Chapter 1 Then What?

"Then what?"

Zhou Ze asked while sipping his coffee.

Xu Qinglang was listening to the story as well, thinking it was an interesting late-night tale.

As for tension or fear...

Neither Xu Qinglang nor the old Taoist beside him was the least bit scared.

In the old Taoist's words,

What's there to be scared of?

I spend all day with a ghost and a zombie,

Have I ever been afraid?

Have I ever backed down?

I haven't been afraid, I haven't backed down,

I just...

Follow my heart.

"Is there anything else?" The teenager paused, then smiled. "There's also that I woke up scared. It turned out to be a dream, but it felt so real, haha."

After speaking, the teenager yawned, then picked up the novel he had taken from the shelf and started reading. He seemed to have found an interesting passage, and he laughed.

What a naive child.

He thought he had just had a dream.

Then why did you run to my bookstore in the middle of the night?

Were you sleepwalking?

Xu Qinglang looked at Zhou Ze in surprise, pointed at the teenager, then pointed at his own head.

Zhou Ze nodded.

The teenager didn't know he was already dead.

He thought he was still alive, but he had become a ghost and had already begun to wander.

"Not taking him in?" Xu Qinglang asked. "You're just one short, aren't you?"

Xu Qinglang had just come downstairs and saw Zhou Ze sitting across from the teenager, listening to him tell a story. He didn't think Zhou Ze was worried about some fierce ghost causing trouble in the school and was keeping the teenager around as a lead to uphold justice and save the world.

He knew that Boss Zhou had been yearning for that last one percent lately, desperate to get it.

"Can't take him, his soul is incomplete."

Zhou Ze shook his head, feeling a little helpless.

Xu Qinglang frowned and took a closer look at the teenager, finally noticing some details. The teenager's soul was incomplete. He was missing a few components of his three souls and six spirits, which was why he was still so "innocent and cheerful" after becoming a ghost, and still unaware that he was dead.

Even with so many illogical things happening around him, even though he was at the bookstore late at night instead of at school,

He didn't feel anything was wrong and still thought he was alive.

Simply put, there was something wrong with his brain,

A very high-level...

Mental retardation.

In fact, the moment Zhou Ze saw him, he had immediately opened the Gates of Hell.

How did you die?

What grievances do you have?

Are you hungry? Thirsty?

He didn't ask anything, he didn't have time to listen to his rambling. He just planned to send him in so he could be promoted, but it didn't work, leaving Zhou Ze feeling depressed and speechless.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Xu Qinglang looked at Zhou Ze and reminded him, "A ghost that can kill people, can you really be indifferent?"

Xu Qinglang was right. Zhou Ze really couldn't be indifferent about this matter. Although this wasn't like Spider-Man's uncle saying "with great power comes great responsibility" in a superhero movie, since Zhou Ze was the ghost messenger here, he had a duty to ensure that no ghosts caused trouble in the area. If they did, he had to resolve the situation as soon as possible.

The Netherworld

Was watching.

"Let's go." Zhou Ze nodded. "You want to come with me?"

"No, I came down to get a face mask. I'm going upstairs to get my beauty sleep."

Xu Qinglang lay lazily on the sofa, exuding a kind of tenderness that could bend steel.

Zhou Ze sometimes felt helpless with Xu Qinglang. He was clearly normal in that regard. He could let a woman sleep with him, thinking he was a male prostitute, and she'd leave three thousand yuan on the nightstand because he was so good.

That was enough to show that Xu Qinglang was fine in that area, but sometimes his casual attitude outshone even Bai Yingying without makeup.

Born with charm,

Xu Qinglang was lucky to be born in this era. If he were in ancient times, he would probably have been ravaged by emperors and nobles who had a penchant for same-sex relationships.

At this time, the old Taoist immediately volunteered and took the car keys from Zhou Ze's hand, saying:

"Boss, Yingying is playing video games upstairs and doesn't have time. This poor Taoist will accompany you. Exorcising demons and defending the Dao is the responsibility of us righteous people."

And so, the old Taoist drove the car, and Zhou Ze sat in the passenger seat, driving to Pingchao Middle School.

It was actually a bit far, about half an hour's drive.

The school was indeed very large. At the entrance was a paifang (traditional Chinese archway) with the words "Provincial Key Pingzhong" written on it, followed by a guardhouse. Even more outrageous was that behind it was a canal. The school was on the other side of the canal. There was a bridge here spanning the canal, belonging to the school. There was another guardhouse on the other side of the bridge.

So, it was a bit of a pipe dream for students living here to skip school. Two guard posts guarded the school, unless they swam across the canal to get to the town outside.

The old Taoist, relying on his silver tongue, directly fooled the guard by saying that his grandson had a sudden heart attack inside and he had to go in to check on him. The guard didn't dare to delay and immediately opened the gate. The guard didn't have much vigilance toward people who clearly weren't students.

The car entered the campus, and Zhou Ze and the old Taoist got out and walked to the living area. This was really like an independent town, with bathhouses, supermarkets, and many cafeterias.

The students were like chickens locked in cages on an assembly line, unable to even turn around, drinking water and eating on a schedule, then laying eggs.

It was already close to midnight when they arrived. The dormitory buildings were basically dark, except for the lights in the dormitory supervisor's office on the ground floor. The other floors were dark. Even though they were filled with people, they gave off a spooky, ghostly feeling.

"Boss, which building is haunted?"

