JOS Extra 5

Jiang Feng hung up the phone, and Chu Xuanliang said, “So now, isn’t the progress quite clear?”

Huang Yu replied, “At least we know what effect that water sound has on people.”

Like Xue Qi, whose water sound was still approaching – constant financial losses. Like Jiang Yue, whose water sound had already reached her ears – forced liquidation of assets.

This logic should be correct.

Chu Xuanliang couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “This ghost is using violent enforcement.”

Jiang Feng asked, “Is it really a ghost?”

“What else could it be?” Chu Xuanliang said. “This ghost can even program.”

“Seems like a high-IQ ghost,” Huang Yu said. “This incident teaches us to study hard. Without knowledge, you can’t even get revenge.”

Despite their sighs, the group immediately set out for Jiang Yue’s house to get her phone.

When she opened the door, she had completely panicked. Forget yesterday’s acting – she was ready to spill everything to them.

“The app was already there before,” she said, pointing to an icon on her phone. “This was developed by our company, not very complex. Then you click to open it.”

Jiang Feng clicked it open.

The homepage displayed in large red font: negative over one million. This was just the principal. Clicking on the details showed it was to be repaid over five years, with monthly payments of nearly 50,000. It was already overdue today, with additional penalties and compound interest.

The figures behind jumped up dramatically.

She grabbed her hair in breakdown. “It’s trying to force me to death. What will I do in the future!”

Huang Yu asked, “Is this loan interest rate the same as your company’s?”

Jiang Yue didn’t answer.

Huang Yu continued, “How does this debt amount compare to what you scammed?”

Jiang Yue stared with bloodshot eyes and shouted, “What do you mean ‘scammed’? They signed the contracts themselves, it went through company accounts! Are we small people the ones really making money? No!”

Huang Yu nodded. “Alright, I understand. Don’t get excited first.”

The three comforted her for a while, but Jiang Yue couldn’t calm down.

Her house was mortgaged, and she had already used various methods to transfer money to corresponding bank cards, but it would all be transferred away before the mortgage could be deducted by the bank.

If this continued, she wouldn’t be able to pay the house mortgage and would truly be dragged to death by this fictitious debt.

The three couldn’t speak coldly about it. In the end, they took her phone and said they would handle it.

Jiang Feng took the phone to find Officer Ye, asking him to help look at this app and see if someone could delete the data on it.

Officer Ye hesitated. “This would work too?”

Wasn’t it agreed that humans and ghosts go separate ways?

Jiang Feng said, “Who knows?”

Officer Ye, with the feeling of having seen a ghost, took the phone to find someone to help.

The person sacrificed their lunch break to help them look at it.

“It’s not hacked, not a virus,” the tech guy said. “Your app should have updated this data itself.”

Officer Ye looked confused. “What?”

The tech guy found it hard to explain.

Viruses in this system weren’t unheard of, but they were extremely rare. Generally impossible.

He also downloaded the same app on his own phone.

Jiang Yue’s app was bound to her phone account. He directly obtained the password and logged in on his own phone.

Opening the page, it also showed negative over one million.

He said, “See, this was changed from the backend. It’s the app’s problem. You should go ask their company.”

Chu Xuanliang said, “But it’s not on their official website.”

“Then it might be backend data from the app,” the tech guy said. “Anyway, lending is their company’s business. If there’s no contract, you have the right to make them cancel the order and return the principal, plus you can apply for compensation.”

Jiang Feng asked, “Can this be changed?”

The tech guy nodded. “Go find their company’s software development department.”

Jiang Feng asked, “Can the money that was already transferred be transferred back?”

“I don’t know about that,” the tech guy said. “That depends on how stubborn their company wants to be.”

He looked at the data, typing on the keyboard. “But modern scams are really scary. There were cases before where just having mobile data on could get your bank card password stolen. Current apps, they all rely on online promotion, but security really can’t be 100% guaranteed. If you offend some genius hacker, you’ll definitely be robbed of everything, not even leaving your underwear.”

“And this financial company – unscrupulous loan sharks. Look at this interest rate. Tsk tsk.” He turned back seriously. “Knowledge is wealth.”

Jiang Feng cooperatively nodded.

Jiang Feng asked again, “Where did all this money go? Can we tell?”

“Why investigate? Isn’t it in the statement?” The tech guy pointed it out. “It all went to their company account.”

“So all the money went to their company.”

“Exactly!”

Everyone fell silent.

The tech guy buried his head for a long time, then looked up with bright eyes. “Hey Officer Ye, can’t we sue them for this? Iron-clad evidence of illegal operations!”

Officer Ye was confused himself: “Damn, I completely don’t understand.”

The tech guy said, “Being able to change this data, I think it’s very likely their internal staff.”

Jiang Feng thought and said, “Then let’s use this as a reason to go look at their company.”

Officer Ye had an expression of ‘you think too highly of me’ – search warrants couldn’t be approved immediately.

He said, “We have to follow procedures for investigations. And economic cases aren’t our jurisdiction. Their company has specialized people following up. Should I contact them for you?”

