Chapter 32: Headquarters? Not Even Dogs Would Go!
After reconnecting the phone call,
Hearing the steady, deep voice on the other end of the phone, Jiang Shan’s gaze shifted slightly. He hadn’t expected his liaison officer’s captain to be Zhao Jianguo.
After pondering for a moment, Jiang Shan said:
“Fine, but I’ll state this upfront: I only told Headquarters about this because I happened to be involved. I have no intention of joining Headquarters, so please don’t waste your breath trying to persuade me.”
“Jiang Shan indeed knows about Headquarters, but why is he so resistant?”
Zhao Jianguo on the other end of the phone couldn’t help but fall silent. He didn’t understand why Jiang Shan was so averse to Headquarters.
Based on Zhao Jianguo’s investigation into Jiang Shan’s background, he had once thought it very likely that Jiang Shan would join Headquarters. After all, having grown up under the country’s support since childhood, Jiang Shan should have a strong sense of belonging to Headquarters.
But after Zhao Jianguo learned about Jiang Shan’s deeds at the Little Qiang Club, he couldn’t believe that an honest and unassuming high school senior would do such things.
He even suspected whether Jiang Shan had been possessed by a ghost.
But whenever he recalled how Jiang Shan had demanded money from the Ghost Wielders at the Little Qiang Club to buy his life, Zhao Jianguo’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
So he unhesitatingly dismissed this strange idea. After all, who had ever seen a ghost that, after resurrection, didn’t go around killing people but instead robbed money?
Feeling depressed inside, Zhao Jianguo picked up Jiang Shan’s file from Jiang Qingwu’s table:
Name: Jiang Shan
Age: Eighteen
Personality: Honest（struck through）, ruthless beyond his peers, greedy for money.
After thinking for a moment, Zhao Jianguo picked up the pen from the table and wrote a sentence in the personality section: Has an inexplicable aversion to Headquarters（reason unknown）.
Then he said into the phone:
“Alright, I understand. Then I won’t beat around the bush. Now, please give me a general rundown of this supernatural event.”
“What I said before should have been recorded by that liaison officer named Jiang Qingwu. I won’t repeat it,” Jiang Shan replied.
Zhao Jianguo took the notebook handed over by Jiang Qingwu and said with a serious expression:
“I’ve seen the ghost codenamed Ghost Tree Forest. I want to know the specific details about this ghost.”
“This ghost has a very high terror level. Not only does it possess a ghost domain, but the ghost I control inside my body cannot stop its killing pattern. From what I know, once a Ghost Wielder dies in the Ghost Tree Forest, not only will the ghost inside their body resurrect, but it will also wander in the Ghost Tree Forest, suspected to be detained by the Ghost Tree Forest.”
As he listened to Jiang Shan’s call, Zhao Jianguo felt his scalp increasingly numb. If the information from Dachang City was accurate, Jiang Shan should be a Ghost Wielder who controlled two fierce ghosts.
“Even Jiang Shan can’t stop the fierce ghost from killing?”
Zhao Jianguo’s face had already turned very ugly by now, but when he heard the last sentence “suspected to be detained by the Ghost Tree Forest,” his eyes suddenly lit up. However, Jiang Shan’s next words plunged his mood to the bottom:
“I haven’t found the source ghost of the Ghost Tree Forest, but I can confirm that the Ghost Tree Forest is growing outward from some center. The growth pattern is unknown.”
After Jiang Shan finished speaking, both sides of the phone fell silent.
“Must die twelve hours after contact,” “Top-tier Ghost Wielder unable to block fierce ghost killing pattern,” “Ghost Tree Forest continuously spreading outward.”
The successive pieces of information made Zhao Jianguo’s mood increasingly heavy. He picked up Jiang Qingwu’s notebook, hesitated for a moment, and then wrote a letter in the terror level section for the Ghost Tree Forest: A.
This supernatural event codenamed “Ghost Tree Forest” was defined by Zhao Jianguo as A-level—disaster level.
Because Zhao Jianguo considered:
Although the Ghost Tree Forest’s killing pattern and curse level exceeded that of ordinary ghosts, it hadn’t caused any major disasters yet, and its danger was relatively low.
“If the expansion pattern of the Ghost Tree Forest can be known and reasonably controlled, perhaps it could become an important location for Headquarters to detain ghosts,” Zhao Jianguo thought to himself.
After doing all this, he remembered the matter of the survivors:
“I’ve already contacted the International Criminal Police branch in Dachang City. Soon, someone will come to accommodate these survivors. In the meantime, I request that you protect everyone’s safety.”
