He was thinking about the previous incident with Qiu Ziping and Director Xiao in the rest room, where a sudden wind had shattered the lamp, and the strand of divine consciousness that attacked him was dispersed by Luo Mingbai.
Now, if both strands of divine consciousness came from the same ghost and occurred so close together, the opponent’s power would be truly terrifying – definitely a powerful ghost.
Xia Xianning asked, “What if it’s not a ghost?”
Luo Mingbai was stunned: “What do you mean? Surely it’s not a human?”
After speaking, he suddenly remembered the Buddha amulet they found, which was enshrined in a shrine. This indeed warranted careful consideration.
Xia Xianning smiled but didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he handed over the peeled shrimp meat while wearing plastic gloves.
Then the office door made a sound, as if something had hit it heavily. Although it wasn’t open, it still startled Luo Mingbai.
Xia Xianning kicked away the chair and stood up, throwing a pen from the desk that somehow managed to hit and open the door.
Outside, Gou Songze stumbled in, clinging to the doorframe and staggering forward two steps, still shouting back: “How dare you push me! Bastards, I’ll remember you!”
Xia Xianning: “…” He wasn’t scolded enough; he should have been kicked directly.
After Gou Songze finished yelling, he turned his head back and was horrified to find Xia Xianning standing behind the office desk with his arms crossed, looking at him expressionlessly, his handsome face covered with a layer of frost.
Gou Songze was originally very afraid, but he suddenly remembered Xia Xianning’s previous confession and felt sympathy override his fear. Everyone knew Luo Yingbai’s importance to Xia Xianning. Xia Xianning had confessed publicly, and Luo Yingbai had heard it, so they were likely to break up. Putting himself in Xia Xianning’s shoes, Gou Songze thought he would be ashamed and want to bang his head against the ground.
They had just been anxiously discussing Director Xia’s relationship issues. On one hand, they thought Director Xia was a real man; on the other hand, they sympathized with him, having been in love for so long, only to have his confession end like this.
Looking back, there were many details that could have revealed their issues, but because they were so familiar with each other, everyone overlooked them, probably including Luo Yingbai himself.
Gou Songze thought Xia Xianning would need time to recover his emotions, but seeing him handle ghost-catching and scolding people so calmly, he decided to comfort him directly: “Brother Xianning, don’t be too depressed. This isn’t your fault, of course, and it’s not my brother’s fault either. Just look at it more openly, I can call my cousin first…”
He stopped mid-sentence because Luo Yingbai had slid out from the swivel chair behind Xia Xianning, looking at Gou Songze with a mischievous smile.
Gou Songze: “… Uh.”
He noticed Luo Yingbai’s clothes were a bit disheveled.
Gou Songze: “Did I interrupt something?”
Luo Yingbai pushed away the chair and slowly stood up: “What do you think?”
Gou Songze turned and ran out without another word, closing the door.
Before he could escape, the door opened again, and Luo Yingbai walked out laughing shamelessly.
Gou Songze looked at him and sighed after a moment: “You’re still together. All these years, I knew you were always eyeing him. You’ve wanted to make a move on Brother Xianning for a long time, right!”
“
Thinking about how he had been blinded for so many years and endured so much cold treatment, he was indignant: “I worried for nothing!”
“Don’t be sad,” Luo Yingbai put his arm around Gou Songze’s shoulder, bringing him back into the room: “Actually… I prefer threesomes. Come in, let’s play together.”
Gou Songze struggled, while Luo Yingbai laughed.
“Cough cough,” Xia Xianning coughed, his gaze sweeping over Luo Yingbai’s arm around Gou Songze. The two suddenly felt a chill and quickly separated.
Xia Xianning asked: “What did you come for?”
Gou Songze, looking world-weary, began to report the business.
This case was complicated, but still much simpler than the ambiguous relationship between these two. He decided to focus on work and stop thinking about the topic of love.
He took out a file bag and two transparent glass bottles, reporting to Director Xia: “Director Xia, we’ve analyzed the two souls in Shen Zhaotao’s body. The dead spirit in this bottle is Shen Zhaotao. The other is a wisp of consciousness that doesn’t match any ghost in our existing database. Take a look at the report.”
Xia Xianning took the report and flipped through it, while Luo Yingbai took the bottle. He crossed his legs, lazily leaning against Xia Xianning’s desk, picking up the bottle to examine it, injecting some spiritual power. Suddenly, a cluster of bright blue light points appeared in the bottle.
“
Luo Yingbai clicked his tongue.
Xia Xianning looked up, seeing Luo Yingbai’s long, fair fingers delicately holding the small bottle. He became entranced, staring at it.
Gou Songze: “…”
He thought they had some profound insight, but no one was speaking.
He secretly stretched out his leg and kicked Luo Yingbai, whispering: “Stop showing off and say something!”
Luo Yingbai said: “I was thinking how to speak without getting scolded… Sorry, the bottle is already empty.”
Gou Songze: “Impossible! Why was it glowing?”
Luo Yingbai: “The glow was from my own soul power. I wanted to probe what was inside and found the bottle is empty, not a trace of aura left.”
He put down the bottle and asked: “Xianning, when you said it was neither human nor ghost, were you suggesting that what attacked us was a god?
Xia Xianning slowly said, “You could say I’ve guessed half of it right. I suspect this is an artificially created semi-divine entity.”
How could a god be artificially created? How could they even capture a god? Gou Songze exclaimed in surprise, “What?”
Luo Yingbai remained calm, raising an eyebrow and saying, “Go on, I’m listening.”
Xia Xianning explained, “If it were an ordinary fierce ghost, the first thing it would do upon formation is to devour surrounding spirits, so a fierce ghost would have a strong aura that terrifies ordinary souls.”
But when I took out the spirit tablet, many small ghosts were restless, which indicates this is not a fierce ghost – that’s the first point of suspicion.”
“Secondly, Shen Zhaotao wanted to deliver the spirit tablet, but he had absolutely no need to take such a big risk, as he had committed no major sins in life and could have reincarnated smoothly. Those who want to deliver a spirit tablet are typically of two types: those who committed grave sins and are doomed after death – but we’ve already ruled out fierce ghosts – or entities that appear out of thin air, with no life before or after, and naturally cannot enter reincarnation.”
Xia Xianning continued slowly, “Lastly, this divine consciousness can appear and disappear at will, emerging and vanishing instantly, almost inexhaustible. What kind of soul could be continuously replenished and renewed?”
He looked up at Luo Yingbai and Gou Songze, “Unless someone is constantly strengthening it. This would also explain why we found a Buddhist tablet in the shrine. Although I don’t know the exact method, worship itself is a way of strengthening a divine entity – at least that much is undeniable.”
Gou Songze, shocked, blurted out, “Who could it be?”
Luo Yingbai said, “Hmm… Gai Xiao?”
Gou Songze felt like a fool in front of these two. So he steeled himself and asked again, “How do you know?”
