Chapter Nine: Seeking Help from the Female Ghost
Pant, pant.
Fu Yang was running at full speed. Not out of fear, but out of discomfort.
He was soaked from head to toe, water dripping from his hair. The stagnant water in the abandoned artificial lake, teeming with duckweed and debris, left him sticky, smelly, and utterly miserable.
“Damn it, what rotten luck! First night on the job and something so bizarre happens.”
A few minutes later, Fu Yang returned to the security post.
He hurriedly stripped off his clothes and washed them haphazardly in the communal sink outside. Hanging them up on a hanger, he figured that, since it was summer, they’d be dry by morning.
“Please, let nothing weird happen in the second half of the night. Otherwise, I’ll be running around stark naked!”
Fu Yang lay down on the bed, completely bare. Exhausted and sleepy, he quickly drifted off...
A dreamless night.
At six o’clock the next morning, the phone by his bedside rang, its bell clanging loudly.
Fu Yang opened his eyes and saw a face suddenly appear right beside his bed, staring at him with piercing eyes!
Still caught up in the events of the previous night, he yelled, “Ghost!” and instinctively swung a punch.
His fist was caught, and an angry voice barked, “Fu Yang, what are you doing? Sleeping naked on duty, and now you want to hit me?”
It was Director Zhang!
Fu Yang had no idea when he’d come in.
Turning over and sitting up, Fu Yang was mortified. “Director, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it. Last night was just too frightening! I ran into a ghost while patrolling…”
He recounted the whole incident to Director Zhang, who remained stone-faced and spat out, “What nonsense!”
“Director, I swear it’s all true! The campus hospital is really terrifying.”
Director Zhang waved his hand dismissively. “Fine! If it’s so scary, you don’t need to do the job anymore. I’ll settle today’s wages for you, and you can leave.”
Uh...
Fu Yang thought, This isn’t how it’s supposed to go! Aren’t you supposed to comfort me and encourage me to continue?
Just thinking of the terrifying female ghost at home made Fu Yang wilt. He forced a flattering smile. “Director Zhang, I was just saying, I’m still willing to do the job. I’ll be back the night after tomorrow…”
“Here! Put your clothes on. Don’t run out there naked like a lunatic.”
Director Zhang tossed him his clothes, which had been drying outside, and waved him off with disgust. “Get lost!”
Yawning incessantly, Fu Yang ate a few meat buns for breakfast, then returned to his rented apartment.
The memorial tablet for the female ghost, Dong Wei Ke, faced the door directly. The incense smoke on either side twisted and curled like serpents, making the scene decidedly eerie.
“She’s home!”
Fu Yang tiptoed toward the bedroom like a thief. Just as he passed the tablet, a lazy voice sounded behind him: “Little brother, would you like to have breakfast with your big sister?”
He jolted so hard he nearly wet himself.
Creak, creak.
Turning stiffly, he mustered his strength to force a strained smile. “Your Majesty… you’re home?”
Today, Dong Wei Ke had conjured a set of clothes—denim hot pants!
She was about 1.7 meters tall, with all the curves in the right places. The short denim shorts outlined her nearly flawless figure, and her long legs were enough to inspire wild thoughts.
“I could play with those legs for a year! No, for a lifetime!”
The thought flashed through Fu Yang’s mind inexplicably, making him blush and breathe heavily.
Yet inwardly, he was crying: Damn it! Why do I keep having improper thoughts about this female ghost? Am I some kind of pervert, and just never realized it before?
“Hm? Something’s off with you.” Dong Wei Ke frowned, thinking for a moment, then raised her eyebrows sharply. “You’re fantasizing about me! How dare you!”
With a sudden shout, Fu Yang’s vision blurred, and it felt as if his chest had been kicked hard.
Ah...
With a tremulous scream, Fu Yang was sent flying onto the bed, landing in a sprawled, starfish position, tears streaming down his face.
“Not lacking in courage!” the ghost snorted, haughtily raising her chin.
“Of course I’m not lacking in courage. How else would I dare to work night shifts at the campus hospital for your incense money? I even ran into a ghost… Wait, hold on!”
Fu Yang suddenly remembered something and leapt up from the bed.
“Your Majesty…” His voice oozed with flattery.
Dong Wei Ke, just about to return to her tablet, frowned and feigned ferocity. “What is it?!”
Fu Yang hesitated, then bit the bullet. “Your Majesty, since I serve you, shouldn’t you guarantee my basic safety?”
Dong Wei Ke was taken aback, pausing before sitting on the sofa opposite him, crossing her long legs and striking a seductive pose. “Speak, what do you need from your queen?”
“To earn money to support you—well, I mean, to honor you, Your Majesty, I’ve been working night shifts at the campus hospital…”
He recounted the events of the previous night once more, then did his best to look pitiful. “Your Majesty, you’re powerful. Could you do something? Maybe go have a word with those ghost brothers and sisters in the hospital?”
Dong Wei Ke rolled her eyes. “Get lost!”
She fell silent for a moment.
Fu Yang thought her expression looked uncertain, but on closer inspection, perhaps it was just his imagination.
“Fine, I’ll leave you with a trace of ghostly energy. Only use it at the very brink of life and death. I’m not responsible for whether it works.”
Fu Yang was overjoyed and quickly thanked her, convinced that Dong Wei Ke was an especially formidable ghost, and her energy would surely be useful…
Dong Wei Ke raised her slender hand, and a red streak of light shot from her fingertip, burrowing into Fu Yang’s brow.
He felt a tingling, numbing sensation in his head, and his eyes closed involuntarily. At the center of his brow, where the energy entered, a complex, ancient mark flashed briefly—so quickly that even Dong Wei Ke didn’t notice…
“All right, go about your business. Your queen needs to rest.”
Dong Wei Ke yawned and stretched, her white crop top revealing a slim waist, again showing off her nearly perfect figure. Combined with her languid aura, it drove Fu Yang mad.
His heart skipped a few beats, and he turned his eyes away, repeating to himself, “Don’t look, don’t look…”
With the ghostly energy from Dong Wei Ke, Fu Yang felt much braver. He no longer feared the terrifying corpses in the morgue while on night duty.
He even looked forward to seeing just how powerful his “Queen’s” ghostly energy was—whether it could intimidate those corpses.
But in the days that followed, his night shifts were uneventful. No supernatural events occurred. It was as if everything in the morgue that night had been nothing but a hallucination…