Chapter 44
Chapter 44
One day earlier, Tuesday morning.
Xie Qingling brought Chai Yuhu to the office.
Ling Fang informed Chai Yuhu that the operation had been temporarily suspended. Though confused, Chai Yuhu obediently complied.
“Then… I’ll be going.”
“Drink the tea first.”
“O-okay.”
After gulping down the tea, Chai Yuhu felt much calmer all over.
The restless thoughts in his head, along with all his needless worries, dispersed like smoke and vanished.
At that moment, he truly experienced what it meant to feel refreshed in both mind and spirit.
He was just about to praise how effective the calming tea was when, before he could lift his head, Ling Fang’s voice came from above him. “Now that you’ve finished, I’ll continue. First, although this operation has been canceled, the next one has already begun, and we still need your cooperation.”
“What?” Chai Yuhu froze.
It still was not over?
“Since our target has refused to show itself, we suspect it’s wary of our presence. If this drags on, we’ll gain nothing. We’ve decided to have someone impersonate you and lure it out. Until the matter is resolved, you’ll live here. This place can guarantee your safety.”
Chai Yuhu was utterly baffled.
He did not understand. He could not comprehend it. He was shocked.
“Um… I’d like to ask something first… What I’ve been going through really isn’t just some man-made prank involving someone shaving my head?” Chai Yuhu asked.
He might have been the one who called the police, but all he had wanted was for them to catch the prankster who had broken into his home! How could he have imagined it would turn into such a massive operation?
Ling Fang said, “Obviously not.”
“Then can I ask who… or what, exactly, I’ve offended?” Chai Yuhu felt even more pressure.
When Ling Fang said no, was he denying that it was a prank, or that it was man-made?
Ling Fang asked in return, “Do you really want to know?”
Before Chai Yuhu could answer, Ye Anran, who was beside them, said to Ling Fang, “Captain, just tell him. He’s going to forget it all afterward anyway.”
Chai Yuhu nodded. “I want to know.”
“You’ve attracted a ghost – a Hair-Eating Ghost. It has latched on to you. Your body is saturated with yin energy, and you could die at any time.”
Thanks to the tea, though Chai Yuhu was screaming what the absolute hell inside, his expression remained fairly calm.
His face crumpled miserably. “If I stay here, will I be all right?”
“This is at least the safest place in the city. It would never dare come in here after you. In the meantime, a member of our department will impersonate you. All you need to do is provide some information about yourself so we can fool the Hair-Eating Ghost.”
“Impersonate me? How?” Chai Yuhu looked at Shen Huaizhou, Yu Wei, and Dai Xingyu. Whether in build or facial structure, none of them looked capable of impersonating him.
And if someone was going to impersonate him, would they not have to make an enormous sacrifice when it came to their hair?
Chai Yuhu’s eyes began drifting toward Shen Huaizhou’s beautiful long hair again.
Xie Qingling said, “You don’t need to worry about that. I only need to take an impression of your face.”
As she spoke, she took out a sheet of skin and draped it over Chai Yuhu.
The skin seemed alive. It wrapped itself around Chai Yuhu, then gradually transformed until its exterior became a face identical to his – even his sparse brows and hair had been “copied” onto it.
“Done,” Xie Qingling said.
After witnessing the skin’s miraculous function, Chai Yuhu chose to swallow all his questions.
And so, Chai Yuhu told Xie Qingling everything she needed to know about his daily life and the things he normally did. He even gave her his social media accounts, gaming accounts, and the payment PIN for his bank card.
To save his own skin, he’d given up every last shred of privacy.
Tuesday, half past two in the afternoon.
“Chai Yuhu” left the office carrying a canvas bag.
* * *
Wednesday, eleven at night.
The lights in the office were still on.
Every member of the department was present and standing by, except for Xie Qingling, who was away impersonating Chai Yuhu.
They were ready to mobilize at any moment and support Xie Qingling.
Although Xie Qingling had said the Hair-Eating Ghost was most likely an extremely weak ghost that she could handle alone, the others were clearly far more concerned than she was that something unexpected might happen.
They had nothing else to do, either. Naturally, they could not simply watch Xie Qingling risk herself alone while they sat idle.
At half past eleven, Chai Yuhu, unable to sleep, came downstairs from the second floor. He planned to find something to do to get through the long, chaotic night.
Seeing everyone in the hall, he could not help but stop short.
“Does nobody sleep…?”
Before anyone could answer, Chai Yuhu quickly realized they were all doing this to protect him.
Xie Qingling had not only gone to work in his place during the day, but was also spending the night in his studio apartment, enduring the ghost’s harassment for him. Meanwhile, he alone could rest easy here without suffering anything. The thought filled Chai Yuhu with guilt.
He walked over, sat among them, and lowered his head dejectedly. “This is all my fault. I don’t even know why I attracted these ghosts. If it weren’t for me, none of you would have to work overtime.”
Ling Fang said, “If it weren’t you, it would be someone else. This is our duty to begin with.”
