Xi Yu’s gaze fell on the young man. “Didn’t her husband and father come with her?”
Aunt Lan shook her head. “Her husband was away on a business trip in the neighboring city. He only rushed back after receiving the news. Her father went back to their old house yesterday to pay respects to her mother. Tell me, how could it be such a coincidence? Poor girl…”
Yes. How could it be such a coincidence?
Usually, the family of three was together, yet last night, one had gone back to the old house while the other was away on business.
A pregnant woman had gone out alone at night and accidentally fallen into the water.
When too many coincidences gathered together, they were no longer coincidences.
Xi Yu stared at the ghost lying in the river.
After a soul left the body, it could not be exposed to sunlight for too long. The girl hid in the water, leaving only a pair of eyes viciously fixed on the grief-stricken young man.
Xi Yu tilted his head to look at her. The girl seemed to sense something and turned her head toward him.
“All right, all right, everyone disperse!” a police officer shouted, waving his hand.
Xi Yu took several steps back. The female ghost hurriedly tried to emerge from the water, but the moment she came into contact with the sunlight, she let out a shriek and shrank back.
A large expanse of black mist shrouded the surface of the water. It was the resentment emanating from the girl.
Someone who had accidentally fallen into the water would not have this.
The people around them were driven away, and Xi Yu took several more steps back.
As the crowd began to disperse, the middle-aged man who had been sitting beside the corpse suddenly moved. He rushed toward a nearby tree at incredible speed.
“Nuannuan, Daddy will come keep you company!”
Several gasps rang out nearby.
Xi Yu slightly curled his finger, and a strand of white light shot toward the police officer beside him.
The police officer who had been rushing over to stop him suddenly burst into incredible speed and caught the middle-aged man.
Nearby, the young man staggered to his feet and ran over, crying out as he embraced the middle-aged man.
“Dad! You still have me! I’ll support you from now on! Don’t do anything stupid! Xiaoqi and the baby are both gone. If you do this too, how am I supposed to live?!”
Old Dog had already run inside the cordon. Seeing the police stop the middle-aged man from committing suicide, he finally stepped back out and breathed a sigh of relief.
“This girl’s husband really is a good man. There aren’t many men with such loyalty and affection these days.”
Xi Yu laughed and repeated softly,
“Loyalty and affection…”
………………………
By the time Luo Cheng’an arrived, the corpse had already been taken away. He only saw the girl’s father being helped away by several people.
From the conversations of those nearby, Luo Cheng’an pieced together what had happened. His face went pale beneath his mask.
It was the first time he had seen something like this happen so close to him.
“So pitiful.” Luo Cheng’an sighed.
Xi Yu said nothing. He glanced at the female ghost in the water, blood tears streaming from her eyes, then pulled Luo Cheng’an away.
Luo Cheng’an must have been frightened. He barely spoke along the way, tightly holding Xi Yu’s hand.
Luo Cheng’an drove on the way back. Xi Yu didn’t know how to drive, so he stared straight at him, afraid that Luo Cheng’an might be too distracted to concentrate.
People covered in immense amounts of merit had a particularly strong ability to empathize with the suffering of the mortal world.
After returning home, Luo Cheng’an continued following Xi Yu everywhere, step for step. Xi Yu wanted to say something several times but ultimately didn’t.
It wasn’t until evening that Luo Cheng’an stood beside Xi Yu’s bed holding a pillow.
Only then did Xi Yu slowly speak.
“You’re going back to your own room tonight.”
Luo Cheng’an immediately felt as though thunder had struck on a clear day.
“I don’t want to. I’m scared.”
Xi Yu removed the Worry-Free Plaque hanging around his neck. It was something he had bought and given to Luo Cheng’an on the second day after Luo Cheng’an’s Life-Exchange Lock had broken.
Xi Yu drew several strokes on the Worry-Free Plaque and hung it around Luo Cheng’an’s neck.
“With this, nothing can get close to you. Go back.”
Luo Cheng’an wanted to say something else, but Xi Yu remained unmoved.
With Luo Cheng’an’s level of courage, he couldn’t stay here tonight.
Xi Yu used his eyes to chase Luo Cheng’an away.
Luo Cheng’an pouted, and the rims of his eyes slowly reddened.
Xi Yu: “……”
Xi Yu felt as though he had two heads and four arms.
“Hold those tears back!”
Luo Cheng’an sniffled.
“Can I really not stay?”
“No.”
Luo Cheng’an bit his lip and left, looking back three times with every step.
Xi Yu escorted him to the door. Only after seeing Luo Cheng’an return to his own room did he lock his own door.
The moment he turned around, Lu Zhixing climbed in through the window and pointed behind himself.
“You have a guest.”
Lu Zhixing stepped aside, and the female ghost from the lake today emerged from behind him.
Only then did Xi Yu clearly see what the female ghost looked like.
She wore a pure-cotton maternity outfit, her already visibly pregnant belly swollen outward. Her eyes were blood-red, resentment swirling around her body. Blood tears streaked her cheeks, and her expression was vacant.
“Movie… Movie Emperor Lu…” The female ghost looked at Lu Zhixing, then at Xi Yu. “Is this… Sister-in-law?”
Xi Yu: ???
Xi Yu’s mouth twitched as he asked Lu Zhixing,
“Your fan?”
Lu Zhixing nodded.
“Looks like it.”
Xi Yu sat down on the sofa.
“Perfect. You communicate with her.”
Xi Yu knew this female ghost would come looking for him.
It was nighttime now, with no sunlight. It was precisely the time when ghosts roamed freely.
Moreover, he had left his aura on the female ghost, allowing her to find this place.
