Through the phone, the knocking sounds from both Jiang Luo’s and Lu Youyi’s sides gradually overlapped.
Lu Youyi swallowed hard. “Jiang Luo, what do I do? Should I call the police…?”
Although Jiang Luo didn’t think calling the police would help, he still encouraged him, “Go ahead, give it a try.”
Lu Youyi ended the video call and made the call. Half a minute later, he called Jiang Luo back on video. His expression was blank. “Jiang Luo, I couldn’t get through to the police!”
This didn’t surprise Jiang Luo. He asked, “Do you have anything you can use to defend yourself?”
Lu Youyi quickly turned around the room. To his despair, there was nothing in the small inn that could be used for self-defense. The only thing that could even remotely count as a “weapon” was the clothes hanger he had just used to pick at his hair.
He trudged heavily back to the bathroom and picked up the clothes hanger. Just as he was about to say something to Jiang Luo, a flicker of movement caught his eye.
Glancing at the drain, he saw something squirming inside.
Fear and curiosity made him lean closer for a better look—and he gasped sharply.
The human body parts that had been flushed down into the drain were now wriggling up into the dirty water.
“Sh*t!” Lu Youyi cursed and bolted out of the bathroom in a few steps, slamming the door shut behind him. His face twisted in despair. “Jiang Luo, did you see that?!”
“I saw it,” Jiang Luo replied, his expression complicated—he couldn’t tell if he should pity him or gloat. “That note on your nightstand probably meant that if you don’t unclog the drain, the corpse in it turns into a malicious ghost.”
“F*ck!” Lu Youyi groaned. “I’m getting attacked from both sides now.”
“You’re actually pretty lucky,” Jiang Luo said as he turned his camera around his room. “There’s one malicious ghost at my door, one under the bed, and one in the bathroom.”
For a moment, Lu Youyi felt oddly comforted. He even showed a sympathetic look and suddenly didn’t feel his situation was so bad anymore.
As they were talking, Jiang Luo caught a glimpse of a black shadow moving in the bathroom.
It shifted from faint to distinct, slowly approaching the frosted glass door. A hand pressed against the glass and began scratching violently, producing a high-pitched screech like a cat or dog clawing at a door.
It was the malicious ghostly figure from the mirror. It had stepped out of the mirror and was now about to leave the bathroom.
At the same time, the long-necked malicious ghost outside the door also seemed to sense something. The knocking turned into pounding—faster, heavier—the whole room began to shake with the door.
Jiang Luo’s phone vibrated continuously—over a dozen times.
[Open the door!]
[Open the door!!]
…
Ten minutes later, everything suddenly quieted down.
The knocking changed to a different rhythm. A man’s voice called, “Jiang Luo, I’m back.”
It was the “husband” from his dream.
Jiang Luo exhaled heavily, a thin layer of sweat forming on his forehead. He wiped it off, tidied his hair, and only when he confirmed there was nothing unusual did he walk to the door and look through the peephole.
The man was standing very close. He was tall—Jiang Luo could only see his collar through the peephole.
The “husband” knocked again, louder this time. “Jiang Luo?”
Jiang Luo hesitated, glanced at the time—it was already six. Dragging it out like this wouldn’t help. He finally opened the door.
The man outside looked a little tired. He took Jiang Luo’s hand and led him toward the table. “I bought spicy rabbit brain for you tonight. Are you hungry?”
Jiang Luo kept staring at his face. Bai Yefeng turned to look at him, puzzled, and touched his own face. “Honey, do I have something dirty on my face?”
Jiang Luo stared at him a moment longer, then gave a strange smile. “No, I just thought you looked really handsome today.”
Bai Yefeng laughed, clearly pleased. He gave Jiang Luo’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You’re in a really good mood today, huh?”
He leaned closer, eyes flicking to Jiang Luo’s lips in suggestion. “So… can you give me that tonight?”
Jiang Luo resisted the urge to punch him and changed the subject. “I’m hungry.”
Hearing that, Bai Yefeng hurried over to the table to get things ready.
