“Why are you possessed again?”
The bespectacled passenger stood in the back, covering his face as he sobbed.
“No, I did not even do anything this time.” Mu Li looked at Feng Yi, who was glaring at him with open hostility, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
Feng Yi wore a look that clearly said, stop pretending: “He even wants to protect the person who harmed him. How could he possibly shove someone into an incinerator?”
When on earth had this ghost replaced Mu Li?
He had not sensed it at all.
If not for that extremely abnormal action, he really would have been fooled.
“I…” Mu Li was briefly left speechless. Was threatening someone seriously not allowed? “Besides, when have I ever protected someone who harmed me?”
Feng Yi let out a cold snort: “You are not him, so of course you would not know.”
The passengers on the train had wanted to kill Mu Li, yet he had set aside past grievances and saved them instead. That was something this ghost could not possibly fathom.
At that moment, Uncle Liu seized the opportunity to scramble out of the incinerator, and upon hearing the word possessed, cold sweat broke out across his back.
The youth had actually been possessed by an evil ghost!
Does that not mean if he had not blurted out the truth just now, that ghost really would have burned him to death?
Overcome with lingering fear, his legs began to tremble.
Feng Yi clutched his doll as he slowly closed in on the ghost: “This is the second time. I will let you go, but if there is a next time, I will never spare you.”
Mu Li sucked in a sharp breath: “Fine, I am leaving, I am leaving.”
With that very familiar routine of closing his eyes and letting his body go limp, he collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
Feng Yi immediately stepped forward to support the youth, his expression complex.
The youth slowly blinked awake, clutching his head with a bewildered look: “I, what happened to me?”
“You got possessed again.” Seeing the real Mu Li return, Feng Yi let out a sigh of relief while simultaneously heightening his vigilance.
That ghost looked like it had left, but who could say if there would be a next time? In case they failed to notice it, would that ghost genuinely end up replacing Mu Li?
The next second, the player found himself being stared at intensely by his teammate.
Mu Li hurried to stand up and pivot the conversation: “Ahem, by the way, what did that ghost just do?”
“That ghost went looking for the mortician, but came back empty-handed.” Shu Lan raised her hand and chimed in softly.
Everyone turned their gazes to Uncle Liu.
“I really do not know anything about this! The mortician’s whereabouts have always been extremely mysterious,” Uncle Liu stammered, shaking his head frantically.
Hearing this, Mu Li stepped forward and walked over.
Feng Yi’s heart leaped into his throat once more. With this kind of action and expression, had he gotten possessed by the ghost again? That fast?
Uncle Liu was so terrified he slumped onto the floor, shivering uncontrollably: “Y-you, do not come over!”
Yet the youth simply broke into a benign smile, half-crouching in front of the man with a tone as gentle as water: “Then can you tell us everything you know, please?”
Phew, good, good. Mu Li was still his usual self. Feng Yi had nearly been scared out of his wits, but now he relaxed again.
In Uncle Liu’s eyes, however, the youth’s smile looked utterly bizarre, bizarre enough to make his hair stand on end: “The mortician has always stayed at the funeral home and has no other residence. I really do not know where he is.”
The youth’s smile grew even more radiant: “Is that so?”
“B-but I do know that when I handed the corpse over to him, he actually said the fetus in the pregnant woman’s belly was not dead.” Uncle Liu swallowed hard.
“Not dead?!”
The mother was dead, yet the fetus was not? Was that even possible?
“Right, the mortician took the fetus out, and when we looked, it turned out to be an embryo only three months along!” Uncle Liu shuddered just thinking about it.
What he did not voice out loud was that the fetus’s heart had still been beating, thud by thud.
Shu Lan covered her mouth in shock: “How can that be? Only three months, and it was still alive?”
Then, when they saw the ghost mother at the hospital, was the child inside her belly dead or alive?
Mu Li nodded: “Truly bizarre.”
