A hardcore player

Wen Ning crouched down opposite Zhou Weiguo again.

His tone turned solemn.

"Sir, what exactly is this unusual object you mentioned?"

Zhou Weiguo held nothing back when Wen Ning asked.

"A piece of bone."

"Bone?"

That made everyone curious. What was so unusual about a bone?

"A bone from one of those Japanese bastards."

Zhou Weiguo continued, the murderous glint in his eyes impossible to hide at the mention of the Japanese invaders.

"Back when we were fighting a guerrilla war in Northwest Shanxi, we ambushed a Japanese supply convoy once. It was a brutal fight. Several of the men under my command died. The Japanese lieutenant leading them was a tough bastard. He almost crippled this arm of mine when we fought with bayonets. See this scar? He gave me that."

As he spoke, Zhou Weiguo held out his hand, exposing the deep old scar running from the web between his thumb and forefinger to his wrist, then continued.

"I stabbed him to death in the end. While we were clearing the battlefield, I found a letter on him. I had a captured Japanese interpreter read it. Turned out that animal had an older cousin who'd taken part in the Nanjing Massacre. I was so furious I sawed off his arm and cut a piece out of the bone."

By this point, Wen Ning had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

"Where is that piece of bone now?"

"In my old family home. I spent forty or fifty years handling and polishing that Japanese bastard's arm bone."

Zhou Weiguo said.

"Zhou Hu asked me what it was once. I told him it was a dog bone. I never threw it away, so it's still in the old house."

Wen Ning and Meng Jiang exchanged a glance. Both of them now had a fairly clear lead.

"Sir, just wait here for your reincarnation without worrying. Leave Hu's problem to me. I'll find your military medal, and I'll take care of that bone too."

Zhou Weiguo looked up at Wen Ning without saying anything more. He had lived eighty-seven years. He knew when to leave things to someone else.

Besides, he had met so many people that he could tell at a glance who was reliable and who wasn't. Wen Ning struck him as someone he could trust.

Wen Ning and Meng Jiang left the reincarnation hall.

They stood once again on the road outside the Ghost Gate.

Wen Ning glanced back at the towering Ghost Gate behind them and the still-lengthy line of ghosts outside it.

He turned to Meng Jiang and asked the question on his mind.

"Why are those Japanese bastards' ghosts still in the mortal world? Doesn't the Underworld do anything about them?"

Meng Jiang fell silent for a moment before answering.

"During the War of Resistance against Japan, over a million Japanese people died in China. Their souls should have been taken into custody, judged, and assigned their destinations by the Underworld. But think about that era, Wen Ning. The Underworld would obviously have prioritized our own people.

"Chinese soldiers killed in battle, massacred civilians, ordinary people who died in famines and bombings—there were far too many to process. The Underworld only had so many ghost officers, and there was only one Bridge of Helplessness. Meng Po brewed soup every day until her wrists swelled. Back then, my aunt brewed soup for three straight months and wore out two pots. Under those circumstances, who do you think would have bothered with those Japanese bastards' souls?"

Wen Ning fell silent. That really was how things had been. Those years had been too bitter, too horrific.

"And besides..."

Meng Jiang continued.

"The Heavenly Court and the Underworld did discuss it once back then. Someone said those Japanese bastards' souls should also be taken into custody and escorted back through the normal procedures, but the discussion went nowhere in the end. I've never seen the actual meeting minutes, and my aunt doesn't like talking about it. She only said an Underworld judge made one remark at that meeting, and no one argued with him."

"What did he say?"

That judge had said,

"Which of you is going to verify the list of those three hundred thousand people in Nanjing City?"

Meng Jiang said no more on that subject and returned to the case itself.

"So there are still quite a few of those Japanese bastards' ghosts lingering in the mortal world. They were never escorted back. That piece of arm bone Mr. Zhou mentioned most likely has that lieutenant's ghost attached to it."

"So Zhou Hu's bad luck this past month wasn't just bad luck, and it wasn't Broom Star's doing. His grandfather wasn't tormenting him either."

Wen Ning picked up the thread.

"It was that Japanese lieutenant tormenting him."

"To be precise, it's the ghost attached to the bone causing trouble. Its resentment affects the luck around it. That's why Zhou Hu hasn't been hit by a car or fallen seriously ill. Instead, he steps in dog poop, gets hit by bird droppings, and finds no seasoning packets in his instant noodles. Those little mishaps are about the limit of what a lingering soul can do. But day after day, they're enough to make someone miserable."

Wen Ning took a deep breath, went over the whole affair from beginning to end, then asked a very practical question.

"So how do I deal with it? Once I find that bone, what do I do?"

"Once you find it, it's easy."

Meng Jiang pulled a talisman from her sleeve and handed it to Wen Ning. The paper was pitch-black.

"This is an Underworld Summoning Talisman. You're a deity yourself now, after all. Don't you know the Five Thunder Righteous Method? Beat him into submission, then channel your magic into this talisman. A ghost officer will come to you."

Wen Ning took the talisman and carefully tucked it into his pocket. Then he looked up at Meng Jiang and grinned.

"Thanks, Meng Jiang. Once this is sorted out, I'll treat you to hot pot in the mortal world. Oh, and when I run into that Japanese bastard, can I just strike him dead with lightning?"

Meng Jiang understood what Wen Ning was getting at. After all, any son or daughter of China would have had the same thought.

"You certainly can't strike him dead. As a Heavenly Court civil servant, you obviously wouldn't knowingly break the rules."

With that, she winked meaningfully at Wen Ning.

Wen Ning understood her expression instantly. Killing him is out, but anything else is fair game. Now that's a sensible policy.

With the truth finally uncovered, Wen Ning breathed a deep sigh of relief and sent Gong Kai a message.

"Bring Zhou Hu to my shop tomorrow. I have some questions for him. Also, tell him I've asked about his grandfather."

Gong Kai replied instantly again: "Got it."

Then he sent another message.

"Wen, how did you manage to ask his grandfather?"

Wen Ning replied with a smiley face: "Grown-up business. Kids should stay out of it."

Meng Jiang had brought him in through the staff passage, but he had to find his own way back.

Still, Meng Jiang had just given him directions. Once he left the Ghost Gate, he had to turn right, head upstream along the River of Forgetfulness, then turn left when he saw a tree. That would take him to the passage back to the mortal world.

When Wen Ning returned to the human world, dawn had yet to break. He still had time to get a little more sleep.

He patted his pocket, made sure the Summoning Talisman was safely tucked away, then stood and walked over to the offering table. He took three sticks of incense from a drawer and lit them with care.

Then he addressed the deity's statue.

"Godfather, I'm going to deal with a Japanese bastard's bone tomorrow. It's nothing major, so you don't need to step in. But if I can't handle it, you've got to back me up."

With that done, Wen Ning got ready to sleep a little longer.