The first pale light showed in the sky, and the chill of dawn hung in the air.
A cordon had been set up at the road leading to Longevity Village, where heavily armed officers patrolled on high alert. When Hu Jiu appeared, everyone instinctively tensed.
The tragedy from a few hours earlier was still fresh in their minds. Two Ghost Tamers who had returned from Longevity Village had gone on a killing spree, and the officers originally stationed there had died bizarre, gruesome deaths. Only one survivor remained.
Now that someone else had come out of Longevity Village, the officers did not dare waste a second and immediately reported it.
Carrying a body bag, Hu Jiu crossed the cordon one step at a time. The officers cautiously exchanged a few pleasantries with him, and seeing that he seemed no different from an ordinary person, they gradually relaxed.
After a while, the satellite phone rang. It was Lin Guangning's voice again. "Is that Hu Jiu?"
Why is it this bitch again? Hu Jiu grumbled inwardly. "Yes, it's me."
As always, Lin Guangning began by interrogating him. "Our system shows that your satellite phone regained its signal several hours ago. Why didn't you contact headquarters promptly?"
Because I was personally directing a grand show! Hu Jiu smiled. "There were errors in the information headquarters provided, and they caused me a lot of trouble. This is serious. Have your boss speak to me personally!"
"The director is busy right now." Lin Guangning's tone was hostile. "Please give a detailed account of everything that happened during this operation. I'll record it accurately and report it."
Hu Jiu remained perfectly calm. "I think headquarters needs to upgrade this satellite phone. You said it could maintain contact inside a Ghost Domain, but what happened? The moment I entered Longevity Village, the signal was gone. I was lucky this time. Anyone else probably wouldn't have made it out!"
"All right, I'll pass your suggestion on to my superiors promptly." Lin Guangning was very impatient. "Can we get to the matter at hand first?"
"I am talking about the matter at hand!" Hu Jiu was very serious. "Headquarters' communications equipment is defective. When Ghost Tamers deal with supernatural incidents, even the slightest mistake can have irreversible consequences. I'm thinking of headquarters too. Some problems need to be nipped in the bud!"
"You're right," Lin Guangning said through clenched teeth. "Can we discuss the matter at hand now?"
Hu Jiu continued in the same casual manner, spouting a whole lot more... perfectly correct nonsense.
His trip to Longevity Village had been fairly fruitful. He had learned some as-yet unconfirmed confidential information, contained a ghost, and obtained the most important prize, the Longevity Candle.
To conceal the Longevity Candle's whereabouts, he had manipulated an illusion to stage a show and frame someone else. He had also killed the witnesses at the scene to prevent too many people from spotting flaws in the illusion, leaving only one not-very-bright "witness."
Of course, that "witness" would not live much longer either. He would probably breathe his last after barely managing to finish giving his statement.
After doing all that, Hu Jiu had waited until dawn to come out. In that time, the witness's statement, the corpses at the scene whose lifespans had been drained away, and perhaps things like body-camera footage would have been enough to make headquarters strongly suspect that "Zou Cong" had stolen the Longevity Candle and fled.
The Longevity Candle was a fine thing. As soon as he held it, a warm current flowed endlessly into his body. It was probably the "borrowed" lifespan feeding back into its holder. The side effects remained to be investigated, but in any case, Hu Jiu was feeling quite good now.
As the saying went, "The more you endure, the more you suffer; the greedier you are, the happier you are." There was no way Hu Jiu would give up a benefit already in his hands. He would simply make a fortune in silence.
While his mind was occupied with other things, his mouth kept on prattling. On the other end of the line, Lin Guangning's eyes had gone red with anger. Fortunately, Fu Youhua arrived in time and put an end to the meaningless conversation.
"Mr. Hu, I'm the director of headquarters..." Before Fu Youhua could finish his greeting, Hu Jiu struck first. "During this operation, headquarters deliberately provided false intelligence, putting me in grave danger. I need an explanation!"
"Don't talk nonsense!" Fu Youhua instinctively retorted. "That sort of thing is detrimental to unity..."
"Zou Cong said it himself." Hu Jiu calmly cut Fu Youhua off.
Silence fell. After a moment, Fu Youhua finally spoke. "First, tell me what happened after you entered Longevity Village. We'll deal with the other matters later."
Hu Jiu did not press the issue. He cleared his throat. "As soon as we entered Longevity Village, our phones lost signal. Cui Xueyan was arrogant and gave orders recklessly, provoking a very powerful ghost, but she failed to contain it. When we tried to retreat, we discovered we couldn't leave."
"Cui Xueyan and Zou Cong had a serious disagreement. While they were arguing, Cui Xueyan let something slip, and we got the vague impression that headquarters' intelligence was wrong. We didn't trust one another, so the four of us parted on bad terms and ultimately decided to act separately."
"But since we didn't know what was going on, I focused on keeping myself safe the whole time. There was a large residence in the center of the village, and the source ghost was suspected to be there, so I didn't dare approach it. Cui Xueyan and Zou Cong, however, barged into the residence. I don't know what they did, but the Ghost Domain covering the village disappeared. The next time I saw Cui Xueyan and Zou Cong, they were fighting over a red candle. Something was a little off about Zou Cong's state of mind. He was shouting that he'd broken free of control, that headquarters had deceived him and deliberately altered the files, and things like that. I overheard everything."
"They noticed me eavesdropping and wanted to kill me to silence me! But they weren't in good shape, so I was lucky enough to escape. I was unconscious for a long time before I woke up. After that, I came out, and then..."
It was hard to tell truth from lies in Hu Jiu's account. Fu Youhua repeatedly questioned him about all sorts of details, constantly probing to see whether Hu Jiu had heard any secrets he should not have heard from Zou Cong.
Hu Jiu laid all the blame on Zou Cong and Cui Xueyan, claiming that they had done everything while he had slacked off the whole time. He knew nothing about what had happened in Longevity Village.
No matter how he was questioned, he was quite cooperative. Only when there was nothing left to ask did he bring the subject back around. "It's time to discuss headquarters' intelligence error."
Something like this certainly could not be blamed on an intern or a contract worker. Fu Youhua fell silent for a while longer. "This matter concerns state secrets. The relevant files were altered with the bigger picture in mind. Some necessary sacrifices are unavoidable."
"Are you sure it was for the bigger picture?" Hu Jiu sounded rather mocking.
"I am sure!" Fu Youhua's voice was firm and forceful. "I hope you can understand headquarters..."
"All right, I understand," Hu Jiu cut in.
Fu Youhua was struck speechless. He had expected to spend a great deal of effort placating Hu Jiu, so why did it suddenly feel as though he had punched a ball of cotton?
"About the candidate for the person in charge of Linjiang City that we discussed before..." Hu Jiu brought up the old matter with an air of significance.
Fu Youhua's voice was grave. "I'll immediately send someone to test you. As long as you pass, you can directly become the person in charge of Linjiang City. Headquarters will also give you some compensation for this mission, but you must sign a confidentiality agreement. You cannot disclose any information about the trip to Longevity Village. Otherwise... you'll be charged with treason!"
"No problem~" Hu Jiu cheerfully hung up the phone, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.
He was not so conceited as to believe his lies could fool everyone. If a hole in his story were discovered, or if headquarters failed to find any trace of "Zou Cong" and "Cui Xueyan" for a long time, he feared... it would lead to further trouble.
Although Hu Jiu was selfish and ruthless, he could also put himself in someone else's shoes. If he were a senior official at headquarters, faced with an important witness suspected of spouting lies, there was no need to guess what he would do...
So this wasn't over yet!