Chapter 1 A Grave Matter

Xu Qinglang vomited so violently, he nearly brought up his bile.

Zhou Ze shook his head slightly. This kid was still too young. He probably hadn't watched enough ghost movies as a kid. This kind of scene, encountering a ghost in the wild and eating together, was actually a classic.

The delicacies originally placed on the plate were actually maggots, earthworms, cockroaches, ants, and so on.

This trope had already been used to death.

Even if he didn't have eating disorder issues, Zhou Ze wouldn't touch a single bite.

Did you expect the ghosts here to go to the market to buy vegetables every day? And then set up a stove to cook for you?

Zhou Ze remembered a case from before. A person went to visit a friend, who told him that his wife was away on vacation, so he could only entertain him alone. He stayed at his friend's house for a week. The only regret was that his friend's house had too few vegetables; it was all meat. But the meat soup was really delicious.

When he said goodbye to his friend and came out, he ran into a neighbor, who said that his friend hadn't left the house in almost a month, and had been locking himself inside all the time.

The person immediately threw up after hearing this.

Zhou Ze subconsciously picked up the wine in front of him, then put it down.

He almost forgot,

It was random passerby piss.

"If Husband is feeling unwell, then go down and rest first." The ghost mistress looked at the black-skirted maid beside her.

The maid nodded and walked over to help Xu Qinglang.

Xu Qinglang directly pushed away the maid's support, straightened his body, and said:

"Just say what you want to do quickly. I don't want to play any more roundabout games."

Mm, Xu Qinglang was angry.

Thoroughly angry.

The ghost mistress stood up and walked to Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

He had spent too much time with Xu Qinglang, but he was still normal.

However, Zhou Ze didn't have the courage to lift the ghost mistress's red veil.

Beautiful face, withered bones, as it should be.

Looking at the layout and decorations here, one could clearly tell that this ghost mistress had died a long time ago. If you lifted her veil, and she was in a good mood, she might show you her face from when she was alive.

If you were unlucky, she'd use a skull face covered in maggots to blind your dog eyes.

Zhou Ze remembered seeing a report in his previous life. It was very popular for husbands to accompany their wives into the delivery room.

Many sentimental people thought that this would allow the husband to understand his wife's sacrifices and greatness. Later, a Japanese husband became depressed after accompanying his wife during childbirth. He developed psychological trauma and could no longer live a normal life with his wife, and eventually had to choose divorce.

And right now, Zhou Ze knew that he had a neighbor who was even more beautiful than a woman. If he was frightened by this ghost mistress's face, his orientation might really head towards an unpredictable abyss.

In his past and present lives, he didn't seem to have ever truly gotten his wish with women. Zhou Ze didn't want to skip steps and start playing advanced games in this life.

"Superior, the reason why this humble one invited you here instead of actively paying a visit is not because this humble one is impolite or deliberately neglecting you. It's just that this humble one really has no other way to leave this place."

The ghost mistress lamented to Zhou Ze.

"As for this husband, the reason why he was invited here is only because more than ten years ago, when this husband was just a child, he passed by here and left behind a joke. He said to his companion at the time that if a female ghost was really like Joey Wang in the movies, he would be willing to marry her."

Xu Qinglang opened his mouth wide upon hearing this.

He himself had forgotten that there was such a thing?

Zhou Ze glanced at Xu Qinglang, meaning: I didn't realize you were so precocious, looking so effeminate.

"Specifically, what's the matter?"

Zhou Ze didn't directly say that you were very naughty and that he would take her back to hell.

The little loli once said that he was the most self-aware person she had ever met.

Indeed,

Zhou Ze was indeed self-aware now. Without benefits, performance, or tasks, he really didn't need to sacrifice himself for the prosperity of hell.

"Superior, do not worry, this humble one is about to leave today and return to the underworld." The ghost mistress smiled and continued, "This humble one's surname is Bai, and she was the daughter of a scholarly family during the Daoguang era. Unfortunately, her fate was ill-fated, and she died young on the eve of her marriage and was buried here. It has been almost two hundred years since then.

Although this humble one is a ghost, she has never done anything sinister. She once protected the peace and prosperity of the surrounding villages. Mr. Se An once inscribed a plaque for this humble one's shrine, and this humble one has had a temple body since then and can receive incense offerings.

However, in recent decades, the shrine has fallen into disrepair and can no longer be found. No one knows that there was once such a yin shrine here."

"Who is Mr. Se An?" Xu Qinglang blinked and asked.

"Zhang Jian." Zhou Ze replied.

"Oh, it's him." Xu Qinglang understood now.

Zhang Jian was a famous figure in Tongcheng during the late Qing Dynasty. He drafted the abdication edict for the Qing emperor. He was the top scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and also a national entrepreneur.

The yin shrine that the ghost mistress was talking about wasn't referring to some shady place, but rather a shrine that wasn't recognized by the imperial court's rites and laws and belonged to an illegally sacrificed deity.

"Then you're pretty amazing." Xu Qinglang had recovered from his vomiting state. After the ghost mistress said that she had invited him here only because of a joke he made as a child, he relaxed. It was good that he wasn't being forced to be her husband.

