After Marrying the Lord of the Underworld

Four o’clock in the morning.

 

It was quiet inside the room, but there was still the sound of rain falling outside, hitting the windows and eaves with a pitter patter.

 

Lu Yingjiu was fast asleep.

 

Usually, his sleep was not very good, and his productive sleep time was not very long. Most of the time, he was half asleep during the long night, and would wake up at the slightest movement.

 

That’s why he always took the opportunity to catch up on sleep during the day.

 

It was rare for him to sleep well like now.

 

But Jing Xian didn’t.

 

Ghosts did not need sleep, and sleep was used to forcibly pass the time.

 

Jing Xian went to bed before to maintain the false identity of “human” in front of Lu Yingjiu. But now that he had been exposed, there was no point in pretending.

 

He woke up after three or four hours of sleep, and now there was nothing but the sound of rain and wind outside.

 

Everyone was asleep, and the whole world seemed to come to a standstill with nothing that would likely happen.

 

It’s like a story where the pause button was pressed, and all the actors have temporarily left the stage. The red curtain was slowly lowered, and the velvet-like folds covered everything. It would take several hours of sitting in the audience to wait for the good play to start again.

 

Jing Xian lay in bed and thought: @human beings always waste a lot of time, it is really inefficient.

 

Obviously their lifespan is limited, and unlike priests who have the capital to waste their lives, they are still hindered by miscellaneous matters.

 

Waste time relaxing, otherwise, stress will lead to hair loss, waste time sleeping, otherwise the mind will collapse, unlike ghosts who can work for hundreds of years without rest, do menial tasks, just for a good reincarnation.

 

There is no day or night in the ghost world, the pace is fast, life and death happen every moment, and the noisy chaotic play never stops. He sat in the highest position, watching countless disputes with a cold eye, without much fluctuation in his heart.

 

But……

 

He turned his head and looked at Lu Yingjiu.

 

It was dark inside the room, but darkness was never an obstacle to him.

 

He could see the profile of Lu Yingjiu’s fair side face, with very light shadows on his eyelashes. Occasionally they would tremble slightly, and his heartbeat seemed to tremble too.

 

…If it is this slow pace, then he is willing.

 

I don’t know if it’s the physical body, but all kinds of fresh and unprecedented emotions are rushing out when facing Lu Yingjiu.

 

Whether it’s the boredom of the night, the joy of getting along, wandering around in the slaughterhouse, or cautiously descending down the mountain under the rain, all were good…even the bustle of the restaurant, the smell of disinfectant in the nursing home, the tactile sensation of sticky mud and water between the pants legs, all were also new experiences.

 

He felt that he was experiencing little by little what it meant to be “alive”.

 

But none of this was as interesting as counting the eyelashes of Lu Yingjiu.

 

Jing Xian really had nothing to do in the past few dozen minutes. He had already counted Lu Yingjiu’s eyelashes several times – this activity was very effective in relieving his boredom, and he even felt that he could count them again.

 

—One root, two roots, three roots, four roots…

 

He kept counting until Jing Xian forgot to count. He thought about the big diamond ring again.

 

——In fact, he has really been researching gifts for a long time, and he has been planning it since before meeting Lu Yingjiu.

 

Before they met, he was advised by Black and White Impermanence.

 

When the two impermanence went to the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, they would see Lu Yingjiu several times.

 

The first time, Lu Yingjiu stomped on a little ghost’s head and crushed it. The full moon hung high in the sky. There was no expression on his delicate and beautiful face, then he took out a men’s handkerchief and slowly wiped the blood on his hands.

 

The second time, Lu Yingjiu took hairball and walked slowly down the long street. The evening breeze blew leisurely, just like an ordinary person walking his dog in the cool breeze… except hairball was holding a fresh ghost hand in its mouth.

 

For the third time, Lu Yingjiu finally got tired and sat on a bench to rest. If the one who brought him tea and water was not a thousand-year-old demon he had just captured, the scene would have been relatively peaceful.

 

The impermanence looked at Jing Xian and then exchanged glances——

 

This person is really too dangerous. No matter how you look at it, it’s worrying that their Ghost King will be domestically abused!

 

As expected of the Ghost King, even the object is so unique!

 

In order to save the Ghost King who might be violently beaten, Black Impermanence spoke with his long tongue and suggested very tactfully that people in the mortal world still like to take it step by step, not to mention, they were still a one human and one ghost…and thus should be cautious when giving gifts.

 

This became the problem of the ghost world.

 

Not only did Jing Xian think about it himself, but he also ordered ghosts and spirits to help him think about it. The group of demons and monsters racked their brains, but did not fully understand the aesthetics of the mortal world.

