The Fiercest Ghost

Rongyi Street was as easy to find as its name's homophone suggested, and it was not far from Wen Ruzhi's clinic.

The rumors that this place was haunted also made Chen Ying doubtful.

To Chen Ying, this lane seemed extraordinarily lively. The street was packed with people, and snack stalls stood everywhere.

Curry fish balls, cart noodles, rice noodle rolls, braised beef offal... The food at roadside stalls like these was bound to be ordinary, but that bustling street atmosphere whetted Chen Ying's appetite.

"Could this place really be haunted? Did Mr. Wen get it wrong?"

In Chen Ying's experience, so-called evil spirits seemed to represent some sort of negative force in this world. Places with evil spirits naturally had nothing to do with words like joy, bustle, or prosperity.

Yet here, lights shone from every home and voices filled the air. Although the place could hardly be called wealthy, there was little worry or unease in the people's eyes. Instead, they had the ease of those who took life as it came.

A place like this should not have evil spirits.

Chen Ying picked a stall at random and ordered a bowl of cart noodles.

The ingredients were simple: noodles mixed with sauce, two soaked curry fish balls, and a few scraps of fatty intestines and pork skin.

To be honest, the taste was nothing special, but Chen Ying ate with relish.

As his boxing gradually improved, he was becoming more and more like a "person."

He finished in a few mouthfuls and took his wallet from his pocket.

"Boss, the noodles were good."

"Handsome, are you from out of town?"

"Out of town?"

Chen Ying handed the money to the stall owner. "No, I was passing by and thought it looked lively here..."

"Hahahaha! Of course you're an outsider. You don't even know the famous Rongyi Street."

A short, plump customer wearing glasses came over with his bowl and sat directly opposite Chen Ying.

"Uncle, another bowl of cart noodles. My treat for this brother here. What part of Lingnan are you from? I heard there's a drought over there. Life can't be easy."

"Four-Eyed Ming, stop playing the big spender. The sun's going down. I'm closing up."

The stall owner began packing his things.

"Closing up? But the evening's only just starting. People will be coming for late-night snacks soon, won't they?"

Chen Ying asked curiously.

"That's why I said you're from out of town. Don't you know Rongyi Street is haunted?"

"That's right, haunted. Look up now, and this whole street is full of ghosts. The uncle selling cart noodles is a ghost, Ah Feng selling dumplings is a ghost, even those kids eating rice noodle rolls are ghosts."

Four-Eyed Ming grew worked up, a trace of ferocity on his face. "Know what kind of ghosts we are?"

Without waiting for Chen Ying to answer, Four-Eyed Ming supplied the answer himself.

"Poor devils, the most wretched, vicious, and desperate ghosts in the world."

With that, he began wolfing down his noodles.

"Poor devils?"

"Yeah. Rent in Hong Kong-Kowloon City is frighteningly expensive, so everyone comes here to settle down. This place has plenty of advantages. Rent's cheap, and you don't have to worry about things getting stolen at night. For one thing, we're a bunch of poor devils with nothing worth stealing. For another, those thieves don't dare come here at night."

Four-Eyed Ming laughed. "Everyone goes out to work at night and comes home to sleep during the day. Low rent, high wages. You have no idea how great it is."

"That's right. I live right here. I sell here before dark, then move somewhere else to sell late-night snacks after dark, and come home to sleep during the day. Lower costs and higher profits than the competition. I earn quite a bit more."

The uncle selling cart noodles smiled. "Still, young man, you'd best head home early. This place gets vicious at night."

"If the lords here are so vicious, why do you still live here?"

"Can they be more vicious than the landlady?"

The noodle stall owner laughed heartily. "I've half a mind to offer those lords a stick of incense. Without them here, where in this enormous Hong Kong-Kowloon City could poor devils like us find shelter?"

"If you ask me, there are plenty of lords in this world, but none are fiercer than us poor devils. Everyone says this place is haunted. I say it's a paradise for poor devils like us."

Did Mr. Wen send me here to show me how hard life is for the poor in Hong Kong and Kowloon?

"Hey, handsome, you'd better get going. The whole street will be empty soon."

The noodle stall owner called out to him.

"Handsome, if you've got nowhere to stay, come back in a couple of days and have a look. Rent here is only thirty dollars a month. A real bargain."

"No, I'm looking for 93 Rongyi Street..."

At those words, both the noodle stall owner and Four-Eyed Ming went pale.

"Handsome, is someone playing a nasty trick on you? Number ninety-three is the fiercest of the lot."

Four-Eyed Ming asked with a frown.

"The fiercest? Is that where the poorest people live?"

"No. That was the first place on this whole street to become haunted. It used to be a temple. It's terribly vicious in there."

The noodle stall owner continued, "Lots of people have been tricked. Told they'd get rich if they slept there, that sort of thing. Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth, you know. Instead, they lost their lives, dying in all kinds of strange ways."

"That vicious?"

Chen Ying truly had not expected Wen Ruzhi to give him such a difficult problem right off the bat.

"More than that. I heard the foreigners investigated it. They said there's something wrong with the earth veins here. That ruined temple attracts lords easily, like the gates of the underworld. And the energy keeps building up. Sooner or later, there'll be some sort of supernatural disaster."

Four-Eyed Ming spoke quietly.

