Humans and Ghosts Rush together

My boyfriend Lin Chuan died. It was not a natural death. His life was replaced by our boss.

In Lin Chuan’s funeral hall, the boss set up a double-pot.

Next, he wants to exchange my life.

Boss Xu gave me a flattering smile and opened the safe in front of me. Inside the safe were dozens of shiny red things, all filled with money. A box of money.

I have never seen so much money in my life. But I just turned my face away coldly.

“If the person is dead, what’s the point of talking about money?”

In the past, I worked at the reception desk, ran sales, and drank liquor without blinking an eye. I treated myself as a human battery and burned myself hard, just to be able to buy a house as soon as possible and have a home of our own with Lin Chuan.

But now, my Lin Chuan is dead, what’s the use of this money?

Boss Xu smiled. “Ms. Qiao, it’s just a small amount of money, insignificant. Miss Qiao’s future living expenses will be covered by our company.”

It’s really ironic. After working in this company for several years, Boss Xu has never smiled at Lin Chuan and me. Now, Lin Chuan has paid for Boss Xu’s father’s life, and Boss Xu must be very happy.

In fact, this was a good deed of bravery. But unexpectedly, the boss who fell into the water was rescued, but Lin Chuan died due to exhaustion and ineffective rescue.

That day was supposed to be the company’s 50th anniversary celebration. Boss Xu was very concerned about this celebration, and each of us received a delicate paper invitation, which said that our salary would be paid as usual for attending the celebration, and there would be small games on the spot, and if we won, we could get a bonus, the amount of which was calculated in thousands.

How come Boss Xu, who was so stingy that he even fussed over the fact that we used one extra piece of printing paper, has become so generous?

The night before, after getting off work, Lin Chuan and I lay on the small bed in the rental house, talking, and the topic turned to tomorrow’s celebration.

“Honey, if we win the prize money, we’ll buy a dishwasher.”

“Why buy a dishwasher? Save money to buy a house first.”

Lin Chuan grabbed my fingers, put my hand to his lips and kissed it. “That’s because my wife works too hard. Her hands are cracked from washing dishes every day.”

I pinched his face. “Huh, you know how hard I work.”

“I know. My pig wife is the best.” Lin Chuan rubbed my face.

Lin Chuan and I both work in sales positions, but he has to show customers products and drink with them, which is much harder than me. For him, the happiest thing is to have a few steaming hot meals waiting for him when he returns home.

The next morning, we took a bus chartered by the company to the celebration venue, a villa by the lake.

In front of the villa is a huge freshwater lake. In front of the lake is a square space one meter above the lake surface, about fifty or sixty square meters in size. It is covered with wooden floors and is divided into snack area, barbecue area, game area, etc. It is decorated with ribbons, bouquets and balloons.

What’s strange is that in the four corners of the wooden floor space, there is a white lantern hidden among the bouquets of flowers.

“Look, why are there four white lanterns here?” I pointed to the four white lanterns curiously and showed them to Lin Chuan.

I leaned forward to take a look, and saw some symbols written in cinnabar on the white lantern that I couldn’t understand.

“Little girl, you don’t understand this. These four lanterns are used to protect the Xu family’s foundation.” I followed the voice and saw a Feng Shui master wearing a long cloth robe with long gray hair draped behind his head.

This is the Feng Shui master invited by Boss Xu. Two weeks ago, he changed the seats of everyone in the company according to our birth dates, on the grounds that it would not block the flow of money.

I was about to complain to Lin Chuan about the superstition of rich people, but then I heard Boss Xu’s weak and high-pitched voice.

“Good morning, everyone. This is my dad. The doctor said that people need more sun exposure when they get older. I pushed him out to get some sun. Don’t be shy, eat and drink whatever you want, and just have fun.”

I didn’t expect that Mr. Xu’s father would come, too. He sat in a wheelchair, his eyelids drooping, like a lantern that could run out of fuel at any moment. His bald scalp, face, and exposed arms were all covered with mottled age spots.

“Hey, Qiao Qiao, you don’t know this, right? Boss Xu’s father is even more powerful than Boss Xu…”

My best friend Xiaolu came over to me and gossiped with me. I then learned that Boss Xu’s father was the founder of the company. Everyone called him the boss. The boss founded three companies, each of which was managed by his three sons.

Boss Xu asked us to spread out and eat, so we all spread out.

Lin Chuan and I squeezed to the barbecue stall and were enjoying a skewer of grilled sausages when suddenly someone shouted, “Someone fell into the water!” We looked in the direction of the voice and saw waves on the surface of the lake. Boss Xu’s father had fallen in with his wheelchair. He was leaning in the wheelchair, his whole body submerged in the water, and was struggling helplessly and panic-stricken.

Boss Xu walked through the crowd, scratching the ground, and yelled, “Dad——”

Before I could react, Lin Chuan jumped into the lake.

He swam to the old man and desperately grabbed the sinking wheelchair. It was not difficult to save the boss, but the boss was tied to the wheelchair. If you want to save him, you have to pull up the wheelchair as well.

