The Blood Coffin Appeared Again

"This person can't enter Qianlong... the base?" Lin Xiaosu had nearly let the word "Headquarters" slip. Luckily, he caught himself in time. Ding Dong had no idea he had entered Qianlong Headquarters. He had always thought it was an ordinary base.

"He can't! And I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone he exists," Ding Dong said.

"But you... you still told me!"

"You're different! You're my brother-in-law, family. More importantly... you're a detective. I need you to help me solve this mystery for the ages."

"How did this turn into a case?"

"The person I want you to meet is the case," Ding Dong said.

"What does that mean?" Lin Xiaosu asked.

"This person has an awfully high ghost content. I need to find out what he actually is, or I'll never be at ease..."

Ding Dong began his story.

Long ago, back when he was in middle school, he had enjoyed spending money like plenty of other spoiled rich kids.

The difference was that he had been interested in strange things.

Once, he had found an odd little object in an antique shop.

The shopkeeper had called it a treasure. Ding Dong couldn't tell what it was, but that was the beauty of being a spoiled rich kid. Who cared whether he recognized it, or how much it cost? The point was to squander money and savor the taste of it.

He had paid a hundred thousand for it.

That object had changed his life.

One night, an old man had emerged from it and shown him all sorts of strange things: a mechanical dog that ran, a box that flew, a girl who danced. They were all phantoms, yet they looked vividly real.

At first Ding Dong had been afraid. Then he had grown curious, and before long,