“I have another question. Do you have anything to do with my sister’s disappearance?”
When the old man had cried for a while, Bai Lixin finally voiced his doubt.
Old Man: “I really haven’t seen her. She disappeared after I drove her away that day. You have to believe me!”
He tugged at his sparse hair and looked towards the basement irritably. “I’ve encountered all sorts of things in my life and I no longer understand what is going on. My daughter is just an ordinary person. Why would something like this happen to her?”
Bai Lixin: “It might be because someone liked her name.”
Old Man: “Luo Mei? My daughter wasn’t named Luo Mei before. She adopted that stage name after becoming famous. Our surname is Zhang, and of course my daughter’s surname is Zhang as well. She used her real name when she debuted, but she wasn’t successful initially. Those people only sent her to offline events, and she didn’t release any albums. So, she remained relatively unknown. When she changed her name to ‘Luo Mei,’ she transformed.”
“You said… that he is housing my daughter’s soul,” the old man glanced towards the basement on his tiptoes, “then… can she return to her original body?”
“The physical body merely serves as a vessel for the soul. Although it’s just a vessel, if the physical body is severely damaged, the soul will immediately detach from it. So theoretically, if a soul were to leave that body but the body is undamaged, it can return.”
“Though this sounds simple in theory, it’s quite challenging in practice.”
“You need to meet three conditions.”
“Your daughter’s soul must be able to leave her current body.”
“That soul must be able to leave its host body.”
“Your daughter’s soul needs to enter the body at the moment that soul departs; otherwise, the body will lose vitality and become a discarded vessel.”
“There’s a significant risk involved. If your daughter’s soul leaves her current body but fails to enter her original body successfully, she will die completely and enter the afterlife.”
“The success rate is very low, and the mortality rate is high. If things stay as they are, I can guarantee that your daughter will live for another fifty years.”
The old man stared at the basement’s location for a long time, his gaze flickering. “I’m almost sixty, so I might live another twenty-odd years at best. Besides, my health is already poor, and I don’t have the energy to care for such a child. I can support her now, but if I die, who will take care of this child?”
“Instead of this, it’s better to just die. I hope she doesn’t have to stay in this body. Aren’t you the King Yama? Souls are your jurisdiction. Shouldn’t you intervene in such a significant matter?!”
Young Yama: “…”
“If I told you, though this body is foolish, fools are sometimes blessed. After you die, he’ll be adopted by a special welfare organization for unique people. The staff there will take good care of him, and he’ll peacefully live another fifty years. Would you still want to switch?”
The old man’s gaze shifted nervously to the basement’s doorway. Guo Dan had opened the door at some point and was quietly lying near the stairs, his half-dull, half-confused eyes fixed on the old man.
The old man swallowed nervously.
He looked at Guo Dan, feeling bewildered.
His well-behaved and sensible daughter resided in this body.
He forced himself to regard the other person as his daughter, but as soon as he saw that foolish expression, a sense of disgust surged from within, shattering the fragile hint of goodness that had just emerged.
Would his daughter always be like this in the future?
Maybe it’s better to just die.
The old man quickly turned his head away in revulsion, suppressing his expression and earnestly saying, “I still want her to be loved and live as a normal person. She would surely want that too. I… It’s not for myself, but for the sake of my daughter.”
Young King Yama: “…”
“Why are you so annoying? You’ll only shed tears at the sight of a coffin, huh?” Young King Yama’s eyebrows shot up, “Then let me tell you again, there are prerequisites for a soul to leave a body. Unless the person consents, it’s impossible to leave their own body.”
“Your daughter willingly entered Guo Dan’s body.”
Old Man: “How could that be? Impossible, impossible. How could a sane person want to become a fool? You’re deceiving me, yes, you’re deceiving me.”
Guo Dan sat by the basement door, listening quietly.
Young King Yama: “Perhaps the answer to this question will only be known fifty years from now. There’s a saying among humans, ‘Fools are sometimes blessed.’ Maybe the experiences she went through while conscious were too painful—her mother’s early passing, her father’s rejection, men’s insults, her child’s illness, her career’s decline… If there’s a hundred misfortunes, she’s probably endured seventy percent of them, and yet she was only in her early twenties.”
