Chapter 104: Effect

“A stage actress?”

“Yes. Orchid Fragrance was formerly known as Elegance and had stage performers doing traditional operas, but that was more than sixty years ago. The Great Expansion hadn’t even started yet. Are you looking for her? Judging by her figure, she must have been no more than twenty back then, so she would be an old lady now.”

Chen Chuan nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Huang.”

“You’re being too polite, Mr. Chen. I owe you for solving this problem for me.”

“Anyway, the deed is done now. I’ll be going back,” Chen Chuan said.

“Alright. Have a safe trip back, Mr. Chen. Please come again in the future. I’ll be sure to receive you in person.”

Huang Dacheng escorted Chen Chuan to the car. When he went back to the theater, he wondered why Chen Chuan would want to find a woman from so many years ago.

Then, he thought of something, and his face turned pale. With trembling hands, he took out his handkerchief to wipe away the sweat. Once he calmed down, he muttered to himself, “It’s done. It’s over. I just need to sleep, and everything will be okay.”

***

After Chen Chuan went back to his room in Martial Valor University, he brought his arm up, and the underarm region of his jacket tore.

He was not at all surprised by this. His jacket had become old and brittle. He grabbed the collar, and with just a slight tug, the entire jacket came off.

Before he left in the evening, he had actually packed a change of clothes. Thankfully, things didn’t end up as bad as he thought they might.

He gathered the scraps of his jacket and went to take a shower before going to bed.

When he woke up, it was 8 a.m. Chen Chuan cast a glance at his second self. He was still blurry in some parts, but Chen Chuan had gained a lot from the mission.

He examined himself with the Respiration Node Breathing Technique. Due to the stimulation from the ghost, the mutated tissue had developed the equivalent of a month’s worth of training. If he hadn’t guided the growth to fix his shortcomings, things would have gotten quite bad. It might have led him down a dangerous path.

Since his second self remained blurry, that meant that there were additional negative effects. But the time he could overlap with his second self was much longer than before, and Chen Chuan believed that the blurriness would go away much faster than in the past as well.

Chen Chuan had breakfast before calling Cheng Zitong to tell him that he had finished the mission and was told to go to the administrative office building.

“Okay,” he agreed and headed out to the administrative office building. He went straight to the sixth floor, where the Logistics Department was located.

Cheng Zitong’s office door was wide open. When he went in, Cheng Zitong was on the phone. Once he saw Chen Chuan, he motioned for him to take a seat before saying, “Tea leaves are in the cupboard.”

Chen Chuan noted that Cheng Zitong’s cup of tea was almost empty, so he went over to grab a thermos and filled his cup for him before sitting down.

After Cheng Zitong finished the call, he signed a few forms, went to the door, called a person over, gave him some instructions, and finally came back. He observed Chen Chuan for a bit before smiling. “Looks like things went smoothly.”

“Your method worked really well,” Chen Chuan answered sincerely.

He took out the old mirror, only to find that the rusty mirror had become shiny as new.

Cheng Zitong was not at all surprised by this. He took the mirror and put it back into a drawer before saying, “Tell me everything.”

Chen Chuan told him all that had happened and brought out the photo from his pocket. “I found this photo where the ghost had disappeared. I asked around and learned that the photo is more than sixty years old. It might be related to the ghost.”

Cheng Zitong came over to take a look at the photo before handing it back to him. In a relaxed manner, he said, “Keep the photo. We can’t go back to the time when these things happened, after all. Anyway, sometimes, after you get rid of urban legends or ghosts, they leave something behind. You saw it yourself. These things change. Keep the things they leave behind. Some of them become useful in the future, just like that old mirror of mine.”

“Got it, Mr. Cheng,” Chen Chuan promised. Unable to help himself, he asked, “What are these ghosts and urban legends, by the way?”

He was really curious about them. Cheng Zitong had not given him a straight answer before, so he decided to ask again.

“You must have some theories after this incident, but I want to say that you’ve only seen a part of them, not all there is to see. When it comes to these things, I’m just like you. I’m a student and an explorer. I just started off earlier than you and got exposed to more of them. Even so, I can’t give you an answer, since whatever I tell you right now might end up misguiding you later.

“So, here’s my suggestion. Don’t rush to form a conclusion. Wait and observe. After coming into contact with more of them, you’ll form new theories.”

Chen Chuan nodded. “Got it. By the way, what’s the procedure for the unrestricted defense permit?”

Cheng Zitong’s expression became stern. He went to the entrance, looked around, and shut the door. “There’s no hurry to get it. The university will be letting all of you off on holiday to celebrate the New Year in a few days. Before that, I’ll find time to tell you about it in detail.”

“Okay,” Chen Chuan said.

He did not bother Cheng Zitong any longer and left the office. When he walked down the corridor, he looked outside. It was snowing.

Before he knew it, winter had come.

***

In the southern part of the city on Broadfield Street stood a training hall with modest decorations.

A day later, a man in his late twenties wearing a white dress shirt read the forms in his hands back and forth. He appeared quite worried.

Beside him sat a few young adults, men and women alike. All of them wore exquisite, fitting clothes, but they looked really glum and down.

