Chapter 50: Li Mingjuan
Li Mingjuan was Lin Xi’s best friend.
Right now, she was wearing the second-hand women’s clothes that Li Mu had sold her the other day… One thing worth mentioning is that this girl was also a bit over 1.7 meters tall, so she had no problem fitting into Li Mu’s clothes.
These days, people are getting better nutrition, and even someone like Li Mu, who is 1.75 meters tall, feels like he’s falling behind the times.
Li Mu watched helplessly as she walked across the street toward Yu Fan. He left Zhang Hui behind and stepped forward, planning to stop her just like before so she wouldn’t interrupt Yu Fan’s spirit-calling game.
However, the game had already been going for seven or eight minutes. Last time, the Raincoat Ghost had shown up by this point, but this time, nothing had happened. It seemed like the game had failed.
Maybe the Raincoat Ghost wasn’t nearby.
The game could’ve helped Yu Fan keep his "ghost-seeing buff" going a bit longer, but now that he had the gold-rimmed glasses from Chen Yi, it wasn’t really necessary.
As these thoughts went through his mind, Li Mu walked up to Yu Fan, only to notice something was off about him.
Yu Fan was trembling slightly, the rhythm of his bowl-tapping was messed up, and sweat was forming on his forehead. He was gritting his teeth, as if he was afraid of something.
Li Mu stopped and looked around carefully.
But there was no sign of ghostly fog or a sudden drop in temperature, both things that usually happened when a ghost appeared.
So what was Yu Fan scared of?
Without thinking too much, Li Mu stood in front of Yu Fan and waited for Li Mingjuan to get closer.
But as she got nearer, Li Mu began to frown.
Something felt strange about her.
Did her family hit her? Was she being bullied?
Even though the street was well-lit, it was still hard to see her face clearly from a short distance.
“There’s one minute left,” Li Mu said to Yu Fan behind him.
If the Raincoat Ghost didn’t show up in the next minute, then this attempt was basically a failure.
After all, it’s not like they could drive around all night looking for ghosts, right?
Li Mingjuan kept walking closer, until she stopped in front of Li Mu and gave him a small smile.
“Don’t stand too close to Yu Fan. We’re filming a video,” Li Mu said, using the same excuse as before to try and bluff her.
Suddenly, he heard a loud and urgent shout from behind.
“All the street cameras on this road went out a minute ago! The ghost is here!”
“What ghost?!”
He turned around to look at Chen Yi, and saw Chen Yi acting like he’d gone crazy, rolling off the car and crawling, raising his gun and aiming it…
…at Li Mu.
Li Mu’s heart squeezed tight. He turned back quickly, just in time to see a shadow cover his face.
Looking up, he saw Li Mingjuan holding a bone-cutting cleaver, swinging it straight down at his head.
What the hell?! What the hell?!
Where did that cleaver even come from?!
There was no time to react!
His head was about to be chopped in two!
Am I really going to die in such an awful way?
That thought flashed through his mind as he watched the cleaver get bigger and bigger in his view… and his body just couldn’t move fast enough to respond.
But for some reason, Li Mu suddenly took two steps back without meaning to.
The tip of the knife brushed past his nose, he could even feel the wind from the swing.
Only then did Yu Fan react. He quickly stopped the spirit-calling game and pushed Li Mu aside.
Yu Fan stepped forward with his right foot, twisted his body with power from his heel, turned his waist, lifted his leg, and swung his left leg in a half-circle. His shin hit Li Mingjuan’s right forearm, the one holding the cleaver, like a whip.
He kicked too hard. A sharp pain shot through his leg, it felt like he had kicked a metal wall. The force only made Li Mingjuan take two steps back, but she didn’t drop the knife.
“Yu Fan! Get out of the way!”
Chen Yi shouted from the distance, but Li Mingjuan had already rushed forward again, swinging the bone cleaver wildly at Yu Fan.
Luckily, Yu Fan had learned various fighting skills since he was young, so even though he was panicking, he was still quick enough to dodge several times.
Chen Yi tried to aim a few times, but he noticed that the woman clearly knew he had a gun. Every time she moved, she would stay on Yu Fan’s side, using his body as a shield, leaving no chance for Chen Yi to shoot.
Even though Chen Yi was only about ten meters away, this wasn’t a shooting range. It was impossible to aim for her hands or feet with precision, especially with her moving so fast and hiding behind Yu Fan.
“Damn it! This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
He turned and pulled out a half-meter-long straight knife from the driver’s seat. Taking a deep breath, he said quietly, “I’m counting on you again, old friend.”
Then he charged forward with the knife, ready to help.
At this moment, Li Mu was still confused. Seeing Yu Fan and Li Mingjuan fighting made his face turn pale.
Wait, why did his body suddenly move on its own just now?
He wanted to help, but Li Mingjuan was swinging the cleaver so powerfully that he couldn’t even get close.
He looked around, trying to find a long stick or something to use as a weapon, but then he suddenly noticed that thick fog was starting to spread all around them.
Li Mingjuan also stopped attacking. She stepped back a couple of steps, breathing heavily, looking around with alert eyes.
From the moment she started attacking until now, only about 30 seconds had passed.
Yu Fan quickly pulled Li Mu back to safety. After joining up with Chen Yi, the three of them finally had a moment to check the situation.
“Is Li Mingjuan a ghost?” Yu Fan asked, his face tense.
“She’s possessed,” Chen Yi explained. “Look at her right forearm, it’s probably fractured, but she’s acting like nothing happened. Her body is fully taken over.”
At that point, they finally noticed the big swollen bruise on Li Mingjuan’s arm.
“The Raincoat Ghost must be here,” Li Mu said. Even with his jacket on, he could feel the air getting colder.
The fog, which looked like icy mist, was a common sign when the Raincoat Ghost showed up. The last two times they saw it, the fog was there too.
Sure enough, in the mist ahead, a blurry figure slowly appeared with the sound of rubber boots stepping on the ground.
A black raincoat. A dark, red-stained chopping knife.
The Raincoat Ghost had returned, and was now standing in front of Li Mu once again.
It was Chen Yi’s first time seeing this ghost. He quickly looked down and started calling for backup. But after trying several times, he put the phone down with a grim expression.
“No signal.”
“This is bad,” Yu Fan muttered. “Weren’t we told the ghost would leave once the spirit game ended? Now it’s three against two, and Li Mu can’t really fight.”
Li Mu stared at the two ghosts not far away, feeling ashamed. He really had only slowed them down just now.
After this, he’s going to learn how to fight! And get his muscles back too!
“My kitchen knife didn’t help at all… if only I had—”
Yu Fan's complaints were interrupted by Li Mu. “Something feels off…”
The Raincoat Ghost that had just stepped out of the fog wasn’t looking at the three of them. Instead, it turned toward Li Mingjuan, and raised its chopping knife.
Li Mingjuan suddenly collapsed to the ground.
Then, a thin little girl in a torn red jacket slowly floated out of her body. She picked up the bone cleaver from the ground and faced the Raincoat Ghost.
“What… what’s going on?”
All three of them were completely stunned.