### Chapter 116: Just a Ghost, No Biggie
Sitting behind the counter, Zhao Mingyue reminisced about the past. Life hadn’t just been dark during her time in Eternal Life Village; it was pretty much the same outside, especially after her sister disappeared. Everything at home fell on her shoulders and she was just fifteen at the time.
Fifteen years old and working a job was already tough!
Not only did she have to feed herself, but she also faced sky-high tuition fees. This school wasn’t her choice; it was the best high school her sister had picked out for her. Thankfully, the principal was an old acquaintance of her parents who agreed to cover some costs.
As for Wang Xinxin’s situation, she didn’t respond back then. While she thought the truth would out itself, she also felt she brought it upon herself.
Did she understand the nature of her relationship with Wang Xinxin? Sure! But she still didn’t refuse in a timely manner.
She relied on letting others mock, belittle, and make fun of her to derive some twisted satisfaction and gain from it. Honestly, she felt her dignity vanished into thin air.
Bai Yu, noticing Zhao Mingyue’s rare sighs, said softly, “Nobody’s perfect! Everyone has messed up before. You’re doing great!”
“You have to consider your situation then. That person gave you something—you sold it for cash, right?”
“Besides, do you know what clowns do? They entertain and collect laughs from the audience, turning that into a paycheck. What’s so embarrassing about it? It’s just a way of living!”
Bai Yu aimed to comfort Zhao Mingyue, but her next line made her fall silent.
“Yeah, I was indeed a clown back then.”
“Not true, Mingyue…”
“Alright, I get what you mean. Just taking a moment to reflect. But you’re right; it’s just a lifestyle.”
Twiddling with a rabbit plush toy, Zhao Mingyue smiled again.
“By the way, thank you for the encouragement, Yu sister!”
Just then, the door tinkled.
Zhao Mingyue looked up to see a man completely masked with a face-covering mask, sunglasses, and a baseball cap, trying to hide his identity.
He sauntered in with a bit of a limp, eyeing the place like he was searching for a hidden treasure. When he saw that only Zhao Mingyue was there, he marched over.
“Hey! Where’s the owner of this convenience store?”
“The owner stepped out. I have no clue where they went,” Zhao Mingyue replied as she stood up, glancing at the wind chime which only swayed lightly, making no sound.
“Stepped out? How could they? I thought they lived here!” His hysteria was palpable as he clutched the counter with urgency.
“I don’t know. If you need our owner, just call them. The number’s on the sign by the door.” She pointed toward the entrance, thinking, “What a weirdo.”
“No! I’ll wait here! I’m not leaving!” The man was as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof.
“Fine,” Zhao Mingyue gestured to a couple of chairs and tables set aside for customers.
Once he settled down, she took out her phone to text the store manager but noticed something had fallen on the floor. She had kindly warned the man, but he ignored her completely.
Sighing, she stepped out from behind the counter, picked up the item, and discovered it was a folded envelope.
She wasn’t in the habit of snooping, so just as she was about to return it, Bai Yu’s voice echoed in her mind, “Mingyue, check what’s inside.”
“Is that okay?”
“There’s something odd in it.”
Without showing any sign of revealing her curiosity, Zhao Mingyue walked back, standing behind the counter while observing the peculiar man. He even pulled the hood of his outfit up as if he were afraid of the light.
After some thought, she decided to follow Bai Yu’s advice and unfolded the letter.
‘Zhou Gui, we received your troubles regarding your wife’s complaints, colleagues’ ridicule, your lover’s departure, and your boss’s scolding. We will issue you a treatment plan based on your specific conditions. Rest assured, we have the most professional treatment team, with each doctor being top-notch! We won’t charge you until you achieve the results you want. However, once the treatment takes effect, you must pay the corresponding cost.’
‘If you refuse to pay, we will recover the cost in our own way.’
‘Wishing you a happy life; may you enjoy your new life.’
The letter abruptly ended with no signature, just a black-and-red business card.
Zhao Mingyue examined the card closely but found no useful clues, not even a phone number, aside from a couple of words at the bottom. She questioned if it was even a real card.
“Put the card on the table,” Bai Yu then suggested.
Zhao Mingyue nodded and placed it down. As the threads of bl**d wrapped around it slowly disappeared, a strange design and a line of tiny text appeared on the card.
‘If you’re suffering from a severe illness, don’t throw this card away. Our doctors will reach out to you.’
“Only the first recipient can see this message; I just decrypted it.”
“Impressive as always, Yu sister.” Grasping the card, Zhao Mingyue noticed the design and furrowed her brows, suddenly recalling something. She quickly opened her browsing history on her phone.
The images in her history showed a hospital’s front that was almost identical to the design on the card.
“Why is it still this hospital?” Zhao Mingyue blinked.
She had only spotted an alarming text message about it this morning, and less than an hour later, the hospital’s patients had come knocking on her door, uninvited?
“Doctor… patient…” she mused, gently rubbing her chin.
“Yu sister, it seems someone’s trying to compete with you. These doctors are here as a team!”
Zhao Mingyue knew of Bai Yu’s nickname as ‘the doctor,’ and she still didn’t grasp the meaning behind it. Bai Yu didn’t look like a doctor, nor did she seem to have any actual medical skills. Why was she associated with the role?
Did she look so pure that she could only be labeled a doctor? Shouldn’t it have been more like calling her a nurse?
“What do you think this letter means? What price has this patient paid?”
Glancing back at the freakishly bundled man, she found him more and more suspicious. After texting the store manager, she quickly got a reply saying he was at the teahouse across the street and would be right over.
