Chapter 27: Cao Hua

The girl in the passenger seat clamped a hand over her mouth in shock, glancing nervously at Zhao Qiang out of the corner of her eye. Her biggest fear right now was probably whether her boyfriend was about to commit murder in broad daylight to silence a witness.

At Gao Tian's words, Zhao Qiang's expression shifted.

"Gao, don't talk nonsense. When did I ever—"

Gao Tian lazily interrupted him.

"Right, right, you absolutely didn't smash her unconscious from behind with a shovel while she was on the phone with another man. You absolutely didn't threaten to kill my whole family to force me into helping you dig a hole when I walked by. You absolutely didn't have to strike her a few more times with the shovel when her hands and feet suddenly started thrashing while she was half-buried in the dirt. You absolutely didn't transfer five hundred thousand yuan to me in hush money. And you've slept soundly all these years, absolutely never dreaming of her coming to find you with her face covered in blood..."

Not giving Zhao Qiang any chance to think, Gao Tian rattled off several more details in a single breath. He listed things like the color of the sky that day, the brand of the shovel Zhao Qiang used, and the luxury clothes he had been wearing beneath his school uniform.

The Memory Ghost's effect was taking hold. The more Zhao Qiang tried to refute Gao Tian, the more he couldn't help but dwell on the specific details, making it easier to trap himself in the narrative.

The deeper he dug into his memories, the truer Gao Tian's words seemed. Eventually, driven by a guilty conscience, Zhao Qiang's mind began fabricating even more details on its own, completely ensnaring him in the false memory.

The past vividly flashed before his eyes as he completely "recalled" the event. Cold sweat seeped from Zhao Qiang's forehead, his triangular eyes locked dead onto Gao Tian. He wished he could grab another shovel right then and there and bury the only witness on the spot.

No, wait—now his girlfriend knew too. The number of people in the world who knew his secret was growing.

"What the hell do you want?"

Zhao Qiang snapped, exasperatedly cutting Gao Tian off.

"Didn't I give you five hundred thousand back then? That's not a small sum of money. What more do you want?

"Are you short on cash? If you're in debt, I'll get the debt collectors off your back. If you need money, I can hook you up with an easy job—an iron rice bowl.

"Don't think you can use this to hold me hostage for the rest of my life, Gao. If worse comes to worst, I'll just find someone to take care of you too, and flee the country."

Looking at his vicious expression, it was clear he wasn't joking. Zhao Qiang wasn't the cunning or deceptive type; whatever he intended to do, he simply said out loud.

Gao Tian patted Zhao Qiang on the back, signaling him to relax.

"Don't be so tense, Brother Qiang. I'm not the kind of person to blackmail you for the rest of your life over one little thing. Besides, I don't care about money.

"I made it clear from the start: you help me find someone, and once you do, we're even. What happened back then will rot in my heart, and you can just pretend I don't exist."

He shoved the transparent bag containing the yellow fingernail clipping back to Zhao Qiang.

"This person is already dead. This is some of his leftover DNA. Help me dig up all his information from when he was alive.

"I know your family runs a bunch of debt collection agencies, and you've always had a 'good reputation.' You've got a lot of pull in those circles.

"Rumor has it that an orphan once defaulted on a loan shark. He was already in his fifties and had never met his parents in his entire life. But to make him pay up, you guys actually managed to track down his seventy-something-year-old father at a nursing home.

"With such a formidable tracking network, asking you to find one person isn't asking too much, right?"

Zhao Qiang's expression shifted unpredictably. His triangular eyes glared at Gao Tian for a long time before he finally, with extreme reluctance, reached out and tucked the transparent bag into his coat pocket.

"Who is it? How long has he been dead? Why are you looking for him?"

Gao Tian replied, "He's been dead for about seven years. Male, named Xu Yuan. He went to Honglong Primary School.

"As for why I'm looking for him... because after he died, he turned into a ghost and has been relentlessly haunting me."

Hearing Gao Tian's deadpan response, the girl in the passenger seat actually let out a stifled giggle, despite the tense atmosphere.

Zhao Qiang's face was incredibly grim, but he reluctantly nodded.

"Fine. If you don't want to tell me about your grudge with him, forget it.

"Add my number. I'll contact you in about a week."

Gao Tian nodded, knowing the matter was settled. He turned around to leave.

The Memory Ghost's ability was indescribably useful against living people and intelligent ghosts.

Furthermore, he knew that by "awakening" Zhao Qiang's memories, he had made Zhao Qiang hate his guts. If given the chance, Zhao Qiang would definitely try to have him killed.

To a ruthless bastard like him, what was the difference between killing one person and killing two?

But Gao Tian truly didn't care. He was a member of the supernatural circle; why would he be afraid of some gangsters? During their conversation, the two of them had inadvertently made eye contact four times. This meant Gao Tian had already activated the Shattered Face Ghost's ability and stolen four puzzle pieces of Zhao Qiang's face.

