Go all out

Chapter 9: Ghostly Calculations

The figure was strange, as if a thin mist surrounded it. I couldn’t make out her face, but that translucent body still scared the living daylights out of me. This was the first time I’d ever seen a ghost. I hurriedly covered my mouth with my hand, afraid I might scream, and bit down hard on my finger before I could finally calm myself down. Since this translucent figure was also startled—clearly having died only recently, making her a “new ghost”—I felt a bit more at ease. As the saying goes, “People fear ghosts three parts, but ghosts fear people seven parts.” And besides, given my current status as the “Ox-Head,” I had the upper hand. I tugged on the red string, and the rooster inside immediately let out a cluck. The ghost, terrified, began wailing and begging for mercy. I breathed a sigh of relief, stared at the ghost for a moment, then raised my voice and asked, “You are a spirit of the underworld—why are you tormenting the living?” “Lord Ox-Head, please understand—I didn’t harm her. I saw this woman drunk in the alley that day. I asked her to take me home, and she agreed, so I came back with her,” the ghost hurriedly explained. I was speechless. If she was drunk, how could she possibly have known she was bringing a ghost home? “Then why didn’t you report to the Underworld?” I pressed. “I don’t know. I’ve only been dead a few days, but I just can’t stray too far from where I died. If Lord Ox-Head would help me retrieve my body, I’ll certainly follow you into the Underworld!” At this point, the ghost actually knelt down. It all suddenly made sense to me. My master had told me this before—I’d thought it was just a story at the time—but what he’d said was: After a person dies, if the corpse is subjected to some abnormal treatment—for example, if there’s something unclean on the body, or if the area between the eyebrows or the “Palace of Life” has been pierced by something, or other such things—it can prevent the ghost from entering the Underworld. After a moment’s thought, I said, “Come a little closer so this ghost officer can get a good look.” The reason I asked her to step closer was to examine the ghost’s face. A ghost’s face is just like a human’s, and I could tell from her features where she likely died or how she met her end. This is also a form of physiognomy. The ghost stood up and slowly moved forward. Only then did I realize she was an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old girl. To my relief, her ghostly face was completely intact. Generally speaking—well, at least that’s what my master told me—a ghost’s appearance mirrors the state in which the person died, which meant that her head wasn’t what had caused her death. There was still a hint of youthfulness in her eyes and brows, allowing me to tell at a glance that she was a college student. What infuriated me even more was the deep, jarring ligature mark on her neck—she had been strangled to death with a rope. It was a homicide. The killer must have hidden the ghost’s body elsewhere, preventing her from reporting to the underworld. Furthermore, this female ghost was beautiful—to put it simply, she looked just like a top-tier movie star, with features as exquisite as a painting, red lips, and pearly white teeth. Seeing this, I suddenly froze—not because of her beauty. It was because of her facial features: her bridge of the nose was full, her cheekbones were rounded, and she had dimples at the corners of her mouth. Most crucially, she had a mole between her eyebrows. With features like these, I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’d live to be a hundred, but living to at least seventy or eighty would be no problem at all—which means she shouldn’t have died so young. Simply put, there are only two possibilities: First, she was a “scapegoat”—meaning she died unjustly, accidentally taking the place of someone else who was meant to die. Second, she might not be dead yet, and the semi-transparent body before us might be her soul, driven out by fear! Having reached this conclusion, I took a deep breath to suppress the terror welling up inside me, while Zhang Jingwen, crouched beside me, had been completely petrified with fear. The room was silent for a full minute before I finally spoke in a low voice, “Do you remember where you died?” The female ghost thought for a moment and said, “I only remember that it was my classmate’s birthday that day. We had a few drinks together at a bar, and then my classmate and I took a ride home. When we were hailing a cab, my classmate suddenly said she’d left something at the bar and wanted to go back to get it. I was waiting for her by the roadside when I suddenly felt someone cover my mouth. After