Ghost: “Catch the Ghost”

Wang Xu quickly recovered his consciousness. Although there were not many people living around and only a few of pedestrians, that scene of a guy running like a wind and then falling out on the street was not something they could witness every day. Consequently, people promptly gathered. Some of them even called the ambulance; others were gossiping while watching Wang Xu's miserable situation. Someone came over to ask if he was starring in a movie or if they would need more figurants. Blah blah blah… Of course, none of them saw "an army of zombies" slowly coming.

Wang Xu tried to move his body and realized that he only got some bleedings. His bones were still fine even though he had bruises all over his body. He stood up by himself, hustled out of the crowd and ran away.

He ran away towards the direction that Mister Mao had left. The wound on his right leg started to bleed, leaving a streak of blood on the road. Sometimes, some drivers slowed down to take a close look to his bloody face.

After running about one kilometer, Wang Xu stopped and sat down on the pavement, gasping for breath.

Those ghosts had been left far behind. He assumed that the reason was that they could not leave too far from the cemetery.

"I forgot the luggage at the house. Except for a bamboo book and this bloody set of clothes, I have nothing else. With my appearance right now, it's impossible to have a hitchhiking. There were not many taxis here either. Not to mention people might drive me away!"

He looked at the address on the business card again. It was the 2nd floor, number 13, Eastside Road, S City.

Wang Xu knew the area around his lodging house pretty well. After estimating the distance, he realized that he did not have to walk for too long, just around from ten to fifteen kilometers. If he did not encounter any problem, it would take him only three hours to go there.

[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]

When he got closer to the center of the city, it became more boisterous. Pedestrians and vehicles were much more crowded. It was about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. now. S city was a noisy and gaudy city as it had a sea of people gathered in the downtown. Not to mention vehicles were crisscrossing on the streets.

After a working day, the nightlife began. No one paid attention to a badass covered with black mud in a sea of people. Wang Xu felt that the method he had done, which was rolling on the ground, was a very clever idea. Mud and dust could cover blood on his body.

Actually, it was opposite to Wang Xu's thought. His suspicious bloody appearance of a criminal had turned into a beggar in other people's eyes.

He still felt very nervous up to now. He looked around with alert eyes. If someone who looked thirty percent human and seventy percent ghost suddenly jumped out from the crowd, Wang Xu would not be surprised. Instead, he would immediately take the bamboo book and hit that one. Mister Mao had told him that this was his 'challenge', so there would be definitely some demons or ghosts on the way. Wang Xu totally believed in this.

Wang Xu was very cautious while walking. However, he sometimes lost his concentration. For example, a beautiful girl was trying on clothes in a fashion store. "Tsk, tsk … That body is not bad. The clothes that she is trying on are not bad. The purple thing she's just chosen is not bad either, and about the previous thing… Hey, why do I keep looking at her?"

Wang Xu was like he got struck by the lightning, realizing he had passed this road three times.

"Why do I have to go on this road for three times?"

He swallowed roughly. In his mind, there was a simple yet precise explanation for this. It was 'ghost leading'.

The 'ghost leading' usually occurred at night or in a suburban. We would go around and around before coming back to the first place as we could never escape. This phenomenon existed in real life and many people had encountered it. Lately, a scientist had explained that because a creature's moving instinct was a circle, so when they were blindfolded or walked unconsciously, they would automatically move in a circle path. Even if they wanted to follow a straight line, they would gradually deflect in the end.

Previously, Wang Xu had had a great belief in science. He had even tried to remember the information so that he could brag about it somewhere.  However, if Wang Xu heard that scientific explanation now, he would probably say, "If this old man believes in your fallacy, I am afraid I have already died ten times!"

Therefore, Wang Xu only trusted himself and found a way out on his own. In fact, his way was very simple, dangling … Ah, no, it was to follow that girl who had just finished shopping over there, to be exact. If he himself were being led by the ghost, it wouldn't happen the same to others. Thus, following others would help him escape from this anomalous circulation.

Wang Xu was very pleased with the solution which had just popped up in his mind. He then followed the girl with a simper on his face while trying to remember architectures around to assure that he was not encircling again.

Perhaps our readers would want to ask: "Why did Wang Xu choose to follow that beautiful girl even though there were many people on the streets?"

