Chapter 1 "Hey, Zhou Ze, you've changed. Are you even human anymore? You were the one who said she killed those two people, and now you're the one who wants to save her! One moment you want me to go with you to catch the murderer, the next you want me to help you carry the murderer back.

What exactly do you take me for!"

Back in the bookstore, Xu Qinglang pointed at Zhou Ze's back and grumbled.

No, to be precise, Xu Qinglang hadn't stopped his verbal barrage the entire way back from the building, his incessant chatter like that of a disgruntled wife scolding a deadbeat husband for staying out all night, not providing for the family.

Bai Yingying sat behind the counter playing on her phone. She didn't dare play games on the computer anymore; the intermittent power outages were too much to bear.

Zhou Ze hadn't planned on paying any attention to Xu Qinglang, he didn't have the energy. But Xu Qinglang seemed to be enjoying his rant, so Zhou Ze turned around, pointed a finger at his nose, and said directly:

"What do I take you for? Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'No investigation, no right to speak'?

I don't know her, but I know her friend. I owe that person a favor. I'm just asking you, is that reason enough?"

"But the two dead people..."

"Do I know the two dead people?" Zhou Ze retorted. "What does it have to do with me? Am I Joan of Arc or Hai Rui? Do I expect the locals to build me a temple and burn incense for me?

I'm just an unlucky ghost who was killed by a moron who hired someone to run me over, and then, through a twist of fate, I ended up possessing that moron's body!

I'm not human, I'm just a ghost, so please, Mr. Xu, with your twenty-plus apartments, stop trying to apply your universal values to me!

You want me to make sacrifices? You want me to pursue truth and justice?

Then please, when you're being stabbed in the neck with a pen, shout, 'Fire at will!'

You can't even do that yourself, yet you have the nerve to criticize others?

I'm a ghost, and for a long time, I didn't even have a legal identity. In that situation, you still expect me to be selfless, but when has anyone ever been selfless for me?"

"You..."

"What about you? Didn't you also break the rules to forcibly keep your parents' souls here to enjoy some family reunion atmosphere?

When you were doing that, why didn't you think about all the families who have lost loved ones and don't get the same treatment?

I don't care if she killed anyone or not. I owe someone in Rongcheng a favor, and that's enough for me to turn a blind eye!

I don't care if she's the murderer or not. She promised to get my heart back for me, and I'm willing to help her heal!

It's that simple!

So, please take your arrogance, your self-righteousness, your lofty ideals, and shove them sideways into the next room!"

Zhou Ze let out a long breath after saying all that. Honestly, he had been really annoyed lately, especially after the monkey incident.

He shouldn't have meddled in things, he could have just covered his eyes and pretended he didn't see anything. That way, he wouldn't have had to make any decisions, and that old bastard wouldn't have taken his heart.

Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, sticking its butt up in the air, wiggling around,

shouting that the world is so beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful!

How great would that be,

how comfortable.

Xu Qinglang swallowed, somewhat at a loss for words in the face of Zhou Ze's verbal onslaught.

The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.

Bai Yingying had been watching from the side for a long time, not daring to interrupt.

Xu Qinglang pointed a finger at Zhou Ze, looking like he had lost all hope. He was truly a storm-battered begonia, slightly disheveled. Then, with a flick of his sleeve, he turned and walked towards the door, but stopped just as he was pushing open the glass door and said:

"What do you want for lunch?"

"Tomato beef over rice with strawberry juice, please," Zhou Ze answered without hesitation.

"Okay."

Xu Qinglang left to make food.

Bai Yingying stuck out her tongue and then covered her nose.

Zhou Ze looked at her, "If you're going to say you smell something sour again, it means the toilet is clogged again. Scrub it three more times."

Bai Yingying immediately shook her head, "It smells sweet."

Just then, a van pulled up in front of the bookstore.

"Go get the stuff."

At Zhou Ze's command, Bai Yingying went out and brought in two boxes. The van dropped off the boxes and left.

"What's in these?" Bai Yingying asked.

"Simple surgical instruments." Zhou Ze opened one of the boxes and put on a pair of gloves.

"Boss, how did you get them delivered?"

"I was a doctor in my past life."

"Um, and then?"

"And then, of course, I know which director is smuggling medical equipment, taking bribes, and lining his own pockets. It's easy to make a phone call to threaten him and get him to send over some inexpensive equipment."

"That's possible?" Bai Yingying was stunned for a moment before she reacted.

"Bring the stuff upstairs." Zhou Ze said and walked upstairs himself.

Upstairs on the straw mat, the woman was lying there, and the old daoist was squatting beside her, a cigarette in his mouth. When Zhou Ze came over, the old daoist said with some concern:

"Big brother, do you know what you're doing?"

