Chapter 24

Qin Yijue slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing that came into view was a magnified, handsome face.

Despite the stranger's attractiveness, it did not stop Qin Yijue from being startled, and she reflexively swung a slap at him.

Lou Yingqian, because both his hands were holding her and he hadn't expected Qin Yijue to suddenly lash out like that, was caught completely off guard and took the slap squarely.

His cheek burned with a stinging pain.

Lou Yingqian, first bewildered and then enraged: "..."

Ah, he was truly furious!

With a darkened face, he endured and endured, eventually suppressing his anger, and managed a stiff smile. "Ms. Qin, are you alright?"

Hearing this, Qin Yijue, coming to her senses, apologized awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"If you're fine, I'll put you down."

"Okay."

Ensuring Qin Yijue was standing steadily, Lou Yingqian withdrew his hands and, with a bright red slap mark on his face, asked expressionlessly, "Is He Yushuo not with you?"

At the mention of He Yushuo, Qin Yijue couldn't help but recall the man's crazed actions on the rooftop. A chilling sensation crawled from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, and the face she had once perceived as gentle and kind turned sinister and terrifying. Fear spread from the depths of her heart. Qin Yijue pressed her lips together, her complexion pale, and forced a smile. "Yes, we got separated along the way."

It was not convenient to talk about He Yushuo trying to kill her right now.

Qin Yijue did not know Lou Yingqian and was unsure if he had been hired by the Qin family or the He family; thus, there were some things she could not say.

"Then do you remember what happened? Actually, when we found you, you were hung from the ceiling by your hair." Lou Yingqian explained the situation concisely.

"We?" Who else was there?

Qin Yijue subconsciously looked around, and a tall figure naturally came into her line of sight.

He was wearing a pristine white robe, with a lifelike golden dragon coiled around his waist. His slightly long, golden hair was tied back with a hairband. He had a handsome appearance, and his peach-blossom eyes were filled with a watery luster, always giving the illusion of deep affection. Yet, he was a completely oblivious, straightforward man.

"It's you!"

Lou Yingqian had heard Xia Lingze mention that they had met before, so he wasn't surprised. He said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "Let's talk about business first; there's no rush to catch up later."

Time returned to when Qin Yijue had randomly pushed open a door and entered.

...

What a lunatic!

A fool with no fear of death!

While Qin Yijue scolded Xia Lingze internally for being unreliable, she also felt anxious about being left alone, not knowing what she should do next.

At that moment, a moving shadow entered her peripheral vision.

Realizing something, Qin Yijue stiffened, her eyes turning red.

A ghost—it was a ghost!

In extreme terror, Qin Yijue lost consciousness; she didn't know if she had fainted from fright or if the hair ghost had done it.

Lou Yingqian couldn't help but sigh, unable to get much useful information from Qin Yijue.

Actually, what did it matter even if he obtained invaluable intelligence? He couldn't take it out anyway.

Seeing Lou Yingqian stop talking with a gloomy expression, Qin Yijue lowered her eyes.

—She had withheld part of the truth.

After losing consciousness, she had a dream. She dreamed that the deceased Qin Jinhua had returned to take revenge on her, and she dreamed that He Yushuo had pushed her from a high building. Only this time, no one caught her; she landed heavily on the ground, her flesh and blood mixing and splattering everywhere, like a smashed watermelon.

...Repeatedly experiencing the pain of falling to her death.

...Repeatedly experiencing the despair of being chased by Qin Jinhua.

Qin Yijue regretted it.

But the reason for her regret was that she was going to die, not that she had indirectly caused Qin Jinhua's death.

Xia Lingze was unaware of their thoughts and didn't care. He was busy trying to tidy up the hair; victory was just before his eyes.

At that moment, a knocking sound suddenly came from the door.

'Knock'

A half-second pause.

'Knock-knock'

A two-second pause.

'Knock-knock-knock'

A one-second pause.

'Knock-knock-knock-knock'

The knocking grew heavier, more urgent, and more rapid.

Qin Yijue’s nerves were already stretched to the breaking point; this frightened her into a daze. She stood rooted to the spot, staring at the door with bloodshot eyes, her breathing so heavy that even Lou Yingqian, standing half an arm's length away, could hear it clearly.

"Who is it?" Xia Lingze kindly replied, "There's someone in the room."

