Chapter 51

As they got closer, Gongsun Zhiruo and the others immediately recognized her – it was Zi Gui!

However, Zi Gui appeared to be in terrible shape. She was hunched over, dragging her feet as she trudged through the snow, looking as if she might collapse at any moment and never get up again.

And she was alone.

Everyone frantically helped Zi Gui into the tent, then gave her hot water. It took a while for her to seem to come back to herself.

Gongsun Zhiruo and Lu Yu stayed with her in the tent. After a long while, Bai Xi and Han Juanjuan, covered in snow, returned with grave expressions.

"How is it?" Lu Yu stood up, his face full of worry.

Hearing this, Bai Xi shook his head with a solemn face. "Zi Gui is the only one. We followed the direction she came from for a while but found no trace of Mr. Jiang or the others. We didn't dare to go too far, so we retreated."

Outside was a blizzard, and they worried that if they went too far, they might never find their way back.

Hearing their conversation, Zi Gui suddenly burst into tears. What she said next stunned everyone. "We encountered a hungry ghost. Mr. Jiang and the others...they were killed to save me."

"What?!"

"We were originally behind a snow hill, not far from here, but when we came out from behind the snow hill, we found you were gone."

"No," Zi Gui suddenly looked up, emphasizing, "The entire camp had disappeared!"

"We followed the direction we remembered, but suddenly ran into a hungry ghost..." Zi Gui choked, a strong woman trying her best to suppress her inner pain.

Lu Yu crouched down in front of Zi Gui, his eyes red, and comforted her, "Zi Gui, don't be sad. We will find a way to get out of here alive. We can't let Mr. Jiang and the others die in vain!"

"Have some hot water," Han Juanjuan said, handing her the water to warm herself.

Zi Gui stretched out her frozen, red right hand, took the cup, and held it without drinking, her eyes becoming somewhat dull with pain.

Seeing this, Gongsun Zhiruo frowned slightly, but quickly returned to normal.

"How is Shang Mo?" Zi Gui looked up and suddenly asked, "Why don't I see him?"

"He..." Han Juanjuan had just uttered a word when Gongsun Zhiruo interrupted.

"Shang Mo is not feeling well and is resting in his tent," Gongsun Zhiruo said naturally. "Zi Gui, don't worry about others, take care of yourself first."

"Mm," Zi Gui lowered her head and took a small sip of the hot water.

After saying that, Gongsun Zhiruo left. He had only taken a few steps from the tent when he saw a figure hiding a short distance away, peeking in this direction.

Judging by the clothes, it was Shang Mo.

Shang Mo seemed to realize he had been exposed and immediately ran away. Gongsun Zhiruo chased after him for a few steps, but Shang Mo quickly darted into his tent and slammed the door shut.

"He's afraid," Bai Xi said, walking up behind him, his tone cold and urgent.

Gongsun Zhiruo turned around, glanced in the direction of Zi Gui's tent, frowned, and asked in a low voice, "You think something's wrong too?"

"I didn't see anything wrong with Zi Gui herself, but I don't believe Mr. Jiang and the other two were all killed by the hungry ghost," Bai Xi said. "In my experience, ghosts don't attack so many people at once, and Mr. Jiang and the others aren't ordinary people. I find it hard to believe that Zi Gui could survive a situation that killed all three of them."

"So, the Zi Gui who came back is likely an imposter ghost," Bai Xi said, his eyes wary, "Just like the one we encountered on our last mission."

"I suspect that too," Gongsun Zhiruo said in a low voice. "When I came out just now, I saw Shang Mo looking this way, but he ran away when he saw me, like you said, he's terrified."

"He recognized that this Zi Gui is an imposter hungry ghost."

Gongsun Zhiruo took a deep breath. "One more thing, Zi Gui is used to using her left hand, but this Zi Gui used her right hand to take the water cup just now."

Bai Xi's eyes narrowed. "That's it then!" He turned to go towards "Zi Gui's" tent.

Gongsun Zhiruo was startled and quickly grabbed him, asking, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take care of it," Bai Xi said, pulling a signal gun from his waist. "I'll give it a signal flare right in the face. This thing is more powerful than you think, and you've seen that the hungry ghost is afraid of bright light. Last time, the signal flare drove it away."

"Don't act rashly. If we don't drive it away, people will die!" Gongsun Zhiruo knew Bai Xi was brave, but this was beyond his expectations.

"Then what do you say we do?" Bai Xi looked impatient.

Just then, Lu Yu and Han Juanjuan walked over. "What are you two doing here?" Han Juanjuan asked.

"Where's Zi Gui?" Gongsun Zhiruo suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Zi Gui said she was going out for a walk. I thought she was with you," Lu Yu said in surprise.

Gongsun Zhiruo and Bai Xi both shivered almost simultaneously. Then, not far away, came the sound of fabric being torn.

"Riiiip—"

Rushing towards the sound, they saw the shadow of something standing upright in Shang Mo's tent being violently pulled out. Immediately afterward, a tall but extremely thin figure dragged the shadow from the tent and quickly disappeared into the wind and snow.

Crap...

A buzzing filled their minds. They quickly ran over and found that the back of Shang Mo's tent had been torn open, with various items scattered inside. Only Shang Mo was missing.

He had been taken by the hungry ghost!

Seeming to realize something, Han Juanjuan and Lu Yu rushed back to Zi Gui's tent at the same time, but they didn't find Zi Gui anywhere along the way.

"The Zi Gui who came back just now was the hungry ghost!" Han Juanjuan's voice changed, filled with shock and fear.

It was obvious. Like Lu Yu, he had a strange feeling before, but Zi Gui's safe return had made them lower their guard.

As they were thinking about what to do, they suddenly heard a rustling sound behind them, coming from the nearest tent, scaring everyone.

A moment later, the tent door was pulled open, and a terrified face peeked out.

"Shang Mo!" Lu Yu blurted out.

Han Juanjuan's face turned pale, and she took a few steps back in panic. "You...how are you here? Are you a person or a ghost?"

"I'm a person," Shang Mo explained in a tearful voice. "I...I felt something was wrong just now, so I ran back, set up my backpack in the tent to look like someone was sitting there, and then I sneaked out and hid in this tent."

"Luckily I was alert, otherwise I would have been caught," Shang Mo said, still shuddering at the thought of what had just happened.