Chapter 1 Two Taxi Cabs

Two taxi cabs pulled up in front of the Longshan Hotel in Xuzhou.

This hotel was laid out a bit like a resort, and was considered one of the more luxurious establishments in Xuzhou.

After getting out of the car,

Yingying was about to walk inside, guided by the attendant,

but she noticed that her boss was still standing there,

his back to the entrance,

gazing at the distant scenery.

As if the scenery here was so enchanting,

that it was impossible to tear oneself away.

Yingying naturally stood next to her boss, not moving if he didn't move.

The old Taoist squatted down and began to tie his shoelaces,

as if he could never quite get them right.

Attorney An was the last to get out of the car.

Seeing this scene,

he silently gave the group the middle finger, and then signaled the attendant to take him to the front desk.

After Attorney An went inside,

Zhou Ze suddenly found the scenery less appealing,

and the old Taoist had finally managed to tie his shoelaces.

Everyone followed him inside together.

Attorney An had booked a suite with its own small courtyard and open-air bath, which definitely didn't come cheap.

Sometimes, it really was strange,

how Attorney An, who clearly lived a high-end life,

could be so hopelessly addicted to expired instant coffee.

Perhaps,

it was because,

rich people always had their peculiar quirks?

Inside the room,

Yingying prepared to help Zhou Ze take off his coat, but Zhou Ze refused. There were still the playing cards Attorney An had given him in his pocket, to conceal his aura.

According to the information provided by Lao Zhang, the Xuzhou female ghost official's car had ultimately driven into this hotel.

It was still morning, not even close to noon, but Zhou Ze didn't dare wait until night to act. If that old geezer was really scared away by Lao Zhang's little scare tactics, then there would be trouble.

"Old Taoist, you and Monkey go out and scout around."

Attorney An assigned the task.

The old Taoist was just an ordinary person, the only remaining seedling in the bookstore, because, strictly speaking, Xu Qinglang counted as a Xuan cultivator, with energy fluctuations in his body.

Therefore, if he went out to scout, he wouldn't arouse suspicion.

As for Little Monkey,

being a natural spirit monkey, concealing his aura and scouting were his strengths.

Sun Dasheng in *Journey to the West*, when fighting the rhinoceros demon with the diamond ring, was also told by the heavenly gods that his specialty was petty thievery.

Our forces dispatched one monkey and one old Taoist;

next,

was to wait for news.

This hotel was simply too big, a bit like a miniature Suzhou garden. It would have been much easier if it was a small express hotel.

Zhou Ze sat down on the sofa,

and Bai Yingying prepared to boil water for tea.

"Yingying, no need to make tea. I asked the front desk for a bottle of red wine, it should be here soon,"

Zhou Ze said.

"............" Attorney An.

Although he felt a little uncomfortable, Attorney An didn't say anything. After all, he had been drinking other people's coffee for so long.

That coffee must have been very, very expensive.

The red wine arrived,

Yingying took out two wine glasses.

To avoid another dog-food tragedy,

Attorney An deliberately got up and washed another glass, bringing over three in total.

If they put on another fiery-red-lips performance later,

Attorney An estimated he wouldn't be able to resist the urge to hit someone.

The three of them picked up their red wine.

Zhou Ze didn't have good conditions in his past life. Even a kickass surgeon couldn't earn much money even with moonlighting, and he only bought his first apartment in Tong City outright after struggling until his early thirties, and it was still a small apartment.

As for the extravagant act of sipping red wine, it was definitely beyond the reach of the previous Zhou boss.

Fortunately,

eating beef like a peasant was also a kind of "B-ge" (slang for being cool), and Zhou Ze was drinking it like orange juice with pulp, regardless of how many zeros were on the bill.

Bai Yingying didn't drink, she just held the glass to her nose, gently sniffing it.

Attorney An drank with much more class,

but drinking red wine with two bumpkins gave him the feeling that his own class wasn't low enough, making him out of sync with everyone else.

"By the way, Boss, can you use the one inside you?"

Attorney An put down his glass and asked.

"What's up?"

"Just want to have some backup."

Zhou Ze nodded, tacitly agreeing. He had asked before at the train station, and Ying Gou wouldn't lie to him. If he went to seek revenge and got killed instead, Ying Gou wouldn't escape unscathed either.

"That's good."

Attorney An smiled.

"Actually, this can be considered a path. Do you remember the paifang (ceremonial archway) boss in the mountains?"

"I remember."

"Behind this, it definitely isn't as simple as just one or two people. I suspect that some big shot from the underworld is making new plans. That Feng Si guy is just running errands, cleaning up, and taking care of things for them."

The scene of the kidnapped villagers lining up to enter the paifang flashed in Zhou Ze's mind.

Those villagers weren't going to hell.

The place connected to by the paifang in the beginning definitely wasn't hell.

Hell was more like a waste recycling center. The things that weren't sucked in by that place were ultimately collected by hell, and then Feng Si came forward to get rid of all traces.

So,

where did the previous souls go?

Why absorb so many souls into it?

"Let the big shots scheme their schemes, we'll just do what we're supposed to do. Either we don't do this at all, or we do it decisively and lift the lid off this thing.

