The elevator was very old. Zhao Mingyue felt an illusion that she couldn’t stand steady in it. She looked around the elevator interior. Just like the outside, it was covered in small, yellowed, faded advertisements clearly years old.
Zhao Mingyue examined them carefully. The contents were fairly normal: home appliance repair, drain unclogging, locksmith services, and a few moving companies.
“Eh, a missing person notice?”
Scanning around, near a corner, Zhao Mingyue spotted a yellowed piece of paper. The red text on it was still eye-catching: four large characters reading “Missing Person Notice.”
“Li Qingqing, female, 20 years old, went missing on June 28th, no contact established so far, reported to the Public Security Bureau…”
The content below described the clothes Li Qingqing was wearing when she vanished: a goose-yellow floral dress. Then some clues followed. The last time anyone saw her was near this apartment building, named Youth Apartment. Unfortunately, there weren’t many surveillance cameras installed here, so no one could pinpoint her exact location.
Below that was written, “Generous reward for any leads. Contact Mr. Yang,” along with an indistinct phone number, its last two digits too blurred to read.
Zhao Mingyue looked at the photo on it. It was very blurry; she could only vaguely see it was a girl wearing a dress.
At that moment, Chen Hao walked in. The elevator wasn’t large, and Zhao Mingyue immediately stood at the very back, because the smell on Chen Hao was truly too foul.
“That missing person notice has been there for five years.” Seeing Zhao Mingyue’s curiosity, Li Tian’an pressed the button for the sixth floor and spoke. “A man came to put it up. Li Qingqing was his wife. The last time I saw him, the man was already dead, but his ghost still wanders this apartment building.”
“Once it’s past midnight, he will inevitably appear and hand out missing person notices to passersby. Sometimes he even knocks on doors late at night.”
“This person said he could feel that his wife was inside this building.”
“I don’t know what happened after that. He hasn’t come around again.”
Zhao Mingyue nodded, her gaze shifting to the several small ads stuck on the elevator door after it closed. To her surprise, these were all for exorcist masters—Master Chen, Master Sun, with peach wood swords and Bagua mirrors engraved on them, depicted as incredibly effective.
She suddenly wondered if her boss promoted himself by sticking small ads in other people’s hallways, too.
The elevator reached the sixth floor, and the doors opened.
Compared to the first floor, the situation on the sixth floor wasn’t much better. There were fewer small ads in the corridor, but it was cluttered everywhere with residents’ junk. Amidst this junk, those incense burners could still be seen.
Wisps of black qi dissipated at the end of the corridor. Under the dim light, Zhao Mingyue checked the time on her phone: it showed 8:40 PM.
“So gloomy.” Stepping into the corridor, Zhao Mingyue looked ahead.
The corridor only had rooms along the north wall. The south side was just a solid wall, without a single window.
Looking along the north side, Zhao Mingyue roughly counted six rooms in total. Chen Hao’s apartment was the innermost one—Room 606.
Judging by the elevator’s floor buttons, the building only had nine floors, not too tall. The problem wasn’t really the height. The issue was that all the rooms were on the north side. It naturally lacked daylight, and the south side of the hallway was completely blocked off.
Anyway, the more she looked, the stranger she found it. This kind of building didn’t even seem fit for the living.
“Let’s go, follow me.”
Li Tian’an stepped out of the elevator, carrying his black case.
“This evil spirit is very powerful. Just play it by ear when we get there, and help me restrain her.”
Walking ahead, he turned back to speak to Zhao Mingyue. However, before he could even finish, the door to the innermost room in the corridor creaked open, emitting a clear, sharp sound in the gloomy, silent hallway.
All three slowed their pace, their gazes converging on the doorway of Room 606. A middle-aged man wearing a yellow Daoist robe walked out, holding a Bagua compass, muttering something.
“I told you, your matter is extremely troublesome. A whole room full of ghosts. So if you want my help, you have to give me some benefits. We agreed on thirty thousand, not a penny less!”
The Daoist-dressed middle-aged man spoke with extreme impatience. “If you think you can find someone more skilled than me in Tianchang City, go ahead. Anyway, I’m not helping you.”
“But, young lady, I can see you’re also entangled in baleful aura. Blood aura winds around your three life-fires. Your forehead is dark, and your eyes are dim. I tell you, if you don’t resolve this, you’re destined to meet a violent death within three months.”
“Your situation, you don’t need me to elaborate. Deep down, you know it yourself. Think carefully. Living in an environment like this every day, how could you possibly not be haunted by ghosts?”
“Your family matter, I contribute effort and take payment. No money, then I can’t waste my effort for free. Everyone has their own affairs, right?”
