Chatting with Niu Zhiqiang felt pretty normal at first, but with his ox-head and everything, Wen Yan just couldn’t keep a straight face.
This guy is hands down the most image-conscious Scorching Sun Departnt mber Wen Yan has ever t—from his outfit, to how he gets things done, to the way he talks, he’s all about upholding the team’s reputation.
Well, technically, he’s just having an out-of-body Nether Soul experience, not actually dead. So he’s still sort of a person.
Thinking back to the Scorching Sun Departnt people Wen Yan t in Nanwu County before...
The leader was Cai Heizi, black as midnight, basically had zero moral baseline, always dancing on everyone else’s bottom line, and honestly? He’d do whatever it took to get the job done.
Then, under Cai Heizi, there’s the Internal Staff at the Scorching Sun Departnt HQ, legendary for their completely bonkers edits.
The Weapons Departnt is literally a bunch of lunatics with wild ideas.
The only one remotely normal was Feng Yao—add that square jaw and he just screams leadership potential, but he’s also a master of "rules are flexible if you know how to use them."
Every dead-serious thing Niu Zhiqiang said made Wen Yan want to roast him, but he genuinely didn’t know where to start.
In the end, Wen Yan couldn’t take it anymore. If he let Niu Zhiqiang keep talking, he’d either suffocate or need to verbally spar with Cai Heizi for three months just to vent.
He thought back to the intel he got earlier when he took over this domain.
"Central Plains County has been having a run of ghost incidents lately. I just got word—so perverted ghost has probably just shown up in Central Plains."
"That guy tends to show up in, well, girls’ bathrooms."
"I still need to wrap things up here, so I probably won’t have ti. If you get the chance, maybe you could check it out."
"If nothing unexpected happens, he’ll probably show up in the county town of Central Plains."
"Pervert? Girls’ bathroom?"
Niu Zhiqiang imdiately caught the keywords, his expression changed, veins popping on his fists, snorting out two jets of white air.
"That kind of pervert deserves to die! People like us have a duty to take them down! I’ll go deal with it right now!"
"The guy’s pretty dangerous, so be careful."
"Danger’s exactly why we run to the front lines!"
Niu Zhiqiang marched off heroically, took two big steps out—and imdiately bumped the driver, sending him stumbling.
"Ah, really sorry! My eyesight’s not great. Living people are especially blurry to . I thought soone had left a mop outside..."
"..."
Wen Yan and the driver exchanged a look, both involuntarily twitching their eyes.
"Want to check about getting you so glasses?"
"My prescription’s a bit tricky, you know. They say it’s not just regular nearsightedness."
"Send your info. I’ll ask around for you."
"Deal! Thanks, Brother Wen. If there’s any paperwork, just let know, I’ll file a report upstairs."
"..."
After adding each other on Feixin, Wen Yan watched Niu Zhiqiang hurry off. He let out a heavy sigh. The driver beside him sighed too.
"It’s just a pair of glasses, what kind of paperwork do you need... Why a report..."
"Honestly, it’s not all bad. At least he really takes his job seriously." Wen Yan tried to back him up, even though he was also a little shell-shocked.
"So, about that perverted ghost—what exactly is the situation? We should prep sothing. After all, there’s no way we can put caras in girls’ bathrooms. Could get tricky."
"Don’t worry. It’s not that dangerous, really. Niu Zhiqiang can totally handle it. Just annoying, that’s all."
"Hm?"
Wen Yan frowned, mulled it over for a while, and finally squeezed out one sentence.
"Relax, he’s not going to hurt any normals, just... yeah, he’s a weirdo, that’s all..."
The driver wanted to keep asking, but Wen Yan had already tossed out one last remark, scooped up his Chunjun Mace from beside the road, and walked into the house.
The driver hesitated, then decided to report back up—after all, Niu Zhiqiang was borrowed from next-door Haidai County’s team.
Haidai County had big plans for Niu Zhiqiang, sending him out to practice on all sorts of cases, but since he’s here, Central Plains County had to get their intel and logistics in order.
The info Wen Yan provided—they really had to take it seriously.
Wen Yan stepped into the courtyard, your run-of-the-mill, self-built ho. One side was a two-floor building divided into little rooms, half the yard was empty, and the kitchen was its own little house in the yard.
Chen Qimo lived in the very innermost room—terrible sunlight, Wen Yan could practically feel the chill inside.
Living in a place like this? Even if you’re normal, after a while it’d get to you.
Chen Qimo had already finished packing. Wasn’t much to take—barely any clothes. The biggest thing was all the books and study materials.
Wen Yan walked into another little room, looked at the photo on the offering table, lit three sticks of incense, gently waved out the flas, bowed three tis, and placed them in the little incense burner.
"Grandma, I’m taking Xiao Mo with now. Don’t worry—she’ll be perfectly safe at my place, and things aren’t so cutthroat over there. She’s a junior in high school, so transferring is just right, and I’ve got a spot lined up for her. No need to worry about her academics."
After he finished, Wen Yan bowed again. He waited until the three incense sticks were halfway burned, then took out a box, grabbed a silk cloth, and wrapped the photo and other fragile things up carefully.
Done packing Grandma’s side, there was another little table here, stacked with incense and offerings, and a naless spirit tablet.
Wen Yan burned so incense here too, paid his respects, and waited until the incense was mostly burnt. Once he saw the three sticks were all burning evenly, nothing weird, then he started packing up.
This spirit tablet was darkened with smoke and fla marks, the whole thing pitch black, didn’t reflect any light, but when he touched it, nothing rubbed off on his hand.
Nothing was written on the front, but the back had three characters Wen Yan didn’t recognize.
He took out his phone, but snapping a photo felt disrespectful, so he switched apps—no pictures, just scan to identify the text.
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