Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
Yang Jian sat alone on the fifth floor, patiently flipping through various books at this moment.
There were books on human anatomy, acupuncture meridian charts, knowledge of different body parts, and so on. Some were deeply technical, while others were more accessible with colorful illustrations.
"Livor mortis is a purplish discoloration of the skin resulting from blood pooling in the capillaries and small veins due to gravity after circulation stops…"
"In other words, livor mortis is just blood stagnation in the skin. If I clear the clotted blood, the marks on my body will disappear."
As Yang Jian read these headache-inducing books, he tried to simplify his understanding and began to experiment.
He couldn't keep walking the streets in a corpse's body, especially at night—it would scare people to death.
Looking at a patch of livor mortis on the back of his hand, he attempted to control the headless ghost shadow.
Soon, a small amount of clotted blood seeped out from his skin.
The livor mortis was gone.
"It's quite simple, indeed knowledge is power," Yang Jian remarked.
Then he walked while reading, heading to the bathroom to take a shower and wash away the livor mortis from his body.
As the warm water washed over him, the clotted blood seeping from Yang Jian's back was quickly cleansed away, and the dense, frightening patches of livor mortis were rapidly removed.
His skin was just a bit pale and cold, but otherwise, there was nothing unusual.
"Cold limbs are due to insufficient qi and blood. I need to exercise more and maintain good habits… Hmm, isn't that nonsense? Do I even need to exercise in my condition?" Yang Jian mused while showering, continuing to search for a way to address his body's current state.
Otherwise, his mother would be worried sick upon seeing him like this.
"I can speed up my blood flow to solve the coldness in my body, and the most direct way to do that is to increase my heart rate," Yang Jian felt his chest, gauging his heart rate.
It was too slow.
Only a third of a normal person's.
If it were an ordinary person, their body would definitely be in trouble.
"Both a fast and slow heartbeat are bad for the body, but my situation is special. My body is almost ghostly and nearly indestructible, so why should I care?"
He controlled his heartbeat, increasing the blood flow throughout his body.
As the blood flow increased, his cold body began to regain some warmth.
After some effort, Yang Jian felt his body returning to normal.
At least on the surface, that was the case.
In reality, Yang Jian knew that his biggest issue wasn't physical but psychological. After coming back from the dead, most of his body had become ghostly, and his psyche had changed significantly.
The only thing that remained unchanged was his mind, still the same as before.
However, Yang Jian was unsure whether his thoughts would subtly change over time under the influence of the ghost… or perhaps this change had already begun, and he just hadn't noticed it yet.
"Time to sleep, though I'm not sure if I can."
He finished washing off the expelled clotted blood and went back to his room to sleep.
Since his suicide by hanging, he hadn't slept once, nor had he felt the slightest bit tired.
From the initial insomnia and waking up in shock to sleeping less and then not at all, Yang Jian was acutely aware of these changes.
Lying in bed.
Yang Jian felt more awake the longer he lay there, with no intention of falling asleep.
"Yang Jian, are you there?"
At this moment, a knock came from outside the door.
"What's up?" Yang Jian asked.
The door opened, revealing Zhang Liqin wrapped in a bathrobe, seemingly fresh from a shower, her face slightly flushed as she walked in.
"I saw the light in your room was still on, so I came to check… Has something happened recently?"
Yang Jian replied, "Nothing much, everything's been normal since the Hungry Ghost Festival ended."
Zhang Liqin said, "Then why do you stay in your room alone all the time, not even playing games with Zhang Wei anymore? You've been turning people away, and it seems like you're avoiding me too?"
"Avoiding you? Not at all," Yang Jian said.
"Not at all? Then why haven't you come to see me at night? Do you find me boring now? If that's the case, I might leave in a few days. I don't have to stay here," Zhang Liqin said with a hint of resentment.
Yang Jian thought for a moment, then realized he had lost something since coming back to life.
Desire.
