When Yin Tong dialed the number, her fingers practically smashed against the screen. She wanted to teleport in front of Qian Luo and demand an explanation, but Qian Luo—with infuriatingly good temper—rejected her calls three times in a row. As for the bug, it had made a sharp crack upon hitting the floor and shattered into pieces, relaying nothing but dead silence.
Fuming, Yin Tong slammed her hand down on the receiver’s power switch, finally cutting off the static.
There were three soft knocks at the door. After a long pause with no answer, the door creaked open an inch. An employee poked his head in, whispering cautiously, “Manager Yin, Zhang Youwei has been sent off. She—”
Yin Tong snapped her head up, her eyes flashing with a predatory rage. “Get out!” she roared.
The employee, who had spent the entire day acting as a human mannequin for Zhang Youwei, froze in shock. “Manager?”
Yin Tong immediately realized she had lost her composure. She knew that no matter how anxious she was, she shouldn’t take it out on subordinates. She took a deep breath, forced her voice to soften, and looked at the man. “I’m sorry. I’m in a bad state. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”
The man waved his hands frantically. “It’s fine, really! I just came to report. Since you know now, I’ll be going. Please don’t be angry, Manager—it’s bad for your health…”
“Come here,” Yin Tong commanded. She gestured with her chin toward the phone on the desk. “Call that number. Keep calling until she picks up.”
The employee squeezed through the door, shut it quietly, and hunched over the desk to dial.
Silence returned to the office, heavy and suffocating. The poor employee tried to become invisible, shrinking against the wall while focusing on the phone, praying Yin Tong wouldn’t notice him again.
Like most people in the company, if you asked this man exactly what Yin Tong’s job title was, he couldn’t tell you. But if you asked what kind of person she was, he’d immediately say “a good person.” He couldn’t explain why, but everyone loved her. She was beautiful, powerful, and handled everything with such grace and precision that you felt safe as long as she was around.
As for where her power came from? No one knew. Everyone just accepted that Yin Tong was in charge of everything. Whether she was a Manager, a Director, or a Board Member… it didn’t matter. She had the power to veto anything, yet no one knew the source of her authority.
Right now, that powerful woman was leaning against her desk, her long legs crossed, tapping her chin as she reviewed the situation.
She had known Qian Luo would eventually find the bug. Given Qian Luo’s personality, anger was expected. But she had also assumed Qian Luo was the type to swallow her pride and keep quiet. After all, the girl needed money and wouldn’t want to jeopardize the case. Why create a scene when the surveillance would end naturally once the job was done?
Yin Tong had thought she could just breeze past this.
Furthermore, she had researched Qian Luo. The girl was an enigma. She had been a child prodigy in her sect, born with extraordinary spiritual gifts. But then something happened, and the “genius” suddenly became a “failure.” She lost all her opportunities—including prestigious international exchanges—to her Senior Sister, and ended up living in poverty.
How did this ‘dud firecracker’ suddenly explode? Yin Tong wondered.
She had also heard that before Qian Luo left her sect, she followed a “Three-No” policy: No talking back, no fighting back, and no reporting to superiors. She was supposed to just internalize her frustration.
Yin Tong watched the employee dial the phone and realized she had misjudged the girl. Qian Luo wasn’t a “weakling”; she was “quietly wicked.”
Seeing that the call still wasn’t going through, Yin Tong patted the employee on the shoulder and took the phone back. “Good work. You can go now.”
The man fled as if he’d been granted a royal pardon.
Left alone, Yin Tong realized how much she had been rattled. She never lost control. She never made mistakes. Yet, one scream from Zhou Hailing had made her break out in a cold sweat. She touched the back of her neck; her shirt was damp.
I cannot let this continue, she warned herself.
Suddenly, her phone rang. She lunged for it, but her hand hovered in the air for a few seconds before she finally regained her cool and answered.
“Miss Qian,” Yin Tong said.
Zhou Hailing’s terrified voice shrieked from the other end: “Are you crazy?! Why did you put a bug on her? She almost pushed me off the third floor!”
Qian Luo’s polite voice drifted in the background: “Miss Zhou, mind your words. You tried to push me. I simply grabbed your hand and held your waist to prevent myself from falling.”
Yin Tong massaged her temples. “Hailing, are you hurt?”
“The bug is hurt,” Qian Luo replied cheerfully. “It’s in pieces. But Miss Zhou broke it, so I don’t think the liability is on me…”
“Miss Qian, I apologize,” Yin Tong said. “I just wanted to stay updated on the progress. After all—”
Qian Luo clearly didn’t want to talk to her and tossed the phone back to Hailing. “You’re crazy!” Hailing screamed again.
