The Stalker's Little Admirer

North Gate.

Under the eaves on Garbage Street.

In the shadows.

Xu Wanyi straightened her clothes, looking a little disheveled.

Fang Xian watched her without blinking. It was not because he had any designs on the shapely young woman; he was afraid she might try something.

The cameras could not see this spot, and there were almost no pedestrians outside in weather like this. If Xu Wanyi had not encountered the Ghost Story by chance, but had sought it out herself...

"So you don't know what happened yesterday?"

"It's all a blur?"

Fang Xian's voice was low.

Xu Wanyi's expression stiffened. She still had not recovered.

That terrifyingly long neck of hers just now had to have been a hallucination, right?

The messages on her phone and the feeling of being watched from behind had vanished too, as though they had never existed.

After that cold had seeped into her bones, the downpour outside felt like nothing.

Xu Wanyi carefully thought back to the previous night.

A villa.

A man.

A red dragon tattoo on his back.

And...

There seemed to have been a woman too.

The woman had a lovely voice, like...

Like a radio host.

"Sorry, I can't remember any of that."

Xu Wanyi smiled. "I don't know what happened. Maybe my blood sugar dropped and I hallucinated. Sorry about that."

She looked at the young man before her.

He was thin and youthful, with an unhealthy pallor. Something about him... strangely reminded her of Qi Yuan.

His clothes were not from any major brand, though he had a good phone.

All in all, he was an ordinary male college student.

Still, she glanced at the Fire Axe at Fang Xian's waist.

There was something strange about him.

But she had seen him in class today. He really was a fellow student.

Fang Xian nodded.

Xu Wanyi clearly would not tell the truth. She had dismissed what happened as a hallucination. That, too, was one of the Ghost Story's abilities: making the abnormal seem reasonable.

If he could, Fang Xian hoped he would someday acquire a Ghost Story that could make people tell the truth.

"All right. I came out to buy a late-night snack for my roommate."

"I happened to notice something was wrong with you."

Fang Xian shrugged. "Since you're fine, goodbye."

He had no interest in starting some little rain-soaked romance with Xu Wanyi.

He gave her phone one last look.

Oh, she's got a Stars 15 Pro Max too.

Beyond the curtain of rain.

Xu Wanyi watched Fang Xian walk away.

Only then did she take out her phone.

There was no black-and-white portrait of a man, no strange messages. Only her selfies remained.

She opened WeChat and hurriedly sent a message.

[Dearest Wanyi: A-Yuan, something happened to me.]

[Dearest Wanyi: I think my blood sugar dropped just now. I might be a little late.]

[Dearest Wanyi: Photo.]

A moment later.

[Qi Yuan: Got it.]

[Qi Yuan: Rest up tonight. Don't come over.]

[Qi Yuan: I'll find you later. I have something to take care of.]

[Qi Yuan: Transfer.]

When Xu Wanyi saw the transfer, her fear vanished completely.

Five thousand yuan. That was a month's income for someone in Jiangzhou.

Wanyi!

Don't lose sight of what matters.

You weren't meant to settle for such small gains.

You should be aiming much higher.

Xu Wanyi thought of Fang Xian.

He was handsome, sure, but that was all. More than ninety-five percent of people would never climb into a higher social class. They could only curl up in their small circle and call it comfort.

Xu Wanyi refused to live like that.

"Xu Wanyi won't talk, but I can be fairly sure this has something to do with whoever she met last night."

Fang Xian looked at the Urban Legend Compendium.

No One Calling's abilities were still quite limited.

Its most useful ability was Simulated Communication: sending messages or making calls from an unknown number. At most, it could slip a few photos onto someone's phone screen or into their gallery. Come to think of it, could he project other photos next time? Fang Xian intended to explore that feature further.

As for checking chat histories or call logs, it could not really do that.

Last night, Xu Wanyi had gotten into a black Meiher.

It belonged to her new, wealthy boyfriend.

The lead was easy enough to piece together: her boyfriend.

How was he supposed to investigate?

How else? Check the license plate.

The plate was visible in quite a few photos taken at the scene.

Even in Jiangzhou City, the capital of Jiangzhou, only a small handful of people could afford a car like that.

Finding the owner was another matter. Fang Xian had two options. First, he could ask Chen Lin at the General Affairs Bureau. She had said she hoped he would help them, so perhaps he could get her to look up the Meiher's owner.

The second...

Fang Xian chose the second.

This was the age of big data.

He opened a search engine and a short-video platform.

Jiangzhou City. New-model black Meiher.

Fang Xian quickly found a useful keyword.

Red Dragon Group.

Fang Xian knew the company. In the current job market, it was an excellent, long-established corporation.

Its operations were stable and its cash flow ample. It was a favorite of the entire Jiangzhou Council, and its share price had been driven high.

"The car belongs to Qi Yuan, the only son of Red Dragon Group chairman Qi Zhaojia."

That had been far easier than Fang Xian expected.

Videos of the young master of the Qi family partying at nightclubs were all over Tremble.

He was officially listed at 188 centimeters, with an obviously muscular build and a pair of long, upturned eyes. His looks were handsome in a soft, almost bewitching way.

Add his status, and the comment sections on Tremble were full of posts like "Hubby, hold me," "Hubby," and "Hubby, I love you."

Fang Xian clicked his tongue and looked up.

My friends, my fellow hopeless romantics, a lot of our dream girls are in those comments.

Song Yizhou came to mind.

Literary girls loved a contrast. For all he knew, she might be one of them. There was no telling.

"Red Dragon Group. Qi Yuan."

"If he controls the Hang-Neck Ghost, we can only be enemies."

Fang Xian narrowed his eyes.

If he had not intervened while Hanging Neck possessed Xu Wanyi, her neck really would have stretched until she died. There was no doubt about it.

Qi Yuan had let a Ghost Story kill people at will.

Someone like him was better off without the power to control one.

With that thought, Fang Xian took out the spoils he had gained tonight: the Vengeful Ghost Stone dropped by the Hang-Neck Ghost.

"The disturbed stalker... carrying a Fire Axe."

"It was... Fang Xian."

Disturbed. Elegant. An aberration in the dark.

Hong Ye's small figure emerged from the bushes. She ignored the scratches they had left on her body.

She felt fear and terror, but... she could not suppress her excitement.

Rain poured down.

Hong Ye looked around, then went to the place where Fang Xian had cut his hand and wiped away the blood. Scraps of bandage he had discarded lay there, still stained with his blood.

She approached and picked one up. Then...

Her body acted on instinct.

She brought her round little face close and began to suck on it in rapture.