In fact, there was someone who would ask him that question. The answer in Wang Xu's mind was that girl was very charming, delicate and fragile. She might not be dangerous. He believed he was able to dominate her. If she were, unfortunately, a ghost, he would embrace her, then beat her, then embrace her and beat her again, sending her off to the western paradise [1]. May the buddha preserve us!

If there was a scientist here, he would immediately do a research on animal instinct from Wang Xu's behaviors, as he could improve his analysis to be more reasonable.

In short, Wang Xu followed the girl for a while and finally escaped from the 'ghost leading' state. As soon as he was about to change direction to continue his pursuit, he was surrounded by a flock of people in neat and smooth suits, who were very big and muscular with black sunglasses.

[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]

Wang Xu kept startling. He planned to escape but realized that he was blocked.

He stood still thinking for half of a day. He still could not remember when he had joined a gang of the criminal world so that these mafia guys wanted to kill him now. He gently asked them: "You… do you need anything?"

A man in black suit answered Wang Xu in a cold voice. He could be the leader of the gang. "You yourself know clearly what you have done."

"Brothers, I am not alien. You don't need to put too much effort".

It seemed that those men in black had gone through a professional training, they all ignored Wang Xu's babbling. One of them suddenly rubbed his fingers as if he was ready for a fight.

"Pretending is useless. You have been already following us through many streets. After all, what do you want?"

The voice this time was very gentle. The beautiful girl appeared behind those men in black.

At that moment, she pointed to Wang Xu to interrogate him.

"Ah, my way just happened to be the same as yours…"

While Wang Xu was about to drivel, the gang leader signaled others to move forward. He uttered clearly word by word: "We are all security guards with an international certificate. You have followed this girl, going back and forth many times. I think you better have a reasonable explanation, otherwise, I have to bring you to the police station."

In fact, this gangster did not act mysteriously. Although he was a security guard, he had been serving that lady since she was young. As his feeling for her was like an uncle protecting his niece, he was very careful and detailed. Wang Xu's stalking had caught his eyes for a long time.

Facing the opponent's uprightness, Wang Xu had to find a reasonable explanation for this. However, he thought the most reasonable explanation was the truth.

"I was being led by a ghost …"

As the result, Wang Xu appeared in the interrogation room at the police station twenty minutes later. Sadly, there was no police station near the place he had been arrested. The closest one was the police station of the city.

[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]

Normally, in that case, he was considered a roughneck and would be detained for a few days. Anyway, he had not committed any crime; if someone wanted to sue him, they did not have any proof. He would be interrogated several questions and detained in a few days. That was it. However, the one who brought Wang Xu here had a higher position in the society, thus, it was impossible to just ask a few questions.

Not to mention the answers to those question were not very good. This problem had not been solved yet, another problem already came up.

First, the policeman who was in charge of the interrogation asked Wang Xu the reason he had followed her. Because he had no way to refuse the fact that he had indeed followed that girl, so he said something about there was a banshee who wanted to send him off to Shangri-La.

Wang Xu thought if he pretended to be crazy, he would be alright. However, besides the interrogator, there was a female police officer who was in charge of taking notes. She immediately scolded him for being a roughneck …

This scolding immediately became an explosive detonator triggering another interrogating round. It was easy to see the interrogator in front of him was very skillful. During the interrogation, Wang Xu sat on a chair while the officer walking around the room. Then the officer asked him questions from behind his back to easily put pressure on him. This is a trick in psychology textbooks. When someone was behind your back, you surely feel being watched, which leads to the mentality of 'lies would be exposed.'

In this pressure, Wang Xu could do nothing but endure, accepting the inferiority.

[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]

In a short period of five minutes, he disclosed another new problem.

That problem did not come from Wang Xu's words as he had nothing to say but from the bloodstains on the back of his dirty clothes.

"You better tell us everything. It was not good for you to have a big mouth. Spit it out! Whose blood is it?"

"This is my blood. You see, on my forehead, my neck, my body, and my calves, blood is everywhere".

"Hmmm"

After listening, the officer nodded.

Wang Xu released a long sigh. However, the next thing he said had choked him.

"You seem not to be very honest."

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[1] Western paradise: Literally means death