After Marrying the Lord of the Underworld

Those portraits were filled with resentment, their eyes cold.

 

The lines in the painting began to peel off from the paper, the paper became blank, and strokes flew in the air, reassembling into faces – they floated in the air, approaching everyone.

 

A man in the team screamed, turned and fled towards the exit, but the exit was still blocked by layers of walls.

 

Similar to the daytime, at this time, the walls were really twisting like flesh and blood, and faint ripples appeared – if one had to describe this ripple, it was like a complete piece of meat being slapped hard, producing the traces of fat and meat trembling.

 

Blood kept seeping out of the wall and splashing on the ground. He rushed over and pounded the wall, but the wall lit up:

 

It’s the projector’s picture again!

 

He himself appeared in the picture.

 

To be precise, it was him in high school.

 

A line of black and white subtitles silently appeared, like the style of Chaplin’s movie:

 

[Even Ah Yao thinks that I am a student who excels in both academics and morals]

 

The man widened his eyes, stepped back in horror, shaking his head repeatedly, as if he had seen something terrifying.

 

[But what Ah Yao doesn’t know is that the words on his desk were also written by me]

 

[I tore up his homework, I dyed his schoolbag with ink]

 

In the picture, the man was holding a small knife, writing word by word on his classmate’s desk: [Go to hell.]

 

“Who are you pretending to be like this all day? If you really want to die, just go.”

 

“Depression is just pretentious”

 

“….…”

 

Next to it was the torn-up homework on the table, and the schoolbag that had been splashed with ink was smeared with black.

 

In the next picture, a slightly fat male classmate appeared, silently picking up the schoolbag and fragments of homework, staring blankly at the handwriting on the table.

 

He was Ah Yao.

 

The classroom was empty, and he bent over with difficulty, picking up the fragments of the homework bit by bit.

 

At the same time, a man stood on the award stage and received the certificate from the principal. The applause broke out, and the host said loudly. “He has always been enthusiastic about helping classmates and has created a good atmosphere in the class. He can be described as both academically and morally excellent…” His smile was very hypocritical.

 

The picture turned, and there was a large blood stain in the bathtub.

 

Ah Yao lay in it with a pale face, a sharp knife fell on the ground, and a few drops of bright red were displayed.

 

The picture of the projector stopped abruptly, and the light disappeared.

 

But the wall was surging faster, almost pressing on the man.

 

“No, no, I didn’t mean to kill him!” He shouted, “I didn’t know that depression would really kill him! I, I was just joking, there was no malice…”

 

Boom!

 

Before he finished speaking, the wall collapsed. The soft wall like flesh and blood wrapped him, he couldn’t breathe, slowly drowning in the black tide, and finally truly experienced what was the despair that was hard to break free.

 

Chen Xiaoling frowned when she saw this scene.

 

And the remaining two people in the tourist group – Bai Yifu and the team guide Li Yuanhang were scared and sat directly on the ground, looking at the flying line faces.

 

Seeing the man’s death, the faces laughed together, their mouths hooked into a weird arc, as if they had seen a satisfying revenge.

 

As the faces were about to press on, Lu Yingjiu threw out a talisman, and at the same time conjured a spell.

 

“Awooo!” Hairball appeared out of thin air, flew up and knocked over a pile of faces.

 

Then it wagged its tail, howled and ran around in the faces, disrupting their formation. And after the talisman was thrown out, it burst into a light as bright as daylight!

 

The dark lines of the faces slowly disappeared in the light, and when they were scattered by hairball, they could no longer gather together.

 

The surroundings returned to calm.

 

The faces returned to the self-portrait paper.

 

“Awooo!” Hairball returned to Lu Yingjiu’s feet, jumping around to ask for credit and reward.

 

Lu Yingjiu bent over to pick it up, and very skillfully stretched out his hand to Jing Xian.

 

Jing Xian took out a piece of jerky from the magic backpack and handed it to him.

 

Lu Yingjiu stuffed the jerky into hairball’s mouth, listened to it crunching and eating, touched its head, and didn’t forget to say a few words to Jing Xian. “You see, you should feed it this kind of healthy food on weekdays, and eat less junk food.”