As soon as these words were out, Qin Yijue’s breathing stopped for an instant. Lou Yingqian’s expression was indescribable.

Surely, the two of them were thinking the same thing: What are you doing!

Hearing Xia Lingze's voice, the knocking became even more violent.

'Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock...!'

The door frame trembled, and light from the hallway outside seeped through the cracks.

Cold sweat dripped from Lou Yingqian’s forehead down his cheek, disappearing into his collar and leaving dark marks. He reached into his pocket and gripped the cold handle of his table knife.

Qin Yijue instinctively took two steps back, moving away from the door.

Only Xia Lingze dared to speak up (provoke), and even with the clear premise that there was a ghost on the other side, he strode to the door and pulled it open.

Lou Yingqian’s pupils dilated. "Wait a minute...!"

He was too late; Xia Lingze had already opened the door.

Qin Yijue’s face was ashen, her lips trembling, as if she could already see the Grim Reaper beckoning to her.

The moment the door opened, a mass of gray mist charged in. Xia Lingze was quick-witted and grabbed it, holding it in his palm to observe it closely. Then, he tried squeezing it—wow, it felt icy, cool, and bouncy; it felt great.

Gray mist: "?!"

Xia Lingze poked his head out the door to look, but he didn't see anyone.

So, this little thing was the one knocking? It didn't look like much, but it was quite energetic.

—Although Xia Lingze had the ability of a third-person perspective, he rarely used it. He had only opened it when looking for Qin Jinhua and had closed it upon entering the room. Therefore, he didn't know who was knocking before opening the door.

He deduced the gray mist was the one knocking because there were no other living creatures; if it wasn't the mist, who else could it be?

Holding the gray mist, he turned to face the two people in the room. Xia Lingze was about to ask them what this was, thinking it was probably a "local specialty" of the city, when he noticed they were looking at him in terror... No, they were looking at what was *behind* him. Was there something behind him?

He raised his eyebrows in confusion and turned to look behind him. He met a pair of familiar eyes and shouted in pleasant surprise, "Sister Qin!"

He had finally found her!

Overlapping with his shout of "Sister Qin" was Lou Yingqian’s stern voice: "Xia Lingze, don't move!"

***

Before meeting Xia Lingze, Lou Yingqian had never known a person could be this bold—or perhaps, this thick-headed.

Watching helplessly as Xia Lingze opened the door against all common sense, and then watching helplessly as Xia Lingze held a ghost in his hand, Lou Yingqian’s mind went blank.

For a moment, Lou Yingqian wondered if he was dreaming:

He had accepted an invitation from an old classmate to attend a banquet, but instead, a ghost domain had formed beneath his feet—an unprecedented, ultra-S-class ghost domain.

Then he met Xia Lingze—people who court death were common, but people who actively sought it were truly rare.

Even more unbelievable was that Xia Lingze hadn't been harmed in the slightest.

Lou Yingqian suddenly wondered if his judgment had been wrong, and if Xia Lingze actually had something on him...? Otherwise, he couldn't explain why Xia Lingze was fine. He was dancing on the edge of death; one ghost not killing him on the spot could be explained as "delayed damage," but two ghosts? Three ghosts?

Was it all "delayed damage"?

In any case, Lou Yingqian couldn't convince himself.

After Xia Lingze turned to face him, Lou Yingqian finally came to his senses. Just as he was about to say something, a red and white silhouette appeared out of thin air at the door, behind Xia Lingze.

The moment the figure appeared, Lou Yingqian was hit by such an intense sense of crisis that he felt nearly numb. His body moved on its own accord, falling into a state of rigidity—he didn't know if it was an instinctual reaction to overwhelming fear or the creature's terrifying pressure.

...Only his eyes could move.

Looking at Xia Lingze’s young, innocent face, which hadn't yet fully matured, and the ignorant purity on his features, a sense of sorrow washed over Lou Yingqian.

Lou Yingqian didn't know how old Xia Lingze was, but he could tell he was not old, perhaps not even an adult. If not for the resurgence of ghosts, he would have had a long life ahead; he would experience many things, whether good, bad, happy, or sad...

Yet now, everything was about to end.

In an instant, Lou Yingqian thought of many things, and his body reacted for him—some unknown force helped him break the shackles. Lou Yingqian blurted out, "Xia Lingze, don't move!"

