130: Chapter 130 Clearly Marked Prices, Fair and Honest Treatment

"Sizzle!"

The moment the yellow talisman touched the plastic casing of the speaker, it burst into flames, giving off a thick stream of pungent black smoke.

The temperature in the entire reception hall suddenly dropped by a few degrees at that moment, and the spotlights overhead flickered twice.

Within the black smoke, a shrill, ear-piercing scream of a woman could be faintly heard, filled with intense malice and resentment.

Zhao Xue screamed in terror, tumbling right off the leather sofa and landing hard on the floor, clamping her hands tightly over her ears.

Leng Yue's eyes turned cold, a streak of murderous intent flashing within her dark-gold eyes.

Stepping forward by mere half a step, an ultimate pressure belonging to the Millennium Drought Demon instantly enveloped the entire hall.

The black smoke that had just emerged didn't even hold out for a second before being forcibly suppressed back into the speaker's wreckage, leaving no further disturbance.

Lin Ye waved his hand, dispersing the lingering burnt stench in the air, and looked down at Zhao Xue, who was slumping on the floor.

"Verification complete. It really is a malignant ghost with some cultivation, and its obsession is extremely deep. It's already started using an object left behind from its lifetime as a medium to initiate a countdown to take your life."

"Once you sign for the delivery at midnight tonight, Jiangzhou's morning headlines tomorrow will have an extra female corpse with an unknown cause of death."

Zhao Xue was limp all over, tears and snot smearing her face.

She now completely believed the online rumors, scrambling forward to grab the edge of Lin Ye's desk:

"Save me! Boss Lin, I beg you to save me! I'll give you as much money as you want!"

Lin Ye snapped his fingers, pulled out a standardized gold-embossed contract from a drawer, and pushed it in front of her along with a Montblanc fountain pen.

"Lins Funeral Shop, clearly priced and honest with young and old alike. For S-grade supernatural commissions involving life-threatening danger, the base consultation fee is two hundred thousand."

"Since midnight overtime is required, an extra hundred thousand night effort fee applies, plus the magic power depletion cost from evaluating the malignant ghost's grade just now, totaling five hundred thousand. No credit allowed; we accept QR code scanning and bank transfers."

There was not a shred of sympathy in Lin Ye's tone, looking every bit like a ruthless capitalist sticking strictly to business.

Zhao Xue didn't hesitate at all. She grabbed the fountain pen, signed her name on the contract, then whipped out her phone and trembling scanned the payment QR code on the desk.

"Alipay transaction received: five hundred thousand yuan."

The crisp electronic notification tone echoed through the spacious hall.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Lin Ye tucked the contract away, stood up, and stretched.

"Fatty!"

"Coming! What are your orders, Boss?"

Accompanied by a series of heavy footsteps, Fatty Wang jogged out from the hallway leading to the backyard.

Around his neck hung a expensive string of lobular rosewood beads that Bai Yu had helped source, and he was rotating two pairs of walnuts in his hands, putting on the posture of a head steward.

"Go to the storeroom and bring out my black tactical backpack. Pack three [Taiyi Heavenly Thunder Talisman]s, a box of top-grade cinnabar, half a catty of aged glutinous rice, and my soul-suppressing copper coin sword. Also, give me the car keys."

Lin Ye gave clear and methodical instructions.

"Understood, right away."

Fatty Wang didn't say another word, turning around and sprinting toward the storeroom.

"Ding!"

Just then, the door leading down to the underground quiet room suddenly swung open.

A little loli wearing loose pajamas printed with SpongeBob SquarePants and sporting silver-blue twin tails stepped out barefoot.

Frost Star was tightly hugging a bone coated with a layer of frost—the leftover Unfading Bone residue after being refined with Red Lotus Karmic Fire.

Her heterochromatic eyes rolled around in their sockets before finally locking onto the tattered speaker on the desk.

She sniffed her dainty nose, shuffled her slippers over to the desk, and circled the speaker twice like a puppy guarding its food.

"Such a foul smell... like a dead rat that's been soaking in a smelly ditch for three months."

Frost Star wrinkled her nose in disgust, turning to look at Lin Ye with a hint of grievance on her yandere face.

"Brother-in-law, you took a job in the middle of the night just to feed me this kind of trash? Eating this low-grade evil aura will give me an upset stomach."

Lin Ye walked over and habitually reached out to ruffle Frost Star's cool, silky silver-blue long hair, which felt like touching high-quality ice silk satin.

"Be good. This stuff is too coarse and doesn't suit your palate. Stay home and guard the house tonight, and while you're at it, keep an eye on Ayugu so she doesn't stay up late playing video games. I'm taking your sister out for a bit."

Hearing that she didn't have to eat this "low-quality snack," Frost Star hugged the bone in her arms tightly with satisfaction and nodded obediently.

From behind a sofa not far away, a head wearing headphones and topped with several silver ornaments suddenly popped up.

Ayugu was furiously tapping away on her phone screen with both hands, cursing under her breath:

"Charge! Jungler, are you blind?!"

Hearing that Lin Ye was going out, she shouted without even looking up:

"Boss, stay safe out there. If you run into any weird, poisonous corpse, remember to cut off a piece of meat for me to study!"

Lin Ye shook his head helplessly.

Ever since he recruited this gaming-addicted girl from Miaojiang, the Funeral Shop's electricity bills had skyrocketed.

Ten minutes later, a black bulletproof george patton SUV roared off like an iron beast, leaving Taiping Old Street and merging into the deep night of Jiangzhou.

Inside the vehicle, Lin Ye drove while Leng Yue sat in the passenger seat, quietly watching the streetscape recede outside the window.

Zhao Xue cowered in the spacious back seat, tightly clutching the broken speaker wrapped in yellow talismans, her body still shaking uncontrollably.

At eleven o'clock at night, a pattering drizzle began to fall from the sky.

The windshield wipers scraped back and forth monotonically with a creaking sound, making the atmosphere inside the car feel even more suffocating.

"Miss Zhao, regarding the second-hand seller who sold you the speaker, did the police find any leads after you reported it?"

Lin Ye asked while turning the steering wheel and glancing in the rearview mirror.

Zhao Xue shook her head, her face turning even paler than before.

"The police checked the account and found that its real-name verification information... belongs to someone who died over a year ago."

"That person was a girl living alone. Supposedly, due to a relationship dispute, she slit her wrists and committed suicide in her rented apartment. Her corpse soaked in the bathtub for a whole half-month before the landlord discovered it."

Hearing this, Lin Ye tapped his fingers gently on the steering wheel twice.

A second-hand account operated by a dead person? A corpse soaking in water?

This matched up completely with the "fishy water stench" Leng Yue had sensed earlier.

It seemed that the entity hiding behind the internet and electronic components was indeed a malignant, life-demanding ghost full of intense resentment.

It used items it had used in life as mediums, selling them at low prices to randomly seek scapegoats.

Or rather, searching for "roommates" who could understand its pain.

"Is the place you live in also a rented apartment?" Lin Ye pressed further.

"Yes, Rose Garden Community, Building 14, Room 1404," Zhao Xue answered.