The wind suddenly blew on the lake.

I was so scared that my heart almost jumped out of my chest. This lake is quite deep. However, Lin Chuan passed the deep-water qualification test when he was in college, and he often went to the gym to exercise, so he had some muscles… He once saved a child who fell into the water when we were walking in the park.

Will it be okay?

My heart is beating like a drum.

However, things did not go as planned. When Lin Chuan dragged the wheelchair and the boss to the shore, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to hold him. Lin Chuan got ashore with his eyes closed and his cheeks pale.

The ambulance came and took both him and the boss away.

I also got into the ambulance.

I watched the emergency doctor desperately squeeze his chest and abdomen and put him on a ventilator.

However, Lin Chuan still left.

It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have time to react.

I sat in the mourning hall, looking at the pale background, still unable to believe that Lin Chuan had left me. Boss Xu placed the safe at my feet, but I didn’t even have the interest to open it and take a look.

Xiaolu came in. She frowned as she looked at the food that was brought over. “Qiaoqiao, you are very sad, but how can you not eat a single bite of food? Lin Chuan is watching from heaven… and…”

“I have no appetite.”

Xiaolu leaned close to my ear. “You hate that the boss rescued him, but Lin Chuan is gone. Qiao Qiao, think about it, the boss didn’t want this to happen, but it happened. He came to apologize to you and compensate you, so you should keep it to yourself and don’t quarrel with the boss over this. From now on… you still have to stay in the company.”

I didn’t say anything. To be fair, Boss Xu did a good job. He booked the funeral hall at the funeral home and arranged Lin Chuan’s funeral in a very decent manner. He also said he wanted to discuss compensation with me.

But how can I treat him with a clear conscience? If it weren’t for his father, Lin Chuan wouldn’t have died. So what if they are rich?

Lin Chuan and I are both orphans. We fill the gaps of love and affection in each other’s hearts, and regard each other as the indispensable other half of life, just like a circle, which is incomplete without any side.

“Ms. Qiao, please accept my condolences. If you can’t eat, why not try hotpot? We prepared it especially for you.” Boss Xu came in at some point and also advised me.

Today is the third day since Lin Chuan died. I haven’t eaten a single grain of rice in the past three days, and I don’t want to show Boss Xu’s displeasure in front of others, so I didn’t say anything.

After a while, the hot pot was served.

This is the charm of money, money can make the devil work. Bringing hot pot to the funeral home is not a big deal.

“Come, eat something.” Xiao Lu helped me to my seat.

To my surprise, the boss who fell into the water also came. And the Feng Shui master. The boss is really lucky. He is in his seventies and fell into the water. He stayed in the ICU
for two days, but his complexion today looks a little rosier than that day, and his age spots are not so obvious.

The hot pot was a traditional double-flavored pot. It was red and white, the red part was the beef oil pot, and the white part was the mushroom soup pot. The red oil pot was bubbling. I sat at the same table with Boss Xu, the CEO, Xiao Lu, and the Feng Shui master. The CEO sat opposite me, leaning against the mushroom soup pot. My seat was facing the red oil pot.

I thought of Lin Chuan again. In the past, we always had to save money for a long time and choose a special anniversary, such as my birthday, to have a hot pot meal.

If I had known he would leave so early, I would have used the money I saved to buy a house to spend it on a feast for us.

As I thought about it, tears started falling from my eyes.

“Don’t cry, eat something. Only when you are full will you have the strength to deal with the aftermath.”

“Sitting so far away, you can’t reach the mushroom pot. Come, get a piece for Miss Qiao.” Boss Xu picked up a piece of fish with a serving chopstick and put it in my bowl.

I really wanted to pull this piece of fish away.

It’s just that my upbringing doesn’t allow me to do that.

“Ms. Qiao, eat it while it’s hot.” Boss Xu’s voice was almost flattering.

I felt numb and brought the piece of fish to my mouth.

There was a sound of “clang” and I quickly stood up and saw that Lin Chuan’s soul photo, which was originally placed properly on the spirit platform, was actually upside down.

I quickly put down the fish, ran over, and straightened Lin Chuan’s photo. Then the wreath next to it fell over again.

The night sky turned upside down for no reason, and the wreath fell down for no reason. I felt uneasy and had a bad premonition.

What was this premonition? I couldn’t tell.

The hot pot was removed, and I was the only one left in the mourning hall. That was good. No one would disturb Lin Chuan and I. After today, it would be the fourth day. According to the saying in my hometown, on the seventh day, the dead will return to the spirit. Will Lin Chuan really return to the spirit at that time? Will I be able to see him then?

It was late at night, and I lay on the straw mat beside the mourning hall and fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I saw Lin Chuan.

Lin Chuansheng was in mid-air, looking at me. He was still wearing the clothes he wore when he went into the water to save people that day. His eyes were filled with sadness, like a big dog with wet eyes.

At first I didn’t know it was a dream, so I reached out to hug him, but my hand passed through his body, and his body was illusory, like a projection of a slide.

