Chapter 98 You're too late, he was already gone...

Chu Ci stared at her expressionlessly, and the female ghost suddenly took a step forward.

"You're a living person too, can you do me a favor?"

Before she could even ask what help she could offer, Chu Ci coldly refused.

"You are already dead, come with me."

As she spoke, she pulled hard.

The female ghost staggered a few steps, trying to struggle but unable to break free.

In the end, he stumbled and followed behind her.

Forced to follow behind Chu Ci, the female ghost kept talking the whole way.

"Please, please help me! It's not something that will put you in a difficult position, it's very simple!"

She tried to jog closer to Chu Ci, but every time she got near, she was pushed away by an invisible force.

"I know you, your surname is Chu, right?"

She tried to get closer to Chu Ci.

“You are a very famous spiritual medium in Kwun Tong District. Before my interview, my mother even said she wanted to ask you to tell my fortune. She wanted to see if I could be hired by a design company abroad.”

"But back then I didn't believe in ghosts after people died, nor did I believe in fortune tellers or mediums."

"I felt that whether I could be admitted depended on myself, so I didn't let my mom go."

She spoke for a while, but Chu Ci didn't say anything, so she took the initiative to ask:

Guess if I got accepted in the end?

Chu Ci kept her eyes straight ahead, her profile cold, making it impossible to tell whether she was listening or not.

The female ghost was disappointed for a moment, then tried to come closer, but was pushed away again by an invisible force.

This time, she didn't come closer like before.

With her eyes lowered, a hint of disappointment appeared on her pale, eerie yet beautiful face.

"I was hired by a company abroad."

"If I hadn't been killed, I'd be working on the other side of the ocean right now..."

But because she had to go abroad for work, she had to break up with her boyfriend.

Her usually gentle boyfriend actually hired someone to kill her.

After her death, her soul was not taken away immediately, so it stayed with her mother and boyfriend.

It was only when members of that "murder exchange organization" came to her boyfriend's door that she learned that she had been killed by him.

She raised her head again, "My request is very simple, I just want to see those who hurt me get their comeuppance."

"If you could, could you also pass on a message to my mother... I can pay you!"

She was led forward by the Soul-Hooking Rope, walking slowly with each step unsteady.

To reiterate, "I really can give you the money! I have my bank card in my rented apartment."

"You're a living person, you can take my bank card. I'll give you the PIN, and you can help me withdraw the money!"

She chattered on and on, while Chu Ci listened expressionlessly.

I had originally planned to visit the female student who was murdered by Inspector Wong's son and buried by Lau Ho on the way.

But hearing how eloquent the female ghost was, she changed her mind and decided to send her downstairs to queue up first.

A black seal scribbled on the ground, and a gate exuding an eerie aura suddenly rose up.

She pulled hard on the Soul-Hooking Rope. "Let's go."

She had brought ghosts here several times, so she was already very familiar with the place.

He quickly led the female ghost to Hall 4 and told her to go and queue up.

Seeing that Chu Ci was about to leave, the female ghost hurriedly called out to her to stop.

"Wait a minute! Chu Ci! Miss Chu, wait a minute!"

Her voice was loud, and many of the ghosts at the back of the line looked over.

Chu Ci went to stamp the thick book in front of the counter, and the female ghost took the opportunity to shout at her.

"I don't want anything else, just give my bank card to my mom, okay?"

"That card contains the retirement money I prepared for my mother, but she doesn't know about it!"

"She only has one daughter, me. If I'm gone, she won't be able to live in her old age!"

She started making a scene in the queuing hall, and the ghost guards on duty immediately used their soul-snatching ropes to tie her up like a rice dumpling.

The Soul-Hooking Rope was deeply embedded in her soul, and in the blink of an eye, her soul began to smoke.

The originally solid spiritual body instantly became thin.

The female ghost lay on the ground, her features contorted in pain, yet she still shouted at Chu Ci.

"The bank card was under my bed, on the floor. The PIN was my mom's birthday."

"Please, please help me! You can take any money inside, just leave some for my mom!"

As she continued to scream and shout, the ghost guards who had bound her up like dumplings raised their mourning sticks high.

Just as he was about to beat the female ghost to a pulp, a hand stopped him.

The ghost messenger looked over with a gloomy, ghostly face, and there were actually two pupils in his eye sockets.

