Wutong Shen’s eyelids twitched.
This smile made his scalp tingle, and he instinctively sensed a trace of danger.
But the person in front of him looked no more than twenty years old, with a tender face, appearing like a frail, delicate pretty boy.
How dangerous could such a person be?
Wutong Shen shook his head, tossing aside the illusory sense of danger.
His two arms hung in front of him, fingers clawed, and he let out a sinister laugh: “Today, Grandpa will teach you what it means to know your place in this world!”
In that instant, Little President Li’s arms seemed to turn into stretchable clay.
Although there were still two or three meters between them, Wutong Shen’s body didn’t move, yet his arms suddenly stretched out extremely long, almost instantly reaching Zhang Xianyu’s neck.
Zhang Xianyu’s eyes flashed.
He tilted his chin back to dodge, while raising his right hand to seize Wutong Shen’s wrist.
Then he took a step back, using it as leverage to spin Wutong Shen around.
Wutong Shen didn’t expect such strength.
When he was swung out, he froze, immediately losing the upper hand.
By the time he tried to resist, it was already too late.
Zhang Xianyu grabbed him and swung him around several times like a pancake, then slammed him hard into the ground.
His body struck the floor with a dull thud, bones creaking all over.
After being flung around and then smashed down, Wutong Shen was dazed, unable to tell east from west.
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Zhang Xianyu crouched down beside him, patted his face lightly, and said calmly,
“Are you coming out on your own, or do I have to invite you out?”
Wutong Shen struggled a few times, trying to get up, but his arms had been dislocated from the earlier throw and he couldn’t muster any strength.
He could only lie on the floor awkwardly, threatening with no momentum at all,
“If I weren’t possessing this idiot’s body, do you think you could have defeated me so easily?”
“Oh?”
Zhang Xianyu lowered his eyes, his fair slender fingers slowly forming a hand seal.
The furious Wutong Shen didn’t notice this at all.
His thin tail had already sneaked behind Zhang Xianyu’s back.
Seeing Zhang Xianyu oblivious, a cruel smile crept over his face.
He gnashed his teeth and said: “How dare you offend Wutong Shen — go die!”
His tail straightened like a sharp awl, stabbing straight toward Zhang Xianyu’s back.
If it hit, he would at least be seriously injured, if not killed.
“By divine command, thunder fire, lightning across the skies. Divine might descends, destroying evil spirits. By God’s decree, urgently executed. Destroy!”
Just as Wutong Shen’s tail was about to pierce Zhang Xianyu’s back, a peal of thunder crashed down, wrapped in blinding electric light.
The tail that was sneaking up suddenly froze, then turned to ash inch by inch.
At the same time, Wutong Shen let out a shrill scream, forced out of President Li’s body, collapsing weakly on the ground.
Its true form was an ape-like creature resembling a mountain demon.
Having just been struck by lightning, it was now a charred black mass.
It never imagined that this seemingly harmless young man actually knew thunder magic.
If it had known earlier…if only it had known, it would’ve fled immediately!
But it was too late for regret.
Zhang Xianyu examined it curiously, feeling he seemed to have forgotten something.
At that moment, President Li’s body, lying next to Wutong Shen, suddenly convulsed, let out a few painful groans, then fell silent.
Poor President Li — first beaten up by Zhang Xianyu, then struck by thunder magic.
Although most of it landed on Wutong Shen, as the possessed host, he was also badly hurt.
Zhang Xianyu’s body stiffened.
His gaze slowly shifted to the other charred human form, and he finally remembered what he’d forgotten.
“Aiya! How did I forget about him…”
Zhang Xianyu looked at the pitch-black President Li, cautiously reached out to test for breath under his nose.
Thankfully…he was still alive.
Giving Wutong Shen a fierce glare, Zhang Xianyu hurriedly took out his phone to dial 120.
If he accidentally electrocuted someone to death, that would be a huge problem.
As soon as he dialed 120, voices came from the door.
“Little Shishu, Mr. Lin, that malicious Wutong Shen is inside!”
A yellow-robed Daoist rushed in with a young Daoist and a man.
Earlier he had been no match for Wutong Shen, and had fled in a panic to get reinforcements.
Fortunately, the most skilled little shishu of the temple had returned, so he hurriedly brought them over.
“That Wutong Shen is much more powerful than any monster we’ve met before. There’s also a young girl who was bewitched by it. Later, little shishu must be careful — it’s very skilled in magic, hard to handle…”
The yellow-robed Daoist spoke quickly as he led them inside, completely unaware that the expression on his little shishu’s face was growing increasingly strange.
