Suddenly, a strange sound came from outside. It was muffled, like a butcher at a market slapping a great slab of meat onto a chopping board, then dragging it forward.
Without hesitation, Qi Gu shielded Lin Hanzhi and Mu Xingchen behind him. Turning his head toward Lin Hanzhi, he said in a voice as cool and clear as jade pendants chiming together, "Don't be afraid."
Silently, out of habit, Mu Xingchen took those words as being meant for him too. If anyone asked, being "overlooked" so often had given him a strong ability to comfort himself.
Lin Hanzhi said, "I'm not that scared anymore. I'm getting used to running into ghosts now."
He tried to salvage his cowardly image.
Whether Qi Gu actually took that in was anyone's guess. In any case, his response was to pick up the flashlight and shine it into the courtyard. The round yellow beam swept from far to near, illuminating a small patch of darkness and bathing everything within it in brilliant gold.
At the center stood Miao Yue's imposing figure, carrying Pubu Gesang and dragging half a middle-aged man with her right hand.
[Well damn, Miao Yue's carrying over a hundred pounds without breaking a sweat.]
[Holy crap, why is there another half a person? Whose kid couldn't do their homework and let their answer run loose here?]
[You, up there...]
[As someone who's actually written "half a person" as an answer, I'm sweating buckets.]
Qi Gu looked at the half of a middle-aged male ghost Miao Yue was dragging. The ghost was like a fish, still thrashing desperately with its ankle caught in her grip, trying to swim away.
"Qi Gu, take a look and tell us what this thing is. This is already the third one we've run into today... or,