Chapter 28: The Ghost Master
Before going to sleep, Hai Di offered his suggestion again: “What’s the point of talking to them? I’ll just go have a word with them.”
Jiang Si held onto his wavering conscience, manually muted him, and said grumpily, “Shut up, no more talking. We are civilized people; how can we use cheat codes?”
A warm palm covered Hai Di’s mouth, obscuring half of his face. The exposed eyes held a subtle smile, eyebrows relaxed.
His body was shockingly cold, but his gaze carried a scorching heat. Being looked at like this, Jiang Si felt that yesterday’s alcohol might not have worn off yet. Waves of heat surged to his face again. Unable to stand this strange atmosphere, he let go.
He coughed dryly, trying to act normal. “I’m going to sleep.”
“How is your arm?” Hai Di remained motionless, staring at his arm wrapped in pajamas.
Jiang Si’s arm was injured; he relied on plastic wrap to waterproof it while showering. But no matter how careful he was, the wound tore a few times during movement, ripping the scab and oozing blood.
It didn’t look serious to him, so naturally, he didn’t take it to heart.
Hearing Hai Di ask, he replied casually, “It’s healed, nothing wrong.”
Hai Di didn’t answer but went directly to check for himself. Sure enough, he saw the red and swollen wound.
Jiang Si’s skin was pale from lack of sunlight. Suddenly having such a long mark appear was as conspicuous as a stroke of blood-red paint on white paper.
Almost instantly, Hai Di’s expression darkened, the grip on that wrist tightening unconsciously. Jiang Si sensed his mood was off. A dead silence spread within the close distance between them, like playing a game of Freeze; no one was willing to move first, as if moving first meant losing.
After a long while, Jiang Si couldn’t help but swallow. He lifted his thin eyelids to look at Hai Di and brushed his hand away. His tone was light, carrying a sense of detachment, “I said it’s nothing. You go out.”
Hai Di couldn’t help but look seriously into Jiang Si’s eyes, which were as pale as glazed glass under the light—clean and empty.
His lips parted, but he only sighed, obediently leaving the bedroom.
Seeing him leave, Jiang Si finally let out a sigh of relief. He felt an indescribable awkwardness in his heart. Reason stopped his wild thoughts, but his body’s subconscious reaction was keenly captured—Hai Di and he seemed to be getting too close.
On the other side, Luo Yan finally scheduled a time with the leader of the Propaganda Department, planning to go together to interview Jiang Si about future cooperation.
This leader was surnamed Zhao. He had worked in the Propaganda Department for most of his life. In the past, when the cultural tourism industry wasn’t developed, he just muddled along, getting a chance to go to the countryside for publicity only once every six months. But who knew that just before retirement, the cultural tourism industry would suddenly heat up, forcing Old Zhao to hustle and learn new things.
Although he supported tourism development, he wasn’t optimistic about it, feeling deep down that this economy wasn’t as solid as the manufacturing industry. So, seeing that the promotion of Rong City was effective, he wanted to reduce investment and urgently halt the remaining promotional work.
Among these, what he disliked most was naturally the video submitted by Jiang Si. The old man, half a foot in the grave, scoffed at this kind of video, thinking it was unheard of to spend 300,000 yuan on a ten-minute video.
100,000 yuan was the ceiling.
In his words: Take that 100,000 yuan if he wants it. If he doesn’t want to cooperate, plenty of people do, and they are cheaper than him.
Hearing this, Luo Yan was so angry her head hurt. It took a lot of persuasion to get him to personally interview Jiang Si. Even if they couldn’t cooperate, they had to have integrity; otherwise, how would promotional work proceed in the future?
She waited anxiously in the courtyard. Old Zhao walked over leisurely, carrying a thermos. Seeing her like this, he frowned and lectured, “Xiao Luo, you are a veteran comrade. How can you be so unsteady? What’s the rush? Isn’t it still early?”
Luo Yan forced a smile. “You are right.”
“Hmph.” Old Zhao got into the car. Luo Yan drove him to Xiang’an Road. Just as they parked, Old Zhao looked past the window, examining this paper effigy shop that looked out of place among the surrounding stores with considerable disdain.
“We’re here. This is Boss Jiang’s paper effigy shop.”
Old Zhao said, “We met briefly last time. You all said he was a director, and I actually believed it. Why did he run here to open this kind of shop? What exactly does he do?”
“…He just changed careers,” Luo Yan explained stiffly for Jiang Si. “Directing is art, paper effigies are also art. It’s all the same, all the same.”
Old Zhao looked at her with incredulity, as if asking Are your eyes okay? Being a leader, he naturally had the art of speech cultivated over many years. After getting out of the car, Old Zhao said earnestly, “When you have time, remember to register at the hospital for a checkup.”
Jiang Si had just seen off a customer when he heard the wind chimes jingling crisply again. A draft blew directly through the door gap, causing the two rows of paper effigies to rustle loudly.
“?” He was surprised that business was so good today and turned to look.
Luo Yan was holding the door, turning sideways to let Old Zhao enter first.
This old man held his head high aggressively, exuding leadership vibes. Who knew that just as his left foot stepped in, his right foot suddenly lost strength. His stout body pitched forward, falling solidly onto the tiled floor with a sudden muffled thud.
