Chapter 81 : Seeing a Ghost
Seeing a Ghost
Just like any other city's summer night, tonight in Xijiang City was as lively as always—buzzing with voices and brightly lit.
Neon signs flickered on the city streets, and the relentless heat that had raged all day was gradually fading, leaving only the cool night breeze wafting in. People who had been hiding indoors all day now flocked to the streets to enjoy this rare moment of refreshing tranquility.
Couples held hands, lining up outside the milk tea shop.
Young children rode on their father's broad shoulders with their mother smiling as she followed behind—families basked in happiness, ready for a stroll in the square.
Everywhere, harmonious scenes played out.
Except for Cecilia.
On a relatively quiet street, a silver-haired girl dressed in black outerwear and hooded moved soundlessly—like a ghost in the shadows cast by the streetlights.
Unlike other girls, whose pockets were filled with cute trinkets and an assortment of cosmetics, in her pocket there was only an exceptionally sharp black folding knife—sharp enough to cut hair with a breeze, slice through iron like mud.
Tonight, she really wanted to kill someone.
A person with the in-game nickname "Dragon Abyss."
Within barely ten minutes of leaving home, Cecilia had already spotted over a dozen missing person posters bearing her own photo stuck along the street.
The cash reward of 150,000 yuan was simply too generous. In this world, there would never be a shortage of people wanting something for nothing.
So, these flyers had naturally attracted quite a bit of attention.
Seeing this, Cecilia was angered but felt even more determined to take Dragon Abyss out.
It had only been a few days, yet Dragon Abyss's lackeys had already gone this far. If she kept giving way, at his rate, even more outrageous stunts wouldn't be surprising at all to Cecilia.
Dodging the crowds enjoying the cool of the evening, after another ten or so minutes, Cecilia arrived at the gate of a school.
On the school's entrance was a gold-lettered sign: "Xijiang City No.2 Middle School."
When Cecilia had still been Chen Zixuan, she, along with Gu Yanxi and Lin Wei, attended this school.
However, this visit was not for reminiscing about old school days. Cecilia's true goal lay with several print shops near the school.
Currently, both she and her enemy were lurking in the shadows. This area had a high population turnover, so sitting and waiting for the person posting flyers would be a colossal waste of time.
Therefore, Cecilia chose a simpler method: root out the source, starting with the print shops and following the clues step by step to uncover the mastermind behind the missing person poster incident.
For the first two days, there hadn't yet been posters, not until this morning, or possibly last night, did the posting begin.
So, Cecilia concluded that the missing person posters weren't prepared in advance but were likely printed recently.
With that, her target became very clear.
In just a few minutes, Cecilia reached the nearest copy shop to the school.
The copy shop's glass door was closed, but inside it was bustling. Several tattooed young men in colorful short-sleeved shirts sat on chairs, smoking and chatting, occasionally hawking up phlegm directly onto the shop's glossy tiled floor.
Seeing this, Cecilia had a strong hunch that the people she was looking for were already here.
Judging by their clothes and demeanor, these men were the so-called "street thugs."
Normally, thugs only hung around pool halls, kTVs, or internet cafes—hardly the kind of people who'd gather in a copy shop.
Though it was possible they needed to print some documents today, the odds didn't seem high.
That left only one likely answer—
They were printing the very missing person posters with her photo!
With that thought, Cecilia slowed her pace, trying to blend in as a weary passerby needing a rest, stopping at a blind spot in front of the shop, ears pricked up for the sounds coming from inside.
♫ You can't leave me~ ♩
♬ I can't forget you~ ♭
Without you, I'm like a—
♪ Thirsty fish~ ♪
......
With her keen hearing, the first thing Cecilia heard was pounding DJ music.
It seemed the street thugs inside were blasting music, and with the glass door partly muffling sound, she couldn't quite make out their conversation.
Left with no other choice, she crept closer, risking being noticed, and half-squatted, nearly pressed against the glass door, revealing just one eye and half her face, finally getting a clear look inside.
Aside from the boss at the computer, there were three street thugs inside.
Just then, a young man with a fully tattooed right arm, wearing a tiger-print tight short-sleeved shirt, stood up first and said to a man sitting in a chair:
"Brother Dao, we've been posting flyers all day. When do we get to go play games at the internet cafe? We're following you to make big money and live large, not stick little ads all over for someone else."