In short,

don't hold back when the time comes."

"What will be the reaction from the underworld?" Zhou Ze asked.

Knowing that since Feng Si was involved, the person truly scheming this event was likely to be a big shot in the underworld.

Don't think that the protagonist in an anti-corruption drama overturning a high-ranking big boss is so satisfying,

before the protagonist, there must have been several tragic bit players who were killed by the big boss while collecting information, working hard to make a wedding dress for the protagonist, and maybe not even getting a few complete shots in the end.

Boss Zhou wasn't willing to make a wedding dress for someone else.

"So we have to do it openly and honestly, make a big splash, and expose this thing, then we'll be safer instead."

Attorney An was an old hand who had been immersed in the underworld system for a long time, and he could see things more clearly.

Actually,

Attorney An was doing it out of necessity. According to his personality, the most suitable approach would definitely be to "build high walls, store ample food, and slowly become king," but he realized that with his boss's personality, if they followed the rules and took things slowly, who knows how many years they would be basking in the sun.

It was better to force the donkey onto the rack,

pushing him forward,

so that he had no choice but to run.

Zhou Ze frowned.

Attorney An's heart skipped a beat. Had his intentions been discovered?

"We'll see."

Zhou Ze didn't refuse or agree,

he just had Bai Yingying pour him another glass of wine,

and drank it all in one gulp.

Tsk,

if it wasn't for the sake of so many zeros on that bill,

red wine really wasn't as good as orange juice with pulp.

............

Although Attorney An had assured him that as an ordinary living person, he wouldn't be in any danger, the old Taoist still felt uneasy.

He walked along, constantly clutching his crotch.

He encountered two female attendants, who shyly ran away.

There was a male attendant who showed a welcoming, yet reluctant, posture towards the old Taoist,

scaring the old Taoist into making a quick exit.

"This place is so big."

Pavilions and waterside terraces,

and a large pond,

making it look like an ancient manor.

The old Taoist was looking for villas one by one. The walls weren't high, and you could usually see inside if you got close or jumped up a bit.

According to the information provided by the boss, the other party had at least four people, or even more, so it shouldn't be difficult to find them.

The monkey and the old Taoist split up,

and after searching for a long time, the old Taoist couldn't find a clue.

He had to first determine the location of the target before the boss and the others could act purposefully, but his legs were already numb after only searching a third of the place.

The sun was up, and the weather was getting hot. The old Taoist took out a tangerine he had just picked from the flower bed, sat on the railing, and ate it, taking a rest.

The tangerine wasn't in season yet, it was a bit sour, but as he got older, he didn't really like things that were too sweet anyway. The old Taoist ate with relish.

After two tangerines,

he remembered the boss's instructions.

The old Taoist thought that the boss and the others must be waiting anxiously in the room,

he should hurry up and search.

If the old Taoist knew that the boss and the three of them were sipping expensive red wine in the room, leisurely enjoying the air conditioning,

he would probably be so depressed that he would vomit blood.

Walking past the railing, there were two pavilions in front, which were lakeside pavilions, belonging to the public area. The old Taoist had already searched this side and planned to go to the opposite side to take a look.

He didn't feel anything when he walked into the first pavilion,

but when he walked into the second pavilion,

the old Taoist suddenly shivered,

as if the surrounding temperature had suddenly dropped a lot.

But there was nothing in the pavilion, just a stone table and a few stone benches.

Perhaps because he often chatted with and provided psychological counseling to those ghosts in the bookstore, the old Taoist had become more sensitive to some things, even though he didn't have much cultivation.

Immediately,

the old Taoist turned around calmly, took out the niu yan lei (bull's tears) that had been infused with talisman water from his pocket, and very skillfully smeared it on his eyes.

After blinking a few times,

for a moment,

the pavilion was so lively!

Not only were the stone benches full of people,

but several people were also sitting on the railings around the edge of the pavilion.

Everyone was wearing ancient clothes, like a theatrical troupe, with painted faces.

They were jabbering away as if they were holding a meeting,

but the old Taoist couldn't understand what bird language they were speaking.

Hiss............

How could there be so many ghosts here!

The old Taoist took a deep breath, pretending not to see them, intending to walk out of the pavilion.

Unexpectedly, at this time, a man wearing a dark green robe, looking like a hua dan (female character in Chinese opera), walked in from outside the pavilion.

The old Taoist slightly sidestepped.

Big shot,

you go first.

The other party walked past,

just as the old Taoist was about to step out of the pavilion,

he noticed that the originally "jabbering" pavilion behind him,

suddenly became quiet.

An icy hand suddenly rested on the old Taoist's shoulder,

at the same time,

a face heavily made up with powder approached,

"You,

can you see me?"

At this time, whether it was because the old Taoist had experienced so many ghostly things that he had developed immunity,

or whether he was directly stunned by the sudden shock,

a line from a commercial actually echoed in his mind:

"Can you tell I'm wearing foundation?"

With this idiotic train of thought,

the old Taoist's cheeks puffed up,

and he actually laughed out loud:

"Pfft..."