Chapter 1 Zhou Ze's Anxiety

Zhou Ze was now a little anxious. The Cold Clothes Festival had passed by unknowingly. With the current relationship between Zhou Ze and Yingying, it was impossible to consider burning Yingying to ashes, as Madam Bai had advised.

But,

inexplicably,

what the person hiding in the cartoon costume had just said,

what did it mean?

Was it really Madam Bai? Or was some other creature causing trouble here?

A hint of crimson flashed in the depths of Zhou Ze's eyes, purely out of anger.

Originally, because Tie Hanhan (Iron憨憨, a nickname, referring to someone very loyal and straightforward) had fallen into an endless slumber,

Zhou Ze felt he had to be low-key.

Killing all the ghost officers in the clubhouse before was really because he was too hungry; it was a last resort. Moreover, Hell was currently in turmoil, and neither the Yin Division nor Lu Pan (a judge in Hell) responsible for this trial could attend to things here, so killing them was killing them, eating them was eating them. He also had a ghost officer certificate to conceal things, so it wouldn't cause any waves.

This time, he really planned to take Yingying to Disneyland and then,

to keep a low profile,

first get promoted to Constable,

and then try to find a way to wake up Tie Hanhan.

However,

being low-key didn't mean being a coward.

It had only been one night since he personally experienced the scene of blasting the Yamas in Hell, and Boss Zhou's emotions were already a little unstable. What's more, now a strange fellow had appeared, daring to provoke his sore spot!

"I'll call and ask."

The old Daoist took out his phone, and after a while, said:

"No one's answering, Boss."

Zhou Ze immediately took off his coat to cover his face, two fangs grew out, and he let out a suppressed growl.

Ordinary people couldn't hear it clearly,

but Zhou Ze believed,

that the little boy with Yingying could sense it.

Soon,

two identical signals came from the west,

one from the little boy,

and the other from Yingying.

Whew…

Yingying was fine.

"That's the Tron Lightcycle Power Run?"

Zhou Ze ran towards that direction, the old Daoist followed closely behind, and soon, at the exit, Zhou Ze saw Yingying and the little boy also running out anxiously.

The little loli was holding a juice box, standing not far away. She didn't seem interested in playing that, and hadn't gone in before.

It seemed that the old Daoist hadn't gotten through on the phone earlier because they were playing that ride.

"Boss, what happened?"

Yingying walked to Zhou Ze's side anxiously.

Zhou Ze reached out directly,

and hugged Yingying,

one hand pressed against the back of her head,

holding her against his chest.

"Eep~~~"

Yingying was stunned, but still instinctively started to feel surprised and delighted, knowing that her boss wouldn't show this kind of intimacy in public.

Moreover,

she seemed to sense a kind of eagerness.

The little loli drinking orange juice on the side curled her lips, looking disdainful,

and then glared at the little boy standing next to her who was about to imitate the gesture.

"Get lost!"

"Everyone's had enough fun, right? We're going back, back to Tong City."

In this group, Zhou Ze's word was law. Immediately, the group waited for Xu Qinglang at the exit, then drove the car out of the parking lot without delay, heading straight back towards Tong City.

When people encounter an uncontrollable threat, their subconscious reaction is to run back to their old lair,

a familiar home ground, a familiar environment, a familiar atmosphere,

even if it doesn't have a substantial helpful effect, it can make people feel at ease.

Zhou Ze and Bai Yingying were in one car, and the others were in another.

When the car was on the highway,

Bai Yingying asked nervously:

"Boss, what exactly happened?"

"Yingying, your Madam, was she really just a wealthy young lady from the Qing Dynasty?"

The last time he heard Madam Bai's voice,

was a year and a half ago.

Although the voice of "Snow White" sounded very much like Madam Bai's, Zhou Ze couldn't really be sure it was her.

