Zhao Kaiming

Biodata

History

Appointment in Dachang City

Zhao Kaiming became Dachang City’s person in charge with Zhao Jianguo’s support, despite consistently poor psychological evaluations. His position brought him considerable wealth, but he lost the family he valued more than that wealth. He subsequently used the Wishing Ghost’s supernatural power to resurrect his relatives 8 25 27.

Betrayal at the Haunted Hospital

During the hospital operation, Zhao treated Jiang Li’s participation as an expendable transaction: even if Jiang Li died, drawing the ghosts’ attention would benefit the remaining team. When the Wishing Ghost identified Jiang Li as an obstacle, Zhao agreed to let it eliminate him. The ghost restarted the surrounding area, returning Jiang Li to a dangerous encounter on the second floor 5.

Zhao subsequently disappeared. Wang Xiaoming reported that a third-stage ghost infant had dragged him away, and Headquarters could no longer contact him. Jiang Li and Yang Jian identified him as the operation’s mole; Jiang Li later reported his betrayal directly to Headquarters’ leadership 6 8.

Zhao later admitted that he had personally pushed Sun Yi into danger and caused his death 25.

Battle at Dachang No. 7 Middle School

Zhao confronted Yang Jian and Jiang Li at Dachang No. 7 Middle School. Supported by the Wishing Ghost, he continued functioning after Yang Jian tore off an arm and removed his head. Although he outwardly threatened both opponents, he deliberately allowed them to accumulate supernatural power, hoping they would injure the Wishing Ghost enough for him to escape its control 9.

The Hunger Ghost interrupted the confrontation and began eating his head. After the Wishing Ghost emerged, it restarted events by forty minutes, undoing the immediate situation 9 10.

Zhao reappeared and attacked Yang Jian alongside the Hunger Ghost. He explained that the Wishing Ghost wanted the Hunger Ghost to consume Yang Jian before taking over its body, but Yang Jian’s Corpse Oil Soap had complicated that plan. Zhao resisted Yang Jian’s supernatural attacks, seized him, and attempted to gouge out his Ghost Eyes 11.

Jiang Li ultimately struck Zhao between the brows with a ghost finger carrying stacked certain-death curses. Zhao died, but Jiang Li recognized that killing him had not disposed of the Wishing Ghost. Its protection had been weakened because much of its power was occupied restraining the Hunger Ghost at Zhao’s insistence 12 13.

Hanging and Apparent Death

Following Jiang Li’s instructions, Zhang Han linked Zhao and Yang Jian with the Yin-Yang Ghost Rope. Zhao initially began reviving as Yang Jian deteriorated, but the rope then transferred Yang Jian’s harmful supernatural effects onto him. These included attacks from the ghost inside the Corpse Oil Soap, the Ghost Eyes, and the Headless Ghost Shadow 12 13.

The rope also redirected the damage inflicted when the Hunger Ghost chewed on Yang Jian. Zhao’s body was reduced almost to a skeleton, while the ghost attached to him began separating from it. Jiang Li subsequently believed that Zhao had died with almost nothing left of his remains 14 19.

Temporary Assistance

Zhao nevertheless appeared before Jiang Li during the final containment attempt. He stated that this manifestation was not his real body and that, following the Wishing Ghost’s failure, the supernatural power it had left inside him was no longer restrained 21.

He enlarged the Person-Hiding Ghost’s shadow several times over, helping Jiang Li drag the Hunger Ghost down for containment with the Coffin Nail. Zhao explicitly acted to protect his family’s future rather than out of goodwill toward Jiang Li, then faded away 21.

Warehouse Massacre and Disappearance

After the crisis, Zhao returned to the warehouse holding his relatives’ bodies, expecting a reunion with his resurrected family. He had prepared tens of millions of US dollars and several villas abroad for their future. When the Wishing Ghost appeared beside him, he declared their relationship finished and refused to make further wishes 25.

Inside, the Newspaper Ghost confronted him while impersonating Sun Yi. Zhao’s relatives gathered around the impostor, and Zhao Xiaoya called it her father. She rejected Zhao and shot him between the brows with his own gold handgun 25.

His wound healed, but his relatives continued treating the impostor as family and discussed disposing of Zhao’s body. In despair, Zhao offered the Wishing Ghost everything he had left—including his life—in exchange for revenge. The ghost entered his body, and gunfire and screams followed inside the warehouse 26.

Investigators later found his relatives dead from a ghostly curse. Most of the blood at the scene belonged to Zhao, and tear tracks suggested that someone had held the bodies while crying. Yang Jian suspected Zhao had killed them; Jiang Li inferred that the Newspaper Ghost had forced the confrontation. Zhao’s body was not found, and a subsequent search indicated that he had left Dachang City 27.

Appearance

• Middle-aged and overweight: Jiang Li mocks him for squeezing his heavier frame into a suit 9.
• Cane: Leans on a cane during the hospital operation 5.
• Stiff movements: At the school, he walks rigidly and wears an expressionless, deathlike look; his smile is similarly numb and unnatural 9 11.
• Severe bodily alterations: Under supernatural attack, his skin turns gray, swells, develops corpse spots, and splits with eye-like wounds 12 13.

