The description of the eerie figure bleeding from seven orifices only existed for an instant; the next moment, it turned into the handsome face of Yu Kongyou. Besides the pale complexion that revealed no shadows, it was nearly impossible to tell any difference between him and a living person.
“Can’t you call me to a place with better conditions?” Yu Kongyou complained the moment he opened his mouth, floating a few centimeters above the muddy ground to avoid getting dirty. He raised an eyebrow at Xu Yintang and asked, “What do you need from me?”
“Want you to help with a translation,” Xu Yintang pointed to the statue in the water, “It seems to have something to tell me.”
Seeing such a spooky statue suddenly in the dim light had quite a chilling effect, catching Yu Kongyou off guard. However, his focus was evidently different from that of a living person’s. “Wow, your death seems quite tragic.
“Let me see, poisoned first, then drowned, and finally, the body rotted and was poured into cement?”
He floated over, not touching the ground, seemingly understanding the words formed by the surging energy of the statue. He shook his head, sighing, “And there’s not just you, right? No wonder I felt such heavy resentment here, comparable to the place where I met my demise.”
“What, asking them not to look at you?” Yu Kongyou glanced around. “The three of us…”
Before finishing his sentence, he noticed Xu Yintang silently aiming their phone camera at them.
Xu Yintang looked innocent, “Double insurance.”
Yu Kongyou immediately recalled his appearance just a while ago—thankfully, he had applied a bit of light makeup. If he had shown up without it, it would have been a disaster.
“Get lost.” Yu Kongyou floated up, blocking in front of the statue. “Ever heard that girls shouldn’t be filmed without makeup? Do you dare to use a beauty filter?!”
Xu Yintang and the barrage of comments on the screen, all affected by Yu Kongyou’s makeup, paused for a moment. “A girl?”
“Otherwise?” Yu Kongyou shook, conjuring up a coat to cover the statue. “Let me tell you, if you keep this livestream up, we’re all going to be shut down.”
Speechless, Xu Yintang adjusted the camera angle to remove the statue from the frame, leaving Yu Kongyou for the fans to admire.
Though Yu Kongyou himself detested this spooky, pitch-black scene filled with mud, it oddly matched the ghostly ambiance. The glimmering water reflected on his face, creating an elusive, dreamlike beauty, more captivating than a living beauty, provoking endless thoughts and fantasies.
Why else would so many stories depict romances between humans and ghosts?
Yu Kongyou had been a ghost for many years, roamed the city with Xu Zhongping before coming to the hospital, and was more knowledgeable than the statue stuck in the secluded town of Sarense. He floated a few circles around the statue, not showing any action. A faint, translucent shadow emerged from the statue.
It was a lonely girl in a white dress with big, pitiful eyes looking at Xu Yintang. She opened her mouth to say something but transformed into an eerie ghostly wail in the air.
“She says her name is Anna,” Yu Kongyou helped translate, then chuckled, “Humans have human language, and ghosts have ghost talk. Being a ghost who understands foreign languages is quite a rare talent.”
He winked playfully, a bit artificially, causing Xu Yintang to roll their eyes lazily, but it attracted quite a few fans.
“Suddenly, it doesn’t feel so terrifying…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“I know he’s doing it on purpose, but this young man really smiles so sweetly.”
Cccj’r agjcriemfca obgw kjr fierlnf, jxlc ab j rtjvbk atja wluta vlrqfgrf klat j uera bo klcv. Vtf rffwfv ab rfcrf atja rtf mbeivc’a wjlcajlc atlr rajaf obg abb ibcu, jczlberis mbwweclmjalcu klat Te Bbcusbe. Lfg ojlca, qijlcalnf nblmf fmtbfv atgbeutbea atf mjnf, cba ifjnlcu jcs gbbw obg Te Bbcusbe ab qgbnlvf j rewwjgs.
Yu Kongyou listened attentively to her narrative, nodding and occasionally adding a “I see” or “What happened next” for a minute or two. As Anna’s form became fainter, she transformed back into a silent statue. Yu Kongyou fell into contemplation, while the impatient fans were already eager for more, not bothering about the barrage anymore.
[What did Anna say in the end?]
[I’m dying here! Say something quickly! (Honey, I’m faithful to you, believe me!)]
Another gust of cold wind passed before Yu Kongyou finally spoke slowly, “Anna hopes that you can take the skeleton from the water and bury it outside the town. This person once tried to save her; he was a good person. The corpse has been staying here, and eventually, it will become like them, with the soul never able to find release.”