His pupils darted around, each reflecting Chu Ci's image, and his voice was eerie and ghostly.

"What, you really want to help her?"

Chu Ci smiled, neither confirming nor denying.

"The world of the living has its laws, and the world of the dead has its order. Since I am fortunate enough to be in this line of work, I certainly will not break the rules."

As she spoke, she took out two small gold ingots from her pocket and secretly slipped them to the ghost messenger.

"This person has always had a loud voice since she was a child, and she hasn't been able to change it over the years, but she didn't mean to cause trouble for the seniors."

"Senior, do you see if there's anything that can shut her up? If you shut her up, she naturally won't be able to say anything."

The ghost with the double pupils squeezed the gold ingot in his hand, and his fierce expression softened considerably.

His darting eyes looked towards the other three corners of the hall where the ghostly figures stood, their eerie voices shrill.

“What you said makes sense. But this method of silencing her…”

Chu Ci cursed under his breath for being so heartless, and quickly took out two more gold ingots and stuffed them into the ingots.

The underworld official then laughed.

"There are definitely ways, these are all easy to talk about."

"Moreover, there have been many births in the mortal realm recently, which has caused her soul to be scattered, so we still have to go to the animal realm to snatch her away."

"Let's just let her off the hook this time!"

After saying that, he wiped the smile off his face, snorted coldly, and looked at the female ghost curled up on the ground.

"With this officer pleading on your behalf, I'll let you off this time. Hurry up and get in line!"

The female ghost glanced at Chu Ci, hesitated for only a moment, and then saw the double-eyed ghost messenger raise the mourning stick again.

She quickly got up and obediently joined the back of the line.

Hall 4 fell silent once again.

Chu Ci smiled at the ghost messenger who had accepted the gold ingot, and the double-eyed ghost messenger smiled back at her.

He put away the gold ingot in his hand and reminded Chu Ci with a sinister smile.

"When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. Since they're dead, they should naturally sever all ties with the world of the living."

"Now that you're practically half a person from the underworld, you have to abide by the rules of the underworld."

Chu Ci smiled and nodded. "Thank you for your reminder, senior."

The ghost messenger smiled and nodded, returning to his position, his expression returning to its blank state.

Chu Ci walked out of Hall 4 and met Mr. Zhong on the roadside.

Mr. Zhong was still dressed the same as before, watching the ghosts coming and going on the street.

He caught a glimpse of Chu Ci, smiled at her, and continued staring at the ghost.

Remembering what the Black Yin Cha had said earlier, she didn't go up to chat with Mr. Zhong.

But if she wants to find Feng Qian and Wu Jiangxue's father, she can't just wait here, can she?

Chu Ci wanted to ask the Black Yin Messenger, but learned that he had gone to the mortal realm to collect souls and wouldn't be back for a while.

The only option is to go to the mortal realm first and take this opportunity to visit the female student who was buried by Liu He.

She walked to the barren mountain following the address given to her by Wu Jiangxue.

Ten years ago, this was a barren mountain, and now, so many years later, it is still a barren mountain.

As soon as she arrived at this place, she stepped down and saw a long, dark, patterned animal crawl past her feet.

Then came the second, the third, the fourth...

Six snakes crawled past his feet, and Chu Ci felt the hairs on his back stand on end.

She walked around the neighborhood with a tense expression, but didn't see any wandering ghosts.

Therefore, the female student's soul has either been taken away by the ghost messengers or has already dissipated.

Looking at the desolate mountain with its heavy shadows of trees and listening to the occasional barking of dogs all around, Chu Ci sighed.

Just as I was about to leave, I suddenly heard laughter coming from afar.

She paused, looked up, and stopped in her tracks.

I heard two somewhat childish, excited female voices:

"I wanted to eat this snack when I was alive, but my mom was always reluctant to buy it for me. I never thought I'd get to eat it after I'm dead!"

"I love this snack too! It had the old packaging last year, but I didn't expect it to have a new packaging this year for the Ghost Festival!"

"I also liked the old packaging! But the packaging doesn't matter, as long as the taste remains the same!"

The two women's voices grew closer, and Chu Ci hid behind a tree, looking over by the moonlight.

Two girls in school uniforms ran out of the darkness, their arms full of food.

They walked to a spot where they could be illuminated by the moonlight, took out a white cloth used for mourning, spread it on the ground, and began their picnic.

