Chapter 50: 50

Chapter 50: Psychological Problems

If Wu Chiayi was given another chance, he would definitely stay at home tonight and turn off his phone.

When he received Zhong Chengshuo’s message, he was passionately running around trying to earn extra money.

[Final Fruit: I’m at the entrance of Ping’an Manor on Jiu’an Road. Please come pick me up.]

[Exceeding Five Plus One: ?]

[Final Fruit: Urgent mission. Lu Jie said you’re near Jiu’an Road.]

[Exceeding Five Plus One: ]

Four minutes later, Wu Chiayi arrived at Ping’an Manor on his small electric motorbike and ran into Zhong Chengshuo, who was pushing a motorcycle while wearing pajamas.

The motorcycle had a wild skull sticker on it, which was extremely inconsistent with Zhong Chengshuo’s striped pajamas.

“Borrowed it from a neighbor.” Zhong Chengshuo automatically explained and didn’t give Xiao Wu any opportunity to ask questions. “Let’s go.”

Xiao Wu: “???”

Although he didn’t quite understand what was going on, he still got on the motorcycle.

“First, Shian must have an emergency way to enter the ghost market. I’ll ride in with the bike, so please show me the way.”

“No, Xiao Zhong, let’s find stairs…”

“It’s too late.”

Wu Chiayi could only bite the bullet and sit in the backseat. “Okay, drive first.”

…The second thing, he regretted.

Zhong Chengshuo drove the motorcycle like he was steering a glider. The speed was comparable to a low-altitude flight. Wu Jiayi’s face almost blew off before he barely managed to complete the technique. The motorcycle broke through the fog and braked hard in the middle of the ghost market street. Many pedestrians were startled, while others’ masks and head scarves became crooked.

Since Wu Chiayi wasn’t hugging Zhong Chengshuo’s waist, after such a violent stop, he almost flew out of the back seat.

Xiao Wu summoned two ghosts in a panic in order to fix himself properly.

Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the GPS position sent by Lu Xiaohe—the bright spot that represented Yin Ren blinked in a small area that was some distance away from the main street of the ghost market. This person had probably entered a hidden place.

“Second, I know that the ghost market isn’t welcoming to those in Shian. Is the ‘not welcoming’ to the point where they will do something?”

Zhong Chengshuo sat firmly on the motorcycle and raised his arm to check the time.

“Uh, it’s not like they will do something, but more like they just don’t like us… After all, there are a lot of gray transactions in the ghost market. I didn’t mention this by default, but we tend to get along well,” Xiao Wu said faintly.

“Third, if you’re familiar with the ghost market, please tell me about places near this location with consumption stalls that sell goods worth 100,000 or more or commodities with uncertain prices, such as an auction house or intelligence agencies.”

The moment Yin Ren finished sending his messages, Zhong Chengshuo already had a faint idea.

Yin Ren still had 60,000 left in his account. If he took out a formal loan, the total amount would be 80,000 yuan. However, he instead chose to ask Zhong Chengshuo for help, and what he wanted was a very high number.

In other words, the price of the thing Yin Ren wanted to buy was uncertain, and they needed a large amount of spare money to ensure it was foolproof. The figure of 100,000 was just an estimate in his request after weighing Zhong Chengshuo’s income.

Xiao Wu stuck firmly to the backseat of the motorcycle and glanced at Yin Ren’s GPS position. “Auction house? There is a ghost pawnshop in that location…”

“Can we drive over?”

“Yes, but it will be a bit…”

Before he could finish saying “rude”, the motorcycle engine roared again.

Xiao Wu: “……”

Xiao Wu understood that this had to be a matter of life and death. In an instant, after the scene of a “science post received a signal for help and bravely broke into the ghost pawnshop to rescue his beautiful ghost master partner who was about to be auctioned”, Xiao Wu’s expression gradually hardened.

“Go!” Xiao Wu lit a talisman.

Smoke rolled over, and a muddy straight road appeared near the main street.

“Over there!” Considering that Zhong Chengshuo may not be able to see, Xiao Wu stretched out his hand and pointed.

