I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

The archives room on the basement floor of the Jiangcheng Special Investigation Bureau office building.

The air smelled of ink, and the noise from the dehumidifier in the corner was irritating.

The archivist squatted on the ground, flipping through files that were half a person's height.

Although "paperless office" has long been advocated, the archives bureau has an extra task ever since the appearance of a talking rat spirit that can also broadcast live.

Retain paper records.

Standing next to him was a new recruit who had only been with the company for six months. He was holding a registration book in his arms, but he hadn't written a single word in it for a long time.

"Sister Wang, is the case with the Lu family really settled like this?"

The new operator lowered his voice, his eyes wide: "More than a dozen people all died of old age overnight. The oldest was in his early fifties, and the youngest had just turned eighteen. They said they died of illness—who would believe that?"

Without even looking up, the administrator pulled out the top document, which was stamped with a bright red "Top Secret" seal:

"Believe it or not, the facts speak for themselves. A thick stack of on-site investigation reports, forensic examinations, and paranormal detection data—do you want to see them?"

The paper file contained only a few words; the actual content could only be viewed by logging into the intranet and activating permissions.

"But the more you think about it, the weirder it seems."

The junior officer swallowed hard: "Lu Bingkun shouldn't have many days left to live, so it's not surprising that he died."

But his children, all in their prime, without any illness or disaster, how could they all die in one night?

There wasn't even a single external injury; it was as if his lifespan had been drained.

When he said the words "extracting lifespan", his voice unconsciously lowered, and he inexplicably felt a chill run down his spine.

The administrator straightened up, picked up her thermos, and took a sip of hot tea. The steam made her brows and eyes relax slightly.

"What you're saying now matches the first guess that's circulating in the bureau."

"Three guesses, right?" The colleague next to them perked up and leaned closer to the two of them:

"I overheard people in the technical department talking privately, saying there are three theories circulating internally. The first is that Chen Shulan's vengeful spirit has been revived, and the evil spirit that was suppressed for decades has come out to claim lives, taking away the lifespan of her enemy's entire clan."

"Yes, it has the most supporters."

The administrator nodded:

"The dirty secrets that Lu Bingkun committed back then have been almost completely exposed, and the Hong Kong authorities should be about to take action against the Lu family."

He murdered his wife and children, swallowed his wife's family fortune, used his first wife's ashes to create a wealth-gathering array, and even suppressed her soul for decades. If it were me, I'd kill him first even after I became a ghost.

"What about the second possibility? That a player might be impersonating Chen Shulan?"

"It's not impossible. The professions that are awakened now are all kinds of things, such as [Doctor], [Butcher], [Shepherd], and I heard that a [Psychic] was also detected this week."

If someone really wanted to mess with the Lu family, using Chen Shulan's name to play tricks and use special skills to drain people's lifespan, it's not impossible.

After all, if it were truly a vengeful ghost seeking revenge, why didn't it come earlier or later, but just now?

"Players? But what do players want from them?"

The junior agent frowned: "For money? The people who died in the Lu family were all in power. In the end, the property will go to the descendants of the Chen family. Where would such a powerful player come from?"

"Therefore, the third guess is even more far-fetched."

The colleague lowered his voice: "Many people guess that it wasn't Chen Shulan, but a real underworld official. Lu Bingkun asked a ghost to extend his life, but somehow he offended the underworld official..."

The other two gasped in unison:

"Underworld officials? There really is an underworld? How come I've never seen one before?"

"Yeah, if there are underworld officials, then wouldn't there also have to be eighteen levels of hell and a King Yama?"

"Who knows?"

The administrator sighed:

"How long has it been since the spiritual energy has recovered? How many dungeons have been released? Just because something didn't exist before doesn't mean it won't exist in the future."

If a system of underworld entities truly emerges alongside spiritual energy, then the days to come will be far too exciting.

The archives were silent for a few seconds.

After a long while, someone whispered:

"Regardless of which one it is, one thing is certain—Lu Bingkun is aiming to alter lifespan."

These words made the air feel even hotter.

life.

These two words weighed heavily on everyone's hearts, like a thousand pounds.