Jiang Feng said, “Just go have a look. I’ll check if there’s anything abnormal about their company. You can ask them to cooperate with the investigation – does this need procedures?”

Officer Ye was speechless for a while, but finally said, “Alright then, I’ll take you there to try.”

Actually, everyone felt uncertain. Being inexplicably manipulated by an app, they didn’t even know if what was behind this was human or ghost, so they decided to try their luck first.

This financial company had a branch office in A City, but for software development staff, they should be in S City.

Officer Ye and Jiang Feng took a car that day to rush to the financial company’s headquarters, arriving the next morning and directly requesting their cooperation.

“We have a case and want to ask your technical staff if they have any clues. Please accommodate us.”

“May I ask who you’re looking for?”

“I don’t know his name. I need to identify him in person.”

The manager who came out to liaise looked hesitant.

Wasn’t this a waste of time?

While both sides were communicating, a man with overgrown bangs that obviously hadn’t been trimmed in a long time walked out with his hands in his pockets. He kept his head down, his whole demeanor gloomy. The exposed section of his neck showed an unhealthy pale color.

“Hey.”

Jiang Feng called out to him.

The man slowly turned his face to look at them.

In their eye contact, Jiang Feng frowned slightly. The man’s half-closed eyelids suddenly widened, and just as Jiang Feng raised his hand, he had already turned and fled.

Jiang Feng immediately gave chase.

The officer called out, “Hey! What are you doing?”

Officer Ye also shouted, “Stop! Police!”

The young man’s physical condition was obviously poor. After turning two corners, his shoulder was already caught by Jiang Feng who was closely pursuing.

After physical contact, the man instantly collapsed softly to the ground, while a wisp of white soul floated out from his body.

Officer Ye didn’t see this, only took the opportunity to grab the man, restraining his arms and shouting, “Don’t pretend to faint!”

The person on the ground had no response. His muscles were slack, not like pretense. Just as he was about to question this, he saw Jiang Feng charging up the stairs again.

“What the hell?” Officer Ye checked the man’s breathing and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He was alive.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed 120.

“Hello, I need an ambulance here.”

Jiang Feng chased that thing all the way to the rooftop. The ghost passed through the iron door first and disappeared. Jiang Feng quickly followed, pulling on the handle ahead.

Noon sunlight shot in from outside the iron door, momentarily blinding. He raised his hand to shield his eyes and stepped out.

The ghost soul, weakened by being scorched under the strong yang energy and blazing sun, didn’t continue fleeing but stopped and shrank into the nearby shadows.

Jiang Feng said with some mockery, “Still running?”

The sunlight was too dazzling, and neither could see the other’s features and expressions clearly. But from the voice, the wild ghost was very unwilling at this moment.

“Who are you? What do you want to do?”

“I want to ask the same question.” Jiang Feng sat down across from him, leaning against the railing to block part of the sun. “Before answering my questions, you don’t have the chance to ask back.”

From this, it seemed this ghost’s power wasn’t strong, which was why he had to rely on others’ actions to complete his revenge. He also didn’t have the power to set up such a large scheme – he must have accomplices.

But he probably had no intention to kill. Because his aura was really quite timid.

Money.

His target was money.

He wore a slovenly shirt covered in blood stains and wrinkles, half tucked into his pants, half hanging out, making him look unkempt.

The cause of death should have been falling from a building.

“You’re all in cahoots,” the man cried out resentfully. “I hate cheaters the most, but you’re all in cahoots! Shameless, without dignity, willing to be dogs for money. Get lost!”

Jiang Feng wasn’t angered by his insults and calmly asked, “Who cheated you?”

The man’s tongue was thick, spittle flying everywhere. “Bastard! I didn’t even know who he was when I died. I thought he was a famous hot money trader – he tricked me. Hah, but after I died I kept looking for him, finally found out who he was. His name is Xue Ming! Damn! He deserves to die!”

“Oh,” Jiang Feng said. “How did he cheat you?”

He fell silent for a moment, but under Jiang Feng’s stare, finally told his humiliating history.

“Back then I started learning to trade stocks, and in a professional forum I met a rather famous moderator. He really had studied things and had some real skills. I chatted very happily with him, analyzing trend charts together, analyzing international situations, analyzing future financial directions… At that time I felt we were friends. I trusted him a lot – after all, we had several months of friendship.”

Sounded like really good friends.

“Later he recommended I join a WeChat group, saying there was a bunch of retired hot money traders giving lectures. So I went in to listen, and found all the teachers inside were very famous people. There were also quite a few people like me there to listen. Anyway, there were one or two hundred people in the group. I didn’t know if it was real or fake then, but in that atmosphere, I didn’t suspect anything. Plus they taught with both theory and practice, teaching us how to read charts, recommending specialized books… You know? It was a very complete set – I believed it was real.”

“Whether real or not, they were indeed good at short-term trading. I traded with them for over half a month and did make some money. Of course there were losses too, but we sold out fast enough when losing that we didn’t get trapped.”