Zhong Chengshuo turned the wheel and rushed in the direction Xiao Wu pointed. The emergency route of Shian was naturally not as easy to traverse as the conventional route. According to the words of veterans, it was like drilling into the abdominal cavity of a corpse. However, the science post didn’t seem to have any feeling, and his movements didn’t change.

The wind rushed strongly at Zhong Chengshuo, even over his head. It wasn’t until Xiao Wu yelled “Over there, over there” that the person changed directions and drove back.

‘How difficult,’ Xiao Wu thought blankly. He felt that the person driving a motorcycle wasn’t a human but a voice-activated torpedo.

Zhong Chengshuo saw that the door was open and drove directly into the pawnshop.

“…If it’s confirmed that the case is related to Shian, it will be reimbursed. If it’s not related, the interest will be converted according to the average loan and deducted from your salary.”

When he said this, Zhong Chengshuo hadn’t gotten off the motorcycle yet.

Xiao Wu slowly covered his face. Bro, even if the Nightwalkers won’t do anything to Shian in principle, you’re creating too big of a scene.

And isn’t your partner standing in the audience completely intact? What’s the rush? This is the ghost market. Could it be that Yin Ren, a newcomer, dared to bid on things without money?

Yin Ren rushed to the two of them like an arrow and grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s hand. “So awesome, Zhong Ge. I bid on something, so I was waiting for you to send money.”

Zhong Chengshuo slowly withdrew his hand and pulled out a card. “Your payroll card. Shian just opened a guarantee authority so you can temporarily overdraw up to 200,000.”

Yin Ren: “Hey, I thought I was going to bid more than 100,000, but in fact, I won it for 100,000. Lao Jiang, here comes the money!”

So it was true that this person dared to bid on things without having money! Does this person have a bear’s heart and the gall of a leopard*? Wu Chiayi was speechless.

*Comes from “The Orphan of Zhao” by Ji Junxiang, which describes an extremely courageous person.

Xiao Wu had to hold back for a while before he could only respond with, “…Fucking great.”

Hearing keywords such as “Shian” and “case”, Lao Jiang didn’t panic.

He jumped in front of the three of them in full view of the audience and said in a casual tone, “250,000.”

Yin Ren: “Wait, didn’t we agree on 100,000 just now?”

Lao Jiang laughed. “You were a Nightwalker only in name, so it was 100,000. Since you’ve revealed yourself as part of Shian, and you broke the rules of driving a car into my shop, then there has to be another price.”

Seeing Yin Ren’s evil-like appearance, he tried to lightly defuse the crisis, and Lao Jiang intended to make acquaintances, but knowing that “Shian” had been revealed, he had no such thoughts left.

The relationship between Shian and the Nightwalkers was delicate.

There was no shortage of capable people in Shian, and sometimes it was still necessary for the Nightwalkers to contribute information. However, the Nightwalkers didn’t like to be supervised by Shian, so they didn’t want to make the relationship too tense.

After a long time, the two parties began to follow the same unspoken rule—as long as the Nightwalkers weren’t involved in criminal activities, Shian would turn a blind eye and let them face off with the police.

The basic idea was not to bring the official status to the surface when it “wasn’t necessary”.

It was okay if it was people like Wu Chiayi, who was born as a Nightwalker, but Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were “outsiders”, so this was tantamount to slapping his face in public. To get involved in a jungle-like organization like the Nightwalkers, “face” was sometimes more important than money.

Wu Chiayi obviously understood this too—Xiao Wu raised his head with a sigh and looked at the ceiling of the theater.

“250,000, please. And yes, I do indeed accept card payments.” Lao Jiang still spoke humorously as he pulled out the POS machine from his chest.

Zhong Chengshuo’s movements froze slowly while Yin Ren’s hand holding the bank card trembled slightly.

Yin Ren’s worst guess was that he would bid about 180,000 yuan against Xiao Mengpo. Even counting the element of anger, the chair would be worth about that much.

Now, his salary card was overdrawn by 200,000, and he had to dig into most of his savings. If Shian didn’t count this, then he would have to say goodbye to late-night spicy crawfish and eat cheap potato stir-fry instead.

