Putting down her phone, Bai Yu drew the curtains and stood by the window, hands clasped behind her back, silently gazing at the night scenery outside. Being in the suburbs, the view was quite pleasant.
The information Shen Shuyun had released was very important. The ability to extract any single piece of equipment from her past life—no matter which one, as long as it was gear she had on her at the time—would be a massive boost. If she could draw out her “Nightlight,” her strength could be said to at least double.
“Nightlight” was her saber, a weapon that had fought with her from the first mission to the last, accompanying her as she cut down countless powerful foes. Its attributes had been elevated to a height that perfectly matched her strength back then.
After gaining a new identity, everything started from scratch. All her equipment was gone, and Nightlight had vanished.
She was a practitioner of blade techniques. A long saber that matched her was even more important than an arm. So, when she condensed a long saber from blood threads, it was basically in the shape of Nightlight. Anyone familiar with her could roughly guess her identity just by seeing the shape of her long saber.
“Redemption task…”
She still had one redemption task remaining. The mission location was Eternal Life Village, and the target was the Dragon Girl.
Come to think of it, everyone had their own past, a memory they were unwilling to dredge up. For people like them, some things truly couldn’t be spoken of. So, if that evil god inside Zhao Mingyue used this ability on this group of lunatics, it definitely wouldn’t live very long.
Bai Yu stood by the window for over two hours, witnessing the morning sun rise from the horizon.
As a ghost, her power peaked at night and decreased during the day, by about ten percent. She increasingly loathed sunlight. A heavily overcast day, the kind that oppressed ordinary people’s hearts, was just perfect for her.
Behind her, on the double bed, Zhao Mingyue’s alarm clock rang punctually. With a soft groan, she reached out a slender arm to turn it off. Her pale hand didn’t quickly retreat back under the covers as usual; instead, it patted the other half of the bed’s pillow. Finding nothing there, she felt under the blanket.
“Little Sister Yu!?” Zhao Mingyue sat up with a rustle, turning her head to scan the room. Her gaze stopped on the figure by the window.
“So you’re there. I thought you had run back into my shadow.” Zhao Mingyue scratched her messy hair. After a yawn, she reached up and pulled the fallen shoulder strap back into place, covering the large expanse of exposed spring scenery.
“But speaking of which, Little Sister Yu, weren’t you sleeping here? Why did you run off again?”
“I woke up.” Bai Yu turned around and replied flatly.
She stood by the window. In Zhao Mingyue’s vision, she was backlit, and for a moment, she felt a sense of unreachability—near at hand yet far away, somewhat unreal.
Zhao Mingyue was silent for a long moment, then curled up her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Bai Yu, don’t stand there, okay?”
“What?”
“No, it’s just… you’re a ghost. Standing in the sunlight, don’t you feel a bit strange? Like, your body feels uncomfortable?”
“No.”
“Alright then. I need to get up quickly; I have school today.” Zhao Mingyue shook her head, changed out of her pajamas, and went to wash up and make breakfast.
Today happened to be Monday. She had already taken several days off, and it was time to go back to class. But there was no way the gossip at school would disappear so quickly in just a few days. She was bound to be stared at when she got there.
During breakfast, Zhao Mingyue watched the news as usual.
The city news mentioned the school killer was still at large. The news anchor lady very thoughtfully reminded all teachers and students to get picked up by parents or travel in groups when going to and from school.
Then there was a criminal case: a family of three was murdered. The police had yet to find any useful clues and had simply opened a reward—anyone providing leads could get a reward ranging from fifty thousand to one hundred fifty thousand.
Besides this, another case was reported about a bus. A bus that should have been at the bus company was found out in the wild the next day with three unidentified bodies inside.
And one more incident Zhao Mingyue was familiar with: the Tianyang County taxi accident, where two people died on the spot.
“Why do I keep feeling these things are done by the people from the Ghost Domain?”
