Chapter 9: What’s the Point?

Tao Fangyi didn’t understand why Wang had suddenly broken down, but he was still trying to calm him down.

Li Yao was also helping to comfort him. Even though Wang was rarely friendly when chatting with her, Li Yao could tell that the current situation was that Tao Fangyi and Wang had come together to save her.

“Did I overlook something?” Tao Fangyi thought for a long while but couldn’t figure out the reason. “Sorry, I’m always a bit slower than others.”

The Zhang fierce ghost stood not far away, expressionlessly watching their conversation. “I was once a Ghost King.”

“I know, I know.” Tao Fangyi raised a hand, signaling the other to wait. Right now, that wasn’t important.

“No, you’re not slow.” Wang slowly stood up. “Let me ask you… hypothetically, a scenario completely unrelated to reality.”

Tao Fangyi nodded.

Wang pointed at Li Yao. “Say she turned bad.”

Li Yao’s eyes widened in shock, and she pointed a finger at her own face.

“Like those exaggerated kids—dyeing her hair, getting tattoos, even piercing her body.” Wang said as if casually.

“You mean she’s going punk?” Tao Fangyi nodded, indicating he understood.

Oh, that wasn’t turning bad in Tao Fangyi’s eyes. Wang breathed a slight sigh of relief. His own appearance was probably just a style to Tao Fangyi as well.

“Good, so next, her personality also becomes more wild.” Wang came up with a somewhat artistic descriptor. “She’s become more like rock and roll.”

“She’s become the lone wolf at school. When she runs into some bullies who are picking on people, she’ll fight back with violence.” Wang patted Li Yao on the shoulder. Li Yao was a bit dazed.

Could this analogy even work?

“She’s attending school in her hometown, her mother isn’t with her. At this time, you have a chance to contact her mother. What would you do?” Wang asked.

“Tell all of this to her mother,” Tao Fangyi said decisively.

Wang: “…Why? Just because she’s a punk girl? I think your approach is inappropriate.”

“She’s a rebellious teenager. Aren’t you afraid of causing psychological harm to her?” Wang asked indignantly.

Li Yao didn’t understand why Wang was getting so worked up over a hypothetical that wasn’t even possible.

“Because randomly resorting to violence could cause irreversible harm to oneself. Professional matters should be left to professionals.” Tao Fangyi said seriously. “Helping the weak is a fine virtue, but going it alone as a lone hero is not advisable.”

Wang: “…What if telling on her leads to her being held back or even expelled?”

“Then that’s the consequence of her out-of-line behavior.” Tao Fangyi didn’t waver in the slightest.

After thinking for a moment, Wang asked again: “What if you unknowingly became her ‘partner in crime’?”

“Is that possible?” How could an adult become a rebellious kid’s partner in crime?

“It’s just a hypothetical. For instance, the iron rod she uses to beat people was bought with money you gave her.” Wang pondered the possibility of dragging this uncle into it. “Would you still tattle?”

“Of course. If I were involved, then I’d have a problem too. I can’t keep making mistakes. I must cut my losses promptly.”

Good, it’s over.

Say goodbye to a life of freedom.

After a brief silence, Wang suddenly let out a “Ha!” laugh. “I’ll tell you, I don’t suck up to anyone.”

Tao Fangyi: “Huh? Oh, okay.”

Did Wang have anyone he needed to suck up to before?

Forget it, don’t dwell on it. Just go along with him.

“I am free,” Wang said to Tao Fangyi. Before everything utterly collapsed, he wanted to be himself to the fullest and vent all his dissatisfaction.

Tao Fangyi applauded Wang’s freedom, though his hands couldn’t make a sound.

He noticed that Wang, inexplicably, had gone from extreme tension to complete relaxation, as if he had comprehended some new realm.

Tao Fangyi didn’t understand. He just felt he had encountered yet another lively, colorful individual, unprecedented to him.

The world was just too big, and there were too many people. He really still needed to learn.

“Tao Fangyi!!” the Zhang fierce ghost spoke up again. “Aren’t you curious how I managed to lurk near you for so long without you detecting me?”

Tao Fangyi: …

“Do I have to be curious?” Tao Fangyi didn’t know. The scope was just too broad—some unknown powerful magical artifact, or the fierce ghost had concocted some incredible spell.

If he really tried to guess, he might not figure it out even after spending a whole day.

Tao Fangyi wasn’t keen on guessing.

Catching ghosts wasn’t his job. What he should be doing now was waiting for his colleagues from the Combat Department to arrive, and then taking Li Yao home.

The fierce ghost suddenly let out a low, hoarse laugh.

And Tao Fangyi had long grown accustomed to this kind of laughter from Wang.

“Look at this.” A wooden stick suddenly appeared in the fierce ghost’s hand.

Tao Fangyi stared at it for a moment, then slapped his forehead in sudden realization. “Oh! A part of my body!”

Both Wang and Li Yao looked at Tao Fangyi.

Tao Fangyi’s reaction was a bit too strange.

Earlier, when he pointed out that the necklace Li Yao was wearing was his own eyeball, he had been just as nonchalant, to the point of being incomprehensible.

“That explains it! You used my body to block my consciousness.” Tao Fangyi breathed a sigh of relief. The other hadn’t made him keep guessing.

