Chapter 12 - Ghost Messenger
The footsteps grew louder and louder. The yinchai and Fu Li glanced in the direction of the footsteps simultaneously. A handsome man dressed in a suit appeared at the corner of the street. An expression of reverence unraveled on the yinchai’s face upon seeing the man’s appearance. “Mr Zhuang Qing.”
Zhuang Qing nodded, his gaze sweeping across Fu Li. He came to a stop, not intending to join their conversation.
The underworld and management bureau had dealings with each other. With Zhuang Qing present, the yinchai became much more reserved. However, seeing Fu Li had made him recall the events that had happened many years ago. At that time, he had just become a yinchai and hadn’t gotten used to witnessing separations caused by death. The occasional grief and sadness of a ghost’s loved ones had made it difficult for him to relieve the tension in his heart. He had a time when he had even encountered a yaoguai with a cultivation base who attempted to forcibly seize the soul of the deceased from him, preventing him from taking the soul to the underworld.
Upon knowing that he had to fetch a human soul at a mountain where yao cultivators resided, he was extremely fearful the entire way there. When he rushed to the place, the yao cultivator was sitting beside the deceased’s corpse, having helped cover the corpse with a pretty brocade quilt. It was said that such brocade quilts weaved from silk produced by spirit silkworms could prevent the corpse from rotting for a hundred years. The moment the yinchai saw this att.i.tude, he felt a sense of doom. Even this sort of quilt had been taken out; it would probably be somewhat difficult for him to take the soul away this day.
Fortunately, the soul didn’t weep or raise a fuss about not wanting to die. The yao cultivator didn’t appear to demand anything of him either, not uttering a single word from start to end. Only when he tightened the Soul-Locking Chain did the yao cultivator tell him to make his actions a little gentler.
He did so accordingly. The soul didn’t say anything along the way. Only after they pa.s.sed through the entrance to the underworld did tears of blood drip from the soul’s eyes, forming two b.l.o.o.d.y lines. The image of scarlet tears paired with an expressionless face was truly too shocking, which was why the yinchai could still remember that soul and yao cultivator even after so many years had pa.s.sed.
“Two thousand years ago, this humble one had the chance to meet you,” The yinchai didn’t mention that human soul, fearing that this yao cultivator would ask him who that human had reincarnated as.
“Two thousand years ago…” Fu Li thought about it for a very long time and then recalled the first time he had met a yinchai. “You’re the yinchai that was sent by the underworld?”
The yinchai smiled awkwardly. He had indeed been very lacking in courage that year. “This humble one is called Li Xu. It is also fate that we can meet again after many years.” He noticed the uniform Fu Li was wearing. He was… a security guard in the human world?
Fu Li noticed that the uniform Li Xu was wearing differed from the yinchai he saw in the evening and commented with understanding, “It seems you’ve been promoted in these two thousand years.”
Li Xu smiled and fished out a cigarette from his pocket, handing it to Fu Li. After Fu Li declined, he lit it for himself. “I thought, like the other yao on that mountain, you had also…” He glanced at Zhuang Qing not too far away and swallowed his words.
He had only gone to that mountain once to guide that soul. Only after he asked the other yinchai a hundred years later about the yao cultivators on that mountain did he learn about the incident that had taken place in the eightieth year of his soul-ferrying. At that time, several azure dragons had caused repeated rainstorms from playing with water. The yao cultivators on that mountain couldn’t bear to see the humans suffer and so pleaded for leniency with those few dragons. Yet, who would have expected for the azure dragons to fly into a rage? In the end, some of those yao cultivators perished while others were wounded. Even the entire mountain was razed to the ground. Li Xu had a.s.sumed that this yao cultivator had also died. Yet, despite these vicissitudes of life, this yao still managed to survive till this day.
Fu Li’s eyelids drooped. There wasn’t much fluctuation in his tone of voice despite the mention of this past event. “I had already fallen asleep at that time.”
Li Xu was struck by a sudden realization. It was probably because of this that this yao had escaped death.
“Bang!” A loud sound echoed in the distance. Fire shot towards the sky.