What he was thinking, though, was that if the fetus was still alive, based on his experience, this child definitely would not be ordinary, it might even be the dungeon BOSS.
Looks like he would have his hands full this time.
Mu Li looked at Uncle Liu: “Keep going.”
“Then some unfamiliar people showed up carrying a suitcase, and the police arrived shortly after. When I went to check, the pregnant woman was just gone.”
Uncle Liu spilled everything he knew.
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“I mean the whole person vanished into thin air.” Uncle Liu broke out in goosebumps all over his arms. “You tell me, in a place as small as ours, we searched the entire area, yet not a single trace was left behind.”
Mu Li rested his chin in his hand to ponder: “You mentioned some people were carrying a suitcase. How big was it?”
“Not big, and very flat. There is no way it could fit a corpse.” Uncle Liu gestured with his hands.
Earlier, the ghost mother had said someone wanted to steal her child. That must have been because of the mortician, and her own corpse had also vanished into his hands.
“Since the ghost mother cares so much about her child, her next target is very likely the mortician,” Mu Li deduced.
All four of them agreed that this hypothesis was extremely probable.
“But right now, we cannot find the ghost mother, nor can we find the mortician.”
Silence fell among them as things suddenly reached a deadlock.
At that moment, the bespectacled passenger bumped against Mu Li and slipped his phone over secretly.
Catching sight of the location tracker, Mu Li instantly caught on, raised the phone, and announced: “I know where the ghost mother is. I stuck a tracker on her earlier.”
Hearing this, Shu Lan’s eyes lit up: “Wow, you are so thoughtful.”
Upon checking the coordinates, though, why did they look so familiar?
Wait, was not that her house?
“Why would she go to my place?” Shu Lan was baffled.
“Hey, do you know her?” Mu Li asked.
Was there something at the reporter’s house that could possibly attract the ghost mother?
“I do not know her at all,” Shu Lan shook her head.
“Well, that is strange.” Mu Li wanted to ask more.
Feng Yi hauled him right back over: “When did you stick a tracker on her?”
Mu Li’s gaze drifted away: “When she attacked me.”
Feng Yi took a deep breath: “You never even touched the ghost mother, stop covering for him! Is not this tracker that bespectacled guy’s?”
“Uh, about that…”
“You are too naive! Who goes around carrying location trackers anyway? And why would he give it to you if not to use you as bait to test the danger? He is harboring malicious intentions!”
Furious at how devoid of caution the youth was, Feng Yi, having already told him that the bespectacled passenger was Pei Kanyan’s subordinate, could not fathom why he was still so easily duped.
Wait, a sudden thought struck him.
He searched his jacket pockets, checked his pants pockets, and abruptly discovered a tracker tucked into the stitching of his shoe sole.
Clutching that tiny chip, Feng Yi flew into a rage and marched menacingly toward the bespectacled passenger.
“If I do not teach you a lesson, you are going to treat me like an idiot, huh?”
“Hold on, hold on! We have a common enemy right now. Once this is over, I will not stop you however you want to deal with him.” Mu Li stepped in front of Pei Kanyan to block him.
Feng Yi gritted his teeth. Now truly was not the time for internal conflict: “For Mu Li’s sake, I will let you off for now.”
With heavy, stomping footsteps, he marched toward the reporter’s house.
Seeing Feng Yi walk away, Mu Li asked stealthily, “Did you stick one on me too?”
Pei Kanyan: “Mn.”
Mu Li looked amazed: “When did you do that? I did not feel a thing.”
“I touched you plenty of times. Any of those would do.”
Mu Li: “Oh.”
Seeing how easily Mu Li accepted it, Pei Kanyan asked in bewilderment, “Are you not angry?”
“Why would I be angry? If you always know where I am, then in case I die, would not you be able to bring me home?”
“…”
Pei Kanyan reached out and flicked Mu Li right on the forehead: “What kind of nonsense are you spouting!”