“That’s your body,” Wang reminded him.

“Right!” Tao Fangyi nodded.

“I’m not asking you! I’m saying it’s strange that your body is in his hands! What is the matter with you?” Wang found it unbelievable. “This is a very serious issue!”

“He’s always like this,” the Zhang fierce ghost sneered. “He’s selfish and only cares about himself. One moment he’s calling me brother, the next he sells me out. He even forgot my name.”

“He’s a cold-blooded freak,” the fierce ghost said through gritted teeth.

“He’s not,” Li Yao quietly refuted.

Wang looked at the human girl beside him in surprise. “You’ve got a lot of guts, don’t you?”

Li Yao had only known Tao Fangyi for a short time. She was just thirteen years old. Previously, when she was four, they’d had a brief interaction, and Tao Fangyi had even frightened her.

But that fierce ghost had clearly just tried to lure her to her death, and Tao Fangyi had saved her.

“He’s not cold-blooded or a freak,” Li Yao continued to refute.

A cold-blooded freak wouldn’t have kept chatting with her when she felt lost. Tao Fangyi had never advised her to accept her new family. In fact, he avoided mentioning his current mission target—which was Li Yao’s younger sister.

Li Yao knew that Tao Fangyi was carefully maintaining boundaries.

The atmosphere suddenly became very quiet. Probably the Zhang fierce ghost hadn’t expected the human child to dare talk back.

Li Yao took a deep breath and softly retorted, “You’re the freak.” The one who kills people is the freak.

Wang: “Whoo!”

He laughed heartily and patted Li Yao on the back. “I like this aggressiveness!”

Tao Fangyi gently patted Li Yao’s calf. Since he was standing on the ground, he could only reach her calf. “I’m not sad.”

The Zhang fierce ghost erupted. His ghostly aura swelled instantly, but before it could touch the three of them, it retracted.

The corner of Wang’s mouth twitched slightly.

This reaction was very familiar to him.

As expected, the Zhang fierce ghost’s hands were cuffed behind his back with red handcuffs, and he fell to the ground.

Tao Fangyi walked forward.

The Zhang fierce ghost glared at Tao Fangyi with resentment, but Tao Fangyi bypassed his head and took the small piece of wood from his hand.

After examining it from side to side, Tao Fangyi brushed off the tiny bit of dust on it. “This is mine.”

He stowed the wood into the space behind him.

“I’ve already called my colleagues in the Combat Department. He can’t escape. Let’s pull out first,” Tao Fangyi said to Li Yao and Wang. “It’s already very late. The family will be worried soon.”

“Tao Fangyi!!” the Zhang fierce ghost shouted. “Don’t you want to know how I got a piece of your body?! Sooner or later, you’ll pay for your betrayal!!”

“Let’s go, let’s go.” Tao Fangyi pushed Li Yao with one hand and Wang with the other.

The rest of the work had nothing to do with him. He was just here to take the kid home.

“Aren’t you going to ask about your body? Aren’t you afraid they want to harm you?” Wang asked him.

“My colleagues will interrogate him later. He can’t harm me.” Tao Fangyi didn’t want to stay here too long. The other’s mental state wasn’t normal, and talking to him was exhausting.

“How do you know he can’t harm you?”

“I didn’t betray him, nor did I harm him,” Tao Fangyi explained. “Back then, after I figured things out, I went back and beat him up. I grabbed that Ten Thousand Souls Banner off him as an afterthought.”

“As an afterthought?”

“Back then, he wasn’t the only one I was brawling with.”

Brawling? Battle, more like!

Wang glanced back at the fierce ghost several times.

He was confident he could defeat that fierce ghost, but it definitely wouldn’t be easy.

If the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was added to the mix, he’d only be confident if his true form came.

But Tao Fangyi beat him up and then forgot about him. Was that possible?

Earlier, when this fierce ghost was talking to Tao Fangyi, he hadn’t made a move at all.

Was it out of politeness? No, he was probably wary of Tao Fangyi.

Since he chose to block Tao Fangyi’s perception, he definitely didn’t intend to expose himself in front of Tao Fangyi. Attacking the kid might have been to mess with Tao Fangyi’s mindset.

In any case, this fellow didn’t dare do anything to Tao Fangyi.

So Tao Fangyi was really that formidable?

Oh, his parents had also said the opponent they’d encountered back then was terrifying.

Wang looked down at Tao Fangyi several times, then he scooped him up.

Tao Fangyi: “Eh?”

Wang held Tao Fangyi and looked him over from all angles.

Then he used both hands to pinch Tao Fangyi’s cheeks and pulled.

Then he pressed his hands together, squishing Tao Fangyi flat.

“Did you suddenly regain your inner child?” Tao Fangyi asked Wang.

Wang didn’t answer Tao Fangyi’s question. He was trying to understand Tao Fangyi’s logic.

It wasn’t easy, because Tao Fangyi was just too strange.

“You used to be… a delinquent youth who loved to fight?” Wang asked him.

Tao Fangyi: !!!

The toy doll in Wang’s hand suddenly fell into a deep depression, like a pillow that had been used for two years, the cotton suddenly losing its fluffiness and going flat on its own.

That Zhang fierce ghost had cursed him for ages without achieving this effect.

Wang: …

So this was how Tao Fangyi had been interpreting things all along?