Throughout history, from emperors and generals to commoners, who hasn't sought immortality? Who hasn't feared dying of old age?

In the past, seeking immortality and asking about the Dao were just legends, all deceptive practices.

But things are different now.

Spiritual energy has revived, dungeons are real, and supernatural abilities are flourishing everywhere.

Even things like lifespan extraction actually happened.

If this gets out, so many people will go crazy.

The rich, the powerful, and the cowardly will all fight tooth and nail for this ability—who knows what kind of chaos it will ensue?

That's why the Special Investigations Bureau suppressed the news so tightly.

The on-site video, surveillance footage, autopsy report, and paranormal data were all classified as top secret.

Everyone involved signed a confidentiality agreement, and even the deceased's family could only obtain the official conclusion of "sudden onset of a rare aging disease".

Of course, the official explanation given to the public is that there has been an outbreak of unexplained illness affecting a group of people, and the cause is currently under investigation.

Even though this raging fire is blocked by layers of barriers, people can still feel its intense heat.

More than a dozen members of the Lu family were involved in an accident at the same time, and all of them were core members of the Lu family.

The news had already spread within high-level circles, but the general public was still unaware of it.

……

……

"By the way, how's the Lu family doing now?" someone changed the subject. "The ones in power are all dead. Who's going to take over such a large enterprise?"

"What else can we do? It's a complete mess."

"The Jian generation is all dead. In this lineage in the country, there are only a few Cheng generation children left. The oldest has just started primary school, and the youngest is still being breastfed. They can't even speak properly yet. What can we expect from them to fight for the family property?"

"What about the shareholders and veteran employees? Are they just going to stand by and watch?"

"Watching? They've been moving for a while now." A well-informed operator scoffed.

"Before Lu Bingkun's seven-day mourning period was over, several major shareholders flew abroad overnight—I heard they were planning to find Chen Jianhua to come back and take charge of the situation."

"Chen Jianhua?" The colleague paused, taken aback. "Which Chen Jianhua?"

"Who else could it be but the eldest daughter of Lu Bingkun's first wife, Chen Shulan? When Chen Shulan died, this girl was just over three years old."

She took her mother's surname, but her father disliked her. After she became an adult, she studied abroad and later settled there, almost completely losing contact with the Lu family.

The archivist immediately realized what was happening and said with schadenfreude, "So, according to the order of succession..."

"Yes, so much property went to her. Lu Bingkun didn't leave a will, and he died too suddenly. In addition, he had signed prenuptial agreements with his later wives, which clearly stipulated the division of property, with limited inheritance shares for spouses and children."

After all the calculations, the one with the largest share among the first-in-line heirs is actually Chen Jianhua, the eldest daughter from the first marriage.

"After going around in circles, Lu Bingkun, who had swallowed up the Chen family's entire fortune, lost his life and the family business returned to the Chen family's descendants after his death."

"What else is this but retribution? Back then, we robbed someone's property, took their life, and suppressed them for decades—"

In the end, with his death and near extinction, his vast fortune of hundreds of billions was returned to the Chen family intact.

"I really feel like it was Chen Shulan who did it, like eliminating all the rivals who were fighting with her daughter for the inheritance or something..."

The archives room fell silent.

The top-secret file was placed in a metal cabinet.

The decades-long feud between the Chen family and Lu Bingkun, involving more than a dozen lives, ultimately amounted to only a few sentences on the archives.

……

……

News from the public, though slower than the Special Investigation Bureau's secrecy, spread much faster than Song had imagined.

The news of Lu Bingkun's death and the sudden onset of a strange illness among the Lu family members first spread from financial circles, and then was reposted to the Lingjing Forum.

A few censored funeral photos, accompanied by a few ambiguous "insider revelations"... the onlookers were absolutely thrilled.

[Breaking News! Lu Bingkun, the owner of Jiangcheng Kunsheng Group, has passed away. His dozen or so children have all contracted a strange illness, aging prematurely overnight, suspected to be supernatural revenge!]

[1st Floor: First! Really? Lu Bingkun? That real estate guy? I saw him on the news the other day.]