 

“Since when did the skull become junk food?” Jing Xian asked.

 

“Oh,” Lu Yingjiu said, “Sorry, it should be garbage.”

 

Jing Xian: “…”

 

Hairball, who had just finished eating the dried meat given by Lu Yingjiu, stared at Jing Xian, recalling the delicious taste of the skull and various kitchen leftovers, wagged its tail frantically at him, and then tried to burrow into his arms.

 

Hairball was quite heavy, and it was tiring to hold it, so Lu Yingjiu conveniently handed it over to Jing Xian.

 

Jing Xian caught hairball with one hand and hugged Lu Yingjiu with the other, feeling that his ghost life was complete.

 

Chen Xiaoling, who had witnessed the whole process, said, “…Big demon, do you know that your face is now filled with the beautiful smile of ‘I have a wife and child’?”

 

“Isn’t it?” Jing Xian raised his eyebrows and kissed Lu Yingjiu’s cheek.

 

The atmosphere on their side was harmonious and joyful, but the two ghosts next to them were still huddled together, shivering.

 

Li Yuanhang shouted, “Hey, aren’t you exorcists… Take us out quickly…”

 

—They still didn’t realize that they were dead.

 

No matter what controlled this museum, its purpose was only one: to torture this group of tourists over and over again. The guesthouse fire case had passed half a year, and in this half year, Li Yuanhang and others must have experienced countless such deaths, countless experiences, and died because of the things they once mocked.

 

Lu Yingjiu said, “That depends on your fate, and,” he pointed meaningfully at the projector in the middle of the hall, “your past is not simple.”

 

“No, you just need to do your job for money!” Li Yuanhang was anxious and shouted, “We, we are all in such a miserable state, burned by fire and several people died, how can you be indifferent! Isn’t it too conscienceless! You just want to open your mouth and ask for a price, right? Just name a price, I can afford it!”

 

The man in white also muttered, “Your professional quality is too low, that, those few people don’t say, we are all innocent, we haven’t done anything bad.”

 

This statement was hypocritical and unpleasant.

 

Chen Xiaoling unconsciously frowned, while Lu Yingjiu was expressionless, even his heart was undisturbed.

 

He had heard too much of this kind of talk. His appearance was too friendly and handsome, and coupled with his youth, he sometimes gave people the feeling of being easy to bully. At first, he would say a few sharp sarcasms coldly, and later he was indifferent, and he didn’t even bother to raise his eyebrows.

 

These people were not worth his face.

 

He was indifferent, but Jing Xian didn’t have such a good temper.

 

In the ghost world, let alone ordinary little ghosts, even the heads of the priests, he had crushed a lot.

 

Now it’s good, even ghosts like Li Yuanhang dare to jump in front of him and threaten his wife.

 

Jing Xian’s face was calm, and his handsome face like a model remained serene. Inside, he was already planning how to retaliate. Burying in bridge piers, filling cement, and roasting in fire were all small things. Beheading and Ling Chi were too routine, or…

 

Lu Yingjiu gently pinched his hand and said with a low laugh, “Forget it, it’s not worth your effort.”

 

“How can I forget it?” Jing Xian said, “Being a ghost is about revenge. There is no morality and human relations in the ghost world. There are many ways.” After speaking, he glanced at the two people.

 

The two of them were still complaining, but after being stared at by him, they felt a chill and couldn’t utter a word, shaking even more.

 

They looked at Jing Xian again.

 

His standing posture was casual, his waist was straight, and his temperament and eyebrows were very aggressive…

 

Then they realized belatedly: This doesn’t look like a good person!

 

At first, they thought Lu Yingjiu looked easy to talk to, easy to get along with, and was a good person at first glance.

 

Now, upon closer inspection, the good person was being held in the arms of the bad person, and the two of them looked like they were in love, and the unidentified furry creature in his arms was still baring its teeth at them!

 

This is a bad family!

 

A family of bad eggs!

 

They didn’t dare to speak anymore, and huddled together like chicks.

