Zhou Ze smiled wryly. This time, he had truly been played.

Through their brief exchange, Zhou Ze confirmed that this wandering soul was indeed Xu Zhongli. Moreover, she had been suppressed within her body, fighting for control, for days.

Which meant that,

when he was covering classes, the one sitting next to him was actually the imposter who had pulled a "Li Dai Tao Jiang" (Substituting a plum for a peach – replacing one thing with another).

That explained a few things.

During mealtimes,

she hadn't gone to the cafeteria.

Instead, she had specifically gone to the sparsely populated old gymnasium.

This was to deliberately create an opportunity for him to act,

and then use his hand to completely seize the body, pulling out the real soul of Xu Zhongli.

If that student Gou Shenqing hadn't happened to live next door and complained loudly over the phone,

the real Xu Zhongli's soul might have already been sent to hell by Zhou Ze.

A miscarriage of justice, and in the end, no one would have known.

Just like that teacher wearing a tall hat labeled "Scoundrel,"

a soul whose lifespan hadn't ended being thrown into hell,

Zhou Ze would likely suffer some punishment, but it would only be a deduction in performance. The underworld wasn't particularly strict about this, and ghost messengers at the grassroots level had a bit of leeway for errors.

Rubbing his eyes,

Zhou Ze collected Xu Zhongli's soul.

Now that he knew the truth, he certainly couldn't throw her into hell again. In fact, the matter had taken a turn.

Originally, Boss Zhou was just doing a side job during his truancy,

but now he discovered that he had been tricked, used as a pawn.

Zhou Ze didn't like that feeling.

Xu Zhongli, was it?

Zhou Ze wasn't in a hurry.

He needed to rest for a while and wait for his eyes to recover. Besides, since that imposter had gone to such lengths, even acting to borrow a knife from his, a ghost messenger's, hand, she probably wouldn't just turn around and run to the ends of the earth, would she?

In the afternoon, Zhou Ze washed his eyes twice more and even used a delivery app to order some eye drops and ointment from the pharmacy.

By evening,

Zhou Ze looked in the mirror.

His eyes no longer hurt, and the redness around his eye sockets had mostly subsided. Especially now that it was almost dark, it should be hard to tell.

Zhou Ze certainly didn't want others to know about this embarrassing affair. And since he had pulled out the woman's soul, he had to give her an explanation.

This was actually,

almost "wrongfully killing someone" due to his own work mistake.

It was dark, and Zhou Ze re-entered the school. On the school's sports field, squads of students sat in formation. Many police officers had arrived, young and middle-aged, men and women.

Like the military training, one police officer was basically responsible for each squad. Some were chatting, talking about grassroots work and police station matters, some were talking about cases, and some were teaching anti-pervert techniques.

It seemed like everyone had come prepared, and the students were listening with great interest, at least it looked like they were.

After all, it was neither hot nor stuffy sitting here at night. Other than the mosquitoes, it was definitely more comfortable than standing at attention during military training in the daytime.

After asking a police officer who was giving a lecture, Zhou Ze found Lao Zhang.

Lao Zhang was sitting among the students, lecturing them about the dangers of pyramid schemes.

Pyramid schemes weren't declared illegal until 1998 by the then-Premier Zhu,

but their harm continues to this day.

Lao Zhang lectured with great care, giving detailed examples and warning the students not to think that just because they had been admitted to university, they were all smart people, all highly talented. In fact, pyramid schemes were now most likely to deceive those who thought they were clever.

Boss Zhou simply waited nearby. When Lao Zhang finished speaking and got up to find his teacup and drink some water, Zhou Ze walked over.

"Uh, Boss?"

Lao Zhang was somewhat surprised. He thought Zhou Ze had already gone back.

"Help me investigate someone, a student named Xu Zhongli. I need to confirm her location now."

"Okay, sure."

Lao Zhang was good in that he didn't waste words. He immediately found a female police officer next to him to "cover" for him, and then he started to investigate.

The investigation results came out quickly. With Lao Zhang's status, he just needed to say hello to the school.

"Boss, is it a personnel matter or..."

"A ghost matter."

"Okay."

Lao Zhang nodded, indicating that he understood.

People often use "eating from both the black and white worlds" to describe a person's overwhelming power and influence.

Right now,

Lao Zhang had to handle both yin and yang cases, and he suddenly felt that his responsibility was enormous.

Next,

Lao Zhang and Zhou Ze came to the girls' dormitory building together.

Lao Zhang showed his credentials and, accompanied by the dormitory auntie, led Zhou Ze into the girls' dormitory building.

However,

after finding Xu Zhongli's dormitory, pushing open the door, and asking,

they learned that Xu Zhongli hadn't returned to the dorm, and it was said that she hadn't attended classes in the afternoon either.

Had she disappeared?

Actually,

this wasn't a big deal for an ordinary college student. Skipping a class and not returning to the dorm by eight o'clock at night, what was that?

In this era, it wouldn't even be a big deal if they didn't come back for a whole night.

But this matter was a bit big for Xu Zhongli. Zhou Ze didn't know what that imposter would do after completely taking over that body.

If she just ate and drank or visited former relatives, that would be fine.

But what if she ran off to take revenge on society?

