Hearing that, Ryan Ling immediately broke into an excited grin. Honestly, the thing he needed most right now was a place to live. He already had subordinates, he had his hearse—what he lacked was a proper ghost office to "open for business." Without that, he couldn't seal the deal with Sophie Su either, so of course he was hyped.
"You brat, why are you so excited about a haunting? You think you can catch ghosts now? Pfft!" On the other end of the line, Lily Liu immediately started 'scolding' him.
"Sis, aside from giving birth, there's nothing I can't do, hahaha!" Ryan was always relaxed around Lily Liu, joking without a care.
"Alright, just hurry up and get over here. Your big sis is in a mood lately, you can keep me company!" Lily didn’t take the bait, but her tone sounded a little aggrieved.
"Sis, what's wrong? Who's been bullying you?" Ryan's tone grew serious.
"No, no—who’d dare bully me? Just hurry up and come, your sister misses you!" Lily sniffled a little as she said it, then quickly hung up.
That tone made it obvious Lily was dealing with something. In Ryan’s heart, Lily was closer than a real sister—when the Azure Dragon Society threatened his family, she was the first person he thought of, which was why he got so furious.
Now Lily was out there grinding day and night on her own. She’d made some real progress these past few years—opened a fruit-and-veg farm in Grand Bay Town, started a country inn. Last time he visited, he’d eaten so much fruit he could barely walk out the door.
Ryan actually knew a bit about Grand Bay Town—the scenery was gorgeous. Peachvale County owed most of its 'Peachvale' name to Grand Bay’s stunning landscape. That’s why so many people had their eye on the place lately, with more and more outsiders moving in. Women like Lily were bound to get picked on a little.
Just picturing some thick-necked thug making a move on his sister made Ryan want to rush straight to Grand Bay Town.
Even though his mind was already halfway there, he still had to prep a bit. Things weren’t like before—he had a girlfriend now, and bigger things to handle. Plus, there were still a few days left before school let out.
Ryan took a steady breath, hoping he was just overthinking things. Lily Liu wasn’t exactly fragile—she could handle a lot on her own.
He didn’t dwell on it. But after that hyped-up phone call, his restless, lonely night shifted focus right back to that supposedly haunted apartment complex.
He jumped online for a quick search, and sure enough—Grand Bay Town’s Emerald Bay was all over the results. The story went that they’d dug up a hundred-meter-long black iron chain, and ever since it was pulled out, the fancy apartments started seeing all kinds of freaky stuff at night: creepy baby wails, a blood-weeping old willow, and even a bunch of white-clad weirdos floating by with a coffin. People called it a Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, since they were all literally floating through the air...
All those ghost stories turned Emerald Bay Residences—prime real estate in a scenic hotspot—into a total dead zone. When it first opened, prices hit nearly 30,000 yuan per square meter, which was insane for a small town. Now? Forget 30,000—even 3,000 couldn’t get anyone to bite.
So the developer was desperate, and came up with the whole 'catch the ghosts, win a home' gimmick.
Honestly, ghost-hunting was right up Ryan’s alley, and a haunted place was perfect for his Hell Court. What kind of ghost office would it be without a few actual ghosts hanging around?
When he submitted a unit in Emerald Bay to the System for review, it even got labeled a 'third-class yin residence.' That pumped him up even more. Yin residences are where ghosts live, ranked from one to nine—Yama Hall in the eighteen levels of Hell would be ninth-class supreme. But for a human-world Hell Court, third-class was already fantastic, and honestly, Ryan was more than satisfied.
The best part? If he pulled this off, he and Sophie Su could finally seal the deal. After surviving the school disaster, Sophie was even clingier—constantly flirting, dropping hints, afraid some other girl might snatch him away, hell-bent on turning their "raw rice" into "cooked rice."
Ryan was speechless—if he didn’t give in soon, that little minx might just climb into his bed in the middle of the night and have her way with him. At that point, he wouldn’t stand a chance!