And if it was Madam Bai,

Hell had just suffered such a terrible blow and turmoil, nine of the ten Yama Kings of the Yin Division had major problems, and she still had the leisure to run to the Yang realm to play the "prophet" in front of him?

That kind of tone was usually only played in European and American popcorn blockbusters,

was she really that free?

"Um, yes."

Zhou Ze grabbed the steering wheel with one hand, and kept scratching his forehead with the other. All along, his knowledge of Madam Bai had mostly come from Yingying's narrative.

And Yingying had been lying in a coffin for two hundred years, so her understanding was actually obtained from chatting with Madam Bai.

"When you get back to the bookstore later, don't go out...

Forget it, come with me. Call Lao An (Old An) now and tell him to wait for me under the highway."

"Okay."

Yingying immediately took out her phone to call Lao An,

and after telling him the boss's request,

Yingying looked at the boss with her phone and said:

"Boss, Lawyer An said you blacklisted his phone number and don't reply to WeChat messages. He wants to talk to you now."

"Hang up the phone!"

"Mm."

Yingying hung up the phone,

and glanced at the boss a few more times, a little cautiously.

She didn't know what had happened to the boss,

but she seemed to rarely see the boss in such a flustered state.

The car was very fast, and after more than an hour, the car passed the Sutong Bridge and exited the highway, entering Tong City.

Sure enough, Lawyer An's car was waiting there.

Zhou Ze stopped the car,

Lawyer An immediately pushed the car door open and got out,

shouting like he'd seen a ghost:

"Damn, Boss, the entire Hell was in a mess the other day,

it has something to do with you, Boss!"

Lawyer An had his own channels for communicating with Hell,

and the messages that had come a few days ago

were enough to make him open his mouth in surprise, unable to close it for a long time.

Instinctively,

he thought of his boss,

because things wouldn't be so coincidental. The boss had just gone to Hell, and Hell had such a big mess. Lawyer An didn't believe it had nothing to do with the boss.

Although the boss didn't have this ability, the one inside the boss's body was the master of the Nether Sea back then. If he wanted to cause trouble, he really could.

The most annoying thing was,

that since the boss came back,

he didn't answer his calls or WeChat messages.

Lawyer An was so anxious that he almost drove directly to Shanghai to ask in person, anyway, it wasn't far.

"We'll talk about this later, now we first…………"

"No, nothing is bigger than that matter, tell me quickly, what exactly happened!"

Lawyer An grabbed Zhou Ze's shoulders with both hands excitedly and shouted,

"I'm about to be suffocated by curiosity in the store, you know that!"

"Ying Gou (a powerful zombie) did it, blasted the Dharmakayas of seven or eight Yamas, King Equality wasn't dead before, but this time he's really dead, now Ying Gou can't wake up, okay, story finished."

"…………" Lawyer An.

Lawyer An looked at Zhou Ze with a constipated expression,

could you be any more concise?

Is that how you tell a story?

What about the process? What about the details? What about the thrill?

"Now go to the Tong City Museum with me, the small one, I have some things to investigate."

"No, Boss…………"

Lawyer An looked unsatisfied.

"It's very important!"

"Okay, fine."

"Mm, I'll tell you about Hell's affairs properly later, now nothing is more important than the matter before us."

Lawyer An nodded in agreement.

Without waiting for Xu Qinglang and the others who were driving a bit slower, Zhou Ze had already had Bai Yingying send a WeChat message telling them to go back to the bookstore first. Afterwards, Zhou Ze took Yingying and Lawyer An in two cars and drove directly to the Tong City Small Museum.

Tong City has several museums, but Zhou Ze was going to a smaller one this time, so small that it didn't even have a parking lot inside, so they could only park the car on the road outside.

In fact, Tong City wasn't a city famous for tourism. It was in an awkward position. Although its GDP had achieved remarkable results since the reform and opening up, even higher than the provincial capitals of other regions, when it came to cultural heritage and tourism resources, it wasn't on the same level as its brother cities in the same province like Yangzhou and Huai'an.