 

Little ghost A: “Give head. A bloody head is the most fun. Can be kicked like a ball.”

 

Little ghost B: “I think giving a bag of eyeballs must be very masculine.”

 

Little ghost C: “Give dentures? Can be used until you are old, more romantic.”

 

Jing Xian: “…”

 

He knew something was wrong even by thinking with his hair.

 

At the moment, Jing Xian was tossing and turning on the bed in the hotel, still struggling with this problem, thinking about how to find out from Lu Yingjiu’s mouth.

 

The rain became louder and the wind pounded against the windows.

 

Lu Yingjiu was still asleep, unaware that Jing Xian was thinking about so many things over and over again. There was a long list of gifts for him, ranging from roses to marshmallows, from diamond rings to skulls.

 

Until the clock in the room silently pointed to six o’clock.

 

Thud thud thud!

 

A knock on the door broke the peace of the rainy night. Lu Yingjiu’s eyelashes fluttered and he turned over.

 

Thud thud thud!

 

A few more sounds.

 

Lu Yingjiu woke up, with his eyes still closed, he said vaguely, “Jing Xian, go open the door.”

 

It had been a very tiring day, going up the mountain and looking for spiders, he was too lazy to open his eyes. He also knew that Jing Xian would definitely wake up before him, so he simply let Jing Xian deal with it.

 

Unexpectedly, Jing Sian said: “No.”

 

Lu Yingjiu:?

 

Jing Xian: “I’ll wait until you get up before opening the door. I won’t let other men see you sleeping!”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “…”

 

He was embarrassed to tell Jing Xian that many people had seen his sleeping face, from high school roommates to colleagues in the ghost exorcism world, thus there was no need to be so cautious.

 

Feeling helpless, therefore he had to sit up groggily, yawn and put on his slippers.

 

Jing Xian then went over and opened the door.

 

It was the red clothed man outside, and beside him was a very thin man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

 

The man in red clothes was full of guilt. “Sorry, I’m very sorry, did I bother you?”

 

Jing Xian was really unhappy with their interruption, but he forcibly suppressed his temper and asked, “What happened?”

 

Lu Yingjiu slowly swayed to his side and turned on the light.

 

—It was too bright all of a sudden, and both of them squinted their eyes.

 

“It’s like this,” the red-clothed man pointed at the gold-rimmed glasses, “He is my friend, and he also came here to do live broadcast. He also encountered something, so I thought I would come to you and ask.”

 

The attitude of the gold-rimmed glasses was quite good, and he kept saying how sorry he was for disturbing them.

 

Lu Yingjiu held his hand on the door frame and said, “Let’s hear what happened.”

 

His tone was sleepy, but his head was actually awake, however it didn’t show in his actions in time.

 

Jing Xian stood side by side with him, reaching out to hug his shoulders so that he could lean against him. In the end, he was stopped by Lu Yingjiu’s look – which probably meant that there was someone here, so don’t mess around.

 

A shoulder hug was really too obvious.

 

Therefore Jing Xian’s hand changed course and held his waist, which was unable to be seen due to the door frame.

 

Lu Yingjiu was so tired that he didn’t bother to argue with him, just glared at him and that was it. The delicate feeling under his hands was excellent. Jing Xian was satisfied and became a little more patient with the two people in front of him.

 

The man with gold-rimmed glasses didn’t know why, but the man who opened the door for him had a stern look in his eyes just now, but suddenly became much gentler.

 

But this was a good thing after all. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued, “I have a friend whom I can’t contact since yesterday afternoon. I called him more than a dozen times and went to his room, but there was no one.”

 

Lu Yingjiu asked, “Have you gone out? The signal is not good in many places here.”

 

“No, no,” the man said. “Before he disappeared, he told me that he was going to play Pen Fairy – the kind that live broadcast viewers like to watch. I have some doubts whether the Pen Fairy has something to do with his disappearance. I just went to watch his live broadcast replay, can I show it to you too?”

 

He added, “Oh yes, you can call me Aaron, and my friend’s name is Zhao Ziming.”

 

Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly.

 

Aaron—looks like a layman, I guess his friend is too.

 

Although summoning spirits during the day was likely to fail, with the things that were happening in the nursing home, this Zhao Ziming was purely seeking death.

 

He said, “You should know that something happened on the mountain, right?”

