Don't Be Afraid, It's a Ghost [New Book Please Collect!]

"What are you eating for? All you know is how to eat!" Zhao Liangchen snorted with a frown.

The little ghosts across from him immediately straightened up in the smoke upon hearing his hostile tone.

"Count off! One!" a little girl's voice rang out.

"Two!" "Three!" "Four!" "Three!"

"Hm?"

When the smoke completely dispersed, five little children appeared before Zhao Liangcai.

At the front was a little girl in a bright red cotton jacket, with two little pigtails sticking straight into the air. Her face was deathly pale, but chubby. She did not look frightening at all.

She was even a little cute.

Behind her stood four boys, all dressed in black jackets with thin little braids at the backs of their heads. The oldest was only five or six, while the youngest looked about three. All of them were plump.

Five children, six braids.

The little girl turned and glared at the smallest child. "How many times have I told you? After four comes five! Five!"

The little child pursed his lips. He was somewhat frightened, yet did not dare argue back.

Aggrieved.

One of the boys in the middle stepped forward to mediate. "Little Five can only count to three. Sister, why not just let him stand third?"

"He's Little Five. How can he stand third?" the little girl shouted.

"I don't mind," the boy who had called out three said quietly.

"Then can he stand ahead of you when it's time to eat from now on?" The little girl refused to yield an inch.

The moment Little Three heard that, he shook his head and said no more.

Between brothers, yielding one's place was fine. Yielding food was not.

"Ahem." Zhao Liangchen coughed lightly.

The little girl immediately turned back around. All five Child Ghosts stared at him with their large round eyes, like a flock of chirping chicks waiting to be fed.

"I need you to handle something for me now. If you do it well, there'll be food waiting when you return," Zhao Liangchen said.

"No problem!" the five little ghosts answered in unison.

Zhao Liangchen gave Zhao Liangcai a look. "Give them their instructions."

"Sure." Zhao Liangcai nodded. He did not dare get too close, merely standing before his cousin as he said, "There are two things I want you to do."

His original plan had been to use Zhao Liangchen's methods to scare Wang Longqi away and win the wager. But now that Gongsun Rou had come as well, a bold idea suddenly rose in his heart.

"There are people in the two rooms downstairs on the second floor. In the room on the left are two men. Go scare them and make sure you drive them away. Remember, be ruthless with them!"

The little children all bared their teeth together, revealing two gleaming front teeth each to show just how ruthless they were.

"After that, go to the room on the right. There are two girls there. Don't be so fierce this time. Just give them a little scare. I'll be waiting outside, and the moment they scream, I'll rush in immediately."

He gave a sleazy grin. "Then, you act as though you're terrified of me and let me beat you away, so I can save them. Understand?"

"Understood! The hero saves the beauty." The little girl gave him a look that said she understood perfectly.

"Hehe, go on."

Once the instructions were given, the five little children lined up in a row and floated out lightly, their feet never touching the ground. At the wall, they did not open the door, simply whooshing straight through it.

Zhao Liangcai swallowed, but at the thought of Wang Longqi and Li Chu soon being scared half to death by them, a smile could not help spreading across his ugly face.

The two then went downstairs and hid around the corner on the second floor. They only had to wait for Gongsun Rou and the others to scream. Zhao Liangcai would rush out to save them, shout a few words, and Zhao Liangchen would use magic to call the little ghosts back.

A flawless plan.

Zhao Liangcai's pursuit of Gongsun Rou was not simply because he himself could not walk when he saw a beauty. It was also at the behest of the Zhao Family elders.

These days, no matter how wealthy one was, one could not compare to two kinds of people: officials and Cultivators. The former possessed power, the latter Magic Power.

In the vision the Zhao Family elders had described to him, with Zhao Liangchen around, the Zhao Family would have a cultivator's protection for the next hundred years. If Zhao Liangcai could also win over Gongsun Rou, then the family would have a pillar in official circles as well.

