Chapter 130 The child had been making a fuss for a while, then glanced at He Zhao, his face clearly showing "heart of stone"...

The child ghost had been making a fuss for a while, then glanced at He Zhao with an expression of "heart of stone," and at Qiao Yanyu with an expression of "indifference." At that moment, all of the child ghost's performance vanished without a trace.

I don't know if the child ghost was actually a child in disguise, but its reactions were certainly childlike. To a large extent, children are more realistic than adults imagine; the moment they realize that crying won't get them candy, they'll stop crying, knowing it's pointless.

The child ghost was the same; it sat there quietly for a while, then suddenly spoke up: "I have money, I want to eat."

"Give me the money first."

The little ghost stared wide-eyed, not expecting He Zhao to be so wary of it. But the reality was that He Zhao couldn't help but be wary; even adults could be unreasonable and refuse to pay—she had done it herself today—let alone a child. When it came to being unreasonable, who could beat a child?

The child, after some hesitation, pulled out a handful of loose change from the seam pocket of his dress, scraped together 10 yuan worth of ghost money, and placed it on the table: "Time for dinner."

He Zhao swiftly collected the ghost money, and when he looked up, he saw the child ghost with a pained expression. Sure enough, the child ghost had money; it might have had some yesterday. But yesterday, there was a sucker, a mud ghost, who stubbornly refused to part with a single penny.

After collecting the ghost money, He Zhao asked the child ghost, "Which flavor do you want? There's a regular version, the one you ate yesterday, and an extra spicy version, which is spicier than regular rice. The spicy strips you eat will also become an extra spicy version."

These days, how many kids can resist something they've never tried before, especially extra spicy snacks? Even if their families repeatedly tell them not to eat them, they still crave them. Seeing the kid's mischievous eyes gleam, He Zhao knew: it had taken the bait.

However, the little ghost was quite clever; it knew to ask first, "Are they all 10-yuan ghost money notes?"

He Zhao nodded: "Mm."

After hearing He Zhao's answer, the little ghost ordered an extra spicy version. He Zhao almost couldn't help but show a mischievous smile. But she restrained herself, opened the extra spicy rice cooker, scooped out a bowl of rice, and placed it in front of the little ghost.

Qiao Yanyu couldn't see He Zhao's expression, but just by listening to He Zhao's voice and hearing his shoulder twitch slightly because he hadn't been able to hold back his mischief, Qiao Yanyu knew that He Zhao was definitely up to something bad.

Clearly, He Zhao was still holding a grudge about being called "Auntie" earlier. Making the kid pay for his food was perfectly reasonable, but if he didn't retaliate, would he still be He Zhao?

Qiao Yanyu smiled; she found He Zhao's little mischievousness quite endearing.

The little ghost's eyes lit up when it saw the extra-spicy rice. It has to be said, He Zhao's extra-spicy rice was truly deceptive—it was pink. And in the eyes of girls of this age, pink is actually very appealing, even as ghosts; the little ghost clearly loved this soft, pink color.

It stretched out its little hands, gathered a portion of rice in each hand, and then opened its mouth wide, eating from the left and nibbling at the right, just like yesterday.

But soon, its expression faltered, and its previously contented look changed. Its mouth opened wide, forming an "O" shape, and it was panting heavily, as if that would make it feel better.

But doing so wouldn't change anything. Because the spiciness of He Zhao's extra-spicy rice truly penetrated to the very soul. It was far more harmful than industrial-grade chili extract; it was like his entire skull was on fire. Soon, the little ghost started crying again, repeatedly calling out, "Water, water."

There was no water. Seeing this, He Zhao chuckled teasingly, "Oh dear, what should we do? We don't sell water here. But some other customers have tried it with non-spicy rice, and it made them feel much better. Would you like another serving of non-spicy rice?"

At this point, no matter what He Zhao said, as long as it could alleviate the burning sensation from the spiciness, the ghost would most likely do it. So the child ghost nodded its head vigorously, signaling He Zhao to quickly bring the rice over.

He Zhao smiled and said, "Pay first!"

"..." Even the child ghost was speechless at this moment, and it cried out in despair, "Bad auntie! You're a bad auntie!"

"Even if I'm a bad auntie, I still have to pay, there's no way around it." He Zhao finished speaking, her mouth pursed, her face contorted with laughter. The feeling of bullying a bad kid was truly wonderful. In reality, she couldn't bully children like this; the other child's parents would probably come looking for her as soon as she did something wrong.

Unfortunately, child ghosts have no parents.

"Waaah..." The little ghost had no choice but to put down the rice, sobbing, and took out a bunch of change from his pocket. He made up ten yuan and gave it to He Zhao.

Thank you for your patronage!