“After enduring so many setbacks, being able to live strong and not go insane is already commendable. She was at a time when she urgently wanted to escape this difficult world, if there was someone by her side tempting and persuading her, she would be very likely to choose to leave.”
“For your daughter, that might have been a release.”
“The world doesn’t revolve around you, and it doesn’t follow your desires. Just because you have an intelligent and exceptional daughter doesn’t mean everything should go as you wish. You can’t expect a well-behaved and sensible daughter to simply appear because you said so.”
Having said this unprecedented amount, Young King Yama no longer looked at the old man. Instead, he turned to Bai Lixin. “Xin Xin, let’s go.”
Bai Lixin nodded silently.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to glance at Guo Dan near the basement door.
After putting some distance between them and the old man’s house, Young King Yama muttered under his breath, letting out a long exhale of air.
Only then did Bai Lixin carefully scrutinize Young King Yama. Though he had been with him before, he was wearing a black suit that time and dressed like a modern person.
Now, he was in ancient attire. This clothing style wasn’t unfamiliar; Yama Dijia had also worn this style of clothing.
“You look quite handsome in this attire,” Bai Lixin complimented without hesitation. “I just realized today that you’ve really grown up, Tuanzi.”
The already shy Young King Yama blushed. “Xin Xin, I have another name. Only you still call me ‘Tuanzi’.”
Bai Lixin: “That’s true, after all, it wouldn’t be dignified for the distinguished King of the Underworld to be called ‘Tuanzi’. So, what’s your real name?”
After two seconds of hesitation, Young King Yama spoke. “I gave myself a name, ‘Bai Liye,’ because you found me in the dark night.”
“You followed my surname?” Bai Lixin chuckled. “That’s great. You haven’t brought shame to our Bai family.”
“Of course not,” the inclusion of ‘our’ pleased Young King Yama. He immediately lifted his chin and puffed out his chest, dispelling any lingering gloom. “I won’t let our Bai family lose face.”
“By the way, why did you call for me, Xin Xin?”
Bai Lixin: “I want to ask you for a favor. I hope it’s not too inconvenient for you.”
Young King Yama: “Go ahead, I’m listening.”
Bai Lixin: “It’s about…”
———————————
At eight in the evening, the moon was hidden, and the wind was strong.
Thick black clouds covered the pitch-black night sky.
Tonight, the Gold Sea Luxury Apartments were unusually quiet and dark. The windows of the apartment sporadically glowed with dim lights the size of mung beans.
A few Individuals stealthily entered the Gold Sea Luxury Apartments under the moonlight. They used the flashlights on their phones. Among them, a man with a large gold chain hanging around his neck walked at the center, his head lowered as he looked at his phone. He muttered impatiently as he walked, “Meet inside the small forest of the park in Gold Sea Luxury Apartments… After entering, walk west, and you’ll eventually see…”
He finished speaking and glanced ahead, asking his underling, “Is this the way to the west?”
The underling didn’t dare show any negligence. “Yes, boss, this is west.”
The man with the gold chain furrowed his brow, looking at the seemingly endless red brick path ahead. “It’s been nearly ten minutes, and we still haven’t reached the small park. Is this community really this big?”
The man with a crew cut next to him explained, “It’s possible that they used a concealed architectural style. To ensure residents’ privacy, most upscale communities might design the entrance to appear narrow, but the actual space inside is quite vast.”
“Really? There’s such an architectural style?” The man with the gold chain still harbored some suspicion, but it quickly dissipated because he faintly saw the small park in the dim light. “We’re almost there. Did you bring the POS machine, contract, and payment code?”
Crew Cut hurriedly responded, “We checked twice before coming. We have everything, boss.”
The man with the gold chain quickened his pace. “Alright, it’s only a bit past eight. If we finish early today, I’ll treat you guys to skewers.”
The few people around him responded quickly, “Thank you, boss!”
As they approached, they gradually saw a vague figure in the small forest of the park.
As they drew nearer, they noticed that the person was facing away from them.
Beside the person was a bulging black bag.
Upon seeing the bag, excitement surged among the group, and they hastened their steps. A man wearing a gold watch exclaimed excitedly, “Boss, look, money!”
In contrast, the man with the gold chain was like someone who had seen it all and wasn’t particularly thrilled.
When they reached behind the person, they stopped. The man with the gold chain shouted at the person’s back, “Hey, we’re here. Hand over the money quickly—two hundred thousand, not a penny more or less.”