We just kept watching. I said, “It would have been better if you hadn’t jumped in to save him. Don’t be so kind. Good people don’t live long.”

Lin Chuan just looked at me. “Qiao Qiao, did you eat something hot in the white pot?”

Although it was a question, his tone was very affirmative.

“Yeah. The boss kept urging me to eat, which was really annoying. I didn’t want him to bother me, so I ate.”

Lin Chuan rushed forward and stretched out his arms to hug me. “Little fool, you are going to die soon, don’t you know?!”

How could this happen? I looked up at Lin Chuan in confusion.

“Chuanchuan, what are you talking about?”

Only then did I realize that Lin Chuan had many spots on his face and arms, just like the age spots on Boss Xu’s father.

Lin Chuan wanted to say more, but he opened his mouth and no sound came out. His face was twisted in pain, as if it was on fire, twisting in the air.

I stood up helplessly, wanting to hug him and relieve his pain. However, humans and ghosts are different, and my hands just passed through his body. He twisted more and more violently, with greater and greater amplitude, and finally, like a bubble, it broke with a snap.

I opened my eyes suddenly and found that my back was completely wet and a layer of cold sweat appeared on my forehead.

Was this really a dream? I looked at the altar. In the middle of the flowers was the coffin containing Lin Chuan’s body. The lid was moved a quarter of the way away, just enough for a person to get out.

My heart was pounding as I walked forward and moved the lid of the coffin. I looked at Lin Chuan’s face a few more times reluctantly, and then slowly covered him with the lid. It was daytime now, and the sun was rising during the day, and the yang energy was strong. Although the house was covered, the body was exposed, which was always not conducive to Lin Chuan’s reincarnation.

When I was homeless as a child, I slept in the wild. I often woke up to find myself leaning against a small hill like a grave. I was so scared that I couldn’t speak for the whole day. I spent three nights with Lin Chuan, but I didn’t feel scared at all.

He is the one who loves me the most. Even if he becomes a ghost, he is still the ghost who loves me the most.

The strange thing is what Lin Chuan said to me in the dream. He said, little fool, you will die soon.

How could I die out of nowhere?

Was this a warning from Lin Chuan? He wanted to say more, but there was some kind of restriction that prevented him from saying it.

Thinking of this, my heart began to tighten.

Who on earth wants to harm me?

I have never offended anyone in my life. How can those people harm me? Can they just rush out and chop me up?

Thinking of the age spots on Lin Chuan’s body, which were exactly the same as those on Boss Xu’s father, I felt uncomfortable and wanted to take Lin Chuan away from here. The food, clothing and daily expenses here were all paid for by Boss Xu’s family, which also made me unhappy.

Unfortunately, he and I were living outside, and we couldn’t put a coffin in a residential building. Where could I put Lin Chuan? Should I put him in our small rental house?

It’s the third day. I haven’t been home or showered since Lin Chuan’s accident. I feel sticky and uncomfortable. I originally planned to wait until the seventh day before going home, but now it seems that I still have to go home to take a shower and get some clothes.

I told the staff at the funeral home to take good care of the coffin in the mourning hall and hurried home.

Unexpectedly, as soon as my skin was exposed to the sun, it felt like it was scalded by hot water. I shrank my neck in pain.

Time was tight, so I didn’t think too much about it. I opened an umbrella and held it over my head.

After returning home, taking a shower and changing my clothes, I packed a few sets of clothes, thought for a while, took out Lin Chuan’s briefcase, and planned to withdraw some cash from a nearby ATM.

I don’t want to have Boss Xu pay for all my food and accommodation, as that would put me in a passive position.

There is more than 300,000 yuan in cash in the card. This is the money that Lin Chuan and I have saved by working hard every day and cutting back on our expenses for three years since we graduated. We planned to save enough for the down payment to buy our own house. Now that we don’t need the house anymore, we can just use it to buy a cemetery.

The trip took more than two hours in total.

However, when they returned to the funeral home, Lin Chuan’s mourning hall was empty.

His coffin is gone.

Where is Lin Chuan’s body? Where did it go?

“Where is Lin Chuan’s body? Where did the body of this person that was placed here go?” I grabbed the cleaning lady by the collar.

“Wasn’t it…sent to the incinerator?” The cleaning lady was frightened by the sharpness in my tone and her voice was trembling.

I let go of her collar and stumbled towards the incinerator. Who dares? I wonder who dares? Why can the dead be pushed to be incinerated without the family’s consent?

There is a superstitious belief in my hometown that even if you want to cremate the dead, you have to wait seven days until the dead return home. If they don’t return home, the dead can’t find the way to reincarnate, and will become a lonely ghost, unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

It’s only the fourth day, why are they dragging Lin Chuan to be burned? This is probably an order from Boss Xu. Are they afraid that I will cause a big disturbance and affect the company’s development?

Rushing to the location of the incinerator, I saw Boss Xu and the Feng Shui master standing in front of the incinerator door. Several bodyguards surrounded Boss Xu’s father in a wheelchair, and the funeral home staff bowed and nodded to them.

