Peerless Bodyguard of a Stunning Beauty

After receiving a message from the Chairman, Zhao Rong bid farewell to Wang Meili. He then gathered Lili, Yu Lan, and Xuelian to set off that very night for the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village.

At the school entrance, Zhao Rong and the three women stood with their luggage, big and small, trying to hail a taxi. Cabs were scarce late at night, and after a long wait, they finally managed to flag one down.

Zhao Rong hurriedly opened the car door, about to get in. The taxi driver glanced at him and asked, ”Sir, where are you headed?”

”The four of us are going to the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village,” Zhao Rong replied casually.

Hearing their destination, the taxi driver immediately refused. ”That’s a place for the dead. What are you young people, with nothing better to do, going there for?”

With that, the driver refused the fare, turned the car around, and sped off.

Seeing the driver’s reluctance, Zhao Rong muttered dejectedly, ”It’s just a famously haunted village. Is it really that terrifying?”

He raised his hand and tried to hail several more taxis. However, he was refused every single time as soon as the drivers heard he was going to the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village. After being turned down by several cabs in a row, Zhao Rong said with a hint of regret, ”If I’d known nobody was willing to go to the Ghost Hunting Academy, I would’ve just driven everyone there myself...”

Just as he was complaining, a taxi so old it looked like a jalopy pulled up in front of him. The driver slowly rolled down the window and said with a kind smile, ”Where are you headed? I can give you a lift...”

Zhao Rong stared at the Santana 2000. This taxi must have been on the road for nearly twenty years. It’s practically an antique.

”The four of us are going to the Ghost Hunting Academy. Are you going there?” Zhao Rong asked. He noticed the driver was an elderly man.

The old man coughed twice and nodded, a gummy smile spreading across his face. ”You want to go to that abandoned, haunted, deserted Wang Family Village?”

Zhao Rong saw the old man’s surprised expression. Given that look, I’m definitely about to be refused again.

So, he just nodded and said, ”That’s right. The four of us are going to the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village.”

Hearing this, the driver’s expression froze for a moment before he broke into another smile. ”Wang Family Village may be haunted, but it’s a good place! Other drivers don’t dare go there, but old Wang here, I make the trip all the time. Come on, young folks, hop in!”

Finally hearing a driver willing to take them to the Ghost Hunting Academy, the three women, who had been sitting on the ground waiting, stood up with smiles on their faces. Zhao Rong took the passenger seat, and the three women settled in the back.

Just as the driver was about to pull away, the assistant from the girls’ dormitory came howling and rushing out of the building. He grabbed the taxi door and yelled, ”Where are you all going? You can’t leave me behind! We’re a team! How can you be missing a key player like me?”

That guy Zhao Rong is definitely taking these three beauties somewhere nicer and more upscale to live the high life... he thought.

Lili shot the leering assistant a disgusted look. ”We’re going to the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village to learn how to hunt ghosts,” she said reluctantly. ”A coward like you wouldn’t dare come with us, would you?”

Hearing they were actually going to the Ghost Hunting Academy to learn ghost hunting, the assistant was so shocked he plopped right down on the ground. ”Whoa! That sounds a bit challenging, but I’ve made my decision! I’ll give up my dream job as the girls’ dormitory supervisor to follow you and continue my studies at the Ghost Hunting Academy!”

With that, he tried to pull open the back door to squeeze in with the three women.

Seeing the unhygienic, unwashed, and grimy assistant trying to join them, Yu Lan immediately stopped him. ”Assistant, are you blind? Can’t you see there are already three people in the back? If you squeeze in, we’ll be overloaded!”

”The more the merrier!” the assistant said shamelessly. ”There’s always room if you squeeze, and it’s not like it’ll get anyone pregnant...”

He then tried to shove half his rear end onto the back seat.

Seeing how shameless he was and hearing his crude words, Xuelian couldn’t take it anymore. She plucked a hairpin from her hair and jabbed it straight into the assistant’s backside.

The assistant let out a pained scream and tumbled out of the taxi.

”Sir, let’s go, quick!” Lili urged the driver.

The assistant, now on the ground rubbing his bruised rear, winced and grumbled, ”Fine, don’t let me ride in the taxi! But why did you have to stab me with a hairpin? That’s just sick...”

The driver glanced at the assistant in the rearview mirror and then turned to Zhao Rong. ”Are you sure you want to leave now? We’re not taking the man on the ground?”

Before Zhao Rong could speak, Yu Lan interjected from the back seat, ”If the assistant wants to go to the Ghost Hunting Academy, he can walk. He can forget about riding in the same taxi as us.”