Although the loan wasn’t bad, it always felt a bit painful to take one out in order to eat.

Lao Jiang ignored the pain and entanglement on Yin Ren’s face and moved his skeleton-like face. “Since you’re a person who knows Shian, be quick and pay immediately.”

Yin Ren gave him the money with a whimper.

“Thank you for your patronage.” Lao Jiang stuffed the POS machine back into his chest and knocked on his fan again. “I’ll pay you back your collateral, since I always keep my word.”

Yin Ren: “Wait—”

Before he could stop it, the two rats ran back with their heads up. They threw the severed head tied with red silk into Yin Ren’s arms and rushed back to the bottom of the platform.

Lao Jiang smiled meaningfully and said, “Take it. This thing is fresh and can be worth about 30,000 or 40,000 if it’s sold to a spirit smith on the other side… Oh, I forgot. Shian doesn’t do this kind of thing.”

Lao Jiang, you’re doing this on purpose, right? Looking at the hideous head in his arms, Yin Ren fell silent.

At this moment, he was dressed in a black shirt, and his long hair was tied loosely. His ochre eyes glowed red in the lights. Under the dimming lights, his face was beautiful yet somewhat demonic as he was holding a severed head in his arms, giving off a seriously bad vibe.

Zhong Chengshuo, Wu Chiayi: “……”

Yin Ren swallowed pitifully. “I can explain—”

He was afraid that Comrade Xiao Zhong, an enthusiastic citizen, would call the police on the spot.

Fortunately, with Shian in front of him, Zhong Chengshuo only nodded. “Then let’s go to the company and explain.”

He turned his gaze at Lao Jiang. It may be that his eyes were so sharp that Lao Jiang felt that he was being looked at like he was a collection of bones on display. “What are you looking at?”

“May I touch you?” Zhong Chengshuo asked solemnly.

Lao Jiang: “…No. I am a first-class endangered evil being as defined in ‘Shian’s Regulations on the Management of Evil Things’.”

It was all because of those science posts on the outside that he didn’t dare leave the ghost market for 300 years! It wasn’t good to be an evil being in physical form that could be easily dragged away for research.

“Besides, to the living, it’s a crime to vandalize a corpse. Objectively, I am considered a human corpse.” Lao Jiang wasn’t sure of his safety, so he quickly added this.

Zhong Chengshuo retracted his gaze in disappointment. He swept it across the dead man’s head lightly, then turned to Yin Ren. “What about the thing you bought? We’ll send it to the company for appraisal as soon as possible.”

Wu Chiayi scratched his head frantically. Does he not care about the severe head—and this guy is dead yet these two newcomers aren’t afraid at all?!

“Okay, since the person has been found, I’ll go home and sleep.” Wu Chiayi took off his helmet in a daze and buckled it on Yin Ren’s head. “I’ll take you out. You two go to the company by yourselves. Lao Jiang, sorry… These newcomers are a bit ignorant…”

Lao Jiang nodded deeply. He covered his chest with both hands and asked a group of rats to move the packed chair to the entrance.

……

By the time they got to Shian, it was already 3 a.m..

At the entrance of Shian Park, Lu Xiaohe greeted the two with a yawn. Seeing the two of them with a chair in one hand and a severed head in the other, her yawn turned into a violent cough.

“Xiao Wu said you guys brought a head over.” She pointed at the human head wrapped in a black plastic bag with her index finger trembling slightly. “It’s really a human head?!”

“It may be evidence of a crime.” “It was definitely an accident.” The two spoke at the same time.

Compared with the freshly severed head, the weird chair wasn’t as conspicuous.

Since they had a suspected living object and a suspected corpse, the three of them were temporarily unable to enter the office area. A few minutes later, a specialist took away the head and chair. When the chair was taken to the identification department, Yin Ren was immediately called to the “Non-Science Post Accident Handling Department” for questioning.

Luo Xiaohe staggered into the office with extremely heavy steps.

“I’ll take a look,” she said bitterly. “You said that Yin Ren needed a lot of money to find possible clues to the case… Why did it become like this? Did you not buy information?”

