Chapter 49: Chapter 48: [Just Brute Force It!]
"Sir, we’d like to ask for your help," Huang Tao said, feeling quite anxious. Still, he was doing much better than yesterday, when the sight of the Ghost Car had left him so terrified his legs were shaking.
He Xiaotian was walking toward the Tuanjie Estate, shouldering a wooden box that held two iron hammers. He stopped in his tracks at their words and turned his head, a puzzled look on his face.
"We’re prepared to offer fifty million for you to eliminate the thing inside the haunted apartment, 302."
"What?!" He Xiaotian was stunned. ’Fifty million to hire me to kill a ghost?’
Huang Tao and Li Zheng thought he was displeased and that the offer was too low, so they rushed to explain.
"Sir, please, calm down. This is all the savings we have left; we really can’t come up with any more. I know fifty million is a little on the low side, but can’t you just take pity on us? This would be a public service, after all!"
He Xiaotian was silent for a long moment. ’I don’t want to take pity on you. In fact, I kind of want to pull out my hammers and smash your heads in.’
’Fifty million is a little on the low side?’
’Dude, that’s a hell of a way to flex.’
In truth, you couldn’t really blame Huang Tao and his friend. If it weren’t for the video evidence from that morning, they would’ve thought even five hundred was too much to pay He Xiaotian.
But when the reality of the situation was laid out right in front of them...
Is fifty million to hire someone to fight a ghost really that much?
At least, in their eyes, it wasn’t!
"Alright."
What more could He Xiaotian ask for?
The original ten million had quintupled to fifty million. He was so happy he could have cried.
’Yes!’
Huang Tao and Li Zheng were ecstatic, cheering internally.
He Xiaotian resumed his walk toward the Tuanjie Estate. Until the evil spirit in the haunted apartment 302 was eliminated, the fifty million was not to be mentioned.
They might be rich kids, but that didn’t mean they were idiots.
What if they’d tried to act all generous, shoved a bank card into his hands, and he’d just bailed halfway through the job?
Even now, they knew nothing about the man in the mask.
Well, would you look at that? A certain someone had earned himself another nickname.
CLICK!
He pushed the box he was shouldering inside.
He Xiaotian flicked on the lights as if he were coming home, placed the iron hammers in the living room, and flopped right down on the sofa.
’I wonder what kind of look the evil spirit will have on its face when it sees me.’
’Will it fly into a humiliated rage and charge at me?’
’Come to think of it, that would be perfect.’
’Then I can just grab a hammer, smash it dead with one swing, and pocket fifty million. I’ll be one step closer to my humble goal of buying a villa.’
’The thought alone is just delightful!’
「Midnight. Twelve o’clock sharp.」
FZZT!
The lights in apartment 302 instantly went out.
A dripping sound came from the bathroom. Drip, drip.
A cold, sinister presence began to build, causing the temperature in the room to plummet.
It was as if it were trying to lure the room’s occupant into investigating.
He Xiaotian got up, grabbed his Big Hammers, one in each hand, and walked to the bathroom.
When he reached the door, he simply kicked it open.
BANG!
He held back on that kick; otherwise, the door would have been smashed to splinters.
?!
The pros... ah, no, the faucet immediately returned to normal.
At the same time, the cold, sinister presence vanished without a trace.
Apartment 302 was now as normal as could be.
He Xiaotian: "..."
He couldn’t believe it. A ghost even more cowardly than the Old Driver.
’How are you supposed to know if you can beat me if you don’t even try?’
’Haven’t you heard? Win, and it’s models and mansions; lose, and you’re out on the street.’
’Take a gamble, and your bicycle might turn into a motorcycle!’
"Tch! Coward."
He Xiaotian spat toward the bathroom, uttering the disdainful word.
Unfortunately, the evil spirit remained unmoved.
’Do whatever you want.’
’Laozi is not coming out, period.’
"Wait a minute! ’I might not know anything about this evil spirit, but I know someone who does.’" He Xiaotian suddenly had an idea. He put down his hammers, opened the security door, and walked out.
Outside the Tuanjie Estate, he took out a slip of Netherworld Currency, lit it, and began to wait quietly.
The Old Driver was a genuine, honest-to-god ghost!
’Why didn’t I think to ask him for the inside story?’
BEEP BEEP!!
Five minutes later, a Bentley that looked fit for a rally race came roaring through the intersection.
SCREECH!
With a sudden stop, it came to a perfect halt right in front of He Xiaotian.
"Get in, pops!"
He Xiaotian rolled his eyes. This guy was getting cheekier by the day.
The ghost was as sleazy as the madam of an ancient brothel.
"Do you know the ghost in apartment 302? I want to kill it, but the little bastard hides the second it sees me. I can’t see it, so there’s nothing I can do."
"???" The Old Driver looked completely baffled. ’So not only are you using me as a free chauffeur, you also want me to be a snitch?’ "To be honest, we’ve never crossed paths. The relationship between ghosts is... well, we’re basically powerful supplements to each other.
The weaker ones all steer clear of the stronger ones. Who’d be brave enough to get close? But for a ghost to exist, it needs an object to anchor itself to. For example, my anchor is my own funerary urn.
If it gets smashed and my ashes are scattered, I’ll be like a rootless plant until I can find a new anchor. My power will drain away bit by bit until my soul dissipates completely.
Things in Shanghai have been really chaotic lately. If it weren’t for my Bentley being so damn fast, some other evil ghost would have devoured me and my car as a power-up a long time ago."
"Alright, I get it." He Xiaotian nodded and walked back into the Tuanjie Estate.
BEEP BEEP!! The Old Driver honked twice as a farewell before speeding off and vanishing into the thick darkness.
Back in apartment 302, He Xiaotian snatched up his two Big Hammers and charged into the bathroom.
For two nights in a row, the strange activity had started in the bathroom.
That meant the evil ghost’s anchor had to be something inside it.
He wasn’t a detective, and he knew he lacked the patience for meticulous investigation.
So He Xiaotian chose... brute force.
He refused to believe that charging into the bathroom and smashing everything in sight wouldn’t be enough to flush the evil spirit out.
’If you’ve got the guts, just sit there and watch me go on a rampage.’
CRASH!
The moment He Xiaotian charged in, he brought a hammer down on the faucet.
’You like to drip, do you?’
’Well, I’ll make sure you can never drip again.’
The sink was instantly smashed to pieces, shattered so completely that no amount of glue could ever put it back together.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The entire bathroom was reduced to ruins.
The neighbors downstairs and upstairs had been jolted awake by the very first crash.
But none of them dared to shout in anger or curse him out.
Because apartment 302 was, without a doubt, a haunted house!
They could barely restrain themselves from calling the police.
And what would they report?
An evil ghost is on a rampage! It’s going to eat someone!!
He Xiaotian’s rampage caused the temperature in the bathroom to plummet to freezing.
In an instant, the walls were covered in a crimson tide.
DRIP! DRIP!
Bloody water dripped from the ceiling onto the floor.
A blood-red figure, looking as if it had been skinned alive, materialized, its eyes staring viciously at He Xiaotian.
"Who do you think you’re scaring!"
Far from being afraid, He Xiaotian just swung his hammer at it.
This evil ghost, or evil spirit, whatever it was.
If it really had any power, it would have attacked him long ago!
Frankly, after being toyed with like that last night...
...even a saint would have lost their temper.
So, aside from being pathetically weak and cowardly, this thing had no other qualities that could possibly inspire fear in He Xiaotian.
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