Chapter 1 As Always

The Late Night Bookstore was as quiet as ever. Of course, it would be truly ghostly if it ever got lively.

After receiving a call from Xu Qinglang, Bai Yingying immediately changed her clothes. As she locked the shop door, ready to leave, she frowned slightly at Spider-Man sitting alone inside. She reopened the door, walked in, and said to the silent Spider-Man:

"Hey, the boss is in trouble. You and I are going to help him."

Spider-Man raised his head, looked at Bai Yingying, then silently stood up. He only listened to Zhou Ze, but that didn't mean he had no intelligence at all.

Bringing him outside, Bai Yingying locked the shop door. Just then, a taxi pulled up, a little loli sitting in the passenger seat.

After Bai Yingying and Spider-Man got into the car, the driver looked at the passengers and smiled, saying:

"You guys are those, what are they called, oh, cosplay enthusiasts, right?"

Bai Yingying didn't answer.

The little loli didn't answer.

The priest was even less likely to answer.

The driver felt awkward.

Then he suddenly felt cold in the car. He looked down and saw that the air conditioner wasn't on.

"Let's go, Shifu, to General Mountain," the little loli urged.

She was in a bad mood because Zhou Ze was always causing trouble. She only hoped that Zhou Ze could steadily earn achievements and become an inspector, so she could be free.

In fact, she had always thought that Zhou Ze was a very self-aware person, both before and after she was subdued by him. The little loli still maintained this view.

Because he was very lazy, no different from a salted fish. But how could this salted fish get into so much trouble?

First, the City God's certificate, then the Azure-Clad Goddess, followed by the Yin-Yang Record, then the priest, and now, he ran to General Mountain and rendered himself "unconscious."

The little loli took a deep breath. It was really troublesome to have such a constable.

"Is there a way to solve the boss's problem?" Bai Yingying asked the little loli.

The little loli smiled. "I only received a phone call. That noodle shop guy is just a half-baked Xuanxue (metaphysics) practitioner. His description can hardly provide much valuable information. I must go to the scene to investigate before I can draw a conclusion. But one thing is certain: a person like your boss can't even sleep without you or the icebox. How could he be unconscious, especially when there are no external injuries on his body?"

Bai Yingying frowned slightly at her words, and said, "In any case, we must wake the boss up."

"I'll do my best," the little loli pouted.

"If the boss doesn't wake up, you'll be buried with him."

The little loli's expression froze, and she said in a low voice, "There's no point in threatening me at this time."

The driver listened to a little girl and a young woman bickering. Although he didn't understand what they were saying, he found it quite interesting. He wanted to interject, but it seemed he wasn't in the cosplay circle, so it was difficult to find a common topic.

However, the driver still found an entry point, saying, "Are you going to General Mountain for tourism? I heard there was just a murder case there."

The little loli was silent.

Bai Yingying was silent.

The priest continued to be silent.

The driver felt even colder, so cold that he didn't want to drive anymore, and his feet started to tremble.

This was normal. The driver had struck gold today, carrying three passengers: a ghost messenger, a jiangshi (僵尸, Chinese hopping vampire), and a dead body. How could it not be cold?

Ordinary taxi drivers would be terrified just to see a blurry white figure in the distance when driving to a funeral home or cemetery at night. But he had hit the jackpot.

The taxi driver had achieved the pinnacle of seeing ghosts!

"General Mountain, it's a good place. Do you know the history of General Mountain?" the driver still wanted to talk; he had to talk, he was freezing.

"What's the history?" Bai Yingying asked.

Perhaps because Bai Yingying took the initiative to talk to him, she deliberately restrained her baleful aura, and the driver suddenly felt the temperature rise. It wasn't Bai Yingying's fault; she only acted cute and charming in front of Zhou Ze. When facing other people, she was very cold. Especially after the boss had an accident, Yingying's mood wasn't very good.

"Cao Ding, do you know him?" the driver asked.

"Who is he?" Bai Yingying asked.

"A famous general who fought against the Japanese pirates. Of course, he can't compare to Qi Jiguang, but he was also very awesome. He was a local of Tong City. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese pirates were rampant. Our Tong City is located at the estuary of the Yangtze River, so the Japanese pirates came a lot. He led troops to repel the Japanese pirates several times, but he died in battle at the age of forty-four. He died heroically."

"Oh," Bai Yingying nodded.

The little loli suddenly became interested and asked, "What does General Mountain have to do with Cao Ding?"

