The Ultimate Horror Live Stream - Chapter 17 - Righteous Intervention

Stepping out of the small shop, I looked around. Cars zoomed past on the wide road, but Xia Qingzhi was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did she run off to?”

I headed towards her school, determined not to let the afternoon’s hard work on assignments go to waste by forgetting them and facing the teacher’s wrath.

I hadn’t gone far when the sound of a bottle shattering suddenly echoed from the alley behind the shops.

“Qingzhi, is that you?” I peered around the corner, into the dimly lit alley. There, a high school student with dyed blonde hair was brandishing a broken bottle menacingly.

“Think you’re all that, huh? Acting like you’re some kind of saint?”

Kids these days resort to violence at the slightest disagreement. I shook my head; this was something the school should handle, outsiders shouldn’t get involved.

I was about to leave when the blonde bad girl shouted, “Strip her clothes off and get ready to record. Let everyone in class see the true face of this tramp!”

“That’s just vicious.” I firmly believe that human nature is inherently flawed and needs proper education to be set right. This bad girl clearly lacked such upbringing; I felt like giving her a couple of slaps to teach her that everyone deserves respect.

“Did you hear that? Be good, you tramp who keeps running to the Adult Store, stop pretending to be pure.” This time, it was a man speaking, and his accent didn’t sound like a student’s.

“I’ve had enough of her, always acting cold and superior at school, but running to such filthy places after class. Disgusting!”

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Is it because you’re ashamed now that we’ve exposed you as the dirty thing you are?”

The alley was filled with vile words, even I felt a bit embarrassed listening to them.

“Listen up, tonight Chen-Ge wants to invite you for drinks and karaoke. Don’t be ungrateful, just because you have a pretty face doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. You better listen to Chen-Ge, or you’ll regret it.” The bad girl gestured with the broken bottle, her intentions clear.

“Alright, don’t hurt her. This girl’s got a face and body that’s top-notch.” The one speaking seemed to be Chen-Ge: “If I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d never believe it. A seemingly obedient model student, running to such places after school, and staying there all afternoon.”

Chen-Ge laughed with ill intent: “You can let others enjoy, so you can let me enjoy too. Tonight, we won’t stop until we’re drunk.”

“Chen-Ge, don’t forget about me,” the bad girl whined.

“No worries, tonight I’ll have a double blast!”

With Chen-Ge’s command, his thugs began to rough up the bullied girl.

“Slap!”

“Damn! You dare hit me? Boys, teach her a lesson!”

Several thugs started punching and kicking the girl cornered against the wall, showing no signs of restraint.

“This is too much.” I couldn’t stand it any longer and stepped into the alley.

“You big guys bullying a little girl, have you no shame?”

“Who the hell are you? I’m warning you, don’t make trouble for yourself!” A thug with an earring pointed at me, cursing.

“I wasn’t planning to interfere, but you keep calling my hard-earned shop a filthy place, and that I can’t tolerate.” I rolled up my sleeves, “Come on, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.”

When it comes to dealing with ghosts and spirits, I’m not the best. But if I can’t even handle a few street thugs, then all those clubs I joined at the Police Academy would be a waste.

“Stop talking!” Two thugs charged at me from both sides.

“Too slow, even slower than those square dance ladies.” As they approached, I bent down and dodged one of their punches, then launched my right leg like a missile, sending the other flying.

The one hit in the abdomen lay on the ground, groaning and unable to get up. “Feeling weak in the knees? With that kind of physique, you dare to fight on the streets?”

“Damn it, let’s all go at him!” The remaining thugs rushed in. The narrow alley limited my movements, and my burned calf wasn’t as agile, so I took a few hits. But thanks to my years of physical training at the Police Academy, my tough skin and strong build meant they were far from taking me down.

After a chaotic brawl, I finally subdued them with my ultimate weapon-the 8,000-volt Stun Gun. Watching them convulse and foam at the mouth in the alley, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment.

“From now on, behave yourselves. Before you bully someone again, remember the feeling of being shocked today.” Making the bad guys unable to utter a plea for mercy-that’s what I call justice.

After dealing with the thugs, I walked deeper into the alley. A girl stood there, staring at the ground. Her school uniform’s zipper was broken, and she hugged herself, leaning against the dirty wall. Her backpack lay in the mud, marked with footprints.

It was the first time I observed her so closely. Her youthful face showed unmistakable pain and fear, yet her soft features were strikingly beautiful despite the distress.

“Qingzhi, it’s okay now.” I gently stroked her hair, a gesture more intimate than anything we’d done before.

The girl, who had been looking down, slowly raised her face. I saw her biting her lip, trying not to cry, but the clear traces on her face betrayed her efforts.

“It’s okay now, it’s okay.” She clutched my shirt, and I didn’t know how to comfort her. But in that moment, I suddenly understood that because of the Underworld Showroom, her brother’s disappearance, and this unspeakable secret, I might be the only person in the world who could truly understand Xia Qingzhi.

When everyone else distanced themselves, thinking she was a hopeless lunatic or a split-personality monster, only I could stand by her, because only I knew she was telling the truth.

“Here, your textbooks and homework. You’re old enough not to be so forgetful.” I picked up her backpack and brushed off the dirt. “Let’s go, we’ll grab a bite to eat first, then I’ll take you home. Maybe we can check out the marks your brother left behind. We might make some breakthrough.”

Back at the shop, I found a men’s shirt for Xia Qingzhi to change into, and then we hurriedly had dinner under the watchful eyes of passersby.

“Qingzhi, there’s something I don’t know if I should mention.”

“Hmm?”

“In our private detective business, usually when we go out to eat with clients, the client pays…”

“I’m wearing headphones, can’t hear you. Oh, could you plug them in for me?”

Twenty minutes later, Xia Qingzhi and I arrived at her apartment complex, drawing curious glances from the elderly folks enjoying the evening breeze as we made our way upstairs.

“If your parents ask who I am, what should I say?”

“Just say you’re a teacher from our school, here for a home visit.” She quickly came up with a story, but as we entered the apartment, we realized her parents weren’t home.

“Great, take me to your brother’s room. Let’s make this quick.”

Xia Qingzhi’s home was a three-bedroom apartment, not overly luxurious but definitely middle-class.

“This is my brother’s room. It’s been turned into a storage room, so it’s a bit messy.” She turned on the light, and we stepped inside.

“Where’s the mark you mentioned? Let me see.”

“Under the bed.”

We moved some things aside, and I crawled under the bed.

“Near the wall, in the farthest corner, there are some words carved with a knife.”

Using my phone’s light, I found several crooked red letters exactly where she said.

“The color is dark. These were carved with a knife dipped in blood.” The handwriting was shaky, as if done by someone trembling in extreme fear.

“When will this nightmare end? I don’t want to go to the Live Stream. I’m going to die, I’m going to die!”

“My points are negative. I can feel them coming! Don’t take me away, I don’t want to die!”

“In the hallway, outside the window, could they be lurking by my bed?”

The words on the bed frame seemed to be her brother’s last message. His points had been deducted to negative, and he was about to be erased by the Underworld Showroom.

These lines only confirmed that the Underworld Showroom had the power to make people disappear without a trace, but they didn’t provide any real help.

“Did your brother leave any other messages?”

Xia Qingzhi thought for a moment, then pulled a framed photo from her backpack. “This is the only photo my brother left behind. I’ve kept it since he disappeared.”

I took the photo. It was a family portrait, showing Xia Qingzhi with her parents and a tall, handsome boy holding a basketball, his face obscured.