“Then again, we Taoists also believe that saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. In your situation, I can’t just watch you die and do nothing. Add my contact info first. Tomorrow, I’ll give you an address. You come find me alone.”
“Who in Tianchang City doesn’t know me, Half-Immortal Qian? With my level of skill, helping you out will be a breeze. And I won’t even charge you any money then.”
Just as the middle-aged Daoist finished speaking, Li Tian’an’s voice sounded. “Swindling money and preying on women. Looks like you’re the one entangled in the baleful aura.”
The three of them reached the door and saw the Daoist’s face clearly.
He was in his forties, with a pointed mouth, monkey-like cheeks, and a couple of tufts of goat beard. Call him a stereotypical charlatan, and yes, he had that look, but at a cursory glance, he still carried some air of a master.
Inside the room, Chen Hao’s eldest daughter, Chen Tianran, stood quietly. She wore a white short-sleeved top and shorts, her pair of snowy-white, long, straight legs drawing sidelong glances. Her figure could be described as curvaceous and hot. As for her face, without that makeup smeared on, she could actually be considered a beauty.
“What, who are you?” Half-Immortal Qian sized up Li Tian’an from head to toe, and then his gaze was immediately captured by Zhao Mingyue, who had followed in.
With just one glance, he found it hard to look away.
This young lady was perfect, as if every single centimeter of her, from top to bottom, inside and out, perfectly matched his preferences.
“Dad.” Inside the room, Chen Tianran spoke blandly, spotting Chen Hao outside the door.
Chen Hao’s expression was terrible at this moment. Seeing Half-Immortal Qian, how could he not understand his daughter’s intentions? He quickly stepped forward. “Chen Tianran, you invited this person?!”
“You!”
“Dad, you couldn’t find anyone, so I went to find someone myself.”
Chen Hao’s anger instantly flared. Before he could start shouting, Li Tian’an’s hand rested on his shoulder.
Shaking his head, Li Tian’an signaled for him to stop.
“Since he’s already here, let this Half-Immortal Qian join us.”
Hearing himself mentioned, Half-Immortal Qian immediately snapped back to his senses and coughed once. “Ahem, oh, so you’ve brought someone else, huh. Well then, don’t let yourselves be fooled. There are plenty of people impersonating us Daoist disciples these days.”
Before he could finish speaking, it was as if Zhao Mingyue had a magnet installed on her, drawing Half-Immortal Qian’s gaze right back to her.
Zhao Mingyue felt annoyed by his blatant stare.
“Half-Immortal Qian, is it?” Manager Li reached up and adjusted his collar, his every gesture exuding mature masculine charm. He said plainly, “I suggest you stop your wandering eyes. Otherwise, the blood calamity foretold for today will fall on your own head.”
“Hmph.”
Before Half-Immortal Qian could even retort, Li Tian’an ignored him completely and walked inside.
Chen Hao followed behind, casting a deep glance at Half-Immortal Qian as he passed him. Those bloodshot eyes made Half-Immortal Qian’s heart clench.
Zhao Mingyue followed behind and quickly entered too.
And then, she stared, dumbfounded, a sentence almost involuntarily escaping her lips.
“Why is it YOU again!”
Yes, inside the living room, she saw that familiar figure again: it was Lu Liangting himself.
Zhao Mingyue was exasperated. She and this person Lu Liangting seemed to be fated to meet excessively. Whenever there was a mission, nine times out of ten, she ran into him. Although meeting him wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, the problem was the awkwardness. Lu Liangting was currently fixated on Bai Yu, practically to the point of obsession.
Bai Yu was her… well… she was her female ghost, more family than family! No way she wanted Lu Liangting to poach her!
What if Bai Yu saw that Lu Liangting was handsome, gentle, considerate, and rich, and then got tricked into going with him!
She had no precedent for this, which was exactly why she didn’t want Bai Yu to become that “precedent.”
“Mingyue?”
Lu Liangting stood up from the living room sofa.
Zhao Mingyue resisted the urge to facepalm, leaving only helplessness.
She knew it. That’s what that girl’s motorcycle was doing down there. So, you’ve been here ever since you got hijacked and haven’t left, right? You even skipped class just to stay at this girl’s house!
Actually, Zhao Mingyue had truly misunderstood Lu Liangting.
After being dragged away, he and Chen Tianran had a very strange posture in discussing life—specifically, Chen Tianran’s life.
Only after he had repeatedly promised to come to Chen Tianran’s house after school did she let him leave.
He had rushed over as fast as possible. That Daoist surname Qian had arrived shortly after him.