 

Lu Yingjiu looked at the museum again and sighed lightly, “Anyway, the problem with this museum still needs to be solved.”

 

Chen Xiaoling looked around and said, “You mean, the museum is controlled by ghosts?” She sneered and looked at Li Yuanhang and the others, “To be honest, I don’t feel too sad about people like this being retaliated against.”

 

Li Yuanhang was about to retort, but when he saw the bad family, he wilted again.

 

“You could say that,” Lu Yingjiu said, “But if we let it go, if one day it gets out of control, it might hurt innocent tourists. I need to spend a few minutes looking for the residual yin energy, then track…”

 

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

 

Because Jing Xian’s face was full of “Ask me quickly!”

 

Lu Yingjiu continued, “Then track it down and eliminate it, or resolve its resentment… Jing Xian, stop making that face, I’ll ask you: where is the ghost?”

 

Jing Xian immediately pointed in a direction. “Over there.”

 

“I can’t stand you two.” Chen Xiaoling muttered, “Just keep feeding me dog food.”

 

After saying that, she stepped forward, wearing small high heels, and took the lead in going there.

 

Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian also stepped forward, and Li Yuanhang and the man in the white shirt hurriedly followed them, looking around nervously.

 

The direction Jing Xian pointed to was an exhibition hall on the edge of the museum, with the theme [Talking Animals].

 

Around the exhibition hall were models of small animals, cute in shape.

 

Black words were written on the wall: [I dare not go to the market with live animals, every time I go to the market, I can hear them talking to me.]

 

[The chicken says, if you dare to eat us, we will peck you to death with our sharp beaks.]

 

[The rabbit says, don’t eat us, we can cry]

 

[The fish says, I can’t breathe]

 

[Even the ants on the roadside will tell me that a child drowned their queen with water]

 

Seeing these sentences, Li Yuanhang unconsciously slowed down, looking a bit panicked.

 

He really wanted to turn around and leave, but he didn’t dare to leave Lu Yingjiu and the others, hesitating.

 

Until a click! appeared in his ear.

 

There was another light on the wall, and the projector appeared out of thin air, playing the picture: [My name is Wenwen]

 

[I like talking to the rabbit, Little Snow]

 

Li Yuanhang’s hand trembled.

 

With the lessons of the previous people, he immediately knew that this time the retaliation was against him!

 

He turned around and ran!

 

Bang!

 

Before he had run a few steps, Li Yuanhang hit something, swaying.

 

At some point, the giant rabbit model in the exhibition hall had moved its position and blocked the exit. It was one and a half people high, holding a carrot in its hand, and its cute round eyes were looking down at him from above.

 

Li Yuanhang began to tremble, and still wanted to try to find a gap from it and escape from the exhibition hall.

 

He had just stepped forward when he suddenly screamed.

 

—A model of a chicken appeared above the rabbit’s head, lowered its body, and pecked his head hard.

 

Blood flowed from his forehead, he stepped back several steps, dizzy, and actually turned back to the screen of the projector.

 

The projector was still turning, the light was bleak, and the picture was of a little girl in a white dress.

 

The sun was shining brightly, Wenwen was squatting in front of the cage in the yard, talking to the white rabbit. “How’s the weather today?”

 

“Little Snow, why aren’t you happy?”

 

“I know.”

 

“Hahaha, your story is so funny!”

 

The door of the house opened, and her mother poked her head out. “How are you talking to the rabbit again?”

 

“It asked me first, how was the exam at school today?” Wenwen looked up, blinking, “Today the sparrow also asked me, why did I change the hair band, it still likes the original red one.”

 

If it were other children, her words would be innocent and full of children’s imagination.

 

But the seriousness and stubbornness on her face were very different.

 

As if she really believed that she had heard the animals talking.

 

“Animals don’t talk.” The mother said helplessly, turning her body, “Did you say hello to Uncle Li today?”

 

Young Li Yuanhang appeared, leaning against the door frame, waving at the girl with a smile.

 

The picture turned, and Li Yuanhang married Wenwen’s mother.