The young Daoist patted the yellow-robed Daoist on the shoulder, pointed at the barely alive Wutong Shen on the ground, and asked with a twitching mouth,
“Skilled in magic? Extremely powerful? This…thing?”
That disdainful tone, those disgusted eyes…
Wutong Shen, lying on the ground, almost spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot.
When had he ever been so humiliated?
The yellow-robed Daoist followed his little shishu’s finger and happened to meet Wutong Shen’s furious gaze.
Wutong Shen’s eyes were blood-red with rage…but unfortunately his whole body was charred black now, completely devoid of the imposing air he had before.
The yellow-robed Daoist felt no fear at all, instead scratched his head in confusion,
“What happened?”
Wutong Shen was so furious he fell silent.
The culprit Zhang Xianyu waved his phone with a surprised look and said,
“Daoist, you’re back? I just came in and saw President Li lying on the ground, was about to call 120.”
As he spoke, he even deliberately turned the phone screen toward them to prove he really was about to call emergency services.
Wutong Shen sharply sensed something and opened his mouth to speak.
Zhang Xianyu’s left hand casually touched the ground, and Wutong Shen, who had just opened his mouth, suddenly twitched all over, completely unable to speak.
Zhang Xianyu guiltily stood up and looked at the three people at the door.
The yellow-robed Daoist had brought back a young Daoist and a well-dressed man in a suit.
The young Daoist wore a simple gray robe, but from the yellow-robed Daoist’s extremely respectful attitude, it was clear his status was not low.
As for the man who came in last and hadn’t spoken, for some reason, Zhang Xianyu felt he was even harder to deal with than the young Daoist.
His mind spun rapidly, and Zhang Xianyu cleared his throat, ignoring the other two and speaking only to the yellow-robed Daoist,
“Since you’re back, Daoist, I have something to do, so I’ll be leaving first.”
Then he quickly headed for the elevator, afraid they’d keep him there to pay medical expenses.
The yellow-robed Daoist was still in a daze.
Instead, the young Daoist asked,
“Fellow Daoist, do you know who did this?”
“No idea, I just happened to be passing by.”
Zhang Xianyu guiltily glanced at President Li, who still wasn’t moving.
“I already called an ambulance, you just wait a bit and it should arrive.”
He didn’t wait for a reply, darted into the elevator, and pressed the close button hard.
Lin Wushui stared at the elevator’s red numbers for a long time before looking away.
“Who was that?”
The yellow-robed Daoist shook his head,
“Not sure, probably just a guest staying here.”
The young Daoist teased,
“Since when do you care about unrelated people? If you want to flirt with someone, just say so. ‘Fated’? Why don’t you say you’re fated with President Li over there?”
Lin Wushui shot him a cold look, turned, and walked outside.
“Superficial.”
Meanwhile on Zhang Xianyu’s side: Back in his hotel room, his nervous little heart finally settled a bit.
President Li shouldn’t be in danger of dying — with some time to recover, his injuries would heal.
But Zhang Xianyu was just a poor low-level Daoist.
If they found out he was the one who beat him up like this and came to him for medical compensation, even selling himself wouldn’t be enough to pay.
Luckily he was smart and didn’t admit it was his doing.
Zhang Xianyu took a shower to calm down, then sneaked up to the second floor to peek.
The lobby was already empty.
Neither the badly injured President Li and Wutong Shen nor the unconscious receptionist by the wall were there — they had probably all been properly dealt with.
Only then did Zhang Xianyu completely relax and go back to his room to rest.
Tomorrow morning, he still had to go work at the convenience store.
The next day: It was Zhang Xianyu’s first day at work, starting at 9 a.m.
Wanting to leave a good impression, he arrived half an hour early.
It was a weekday, so by that time the convenience store was already busy.
Zhang Xianyu didn’t know how to run the register yet, so he helped tidy tables and clean up.
After 10 a.m., the office workers had all clocked in, and the foot traffic in the store finally lessened.
The two senior employees finally had time to chat with Zhang Xianyu.
The store manager wasn’t in today but had already told the two employees about Zhang Xianyu.
So once things slowed down, they introduced themselves.
The senior employees were a man and a woman, both a few years older than Zhang Xianyu.
The man was named Xu Yishan, the woman was He Min.
He Min was outgoing and especially warm toward good-looking, younger guys like Zhang Xianyu.
She first gave him a tour of the store, then personally taught him how to use the register.