Jiang Luo watched his back carefully. The moment he saw Bai Yefeng, he thought of Chi You. In the real world, Bai Yefeng was just Chi You’s puppet—was it the same in the dream?
But Bai Yefeng’s behavior was so natural that Jiang Luo couldn’t be sure. Still, now wasn’t the time to dig deeper. He took out his phone and saw that during the ten-minute malicious ghost assault earlier, his video call with Lu Youyi had been cut off.
Worried Lu Youyi was still dealing with something, Jiang Luo didn’t dare call again and instead sent a message: [How are you holding up?]
Two minutes later, Lu Youyi replied: [I’m hiding in the wardrobe. That couple with the axes just burst in. I opened the bathroom door, and now the bathroom malicious ghost is tangled up with them.]
A second later, he sent another: [Holy sh*t—the ghost just killed the man.]
[!]
[The woman’s dead too!]
Lu Youyi trembled as he typed:
[Jiang Luo, I’m screwed. Am I the next to die?]
Just as Jiang Luo was about to reply, two more messages came through.
[Jiang Luo…]
[I think she saw me…]
Jiang Luo’s fingers froze. He abruptly looked up—only to see Bai Yefeng standing right beside him, staring down at his phone. Who knew how long he had been watching.
Jiang Luo’s heart skipped a beat. Trying to keep his expression neutral, he said, “What’s up?”
Bai Yefeng didn’t seem to notice anything wrong. With a look of concern, he said, “Honey, it’s my fault for not being more capable, letting you use this cr*ppy phone. When I make big money one day, I’ll buy you a new one.”
Feeling a little anxious, Jiang Luo stood up. “Let’s talk about it later. I need to step out for a bit.”
Bai Yefeng said in surprise, “Honey, what are you going out for? It’s getting dark—too dangerous!”
Jiang Luo had already reached the door and was about to open it when his phone buzzed again. Looking down, he saw a message from Lu Youyi.
[I nearly pissed myself, Jiang Luo! That ghost woman stared at me once and then walked out. I’m still alive, thank god!]
Jiang Luo couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He let go of the doorknob and returned to the dining table, smiling brightly. “Alright, you said not to go out, so I won’t. I’ll listen to you.”
Bai Yefeng’s face lit up immediately, looking at Jiang Luo with deep affection. “You’re the best, wife.”
Jiang Luo’s expression twisted slightly. His suspicion flared up again—was this really Chi You?
If it really was Chi You, then his acting skills had improved way too fast.
Still, what Bai Yefeng said earlier about the phone reminded him of something. Both he and Bai Yefeng were men, yet Bai Yefeng went out to work while he stayed in the motel doing nothing?
Jiang Luo probed, “Yefeng, it’s hard for you to work alone. How about I go out and work too?”
Bai Yefeng’s expression changed instantly. He shook his head without hesitation. “No way! It’s too dangerous out there. You can’t go. Just stay here and wait for me. When I make enough money, I’ll take you to the capital—it’s the safest place in the country.”
Jiang Luo followed up, “But the outside world’s that dangerous—I worry about you too… Did anything happen to you today?”
Bai Yefeng sighed, placing a rabbit brain into a bowl, then adding some toppings and chili sauce. Under his chopsticks, the mixture looked like vivid red brain matter. “Nothing happened to me, but one of my coworkers died in the restroom. His head was shoved into a toilet, the back of his skull dug open, brain matter all exposed. Our boss sealed that restroom, hoping to trap the ghost inside.”
Jiang Luo noticed Bai Yefeng’s tone was oddly calm, like this kind of thing wasn’t unusual. So in this dream-world, were death and ghosts just everyday occurrences?
“Wife,” Bai Yefeng picked up a piece of mixed rabbit brain and offered it to him attentively, “have a bite.”
“Thanks,” Jiang Luo accepted it in a bowl, giving the rabbit brain a slight grimace, then tried to bring up what happened earlier. “But it’s not safe here either, Yefeng. When you’re out working, I’m in danger here too.”
