Look What You’ve Done!
Gu Daosheng shot Nan Ying a fierce glare. Why did he always have to run his mouth when there was nothing to say?
Now they were in this mess, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Gu Daosheng had been raised on a proper mountain, “sipping dew and eating fresh flowers.” He could play the part of the aloof and pure, but he couldn’t answer such filthy questions. His face flushed halfway just from hearing them; how could he possibly say the words himself?
This was beyond bullying.
Besides, Lou Hongchen was a Sui, a ghost. He wasn’t even human anymore. How could he still be thinking about the things humans did?
Did he want to fill “Gu Daosheng” with his yin energy?
When he jumped off the building and smashed his body into six pieces, didn’t he crush that part of himself to a pulp?
Gu Daosheng couldn’t suppress the instinctive shame welling up within him, but he felt even more infuriated.
To be toyed with by a Sui… how could this be allowed?
Under Gu Daosheng’s glare, Nan Ying shrank back guiltily, fully accepting his title as “Jinx.” Although it wasn’t a “curse,” his big mouth had still made the situation incredibly awkward.
Afraid that Gu Daosheng would get so angry he’d dump him on the spot and refuse to play along, Nan Ying cautiously took his hand.
Standing at just a few dozen centimeters tall, the Ghost Infant could only see Gu Daosheng’s fingers and the back of his hand.
They were completely red.
“Then I’ll ask a different question, one that won’t put you on the spot.” Lou Hongchen stared infatuatedly at Gu Daosheng’s flushed neck. This look of anger and shame was truly enticing.
“Do you want to go to bed with me, or with my father?”
Gu Daosheng: “…”
Is there even a fucking difference?!
Nan Ying bared his fangs for him, his nose wrinkling fiercely.
He was ready to sacrifice his life for his master at any moment.
But if he actually had to go up and fight… he’d rather not.
“Wuu… wuu-ying…” The child’s sobbing sounded wretchedly, suddenly and eerily.
Gu Daosheng looked down and thought, I’m not even sobbing, so why are you?
The Ghost Infant looked up:?
It wasn’t the Ghost Infant who was sobbing.
The split willow tree was billowing thick smoke. Perhaps it found dying at the hands of a “jinx” too absurd; the old willow refused to accept it and wanted to smoke everyone’s eyes into tears. Guided by the wind, the smoke drifted east and seeped into the room.
A veil descended over his vision. Gu Daosheng squinted, waving the smoke away, and saw a hazy figure:
A small creature, forty or fifty centimeters long, wrapped in layer upon layer of white cloth from head to toe. It was so tightly bound, he couldn’t tell if it was wrapped in bedsheets or the white funeral banners from an ancestral hall.
It looked remarkably “adept at dancing with long sleeves.”
Though not particularly graceful, it resembled a cute mummy.
What kind of monstrosity is this?!
Gu Daosheng’s scalp prickled with a cute sort of horror.
The “mummy” wriggled and whimpered, its posture twisted as it struggled to arch over the threshold. Its legs were too short, and its movements too restricted; with a splat, it fell onto the floor.
It landed chin-first.
Only after it held its breath, tucked its belly, and cried from the depths of its dantian did its whimpers turn into a loud “Awooo.”
Gu Daosheng finally recognized the voice. It was Lou Mingzhang!
He turned to Lou Hongchen, his face pale with shock. “How could you do this to him?”
As expected of a vengeful ghost, he thought. What a cruel heart.
Treating a child like a toy.
Lou Hongchen asked, “What’s wrong? Isn’t this a good look?”
Gu Daosheng rushed over and scooped up Lou Mingzhang, who was still crawling on the floor.
The little one had fallen and couldn’t get up, just like a tiny turtle, comically flailing all four limbs. Now, with his limbs bound in cloth, he wriggled stubbornly, looking like a living lump of white mud.
Lou Mingzhang, his mouth stuffed with white cloth, was in a slightly better position than if he’d been eating a mouthful of mud. He tried to speak, but only managed muffled grunts and whimpers, tears streaming down his face.
Gu Daosheng had never taken care of a child before; his Master had always been the one taking care of him as a child. He stood there, scratching his head and tearing his hair out in frustration, completely at a loss as to what to do with the mummy-wrapped child.
He spent ages just trying to figure out where the white cloth had started.
Lou Hongchen watched him crouch on the ground, his ankles exposed, calves taut. Every inch of his skin, every curve of his body, was exquisitely shaped. As he bent over, his clothes tightened slightly, tracing the faint outline of his waist.
The pervert stared at him with a perverted gaze, his hunger unsated. He silently closed the distance, step by step, then leaned down, picked up a strip of white cloth, and handed it to Gu Daosheng.
“It’s right here.”