Mu Li: “Ouch!”
The player was being completely sincere!
The four of them arrived once again at Shu Lan’s doorstep. The tracker indicated that the ghost mother was right inside.
If they wanted to uncover the whole truth, they had to see the ghost mother.
“Let us go.”
They already knew the mortician was the one who had taken her child. As long as they explained things clearly, they could secure her assistance.
Still, precautions had to be taken.
Feng Yi: “Remaking a doll consumes a tremendous amount of stamina, and once I start, I will not be able to move.”
Mu Li flashed an OK hand sign: “Got it. I will negotiate with her while stalling for time.”
Shu Lan twisted her key in the lock, then ducked aside to hide.
Mu Li pushed the door open just a crack. Catching a glimpse of the ghost mother’s silhouette, he hurriedly called out, “Do not attack!”
The ghost mother cut a terrifying figure of an evil ghost, her entire body wreathed in dense resentment and coiling black mist. Standing right at the entrance of the living room, she stared at them with a dark, gloomy gaze.
If she were not a pregnant woman, and the pregnant woman were not a victim, the player would never have linked her to a quest target.
Mu Li opened the door wide so Feng Yi could clearly see the ghost mother’s form. Feng Yi immediately set to work crafting a doll inside his pocket.
“You are here to steal my child!” The moment she saw them, those were the ghost mother’s opening words.
Mu Li frantically waved his hands: “We are not the ones stealing your child, it is the mortician! Let us work together to snatch your child back, alright?”
A flicker of doubt crossed the ghost mother’s eyes: “Snatch the child back?”
“Right, and we will make everyone who caused your death pay the price.”
Seeing the ghost mother steadying down, Mu Li continued: “First off, the knife-wielding man who killed you, he is a mental patient, right?”
Yet the ghost mother broke into a bizarre smile: “The knife-wielding man who killed me was pushed downstairs by me, hehehe.”
Hearing this, Mu Li felt an inexplicable sense of discord. Had the ghost mother pushed the train conductor downstairs the same way she pushed the doctor?
Mu Li pivoted to look at Pei Kanyan, who shook his head.
Mu Li turned back. He did not recall any signs of a fall from height on the train conductor either.
“After that, Dr. Yang announced your death, and you were sent to the crematorium.”
Hatred surged across the ghost mother’s face: “Dr. Yang announced my death. He is the one who killed me, and my child!”
“Is that so?” Mu Li found it a bit strange. The ghost mother had not mentioned the train conductor who actually killed her at all, yet harbored such intense murderous intent toward Dr. Yang.
Still, he pressed on: “And then, you met the mortician, and he took your child away.”
Ghost mother: “No! The mortician is a good person. He allowed my child to be reborn, and my child will be born soon.”
The ghost mother caressed her belly with a look of maternal tenderness.
“…” Mu Li did not know what to chat about anymore.
Why did not anything the ghost mother said match up with what they knew? Who on earth was lying, and where had the lies started?
He glanced at Feng Yi. A thin layer of sweat already coated Feng Yi’s forehead.
So crafting a doll of the exact same person really did consume an immense amount of energy. That made sense; with an ability this powerful, if there were not some restrictions, it would be downright overpowered.
“I want to ask a question too,” Shu Lan quietly poked her head out. “Where is your body?”
Now hitting on the crucial point, everyone was waiting for the answer to that question.
The moment those words fell, the ghost mother’s expression plunged into instant gloom, reverting right back to that uncommunicative state:
“You are just here to steal my child!”
Terrified, Shu Lan clung to the doorframe, not daring to move.
Realizing things were going south, Mu Li immediately stepped forward to shield her.
The ghost mother’s hand clamped around the youth’s throat, lifting him up and hurling him sideways.
Mu Li slammed hard into the coffee table, shattering it into pieces while fragments of glass pierced and lacerated his back.
Why?
Why would a quest target attack the player?
Where on earth had things gone wrong?