Ghost Debt

The fierce ghost's cries grew weaker and weaker, yet her wails became ever more miserable. Her form twisted, her soul-body unstable, hazy and indistinct as though she were about to vanish. I hurriedly put on a sighing act.

"Alas, a fated grievance. Since she's begging to this extent, wife, you should leave her a way to live," I said with a world-weary sigh.

To my surprise, wife didn't give me any face at all and simply answered with a cold snort.

The little fierce ghost was already squeaking and creaking. Her black eyeballs—if she could have rolled her eyes white, I suspected she would have done so long ago. She looked ready to scatter into nothingness at any moment.

"I'm saying, wife, could you..."

"You should say 'please.'"

"Please?" I froze before remembering that Grandma had always treated wife with the utmost respect, never saying anything without adding "please." Only then did I recall just how enormous wife's airs were.

Suppressing my resentment, I said quietly, "Wife, please... I beg you to show mercy and spare this little ghost."

"Call me Ninth Princess."

"Yes, Ninth Princess... please, Your Highness, raise your noble hand and spare this little ghost..." No, wait. No matter how bad your temper was, you were still my wife. Why were you bullying me?

"Hmph. Very well. Since even he has asked me to spare you, I won't make things difficult for a mere little ghost like you. But you'd best behave yourself. If you make another move, or show even the slightest trace of what you did just now, I'll send your soul flying beyond the heavens!" Wife mercilessly warned the little fierce ghost, and the savagery in her words raised goosebumps all over me.

The little female ghost immediately muttered in fear and began kowtowing to me again.

Though I heaved a sigh of relief, I couldn't muster the slightest bit of swagger at the little fierce ghost's near-servile humility. We were both miserable souls, one human and one ghost.

"The little lifespan you have left isn't enough for my true body to remain long in the world of the living. Is there anything else you wish to say to me?" Wife still looked utterly unapproachable.

"I want to see you. Just once." Since time was short, a thousand words could not compare to one meeting. I was terribly curious what wife looked like beneath that ancient-style attire.

"Are you willing to trade thirty years of your lifespan?"

She threw those words at me directly, her voice so cold that she seemed unlike the wife who always secretly tugged at my clothes.

Thirty years of lifespan for one look? Ninth Princess, this wasn't extortion, robbery, or theft anymore. This was murder!

"Fine." I still gritted my teeth and nodded. With no guarantee of tomorrow, I was already caught up in something huge. Grandma had said I had a nine-in-ten chance of dying. After adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing it all up, I probably only had a few years left anyway. What were thirty years? If I had them, she could take them.

"You... Thirty years of lifespan in exchange for one glimpse of my true face. Is it worth it?" Wife fell silent for a moment, seemingly taken aback by my answer.

"Heh... You watched me grow up. Over the past twenty years, you protected me from death countless times. Just for that alone, what were thirty years? If I never even got one chance to see you in my life, what meaning would there be in living? I might as well die." I laughed freely. This was probably how they acted in TV dramas, wasn't it? Even I got chills from myself.

After I spoke, wife remained silent.

Yet just when I was about to conclude she would not turn back, she did.

With that turn, long as an eternity and brief as an instant, she gave me the illusion that every woman in this world was nothing but vulgar powder and common rouge.

I didn't know how old wife was, but she looked no older than I did.

Without any deliberate adornment, just a light touch of powder made her seem peerlessly beautiful. Even her blood-stained red lips appeared almost otherworldly.

What caught my attention was that with her eyes closed, she looked peaceful and serene instead, as if those harsh words had never come from her mouth.

Were you really still a ghost? You looked like a fairy.

I felt ashamed of my own appearance. That one glance bought with thirty years of lifespan had not been wasted. A fierce ghost could not possess such graceful, magnificent bearing. Her original identity was surely far from ordinary. No wonder Grandma said "please" in everything she did.

Taking a deep breath, I wanted to say something to her, but wife instead revealed a lonely smile and dispersed like steam.

All that remained before my eyes was a cloud of blood mist. In the end, even the blood mist disappeared.

After collecting myself, I found the Soul Urn covered in countless curse seals inside the coffin. I figured this was the little female ghost's dwelling.

"Get in." I ordered her back into the palm-sized Soul Urn. Then I pressed a finger against its lid and, following the books I had read before, pierced my middle finger with a bamboo stick and slowly began drawing ghostly talismans.

I had studied art, yet it still took me a long time to write out the incantation. This was the first step in raising a little ghost. Since I had once dreamed of sealing a little ghost, this was also the step I had copied most often as a child.

After covering the Soul Urn with curse seals, I went into Grandma's bedroom and locked the door behind me. Then I found talisman paper and wrote twelve paper talismans, chiefly bearing the names of ghosts, deities, and ghost kings from the four directions and eight quarters. I arranged them by rank upon the altar table, lit three sticks of incense, and planted them in the ash basin where the Soul Urn was enshrined.

Raising a little ghost was a serious matter. Throughout the process, I chose every word and action carefully, not daring to make a single mistake or misread even half an incantation.

"Come out. Blood food." After completing the ritual, I shouted at the Soul Urn on the floor.

The Soul Urn shook irregularly, and soon its lid opened with a crack.

Only then did the little female ghost slowly poke her head out of the Soul Urn. Her jet-black eyes stared up at me from below at an angle opposite to that of ordinary people. Then she slowly twisted her head, her bones cracking and popping. Even as her master, I was frightened half to death.