"He said he lived in Block B." Zhou Ze pointed to a building diagonally to the side. "It should be this one."

"Which dorm?" the old Taoist asked.

"Sixth floor, I don't know the exact dorm. Go up and ask a student, just ask where someone recently died."

"That's a good idea." The old Taoist gave an insincere flattery.

Damn it,

He didn't ask properly in the store before coming out.

In the dormitory supervisor's office on the ground floor of the dormitory building, several men were sitting there chatting, talking loudly and laughing from time to time, as if they were talking about dirty jokes.

Even when Zhou Ze and the old Taoist walked into the corridor, they didn't notice. The management here was really loose enough.

Or rather,

Was this called externally loose but internally tight?

When they went up to the sixth floor, the lights were off. The old Taoist randomly knocked on a dorm door. The students in the dorm thought the dormitory supervisor had come. The sound of talking that had been there before suddenly became silent.

The old Taoist knocked a few more times.

A student in slippers came over and opened the door. When he saw the old Taoist and Zhou Ze, he was stunned for a moment. Obviously, he realized that these two people weren't the dormitory supervisor.

"Police."

The old Taoist took out his wallet and waved it around. Anyway, it was dark and he could just put it back after showing off.

"Which dorm here recently had someone die?" the old Taoist asked.

The student was completely dumbfounded.

What was going on?

The police came to knock on the dorm door at midnight to ask where someone had died?

"Someone died?" The student looked at the old Taoist in surprise.

"That's right, asking you where someone died."

"When did they die?" the boy asked, surprised.

"Don't pretend!" The old Taoist took a step forward and scolded, "Is the school trying to hide the news and telling you to keep quiet? We're police, it's no use lying to us.

If something goes wrong in the future, you'll be responsible too."

The student was completely frightened and turned to ask his roommate on the bed behind him, "Did someone die here?"

The roommates also started chattering, everyone was very confused.

What surprised the old Taoist the most was that these students seemed to be genuinely confused. This didn't seem like acting. This was high school, not some film academy.

"Sun Qiu, which dorm is Sun Qiu in?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Sun Qiu, he's in the dorm across the hall."

The boy pointed to the dorm door across the hall.

"Alright, it's nothing to do with you, go back to sleep, don't make noise." The old Taoist said imperiously.

Turning around, the old Taoist went to knock on the door of the dorm across the hall.

Soon, a boy with glasses came over and opened the dorm door.

The old Taoist and Zhou Ze walked in directly, the boy who opened the door was a little dazed.

"I remember he said his bed was the upper bunk by the window, right here?"

The old Taoist pointed to the bunk. What surprised him was that there was actually someone sleeping on that bunk, covered with a blanket.

"What's going on, someone is sleeping in a place where someone just died?" The old Taoist was a little surprised.

"Who are you?"

A boy in the dorm asked.

"Is Sun Qiu in this dorm? How long has he been dead?" the old Taoist asked.

"Sun Qiu?" The boy paused, then called out, "Sun Qiu, wake up, someone's looking for you."

What?

The old Taoist turned his head back in shock,

Then,

He saw the boy on the bunk lift the blanket, rub his eyes, and then sit up. He looked at the old Taoist and Zhou Ze and asked:

"Who's looking for me?"

He looked very sleepy.

It wasn't a coincidence of the same name,

This appearance,

Was clearly the same teenager who was telling stories in the bookstore an hour ago!

The old Taoist's eyes widened,

What was going on?

Wasn't this person already dead?

His ghost had already floated out, so who was this person lying on the bed?

At this time, Zhou Ze directly reached out and grabbed Sun Qiu's wrist. Sun Qiu frowned, but he didn't shout, as if his reaction was a little slow.

Zhou Ze rolled up Sun Qiu's sleeve and shone a flashlight on it,

He saw that Sun Qiu's arm was covered with

Dense livor mortis!

This wasn't a living person,

This was a corpse that had been dead for a long time!

The old Taoist opened his mouth in shock when he saw this scene.

Zhou Ze calmly put Sun Qiu's sleeve down. "It's nothing, go to sleep early, don't make a fuss."

After speaking, Zhou Ze walked out of the dorm.

The old Taoist immediately followed, unable to restrain himself from asking, "Boss, what's going on, is this person dead or not?"

"Dead." Zhou Ze replied.

"Then this..." The old Taoist couldn't understand.

"Because of inertia." Zhou Ze replied.

"Inertia?"

"Yes, inertia. In this school, the students' daily schedules are arranged so rigidly, every day when to get up, when to go to the classroom, when to go to the cafeteria to eat, when to return to the dormitory, and when to turn off the lights are all fixed.

So, even if he's dead, the inertia brought about by this long-term life allows him to continue to maintain a 'living' state.

Because every day, for him, is almost identical.

It's like a small ball, thrown down from a track, it will continue to roll forward according to its inertia, he is now, also like this.

Didn't you notice?

His reaction has actually become very slow,

But his classmates and teachers, no one has noticed,

That he's already dead."

"So mysterious?"

"When I was a doctor, I also encountered several similar cases. Autopsies showed that the corpses had been dead for many days, but their colleagues or family members said that they saw him going to work and living as usual yesterday."

"How could this be?" The old Taoist smacked his lips, unable to understand.

"An unchanging life, every day the behavior pattern is fixed, like an automated machine;

Does it make a difference if the driver is alive or dead?"