that, I don’t remember a thing.” Hearing this, I sighed inwardly. It seemed likely that this female ghost had sacrificed herself to save her classmate from certain death. “Do you remember the name of that bar?” I asked. “Night Scene Bar,” the female ghost said after a moment’s thought. I glanced at Zhang Wenjing beside me; she had already come to her senses. She whispered that it was nearby. I nodded, then fixed my gaze on the female ghost and said, “I’ll trust you this once. Get into my mouth first, and I’ll take you to find your body!” “Thank you, Lord Ox-Head.” The female ghost curtsied in surprise, then turned into a wisp of smoke and slipped seamlessly into the rooster’s mouth. Seeing this, I quickly took a swift step forward, bit my finger, and dabbed the blood onto the rooster’s beak. The rooster immediately let out a strange squawk—it must have felt a chill inside its belly—and quickly tucked its head under its wings. Everything went so smoothly—it was completely unexpected. Could it be because this female ghost had only recently died? No, she tricked me! When I was reading her face just now, I noticed her eyebrows were long and straight, and the distance from her eyebrows to her hairline was exactly one and a half inches. People with this feature are very intelligent. Besides, her expression had been very calm just now—not a trace of panic. In other words, she might have been startled at first sight of the rooster, but once she got closer, she realized I wasn’t a ghost officer. She saw that I wanted to help her, so she went along with it. I glanced at the rooster trembling on the ground. I didn’t feel any resentment toward this deception; she just wanted to report to the Underworld. But thinking about it that way, I felt a wave of disappointment wash over me. It was my first time encountering a ghost, and I’d already dealt with it. I’d even thought I might have a knack for dealing with the supernatural, but it seemed I should just go back to my usual routine… I picked up the rooster, and a voice rang in my ear: “Thank you for being willing to help me.” My whole body stiffened, and I nearly dropped the rooster I was holding. She had seen right through me after all. I gave an awkward smile and pretended not to have heard it. Zhang Wenjing hurriedly helped Ye Zhi to her feet and laid her on the bed. I said, “Give her some ginger tea to drink; she should be fine in a few days.” Zhang Wenjing nodded, then pulled out two bundles of red bills from her purse and handed them to me. At a quick glance, there were definitely twenty thousand. Naturally, I didn’t hesitate to accept it. In the past, I would have followed my master’s example and only taken three hundred, but now that my master was still in a coma at the hospital—with no telling when he’d wake up—and we needed money every day, I had no choice but to take it. Zhang Wenjing said that once her best friend recovered in a few days, she’d come find me at the shop. I nodded, said thank you, and walked out. That female ghost was still inside the rooster’s belly in my arms, so I had to find her corpse as soon as possible and let her be reincarnated. If she suddenly went on a rampage one day, I’d be in big trouble. I hailed a cab to the “Night Color Bar” the female ghost had mentioned. As I got in, the veteran driver jokingly asked why a grown man like me was carrying a chicken. I was too embarrassed to say anything. We rode in silence all the way to the Night Color Bar. I paid ten yuan and got out. It was broad daylight, so the bar was definitely closed. I hesitated for a moment, then, without further ado, asked the female ghost inside the rooster where she’d been waiting for a ride. The female ghost’s voice rang in my ears again. She said she was at the entrance of an alley behind the bar. Following her instructions, I walked toward the alley. Once I reached the spot she’d described, I looked around, completely baffled. Where was I even supposed to start looking? I’m just a fortune-teller—I’m no expert at finding bodies. But logically speaking, after the female ghost’s classmate went back to the bar to get her things and realized her friend was missing, she should have called the police, right? Why weren’t there any clues left behind from a police investigation here? I was muttering to myself when I suddenly spotted two sets of marks on the ground not far away. They looked like skid marks left by high heels—very faint and erratic, twisting and turning like diluted ink—but they were undoubtedly a major clue. I quickly asked the female ghost if she’d been wearing high heels that day. She said yes. My heart leapt with excitement as I stared at the drag marks on the ground, then slowly walked toward where they ended.