Tie a Bow

The moment the female ghost's half-meter-long tongue licked Lu Xingchuan's face.

Every hair on Lu Xingchuan's body stood on end.

He had no idea where he found the strength, but he let out a howl, flung the female ghost off, and scrambled toward the exit.

When he reached the door, he turned back, panting and shaken, only to find the female ghost still inside the bed enclosure, flailing her tongue around and making all sorts of ferocious faces. But she remained inside the enclosure.

She did not come out.

Lu Xingchuan let out a huge sigh of relief and weakly leaned against the door, wiping away his cold sweat. "That was terrifying. She almost dragged me in..."

As he spoke, a vein suddenly throbbed in his forehead.

He strode over to Pei Heng and Shen Yan.

He roared, "What are you two doing?! I almost got taken by a ghost, and instead of helping, what are you doing over here?!"

Pei Heng was still rubbing against Shen Yan while pinning him down. "That female ghost was too scary. I was afraid."

Once the initial terror had passed, Lu Xingchuan had been worried that everyone would laugh at how frightened he had looked.

But seeing Pei Heng acting like such a coward immediately put him more at ease.

With disdain and irritation, he said, "Enough. That ghost can't get out. She can only stay inside the bed enclosure. Why are you so timid?"

Pei Heng clung to Shen Yan without letting go. "No, I can't get up. My legs are weak."

Shen Yan punched him in anger. "Eat fewer tanks, damn it! You're crushing me to death! Get off me!"

Lu Xingchuan reached out to pull Pei Heng away.

But before his hand could land on Pei Heng's arm, the man who had just claimed his legs were too weak to stand got up with remarkable ease.

Not only did he stand up himself, he even helped Shen Yan to his feet.

[Fuck!!!!!!!!]

[Oh my god!]

[You scared me to death, production team! Well done!]

The instant Shen Yan was pulled up by Pei Heng.

A female ghost in a green dress suddenly dropped from above, grabbed Shen Yan's arm, and yanked him off the ground as though pulling up a scallion.

"Mom!"

Amid the barrage of screaming comments, Lu Xingchuan jolted in fright and instinctively backed away two steps.

The female ghost grabbed Shen Yan and shot toward the roof.

Pei Heng reacted quickly and rushed to grab Shen Yan.

Then—

Shen Yan kicked him away.

Pei Heng looked up. "What was that for?"

As the female ghost dragged Shen Yan toward the roof, Shen Yan said, "I'd rather be taken by a ghost."

[I still don't want you hugging me!]

[Reflect on yourself.]

[Pei's wounded expression made me laugh so hard!]

In the blink of an eye, the female ghost vanished with Shen Yan.

Song Qianshan glanced into the courtyard. "Bai Jing is gone too. All three have been taken. Next, we need to rescue them."

Still shaken, Lu Xingchuan patted Pei Heng on the shoulder. "It's okay. I can protect you."

Pei Heng gave Lu Xingchuan a cold look without saying anything, then turned and walked toward the female ghost with the half-meter tongue.

"Don't go over there. She'll lick you with her tongue..." Lu Xingchuan hurriedly stopped him.

He simply could not imagine what it would be like if Pei Heng got so scared that his legs went weak and he started rubbing against him.

Forget it. For the sake of him being Huancheng's president, he would just endure it.

After mentally preparing himself, Lu Xingchuan stepped forward two paces.

Then—

He watched helplessly as the female ghost who had just terrified him swung her half-meter-long tongue toward Pei Heng's face.

Pei Heng grabbed the female ghost's tongue.

In just a few motions, he tied the half-meter-long tongue into a bow around the bedpost.

The female ghost stared wide-eyed at the expressionless Pei Heng. "Wuwuwuwu~"

With her tongue tied outside, she could not even make a complete sound.

Pei Heng pressed her back against the wall of the bed enclosure with one hand and reached inside with the other, feeling around for only a moment.

He pulled out a key.

Lu Xingchuan was dumbfounded.