Yin Tong sighed. If Hailing had enough energy to scream, she wasn’t seriously injured. The relief was palpable. “Yes, it’s all my fault,” Yin Tong said. “Put Qian Luo back on.”
Qian Luo took the phone. “Miss Yin, I just want you to respect a ghost-tamer’s dignity. Remove the bugs.”
“I am truly sorry,” Yin Tong said, her voice dripping with sincerity. “I hired a tamer once before who sold information to both sides and played us against each other. I lost a lot of money because of it.”
Qian Luo seemed to lose her anger, even offering some advice: “Well, that’s because you went to the wrong person. It’s like buying jewelry—don’t go to a street stall. You have to find someone from a reputable sect. We would never do such a thing.”
“I understand,” Yin Tong said. “No more bugs.”
..
Qian Luo hung up. Yin Tong sat in silence, staring at her contact list. She had miscalculated. Her gaze lingered on a familiar name for a long time before she dialed a number that had haunted her dreams for years.
After a few rings, a man’s lazy voice answered: “Well, well, Miss Zhou. It’s been years. I didn’t think you’d ever call me again.”
Yin Tong skipped the pleasantries. “You have a junior sister named Qian Luo, right?”
The man hummed languidly. “The third one. What about her?”
“I want to know,” Yin Tong said, “why did that little prodigy suddenly lose her power?”
The man didn’t hesitate. “Thirty thousand.”
“Fine. Bank transfer. Speak.”
The man chuckled. “Nothing much. She just did something bad. She killed our fourth junior brother.”
Yin Tong froze. “Killed him? How? Why?”
“Who knows? Kids bickering?” the man said lazily. “That girl was catching ghosts in her teens; she was powerful. Once, our Master caught a legendary ghost. He couldn’t kill it outright; it needed a specific ritual to be erased. Because the timing wasn’t right, he sealed it with powerful talismans. Qian Luo broke the seals and let the ghost kill him.”
Yin Tong felt a chill. Thinking of Qian Luo’s mischievous nature and connecting it to this… if the girl was capable of that, she was terrifying.
“Where’s the evidence?” Yin Tong asked. “How can you be sure?”
“Evidence?” The man scoffed. “That seal was unbreakable by human hands. You had to ‘invoke a god’ to crack it. In our sect, aside from Master and the ‘prodigy,’ who else had the power to invoke a god? It’s obvious.”
Yin Tong frowned. “Could she have been framed?”
“Framed?” The man laughed coldly. “I still can’t invoke a god even now. Do you think a bunch of ten-year-olds had the power to frame her by summoning a deity? Miss Zhou, you didn’t hire her, did you? Oh, we have such history—why hire her when you could have hired me?”
“You’re too expensive,” Yin Tong said flatly.
“Heh. My sister is more expensive. You’ll find out eventually.”
Yin Tong recalled his words and felt a wave of nausea. “A ghost can kill a person? I’ve never heard of that.”
“Ten thousand,” the man said.
Everything had a price. Disgusted, Yin Tong hung up. But the anxiety gnawed at her: Can ghosts kill?
She hesitated, then called Qian Luo back. “Miss Qian, can I ask… can a ghost kill a human?”
Qian Luo was clearly still with Hailing, laughing as she answered, “They can’t kill, but they can drain your essence. Why?”
“Just wondering,” Yin Tong said.
“They can’t kill humans,” Qian Luo added, “but they can kill ghost-tamers.”
“What do you mean?”
“The world is about balance,” Qian Luo explained. “Cause and effect. Ghost-tamers are powerful, but we are the bridge between Yin and Yang. Ghosts can’t touch normal people, but they can kill us. It’s a cycle of vengeance.”
Hearing laughter in the background, Yin Tong asked, “What are you doing?”
“Oh! Did a little kid die nearby recently? Hahaha, he’s so cute, it’s killing me!” Qian Luo laughed. “And your Miss Hailing is quite interesting. Her brain might be a bit slow, but her spiritual sensitivity is high—she can see ghosts! Honestly, she was born to be a tamer. You should have her apprentice under me! Hahaha—hey, don’t tease him, he’s going to cry! Stop hitting me! Okay, okay, Miss Hailing, you’re the smartest, I’m sorry!”
Yin Tong gripped her phone so hard her hand cramped. She stood frozen in the silent office.
Ghosts can’t kill humans, but they can kill ghost-tamers. Zhou Hailing can see ghosts. She was born to be a ghost-tamer.
The irony was crushing.
…
A dark past is revealed! Did Qian Luo really kill her fellow disciple, or is there more to the story? And now that Yin Tong knows Hailing is a natural medium, will she protect her or use her as bait?