I rushed towards Boss Xu and hugged his arm.

“Is the incinerator on? Who would dare to do it without the family’s consent?”

“It’s already been three days. How long do we have to wait? Do we have to leave it in the mourning hall until it stinks?” Boss Xu pushed me away impatiently, completely losing his previous respectfulness and gentleness.

The incinerator inside was humming, and I didn’t know if it was Lin Chuan who was burning.

Is Lin Chuan in pain from the burn?

I was so angry that I pounced on the boss like a mad dog and grabbed his wrist.

I am much shorter than him, and my face is facing his fat right arm. Some kind of madness made me open my mouth suddenly, bite his fat flesh and refuse to let go.

“Ah——” Boss Xu screamed in pain. In this scream, there was pain, anger and fear.

With a “bang”, the bodyguard hit me on the back with a stick. It was heavy and painful, and my head was dizzy.

Don’t let go, don’t let go. Once you let go, everything will be gone!

His fat arm, which I had bitten, quickly became hard and gave off a gray and rotten smell.

“Let me go, crazy woman, let me go.” The boss screamed miserably, his voice filled with extreme fear.

“Stop the incinerator, I’ll let go immediately.” I gritted my teeth and said vaguely.

“Stop, stop the incinerator!” the boss shouted.

A round-faced female staff member ran out. “It’s stopped. It’s stopped. Everything has stopped.”

I relaxed all my strength and became limp, as soft as a lump of mud.

“Crazy woman.” The boss kicked me hard in the stomach. His right arm drooped limply, covered with a layer of gray, and the place where I bit it had turned black and ulcerated.

For a moment, everyone looked at me as if they were looking at a monster.

I replied weakly, “You’d better keep Lin Chuan safe, otherwise I won’t let you go even if I become a ghost.” Boss Xu shrank back when he met my sinister gaze.

“Crazy woman, you’re still saying such cruel things. How long do you think you can keep doing this?”

“Boss Xu, it’s better to bandage the wound.” The Feng Shui master said from a distance. The boss snorted and spoke softly to his father. “Dad, let’s go. Your son will definitely take care of what you asked of me.”

The group left, and only the female staff member and I remained.

“Let me in.” I lay at the door of the incineration room.

“I didn’t turn on the incinerator just now.” The staff member came close to me and whispered.

“That’s good, that’s good. Can you please help me change the mourning hall? No, I want to change the funeral home.”

I then remembered the briefcase I left at the funeral hall. Is the money still there? No one should have taken it, right? I have to take Lin Chuan with me.

“The funeral parlor cannot be changed. This place is controlled by… that big boss just now.”

“Then… let’s change the funeral hall. I’ll give you money, not the money he gave me.”

“Okay. Don’t worry, my dear sister. Your boyfriend’s body is still in good condition. I will move you to another funeral hall.” She reached out and patted my back gently. I looked at her timid round face and felt like crying.

The radiator in the rental house was broken before, so Lin Chuan and I asked a heating worker to fix it. After the work was done, the worker dared to charge a fee far higher than the market price. When we refused, the worker started to curse. I got anxious and wanted to reason with the worker, but Lin Chuan pulled me behind him and negotiated and argued with the worker.

He said that as a man, he would take the brunt of quarrels and fights. He wanted to protect me and keep me from being exposed to the darkness.

Now that Lin Chuan is gone, in order to protect him, I have to become a crazy and cruel woman and face the darkness.

The round-faced staff member, her name is Xiao Meng, helped me push Lin Chuan’s coffin out. I quickly opened it and took a look. Lin Chuan was lying peacefully inside.

My heart finally relaxed. Tears could not stop flowing. Lin Chuan, what can I do to protect you?

After pushing Lin Chuan to the new mourning hall, I dared not leave Lin Chuan any more, so I had to ask Xiao Meng to help me find the briefcase. Fortunately, the briefcase was not lost.

I counted out the corresponding amount of money and asked Xiao Meng to help me hand it over to the front desk.

“Miss, you…you haven’t been alive for many days.” Xiao Meng didn’t take the money from my hand, but just looked at my face. I touched my face with my hand, and I felt that the texture was unusually soft, so soft that it was stale.

I forced a smile. “Little sister, do you know what happened to me?” It would be a lie to say I wasn’t scared. However, there were so many things going on right now, and Lin Chuan hadn’t set off peacefully yet, so I couldn’t use all my energy to be scared.

“I…I don’t understand either. I just smell the scent of a dead body on you.”

The smell of a corpse? What’s wrong with me?

I was guarding the mourning hall. After a while, Xiao Meng came over with a tall man wearing work clothes and a hat.

“You bastard, you made me come in disguise.” The staff member took off his hat and cursed. His face was vicissitudes, and he also had the air of a quack.

“Miss Qiao, this is my distant uncle. He also knows something about yin and yang. Maybe he can help you.”

Second uncle looked at my face, his face solemn. He took out a small mirror and handed it to me. “Girl, this is a Yin-Yang mirror, you can look at it yourself.”