“Additionally, she warns that you must leave the town before the Harvest Festival. Her companions are much more powerful than her and won’t be easily scared away. Once the Harvest Festival begins, no one can stop their revenge.”
“That’s roughly the content,” Yu Kongyou shrugged. “Personally, I wouldn’t advise you to stop them either. There’s a head for every debt; seeking revenge and justice is the last chance for us dead to find closure. Anyone who tries to interfere will immediately accumulate hatred.”
Perhaps fearing that Xu Yintang wouldn’t believe him, Yu Kongyou used himself as an example again, “I’m a ghost who’s been through this. I’m more familiar with their ways. After settling scores, the resentment naturally dissipates. As they say, those deserving hell go to hell, those deserving heaven go to heaven. It’s a natural cycle.”
“Revenge isn’t a problem.” Although Xu Yintang wasn’t a ghost, they had succeeded in overthrowing revenge before. They asked the statue of Anna, “Are you seeking revenge against the townspeople for ‘exorcising demons’?”
Anna: “…”
Yu Kongyou translated, “She’s asking how you know.”
“They don’t think they’ve done anything wrong, so naturally, they won’t hide it from others. So, how far are you planning to take this revenge? Many of your old enemies among the townspeople might not even be around anymore, right?”
The statue’s energy surged again. Yu Kongyou continued to translate, “As long as this town disappears, there won’t be anyone to suffer the same fate. No one will bear the pain they have endured.”
“Perhaps there are demons in the world, or maybe they were possessed by demons. Others believing in protecting the town from evil isn’t wrong, but no living person should stoop to their level just out of fear and selfish desires.”
“Simply because of fear and selfish desires.”
It seemed that there was something about Yu Kongyou’s tone that made people feel deeply connected. Some fans unconsciously joined in the serious discussion in the comments, seemingly because Xu Yintang’s livestream was becoming increasingly outlandish, leading the fans outside the livestream to hypnotize themselves into treating it like a paranormal film.
As long as they believed it was fake! Even ghosts couldn’t prove their existence through the internet!
After all, there were a whopping 2.8 million people in the livestream!
They grew increasingly arrogant.
Yet, it had to be said, the fans were collectively more insightful than Xu Yintang alone. Glancing over the comments floating by, Xu Yintang combined their thoughts and summarized, “You’re saying your main goal is to make this cruel exorcism ritual vanish forever. Not to have anyone turn into a statue like you due to demon expulsion. The secondary goal is for the townspeople to face sufficient punishment. Your personal wish is to take this skeleton out for burial and grant his soul peace.”
“However, within your capabilities, the only way to achieve this seems to be by eliminating all the townspeople. Is that correct?”
The statue’s waves surged in a highly disordered manner. Yu Kongyou directly helped provide an answer, “She doesn’t know either. They probably didn’t plan things out to this extent. After death, spirits can’t think in such systematic ways; being able to remember the revenge plan is already considered genius.”
Of course, this can also be called the overflow of resentment, where quantity leads to a transformation in quality.
Yu Kongyou didn’t need Xu Yintang to engage in the conversation; he praised himself quite responsibly, “Don’t worry, geniuses like me, among geniuses, are quite rare. But their leader—the one who died earliest or in the most gruesome way—probably can communicate about these matters with you. Let me ask Anna if she can help convey this.”
When it comes to conveying messages between ghosts, it’s not just a single signal. Yu Kongyou revealed his eerie and ghastly appearance without a trace of color in his lips, emitting a mist-like gloom that drifted towards Anna’s statue.
“Anna said she can help me ask.”
Xu Yintang nodded, “If the leader is willing to talk to me, ask them to find me tonight. My companion and I are staying in the guest room on the second floor of the Old Duolin’s house, or anywhere they prefer to meet.”
Anna remained silent, and after a moment, her statue dissolved into the water.
Only then did Yu Kongyou let out a breath, “Finally! Make sure to let me go back, this is too far from my home, Pingping, and it’s unbearable.”
He was eager to return. Xu Zhongping’s absence made him uncomfortable. It felt like energy seeping out of every bone, making it much more strenuous for him to maintain this form than usual. He could be exposed with his makeup-less face at any moment.
Staying in this alternate world was also pressurizing for Xu Yintang. It was akin to continuously having a connection open to a hospital’s world, and with time, Xu Yintang started feeling a headache, as if all the hospital’s information was flooding into their brain limitlessly.