Don't look, don't listen; dying in ignorance was better than dying in fear.

...

Wait, did Xia Lingze just say something?

***

What "don't move"? Why "don't move"?

Xia Lingze turned his head back to Lou Yingqian in confusion and found that Lou Yingqian’s complexion was terrible.

What was wrong with him?

"Lingze." Qin Jinhua called out softly.

"Yeah!" Xia Lingze’s attention shifted instantly to Qin Jinhua. He happily introduced her, "Sister Qin, that's Lou Yingqian, a friend I just made. He gave me something that can spit fire; he's a really great guy."

Her eyes shifted, the woman's gaze falling coldly on the stiff young man.

Lou Yingqian had been shocked a second ago that Xia Lingze knew the female ghost, but a second later, upon seeing her clearly, his pupils dilated.

Previously, his attention had been on the powerful pressure she exerted, and he hadn't looked at her face. Now, seeing it, Lou Yingqian’s throat tightened as he muttered, "Qin Jinhua...?"

Lou Yingqian knew Qin Jinhua, although they had no real connection.

—He Yushuo and Qin Jinhua were very close and were always together. If you saw one, there was no need to doubt that the other was nearby. Gradually, classmates from both classes naturally became familiar with the other.

After graduation, one day Lou Yingqian was added to a small group chat; everyone from the class was in it except for He Yushuo. The group messages exploded. Curious, Lou Yingqian opened it and discovered they were talking about how Qin Jinhua had died.

In Lou Yingqian’s impression, Qin Jinhua was an excellent person. Dying so young was truly a tragedy.

Two years later, he received He Yushuo's wedding invitation. Recalling their sweet and loving past on campus, Lou Yingqian had sighed for a while.

The small group chat had exploded again at that time.

["Hey! Do you know who the bride is? Qin Jinhua’s sister who was abducted as a child."]

["WTF? Really?"]

["It's true!"]

["My god, a body double???"]

["The sister married the sister after the older one died. OMG, He Yushuo’s 'good man' persona has collapsed!"]

["Why shouldn't he marry if she's dead? Does he have to remain chaste forever?"]

["Legally, there's nothing wrong with it, but morally, it's problematic. Imagine, your beloved dies, and you turn around and marry her sister. That's really something."]

["That sister of Qin Jinhua’s is something else."]

["What do you mean?"]

["My family has business dealings with the Qin family. I heard, just heard, that the sister had great malice toward Qin Jinhua. She wanted to snatch everything from her. When Qin Jinhua was still alive, that sister used suicide to force Qin Jinhua to break up with He Yushuo."]

["Ah?"]

["Ah??"]

["Ah???"]

["Damn, that's too explosive! I thought only plots in novels could happen in reality!"]

...

"Is that so?" The woman's cold voice recalled Lou Yingqian from his wandering thoughts.

"Come to think of it, he's the first friend I've made since I came out," Xia Lingze said happily. "By the way, Sister Qin, where did you go? I looked for you for a long time."

"Visiting an old friend." As she spoke, Qin Jinhua shifted her gaze to Qin Yijue, who was at the very back.

Lou Yingqian instinctively glanced at Qin Yijue as well.

Qin Yijue was looking down, as if there were gold on the ground. Her body was trembling slightly, and all the color had drained from her face.

Qin Jinhua entered the room from Xia Lingze’s side and walked toward Qin Yijue step by step.

Scenes from her dream of Qin Jinhua coming for revenge flashed through Qin Yijue’s mind... something seemed to snap halfway. Then, glimpsing the small, exquisite embroidered shoes in her peripheral vision, the other half snapped too.

...A chilling aura rushed toward her, and she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

Qin Yijue’s mind felt like it had been crudely stirred into paste by a pair of large hands. In the last moment of clarity, she saw Qin Jinhua reaching a hand toward her.

***

Lou Yingqian thought Qin Jinhua was going to attack Qin Yijue, but she merely crushed the ring on Qin Yijue’s ring finger into powder before pulling her hand back.

Could it be that Qin Jinhua still loved He Yushuo? Was she jealous?

While his mind wandered, the gaze Qin Jinhua cast toward him made Lou Yingqian shiver. His brain twitched, and he blurted out, "Were you killed by Qin Yijue?"

