Chapter 52: Kindness Rewarded

The screen Nie Pengpeng was hiding behind sat directly across from Xie Sui’s seat.

Through the gaps in the screen, she could see exactly what was happening inside the room.

The Red-clothed Female Ghost¹ who had been following her all along, who was originally just terrifying in appearance but lacked any offensive power, had now completely transformed.

She had become even more horrifying.

Her body was rotted beyond recognition, and her eyes were gone, leaving only two pitch-black holes. Her neck was bent at a strange angle, her head resting awkwardly on her shoulder. Bloody tears flowing from her eye sockets dripped into her messy black hair, turning into a bloody mist that gradually occupied every inch of the room.

The blood-colored mist emanating from her was like a thick sea of blood from purgatory. That cold, heavy resentment with nowhere to vent seemed to solidify the very air. Every breath drawn into the lungs felt exceptionally heavy, like a massive stone pressing down inside the body, making one’s internal organs feel as if they were sinking.

And she wasn’t the only ghost undergoing a change. As the bricks fell and the skeletal remains within the walls saw the light of day, dozens of equally terrifying Red-clothed Female Ghosts slowly manifested.

The states of their deaths varied, but the one thing they had in common was that they all wore vibrant red clothes.

Dense shadows of blood crowded into this small marriage house until everything within sight was stained red.

The middle-aged couple was scared out of their wits, kneeling on the ground and letting out meaningless, guttural wails.

They begged Xie Sui for help, but Xie Sui did not react.

Had those girls forced into ghost marriages ever begged for help before they died?

These two should be able to experience the feelings of those girls before death now… If this world truly followed the law of the jungle, then anyone could end up at the bottom of the food chain.

The female ghosts swarmed forward, tearing apart their son’s corpse and shredding the bodies of the middle-aged couple.

The blood and flesh of the two splashed across the floor like blooming flowers of gore, making the ghost marriage appear even more festive.

The girl wearing the bridal gown witnessed this scene, and her long-numb facial muscles finally showed a flicker of emotion—not touched, not relieved, but deeply afraid.

Since she could remember, her mother had told her that her mission was to choose a good husband’s family when she turned fifteen and then die with her husband. From childhood to adulthood, she had been indoctrinated with this mission. She didn’t know what would happen to her now that the wedding had been ruined, nor did she know where she should go.

The girl looked at the knife that had fallen to the floor and made a decision.

The female ghosts in the room did not harm her, but the girl picked up the knife herself, aiming it at her own neck, wanting to continue the ‘wedding.’

Fortunately, the Red-clothed Female Ghost noticed in time and struck her unconscious with a blast of Yin energy.

After venting their fury, the resentment on the Red-clothed Female Ghosts in the marriage house slowly detached from their bodies and returned to Xie Sui.

These poor girls sealed within the walls were mostly kidnapped from elsewhere by the villagers. To prevent their vengeful spirits from causing trouble, the villagers had turned them into human pillars², sealing them within the walls of the marriage house.

Because using educated women from the outside for ghost marriages required extra effort to seal their souls after death, the villagers simply began raising their own girls, indoctrinating them from birth with the idea that ‘they were born to be married to the dead,’ grooming them into living puppets.

After years of erosion, just as the vengeful spirits of those sealed girls were about to dissipate, Xie Sui happened to arrive in the village.

He broke the seals on the walls and released all the imprisoned souls.

A lack of resentment was no issue; he had plenty of that on him.

However, venting once was enough. This village was incredibly strange, and Xie Sui didn’t dare let these weakened spirits face off against the villagers, who might have unknown tricks up their sleeves.

As for revenge, he would handle it himself.

The liberated souls left one by one, entering the Netherworld under Xie Sui’s guidance to await reincarnation.

Only the Red-clothed Female Ghost who had originally followed Nie Pengpeng remained.

She opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to speak. But because her throat had been crushed before death, she could make no sound.

The Red-clothed Female Ghost looked at Xie Sui. Xie Sui stood up and called Nie Pengpeng out from behind the screen: “She has something to say to you.”

Nie Pengpeng walked out cautiously, stepping around the blood and shredded meat on the floor to stand before the Red-clothed Female Ghost.

Xie Sui acted as a translator, helping the human and ghost communicate.

The Red-clothed Female Ghost mainly wanted to express her gratitude to Nie Pengpeng.

She was a university student who had been able to leave the mountains and finish her education thanks to Nie Pengpeng’s pocket money donations.

