Chapter 36: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons

Night fell, and the atmosphere in the amusement park began to grow eerie.

Under the dim, multi-colored lights, amidst the fog generated by dry ice, accompanied by haunting and terrifying music, the crowds reveled in a "Night of a Hundred Ghosts." Everyone was having a blast; though they all wore masks, it felt as if they had shed them. To the many materialistic young people present, it never occurred to them that something real might be mingling among them.

It was as if a group of people were partying with Song Shiyun. In the haunted house, a female ghost in a red nightgown, her hair disheveled, was surrounded by people taking photos. They praised her, claiming that her portrayal of a ghost was truly the essence of the craft, reaching a new level of character and individuality.

Cold white mist drifted in from nowhere, merging with the dry ice fog on the ground, slowly creeping into the amusement park. Among the crowd, a group of people dressed in ancient clothing appeared, stumbling in from out of nowhere and blending into the throng. They looked as if they were fleeing for their lives, panicked and aimless, like headless flies. But soon, they vanished.

The night's revelry felt like a dream. When the sky began to brighten, the amusement park was left in a state of disarray, save for the early-rising sanitation workers diligently cleaning up. The revelers removed their costumes, and the "hundred ghosts" seemed to vanish along with the passing night.

Song Shiyun, who had played wildly all night, and the ghosts from the haunted house walked back together.

"I never imagined that one day we'd be able to have fun with them just like normal people," the woman in the red robe sighed.

"If I hadn't already passed on, I don't think my old bones could have handled a night like this," Grandpa Li said with a smile, leaning on his cane.

Song Shiyun pouted. *This is nothing,* she thought. If she hadn't been "collected" by her boss, she would have long since possessed another girl's body to enjoy life. Still, this feeling of living her own life, in her own form, didn't seem... too bad.

As the ghosts reached the entrance of the haunted house, they saw a man dressed in clothing reminiscent of the pre-Qin era lying at the shop's door.

"Did he play too hard last night?" Song Shiyun frowned.

Grandpa Li poked the man with his cane and said, "Young man, the temperature is too low; don't sleep here. Wake up, go home if you need to sleep."

As soon as Grandpa Li touched him, the man sat up with a jolt, as if his backside were on fire. With a panicked expression and terrified eyes, he looked at the crowd. After a long moment, he stammered, "You... you are not them."

Without even stopping to say thank you, the man turned and fled in a panic.

"What kind of person is that?" the little ghost holding a soccer ball remarked. "Can't even say thank you?"

The group of ghosts pushed the door open and entered the haunted house, while Song Shiyun frowned, looking in the direction the man had fled. *Was that... really a human?* But then she thought, if he weren't human, would he dare sleep in front of a haunted house? That would be courting death. Would the boss really let a wandering wild ghost escape?

Inside, Song Shiyun saw Chu Tian sound asleep on the recliner behind the counter.

"Boss, it's daylight!" She walked over and tapped the table.

"Daylight?" Chu Tian sat up, bleary-eyed, and checked his watch. "So it is, 6:30!"

"You slept here all night? Didn't go ghost-hunting?" Song Shiyun asked.

"Hunt what?" Chu Tian replied. "I've pretty much caught all the ghosts in Shang City. Can't I take a break?"

"Fine, you're the boss, you're the boss," Song Shiyun said. "Now, dear boss, can you clear the way? This is my workstation; your employee needs to clock in."

"Did I ever mandate that you start work this early?" Chu Tian asked.

Song Shiyun rolled her eyes. "Don't you know the nature of our job? No days off, on call 24/7, serving the boss heart and soul."

"Don't make me sound like a capitalist," Chu Tian said, stepping out from behind the counter. "I don't even have performance quotas for you. You spend every day at the counter slacking off, playing games, and binge-watching shows—have I ever said anything? You get the most deliveries of any ghost in the house. A wandering spirit like you, buying a dozen different urns online, including one with Hello Kitty on it, stacked in my storage room like a pagoda for spirits. Do you think you're that free just because the company is your home?"

"Isn't that just me treating the company like my home?" Song Shiyun sat down behind the counter, skillfully opened the computer, launched the emulator, and declared: "Game, start!"

"Still, it was quite boring to spend the night idle and not hunting," Chu Tian said, stretching.

The ghost pearls produced by the spirits detained in the Eighteen Soul-Binding Towers were quite substantial this morning.

"Here, your wages! One each." Chu Tian reached out and placed a handful of soul pearls on the counter.

Song Shiyun's eyes lit up, and the ghosts who had returned to their spirit tablets all zipped out, greedily snatching a pearl each to absorb.

"The ghosts in Shang City are mostly cleared out. To find new ones, I'll have to go further afield, which is a hassle." Chu Tian pulled his recliner outside and sat down, contemplating whether he should open a branch of the "Ghost House."

Opening a branch would be easy enough—find a location and catch a few ghosts to work there. But... the haunted house business was difficult. If it's too scary, customers won't come. If it's not scary enough, they don't want to come.

Just as Chu Tian was struggling with the decision, his phone rang. He pulled it out and checked the caller ID: Wang Dali.

"Hey! Wang, what's up? Calling me so early?" Chu Tian answered. "Are you calling to give me a bonus? The bounties for those supernatural cases I solved should be coming through soon, right?"

"Your bounty will arrive this week, but there's something more important," Wang Dali said, his tone urgent.

"More important?" Chu Tian sat up straighter. "What is it? The supernatural events in Shang City should be mostly resolved, right? What else could be so tricky?"

"Didn't you go out last night?" Wang Dali asked.

"I was resting..."

"There was a 'Night of a Hundred Ghosts'! A Ghost King passed through!"

"I know. My haunted house is in the amusement park; people were having a blast."

"I'm not talking about people dressed as ghosts—I mean real ghosts!" Wang Dali said gravely. "Countless wild ghosts hiding in the Ghost King's domain escaped and flooded into Shang City. The supernatural alerts in the city are off the charts today. I'm currently contacting everyone involved to help track them down and eliminate them before they do anything that threatens public safety."

"That so?"

Hearing this, Chu Tian stood up from his recliner. *Isn't this just free business?*