, temporarily illuminating the room.

Zhang Xiaomo's hands were indeed very cold, something Yan Junze hadn't noticed before, mainly because he hadn't had the opportunity to touch her hands.

"Where's Granny Ren?" asked Yan Junze.

"She ran away, I was just about to finish her off," replied Zhang Xiaomo.

"Is Lin Dong alright?" Yan Junze asked again.

"He's fine," Zhang Xiaomo shook her head, "I've already severed his spirit-splitting and cleared all the magnetic fields of interference from next door. Granny Ren's yin energy is greatly diminished, and she can't reset up the interference; Lin Dong is safe for now."

Just then, footsteps could be heard from upstairs, and soon the lights on the second floor were turned on.

The male tenant, Lin Ling, wearing slippers, clattered down the stairs – obviously, the shrill screams of Resentful Granny had awakened this young couple from their sleep.

Although he didn't know what had happened, out of concern for his downstairs neighbors, Lin Ling still came down to check.

Zhang Xiaomo had hurried over and immediately took action against Resentful Granny, so the outer door hadn't been closed at the moment.

Yan Junze walked to the door, and just as Lin Ling was coming down the stairs, he looked up at the extinguished lights, puzzled, "Did the wiring burn out? I just heard someone yelling."

Yan Junze nodded and smiled, "It just burned out all of a sudden, sparks flew out and scared my girlfriend into screaming. Sorry for disturbing you."

"It's no trouble, no trouble at all," Lin Ling glanced at part of the ceiling wiring that was scorched black, "It's too late now for nighttime work, I'll come over and replace it for you tomorrow during the day. I learned electrical work before going to university, and I have ready-to-use wires at home."

"Then we'll be troubling you," said Yan Junze.

"You all should get some rest early too," Lin Ling said with a smile, glancing at the Strangeness Interferer in Yan Junze's arms, feeling a bit weird inside, and turned to go upstairs.

After closing the door, Yan Junze and Zhang Xiaomo said nothing more.

Although Resentful Granny hadn't been finished off, she had been badly damaged, and they were at least safe for the next couple of days.

They both slept in their clothes when they went back to bed.

Yan Junze didn't know when he fell asleep, but as soon as it was light out, he woke up.

He checked next door, and Lin Dong seemed lethargic, lying in bed.

However, according to Zhang Xiaomo, Lin Dong's body would recover after a few days of rest and there was no major issue.

The young couple upstairs were indeed nice people. After seeing Yan Junze and Zhang Xiaomo get up, Lin Ling immediately came down with his tools, and in just about half an hour, he had replaced the burned-out wiring in the room and installed new fuses.

Soon electricity was restored to the room.

At this point, Yan Junze always felt as if he had forgotten something, but after sitting in the room for a long time, he couldn't figure it out.

"I have three more days to protect you; I hope we can kill her in that time," Zhang Xiaomo suddenly said as the day was coming to an end.

With Resentful Granny injured and it not being the usual nerve-wracking situation, the fourth day passed quickly.

On the evening of the fifth day, the young couple upstairs cordially invited Zhang Xiaomo and Yan Junze to have dinner with them, and they even brought back a bunch of fresh ingredients, but Zhang Xiaomo still declined.

Eating the clear soup noodles in his bowl, Yan Junze looked up, frustrated, and asked Zhang Xiaomo, "Can we take the initiative instead of being passive, and go directly to Granny Ren's grandmother's house?"

"Not very realistic," Zhang Xiaomo shook her head, "Searching for strangenesses requires a lot of equipment and the cost is too high."

Yan Junze nodded, "Hmm, if I were the President of Great Capital, this problem would be easily solved."

Zhang Xiaomo looked at him and suddenly revealed a smile, "If you were the President of Great Capital, it wouldn't be my job as a three-star exorcist to protect you."

As soon as it got dark, Zhang Xiaomo would routinely close the door.

The light bulbs had been replaced with two new ones by Lin Ling, and they were much brighter than the previous ones.

When it was time to sleep, neither Yan Junze nor Zhang Xiaomo slept. They were each flipping through their phones and books, having a desultory conversation.

Who knew that shortly after eleven o'clock, an inexplicable noise began to emanate from upstairs.

The sound had rhythm, as if a wooden board was being compressed, followed by a disjointed noise that quickly escalated to indescribable levels.

Shit!

Yan Junze immediately sensed something was wrong and glanced at Zhang Xiaomo, who was still browsing on her phone.

"Let's sleep."

Zhang Xiaomo decisively turned off her phone screen, placed the phone on the bedside table, turned over and covered herself with the quilt, but her right hand habitually rested on the magnetic knife under her pillow.

"Yeah, let's sleep."

Yan Junze also put down his book, took off his glasses, and lay down to cover himself with the quilt.

They said sleep, but the sounds from upstairs were soul-stirring and intermittent, relentlessly piercing their ears.

Yan Junze soon realized that his heartbeat was accelerating and he couldn't suppress it.

On the other side of the partitioned bedding, it seemed that Zhang Xiaomo was also not sleeping very well, tossing and turning frequently.

Yan Junze was sure she hadn't fallen asleep either.

After what felt like an eternity, the sounds from upstairs finally ceased.

By then, Yan Junze had already envisioned Zhang Xiaomo, who lay on the other side, as the Resentful Granny he had seen the night before. With that image, the urge subsided, as did the expectations and illusions, and he felt a lot better.

Yep, only a straight man suffering from toxic masculinity would do something like this.

In the rental unit on the second floor.

Su Muyao, who had already put on her pajamas, lay on the bed with a flushed face and still panting, while her boyfriend Lin Dong had gone to get a drink of water.

Su Muyao knew Lin Dong's habit; every time after they did the deed, he always had to put something in his mouth, whether it was eating fruit or drinking water, he wouldn't just idle around.

"This guy, it feels like he's holding back some energy," Su Muyao said with a smile, her eyes closed as she rested, looking content.

Lin Dong, wearing shorts and bare-chested, went to the kitchen, opened the fridge door, rummaged for something to eat, and soon took out a bottle of yogurt and took a big gulp after twisting open the lid.

Feeling much more comfortable, Lin Dong closed the fridge door and was about to go back to the bedroom when he suddenly noticed something under the sofa.

He didn't turn on the light but instead used the moonlight shining in from the window to look under the sofa.

"Could it be hair again?"

Lin Dong remembered that just two days ago he had cleaned out a clump of grayish-white hair from under the sofa.

When that clump of hair was found, it also contained an indescribable black viscous liquid, stuck to the hair and emitting a fishy stench. Afterwards, Lin Dong and Su Muyao scraped up all that liquid and hair into a plastic bag and threw it out.

Thus, Su Muyao had also checked other places, not finding any more hair, and she had mopped under the sofa several times as well.

In the dim moonlight, it seemed like there was something under the sofa.

Lin Dong crouched down, reached out to touch it, and then pulled it out.

In his hand was a clump of grayish-white hair, quite a large clump, almost the size of wigs sold on the street.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lin Dong was stunned for a moment, just standing there in front of the sofa, staring at the hair in his hand.

The hair also had traces of black viscous liquid, clumping it all together, with a faint fishy smell wafting through.

After a moment, Lin Dong suddenly, without a word, stretched out the hair and then... rigidly placed it on his own head.

"Darling, what are you doing? Be careful not to catch a cold, come back to bed and sleep," called Su Muyao's voice from the bedroom.