[2nd Floor: I'm from Jiangcheng, just confirming. Yunding No. 1 in Lujia is indeed sealed off. The Special Investigation Bureau went there; over a dozen police cars drove in. It was a huge operation.]

[3rd Floor: Turning white and aging overnight? What strange disease is this? Can anyone explain?]

[4th floor: The King of Knowledge is here. I have inside information. The official statement is that he suddenly fell ill, but it has been revealed that when he was young, he killed his first wife, swallowed her family property, and even put her bones in the grave to accumulate wealth.]

Now that the spiritual energy has revived, the man's wife has returned as a vengeful ghost, killing his children and leaving only his grandchildren alive.

[5th ​​Floor: Holy crap? That's incredible? Is it for real?]

[8th Floor: Just interjecting, the scandals surrounding Lu Bingkun have been widely known in Hong Kong for a while now; everyone knows he made his fortune in shady ways.]

[9th Floor: This is terrifying to think about... Doesn't that mean that those who have done wrong in the past should be careful now? With the resurgence of spiritual energy, are all the vengeful spirits coming out to seek revenge?]

[10th Floor: Stop scaring people, okay? Materialism will never fall! I still think it's some kind of unknown virus, or a family genetic disease that just happened to all strike at the same time.]

[11th Floor: Genetic disease my foot! A dozen people getting symptoms at the same time? And all of them are showing signs of aging? Is your family's genetic disease just that coincidental?]

……

[12th Floor: Oh no, I stole eggs from my neighbor when I was a kid, will they come looking for revenge? (doge)]

[13th Floor: Stop joking upstairs, to be honest, I'm starting to panic. When I was younger, I got into a fight and sent someone to the hospital. What if they become a ghost and haunt me?]

[14th Floor: Forget it, it's no big deal. That's a blood feud involving murder, property seizure, and the extermination of an entire family—it's irreconcilable. Your trivial matter is something even a ghost wouldn't bother with.]

[15th Floor: To be honest, if it's really a vengeful spirit seeking revenge, that would be so satisfying. These heartless capitalists have sucked the blood of so many ordinary people; they deserve to die.]

[16th Floor: It's satisfying to vent my anger, but thinking about it carefully, it's terrifying. Will ordinary people still feel safe? What if a vengeful ghost just appears and kills whoever it wants?]

[17th Floor: What are you afraid of? The Special Investigation Bureau is there. Besides, if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. If you live a law-abiding life, why would ghosts come looking for you for no reason?]

[18th Floor: You can't say that. What if bad people control vengeful ghosts to harm people? What if players indiscriminately kill innocent people? In the past, there were laws to regulate things, but what about in the future? Relying on ghosts to uphold morality?]

The post kept getting higher and higher.

The discussion gradually shifted from the Lu family's private affairs to the social order after the spiritual energy revival.

Some people gloated, while others were filled with fear and unease.

Some people scoffed, while others were deeply worried.

As Song Mo flipped through these posts, the inspiration in his mind gradually filled in the gaps.

……

……

Meanwhile, the circles of the wealthy and powerful were already in an uproar, but on the surface, it remained stagnant.

Those who had similar histories of accumulating wealth to Lu Bingkun, those who had been involved in murder cases, and those who had risen to power through crooked means, were all panicked.

—Some people contacted temples and Taoist monasteries overnight to donate incense, perform rituals, and request amulets, spending seven or eight figures without batting an eye.

—Some people have started doing charity work like crazy, building schools, repairing hospitals, and donating supplies, as if they want to transform themselves into some kind of great philanthropist who is rare in all of history overnight.

—Some people even try to pull strings and find connections to contact skilled players for protection.

Some people remained clear-headed and watched coldly from the sidelines.

But the richer and more powerful a person is, the more afraid they are of dying.

The more afraid you are of death, the more afraid you are of losing it, and the more easily you are swept up in panic.

Thus, the public opinion storm triggered by the downfall of the Lu family was like a stone thrown into a lake, creating ripples in circles.

Meanwhile, Song Mo, the mastermind behind everything, was wearing slippers and eating noodles at a noodle shop downstairs.