After the two women put down the food they were carrying, Chu Ci was able to see what they looked like.

A female student had a knife stuck in her chest, and her school uniform was almost completely stained black with blood.

The other female student had no weapon on her body, but half of the back of her head was missing, indicating that she died from a fall after hitting the ground on the back of her head.

The two ate happily, communicating with each other in a somewhat unclear way.

"I wish there was a Ghost Festival every month, so we could eat all this delicious food every day!"

"Yes, but we have to go further tomorrow. We've stolen all the offerings in the area..."

"I remember there's a funeral home to the east. There must be lots of offerings there. Shall we go there tomorrow?"

"Do they enshrine Guan Yu in funeral homes? I was once struck by Guan Yu's light, and my stomach still hurts..."

The two female students chatted away, eating with great relish, until one of them touched a hand.

"Hey, we've already divided everything up, why are you secretly taking my things?"

The girl being questioned turned her face away innocently.

"I didn't!" She gestured for the other person to look at her hands. "I had snacks in both hands, how could I have touched your things there?"

As soon as he finished speaking, both students were stunned.

The two women turned to look at each other and saw a woman who was only a few years older than them squatting behind them.

The woman stared at them silently, and it was unclear how long she had been squatting there.

"ah!!!"

The two ghosts looked at Chu Ci as if they had seen a ghost.

He crawled to his feet, put the snacks in a white cloth bag, and turned to leave.

"I'm so sorry, sister! We didn't know this was your territory!"

"Sister, please let us go! We'll never come this way again! Please don't hit us!"

The two students grabbed the white cloth in their hands and tried to run away, but they ran in different directions.

A white cloth was pulling them together, and the two of them ran for a long time but didn't get far.

Chu Ci shook his head helplessly as he looked at the two children's clumsy appearance.

He wasn't taken to be reincarnated by the ghost messengers and has been a wandering ghost for so many years.

The moment they open their mouths, they know to call me "sister." I wonder how much suffering those two little devils have endured here.

She suddenly asked, "Which of you was attending Mingguang School when you died?"

Ming Kwong School, the school that Wong Sir's son attended.

Both she and Wu Jiangxue guessed that the female student whose body was buried by Liu He was from Mingguang School.

The girl who had lost half of her head paused, and shakily raised her hand.

"I...I am..."

Chu Ci stared at her timid eyes for a moment, then walked around her once.

"How did you die?"

The girl lowered her hand, her pale face showing fear and dejection.

"I...I borrowed a book from a male classmate in my class, and he asked me to go to his house to get it."

“I went with him, but as soon as I entered the study, he pushed me down and started tearing off my clothes…”

So many years have passed, and the girl's emotions are no longer as out of control as they were right after her death.

After a brief period of sadness, she regained her composure.

"I kept struggling, trying to run away, but I tripped over something and hit the corner of the marble tabletop on the back of my head..."

She touched the back of her head and only felt a large hole.

"I must have hit my head and died."

Chu Ci asked her, "Is your male classmate surnamed Huang?"

The girl's eyes lit up, and her pale face instantly turned ferocious.

"You know him?"

Looking at her ferocious features, Chu Ci felt that she had found the right person.

She asked the girl, "What's your name?"

"Li Lecan".

Li Lecan pushed up his glasses, and his face quickly returned to normal.

She stared at Chu Ci with a mixture of wariness and fear, and timidly spoke:

"Sister, is there... something you need?"

Her glasses had shattered when she died, and wearing them on her face made her look both cowardly and pathetic.

Chu Ci didn't answer her, and instead looked at the girl with the knife stuck in her chest.

"And what about you?"

When the girl was called, she trembled all over and shook her head rapidly.

"What's the meaning?"

Seeing that Chu Ci seemed to have no ill intentions, Li Lecan helped to explain.

"She lost all her memories after she died; she didn't even remember her own name..."

Chu Ci frowned: "You don't know your own name?"

The girl hunched her shoulders, secretly glanced at Chu Ci, and quickly nodded.

Li Lecan spoke up for her, "But her school uniform has the character 'Min' written on it, so I call her Xiao Min."

Xiao Min nodded like a chick pecking at rice, hiding behind Li Lecan and timidly looking at Chu Ci.

Li Lecan shielded Xiaomin, staring wide-eyed at Chu Ci.

"You still haven't told us why you came to see us."

