It happened on a stormy night half a year ago...
Wang Longqi had gone to a brothel in Hangzhou to attend a gathering with his fox friends and dog friends. He had played until midnight before riding home. A sudden downpour erupted along the way, and there happened to be a pavilion ahead, so he went inside to shelter from the rain.
To his surprise, there was actually a young maiden living alone inside. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with a face like a flower and charms beyond counting.
The young maiden was beautiful and welcoming. Not only did she invite him in to bathe and change clothes, she even offered him sugar water.
Wang Longqi had just indulged himself at the brothel and was saintly at the time, without the slightest wicked thought in his heart.
Yet the moment he entered the young maiden's bedroom, it was as if he had lost his soul. Before he knew it, he and the girl had shared a night of passion.
When he woke again, he found that he was sleeping beside a desolate grave.
His face went white with fright. More than that, he clearly remembered the girl telling him to come marry her at this hour the next day.
Rumors of a Ghost Bride had been spreading through Yuhang Town those days. They said the Ghost Bride specifically lured young men to her grave, and after sharing a night of passion with her, they had to marry her. Otherwise, she would come to their door and slaughter their entire family.
But how could a living person marry the dead?
The dead could not return to life, so only the living could be sent to death.
Two or three grown men had already died under strange circumstances, and the Yamen was investigating this weird case. Wang Longqi figured that he had encountered the Ghost Bride too, so he hurried to find Zhou Dafu.
Zhou Dafu brought him to see Li Chu.
The following night, Li Chu went with him to the Ghost Bride's grave.
Sure enough, the Ghost Bride appeared. Wearing a phoenix crown and crimson bridal robes, she rode in a Rat Servant Yin Cart, dressed from head to toe as a bride as she drifted toward them.
The instant she landed, she looked at Wang Longqi, then at Li Chu, and then...
Without the slightest hesitation, she said to Li Chu, "You finally came to marry me!"
For a moment, Wang Longqi did not know whether to rejoice or despair.
The story ended with Li Chu's merciless sword.
From then on, Wang Longqi and Li Chu became friends.
Though they did not meet often, Wang Longqi believed that Li Chu had saved his life and was undoubtedly a friend for life.
As for Li Chu, Wang Longqi had donated a hefty sum in incense offerings to Virtuous Cloud Temple, so he was certainly a good friend as well...
On just such a rainy day, this good friend hurried to the temple.
Wang Longqi knew Li Chu's temperament, so he did not waste words.
Getting straight to the point, he said, "I came to find you this time because I've recently fallen for a girl..."
Li Chu instinctively asked, "Is she human or a ghost?"
"Of course she's human!" Wang Longqi sprang up as if by reflex, furious. "I've always liked people! That thing with the ghost... that was an accident!"
As he spoke, he realized that his reaction had been a little excessive. He gave an embarrassed smile, sat back down, and said miserably, "You have no idea what kind of life I've lived these past six months."
He could hardly be blamed for being so sensitive. After sleeping with the Ghost Bride, he had spent a whole month at home recuperating before his Yang Energy fully recovered.
He had been brimming with joy when he finally returned to the world.
But when he went out to have fun again, he discovered that somehow, word of what had happened to him had spread.
Whenever he went out, people would inevitably point and whisper behind his back.
Being mocked by his fox friends and dog friends with nicknames like "friend through life and death" and "Undead Knight" was one thing.
Most despairingly, he discovered that even the girls in the brothels had begun to disdain him!
He had even once eavesdropped on a courtesan and the Madam whispering together at Spring Full Pavilion...
"That man slept with a ghost. Isn't that unlucky?"
"Of course it is. If a person eats something a ghost has already eaten, isn't that like secretly eating offerings left at a grave? How could that turn out well?"
"Eugh—don't say it. It gives me the creeps. Whoever wants him can have him; I'm not doing business with him."
"What a pity. Such a fine young master, and he got defiled by a ghost. Sigh, who would dare want an unclean man like that in the future?"
"Hmph, flies do not land on uncracked eggs. He must have dressed himself up like a blooming branch in the middle of the night, or the female ghost would never have set her sights on him!"
Upon hearing those words, Young Master Wang Qi trembled all over in fury. In the scorching summer heat, cold sweat drenched his body, his hands and feet turned icy, and tears of humiliation streamed down his face.
"Tell me, can this world still get any better?" Even after so many days, his eyes still brimmed with tears whenever he recalled it.
He felt wronged.
After listening to his long string of complaints, Li Chu nodded and looked at him calmly.
