"Right here!"
Eyes locked on the pipe,
*BANG!*
The pipe burst open, water spraying in all directions and soaking his clothes.
His pupils contracting, Chen Ge watched the black hair fleeing at high speed through the pipe. He narrowed his eyes: "No matter what, I'm not letting you get away today!"
He recalled
"Where's the main water shutoff valve?" Chen Ge climbed through a window, hammer in one hand, his other pressing down on the woman's shoulder.
The woman he had just rescued was standing in the center of the schoolyard, holding the little girl, preparing to leave.
She hadn't expected Chen Ge to come out so soon. Panic crossed her face, and she didn't know what to say.
"I'm asking you — where's the main valve?"
"There isn't one. Our lines share the same circuit as the neighboring residential complex. The main valve is on their side..." the woman stammered, but Chen Ge understood well enough. The complex next door shared the same water and power lines with the school. If he could shut off the main valve at the complex, he could trap the water ghost inside the pipes between the two buildings.
Of course, Chen Ge couldn't guarantee it would work a hundred percent. The water ghost could slip into someone's home through the pipes at any time — that was his biggest worry.
"Go notify the complex management right now and have them shut off the main valve. Tell them the person who kidnapped the girl and hurt your school's students and teachers has hidden inside the pipes." After giving his instructions, Chen Ge packed the hammer into his backpack, focused his attention, cleared his mind of all distractions, and listened for the faint, eerie sounds inside the pipes.
The sound was moving farther and farther away. Jiujiang's water network was incredibly complex. If he couldn't pin that creature down soon, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"The killer hid inside the pipes? How did he even get in?" The woman stood rooted in place. Who would ever believe such a reason? She wanted to explain things more clearly to Chen Ge, but he had already dashed out of the school.
The pipes were all buried underground, invisible to the naked eye. Chen Ge could only rely on his Ghost Ear, catching the faint sounds of the creature moving through the system.
He chased relentlessly. At times he even wanted to close his eyes and shut out all external influence, focusing purely on that ghostly trail.
After roughly a minute or two, Chen Ge followed the sounds into a residential complex behind the rehabilitation school.
The moment he entered, a shiver ran through him. The temperature inside the complex was noticeably lower than outside.
It was merely a door's distance, yet the temperature difference was stark.
"Strange. It feels like that time I entered the underground morgue." Chen Ge's body temperature already ran lower than a normal person's, and even he felt the chill. That meant something was definitely wrong.
The complex before him was built in a nondescript part of the eastern suburbs. What set it apart from other complexes was that instead of iron fences, it was surrounded by towering walls like a prison — both unsightly and unsettling to look at.
Inside, there were seven buildings, each around a dozen stories tall. They didn't appear particularly old, but a lack of maintenance had left them looking run-down.
In the eastern suburbs, this was an utterly ordinary place that seemed to hold nothing special. But once inside, Chen Ge felt a strange sensation creep over him.
It was as though someone behind one of those windows was secretly watching him. That prying gaze sent cold sweat crawling up his spine without his permission.
"Wenwen's sister probably didn't choose this place at random..." Chen Ge showed no sign of backing down. In his mind, unless a Red Robe was hiding somewhere in this complex, no ghost could stand in his way.