Early the next morning, a phone rang as if it were hounding Hu Jiu to his grave.
It was Lin Guangning. She told Hu Jiu that a specialist arranged by headquarters would pick him up at seven.
Hu Jiu made no excuse to refuse. He only asked, "What about the intelligence? You can't have no information at all, can you?"
Lin Guangning said, "I've already sent it to you. Please check it."
After hanging up, Hu Jiu opened the new email and carefully read the relevant materials.
There was a lot of content, and Hu Jiu read it closely.
Supernatural incidents had to be treated with sufficient caution. Even with plenty of trump cards, he was afraid of coming to grief in a ditch.
The site of this mission was a mountain village between Linjiang City and Yuzhou City. The affected area was currently quite large and showed signs of spreading. If left unchecked, it could very well reach nearby cities, so the danger had to be nipped in the bud.
Hu Jiu frowned slightly as he looked over the materials. There was a great deal of wordy nonsense but little useful information, and the details about the ghost were especially vague. Was he supposed to contain it with his head?
He called again on the satellite phone. Once the call connected, Hu Jiu asked, "What was with that intelligence you just sent? It's far too bare-bones. If we rush in completely in the dark like this, something could easily go wrong!"
"Sorry, but that's all the information we have," Lin Guangning said. "The location is too remote, so headquarters only recently noticed the unusual phenomena. You're the first group of Ghost Tamers dispatched to handle this matter. If you can't resolve the source of the incident, please try to collect more useful intelligence..."
"Beep."
Hu Jiu hung up on her.
After he sorted out his equipment, a car from headquarters arrived promptly at seven and took him to the meeting point.
When Hu Jiu arrived, a man and a woman were already in the VIP room used to receive Ghost Tamers. They were probably his teammates for this operation.
The woman appeared to be in her twenties and had long hair. When she saw Hu Jiu, she nodded politely to him, and he smiled back.
The man was tall and thin, with a weathered face. His eyes were closed and his head was lowered, as though he were asleep.
Hu Jiu found a seat. None of them spoke up, and it was so quiet that only the sound of soft breathing could be heard.
Before long, the door was pushed open again, and a neatly dressed young man stepped slowly inside. The moment he entered, the three people already in the room froze, a flicker of amazement passing through each of their eyes.
He's fucking gorgeous.
Like a flower in full bloom, he made anyone who saw him forget all that was mundane.
He seemed to be used to such scenes and paid no mind to their rude stares, taking a seat with graceful composure.
Hu Jiu was the first to recover. He looked away and stopped staring at him.
The other man and woman belatedly came to their senses as well, lowering their eyes and looking elsewhere.
"Ahem." The woman cleared her throat twice, breaking the awkward silence.
"Now that everyone's here, I'll say a few words first. My name is Cui Xueyan." She raised a hand and pointed at the tall, thin man. "This is Zou Cong."
"Would you two please introduce yourselves too? We'll be working together from here on."
"I'm Hu Jiu."
"Yue Renchun."
As soon as Yue Renchun spoke, Cui Xueyan felt her bones go soft. He truly was an incomparably handsome man; even his voice was so pleasant to hear.
"When are we leaving?" Hu Jiu asked.
Cui Xueyan answered him. "The helicopter is ready to take off whenever we are, but it can only land outside the cordon. We'll have to walk part of the way."
As her words fell, Hu Jiu quietly glanced at the woman, only to notice by chance that Yue Renchun was studying her too.
As if sensing Hu Jiu's gaze, Yue Renchun turned his head. "Are the four of us the only ones taking part in this operation? I remember Liu Mingguang is the person in charge of Linjiang City. Why didn't he come?"
"He's missing." Hu Jiu looked unconcerned, but he was considering whether Yue Renchun knew Liu Mingguang, what kind of relationship they had, and whether he needed to kill him to silence him...
Yue Renchun said nothing more. He seemed to have asked on a whim.
"All right, if nobody has a problem, let's set off now." With that, Cui Xueyan stood and headed out first, motioning for them to follow.
Soon, the four of them boarded the helicopter one after another.
The pilot and a headquarters specialist accompanying them were awestruck when they saw Yue Renchun. But strangely, why had the other three... all chosen to sit as far away from him as possible?
Meanwhile, over in Zhenyuan City, the independent Ghost Tamer organization Beifeng Commune was holding a meeting.
Commune leader Zhao Lifeng wore a grim expression. "You still haven't found that ghost's whereabouts?"
"Boss, headquarters has been watching us too closely lately..." The young man who answered had two patches of red on his cheeks, a dazed look in his eyes, and a vacant expression, as though he were drunk.
"Hmph! They're just making an issue out of it! Anyone with eyes can see we were framed, but headquarters insists on playing dumb!" Zhao Lifeng's tone was venomous. Nothing had gone right for him lately, and he had been saddled with the blame for no reason. Whoever was behind it had better hope he never found out!
"Boss, can you give us a hint? What exactly did you release that ghost for?" If Hu Jiu had been there, he would surely have recognized Wei Xiyuan's voice.
Some time ago, he had inexplicably become the terrorist who attacked Linjiang City. He could hardly have been more wronged. As a reasonably quick-witted Ghost Tamer, he had a vague sense that his bad luck seemed to have started that day.
—The day he went to Lizhou City and personally released a fierce ghost!
That unconscionable deed had troubled him to begin with, and what followed had been even more like retribution, which was why he was questioning Zhao Lifeng now.
Zhao Lifeng smiled bitterly to himself. He could not answer that question, because he too had been acting on someone else's orders and had no idea what the truth was.
Beifeng Commune seemed like a colossal force, but in the eyes of those true big shots, it was just a tiny ants' nest.
Headquarters kept a close watch on him simply because it wanted to learn about the mysterious organization supporting Beifeng Commune from behind the scenes through him. However... Zhao Lifeng was only a peripheral member. As a matter of fact, he had no access to useful intelligence, and he also did not dare reveal secrets.
"You don't need to know too much. Just remember that as long as you handle what I tell you to do, I'll give you benefits. That's enough!" Zhao Lifeng remained arrogant on the surface. "Wei Xiyuan, don't forget who stood up to the pressure from headquarters and protected you!"
Wei Xiyuan looked embarrassed, but anger flared in his heart.
He had been falsely accused. If Zhao Lifeng had bowed to the pressure and handed him over as a pawn, it would have looked like an indirect admission of guilt, and Zhao Lifeng would also have lost everyone's support. He had simply gone along with the situation, so why would Wei Xiyuan feel grateful?
Unfortunately, he was now on the verge of revival and needed to rely on Zhao Lifeng's methods to prolong his life. Otherwise, he would have run off long ago!
Headquarters had always shown some weakness. Zhao Lifeng not only believed he had the backing to defy it, but also intended to push his luck!
"Ghost Hand and the Suicide-Hanging White Silk were both originally the organization's property. Who's willing to make a trip and bring those two ghosts back?"
Hearing that, Wei Xiyuan immediately said, "I'm in terrible condition. I can't take action for the time being." After saying this, he lowered his head apologetically, looking especially honest and loyal.
"Coward!" A sneer suddenly rang out. "Boss, leave this to me. That dumbass Zhou Zhi actually got killed by a newcomer. How fucking embarrassing!"
Zhao Lifeng nodded. "In that case, I'll leave it to you. But I'm not entirely comfortable with you going alone..."