I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hollow eye bones and exposed teeth.

Is that me? It’s a skeleton.

I could barely hold the mirror.

The second uncle said, “For a normal person, looking into this Yin-Yang mirror is just like looking into a mirror. For a person who is cursed and about to die, when looking into this Yin-Yang mirror, what he sees is his own skull.”

“What spell?” I looked at my uncle blankly.

“Tell me about your dream first. What have you been going through these days?”

I slowly recalled the events, starting from the day of the gathering, and told him about the strange four-cornered white lanterns, the double-flavored hot pot in the mourning hall, and the meeting with Lin Chuan in my dream.

After hearing this, Xiao Meng and Second Uncle were silent. After a while, Second Uncle murmured, “What a vicious robbery technique. This is against the way of heaven. Those who go against the way of heaven will be punished by heaven.”

“The curse of the four-cornered white lantern is called ‘robbery’. It harms people who want to save you and takes away their life span. Your boyfriend didn’t die because he was exhausted from saving people. Instead, he fell into the trap of the other party and became the scapegoat of the old man.”

When I thought of the age spots that appeared on Lin Chuan’s body when we met in the dream that day, my heart felt hot. I felt pain and helplessness. A deep resentment surged in my heart and it took a long time to go away.

Boss Xu, bah, Fatty Xu and his family deserve God’s punishment. I’m going to say this, I won’t let you go even if I become a ghost.

“Girl, you ate the white pot from the 2-pot pot, and the spell you were cursed with is ‘She’. The person who ate the red pot opposite you will be rejuvenated. And you will experience a rapid aging process and die faster. According to my calculations, it will only take these five days.”

“As for what the girl said, your boyfriend appeared in your dream, but he left in the dream as if he was burned by fire. It was also his own doing. The purpose was to prevent him from telling you the truth.”

It turns out that the reason why Boss Xu and his gang were so eager to push Lin Chuan’s body to be burned today was to shut Lin Chuan up and make him set off without waiting for seven days.

After listening to what my second uncle said, a fierce anger flowed through my chest. At this moment, I was willing to turn into a fierce ghost and drag Boss Xu, Boss Xu’s father, and the Feng Shui master to hell.

“Uncle, is there any other way to solve this problem?” I looked at my uncle with hope. What kept me from falling was not my desire to live, but my death. My life span and the youth that I had not yet enjoyed would all be lost to that old man.

How can you let this old man live so comfortably? Let him enjoy two lifetimes of youth?

Bullshit.

“The spell is not yet complete. You can still destroy his spell at the last moment. However, you only have one chance. If you fail in one try, you will really turn into a corpse.”

It takes seven days to “give up”. It has only been two days since I ate the shabu-shabu hotpot. I still have five days left.

“Uncle, then… my boyfriend was also killed by a curse. If I succeed in breaking the ‘She’, can my boyfriend come back?”

My second uncle looked at me and shook his head.

Even though I already knew that the dead could not be resurrected, it was still heartbreaking when I heard it with my own ears.

After today, there are still three days until Lin Chuan’s seventh day. On the seventh day, Lin Chuan’s ghost will return home. After returning home, I can bury him and send him on his way.

And five days later, it will be the time for the “Sheshu” to close. Whether I live or die will depend on the midnight five days later.

From now on, no matter what, I will never leave Lin Chuan’s funeral hall.

The next day, I handed the briefcase to Xiao Meng and asked her to help me pick a plot for Lin Chuan in the cemetery. I thought about it and gave her enough money to buy two plots.

“Xiao Meng, I am really grateful to you. When I needed help the most, you, a stranger, stood by me. If you hadn’t opened the incinerator, my Lin Chuan would have turned into ashes. Take this money. If I die, you can buy two adjacent cemeteries and bury me and Lin Chuan together. If I am lucky enough to survive, you can also take this money and use it or donate it.”

Xiao Meng shook her head timidly. “Sister Qiao Qiao, how can this be possible? No matter what, you will not die, you will win. Since ancient times, good has never triumphed over evil.” I looked at her timid expression like a little lamb, and I really don’t know how this little girl, who is so timid, can still work in a funeral home.

As for the fact that evil cannot defeat good? There are too many times when evil defeats good. It’s just that evil will not say it out loud. Or, evil can transform itself into good and good into evil.

After much hesitation, Xiao Meng had no choice but to take the money. She said she would keep it for me and would also help me arrange the cemetery for my boyfriend.

The next night, my second uncle also came. Boss Xu’s forces were very tight, so it was not easy for him to come in.

My second uncle told me how to break the She technique. The principle of the She technique is to strip the youthful energy from my body by eating the simmered hot pot, and let it flow out of my body. After seven days, the energy will be sucked out of my body through my mouth. Therefore, the key to breaking the She technique is that I must not open my mouth at the hour when the She technique is closed. Once I open my mouth, I will lose my energy and die.

I memorized them all and asked my second uncle about Lin Chuan.

