Chapter 42: Wang Xiaoqiang’s Questioning
“?”
After the conditions of the Three Ghosts were met, a full five minutes passed,
A sheet of paper covered in blood-red handprints, red as if it had been soaked in blood water for a long time, fell from the Ghost Cabinet.
Jiang Shan caught the Blood Paper in one hand, and he saw a character:
“Yes”
The character was written crookedly, as if scribbled by an elementary school student,
But Jiang Shan knew that what wrote this character was not a person, but a ghost.
“Is this ‘yes’ answering the very thing I was thinking in my heart?” Just as Jiang Shan felt Doubt, he noticed that the messy blood-red handprints on the Blood Paper seemed to follow certain Pattern,
This Pattern gave Jiang Shan the feeling of the “graphical reasoning” in the kilometer exam,
He could feel there was a Pattern, but he just couldn’t figure it out.
“md, Riddle Ghost, huh? Wait until the day you have a physical body, I’ll have the Dead Face Ghost grind you with Dead Machine for you.”
No matter what method he used, Jiang Shan, unable to discover the Pattern, cursed under his breath, then pocketed that Blood Paper and turned his gaze to the inside of the Ghost Cabinet.
Sure enough, an unremarkable piece of paper was lying obediently in a corner of the Ghost Cabinet, with a line of crooked blood-red handwriting on it.
“Within one year, bring it to me.”
The tone on the paper piece carried a Commanding tone, and the other side was a gray Photograph, the Photograph wet and dripping as if just fished out of water.
The perspective of the Photograph seemed to be in the deep sea, or perhaps deep in a lake, where the water was densely packed with countless rotten Corpse, most of the corpses dressed in Republic of China style, the highly rotten shredded meat and the murky lake water resembling a pot of overcooked meat porridge.
And in the center of the Photograph was a tangled mass of woman’s hair, entwined with scattered bits of shredded meat. Apart from some Nausea, the hair in the Photograph showed no major abnormalities.
“Hair from the Ghost Lake?”
Jiang Shan felt the sticky texture from the Photograph, and he immediately spotted the signature feature of the Ghost Lake.
Jiang Shan knew full well the Terror Level of the Ghost Lake. Looking at the perspective in the Photograph, this mass of hair seemed to be at the deepest part of the Ghost Lake.
“The Ghost Cabinet wants me to go to the depths of the Ghost Lake and bring it this mass of hair?”
Jiang Shan’s heart sank, and he looked at the Ghost Cabinet with Doubt in his eyes.
This Ghost Cabinet either wants the woman from the Ghost Painting or the hair from some unknown ghost—anyway, it never goes after male ghosts.
Pervert ghost turns into a cabinet and this is what happens.
There’s still a year’s time,
Jiang Shan, preparing to leave, stuffed the Photograph into his Pocket. For someone like him whose Life was less than three months, it wasn’t a big deal.
Debts don’t weigh down the body; he hadn’t even figured out how to Control the Newspaper Ghost yet,
Find hair for the Ghost Cabinet? Might as well find it a Wishing Ghost; everyone would have some fun.
“The top priority right now is to crack the Pattern of these blood-red handprints. If I can’t crack it in a week, then forget it. I’ll still Control the Newspaper Ghost my way.” Jiang Shan thought to himself as he drove back to the Club.
In his heart, the most ideal and most suitable third ghost to Control was only the Newspaper Ghost. After all, that feeling of Three Ghosts Balance when he Controlled the Newspaper Ghost back then couldn’t be wrong.
Ghost Blood, Smiling Face Ghost, and the like—Jiang Shan didn’t even Consider them.
One was the Ghost Characters that had Dead Machine but still Instinctively sought Puzzle Pieces.
The other was the cunning Human Skin Paper that spoke all truths and all lies.
If Jiang Shan believed either one, he’d be letting down his identity as an Outsider.
Apart from this Ghost Cabinet, which had some credibility based on its rule of fulfilling wishes, all the ghosts combined couldn’t make a single good pie.
And even for the Ghost Cabinet, its essence was still a ghost. Though its basic rule was to fulfill people’s wishes, the price the wisher had to pay far exceeded the value of the wish itself.
In a Transaction with a ghost, humans can never come out ahead.
As for using the Ghost Cabinet’s wish-granting to Control a Fierce Ghost, Jiang Shan abandoned the idea as soon as he thought of it,
Because the Ghost Cabinet’s abilities were right there—it didn’t even have a freely movable Body of its own and still needed the Transaction partner to find Puzzle Pieces for it.
Relying on such a ghost, you could game some bugs within its ability range, but if the wish exceeded the Ghost Cabinet’s ability range, even if the wish might be fulfilled, the price the wisher had to pay would be unimaginable.
So after much Consideration, Jiang Shan gave up probing the Ghost Cabinet and chose to directly ask this question.
But unexpectedly, the Ghost Cabinet still demanded a full Three Ghosts from him.
“Jiang Shan, has Yang Jian joined Headquarters?”
Jiang Shan had just returned to the Club, his butt not yet warmed on the seat, when he saw Wang Xiaoqiang walking over with a face full of icy coldness, questioning in tone:
“Where were you during the Huanggang Village Incident? Why did so many Ghost Wielders in the Club die?!”
Wang Xiaoqiang was a head shorter than Jiang Shan. Jiang Shan stood up, looking down at him, and said flatly:
“We’re just in a cooperative relationship, Wang Xiaoqiang. I completed the Mission for you. Where I was, and why so many Ghost Wielders in the Club died—what does that have to do with me?”
Jiang Shan’s words left Wang Xiaoqiang stunned in place,
After learning of the end of the Huanggang Village Incident, Wang Xiaoqiang couldn’t figure out why in just a few short days the Club had lost five members.
What was Jiang Shan doing at that time? What was his relationship with Yang Jian?
So when he saw Jiang Shan return to the Club, he rushed over immediately to question him.
Perhaps because Wang Xiaoqiang was used to being dominant, or maybe he was blinded by anger.
But regardless of the reason, he seemed to have forgotten that his connection with Jiang Shan existed only because of Benefit, and in fact, more often it was he who was constrained by Jiang Shan.
Thus, this scene happened in the Club.
“You’re also a member of the Club. With so many Ghost Wielders dead, the Club will be crippled for a long time to come. Are you just going to watch the Club decline like this?” Wang Xiaoqiang’s tone remained unrelenting:
“In just around ten days, our Little Qiang Club has lost a full five members. Such a situation has never happened since the Club was founded. I don’t need to tell you about Zhang Han—he’s close to Fierce Ghost Revival and death. But you and Yang Jian returned completely unscathed. I have no reason to trouble you, but shouldn’t you give me an explanation?”
“Oh, what kind of explanation do you want?” Jiang Shan said indifferently.
“Tell me, how did Ye Jun, Zhang Yiming, and the others die? Why did Yang Jian survive, and what did you do in Huanggang Village?” Wang Xiaoqiang kept pressing.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?!”
Wang Xiaoqiang suppressed the anger in his heart, looking at Jiang Shan with icy cold eyes. Before he could speak, he heard Jiang Shan say:
“Wang Xiaoqiang, you really think I’m a pushover? Whether Ye Jun and the others live or die has nothing to do with me. I have no reason to save them, let alone risk my Life for your Little Qiang Club. There’s just one thing I haven’t settled with you yet—this is perfect, time to clear the accounts.”
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