Giang Bắc Châu’s father died in a car accident when he was three. His mother raised him alone, playing the roles of both mother and father.
When he was in eleventh grade, he came home from school and discovered that his mother had disappeared. He never saw her again. People said she’d probably been in an accident, but no one knew where she’d died.
But he never gave up. He still believed his mother was alive.
To find her, he became an internet celebrity and built a following of millions as a blogger. He posted pictures of his mother regularly, but never got a single lead.
I frowned at Giang Bắc Châu. He sat on the sofa with his face buried in his hands, motionless for a long time.
Was my haunted house really that bad?
No way. He was livestreaming—I couldn’t let him ruin my business!
I grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Hà Tỷ, get in there and scare him good!”
The lights in the old room began to flicker. Water seeped from the walls, and clumps of seaweed spilled out of the basin in the corner.
Hà Tỷ slowly crawled out of the bathtub, drenched from head to toe, and stood in the bathroom doorway.
Giang Bắc Châu’s eyes widened in shock at the sight. When he looked at Hà Tỷ, his whole body began to tremble.
Watching him freeze on camera, I smugly lifted my chin. Heh heh. Scared stiff, aren’t you?
But the very next second, everything turned upside down.
Giang Bắc Châu charged at Hà Tỷ like a madman and threw his arms around her, sobbing. “Mom! Where have you been all these years? Do you know how much I missed you? I’ve been looking for you for nine years! Nine years, Mom!”
Good heavens!
What was going on?!
I dropped my tablet and rushed into the room. Just then, a young woman ran in and grabbed my hand. “Let go of her! Who are you?!”
I yanked my hand free. This fashionable young woman looked familiar.
She clutched my hand so tightly her face twisted with the effort. “I’m your rumored girlfriend!”
I wrenched my hand away. “Oh my God, whatever your problem is, it can wait. I have an emergency!”
“You’re not going anywhere until you explain!”
I shoved her aside and rushed into Hà Tỷ’s haunted room.
Oh, Mom, he’s still livestreaming!!!
By now, Giang Bắc Châu’s livestream chat had exploded:
“What’s going on? Did the streamer find his mom? Hasn’t she been missing for years?”
“Whoa, is this NPC ghost really his mom?”
“What are the odds?!”
I rushed over, snatched Giang Bắc Châu’s phone, and ended the livestream.
Tống Phỉ Phỉ clung to the hem of my shirt. I dragged her along, and she tumbled to the ground.
She lay there in pain, then realized something was wrong.
The man in front of her was embracing a pale, drenched middle-aged woman. Water pooled at their feet.
More importantly, the woman’s feet weren’t touching the ground. She was floating about four inches above it.
As Giang Bắc Châu hugged her and called to her, Hà Tỷ looked bewildered, pain written across her face.
Then she shoved him away, threw her head back, and let out a piercing scream.
Oh no, Hà Tỷ’s about to transform!!!
Vengeful ghosts are different from ordinary ghosts. Ordinary ghosts have weak spiritual power and can’t hurt people.
But a vengeful ghost can gain spiritual power through a twist of fate and become filled with resentment. If that resentment isn’t resolved, it can easily turn into an evil spirit that devours people.
Giang Bắc Châu tumbled over and rolled to Tống Phỉ Phỉ’s side.
Hà Tỷ had now transformed into the most horrifying form she’d taken when she died.
Her gaunt body swelled like a balloon, and her hair floated upward as if a fan were blowing behind her.
Her beautiful face was now covered in blood. Her almond-shaped eyes had become two bloody sockets, one of them crawling with leeches.
She screamed and stuck out her tongue, but its tip was flat, as if it had been cut off.
I stared at her in shock.
When she was alive, someone had gouged out her eyes and cut off her tongue!
Tống Phỉ Phỉ stared, her heart pounding. She was so terrified she couldn’t make a sound. Her legs gave out, and she sank to the floor.
Giang Bắc Châu was stunned too. His lips trembled as he tried to reassure himself. “Her hair must be blown by a fan. She’s floating because of wires, and the leeches and tongue are high-end VR tech…”
I quickly pulled out a talisman and a peach-wood sword, then rushed over and kicked Giang Bắc Châu aside. “VR, my foot! Run!”
My kick made Hà Tỷ’s tongue miss its target. She turned toward me angrily and gave me an eerie smile.
Countless strands of seaweed poured from behind her, wrapping around Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Giang Bắc Châu like two bundles of sticky rice.
Her ghostly aura was taking shape—Hà Tỷ was about to become an evil spirit!
I groaned inwardly. One-on-one was hard enough; now I had two more people in the way!
I chopped through the seaweed in front of me, rolled to the side, and quickly lit an incense stick. “Old Jiangshi! Sister Bách Linh! Help me!”