Moments later, Li Tianan pushed the convenience store’s door open, heading straight for the man.
“Li Tianan!”
“Sit down and let’s talk calmly.”
“Save me!” The man grabbed for Li Tianan’s wrist, but he subtly dodged away. “Please save my wife!”
“Buddy, I can’t save what you chose for yourself,” Li Tianan stared him down. “The first time you came here, I told you: there was still hope to turn back then.”
“I…”
“But you were too caught up in it, right?” Li Tianan sighed. “I told you before your changes were due to your wife’s vitality—you were draining her life, which is why you felt so renewed. Now she’s about to d*e as you’ve sucked her life dry; even immortals can’t help now.”
“You fed her flesh and bl**d to a ghost, and that ghost has abandoned you; now you’re regressing back to your original self and starting to age.”
“The only reason you’ve come now is because nighttime has been the only time you still looked good, but daylight turned you old.”
“Then you noticed that even nights weren’t saving you anymore, and you were losing even that time.”
“Nobody wants to be around you anymore. Even your new lovers and friends left you, realizing you’ve turned into a monster.”
“Then you remembered your gentle, kind wife—the one who was worth your efforts.”
“And so you came to me, right?”
Underneath the mask and sunglasses, the man’s face was ashen. After a moment of silence, he ripped them off, revealing the face of a man who looked well over seventy.
“Is there really no way? I’ll give all I have.”
“Sorry, I can’t help you.” Li Tianan shook his head. “You signed the contract yourself. Let me put it this way: your vitality and your wife’s are like the water in this bottle.”
He got up, fetched a bottle of milk from the shelf, removed the straw, and inserted it into the bottle. “The straw represents the contract with the ghost, and I’m that ghost.”
He took a sip through the straw, “This is how I siphon your life, bit by bit, sip by sip.”
“You wouldn’t notice until your vitality ran low, but when it’s all gone, the bottle shrinks; do you think you can restore that?”
The man’s jaw went slack as he stood up despondently.
His wife was dying, all because of him.
He turned to leave, his steps shaky. As he pushed open the door and stepped into the street, a speeding truck veered to avoid a tricycle driven by an elderly man, tipping its cargo. A box of frozen fish landed squarely on the man, killing him instantly.
The store manager’s expression changed; he hadn’t even finished his milk before rushing to the front.
Meanwhile, Zhao Mingyue witnessed the man being crushed by a box of fish—his already frail body met the weight with a thud against his head and chest.
The crowd around began to swell. Zhao Mingyue stayed put, watching the chaotic scene through the glass door as ambulances and police cars sped by.
She scanned the crowd and spotted a familiar figure—someone in a hood obscuring their face, but the lower half of their face and body resembled someone she remembered.
“Wang Xinxin?”
Holding her rabbit plush toy, Zhao Mingyue opened the door and hurried toward the suspicious passerby. Unfortunately, the throng was too thick, and by the time she squeezed her way through, the mysterious figure had disappeared, seemingly into an alley ahead.
Zhao Mingyue wasted no time and followed into the alley, but found no one there, only a black-and-red card left on the ground.
After checking around, the alley turned out to be a dead end, with a wall from a nearby housing complex directly opposite.
“Bai Yu, can you track where that person went?”
“Can’t find them. Someone picked them up on the other side; they disappeared too fast.”
Zhao Mingyue bent to pick up the card and found it identical to the one Zhou Gui had dropped, except with an extra line on it.
‘If you’re suffering from a severe illness, don’t throw this card away. Our doctors will reach out to you.’
‘Take a guess who I am?’
As soon as she read that, the additional text vanished, and her expression darkened.
“Am I being targeted?”
She suspected this organization was behind Zhou Gui’s card, and the timing of his d*ath was far too coincidental—not to mention these people seemed to have their sights set on her.
Clutching the card tightly, Zhao Mingyue decided not to discard it. She wanted to see who was on the other side: Was it Wang Xinxin or some impersonator luring her into a trap?
“Yu sister, it seems someone’s looking for a fight.”
—
The next night at the residential building’s rooftop across the way, a clear view of the Tomorrow Convenience Store and the chaos below was evident. Four figures stood by the window.
Inside the house, three bodies lay on the floor: the male head of the household burned with no signs of burns, the female drowned with mud and weeds in her mouth but her pajamas dry, and the young boy, tragically, was holding his decapitated head, sporting a blissful smile.
“You’re looking for the wrong people; don’t play with fire. That ghost isn’t something you can handle.” The Rabbit-Masked Girl spoke up.
Unfortunately, her status was evidently low. No one paid her any mind.
“Nightmare, don’t give others the chance to shine while you dim your own light; besides, this is the boss’s order.”
Another voice chimed in, sounding like someone in their forties.
“I understand, but the ghost is the news that Seven just brought back, right? At least gather intel first before acting, better safe than sorry.”
The Rabbit-girl shrugged, sitting on the window ledge. “Trust me, I may be new, but I have some experience.”
Their task involving Zhao Mingyue was for some newly joined member.
Bai Yu was also on their list—an entity that could easily take care of the Red-Clothed Evil Ghost intrigued them.
With overlapping goals, their focus naturally lay on Zhao Mingyue.
As for the warnings from the Rabbit-Masked Girl known as Nightmare? Those two didn’t take her seriously.
Just a ghost—nothing compared to the Evil God of Eternal Life Village.
—
It was 10 PM, just like any other night.
Please give me some tickets—quack, quack, quack!