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She really didn’t expect to get a chair and a severed head.

Zhong Chengshuo adjusted the collar of his pajamas. “I don’t know.”

“You didn’t know, but you still helped him?!”

Zhong Chengshuo frowned and thought for a moment. “…I believe him.”

Yin Ren was at least a strong person who could muddle through under Shian’s eyes, so he wouldn’t drop the ball in that kind of place… right? Even if he wanted to make trouble, there was no need to use this method to hurt the enemy’s reputation while simultaneously racking up a self-loss of 250,000.

Zhong Chengshuo’s tense nerves began to relax again, and he started getting sleepy. His consciousness was slowly drifting off.

Lu Xiaohe was more direct. She skillfully dragged out two folding beds that came with two folded blankets. “It’s still a while before the results come out. Let’s nap for a while.”

“I’ll wait for Yin Ren,” Zhong Chengshuo replied, barely able to keep his eyelids open as he looked at the door.

Lu Xiaohe shook her head. She skillfully pulled out a black blindfold from the drawer. “Then good night.”

“Good night.” Zhong Chengshuo continued to sit at the table.

Around 4 a.m., Yin Ren was finally released from the “Non-science Post Accident Handling Department”.

With the deceased having only traces of his own technique and the testimony of several Nightwalkers, the incident was stamped as a magic backlash. The head of the deceased was confiscated, and his bank card was emptied. Yin Ren returned to the office of Special Investigation Group Unit 9 empty-handed.

The lights in the office were dim.

Lu Xiaohe’s folding bed was against the wall. She was buried deep in the thin blanket, sleeping soundly. Zhong Chengshuo was lying on the table, breathing slowly. He looked extremely weary in his pajamas.

Zhong Chengshuo’s face was still facing the direction of the entrance.

Yin Ren paused at the entrance, lightened his footstep, and walked up to Zhong Chengshuo.

“…Quite good. You don’t have dark circles under your eyes yet.” After sitting back at his workstation, Yin Ren propped up his face and looked at his partner’s sleeping face for a while.

Seeing him like this, this person looked like a harmless scholar, but judging by how mobile he was previously, Zhong Chengshuo would definitely wake up if he had been sleeping on the folding bed.

Yin Ren carefully took off Zhong Chengshuo’s glasses and put them aside.

In the dim light, Zhong Chengshuo’s eyelids trembled slightly, as if he wasn’t sleeping well. Without the cover of his glasses, there was a bit more vague strength and stubbornness between his brows, which was quite interesting.

After looking at him from an angle, Yin Ren got up, stretched out a finger, and put it under Zhong Chengshuo’s nose.

The man’s breath was moist and warm, sweeping over his fingertips.

Yin Ren actually didn’t expect Zhong Chengshuo to actually help him. If Zhong Chengshuo had refused to transfer the money, Yin Ren wouldn’t even bother to “counter-offer”.

Why did he insist on contacting Xiao Mengpo? Why did he have to buy that chair? Both things were related to Yin Ren’s abilities that were hidden under the shadow, and he couldn’t explain them clearly to Zhong Chengshuo.

In fact, Yin Ren had a plan.

If this person didn’t make a move, he could only make a scene at the ghost pawnshop. He would snatch the chair first—there was the aura of a living person in that chair, and the living could easily die, so he couldn’t wait on Shian for too long.

If things had settled like that, no matter how things ended, the relationship between him and Xiao Mengpo would be determined. At least the clues from Xiao Mengpo’s side would be cut off.

…Unexpectedly, Zhong Chengshuo took care of everything and quickly arrived on time.

He didn’t know if that would be considered smart or dumb.

A few minutes later, Yin Ren retracted his hand. He stretched his joints for a while, then pulled a thin blanket from the empty folding bed. The thin blanket was light and soft. He carried it gently and carefully covered Zhong Chengshuo’s back.

“How heartless,” Lord Ghost King commented. “If you really want to study me, you should give me more trouble.”