A sign hung outside this small museum. There wasn't even a security guard. Walking inside, it felt more like walking into a middle school library.

There weren't many people inside either. Walking all the way in, he only saw a cleaning lady sitting there, holding her phone and seemingly scrolling through Douyin.

After walking further inside,

he saw an old man with gray hair sitting at a desk, seemingly sorting out some materials. When he saw someone coming in, he just looked up and didn't say anything.

No documents were needed,

no security check was needed,

you come in if you want.

"Lao An, I remember telling you that Madam Bai wasn't given a shrine by the people of Tong City back then?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Use this clue to find the records from back then."

After speaking,

Zhou Ze looked at Bai Yingying again,

"Yingying, you look for it too."

"Boss, hasn't the Cold Clothes Festival already passed?"

"Look!"

"Keep it down."

The old man at the desk rolled his eyes helplessly at Zhou Ze and the others,

then continued to lower his head and do his own thing.

"Local chronicles, local records, start looking."

If they couldn't find any records about that shrine, there was nothing they could do, but if there were records to find, then they could only be in this place.

Most of the exhibits in the other well-known museums in Tong City were embroidery, modern national industries, and so on, while the real historical materials were stored only here.

This search,

took a long time,

because there were too many documents piled up here, and not many people would actually come here, and there weren't many proper employees here.

When it was almost evening outside,

the old man came over and asked:

"Hey, closing time."

Meaning it was time to close up and go home.

Zhou Ze ignored him and continued to look for his own. Lawyer An and Bai Yingying naturally ignored him too, and continued to browse through the things in their hands.

The old man was a little helpless,

there was no security guard here,

and he was too old to drive people away, so he could only come over and ask:

"What are you looking for?"

"A shrine, a long time ago, it seems to have been torn down before liberation."

"Oh, you won't be able to find that, maybe you could find a celebrity or something."

"I remember Mr. Zhang Jian seemed to have written an inscription there."

"Mr. Zhang Jian?" The old man hesitated for a moment and asked, "Was the shrine dedicated to a Madam surnamed Bai?"

"You know?"

Zhou Ze put down what he was holding and looked at the old man.

If he had known this old man was so knowledgeable,

why would he have bothered searching so much before?

"There are records in Mr. Zhang Jian's diary."

Saying that,

the old man walked to the side of the bookshelf, reached out, and took down a book with photos inside, as a method of placement to facilitate document processing.

"Have you found it? That temple seems to have been torn down after liberation," Zhou Ze asked.

"Here, found it. It wasn't torn down after liberation, it was gone long before liberation. It's written in the diary here, but it wasn't called a diary back then, many were records in family letters and correspondence."

"Torn down before liberation? Do you know who tore it down?"

"Mr. Zhang Jian himself."

"What?" Zhou Ze found it a little absurd. He was the one who wrote the inscription for Madam Bai back then. "Impossible, right?"

"This is a letter Mr. Zhang Jian wrote to his nephew, talking about this matter. In the letter, Mr. Zhang Jian said that he had been deceived and wrote an inscription for a lewd shrine, almost causing a big mistake. The letter also said that he was filled with guilt and had already had someone tear down that shrine."

"What exactly happened? What did Mr. Zhang Jian discover?"

The old man shrugged his shoulders,

"If you ask me what I'm having for dinner tonight, I can answer you, but if you ask me what Mr. Zhang Jian discovered back then, since he didn't write it in the letter, where am I supposed to ask?"

Zhou Ze took the "diary" over,

and began to browse through it himself.

Zhang Jian was one of the most famous people in modern history of Tong City. He was the top scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, and he drafted the abdication edict of the Qing Emperor. Later, he also started modern national industries in Tong City. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, he was extremely famous even in the whole country.

Such a figure who could leave a heavy mark in history,

what exactly did he discover back then,

that made him tear down the shrine he had personally inscribed in anger?