"So that's how it is. Brother Mo, you guys also came because of the 'haunting' in Lavender Town."
Sitting on a long bench by the roadside, Qiao Cheng looked at Chen Mo and the other two, a look of realization dawning on his face.
But his choice of words made Chen Mo pause slightly.
"Also?"
"Oh—almost forgot to mention it to you, Brother Mo."
Qiao Cheng smiled shyly.
"Brother Mo, I'm actually a police officer. I came to Lavender Town this time mainly to investigate this 'haunting' incident."
The moment he said that, the livestream immediately recalled a highlighted comment from earlier.
[I get it now! Look at the bandages on this guy's hands—he's definitely the injured police officer mentioned in the chat before.]
[I'm done. Is it really this much of a coincidence?!]
[Looking closely at his brows, there's kind of a righteous air about him. Yeah, that checks out.]
[The guy above—are you serious? No matter how I look at him, I just see a shy big boy.]
[Weren't people arguing earlier about how the police officer got injured? The person involved is right here now—have Mo-baby just ask him directly.]
What the viewers wanted to know was exactly what Chen Mo wanted to know as well.
However, seeing that Qiao Cheng clearly still had more to say, Chen Mo didn't rush to ask questions and instead let him continue.
"Brother Mo, you might not know this, but the haunting in Lavender Town isn't something that just started recently. From what I understand, the earliest abnormal incident here dates back about four months ago. I came here three months ago with two colleagues from my bureau to investigate."
"I'll give you the conclusion first—hauntings are real. My colleagues and I personally witnessed one."
"At the time, we received a call from a resident. He said he was a security guard at Lavender Elementary School. While doing night patrols, he suddenly heard extremely unpleasant piano music coming from near the music room. But when he went over to check, the music abruptly stopped. He pushed open the classroom door—and there was no one inside."
"The guard said he was terrified. Given everything that had been happening in Lavender Town lately, he immediately reported it to us."
"At that point, we hadn't been here long, and honestly, we didn't take the so-called hauntings very seriously. We thought it was just some kind of prank. But when we went to investigate that music room ourselves, we realized that all the rumors… might actually be true."
"We saw it with our own eyes—a piano playing by itself in an empty room. And yes, the music really was awful."
"But the most critical part came shortly after the music stopped. One of my colleagues suddenly let out a scream. When I and another colleague turned to look, we saw his entire body suspended in midair, as if something invisible was holding him up from below."
"I'll never forget that scene. There really are ghosts in Lavender Town."
Listening to Qiao Cheng's account, Chen Mo stroked his chin, deep in thought.
Beside him, Ah Hui looked visibly tense.
"Then your colleague…?"
"He was fine. Just badly shaken. After a few more incidents, he and the other colleague returned to the city."
"Brother Mo," Ah Hui said, turning toward Chen Mo.
"Yeah. If nothing unexpected happened, it should be a Ghost-type Pokémon."
Based on Qiao Cheng's description, Chen Mo already had a few suspects in mind, though without confirmation, it was too early to draw conclusions.
At that moment, however, Qiao Cheng looked utterly confused.
"Ghost-type? Pokémon have types?"
"..."
Chen Mo glanced at Ah Hui, who looked like he was ready to launch into a lecture, and let out a quiet sigh.
"You explain it to him."
"Gladly!"
Finally given an outlet for his enthusiasm, Ah Hui launched into an energetic explanation. By the end of it, Qiao Cheng had a basic understanding of Pokémon attributes.
Scratching his head awkwardly, Qiao Cheng said apologetically,
"Brother Mo, I really am your fan—you have to believe me. It's just that I'm extremely busy every day, so I can't stay glued to my phone watching streams all the time. I've missed a lot."
Ah Hui draped an arm over Qiao Cheng's shoulder and said with mock displeasure,
"So you're saying I'm the one with nothing better to do all day?"
"No, no, Brother Hui, that's not what I meant!"
Qiao Cheng was clearly an honest guy. With just a bit of teasing, he immediately panicked and started explaining himself frantically.
"All right, all right," Chen Mo said. "Ah Hui, let him finish what he was saying."
Ah Hui stopped joking and sat back down obediently, while Qiao Cheng finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Even though I don't really understand Ghost-type Pokémon, I'm very sure of one thing—that ghost wasn't as kind as you described. My hands were injured because of it."
Chen Mo frowned.
So it wasn't the Gastly line?
To be honest, based on Qiao Cheng's earlier description, Chen Mo had thought it might just be another mischievous Gastly-family incident, like in the anime.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened back then?"
Qiao Cheng nodded and began slowly.
"That was about a month ago. At the time, Lavender Town saw a number of incidents where children were attacked by a ghost, all with varying degrees of injury."
Chen Mo's frown deepened.
At first, he'd thought it was just harmless pranks by a Ghost-type Pokémon. But now children were getting hurt…
Something was clearly wrong.
"After learning about it, I immediately started investigating. I staked things out for several days—and eventually, I really did catch it."
He paused, glanced at Chen Mo and the others, then continued.
"It was an unknown creature, completely shrouded in black material, floating in midair. From the looks of it, it was preparing to attack a father and son ahead."
"At the time, I didn't think much. I rushed out, told the father and son to get away, and stood in front of the ghost with my gun."
"Brother Hui… don't laugh… I know it was stupid…"
Qiao Cheng scratched his head helplessly.
"But anyway, firearms were completely useless against it. And maybe because I ruined its plan, the ghost became especially vicious. Purple flames burst out from its body, and those flames severely burned my hands. Even now, they still haven't fully healed."
The nature of the situation had completely changed.
Chen Mo let out a quiet sigh.
A creature completely covered in black matter…
Could it really still be from the Gastly line?
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