The person facing away from them showed no intention of turning around. They stiffly extended a hand, pointing to the black bag on the ground to their side. A raspy and unpleasant voice rang out in the darkness, “It’s all here. Count it yourselves, not a cent more or less.”
The man with the gold chain gestured to Crew Cut, who hurried over and picked up the black bag.
Strangely, the bag appeared heavy, yet it wasn’t actually that weighty.
‘Could it be that I’ve gained strength recently?’
With little doubt, Crew Cut soon brought the bag in front of the man with the gold chain.
The person in front still made no move to turn around.
The man with the gold chain and his group exchanged glances, then crouched down around the bag, forming a circle.
As Crew Cut unzipped it, they were overjoyed to find that the initial loan had appreciated to two hundred thousand within a year. However, when they took the money into their hands, they froze in place.
Inside were stacks of slow-moving paper bills, but they weren’t usable currency. Instead, it was ghost money!
*Ghost money is false paper money burned as an offering to the dead.Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the flashlight illuminated the face of a deity wearing a golden crown on the notes of money. The figure on the ghost money smiled sidelong, as if mocking the group.
The man with the gold chain stared for two seconds before quickly rummaging through the bag. To their astonishment, there wasn’t a single regular bill inside—only ghost money.
“Dammit,” the man with the gold chain muttered in frustration, throwing the bag onto the ground. “You give laborers’ ghost money? I think you’re tired of living. I’m going to finish you off today and show you who can be provoked and who can’t!”
Before he could even take action, Crew Cut and the others had surged forward, with Crew Cut grabbing the person’s shoulder. They forcibly turned the person around, seemingly aiming to give them a punch across the face.
“Bang,” there was a sound as if something heavy had fallen from the person.
The object dropped onto the grass, emitting a muffled thud.
The person holding the phone instinctively adjusted the flashlight to see what it was.
When the flashlight illuminated the object, everyone’s pupils abruptly contracted, and they screamed and turned to flee.
It was a severed head.
The area where the scalp was still attached to the head had been torn away. The top of the head was a mess of flesh and blood, uneven and gory. The bumps and depressions silently conveyed to them just how violently the scalp had been torn from the head.
The facial features of the head were twisted in one direction, as if something had been continuously shaking it, resulting in an eerie distortion of its features.
Its eyes were wide open, the bloodshot and swollen eyeballs seeming as if they might pop out of their sockets and fall to the ground at any moment.
However, the most horrifying part was the area beneath the head.
Torn flesh dangled loosely from the mangled neck, the bones underneath long separated from the skin. The gruesome white bones were exposed in all their hideousness.
The bones and flesh didn’t align neatly; the wound appeared as if it had been gnawed on by a wild beast, yet it also resembled the aftermath of a violent tearing.
Now those swollen eyeballs were fixated on them, unmoving.
Crew Cut who touched the person’s shoulder was the closest to it and the first to see it.
The moment he saw the head clearly, he immediately screamed, wanting to flee.
However, his palm that held onto the shoulder couldn’t be shaken off no matter how he struggled.
The palm was tightly glued to the shoulder, or rather, the shoulder was tightly gripping the palm.
With dilated pupils, he tried to free himself with both hands and feet, while asking for help from his companions.
When he turned to look at his companions, he found that everyone had fled the scene in the first instant, each of them escaping faster than the other, despite all the talk of being good buddies.
Crew Cut looked at the head under his feet, feeling hopeless and bitter.
Suddenly, the eyeball on the head rotated, the pupil facing squarely toward Crew Cut.
“Ahhhh!!! Ghost! There’s a ghost! Help, save me!”
“Hehehe, you can’t run away. Even if you want to run, you can’t.” That hoarse voice came again, this time from Crew Cut’s feet.
“Debts must be repaid, it’s only fair. I’m already dead. Since you want money, come down and join me. I won’t be in debt, I’ll definitely return the money to you. Hehehe.”
The several escaping men suddenly stopped, as if they had run into an invisible wall. They halted abruptly and slammed into each other.
Without hesitation, they quickly got up from the ground, attempting to flee once again.
But the unseen wall stood firm before them; none of them could leave.