"Then you can send her to the hospital and let those ghost officers find her."

The old daoist was silent.

Bai Yingying carried one box in each hand, not making a big deal out of it. Sometimes Zhou Ze felt like he was losing out; if he had opened a construction team instead of a bookstore, having Bai Yingying as a subordinate would have been a real money-maker, saving him the cost of excavators and bulldozers.

Everything was prepared, and after the instruments were disinfected, Zhou Ze began to prepare for surgery.

"Big brother, aren't you going to use anesthesia?" the old daoist reminded him.

"She doesn't need anesthesia. Her mental willpower is terrifying."

Zhou Ze shook his head and directly used scissors to cut open the roughly bandaged wound on the woman's arm.

These wounds weren't treated badly, but the injuries were unusual. Ordinary bandages wouldn't have any effect.

"That's true, she supposedly went without sleep for half a year and made it through," the old daoist muttered beside him.

Zhou Ze pried open one of the wounds on her left arm and poked around with forceps. The woman didn't react at all; she seemed to be in a deep sleep.

Then, Zhou Ze used the forceps to pull a black feather out of the wound and dropped it onto the metal plate that Bai Yingying was holding.

"Clang..."

The feather was very soft, but it made a crisp sound when it landed.

"This humble daoist remembers, that feather should be from a black feather duster. A pale-faced guy in black clothes was chasing after us with it."

"Black Impermanence?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Don't know, kind of looks like him," the old daoist replied.

Zhou Ze didn't comment and continued cleaning the wound.

Good lord,

who knows how many strange things were embedded in this woman's body.

Over the next while, Zhou Ze successively extracted broken talismans, rune-engraved darts, released silver mercury, like he was opening a general store, with all kinds of things.

Bai Yingying and the old daoist were dazzled by the sight.

Although the remnants inside the wound were being cleaned out one by one, it was no less than a secondary injury to the body, so Zhou Ze was constantly monitoring the woman's condition.

Finally, when Zhou Ze took two pieces of red broken glass out of the woman's abdomen, he noticed a faint black mist rising from her body, and a shadow seemed about to float out.

Only Zhou Ze could see this scene.

This was a sign that the body was on the verge of collapse and unable to sustain the soul. From a scientific point of view, it meant that the patient was about to die.

Zhou Ze grew out his right fingernail and directly grabbed the black shadow, pushing it back into the body.

"Hmm..."

A faint sound came.

"Hang in there for a little longer. There are still a few wounds that need to be treated, and then some medicine needs to be applied. If you can get through this, your body will slowly recover."

This was the most special surgery Zhou Ze had ever performed since becoming a doctor. Not to mention the complexity of the patient's injuries, the fact that he was simultaneously treating her and pressing her soul back into her body would be enough to shock the entire medical community.

This was practically cheating, like playing an arcade game with unlimited continues.

Of course, Zhou Ze also knew that this was because the woman's soul was strong to begin with. An ordinary person's soul could withstand one or two attempts, but repeated attempts would probably cause it to collapse.

From this perspective, the woman's tenacity was truly terrifying.

Zhou Ze was even a little curious. Even a woman he encountered was so resilient and terrifying. What was that guy in Rongcheng, who was stirring up trouble, really like?

Birds of a feather flock together, after all.

After taking care of the last wound and applying the medicine, Zhou Ze let out a long breath.

Next, it would depend on her own willpower to hold on. Once her body slowly recovered, the problem shouldn't be too big.

In fact, if that old bastard who dug out his heart was still around, it would be best to get some medicine from him. The wound on Zhou Ze's chest had already healed, without even leaving a scar.

Of course, Zhou Ze sometimes wondered if the other party had really cut him open and taken his heart.

Or, was he just under some kind of illusion? But where did that feeling of pain come from whenever he wanted to do something that went against his own self-interest?

The woman was settled upstairs, the old daoist went to the restaurant next door for lunch, and Bai Yingying ran off to play games, leaving only Zhou Ze to stay here and check on the woman's condition.

After a few hours, Zhou Ze, who was sitting beside her reading a book, suddenly noticed the woman's eyelids twitch. Then he saw her open her eyes.

The woman was looking at him,

and he was looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" Zhou Ze asked.

The woman nodded slightly, indicating that her body was recovering.

"Heh, what's your name?" Zhou Ze asked.

The woman was silent for a long time. Just when Zhou Ze was wondering if her current physical condition didn't allow her to speak, she said:

"Tang... Shi..."

"My name is..." Zhou Ze paused and asked curiously:

"Whenever you introduce yourself to others, do you often encounter idiots who respond that their name is Song Ci (Song Lyrics)?"