He had heard that Qin Jinhua went to the beach with her boyfriend and sister before she died, had an unfortunate accident, and in the end, three went, but only two returned.

Various conspiracy theories flew around in the small group chat; everyone said Qin Jinhua might have been killed by her own sister.

Qin Jinhua looked at Lou Yingqian coldly, her ghostly energy surging and churning.

With a 'bang,' Lou Yingqian’s wristwatch emitted a plume of black smoke, and a foul, burnt smell filled the air.

Lou Yingqian was drenched in cold sweat. He felt Qin Jinhua’s emotionless gaze resting on him, seemingly contemplating how to kill him to vent her anger.

At this moment, Xia Lingze’s voice rang out: "What's wrong? How strange, do you guys know each other? And what's this about dying?"

Qin Jinhua withdrew her gaze, walked gracefully back to Xia Lingze’s side, and took his hand. "Let's go back."

Xia Lingze: "Huh? No, we're going back already? Didn't we come here today to..."

"Plans have changed."

"Oh... well," Xia Lingze turned around and waved at Lou Yingqian. "Good friend, see you next time!"

As the person and the ghost walked away, Lou Yingqian felt as if he had lost all his strength. His legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed onto the floor.

Looking around, the hair ghost had disappeared at some point.

After a while, Lou Yingqian dragged his exhausted body to Qin Yijue, who was still standing there in a daze, and waved his hand in front of her eyes.

"Hey, you—"

Qin Yijue suddenly began to babble, laughing and crying, clapping her hands, and running around the room randomly.

She had gone insane.

The hair ghost was a spirit that specialized in attacking the mind; it loved eating prey in a state of extreme fear, which was why it hadn't devoured Qin Yijue immediately but instead hung her from the ceiling.

The dreams Qin Yijue had were the work of the hair ghost; it had triggered the deepest fear in Qin Yijue’s heart, repeatedly intimidating and stimulating her to make her flesh as delicious as possible.

It just hadn't expected to run into Xia Lingze.

Xia Lingze was the first to enter the room, and the hair ghost had attacked him immediately, only to be terrified by Xia Lingze’s unfathomable, vast mental sea. From then on, the entire ghost had remained as quiet as a chicken.

Therefore, when Lou Yingqian followed him in, the hair ghost didn't attack him either.

But if Lou Yingqian had dared to try and pull its hair like Xia Lingze did, the consequences would have been uncertain.

One had to admit that Lou Yingqian had good fortune; there was nowhere safer than being by Xia Lingze’s side.

***

Xia Lingze sat in the bridal sedan, excitedly telling Qin Jinhua about the novel things he had seen at the hotel.

As he talked, he noticed that Qin Jinhua was actually in a good mood and asked, "Sister Qin, what happened? You seem to be in a very good mood."

"I've decided not to get married."

"Eh?! Really!"

In reality:

With one dead and one insane, there was no need for her to lift a finger; her internal grievances had been resolved. Of course Qin Jinhua was happy.

Especially with Qin Yijue—Qin Jinhua had originally intended to kill her, but by a twist of fate, Qin Yijue had gone insane. Discovering this, Qin Jinhua suddenly felt that madness was perhaps more torturous than death.

"Sister Qin, do you know what this is?" Xia Lingze lifted the gray mist ball and presented it to Qin Jinhua, his eyes shining as he asked.

Qin Jinhua pulled back her thoughts, looked at the instrument ghost—whose original form (the ring on Qin Yijue’s finger) had been destroyed—and said nonchalantly, "This breed is called a 'dango'; city folk usually keep them as pets."

Hmm, she was making it up.

Xia Lingze, who had wanted to raise a bear not long ago but had the bear run away, immediately perked up, muttering about what name he should give it.

Elsewhere.

With the instrument ghost taken away, the ghost domain built around it collapsed. The ghosts born within it also vanished, just like the vampires in stories that die in the sunlight. However, while vampires turn to ash because of the sun, these ghosts vanished because leaving the domain violated the rules.

After discovering the anomalies, the government had immediately cordoned off the area around the hotel. At this moment, rows of military trucks were parked outside the thick fog.

The first and second teams of the Special Paranormal Unit were fully prepared and about to enter when the thick fog suddenly dissipated, gradually revealing the hotel that had been wrapped within it.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

...