 

“I know, I know.” Aaron nodded repeatedly, “But what’s more embarrassing is that Zhao Ziming is a contracted spirit detective anchor and he has a fixed monthly live broadcast duration. He still has 15 hours to go this month, but since the mudslide trapped him, he had to fiddle with something by himself, otherwise the money would be deducted. He said that he had played Pen Fairy several times before, and nothing happened, so he thought it would be no problem this time…”

 

Lu Yingjiu sighed silently.

 

“Show me the live replay first.”

 

He let the two men into the room.

 

Aaron sat down and opened the replay screen.

 

At the beginning of the video, there was a man with a beard.

 

He was sitting at the table. The weather outside was gloomy and it looked like rain was coming.

 

Counting the time, it was probably when Lu Yingjiu and the others came down the mountain.

 

“Brothers who are new to the live broadcast room, what Brother Zhao is going to play today is Pen Fairy.” Zhao Ziming almost turned his face to the camera, “If you like it, please follow it, please follow it to avoid getting lost!”

 

There were a lot of barrages, all urging him to hurry up.

 

Playing Pen Fairy alone would be a bit troublesome. Zhao Ziming put the camera on the table, then crossed his left and right hands, holding a pen between them. On the paper, numbers 1 to 10 were written in sequence, as well as a “yes” and “no”.

 

“Pen Fairy, Pen Fairy,” Zhao Ziming said, “I am your previous life, and you are my present life. If you want to renew your relationship with me, please draw a circle on the paper.”

 

After a few seconds, the pen moved slowly and made a mark on the paper.

 

The barrage was flooding the screen like crazy.

 

[Anchor, continue]

 

[I think he is writing it himself]

 

[It’s too fake]

 

[I think maybe…the anchor is not in a small mountain village. According to common sense, there should be many ghosts]

 

[If you think it’s fake, then just leave]

 

“Pen Fairy Pen Fairy,” Zhao Ziming continued, “how many days will it take before we can leave the village?”

 

His hands holding the pen stopped at “3”.

 

“Pen Fairy Pen Fairy, is there a ghost in this hotel?”

 

The pen stopped at “yes”.

 

A barrage floated over: [Brother Zhao, help me ask, can I find a job this year]

 

Zhao Ziming asked, “Pen Fairy Pen Fairy, can this viewer whose ID is ‘Orange’ find a job?”

 

The pen jumped repeatedly between “yes” and “no”.

 

Zhao Ziming said, “It seems that Pen Fairy is not very certain either. How about this, can you give something to the Pen Fairy so that it can bless you?”

 

‘Orange’ immediately rewarded him with thirty yuan.

 

The Pen Fairy’s pen immediately went to “yes”.

 

Lu Yingjiu: “…”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “………….”

 

He was immediately awakened by this operation, and his sleepiness went away: he had seen a fake Pen Fairy, but he had never seen one that was so outrageously fake.

 

Zhao Ziming directed and acted in this way for a while. Those who didn’t believe in him left early, and the remaining IQ tax was almost paid as well.

 

“Pen Fairy Pen Fairy,” he said, “that’s it for today.”

 

Then the pen stopped moving.

 

Zhao Ziming put down his pen and said with a smile, “Today I have experienced the Pen Fairy. It’s quite interesting. The key is that it’s very accurate. Ugh——I’m sorry——”

 

He suddenly retched and turned pale.

 

[What’s wrong with Brother Zhao? Choking?]

 

[It can’t be that Pen Fairy hasn’t been sent away yet, I’m a little scared…]

 

[The big scammer is still playing? Really convincing]

 

Zhao Ziming patted his chest and finally calmed down. He forced a smile and said, “I don’t know what I ate. I feel a little uncomfortable. Dear viewers, please wait a moment. I’ll go to the bathroom.”

 

He walked into the bathroom while retching, and then there was a violent vomiting sound as well as a clattering sound, as if he had vomited a lot of things in the sink.

 

[Hey – I heard the sound. Did the anchor not turn off the mic?]

 

[Yes, disgusting]

 

[Go away go away, can’t stand it anymore]

 

Zhao Ziming vomited for a while and finally stopped.

 

The sound of water came and disappeared quickly.

 

Everyone thought he was coming back.

 

But he didn’t.

 

For the next half hour, until the camera ran out of power, he didn’t come back.

 

The video could directly capture the bathroom entrance, door and windows, but there was no person in them.

 

Aaron turned off the screen and said, “I watched the video carefully, he really didn’t come out of the bathroom. I just went to his room and saw that the bathroom window was open. His room is on the first floor, I thought, did he go out through the window… But it doesn’t make sense, is he crazy?”

 

Lu Yingjiu asked, “Are there any other abnormalities in the room?”

 

“No.” Aaron said.