“They always talked about their success stories in regular classes. They were using famous hot money traders’ names, and indeed had some track records you could verify online. They talked about everything – history, international situations, stocks… seemed especially knowledgeable.” The man sniffled. “Damn, modern people’s schemes are simply unstoppable. They used two or three months of free tutorials to lure us in. Have you ever seen such sincere scammers? Have you ever seen scammers with such patience, playing the long game? Have you ever seen scammers who cheat both money and hearts? Anyway, I never had!”

Jiang Feng: “……”

He declared loudly. “So I was fooled!”

Jiang Feng: “……”

The man said, “I really trusted them. Those teachers were also very kind, encouraging you, singing to you, telling you jokes. Do ordinary scammers have such natural psychological qualities? Anyway, I’ve never seen any.”

Jiang Feng, hearing he had emphasized this many times, finally voiced agreement. “I know. Even now I can’t hear anything deceptive about it.”

The man felt somewhat comforted and continued. “Right? That’s what I’m saying. And there were quite a few people in the group who, like me, were really brought in by others. Some had been trading stocks for years, some had never touched it. Communicating with them made me feel even safer – I didn’t pay any attention.”

“During classes, teachers would always intentionally or unintentionally promote high returns to us – ten times, a hundred times returns, talking about how many points of movement, saying they were teaching to ease their conscience. They’d even talk about Buddhist and Taoist theories – damn it! I felt something was off then, since no industry can guarantee stable multiple returns, but I naively thought that was just how big shots were… I really thought that…”

“Later one teacher ‘accidentally’ revealed foreign exchange market conditions, another teacher ‘accidentally’ revealed he was trading forex. Then another teacher ‘accidentally’ revealed he had connections with forex companies and could open large batches of corporate accounts for free. I was stupid then – when being scammed I didn’t feel anything was wrong, couldn’t see the trap at all, like I’d been brainwashed.”

“We thought then, since we operated the forex software ourselves, it couldn’t be a scam, right? Never expected… their scheme.” The man covered his face in grief and anger. “Damn, even that forex software was fake! After cheating the money away, the software directly declared bankruptcy and closure!”

Jiang Feng: “The software went bankrupt?”

“Right. They went bankrupt and fled. Only then did I realize everything was a scam.” The man wanted to laugh but also felt ridiculous about himself, making a mournful expression. “Isn’t this exactly like the P2P software that was popular recently? But they were already playing this trick earlier.”

Jiang Feng was silent for a moment, mentally going through the scheme, feeling that such sophisticated fraud… if he had taken the first step, he might have been fooled too.

It’s just that he had no desire for money and material things, and didn’t hope to gain high returns through easy means, so the “if” before the first step couldn’t apply to him.

The man curled up in the shadows, holding himself in a ball, sobbing over the past.

Jiang Feng asked, “How much money were you cheated of?”

“One million US dollars. I thought I could definitely make money then. The first week I tested with ten thousand dollars and successfully doubled it, so I borrowed money from my parents and friends, finally borrowing one million.” He bit his lip. “All gone. My parents don’t earn money easily – I was so sorry to them. In the end they even sold the house. I couldn’t handle that pressure, so I committed suicide.”

Jiang Feng: “Then you regretted it.”

“During that time my mental state was completely wrong. I hadn’t slept well for over a month straight. When my cousin scolded me to go die, I acted impulsively. But I didn’t really want to die.” The man nodded. “After I died I thought about it – why should I be the one to die? Even if I died the money wouldn’t come back, and my parents would still have to help me repay the debt. I was so sorry to them.”

He said, “Do you know how much effort I spent trying to find Xue Ming?”

Jiang Feng asked, “Does Xue Ming have connections to this company?”

“No. It’s just that I met someone like me – cheated and then jumped off a building to commit suicide.” The man said with pent-up emotions. “No one cares. Companies run away when they run away, money gets cheated when it gets cheated, but no one cares at all. This company continues to cheat people, and still no one cares. What do you think should be done?”

“Does this world mean you can become successful by abandoning your bottom line and shame? As long as you use freedom and intelligence as excuses, all behavior becomes legal? Look how happy they are living! Why? Should I watch more people end up like us? They commit fraud, but we can’t counter-fraud? If we can’t get revenge even after death, when can we ever get revenge?! Are we supposed to deserve being cheated?”

Jiang Feng said, “Tell me the whereabouts of the other ghosts, and stop here. As for revenge, I can help you.”

“I don’t trust you!” the man blurted out. “You dirty humans! I won’t betray my friends to you! Are you a Taoist priest hired by Xue Ming? Despicable! Be a decent person!”

Jiang Feng sighed. “I’m not.”

The man choked. “I don’t believe you!”

Jiang Feng opened his palm, facing upward. A yellowed, ancient book materialized in mid-air. On the open page in the center, the events the man had just recounted were recorded, proving his words were true.

Jiang Feng said, “Stop being presumptuous.”

The man shuddered.

“You possessed a living person’s body and nearly caused his death. That I didn’t directly send you to the underworld for punishment was already showing leniency, considering your circumstances. Yet you tell me to be a decent person.” Jiang Feng paused and said, “I died a long time ago.”