 

At the wedding, he held the girl’s hand and said ‘I will definitely take good care of you when you grow up, and you will be my own daughter in the future’.

 

However, life was not smooth, and Wenwen’s temper became more and more strange.

 

She didn’t like to talk to people, teachers and classmates all said she was very introverted, and only liked to talk to herself.

 

One day in class, she suddenly stood up and shouted at the birds outside the window, “You can’t eat the flowers in the school! It was not easy for Uncle to grow them!”

 

After a while, she nodded and muttered to herself, “Well, it’s good to know you’re wrong. You’re good birds.”

 

The teacher began to talk to her family frequently.

 

Her mother was busy with work, and most of the time it was Li Yuanhang who took the time to come.

 

At first, he was still active, saying that he would definitely cooperate with the teacher and educate the child well. As the number of times increased and Wenwen did a lot of strange things, he became impatient. Perhaps fundamentally, he felt that coming to school again and again because of the child, apologizing to the teacher again and again, was really humiliating.

 

The teacher hinted tactfully, “I think, you can take the child to see a doctor, this kind of delusion-induced auditory hallucination is not normal.”

 

“What could be wrong?” Li Yuanhang sneered.

 

After that, his attitude became worse and worse, and he kept saying to the child, “Can’t you let me worry less?”

 

“You’re falling behind in your exams all the time, what are you thinking? Are you stupid?”

 

“All you know is talking to animals, is there something wrong with your brain?”

 

The girl bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes.

 

“But,” she said, “they really can talk.”

 

Li Yuanhang scolded her for being stupid again.

 

His temper became more and more irritable day by day, and Wenwen became more and more silent.

 

She would spend hours talking to the rabbit in the yard.

 

“Little Snow,” she said, “why aren’t you happy today?”

 

The rabbit remained as silent as ever, nibbling on a carrot, looking at her with big eyes.

 

“Um.” Wenwen said again, “I don’t like him either, but I really like you.”

 

…When the videotape played to this point, Li Yuanhang’s face was already pale.

 

Fear overwhelmed him again, regardless of the pain from his forehead and burns, he shouted at Lu Yingjiu, “Save me quickly! Why are you just watching, save me!”

 

Lu Yingjiu just looked at him expressionlessly. Chen Xiaoling crossed her arms and was indifferent, while Jing Xian was concentrating on Lu Yingjiu, not even giving him a glance.

 

The picture turned.

 

At midnight, Wenwen quietly got off her little bed, ran to the corridor to pick up the phone, and spoke into it.

 

She would talk for an hour or two. She invented an imaginary friend for herself, communicating every night via the phone.

 

She was very careful, but one night, she was caught by Li Yuanhang, who came home drunk.

 

“Damn!” Li Yuanhang was startled, “Are you sick? This phone line has been disconnected long ago, who are you talking to?”

 

Wenwen was scared into tears. “But my friend…”

 

“Friend, friend, what friend?!” Li Yuanhang cursed, “You are really sick, do you want to be beaten? You don’t have friends, the teacher told me, you don’t have friends at all!”

 

Wenwen, with tears in her eyes, sobbed, “I, I really…”

 

Slap!

 

She received a harsh slap.

 

Li Yuanhang, drunk, his face all red, “Friend, friend, friend, all day talking about your friend! How many times have I told you not to talk to that dead rabbit, why don’t you listen! You are deliberately against me! You can be a normal person, do you think this game is funny? Do you think you have won me?”

 

“No!” Wenwen shouted, “I…”

 

“Still talking back?!” Li Yuanhang glared with his goldfish-like eyes, “You argue with me every day! Do you like rabbits, I will kill that little beast now!”

 

He went out to the yard with the courage of alcohol, the rabbit was sleeping quietly in the cage.

 

He grabbed it out, disregarding its desperate struggle, and choked its neck. The violent beating of blood and pulse was at his fingertips, which was a life’s desperate resistance. The girl screamed and rushed up, kicking and biting him, but could not prevent the light in those eyes from disappearing—

 

Accompanied by a sob, or perhaps there was no sound at all.

