“Ranran, should I come in to get you, or will you obediently come out on your own?” Outside the door, Tunshe Nalin’s voice sounded again.
“I… I’ll go out!” I raised my voice and helped the injured and almost unconscious Mo Wei to the table. He grabbed my collar and shook his head reluctantly. I pulled his hand away, glimpsed the blood jade bracelet on the table, grabbed it, and walked towards the door.
“Thank you, Master, and Mo Wei. But I… don’t want to hurt you both. This might be related to him, so I’ll take it to ask him and come back later.” I showed him the bracelet. The young Taoist said nothing, his face full of apology as he patted my shoulder, then moved to Mo Wei’s side to check on his injuries. When the formation disappeared, I opened the door, and there stood Tunshe Nalin at the entrance, his palm facing up, reaching toward me, his expression calm and composed, as if he was certain that I wouldn’t be able to escape.
I immediately felt like a deflated balloon, helplessly raising my hand. As soon as my fingers brushed against his, I was suddenly yanked into his arms, and he bit my earlobe, whispering, “I’ll teach you a lesson when we get home.”
“I-I didn’t run, did I?” I panicked inwardly and whispered in defense.
He didn’t respond, simply pulling me out the door.
A loud rumble came from behind. I was startled and turned around, only to see the centuries-old City God Temple’s roof collapse, shattering into pieces and crashing to the ground with a deafening roar.
“Aiya, damn, was that an earthquake?”
“The City God Temple collapsed. What happened?”
As I passed through the gathered onlookers, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread, if I hadn’t gotten out as quickly as I did, it might not have just been the temple roof collapsing. The entire City God Temple might have been reduced to rubble.
“Tunshe Nalin, where did you go just now? I couldn’t find you, so I came to the City God Temple to pray and ended up meeting a friend. We chatted for a while in the temple.”
He didn’t say anything, expressionlessly led me towards the exit of the pedestrian street.
As I saw a Porsche parked on the road with a corpse slave driver inside, I realized it was his car. The closer I got, the more anxious I became, fearing I would go through the same thing as in the studio. I shook his hand and quickly said, “I was wrong. Don’t be angry. I won’t run away again.”
Not running away is a lie.
It was as if he had heard my thoughts; his fingers, gripping my hand, tightened slightly.
He glanced at me, his expression unreadable, but he didn’t say anything. After a brief pause, he nodded, still holding my hand, and we continued walking down the street.
I stopped in my tracks and said, “Can we walk around outside a bit longer? I’m hungry again and want some late-night snacks.”
He said in a deep voice, “Let’s go home. I’ll feed you myself.”
What kind of feed? My scalp tingled, and recalling something, I quickly pulled out the blood jade bracelet from my pocket. “Tunshe Nalin, do you recognize this? My friend found it in your old acquaintance’s place.”
He turned around, his steps paused, his eyes behind his contact lenses stared at the blood jade bracelet, and his brows slightly furrowed.
I whispered, “There is a female ghost attached to this bracelet. I saw it just now.”
Tunshe Nalin’s expression changed slightly. “Did you see the owner of the bracelet? Did she speak to you?”
I shook my head. “She just kept shouting Jia’er at me. I think she might have mistaken me for someone she was worried about because she can’t see. Jia’er… is it… Mi Jia? Your, uh, former lover?”
He didn’t answer, his brow furrowing even deeper. “Where around here has the heaviest yin energy?”
“How would I know?” I froze for a moment, then thought about it. “It should be the Wanguo Park. It’s an abandoned park, and every year, people choose to commit suicide there. Why are you asking about this?”
“Take me there.”
“Come in.” I climbed over the rusty railing and stood among the waist-high reeds, watching as Tunshe Nalin followed suit. I couldn’t help but think back to when I skipped school in my middle school days to explore this place. The situation now felt both strange and amusing. Who could have imagined that in the dead of night, I’d be here with a terrifying non-human entity, exploring this eerie, abandoned park? This is probably an experience most people would never have in their entire lives.
If it were anyone else, I might be scared to come to this rumored haunted place. But with Tunshe Nalin by my side, any ghost would probably avoid him at all costs. I wasn’t afraid of encountering any ghosts here; my only fear was going home and being severely reprimanded by him.
I was walking ahead when suddenly I felt a weight on my shoulder. He pulled me into his arms and asked, “Have you been here before?”
“Huh… yes.”
“Did you come here alone? With your timid nature, it shouldn’t have been by yourself.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I came with my classmates when I was in school.”
“Classmates? What do you mean by classmates?”
“Well… fellow students!” I changed the word.
“Male? Female?”
“Both male and female, a group of us… No, no, it’s not like I came here for a date with anyone,” I quickly clarified. “We came to play a game called ‘Summoning Ghosts,’ it’s a kind of ghost-summoning game.”
“Summoning ghosts… how could that be considered a game? It’s so dangerous, and you even dared to come?” He pulled me closer, his tone stern. “That’s really reckless. If something happened and you got switched, what would I do? You’re being so disobedient. Say, what should I do with you from now on?”