He originally hadn’t wanted to stay, but out of kindness and to keep an eye on Half-Immortal Qian, Lu Liangting had remained until now.
“Lu Liangting, what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help her handle some things. What about you?”
“I guess we’re pretty much the same. I’m also here to deal with this matter.” Zhao Mingyue was utterly resigned and simply stood in a corner nearby.
“Manager, what is this about?” Lu Liangting looked at the people in the room, confused, not understanding the situation.
“As you can see, it’s a little side job.” The manager smiled slightly, his voice gentle and calm. “I get bored at home normally. Idle hands, you know.”
“Then I’ll be troubling you, Manager. Chen Tianran is my… is my friend. I heard about her situation and came to help. I also know a thing or two.”
“Haha, not bad, young man.”
The manager patted Lu Liangting on the shoulder.
It was also at this moment that Half-Immortal Qian started muttering again. “Just a snot-nosed kid who hasn’t seen the real world. Dares to claim he understands ghosts. Tch, mistaking fantasy for reality is pretty dangerous. I’ve seen more ghosts than you’ve even heard of, including quite a few Ghost Kings.”
As he spoke, he didn’t forget to look towards Zhao Mingyue. “The young lady is quite curious about this sort of thing, I imagine. I’ve seen a lot—far more terrifying things than this. I can tell you about it sometime when I’m free.”
“No need. I don’t want to listen.” Zhao Mingyue stood in the corner. She suddenly noticed Lu Liangting holding the black phone in his hand, and what seemed to be the spinning wheel page on the screen.
She had used this spinning wheel thing once herself and had been lucky enough to draw a fierce ghost.
She didn’t know much about that fierce ghost’s strength, but it was considered good luck nonetheless.
And then? Then Bai Yu had eaten her “good luck.”
It was also that time she realized something: perhaps, from now on, she would never have any new ghosts again. In Bai Yu’s eyes, any ghost weaker than her was trash, destined only to be eaten.
But that was fine, too. Having Bai Yu alone was completely enough. Any drawn ghost could just serve as experience points for Bai Yu.
Speaking of which, would a ghost drawn by Lu Liangting also end up as Bai Yu’s meal?
Inside the living room, several people gathered to discuss the matter.
To call it a discussion, it was really just the manager gathering information, while Half-Immortal Qian made sarcastic remarks nearby, and Chen Hao tried his best to recall recent events.
Lu Liangting didn’t interject. He glanced down at his black phone, his eyes flickering. Making an excuse, he prepared to leave.
Chen Tianran stood off to the other side, staring at Zhao Mingyue, a fruit knife twirling in her hand.
Zhao Mingyue clearly saw: leaning against the wall in the living room, on a table next to Chen Tianran, lay handcuffs, ropes, and a self-defense stun gun.
None of those three items meant much individually, but seeing them all together made it hard not to let one’s imagination run wild.
You had to admit, Lu Liangting’s ability to stand there perfectly intact was probably thanks to Chen Tianran not having a basement in her house…
“I’m going out for a moment, too.”
After Lu Liangting left, Zhao Mingyue followed him out.
Closing the door, they stood in the corridor.
Lu Liangting stared intently at the black phone’s screen. Noticing Zhao Mingyue approaching, he spoke. “This is a reward from after returning from Eternal Life Village. I haven’t used it yet, worried I’d draw another fierce ghost.”
“But this time is different. I hope to draw a ghost.”
“Why?” Zhao Mingyue asked, puzzled.
“Because the thing inside is too strong. I can’t deal with it alone. I need to find another helper.”
Since everyone here had this black phone, Lu Liangting didn’t hide it or avoid Zhao Mingyue.
It was just as he said. He actually wanted to draw a fierce ghost.
A fierce ghost was a mixed bag. If it was willing to follow orders, then it was a jackpot. If he drew something like that thing in his shadow… then it was bad luck.
He tapped the screen, held his breath, and focused on the content.
The wheel spun, stopping a few seconds later.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a Fierce Ghost Item]
[Wife’s Phone]
[I clearly killed her. I stripped away her flesh and blood, buried her bones, and sank her skull to the bottom of the water. But why… why can I still receive messages from her?]
[Holding this item, you will summon the Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost: Wang Lin]
A blood-stained flip phone appeared in Lu Liangting’s pocket. He pulled it out.
He had drawn a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost. This feeling was indeed a bit too thrilling.
A Red-Clothed Ghost, an apex among ghosts, completely surpassing ordinary ghosts in every way.
If it followed orders, his team’s strength would increase significantly.
Then, amidst Lu Liangting’s nervous anticipation, he didn’t notice that Zhao Mingyue’s shadow was fluctuating.