The hand was tinged with a faint blue. Gu Daosheng could see it in his peripheral vision, reaching over his shoulder and nearly forming a circle, trapping him within.
Gu Daosheng didn’t even need to touch the hand to know it had no warmth, only ice. Veins lay dormant on the back of the hand, coiling and twisting upward before disappearing into a black sleeve.
His gaze followed the sleeve up to Lou Hongchen’s broad chest, which seemed capable of holding anything, a reliable place for the people he wanted to protect to lean on. Next was a face of such masterfully sculpted beauty that it seemed to be planting a flag and cheering wildly right on Gu Daosheng’s aesthetic sweet spot.
…Being a lecher is a dangerous thing.
Gu Daosheng widened his eyes. That would probably help him snap out of it.
And it worked. With that single glare, the sun in the sky seemed to wobble, momentarily blinding the lecherous bastard’s dog eyes.
The pallid hue of Lou Hongchen’s hand now seemed to have spread to his face. His once-ordinary features suddenly turned grim and terrifying. Only then did Gu Daosheng truly grasp the fact that this man was dead, and a Ghost at that.
The beat of his retreat drum sounded instantly.
Despite having been a Heavenly Master for eighteen years, ever since his Master had taken him in, Gu Daosheng had never actually caught a single ghost.
There were no vengeful ghosts on the mountain, nothing to catch, nothing to exorcise. Only wanderers who had died in the wilderness with nowhere to go, adventurers who found their lives too dull and sought thrills on obscure peaks, and infants abandoned at birth and left to die.
They were wandering spirits. When his Master encountered them, they couldn’t even remember who they had been in life. They were harmless, and there were only a few of them anyway.
When faced with such spirits, his Master would simply say a few words to guide them onto the path of reincarnation.
Gu Daosheng had been taught the “gentle” school of ghost-catching. No matter how formidable, profound, or charlatan-like his outward appearance might be, his actual skills boiled down to just two or three moves, about as threatening as a kitten’s scratch.
If he ever encountered a truly vengeful ghost, he would probably start by trying to reason with it: “Mr. Vengeful Ghost, please, turn back from the brink.”
The moment the ghost made a move, he would take off running.
How could he possibly deal with a Sui?
He had never even seen one. Though, technically, they could all be called vengeful ghosts.
And that time he chased a Ghost Infant down the mountain? Was that because he was formidable? No, it was because he recognized the Ghost Infant as a child and had the sheer gall to bully someone smaller than himself!
“Oh, thank you,” Gu Daosheng replied dryly, taking the white cloth strip. His heart was already in his throat.
“Are you afraid?” Lou Hongchen pressed his hand onto Gu Daosheng’s shoulder, sliding it downward. “Why? … You’re shaking.”
“I’m just lightheaded from hunger! I haven’t eaten yet!” Gu Daosheng slapped away the wandering hand, scooped up Lou Mingzhang, and bolted.
To prevent his stepson from suspecting he already knew he wasn’t human, Gu Daosheng called out a polite invitation from a distance: “Come over for a meal sometime. I’d love to eat with you.”
Lou Hongchen watched his retreating without moving, not attempting to follow.
“It’s not time yet,” he murmured. “Too much movement, and this place will collapse… It’s not time yet… I can’t do anything.”
Lou Hongchen’s eyes seemed to twitch as he whispered to himself, “Obtain. I haven’t obtained him yet. I must obtain him. I must obtain, must obtain, must obtain, must obtain…”
Gu Daosheng vanished around the corner of the main gate in a flash. Lou Hongchen’s face twisted slightly with suppressed emotion.
This distortion seemed to spread to Gu Daosheng’s own face, twisting his features into a grimace.
“Nan Ying, I hate, you!” Gu Daosheng sprinted away, running like a madman. He felt a rare, desperate lack of security and missed his Master so much his heart ached. “You dragged me to this godforsaken place crawling with ghosts! How is this any different from killing me outright? I’m only eighteen! I was raised in luxury; the worst hardship I ever faced was being pinched on the cheek by a wandering sister-ghost on the mountain! Now you’re going to get me killed! You hateful little ghost! Hateful little ghost!”
Nan Ying clung to his hair, his body fluttering like a white flag.
He had barely caught up with Gu Daosheng, who had been running so fast. Lou Hongchen’s gaze had been like an ice pick, capable of piercing a ghost with several holes.
And it seemed Gu Daosheng had no intention of taking him away!
The little ghost was scared to death.
Hearing this, he began to weep, his ghostly tears trailing behind him like scattered petals. “I’m sorry… I thought we’d be out quickly. We got out so fast the first time… I just wanted to play with you…”
He sobbed, “Didn’t you say Lou Hongchen loves you? If he loves you, what is there to be afraid of? Why… why did you run away so fast… You even wanted to… wanted to leave me behind, waaaah…”
“I feel like he wants to eat me!” The ghost tucked under Gu Daosheng’s arm was crying, and the one perched on his head was crying too. The chorus of wails from above and below made Gu Daosheng want to join in and cry with them.
