Entrenching shovel slung over his shoulder, Chen Qing boarded the subway.
Ximing City had exactly one subway line.
It was packed. Chen Qing busied himself transferring the data from his old phone to the new one.
"Hmph!"
A girl stamped her foot in front of him—whether sulking or genuinely annoyed, he couldn't tell, and didn't care.
But the girl was furious!
What the—didn't you used to practically want to lick the soles of my shoes?
And now that I've delivered myself right to your face, you won't even spare me a glance?
She was, of course, Chenxi.
She wasn't one to give up easily—especially after tagging Chen Qing as a super-blue-chip stock.
Chen Qing, I'm having you!
Not even Jesus could keep you from me, I swear!
Chen Qing didn't look up, focused on shuffling his data across.
The next stop arrived.
Chen Qing still didn't look up—his stop was the end of the line anyway.
Suddenly!
Chenxi snatched his phone and darted out of the carriage in a few quick steps.
Chen Qing moved to chase, but her timing was perfect: the doors slid shut just then, walling the two of them apart.
Chenxi stood with her feet together, leaning slightly forward, one hand behind her back, the other waggling the phone, her face blooming into a smile.
She laughed softly. "Tomorrow. Same spot. I'll give your phone back then~"
Several guys in the carriage let out an admiring "wow."
That face, that figure—lethal to any man!
Who could possibly resist?!
They stared at Chen Qing, eyes full of envy.
And more than that, of a question—what kind of man earned the favor of a girl like that?
Chen Qing sneered.
He dialed the police straight away.
"At Changhu Station, someone just robbed me of my new phone."
"Value? A 14,999-yuan satellite phone."
"Yes, that's right. Reach me at this number."
That done, Chen Qing paid it no more mind.
Sulking and flirting?
Ha!
Maybe last life his brain had been smeared with crap, to have ever fallen for a piece of work like this.
Now you can go flirt with the police.
The whole carriage stood there dumbfounded.
The hell?
This was beyond anything you could call a "clueless straight man."
This was a full-on Transformer!
That gorgeous girl is obviously into you!
And you call the cops?!
***
Great Tang's surveillance was famous the world over!
The police pinpointed the suspect in no time.
The facts couldn't be clearer.
In moments, they found Chenxi waiting at a bus stop.
She was bewildered.
"Please come with us."
"Officers, you've got the wrong person, surely?"
"No mistake. You robbed someone of their phone—it's all clear on the cameras, and isn't that it in your hand?"
"This..."
Chenxi was struck speechless!
Utterly, completely speechless!
"This... this... he—he's—is he sick in the head?!"
Her thoughts were a tangle.
"How dare he?"
"How dare he do this?!"
"He actually went and did this?!"
That little scene of hers hadn't been some spur-of-the-moment whim.
It was the optimal plot she'd rehearsed in her head many times over.
Maximum girlish charm, maximum youthful sparkle—she'd been sure she could reel Chen Qing in.
Even if Chen Qing got angry, wasn't it just a matter of a little coaxing?
Grab his arm, brush "accidentally" against his chest.
If once didn't work, then twice.
Of the countless ways it could have gone, this was the one scene she'd never imagined.
"Let's go!"
Chenxi was truly stunned; an officer took hold of her arm.
She wrenched free, her eyes reddening. "We—we were just joking around!"
"Chen Qing is my friend—no, he's my boyfriend. Don't believe me? I've got his number right here! WeChat, I've got his WeChat too!"
"Please come with us."
The police didn't indulge her. Clearing out nightclubs, they'd seen this routine far too often.
Some grabbed your hand and pressed it to their chest. Some stripped bare and said, "Just let me go and I'll do anything."
What was this, by comparison?
They were numb to it.
If she really wanted to explain, she could explain at the station.
Chenxi truly panicked now. Hauled into the police car, her eyes brimming with tears.
Wronged.
She felt so terribly wronged.
The moment she reached the station, she dug out Chen Qing's number and called.
She badly wanted to ask him—what on earth was this supposed to be?!
Was it really necessary?!
Only... the phone was switched off.
"He really is my boyfriend—we were only joking!"
Giving her statement, she wept.
"Whether or not he's your boyfriend—even if it's true, this is still a crime."
Another officer glanced at her. "This phone's worth fifteen thousand. Robbery... three to ten years."