Luo Yan was caught off guard and startled. Jiang Si also froze on the spot, looking up and down at the two who entered.
His gaze was eerie as he asked, “What is this?”
Luo Yan’s face turned red. She hurriedly squatted down to help Old Zhao. While Jiang Si couldn’t hear, she whispered, “Leader, we don’t need to go this far.”
Even if he didn’t want to pay, surely he didn’t need to fake an accident for extortion, right?
On the other hand, she admired him a little. Who said this leader was old? This was amazing; to save money, he had honed his acting skills to perfection.
She pushed Old Zhao’s shoulder and back a few times. Seeing no reaction, she realized something was wrong.
She took a deep breath, focused, and pinched his flesh hard. Old Zhao still didn’t react.
“…No way!” Luo Yan looked up at Jiang Si in panic. “He’s not acting; it’s real!”
They first dragged Old Zhao inside. Worried it was a heart problem, they didn’t dare lift him up. Just as Luo Yan was taking out her phone to call 120 (ambulance), Jiang Si, standing aside, took a few more looks and noticed something wrong.
Why does this guy look… dead?
Even with a sudden illness, there should be breathing and a heartbeat. But under Old Zhao’s thin short-sleeved shirt, there was no rise and fall of the chest. His face was pale, eye sockets bruised, and the exposed skin all over his body had not a trace of blood color.
Jiang Si told Luo Yan to calm down first and asked her, “Was there anything abnormal on your way here?”
“No!” Luo Yan recalled carefully. “His voice was full of energy; he didn’t look sick at all.”
“That’s strange.” Jiang Si wondered, saying to Luo Yan, “Don’t call 120. He’s not sick. He lost his soul.”
“…What?” Luo Yan’s eyes widened instantly. “Holy crap. Lost his soul!”
Jiang Si nodded. “I know you’re shocked, but don’t be shocked yet. It should be that he had something on him, got scared as soon as he came in, and his soul flew out.”
“Scared by what?” Luo Yan was still immersed in the fact that people could actually lose their souls and asked subconsciously.
Hearing him say this, Luo Yan looked and felt more and more that there was indeed something strange. How could this person faint so suddenly? When she touched him just now, she found Old Zhao’s body was stiff all over.
Normally, unconscious people would sink due to gravity because of loss of consciousness, their bodies becoming limp.
What kind of person would have a stiff body? Naturally, only a dead person.
Luo Yan was scared cold by her own discovery, standing there at a loss, looking at Jiang Si for help. “Boss Jiang, is… is there still hope?”
Her sentence triggered Jiang Si. Old Zhao was scared as soon as he entered, so the cause must be in his shop. What could be scary about a room full of paper dolls, paper money, and incense?
He scanned the surroundings and finally locked onto the culprit.
He forgot to take down the Door God scroll he hung on the wall the day before yesterday. Painted with splashing ink was a majestic figure holding a long spear, with a line of small text for warding off evil below. A normal person would at most say the painting was nice.
But spirits and monsters would feel terrified upon seeing it.
Jiang Si took down the hanging scroll first. Luo Yan found Old Zhao still had no reaction and was almost crying. “Why is there still no reaction? Didn’t you take it down?”
“It’s not that simple.” Jiang Si was helpless. “His soul isn’t here anymore; what use is taking it down?”
“Then what do we do?” Luo Yan asked.
Jiang Si bent down and flipped open Old Zhao’s eyelid. A black line almost penetrating the eyeball was exposed on the white of the eye. Seeing this, Jiang Si sucked in a cold breath, his face sinking bit by bit, pressing his lips into a straight line.
His tone when he spoke carried a chill: “This is Nanling’s Teng (Sorcery) technique.”
“Huh?… What is Teng technique?” Luo Yan had never heard of it.
“You know Gu bugs, right?” Jiang Si said.
Anyone who read novels knew about the legend of Miao Gu bugs. However, Luo Yan was astonished: “Isn’t that fictional?”
“Half true, half false.” Jiang Si opened Old Zhao’s eyelid wider, avoiding his fragile eyeball so Luo Yan could see clearly. “Teng technique is a type of Gu. This is a real thing. Do you see this line on his eye?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That is the bug that entered his body.”
“Holy crap.” As soon as Jiang Si finished speaking, Luo Yan felt a chill of disgust all over her body, repeating in disbelief, “This is a bug?”
“He’s lucky he fainted suddenly coming here today and was discovered by me. Otherwise, in a while, his eyeball would be completely devoured by the Gu bug, leaving only the outer shell.” Jiang Si let go of him, gesturing in the air. “By then, with a gentle pinch, his eyeball would shatter.”
“But don’t worry.”
Luo Yan thought there was still a solution and looked at Jiang Si with hope in her eyes. Jiang Si continued, “By then, he would be dead anyway. Eyeball or not, it wouldn’t matter.”
“…”
Hearing Jiang Si tell such a dark joke with a straight face, Luo Yan couldn’t help but recall what Jiang Si had confidently told her last month.
He is a staunch materialist?
Unaware that Luo Yan’s worldview was in critical condition, Jiang Si finished speaking and picked up his phone to fiddle with it.
“What are you doing?”
Jiang Si was concise: “Calling for help! Otherwise, your leader is definitely dead today!”
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