Li Xu threw the cigarette, stamping it out firmly beneath the heel of his shoe. “I should do my work.”
“Wait,” Fu Li called after him.
Li Xu’s heart tightened. Was the other party going to ask him about that human?
“Don’t litter,” Fu Li pointed at the cigarette b.u.t.t beside his foot and then shifted his finger towards a labeled rubbish bin not too far away.
Li Xu, “…”
Resigned, he lowered his head and picked up the cigarette b.u.t.t before throwing it into the rubbish bin a few meters away.
“Little handsome Fu, who are you talking to?” The front-counter lady saw Fu Li speaking to the air outside. She couldn’t help feeling a shiver snake down her back, thinking that she had finally seen a legendary supernatural event. Almost every hotel would have some strange stories circulating internally. This sort of law was similar to the premise that schools were always built on top of places like cemeteries and temples.
“A friend,” Fu Li’s gaze landed on Zhuang Qing. “He came to find me for something.”
Under Fu Li’s attentive gaze, Zhuang Qing came closer and appeared within the front-counter lady’s field of vision.
With one glance, the front-counter lady felt she had been listening to too many ghost stories lately. What ghost would look this handsome and elite? She very honestly bowed down to the power of beauty.
At this moment, someone came to do the lodging procedures, so even if the front-counter lady wanted to drool at the handsome guy’s good looks, she still had to finish her work first.
“Mr Zhuang, please sit,” Fu Li fetched Zhuang Qing a drink and then led him to sit down at the sofas in the public resting area.
“An artist died in your hotel today?” Zhuang Qing got right to the point. “Were you at the scene?”
Fu Li shook his head. “I’m a newcomer. Unless the customer requires it, I don’t have the qualifications to go to the VIP room.”
“I understand,” Zhuang Qing stood up. Seeing Fu Li sit up straight in his uniform, the him who had never liked to meddle in other people’s business couldn’t help but ask another question, “You’re just going to be a security guard?”
“No. My dream is to be a civil servant,” Fu Li saw that Zhuang Qing wasn’t drinking, so he simply lifted it up and drank it himself. “Unfortunately, I’m still lacking something.”
“Lacking what?” Zhuang Qing asked.
“A university degree.”
Zhuang Qing felt an indescribable sullenness. He wanted to ask him about a few more things, but Fu Li had already gone to help customers carry their luggage. Zhuang Qing turned and walked out of the hotel. He looked into the distance and saw a chain accident that had occurred a few hundred meters away. A long string of souls was hooked up to the yinchai’s Soul-Locking Chain.
The scene was full of chaos. Police cars, fire engines, and ambulances shuttled back and forth, while the private cars squeezed to the side to make way for them. The entire scene was a tragic sight.
An ambulance swooshed past him. He stuck a hand into the pocket of his pants expressionlessly, till the yinchai leading the souls appeared in front of him. The night wind arose, carrying with it the faint scent of blood.
“Mr Zhuang?” Li Xu saw Zhuang Qing standing on the spot motionlessly. Thinking that he was looking for him, he stopped and asked, “Are you looking for me for something?”
Zhuang Qing saw that there were males, females, elderly, and the young among the souls. After a short glance, he retrieved his line of sight. “Were there any unusual circ.u.mstances when your underworld came to ferry a soul at Affinity Moon Hotel this afternoon?”
“I’ve not heard of any. The boss of Affinity Moon Hotel has relations to the cultivation world. No average person would dare to do anything in the hotel,” Li Xu replied. “That celebrity is a good-for-nothing. The evil deeds he committed in his life is enough to form a huge mountain. It is very likely that he will be put into forced labor in the underworld for a few centuries. He didn’t acc.u.mulate fortune in his past life, and didn’t cultivate morality in this life; who knows what he’ll be reincarnated as in his next life.”
“Boss!” Chu Yu drove the car over. Upon seeing Li Xu, he smiled and said, “Oh, yinchai chief daren, why did you personally come out to ferry souls today?”
“My colleagues are too busy, so I helped make a trip,” Li Xu knew that the two people had things to do, so he said very tactfully, “I’ll take my leave first. Please do as you wish.”
When Li Xu left, Chu Yu shook his head at Zhuang Qing.
