Mysterious Revival

Is something off with Zhao Lei?

Looking at Zhao Lei, who stood outside the window and spoke to him, Yang Jian, who had been in the same class and hung out with Zhang Wei's group for three years, felt a strange unfamiliarity.

This unfamiliarity was indescribable; it was just a feeling that something was off.

Yang Jian scrutinized Zhao Lei but didn't notice anything unusual.

"Wang Shanshan and her family are safe, but I'm not doing so well. Zhang Wei is still the same, playing games and streaming at home all day. Are you looking for them? How about we all get together? Even though Sun Ren and Liu Qi aren't back, and Big Cousin and Miao Xiaoshan are also absent, it could still be considered a small class reunion..." Yang Jian said.

"Shut up." Zhao Lei, who had been relatively calm before, suddenly grew agitated, slamming his hand on the hood of the car fiercely.

The car's hood immediately dented inward, and various alarm sounds came from inside the vehicle, with airbags deploying.

"Why, why did you save their family, but not ours? Is Wang Shanshan's and Zhang Wei's family's lives worth living, and my family's lives are not?" Zhao Lei growled, like a wild beast in a frenzy, seeming very emotional.

Yang Jian furrowed his brows, that strange feeling still lingering in his mind. Facing such accusations from Zhao Lei, he calmly replied, "Zhao Lei, I can only feel regret and sympathy for some of the things that have happened to you. Perhaps many of your family members have died in this paranormal event, but this is not the outcome I wished for either."

"This was a major paranormal event, no one could avoid it, I can only take care of so many people, there will always be tragedies."

Zhao Lei said, "So am I the only one left in my family to die?"

"You're not in a stable emotional state right now, calm down before we talk," Yang Jian said.

"I don't need to calm down, I need an explanation," Zhao Lei growled lowly.

Yang Jian frowned, "I can't give you an explanation, what you need right now is not to specifically find me to blame me, but to cool down, to think clearly about the root of the whole incident, so you can understand, the wrong person is not me."

"You are Dachang City's international ghost controller, you have a duty to resolve the paranormal events here, but you didn't do that," Zhao Lei said.

Yang Jian said, "No one can get everything done perfectly, tragedy happens in any city governed by an international ghost controller. We all walked out of No. 7 Middle School alive, we should learn to accept this cruel reality.

Moreover, I feel that your current state is very wrong, your emotions are very intense, but it doesn't really seem like a normal person's, rather it gives me the feeling that you are..."

"Like a ghost, right," Zhao Lei finished his sentence, his face turning from anger to an indifferent smile with a hint of emotionless amusement, "Because, like you, I have also become a controller of ghosts."

"Funny when you think about it, I've been searching the entire city for fierce ghosts without any result. When the incident happened, I specifically ran to your house to seek your help, but instead, I met someone who looked exactly like you, that wasn't you, right? Someone sitting there, reading a newspaper, motionless..."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jian's eyes narrowed sharply.

That thing?

He had searched for that thing for a while without success; he didn't expect it to still be in his old home, and to have been encountered by Zhao Lei unwittingly.

"How did you survive?" Yang Jian immediately asked, "That thing is very dangerous."

"What do you think," Zhao Lei replied, his smile carrying a hint of eeriness.

Seeing him like this immediately sent a chill through Yang Jian; some instinct told him that this state of Zhao Lei's was very bizarre and dangerous, unlike ordinary ghost controllers.

"Have you been influenced, or are you the ghost... The real Zhao Lei is already dead." His gaze hardened, staring intently at him, his Ghost Eye involuntarily opening restlessly.

Although there had been only one encounter with the ghost in his home, after being reminded by Liu Xiaoyu, he knew that the ghost seemed capable of altering memories without the person being any wiser.

Furthermore, the red newspaper the ghost hand held appeared to be able to imprint a person's face. As for what happened after imitating someone's face, he didn't know.

Because, when he was attacked last time, he managed to escape successfully without falling prey to that ghost.

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"I know everything about you, and while there's still a gap between you and me now, I'll come for you to seek justice for my deceased family. From today onwards, we are no longer classmates."

Zhao Lei, wearing a sinister smile, slowly backed away, as if he was about to leave.

"Since you've put it that way, then I must keep you here today, I can't just ignore you," Yang Jian said, regardless of the peculiar situation Zhao Lei was in or any changes that had occurred to him.

As long as he had contact with the ghost lingering in his home, there had to be a problem.

Therefore, he felt that he should first restrain the person and then slowly investigate; if all else failed, he could send Zhao Lei to Wang Xiaoming and let him find the answers.

In an instant.

A red light surged from Yang Jian's body, and he disappeared from the driver's seat.

Appearing abruptly at the spot where Zhao Lei had just been, he intended to capture him directly.
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But Zhao Lei was gone.

A piece of red paper floated down to the ground.

Blood seeped through the red paper, and the outline of a face clearly emerged on it.

The face on the paper was... Zhao Lei's.

"He really has had an accident," Yang Jian's expression changed slightly. Looking at the facial silhouette on the red paper, a bad premonition arose in his heart.

This red paper was bizarre, and it had even been held by a ghost at one point. Under the circumstances of memories being tampered with at will, Zhao Lei might no longer be considered a ghost charmer. Instead, it might be the other way around—he could be controlled by a ghost.

This kind of control, he might not even be aware of it himself.

Because no one knows for sure where there might be a problem with their memories.

Without hesitation, a tall, headless shadow emerged from within him, intending to collect the paper first.

But before he could act, a chilling wind whipped up around him.

Red papers danced in the sky, sweeping up dust.

The entire street turned into a desolate, abandoned place.

"Ghost Domain?" Yang Jian frowned.

He saw those red papers whirling in midair, each with a face on it—men, women, children, and Zhao Lei's... These faces showed expressions of fear, serenity, and despair, like a collection of eerie and frightening masks.

And at the end of the street.

There was a bench, like one you might find in a park.

Someone was sitting on it, only their feet visible. The rest of the person was obscured because they were sitting there, reading a newspaper.

They were motionless.

As stiff as a corpse.

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