Chapter 60
Chapter 60
The fear of ghosts was instantly defeated by money. Hu Qi turned to the others and said, “How about we go upstairs after all?”
Song Lu was nearly hysterical. “There are ghosts! Can’t you see them? Ghosts! I don’t want to die here!”
“Thirty-five thousand. We’ll split it seven ways!” Hu Qi said through gritted teeth.
“That’s only five thousand each. It’s not worth risking our lives over!” Zhou Yang didn’t care much about that amount of money.
Their argument was being broadcast crystal clear to the livestream audience. Just then, another burst of golden light flashed across the barrage.
[User Enter Hongdou Hotel and Die tipped 1,000 Treasure Maps]
[Enter Hongdou Hotel and Die: Fifty thousand each. Go to the second floor.]
Hu Qi’s eyes widened until they nearly popped out. In a trembling voice, he relayed the message: “Fifty thousand each!”
Song Lu came from a poor family. The only reason he had agreed to accompany Hu Qi on the livestream that night was because Hu Qi had paid him two hundred yuan.
When Hu Qi had offered five thousand each, Song Lu had already been tempted. Now that the price had shot up to fifty thousand, he stopped caring about his fear and gritted his teeth. “Fine. Let’s go to the second floor!”
Zhou Yang came from a moderately well-off family, but his monthly allowance was only three thousand five hundred yuan. Fifty thousand was still a huge sum to him.
With that money, he could travel during winter break.
In the end, greed triumphed over fear, and Zhou Yang also gritted his teeth and agreed. “Then let’s go to the second floor. But you can’t pay us a cent less than fifty thousand.”
Qiao Yiyi, however, was terrified. “What if I don’t want the fifty thousand? I want to go home.”
“Yiyi, are you going to abandon me?” Hu Qi looked at her, his tone slightly wounded.
“But I…” Qiao Yiyi was genuinely scared. As a girl, she was naturally a little more timid, and her family wasn’t struggling for money. She had saved seventy or eighty thousand yuan from her New Year’s money alone over the years. If she hadn’t wanted to accompany her boyfriend Hu Qi, she would never have come exploring a haunted house in the middle of the night.
Hu Qi grew a little angry. “If you want to leave, then leave. But we’re going to the second floor.”
Yun Jianyue pulled Qiao Yiyi over to her side and clicked her tongue in displeasure. “Remember to transfer my fifty thousand and my husband’s fifty thousand to my account.”
Mo Chen: He agreed to that?
“I’ll buy you a phone. One with absolutely amazing signal.” Yun Jianyue tried to appeal to Mo Chen’s exact weakness.
Mo Chen said, “Do you really think I don’t understand how human currency works?”
Fifty thousand yuan was enough to buy several phones with absolutely amazing signal!
Yun Jianyue looked at him with clear disapproval. “Husband and wife are one. Did you forget? Besides, where would you get a bank card?”
An Evil God without even an ID card wanted a bank card? Please. Human society had a very well-developed operating system!
The Evil God began seriously considering whether he needed to visit the Paranormal Bureau and get himself a human ID card.
Before Mo Chen could finish thinking, Yun Jianyue made the decision for him. “Give all the money to me. Got it?”
Zhou Benxin came over. As an intelligent person, he decisively chose to cling to a powerful ally. “Senior, protect me. I’ll give you half of my fifty thousand.”
“Half isn’t enough.”
“You get seventy, I get thirty!”
“Deal.”
Qiao Yiyi didn’t understand what was going on, but apart from Hu Qi, Yun Jianyue was the person she knew best here. Given the circumstances, Yun Jianyue was the only one she could rely on.
“You’re so tiny. How are you going to protect him?” Qiao Yiyi looked at Yun Jianyue’s build, then at Zhou Benxin, and felt completely bewildered.
Yun Jianyue nodded. “We’re roommates, so I’ll give you the friendship rate: fifty-fifty. I’ll keep you safe.”
Qiao Yiyi glanced at the pitch-black outside. Her heart pounded. She was afraid there were ghosts inside, but she didn’t dare leave by herself either.
“Forget it. If anything happens, we’ll just run as fast as we can.” Qiao Yiyi looked at Hu Qi, then at Mo Chen, who was keeping to the edge of the group, and whispered, “Neither of our men is reliable. We should both break up with them when we get back.”
Yun Jianyue couldn’t help laughing as she shot a glance at Mo Chen, who was scrolling through short videos. She whispered, “If divorce were an option, I’d be the first to do it.”
Qiao Yiyi was shocked. “You really married him? I thought you were joking!”
“Forget it. Talking about it brings bad luck.” Yun Jianyue decisively changed the subject.
Everyone agreed to go to the second floor. And thus, a world in which only one ghost got hurt was born.
Lu Changxue flew into a helpless rage. “Why don’t I have any money?! Are you bullying me because I’m a ghost? Do ghosts not deserve a share?!”
“It’s fine, Senior. I’ll burn some for you later.”
As a comrade who had fought alongside them, Zhou Benxin generously volunteered to handle the paper-burning ceremony.
Lu Changxue nodded indignantly. “I want five hundred billion from the Heaven and Earth Bank!”
“Idiot. Burning that stuff is useless. You won’t be able to receive it anyway.” Yun Jianyue mocked her without mercy.
The paper money printed with amounts of several million or tens of millions from the Heaven and Earth Bank wasn’t accepted in the underworld at all.
What actually circulated was handmade yellow paper money. Even then, it had to be made by someone in the trade using Innate Power. The yellow paper money produced by ordinary little workshops was nothing but wastepaper too.
The three men who valued money over their lives walked at the very front and paid little attention to what Yun Jianyue and the others were discussing.
