Chapter 53

August 17th was the lunar fourteenth, you know.

As a qualified investigator, Qi Xu had become particularly familiar with all sorts of lunar taboo days. The fourteenth was a lunar taboo day, when ghosts were especially active throughout the month. Before heading out the day before, she had deliberately checked the calendar to make sure there were no issues before leaving the house. She had no intention of playing until evening and then going home.

The fourteenth was already quite dangerous, not to mention that this was the seventh lunar month fourteenth. In just one more day, it would be the Hungry Ghost Festival on the fifteenth. Qi Xu had no plans to court death, so there was no way she would sneak out on a day like this.

She checked the time: 14:50. It was not yet evening—this somewhat relieved Qi Xu.

But this ghost was clearly no ordinary one. It had not even gotten dark yet, and it had already unfolded the ghost domain, stuffing her into the sedan chair.

The sedan chair was carried for quite a while until 15:30, when it finally stopped. An abrupt voice came from outside, the standard eerie ghost kind, hoarse and grating: “Please, bride, step out of the sedan.”

The door in front of the sedan chair was pulled open, and dim yellow light fell from outside, shining straight to Qi Xu’s feet. She hesitated for a moment but decided to go out first.

The narrow, dark space gave Qi Xu tremendous psychological pressure. No one would like being in a place like this. Staying inside, she always felt like she was in a square, pitch-black little box without even a window, just like being inside a coffin. Though she had never lain in a coffin, she figured it was probably the same.

Qi Xu hesitated, then hunched over with her head lowered, slowly crawling out of the sedan chair. Exiting in such a posture made her quite nervous. Bowing her head to go out always felt like offering her neck for the blade—if some ghost above her suddenly slashed down, she truly would have no ability to resist at all.

The sedan chair from when she herself had been a ghost had been much better: spacious, with no obstructions around, everything visible clearly.

After Qi Xu got out of the sedan chair, she saw an old-style Chinese courtyard mansion right in front of her. A plaque above the gate bore the words “Zhu Mansion,” with red lanterns hanging on either side, releasing a faint glow from the lanterns that illuminated the surroundings. Qi Xu had just stepped out when she heard a sharp cry.

“Ya! Bride, how did you get out of the sedan without your veil on? That’s taboo!”

Qi Xu turned her head and saw a paper effigy over there, its mouth moving as it spoke. Looking more closely, the sedan bearers around her were all paper effigies as well. The one speaking was clearly shaped like a paper matchmaker.

Before Qi Xu could say anything, the paper matchmaker produced a red veil from who-knows-where and draped it over her head. She wanted to resist, but her phone suddenly lit up and started playing a video. She lowered her head and could just see the screen through the gap under the veil.

It was—surveillance footage.

The black-and-white surveillance image was a bit far from Qi Xu on the phone screen, but that did not stop her from immediately recognizing her three roommates and a few unfamiliar strangers inside. They were playing in the Ghost House, and the building style in the footage was not much different from the one before her.

The top right corner of the screen also showed the time, identical to her own phone.

At that moment, Qi Xu understood.

She was being threatened.

If she did not want her roommates and those people to meet with mishap, she had to obediently follow this ghost domain master’s plans. Qi Xu gritted her teeth. She could only clutch her phone and let the paper effigy matchmaker come forward to support her as they walked into the Zhu Mansion.

The threshold of the Zhu Mansion was very high. Qi Xu had to lift her foot and lean slightly on the paper matchmaker to step over it. They passed through a winding corridor before arriving at a room. The paper matchmaker helped Qi Xu to the bedside and had her sit down. She instructed her to wait properly until the auspicious time to worship in the hall and get married.

After that, the paper matchmaker left.

Once there were no more sounds in the room, Qi Xu yanked off the veil. What met her eyes was the wedding chamber scene. The entire room was very dim, lit only by a large pair of dragon-phoenix candles burning. The dim candlelight cast a layer of gray pallor over the originally bright red surroundings.

Qi Xu picked up her phone and watched the surveillance. Her three roommates did not look good in the footage. The image was not very clear, but their panicked expressions could not fool anyone.

Qi Xu did not know what to do. She awoke once more to the realization that, in her living state, she was truly very weak. Time ticked by, second by second. Her roommates and those people kept wandering back and forth inside that bizarre building, as if caught in a Ghost Hit Wall, unable to find their way out no matter what.

When they got tired, they sat down and rested against the wall. From time to time, they would pull out their phones to check the time. There was no sound in the surveillance video, so Qi Xu could only guess from their movements.

Around four o’clock, Qi Xu’s phone suddenly rang. She saw the caller ID: Xia Zhiming! Qi Xu quickly answered.

“Ah—connected?” Xia Zhiming on the other end was stunned for a moment, then unleashed a torrent of sharp-tongued scolding: “What the hell have you been doing?! Weren’t you supposed to meet a little ghost at the subway station? Is this your little ghost?! I couldn’t divine where you were at all! Tell me everything from the beginning, where the hell did you go?! Huh?!”

Though scolded thoroughly, Qi Xu felt like she had found her anchor. She could not help sniffling, her voice full of grievance as she spoke: “I don’t know either…”

She recounted the whole story of the Ghost House and mistaking someone’s back for Xia Zhiming’s. Xia Zhiming gnashed her teeth on the other end: “That damn Stinky Fortune-Teller you met last time is definitely shady, daring to use this trick on me! Wait for me, I’m definitely going to beat the crap out of them! Remember, no matter what, do not worship in the hall!”

“Worship in the hall? What worship in the hall?”

“With everything around you like this, they’re definitely preparing a ghost marriage for you. How can you get married without the worship? But if you really do it, get ready to suddenly get a ghost husband!”

“Nooo!”

Qi Xu wailed. She was into girls! She would not even want a living husband, and now they wanted her to get a ghost husband! Qi Xu nearly burst into tears. She said pitifully, “I don’t want a ghost husband. I just want to marry you.”

“…Confessing at a time like this, are you brain-dead? If you’ve got problems, go get them fixed. Don’t come back as a ghost to haunt me later.”

Xia Zhiming’s words had that familiar bite—definitely her. After scolding Qi Xu, Xia Zhiming hung up. After the call with Xia Zhiming, the heavy stone in Qi Xu’s heart finally settled.

Xia Zhiming said she was coming—surely she would come to save her. Though Xia Zhiming’s mouth was vicious every day, that tongue like a controlled blade, and she was utterly mad when doing things, not even caring about her own life, she had never gone back on her word about saving Qi Xu.

As long as Xia Zhiming was there, she would definitely be fine!

Qi Xu’s heart bubbled happily. Even the off-key bright red around her no longer scared her. But from four o’clock to five, then to six, Xia Zhiming still had not arrived. That was normal—Xia Zhiming had said on the phone that she could not divine her location, and that Stinky Fortune-Teller from last time must have been involved too.

Dealing with this stuff, rivals in the trade were the worst fear. That Stinky Fortune-Teller was definitely a bad guy, colluding with ghosts, birds of a feather, even targeting Xia Zhiming! Because of him, Xia Zhiming could not locate her now.

In her heart, Qi Xu stuck pins in a voodoo doll of the Stinky Fortune-Teller. So far, her mood remained fairly stable because, though Xia Zhiming had not come, nothing had happened on the ghost side either. But this calm would not last forever. At 7:30, the door to Qi Xu’s room was knocked on.

With two “bang bang” sounds, the voice of that paper effigy matchmaker came from outside: “Bride, the auspicious time is almost here. Time to worship in the hall and get married.”

Qi Xu was stunned. Before she could speak, the door was pushed open, and the paper effigy matchmaker barged in.

“Aiyo, why did you take off the veil again? That’s not following the rules.”

She had not seen clearly before, but now under the dragon-phoenix candles, the paper effigy matchmaker’s movements were crystal clear to Qi Xu. It did not just look like it was made of paper—its actions were too. It had that eerie stutter like the little figures in the shadow puppet shows from her childhood, manipulated by strings. The twisting of its joints was off, as if thin threads hung from above, binding the joints and making it move.

The scene was somewhat eerie. Qi Xu stared wide-eyed at it. When it reached out to cover her with the red veil, Qi Xu simply did it herself: “No need for you. I’ll do it.” She put on the veil herself, leaving a bigger gap below to see more of the path.

Once the veil was on, the matchmaker said nothing more and simply came up to support Qi Xu, leading her toward the front hall for the worship.

After walking for a few minutes or so, they reached the front hall. Sounds of gongs and drums reached Qi Xu’s ears, interspersed with human voices. One voice sounded extremely familiar, just like her roommates’. Qi Xu could not hold back and directly lifted the veil. The matchmaker beside her anxiously said, “Aiyo, bride! How can the bride lift the veil like that?!”

By now, Qi Xu had been brought into the front hall. Everything before her was just like the wedding worship scenes from TV dramas. But whether the passing guests or the marriage partner beside her, all had something eerie about them.

The guests were all paper effigies, dressed in various ancient-style clothes with masks on their faces. But from the unmasked spots, one could see faces pale as paper. Clearly, these guests were not human. Besides these ghost guests, there were a few living people: Qi Xu’s roommates and the tourists who had entered the Ghost House with them.

Seeing it was Qi Xu, they were very surprised and cried out directly: “Qi Xu… how is it you?!” But as their voices rang out, the nearby guests pressed closer, making them shut their mouths immediately, eyes wide, not daring to speak.

And her own marriage partner beside her wore luxurious red wedding robes with a head veil. Looking at that figure… it was clearly, clearly a girl!

Qi Xu’s expression turned wrong in that instant. She felt an awkwardness like being forcibly outed in front of her roommates.