“Hmph. When you don’t need me, you call me a dead ghost. When you do, it’s ‘Sister Bách Linh.’ I’m not helping~”
The ghost Bách Linh and the hopping vampire Chu Hoài Khoan smelled the incense and appeared at once. Tiểu Minh hid in a corner, watching Hà Tỷ fearfully.
These ghosts had no sense of loyalty!
They were only here to watch the show!
Hà Tỷ warily watched Bách Linh and Chu Hoài Khoan. When she saw that they weren’t moving, she attacked me again.
I didn’t dare hit her too hard, afraid I might shatter Hà Tỷ’s soul. I was also worried her ghostly aura would enter Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Giang Bắc Châu.
This fight was exhausting.
I used a warding talisman to force Hà Tỷ back, then shouted to Bách Linh, “Sister Bách Linh! You too, Jiangshi! Help me pull those two out! From now on, I’ll double your incense!”
“Hee hee. Triple it, and add one soul-congealing spell a day.”
That ghost was taking advantage of the situation!
“Fine! Triple it, then!”
I gritted my teeth and turned back to deal with Hà Tỷ.
Bách Linh swept her hand, dragging down the two clumps of seaweed. The vampire slashed through them with its sharp claws, and Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Giang Bắc Châu rolled free.
“Cough, cough. I was suffocating! What was that just now?”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ coughed violently, looked up, and saw a ghost in a qipao—and a hopping vampire?
Giang Bắc Châu sat there dazed, his faith in science shattered to pieces.
After a fierce fight, Hà Tỷ grew weaker. Her horrifying face gradually returned to normal, though she was still deathly pale, with two streams of blood beneath her eyes.
A soul-binding formation closed over Hà Tỷ like an upside-down bowl, trapping her inside.
I sat down hard and solemnly recited the soul-binding incantation.
Golden light gathered into threads and wound around Hà Tỷ.
A moment later, the light faded, and Hà Tỷ returned to her usual gentle appearance.
“Linh Châu, Bách Linh, why are you all here?”
I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back, only to meet two pairs of stunned, terrified eyes.
I’m done for!
How was I supposed to explain this to Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Giang Bắc Châu?
Giang Bắc Châu slapped his face, staggered to his feet, and shook Hà Tỷ by the shoulders. “Mom, what’s wrong? It’s your Châu Châu! Don’t you recognize me?”
Hà Tỷ’s face twisted with pain. She shoved him away and clutched her ears. “Châu Châu, Châu Châu… who am I? Ah!”
She let out that familiar scream again, and her ghostly body swelled.
Not again!
I hardened my expression, pressed a hand over Giang Bắc Châu’s face, and shoved him aside.
I pulled an ancient purple-black gourd, covered in carved talismanic symbols, from my chest.
I raised the gourd as I walked and swiftly drew a talisman seal with my other hand. “By the authority of the law, I command you—be taken!”
The gourd glowed white. Hà Tỷ’s body contorted and shrank, then was sucked inside.
Giang Bắc Châu was shocked and rushed over to snatch the gourd.
I put the gourd away and knocked his hand aside. “That’s the latest 5D hologram technology. See? Isn’t my haunted house awesome?”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ stood up, snapped her jaw shut, and scoffed. “Do you take me for an idiot? What 5D hologram? Tell me what’s going on!”
Giang Bắc Châu looked at me anxiously. “Where did you take my mother?”
“You mean all the ghosts in this haunted house are real? The girl just now was a ghost, this one’s a hopping vampire, and that kid’s a child ghost?”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ doubled over laughing, tears streaming down her face. Giang Bắc Châu stood frozen, his eyes red and his face deathly pale.
His lips trembled. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “A ghost? What do you mean? Are you saying my mother is dead?”
I shot him an annoyed look. “Tiểu Minh, come here.”
The ghost boy with the green face and big head ran over.
“Relax your ghostly body and let them feel it.”
I took Tống Phỉ Phỉ’s hand and guided it through Tiểu Minh’s thin body.
His ghostly body was ice-cold and damp, like passing through a sticky stream of cold air.
Tống Phỉ Phỉ froze in shock. I grabbed Giang Bắc Châu by the wrist, and his hand passed right through Tiểu Minh’s heart too.
A certain belief shattered. It was called science.
I waved off the ghosts who’d gathered to watch. The yin energy was too heavy; Tống Phỉ Phỉ and Giang Bắc Châu wouldn’t be able to handle staying here for long.
“Come on, let’s go somewhere else to talk.”
“So the last time, I really was possessed by the ghost Bách Linh?”
Faced with Tống Phỉ Phỉ’s fiery glare, I nodded guiltily.
“Smack!”
Tống Phỉ Phỉ slapped the table, her face flushed with excitement. “One hundred thousand a month. I want to work here!”