“What are these guys trying to do? Aren’t they after fierce ghosts? Could it be there aren’t enough fierce ghosts, so they have to manually create some?”
She hadn’t paid much attention to the news before, having only started recently. Everyone said the crime rate seemed to have gone up, with strange cases appearing frequently that even the police found baffling.
Scrolling through a phone livestream, she found an outdoor streamer with a huge following. Even early in the morning, there were fifty thousand viewers online. Judging by the comments, this streamer seemed to have done something big last night. Many people in the chat were saying it was too exciting, while others warned the streamer to be careful and not to actually provoke any ghosts.
The moment that comment appeared, someone else immediately followed up, “Are you stupid? There are no ghosts in this world. Those are all props—what are you afraid of, props coming to life?”
“Bai Yu, Bai Yu, look! It seems to be a ghost hunting streamer.” Zhao Mingyue pushed her phone in front of Bai Yu.
“Alright, brothers, today’s stream ends here. Xiao Sun here is going to the hotel next door to catch some sleep. Three days later, on the night three days from now, okay, we’ll see each other in Tianchang City.”
“Xiao Sun here will first reveal a little secret. It’s said there’s an abandoned amusement park in Tianchang City. This park was built fifteen years ago because the boss was running a human organ trafficking operation underneath it—a black market kind of thing, you know.”
“Too many people died unjustly there, and slowly, supernatural events started being reported from the amusement park.”
“Someone saw the powered-off merry-go-round start up on its own, with a few pale-faced ghost children sitting on it. Someone said they passed by the amusement park late at night and saw a child with a lollipop run off, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Then two people with pale skin and not a trace of blood would appear and ask if you’ve seen their child.”
“At this time, you absolutely must not say you have. You have to refuse. If you say you’ve seen them, you’ll be forcibly dragged into the amusement park to look for the child with them, and eventually, you’ll find yourself in the underground organ trafficking market!”
“There’s also a security guard who died years ago that reappeared at the security booth, and a woman in white standing atop the ferris wheel… Anyway, there are just too many stories.”
“Everyone, stay tuned! I’m Xiao Sun, see you in three days!”
The ghost hunting streamer bid farewell to everyone, building up a bit of anticipation. Then the screen went black, and a few words appeared.
[The streamer has gone to rest, come back next time.]
“Oh, it’s gone.” Zhao Mingyue took her phone back. “Tianchang City… isn’t that right where we are?”
“Why do all these strange things happen here?”
After a brief thought, Zhao Mingyue listed them: a horror hotel, a haunted school, and a hospital renovated into a ghost den.
“Bai Yu, do you think this is credible?”
“It is.” Her fingers tapped a regular rhythm on the table. Hearing the word ‘amusement park,’ Bai Yu recalled what Shen Shuyun had said yesterday: the Heavenly Fox had discovered a clue at an amusement park.
“It’s actually credible? What if there really are ghosts?”
“People will die.”
“That’s too blunt… But thinking about it, it’s really true. If you spend time by the river, how can your shoes not get wet?” Zhao Mingyue muttered to herself, picked up her schoolbag, and headed out.
“When school’s over today, let’s not go to the convenience store first. Let’s go to the hospital to see Feng’er.”
“Then we’ll go find the store manager and get him to settle our payment.”
“Hmm… The store manager didn’t not get paid, right? I mean, the client is dead. He wanted to give us money before, but I didn’t take it. If he already paid the store manager, then he definitely won’t pay us again.”
“Damn it, we didn’t go all that way for nothing, did we?!”
“Seriously, I’m so envious of Lu Liangting. It really proves that saying.”
“Some people are born in Rome, and some are born draft animals.”
Inside his bedroom, Lu Liangting sneezed. Sitting on the bed, he was visibly haggard, his eyes red and bloodshot, dark circles prominent, and his complexion sallow.
His physique was considered very strong, far exceeding that of an ordinary person. One sleepless night shouldn’t matter; he should still be energetic.