Hearing that, the driver slammed on the accelerator, and the taxi sped away.

As he drove, the driver said, ”That area around Wang Family Village is haunted, not just the village itself but the whole surrounding area. If you take a taxi, you might be a bit safer. But if you walk, especially on a moonless, starless, windy night like this... you won’t just run into female ghosts, male ghosts, and hanged ghosts. You’ll also encounter fierce ghosts, evil ghosts, and hungry ghosts...”

Hearing that the mysterious Wang Family Village was not only haunted but teeming with so many different types of ghosts, Zhao Rong was astonished. ”Holy crap! No wonder they built the Ghost Hunting Academy there. From the sound of it, Wang Family Village is practically a ghost nest.”

In the back, a cold sweat dripped down Lili’s forehead. ”Oh my god, that’s terrifying! If the assistant walks there, he’ll run into all sorts of ghosts, won’t he? We might not even see him tomorrow morning!”

Yu Lan also glanced behind the car, her voice tinged with worry. ”I hope he doesn’t run into the ’thirsty ghost’ the driver was talking about. Otherwise, his virtue will be in peril...”

Meanwhile, Xuelian was imagining all kinds of horrifying scenarios: ghosts chasing the assistant, surrounding him, and then brutally killing him. Impulsively, she said to the driver, ”Sir, maybe we should turn back and pick up that assistant who fell...”

At her words, the driver immediately made a U-turn and headed back toward the school gate.

By then, however, the assistant was already on his way, backpack on and phone navigation out, walking from the West Well University entrance toward the Ghost Hunting Academy in Wang Family Village.

When Zhao Rong spotted him walking along the road, he quickly had the driver stop. ”Assistant, get in!” he shouted. ”It’s too dangerous to walk to the Ghost Hunting Academy at night!”

Lili rolled down her window and waved. ”Come on, get in! We’ll squeeze. For your safety, we’ll even overlook the fact that you’re unhygienic and never change your underwear!”

When the assistant saw they had actually turned around to get him, he was delighted and ready to hop in. But then, a thought struck him. If I get in the taxi, won’t that just prove I’m a coward who’s afraid of ghosts? No way. I have to put on a brave face for these three beauties. I need to prove that I, the Assistant, am a man of indomitable spirit who fears neither heaven nor earth, and certainly not ghosts. Therefore, I must refuse their offer and walk to the Ghost Hunting Academy.

Having made up his mind, the assistant declined the kind offer from Zhao Rong and the women. With a grave and righteous expression, he declared, ”The wind howls, the river is cold; once a hero leaves, he never returns!

”Someone as badass as me, afraid of running into ghosts?

”Someone as badass as me, afraid of walking at night?

”Someone as badass as me, getting scared to death by a ghost?

”What a joke!

”You all go on ahead. Don’t worry about me. We’ll see each other at the Ghost Hunting Academy tomorrow morning!”

With that, the assistant ducked into a small alley and vanished, shaking them off his trail.

With no other choice, Zhao Rong and the three women could only continue in the taxi toward the Ghost Hunting Academy.

Once the taxi was gone, the assistant stepped out of the alley, chuckling to himself. I’d sooner believe pigs can fly than believe ghosts exist in this world. Trying to scare me? Not a chance...

With that thought, he walked out of the Weiyang District, where West Well University was located, and entered the Wangjia Village District, where Wang Family Village was.

As soon as he got near Wang Family Village, the assistant felt that something was off. In the dead of night, so pitch-black you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, two old men were sitting on the ground playing chess.

He instinctively pulled out his phone to check the time. It was already one in the morning. He walked over to the two old men to give them a friendly reminder. ”Gentlemen, it’s getting really late. Shouldn’t you be heading home to bed? Besides, it’s so dark out here without any streetlights. Can you even see the board?”

At his words, the two old men slowly lifted their heads and stared at him in silence.

In the faint light of his phone, the assistant saw that the two old men had their eyes closed and their faces were ashen like corpses. He gasped and started backing away. ”Sorry to interrupt your game, gentlemen. Please, continue...”

As he walked away, he clutched his racing heart. Damn, why did those two old guys look just like a pair of corpses?

The thought had barely crossed his mind when he saw something else up ahead: a woman with long hair, dressed in white, dancing gracefully in front of an abandoned doorway.

A jolt of fear shot through him, and he reflexively picked up a brick from the ground.

Just as he raised the brick, ready to defend himself, a female ghost tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

”Mister,” she whispered, ”I’m so hungry... Could you... do something with me?”