Feeling the warmth on his body, Zhong Chengshuo curled up, and his brows relaxed a little. Yin Ren didn’t know if he heard it or not.

Yin Ren made a grimace at his partner, then he yawned. He lay down beside Zhong Chengshuo and soon fell asleep.

He dreamed of endless potato stir fry.

Lord Ghost King had to climb up on foot to get to a box of crayfish at the top of the potato mountain. The moment he reached the top and stretched out his hand to reach the lunch box…

“Everyone, get up.”

Fu Xingchuan mercilessly gave them a smack on the head.

Yin Ren almost couldn’t control his murderous aura. He rubbed his head and glared at Fu Xingchuan with great dissatisfaction. Fortunately, at the next moment, Minister Fu brought good news like a desert spring.

“Shian will reimburse you for your 250,000 yuan. Originally, you should have been rewarded with some money, but because you caused an incident at the ghost pawnshop, the rewards and punishments were hedged.”

Fu Xingchuan pulled out a chair from a vacant seat and sat down in front of Yin Ren.

“That’s great that I’ll be reimbursed.” Yin Ren sighed with relief.

Otherwise, carrying a heavy debt when he first entered society would be too cruel for his ghost life.

After receiving a blow to the head, Zhong Chengshuo straightened up in a daze. He was momentarily stunned when he felt the warm blanket on him. On the other side, hearing the sound of dialogue, Lu Xiaohe got up from bed on her own. Her eyes weren’t opened yet, while her hands were already giving several punches to the pillow.

“All awake? Good. Xiaohe, turn on the screen—the results from the chair we got last night are out.”

Clusters of data covered the screen. Shots of the chairs from all angles were attached. Lu Xiaohe and Zhong Chengshuo looked at them line by line, and their expressions gradually became complicated.

Yin Ren looked at the two of them inexplicably. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s not cognitive pollution,” Zhong Chengshuo replied while still looking at the screen. “On a physical level, human cells have fused with the wood of the chair.”

“And that person… How can I put this? He’s still alive but in very poor condition.” Lu Xiaohe’s voice trembled. “At least as far as my expertise is concerned, there have been no similar cases.”

Scans, x-rays, and all kinds of inspection means were used. Science post staff barely found the person in this “human chair”—

It was as if the person’s entire body had become plasticine material and was then rubbed into strips while alive and melded into the wood in equal proportions.

Fat, muscle, internal organs, bones… The person’s entire body was twisted, making all the cells hard to separate from the wood fiber, yet it still maintained some kind of strange activity. It was difficult to say whether this was a “corpse” or not.

The man’s heart had become long and twisted, like a curled earthworm, and the myocardial fibers had obvious wood characteristics, but the heart was still weakly beating rapidly.

“The technician restored the broken DNA overnight and barely managed to identify the man. Fan Chung, 38 years old, disappeared two months ago. The police have this person in their missing people file. Sun Qinghui is now interrogating Lu Guangzu, though the situation is more or less the same.”

Fu Xingchuan rubbed his temples.

“This is not something a spirit smith can do. The water in Lu Guangzu’s case is deeper than we thought.”

The three of them looked at him quietly, waiting for his next words.

Although Fu Xingchuan had a good temper, he was essentially similar to Professor Li; he wouldn’t have come here without a reason*. Since he came in person, the matter was definitely more than just “deeper water”.

*Would come to the Hall of Trinity without reason. (无事不登三宝殿)

Sure enough, Fu Xingchuan unscrewed his thermos cup and poured himself a cup of strong tea.

“…This time we checked on the chair again and found a faint trace of Evil Force.” He gritted his teeth as he accentuated the word “again”.

Yin Ren cheered enthusiastically. “Ah, I have an impression! It was written in the report for Feng Qi’s case. His ability appeared only after being corrupted by the ‘force of an Evil Spirit’… Minister Fu, what is an Evil Spirit? A super concentration of evil qi?”

Fu Xingchuan gave a helpless smile. “It’s in your textbook.”

“We haven’t learned it yet.” Zhong Chengshuo tried to make up for Yin Ren.

