Baiting a Haunt in the Canteen

Chapter 14: Baiting a Haunt in the Canteen

Zhu Min Community Canteen had once been the liveliest place in the neighborhood.

But now it had fallen into ruin.

Tables and chairs lay scattered about, utensils were strewn everywhere, and water dripped constantly from a corner, nourishing a patch of moss. Even in broad daylight, the canteen reeked of unease.

Wu Xian and Shi Ji stood at the entrance.

"Yesterday, I wanted to find some ingredients and cook everyone a hot meal. While looking around, I ended up here. I found some frozen pig intestines and a few utensils in the freezer outside the canteen. I used those to cook for you."

"After that, I wanted to look for some other ingredients, so I went inside the canteen."

"Everything was fine at first, but then I suddenly felt unbearably hungry. It was as if something had tempted me, and I desperately wanted to find something to eat."

Wu Xian drew his Copper Coin Sword, ready to use some of his trump cards.

Shi Ji's plan was sound, but killing the ghost with ordinary weapons was simply too slow. At this rate, who knew how long it would take to wear the Starving Ghost down? That might work out for Shi Ji, but it was a terrible deal for Wu Xian.

After a brief discussion, the two of them got to work.

Taking the opportunity, Wu Xian grabbed the intestines while Shi Ji snatched up the Mop Handle and swung it at the Starving Ghost.

It hurt, sure, but it was hard to do any serious damage.

But this time, the Starving Ghost wouldn't take the bait. It let the intestines sway back and forth in the canteen without reacting at all.

The half-cooked end of the intestines was tossed into the shadows. Wu Xian had assumed that evil spirits were at least smarter than fish, so he expected it to wait a little.

After several rounds of this, Wu Xian started to get impatient.

"No, use the intestines to bait it!"

But it seemed that wasn't the case.

Perhaps sunlight was merely an unpleasant environment for evil spirits. Perhaps different evil spirits had different tolerances for sunlight. Perhaps...

"When I came to..."

"Because they hadn't been washed, I couldn't bring myself to eat them, and that's what finally woke me up."

He opened the bag. It was packed full of pig intestines, which gave off a pungent stench and looked half-cooked.

"Good thing they weren't washed!"

"I'm going to make it pay for what it did to me yesterday!"

Shi Ji lifted his shirt to show Wu Xian. Dozens of bite marks covered the left side of his chest and abdomen. If he'd come to his senses any later, he might have been bitten open.

"I didn't escape yesterday without getting something out of it. I learned two useful things."

"First, its ability to bewitch people only works inside the canteen, in places not directly exposed to sunlight. Second... its bite isn't very strong."

Wu Xian watched in speechless disbelief. Shi Ji's attacks were as fierce as a tiger's, but they barely did two and a half points of damage. After all that, the Starving Ghost had only gotten a little skin scraped off its head.

The thing that flew out was a man.

"I saw a skinny man, nothing but skin and bones, clutching me and biting me like crazy. His eyes were glowing green, and as he bit me, he kept shouting..."

Still, this gave Wu Xian a new discovery.

Shi Ji excitedly slapped his thigh.

The Starving Ghost had been out in the sun for a while, but it hadn't suffered any serious damage. It only seemed weaker, its vitality diminished.

But neither of them was worried anymore. The idea that a fish only remembered things for seven seconds was false, but something driven by desire might have an even shorter memory.

This time, Shi Ji held the intestines while Wu Xian hacked at the Starving Ghost with the Bloodstained Kitchen Knife, leaving deep gashes all over its body.

Did it hurt?

"If this thing's a Starving Ghost, there's no way it can refuse food, right? Half-cooked intestines are at their toughest, so I'll use them to lure it out of its range of influence, and then..."

Shi Ji raised the bag in his hand. "Of course, I'm using this!"

Shi Ji gave a cold laugh.

Wu Xian suddenly remembered that Shi Ji seemed to have been wearing different pants yesterday morning and evening...

He could just make out two blurry statues on the altar at the very back of the canteen. That proved Shi Ji hadn't been lying to him.

Wu Xian asked Shi Ji, "From what you've said, this evil spirit is pretty hard to deal with. Once you go deep into the canteen, it bewitches you so thoroughly that you don't even realize you're being chewed to death. So how do you plan to worship the gods?"

Shi Ji's expression was terrifyingly contorted, his teeth clenched so hard they might have shattered. He put all his strength into each swing, but he was so frail that his forehead was already slick with sweat after only a few.

But before the intestines could even hit the ground, a mouth snapped onto them.

As Wu Xian turned his gaze away, he caught sight of half a gaunt face peeking from behind a pillar. Drool streamed from its mouth, and its eyes seemed intent on devouring him.

There could be any number of explanations, but whatever the answer was, assuming that sunlight meant you were always safe was bound to get you into trouble.

Wu Xian looked at him strangely. "If I remember correctly, the pig intestines you found hadn't been washed."

Feeling the tug on the other end of the intestines, Wu Xian and Shi Ji hurriedly pulled together. A gaunt figure was yanked out at once.

First of all, the weapons Qi Zhiyong had handed out really did work—but only to a point.

The last time they'd dealt with Mr. Wang, the Icebox Ghost King, Mr. Wang had started smoking after being exposed to sunlight. Wu Xian had concluded that sunlight harmed evil spirits and might even be able to kill them.

Shi Ji tossed the intestines over again. Before long, the evil spirit bit down on them once more.

Wu Xian thought it over for a long while before he understood. His expression turned strange. What kind of genius would come up with a plan like this?

From what Wu Xian had seen, Shi Ji seemed honest and good-natured, not the sort to lose his temper easily. What could have made him this furious, so eager to tear the evil spirit apart and eat it?

Like lovers playfully whipping each other with little leather paddles.

He wore nothing but a tattered pair of beach shorts. His body was so thin that there was barely more than a layer of sinew stretched over his bones. His skin was dark yellow and rough, and his legs splayed out like a frog's, letting him move on all fours like livestock.

"Hungry, I'm so hungry..."

Shi Ji's expression was twisted with rage, as if he bore a deep-seated hatred for the evil spirit.

The Starving Ghost retreated.

After taking a few hits, the Starving Ghost couldn't stand it anymore. Like an injured puppy, it shrank back into the shadows.

The plan to bait the haunt sounded ridiculous, but Wu Xian didn't have a better idea.

"I fought for my life to get out of there. I was so scared, you have no idea..."

"The bite... I see!"

The moment it was dragged out, black smoke began to rise from its body, and it let out a series of anguished cries. Its body started to recoil, but it couldn't bear to let go of the intestines, so it retreated inch by inch.

Wu Xian's head was full of questions. "You're going to strangle it with the intestines?"

Wu Xian stopped himself from following that unpleasant line of thought and peered into the canteen.

"Bait it?"

"I'm afraid what happened to you wasn't as easy as you made it sound."

"For example, when you were biting the intestines, it wasn't because you couldn't get your teeth into them..."

Wu Xian panicked.

If it wouldn't come out, what was the point of all the time they'd already wasted?

Thanks to readers Huanyeye Yimeng, who knew there'd be another lunatic, Xiao Yinghan, Yihe Xiyuan, and Pinzui Daoshi for your tips. Thanks, everyone, for your support and encouragement. I'll keep working hard on the writing!