Mystical Revival: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost, Part 37

"You were waiting for me? That shouldn't be the case."

"If you came because of your grudge with He Tianxiong, he and I were merely ordinary business partners. If you came simply to kill me, there's no need to waste any more words."

As Jiang Li spoke, he kept his eyes on the shadow beneath Liu Qingqing's feet.

If she made one unnecessary move, the pale Ghost Hand would immediately reach out and drag her underground.

Even if it couldn't finish her off, it would be enough to hold her back.

Jiang Li was very cautious about this.

Liu Qingqing was someone whose emotions fluctuated easily. Any inadvertent gesture could strike a nerve and draw her hatred and retaliation.

That might have had something to do with the woman from the Republican era who had left something on her, but Jiang Li had no great desire to get involved.

Liu Qingqing, however, remained where she was, maintaining a very particular distance.

"Don't worry. My grudge is with He Tianxiong alone. I wouldn't go so far as to take revenge on you here."

"When I was saving that Taoist priest just now, I threw out a handkerchief. You seemed very surprised when you saw that person's face printed on it. I'd like to learn more about it. If the information you give me is reliable, I can offer you some help in the future."

"A woman who has already passed away left some things on me. I gained a great deal, and at the same time, I lost a great deal."

As she spoke, Liu Qingqing took a red bracelet from inside her clothing, seemingly to show that she had something valuable enough to offer in return.

"I see."

Jiang Li pondered for a moment. "I do know something about the woman on you, but knowing may not do you any good. It might even plunge you into deeper despair and self-doubt. Still, if you really want to know, come find me after tomorrow night."

"All right. I hope you keep your word." Liu Qingqing looked away and turned toward the shadows behind a tree.

But suddenly, she stopped again.

"By the way, my name is Liu Qingqing. I hope you'll remember it."

Chapter 58: The Vicious Ghost Dragging Corpses in the Cave

Outside the Cloud Summit Club, Dayi City.

Setting certain things aside, Liu Qingqing was actually quite smart. She was a ghost controller with considerable potential.

If possible, she would be a fairly reliable teammate... at least much more reliable than Tong Qian, provided she could free herself from the entanglement with that woman from the Republican era.

Thinking this, Jiang Li opened the guardroom window again and promptly leaped inside.

It was already three in the morning.

Although the light was still on in the guardroom, Zhang Mao, the uniformed guard, had already sunk deep into dreamland and was snoring away over the desk.

A lot had happened for him today.

This luxury club out in the wilderness normally had no visitors at all, but today, for the first time ever, nine guests had arrived in one go. Among them was a cool, striking beauty in a qipao.

Although he hadn't had a chance to chat her up, in a dream he'd had earlier, the qipao beauty had been sitting on the very stool he was on now, looking down at him with utter disdain.

It had been a dream, but it had felt so real that it had even made him forget some of that terrifying memory from before.

As for that disdainful look, Zhang Mao had reveled in it.

He had been blissfully prostrating himself at the beauty's feet in his dream, playing her lapdog, when a hard kick in reality jolted him awake.

It was a shoe smeared with fresh mud and water, with a soaked dead leaf stuck to it.

"Ow, damn!"

With a cry of surprise, Zhang Mao clutched his head and pushed himself up from the floor.

"Who the hell kicked me? That hurt like hell."

After landing, Jiang Li took a close look at Zhang Mao on the floor and was left somewhat speechless.

"Why are you still here? Where's the person taking over your shift?"

When Zhang Mao saw that it was the generous customer who had slipped him money earlier, most of his anger at being kicked immediately vanished.

"The person taking over my shift is me, of course. What's wrong with drawing double pay? I'm the only guard here anyway, so I don't have to worry about anyone checking whether I'm asleep."

"But what about you? Why aren't you asleep yet? Don't tell me you want to hear me talk about my magnificent, eventful life again. If that's really the case, I can reluctantly stay up a little longer with you."

As he spoke, Zhang Mao took out an opened packet of betel nuts and a can of Red Bull.

Jiang Li casually accepted them and set them aside.

"It's quieter here. At least staying here puts me a little more at ease. But I didn't come this time because I particularly wanted to hear your stories. After all, I have something very dangerous to do tomorrow night."

"Dangerous? How dangerous could it be?" Zhang Mao asked, puzzled. "You're so young. How did you get the connections for a big boss to invite you to a place like this to enjoy yourself, and then have you do something dangerous? You can't be going to dig for treasure at the nearby mass grave, can you?"

"A little more dangerous than that. If I tell you, don't tell anyone else."

Jiang Li lowered his voice. "Tomorrow night, I'm going to explore that cave we talked about before and look for the corpse inside. It might be the one you said died hanging upside down in there. If I find it, maybe I can even bring you back a photo."

At those words, the careless expression on Zhang Mao's face froze. Even the betel nut in his hand fell to the floor.

"...You're joking, trying to cheer me up."

After a long daze, Zhang Mao finally spoke stiffly, kicking the fallen betel nut aside.

"What if I'm not joking, and I really am going into that cave to have a look?" Jiang Li said. He casually picked up the damp dead leaf from the floor and held it in front of Zhang Mao. "I just went outside the cave to prepare for tomorrow's operation. This is a dead leaf I stepped on near it. I only seemed to find leaves like this around that cave. What do you think?"

Zhang Mao fell silent again.

He had believed Jiang Li from the start, but his subconscious fear of the cave kept him from daring to believe it.