The problem was, he’d drunk a lot of liquor last night, been drenched in heavy rain for a long time, been headbutted by the Red-Clothed Ghost and taken a hard fall, and then had to work overtime taking Feng’er to the hospital. By the time he got back, it was already 2 a.m. He took a hot shower and planned to sleep.
Then, the crucial part happened.
The Red-Clothed Ghost in his phone absolutely refused to let him sleep and insisted on going to see her daughter, even though they had clearly agreed before leaving that they would go tomorrow.
This Red-Clothed Ghost started going berserk, refusing to return to the phone no matter what.
Just as he was racking his brains and desperately trying to soothe her, right at the brink of success, calming the female ghost down…
Who knew that at this moment, Old Yang would suddenly appear, making a sarcastic remark.
“So this is your new helper, a woman?”
Whether it was that sentence, or Old Yang himself triggering the one named Su Lan, the Red-Clothed Ghost’s just-calmed mind instantly exploded. In the blink of an eye, she was brawling with Old Yang, filling the room with dispersing black mist and flying blood threads, neither willing to stop.
Lu Liangting tried to intervene, but it was utterly useless. The two fierce ghosts, the new partner and the old comrade, neither listened to him.
Old Yang was even throwing out jeers while fighting.
Lu Liangting was completely overwhelmed. He didn’t know what was going on with Old Yang lately. He used to be so aloof, even more aloof than Bai Yu. When Bai Yu asked him to do something, she at least called out “Lu Liangting.” But Old Yang just used a single word: “Go.”
Communication was incredibly troublesome. Whether he helped or not depended entirely on his mood.
After all, a Red-Clothed Ghost, heavy with resentment and unclear of mind—he wouldn’t say much about it.
But looking at him now, he didn’t seem the least bit unclear of mind. Couldn’t he see he was being sarcastic?
Bang!
Old Yang was slammed against the wall, black resentment dispersing.
Lu Liangting remained sitting on the bed; he couldn’t be bothered to speak anymore.
“Sigh, I really envy Zhao Mingyue. I wonder how she managed to get along so well with Bai Yu.”
Every time he saw this situation, Lu Liangting wanted to lament to the heavens.
Where exactly had all his luck gone?
“Daylight’s here. Stop for now.”
His words fell on deaf ears. Old Yang was slightly weaker, but he fought harder and harder, lunging back in.
“I said, stop! I have to go to school!”
“Old Yang, you saved my life. I’ve always considered you a friend. I was even the one who sent your enemy to prison. I don’t really want to talk to you like this, but I still have to say it.”
“If you keep fighting, next time I see Bai Yu, I’ll drag you out first.”
As soon as the words fell, Old Yang immediately distanced himself from Su Lan.
Su Lan was spreading her ghost claws, about to pounce, when Lu Liangting spoke again.
“Aunt Su, you wouldn’t want to miss seeing your daughter today either, would you?”
The female ghost’s figure froze in place. Without needing Lu Liangting to say more, she nodded and entered the haunted phone item of her own accord.
“You…” Old Yang reached out, looking like a ferocious evil ghost. But seeing Lu Liangting’s flat yet slightly threatening gaze, his fire instantly halved. “Fine, have it your way.”
He slipped into Lu Liangting’s shadow, not saying another word.
“Ah!” Heaving a heavy sigh, Lu Liangting got out of bed.
“I still need a Red-Clothed Ghost. Best to form a three-way balance of power; then they won’t fight each other, right?”
“Young Master, your lunch is ready.” Gardenia appeared downstairs right on time, in a long-skirt maid outfit. He couldn’t tell what kind of stockings she wore today.
“Thank you, Gardenia.” Lu Liangting finally managed a rare, sunny smile.
At this smile, Gardenia was slightly startled and quickly lowered her head.
“Young Master, let me help you change your clothes.”
“Forget it.”
