I trembled and shrank to the deepest part under the bed, hoping that this wooden doll struck by lightning could protect me.
“Click”, “click”, the boots inlaid with malachite came to the side of the bed.
“I’m warning you. I have a wooden puppet struck by lightning given by a Taoist priest. It can exorcise ghosts and demons and is immune to all evil. I don’t want to hurt you, but, but we are human and a demon, we are on different paths, and there will be no result!” I raised my voice and mustered my courage, “Go quickly, Tunshe Nalin!”
Before I could finish my words, my ankle suddenly tightened and I was dragged out.
“Ahhh—” I screamed in fear, and the next moment, I fell on the bed. Tunshe Nalin locked my body with his arms, like a vulture capturing its prey.
“A wooden doll struck by lightning?” He whispered in my ear, “That’s another gift from me.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I was completely stunned. He pinched my cheek.
“Ranran… originally, it wasn’t that easy for me to find where you were.”
I was dumbfounded again.
“How could it be…”
Was it him who sent this tree root doll to me?
But it was clearly Mo Wei who asked me for the address… was he pretending to be Mo Wei to chat with me a few days ago? But Mo Wei and I had clearly video chatted… I opened my eyes wide in disbelief, and my breathing was stagnant. Could it be that Mo Wei was also controlled by him and became a corpse slave? Did I cause him to get killed?
Fear and guilt surged into my heart, and my breathing became short. “Where is Mo, Mo Wei? What did you do to him?”
The fingers pinching my cheeks tightened: “After being apart for several days, and finally seeing your newlyweds husband, but the first thing you ask is how others are? You really don’t miss me at all?”
As soon as he mentioned the word “husband”, the unbearable memory of that night came back to me. I tensed up, curled up into a ball, shrank back, and pressed my back against the bed, unable to retreat. If he were a human, I would have a thousand ways to punish him and defend myself, but he is not a human being. He is not subject to human laws at all, and human weapons are not able to fight him. Who can help me, who can save me if I fall into the hands of such a being? Will calling the police be useful? Can the police deal with him?
I thought helplessly, tremblingly, took out the phone from my coat pocket, and started talking nonsense: “I warn you, Tunshe Nalin, I have called the police. Have you heard of the Special Operations Team for Supernatural Phenomena? Don’t think that just because you are not a human, you can do whatever you want in human society. There are also people among our police who specialize in killing demons. They are all Taoists with profound Taoism!”
“Really?” He said calmly, “Then I really want to meet them. It would be a great honor… if I could have a few more Taoist priests… among my corpse slaves. It just so happens… that I am a little hungry as well.”
I glanced at my phone, seeing a dozen missed calls. I switched to the dialer page, but I hesitated, not daring to press the button. Raising my eyes, I saw those red pupils calmly staring at my phone screen, he truly had no fear, not at all worried that I might call the police. If I called the police, it would probably be like ordering takeout for him. As I hesitated, he casually took my phone and hand, holding them firmly. “My Ranran… is truly kind-hearted. You dare not ask anyone to come to the house to feed me, so I will have to eat you.”
I know the “eating” he is talking about is not the same as that “eating”, but it is equally terrifying to me.
I was both ashamed and afraid, clutching the belt around my waist and the front of my shirt, “Can you let me go, please… I shouldn’t have offended you, shouldn’t have provoked you. If I had known who you are, I absolutely wouldn’t have dared to entangle with you…”
“It’s too late.” He grabbed my chin. “I remember… everything you said to me.”
“For-forgetting isn’t that difficult eit-either.”
The fingers holding my chin felt heavier, my vision went dark, and my lips were covered tightly.
“Ugh!” I was so scared that I bit his tongue that was trying to pry my lips apart. I twisted and kicked hard, and my feet were tightly entangled by the vines. My shirt was also torn open, and the buttons fell off. Tunshe Nalin moved his lips away and lowered his eyes to look at my chest. My rosy body was reflected in his red eyes, burning like wildfire.
His gaze was like he had taken an aphrodisiac, making the hairs on my body stand on end. I hurriedly covered my chest in a panic, trying to hide, but he easily seized both my wrists and pinned them to my side.
When I saw him lower his head towards my chest and try to kiss my body, I yelled, “No!”
There was a “puff” sound, as if it came from the direction of the sunlight. I looked up and found that the faucet next to the washing machine on the balcony was broken. A large stream of water splashed on the glass door. Under the moonlight, a tall figure gradually took shape—I was shocked, it was… Ming Luo.
He is indeed a ghost.
“Let him go…” A pair of wet hands penetrated the glass, and Ming Luo’s figure seemed to emerge from under the water, floating in the air, his pale ghost eyes staring at Tunshe Nalin.
I was horrified, but a thought flashed through my mind, if I let this god and ghost fight, would I have a chance to escape? With this thought, I shouted, “Ming Luo, save me!”