 

Lu Yingjiu said, “Take us to his room, we’ll have a look.”

 

5 minutes later.

 

Pushing open the door of “109”, several hiking bags and various photography equipment were piled against the wall. There were messy shirts and jackets on the bed, as well as things like toilet water and cold-repelling oil, and a wallet that was casually thrown on the pillow.

 

Zhao Ziming was obviously not good at tidying up. The room was chaotic, and even the two pairs of socks hanging on the back of the chair were muddy.

 

Lu Yingjiu pushed open the bathroom door.

 

Clean, nothing.

 

Except for a spider on the ground that was trampled to death. It was the size of a palm, and its green sap had dried up.

 

Seeing his eyes falling on it, Aaron explained, “It was behind the door when I came in, and was trampled to death by my foot.”

 

The man in red clothes said, “Fortunately, it didn’t bite you. Otherwise, you would have to lie down on the bed like my friend.”

 

“Yes, yes.” Aaron was also frightened for a while.

 

Lu Yingjiu glanced at the sink, “Didn’t he vomit, why was there no residue?”

 

“This, this must have been washed away by him, right?” Aaron said, “Otherwise, it would be disgusting…”

 

Lu Yingjiu looked at the bathroom carefully and then walked into the shower.

 

Inside were wet towels, half-used shower gel and facial cleanser, and a stick of toothpaste hanging next to it like a pickled vegetable.

 

The window was indeed open as Aaron said, and one could see thick grass and a few small flowers. Rainwater fell in and wet the floor.

 

Lu Yingjiu stepped on the edge of the window and flipped out.

 

The strong wind mixed with the rain, immediately made him wet again. It’s almost seven o’clock now, and it should be daybreak, but all the sunlight was blocked by dark clouds.

 

He didn’t care about the rain on his body, and walked a few steps to look around: going out from here, one can go directly to the back of the village or to the mountain.

 

He wiped the water from his face and flipped back inside again.

 

As soon as he entered, he saw Jing Xian holding three clean towels and placing them on him.

 

Lu Yingjiu was forced to hold up several towels and said, “Assuming that Zhao Ziming is a sane person. I think there are three possibilities. One is that Zhao Ziming saw something in the bathroom and wanted to escape, so he could only go out through the window and didn’t go back to the hotel because he was afraid.”

 

Aaron shuddered. “It can’t be true that Pen Fairy wasn’t sent away properly, right?”

 

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Lu Yingjiu said, “The Pen Fairy he played was just controlled by himself and scamming rewards. However, I don’t know if there are other things that took advantage of this.” He asked again, “Is Zhao Ziming afraid of spiders?”

 

“I’m not quite sure about this. I haven’t heard him say that. Do you mean that he was scared by the spider and climbed out of the window?”

 

“No. If it’s just this, it doesn’t explain why he didn’t go back to the room.” Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly, “Show me the replay again.”

 

Aaron sent the URL. Lu Yingjiu sat on the bed, turned it to triple speed, and watched it again.

 

The clock in the room was included in the video, and there was also a corresponding time on the lower right side of the video. He paid attention to it.

 

Time was continuous.

 

There were no deletions in this video.

 

Jing Xian sat next to him, then Lu Yingjiu said to him, “I wonder if Aaron cut the video and murdered Zhao Ziming.”

 

Jing Xian echoed, “Yes, it’s such a pity.”

 

Aaron: “…Have you two forgotten that I am right next to you?”

 

Lu Yingjiu added, “The second possibility is that the camera ran out of power when he left the room, so it was not captured. For example, he may have fainted while vomiting and didn’t wake up until more than half an hour later….”

 

Aaron: “Then why can’t I contact him?”

 

“There is too little information and it is not clear.” Lu Yingjiu said, “If it is the first two possibilities, then Zhao Ziming may still be saved.”

 

“…What is the third hypothesis?”

 

“There is another possibility. Zhao Ziming never left this room.”

 

Aaron was stunned. “How is this possible? This room is not big. Could he be hiding under the bed or in the closet?”

 

Lu Yingjiu didn’t answer.

 

There was a box of disposable gloves on the sink. He pulled out a pair and brought them to his hands.

 

Then he squatted down, grabbed the trampled spider, and tried to turn it over. The spider was about the size of a palm, and it was almost crushed by Aaron’s feet. Green juice was smeared on its eight long legs.

 

Lu Yingjiu turned it over. Fortunately, the spider’s abdomen was still intact: a human face.

 

Its expression was of agony and savagery, as if crying out.

 

It looked very much like Zhao Ziming’s face.