Chu Ci wrapped the Soul-Hooking Rope around his waist.

Although the two little girls had never seen this thing before, they instinctively felt scared.

The look in his eyes toward Chu Ci became more wary.

Chu Ci: "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

She pointed to the road ahead, "Shall we talk at my house?"

"To your house?"

The two girls exchanged a glance, both thinking that what he said was unreliable.

Li Lecan: "Why should we go to your house with you? Besides, it's so late at night, we're two girls, we'd be terrified!"

Chu Ci: "..."

She couldn't help but laugh out loud, gesturing for the two of them to look at each other.

"Even if you two are scared, it's others who will be scared of you two, right?"

Li Lecan and Xiaomin: "..."

Xiaomin suggested in a low voice, "Since we're going to die anyway, why don't we go with her and take a look?"

Li Lecan looked at Chu Ci and felt that she didn't seem like a bad person.

A slight stirring ran through her heart.

Moreover, she and Xiaomin have been dead for so many years, and she also wants to go outside this desolate mountain to see the world.

Li Lecan took Xiaomin's hand and said, "We can go with you, but we can't go too far."

“Once we step out of this mountain, the two of us will appear in this forest again.”

"Do you have a way to get us out of here?"

Chu Ci guessed that what she was talking about was the legendary earthbound spirit.

She nodded as she untied the love charm from her waist.

"Of course."

Under their terrified gazes, she looped the Soul-Hooking Rope around their wrists and led them outside.

Upon reaching the outside of the barren mountain and seeing what lay beyond, Li Lecan and Xiaomin couldn't help but exclaim "Wow!" repeatedly.

Li Lecan stared at the brightly lit skyscrapers in the darkness, his pale face filled with longing.

"What a tall building! When I died, this area was just a cluster of bungalows!"

"Hey, the supermarket there has changed! I used to pass by there on my way home from school, and now it's so tall!"

"The little shop here is gone? I used to buy breakfast here all the time when I was in school..."

She followed behind Chu Ci, chattering away the whole way.

Although Xiaomin had lost her memory, she couldn't help but look around curiously along the way.

After bringing the two people to the front of the store, Li Lecan couldn't help but sigh again as he entered the store.

"What a huge store!"

She tried to go in, but a golden light suddenly shone out and instantly sent her flying.

With a "thud," Li Lecan slammed against the wall, screamed in pain, and quickly got up from the ground.

She frowned, patted the dirt off her clothes, and looked terrified.

"Is that Lord Guan?"

With her hands tied, Xiaomin's already pale face turned even paler.

Chu Ci then remembered that there was an exorcism Bagua mirror hanging in the shop.

"Wait for me here."

She left the two ghosts there and returned to her body first.

When she came downstairs, she met two pairs of surprised eyes.

Li Lecan: "You're actually alive!"

Xiaomin's voice trembled: "You...you can see us?"

"Yes, you are both right."

Chu Ci removed the soul-snatching ropes from the two women and gestured for them to follow him into the shop.

She removed the exorcism mirror from above the shop door, and two ghosts followed her into the shop.

As soon as they entered, the two of them took a liking to the spirit communication table and chair in the very center of the room.

Wow~

The two little girls sat down directly on the table and lay down on it, unwilling to get up.

"This table and chair are so comfortable! Perfect for sleeping!"

Li Lecan nodded vigorously, "Yes! I don't feel any pain from my injuries anymore!"

The two people lay on the psychic table and soon fell silent.

When Chu Ci came over with snacks and other things, the two little girls were already asleep on the table.

She hesitated for a moment, then decided not to wake them.

Instead, he locked the door, lay in the room, and his soul went to the underworld again.

This time, she finally encountered the Black Yin Messenger.

When she asked about Feng Qian and Wu's father, Hei Yincha thought for a moment and pointed her in a direction.

“Spirits that don’t usually reincarnate are all over there. Go and see if they are there.”

"If they are not in there, either they have been reincarnated, or their souls have been scattered."

Noticing Chu Ci's gaze, the Black Yin Chariot quickly offered an explanation.

"Hey! Don't think we in the underworld are being harsh on these ghosts!"

"Apart from those ghosts who are tormented and atone for their sins in various hells, other ghosts are not going to live for more than a few years anyway!"

"People like Mr. Zhong, who can wait for decades, are sustained entirely by the merits they have accumulated."