That gaze was more than just “eating” him; it was as if he wanted to strip Gu Daosheng naked first, savor him from the outside in, then trace him from the inside out, playing with him in every imaginable way.
Just then, Lou Mingzhang chewed and smacked his lips, either swallowing or spitting out the white cloth in his mouth. He asked cautiously, “Mama, who are you talking to?”
This time, Gu Daosheng was truly baffled. Without stopping his stride, he yanked Nan Ying down and lifted him by the scruff of his neck for Lou Mingzhang to see. “Can’t you see him?”
Nan Ying was defeated. “No living person can see me, not even a child.”
The mummy shivered. “Who is it?”
“Is it Step-Mom?” After speaking, he stopped shaking and smiled. “I can see Step-Mom. But which Step-Mom is this…”
Gu Daosheng: “No.”
“Is… is it, Big Mom…” Lou Mingzhang shook like a propeller; if he could start spinning, he’d take Gu Daosheng right up into the air with him.
“Are you afraid of Big, Ah!” He was so focused on running that he didn’t notice they’d arrived home until a human-shaped cannonball came charging in and “exploded” right into him.
Gu Daosheng was nearly knocked off his feet. He held a child in each hand and stumbled back several steps, his shoes scuffing the ground.
The person who had run into him didn’t budge an inch. It was as if he had been subjected to such attacks before; he instinctively stiffened his body and called out “Mr. Lou” in a submissive, timid voice, bracing himself for a second blow.
And yet, there was a hint of a flattering smile in his voice.
Lou Guangrui, who was about to be “split” senseless, was in no condition to hit anyone right now.
He wasn’t even here.
“You ran into me, but you’re calling Lou Guangrui’s name. Where are your manners?” Gu Daosheng had been running so hard that he was out of breath, his chest feeling as if it might burst.
The impact left him reeling, his vision darkening as he was thrown back into the memories of his sickly childhood, a time when he could do nothing but lie in bed, and even lifting a “peachwood” sword made of a soft willow branch would leave him panting for breath.
The person who had run into him took a closer look, and only then did Lou Ling seem to snap out of his daze. As if he’d stepped on a nail, he sprang up, his hands and feet flailing as he rushed to help Gu Daosheng.
“Why were you running so fast?” Gu Daosheng snapped, gently setting Nan Ying on the ground. He hadn’t remembered that even if he’d just let go, the little ghost could float, and even if he’d forgotten how for a moment, he wouldn’t have died from the fall. With his other hand, he lifted Lou Mingzhang higher, terrified that this “handless and footless” mummy might get scratched.
It would hurt so much to be smashed on the ground.
“…I wanted to help you,” Lou Ling said, staring blankly at Lou Mingzhang. His lowered eyelids covered most of his pupils. He hadn’t expected that after falling into Lou Hongchen’s hands, Lou Mingzhang would be brought back alive by Gu Daosheng. For a moment, he felt trapped in an illusion, his low voice carrying an ethereal quality that made him seem unreal.
“You’re just now trying to help me?” Gu Daosheng wanted to roll his eyes in exasperation. He tossed Lou Mingzhang into Lou Ling’s arms. “Here, he’s all yours.”
After saying that, he rubbed the spot that hurt from the bump, pretending not to care as he headed back into the room. He transformed back into that arrogant, reckless Little Celestial Master who dared to provoke anyone.
“The Eldest Young Master told me to keep an eye on you,” Lou Ling said suddenly.
“Huh?” Gu Daosheng turned his head.
A sense of foreboding rose within him, and he asked suspiciously, “Why is he making you watch me?”
Lou Ling had witnessed Lou Hongchen’s death with his own eyes, only to see him alive again. Now that Gu Daosheng had returned from Lou Hongchen’s residence with Lou Mingzhang completely unharmed, he felt a sense of absurdity, unsure of what was real and what was an illusion. “He seemed to have died, and I’m terrified he’ll drag me down with him. I’m really scared; I’m afraid to die.”
“The Eldest Young Master told me to watch you. If you try to be alone with Mr. Lou, I must interfere and ruin the mood for him.”
“As long as you haven’t changed your mind and fallen for Mr. Lou, everything will be fine. But if you do fall for him, then he’ll…”
His voice trailed off abruptly. Gu Daosheng instinctively pressed, “Then what?”
Lou Ling glanced at him, then hastily lowered his gaze. Gritting his teeth, he practically shouted, “Then he’ll become a true fierce ghost and hunt you down to kill you!”