I said, if Lin Chuan returns home safely on the seventh day, will he be able to start his journey and be reincarnated?

The second uncle said, “Yes.”

I asked, on the seventh day of the return, could Lin Chuan see me but I couldn’t see him? Was there any magic weapon that could allow me to see him and know whether he had successfully returned to the spirit world?

Second uncle shook his head. Second uncle said, my current condition is no different from a half-ghost. I am now a half-ghost. So, I can see Lin Chuan.

I was quite happy to hear this. I actually had a chance to see him before he was reincarnated.

Now I understand why Boss Xu dare not touch me and imprisoned me. Because I ate the pot and became a half-ghost. I bit him and almost broke his arm. He is afraid of me. He is afraid of the evil power in me.

I said, Boss Xu and his gang of evil people, they wouldn’t come up with some vicious tricks to prevent Lin Chuan from returning home on the seventh day? If he can’t return home, he can’t be reincarnated, so wouldn’t Lin Chuan become a wandering ghost?

Second uncle said that it was impossible. Ghosts were the most powerful on the seventh night, and they could not interfere even if they wanted to. Interfering with the return of ghosts would disrupt the order of yin and yang, and the price paid would be much higher than using the art of robbing the body. If the Feng Shui master had the IQ of a cockroach, he would not do this.

Hearing him say that, I felt relieved. My only concern now is whether Lin Chuan can return home safely on the seventh day.

Tonight is the seventh night.

Yesterday I made a list and asked Xiao Meng to bring me a simple stove, a gas tank, salt, oil, soy sauce and vinegar, and also buy some spare ribs, a handful of water spinach, a crucian carp, and if possible, a bag of fermented black beans and some ginger and garlic.

Lin Chuan loves the food I cook. From the time we met in freshman year to today, we have walked hand in hand for seven years. For seven years, he has been with me every day, and we are entangled and supportive of each other in life.

These seven years have been the happiest seven years of my short twenty-plus years of life.

It’s a pity that fate is too short and too little.

Now, thanks to the evil people, we only have the chance to have a meal.

Today, Xiao Meng brought me the items on the list early in the morning. The spare ribs and crucian carp were freshly bought. In order for me to cook while watching over the funeral hall, she also brought me a range hood.

I cooked these dishes to my heart’s content. Roasted spareribs, crucian carp with black bean sauce, and stir-fried water spinach are our most common dishes and Lin Chuan’s favorite.

After putting the dishes on the table, it was almost ten o’clock. I looked at the clock and took out a mirror and cosmetics from my bag from home, intending to make myself look better.

In the past seven days, I haven’t looked in the mirror once, except for the Yin-Yang mirror. How can I feel like looking in the mirror in these seven days? And now I am half a ghost. It must be very ugly.

I held up the mirror and looked at myself. My face was extremely pale, an unhealthy white, and my lips were completely bloodless.

I thought about it, put on some powder, some blush, and reached for lipstick.

While lightly tracing my lips, I imagined myself talking to Lin Chuan.

“Chuanchuan Pig, you dead ghost, please don’t look down on me for wearing lipstick on your seventh day. I just want to look better, so that you won’t forget me when you see a beautiful and charming female ghost over there.”

As I was applying the makeup, I started to cry again.

We will eventually forget each other, right?

However, I put on my makeup, sat at the table, and waited from eleven o’clock until dawn the next day, but I didn’t see Lin Chuan.

On the seventh day, Lin Chuan did not return home.

I was panicked and powerless.

What’s going on? Is he going to become a ghost?

Or did he go back home and I didn’t see him?

Second Uncle came in a hurry. This time he was dressed as a woman. Xiao Meng was able to get him in.

“Why didn’t Second Uncle Lin Chuan come back home?”

Before my second uncle even sat down, I asked him anxiously.

My second uncle opened Lin Chuan’s coffin and took a look, then asked Xiao Meng and me if there was anything unusual in the past few days. We both shook our heads.

“It’s strange. I’ve been doing this for so many years, but this is the first time I’ve seen anyone not returning home on the seventh day…” Second Uncle opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling of the mourning hall.

“Is it those damned guys causing trouble?” I thought of Boss Xu’s vicious plan to burn Lin Chuan’s body, and said angrily.

“Not really. Humph, just them? They think they can defeat ghosts with such despicable tricks, you should be thankful that your souls are not torn to pieces. Miss Qiao, you will have to shut up in two days. You should prepare first. As for why your boyfriend didn’t come back, I will communicate with Yin and Yang to ask for you on the full moon night next month.”

“Okay.” I forced myself to calm down and not panic because Lin Chuan didn’t come back.

I will also fight the bad guys. I will also fight that disgusting old man to death and let him dream about his life!

Speaking of practicing not opening your mouth, there is really nothing to practice. I also wanted to ask Xiao Meng to buy me a tube of 502 glue so that I could glue my upper and lower lips together. My second uncle said it was useless. I had to give up.

Even if I bite my lips, I won’t open my mouth. I have come this far from being an orphan, relying on my own strength. I am used to suffering, and I am used to enduring the double torture of body and mind. I think I can do it.

