With barely a struggle, Zhao Rong broke free from the ropes binding him. When the surrounding men saw he had actually escaped, they immediately raised their sharp knives and lunged.

Facing seven or eight vicious, knife-wielding thugs, Zhao Rong didn’t hold back. A left punch took one down, a right hook decked another, a swift kick sent a third flying, and a leg sweep dazed a fourth. In less than thirty seconds, Zhao Rong had flattened all of them.

When the old man orchestrating the spectacle saw how formidable Zhao Rong was, he was terrified. He backed away, saying, "Young man, if we’d known you were this powerful, we wouldn’t have tried to scare you with our little ghost act..."

With that, the old man rushed to the door, opened it, and tried to escape.

Seeing the conniving old man trying to flee, Zhao Rong leaped up and aimed a flying kick at him. But just as his foot was about to connect, he suddenly pulled back.

Even though this man is a criminal, he’s still old. Kicking him would be going too far.

Instead, Zhao Rong grabbed him by his clothes and pulled him over. "Old man, you may be old, but you’re a criminal," he said. "I have to arrest you and hand you over to the police. Otherwise, you’ll just stay here and keep harming people."

Hearing that the young man planned to take him to the police, the old man’s face streamed with tears. "Young man, I beg you, let me go. If you take me to the police, what will my daughter do all by herself?"

Hearing the old man mention his daughter, Zhao Rong immediately recalled the woman working at the counter in the Wishing Guesthouse. He asked, "Is the woman at the counter of the Wishing Guesthouse your daughter?"

The old man nodded, a pitiable expression on his face. "Yes, she’s my daughter..."

Zhao Rong recalled the woman’s appearance and frowned. "That woman must be at least thirty, right? Do you really think she’ll starve to death if you go to jail?"

The old man cried bitterly as he explained, "Young man, you don’t understand. I spoiled my daughter rotten since she was a little girl. Even now, at thirty, she still expects everything to be handed to her. I saw she couldn’t go on like that, so I paid to open a guesthouse for her. But who knew she’d run it into the ground? It’s so dirty and messy that no one ever stays there..."

Before the old man could finish, Zhao Rong cut him off. "So, just because no one was staying at your daughter’s guesthouse, you decided to fake a haunting? You used malicious tactics to scare people away from other places and back to hers, is that it?"

The old man, struggling to explain himself, said, "I had no choice! If I didn’t scare you all back to the guesthouse she opened, her business would have failed! What would she eat? What would she drink...?"

"Your daughter is thirty years old and still so incompetent?" Zhao Rong exclaimed in anger. "If she starves to death, she’ll have brought it on herself!"

With that, Zhao Rong grabbed the old man by the collar and dragged him back to the room where the three women and the assistant were. Then, he took out his phone and called the police.

At that moment, in the women’s room, the assistant was confronting them.

He watched them with a lewd smirk on his face. It’s been so long, and there’s still no sound from the next room. I’d say Zhao Rong must have failed to catch that ’ghost.’ It’s even possible the ghost knocked him out! You three made a bet with me, so you’d better be prepared to lose. Get ready to strip and dance naked for me.

The three women, however, just watched the assistant quietly. You just wait, Assistant. You’ll be eating our smelly socks, underwear, and bras soon enough. Brother Zhao Rong will definitely catch that ghost and drag it back here for punishment.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door. The knock prompted very different reactions.

The assistant was so frightened he dove under the bed. "Oh no!" he shrieked in terror. "It must be that vengeful ghost from my room! It’s come to our room to eat us! Quick, you three, hide under the bed like me!"

The three women, however, weren’t scared at all. Instead, they rushed to open the door.

Lili said as she pulled the door open, "It must be the amazing Brother Zhao Rong, returning in triumph!"

"I bet he’s not alone," Xuelian said confidently. "He must have caught the ghost and brought it with him!"

Yu Lan mused to herself. I think the ghost must be female. A perverted, lecherous female ghost. Why else would it only attack men...?

As the three women were talking, Zhao Rong walked in, holding an old man in a firm grip.

"Brother Zhao Rong," they asked curiously, "did you see the ghost in the other room?"

Zhao Rong chuckled as he entered. "Not only did I see the ghost, I caught him and brought him here."

When the three women heard Zhao Rong say he’d caught the ghost, they immediately looked at the Magic Ring on his hand. "Brother Zhao Rong, did you use a spell to trap the ghost in a vial and put it in your Magic Ring?"

Zhao Rong shook his head. Pointing to the old man at his side, he told them, "This old man I caught... *he’s* the ghost."

When the three women saw that the ’ghost’ Zhao Rong was talking about was just an unremarkable, even shabby-looking old man, they were so shocked they collapsed to the floor.

"Brother Zhao Rong," Lili said in astonishment, "the more I look at him, the more he looks like that street sweeper we saw earlier. Are you telling us he’s the ghost? You’ve got to be kidding!"

Yu Lan also sized up the old sanitation worker. "Sir," she said in disbelief, "weren’t you sweeping the streets before? Why would Brother Zhao Rong call you a ghost? That doesn’t make any sense."

Xuelian went so far as to touch the old man’s arm. Shaking her head, she said to Zhao Rong, "Brother Zhao Rong, this old man is human, not a ghost. Feel him, he has body heat. A real ghost would be ice-cold, with no warmth at all..."

Just then, the assistant crawled out from under the bed. He glanced at Zhao Rong, then at the three women, and burst out laughing. "Ladies, I told you Zhao Rong couldn’t catch that ghost with the hand under the bed, didn’t I?" he said excitedly. "But you wouldn’t believe me and insisted on betting... Now the proof is right here! He didn’t catch the ghost at all; he just grabbed some old guy to pass off as the real thing! So, ladies, you lose! Now, honor the bet. Take off your clothes and dance a naked dance for me!"

Hearing the assistant’s words, the three women silently lowered their heads.