Chai Yuhu was still worried. Ever since learning that a ghost had latched on to him, he had been under immense psychological pressure. He asked, “She’ll be all right, won’t she?”
The “she” he meant was naturally Xie Qingling.
Hearing this, Shen Huaizhou folded his arms and crossed one leg over the other on the sofa. “She should be. She’s very strong.”
Logically, Shen Huaizhou should have been the one to impersonate Chai Yuhu. But… the talent Shen Huaizhou had awakened was rather unusual. He was not well suited to dressing as a man and would not fool the Hair-Eating Ghost. Dai Xingyu was too weak in combat, Yu Wei was too rough, and Ling Fang… was too weak as well. Thus, the task had fallen to Xie Qingling.
Chai Yuhu nodded, considerably reassured, though the whole thing still felt utterly messed up.
He could not resist complaining, “Honestly, I don’t understand it myself. That ghost eats hair, so why would it target a programmer? Isn’t it afraid it’ll starve…? I don’t get it.”
Everyone’s gaze involuntarily turned toward him.
Yes. They did not understand either.
Why would a monster that fed on hair target someone in a profession practically destined for baldness?
Ling Fang was unusually patient today. “You went to that street… the one where the New and Old Districts meet. That’s probably where it attached itself to you. A lot of people had similar experiences around that time, but what happened to the others was just a prank. The ghost haunting you came to claim your life.”
Chai Yuhu’s face turned deathly pale. “Claim my life… I studied hard in school and worked hard after entering society. I usually give up my seat, and whenever I see an old lady crossing the street, I help her. Aside from cursing at kids over voice chat in games, I respect the elderly and care for the young at all other times. Why would a ghost come to claim my life…?”
Why?
No one could explain it.
Sometimes things simply happened by coincidence, with no clear explanation.
Shen Huaizhou consoled him, “Maybe you’re simply very unlucky.”
Chai Yuhu fell silent.
Far from comforting him, that only made him feel worse.
After a moment, Chai Yuhu said despondently, “Fine. Let’s just say I’m unlucky. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have gone to pay my respects that day…”
Ling Fang’s head snapped up. “What respects?”
“It was about two… half a month ago, I guess. My granduncle died, and I couldn’t return for his funeral. So I chose the weekend two weeks ago to visit the cemetery where he was buried and pay my respects. On my way back, I passed through that street. I never imagined I’d attract such a terrifying ghost.” Chai Yuhu clutched his head in misery. “Nothing happened to me at the cemetery, so why did I have to attract a ghost on that particular street? I’m way too unlucky!”
Dai Xingyu said, “It’s also possible the ghost really did attach itself to you at the cemetery. Did anything unusual happen when you went there?”
Anything unusual?
Chai Yuhu thought about it. He was about to shake his head when something suddenly came to mind. “If anything was unusual, then… while paying respects to my granduncle, I got lost and passed a row of unfamiliar graves.”
“You know how all the graves in a cemetery look more or less the same… Then I saw a very old grave. There was a photograph of a girl on the headstone. It was badly mottled, so I couldn’t make out her face. The inscription said she’d died at twenty, and I thought it was such a shame, so I placed one of the chrysanthemums I’d brought in front of her grave.”
Ling Fang frowned and immediately asked, “Did you say anything?”
“I did. Let me think… I think I said: It’s a shame you died so young, but I feel like I could drop dead from overwork at any time, so maybe I’ll only live into my twenties too. We’re about the same age, so when the time comes, we can keep each other company down there.”
The more Chai Yuhu spoke, the worse he stammered, and his scalp began to prickle.
He-he-he… could he really have attracted the Hair-Eating Ghost just like that?
Holy shit, holy shit!!
He had been joking!
He had been working insane hours back then and felt close to dropping dead from overwork, so he had made an offhand complaint. He had not actually wanted to go keep “her” company down there – aaaaah!!!!
Chai Yuhu dissolved into panic. He wanted nothing more than to slap himself several times, and every trace of color had drained from his face. The more he recalled the details of that day, the more terrifying they seemed. Only now did a delayed chill crawl through his entire body.
“Director.” Shen Huaizhou’s face turned cold as he abruptly stood. “Something feels wrong.”
Ling Fang nodded and tried to call Xie Qingling back over their communication link.
But when his earpiece lit up, the communicator failed to connect to Xie Qingling.
They had lost contact with her.
Ling Fang’s expression turned grim. He stood and said rapidly, “Everyone, prepare to move.”
Hopefully, they were overthinking it.
With that, Ling Fang immediately picked up the case that had long been prepared by his feet. Not daring to delay even a minute, the group set out together.
* * *
Thursday, midnight.
Just after midnight, Xie Qingling fell asleep.
Sure enough, the Hair-Eating Ghost appeared in her dream.
Xie Qingling seized its hand. “Got you at last.”
The Hair-Eating Ghost’s three eyes bulged violently. Its agitation was obvious, as were the shock and disbelief across its face.
But instead of immediately fleeing the dreamscape, it clutched Xie Qingling’s hand and trembled. “S-save me…”
“Save me… save me…”