Xu Yintang quickly opened an entrance and sent Yu Kongyou back. They also tried to store the skeletal remains lying in the stream in the system backpack—failed. The system indicated it was a living being, so it could only be temporarily placed in the pet space.
Although Anna had said the skeleton’s soul couldn’t find release, Xu Yintang stared into the sparkling eyes of the skeleton for several seconds and couldn’t perceive it as a living being.
Fine, the pet space it is, anyway; it wouldn’t share a room with their three kids.
The pet space, initially a blank area, finally revealed a new compartment. It looked like a duplex apartment—not big, but neat and cozy. As soon as the skeleton arrived, it seemed to suddenly come to life, rigidly moving twice, and the glittering gems on top produced a clinking sound as they rubbed together.
The system notified Xu Yintang that they had obtained a new pet, the “Living Skeleton,” with a stable mentality and spirit still adapting.
Since this temporary pet was meant for later burial and elevation, Xu Yintang didn’t inspect it closely. Their priority was to get out of the cave and find their way back to town.
Luckily, they had Third Flora guiding the way; returning a bit quicker meant making it in time for lunch.
…
Meanwhile, as Xu Yintang was strolling through the mountains (not really), Xiao Qing and Kama Zuozi were encountering statues blocking their path on the way to the police station. Dozens of ghastly white statues appearing made Xiao Qing feel uncomfortable, almost causing him a ringing sensation in his ears. He stopped Kama Zuozi, who was ready to act, suffering and gasping for air intermittently, saying, “They don’t mean harm.”
Some of the distressing, piercing shrieks that almost pierced his eardrums eventually formed the same sentence in his mind.
“Leave! Leave Ceylon!”
“Innocent outsiders, before the flames of the harvest festival ignite, before the silent melody of revenge plays…”
“Before everything spirals out of control…”
“Leave this place.”
At the same time, Xiao Qing seemed to hear many other voices simultaneously—prayers, justifications, pleas, cries of agony, soft moans, the sound of flowing water, the clinking of gems detaching from skeletons—until it all turned into cold, stiff, silent masses, like mud and rocks.
There were still bustling noises, the pain of some becoming the subject of conversation for others, transformed into someone else’s wealth.
“You’re buried beneath…” Xiao Qing stared at the eerie, blurry statues. “Underneath the town…”
The statues didn’t respond.
Just in the blink of an eye, as if vanishing into thin air, like a mirage, they disappeared.
Xiao Qing instinctively looked at Kama Zuozi. Kama Zuozi grumbled disapprovingly, “Always dragging me into things… Well, considering hiding underground… underneath this town—” she tapped the ground with her toe, “it’s quite lively down there.”
“Is this…” Xiao Qing glanced down. He hadn’t fully recovered from the despairing emotions he had just absorbed, and unconsciously, two tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Tsk.” Kama Zuozi wiped his teardrops with her fingertip. “Why cry when everything’s fine? Why are you so unwilling to be with me?”
Xiao Qing rubbed his eyes. “It’s not… related to you…”
If only Kama Zuozi could stop teasing him so openly, he’d be more willing to be around her…
No, no, no!
Caught in it again!
Instantly, all the pain and despairing emotions vanished from Xiao Qing’s heart. He just rolled his eyes at Kama Zuozi.
Why did he ask Kama Zuozi that extra question when he was buying information from her initially? The Cat Gang never looks at guides, and for secondary information, only the bare minimum is needed. But when Kama Zuozi waved her hand and asked for the most expensive package, it was odd.
What was Kama Zuozi’ response to him again?
Xiao Qing remained expressionless.
She said, with such a handsome boy, why not make him happy with a few points?
More cost-effective.
Thank you for the chapter!
Oof, I feel bad for the poor statue people, though Xiao Qing and Karmazur’s banter is cute
You know, I think this is the first time I’ve come across a hetero side couple in a BL novel.
That Karmazur appear to have tried to be his sugar mommy makes it extra fun imo. I love when the stereotypical gender roles get flipped ❤
+1
This story and author break a lot of new ground. A very original story and characters.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thanks for the update ❤️❤️❤️
I really want a mini episode of the love story of Kongzhou and Pingping… We got hints of the trauma they endured but no details. How is Pingping now and does he love Kongzhou back?
Yep ship 100% found them cute ever since she pinched his cheeks<3
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