Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Revenge on the Blood Moon Restaurant? The Basement’s Top-Tier Crimson-robed Ghost!

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"I’m from the Great Cold Country, don’t kill me!"

"Spare my life! Our Great Cold Country is vast and resourceful. We can give you anything... Do you want Ghost Coins or Ghost Artifacts? As long as my country has it, we can negotiate..."

Han Sumei was so terrified she blurted out everything in a panic.

"Hmph."

"I knew it. A person from the Great Cold Country. I haven’t even touched you and you’re already begging for mercy. You’ve got no spine."

Seeing Han Sumei’s pathetic display, the person hiding in the darkness let out a cold snort and slowly emerged.

With a clatter, he staggered out from behind a trash can. He wore a tattered jacket, and his greasy hair hung in matted clumps over his forehead. His murky eyes were sunken in their sockets, the whites a sickly yellow.

A dark-red chain was bound around his legs, and his withered limbs were covered in dried blood.

He looked like a stray dog chained to a trash heap—utterly pathetic.

...

When the audience from the Great Cold Country saw the man’s contempt for their nation, they flew into a rage.

[What kind of mutt is this, slandering our Great Cold Country!]

[Miss Sumi was just trying to mislead him!]

[That’s right! She’s not spineless.]

[I bet he’s from the Dragon Country. He looks like a stray dog the Blood Moon Restaurant keeps around, forced to eat garbage and drink sewage every day!]

[Wait a second, he looks kind of familiar.]

Just as the audience from the Great Cold Country was furiously cursing the man, someone suddenly gasped.

[Isn’t that Zheng Yingjun?]

[He’s a veteran player! He’s from the Great Cold Country, just like us!]

[One of the two 50-Ghost-Coin bills Han Sumei brought in was originally earned by him!]

[He was even awarded the Medal of National Defense by our supreme leader!]

[Look closely. He’s lost a lot of weight, but you can still vaguely make out his features.]

When they heard that this man was not only from the Great Cold Country, but was also one of their heroes, the audience was stunned.

Many people quickly searched for photos of Zheng Yingjun. Comparing them to the filthy, disheveled man on the screen, they confirmed it was the same person!

[How could he be our hero? Looking like that?]

[How did Zheng Yingjun end up like this!]

[That damn Blood Moon Restaurant! The manager must have imprisoned him!]

[No wonder he recognized Han Sumei instantly. He’s from the Great Cold Country, too.]

This put the audience from the Great Cold Country in an awkward position.

If anyone else had called Han Sumei spineless, they would have argued back without hesitation.

But this was a hero of the Great Cold Country saying it!

This was an internal affair!

Many began to silently resent Zheng Yingjun, complaining that he shouldn’t have criticized Han Sumei so carelessly and embarrassed them all.

...

Soon, Zheng Yingjun lowered his short knife.

He saw Han Sumei breathe a sigh of relief, but her gaze was still jumpy, as if she were ready to bolt at any second.

He coughed twice, a harsh, racking sound, and a trickle of blood came up from deep in his throat.

"Don’t run. My name is Zheng Yingjun. I’m from the Great Cold Country, too. You should know who I am, right?"

"Zheng... Yingjun?"

Hearing the name, Han Sumei, who had been about to make a run for it, froze in place.

She really did know that name!

In fact, ever since the paranormal resurgence, there wasn’t a single person in the Great Cold Country who didn’t know his name.

After all, she had seen Zheng Yingjun on television back when she was still in school.

Back then, he was at the height of his glory, shaking hands and conversing with the supreme leader, and had even been inside the Blue House.

In those days, countless girls considered Zheng Yingjun their dream man.

But then, five years ago, Zheng Yingjun vanished, and the news reports about him gradually faded away.

Now, as Han Sumei recalled his face, the image finally clicked with the dog-like man standing before her.

"Mr. Zheng, how can it be you!"

"I’m a huge fan! I’ve always followed your exploits!"

"I even remember seeing you at the Blue House, smiling as you encouraged the whole country, saying that the supernatural was nothing to fear and that the Great Cold Country would surely conquer it!"

Han Sumei babbled excitedly.

At her words, a hint of reminiscence flickered in Zheng Yingjun’s eyes.

But his expression quickly turned wary. "Quiet down, quiet down," he urged. "Don’t let the ghosts hear you."

"Okay, okay." Han Sumei clamped her mouth shut.

"Right, can you help me drag that barrel over here?"

"I don’t know what’s gotten into them today. There’s barely anything in the slop barrel."

Zheng Yingjun said, pointing to a slop barrel nearby.

It was yesterday’s slop barrel.

There were still some dregs left in it.

Today’s barrel, however, was bizarrely empty. All the leftovers were gone. This baffled Zheng Yingjun; nothing like this had ever happened in the past five years.

Han Sumei felt a pang of embarrassment.

’Of course there’s nothing in the slop barrel. We ate almost all the leftovers.’

But the idea of Zheng Yingjun eating garbage directly from the slop barrel was still something she couldn’t accept.

"Mr. Zheng... are you really going to eat—"

"...Don’t call me ’Mr. Zheng.’ I’m not worthy of the title."

Zheng Yingjun said, licking the corner of his mouth.

"The most important thing is to fill my stomach."

She helped him drag the slop barrel over.

As Han Sumei watched in disbelief, Zheng Yingjun began to eat, savoring the contents as if they were a gourmet meal.

And from him, she gradually learned the truth.

It turned out that five years ago, he had re-entered the Ghost World and ended up right here, at the Blood Moon Restaurant.

Back then, the Blood Moon Restaurant had treated him well. They didn’t mind that he was human, providing him with food and drink and even paying him a monthly salary on time.

He was even on the verge of being promoted to supervisor!

But Zheng Yingjun wasn’t satisfied.

Coveting the restaurant’s profits, he snuck into the manager’s office one night to steal the Ghost Coins. But he was careless and got caught.

Since then, the ghost manager has kept him chained here with a Ghost Chain.

He has been forced to survive on slop ever since.

And because of him, the Blood Moon Restaurant’s attitude toward humans changed completely.

"How could they be so cruel!"

"You just wanted to ’borrow’ some Ghost Coins. Did they really need to lock you up for this long?"

Han Sumei said, filled with righteous indignation on his behalf.

"I wasn’t borrowing. I was trying to steal them."

Zheng Yingjun, unaware that he was being livestreamed, said matter-of-factly.

"It’s the law of the jungle. Survival of the fittest. I got caught, so I have no one to blame but myself."

"But they won’t be able to keep me locked up for much longer."

At this, he gave Han Sumei a dark, menacing look.

"Do you... want revenge on the Blood Moon Restaurant?"

"From the looks of you, you must have been through a lot of torment, right?"

Han Sumei’s heart pounded at his words.

’Of course she wanted revenge on the Blood Moon Restaurant!’

’Even more, she wanted to crush Yun Zhenyue under her heel!’

"Mr. Zheng, you have a way?"

"Of course..."

Zheng Yingjun finished the slop and wiped his mouth messily with the back of his hand.

His gaze, full of apprehension, shifted to the other side of the restaurant.

Over there stood a small, dilapidated building.

It was cold and gloomy, radiating an ominous aura.

"There’s a basement in there."

"As far as I know, an incredibly terrifying ghost is locked away inside—a top-tier Crimson-robed Ghost, at the very least."

"If you can let it out, the entire Blood Moon Restaurant will be utterly destroyed..."

Han Sumei was stunned.

’A top... top-tier Crimson-robed Ghost?’

’Is it really that risky?’