The man called "Brother Dao" was short and stocky, with a military buzz cut and a vicious face, looking to be in his mid-thirties to forties.
Putting down his phone, he glared at the tiger-shirted youth and replied, "Xiao Yi, all you do is run your mouth. Is society about fighting and brawling? No, it's all about people skills!"
"'People skills' means sticking ads on telephone poles?"
Tiger-shirt still sounded unconvinced.
Brother Dao flicked his spent cigarette away, lit another, took a deep drag, and squinted as he said,
"You just don't get it. Didn't Brother Hu say there's just a few flyers to post? Each of you gets 200 yuan a day, and if you catch the person, there's a 200,000 reward—better than screwing bolts at the electronics factory, right?"
"It paid in cash every day?"
As soon as he heard about the 200 yuan daily paycheck, the tiger-shirted youth's eyes lit up.
"Get lost, you punk,"
Brother Dao cursed with a smile as he switched the "Thirsty Fish" track on his phone to another DJ dance song.
At that moment, another hoodlum, this one with messy yellow teeth—Yellow Hair—grinned excitedly and said, "Brother Dao, that girl in the picture is really pretty! Better looking than the online influencers I follow, looks like a foreigner. Is it a beautified, filtered photo?"
He spoke with a mouth full of uneven, yellow teeth, almost drooling as he spoke.
Barely had he finished speaking before Brother Dao raised his left hand and smacked Yellow Hair across the back of the head.
"You got a death wish? That's a bigshot's target. If you try anything, brother Hu will cut your fingers off."
Yellow Hair giggled, saying nothing more.
"Brother Dao, you keep mentioning a 'bigshot.' Who is it really? Someone in the government?" the tiger-shirt youth asked.
"I don't know either, but I hear it's a rich second-generation from a neighboring city. When Brother Hu called him, he called him 'Young Master Long.'"
After saying this, worried his men might spread the word, brother Dao urgently added, "You two, don't tell a soul—that's not a circle we can mix with."
"Thanks, I already know."
Lurking at the copy shop entrance, Cecilia's lips curled up in a cold smile.
Dragon Abyss, so it is you!
......
"Ahem, gentlemen, what you printed is ready."
A few minutes later, the middle-aged, balding shop owner approached, hands holding a thick stack of A4 paper, smiling.
Glancing at the phlegm and cigarette butts on his floor, his eyes showed strong disdain—he could hardly wait for these people to leave.
Although he wanted to complain, he dared not offend these thugs; after all, they were rare, big-spending clients.
A color copy cost 2 yuan each. Usually, no one needed so many, but these guys ordered hundreds, making more for him in one day than he'd earn in a week.
"Brothers, let's go—take advantage of the cool evening and the city council isn't strict—the rest of you post 20 more, then we'll go to the internet cafe and play 'Ruins of Giant City' all night!"
Brother Dao grabbed a big stack of missing person posters and hollered, and the group rushed out of the print shop.
When they were about to leave, Cecilia quietly hid away. Seeing the thugs holding stacks of posters and swaggering off, she flashed a cold smile and silently followed.
After a few hundred meters, as they came to a street with few passersby, brother Dao stopped and began handing out the missing person posters.
"Not many people here. Post them nearby, but watch out for the cleaners—otherwise, they'll get ripped down right after you put them up. Loads of apartment complexes are like that."
"Xiao Yi, 20; Xiao Liang, 20. Here— the quicker you finish, the quicker we knock off."
After handing out the flyers, brother Dao lit another cigarette, squinted through a few puffs, and glanced to his side—his gaze suddenly fixed.
At the alley entrance, seven or eight meters away, a small figure in a black hoodie and gray skirt stood silently, staring straight at him.
Her half-covered face was hidden in the hat's shadow—besides her slender, snowy legs, it was hard to make out more. Only a pair of light blue eyes glowed cat-like in the dark.
Exhaling a mouthful of smoke, brother Dao tore his gaze away, thinking she was just a passerby.
Yet, several seconds later, when he looked again—nothing had changed.
Damn it, did I see a ghost today?