“It’s a ghost hits the wall, a ghost hits the wall! It’s Chen Ping, he’s come to claim our lives. He’s become a vengeful spirit, he wants to kill us, to have us join him in death!”
Someone shouted, and the gangsters, who were already in a state of extreme panic, were now even more terrified.
Some sat weakly on the ground, others knelt down and kowtowed to the head, while some felt a foul liquid run down their pant legs, dampening the grass beneath them…
Those who had once been so arrogant and domineering, appearing invincible, now, in the face of fear, revealed their cowardice and misery.
Crew Cut saw that his companions were also trapped. After experiencing the brink of death, a sense of revenge surged within him.
‘If I can’t survive, then they can’t escape me either!
Why should I be the only unlucky one? If I’m going to die, they’ll all die with me!’
Fear and excitement appeared simultaneously on his face, and his expression turned ferocious in an instant.
Suddenly, a cold hand grabbed his hand, which was glued to his shoulder.
Crew Cut, who had been immersed in the excitement of dopamine and adrenaline, shuddered all over, stiffly looking at his hand.
It was a pale hand devoid of blood, and was in stark contrast to his own. It was as if he had grabbed a plaster cast that was different from his own hand.
That hand tightly gripped his hand, and amidst the terrified gazes of the crowd, the body that had been facing away from them slowly turned.
A headless body now stood before them.
The white T-shirt it wore was dyed red by blood, and the gruesome wound on its neck continued to gush blood, as if it were a small fountain.
Gululu.
Gululu.
“Ahhhh!!!”
“Ghost! Ahh!!!”
“Help!!!”
The men who were usually fierce and intimidating were now scared out of their wits. They knelt on the ground, begging for mercy.
The man with the gold chain had wet himself, and tears streamed down his eyes as he cried, “I was wrong, I’m sorry. Your debt is forgiven, I won’t bother your family anymore. No, no, no, I promise to be a good person in the future, never engaging in such extortionate lending behavior again.”
“This is… this is the contract,” the man with the gold chain was trembling violently. He tried several times to take the contract out of his bag, but ultimately turned the bag over and dumped everything onto the ground in frustration.
A laptop, a few USB drives, several contracts, a voice recorder, a small camera, and more rolled out from it.
“I have another question. Do you have anything to do with my sister’s disappearance?”
When the old man had cried for a while, Bai Lixin finally voiced his doubt.
Old Man: “I really haven’t seen her. She disappeared after I drove her away that day. You have to believe me!”
He tugged at his sparse hair and looked towards the basement irritably. “I’ve encountered all sorts of things in my life and I no longer understand what is going on. My daughter is just an ordinary person. Why would something like this happen to her?”
Bai Lixin: “It might be because someone liked her name.”
Old Man: “Luo Mei? My daughter wasn’t named Luo Mei before. She adopted that stage name after becoming famous. Our surname is Zhang, and of course my daughter’s surname is Zhang as well. She used her real name when she debuted, but she wasn’t successful initially. Those people only sent her to offline events, and she didn’t release any albums. So, she remained relatively unknown. When she changed her name to ‘Luo Mei,’ she transformed.”
“You said… that he is housing my daughter’s soul,” the old man glanced towards the basement on his tiptoes, “then… can she return to her original body?”
“The physical body merely serves as a vessel for the soul. Although it’s just a vessel, if the physical body is severely damaged, the soul will immediately detach from it. So theoretically, if a soul were to leave that body but the body is undamaged, it can return.”
“Though this sounds simple in theory, it’s quite challenging in practice.”
“You need to meet three conditions.”
“Your daughter’s soul must be able to leave her current body.”
“That soul must be able to leave its host body.”
“Your daughter’s soul needs to enter the body at the moment that soul departs; otherwise, the body will lose vitality and become a discarded vessel.”
“There’s a significant risk involved. If your daughter’s soul leaves her current body but fails to enter her original body successfully, she will die completely and enter the afterlife.”
“The success rate is very low, and the mortality rate is high. If things stay as they are, I can guarantee that your daughter will live for another fifty years.”
The old man stared at the basement’s location for a long time, his gaze flickering. “I’m almost sixty, so I might live another twenty-odd years at best. Besides, my health is already poor, and I don’t have the energy to care for such a child. I can support her now, but if I die, who will take care of this child?”
