Chapter 28

The Inverted Hanging Ghost watched as Qi Xu thrust toward her. She could only turn around and flee downward. Qi Xu saw this and followed closely, afraid that she would slip away if she wasn’t careful. The local investigator had told them before that this ghost was particularly good at hiding.

Just as the investigator had said, who would have thought that the Inverted Hanging Ghost had curled herself up inside the directional sign?

The Inverted Hanging Ghost’s speed was very fast. In order to catch up, Qi Xu also sped up. She didn’t notice at all that, in this game of cat and mouse, her own movements had become increasingly eerie. She seemed like a mass of thick ink that couldn’t be dispersed, freely changing shape in the stairwell and cornering the Inverted Hanging Ghost so that she could only flee downstairs.

Threads and thick mist chased each other in the stairwell. In no time at all, they reached the first floor. But at the stairwell exit on the first floor, Qi Xu didn’t see Xia Zhiming’s figure. Qi Xu felt a bit puzzled. When she saw the Inverted Hanging Ghost heading toward the lobby on the first floor, Qi Xu followed right after.

Who knew that before the Inverted Hanging Ghost even reached the lobby, she suddenly stopped. Qi Xu nearly crashed right into her. Fortunately, Qi Xu’s reaction speed was pretty good. She reined in her momentum before colliding with the Inverted Hanging Ghost and came to an emergency stop. Qi Xu poked her head out from behind the Inverted Hanging Ghost and saw Xia Zhiming, who had set up a grand formation.

Qi Xu couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, ‘With Xia Zhiming’s setup here, the Inverted Hanging Ghost had no choice but to stop.’

The formation that Xia Zhiming had set up was truly grand. Red paint had been used to draw a particularly large formation array under her feet, while the lobby ceiling was strung with red threads crisscrossing everywhere, hung with who knew how many talismans. She held a peachwood sword and stood right in the center of the formation array, which was emitting a faint red glow.

Under this glow, Xia Zhiming’s pink Daoist robe was dyed red.

She looked more like a ghost than the Inverted Hanging Ghost or Qi Xu.

For the Inverted Hanging Ghost, this scene was anything but beautiful. It was completely a case of a wolf in front and a tiger behind—a certain death trap. But to be precise, the Inverted Hanging Ghost still felt that the Xia Zhiming in front of her was easier to break through.

Qi Xu was something she truly couldn’t figure out. Just a few minutes ago when they had parted, she had been an ordinary living person without the strength to truss a chicken. After a short while, they met again, and she had become a great ghost whose depths she couldn’t fathom and who looked utterly terrifying. A ghost’s perspective differed from a human’s. Qi Xu at least maintained a human appearance in Xia Zhiming’s and her own eyes, but in the Inverted Hanging Ghost’s eyes, she was truly horrifying, enough to drive one insane.

In this situation, the Xia Zhiming in front of her, who was clearly at least human, seemed easier to deal with.

After a moment of contemplation, she charged straight at Xia Zhiming. Less than a second later, she was struck by Xia Zhiming’s peachwood sword and scattered soul and body. When Qi Xu saw this, she actually wanted to say something, but Xia Zhiming was too fast, not even giving her a chance for that bit of compassion to well up.

Yes, for that instant, Qi Xu did feel a surge of compassion. She hadn’t intended to save the Inverted Hanging Ghost. Even knowing her story made her feel truly pitiful, but the fact that she had killed so many people was undeniable, so her dispersal was inevitable. Qi Xu just couldn’t help wondering if there could have been a gentler end for the Inverted Hanging Ghost.

But Xia Zhiming was too fast, so fast that Qi Xu didn’t even have time to speak.

After the Inverted Hanging Ghost scattered, the Ghost Domain in front of them shook as well, as if it was about to shatter like bubbles. Xia Zhiming kicked the body beside her. Qi Xu looked down and discovered that she had been lying at Xia Zhiming’s feet the whole time.

“Get back in there quick.”

“Oof.” Qi Xu obediently and cutely returned to her body. By the time she climbed up from the ground, the Ghost Domain had already vanished, and everything in front of her had returned to normal. After Qi Xu got up, she looked around left and right and saw that Xia Zhiming had already headed upstairs. Qi Xu hurried to catch up and couldn’t help asking from behind Xia Zhiming, “Are we heading back today?”

“No.” She yawned. “Go back, sleep a bit. Running around all night grabbing ghosts without sleep, and you still want me to drive? Even Zhou the Skinflint wouldn’t pull that. Besides, tomorrow we have to say something to the local police and investigators. Leave without a word? Only you could think of that.”

Qi Xu, who lacked much social experience, could only listen to Xia Zhiming. She returned to Room 301 with Xia Zhiming, turned over, and lay down. But lying in bed, Qi Xu tossed and turned, unable to sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, she pictured the Inverted Hanging Ghost’s appearance. She was even more afraid that after closing her eyes, the Inverted Hanging Ghost was still there, hanging upside down from the ceiling with her feet, head dangling as she watched Qi Xu.

Amid such wild thoughts, Qi Xu couldn’t sleep at all. She opened her eyes in the darkness and turned to look at Xia Zhiming. Xia Zhiming lay in her sleeping bag, breathing steadily, as if she had already fallen asleep. But Qi Xu’s staring gaze was too obvious, forcing Xia Zhiming to open her eyes.