The pure desire a man has for a woman.
Looking at Zhang Liqin's mature and fair body outlined by the bath towel, Yang Jian felt nothing, his gaze calm and his heart undisturbed.
It was as if he had seen through the mortal world, possessing the detached mindset of an enlightened hermit.
If it were any normal man, he probably wouldn't be able to resist committing a crime at this moment.
"Could it be that I'm no longer capable?" A terrifying thought crossed Yang Jian's mind.
He hadn't paid much attention before, but now, looking back, he felt the situation seemed quite serious.
"I won't disturb you any longer; I'm going to sleep," Zhang Liqin said, seeing Yang Jian sitting motionless in deep thought, and turned to leave.
"Wait."
Yang Jian, who had come back to his senses, called out to her.
"What is it?" Zhang Liqin turned back.
"Come here, I actually need your help with something, and I hope you don't mind," Yang Jian said.
Zhang Liqin, her face still flushed, walked over obediently and closed the door behind her. She sat on the bed and said, "As long as you ask, I won't mind helping with anything. After all, without you, I would have died…"
She always had an indescribable feeling towards this special man.
There wasn't any deep affection, barely even a friendship, but she couldn't harbor any resistance towards Yang Jian and even wanted to please him.
If Yang Jian needed her for anything, whether in life or physically, Zhang Liqin would even feel excited and thrilled.
In fact, it was a psychological dependency.
Having survived a desperate and terrifying supernatural event without losing her sanity was already a feat.
"I don't even know if I'm still a normal man. It's different from when I first controlled the Ghost Eye," Yang Jian looked at his palm and said.
Zhang Liqin blinked, not quite understanding.
She had limited information and couldn't grasp the meaning of Yang Jian's words.
"Forget it, you wouldn't understand," Yang Jian said.
***
At that moment.
Outside Guanjiang Complex, the three uninvited guests from the daytime finally entered the complex.
Two men and one woman.
"Isn't it better to look for someone during the day? People might be sleeping at night, and isn't this a bit offensive? After all, we're dealing with someone who solved an S-class supernatural event. Shouldn't we show some respect? What do you think, Luo Suyi?" A man in his thirties said.
It seemed the tall, handsome young man was the leader.
Luo Suyi chuckled lightly, "Ghosts have their own style; it's boring to appear during the day."
"Besides, greeting during the day is too ostentatious. It's better to keep a low profile. At least twenty top ghost controllers have gathered in Dachang City, even that special forces Major General Li Jun is here. We should give them some face."
"Miss Lin Luomei, would you mind calling out?"
Luo Suyi looked at the young woman in her twenties, dressed in a dress, who looked somewhat cute.
Lin Luomei didn't refuse. She took out a megaphone and called out to the entire complex: "Yang Jian~! Ghost Eye Detective Yang Jian, come out."
Her voice was eerily peculiar, not spreading directly but moving forward in an unpredictable manner like a ghost.
It was as if the voice itself could seek out people.
With each call, the voice ventured out on its own. After six calls, Lin Luomei stopped.
"Such a large complex and only six calls, how long will it take to find him?" Luo Suyi said.
"Why don't you call out?" Lin Luomei's voice came from the megaphone, though her mouth was closed.
Luo Suyi replied, "I'm a great singer, even won a prize in elementary school, but calling out is not my forte, definitely can't call out Yang Jian."
"What if we accidentally kill someone with the call, then what?" the other man said.
"It shouldn't be that easy to die, after all, he solved an S-class supernatural event," Luo Suyi muttered.
The voice kept moving forward, wandering within the Guanjiang Complex. It passed the security booth, but the guards inside heard nothing.
After a while, the voice crossed the gate and entered a house.
"Yang Jian, Ghost Eye Detective Yang Jian…"
The voice lingered on the first floor, but eerily, there was no sound on the second floor.
Then the voice climbed the stairs, wandering on the second floor, yet the first and third floors heard nothing at all.