“Instead of this, it’s better to just die. I hope she doesn’t have to stay in this body. Aren’t you the King Yama? Souls are your jurisdiction. Shouldn’t you intervene in such a significant matter?!”
Young Yama: “…”
“If I told you, though this body is foolish, fools are sometimes blessed. After you die, he’ll be adopted by a special welfare organization for unique people. The staff there will take good care of him, and he’ll peacefully live another fifty years. Would you still want to switch?”
The old man’s gaze shifted nervously to the basement’s doorway. Guo Dan had opened the door at some point and was quietly lying near the stairs, his half-dull, half-confused eyes fixed on the old man.
The old man swallowed nervously.
He looked at Guo Dan, feeling bewildered.
His well-behaved and sensible daughter resided in this body.
He forced himself to regard the other person as his daughter, but as soon as he saw that foolish expression, a sense of disgust surged from within, shattering the fragile hint of goodness that had just emerged.
Would his daughter always be like this in the future?
Maybe it’s better to just die.
The old man quickly turned his head away in revulsion, suppressing his expression and earnestly saying, “I still want her to be loved and live as a normal person. She would surely want that too. I… It’s not for myself, but for the sake of my daughter.”
Young King Yama: “…”
“Why are you so annoying? You’ll only shed tears at the sight of a coffin, huh?” Young King Yama’s eyebrows shot up, “Then let me tell you again, there are prerequisites for a soul to leave a body. Unless the person consents, it’s impossible to leave their own body.”
“Your daughter willingly entered Guo Dan’s body.”
Old Man: “How could that be? Impossible, impossible. How could a sane person want to become a fool? You’re deceiving me, yes, you’re deceiving me.”
Guo Dan sat by the basement door, listening quietly.
Young King Yama: “Perhaps the answer to this question will only be known fifty years from now. There’s a saying among humans, ‘Fools are sometimes blessed.’ Maybe the experiences she went through while conscious were too painful—her mother’s early passing, her father’s rejection, men’s insults, her child’s illness, her career’s decline… If there’s a hundred misfortunes, she’s probably endured seventy percent of them, and yet she was only in her early twenties.”
“After enduring so many setbacks, being able to live strong and not go insane is already commendable. She was at a time when she urgently wanted to escape this difficult world, if there was someone by her side tempting and persuading her, she would be very likely to choose to leave.”
“For your daughter, that might have been a release.”
“The world doesn’t revolve around you, and it doesn’t follow your desires. Just because you have an intelligent and exceptional daughter doesn’t mean everything should go as you wish. You can’t expect a well-behaved and sensible daughter to simply appear because you said so.”
Having said this unprecedented amount, Young King Yama no longer looked at the old man. Instead, he turned to Bai Lixin. “Xin Xin, let’s go.”
Bai Lixin nodded silently.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to glance at Guo Dan near the basement door.
After putting some distance between them and the old man’s house, Young King Yama muttered under his breath, letting out a long exhale of air.
Only then did Bai Lixin carefully scrutinize Young King Yama. Though he had been with him before, he was wearing a black suit that time and dressed like a modern person.
Now, he was in ancient attire. This clothing style wasn’t unfamiliar; Yama Dijia had also worn this style of clothing.
“You look quite handsome in this attire,” Bai Lixin complimented without hesitation. “I just realized today that you’ve really grown up, Tuanzi.”
The already shy Young King Yama blushed. “Xin Xin, I have another name. Only you still call me ‘Tuanzi’.”
Bai Lixin: “That’s true, after all, it wouldn’t be dignified for the distinguished King of the Underworld to be called ‘Tuanzi’. So, what’s your real name?”
After two seconds of hesitation, Young King Yama spoke. “I gave myself a name, ‘Bai Liye,’ because you found me in the dark night.”
“You followed my surname?” Bai Lixin chuckled. “That’s great. You haven’t brought shame to our Bai family.”
“Of course not,” the inclusion of ‘our’ pleased Young King Yama. He immediately lifted his chin and puffed out his chest, dispelling any lingering gloom. “I won’t let our Bai family lose face.”
“By the way, why did you call for me, Xin Xin?”
Bai Lixin: “I want to ask you for a favor. I hope it’s not too inconvenient for you.”
Young King Yama: “Go ahead, I’m listening.”
Bai Lixin: “It’s about…”
———————————
At eight in the evening, the moon was hidden, and the wind was strong.