Boss Zhou suddenly felt a headache. Actually, a lot of coincidences had come together to cause his mistake at noon. If he hadn't been sprayed with chili water, he should have noticed something when he pulled out the black shadow back then.

Let's find the person first.

Zhou Ze and Lao Zhang walked out of the girls' dormitory building.

Just as they reached the flower bed near the entrance,

a girl chased after them. It was Xu Zhongli's roommate.

She provided reliable information,

saying that Xu Zhongli had a boyfriend, an international student from the school, who was black.

After the girl finished speaking, she immediately left.

"Plastic sisterhood."

Lao Zhang joked.

He was a veteran criminal police officer. How could he not see through the little thoughts of Xu Zhongli's roommate earlier?

She simply wanted to take advantage of the police investigating her to provide information so that she could blow things up, at least make Xu Zhongli's private life public.

As for her nervously and anxiously saying that she was worried that Xu Zhongli hadn't returned so late and was afraid that something had happened, that's why she revealed these private matters,

little girl,

it was only eight o'clock at night,

evening self-study hadn't even ended yet,

what ghost were you afraid of!

Next, Lao Zhang and Zhou Ze went to the old dormitory building together to find Xu Zhongli's black boyfriend.

The old dormitory building had a strange smell as soon as you entered, and it was very noisy. The corridors and stairs were also very dirty.

Zhou Ze now had the feeling that he was walking in a prison scene from an American drama, especially with those rows of large iron dormitory doors. The paint had long peeled off, revealing the rust inside, which really looked a bit like a cell.

Arranging for distinguished international friends to live here seemed to violate the way of hospitality.

But for some reason,

Boss Zhou actually felt a little pleased.

He wanted to meet this school leader more and more. He wondered if he would have the opportunity to invite him to the bookstore for tea.

"............" (Unnamed school leader).

They had checked the name from the dormitory administrator earlier and found Xu Zhongli's boyfriend's dormitory. This dormitory was blasting loud music, the sound of a low-quality speaker was very loud.

Zhang Yanfeng knocked on the door,

but no one answered.

Then he simply pushed the door open.

Inside sat several international students, one playing a game, one lying on the bed playing on his phone, and two playing music.

It was late at night, and they weren't worried about disturbing others.

The international students inside glanced at the person who pushed the door open,

but no one paid attention.

Lao Zhang was here today to give a lesson to the freshmen, wearing a police uniform. Zhou Ze didn't believe that these people wouldn't recognize the uniform of a Chinese police officer.

The speaker was too loud.

Lao Zhang first used English to signal them to turn off the speaker,

but the two little black guys who were dancing were unmoved. Instead, they deliberately turned up the volume. One of them even put both index fingers at the corners of his eyes and made a squinting gesture.

"What does this mean?" Lao Zhang turned to Zhou Ze and asked, "Is this their custom?"

"A gesture of discrimination against yellow people."

"Oh, so we're being discriminated against by a black person?"

"Yes."

Zhou Ze nodded.

Lao Zhang smiled and unbuttoned his uniform.

Zhou Ze reached out and grabbed Lao Zhang's shoulder, signaling him not to move.

Lao Zhang's temper was actually really bad. Otherwise, after all his years of struggling, he wouldn't just be a criminal police captain.

"You're wearing a police uniform, don't be impulsive."

Zhou Ze reminded him.

After speaking,

Zhou Ze stepped forward,

first turned off the speaker,

and the two black guys were immediately angry.

It could be seen that they didn't understand Chinese, and even their English was very poor.

But emotions had no borders, and they were definitely venting their dissatisfaction.

Yes,

they were indeed very dissatisfied.

They had other friends they knew in other schools in China. In addition to the funding provided by the higher-ups, the schools would also provide additional subsidies, but they didn't have any.

In terms of food and clothing, the international students they knew in other schools would receive special treatment.

But what was the situation here?

Why did they have to live in such a dilapidated dormitory, while the new dormitories next door were all occupied by Chinese students?

Everything was not about scarcity but about inequality, comparison caused harm.

Especially after chatting today,

hearing that other schools would also specially organize local female students to help them, these international students, participate in social activities to learn the culture and integrate into life one-on-one,

they felt even more unbalanced.

The black guy who had made the "monkey" gesture earlier made the gesture again at Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze nodded, his fingernails were slightly longer, and then he suddenly grabbed the other person's wrist. The other person's body went numb, as if he had been electrocuted, and his body began to tremble.

Then,

Zhou Ze kicked the other person in the lower abdomen,

and then grabbed the other person's hair and slammed his head against the dormitory table!

"............" The others in the dormitory.

"............" Lao Zhang.

Lao Zhang was a little surprised that his boss's national self-esteem was so strong.

What he didn't know was that his boss was in a bad mood today and was thinking about finding a chance to vent, and now someone was sending him a pillow when he was sleepy.

After beating the person until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen,

Zhou Ze let go of his hand,

and the other person fell to the ground.

Clapping his hands,

phew,

that felt good.

Zhou Ze turned around and, amid the dumbfounded state of the other people in the dormitory, walked out of the dormitory.

After a few seconds,

Zhou Ze walked back again,

and said:

"I almost forgot what I came here for."