Chapter 4

"Damn it! I almost got killed, and almost ended up in jail, and they didn’t even bother to explain before kicking me out? Now they actually want me to go back? Go to hell...!"

Xia Tianqi swore he had never experienced such frustration and danger in his life. He almost got killed, but the middle-aged man treated it as if it were nothing.

"Unless I’m a complete idiot, I won’t go back!"

Xia Tianqi didn’t take the middle-aged man’s warning seriously, at least not at this moment when he was still fuming.

Since he had already decided to quit, he would naturally have no more connection with the Audi. Although he felt a bit heartbroken, it was better than risking his life in the future.

He thought about using a ride-hailing app to call a taxi, but when he felt his pockets, he suddenly remembered that he had left his phone at the bookstore.

"I’ve really been having a hell of a time lately!"

Xia Tianqi stomped his feet in frustration, almost going mad. Fortunately, he still had some money in his pocket, so he wouldn’t be stranded.

Waving down a taxi, Xia Tianqi returned to his rented apartment after a day. No, to be more precise, it was a shabby and small apartment.

Because he was extremely agitated, the first thing Xia Tianqi did when he got back was to take a cold shower.

Whenever he felt upset or frustrated, he would take a cold shower to relieve his emotions, a habit he had developed since childhood.

After drying his head with a towel, Xia Tianqi plopped down on the bed and fell into deep thought.

"What kind of company is that? Who is that middle-aged man?

Why does he seem to be able to get the police to release people so easily? This doesn’t make any sense. Are they government people?

If they were, they could have told me directly. Why make it so mysterious?

And there’s another strange thing: why did they assign me to work the night shift at Xinhua Grand Bookstore?

There are so many people better than me in every way, why did they choose me?"

The more Xia Tianqi thought about it, the more questions he had about the company and the middle-aged man.

"To hell with it! Even if you are government people, I’m not going to work for you anymore!"

Xia Tianqi kicked his slippers away in a fit of rage and then flopped onto the bed. But soon, he sat up with a start.

Because he suddenly remembered something very important.

That was... how did he survive?

He clearly remembered slipping and rolling down the stairs, and before that, Zhang Xiaoshun was already waiting for him at the bottom.

In other words, if Zhang Xiaoshun was the bookstore killer, he had no reason to let him go, right?

Could it be that Zhang Xiaoshun wasn’t the killer? But that didn’t make sense either, because the bald man at the bookstore didn’t acknowledge the existence of Zhang Xiaoshun.

And upon careful reflection, he remembered that the police had said in the morning that the surveillance cameras on both sides of the street only captured him.

"Why doesn’t anyone believe in the existence of Zhang Xiaoshun? Why does all the evidence point to me being the only person in the bookstore that night?

Could Zhang Xiaoshun be a ghost?"

Xia Tianqi found his thoughts ridiculous, even though his grandfather was a feng shui master, he didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits. Of course, his grandfather had never talked to him about such things.

However, his grandfather had always given him amulets and talismans, one after another. When he was young, no matter how much trouble he caused, he would never be beaten, but if he dared to take off the amulet, his grandfather would beat him to a pulp.

So for many years, he always wore the amulet, even when taking a shower.

Thinking of his grandfather and the amulet he was wearing, Xia Tianqi subconsciously touched the jade pendant hanging around his neck.

This jade pendant was called a ghost jade. His grandfather said it had strong protective powers and could ward off evil spirits.

Although he obediently wore it, he didn’t believe a word his grandfather said.

In his eyes, his grandfather was an old man who believed in feudal superstitions and had little education. He could fool some equally superstitious people, but he couldn’t make him, a highly educated person, believe in such things.

Holding the jade pendant up to his eyes, Xia Tianqi habitually looked at the patterns carved on it. But soon, his eyes widened in shock.

He saw... an eye in the jade pendant!

But there shouldn’t be an eye in it. He looked at the jade almost every day, and there was never an eye.

As Xia Tianqi stared at the eye in the jade, it suddenly moved!

"Huh?"

At first, Xia Tianqi thought he was seeing things, but he quickly dismissed that idea.

Because the eye in the jade suddenly opened wide!

Without a doubt, just as Xia Tianqi was staring at it, the eye was also staring back at him, filled with terror.

At the same time, the jade pendant emitted a series of crisp cracking sounds, and visible cracks began to spread across its surface.

The eye was alive.

It wanted to come out!!!

"Ahh—!"

In terror, Xia Tianqi took off the jade pendant from his neck and threw it toward the door.

The jade pendant hit the ground with a crisp sound, but to Xia Tianqi’s relief, it didn’t completely break.

Xia Tianqi sat dumbfounded on the bed. Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he jumped up and ran to the door, grabbed the jade pendant, and threw it out the window.

After doing all this, Xia Tianqi felt as if all his strength had been drained. He leaned on his knees, breathing heavily, still in shock.

"Encountered a ghost... this time I really encountered a ghost...!"

Xia Tianqi stood there in a daze for a long time before he finally came to his senses. Although he didn’t believe in ghosts before, what just happened couldn’t be explained any other way. How else could the eye in the jade pendant be explained?

And that eye was alive!

"What’s going on? Who can tell me what the hell is going on...!"

Xia Tianqi roared in anger, but soon he calmed down. Perhaps there was someone who could explain everything to him.

"Grandpa! The jade pendant is from Grandpa. If there really are ghosts, he must know about it!"

Thinking of his grandfather, Xia Tianqi felt a surge of hope, like he had found a lifeline. But the next moment, he stomped his feet in frustration again because he didn’t have his phone.

"Damn it—!"

"Really damn it—!"

Xia Tianqi cursed in frustration, but fortunately, he had a computer to go online. He just hoped his grandfather would be at home playing cards today.

Pressing the power button, while the computer was booting up, Xia Tianqi went to the window again. Looking down, he saw a deserted, rarely used path below.

Because he lived on a higher floor, he didn’t see anything below.

Retracting his gaze, he returned to the desk. The computer had successfully booted up, and he quickly logged into the chat software. But then something happened that almost made him want to vomit.

The power in the apartment suddenly went out!

When Xia Tianqi left the police station, it was almost 6 PM, so it was already completely dark outside. Fortunately, there were some streetlights, so he wouldn’t be completely in the dark like he was in the bookstore last night.

"This is really frustrating... but it’s okay, I’m not going to get angry, I’m not going to be afraid, and I’m not going to be anxious!"

Xia Tianqi tried to calm down his terrible mood. It wasn’t that he was easily swayed by emotions; anyone who experienced a series of such events would be driven mad.

After several deep breaths, Xia Tianqi felt his heart, which had been pounding, ease up a bit.

First, something strange happened at home, and now the power was out. Xia Tianqi didn’t want to stay there for a second longer.

Changing into a clean, sweat-free shirt, Xia Tianqi anxiously approached the door. But before he could open it and go down, the door suddenly started to knock.

"Who is it!"

Xia Tianqi felt inexplicably nervous. In fact, since he moved in, no one had ever knocked on the door of his apartment.

Although he asked, the person outside didn’t answer.

Because the door was still being knocked on, "knock, knock, knock"!

"Who is it? Why aren’t you answering?"

Xia Tianqi’s nervousness grew stronger. Because he had been sweating so much, the clean clothes he had just put on were now sticking to his body.

After asking several times with no response, Xia Tianqi stopped asking and instead leaned against the door, trying to see who was there through the peephole.

But what he saw through the peephole was only a blood-red color!

There was no one outside the door except for that thick, blood-red color!

Xia Tianqi’s heart was gripped tightly. If there was no one outside, then what was knocking on his door?