Thick black clouds covered the pitch-black night sky.
Tonight, the Gold Sea Luxury Apartments were unusually quiet and dark. The windows of the apartment sporadically glowed with dim lights the size of mung beans.
A few Individuals stealthily entered the Gold Sea Luxury Apartments under the moonlight. They used the flashlights on their phones. Among them, a man with a large gold chain hanging around his neck walked at the center, his head lowered as he looked at his phone. He muttered impatiently as he walked, “Meet inside the small forest of the park in Gold Sea Luxury Apartments… After entering, walk west, and you’ll eventually see…”
He finished speaking and glanced ahead, asking his underling, “Is this the way to the west?”
The underling didn’t dare show any negligence. “Yes, boss, this is west.”
The man with the gold chain furrowed his brow, looking at the seemingly endless red brick path ahead. “It’s been nearly ten minutes, and we still haven’t reached the small park. Is this community really this big?”
The man with a crew cut next to him explained, “It’s possible that they used a concealed architectural style. To ensure residents’ privacy, most upscale communities might design the entrance to appear narrow, but the actual space inside is quite vast.”
“Really? There’s such an architectural style?” The man with the gold chain still harbored some suspicion, but it quickly dissipated because he faintly saw the small park in the dim light. “We’re almost there. Did you bring the POS machine, contract, and payment code?”
Crew Cut hurriedly responded, “We checked twice before coming. We have everything, boss.”
The man with the gold chain quickened his pace. “Alright, it’s only a bit past eight. If we finish early today, I’ll treat you guys to skewers.”
The few people around him responded quickly, “Thank you, boss!”
As they approached, they gradually saw a vague figure in the small forest of the park.
As they drew nearer, they noticed that the person was facing away from them.
Beside the person was a bulging black bag.
Upon seeing the bag, excitement surged among the group, and they hastened their steps. A man wearing a gold watch exclaimed excitedly, “Boss, look, money!”
In contrast, the man with the gold chain was like someone who had seen it all and wasn’t particularly thrilled.
When they reached behind the person, they stopped. The man with the gold chain shouted at the person’s back, “Hey, we’re here. Hand over the money quickly—two hundred thousand, not a penny more or less.”
The person facing away from them showed no intention of turning around. They stiffly extended a hand, pointing to the black bag on the ground to their side. A raspy and unpleasant voice rang out in the darkness, “It’s all here. Count it yourselves, not a cent more or less.”
The man with the gold chain gestured to Crew Cut, who hurried over and picked up the black bag.
Strangely, the bag appeared heavy, yet it wasn’t actually that weighty.
‘Could it be that I’ve gained strength recently?’
With little doubt, Crew Cut soon brought the bag in front of the man with the gold chain.
The person in front still made no move to turn around.
The man with the gold chain and his group exchanged glances, then crouched down around the bag, forming a circle.
As Crew Cut unzipped it, they were overjoyed to find that the initial loan had appreciated to two hundred thousand within a year. However, when they took the money into their hands, they froze in place.
Inside were stacks of slow-moving paper bills, but they weren’t usable currency. Instead, it was ghost money!
*Ghost money is false paper money burned as an offering to the dead.Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the flashlight illuminated the face of a deity wearing a golden crown on the notes of money. The figure on the ghost money smiled sidelong, as if mocking the group.
The man with the gold chain stared for two seconds before quickly rummaging through the bag. To their astonishment, there wasn’t a single regular bill inside—only ghost money.
“Dammit,” the man with the gold chain muttered in frustration, throwing the bag onto the ground. “You give laborers’ ghost money? I think you’re tired of living. I’m going to finish you off today and show you who can be provoked and who can’t!”
Before he could even take action, Crew Cut and the others had surged forward, with Crew Cut grabbing the person’s shoulder. They forcibly turned the person around, seemingly aiming to give them a punch across the face.
“Bang,” there was a sound as if something heavy had fallen from the person.
The object dropped onto the grass, emitting a muffled thud.
The person holding the phone instinctively adjusted the flashlight to see what it was.
When the flashlight illuminated the object, everyone’s pupils abruptly contracted, and they screamed and turned to flee.
It was a severed head.
The area where the scalp was still attached to the head had been torn away. The top of the head was a mess of flesh and blood, uneven and gory. The bumps and depressions silently conveyed to them just how violently the scalp had been torn from the head.