With these two great aids, the family's rise to glory was just around the corner!

What Wang Family? By then, they would not even be worthy to carry the Zhao Family's shoes!

"Wipe your drool." Zhao Liangchen's disgusted voice interrupted Zhao Liangcai's lewd fantasies.

"The first time I saw Gongsun Girl was at a banquet the day before yesterday. She wore flowing white robes, like an immortal maiden descended from the heavens."

"From that moment on, I decided that I would marry no one but her in this life. As of today, I have been bitterly in love with her for a full... two days."

"Only after meeting her did I learn what affection was, what... love was."

"..."

Li Chu frowned as he watched Wang Longqi pace around the room like a tomcat in heat, feeling that this would be a difficult night to endure.

Perhaps a ghost would be better. At least it might make him quiet down for a while.

The girl Wang Longqi and Zhao Liangcai were competing to pursue turned out to be Gongsun Rou. Li Chu found that rather coincidental.

But after thinking it over, it was not surprising.

After all, Wang Longqi had seen nearly every girl in Yuhang Town over the years. It was impossible for a breathtaking beauty to suddenly appear from nowhere.

Only Gongsun Rou, who had come from Zhao Ge City, possessed such great charm.

But Li Chu did not know what any of this had to do with him...

He and Gongsun Rou had met only once. It could be said that they had no acquaintance at all—she had not donated a single coin of incense money to Virtuous Cloud Temple.

Yet ever since entering the room, Wang Longqi had been chattering endlessly in his ear, affectedly describing how deep his feelings for Gongsun Rou were, as though he meant something by it.

Was he trying to let Gongsun Rou next door hear him?

Then he should be speaking beside the wall.

Just as he began considering whether to knock the noisy Wang Longqi unconscious, knocking suddenly sounded outside the gate.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hm? Could Gongsun Girl have come to see me?" Wang Longqi hurriedly went to open the door.

But when he opened it, he found nothing outside.

"Strange." He muttered and closed the door before returning.

But before he had taken more than a few steps, the knocking sounded again. Knock, knock, knock.

"Who is it?" Wang Longqi shouted. No one answered. He opened the door, only to find it empty again.

"Hiss—" He sucked in a breath.

Wang Longqi turned back, but this time he walked very slowly.

Knock, knock...

Just as the knocking sounded again, he whirled around and threw open the door. "Got you! Hm?"

Even moving this quickly, he still failed to see whoever had been knocking.

Wang Longqi felt his scalp prickle. He shut the door and said to Li Chu, "Could there really be something unclean here?"

Li Chu silently looked toward the corner.

Yin Qi was flowing there.

"Hehehe." "Hahaha." "Hehehe." "..."

Children's laughter suddenly rang through the room. There was more than one voice, as though a group of children were playing inside!

It even seemed as though someone had tripped Wang Longqi, nearly making him fall.

"Ah—" Wang Longqi let out a strange cry and sprang to Li Chu's side in a single step. Trembling, he asked, "What the hell was that? Li Chu, did you see it?"

Li Chu said calmly, "Don't be afraid. It's a ghost."

"Eh?"

Wang Longqi vaguely felt there was something wrong with those words, but before he could figure it out, Li Chu abruptly rose and walked toward the center of the room.

Then an "Ow!" rang out, as though someone had tried to trip Li Chu but instead cried out in pain.

The next second, he watched in horror as four or five sinister little ghosts suddenly appeared in the center of the previously empty room!

They all looked like children, but their faces were deathly pale, and they hovered in midair!

"Bite him!" a little girl's voice cried.

A figure in a red cotton jacket was the first to dart onto Li Chu's shoulder. Opening her gleaming front teeth, she bit down hard!

Then—

Crunch.

Four more tiny figures charged forward without hesitation. They clung tightly to Li Chu's arms and thighs, then opened their mouths and bit down viciously!

Their expressions were incomparably fierce.

Then—

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

Thanks to Silent Sword Dancer for the hundred-coin reward.