The Red Iron Gate

Liu Haoyu had not even responded before the call was hung up on the other end.

Only the sound of "beep... beep..." remained.

Liu Haoyu looked at his phone screen. The caller's number was a string of completely incomprehensible gibberish.

So it was obvious that Qin Liu had been the one calling.

She seemed a little angry and had even told him to get out.

Naturally, Liu Haoyu had treated those words as nothing more than wind in his ears.

No matter what, this was a house he had bought himself.

It was completely legal, and he even had the property deed.

Even King Yama himself would have to rule that this house belonged to him.

Besides, given what had happened last night, the female ghost in this haunted house had not taken his life. That meant he could probably muddle through a few more days here.

Moreover, after hearing the pleasant voice of that young woman just now, Liu Haoyu had become even more curious about what the Fierce Ghost looked like.

So leaving was naturally out of the question. Besides, once Liu Haoyu left this place, he would truly have nowhere to live. Wouldn't that be even more miserable?

He figured that the gentle and kind Miss Qin Liu would surely take pity on him and let him stay here.

Liu Haoyu burned two more stacks of spirit money in front of the shrine.

After finishing his extremely devout prayers, the man immediately climbed into bed and went straight to sleep.

On the other side, Qin Liu, enraged and humiliated, folded her arms and glared fiercely at Liu Haoyu's room.

Last night, she had continuously heard someone calling out to her from beside her ear.

She had no idea who had been muttering her name nonstop.

To find the source of the calls, Qin Liu had naturally found Liu Haoyu, who was performing the Ghost Sacrifice.

She had actually been quite happy at the time, thinking that this fellow had finally seen the light and was going to give her something delicious or fun.

But when she moved closer for a look, she realized that it was neither something delicious nor something fun.

It was merely a pair of suspender stockings! And they were the kind with a garter belt!

Qin Liu had never encountered anything like that before, and she had nearly been angered into fainting on the spot.

Besides, Qin Liu could not possibly accept something that looked so much like a sex toy!

So Qin Liu had directly rejected Liu Haoyu's offering at the time and had wished she could kick him in the face.

But then she thought that kicking him might only make him feel good, without providing any actual benefit to her, so she managed to suppress the impulse.

With her arms folded, she looked toward the bedroom, a pensive expression on her face.

Thinking about it carefully, that thing from last night that had looked like some kind of ritual wasn't simply luring a snake out of its hole?

This man, who looked like an exorcist or a Taoist priest, might have been trying to use some method to lure her out.

Once she fell into his hands, she might well be exorcised until not even her ashes remained.

Or he might catch her like a Pokémon and refine her into some kind of ghost spirit.

But he might also be a good person. At present, there was no way to determine his intentions.

Therefore, it seemed that her handling of things last night had been correct.

She had neither offended him nor failed to demonstrate that she was a harmless ghost.

If things continued this way, perhaps he would leave on his own?

As for killing him... To be honest, as a good young person of the new era, Qin Liu would never take the initiative to attack unless things truly reached the point where force was necessary.

But when morning came, that fellow had not only failed to leave—he was sleeping so peacefully in her bed.

His skin was truly thicker than a city wall.

Taking over her bedroom was bad enough, but he had also stolen her shoes and even tried to offer her those unspeakable suspender stockings!

And now that she thought about it, this man might actually be even more frightening than an exorcist.

At that thought, Qin Liu decided to try once more. Perhaps frightening him again would make him retreat in the face of difficulty?

After all, humans and ghosts belonged to different worlds. Regardless of what this man intended, allowing him to remain in this house would only let the yin energy harm him.

Once she had made up her mind, Qin Liu passed through the bedroom door and entered the room.

The man was probably exhausted from the previous night and was now sleeping especially deeply.

Quite a few different formations and defensive talismans had been pasted around the bedroom.

Perhaps they were meant to prevent ghosts from ambushing him while he slept?

But formations of this level were completely useless against Qin Liu.

She tore the talismans down from around the room with practiced ease, then walked to Liu Haoyu's bedside.

Looking at the sleeping man, Qin Liu could not help carefully studying the young man.

In truth, Liu Haoyu's appearance was quite good.

It was just that he was probably always running around catching and exorcising ghosts, so his complexion did not look very healthy.

He looked as though he had stayed up several nights in a row, leaving him in a state of half-life and half-death.

And judging from the sweat covering his head right now, he had almost certainly dreamed of something terrifying.

Qin Liu watched the sleeping man's face. After thinking for a while, she placed her hand on his forehead.

Before long, Liu Haoyu's relaxed brows began to draw tight, and sweat started pouring from his forehead.

In his dream, Liu Haoyu vaguely felt that he seemed to be lying down.

Yet it also seemed that he was standing somewhere.

The sensation was vague and dreamlike, making it difficult to distinguish what was real.

After the feeling gradually settled, Liu Haoyu saw a scarlet figure appear amid the vast white mist.

"What is this..."

Liu Haoyu looked at the familiar red wedding dress. He was initially puzzled, but then he saw her small bare feet.

Realization dawned on him at once, and he immediately chased after her.

Yet no matter how hard he chased and hurried, the distance between them never narrowed.

Until his vision began to darken.

Only then did Liu Haoyu realize that the surroundings had long since changed completely.

Dead branches and fallen leaves lay everywhere, while rotting trees stood rigidly on both sides of the road.

It felt as though he were in a mass grave.

Liu Haoyu looked at the girl in the red wedding dress in the distance.

Was she waiting for him?

Liu Haoyu followed after her once more.

But compared with before, this time Liu Haoyu could clearly feel himself drawing closer and closer to her.

Until he could reach out and touch her shoulder.

"Smack..."

The entire space sank into darkness.

The girl in the red wedding dress vanished completely as well.

What appeared before him was a rusty iron gate, its surface covered in dark-red bloodstains.

The gate looked as though no one had opened it for decades, perhaps even centuries.

Liu Haoyu moved closer, and at that moment, knocking came from inside the gate.

"Knock, knock, knock, knock..." Four knocks repeated over and over.

The sound grew louder and louder, as though whatever was inside desperately wanted to tear the rusty iron gate apart.

Faced with this strange sight, Liu Haoyu hesitated for a moment before walking forward.

But before he had taken more than a few steps, the iron gate seemed to be pushed open from within, leaving a narrow gap.

A bloodless hand reached out from behind the gap, followed by a second, then a third...

Until the gap was densely packed with pale arms that looked just like the limbs of the dead.

"Let me out... Let me out..."

Listening to their miserable wails, Liu Haoyu suddenly realized that one hand had somehow grabbed him. With a strength he could not resist, it tried to drag him into the blood-red iron gate.

Liu Haoyu jolted awake from his dream.

When he turned around, he saw that the candle beside his bed bore signs of having been burned.