“Fine, but I refuse to meet Zhao Kaiming,” Jiang Shan said without hesitation.
“How does he know about Zhao Kaiming? Did Wang Xiaoqiang tell him? Why doesn’t Jiang Shan want to see Zhao Kaiming?”
Although Zhao Jianguo was filled with doubt, to soothe Jiang Shan’s emotions, he immediately replied:
“No problem, I won’t notify Zhao Kaiming, provided that you don’t turn off your mobile phone. Headquarters needs your mobile phone’s positioning for the rescue. I hope you can cooperate.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Shan said, “I’ve said everything I need to say, and my mobile phone is about to run out of battery. I think we’ll leave it at that for now. We’ll talk again when there’s time.”
“Alright. If you need to contact Headquarters, call this number. Your dedicated operator is Jiang Qingwu. If needed, Headquarters can provide you with a special mobile phone,” Zhao Jianguo said.
“Fine. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up.” With that, Jiang Shan hung up the phone.
The Dead Face Ghost can devour the consciousness of intelligent ghosts, which Jiang Shan knew very well. The Ghost Characters had fallen into dead machine state because some of the human intelligence within was devoured by the Dead Face Ghost.
And the Wishing Ghost, being similarly an intelligent fierce ghost, whether it feared him or not, Jiang Shan had no way of knowing. But to avoid alerting the enemy, he decided to simply avoid meeting Zhao Kaiming.
After all, the Wishing Ghost was truly too sinister: it had intelligence, could use people, raise ghosts, and blow out ghost candles.
As Jiang Shan thought again about how Wang Xiaoqiang had been used by Zhao Kaiming to secretly assassinate Yang Jian and all that, his head started to ache. He just wanted to get some good sleep; he didn’t want to be targeted by that thief every day.
5:36
After waiting in place for about over an hour, cars with special license plates drove up from the national highway and stopped in front of Jiang Shan and the others.
After all the handover work was completed, a man in an International Criminal Police uniform handed Jiang Shan a thick mobile phone about as heavy as a brick.
After a simple farewell, the convoy drove off.
Jiang Shan looked at the satellite phone in his hand, lost in thought.
His impression of Headquarters was indeed very poor,
Not only because of Headquarters’ tough attitude and harsh demands toward the International Criminal Police, but more importantly, Headquarters hadn’t treated Ghost Wielders as people in the early stages.
Especially folk Ghost Wielders like Jiang Shan and Yang Jian, who had no background or strength.
After Yang Jian was attacked by Fang Shiming’s Ghost Scissors, Headquarters’ attitude had chilled Jiang Shan’s heart more than once.
On top of that, internally there were circles of friends filled with capital, along with a series of benefit and power disputes.
Jiang Shan had only two phrases to sum it up:
“Poor players just starting to shine get instantly killed by pay-to-win dogs.”
“Headquarters doesn’t care, Headquarters doesn’t love, purely masochistic seeking trouble.”
Although that red ghost candle was indeed very tempting to Jiang Shan, he really didn’t want to get involved in Headquarters’ mess.
Jiang Shan even considered trading with Headquarters to exchange for ghost candles and substitute dolls.
Mercenaries, after all, earn money with skill, no shame in that.
If Jiang Shan were truly considering joining Headquarters, he’d at least wait until the captain was decided and the situation stabilized, and maybe consider it then.
But right now…
Even dogs wouldn’t go.
After receiving Wang Xiaoqiang’s call, Jiang Shan got into the car left by the club. He needed to return to the Little Qiang Club to handle the aftermath of this matter.
As well as how to accommodate Chen Yue’s mother and daughter and Yan Li’s future wife and children.
Moreover, judging by the time, Yang Jian was probably about to arrive at the club. He really wanted to see what this “youth version of Yang Jian the True God” looked like.
With that thought,
Jiang Shan started the car and drove off
Soon he would meet Yang Jian and join him in the Huang Gang Village Ghost Messenger event.
Here I’ll say something to my brothers: Feng Quan.
At the beginning, Feng Quan had the disease ghost and ghost mist in Huang Gang Village, but later at the Caesar Grand Hotel it became ghost mist and ghost grave soil. Maybe Old Buddha remembered wrong or something, so here I’ll go with what’s written in the Caesar Grand Hotel part.
Saying it in advance to my brothers, so no misunderstandings.
Thanks for my brothers’ support!
