Cannon Fodder 011

Following the girl's footsteps, one person after another woke up.

Chen Dong was now completely convinced he had been "ghost-blinded." These people had been in such obvious places, yet he hadn't seen them.

Pushing open the office door, Chen Dong and the small-time streamers following behind him were all startled.

One of their companions was currently hanging himself from the blades of an old, enormous electric fan, wearing a bizarre smile as he stared right at them.

"Master!" Li Dong's words were cut short.

The girl dashed forward in a flash and kicked the female streamer off the fan.

"No swinging on the fan in the office!"

Everyone fell silent. Then they saw a pitch-black shadow get kicked out of their companion's body, slam straight into the wall, and slowly slide down.

The ghost's eyes were bloodshot. It stretched its hand forward unwillingly. "I... am... so bitter..." Then its head lolled to the side, and it vanished.

No one noticed the girl forcibly suppressing the corners of her mouth from turning up.

Only after rescuing the person from the last stall in the bathroom did the girl clap her hands. "That's it. You all should leave now. Don't go wandering into places like this in the future."

Li Dong looked at her somewhat reluctantly, his eyes darting between his livestream and the girl. "Um... Master..."

"I'm not a master. I'm a spirit medium. My online name is Xiaotao Doesn't Eat Sugar."

"Um, Xiaotao, do you have..."

A shrill, mournful wailing suddenly echoed out of thin air, making everyone shrink their necks.

"If you don't leave now, I won't be able to protect you anymore."

As soon as she said this, everyone understood the choice they had to make. Even if Li Dong didn't want to go, they dragged him away, conveniently ending the livestream.

It was only when everyone returned to the car that they realized someone was missing.

"Where's Little Chao?"

"Haven't seen him."

"Should we go back and look?" someone suggested.

But everyone glanced at the sinister school building and shivered in unison.

"This..." Xiaotao looked at the boy drooling in his sleep, somewhat puzzled.

Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow. "You need an assistant. This kid's not bad—thick-skinned and has relevant experience."

Xiaotao hesitated. "Teacher, you really think I can save the world?"

"Of course you can."

"But I haven't really learned anything... If they hadn't cooperated with me today, it would have been really awkward." Xiaotao glanced at the circle of "classmates" around her.

Fang Zhiyi waved a hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. Don't worry, your teacher here has already gathered all the ghosts within a hundred-mile radius to this place. Which means..."

He revealed an evil grin.

"In the future spirit medium circle, whatever you say goes." He looked around at the crowd. "Who agrees? Who objects?"

The ghosts looked at each other and nodded repeatedly.

Finally ending their cold war, Zhao Manqi and Shen Yan discussed their next steps. One needed to make a living, the other needed to regain his strength. So they talked it out, each getting what they needed.

Zhao Manqi started livestreaming, with Shen Yan assisting from the side.

But Zhao Manqi's livestream room was still mostly filled with anti-fans. As agreed, Shen Yan was to help teach a lesson to these nasty little haters.

However, every time he went to their locations, he would always run into other ghosts.

These ghosts were unreasonable too. Seeing him, they wouldn't say a word—just attack immediately.

Shen Yan got beaten up three times in a row, and he began to question his ghostly existence.

Zhao Manqi's livestream performance was terrible, but what made her even more desperate was discovering that the woman she hated was also livestreaming. Curiosity drove her to click into the stream, and what she saw nearly made her die of anger.

Xiaotao Doesn't Eat Sugar's livestream room had tens of thousands of viewers! People were even lining up for video consultations with her! This was all thanks to the fans directly taken from the little bald guy Li Dong and the publicity from that livestream. Xiaotao had skyrocketed to fame overnight.

“How dare she live stream about communicating with spirits?” Zhao Manqi was furious. She was having such bad luck, while this woman who had privately messaged to criticize her was thriving? Damn it!

Xiaotao Doesn't Eat Sugar also noticed Zhao Manqi's arrival and directly pulled her into the video call spot.

"It's just a dead streamer! Bitch! And she dares to scold me! Pah! And so many people watching—a bunch of pathetic losers!" Zhao Manqi cursed happily until she saw her own somewhat swollen face appear on her phone screen.

Xiaotao on the other side wore a faint, knowing smile. She hadn't even done anything yet, and unexpectedly, this woman had managed to offend everyone herself.

The teacher was completely right, as always. This crazy woman would dig her own grave sooner or later.

But the next moment, Xiaotao saw a fleeting ghostly shadow in the other's camera frame and narrowed her eyes.

Zhao Manqi had already hung up the call as if fleeing. Quite a few netizens had already followed her to her own live streaming room to scold her.

But the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

Finally, she came up with an idea: live-streaming an exorcism!

Whether she could actually do it was another matter, but she did have a ghost helping her!

Shen Yan thought for a moment and agreed. He actually did know of a few places with spirits.

And those ghosts weren't very powerful.

Perfect. Zhao Manqi needed traffic, and he needed power!

"Hey, youngster, what's this thing for?"

"You calling me? I died over a hundred years earlier than you, and you call me youngster?"

The old man was speechless. After a long pause: "Grandpa?"

The young man in ancient attire was amused. "That's more like it."

"Two old relics, this is called a figurine," a clearly more modern ghost said with an air of expertise.

"What is a 'figurine'?" An embroideress looked at the delicate little figure, wanting to touch it but afraid of breaking it.

Meanwhile, the figurine's owner, Xiaotao, was squatting in front of the vegetables she was growing in foam boxes. Several ghosts nearby were engaged in a heated debate.

"Too much fertilizer will burn the roots!"

"Nay, nay, I believe it's a soil issue."

"This shoot can be pinched off; the fruit will grow better afterwards."

Xiaotao nodded repeatedly.

"Thank you. Experience truly is the most precious thing."

The ghosts looked somewhat embarrassed. "We never thought our farming experience would still be useful."

Fang Zhiyi stood with his hands behind his back, watching Little Chao edit videos. Little Chao was nervous. Sure enough, the next second...

“Are you an idiot? Huh? Could this transition be any more 'otherworldly'?” Fang Zhiyi bluntly scolded.

Little Chao felt wronged. "But that's how I always used it before."

"Which is why you never got popular."

Little Chao clutched his chest. "Bro, can you not go straight for the vitals?"

“Less nonsense. I'll explain the trick one more time. Listen carefully. If you can't learn it within a week, well, you've seen this whole roomful. I'll have them take turns tucking you in at night.”

Little Chao glanced back. His eyes noticeably lit up when he saw the embroideress.

Fang Zhiyi swung a slap down but missed.

"What are you thinking? Female ghosts are excluded!"

“Oh.” Little Chao was sulky. He had woken up to find a circle of ghosts and one person, and then inexplicably ended up working like a dog for them.