After the Goddess's Tragic Death, I Drew My Sword to Slay Ghosts - Chapter 3 - The Remarkable Young Security Guard

The air was thick with the aroma of beef-flavored instant noodles.

The Old Lady had vanished.

Outside the security booth, the Red-Dressed Female Ghost stared at me with a greedy intensity, crawling closer.

But when she was about ten meters away from the booth, she stopped abruptly.

Her face was filled with unease and hesitation, as if something was holding her back.

Inside the booth, the Young Security Guard finished the last sip of his noodle soup, his expression calm and unbothered.

He glanced at the ghost outside, tilted his head thoughtfully, and then slid open the booth’s window.

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed his disposable chopsticks toward her.

What should have been a harmless toss turned into something extraordinary-the chopsticks flew like arrows, aimed directly at the ghost’s chest.

She couldn’t dodge in time and let out a blood-curdling scream as the chopsticks struck her.

She staggered backward, her eyes filled with venomous hatred as she glared at both me and the Young Security Guard.

After a moment, she slowly retreated into the shadows, disappearing from sight.

“She’s gone for now,” the Young Security Guard said, his voice steady. “But don’t get too comfortable. Once a ghost like her has set her sights on you, she’ll come back.”

His gaze swept over me, sizing me up.

I knew I was in the presence of a master.

“Master,” I said hurriedly, “what should I do?”

He raised an eyebrow. “How did you end up tangled with a vengeful ghost like her? And that Old Lady-so weak, yet she sacrificed herself to protect you. Interesting.”

The image of the Old Lady being torn apart by the ghost flashed in my mind, and my chest tightened with grief.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice shaky. “It all started when I took that delivery order…”

I recounted everything-the delivery order, meeting the Old Lady and the Yellow-haired person, Ye Manman’s tragic past, and the strange occurrences with my roommate Fatty.

The Young Security Guard listened intently, his expression thoughtful.

“Sounds like that Red-Dressed Female Ghost was brought back by your roommate,” he concluded. “As for Ye Manman, if she truly died tragically abroad, her spirit might still be suffering, unable to find peace.

“And the Old Lady-she sacrificed herself for you, likely hoping you’d help her daughter find release.”

Ye Manman’s ghost still suffering abroad?

Recalling the Old Lady saying that her intestines spilled all over the ground, I couldn’t help but clench my fists tightly.

“How can I save Ye Manman?” I asked, my voice trembling. “I’m just an ordinary person. Master, you must have a way, right? Can you-”

“No.”

His curt reply cut me off.

I stared at him, stunned. “Why not?”

“Why should I?” he retorted coldly.

I bit my lip. “I can pay you.”

He raised an eyebrow, amused. “Pay me? How much can you afford?”

I held up one finger. “Ten thousand.”

The Young Security Guard looked at me as if I were offering him pocket change, his expression utterly unimpressed.

Ten thousand was all I had saved, scraping by after paying off debts.

But if it meant saving Ye Manman, I was willing to swallow my pride and borrow more from relatives.

“Fine,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Thirty thousand!”

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “You’re barely hanging on yourself, yet you want to save a ghost from Northern Myanmar? Aren’t you afraid of dying?”

“I am,” I admitted, my voice firm. “But if her spirit is still suffering, I have to save her. She was a good person.”

This time, he didn’t reply. Instead, he stared out the window, his gaze distant.

“Dawn is approaching,” he said quietly. “Have you ever heard of this saying?”

“What saying?”

He leaned back in his folding chair. “Humans have shadows. Ghosts don’t.”

His words sent a chill down my spine, and instinctively, I glanced at the ground.

I saw my own shadow.

But the Young Security Guard-

He had no shadow.

My breath caught, and I stumbled backward toward the door, my eyes wide with terror.

What the hell?

Not a single living soul had crossed my path tonight!

The Young Security Guard grinned, flashing a set of pearly white teeth. “If you want to save her, you’ll need to meet her first.”

As he spoke, a blinding white light engulfed my vision.

“Hey, young man, why are you sleeping here?”

A cleaning lady shook me awake, her voice pulling me back to reality.

I found myself lying outside a dilapidated security booth.

It was six in the morning.

Behind the booth stood an old, abandoned factory, its two-story structure sprawling across a large area.

The sign at the entrance was weathered and barely legible, but I could make out the words: “New North Pharmaceutical Factory No.2.”

“Auntie, I’m fine,” I mumbled, still disoriented.

The factory was over ten kilometers from my rental apartment.

It had been shut down twenty years ago, yet the building remained untouched, preserved in its eerie state.

Had I really run all the way here with the Old Lady last night?

And the Young Security Guard-

I turned to look at the rundown security booth.

Inside, there was nothing but a battered wooden desk and a rusty folding chair.

The Young Security Guard had been a ghost too.

His smile and cryptic words echoed in my mind: “If you want to save her, you’ll need to meet her first.”

Was he hinting at the intersection, where I might see Ye Manman?

The cleaning lady sighed, breaking my train of thought.

“You must’ve had too much to drink,” she said, shaking her head. “Young people need to take care of themselves. Of all places, you chose to sleep here at the New North Pharmaceutical Factory. Don’t you know this place is cursed?”

I had heard rumors about the factory-something about an accident twenty years ago.

But the details were fuzzy.

“Auntie,” I asked, my curiosity piqued, “what do you mean by cursed? Is it haunted?”

The cleaning lady, who looked to be in her fifties, raised a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.

Lowering her voice, she said, “Oh, it’s haunted all right. Years ago, there was some kind of leak-an accident. Lots of people died.

“There was a young security guard who ran in to save others. He managed to rescue over ten people but lost his own life in the process.

“Sometimes at night, you can hear crying. Folks say it’s the souls of those who burned to death.”

My heart skipped a beat.

A young security guard who died saving others?

It had to be the same Young Security Guard I met last night.

He wasn’t evil.

No, he wasn’t an evil ghost.

The cleaning lady walked off, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I stood before the shabby security booth and bowed deeply toward it.

“Thank you for saving me last night, young man.

“If I survive the Red-Dressed Female Ghost, I’ll bring you a sacrifice to show my gratitude.

“Next time you eat instant noodles, you’ll have a ham sausage to go with it.”

With that, I turned and left the New North Pharmaceutical Factory.

When I returned to my rental apartment, I was startled to find Fatty at home.

This time, it was the real Fatty-he was sitting in the sunlight, munching on a watermelon.

Ghosts couldn’t bask in sunlight, so I knew it was truly him.

Remembering what the Young Security Guard had said about the Red-Dressed Female Ghost being brought back by Fatty, my anger flared.

“Fatty,” I snapped, “what’s the deal with that haunted house?”

Fatty rarely stayed at the apartment overnight, but he often came back during the day to do laundry or take a shower.

The property owner at the haunted house didn’t allow him to use the bathroom or washing machine there.

Fatty took another bite of watermelon, speaking nonchalantly. “What deal? There’s no haunting. The owner just wants to back out because the market’s down, that’s all.”

I froze. “You’ve been living there for a month and haven’t noticed anything strange?”

Fatty grinned. “Nope. In fact, I’ve had some good luck.

“Every morning when I leave for work, I run into the property owner upstairs.

“She’s a total knockout-a single woman living alone in a 240-square-meter apartment.

“A real rich beauty! And she’s super nice.

“We always chat in the elevator.

“Man, if I were rich, I’d definitely go for her.

“Those curves, that smile, and she loves wearing red dresses. She’s drop-dead gorgeous.”