"Those ordinary souls who are obsessed with their beliefs but do not want to be reincarnated will not live for many years before their souls are scattered!"

"Their deaths have nothing to do with our underworld!"

Chu Ci nodded casually and followed the direction the Black Yin Chariot pointed in, amidst the Charioteer's hopping hooting, "Don't you believe me?"

That was the banks of the River of Oblivion.

The yellow shore was filled with all sorts of souls.

Some people are waiting for the ferry, preparing to take it to the Naihe Bridge on the other side to be reincarnated.

Some souls sit in the corner, looking dazed and confused, lost in thought.

There are also souls whose burdens are too heavy, whose obsessions have not been extinguished, who board the boat, only to find the boat slowly sinking.

Therefore, they could only be thrown ashore by the ferrymen wearing straw raincoats and hats.

She sat on the shore and started crying loudly.

"I want to be reincarnated! I have no unfulfilled desires!"

Among these people, Chu Ci even saw the female ghost who had almost been killed by the Twin-Eyed Ghost Messenger.

She sat on the shore, soaking wet, head bowed in dejection.

After a while, he stood up dejectedly, and when he looked up, he saw Chu Ci.

Her eyes lit up, "Master Chu!"

Having learned her lesson before, she didn't dare to shout this time, but simply jogged over.

"Master, why are you back again?"

Chu Ci looked at her wet clothes and sighed.

"Thinking about your mother?"

The female ghost's eyes dimmed, and she nodded slightly.

She clutched her blood-stained clothes and said, "My mom warned me that my boyfriend was too obsessive and told me not to be with him."

“I even argued with my mom back then, feeling that she was interfering too much with me.”

She looked at the River of Oblivion, filled with boats, and lowered her eyes.

"Actually, I had a job interview at a company abroad that day, and my mom asked me to do some calculations. It wasn't that I didn't want to do them, but I was arguing with my mom..."

"Because of my boyfriend, I have been living separately from my mother for a long time."

"She raised me all by herself, and yet I've been so willful..."

"But it's too late to say anything now. All I can do is try to ensure her well-being in her later years."

"Master," she gently tugged at Chu Ci's sleeve, "please, please help me."

Looking into her dark blue eyes, Chu Ci nodded.

Anyway, this ghost's obsession is already deep enough, so it doesn't matter whether she helps him or not.

"I'll tell your mom about that bank card for you."

"Really?!" The female ghost hugged Chu Ci's arm in surprise. "Thank you, Master! Thank you so much!"

She quickly emphasized, "I have over 500,000 yuan in my bank account, all of which I earned from selling designs."

"Take this money as you like, just leave 50,000 for my mom... no, 10,000 is enough!"

That money was in her overseas account. If it weren't for Chu Ci's help, her mother would never have known that she had so much money.

Chu Ci shook her head, "This money all belongs to your mother, I won't take any money from it."

The female ghost was stunned. "Master, you..."

"Of course, I'm not helping you for free."

Chu Ci pointed to the ghosts on the shore.

Do you know Feng Qian, the actress who died a few years ago?

The female ghost nodded quickly, "I know!"

"Help me find her in this group of people."

Female ghost: "...Huh?"

Looking at the endless stream of ghosts on the shore, she thought, "You won't find them, will you?"

But when she thought of her elderly mother, she immediately agreed.

"no problem!"

The two searched among these ghosts for a long time, sending three waves of ghosts to be reincarnated by the Black Yin Messenger.

Just before dawn, the female ghost called out to Chu Ci.

"Master, Feng Qian is here!"

Chu Ci quickly walked over and indeed saw Feng Qian.

The other ghosts here are different from hers.

Other ghosts wear clothes, but hers are made of paper.

When she noticed someone had noticed her, Feng Qian instinctively straightened her clothes before looking over.

Faced with two unfamiliar faces, Feng Qian's blank eyes darted around.

"You are..."

Chu Ci squatted down, but didn't see Wu Jiangxue's father beside her.

"Feng Qian, where's Wu Chen?"

Wu Chen, Wu Jiangxue's father, was the police officer who was killed while investigating a drug trafficking ring.

"Wu Chen?"

Feng Qian's eyes darted around, and it took her a while to remember who this person was.

She didn't ask who Chu Ci was, nor why she was looking for Wu Chen; she just gave a bitter smile.

"You're too late; his soul has already vanished."