Chapter 83: The Paranormal Game—Four Participants

I nodded and walked over to my master’s side. “Is there any way to find her? After all, the one harming people is a ghost, not a living person. Tracking her down won’t be easy.”

My master fell into thought as well. For a long while he said nothing, leaning against the wall with one hand cupping his chin. I stayed silent too. After some time, he suddenly snapped his fingers, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

From the look in his eyes, I could already guess what he meant. Sure enough, he flashed me a wicked grin. “Boy, want to play a supernatural game?”

I froze for a moment, then gave a bitter smile. I did not refuse; I agreed at once. I understood his meaning. He wanted to use that game from before to lure out the female ghost. There was no better option. We knew neither her origins nor her name. Trying to draw her out by any other means was pure fantasy. We could only resort to the clumsiest method. Besides, that female ghost seemed to have a taste for games herself, though her methods were cruel beyond measure.

My master and I tidied up the things on the table and returned home. Sitting on the sofa, I looked at him and asked, “Master, there are only two of us. How are we supposed to play a game meant for four people?”

He turned to me and suddenly smiled, giving my shoulder a shove. “Don’t you have plenty of classmates? What, after graduation you stopped keeping in touch with all of them?”

I shook my head. “We still keep in touch. But if we call them here, will that really work? What if they only make things worse for us?”

He nodded. “True enough. Bringing ordinary people in would only make things troublesome. Hey, don’t you have that classmate you were pretty close with, Yu Wenzhou? I remember that three years ago he ran into something like this in your school building. That kid might do.”

I paused, his name stirring up memories. It had indeed been a long time since I had contacted him after graduation, and I had no idea where he was now. But he really was an interesting fellow, and loyal too. After thinking it over, I nodded. “Yu Wenzhou will do. I’ll call him in a bit. But we still need one more person.”

My master thought for a moment, then laughed. “Don’t you have a little sweetheart?”

He raised his brows and looked at me with a teasing grin. I rolled my eyes at him. “Master, we’re talking business. Can’t you be serious? Chu Mengxi is a girl. How could we ask her to take a risk like this?”

“I was only joking. Why are you reacting so strongly, boy? Then how about Lin Fang?”

At the mention of Lin Fang, I shook my head again. “He’s the bureau chief. He’s got too much on his plate already. It wouldn’t be appropriate to ask him to come.”

At that point, we both sank into silence. We brought up many names, even Zhang Moyun, but the moment we thought of her being a girl too, it felt inappropriate. In the end, the only person we could think of was Captain Liu, whom we had met that morning. The thought had barely crossed my mind before I immediately called Lin Fang and made arrangements.

In the end, the four of us were settled. The time was set for midnight the following night. By then, the hour of yin would have begun, when yin energy overwhelmed yang, making our chances of success somewhat greater. Once the people were confirmed, I picked up my phone and called Yu Wenzhou. Very soon, a voice answered from the other end with a simple hello.

I spoke at once. “Wenzhou, my man, what are you up to?”

“Hm? Lin Xuan? Oh, nothing much. Just answering your call, aren’t I?”

I nodded and said, “You free tomorrow night? It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. Let me treat you to dinner.”

“Dinner? Now that sounds great. Lin Xuan, you’ve finally grown a conscience for once. Time and place?” Yu Wenzhou said cheerfully.

I gave a sly smile. “Tomorrow night, eight o’clock. Meet at Liberation Monument.”

He said all right. I murmured in acknowledgment and hung up. My master looked at me and said, “You little brat. If he finds out you tricked him, he’ll skin you alive.”

“As if he’d dare. One finger from me and he’d be flat on the ground.”

I straightened my back at once and shot back.

My master smacked me lightly. “Enough nonsense. Go to sleep. We’ve been running all over the place all day.”

I nodded, got to my feet, stretched lazily, and went back to my room. After turning off the living room light, my master returned to his own room as well. Worn out from the day’s exertions, I drifted off to sleep before long.

The next day passed, and by evening we had made our preparations and drove toward the area around Liberation Monument. From afar I spotted Yu Wenzhou. We had not seen each other in some time, and his change really was considerable. He was dressed in full hip-hop fashion. My master pulled the car over by the roadside. I rolled down the window and called out, “Hey, what are you staring at? Get in.”

Yu Wenzhou started, his eyes turning toward us. The moment he recognized me, and then saw my master’s car, he was visibly stunned. Still, he climbed in at once. Seeing my master, he said, “This is... oh, this is Uncle Tan.”

My master smiled and glanced at him, that look in his eyes seeming to say, You’ll soon learn what regret feels like, kid. I smiled too and said, “What’s with the new style?”

