Wang Xiaoming continued, “Zhang Wei, an ordinary person, underwent a notable change not long after Yang Jian became a ghost controller.”
Then his fingers tapped across the keyboard, pulling up a recording from a satellite perspective.
On it, Zhang Wei was practicing target shooting with two golden Desert Eagles in hand, hitting almost every shot. What was even more astonishing was that the proficiency of his left hand was in no way inferior to his right, as if he had trained for many years.
“I investigated Zhang Wei. Since he started high school, he never had the habit of using his left hand. After Yang Jian came back to life during the Starving Ghost incident, I have always suspected that Zhang Wei died once at some point, but Yang Jian revived him with that mirror. That is why Zhang Wei possesses the ability to shoot with his left hand.”
Standing up, Wang Xiaoming walked toward the laboratory, and Li Jun immediately followed.
“Professor Wang, are you saying Tong Qian also died once?”
“That’s right. The positions of those two faces, as well as the abnormal coordination of both hands, fit very well with my previous judgment regarding Yang Jian and Zhang Wei.”
“Then do we need to lock her up? To avoid another Zhao Jianguo incident.”
Wang Xiaoming shook his head. “Not for the time being. I need to observe and study her daily life. Certain subconscious behaviors often reflect a person’s underlying psyche.”
“Understood.”
The two arrived at a laboratory. Pushing open the heavy alloy door, they saw several broken paper effigies before them. Xiong Wenwen sat among them, curiously looking at his own body.
He pulled his own skin out into a long stretch, then let go again, but the skin seemed to have lost all elasticity, piling up into a wrinkled mass.
The moment he saw Wang Xiaoming enter, he immediately got up and hid behind a paper effigy.
Xiong Wenwen was very afraid of Wang Xiaoming. He had once used the malicious ghost inside him to make a prediction about Wang Xiaoming, only to be greatly shocked by the result: several possible futures had appeared, intertwined together.
It meant that this bespectacled man before him had designed at least several sets of action plans for what might happen next, every single minute.
Wang Xiaoming walked forward and examined the broken paper effigies for a while before saying, “Xiong Wenwen, you may leave.”
“Oh!” Xiong Wenwen, as if granted amnesty, immediately ran out of the laboratory with his back pressed to the wall.
Before going out, he even very politely said, “Goodbye!”
Wang Xiaoming turned to Li Jun and said, “Have Zhang Lei take him back. The situation outside is rather chaotic right now. It’s not just Europe—recently, even over in the island nation, quite a few hidden organizations have been getting restless.”
Li Jun immediately took out his phone to notify Zhang Lei.
“Where is Gao Ming?” Wang Xiaoming suddenly asked.
“On leave. You know his personality—he refuses to work overtime. The year has only just begun, and he’s already gone off to take his annual leave. He’ll probably be back next week.”
Wang Xiaoming pondered for a moment. “Call him back. Regarding Tong Qian, there is still one final matter I need to confirm.”
“All right. I’ll have Qin Meirou notify him.”
Dayang City.
The winter streets carried a desolate chill. Pedestrians were sparse; only the occasional office worker, wrapped tightly in a coat, hurried past with head lowered.
A man who looked about twenty-five or twenty-six stood by the roadside. He appeared young, yet he gave off a sharpness that did not match his age, seeming incomparably unruly and making it difficult for others not to notice him.
“Zhou Deng, long time no see.”
The figure of a man appeared across the street, looking extraordinarily strange.
His entire body was tinged with a deathly gray and shrouded in a faint layer of dust. He looked hazy, as if his whole person had been formed from ash and earth.
Zhou Deng’s face was expressionless as he said coldly, “Zhou Lian, I don’t want to bring up what happened overseas in the past. I came to Dayang City today to find you because I want to take back what originally belonged to me.”
A derisive laugh came from within that mass of gray shadow.
“Heh. What originally belonged to you?”
As he spoke, strands of dust drifted out with the wind, gradually closing in on Zhou Deng.
At some point, a faint stench of corpses had begun to spread through the air, lingering without dispersing. Even though the wind kept blowing, the corpse stench only grew thicker, as if it came from some nearby body that was rotting and festering.
“A thief is a thief! If you steal for one day, you’ll be a thief for life! Don’t think that just because you stole a few national treasures back and handed them over, you can whitewash your identity. That thing doesn’t belong to anyone. If you want it, come take it yourself.”
“Hah.” Zhou Deng shook his head self-mockingly.
“I thought you might have become a little smarter after coming out of there. I didn’t expect that even after becoming a person in charge, you’d still be this stupid.”
He stretched out his hand and lightly touched the drifting dust. It had a cold, sinister feel, like grave soil used to bury the dead.
“Still only daring to hide behind the scenes. Can’t you make a little progress?”
What was astonishing was that the cold dust Zhou Deng had touched suddenly changed direction and attacked that figure instead.
The blurry face within the dust rippled slightly, and a startled, doubtful voice came from within. “What did you do… Back then, in that tomb, just what kind of ghost did you control?”
“Didn’t you say I’m a thief? If a thief were to control a ghost, take a guess what kind of ability it would have.”
Zhou Deng casually waved his hand, and that blurry figure actually began to reveal his face. Though it was still not very clear, it was gradually becoming stable.
“If you won’t hand it over, I’ll kill you and find it myself.”
After speaking, Zhou Deng looked toward the street corner. The corpse stench was coming from there.
Immediately afterward, a man walked out from that direction, his whole body still continuously emitting gray, haze-like dust. He actually bore some resemblance to Feng Quan.
“Stop… I’m a person in charge. If you kill me, headquarters won’t let you off either.”
Zhou Lian’s heart was greatly shaken. The supernatural was falling out of balance. He could actually feel the supernatural inside his body showing signs of decreasing, as if it were being stripped away, or perhaps stolen.
His already unstable state was rapidly collapsing at this moment.
Zhou Deng said coldly, “So what? If I kill you, I’ll just take over your position. You’ve stayed in the museum for too long and know nothing about the current situation outside. The city district I was responsible for has already been wiped out by a storm. Now I can just fill your vacancy. Ghost controllers usually die very quickly, don’t they?”
“Don’t force me! At worst, I’ll trigger a ghost resurgence! If I die, you can forget about living too!”
A trace of ferocity flashed across Zhou Lian’s face, and even more cold, sinister dust surged out from beneath his feet.
The next second, Zhou Deng felt a chill on his back, and his field of vision was rapidly swallowed by gray haze. A pale, bloodless hand suddenly stretched out from underground and clamped tightly around his ankle.
“A ghost resurgence?” Zhou Deng did not panic.
“You think I came looking for you without making any preparations? It seems that after staying holed up for so long, not only has your brain deteriorated, but even your judgment is gone.”
He took a step forward, just happening to step onto the constantly spreading dust.
“When ghost controllers use the supernatural power they control, it isn’t so they can be as mechanical and rigid as ghosts. The key lies in knowing how to adapt flexibly. Like this!”
As Zhou Deng took that step, an identical cold sensation suddenly came from Zhou Lian’s own ankle.
He abruptly lowered his head, and his pupils instantly contracted. On his right foot, at some unknown point, an identical pale hand had appeared, exactly the same as the hand of the ghost he controlled…