"Shit, is that reliable?"

The noodle stall owner waved the long chopsticks in his hand. "Don't scare me. I've got no money to move."

"I'm a newspaper reporter, you know."

"For a third-rate rag."

"I just moved to the Commercial News."

As he spoke, Four-Eyed Ming took a business card from his pocket and handed it to Chen Ying. It read, "Lin Xianming, special correspondent, Hong Kong and Kowloon Commercial News."

"Little brother, contact me if you hear anything. Brother Ming has plenty of money for informants."

"Shit, don't believe him. What big-shot reporter comes here for cart noodles instead of eating steak?"

"Literature resents a comfortable life, Uncle. I live in genteel poverty to seek the Star of Literature's blessing."

"Bastard, I've been poor my whole life, and I've never had the Star of Literature's blessing. I still only know a hundred characters."

"Thank you both."

Chen Ying put the business card away.

It was not completely dark yet, but Chen Ying could already feel something reviving here, like a brooding black mountain regaining its original appearance beneath the moonlight.

Most of the diners on the street had already left. The remaining stall owners had packed everything neatly away and were rapidly wheeling their carts off.

"Brother, I'm clearing out. You'd better leave too."

Brother Ming spoke quietly beside him.

"Take my advice. Whatever anyone's promised you, that place is vicious."

"Thanks, Brother Ming. But I'm a poor devil too. I want to see which of us is fiercer."

"Wow, all right. That's the heroic spirit of us poor devils."

Hearing that, Brother Ming could only shake his head.

Chen Ying smiled and headed toward the end of Rongyi Street.

The street looked much like Hong Kong and Kowloon once had. Shops lined both sides, with business premises below and the owners' living quarters above, sometimes doubling as storerooms.

The counters stood almost flush with the doors, serving customers right off the street.

Now, however, most had been converted into homes.

Chen Ying followed the street to its end, where a small temple stood across the way.

It was actually a dead end.

The temple entrance was dilapidated, and thick weeds grew in the courtyard, almost waist-high. Strangely, though the vegetation flourished, there was not a single insect chirp or birdcall.

Life seemed to have vanished from this place.

Chen Ying stepped inside, passing the crumbling courtyard walls and rotten gates. The main hall facing the entrance still retained its former appearance.

Red walls and yellow tiles. On either side of the doorway, he could almost make out the old couplet.

"Come here and reflect upon your life; you may as well repent and mend your ways. Go out and do good deeds; what need is there to light candles and burn incense?"

The couplet gave no clue as to what kind of temple this was.

Chen Ying looked inside. Only half the statue remained, and dust covered the offering table. Apart from that, the entire temple could be called clean and bare.

As he stepped inside, Chen Ying's ears twitched.

With proper boxing practice, blood and vital energy naturally flourished. With abundant blood and vital energy, the senses grew keen.

Chen Ying's hearing and vision were now more than three times as sharp as before. There was clearly some faint movement behind the statue.

He turned to look behind him. Only a sliver of the sun's radiance remained, leaving a trace of fading red on the horizon.

How vicious. Mao Ri Zhenjun hasn't even finished his shift, and you're already clocking in?

Chen Ying was gathering his strength when a gray figure tumbled out from behind the statue.

"Just in time."

Chen Ying darted backward. Before he could get a look at who had come, the gray figure was already kneeling and kowtowing.

"Spare me, my lord! I didn't mean to disturb you..."

"It's all my fault, every bit of it! I'll bring you fragrant flowers and candles, and buy you some paper concubines with big breasts and shapely bottoms..."

The thing was dazed from kowtowing, while Chen Ying was rather surprised.

Why was he here?

"This lord doesn't like big breasts and shapely bottoms. I prefer hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys. Lend me your two kidneys so I can sell them for some paper money to spend."

"No, my lord! I've got weak kidneys and can't get it up. My kidneys are completely useless... My lord, your voice sounds just like an old friend of mine. You must be just as handsome and dashing..."

Looking at the dirt-covered Hua Shanrong, Chen Ying could not help laughing.

"Well, thank you, then."

Hua Shanrong looked up and cried out in surprise.

"Brother Ying, what are you doing here?"

"I came to worship. What are you doing here? Why haven't you been going to school lately?"

"Brother Ying, it's like a three-year-old losing his mother. It's a long story..."

Hua Shanrong pulled down his right sleeve. Chen Ying saw that, at some point, red blotches shaped like copper coins, round outside and square inside, had covered his arm.

The blotches darkened and faded as though they were breathing.

"Brother Ying, they've put an Underworld Assassination Order on me. I'm in such a miserable state."

"An underworld what order?"

Chen Ying looked at Hua Shanrong's woeful face.

"You know my boss Fat Bear got chopped down by Fire Dragon. That Su Xiong's followers hacked down most of our men. Then some bastard went back and said I'd fled in battle and got our boss killed. Those elders are all idiots. They actually believed it and issued an Underworld Assassination Order to haul me in for judgment. Damn, this is worse than..."

"What kind of outfit is your Wo On Sing, anyway? You go out to fight and get slaughtered, but when it comes to screwing over your own brothers, everyone rushes to be first."

Chen Ying felt genuinely stunned.

"But what are you doing here?"

"That's another story, my Brother Ying."