I brought a woman to keep you company

After hearing Zhao Erhu out, Jiang Chen nodded and beckoned. A stream of water carried the female ghost over to him, and she opened her mouth to let out a piercing roar.

"Bind!" Jiang Che used the Minor Water Manipulation Technique, making the water bind the ghost's arms and legs tightly before hoisting her onto his shoulder.

Although he had decided to kill this ghost, he wanted Zheng Shaoming to suffer the consequences of his own actions first.

Seeing this, Zhao Erhu understood his intentions. "The dark art Zhang Xianhai used is called the Substitute Death Method. It involves bringing someone targeted by a ghost near a group of living people, then using something to conceal his presence. That makes the ghost slaughter the people nearby instead."

"Every living person the ghost kills reduces its hatred for its target a little."

"But this method has a flaw. The person targeted by the ghost can't go too far away, so Zheng Shaoming must be somewhere near the entrance to the mountain!"

"Let's go!" Jiang Chen nodded and strode forward with the female ghost over his shoulder.

Zhao Erhu followed.

As they passed the crowd, everyone hurriedly backed away at the sight of the terrifying ghost. Only Sun Die suddenly covered her mouth, her eyes widening.

Jiang Chen happened to notice and beckoned her over.

She was quick on the uptake, too. Knowing that these two young men had saved everyone at Mountain Villa tonight, she didn't dare hesitate and immediately ran over.

"Do you know this ghost?"

"Yes." Sun Die pressed her lips together, her expression conflicted. "Her name is Sun Meiling. We came from the same village. People from the Zheng Group selected us, and after training, we went to work as servers at one of their hotels."

Jiang Chen knew about this sort of thing.

At sufficiently high-end hotels, the requirements for a server's figure and appearance were even stricter than those for flight attendants. Some major conglomerates therefore employed people specifically to recruit candidates throughout the Nine Provinces.

Sun Die and Sun Meiling were both sevens or eights out of ten in looks, so it was perfectly normal for them to have been selected.

"Then one day, Sun Meiling excitedly told me she'd been chosen to work at a resort manor, with a raise of over two thousand," Sun Die continued.

"She never contacted me again after that. I didn't think much of it, because some workplaces under the Zheng Group really do have confidentiality requirements. Other colleagues had had their phones confiscated after transferring, too."

"Then one night, while I was asleep, I suddenly felt as if my mouth and nose were blocked. I couldn't breathe. I woke with a start and found that my phone screen was lit up. There was a long message on it from her."

"She told me she'd been lucky. Not long after arriving at Mountain Villa, she met the Zheng family's young master. He was very gentlemanly and started pursuing her, giving her all kinds of gifts and even having her supervisor give her several days off."

"But by the third day, Young Master Zheng had lost patience. He drugged her over dinner and raped her while she was unconscious."

"She was terrified. She went to Mountain Villa's supervisor, wanting to get her phone back so she could call the police. But as soon as he heard it involved Young Master Zheng, he absolutely refused to help."

"She made a scene at Mountain Villa so everyone would know what had happened. That night, the supervisor called a meeting of all the staff and talked them around. After that, not a single person was willing to speak up for her."

"Zheng Shaoming's behavior grew worse and worse. In the end, he apparently got tired of her, tied her up, and threw her into the lake to scare her. But she actually drowned."

Everyone present widened their eyes and clenched their fists. They hadn't imagined Zheng Shaoming could sink so low as to do something so disgusting.

"I was terrified after reading it. If what Sun Meiling said was true, then she was already dead. How could she have sent me a message?" Sun Die's voice trembled as she spoke.

"And for some reason, my phone was covered in water, as if it had been washed. I also felt like someone was standing in the corner of my room. I was so scared that I pulled the covers over my head and waited until dawn. When I checked my phone again, the message was gone."

"I later asked my superiors about Sun Meiling. They told me she was doing well, so I didn't think about it anymore. I just assumed that night had been a nightmare."

"I never imagined it was real, or that Elegant Mountain Manor was where she died!"