He looked at the key, then the female ghost, then Pei Heng again, unable to stop himself from asking, "Weren't you scared?"

Pei Heng walked out with the key. "I'm scared selectively."

[He just wanted to rub against Shen Yan.]

[I knew that bastard had ulterior motives!]

[Hahahaha, Lu Xingchuan's expression is so funny.]

With the key found, the three of them went to unlock the gate to the inner courtyard.

But after the key was inserted and turned, the lock did not open.

"This key might be for that room." Song Qianshan pointed to the door on the left.

The door was tightly shut. Inside, a ghostly figure sat by the window, crying pitifully.

Pei Heng took the key over, but it still did not unlock the door.

"How about I just kick it open?" Pei Heng rolled up his sleeves and prepared to use his foot.

The director shrieked into his little bee microphone, "Guests are not allowed to damage the props on set!"

He was so anxious that his voice cracked.

Pei Heng could only give up.

The three returned to the room they had just been in.

Lu Xingchuan glanced at the female ghost whose tongue was still tied to the bedpost. "There should be clues in this room. Let's look around."

The bed in the bedroom was a typical ancient canopy bed, its gauze curtains lightly draped, with the bedding inside folded neatly.

They were wedding quilts.

But they had clearly never been touched.

Pei Heng glanced at the neatly folded bedding, left the bedroom, and went to inspect the female ghost beneath the bed enclosure.

Although the female ghost was also dressed in red, it was clearly not bridal attire.

It was merely an ordinary red gown.

"There's a letter here." Song Qianshan picked up a kraft-paper envelope from the dressing table and pulled out the letter inside.

There was only one line.

Yue Niang, save me!

"Who is Yue Niang?" Lu Xingchuan muttered in confusion, turning to ask the female ghost in the bed enclosure, "Are you Yue Niang?"

The female ghost had no time to pay attention to him.

She was frantically trying to pull free her tied-up tongue.

"Wuwuwuwu~"

Pei Heng stared at the female ghost for a moment, then walked to the bed and swept away the neatly folded bedding.

The instant the bedding was pulled aside, the entire bed was revealed to be stained with blood.

[Holy shit!]

[The production team really knows how to set things up. That scared me!]

[Was this a tragedy on the wedding night?]

"Why is there so much blood?" Lu Xingchuan frowned, a hint of disgust on his face.

Pei Heng bent down and searched the bed for a while. In the end, he found an axe amid the bloodstains.

"This has to be the murder weapon. The female ghost outside was probably killed with this axe!"

Lu Xingchuan pointed at the axe as he spoke.

Song Qianshan gave him a disgusted look.

"The female ghost outside has a half-meter-long tongue and ligature marks around her neck. She's obviously a hanging ghost! Where's your brain?"

Being snapped at like that in front of the camera, Lu Xingchuan could not save face. Fury surged in his chest as he retorted, "Who says a hanging ghost can't have been hacked a few times and bled out before dying?!"

[...]

[Those of us who kill people regularly know that only perverts usually do that.]

[Lu Xingchuan's thought process is a little unusual.]

Pei Heng ignored the two of them, took the axe outside, and returned to the bed in the outer room.

On the huge bed, besides the female ghost inside the bed enclosure, there was also a corpse lying on top of it.

The battered woman they had seen in the courtyard earlier had originally been hanging from the beam.

Suddenly, the rope snapped, and the corpse fell.

Pei Heng compared the axe in his hand with the wounds on the corpse. They clearly did not match.

After staring at the corpse in thought for a moment, Pei Heng turned to Song Qianshan and said, "She might have another key on her. Could you search her?"

Lu Xingchuan immediately rolled up his sleeves. "I'll do it."

Pei Heng glanced at Lu Xingchuan. "Are you sure?"

[That's a female corpse. Isn't that a little inappropriate?]

[What's inappropriate about it? Pei Heng and Song Qianshan are obviously excluding Lu Xingchuan.]