In the end, the child ghost finished both bowls of rice, then walked away, burping and sobbing. He Zhao guessed that the child ghost had eaten too much. Although ghosts probably don't have the concept of "fullness" and can eat as much as they want, it had taken on the form of a child and might have its own sense of how much it should eat, which is why it felt like it had eaten too much.

After the child ghost disappeared, Qiao Yanyu suddenly spoke up: "This ghost is most likely not a child."

He Zhao was somewhat puzzled and asked, "What do you mean?"

Qiao Yanyu didn't hide anything and explained it to her directly: "Its language and thinking abilities have developed too quickly. Yesterday it was just babbling incoherently, but today it can say a lot. And yesterday it knew to secretly hide the money. Its recovery is so fast, it doesn't seem like a child. Older or younger people, when they become ghosts, will also be limited by their original physiology. Like the old lady, most of them were a little mentally impaired before they were alive, so when they became ghosts, they were in a daze for a long time and it took a long time for them to become more and more shrewd."

Qiao Yanyu didn't meet the old woman right away. She met her after she had been setting up her stall for three or four days, after meeting He Zhao. However, she spent a long time with the old woman and learned about her situation. That was the process that fits the characteristics of a living person turning into a ghost at a relatively special age. The child ghost was too clever, so Qiao Yanyu didn't think it was really a child in its previous life.

Does it know how old it was originally?

Qiao Yanyu shook her head: "Most likely they don't know, otherwise their behavior would be obviously wrong, instead of just acting like a child."

It's not so easy for an adult to pretend to be a child, especially a child whose behavior is constantly changing. It's easy for their actions to not match their age, making people notice something is wrong. But that child ghost's behavior, logic, and speech all matched his age perfectly.

This also proves that it genuinely treated itself like a child without knowing it.

"This is a bit troublesome. It doesn't know that it's not actually a child. Making it deny its childlike appearance and regain its memories will be more difficult than dealing with a regular ghost. Moreover, because of its childlike nature, many things will become uncontrollable. We need to find it quickly and find a way to control it."

Qiao Yanyu frowned slightly, clearly feeling a headache coming on because of this child ghost. Qiao Yanyu had encountered ghosts like this before, whether they were genuinely young or had turned into child ghosts, but without exception, these ghosts were very difficult to deal with.

A real child ghost is one thing, but a mischievous child can be incredibly difficult to deal with. Children's behavior is unpredictable; no one knows what they might do. Furthermore, child ghosts have no concept of death, are unaware that they've become ghosts, and might even find it cool.

But they also want to play with others and want to find their parents, which can cause trouble for many people. Faced with such a genuine ghost of a child who has died, most investigators would feel compassion. If they haven't affected ordinary people yet, that's fine, but if they do, then there will be a conflict between pity for the child and the sense of responsibility to bring the evil ghost to justice.

Qiao Yanyu actually encountered this once. A middle-aged woman in the group released the child ghost because she had a child of the same age at home.

Fortunately, Qiao Yanyu was a heartless person and quickly caught the child ghost and executed him on the spot.

Ghosts disguised as children are even more difficult to deal with. If it's a child ghost like the one we encountered this time, that has simply forgotten that it's an adult and has completely entered the role of a child, then that's fine; but what's scary is a ghost that transforms into a child because of its own hidden thoughts.

These kinds of ghosts usually have some evil intentions. They simply think that children's appearance makes it easier to deceive the living and to harm ordinary people.

Generally speaking, it's hard to commit such a thing unless one is psychologically disturbed. Such a child ghost might have been the kind of bad person who coerced children into helping them commit crimes in their previous life, making them a high-risk individual.

Currently, the child ghosts they encounter aren't the most difficult to control. As long as they are found and intervention is provided, they can usually be reincarnated directly. The investigators from the Countermeasures Bureau generally have two methods for reincarnation: one is what Qiao Yanyu and He Zhao often do, allowing them to voluntarily reincarnate after their wishes are fulfilled; the other is forced reincarnation, regardless of whether their wishes have been fulfilled, to prevent them from harming society.

In most cases, Qiao Yanyu would let the ghosts fulfill their wishes, because this way the ghosts would be less resistant to reincarnation and would expend less yang energy. However, Qiao Yanyu had used the latter method before.

After Qiao Yanyu finished her analysis, He Zhao, who was off work, thought about it seriously for a while: "Why don't we see how things go first? I feel that although that kid is a bit mischievous, he's not the kind of guy who deliberately pretends to be a child to do bad things."

"……good."

Qiao Yanyu agreed. She had always been like this with He Zhao; as long as it wasn't a bottom line, Qiao Yanyu would agree to anything He Zhao asked for. Even if it was a bottom line... it wasn't something that couldn't be discussed.