A soul filled with resentment could not reincarnate. As time passed, it would become a vicious ghost and begin taking human lives.
One corpse, two lives; one body, two souls. A ghost born from such circumstances was especially terrifying.
Xi Yu didn’t like meddling in other people’s affairs, but he couldn’t stand by and watch an innocent soul turn into a vicious ghost and harm other people.
Lu Zhixing sat down beside Xi Yu and raised an eyebrow.
“I recognize you. You’re the girl from today’s news. Your father and husband both fainted several times because of your death.”
There had been two trending topics today.
One was Xi Yu’s sudden appearance on Peerless Secret Realm. There had been no photograph and no information, and his identity was a mystery. He had been cursed at for thousands of comments and even earned the title of “Ugly Son of a Capitalist.”
That topic had already been suppressed by him and could no longer be found among the trending searches.
The other was this girl.
Lu Zhixing propped up his head.
“Right now, everyone is praising your husband for loving you deeply. What do you think?”
The moment Lu Zhixing finished speaking, the previously vacant female ghost suddenly let out a shrill scream.
“That heartless, shameless bastard! It was him! He killed me! He pushed me into the water and held my head down!”
Xi Yu looked at her.
“But he was away on a business trip yesterday. He has an alibi, and all his colleagues testified for him. You say he killed you, but how could he have killed you?”
Hearing Xi Yu’s question, a moment of confusion appeared in the female ghost’s blood-red eyes.
“How could he kill me if he was away on a business trip? Right, how could he have killed me… No, it was him who killed me! He held my head under the water… That’s how it happened…”
“He bought a huge insurance policy for me. If he killed me, he could get the money. That’s why he killed me… That’s why he killed me!”
“AAAHHHHH—!”
“Liar! Bastard! He deceived me from beginning to end!”
“He killed me! I want revenge! I want to kill him! Kill him!”
The female ghost’s words were incoherent, and Xi Yu wasn’t surprised.
After a soul left the body, its memories would become increasingly chaotic. The longer it remained separated from its body, the more confused those memories became.
From the first moment Xi Yu saw this female ghost, he knew how long she had been dead.
Three months.
She had already begun to take on the form of a vicious ghost.
After such a long time, the corpse should have already developed a bloated, monstrous appearance from prolonged immersion in water.
Yet the corpse that had floated to the surface today, according to the police’s conclusion, had only been dead for one night.
He had seen it himself. That corpse really had only appeared in the lake yesterday.
A soul that had been separated from its body for three months…
A fresh corpse…
Xi Yu stared at the crazed, screaming female ghost. The resentment surrounding her grew increasingly dense, and water had already begun dripping from her body.
Putrid lake water dripped onto the floor.
Seeing this, Xi Yu took out a talisman and sent it toward the female ghost, suppressing the resentment covering her body.
The female ghost gradually calmed down. Her expression became vacant once more.
At her protruding belly, a little ghost was writhing inside her, as though it wanted to tear through her thin belly and descend into the human world.
It was a ghost fetus.
Xi Yu stood up and walked over to examine the female ghost.
The female ghost held her belly. A talisman was stuck to her forehead, temporarily suppressing her resentment. Driven by her instinctive maternal nature, the corners of her lips curled into a smile.
It was eerie and terrifying.
Xi Yu snapped his fingers and sent the female ghost away.
The water stains remaining on the floor instantly disappeared. Only the stench of decay remained, so he opened the window to air out the room.
“You’re just letting her leave?”
“What else?” Xi Yu casually grabbed a coat. “Her soul has been separated from her body for so long that her memories are already confused. There’s nothing useful we can ask her.”
She didn’t even know how she had died anymore.
Lu Zhixing walked over to Xi Yu.
“Are you going out?”
“The ghost fetus in her belly has already taken shape. We have to find out the truth before we can figure out how to resolve her resentment. If the resentment isn’t resolved, she can’t reincarnate. Sooner or later, she’ll take someone’s life. You go to sleep first.”
After saying that, Xi Yu stepped onto the windowsill and jumped down.
He didn’t get very far—
He turned his head.
Lu Zhixing’s hand was gripping the hem of his clothes.
“Take me with you.”
Xi Yu frowned.
“Is it convenient for you to go out with your level of fame?”
Lu Zhixing was wearing a baseball jacket today, with a large hood. He put up the hood and then put on his mask.
He was covered up quite thoroughly, leaving only his eyes exposed.
But Lu Zhixing’s eyes were too beautiful. After the rest of his features were concealed, they became even more conspicuous.
His eyelashes were like crow feathers, his eyes dark as lacquer.
They were a pair of eyes far too bright.
Xi Yu could already see his own reflection in Lu Zhixing’s pupils.
Xi Yu paused, then shook his head and said sincerely,
“No. You’re too beautiful.”
…………………………….
Lu Zhixing silently scrutinized Xi Yu.
Xi Yu had one foot on the windowsill. Because of his movement, his clothes clung tightly to his body, outlining his slender waist and long legs. His dark, lustrous eyes looked directly at Lu Zhixing.
Xi Yu had an excellent complexion. A healthy, faint pink colored his cheeks, but it couldn’t overpower the vivid color of his lips, which resembled ripe cherries, as though biting down lightly would make juice seep out.
Xi Yu was wearing such a face while telling him that he was beautiful.
His Master truly was… unchanged.
Back when the Divine Realm had still been peaceful, the Peony Fairy had gotten bored one day and organized a vote.
The subject was: the most beautiful person in the Three Realms.
Because some people held extremely high positions, everyone used their palaces as substitutes for their names.