“What are you looking at in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?”

“I can’t sleep…” Qi Xu said softly and honestly explained the reason. “As soon as I close my eyes, I feel like that Inverted Hanging Ghost might be standing on the ceiling with her feet, head hanging upside down watching me. I’m scared…”

“You’re a ghost too, and stronger than her. What do you have to be afraid of?”

Xia Zhiming turned her head impatiently, facing Qi Xu eye to eye. With that said, Qi Xu subconsciously retorted, “I’m not a ghost. I’m human.”

Xia Zhiming “hmph”ed and fell silent, but from her appearance, she didn’t seem to be asleep either. After a moment of silence, Qi Xu simply asked about some things she hadn’t figured out. “Xia Zhiming, what exactly was the answer you got from questioning those locals during the day?”

Xia Zhiming had seemed to ask a lot, and she had overheard most of it nearby, but when replaying it in her wild thoughts earlier, it seemed completely unrelated to the Inverted Hanging Ghost. Upon closer thought, the Inverted Hanging Ghost’s story seemed hidden within, but only glossed over in one or two sentences. What everyone talked about most was that girl’s case and the recent victims who died in the Vivid Red Hotel.

Could Xia Zhiming really be that clever, drawing out the truth from those stories by teasing apart threads from just one or two sentences?

Qi Xu didn’t believe at all that Xia Zhiming knew nothing about the Inverted Hanging Ghost. She seemed instead like someone with everything under control, knowing it all.

That was why Qi Xu asked this question.

Xia Zhiming didn’t speak. She also stared at the ceiling. After a while, she couldn’t help saying, “Qi Xu, what do you think of humans?”

“Huh?” Faced with such a strange question, Qi Xu didn’t know how to answer for a moment. Before she could respond after a daze, Xia Zhiming continued, “Humans haven’t changed since ancient times—stupid, malicious, vile, stingy with malice toward anything. Ghosts are born from the dark side of human nature, from human hatred.”

“Look, when I asked, every one of them used the greatest malice to viciously slander every deceased person.”

Qi Xu was momentarily speechless at Xia Zhiming’s words. Her first reaction was to refute them. But on this matter, Xia Zhiming didn’t seem wrong. In the Ghost Domain, she had heard with her own ears those NPC manifestations speaking in such vicious and hurtful tones, slandering others.

During the day, she had personally experienced how excessive some people in this town were in their actions and words. Just passing through occasionally and staying a few days made her feel deeply uncomfortable. How much more so for a local like the Inverted Hanging Ghost? How many such things had she experienced in life?

Ghosts are born from human malice.

At this moment, Qi Xu fully understood this statement. If she were the Inverted Hanging Ghost, she couldn’t have died without resentment either. Hatred had bound her here, turning her into a murderous evil ghost.

“But, but not everyone is like that.”

It took Qi Xu a long time to say this. Xia Zhiming smiled without refuting. But that laughter carried heavy sarcasm.

That night, Qi Xu barely slept. The next morning, when Xia Zhiming’s alarm went off early, Qi Xu groggily opened her eyes. She got up, washed up, changed clothes, and followed Xia Zhiming to eat breakfast nearby. The breakfast stall owners were still chatting in the local dialect Qi Xu couldn’t understand. She had never paid attention in the past two days, but this time, she kept an eye out.

In an inadvertent glance back, Qi Xu caught their shifty averted gazes. Qi Xu realized that these people were probably gossiping badly about them behind their backs.

Even though Qi Xu had told Xia Zhiming yesterday “not everyone is like that,” she knew malice spread and swelled more easily than kindness.

She pursed her lips, finished breakfast, and returned to the downstairs of the Vivid Red Hotel with Xia Zhiming. Xia Zhiming pulled down all the circuit breakers, had Qi Xu carry the box, and they went downstairs one after the other, back to the car. They didn’t head straight back to Xintan City but went to the police station first. Xia Zhiming called the investigator over and dumped all the handover work on Qi Xu.

Qi Xu had no choice but to recount these two days’ experiences to the investigator. When he heard that the Inverted Hanging Ghost had hidden in the emergency passage’s directional light, he slapped his thigh. “Why didn’t I think of that!”

The investigator wanted to treat them to lunch, but the sharp-tongued Xia Zhiming shot back, “Keep your measly salary for yourself. Treating me to lunch? You really don’t know jack.” With that, she grabbed Qi Xu and left. On the way back, Qi Xu yawned. After a while, unable to hold out, she closed her eyes.

She had slept too little last night and gotten up early today; her mind was all fuzzy. As she dozed off, Qi Xu dreamed again of that figure hanging upside down from the ceiling. But up close, she suddenly realized it wasn’t the Inverted Hanging Ghost. That face—it was clearly Xia Zhiming!

She jolted awake from the dream, sweat beading on her body. Because Qi Xu remembered something: on the second morning after arriving at Xia Zhiming’s home, when she woke up, it was Xia Zhiming hanging upside down, head dangling as she watched her. The Inverted Hanging Ghost’s appearance was strikingly similar to how Xia Zhiming had hung back then.

She hadn’t reacted when she first saw the Inverted Hanging Ghost, but now, belatedly, she wondered: Had Xia Zhiming… known all along from that time?