Personality

Zhao is cynical and willing to sacrifice others for practical advantage. He dismisses fairness during the hospital operation and accepts Jiang Li’s possible death as useful. His psychological evaluations were poor even before Headquarters learned of his betrayal 5 8.

His relationship with the Wishing Ghost combines fear, dependence, and resistance. He boasts that it makes him impossible to kill, yet secretly hopes his enemies can weaken it enough to free him. When threatened, he alternates between demanding its protection and furiously accusing it of withholding power 9 11 12.

His family is his strongest motivation. He resurrects them, prepares an affluent life abroad, and briefly helps contain the Hunger Ghost to keep them safe. Their rejection destroys his remaining restraint, driving him to surrender everything for revenge against the Newspaper Ghost 21 25 26.

Abilities & Skills

Wishes and the Wishing Ghost

Zhao’s supernatural abilities depend on his unusual relationship with the Wishing Ghost rather than unquestioned control over it 9.

• Uses its power to resurrect dead relatives 27.
• Communicates with an indistinct presence that others often cannot perceive 5 11.
• Can press it to allocate more power or restrain another ghost, though doing so may weaken his own protection 11 13.
• Remains subject to its independent plans; it directs him to eliminate obstacles and seeks to take over the Hunger Ghost 9 11.
• Offers his remaining possessions and life as the price of a final revenge wish 26.

Restart

The Wishing Ghost can restart an area and reverse events; Zhao relies on it for survival but does not demonstrate this ability independently 5 10 12.

• Restarts the hospital surroundings to place Jiang Li back in danger 5.
• Reverses events by forty minutes after the Hunger Ghost attacks Zhao 10.
• Does not save him from Jiang Li’s stacked curse before it strikes, despite his urgent demand for a restart 12.

Bodily Restoration

The Wishing Ghost enables Zhao to survive injuries that would ordinarily be fatal 9 11.

• Severed arms fly back and reattach to his body 9 11.
• His separated body continues returning toward his severed head 9.
• Expels bullets embedded in his legs 11.
• Recovers from Zhao Xiaoya’s forehead gunshot; the wound heals and the blood on the floor disappears 26.
• Can still be killed by sufficiently concentrated supernatural curses when the ghost’s protective power is divided 12 13.

Supernatural Resistance and Physical Enhancement

The Wishing Ghost strengthens Zhao and protects him against other ghosts’ powers 11.

• Pushes back Yang Jian’s two-Ghost-Eye Ghost Domain during their first school confrontation 9.
• Later withstands the Ghost Domain’s erosion and prevents the Headless Ghost Shadow from penetrating even his shoes 11.
• Moves rapidly enough to close on Yang Jian and physically restrain him 11.
• Cannot directly invade Yang Jian while the Corpse Oil Soap’s protection remains effective, prompting Zhao to attempt physical mutilation instead 11.

Remote Manifestation and Amplification

After the Wishing Ghost’s failed takeover attempt, Zhao appears through a manifestation that he explicitly distinguishes from his real body 21.

• Touches the Person-Hiding Ghost’s shadow without triggering its attack against him.
• Enlarges the shadow several times, extending Jiang Li’s reach during the Hunger Ghost’s containment.
• Fades away after providing assistance 21.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Cane — Used during the haunted-hospital operation 5.
• Gold handgun — Fires at Jiang Li and at the unseen presence beside him. Zhao Xiaoya later uses the handgun he left in the warehouse to shoot him 11 12 25.
• Warehouse and freezers — Used to store his deceased relatives before their resurrection 25.
• Overseas assets — Tens of millions of US dollars and several villas prepared for his family’s planned life abroad 25.

Relationships

• Wishing Ghost — Source of his powers and the force directing his betrayal. Zhao seeks freedom from it, rejects further wishes after the Hunger Ghost Incident, then renews their bargain for revenge 9 25 26.
• Zhao Xiaoya — His daughter. Her rejection and decision to shoot him while recognizing the Newspaper Ghost as her father precipitate his final breakdown 25 26.
• Parents and other relatives — Resurrected through his use of the Wishing Ghost. They side with the Newspaper Ghost at the warehouse and are later found dead 25 26 27.
• Yang Jian — Rival and enemy. Yang Jian dismembers him during the school battle; Zhao later attempts to seize his Ghost Eyes 9 11.
• Jiang Li — Targeted as a threat to the Wishing Ghost’s plans. Jiang Li kills him with stacked curses, though Zhao later briefly assists him to protect his family 5 12 21.
• Zhang Han — Opposes Zhao’s attack on Yang Jian and later places Zhao on the Yin-Yang Ghost Rope under Jiang Li’s instructions 11 12.
• Sun Yi — Fellow participant in the hospital operation whose death Zhao admits causing. The Newspaper Ghost later impersonates him 25.
• Newspaper Ghost — Enemy that impersonates Sun Yi and turns Zhao’s resurrected family against him, becoming the target of his revenge wish 25 26.
• Zhao Jianguo — Headquarters official who supported his appointment despite poor psychological evaluations 8.

Notable Quotes

“But it's not that I want to kill you; it wants me to dispose of you both.” 9

“Even if you weren't contained, our relationship ends here. I won't use your bizarre supernatural power to make any more wishes.” 25

“You can take anything I have left. Even if you want my life, I don't care, so long as you make this damned ghost pay.” 26