“Overestimating one’s capabilities.” Tunshe Nalin sneered and raised his hand towards the glass. Dense red spells appeared on his hand. His slender five fingers suddenly closed together, and the glass exploded into pieces in an instant. At the same time, with a click, the Buddha amulet on my chest also cracked.
“You are just a water ghost, you only have such a small trick and still dare to show off your skills in front of me?”
I lowered my eyes and looked at my chest. Some white powder leaked out from the cracked amulet, mixed with some irregular particles. I suddenly understood what was going on. My scalp exploded and I slapped my chest wildly. Tunshe Nalin pulled the amulet off my neck and threw it onto the balcony.
“You actually asked a water ghost to save you… do you know that… I became the Corpse God Lord that year… after I devoured thousands of ghosts?”
Devouring thousands of ghosts? I curled up, feeling that something was wrong, and was picked up by him.
“Ranran, where can I take you for a bath, in your home?”
I looked towards the bathroom and thought, “I’ll wash myself!”
He ignored me, picked me up and walked into the bathroom. The voice-activated light turned on automatically. He looked around, put me next to the bathtub, fumbled around for a while, and turned on the faucet without any instruction.
The water in the bathtub quickly rose, and steam came out. The scene of him pressing me into the water and forcing me came to my mind. I didn’t dare to look at him and lowered my head and said, “I’ll wash myself, you get out.”
But Tunshe Nalin is not Ming Luo, and my order to chase him has no effect on him. He sat there without moving, stretched out his hand to test the water temperature: “Do you want me to help you take it off, or you do it yourself? I’m afraid you won’t be, willing to wash his ashes clean, if you wash by yourself. After all, you just hoped that he could save you.”
Hearing that the tone wasn’t right, I looked at him and saw that his eyes were extremely dangerous. I didn’t dare to act rashly. I turned my back, took off my coat and shirt, and was about to get into the bathtub in my trousers. However, he pushed me to the edge of the bathtub, pulled off my trousers, and even tore off my underwear.
“Tunshe Nalin!” I was shocked. I turned my head and saw him looking at me with deep eyes. It was obvious that he had other thoughts. Thinking of his terrifying size, I was so scared that my scalp went numb. I had no choice but to beg him hesitantly, “The doctor said I’m not fully healed yet, and I can’t engage in any intimate activities for the next few days.”
He didn’t look away, and his hand on my waist didn’t loosen at all. The carnelian ring was against my tailbone, rubbing it gently with a threat: “Ranran, I’ve told you, what should you… call me now?”
“Fu, Fu Lang (Fulang means husband)…”
Tunshe Nalin raised his eyebrows slightly.
The hand holding my waist loosened, and I crawled into the bathtub as if I had been pardoned.
I was stripped naked and soaked in the water. I didn’t dare to move. However, Tunshe Nalin was sitting by the bathtub with his clothes fully on. He held the back of my neck and scrubbed my body like an owner bathing a cat.
—Compared to the situation the night before when Ming Luo came in and I kicked him out, this was like my retribution in this life. My rules, my principles, my temper and my bottom line were all crushed into pieces by Tunshe Nalin, but I didn’t even have the courage to say a word.
He washed my whole body, even that part, and then carried me out to the sofa in the living room and rubbed my hair. The room didn’t have a heater on, and his arms were cold. I was so cold that I shivered. He seemed to notice it and stopped moving: “Is there a fire pit, in this house?”
The hell is a fire pit? Why would we still use a fire pit in this era?
“There’s… there’s heating.” I wrapped myself in a towel, turned on the main switch for the heating, took the hairdryer, sat down to blow my hair for a while, but then Tunshe Nalin, who had been watching, grabbed me, pressing me into his arms to blow dry my hair.
I couldn’t struggle or escape, so I had to stop moving. However, my heart, which was scared crazy by him, was still jumping up and down in my chest and wouldn’t calm down for even a while.
How on earth did I get myself into this state?
I didn’t want to marry a human but ended up having a ghost marriage with a nonhuman being. I didn’t want to be tied up by a human but ended up falling into the hands of a nonhuman being and being tied up tightly by him.
Is this the retribution for my poor treatment of Ming Luo?
“Ranran, where are your clean clothes?”
When I regained awareness, I noticed my hair had dried, and a light sheen of sweat coated my back from the warmth in the room.
“I will put it on by my-myself.”
“Is it in the room we were in just now?”
He held me in his arms, went back to the bedroom, put me on the bed, and went to look through the closet. After a while, he found a set of pajamas. When I saw him walk to the bed, I wrapped myself tightly in the bath towel.
It’s humiliating enough to be bathed by him personally, and he also wants to dress me personally?
Even my adoptive mother never did this for me after I was five years old!
“Ranran, be good.”