As for Qiao Yiyi, she couldn’t understand what Zhou Benxin and Yun Jianyue were talking about, so she assumed it was some kind of secret code between them.
When they reached the entrance to the stairwell, they cautiously swept their flashlights over every corner. Only after finding nothing did they gather their courage and start up the stairs.
Mo Chen slowly followed behind the others, scrolling through short videos as he went.
When Mo Chen stepped onto the first stair, he paused. He lowered his head to look at it, then glanced at the others, who were climbing without a care in the world.
He pressed his lips together, chose to remain silent, and followed them up.
As Lu Changxue floated up the stairs, she sensed that something was off. “Darling, don’t you feel like something’s wrong here?”
Starting from the first step, the yin energy had grown much weaker. It was practically nonexistent.
Yet this was clearly still the same building. Why had the lobby on the first floor and the parking lot been filled with such heavy yin energy?
“Yeah, but we already got paid, didn’t we? A hundred-some thousand. I wouldn’t make that much working for the Paranormal Bureau for an entire year,” Yun Jianyue complained.
She only wanted to make some extra money. What had she done wrong? Nothing!
Lu Changxue tilted her head. “But didn’t my parents give you a hundred thousand back then?”
“Eighty thousand of it went toward buying you jade!” Yun Jianyue ground out through clenched teeth.
“Fine, then this money is ours to earn!” Lu Changxue immediately changed her position.
Before long, they reached the second floor. At the point where the staircase opened onto the hallway stood a wooden double door.
The door had bizarrely remained intact. Although the wood was covered in blackened ash, there wasn’t a single sign of damage.
By now, the comments were all urging Hu Qi and the others to hurry inside.
Hu Qi drew a deep breath and pushed open the second-floor door.
The moment it opened, blinding white light flooded over everyone. They all instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes.
Only Mo Chen clicked his tongue in displeasure. The light was so strong that it had turned his phone screen completely white.
After an unknown amount of time, they finally felt the white light begin to fade.
At the same time, a harsh school bell rang.
Yun Jianyue lowered her hand. Before she could make out her surroundings, a man’s gruff voice rang out beside her.
“Class has started. What are you doing standing around here? Don’t you want to eat lunch?”
Yun Jianyue turned toward the voice and saw a thin, middle-aged man. He wore long pants and a short-sleeved shirt, dressed as one would expect in summer. Clutched tightly in his hand was a teaching cane about as thick as a thumb.
Behind the man stood a three-story school building.
Don’t ask how she knew it was a school building. Three large characters had been printed across the wall: “Teaching Building.”
Yun Jianyue surveyed the surroundings and discovered that, for some reason, all of them had changed into summer school uniforms. The school’s name was printed over the uniforms’ chests: Yunyi Middle School.
The school consisted of four buildings and two single-story structures, one large and one small.
There was a teaching building, a boys’ dormitory, a girls’ dormitory, and a faculty dormitory. The larger single-story building was the cafeteria. She had no idea what the smaller one was used for.
The entire school was enclosed by a three-meter-high brick wall. Nothing outside could be seen from within, and nothing inside could be seen from without.
The top of the wall was covered in iron fencing, with electrical wires densely wrapped around it. They looked as though they could be electrified at any moment.
The school’s only entrance was a large metal gate. It was the same height as the surrounding wall, and there was barely five centimeters between the gate and the ground. Even if someone lay flat at the entrance and looked outside, their view would be extremely limited.
Beside the gate stood a fairly large security office. There was no telling how many guards were inside.
And there were still seven of them:
Hu Qi, Zhou Yang, Song Lu, Zhou Benxin, Qiao Yiyi, Yun Jianyue, and Lu Changxue.
Wait… what?!
Yun Jianyue stared at Lu Changxue in astonishment. Why did Lu Changxue have a physical body? And why had Mo Chen disappeared?!
Lu Changxue looked just as bewildered. It was as if this were her first time using a body. Awkwardly, she raised a hand and waved it in front of her eyes.
None of them understood what was happening. While they were still utterly confused, the thin man viciously struck Hu Qi with his teaching cane.
“Why are you still standing around? Get to class!”
Hu Qi let out a cry of pain. His instincts as a young man took over, and he flew into a rage. He immediately grabbed the teaching cane and swung his fist back at the man.
“What the hell are you? How dare you hit me!” Hu Qi roared, so furious that he even forgot to wonder why he had appeared in such a strange environment.
The middle-aged man was no match for Hu Qi. He was beaten until he howled. “You dare hit me! You’re finished! Guards! Guards!”
At his cries, the door to the security office suddenly flew open. Nearly twenty guards charged out with stun batons in hand.
The guards rushed straight over to Hu Qi. Two of them pulled him away, while another two raised their unpowered stun batons and viciously beat him.
The remaining guards surrounded Yun Jianyue and the others. The head of security waved his stun baton menacingly, making Qiao Yiyi tremble all over.
Apparently satisfied by her reaction, the head of security shouted, “Everyone, hands on your heads and squat down!”
Zhou Benxin hesitated as he looked toward Yun Jianyue, unsure whether he should obey. Yun Jianyue had already squatted down with her hands clasped over her head.
At first, Hu Qi continued shouting in defiance. But after taking more punishment than he could bear, he finally began to beg for mercy.
“I was wrong! I was wrong! Stop hitting me!”
The middle-aged man got back to his feet in a disheveled state. He picked up the teaching cane from the ground, shoved aside the two guards beating Hu Qi, raised the cane, and brought it down hard.
“You useless students dare to hit a teacher! Now you know you were wrong? Too late!”