“It’s what’s popular these days. I’ve got to keep up with the times,” Yu Wenzhou said.

I nodded with a helpless smile. Then he added, “So what made you suddenly think of treating me to dinner today? You’re not hiding something from me, are you?”

I did not tell him the reason, only snickering to myself. “You’ll know when we get there.”

Before long, the car arrived once more at Duoyuan Lake Residential Complex. We got out, and Yu Wenzhou looked around at the surroundings, suddenly going still. “Lin Xuan, weren’t you taking me out to eat? Why are we here? Wait... isn’t this the complex where someone died a few days ago? Damn it, Lin Xuan, you lied to me, I—”

I clutched my stomach and burst out laughing. Yu Wenzhou came over and punched me in the arm. I was laughing so hard tears nearly came to my eyes. Holding my arm, I gasped, “All right, all right, stop. We’ll go eat later. Wenzhou, since when did you become this easy to fool? This is killing me, hahahaha!”

My master laughed too. Yu Wenzhou glared at me, looking so furious he seemed about to explode on the spot. I calmed myself a little, cleared my throat, but still could not help another laugh before saying, “All right, Wenzhou. We’ll eat afterward. First, how about we play a game? Think of it as an appetizer.”

Yu Wenzhou looked at me in displeasure. “What game?”

I jerked my head toward the entrance of the complex, signaling him to look. “There. We’re all here now.”

Yu Wenzhou turned in confusion and saw a man in police uniform walking over with a flashlight. It was none other than Captain Liu from the Criminal Investigation Unit. And truly, people who worked criminal cases were different. Their nerves were made of steel. In a residential complex where people had died, deserted without a soul in sight, he still dared to wander around freely.

Captain Liu came up and switched off his flashlight. “Brother Tan, Director Lin said you needed to handle something and were short on manpower?”

My master nodded. At the sight of Captain Liu, Yu Wenzhou unconsciously stepped back. I turned to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Wenzhou, let me introduce you. This is Captain Liu of the criminal police. Captain Liu, this is my friend, Yu Wenzhou.”

Captain Liu gave a nod. My master cleared his throat and said, “Now that everyone’s here, let’s go up.”

“Go up? Uncle Tan, go up where?” Yu Wenzhou pressed.

My master and I exchanged a glance and smiled. “Unit 4201.”

The moment he said it, my master clasped his hands behind his back and walked into the complex. We followed behind him. Yu Wenzhou still lingered where he was, wavering in indecision, but in the end he came after us. For some reason, there was another power outage in Duoyuan Lake that night. The whole complex lay in utter darkness, which happened to make it an excellent chance to catch the female ghost.

We quickly reached the door of Unit 4201. Standing beside me, Yu Wenzhou shone his flashlight on the number by the door. The instant he saw it, he froze and absolutely refused to go inside. When I pressed him, I found out that he had seen the news reports about this place before and knew that four people had died in Unit 4201.

“Hey, Lin Xuan, you can’t do this to your brother. Tricking me here for dinner was bad enough, and now you want me to go in there? Four people died inside that place. I’m not going in, no way!” Yu Wenzhou held up four fingers as he spoke.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Wenzhou, with us here, what are you afraid of? Fine, fine, go on then, leave if you want. Just watch out for ghosts grabbing you on the way back.”

I deliberately provoked him, and sure enough, it worked. His already sour face changed at once the moment he heard the word ghost. He grabbed my hand and looked around anxiously. “Ghost? Where’s a ghost? Damn it, don’t scare me like that!”

“Scare you? Either you come with us, or you go back alone. You know people died here, and you’re saying I’m the one scaring you?”

Yu Wenzhou suddenly looked aggrieved. “If I’d known, I never would’ve come. Every single time, you set me up.”

I laughed and patted his shoulder. “Enough. With us here, you’ll definitely walk out of this place safe and sound. When this is over, not only will I treat you to dinner, I’ll even pay for a massage.”

No sooner had I said that than my master smacked me on the head. I grinned sheepishly. After pondering for a good while, Yu Wenzhou finally agreed, though only reluctantly. Then we all went inside. He clung fearfully to my arm the whole time, peering this way and that like a thief. I had no choice but to let him hold on.

My master found a white candle nearby and set it on the table. Then he called us over and said, “Listen carefully. In a moment, the four of us will each stand in one corner, facing the wall. With our backs turned, we’ll move in turns around the room. When you reach the next corner, tap the person there on the shoulder, then take that person’s place. The one who was tapped will go on to the next corner and repeat the same steps. We only need to do three rounds. Understood?”