Chapter 19 Yellow Sweater

The police arrived, and so did the ambulance.

Of course, whether the ambulance came or not was of little consequence.

Zhou Ze and Xu Qinglang squatted across the street, surrounded by onlookers.

Xu Qinglang hadn't recovered from the scene he'd just witnessed; his hands were still shaking. It wasn't that he was afraid of ghosts—he saw them all the time—but many things couldn't be measured by simple fear. It was the visual impact, whether it truly shocked you.

For Xu Qinglang, who had been meticulously savoring the flavor of his competition just moments before, the sudden change in style was truly stimulating.

"That's too scary."

After a while, Xu Qinglang finally came back to his senses. He lit a cigarette and asked, "Can a ceiling fan really cut someone's head off?"

Zhou Ze shook his head. "Theoretically, it's impossible. At most, it could cause a laceration."

"So, this is beyond the scope of theory?"

"I suppose so. I used to be a doctor, and I treated patients who were injured by ceiling fans, but I've never heard of anyone actually having their head chopped off by one.

"The truth is, even ancient executioners had to practice their skills to behead a prisoner with one clean strike. Often, the blade would get stuck, and they couldn't pull it out with the head still attached."

"Got it. The feng shui here really isn't very good."

"It's fine," Zhou Ze said.

"Heh." Xu Qinglang rolled his eyes.

"Actually, life is full of crises. From what we've seen, this can only be attributed to bad luck.

"For example, running a book page across your lips can cause a deep cut if you're unlucky. And the tomatine in tomatoes is a type of toxin called an alkaloid."

"Then how come I eat tomatoes all the time and haven't died?"

"If you eat four tons, the toxic level would be enough to be fatal."

"............" Xu Qinglang was speechless.

"Anything will kill you if you eat four tons of it!" Xu Qinglang hissed, lowering his voice.

"Alright, we've seen the store. We should go. If we don't, the police will ask us to make another statement.

"We already did one the other day because of the jumper. If we do it again, a familiar face might think we're Conan."

"What bad luck today. I came here full of excitement, who knew something like this would happen." Xu Qinglang dropped his cigarette butt and stomped on it.

"I thought you'd be happy because there's one less competitor."

"That's going too far. The young woman just died not long ago."

"Oh, then tell me, can the soul of someone who just died drift out?"

Zhou Ze pointed to the front of the store, where a girl in a yellow sweater was standing.

The girl wasn't wearing the same clothes as the deceased, but she had a slender figure and long legs that were incredibly alluring.

Of course, she'd be even more attractive if she had a head.

"This..." Xu Qinglang was stunned.

Even the greatest injustice wouldn't manifest as a vengeful ghost until the seventh day after death. It was impossible to transform immediately, and it depended on luck and probability. Only one out of a thousand dead people's souls might linger in the mortal realm.

"I knew it. There's no way a ceiling fan could cut a head off directly." Zhou Ze stood up and started walking towards her.

The girl had died, and justice had to be served!

"Hiss..."

Zhou Ze subconsciously clutched his chest. It started to hurt again.

For performance, for performance, I'm doing this for performance!

Taking Chen Zesheng yesterday increased performance from eight percent to ten percent. Collecting one ghost only increases it by one or two points. At this rate, I'll never get promoted!

This one's good; it can kill people. A ghost that can kill people

is valuable!

A thought crossed his mind, a different approach,

and the pain in his chest disappeared.

Xu Qinglang followed, but as soon as he stepped into the crowd, he suddenly felt dizzy and fell to the ground.

"Crap..."

His palm was scraped and bleeding from hitting the ground.

Xu Qinglang quickly got up. There were onlookers everywhere, and police tape cordoned off the area, but he couldn't find Zhou Ze or the headless girl.

He was bewildered.

The sun seemed to be even more glaring, and the air was heavy, making it hard to breathe.

He felt panicked and a little guilty.

He wasn't exactly a novice and wouldn't be so scared by a headless ghost, but the agitation he was feeling was overwhelming.

He started searching, weaving through the crowd, looking for Zhou Ze and the headless girl. He felt that if he found either of them, he could escape this senseless panic.

Searching, searching, searching...

Searching, searching, searching...

Sweat dripped from Xu Qinglang's forehead, and he was already sweating profusely. His lips were chapped. Xu Qinglang looked up at the sun, feeling like he couldn't open his eyes.

"Snap..."

A crisp sound came from behind him. Xu Qinglang instinctively pushed through the crowd and stumbled towards it.

He reached the entrance of a noodle shop

and saw Zhou Ze sitting inside.

