Chapter 70 Not only did He Zhao travel around trying to persuade wandering spirits, but she also encountered a very outrageous situation…
He Zhao not only went around persuading wandering ghosts, but also encountered something quite absurd. She saw several ghosts secretly following a girl walking at night. At first, she didn't take it seriously; after all, ghosts roaming the streets these days was a rare sight, and she didn't even recognize them as ghosts when she first saw them.
After driving for a while, He Zhao realized something was wrong. She stopped the car and looked in the rearview mirror.
That's incredible, there's no ghost in the rearview mirror at all.
He Zhao turned his head and still saw the ghost following the girl. He Zhao poked his head out and said to the girl, "I sell rice, would you like a bowl?" The girl found him a bit strange, shook her head, quickened her pace, and walked forward.
The ghost followed the girl, and as it passed He Zhao, He Zhao looked at it and said in a low voice, "I sell white rice, would you like a bowl?" The ghost seemed not to have expected He Zhao to be talking to it, and was stunned for a moment until its eyes met He Zhao's, and then it realized: this woman can really see me.
It glanced at the girl who had been following ahead, then at He Zhao, and finally shifted its target to He Zhao.
But He Zhao was quick. With lightning speed, she pulled a large bowl of white rice with chopsticks stuck in it from beside her seat and shoved it directly into the ghost's hand. Her movements were incredibly smooth. After all, she'd already done it so many times tonight, and her speed was completely different from before.
The moment the ghost touched the white rice, it seemed to be captivated by the aroma emanating from the rice, its eyes fixed on the rice, almost pressing against it.
—No ghost could refuse He Zhao's white rice.
He Zhao was so certain of this.
However, this ghost doesn't look like a good one; it seems to have been brought by those guys. After all, it doesn't look very strong, but it can still run around everywhere, and it's specifically targeting girls, seemingly trying to make their sanity drop drastically in this environment so it can kidnap them once it can see them.
After thinking it over, He Zhao reached out and took back the rice that had been controlling the ghost.
At this moment, the ghost was even more bewildered. It unconsciously uttered an "Eh!" The feeling of its dinner, which was practically in its grasp, vanishing was truly unbearable for a human. It glared at He Zhao, its eyes flashing with ferocity: "Give me the food, or I'll kill you!"
Actually, the ghost was a little scared at first, since He Zhao was some kind of extraordinary person who could catch ghosts. But after so long, He Zhao hadn't shown any fear and seemed like an ordinary person. So it stopped worrying and started threatening He Zhao directly.
Its eyes were glaring like bronze bells, but He Zhao was completely unfazed: "Glare my ass! Try glaring at me again and I'll dump this bowl of rice on the ground, you believe me? If you're so tough, then crawl on the ground and eat it for me. You want to eat white rice, but you're so fierce. Who are you trying to impress?"
"You damn bastard, you think you can threaten me? I know what's going on with a kid like you without you even having to say anything. You'll fall for someone's offer of candy. Do you believe that you'll get caught by the Paranormal Investigation Bureau and have your soul scattered? You little punk, instead of running away, you're actually doing their bidding."
He Zhao's rapid-fire words left the ghost completely bewildered. The thing is, He Zhao had hit the nail on the head. It was utterly stunned and stammered, "Are you... are you telling the truth?"
Why would I lie to you? What would I gain from it?
He Zhao sighed inwardly, thinking that these ignorant ghosts were still too naive, believing whatever others said, which was why they were easily deceived by bad people.
"If you were just an ordinary kid, the Paranormal Investigation Bureau definitely wouldn't bother with you. But if you harm someone, you'll become a possessed ghost, and if the Paranormal Investigation Bureau were to step in, they would definitely make you disappear without a trace. If you behave yourself and do nothing, and then go to the investigators at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, they might even send you to be reincarnated."
"Why don't you think about following the officials? Why are you hanging out with bad guys all day long? Do you really expect those bad guys to help you?"
He Zhao spoke with exceptional sincerity. The ghost pondered for a long time with its not-so-bright brain, and finally nodded: "Oh..." He Zhao placed the rice in its hand: "You should finish your meal obediently and go back to where you were originally. Anyway, it's only a matter for tonight. No matter what, the outcome will be decided tonight. Even if you want to help the bad guys, wait and see how they fare tomorrow."
The ghost sniffed. This was the first time since it became a ghost that someone had been so kind to it. It couldn't help but say to He Zhao, "You are such a good person."
He Zhao waved his hand, ready to leave, but was stopped by the ghost again. It pulled a talisman from its body. The talisman was clearly not a good thing; it was red and bound with black thread... it didn't even look like thread, but rather like hair.
The ghost reached out, preparing to shove the thing into He Zhao's hand. He Zhao quickly shook it off, saying, "What are you doing?! I don't want this disgusting thing!" But before he could throw it away, he heard the ghost say, "These people gave this to me. With this, I can travel around. I don't know if it will be useful to you... Maybe you can use it to track down those bad guys?"