At this point, I am not afraid of death, nor am I afraid of being tortured to death. If I die, I will be able to see Lin Chuan, and we will both be ghostly husband and wife. I just don’t want to die like this, and I don’t want to let those evil people get their wish.

The two-day period passed in a flash.

That night, I did as my second uncle said and took off my shoes, placed one shoe inwards and the other outwards at the door of the mourning hall.

A strange wind blew up, and I smelled a foul smell in the air, fishy and stinky.

The strange thing is that after smelling this rotten smell, I didn’t feel like vomiting, but felt drowsy instead.

I was about to open my mouth to yawn, and just as my mouth opened a little, I suddenly remembered what my second uncle said: the person who set up the trap will tempt you to open your mouth, and will do whatever it takes. Never open your mouth.

Don’t open your mouth! Otherwise, you will fail.

I slammed my mouth shut. My upper and lower teeth knocked against each other, causing my teeth to numb. At this moment, the clock behind me struck eleven times.

As soon as the bell stopped, the stale air lingering in my nose suddenly came to life and rushed into my mouth. I took two steps back and fanned my nose with both hands.

If I had closed my mouth a second later, my breath would have been sucked away. Thinking of this, I broke out in a cold sweat and pinched my thigh hard.

Can’t trap him, can’t trap him. If he traps him, the vicious boss Xu will succeed.

I was extremely nervous, looking around and alert to unknown risks.

There was a “pop” sound, just a very small sound, but it startled me. The lights in the mourning hall were completely extinguished. It was pitch dark.

I was prepared and turned on the mining lamp in front of my forehead. A pale beam of light shone from my forehead. I concentrated and scanned the surrounding environment.

I am in the light and the enemy is in the dark.

The clock struck again, and it was half past eleven. Half an hour had passed, a quarter of an hour.

I was so sleepy that my eyelids kept fighting. I had to walk to the corner, touch the chopping board I used for cooking that day, pick it up, grit my teeth, and smash it on my toes. The piercing pain woke me up instantly.

This atmosphere… is very strange. When people are extremely nervous, they won’t feel sleepy. But now, I am both extremely nervous and sleepy.

I touched my toes, trying to keep my face grim and not to grin. The spotlight shone on the ground, illuminating a dark shadow, which loomed large on the pale carpet of the mourning hall. I raised my head, but didn’t see anything.

There are only shadows, no real objects. How can it be so weird? ?

Moreover, the shadow was still floating on the carpet, and its direction was exactly towards Lin Chuan’s coffin.

Is it Lin Chuan? My mind raced, and I was about to call out Lin Chuan’s name. Before I could even say the word “Lin”, I covered my mouth.

Just now… it was extremely dangerous.

No, I can’t scream. If I scream, I’ll be dead! Moreover, it has been two days since Lin Chuan’s seventh day of death. Now, Lin Chuan is just a wandering ghost.

There was a sound of wood rubbing in the air. It was Lin Chuan’s coffin being pushed open. The shadow climbed up the carpet and onto Lin Chuan’s coffin, about to get into it.

They can hurt me, but they can’t hurt Lin Chuan. A chill ran from my tailbone to my heart.

Just as I was about to pounce and fight, the bell rang twelve times. With a soft “swish”, something flew onto the back of my hand, and then another one slipped into my trouser leg.

I jumped up, shook my trouser legs, and threw the thing to the ground. I didn’t know until I looked carefully, I found that the ground was densely covered with cockroaches. And the thing I just shook off was also a cockroach.

The thing I fear most is cockroaches.

Don’t shout, don’t shout, don’t shout out.

My legs were shaking as I closed the lid of Lin Chuan’s coffin and watched as waves of cockroaches piled up on top of each other and rushed towards me one after another.

There was another “shua” sound, and the cockroach flew onto the back of my neck. I endured the nausea and horror and pulled the cockroach off the back of my neck. Another one flew onto my leg with a “whoosh”.

I picked it again.

After repeating this seven or eight times, I was really tired. I couldn’t help but curse Boss Xu and his men in my heart for using such a despicable trick.

At this moment, there was a loud noise, and the coffin behind me was opened. Lin Chuan inside the coffin stood up and rose into the air.

“Buzz buzz buzz” all the cockroaches rushed towards Lin Chuan, wrapped him tightly in an instant, and bit his body. Before I could scream, I suddenly pounced forward, and a hand appeared from the side and suddenly covered my mouth.

“Don’t open your mouth.” It was Lin Chuan’s voice.

It was Lin Chuan! The one who covered my mouth was Lin Chuan. He was still wearing the clothes he wore when he died that day, and they were exactly the same as what I saw in my dream, except that there were no age spots on his body.

Today is not the seventh day, why is Lin Chuan here? If he is Lin Chuan, then who is the one being bitten by cockroaches? All kinds of doubts are spinning in my mind.