Sun Die looked at her former friend, her expression a tangled mixture of pain, regret, and fear.

After hearing her story, Jiang Chen realized something. Sun Die had been the only one to discover the claw marks outside the guest rooms earlier. Perhaps that hadn't been a coincidence, either. Sun Meiling might have been trying to warn her.

"She's actually a ghost with some humanity left!" Zhao Erhu exclaimed in surprise. "Jiang Chen, you can't kill her now. This ghost is special. She's extremely useful to the Netherworld."

"How so?" Jiang Chen asked.

"Generally speaking, everything ghosts do is aimed at harming people. But this water ghost was actually trying to alert her friend so she could discover the truth about her death."

"That means a trace of humanity remains in her subconscious. She's still a monster, but to the Netherworld, she's a treasure. When Netherworld Messengers seal ghosts like her inside their bodies, the mortality rate drops by more than forty percentage points!"

Jiang Chen was rather surprised to hear this.

He had long heard that becoming a Netherworld Messenger carried an extraordinarily high mortality rate, often as high as ninety percent.

Viewed that way, this female ghost really was special.

"Look up the Jiangbei City Netherworld Branch Bureau's number on the Underworld App and have them send someone over. You've really hit the jackpot this time!" Zhao Erhu reminded him.

Jiang Chen nodded, took out his phone, and dialed.

The call connected after just one ring, and a woman's voice came from the other end. "Hello, Jiangbei City Netherworld Branch Bureau."

"I'm at Elegant Mountain Manor. There's a ghost here with some humanity remaining. She's a half-step vengeful ghost."

At the other end, the female operator's eyes lit up, her face filling with delight. "Understood! We'll dispatch a full-fledged Netherworld Messenger. Please wait a little while!"

Jiang Chen didn't give a specific location because he had previously used the Underworld App to photograph and upload pictures of several ghosts, which included the location here.

As soon as he mentioned Mountain Villa, the person on the other end knew exactly where he meant.

With that done, Jiang Chen headed toward the mountain entrance. Everyone had guessed what would happen next. Some of the more timid stayed where they were, while a few braver ones gritted their teeth and followed.

With Zhao Erhu there, Jiang Chen didn't stop them.

The two of them could still ensure everyone's safety while dealing with one severely weakened female ghost.

They walked over and had just rounded the turn at the mountain entrance when they spotted a large luxury RV parked there. Several talismans had been pasted onto its exterior to conceal the presence of the people inside.

"That bastard Zheng Shaoming really knows how to enjoy himself!" Yang Zhi said indignantly.

"Yeah. He left us at Mountain Villa to feed the ghost while he ran off to enjoy his luxury RV." Zhao Xiaodong also gritted his teeth.

The students all looked grim.

"Stay here. Don't get too close," Jiang Chen called out. He strode forward, grabbed the RV's door, and ripped the lock apart with brute force, wrenching the door open with a bang.

Inside the RV, Zheng Shaoming, who was watching a movie with headphones on, turned his head in astonishment.

The first person he saw was Jiang Chen, and surprise appeared on his face. "You actually survived? Uncle Zhang, kill him for me!"

Only after speaking did he notice the door that had been forced open. Suddenly realizing something, his pupils widened slightly, and he pointed at Jiang Chen. "Wait, you..."

Jiang Chen gave him a strange grin. "Young Master Zheng, bored all by yourself? I brought a woman to keep you company."

"A woman..." A bad feeling rose in Zheng Shaoming's heart.

The next moment, Jiang Chen threw Sun Meiling inside.

Seeing the woman he had personally thrown into the lake and drowned over a month ago, Zheng Shaoming stared with his eyes stretched wide, disbelief spreading across his face.

"No! Uncle Zhang, save me! No..."

Sun Meiling turned her terrifying face forward. At the sight of Zheng Shaoming, an immense surge of resentment erupted from her.

"Zheng Shaoming! I finally found you..."

Her furious roar carried an eerie undertone that sounded halfway between crying and laughing, making the students in the distance shudder.