He Zhao listened and surprisingly found it quite reasonable. She still put the disgusting thing away. After putting it away, He Zhao continued on her way, searching for the wandering ghosts in the city, and incidentally stopping the ghosts that had been corrupted by bad people.
Along the way, He Zhao actually managed to bring back many misguided individuals who had been led astray by bad people, filling their pockets with all sorts of strange items. Of course, he also encountered those who were incorrigible and even tried to harm him. At those times, He Zhao chose to retreat.
As she threw rice outside, she twisted the accelerator to the floor and sped off. The ghosts really couldn't resist He Zhao's dead food. Seeing He Zhao throw out the dead food, they had no choice but to abandon their thoughts of causing trouble for He Zhao and chase after the dead food, afraid that the white rice would fall to the ground and turn black and dirty.
Looking in the rearview mirror, He Zhao saw the malevolent spirits feasting and felt a little relieved: at least they wouldn't run around with their bowls of rice, causing the countermeasures bureau to think these guys were helpful good spirits. See, the difference between good and malevolent spirits is so obvious; the bad guys can't even wait, eating rice like fat pigs.
He Zhao called the system and asked it to memorize the appearances of all the ghosts. He planned to report them to the director later and scatter them as soon as the Paranormal Countermeasures Bureau was free.
During this time, He Zhao tried calling Qiao Yanyu quite a few times, but couldn't get through. He Zhao's heart pounded, so she had no choice but to call Wang Yu instead. Wang Yu came to pick her up and took her to the bureau chief.
The bureau chief is at the city's busiest square, coordinating the evacuation of personnel from various departments and searching for the ghosts lurking in the crowd. She's incredibly busy. The fact that she managed to find a moment to see He Zhao is already a testament to her contribution to the operation.
According to the report coming through the headset, there were indeed ghosts carrying disposable lunchboxes filled with white rice, helping the investigators deal with the little ghosts. Although the little ghosts were easy to handle, there were many of them, and they could wander around aimlessly, which really gave the investigators a headache.
What's most frustrating is that the real culprit hasn't been found yet. In other provincial capitals, there are investigators with incredibly advanced algorithms. Some are even said to have superhuman abilities, able to see the past and present, understand yin and yang, and know everything happening in the city from their offices.
But this is just a small city, neither too big nor too small, and there simply aren't any investigators of that caliber, not even top-level ones. The fact that things were stabilized this time was thanks to the help of a special investigation team from above; otherwise, the problems would have been much bigger.
While the bureau chief was overwhelmed with work, the fact that He Zhao, an ordinary person, could still come to him was a real show of respect. Fortunately, He Zhao did not disappoint him. She took out one talisman after another, tied with her hair, from her pocket, placed them in front of the bureau chief, and quickly explained their origins.
The bureau chief's expression changed.
Actually, the investigators had seen traces of these talismans on the ghosts, but as the ghosts were destroyed, the talismans burned away, leaving nothing but ashes. Yet now, He Zhao had pulled out a whole bunch of them.
The bureau chief immediately took it and earnestly said to He Zhao, "Thank you."
They didn't have any particularly skilled algorithm engineers in their department, but everyone knew a little arithmetic. They couldn't do much calculation from scratch, but they had the tools in hand. Using these tools as a bridge to make calculations made things much simpler, so after taking over, the director assigned people to do the calculations.
Turning around and seeing that He Zhao was still there, she asked He Zhao with a kind smile, "Miss He, is there anything else?"
He Zhao didn't waste any words and went straight to the point: "Where is Qiao Yanyu?"
That was all she wanted to know. But the director's expression made He Zhao's heart sink even further, because after a moment's hesitation, the director told her, "I'm sorry, we've also lost contact with Qiao Yanyu. Her last known location was Qingya Mountain, one of the places where the victims of the Lin Gao incident were found. The special investigation team has gone there, but they haven't sent back any information yet. It's likely that the other side has some way of blocking signals, and the two sides may be at war."
"Once things settle down in the city, I'll immediately take investigators to provide reinforcements."
By then, the daylilies will be too cold.
He Zhao knew perfectly well what was going on, but she couldn't interfere with the bureau chief's orders, because the bureau chief was right, and she still had matters to attend to in the city. He Zhao nodded and prepared to leave. Wang Yu called out to her, "He Zhao!"
She turned around and saw Wang Yu jogging after her: "Don't go, it's too dangerous now. That's a war zone, and Senior Qiao can't protect you. You're just an ordinary person, you've already done enough."
He Zhao shook his head: "I don't want to sit and wait for death, to stay at home and wait for Qiao Yanyu to come back. That's not my style."
Wang Yu choked for a moment. She told He Zhao to wait a while, then turned around and said something to the bureau chief before quickly walking up to He Zhao: "Then I'll go with you."
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