She had cultivated for two hundred years and even had a shrine built for her to receive incense offerings. She should have already transcended the level of a ghost, right?

"Now, this humble one's cultivation is complete, and she is about to descend into the underworld. However, this humble one has one thing that she must consider."

The ghost mistress bowed slightly to Zhou Ze and pleaded:

"This humble one's former physical body, due to the reason for burial, has not decayed for two hundred years and is lifelike. This humble one's soul is about to enter the underworld, however, this humble one's physical body cannot be taken with her.

Moreover, for the past two hundred years, this humble one's physical body has shown signs of becoming a demon due to being connected to this humble one's soul. This humble one does not want a physical body to be left behind after this humble one's soul descends, in case it awakens due to unforeseen circumstances and does things that harm heaven and reason. Therefore, this humble one earnestly requests Superior to help."

"How do you want me to help you?"

Zhou Ze rubbed his hands. It was best if this ghost mistress planned to go to hell herself. This was turning herself in.

No, it didn't seem like turning herself in. It was more like an ancient rebel army growing to a certain extent and then accepting the imperial court's offer of amnesty, washing away their identities, and gaining official positions.

But no matter what, it was good that she wasn't going to confront him head-on.

"This humble one requests that Superior help watch over this humble one's physical body and cremate it with bamboo and wood on the night of the next Cold Clothes Festival." The ghost mistress said.

"Help watch over it?" Zhou Ze thought about it and nodded.

"Superior, you have agreed to this humble one's request?" The ghost mistress confirmed, "This humble one thanks Superior here."

"You're welcome."

Zhou Ze subconsciously picked up his wine glass again.

Mm,

And put it down again.

"Then this humble one will take her leave." The ghost mistress's figure began to slowly disappear, leaving very decisively.

Zhou Ze pursed his lips. In the next moment, Zhou Ze discovered that the surrounding scenery had all dissipated, and he and Xu Qinglang were sitting on two stone stools.

The surrounding banquet had also disappeared without a trace. All that could be seen were jagged rocks and dense weeds.

Xu Qinglang lit a cigarette, looking a bit melancholic.

"Are you a little disappointed that you didn't see what your wife looked like?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Why didn't you lift the veil and take a look yourself?" Xu Qinglang snorted coldly.

As the saying goes, "Only through hardship does one see true strength, and only with time does one know a person's heart." Zhou Ze had taken advantage of him countless times tonight, and Xu Qinglang had written it all down in his little notebook.

"She's your wife. How could I dare to overstep?" Zhou Ze looked around, then stomped his foot on the ground. "The corpse of that Lady Bai is under this ground?"

"It should be, right?" Xu Qinglang was also a bit unsure, but soon, his eyes discovered two rusty iron shovels lying in the grass in front of him. "It should be, right? They even prepared the shovels for us."

Zhou Ze walked over, and he and Xu Qinglang each took a shovel. There was nothing else to say. Let's start digging!

The two of them dug together until dawn, sweating profusely. Finally, they encountered something hard underneath. After brushing away the dirt on top, they could see clearly that it was a red wooden coffin.

It took them about another half hour to completely clear the coffin.

"Let's open the coffin," Zhou Ze said. "It's almost dawn. Let's finish this quickly, or people will see us and call the police, thinking we're tomb robbers."

"You do it," Xu Qinglang wiped his sweat. "I find it disgusting."

"Didn't she say that her body didn't rot?"

"Who knows if that's true or not?"

Zhou Ze shook his head. There was nothing he could do. This was something he had promised someone. Xu Qinglang was just helping out of friendship, and he could only do it himself if he didn't want to do it.

He pried open the coffin nails, Zhou Ze stood to the side and pulled hard. The coffin lid was lifted. Then, Zhou Ze took out his phone and turned on the flashlight to shine it down.

"Heh… she's actually quite pretty."

Xu Qinglang also came closer. Indeed, the woman lying in the coffin was wearing a white dress, with long hair draped over her shoulders and a dignified and beautiful face. There wasn't the slightest problem with her body. She looked like she was sleeping.

This time, Xu Qinglang was very proactive. He jumped down and picked up the female corpse.

But as soon as he lifted it off the ground, Xu Qinglang's face immediately changed. He immediately put the female corpse down and kept rubbing his hands to the side.

"Hiss… so cold, bone-chillingly cold. This corpse has such heavy baleful aura. It's clearly about to become a zombie. That Lady Bai definitely didn't tell the whole truth.

She must have been deliberately nourishing her corpse all this time out of a woman's natural love for beauty.

Now that she has achieved complete merit and is preparing to leave, she left behind such a big trouble."

Zhou Ze personally went down. When he picked up the female corpse, Zhou Ze immediately sensed that chill that seemed to stimulate the soul.

But in the next moment, Zhou Ze discovered that his fingernails began to grow longer, and those chills, which Xu Qinglang had previously called baleful aura, began to actively pour into Zhou Ze's fingernails.

For a moment,

The tingling, ethereal sensation made Zhou Ze's soul completely tremble. This seemed to be a kind of nourishment.