"You're here! I've been looking for you for so long!"

Xu Qinglang was almost crying with joy. The confusion and despair he had just experienced were indescribable, like being banished to his own nightmare.

You couldn't sense the beginning,

and you couldn't feel the end.

Xu Qinglang ran towards Zhou Ze, excited, very, very excited.

Actually, he wasn't gay. His orientation was normal, but fate had given him the wrong appearance. Sometimes, he would joke about it, but he didn't take it to heart.

He saw Zhou Ze stand up,

and then he saw the ceiling fan above Zhou Ze's head.

The ceiling fan was spinning,

spinning very fast.

Horror flashed across Xu Qinglang's face. He wanted to shout at Zhou Ze to dodge, to yell no,

but his body kept moving forward due to inertia.

He seemed to foresee his end:

Zhou Ze would pick him up,

then lift him up,

and then his head...

Snap...

Like a cucumber being snapped in half.

However, he didn't see outstretched arms.

He saw Zhou Ze raise his leg.

"Bang!"

A kick,

a hard kick to the abdomen.

Xu Qinglang fell to the ground and found himself lying on the side of the road. A car had just sped past him,

and Zhou Ze was standing by the side of the road.

His clothes were soaked with cold sweat. Xu Qinglang touched his forehead.

"Am I being targeted?"

"You almost ran out and got hit by a car," Zhou Ze said calmly, as if saying, "Oh, the weather's nice today."

"Is that thing that powerful?" Xu Qinglang asked, still shaken.

"She must have sensed that we were tracking her, so she struck first. This doesn't seem like a pure ghost; killing people is as easy as drinking water to her. If I hadn't stopped you, you would have been hit."

"If it's not a ghost, then what is it?"

"Have you ever seen a masturbating Monkey King?"

Xu Qinglang shook his head.

"I have," Zhou Ze sighed. "She crossed the road and went to the mall. Don't go. I'll go after her alone."

"No way! She almost killed me. How could I let her get away with it!"

Xu Qinglang got up from the ground and brushed off the dust.

"I'm going back to cook. You kill her, and I'll wait for you to come back for dinner."

Zhou Ze nodded. Last night, he thought that the priest also understood the situation very well. Now he found that his neighbor was also quite understanding.

The light turned green.

Zhou Ze waved and crossed the street, entering the mall and continuing his search.

Sometimes, Zhou Ze felt frustrated. His abilities seemed very powerful, enough to make Bai Yingying scream,

but at other times, they seemed useless.

He was a certified professional now, but his abilities weren't always suitable for catching ghosts. For example, now that the headless woman had entered the mall, Zhou Ze had lost her trail in the crowd.

The reason Zhou Ze felt that she wasn't an ordinary ghost was because her ghostly aura wasn't strong. To be able to kill people in broad daylight and use illusions in a crowd to make Xu Qinglang almost get hit by a car,

an ordinary ghost wouldn't be able to do that.

At that moment, Zhou Ze suddenly noticed a woman in a yellow sweater walking out from the side, but she had a head and freckles on her face.

Zhou Ze subconsciously walked over, but then he saw another woman in a yellow sweater in another direction. Then he saw many more.

Zhou Ze realized that yellow sweaters were the theme uniform for the mall employees today.

How was he supposed to find her!

Zhou Ze walked to the freezer, opened it, and took out a bottle of mineral water. He twisted off the cap and started drinking.

"Sir, our food must be paid for before you can open it," a saleswoman in a yellow sweater said to Zhou Ze.

She was young, probably a student working part-time.

"Sorry." Zhou Ze took out a ten-yuan note and handed it to her. "Help me pay for it."

Then, Zhou Ze reached out and pinched her face.

There was a feeling of touch,

so it should be a real head.

The girl pointed at Zhou Ze, blushing with anger, and shouted, "What do you think you're doing!"

Holding ten yuan, a bottle of mineral water costs two yuan, so that's eight yuan,

and he thinks he can do whatever he wants!

Putting aside that I'm not that kind of person,

even if it's just eight yuan, it's too much!

"Sorry." Zhou Ze waved his hand and squatted down on the ground.

The girl wanted to call someone to catch the pervert, but seeing Zhou Ze's actions, she didn't say anything and huffily took the money to the counter to pay.

Zhou Ze stretched out his finger, his black nail growing out, and pressed it against the ground.

I refuse to believe

I can't find you!

A cloud of black gas seeped from Zhou Ze's fingertip into the ground,

and then,

Zhou Ze saw black footprints appearing around him.

The footprints started to extend outwards,

all the way to the little girl who was taking his ten yuan to the counter.