“It’s hard to guess what’s going on in God’s mind. Recently, you have encountered two cases related to Evil Spirits.” Fu Xingchuan wiped his face. “Alright, let me tell you. Do you know what carbon dioxide is?”

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren hid his guilt and nodded confidently.

“If an evil spirit is carbon dioxide, no matter how powerful they are, the strength of their evil qi is at most dry ice. However, ‘Evil Spirits’ are different. Their ‘Evil Force’ is more like a diamond—purer, rarer, and stronger.”

“Of course, you can burn diamonds into carbon dioxide, but under natural conditions, this process is completely irreversible. By the same token, Evil Spirits can be transformed into evil spirits, but so far, no one has been able to reverse this process.”

Therefore, the cause of the force of the Evil Spirit was still an unsolved mystery.

“I see.” The Evil Spirit himself pretended to be stupid. “The matter seems to be very serious. Do we need to withdraw from the investigation again?”

“Don’t do things three times in a row*. Our business pays attention to ‘fate’. Since you keep encountering this kind of case, you might as well participate to the end.”

*(事不过三) Idiom referring to the same thing shouldn’t be done three times in a row. From Journey to the West.

Fu Xingchuan grinned at them, showing them a shady smile.

“How about, Xiao Yin, tell me first, why did you think that chair is related to the case?”

Yin Ren had long been prepared.

“That chair didn’t feel right to me. It has too many human characteristics. Lao Jiang also said that the person who wanted to sell it left a message saying, ‘Let the game of hide and seek commence’… This is along the lines of ‘hiding the victims and letting us try to find them’.”

“Moreover, this style of giving clues at auctions is also consistent with Lu Guangzu’s exaggerated style of surrender. The rest is… intuition.”

Zhong Chengshuo frowned. “That’s too arbitrary.”

“The point is that the chair has the characteristics of a living person, Zhong Ge.” Yin Ren’s smile didn’t change, and his tone was casual. “If I was wrong, that’s my loss, but if it’s really a living person, isn’t it worth 250,000 to save a life?”

Zhong Chengshuo’s lips moved, but he didn’t respond.

Fu Xingchuan wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, a ringtone sounded from his pocket. Minster Fu took out his phone and quickly walked out of the office.

Lu Xiaohe was busy studying the data on the “human chair” while frowning, unknown what was on her mind. Yin Ren stretched out his waist, hung on the back of the chair, and turned his head to look at the bright sunlight coming from the window.

Unlike when he was in the ghost pawnshop, Yin Ren’s cold aura had cleanly dissipated. The man squinted his eyes in the sun and was surrounded by a lazy warmth.

It was like a soft and thin blanket covering one’s back.

Zhong Chengshuo lowered his head, opened WeChat, and clicked on Sun Qi’an’s avatar, who had just been added a few days ago.

[Final Fruit: Hello, Dr. Sun. I would like to consult about a psychological problem.]

[Final Fruit: Maybe I really do have some psychological issues.]

The author has something to say:

It’s okay, Xiao Zhong. Zombies aren’t good to touch, but the Ghost King feels good! When the time comes (?) touch as much as you want!

Xiao Yin: That was close. I almost fell into debt from the company…

Xiao Wu’s injured world has been achieved (x

Kinky Thoughts:

Note: Evil qi and Evil Force are not the same. Evil qi refers to general “energy” from any evil beings, while Evil Force specifically refers to “energy” from an Evil Spirit (note the capitalization). This chapter establishes the difference (to Yin Ren). You can think of it as “Evil Spirit qi” but I’ll use Evil Force for an easier distinction.

The process of converting a diamond to CO2 comes from chemistry. Personally, I was never good at chemistry so I don’t really know the details behind the process, so someone who’s more knowledgeable can hopefully provide a better explanation.

Also you can also turn CO2 into diamonds, though as Minister Fu said, that’s not possible under natural conditions, while likewise, diamonds can be burned and eventually become CO2. 

Using Minister Fu’s analogy, he’s saying an Evil Spirit can become an evil spirit, and theoretically, it can reverse that process (but no one has been able to engineer such a process so it’s currently believed to be impossible).

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