A chandelier hung above their heads, and a map lay on the wooden table in front of them. It had Yangzhi City, along with the counties and towns around it marked in many places in various colors.

Someone pushed the door open, and the wind and snow from outside gushed inside. Everyone in the training hall shuddered.

“Gosh, it’s so cold…”

“Hurry up and shut the door!”

“Xiao Jiang, have you lost your mind?! Shut the door!”

Xiao Jiang did not mind getting yelled at. He shut the door before running to the man in the white dress shirt. “Ren Shu, did you know? I heard that someone got rid of the ghost in Orchid Fragrance Theater.”

“It’s gone?” Ren Shu was all but stunned for a second, then his eyes lit up. He grabbed Xiao Jiang and demanded, “It’s really gone?”

Xiao Jiang nodded.

The other young adults looked up.

Ren Shu continued asking with great urgency, “Who got rid of it? Did you manage to get a name?”

“I did. Mr. Huang said that he can’t reveal any information about the agent, but I learned that his driver had picked the agent up and sent him back. I gave his assistant some money, and he told me in private that the agent is a student from Martial Valor University. He didn’t say his name, but the student always came with a weapon. Mr. Huang had only managed to hire him by cashing in some favors.”

“From Martial Valor University? And he brought a weapon? Then, he must have a weapons permit! No wonder! He’s exactly who we need!” Ren Shu exclaimed excitedly.

But one of the young adults threw cold water on him. “Why are you so happy? Martial Valor University students aren’t easy to hire. They usually join big agent companies. Why would he join a small, recently established company like ours?”

Ren Shu did not let such words ruin his excitement. “How could we know without trying? Have you forgotten what our dream is? We’re going to turn our company into the biggest agent company in Yangzhi City and the whole prefecture! We just need to figure out how to conquer this tiny problem ahead of us first.”

He then encouraged the other people around him. “We might not be able to compare to the major companies right now, but tackling ghost stories and urban legends is the best way to break into the market for us. Experts in this sort of stuff are the agents we need to find. No matter what, we need to convince him to join us.”

“Alright. You’re right, but we can’t enter Martial Valor University, and we don’t even know his name. How could we meet him, then?”

“Mr. Huang knows him, no?” someone said.

“He won’t do it. Mr. Huang is very professional. If he ends up leaking the agent’s information, no one will work with him in the future. Besides, he had to cash in favors to hire this one. He won’t help us.”

“Then pay the assistant more money. If he could give us this bit of information, then he can reveal more. Even if he doesn’t want to give us the name, he can describe what the agent looks like, right? Not many people have the weapons permit, so we’re bound to find him.”

Ren Shu fell into contemplative silence as he listened to the others argue. Then, his eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers. “That’s right! The tournament!”

“What?” The people looked over.

Ren Shu clenched his fists and said excitedly, “Martial Valor University hosts a year-end tournament. Everyone in the city can go watch it. If we manage to get some tickets, we’ll be able to enter Martial Valor University! We might be able to find him then!”

“You’re right!”

The others became excited too. They loved tournaments, so the chance to look for that agent while watching some fights was too good to miss. It was killing two birds with one stone!

Just then, a girl with two buns on her head raised her hand and said crisply, “I’ll get the tickets. I haven’t contributed to the company in any way yet.”

“Alright. I’ll leave it to you, Xiao Wan,” Ren Shu agreed.

Most people had a hard time getting the tickets, but all of them came from wealthy families, so it was not a problem. Half a day later, Xiao Wan managed to procure tickets for everyone.

But it was already the twenty-seventh, so it was going to be a holiday in two days. The matches held the next day were going to be the last for the year. If they did not look for the agent then, they would have to wait until after the holidays.

The group was feeling lazy and thought that it would be fine, but Ren Shu was not on board with that idea, and he gave a convincing reason. “If we’ve managed to notice an expert like him, then the other agent companies surely have noticed him too. If we don’t look for him right away, the other companies might nab him before us!”

With that reason, the group immediately drove to Martial Valor University.

At 6 p.m., Chen Chuan came out of the training hall because he heard the dormitory supervisor knocking on his door and asking him to clear out his internal mailbox.

He came out and opened the box, which was full of letters. The sight took him by surprise.

He brought the letters into his room to read through them and found that most of them were from upperclassmen asking him to have a meal with them so that they could get to know him. They were really friendly and polite.

Chen Chuan checked the dates and found that all of the letters were delivered over the past two days. It was likely related to the fact that he solved the haunting at Orchid Fragrance Theater.

Quite a number of graduates and upperclassmen were interning and working at various agent companies, so they could have learned about it there and come to him. Considering the companies’ abilities, it would not be hard for them to figure out that he was the one who took care of the haunting.

Chen Chuan stacked the letters neatly and decided to have dinner. The moment he walked out of the dorm, he saw a valiant, dashing female upperclassman in a suit standing outside, as if she were waiting for someone.

Chen Chuan gave her a look before continuing forward, but she followed after him and asked, “Are you Chen Chuan? Please wait.”

Chen Chuan stopped and turned around. “How may I help you?”

The female upperclassman extended a hand to him and said with a smile, “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Chen Chuan. I’m Min Lan, a Martial Valor University graduate. I’m currently working as an agent. You should have received our business card through Fang Zhiming.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep