Chapter 56

Qi Xu said softly, “Keep your voice down. Is this something to be proud of?!”

The Ghost Bride was stunned by Qi Xu’s words, but its eyes soon lit up because it had not guessed wrong—the person in Qi Xu’s heart was indeed Xia Zhiming. Qi Xu had also guessed a little correctly—that was, the Ghost Bride would indeed change its appearance based on the person someone loved, making the other party think it was the one they liked.

It had used this trick to deceive many men, luring them into a wedding ceremony with it, then eating them. When doing such things, it felt no guilt at all; instead, it was immensely proud: only heartless people would fall for its tricks and get eaten by it.

When that fortune-telling Daoist had approached it and said the target was a woman, the Ghost Bride had actually refused. It did not want to turn into a man’s appearance.

But the Daoist said that the person the woman loved in her heart must also be a woman, so it agreed. When they first met, Qi Xu had indeed mistaken it for the person in her heart and followed it out, even falling for its scheme.

But the later events had been far too unfavorable, and Qi Xu’s attitude just now made the Ghost Bride suspicious—could it be that both the Daoist and it had guessed wrong, and Qi Xu actually did not like that person named Xia Zhiming at all?

Fortunately, Qi Xu had said those words, letting the Ghost Bride know it had not guessed wrong.

“Then why are you unwilling to marry me?”

Faced with the Ghost Bride’s question, Qi Xu fell silent. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way to stall. Xia Zhiming had not come here yet, so she was probably still in the front hall, perhaps busy rescuing the living hostages like the Tiger Granny before.

What she needed to do was deal with the Ghost Bride in front of her.

An idea flashed through Qi Xu’s mind, and she grabbed hold of it. Qi Xu swallowed and felt that this somewhat risky idea was feasible!

She tried her best to act as if nothing had happened, attempting to fool the Ghost Bride before her.

Qi Xu’s acting skills were poor; otherwise, she would not have nearly been caught by that little ghost at the subway station before. But in front of “Xia Zhiming,” even a fake one, she relaxed a lot, and her performance became natural and smooth.

Her movements and expressions were no longer stiff, and she looked quite convincing.

“Xia Zhiming, can you hug me?”

A smile appeared on Qi Xu’s face as she stretched out her arms toward the Ghost Bride. The Ghost Bride stiffened for a moment. It actually did not like women. The tragically dead Ghost Bride truly despised this world from the bottom of its heart. Just as Qi Xu had guessed before, it had been forced to cover its head with a red veil, wear a wedding dress, and sit in a flower sedan.

Before its liberation, the Ghost Bride had been an ordinary pretty farm girl in the countryside. Suddenly one day, the famous matchmaker from ten miles around came to her home, saying she had found a good marriage for her. The man was the local landlord, advanced in age, who wanted to take a young concubine with good fortune to bring him luck.

When the Ghost Bride heard this, she was stunned—not from joy, but from shock. What kind of person that landlord was, everyone in the area knew. His age was great enough to be her grandfather; how, how could he still want to take her as a concubine?

She had wanted to run away, but her parents and relatives forced her back, chose an auspicious day, stuffed her into the flower sedan, and sent her all the way to the landlord’s home. On the day of the wedding ceremony, the landlord coughed up blood and died. She had just entered the door and became a widow.

Even so, the world did not let her go. The landlord’s son dragged her and stuffed her into the landlord’s coffin, wanting her to be buried with him.

Under that towering hatred, the Ghost Bride turned into a ghost and took the lives of the entire landlord family. Her Ghost Domain was that small, red flower sedan. As it grew stronger, its Ghost Domain became mobile—the flower sedan was wherever its Ghost Domain was.

It hated everything in this world, hated men—if not for them, how would it have been forced to marry; it also hated women—why did it have to be her, and not them becoming this damn bride.

So when Qi Xu said she wanted a hug, the Ghost Bride hesitated.

But with her arms outstretched, it seemed that if it did not embrace her, Qi Xu would not compromise. The Ghost Bride had no choice; things had already gone that far, yet Qi Xu had not knelt down for the wedding bows. For now, it could only placate Qi Xu first.

If she truly volunteered, it would save it a lot of effort.

The Ghost Bride hesitated, then carefully extended its arms and hugged Qi Xu.

The moment it fell into Qi Xu’s embrace, the Ghost Bride was stunned. It had been a very, very long time since it had felt the warmth of a living person. What accompanied it were only the paper figures burned for the landlord back then, and the Paper Matchmaker it had made in its rage.

They were all ghosts, without warmth, cold and icy, making it lament the unfairness of fate day after day.

It was unwilling to touch those heartless stinky men either; even a slight touch made it feel dirty. This was the first time in so many years that the Ghost Bride had embraced a living person.

It was not as hateful toward women as it claimed. What did women know? Even its own mother was just an echo behind its father. Its hatred for women was unfounded… it was just jealousy—how could they live peacefully and happily their whole lives.

After this Qi Xu bowed with it as husband and wife, it would not eat her; it would just let her stay with it forever…

At this moment, the Ghost Bride truly had no intention of eating Qi Xu. But Qi Xu was different; she was racking her brains on how to counter the Ghost Bride. Now that they were hugging, she had her chance to strike back. She tightly held the Ghost Bride in her arms, then—quietly wrapped the Talisman Wedding Dress around the Ghost Bride as well.

The Ghost Bride had not expected Qi Xu to do this because, in its eyes, Qi Xu still thought it was Xia Zhiming. Who was Xia Zhiming? The one she loved, and a living person at that—the Talisman Wedding Dress had no effect on Xia Zhiming. Little did it know that from the moment it entered, Qi Xu had already seen through it.

The moment the Ghost Bride was wrapped in the Talisman Wedding Dress, brilliant golden light emanated from the dress, accompanied by a few claps of thunder. At the same time, the Ghost Bride could no longer maintain Xia Zhiming’s appearance and reverted to its original ghostly form in the wedding dress.

The Ghost Bride’s face was not that lotus-like visage either; it directly turned into a skeletal face. On that grim white bone skull clung a few pieces of human skin that were about to melt away.

This face-to-face hug with a ghost felt utterly awful. Especially since the ghost in front of her was still struggling and screaming; Qi Xu had to use great strength to subdue it. Thanks to this rune-covered Talisman Wedding Dress being effective against ghosts, and that Stinky Fortune-Teller not leaving any loopholes for the Ghost Bride, Qi Xu succeeded.

Qi Xu forced a somewhat strained smile: See, there was indeed some grudge between the Stinky Fortune-Teller and the Ghost Bride, right? Otherwise, how could the Ghost Bride be restrained by the Stinky Fortune-Teller’s trick?

“Get away! Get away!”

The Ghost Bride kept shoving at Qi Xu, but Qi Xu held it firmly. In her life, aside from her own mother and Xia Zhiming, she had never hugged anyone else like this; the Ghost Bride could count itself as having received special treatment. But clearly, the Ghost Bride did not appreciate this treatment.

The human and ghost in a tight embrace were in a life-and-death struggle.

The golden light from the runes entered the Ghost Bride’s body like struggling threads. The wedding dress on its body could no longer maintain its vibrant look, gradually turning faded and tattered. The yin energy on its body also scattered with its pained howls.

The current situation was not great for Qi Xu either. The scattered yin energy had nowhere to go and rushed into her body. From the previous incident with the Tiger Granny, she knew that absorbing too much yin energy would easily cause her ghost body to manifest, and it would not be under her control.

Now, it was the same situation.

The yin energy poured into Qi Xu’s body, destabilizing her human form, and her ghost body was about to emerge. But her ghost body was also a ghost and would be suppressed by this Talisman Wedding Dress just the same. The pain the Ghost Bride endured immediately fell on Qi Xu as well.

It really hurt.

The emitted golden light was like countless thorns, ones that conducted electricity, piercing into her body one by one, making Qi Xu unable to help but want to cry out in pain. She could only grit her teeth and hug the Ghost Bride even tighter.

Qi Xu knew very well that if she let go and the Ghost Bride broke free from her embrace, once it recovered, she would truly be dead without a doubt. As soon as she thought of that, Qi Xu absolutely would not release her tight hold on the Ghost Bride.

The two suffered more than the other. Qi Xu’s pain was even felt by the Ghost Bride. Its discordant screams turned into persuasion: “Madwoman! Let go! Let me go! If you do this, we’ll both vanish into thin air! You’re in pain too, right now, aren’t you?! Just let go of me, and neither of us will suffer anymore!”

What it said might be true; if she released the Ghost Bride and stabilized her human form, she would not have to endure this needle-prick and lightning-strike torment. But once she let it go, even if it insisted on the wedding ceremony for some purpose, it would still kill her roommates to vent its anger.

For the sake of her friends and those innocent passersby, Qi Xu would never let go of the Ghost Bride.

As if sensing Qi Xu’s intent, the Ghost Bride struggled even harder. Its slender nails dug into Qi Xu’s shoulders, but its nails could not extend to pierce into Qi Xu’s flesh because the layer of Talisman Wedding Dress suppressing the Ghost Bride was covering Qi Xu as well.

The Talisman Wedding Dress, originally meant to subdue Qi Xu, was now protecting her at this moment.

The Ghost Bride could only reach out to try to push Qi Xu away. It also wanted to directly attack parts of Qi Xu not covered by the Talisman Wedding Dress, like her head, but whenever it moved, Qi Xu would hug it tighter. The bone-piercing pain transmitted from the Talisman Wedding Dress then made the Ghost Bride unable to act further.

“Madwoman! Madwoman! You madwoman!”

The Ghost Bride’s screams brought Qi Xu a bit of small satisfaction. She never thought that one day she would receive the same evaluation as Xia Zhiming.

Only then did she realize: Being a madwoman felt pretty good. Though she was in agony now from her desperate fighting style, just thinking that the Ghost Bride was even more wretched than her made her want to laugh.

But at that moment, a loud bang came from outside the room, followed by the shaking from an explosion…