 

The rabbit was strangled to death by him.

 

Li Yuanhang cursed and threw it aside, muttering “This should be quiet now”, and then went to bed.

 

The next day, when his mother had made breakfast, she couldn’t find Wenwen anywhere.

 

She was gone.

 

And she never appeared again in the following days.

 

The projector reached the end, freezing on the rabbit’s eyes after death.

 

Without any luster, and was pitch black.

 

Li Yuanhang suddenly felt a chill on his back, as if something was leaning against him.

 

He turned around tremblingly.

 

The rabbit model was standing behind him, stretching its paws towards his neck… and choked him hard!

 

He struggled constantly, but in the face of absolute power, he was as weak as a lamb to be slaughtered. His heartbeat accelerated, his blood couldn’t reach his brain, and a dark curtain appeared in the depths of his eyes.

 

Before he died, he only saw the rabbit’s mouth opening and closing.

 

“My name is Xiao Xue.” It said, “I am Wenwen’s best friend.”

 

Li Yuanhang used all his strength to let out a final sob, and then his head slumped.

 

The rabbit silently watched him.

 

A few seconds later, everyone’s eyes blurred, and the models of the rabbit and the chicken returned to their original positions, and the exhibition hall returned to normal.

 

“These one by one,” Chen Xiaoling murmured, “are all bad enough, they really deserve it.”

 

Lu Yingjiu was about to say something, but was suddenly hugged by Jing Xian, who whispered in his ear, “Look at the second floor.”

 

He looked up.

 

From this angle, one could just see the southeast corridor on the second floor. They had walked through this area before, mostly offices.

 

At this moment, under the night sky, under the moonlight shining through the museum glass, a new office appeared.

 

The nameplate read: [Zhang Chengzhou].

 

It was the Zhang family member they were looking for.

 

Lu Yingjiu had a thought in his heart and looked at the remaining man in white clothes.

 

The man was completely panicked, mumbling, “Who hasn’t done some guilty things, who hasn’t done some guilty things…”

 

“There are guilty things.” Lu Yingjiu said, “But normal people can still distinguish between good and evil, they have principles, and you don’t.”

 

After saying this, he ignored the man in white and prepared to go directly to the office on the second floor.

 

The stairs were long, layer upon layer upwards.

 

He was step by step approaching the clues of the truth.

 

Heavenly Way, sacrifice, the four great aristocratic families…

 

He had never had contact with the Zhang family, and it was hard to imagine what kind of mentality they had to want to return him to the Heavenly Way in exchange for peace and prosperity.

 

Lu Yingjiu felt as if something was blocking his heart.

 

Not only him, but Jing Xian next to him also looked restless.

 

He whispered to him again, “Actually, I also have a guilty conscience.”

 

“What?” Lu Yingjiu slightly broke free from his heavy thoughts.

 

It’s strange that every time Jing Xian spoke, he could successfully pull him out of his emotions. Perhaps this was the unique ability of a mature man who held the script of love, the kind that worked all day long.

 

Lu Yingjiu asked, “Did you use hairball as a kitchen waste bin again?”

 

“No,” Jing Xian’s voice was even lower, “That night, didn’t I tell you ‘I’ll just rub it and not come in’?”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “…Hmm.”

 

It feels like the topic is starting to deviate.

 

Jing Xian said, “I also told you that you can trust me, I’m very trustworthy.”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “…Hmm.”

 

“That was a lie.” Jing Xian quickly said, “If you hadn’t fallen asleep early that night due to lack of energy, I would have had direct zero-distance contact with you, but unfortunately you fell asleep too quickly and I didn’t have time to act. It’s really a pity. I still feel regretful when I think about it now.”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “…..”

 

Lu Yingjiu: “……..….”

 

Lu Yingjiu said, “Then you should indeed feel guilty.”

 

“No,” Jing Xian said, “I’m not guilty because of my crooked thoughts, I’m guilty because I didn’t really take action to make you happy sooner, I failed as a husband.”

 

Lu Yingjiu said, “…I want to call the police.”