Chapter 150: The Expert Has Arrived.

"Do you take me for a fool?" The little girl blinked, slowly closing in on Tang Xiaoyu. Her voice grew increasingly chilling, and her face twisted into a hideous grimace once more.

"Play a game with me, or I’ll eat you!"

Tang Xiaoyu retreated in terror until she hit a large tree, but behind it lay a dense thicket of trees, leaving her with no path to escape.

"Don't come any closer! If you come any closer, I’ll hit you!" Tang Xiaoyu’s threat was clearly useless.

The little girl let out a cold snort and continued her slow approach. Her face began to rot, and maggots could be seen burrowing in and out of her cheeks. Tang Xiaoyu was thrown into a state of panicked hysteria.

"Don't come over!"

"Stay away, I really mean it, I'm going to hit you!"

"I really will hit you! I'm very cruel!"

Watching Tang Xiaoyu scramble in terror like a panicked rabbit, the little girl felt not a shred of fear.

*This? She wants to hit me with this?*

"Then go ahead, try hitting me."

"Do it!"

The evil spirit sneered inwardly. If she took just two more steps, the girl would likely be terrified into agreeing to play the game. And then...

*Slap.*

Tang Xiaoyu squeezed her eyes shut and kicked out blindly. With a loud thud, her foot landed squarely on the evil spirit’s head. To everyone’s surprise, the evil spirit was knocked flat by the blow.

"Ah! I’ll fight you to the death!"

Tang Xiaoyu let out a roar, her eyes still tightly shut, and unleashed a flurry of wild, uncoordinated punches at the evil spirit. She didn't notice, however, that as she swung her fists, they emitted rhythmic pulses of white light.

*Thud, thud, thud...*

The evil spirit let out a miserable shriek.

***

In the living room, Li Changqing was anxiously pacing, unable to breach the barrier and worried about Tang Xiaoyu’s safety. Suddenly, he felt the malevolent energy in the room shudder and then rapidly dissipate.

Kelly and Tang Xiaoyu appeared in the living room. Tang Xiaoyu was still standing there with her eyes squeezed shut, punching wildly at a doll.

"Ah! I'll fight you to the death!" she shouted.

"Hey."

"Hey, Xiaoyu."

Tang Xiaoyu finally opened her eyes and realized she was back in the living room.

"Li Changqing! It scared me!" Tang Xiaoyu immediately hugged Li Changqing, her face full of lingering panic.

"Er." Li Changqing looked at Kelly. "What exactly happened?"

Kelly swallowed hard. He had seen it with his own eyes: Tang Xiaoyu had punched the evil spirit until it shattered, and her hands had been glowing with a white light the entire time.

After hearing Kelly’s account, Tang Xiaoyu whispered, "I was really scared, but it told me to hit it, so I did..."

Li Changqing was speechless. This girl really didn't understand sarcasm...

"It's good that you're okay." Li Changqing breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Kelly. "How did you get entangled with this evil spirit?"

Kelly shrugged. "I was just eating, and this thing suddenly entered my room. How would I know why?"

"Old Hu, what do you think..."

"Old Hu? Old Hu?"

Li Changqing looked at Hu Xiong, who was sprawled on the floor, snoring loudly. He gave him a kick, but Hu Xiong was sleeping so soundly that he just hugged Li Changqing’s leg and nuzzled it. He then pursed his lips, trying to kiss Li Changqing’s shoe.

*Thirty years of bachelorhood... is this what it eventually leads to?*

*How terrifying.*

Li Changqing quickly yanked his leg away. "Get some rest. I'm heading out, and don't go out casually for the next few days," he warned. "I'll contact you once I'm finished with my current business."

With that, he hauled Hu Xiong up, but Hu Xiong’s bearded face kept leaning in to kiss him.

*Dammit...*

*Is there no end to this?*

Li Changqing dragged Hu Xiong out of Kelly’s house. Once downstairs, still worried about Hu Xiong’s condition, he hailed a taxi to take him back to the Mingzheng Orphanage, then returned home with Tang Xiaoyu.

Back home, Li Changqing asked again about what happened inside the barrier. Tang Xiaoyu couldn't explain it clearly; she really had just closed her eyes and swung wildly... and managed to beat the evil spirit to death. However, having been thoroughly spooked by the spirit's appearance, she didn't dare sleep in her own room. She happily set up a floor bed in Li Changqing’s room once again.

***

The next morning, Hu Xiong woke up with a hangover.

"Drank too much yesterday."

His head was throbbing. After a quick wash and a change of clothes, he arrived at the gates of the Mingzheng Orphanage. Zhang Guichuan was already waiting there, accompanied by two other men.

Qin Shenggen was the captain of the First Team of the 36th Bureau. At forty years old, he was dressed casually, busy texting on his phone. Xia Yi, the captain of the Second Team, was around thirty; dressed in a white shirt and glasses, he looked more like a high school teacher and carried himself with a mild, friendly air.

Hu Xiong puffed on a cigarette, greeted the Director, Zhang Guichuan, and approached Qin Shenggen. "Old Qin, who are you chatting with?"

Hu Xiong glanced over. "Oh? Little Sweetie? That woman you met last time?"

Qin Shenggen shook his head. "No, this is someone else. A female netizen I met through an online game. Her voice is incredibly beautiful—sweet and smooth. Just listening to her makes you feel completely at ease."

Qin Shenggen and Hu Xiong were close, mostly because both were bachelors and shared a common language. However, in the last two years, Qin had become obsessed with online gaming and had met various female netizens, starting down a different path.

Hu Xiong looked on with a touch of envy. "When are you going to introduce a netizen to me, too?"

"Get lost, get lost. I dumped three months' worth of salary into the game just to crack the top 100 on the leaderboard and meet her," Qin Shenggen whispered. "By the way, can you lend me some of your salary next month? I need to buy some gear for Little Sweetie. She said she's coming to Nanlin to visit me soon."

He chuckled happily, "Hehehe."

Hu Xiong rolled his eyes. "The newspapers always say meeting netizens is unreliable."

Qin Shenggen spat, "You're just jealous."

Zhang Guichuan heard their conversation but just smiled without saying a word. Men like Qin and Hu were often delayed in marriage and family because of their roles in the Bureau of Supernatural Investigation. The job was too dangerous, and many people were unwilling to marry them. But now that both were getting older, they had started thinking about finding partners, and Zhang was certainly supportive of that.

Just then, a black sedan drove into the orphanage. The experts sent by the General Investigation Bureau had arrived.

Qin Shenggen quickly put his phone away, and the group stepped forward.

Two people stepped out of the car. One was quite elderly, over sixty, with hair that had turned completely white. The other was a child, appearing to be only thirteen or fourteen, with a baby face and dimples that made him look very cute.