Mysterious Resurgence: Starting with the Strange Bus

Chapter 178 Mysterious Disappearances
"Yang, Yang Jian, when can you come back?"

Wang Bin's voice trembled as he said over the phone, "I suspect that it's not just my Shanshan who has this problem in Dachang City. Maybe other people are also carrying ghost babies. The whole of Dachang City might be plunged into crisis again!"

"Uncle Wang, don't worry, I'll go back right away. Besides, it's still uncertain whether Wang Shanshan is carrying a ghost baby or not. Maybe it's just a false alarm."

Yang Jian responded.

Although he was pretty sure in his heart that Wang Shanshan was carrying a ghost baby, what if he was wrong?
After all, Yang Jian hadn't seen it with his own eyes yet. All the current 'answers' were deduced from Wang Bin's statements, and an ordinary person's description of the supernatural might not be accurate. Therefore, the most urgent task was to return to Dachang City to confirm the situation.

Thinking about it, Yang Jian hung up the call with Wang Bin and instead dialed Zhao Jianguo's number, wanting to request a private plane to send him back to Dachang City.

Although the fastest way to travel would be to directly use the power of the Ghost Domain, Yang Jian dared not do so. At present, his resurrection was incomplete, and his body had already developed problems. If he could use the power of the vengeful ghost within him as little as possible, Yang Jian wanted to avoid using supernatural power as much as possible.

Besides, what's done is done, and there's no use in rushing. Considering the current situation, Yang Jian felt that applying for a private jet from headquarters was the most suitable way to travel.

"Yes, it's urgent!"

Yang Jian shouted into his satellite-guided phone, "It's related to the Starving Ghost incident. I suspect the Starving Ghost still has supernatural remnants in Dachang City, so I have to go back to Dachang City to check the situation. I just checked, and the next flight to Dachang City is at 2 PM, so I can only take the headquarters' special plane..."

"Okay, I'm at the Ping An Hotel."

The process of applying for a chartered plane went smoothly. When Yang Jian mentioned that it was related to the starving ghost incident, Zhao Jianguo immediately agreed and then asked Yang Jian about his current location.

soon.

A helicopter flew from the headquarters to the Ping An Hotel, and finally picked up Yang Jian on the rooftop of the hotel before heading towards Dachang City.

at the same time.

Dahang City.

Inside the negative office on the top floor of the Wangting Building.

Li Hui put down the files in his hand, looked at Zhang Xue standing to the side, and said, "The most recent ghost movie incident occurred three days ago in an upscale residential area in the east of the city, and the death toll was four."

"Yes, Captain Li."

Zhang Xue responded, "The deceased were a family of three, plus their hired nanny, a total of four people. Their deaths were as bizarre as those of the victims in the previous ghost movie incident."

Upon hearing this, Li Hui's expression remained unchanged.

Having reviewed the files, he was naturally familiar with this information. The reason he asked Zhang Xue was not to hear her recount the story again, but because he had thought of other crucial information.

"According to the file, although the ghost movie incidents are the kind of murders that happen all over the city without any negative reviews, and the location and time of the incidents seem to have no pattern, people die in the ghost movie incidents almost every day. But why is it that since the resident of that community died three days ago, there have been no new deaths in the past three days?"

Before Zhang Xue could respond, Li Hui continued, "In my opinion, there are only two possibilities for why this situation has occurred."

"Either the paranormal incident has been successfully resolved, or the location of the ghost movie incident is no longer limited to Hangzhou City. In other words, the paranormal activity of the ghost movie incident may have infiltrated other surrounding cities, or even the whole country..."

Having read the original novel, Li Hui knew very well that the degree of harm and terror of vengeful ghosts was not static. As the degree of vengeful ghosts' resurgence intensified, they would become increasingly terrifying.

Especially those vengeful spirits that are wandering and spreading, once they have recovered to a certain extent, will not be confined to the same area, but will wander and spread to other places.

"Okay, contact headquarters and see if there have been any deaths in the surrounding cities similar to the ghost movie incident. Then send people down to the countryside to see if the ghost movie incident occurred in the countryside in the last three days."

Li Hui instructed Zhang Xue, "Notify me as soon as you have any results. I will handle the follow-up matters. That's all for your work for now. Okay, that's all for now. You can go back to work."

"Okay, Captain Li, I understand."