...
His earlier irritation flipped to excitement, and just like that, another three days slipped by. Summer break was still a few days off, but Principal Tony Zhang was basically treating Ryan like a brother—he gave him early leave to rest up. After the Fan Family’s mess, the school’s storefronts were trashed, even the flagpole was knocked over. Everything had to be rebuilt and reinforced. Thankfully, the Fan Family had donated their entire fortune: part went to the Martial Arts Association to train new talent in Harbor City, and the rest became an education fund for the high school. With that kind of money, they were renovating everything to the max.
When Sophie Su heard Ryan was heading to Peachvale County for 'vacation,' she insisted on tagging along. Her reason was solid: she had to personally take care of Harbor City’s hero. Tony Zhang knew all about their relationship, so he played the indulgent elder and totally approved. The guy even shamelessly handed Ryan a few boxes of Okamoto 001s, joking that young people have too much fire, and with such a gorgeous girl around, he should let off some steam—just be safe and don’t get her pregnant.
Ryan nearly spat blood—was this really something a principal should say?
Not that he didn’t dream about doing it, but the moment he pictured his demonic old man’s snarling face, he chickened out every time.
Sigh! This poor guy’s suffering, but who could he even tell?
Which just made it all the more important—he had to nail this Peachvale County mission!
Departure was coming up. Zombie lieutenant Frank Qin was obviously going, and Warren Yuan wanted to come too—he’d come from Jiangbei to Harbor City, and had always planned to visit Peachvale County. Not for fun, though: he was hunting for jade. Besides its scenic views, Peachvale was famous for its jade, and some stones had special effects for practitioners.
And besides those three, Jason Lin wanted in too. He had friends everywhere, and Peachvale was no exception—he had several brothers over there, all doing pretty well.
Since everyone wanted to go, Ryan didn’t object. The more, the merrier—and except for Sophie, who was mostly there for emotional support, everyone else had a specific use.
Soon enough, the day of departure arrived. Back in the day, Ryan always had to juggle a bunch of buses and transfers, finally squeezing onto a rural coach to get there. But things were totally different now—Jason Lin rolled up with five Hummers and four Land Rovers, each one packed with muscle-bound dudes. Ryan was dizzy. This wasn’t a gang war, so why bring so many cars and people? Talk about over-the-top.
So, thanks to Ryan’s firm objections, Jason had no choice but to send the extra vehicles and brothers ahead to Peachvale County as scouts. But this trip, he insisted on driving himself.
Ryan couldn’t refuse Jason’s kindness. Soon the Hummer’s engine roared to life, and the Peachvale vacation adventure officially began.
The scenery along the way was amazing, and Jason drove super smoothly—he used to chauffeur high-ranking officers in the army. To keep things lively, he shared a bunch of military stories that had everyone cracking up, even getting the usually stone-faced zombie Frank Qin to grin.
With the rare chill vibes, they soon reached a restaurant. It was only halfway through what should’ve been a half-day trip, but there was a big roadside place with a huge sign: Four Seas Restaurant.
Everyone’s stomachs were rumbling, so they hopped out for a bite. Jason patted his chest and told them to eat their fill—he was covering everything.
Nobody held back—they ordered more than ten dishes on the spot. With the table loaded up, even the usually otherworldly zombie Frank Qin found his appetite.
They tore through the food like a whirlwind—basically polished off every dish. Warren Yuan ate so much he was burping nonstop and could barely stand.
Ryan stuffed himself too. Jason, happy to see everyone enjoying themselves, grabbed his black wallet and went to pay.
But he’d barely stepped outside when Ryan heard Jason’s furious roar.
“Are you shitting me? You bastards really think you can pull this scam on me? Eight hundred eighty thousand for one meal?”
Everyone instantly knew something was up—damn, they’d walked right into a black shop scam. But these idiots really picked the wrong target: they were trying to shake down Harbor City’s number one underworld boss...