Chapter 48: Chapter 47: Picking a Fight with a Ghost
This was the only thing from last night that left He Xiaotian feeling rather frustrated.
Although he’d had a blast messing with the evil spirit, he hadn’t managed to cause any real damage. At most, he’d just left the thing feeling dejected for a while.
The reason he’d told them to get ten million ready before he left was twofold. For one, he was unwilling to let it go; he was determined to kill this evil spirit and replenish his nearly depleted Experience Points. For another, he’d rarely come across such a gaggle of rich people. If he didn’t shake them down for all they were worth, he’d be betraying his own ambition to buy a villa.
If Huang Tao and the others refused, He Xiaotian wasn’t going to force their hand.
’This is a society governed by law. Would I really dare to try and extort them?’
His attitude was purely one of "nothing ventured, nothing gained." If it didn’t work out, so be it.
After all, he had covered his tracks well and hadn’t revealed his identity at any point.
As for his contact ID?
Heh, that had been a gift from a computer guru friend a few years back.
The guy was now studying abroad, completely untraceable.
’But if those guys actually listen and get the ten million ready, that’s free money, bro!’
He chatted with his mom and the others all morning, then returned to his small room after lunch.
He took a nap in the afternoon, planning to pull an all-nighter to hammer the evil spirit in the haunted apartment 302 to death.
Around six o’clock, the sky had completely darkened.
He Xiaotian hoisted two wooden chests onto his shoulder and walked out of his residential complex.
For some reason, just carrying a single big hammer felt like something was missing.
’Might as well bring both tonight.’
’Dual-wielding them would be awesome, right?’
He pulled a stack of Netherworld Currency from his coat, casually drew out a bill, lit it, and tossed it to the ground. Then, he began to wait quietly.
About five minutes later, a flashy Bentley came tearing down the road.
It then executed a flashy drift worthy of a race car, coming to a halt right in front of He Xiaotian.
’What a pro, my ghostly driver!’
At the same time, he felt extremely lucky to have encountered someone who actually kept their word.
Nowadays, meeting a ghost this honest wasn’t just rare...
...it was probably rarer than a giant panda.
The ghost was clearly scared to death of him.
’And yet, I light a piece of Netherworld Currency, and you actually show up!’
He Xiaotian reflected honestly: if their roles were reversed, he would have been long gone.
"Get in, sir!" the driver called out with a cheerful grin. His face was pale, as if he’d overindulged in worldly pleasures.
He opened the back door, carefully placed his two large iron hammers inside, and then casually slid into the front passenger seat.
"Haining Road, Tuanjie Community."
"You got it! Hold on tight, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes, guaranteed."
VROOOM!
The roar of the engine echoed through the streets, startling nearby residents who shouted in anger.
「Haining Road, Tuanjie Community.」
This time, Sister Nan had been held up by some other business and didn’t come along.
The only ones who came were the two rich kids, Huang Tao and Li Zheng, and they had practically been dragged here.
For their group, fifty million was a significant sum, but not an astronomical one.
But since it could solve the problem of the haunted apartment 302 once and for all, they didn’t refuse.
They liked to fool around and could be arrogant and rebellious at times.
But that didn’t mean they treated human lives as a joke.
When the first person disappeared, it all felt unreal to them.
They had clearly seen on the camera footage that the challenger had simply gone to the bathroom at night and never came back out.
At first, most of them thought the guy had used some trick to leave apartment 302 through the bathroom.
After all, real-life locked-room mysteries always had a logical explanation that made perfect sense once revealed.
After that, they paid no more attention to the first person who went missing.
They were just having fun, after all. Who had time to worry about him?
And so, a second person disappeared.
Then, a sense of dread began to set in. Just like the first, the second person walked out of the bedroom at exactly midnight, entered the bathroom, and was never seen again.
At that point, some of them wanted to call off the bet.
But no one wanted to be the first to say it. They all ran in the same social circles.
Sometimes, saving face was more important than life itself.
So they reached a stalemate.
When a third challenger showed up uninvited, the group had to bite the bullet and let it continue.
When he too disappeared, everyone’s blood ran cold.
And it was right around then that some newspapers caught wind of the story and began to publish reports.
However, because the reports weren’t widespread and the state controlled information on such topics, the stories all vanished without a trace.
They would be posted online, and a moment later, they would 404.
Having run out of options, the rich kids told their parents.
After that, the families of the missing people came knocking, and the matter was settled with compensation money.
The families would wait a while before filing a police report, ensuring their sons wouldn’t be implicated.
For people like them, anything that could be resolved with a bit of money would never be escalated to the point of calling in favors.
It made sense when you thought about it. For rich kids who could afford sports cars worth tens of millions, was a mere million even considered money?
That was the situation until yesterday, when He Xiaotian was added by a bizarre twist of fate to a group chat Sister Nan had created for her own amusement.
In truth, if they’d had a choice, the rich kids wouldn’t have wanted to continue the bet.
Everyone had a tacit understanding to stop mentioning the haunted apartment 302.
That way, the whole affair would gradually fade from memory.
But then Sister Nan appeared out of nowhere and forced them all to gather.
There wasn’t a single person in the Shanghai rich-kid scene who wasn’t terrified of this woman.
Forced by her tyrannical presence, they could only suppress their fear and show up.
No matter how terrifying the haunted apartment was, the ’thing’ inside was unseen and untouchable, which made it less frightening in a way.
But Sister Nan was a living, breathing Demon King—the kind of person who would kick you in the balls right in front of your own father.
And the most incredible part was, she’d do it for your own good.
If He Xiaotian had just acted like an ordinary person yesterday, she would have declared the bet void on the spot.
One, to save his life. Two, as petty revenge because his presence had ruined her malicious fun of making a group chat where everyone was one of her sock puppet accounts.
But then, the scene of He Xiaotian arriving in a Ghost Car was truly staggering.
It was probably the first time in her life she had ever seen a real, tangible ghost.
So, Sister Nan changed her mind. She wanted to see if He Xiaotian could actually survive in the haunted apartment.
On a street in Tuanjie Community, Huang Mao and Green Hair were squatting on the ground, smoking.
The two were worried, afraid that the fifty million they had scraped together wouldn’t be enough to impress the expert.
But this was the largest sum they could possibly come up with.
The previous round of compensation payments had been a devastating blow, costing them dearly.
SCREECH!
A Bentley screeched to a halt in front of them. Before they could even stand up, He Xiaotian slipped out of the car.
"The expert?!"
The two of them surrounded him excitedly.
Once He Xiaotian had retrieved his wooden chests from the car, he waved at the driver, signaling that he could leave.
BEEP BEEP!
The horn honked in farewell.
The Bentley slowly drove off into the darkness.
"Expert, was that the same car from yesterday?" Huang Tao asked tentatively.
"Yeah. Like I said yesterday, the paper was just pasted on."
Unfortunately for him, his words weren’t the least bit convincing.
As if to mock his words, the two rich kids then clearly saw...
...the car, under the glow of a streetlight, seem to phase through space, gradually vanishing from the road.
"If I told you that was the latest in stealth technology, would you believe me?"
He Xiaotian argued with a pained expression. ’You’re a real character, old driver.’
Huang Tao and Li Zheng sucked air through their teeth. ’Come on, could you at least come up with an excuse that you yourself find convincing?’
’If you don’t even believe that load of crap, how are we supposed to?’
Comments