Having come from a remote mountain village herself, she wanted to help more children like her, so she had volunteered to teach in a remote village.

The village where she had been teaching was not far from Wuqi Village.

Half a year ago, every villager in her teaching post had been abducted by the people of Wuqi Village.

Small villages in the deep mountains like theirs had no communication with the outside world for years. Even if an entire village disappeared for six months, no Law Enforcement Team would proactively come to investigate.

Because a buyer for a ghost marriage in Wuqi Village wanted a female university student as a daughter-in-law, she was forced into a ghost marriage by the people of Wuqi Village. As for the others from her village, most of the men were turned into sacrificial meat for the gods. The women were all thrown into the water, supposedly to appease the anger of the ‘Water God.’

The few who luckily survived were controlled, living in Wuqi Village like mindless puppets.

On the day the Red-clothed Female Ghost was forced into the ghost marriage, Chef Shao happened to enter the village to buy children for Zaochu. The chosen child had been helping prepare for the wedding in the marriage house at the time. Therefore, her soul had coincidentally attached itself to one of the children and was taken away from Wuqi Village by Chef Shao.

After leaving Wuqi Village, to avoid being discovered by Chef Shao, she had left the child’s body before they reached Shao’s Restaurant.

A soul that had recently died could not withstand the burning of the sun, and she couldn’t even endure the cold winds of the night for long. Thus, she could only hide in the shadows during the day and wander aimlessly through the mountains at night.

After that, the Red-clothed Female Ghost encountered Nie Pengpeng, who was traveling to Shao’s Restaurant on the production crew’s bus.

Although Nie Pengpeng had no idea who she was, the Red-clothed Female Ghost knew exactly what Nie Pengpeng looked like. She was deeply grateful to her benefactor, which was why she had forced the tour bus to stop, hoping to prevent Nie Pengpeng from approaching the demon’s den.

Unfortunately, her power was insufficient, and she could only use illusions to warn Nie Pengpeng. She hadn’t expected Xie Sui to take the initiative to break into the illusion and forcibly lead Nie Pengpeng out.

When they first met, the Red-clothed Female Ghost didn’t know if Xie Sui was good or bad. Moreover, the aura radiating from him was far too terrifying for a ghost. She didn’t dare to take any further action and could only temporarily possess Nie Pengpeng, hoping to save her benefactor’s life in a moment of crisis.

Nie Pengpeng was already aware of everything that happened after that.

The Red-clothed Female Ghost’s main intention this time was to express her gratitude to Nie Pengpeng. After finishing her story, she gave Nie Pengpeng a deep bow. Then, like the other spirits, she followed Xie Sui’s guidance and entered the Netherworld, waiting to enter the cycle of reincarnation once more.

Even after the female ghost’s figure had completely vanished, Nie Pengpeng remained dazed.

Xie Sui did not disturb her. He simply stood there silently, smoothing out a bundle of red threads³ in his hands and winding them around his wrist.

These were the red threads of the forced Ghost Marriages taken from the female ghosts. Removing these threads was a troublesome task, but if they weren’t removed, those ghosts might find themselves tied to their Ghost Marriage partners again in their next lives. Being bound to the very person who murdered you was a nauseating thought.

Xie Sui needed to find time to deal with these red threads meticulously. While he was at it, he intended to make the male partners of those Ghost Marriages and their living relatives pay a price.

Every debt has its creditor, and every sin has its price.

Retribution still exists in this world. If it doesn’t, then he would be their retribution.

Nie Pengpeng walked silently to the collapsed wall, squatted down, and looked at the skeletal remains scattered on the ground.

“Mr. Xie, do you know? I never thought a mindless act of mine would make a girl so grateful. I never imagined that the pocket money I considered insignificant would be a precious fortune capable of changing someone’s destiny…”

Her voice sounded like a sleepwalker’s. Tears rolled from her eyes, splashing drop by drop onto the dry bones that could never be brought back to life.

“This money… this amount of money isn’t even enough for what I spent on buying fake fans after entering the entertainment industry…”

Nie Pengpeng wiped her eyes forcefully. “I entered the industry just because I wanted more people to recognize and like me. But what’s the point of that kind of hollow, fleeting affection? Besides, I’ve already received a far more valuable kind of love.”

She gently touched the bones scattered on the ground, her face showing no hint of fear.