A ringing filled her ears!
Chenxi froze!
Th... three years?
The tears spilled over. Her hands trembled faintly.
***
Meanwhile, Chen Qing had reached the east side of the city.
The yin was heavy here.
Like wearing only a thin shirt on an autumn morning; like the covers being flung off you in the dead of winter.
Having lived through the Ghost Tide, he knew perfectly well: though it was daytime, running into a ghost was still possible. Just very unlikely.
At the start of the Blood Moon Ghost Tide, the city's big shots had planned a counterattack, and this princess's tomb had been part of it—so Chen Qing knew the route well.
Most people had moved into the city by now, but plenty of villages, and plenty of people, remained outside it.
There was no help for it—they couldn't afford a home in the city. You couldn't just sleep in the street.
After walking straight for half an hour, Chen Qing came to a village long since abandoned.
Not far from it stood a mound, topped by an enormous dead pagoda tree.
Beneath that mound lay the princess's tomb.
"Please, please—just a little ghost-qi..."
Chen Qing muttered to himself, folded the entrenching shovel into hoe form, and began to dig.
The loose topsoil came away easily, but the deeper he went, the more tightly packed the earth.
Every strike rang out—clang, clang—as if he were striking stone.
The tombs of great figures ran deep. Chen Qing had steeled himself to dig for several days.
He dug and dug, and soon it was noon.
One more strike—and his hand suddenly met empty air.
He'd broken into a cavity?
Clearing away the soil fast, Chen Qing found a hole slanting downward, wide enough for one person to pass through.
Cold air seeped out of it, and the gooseflesh rose in unison all over his body—ghost-qi!
A robber's tunnel.
The tomb had plainly been visited by an expert.
A real grave robber would have wept at this, but Chen Qing was thrilled!
What should have been three or four days of work was done in one stroke!
There had been two Ghost Tides—the southern Ghost Tide, and the Blood Moon Ghost Tide. Relics awakened only during the Blood Moon Ghost Tide.
When the southern Ghost Tide erupted, relics did not awaken.
Only after the Blood Moon descended did relics awaken. Now, under the Blood Moon's watch, the ghost-qi at the major tide sites could also awaken relics—these were things people only confirmed later on.
Judging by this tomb's ghost-qi, it should be enough to awaken the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda!
He set the pagoda at the mouth of the robber's tunnel, then settled down and leisurely munched on a compressed biscuit.
Go down?
He didn't dare.
Right now, inside and out, he was nothing but an ordinary person. From the feel of this ghost-qi, there were surely plenty of Wandering Souls inside—maybe even Malevolent Ghosts.
Wandering Soul → Malevolent Ghost → Evil Spirit.
A Wandering Soul, especially a first-tier one, could be thought of as a ghost's newborn—muddled and mindless, acting on instinct, rarely harming anyone.
A Malevolent Ghost, compared to a Wandering Soul, was a huge leap in strength, with real cunning, and it began hunting humans with purpose—because that was how they grew stronger.
For instance, an infant, dead, would become the Wandering Soul-rank 【Child Ghost】, and once certain conditions were met would evolve into the Malevolent Ghost-rank 【Night-Crier】. Its favorite meal was children.
There were sure to be Wandering Souls inside this tomb, and the tomb's owner was most likely a Malevolent Ghost.
As he thought this, Chen Qing suddenly noticed a middle-aged woman a short way off, staring fixedly at him.
She carried a back-basket and a hoe—out gathering wild greens, by the look of it, and just returning.
She studied him for a good while, then walked on.
Chen Qing let out a breath.
No signal on his phone. Bored with waiting, he dozed off—and, hazily, heard people clamoring.
Chen Qing looked over: the middle-aged woman was leading a whole crowd, storming toward him in a fury.
"Yes! It's here! I saw it plain as day!"
"Is that the one who's been robbing the tomb?"
"Come to steal our things—tired of living, are you?!"
A dozen-odd people, most of them gripping hoes, bearing down with menace.
Chen Qing's heart sank, but he rose calmly, not the least bit flustered.
Having lived through the end times, he understood one truth deeply: show a fraction of weakness, and the other side turns ten times stronger.
Without a sound he covered the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, and looked at them, expressionless. "Something the matter?"