"It's named after him. There's also a scenic spot on General Mountain called Wozu Fen (Japanese Tomb), which is used to commemorate him. At that time, the Japanese pirates burned, killed, and looted all the way. Cao Ding defeated them and chased them to General Mountain, where an accident happened, and he sacrificed himself. Originally, General Mountain wasn't called that. Cao Ding's official position wasn't high either, but the people of Tong City were very grateful to him, so they called that mountain General Mountain, and it hasn't been changed ever since."

The little loli licked her lips, lost in thought.

About an hour later, the car finally arrived at the foot of General Mountain. After paying the fare, the little loli got out of the car first.

When Bai Yingying got out of the car, she saw the little loli looking up at the top of the mountain with her hands behind her back, looking like a little adult.

"See anything?" Bai Yingying asked.

"The problem is that I didn't see anything," the little loli frowned. "This is the most bizarre thing, because that guy surnamed Xu said they saw ghosts in the hot spring hotel on the top of the mountain, and there were quite a few of them, but everything here is calm, without a trace of baleful aura.

I think your boss should have the same doubts as I do. There are clearly ghosts, but everything is so calm."

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear the driver say earlier that this is the place where heroic souls sacrificed themselves, enjoying the incense passed down by the local people for generations? In this place, even if there are evil spirits, they will be suppressed very severely, and even you and I will be somewhat suppressed."

"Then the boss?"

"It shouldn't be that bad. Although your boss is a ghost, he shouldn't be directly targeted. Besides, five hundred years have passed since the Jiajing period. Even the most powerful heroic souls can't last that long. People are always forgetful."

"Let's go to the hotel first and see what's going on with the boss."

After Bai Yingying finished speaking, she walked directly towards the mountain.

The little loli also followed behind,

The priest walked at the end.

However, as they walked,

The priest suddenly stopped. His originally hunched body slowly straightened up, and a faint green light emanated from the eye sockets of his mask.

The little loli turned her head and looked at the priest, somewhat worried, "Won't he lose control?"

Bai Yingying shook her head firmly and said, "Impossible, he's not who he used to be. You're not a jiangshi, so you don't understand the feeling of us jiangshi.

I can tell you with certainty that he will never betray the boss in this lifetime."

The priest's eyes darted around, as if he was looking for something, or as if something was calling to him.

But Bai Yingying and the little loli didn't sense anything at all.

"Is there something?" Bai Yingying asked the priest.

The priest was somewhat bewildered, spreading his hands as if he didn't know how to describe it. Since Zhou Ze brought him back to the bookstore, he hadn't said a word.

He communicated with Zhou Ze very easily, but it was very difficult to communicate with others.

"What's going on?" Bai Yingying pressed.

The priest was still bewildered, but he mechanically bent down and picked up two stones, one large and one small.

The small stone was stacked on top of the large stone.

Then,

The priest reached out and pinched the small stone on top.

With a "snap,"

The small stone shattered instantly.

The debris slowly slipped from the priest's fingertips,

Then, he looked at Bai Yingying and the little loli, as if to see if they understood.

"Oh..."

The little loli opened her mouth and made a sound.

"What does it mean?" Bai Yingying looked at the little loli.

"Oh... I don't understand either," the little loli replied.

"..." Bai Yingying.

The priest scratched his head,

As if thinking about how to express himself.

"Forget it, let's go find your boss first."

The little loli didn't want to waste any more time, turned around and walked upward. Bai Yingying glanced at the priest and followed along.

The priest continued to follow them in confusion,

The priest walked steadily, but with each step, he left a footprint below. At the same time, he unconsciously shook his head, like an ox chasing away annoying flies.

...

"Hey, I've wiped this leg clean for you. Not bad, a leg to play with for years."

Zhou Ze held up the girl's leg and waved it towards the wall.

Earlier, the old Taoist had fished a leg out of the pool in the illusion of the hot spring pool. It was actually the one Zhou Ze was holding now.

"Do you want to play with it?" the girl next door asked.

"Sorry, I'm just joking. After all, we're all dead people, and there's no joke we can't make."

"I'm asking you... Do you want to play with it?"

The woman continued to press.

"No."

Zhou Ze looked at the section of leg in his hand and chose to refuse.

At the moment Zhou Ze refused,

Hot water also began to emerge from Zhou Ze's hot spring pool, not hot spring water, but boiling blood water.

The blood water quickly filled the hot spring pool, like a pot of boiling Chengdu hot pot, scalding hot,

Even,

There were really things inside that seemed to be being cooked, constantly tumbling.

It was another leg,

It was an arm,

It was a chest,

It was a neck,

Sections of mangled corpses were constantly tumbling inside,

She came,

She jumped over the barrier of the glass,

From next door, she came to Zhou Ze's place!

In the blood water, the head slowly floated out, her limbs and bones constantly tumbling around her,

At the same time,

She opened her mouth and said:

"Don't want to play?"