He set down the bowl, a frightened and melancholic look appearing on his delicate face—like a fragile glass vase, heartbreakingly fragile. “What if one day you come back… and I’m already dead?”
Bai Yefeng’s emotions flared instantly. “Don’t say things like that!”
He stood up and paced beside the table, wringing his hands in agitation. “Even this motel isn’t safe anymore? No way—Honey, we’re moving out tomorrow! We’ll find a new place!”
“But the money…” Jiang Luo said deliberately.
Bai Yefeng replied, “Money’s not a problem! The ghosts around this area are increasing—it’s about to turn into a new ghost realm! We have to move toward the city center. The more people there are, the fewer ghosts there’ll be. No matter how expensive, we’re moving!”
Ghost realm.
Jiang Luo mentally noted that term.
After dinner, Bai Yefeng went to take a shower. Jiang Luo took out his own phone and Bai Yefeng’s to compare. His own phone showed nothing useful, while Bai Yefeng’s worked like a normal phone.
Aside from the phone, Bai Yefeng’s bag also had a newspaper.
Jiang Luo pulled it out. The headlines read things like:
“Lianhu District Becomes 13th Official ghost realm in the Province”
“Must-Know! 101 Survival Tips When Encountering ghosts”
Lianhu District.
If he remembered correctly, that was indeed the name of a district in the same province as Baihua University in the real world.
Jiang Luo skimmed the newspaper, then used Bai Yefeng’s phone to search terms like “ghost realm,” “ghosts,” “capital,” and “safe zone.”
After reading for a while, Jiang Luo returned to the home screen, a heavy expression on his face. He tapped open the date.
[Year 202X, September 10th]
This was five years in the future from the real world.
Five years ago, ghostly activity began appearing across the globe. Especially in this country, where all kinds of legendary malicious ghosts emerged. Vicious spirits ran rampant, and no one had any way to get rid of them. In this world, ghosts coexisted with humans—but it was humans who had to live in fear. Some people even became worse than ghosts, losing their humanity and turning into monsters in human skin, slaughtering their own kind without mercy.
This was Chi You’s favorite kind of place—malicious and twisted, a paradise for the d*mned.
The capital was the safest place in the country, but that was only relative. There were still ghosts there, though fewer—thanks to suppression from Long City. But at the rate ghost realms had been popping up—over a hundred in five years—nowhere was truly safe.
Jiang Luo searched for “Heavenly Master Sect,” “Six Great Houses,” and “Xuanling Joint Committee”—organizations that would never come up in a normal search in the real world. But here, the results showed these sects and families had already been wiped out.
The metaphysical world had been destroyed.
Or rather, it had been conquered by ghosts.
Ring ring.
Jiang Luo’s phone rang.
He picked it up—it was Lu Youyi, as expected. Lu Youyi whispered, “Jiang Luo, I messaged you just now and you didn’t reply. I got scared something happened, so I called. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jiang Luo said. “What about that couple?”
Lu Youyi turned the camera to the floor. “They’re here.”
On the ground, a middle-aged couple lay in the filthy water, their bodies bleeding and their eyes rolled back. Jiang Luo thought for a moment and said, “Drag them out. I’m afraid they’re not completely dead—if they turn into ghosts, they’ll come after you.”
Lu Youyi shuddered and gave him a thumbs-up. “Good point.”
From the bathroom, Bai Yefeng suddenly called out, “Wife, can you bring me a towel?”
Jiang Luo’s hand shook, and his phone fell to the ground. Frowning, he picked it up and handed a towel to Bai Yefeng. Through the mist, Bai Yefeng reached out and smiled gently. “Thank you, wife.”
Jiang Luo remained expressionless from the overwhelming cringe.
When he returned to the table, he noticed Lu Youyi’s face on the screen had become very strange. He was covering his mouth, his face ashen, his eyes wide with terror.
Jiang Luo sensed something was wrong. “What is it?”
“Jiang Luo,” Lu Youyi’s voice trembled, barely audible, “under your bed… there’s a corpse. It’s Bai Yefeng’s body—he’s from Shanhai University.”