Just one more time, and with a single thought, Gao Tian could make Zhao Qiang drop dead on the spot. Whether Little Qiang lived or died was now entirely at Gao Tian's whim—though the man himself remained completely oblivious.

Just as Gao Tian turned to walk away, Zhao Qiang seemed to remember something and suddenly called out to his retreating back.

"Hey. Cao Hua's funeral is this Sunday. Are you going?

"Back in school, he always sent me the answers during exams. I might not be a good guy, but I remember a favor. Now that he's gone, I'm planning to head over and give his family some condolence money.

"I remember you two were pretty close, too."

Gao Tian froze in place. He felt his heart turn to stone, the rush of his blood roaring in his ears like a stampede of wild horses.

Cao Hua... was dead?

He understood every individual word, but strung together, they made absolutely no sense.

This had to be a joke. Old Cao had just been on the phone with him three days ago, his mouth smacking with greasy food.

It had to be a joke, right?

Gao Tian slowly turned his head. He heard his own voice spill from his lips, sounding as distant as if it had come from another galaxy.

"Cao Hua is dead?

"Are you sure?"

Zhao Qiang spat on the ground, clearly annoyed that Gao Tian was doubting him.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You think I'd joke about a classmate's death?

"He died about two days ago. Working overtime at his internship. I heard all the other coworkers had already left. The next morning, they found Cao lying at his desk. His body was already starting to smell. There wasn't even a point in sending him to the hospital for resuscitation.

"The weird thing is, the computer monitor right in front of him had shattered. It looked like right before he died, Cao Hua used the last ounce of his strength to punch straight through the screen.

"Cause of death was a heart attack. Sigh, that guy worked way too hard back in school, studying fourteen hours a day. I told him back then, 'You're already in the top five of our grade, with guaranteed admission to that 911 university. What the fuck are you still studying for? You should be like me—hit the bars, pick up girls, and enjoy campus life.'"

Gao Tian knew in his heart—knew better than anyone—that he was the one who had gotten Cao Hua killed.

He could already picture the scene.

It must have happened at his internship. After the other employees had left, Cao Hua finished up his day's work and remembered the favor his "adopted son" had asked of him. He opened the link, and using his proficient hacking skills, quickly recovered a backup of the deleted post.

But he hadn't realized he was looking at something he never should have seen. The post published by Xu Yuan might have contained some sort of Meme contamination from a supernatural event. Or perhaps it had been a trap laid by Xu Yuan from the very beginning, designed to hunt down anyone attempting to trace the secrets of the Galan Society.

Who knew? It didn't matter anymore.

Cao Hua was dead, killed by a sudden heart attack.

As for why a hole had been blasted through the computer monitor, Gao Tian guessed that a Fierce Ghost had literally crawled out through the network cable and locked onto him.

Regardless, the direct cause of his death was the favor he had asked of him—to restore that supernatural post.

This was the consequence of dragging ordinary people into supernatural events. When facing a Fierce Ghost, humans from the normal world were nothing more than ants, completely devoid of any ability to protect themselves.

This was the first time Gao Tian truly understood this simple reality, but the lesson had come at the cost of his friend's life.

Gao Tian felt as though his soul had left his body, floating higher and higher. A mountain of guilt pressed down on him, suffocating him.

He was now nothing but a walking corpse, his movements hollow, like a puppet on strings entirely devoid of conscious thought.

Gao Tian numbly pulled out his mobile phone and held it out toward Zhao Qiang.

"I won't be going to the funeral. I have 227,651.30 yuan on me right now. When you go, pass this money on to Cao Hua's family for me."

As rotten as Zhao Qiang was, he wouldn't stoop to embezzling this bit of cash from Gao Tian. The guy tipped five figures a night at the clubs.

Zhao Qiang nodded.

"Got it. I'll pass it on.

"Why are you transferring such a specific, broken amount? Forget it. I'll pitch in a little extra myself and transfer five hundred thousand to his parents. We'll just say it's from both of us. How does that sound?"

Gao Tian was in no mood to keep talking with Zhao Qiang. He stiffly turned his head and walked away, step by step, heading in the opposite direction down the street.

He had gotten Cao Hua killed. He was the one who killed Cao Hua.

...

After returning to the Living Apartment, Gao Tian used the last of his strength to collapse onto his bed. His mind was completely blank; he couldn't think of anything at all.

No wonder Cao Hua had suddenly stopped replying to him on WeChat. He had already been dead for two days.

But this only cemented Gao Tian's resolve to uncover Xu Yuan's true identity. Otherwise, Cao Hua would have died for absolutely nothing.

Besides Zhao Qiang's lead, he had to find another computer expert to dig up the backup of the post Xu Yuan had left behind.

This time, however, the post recovery had to be done inside the Living Apartment. This place could suppress all the abilities of a Fierce Ghost. Otherwise, it would only lead to a second tragedy like Cao Hua's.

Just as Gao Tian was deep in thought, a strange noise echoed from the direction of the fourth floor above him once again.