The facial features of the head were twisted in one direction, as if something had been continuously shaking it, resulting in an eerie distortion of its features.
Its eyes were wide open, the bloodshot and swollen eyeballs seeming as if they might pop out of their sockets and fall to the ground at any moment.
However, the most horrifying part was the area beneath the head.
Torn flesh dangled loosely from the mangled neck, the bones underneath long separated from the skin. The gruesome white bones were exposed in all their hideousness.
The bones and flesh didn’t align neatly; the wound appeared as if it had been gnawed on by a wild beast, yet it also resembled the aftermath of a violent tearing.
Now those swollen eyeballs were fixated on them, unmoving.
Crew Cut who touched the person’s shoulder was the closest to it and the first to see it.
The moment he saw the head clearly, he immediately screamed, wanting to flee.
However, his palm that held onto the shoulder couldn’t be shaken off no matter how he struggled.
The palm was tightly glued to the shoulder, or rather, the shoulder was tightly gripping the palm.
With dilated pupils, he tried to free himself with both hands and feet, while asking for help from his companions.
When he turned to look at his companions, he found that everyone had fled the scene in the first instant, each of them escaping faster than the other, despite all the talk of being good buddies.
Crew Cut looked at the head under his feet, feeling hopeless and bitter.
Suddenly, the eyeball on the head rotated, the pupil facing squarely toward Crew Cut.
“Ahhhh!!! Ghost! There’s a ghost! Help, save me!”
“Hehehe, you can’t run away. Even if you want to run, you can’t.” That hoarse voice came again, this time from Crew Cut’s feet.
“Debts must be repaid, it’s only fair. I’m already dead. Since you want money, come down and join me. I won’t be in debt, I’ll definitely return the money to you. Hehehe.”
The several escaping men suddenly stopped, as if they had run into an invisible wall. They halted abruptly and slammed into each other.
Without hesitation, they quickly got up from the ground, attempting to flee once again.
But the unseen wall stood firm before them; none of them could leave.
“It’s a ghost hits the wall, a ghost hits the wall! It’s Chen Ping, he’s come to claim our lives. He’s become a vengeful spirit, he wants to kill us, to have us join him in death!”
Someone shouted, and the gangsters, who were already in a state of extreme panic, were now even more terrified.
Some sat weakly on the ground, others knelt down and kowtowed to the head, while some felt a foul liquid run down their pant legs, dampening the grass beneath them…
Those who had once been so arrogant and domineering, appearing invincible, now, in the face of fear, revealed their cowardice and misery.
Crew Cut saw that his companions were also trapped. After experiencing the brink of death, a sense of revenge surged within him.
‘If I can’t survive, then they can’t escape me either!
Why should I be the only unlucky one? If I’m going to die, they’ll all die with me!’
Fear and excitement appeared simultaneously on his face, and his expression turned ferocious in an instant.
Suddenly, a cold hand grabbed his hand, which was glued to his shoulder.
Crew Cut, who had been immersed in the excitement of dopamine and adrenaline, shuddered all over, stiffly looking at his hand.
It was a pale hand devoid of blood, and was in stark contrast to his own. It was as if he had grabbed a plaster cast that was different from his own hand.
That hand tightly gripped his hand, and amidst the terrified gazes of the crowd, the body that had been facing away from them slowly turned.
A headless body now stood before them.
The white T-shirt it wore was dyed red by blood, and the gruesome wound on its neck continued to gush blood, as if it were a small fountain.
Gululu.
Gululu.
“Ahhhh!!!”
“Ghost! Ahh!!!”
“Help!!!”
The men who were usually fierce and intimidating were now scared out of their wits. They knelt on the ground, begging for mercy.
The man with the gold chain had wet himself, and tears streamed down his eyes as he cried, “I was wrong, I’m sorry. Your debt is forgiven, I won’t bother your family anymore. No, no, no, I promise to be a good person in the future, never engaging in such extortionate lending behavior again.”
“This is… this is the contract,” the man with the gold chain was trembling violently. He tried several times to take the contract out of his bag, but ultimately turned the bag over and dumped everything onto the ground in frustration.
A laptop, a few USB drives, several contracts, a voice recorder, a small camera, and more rolled out from it.