“Qiao Qiao, it’s me. Don’t talk. I’m telling you, you have a birthmark on your back, your best dish is shredded lemon chicken, our piggy bank has saved money to take you to Universal Studios for your birthday next year, and our cat’s name is Shaomai because the fur on its back is the color of Shaomai.”

My tears flowed down. He really was Lin Chuan.

It’s my Lin Chuan.

“Little fool. I’m very worried about you, do you know that?” Lin Chuan kept calling me a little fool.

I felt so safe in his arms.

Even if this is the hour that determines whether I can continue to survive, I am not afraid.

Because Lin Chuan is by my side, he will protect me.

But I can’t speak yet.

“Little fool, the cockroaches and black shadows you saw were all illusions. Now that I have pointed out the illusions, they are no longer effective.”

When I looked back again, the black shadow and the cockroach turned into gray smoke and disappeared.

The clock struck again. There was still half an hour left.

Lin Chuan sat up straight, and we leaned against the coffin, with my head resting on his shoulder.

Now I am glad that I am a half-ghost. So I can still see him and hug him.

I quickly looked at Lin Chuan in front of me. He seemed to be a little thinner than before, and his hair was a little longer.

Anxiety, heartache, losing and regaining, and being prepared to lose again, all the emotions cycled through my mind.

I suddenly remembered what my second uncle said to me.

“Some ghosts will give up returning home on the seventh day because they didn’t see their loved ones, and thus become wandering ghosts.”

Today is the ninth day since Lin Chuan’s death, and he is back.

There was only one reason. I was still fighting against Boss Xu and his gang. He couldn’t let me go. He was afraid that I would be killed. So he came back even though it was against the will of heaven.

My tears started flowing again.

Lin Chuan, do you know that if you continue like this, you will become a wandering ghost?

Lin Chuan in front of me smiled. It seemed that he heard what I was thinking. “I don’t regret it. This is the last time I will protect you. Little fool, you have to walk the rest of the way by yourself.”

I want to say, “Do you know that I waited for you all night on the seventh day? I even cooked a table of dishes for you.”

I also want to say, “I have met many bad guys, I can’t beat them, I can’t protect you.”

I also want to say, “I should have known not to save money to buy a house. You are gone now. What use is there for me to save money?”

But for half an hour, I just listened to him.

“Little fool, I was watching you put on makeup on the seventh day. Your makeup was still as ugly as before. You are my ugly baby. I really want to call you, but I am afraid that if I call you, those people will find me and stop me from coming back to help you today.”

I would rather you leave on the seventh day. I’m afraid you’ll become a wandering ghost, lonely over there.

He touched my face. “Don’t be afraid. After tonight, you will no longer be a half-ghost. You will become a healthy person again.”

What about you? You will die and disappear from my life forever.

That night, Lin Chuan and I hugged each other and talked a lot. We kept saying everything we had said before and everything we wanted to say in the future.

When the first rays of light appeared in the sky, Lin Chuan’s body became transparent. My arm passed through his body, and he turned back and smiled at me.

Say the last word to me:

“You little fool, you are so stupid. Didn’t you notice that there is a ring in the piggy bank?”

Like a wisp of smoke, it dissipated.

Lin Chuan is gone, gone forever. This was the last time I saw him.

When Xiao Meng and my second uncle came to find me, I was leaning against Lin Chuan’s coffin. As soon as I saw my second uncle, I asked him, “Will the ghosts who missed the first seven days of returning to the door really become lonely ghosts and cannot be reincarnated?”

“There’s always a chance of something happening, right?” My second uncle didn’t answer my question directly, but only gave me an ambiguous answer. “When the full moon comes next month, we’ll know whether he can be reincarnated. The most important thing now is to bury him in peace.”

On the day when Lin Chuan was buried, the local news reported that Boss Xu and the CEO had died in a lakeside villa. Soon, gossip spread that Boss Xu and the CEO had both died with blood gushing out of their seven orifices, and the CEO’s body was covered with dense corpse spots. A charred, unidentified male corpse was also found at the death scene. It was confirmed that he was the Feng Shui master hired by Boss Xu at a high salary.

The second uncle snorted when he heard this. “Evildoers will be punished, and those who go against the will of heaven will be punished by heaven.”

I was relieved. I didn’t need to become a fierce ghost, the heaven would not let them go. I was only concerned about one issue now. That is, whether Lin Chuan, who missed the first seven rounds of reincarnation, could enter the reincarnation cycle and not become a wandering ghost.

I anxiously waited for the arrival of the full moon night, and at the same time submitted my resignation to Xu’s Company and joined the new wave of job hunting.

After the full moon night, when I saw my second uncle again, he was very surprised. He had asked over there and learned that Lin Chuan, who was buried on the 29th of last month, had entered reincarnation.

I gently turned the ring on my right ring finger. I wanted to smile with relief, but tears welled up in my eyes.

Lin Chuan, now that you have entered the cycle of reincarnation, are you ready to walk onto the Naihe Bridge and drink the soup handed to you by Meng Po?

If we can’t be together in this life, then let’s wait for the next life. In the next life, I will still run towards you without hesitation.