Zhang Xue responded and then turned and walked out of the office. At the same time, she thought to herself that Li Hui was indeed a top-notch ghost tamer, much stronger than Zhao Fan before.

Neither Zhao Fan nor she had considered the possibility that Li Hui had just mentioned. However, after Li Hui's reminder, Zhang Xue clearly realized that the ghost movie incident in Dahang City had undergone an unknown change.

"One of the captain's authority is to form his own ghost-taming squad. Although ordinary city officials are not prohibited from recruiting other ghost-tamers as subordinates, the ghost-taming squad formed by the captain is recognized by headquarters, and all expenses and supernatural items consumed in handling supernatural events can be reimbursed by headquarters."

After Zhang Xue left, Li Hui took out his GPS-enabled phone, found a number, and dialed it.

soon.

The call was answered.

"Hello, Captain Li, this is Zhang Lei." A man's voice came from the other end of the phone. It was none other than the first 'subordinate' that Li Hui had recruited in Dajing City.

"Where are you?" Li Hui asked.

“I’m still in Dajing City. There was a paranormal incident at the training base before, but the cleanup work has been completed. Headquarters said that those of us who didn’t finish our training can continue our training before returning to our original cities.”

Zhang Lei quickly responded on the other end of the phone: "Captain Li, is there anything you need me to do?"

"Alright, I'm now in charge of Dahang City. Tell Zhao Jianguo that the training doesn't need to continue, and he can be transferred directly to Dahang City."

"Okay, Captain Li, I'll tell Captain Zhao right away, then go back to Xiaoquan City to make arrangements, and then come directly to Dahang City."

"..."

During the conversation, Li Hui recalled Zhang Lei's information. Zhang Lei's code name at the Ghost Rider headquarters was 'Ghost Eater', and he was from Kitabe Town, Koizumi City.

Koizumi City is a coastal city located in the southeast of China, and its overall economy is not particularly remarkable among the many cities in China.

Currently, there is a person in charge in Xiaoquan City. Zhang Lei is not the person in charge in Xiaoquan City, so his transfer will be simpler than the transfer of some city officials. In Li Hui's opinion, the other party only needs to inform Zhao Jianguo.

Think of this.

Li Hui said, "Okay, that's settled then. Try to get here as soon as possible; there's a lot going on in Hangzhou."

After saying that, Li Hui hung up the phone.

In his view, subordinates are meant to be ordered around, not to be babysitters for the other party, so Li Hui called Zhang Lei to come to Hangzhou.

Although Li Hui didn't think much of Zhang Lei's abilities, he could help him handle a lot of daily chores. After all, judging from the fact that Zhang Lei was able to become the person in charge of Dajing City in the original work, his overall abilities were not weak, which was the main reason why Li Hui was willing to take him in before.

the most important is.

Li Hui didn't want to do everything himself, so it was essential for him to recruit one or two capable subordinates.

Although there are still more than thirty dead souls in his ghost realm, each with the strength of a first-class ghost tamer or above, those dead souls brought out from the Ghost Post Office can only live in the world of the painting. They are fine for handling supernatural events in critical moments, but they are not good for daily trivial matters.

There's also assistant Zhang Xue, whom Li Hui originally planned to replace.

After all, a new emperor brings a new court. Zhang Xue was someone left behind by the previous person in charge, Zhang Feng, and she was also Zhang Feng's niece. So, after hearing her introduction, Li Hui had the idea of ​​changing assistants, but in the end, he did not take any action.

There are two reasons.

The first and most important point is that Li Hui doesn't have a suitable candidate right now. He can't just pull his own operator over as an assistant like Yang Jian did in the original novel, especially since he and operator Li Wanyu aren't exactly close either.

Secondly, while Zhang Xue's current abilities are not outstanding, they are still quite adequate, and she can execute the orders he gives her well. Therefore, Li Hui has temporarily abandoned the idea of ​​changing assistants and plans to wait and see what other business capabilities Zhang Xue has.

"It seems we still don't have enough manpower. Even if Zhang Lei comes, he can only handle some of the trivial matters. After all, a person's energy is limited. However, he can handle the supernatural events that happen in Dahang City."

Li Hui thought to himself.

As for whether Zhang Lei might not be strong enough to solve the paranormal events in Dahang City, Li Hui wasn't too concerned about that.