“No can do. Please respect my profession, Young Master. If you reject me at every turn, then I’ll probably be fired by Madam. You wouldn’t want a rotten woman like Qiangwei taking care of your daily needs, would you? You know Madam’s taste in picking people.”
As she spoke, Gardenia casually lifted her long skirt slightly, just enough for Lu Liangting to see the black fishnet stockings she wore today.
Black stockings every day gets boring. Changing things up often yields unexpected results.
“Gardenia, you…”
“What is it, Young Master?” Gardenia climbed the stairs in her high heels. Her expression seemed neutral, yet it felt indescribably alluring.
“Alright, nothing.”
“Young Master, this way.”
She half-dragged Lu Liangting into the dressing room, slamming the door shut with a bang.
Downstairs, Rose was bringing out lunch dish by dish. Hearing the commotion, she couldn’t help but glance upstairs, pushing up her glasses with a helpless look in her eyes.
Every time she bought clothes for Lu Liangting, Gardenia knew his measurements like the back of her hand. Whether he had gained or lost weight, she knew even the slightest change. Clothes aside, the key was she even knew his underwear size.
One could only say, this didn’t happen without reason.
Rose was very worried.
This kind of contact with Lu Liangting by Gardenia had its benefits; at least there was a high probability the mission could be completed.
What she worried about… was that Gardenia would really fall in love with Lu Liangting…
Gardenia was her younger sister; she knew her too well. Gardenia had survived until now largely thanks to her, and precisely because she interfered so much, Gardenia was different from other game participants—very naive, easily deceived, prone to believing things she shouldn’t and doing things she shouldn’t.
Yet even at this point, her instinct as an older sister was still to help Gardenia.
If Gardenia wanted to do it, then let her.
Whether success or failure, what mattered was following her heart.
She wanted Gardenia to always be happy, no matter what.
“As expected, I’m being stared at.” Zhao Mingyue walked into the classroom, sat in her seat, propped her cheek on one hand, and looked out the window, trying to ignore the voices discussing her.
From the moment she entered the school, people who recognized her inevitably pointed and whispered.
Of course, most of it was praise and exclamations. Things like, she looks so delicate and frail, but she could kick a grown man flying several meters. Is she all muscle?
Some called her a muscle girl, others a tomboy. The most ridiculous comparison was to a female bodybuilder.
“I’ve really become famous this time.”
She remembered entering the school gates; the few yellow-haired punks who used to whistle at her turned and fled the moment they saw her.
During class, it wasn’t their homeroom teacher who came, but a young female teacher.
The female teacher was fashionably dressed, quite beautiful. The moment she entered, she put her textbook on the lectern, turned around, and wrote three large characters on the blackboard.
“Chen Yunshi.”
“Classmates, first, let me introduce myself. I’m Chen Yunshi. I think many of you may have seen me and know me.” Teacher Chen’s smile was radiant like a flower, stunning the male students.
“But today, I’m meeting you for the first time in a brand new role.”
“From today on, I am your new homeroom teacher.”
“This might be a bit sudden. Your Teacher Wang had some matters and took leave to go back to the countryside and won’t be back until next year. So, during her absence, I will be your new homeroom teacher.”
The classroom was silent for a moment, and then, waves of cheers and applause erupted, mostly from the excited male students.
“Alright, alright, quiet down. This isn’t something to be happy about.”
“Hey, that student over there… yes, you, third row from the back, by the window.”
Being suddenly called, Zhao Mingyue blinked in confusion, then stood up and asked, “Teacher, are you calling me?”
“Yes, you’re Zhao Mingyue, right?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Nice to meet you. You’re quite the star of our school, having saved all the teachers and students. The teacher can let you in on a little secret: your bonus money will arrive in the next couple of days, eight thousand yuan.”
Teacher Chen’s slender fingers formed an ‘eight’. From her smile alone, one couldn’t find any fault.
“I’m honored to be your homeroom teacher. I hope we can get along well in the time to come.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and Teacher Chen’s smile deepened.
“I will leave a deep impression on you.”