In contrast, Xu Yishan was much quieter, but he was careful.
Once He Min got tired of talking, Xu Yishan took over to show Zhang Xianyu the warehouse stocking process.
None of it was hard, just required attention to detail.
Zhang Xianyu carefully memorized everything and by afternoon was already helping run the register.
Because it was his first day, Zhang Xianyu didn’t work the night shift.
He got off at 6 p.m.
After work, he didn’t go back to the hotel immediately.
Instead he had dinner outside, then contacted an agent to look for a place to rent.
Jiangcheng University wouldn’t start until September 10, so he still had to live outside for another month.
Staying long-term in a hotel wasn’t cost-effective, so he thought about finding a short-term rental.
Looking for housing: There were quite a few short-term rentals in Jiangcheng, but most were beds in shared rooms — basically putting five or six bunk beds in a single cramped room, so ten or more people squeezed into a tiny space.
The bed was cheap, but the environment was easy to imagine.
Zhang Xianyu went with the agent to see two short-term apartments.
Most residents were migrant workers from out of town.
The small rooms were crammed with miscellaneous stuff, reeking of smelly shoes and socks.
Cheap was cheap, but living there really tested one’s willpower.
“Do you have any single rooms for just a month?”
Zhang Xianyu calculated his pay.
A summer job gave him 3,500 yuan for a month.
If he could find a shared apartment with a private room and cook for himself, it’d cost about the same as renting a bed plus eating out.
The agent looked troubled.
“A month is too short. Other than beds, you’d have to look at youth hostels — but those are more expensive than beds.”
Zhang Xianyu hesitated.
The agent seemed a bit impatient — he’d seen too many clients like this.
There was no big commission to be made here, so rather than waste the evening, he’d rather go home and play video games.
“Are you renting or not? If not, I don’t have other listings for you.”
The agent urged.
“Landlords who rent out single rooms generally want at least half a year. You only want a month — who wants that hassle?”
As he spoke, something popped into his mind.
He sneered,
“You want cheap? There is one. There’s an apartment across the street — the whole family died in there. It’s haunted. If you’re not afraid of ghosts, you could rent it.”
Zhang Xianyu’s eyes lit up.
“How much?”
The agent froze, stammered,
“F-five hundred a month.”
Seeing Zhang Xianyu actually look interested, he added uncomfortably,
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you — that place is really haunted. Just over a month ago, a family of four was murdered there, horribly. The police did a full investigation but still haven’t found the killer. Ever since their seventh day after death, neighbors often hear children crying inside at night. Some people worked up the courage to look — but there was no one inside.”
What he said wasn’t false.
The story had even made the front page of the Jiangcheng Metro Times.
A family of four slaughtered, gruesomely.
The police had worked hard on the case, but until now had no leads.
Starting on the seventh day after their death, neighbors frequently heard children crying from the apartment.
Those who dared peek found the place empty.
The story had spread all over Jiangcheng.
The relatives who inherited the apartment tried renting it out, but no one dared to take it.
But while others might fear ghosts, Zhang Xianyu didn’t!
The more he heard, the brighter his eyes became.
He rubbed his hands together, a bit impatient as he said,
“Where’s that apartment? Can you take me to see it?”
The agent stared at him like he’d seen a ghost.
When he realized Zhang Xianyu wasn’t joking, he couldn’t help cursing in dialect,
“Dammit, your brain’s got a hole in it!”
That apartment was haunted at night — and this guy wanted to go see it at night?
He might not be afraid to die, but the agent certainly was!
“It’s in Building 3 of the complex across the street. If you want to see it, go yourself. I’ve got things to do, so I’m leaving.”
He hurried off like he was fleeing a madman.
Zhang Xianyu stayed where he was, checked the time — it was only a little after eight — and after thinking for a moment, decided to go check it out alone.
At the apartment complex: The complex across the street was old.
Compared to the surrounding high-rise towers, its seven-story buildings looked especially shabby.
Many trees grew inside the community, blocking what little light came from the already dim street lamps.
By the faint glow, Zhang Xianyu searched around for a while before finally spotting the sign for Building 3.
“This should be it.”
As he approached, he saw a rental notice pasted on the wall.
The apartment was on the second floor, two bedrooms and a living room, 80 square meters, fully furnished — yet the rent was only 500 yuan a month.
It had to be the haunted apartment the agent mentioned.
At the bottom of the flyer was a phone number.
Zhang Xianyu saved it in his contacts, planning to come back tomorrow to check it out properly.