She extended her tongue and licked my middle finger, which had not yet dried or scabbed over. Seemingly realizing it truly was the blood food she wanted, she exposed her terrifying fangs.

Only then did I remember that she was not a human little girl, but a genuine fierce ghost. Yet for the ritual to succeed, I watched her coldly and did not stop what she did next.

She bit me. Her sharp teeth sliced through my skin, icy cold, and I could feel my vital blood draining away.

Bang! Suddenly, I heard movement outside the bedroom. Panic rising in my heart, I jerked my hand back, but the little fierce ghost seemed not to notice and continued biting me without letting go. My heart instantly turned half cold.

"Stop by command!" Anxious to know what had happened outside, I thought that even after wife had tormented her so badly, she had drunk enough vital blood by now. I immediately ordered her to stop.

She stopped feeding and gently licked my wound with her icy tongue.

Though her pleasant licking gave me a flash of pleasure, I quickly reminded myself that I was feeding a little ghost, and I had no idea what was happening outside. The pleasure vanished like smoke in the wind.

"You have eaten my vital blood. From this day onward, you shall be bound by me and serve at my command. I will also give you blood food at regular intervals. If either of us breaks this vow, the ghostly deities of the four directions and the ghost kings of the eight quarters shall claim our souls. Do you understand?" I quickly lit more incense and placed it upon the altar dedicated to the ghostly deities of the four directions and the ghost kings of the eight quarters.

Since I was raising a little ghost, I worshipped not gods, but ghosts.

The little female ghost nodded fiercely, raising no objection. After being tormented by wife, much less making a contract, even if we had not made one, she would not dare resist whatever I said.

A fierce ghost was unlike a wandering yin soul. She possessed a measure of thought, so it was perfectly normal for her to fear a stronger ghost.

The twelve sticks of incense lit up as if someone were drawing on them. Soon, a large section burned away. This showed that the ghostly deities of the four directions and the ghost kings of the eight quarters had accepted the contract. If either of us went back on it, the ghost kings would claim our lives, and we would die horribly.

I hurriedly put away the palm-sized Soul Urn. I did not dare look inside, because I knew it surely contained a piece of the little fierce ghost's remains. That was an unavoidable method of raising a little ghost.

When I opened the bedroom door, Yu Xiaoxue was still unconscious. Most of the weight on my heart lifted, but when I looked toward Zhang Yidan, my heart went cold again. There was no sign of Zhang Yidan anywhere. Even Zhou Xuan's corpse, which had been lying not far away, had vanished!

I shook Yu Xiaoxue awake.

Yu Xiaoxue was startled when she came to, because the last thing she had seen was the fierce ghost emerging from the coffin. Naturally, she was still shaken, but seeing that I was safe and sound, she quickly relaxed. "Where's Brother Egg?"

"I went into Grandma's bedroom just now. When I came out, I had no idea where he'd gone. Let's go find him." I hurriedly grabbed Yu Xiaoxue and headed outside.

Yu Xiaoxue had only just woken up. When she stepped over the threshold, she failed to notice it and nearly fell.

I hurriedly caught her.

The girl's soft breast brushed across my arm, and the full, supple sensation sent my thoughts running wild: She was a pretty seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl, and I was a normal man. If I didn't drool over her, I might as well stop raising little ghosts and go practice the Sunflower Manual instead.

But as I was thinking that, a gust of yin wind rose behind me, making me shudder. I immediately let go of Yu Xiaoxue's arm.

It seemed that though wife had disappeared, her jealousy was still very much real.

Yu Xiaoxue had fainted earlier and did not understand why I acted that way. She even thought I was a perfect gentleman. Her little hand hurriedly fanned the heat rising from her face as she panted softly, and her cheeks soon turned crimson.

I had watched Yu Xiaoxue's face turn pale with fright all night. This was the first time I had seen her looking so rosy and soft. I said nothing on the surface, but along the way, ripples stirred endlessly in my heart for this girl who had gone through life and death with me.

Zhang Yidan had disappeared along with Zhou Xuan. I figured he had probably taken Zhou Xuan outside Little Yi Village, perhaps to bury his dead wife. So I led Yu Xiaoxue straight toward the village entrance.

Yet when we reached the village entrance, I froze on the spot.

Yu Xiaoxue's pupils widened as well. Covering her little mouth, she was unable to speak.

In the graveyard, Zhou Xuan was gone. But a pair of scissors was lodged in Zhang Yidan's chest. He lay stiffly on the ground with a strange smile on his face, dead.

My eyes instantly reddened, and tears streamed down uncontrollably.

He was my childhood friend, the Zhang Yidan who had grown up with me, Zhang Yuanyi's sworn brother!

"Zhang Yuanyi! Zhang Yidan!" I ran over in a daze, looking at the guy who had always been mischievous and loved playing tricks on people. I shook his gradually cooling body, trying to convince myself he was merely fooling me.

But his wide-open eyes were already streaming black blood. Blood flowed from his ears and nostrils as well, and that strange smile remained on his face. His death was horrifying.

The scissors were the very ones that had killed Zhou Xuan, the ones his child had snatched away. His child had killed him with them.

Father killed mother, child killed father. The debt of a savage ghost—his ghost child had murdered his father in broad daylight and was about to defy Heaven itself.

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