Zhuang Qing sat inside the car and leaned his head, looking at the tall building not too far in the distance. The lighted signboard was very dazzling. The three words, ‘Affinity Moon Hotel’ could be seen from a huge distance away.
“I made one round around the Affinity Moon Hotel, but didn’t sense even a bit of baleful qi. I contacted w.a.n.g Han just now. He said there’s only one yao among this hotel’s employees, called…”
“Fu Li,” Zhuang Qing opened his mouth. When he recited these two words, his manner of speaking was both strange and rigid, as if he was speaking about a stone by the roadside, or an unremarkable tiny flower. “I already saw him just now.”
Chu Yu was very sensitive towards yao qi and baleful qi. He could very easily catch on to smells that others couldn’t. If not for his original form being a fish and not a dog, he would definitely be able to make a living as a police dog. He didn’t sense anything near the hotel, which could only mean that an error had appeared in their calculations. Lu Renjia’s death had nothing to do with anyone else.
“There’s no need to investigate this matter any longer, conclude the case as a natural death,” Zhuang Qing closed his eyes. “Let’s go home.”
Zhuang Qing had an exceedingly luxurious villa under his name. The style of the interior decorations could be described as ‘gold and jade in glorious splendor’. Anyone who saw his house would be stupefied by its furnishings. There were all kinds of sparkling gemstones, corals, pearls and similar items. Even the most ridiculous television dramas featuring aristocrats didn’t have the nerve to film in such a place, out of fear of being scolded for being pompous.
An immense natural crystal chandelier was hung in the living room. There was an implied meaning in every ray of light that shone from every angle.
That it was expensive, very expensive.
The curtains on the windows were decorated with pearls, all of which were violet pearls the size of a thumb that would shake slightly whenever the night wind blew.
The brilliant rays of light emitting from the various gemstones made Chu Yu’s eyes hurt. He placed the fruits he was carrying in his hand onto the table. “Boss, I’m going back.”
“En,” Zhuang Qing nodded and agreed. He didn’t have the habit of having other people stay over in his house.
Chu Yu hurriedly went out of the door and got into a taxi. A while later, he realized that the car wasn’t going in the right direction. “Sir, the route you’re taking doesn’t seem right.”
“There’s no issue,” The taxi driver chuckled. “A moonless, windy night is suitable for killing fishes.”
The driver’s smile stiffened upon seeing Chu Yu attempt to escape. “I specially built this car for you. It can block yao qi and ghost qi, so naturally it can also imprison yao. It is quite fitting for a fish like you that boasts of having outstanding spiritual sensitivity to be buried with it.”
“You’re a painted skin ghost?” Cold sweat seeped out of Chu Yu’s palms.
A while back, he had discovered a painted skin ghost committing blackmail while masquerading as an ordinary human. He had brought along his teammates to capture it, but that painted skin ghost had attempted to escape, only to die from the bolt of thunder that Boss had called down. Was this painted skin ghost here to avenge her?
He might be outstanding when it came to spiritual sensitivity, but his combat strength couldn’t compare to even a goose. This time, he was doomed.
The taxi sped rapidly. The painted skin ghost had already taken off the layer of fake skin and flesh on his face, revealing dense white bones.
Chu Yu thought somewhat despondently, if this scene was captured by the surveillance cameras, how were they going to convince people that the driver was not a human skeleton, but merely a joke? No wait, he was about to lose his life, who cared about that?
He looked out the window with despair, wanting to take another look at this world, when he saw a ma.s.sive advertis.e.m.e.nt with the three words ‘Affinity Moon Hotel’.
He hated advertis.e.m.e.nts.
The roads deep into the night had few cars and even less people. When someone standing by the roadside persisted in flagging down a car without fear of the driver’s skeletal appearance, the atmosphere became very strange.
The painted skin ghost stopped the car and allowed this reckless person to get on.
“All you white bone spirits even need to drive taxis to earn money at night?” Fu Li sat at the front pa.s.senger seat and buckled his seatbelt. “It really isn’t easy to make a living.”
Painted skin ghost, “…”
Chu Yu: All hope is lost.