As he saw it, digging up someone's ancestral graves on the Qingming Festival was far safer than entering that cave at night.

Even if someone beat him to death for the former, he could die at ease, his mind at rest. But if he died in that pitch-black, cramped cavern underground, never to see the light again, he would certainly never rest in peace.

The fear of dark, confined spaces came from the deepest reaches of consciousness, a fear that could never be overcome.

Only after the betel nut in his mouth had been chewed completely tasteless did Zhang Mao speak again.

"Why go? Have you got a death wish, or don't you believe what I told you before?"

As they spoke, the incandescent bulb in the guardroom suddenly flickered, making Zhang Mao's face grow even paler.

Looking at Zhang Mao's miserable expression, Jiang Li felt an inexplicable urge to laugh, but he spoke with a perfectly serious face:

"Of course it's not that I want to go. I have to. Just as you took my money before and had to tell me your story properly, I have my own reason for going."

"Even if I refuse this time, there will be a next time. Running away will only make things worse."

Hearing this, Zhang Mao gave a bitter laugh and spoke as though mocking himself.

"All right. Rich people always sound more reasonable when they talk. Meanwhile, I understand less and less what I'm doing."

"You don't understand what you're doing? What do you mean?" Jiang Li asked.

Zhang Mao spat the betel nut in his mouth out the window and spoke earnestly.

"Can I go down with you tomorrow night and have a look? I don't want any money. Just let me follow you inside."

"Why would you suddenly think of that?"

Jiang Li looked at Zhang Mao in puzzlement. "Haven't you already seen how terrifying it is inside? Why do you want to go in again? Besides, even if I agree to take you, the others probably won't. You'd only be a burden if you joined us. You'd drag everyone else down and get yourself killed."

Zhang Mao gritted his teeth and said quietly:

"I lied to you about some things before. Besides that evening, I went into the cave many times during the day."

"Several groups went into that cave at night and never came back out. I couldn't help myself, so I went in during the day to pick up their phones, rings and things like that to sell. After I'd gone in enough times, I got a general understanding of the cave. I can guide you when we're inside."

Jiang Li frowned and shook his head.

"We already have a guide. I'm afraid we don't need you to join us."

Zhang Mao was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"Think it over."

"There's one more thing I can tell you. It's only my own guess, so just hear me out."

"Although I didn't find the corpses I saw the first time I went in during the day, I noticed some traces they'd left behind."

"There were scrape marks on the ground, like the marks left by bodies being dragged across it. It's hard to imagine those corpses still hadn't completely rotted away or dried out after all this time, but that's not the important part."

"I suspect those corpses only appear at night, along with that terrifying figure moving around in the cave."

"And when that figure appears in the cave each night, it keeps dragging the corpses on the ground from place to place, seemingly with some purpose."

Chapter 59: Final Preparations Before Entering the Cave

"A good guess, but I still can't agree to let you come with us."

As Jiang Li sat on the stool and spoke, he slowly lowered his hand to the floor.

The next moment, a deathly pale, slender hand reached out from the shadow beneath the desk, grabbed his hand, and stopped in midair.

"See that? This isn't something science can explain. Maybe you think we look much the same, that we're about the same age and there wouldn't be much difference in how we do things, but in fact, you and I aren't the same kind of person at all."

"If I wanted, this dead person's arm could grab your trouser leg right now and drag you alive underground to suffocate."

"But even someone like me still runs a great risk of dying in that cave. If you went, I'm afraid it would be ten deaths and no life. Do you still want to go?"

"..."

Hearing this, Zhang Mao looked a little lost. He got up and took something out of the desk drawer.

It was his identity card.

Looking at the card, Zhang Mao seemed to sink into thought. After a while, he murmured to himself:

"If I don't take this chance to go into that cave with you and have a look, I'm afraid I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

"Look at me. I'm already twenty this year, but I dropped out and started working before I even finished high school. I'm dark and short, too. Someone like me probably won't ever find a partner. I can only stay here as a guard forever. Even my family doesn't care whether I live or die. We've barely been in touch for years."

"Even if I don't die in that cave, I'll just go on being a guard here day after day until I can't keep working and get fired."

"Rather than that, I might as well go into the cave with you, see whether what I encountered that time really was a ghost, and prove to the people who doubted me that I wasn't lying... at least prove to myself that what happened that day was real."

Outside the guardroom, the night grew darker, and the air grew damper.

After a moment's silence, Jiang Li stretched on his stool and said:

"Then we'll go down into the cave at nine tomorrow. You can follow me in. But remember this: you must stay with me and follow my instructions completely. Otherwise, I'll kill you myself."

Zhang Mao nodded and immediately said:

"Understood. If I do something wrong and drag you down, then I really won't deserve to live. Go ahead and do it."

Day gradually broke. Neither of the two in the guardroom had slept all night.

At the Cloud Summit Club, He Tianxiong once again hosted a banquet for the four: Chen Mo, Shen Sheng, the Taoist priest, and the master.

Perhaps to stay on guard, or perhaps simply to avoid another conflict, the three messengers did not appear throughout the entire day. No one found any trace of them in the club.

Jiang Li did not attend the banquet either. Instead, he stayed in the guardroom, quietly resting and building up his strength.

Nothing happened during the day, and night soon fell.

Jiang Li and Zhang Mao arrived at the entrance to Nut Cave at eight thirty.