Thinking that at worst, Zhang Lei could bring over a derivative painting with supernatural elements, and then stuff a few ghosts into it. That would be enough to handle most ordinary supernatural incidents with ease!

After clearing his mind, Li Hui turned his attention to the large stack of files on the table in front of him.

These materials were compiled by Zhang Xue at Li Hui's request. The vast majority of them are related to paranormal events that have occurred in Dahang City, while a small portion is about some basic information about Dahang City.

Li Hui has already reviewed some of the materials. Much of the information contained therein overlaps with the information sent to him by headquarters before he came to Hangzhou to take up his post, but there is also a lot of information that headquarters has not recorded or has not recorded clearly.

After all, headquarters only keeps a rough record.

For example, for the same paranormal event, the files recorded at headquarters would include the event's code name, the degree of harm, the pattern of killings, and so on.

The files submitted by Zhang Xue clearly recorded the specific location, time, number of deaths, and symptoms of each paranormal event, and also provided detailed descriptions of the characteristics of the vengeful ghosts. Overall, their reference value far exceeded that of the headquarters' records.

Take the paranormal event of 'ghost movies' as an example.

The headquarters' files simply assigned it a code name, its level of threat, and some basic characteristics. The main point is that the person in charge, Zhang Feng, died in the ghost movie incident, and that the incident is currently in an 'unresolved' state.

The file Zhang Xue handed over contained detailed information about each ghost movie incident, including the location of the incident, the number of deaths, and the time of the incident.

With this comparison, it's immediately clear which one has higher reference value!
Thinking.

Li Hui picked up a file labeled "Mysterious Disappearance of Persons," which was the same missing person file Zhao Fan had mentioned earlier that he hadn't been able to confirm whether it was a paranormal event, but which had made Li Hui take note of it.

The file folder was very thick and contained a lot of information, indicating that the number of people missing had already reached a considerable level.

"Many people have mysteriously disappeared. Is it a supernatural event or something else?" Li Hui became interested at this point.

Currently, Dahang City has two strange incidents: the ghost movie incident and the missing persons incident. The pattern of the ghost movie incident is nowhere to be found, and it is even possible that the vengeful ghost has already left Dahang City. Therefore, the current issue that Dahang City needs to deal with is the mysterious missing persons incident.

"The first mysterious disappearance occurred seven days ago. The missing person was named Tian Li, a 28-year-old woman from Dingsha County, Hangzhou City. Her family reported her missing to the police 24 hours after she went missing. After reviewing the surveillance footage, it was found that she mysteriously disappeared after entering a public restroom in a park. The surveillance footage showed that Tian Li entered the public restroom and never came out. The public restroom had a large flow of people that day, and after screening, no suspicious persons were found..."

After opening the file folder.

The first thing that caught Li Hui's eye was the first bizarre disappearance case in Hangzhou.

The files following Tian Li contain the identity information of the missing persons in the second, third, fourth... fifty-third missing persons cases, as well as the time and place of their disappearance.

Li Hui did not read through all 53 cases of mysterious disappearances; he only reviewed some of them.

That's for sure.

These missing persons have almost no connection with each other. They come from all walks of life, live in different areas of Hangzhou, and have almost no overlap with each other. There is no pattern to their disappearances.

If we have to point out a common thread, it's that the missing individuals were either women or children, and that none of them left any suspicious clues. That's all.

“No wonder Zhao Fan couldn’t be sure if this was a supernatural event. The way they disappeared was indeed bizarre. In just seven days, fifty-three people had gone missing in the same city, without leaving any clues. But looking at the list of missing persons, it didn’t seem like the work of a vengeful ghost. After all, the missing people were either women or children. A vengeful ghost wouldn’t selectively target people…”

"But now that this matter has reached me, it must be resolved," Li Hui thought to himself.

"Whether it's a paranormal event, a psychopathic ghost tamer, or something else, there has to be an answer!"

While thinking.

A hazy, ghostly realm emerged, followed by a sky full of ashes. The area covered by the ghostly realm rapidly expanded, enveloping the entire city.

On finding people.

What could be simpler than the Ghost Realm?
Regardless of whether the missing people are dead or alive, as long as they are still within the territory of Dahang City, Li Hui can find them, and the answer will come to light at that time!
(End of this chapter)