No matter how hard Chen Ge pulled, the third drawer wouldn't open. He tried yanking the top two drawers all the way out, hoping to peek inside from above.
But he was disappointed — a wooden board had been deliberately fitted between the drawers, blocking any view of what lay inside.
"The room is tidied up nice and neat, and I don't want to make a mess of it. If you understand what I'm saying, you'd best come out on your own."
This wasn't the first time Chen Ge had threatened a ghost, though he had no idea whether it actually worked.
He grabbed the edges of the drawer again and pulled with all his might, but the drawer seemed to be jammed by something.
"Xu Yin!"
Chen Ge summoned Xu Yin. One man and one ghost each seized a side of the drawer.
As Xu Yin began to exert force, the wounds on his body split open once more. Blood slid down his pale arms and dripped onto the edge of the drawer.
The drawer, which had been completely stuck, slowly began to loosen.
"Put more into it!"
Xu Yin held nothing back. Whatever Chen Ge told him to do, he did without hesitation.
Wound after wound cracked open, blood staining his coat. Xu Yin's face twisted in agony, his hands drenched in his own blood: "It hurts so much!"
The tightly sealed drawer finally pulled open by a finger's width. Xu Yin's power seemed to affect the things inside the drawer.
Blood flowed outward, and the drawer inched out bit by bit under Xu Yin's effort. When it had opened about half a palm's width, several human hands suddenly shot out from inside!
Some were male, some female, each one different in appearance. They seemed to be trying to stop Chen Ge and push the drawer shut again.
Caught off guard, both Chen Ge and Xu Yin let go, and the drawer slammed shut with a bang.
"What's the point of this?" Chen Ge stopped Xu Yin, who was already preparing to try opening the drawer again, and picked up the Skull Crushing Hammer. "I'm doing this for your own good — after all, we might be working together in the future."
"I hope you'll think it over carefully. I could absolutely smash this desk to splinters, or set everything on fire, and then sift through the debris at my leisure. But I haven't done that. I'm a fundamentally good-natured person — you can ask any of my friends if you don't believe me."
Chen Ge crouched by the drawer, utterly unafraid of whatever strange thing might crawl out next. He gripped the drawer handle. "This drawer was mine to begin with. I'm simply taking back what's mine."
His fingers tightened slowly as he tried to pull. "I won't hold tonight's events against you. You've deceived me repeatedly, true, but you never actually tried to kill me. You were just trying to scare me off. There was really no need for that. I'm a reasonable person — if there's something you want, just say it, and we can work it out together."
As he spoke, Chen Ge raised the Skull Crushing Hammer with his free hand. "For instance, right now — you have nowhere to run. Sooner or later, you'll have to face me. You might as well let your guard down and have a proper heart-to-heart."
The tightly shut drawer trembled faintly, as though the ghosts inside had reached a disagreement. After a full ten seconds or so, the previously sealed drawer popped open by about a centimeter on its own.
"Good — you've got some sense. There's potential here!"
Chen Ge pulled the third drawer free and set it on the desk. Inside were only a few handmade comic books.
"Did the artist make these himself?"
The notebook had said that no publisher was willing to publish the manga artist's work. In his era, physical publication was likely the only avenue.
"All those ghosts came out of these little books?" Chen Ge reflected on the night's encounters and began to grasp what had happened. He opened one of the handmade comic books.