“I know what I should do now,” Nie Pengpeng said with a look of determination. “I don’t want to be a star anymore, and I’m not going to keep playing around in the entertainment industry.”

“I’m going back to school to study. I’ll work hard to earn money, and then I’ll use my own earnings to help more girls like her.”

“I have countless chances to make mistakes because I have the Nie Family behind me. But for these ordinary girls, a single wrong step means losing everything. Even their souls can’t find peace after death.”

“It shouldn’t be like this. This world is so unfair.”

“It’s not too late to change things starting now.” Xie Sui patted her shoulder gently. “It’s never too late to start.”

“Mm!” Nie Pengpeng nodded vigorously.

She turned to look at the chaotic mess of the wedding scene and said with some concern, “With such a big commotion, the villagers will be here any minute, won’t they? When that happens, you…”

Xie Sui interrupted her, comforting her in a soft voice, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. You just go hide behind the screen for now. They won’t dare do anything to me.”

Nie Pengpeng didn’t argue; she just nodded obediently. Being near Xie Sui gave her an inexplicable sense of security. With him there, the terrifying villagers who had been hunting them for two days didn’t seem like much of a threat anymore.

She turned to walk toward the screen, then seemed to remember something and looked back at Xie Sui. “Mr. Xie, thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, I expect we all would have perished here. My father dotes on me more than anyone. Since you saved me, you will be an honored guest of our Nie Family from now on. If anyone tries to harm you because of your true identity, they’ll have to answer to the Nie Family first.”

“My… true identity?” The expression on Xie Sui’s face turned a bit strange. Could this ordinary person, who had never encountered the occult, actually recognize his true identity just from his appearance?

“At first, I thought you were a Fox Immortal. But seeing the way you were glowing while treating Captain Yan today, I realized my previous idea was wrong.”

Nie Pengpeng looked at Xie Sui with a serious expression. “You’re a firefly spirit⁴, aren’t you? It must have been very hard for a little bug to cultivate into a human form. I know it can’t be easy for a bug spirit to live in human society. Our Nie Family will protect you.”

Xie Sui fell silent.

Fine. Whatever she wanted to think was fine. There was no need to correct her.

Xie Sui sighed. “Then I’ll have to trouble you to keep my secret.”

Nie Pengpeng nodded with a solemn expression.

Not long after Nie Pengpeng had hidden herself, the sound of disorganized footsteps came from outside the courtyard.

The villagers who rushed in did not have the numb, puppet-like expressions of the ones from before. They looked more like the boatman who had brought Xie Sui into the village, their expressions vivid and filled with obvious anger and alarm as they hurried into the yard.

Xie Sui noticed that each of them had a long-stemmed pipe hanging from their belt, identical to the boatman’s.

Clearly, there was a hierarchy among the villagers. Those numb, exploited villagers likely belonged to the lowest tier.

Seeing that the villagers had finally arrived, Xie Sui adjusted his facial muscles to put on a very angry expression.

Before the villagers could even speak, he took the initiative to complain, “Is this how your village treats its guests? No one told me before I came that your security was this incompetent. You can’t even suppress a mere vengeful spirit? It makes me seriously doubt your capabilities. Is your village’s reputation nothing but hot air?”

Faced with Xie Sui’s tactic of the villain suing first⁵, the leading villager acted submissively, apologizing repeatedly and not daring to question him at all.

Watching Xie Sui’s exaggerated acting, Nie Pengpeng fell silent.

The mockery in his expression was dialed up to the maximum.

She felt that even if Xie Sui wanted to enter the entertainment industry, he certainly wouldn’t make it as an actor. There was nothing to complain about regarding Xie Sui’s looks, but once it came to performing, his expressions became so theatrical, as if he were terrified that people wouldn’t realize he was acting.

She had seen plenty of wooden actors, but this was the first time she had seen someone who seemed so unfamiliar with their own facial muscles.

The author has something to say:

Writing this chapter was a bit difficult; I had a massive case of writer’s block and edited it many times before finally deciding to post it.

At its core, this story is just a fast-paced popcorn novel. I don’t want to criticize anything or be preachy… anyway, it’s enough if it serves as a small reminder.

Human trafficking still exists in modern society.

Girls must protect themselves when they are out. Do not talk to strangers casually, even if the stranger approaching you is a woman, a pregnant person, or an elderly individual. If a stranger asks you for help, call the police for them immediately; do not handle it yourself.

Never intend to harm others, but always guard against the harm others may do to you.

Translator’s Notes