Impersonating Li Yang’s username?
An ugly imitator? Keep dreaming?
Li Miao sneered. She and Xi Zimo had met online. Her username was [Miss You Like Mountains and Seas].
From her first year of high school until her senior year of college—seven whole years—they had talked about everything.
She had told him many times that she wasn’t good-looking, that she had a birthmark on her face, and that she didn’t want to meet.
It was Xi Zimo who insisted that beauty didn’t matter to him and demanded they meet.
But when they finally met, he accused her of being an impostor and claimed that her cousin, Li Yang, was the real [Miss You Like Mountains and Seas] he knew.
If he thought she was ugly, he should have just said so. Why pour dirty water on her name?
In the past, Li Miao had been foolish. Valuing their seven-year bond, she had tried hard to explain.
Now, she simply didn’t care.
He was just a scum who judged people by their appearance. If Li Yang wanted him, she could have him.
Li Miao didn’t look back as she walked away.
Watching Li Miao’s resolute figure receding, Xi Zimo felt a sudden stab of pain in his chest, as if a piece of his heart had been gouged out.
He instinctively opened his mouth to call her back, but before he could speak, Li Yang grabbed his hand.
“Zimo,” Li Yang said coquettishly, tilting her head and shaking his arm.
Xi Zimo’s confusion and heartache vanished the moment he looked at Li Yang.
He hadn’t mistaken the person. [Miss You Like Mountains and Seas] was Li Yang.
How could the ugly, dull Li Miao possibly be the intelligent and insightful [Miss You Like Mountains and Seas]?
Outside, Li Miao walked out of the Li family estate, drenched in sweat and pale as a ghost.
Simply disobeying her uncle’s family and walking out the door had drained all her strength.
It felt as if she were carrying heavy chains; every step ground against her bones, causing sharp pain.
Remembering the QR code she had scanned from the charlatan, Li Miao immediately took out her phone.
The app had finished downloading. It sat in the corner of her screen, a dark, unassuming block that looked almost cute in a goofy way.
Without hesitation, Li Miao tapped the icon.
The moment she tapped it, a page popped up with a single sentence:
“Welcome to the Fengdu Haunted House App. Please proceed to the location 80 kilometers outside the suburbs of Fengdu City to inherit the Fengdu Haunted House Amusement Park.”
The instant this message appeared, the invisible shackles binding Li Miao suddenly vanished.
Li Miao’s eyes lit up. This app actually works.
She didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately bought a train ticket to Fengdu.
She had had enough of her uncle’s family. The bullying, the insults, the restrictions… She could never escape them before, but this time, she was going far away.
Fengdu was the hometown of Li Miao’s mother, Xie Yongan. It was a second-tier provincial capital—not as big as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen, nor even some of the new first-tier cities, but as a provincial capital, it was fairly developed.
Fengdu was a long way from Ning City. Li Miao didn’t have much money, and she didn’t know what the situation would be when she got there, so she bought a regular train ticket. It would take seven or eight hours.
Li Miao had been working hard all these years, but her luck was so terrible that she often made mistakes or got injured for no reason. She could never keep a job for long, so she hadn’t saved much money.
She had no intention of going back for her things at her uncle’s house; it was all junk anyway.
She had all her important documents with her.
After a grueling day of travel, Li Miao finally arrived at the outskirts of Fengdu that evening.
The mobile map didn’t show the exact location of the Fengdu Haunted House, so it took Li Miao quite a bit of effort to find it.
In front of her stood a massive, dilapidated amusement park. Even the sign was broken, with the words [Fengdu Haunted House] barely legible.
The walls were high, and the area was shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see inside from the outside.
Combined with the late hour, the overall atmosphere was downright eerie.
Li Miao walked up to the main gate, wondering how exactly she was supposed to “inherit” this haunted house.
Suddenly, her phone screen lit up.
The previously quiet and well-behaved app emitted a glow, followed by a line of large text: “Ms. Li Miao, are you willing to inherit this haunted house?”
There were two options below:
[Yes]
[Absolutely]
Li Miao: “…”
Is there a difference?
She tapped [Yes].
After clicking, she was able to enter the app interface.
The interface was very simple. Like the icon, black was the dominant color.
At the bottom were three main menus: [Haunted House Management], [My Missions], and [My Profile].
Li Miao tapped on [My Profile] first.
It displayed:
[Name: Li Miao]
[Age: 20]
[Gender: Suspected Female]
Li Miao: “…”
What does ‘Suspected Female’ mean? Do I not look like a woman?
She continued reading:
[Assets: 350 Yuan (Poor Ghost)]
Li Miao: “I’ll ignore that.”
[Points: 0 (Dead Poor Ghost)]
[Talent: None (Idiot)]
[Collection: None (Destitute)]
[Skills: None (Penniless)]
Why is this app roasting me?
Li Miao pursed her lips. Well, I’m here now, might as well make the best of it.
Since it was late, she decided to get settled inside first.
She walked to the main gate and placed her hand on the handle. Just as she was about to open it, the app in her hand lit up again.
Li Miao looked down and saw that [My Missions] was flashing.
She clicked on it and saw the following text:
[The Haunted House Owner has arrived. Main Mission Unlocked: “Manage the Fengdu Haunted House and make it world-famous.”]
[Main Mission started. Reward: Three Blind Boxes.]
Blind boxes!
Li Miao loved opening blind boxes. She tentatively tapped on one.
A white light flashed, and a square, pitch-black box fell into her arms.
She now held a blind box, and the count in the app dropped from 3 to 2.
Li Miao placed the box on the ground and peeled off a yellow talisman stuck to the top.
The moment she removed it, a gust of cold wind hit her, and a beauty in a cheongsam appeared before her.
Li Miao jumped in fright. Where did a living person suddenly come from?
She instinctively backed away, her expression wary. “What are you?”
The woman in the cheongsam was extraordinarily beautiful. Her hair was permed into small curls, a style common in movies set in the Republic of China era.
She curtsied to Li Miao, her voice soft and gentle. “This humble woman is named Ruhua. Greetings, Master of the Haunted House.”
Ruhua?
The name sounded familiar. In Li Miao’s memory, there were two Ruhuas: one was the cross-dressing character from Stephen Chow’s movies, and the other was the female ghost who waited for the Twelfth Young Master.
Obviously, the beauty before her wasn’t a man in drag, which meant she was…
“Are you human or a ghost?” Li Miao asked.
The beauty looked sorrowful, her gaze drifting into the distance as if recalling the past.
After a long pause, she spoke: “I have been dead for ninety years. I have forgotten what I looked like when I was alive. I only remember that I was a famous courtesan in Shek Tong Tsui and fell in love with the Twelfth Young Master of the Chen family.
“Since we couldn’t be together in life, we agreed to commit suicide together. Unfortunately, I waited in the Underworld for decades, but he never came.
“So, I came up here to take a look, to see if I could find him.”