Chapter 10

Wen Wan said sadly, "I've never received any incense or paper money either. Maybe my parents still don't believe I'm dead."

After a pause, Wen Wan asked Feng Yang again, "Do you think my parents will be especially heartbroken when they see my remains?"

Feng Yang had no answer for that.

Wen Wan continued, "Isn't the country encouraging people to have a second child now? It would be nice if my parents had another child too. Then, even if they're devastated when they learn about my death, they'll still have hope to go on living."

Feng Yang only felt a tightness in his chest. He found an intersection and crouched down, setting stacks of incense, candles, and offerings beside him. It was already late at night, and there were few pedestrians on the streets. A City was not some tightly regulated metropolis, so no one paid any attention to Feng Yang burning paper by the roadside.

Feng Yang quietly burned all the incense, candles, and offerings. The wandering ghosts around him had not enjoyed incense offerings in a long time, and every one of them ate until their ghost bellies were round. The old man ghost, who had never received offerings from family in his life, held piles of paper money. After a long silence, he suddenly burst into loud sobs.

But ghosts had no tears. Countless traces of resentment spilled from his hollow eye sockets instead. Amid his eerie wailing, a ghostly mist suddenly spread through the area, and the temperature plummeted. The wandering ghosts, unable to endure the torment of his crying, scattered in all directions. The old man ghost's soul body also became increasingly transparent.

Once a wish was fulfilled, soul power would gradually dissipate.

Feng Yang tore off a sheet of paper and wrote down the van model and license plate number he had seen in the old man ghost's memories. He tossed it into the fire and calmly ordered, "Find this vehicle."

The wandering ghosts who had been madly snatching up the offerings felt their souls shudder. They instinctively obeyed Feng Yang's command.

Wen Wan looked over curiously. She had not been dead for long, and she had always kept to herself, too afraid to speak with any other ghosts. She was a ghost with little knowledge of the world. Naturally, she knew nothing of these ghost-controlling methods.

Feng Yang had no intention of explaining. He merely said, "We're going to Peach Blossom Village tomorrow."

The place where Wen Wan had been buried was in the barren mountains ten li east of Peach Blossom Village.

Feng Yang wanted to dig up the young girl's remains as soon as possible and return them to her parents. Yet that very night, one of the wild ghosts under his command came to him in a dream. They had found another hideout where the human traffickers had settled—

To avoid the police's full-scale manhunt, the traffickers had taken their "goods" deep into the mountains and forests. This hideout happened to be in the same barren mountains ten li east of Peach Blossom Village, less than three kilometers from where Wen Wan's bones were buried.

"There are lots of bodies over there. Women's, children's. The yin energy is especially heavy. It looks like a Vengeful Ghost is about to be born."

The wandering ghosts, afraid of being devoured by the Vengeful Ghost, did not dare approach that place. They could only give Feng Yang the rough location and ask curiously, "If that Vengeful Ghost was also trafficked before it died, will it kill the human traffickers to take revenge?"

Feng Yang looked at the wandering ghosts staring at him eagerly. He could tell from their expressions that they hoped the Vengeful Ghost would kill the traffickers in revenge—and that they did not want Feng Yang to stop it.

But could he really let the Vengeful Ghost do as it pleased?

Early the next morning, Feng Yang, who had barely slept all night, was awakened when Tao Xiaotao knocked on his door. The four of them grabbed a simple breakfast at the restaurant across from the inn. During that time, the three streamers even squeezed in twenty minutes of breakfast streaming.

"Handsome, you're really popular online right now!" Tao Xiaotao looked at the comments and gifts in the livestream and noticed that quite a few viewers were asking about Feng Yang, concerned about what would happen to the traffickers. There were also plenty of fans repeatedly spamming about how handsome Feng Yang was and urging him to start his own livestream. Smiling, she asked, "Everyone wants to know—are you interested in streaming?"

"That's a great idea!" The other two male streamers, who had been quietly eating wontons, immediately looked up. "You're so handsome and already so popular. If you start streaming, you'll definitely blow up. Why not register an account? The three of us are here, so we can help promote you too."

Feng Yang smiled and shook his head. He was not used to being in front of a camera, nor did he know how to interact with viewers. Besides, he had too many secrets. Becoming an internet celebrity and attracting too much attention would not be appropriate.

When Feng Yang casually turned down the suggestion, all sorts of disappointed and regretful comments immediately flooded the livestream. Some viewers still would not give up and kept asking for Feng Yang's Weibo account. This time, Feng Yang did not refuse. He directly gave them his Weibo account—it was simply his name, with no verification badge and not even a profile picture. If Feng Yang had not personally said it on the livestream, people would have assumed it was a burner account even if they found it.

"Isn't this way too bare-bones?" The three streamers followed each other with Feng Yang, looking disgusted. At the same time, the viewers watching the livestream quickly opened Weibo and searched for Feng Yang's account. Over the course of one breakfast, Feng Yang gained nearly ten thousand followers.

"Your followers are growing fast!" The absurd rate at which he gained followers immediately made the three streamers green with envy.

Feng Yang only smiled without saying anything, but inwardly, he kept going over how he could find Wen Wan's remains and the traffickers' mountain hideout without leaving a trace. He also reviewed the plan he had made last night, checking for any loopholes.

Before finding the traffickers' hideout, Feng Yang had planned to take the three streamers up Peach Blossom Mountain with him. During the livestream, he would find Wen Wan's remains "by accident" and draw the police's attention. But when he learned that the traffickers were hiding in the barren mountains not far from Wen Wan's remains, he immediately abandoned that plan. He was afraid that if they ran into the traffickers, the three streamers would be harmed. After all, most of those traffickers were criminals with blood on their hands. Once confronted, they would do anything to avoid exposing their whereabouts.

Feng Yang could not take that risk. After weighing it over and over, he decided to go up the mountain alone.

Not long after the four of them arrived at Peach Blossom Village, the three streamers were shocked to discover that Feng Yang had vanished.

Leaving by himself, Feng Yang carried his backpack into the deep mountains and forests. Before coming to A City, he had prepared a time capsule. He had originally planned to bury it when he found time after saving Yin Qing, then bring the Vengeful Ghost back later and give him a surprise. Now, it had become a ready-made excuse.