Wang Longqi widened his moist eyes and cried out in grief and indignation, "Don't you sympathize with me? I haven't touched a woman for a full six months!"
Li Chu nodded, then continued looking at him calmly.
Wang Longqi wanted to say more, but when he looked at Li Chu's handsome face, it seemed to be covered with the words "eighteen years"...
His grief and indignation gradually faded.
"You're wasting a gift from heaven. If I looked like you, those Courtesans would never reject me." Wang Longqi muttered, paused, then added softly, "I could probably even sleep under the same blanket with a female ghost..."
Expressionlessly, Li Chu said, "You should tell me why you came."
"Oh, I nearly forgot." Wang Longqi had rarely found an opportunity to pour out his heart, and he had gotten too engrossed.
He gathered his thoughts and began again. "Since I was forced to leave the scene, I thought it over carefully. This young master has had enough fun over the years; it's about time I found an honest girl and got married."
"But fooling around is easy. Marriage is not so simple. The Wang Family is, after all, one of the foremost great households in Yuhang Town. The principal wife I marry must come from a scholarly family, be virtuous and gentle, graceful outside and wise within, and lack none of loyalty, filial piety, chastity, or propriety."
"So I searched and searched, searched and searched, and hey, the day before yesterday, I really did come across one."
At the mention of this, Wang Longqi's eyes regained their sparkle.
"The moment I saw her, I was stunned as if by a heavenly being. Her background, looks, speech, and bearing were all a perfection I had never seen before. Right then, I swore that I would marry no one but her in this life!"
"But!"
"That hateful Zhao Liangcai had to stick his pole into the middle of it. He actually took a liking to her too!"
"Why doesn't he piss in a dog's puddle and take a good look at himself? How dare he compete with this young master!"
"He always loved doing this back at Spring Full Pavilion. I yielded to him in Hangzhou City too, that time..."
The more Wang Longqi spoke, the angrier he became.
Zhao Liangcai was no stranger. He was also the young master of the Zhao Family, one of Yuhang Town's great households.
The reason Wang Longqi had said the Wang Family was one of the top two, rather than standing alone at the top, was because the Zhao Family existed.
When the Wang Family ranked first, the Zhao Family ranked second. When the Zhao Family ranked first, the Wang Family ranked second.
He had gone off-topic to recount the grievances between the two.
Bored, Li Chu tucked his hands into his sleeves.
Seeing this, Wang Longqi hurriedly sat upright and continued. "This morning, enemies met on a narrow road, and he and I ran into each other. He actually brought up that matter about me being... bewitched by a ghost again. You don't hit a man in the face, and you don't expose his sore spots when cursing him! That bastard is truly hateful! I nearly came to blows with him. If someone hadn't stopped us, hehe, his family would probably be blowing suonas by now. Don't think I'm bragging. Back then..."
Li Chu frowned impatiently.
"In a fit of anger, the two of us made a bet!" Wang Longqi hurriedly returned to the point.
"Isn't there a Ghost Building by the Liu Family Memorial Arch? His family bought up all the land around it, yet they have never dared touch the Ghost Building. He bet me that we would each spend a night inside it and see who could emerge unscathed."
"Whoever failed to go in or ran away in fear would lose. From then on, he would not be allowed to compete with the other for any girl, and whenever he saw the other on the road, he would have to stay three paces away!"
"Later, he chickened out—not me—and added another condition: each of us could bring one person inside. Naturally, you were the first person I thought of."
"Li Chu, we're friends, right?" Wang Longqi grabbed Li Chu's sleeve. "You're the only one who can help me now!"
Li Chu calmly pulled his sleeve free.
The Liu Family Ghost Building...
As someone from Yuhang Town, he had naturally heard of this famous place. He had not expected these two second generation rich fools to go there seeking death.
This felt a little troublesome.
Seeing the hesitation on his face, Wang Longqi immediately said, "Help me this once, and I'll have Virtuous Cloud Temple completely renovated and expand the Daoist Temple to twice its current size."
Li Chu raised his head and said slowly, "This isn't about money... We're friends."
Someone brought it up today, so I'll explain it here. I did indeed use a bet from Records of the Destroyed Fate here, but it was only a similar bet used to introduce the plot. The later characters and events are completely different, and this kind of bet has also appeared in old Hong Kong films. I thought of it at the time and used it. It really was unnecessary; I simply could not think of what to write then, and by the time I wanted to change it later, I could no longer do so.
Before you continue