Chapter Forty-Two: Disappearance

"I'm so stuffed!"

Inside the detective agency, there were no clients visiting today, and Kelly had long since gone home after her shift. After having dinner at home, the two of them had returned to the office. Tang Xiaoyu lay contentedly on the sofa. "I never knew buns could taste so good! And they're cheap, too. Li Changqing, why didn't you ever buy them for me before?"

Li Changqing sat with his legs crossed, holding the day's newspaper. He glanced at Tang Xiaoyu—how was he supposed to know that a ghost could eat buns?

But could ghosts truly eat buns?

At least as far as Li Changqing understood, that should have been impossible. Yet Tang Xiaoyu had not only eaten them, she'd eaten quite a lot.

He turned a page of the newspaper and said while reading, "One day you'll eat yourself to death and become a ghost who died from overeating."

Tang Xiaoyu giggled, sat up, and looked curiously toward the fruit on the dining table. "Hey, since I can eat buns, do you think I can eat other things too?"

Ever since she became a ghost, Tang Xiaoyu had been hiding away, until she met Li Changqing.

How would Li Changqing know? He had no expertise in ghosts. All he knew came from hearsay in his previous life, and the only ghost he had ever actually encountered was the one right before him.

"How should I know?"

Tang Xiaoyu picked up an apple and took a small bite. "Delicious!"

She looked as if she had discovered a new world.

Just as Tang Xiaoyu was eating her apple, Li Changqing's phone rang.

It was late—who could be calling him at this hour? He picked up the phone and saw that it was Baichuan.

"Hello? Mr. Bai, is there something I can do for you?"

Baichuan sounded a bit anxious on the other end. "Have you heard from Hu Xiong?"

"No, is something wrong?"

"They've disappeared."

As soon as Baichuan said that, he hung up. Li Changqing stared at his phone, puzzled. Hu Xiong had vanished?

"What happened?"

Tang Xiaoyu, with apple crumbs at the corner of her mouth, turned around and hurried over to Li Changqing. "Did something happen to Hu Xiong?"

Li Changqing put his phone away. "Yes. Baichuan said they're missing, and it sounds like it's not just Hu Xiong."

Tang Xiaoyu thought for a while, then said with concern, "You don't think something happened to him—he could be dead, right?"

Li Changqing looked at her strangely. "Why are you suddenly so concerned about him?"

Tang Xiaoyu quickly answered, "He still hasn't paid us the rest of our fee. He can't die yet."

Fair point...

But Li Changqing didn't dare get involved in such matters. The Thirty-Sixth Bureau was a huge organization—they didn't need help from a small-time detective and a female ghost.

Baichuan's call was probably just to check if he knew anything.

"Alright, an organization as big as the Thirty-Sixth Bureau isn't going to stiff us on our wages. Get some sleep."

With that, he turned and went back to the bedroom, sitting at the wooden table covered in talismans, lost in thought.

Why had Hu Xiong disappeared so suddenly? People from the Thirty-Sixth Bureau were supposed to be strong—could this be related to that so-called Grade A incident they mentioned?

He shook his head. Why even think about it? He and Tang Xiaoyu were too weak to help with anything like that.

He picked up a brush, took a deep breath, and began to try drawing the General's Arrival Talisman. Lately, he had noticed that although the failure rate for this talisman was high, even failed attempts seemed to accumulate about a third more spiritual energy than drawing a standard Exorcism Talisman.

After over an hour of work, he managed to successfully draw two General's Arrival Talismans.

Li Changqing was in a good mood. If things kept going this way, he would soon no longer have to eat that disgusting raw glutinous rice to survive.

"Hiss—"

He frowned slightly, feeling a sharp pain in his chest. When he lifted his shirt, he saw that a faint black line had appeared across his chest.

It lay there quietly like an earthworm.

"What is this?"

It was the first time Li Changqing had noticed such a black line on his chest. If it weren't for the faint pain, he might never have discovered its existence.

He reached out and gently touched the line, and felt a slight burning sensation.

But the pain didn't last long—two or three minutes at most—then everything returned to normal.

"What the hell is this?"

Was the stiffening getting worse? Or was it something else?

At this moment, Li Changqing almost wished he could dissect himself just to figure out what was going on.

Of course...

He could only think about it.

The next morning, after waking up, Li Changqing used a General's Arrival Talisman on himself. Not having to eat that nauseating raw glutinous rice made him feel refreshed and clear-headed.

But early in the morning, someone came knocking.

Baichuan.

Dressed in a long black coat that wrapped around his thin frame, Baichuan looked even more gaunt, with deep, dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept and was suffering from malnutrition.

With his bony fingers, he placed a photograph on the table. "After investigating yesterday, we found Hu Xiong's car parked about fifty miles east of Nanlin City, in the outskirts."

Li Changqing poured him a cup of coffee. Baichuan's personal visit was a surprise. After setting down the cup, he asked, "Mr. Bai, what brings you here in person?"

Baichuan spoke in a flat tone. "Yesterday, Hu Xiong and Li Minghao told me they'd found the source of the Grade A incident and were giving chase. Last night, when I tried to contact them again, there was no answer."

"After searching all night, all we found was this car."

"There was no one inside."

"Finding people is something you detectives are supposed to be good at."

Li Changqing was silent for a while before replying, "So you're coming to me as a client? The fee—"

Baichuan shook his head. "You're mistaken. Right now, you're a probationary agent of the Thirty-Sixth Bureau. It's your duty to help."

Li Changqing: "???"

Damn it.

He always knew Hu Xiong had an ulterior motive when he gave him that probationary status. So it was just to get free labor?

Li Changqing pushed the photo back toward Baichuan. "Mr. Bai, you know my agency has a lot of expenses—salaries, overhead..."

Baichuan understood his meaning. "Don't worry, you won't be shortchanged. If it's a fee you want, I can give you my month's salary as your commission."

Tang Xiaoyu, sitting beside Li Changqing, perked up immediately. "How much?"

Baichuan replied, "Ten thousand Lang coins."

"Only ten thousand a month? That's all the Thirty-Sixth Bureau pays?" Tang Xiaoyu was surprised—it seemed pretty low for such a dangerous job.

Baichuan picked up the coffee, but after a moment's thought, put it down again, probably recalling that others had drunk from the same cup. "We don't work at the Thirty-Sixth Bureau for the money."