“I didn’t get into any trouble, did I?” I muttered. This was all in the past; surely, he wouldn’t hold it against me now, right? “I’ll be really obedient from now on…”
He gently tugged at my earlobe, his voice turning low. “If you like playing games, I’ll play with you in the future. Thousands of different kinds, one each day.”
F*ck, my hair is standing on end. “No, no, no, no… let’s not do that.”
We crossed the reed swamp and arrived at the ruins of a tall, Roman-style building. I pointed to the center, where there was a ruined wishing well pond. “I heard that many people have committed suicide in that pond. The place with the most intense negative energy nearby should be here.”
Seeing that Tunshe Nalin placed the blood jade bracelet on the edge of the pond, his blood curse appearing on his palm, a red figure gradually materialized under the moonlight. I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous and took a step back. Even though he was there, seeing the female ghost in the middle of the night still felt unsettling. However, he turned around, pulled me into his arms, and pressed my head against his chest.
“Wuwu…”
I heard the woman’s mournful crying drifting from behind. A mix of fear and curiosity made me want to turn around, but the back of my neck was firmly held by him. His cold, deep voice rang in my ear: “I know you are reluctant and unwilling to pass on because of your attachments, but the past has already become a settled matter. The old pains are accumulated in this new body, can you bear it? Are you willing, to entrust the obsession in your heart to me?”
I looked up and saw him staring at the space behind me, his index finger pressed to his lips in a silencing gesture.
I couldn’t understand what he had said, but when he lowered his finger, the crying sound behind me disappeared. The hand on the back of my neck loosened, and I turned my head to see the female ghost’s figure gradually drifting away. Not far ahead, a pair of figures, one holding a red paper umbrella and the other a blue one, stood waiting, both of them unusually tall.
“Those are…”
“Ghost messengers. They’re here to take her soul. She has lingered in the mortal realm for too long; it’s time for her to move on.”
Move on?
For some reason, a wave of sorrow stirred within me. Just at that moment, the woman turned back, as if reluctantly casting one last glance in our direction. She raised her hand to wipe away her tears. The pair of ghostly figures holding umbrellas approached, took her gently by the arm, and disappeared into the darkness.
Was Tuanshe Nalin helping her cross over to the afterlife?
Isn’t he the corpse god who devours countless ghosts?
Could he also perform such a good deed as guiding a soul to the afterlife?
I blinked, feeling an inexplicable surge of emotion. For a moment, my vision blurred, and my face became wet. I wiped it away, feeling confused, had I been crying? Why was I crying?
A drop of water fell onto my face. I looked up and realized, to my surprise, it had started raining.
It turned out it wasn’t me crying; it was the heavens weeping.
“You just told her to entrust her lingering attachment to you. What was her attachment, Tunshe Nalin?” I murmured, gazing at the rain falling from the sky.
“Later, I’ll tell you.” He said, gently patting the back of my head and holding me tightly in his arms.
I knew the answer must be related to his past love, so I held back and didn’t ask any further.
By the time we got back to the car, both Tunshe Nalin and I were soaked through. The December winter rain was mixed with icy slush, making me rush straight into the bathroom as soon as we got home.
I took a quick, nerve-wracking hot shower, afraid that halfway through, Tunshe Nalin would come in. After rushing to warm myself up, I quickly left the bathroom.
He was not in the living room. I heard some noise in the kitchen and secretly moved to the door. Through the crack, I found that Tunshe Nalin was cooking noodles.
How does he know I’m not full?
The water in the pot was already bubbling. He opened the bag of Shin Ramyun and put the noodles in. He cracked an egg in a very serious manner. I guess he remembered what I did yesterday. I looked at his hazy profile in the mist, and a word popped up in my mind: daddy type of boyfriend.
If it’s not because I didn’t want to get married… he would seem to be a really good husband.
And when he said he would feed me, he didn’t actually mean that kind of thing. Is he really going to give me something to eat?
I ran away, he didn’t get angry and even gave me something to eat as well?
As if he noticed my prying gaze, he suddenly turned his head to the side. I shrank my head, rubbed my hands helplessly, turned around twice, and sat down at the dining table.
After a moment, he came out of the kitchen, and a bowl of hot noodles was placed in front of me.
“Thank… thank you.” I looked at him and was about to find chopsticks, but he held me on his lap and fed me some noodles. I didn’t dare to do anything rash, so I blew on them and ate them obediently. The noodles were still a little raw, but the eggs were cooked perfectly.
“Is it good?”
How dare I complain when the Corpse God, who is feared by both humans and ghosts, shows me his favor?
I nodded hurriedly and let him feed me mouthful by mouthful like he was taking care of a baby. He then gave me a cup of hot water and wiped my mouth with a napkin.
Seeing that he had no intention of teaching me a lesson, I breathed a sigh of relief, licked my lips, and accidentally licked his fingers as well.
His fingertips stopped at my lips. I looked up at him and saw that he was staring at my lips with a dark look. My heart skipped a beat, and I jumped out of his arms. Then he pinched my chin and pressed me on the table and kissed me deeply.
“You are full, but your husband is still hungry. What to do?”
“……” It’s me who was too naive. It turns out this guy wanted to use courtesy before force!
