83. Conditions That Drive Even Ghosts Into Seclusion

The first page of three

“Old Chen, is the food I made delicious?” Resting her chin in one small hand, the girl smiled sweetly at Chen Sheng. Her almond-shaped eyes were clear as water, yet with a tender, lingering warmth that seemed to conceal some deeper feeling.

“Very delicious. But are you sure you made this?” Chen Sheng did not think he was lying to himself; after all, he had seen everything.

“I paid for it,” the girl said, puffing out her cheeks in displeasure.

“Fine then, the food you made is really delicious.” Chen Sheng nodded, unable to help feeling that this truly was the bearing of a young lady from a wealthy family. At the same time, he forcibly pressed down the hint of romance that had stirred in his heart the night before.

Not for any other reason, but because being a live-in son-in-law was no easy matter.

He might as well blame himself for being poor. Nearly thirty already, and still unable to cast off the pride in his heart that remained as youthful as ever.

After all, to grit his teeth and make it this far, to choose maturity at the age when he should have been blazing with youth, he had relied entirely on that so-called “youthful pride,” something many would deem not worth mentioning.

The prevailing attitude in society was: what is self-respect worth? Focus only on making money. To earn big money, one can set aside everything—and even regard that as a glory.

There is a line that sounds thrilling at first hearing, and it means exactly this: I knelt down. I stood up. I am glory.

Sounds fiery?

A little.

But like a corrupting chant used for brainwashing.

Because once you have knelt and then risen again, there is something you can never recover.

That is the bottom line you once had.

One should have a bottom line, not keep breaking through it.

Self-respect is also self-love.

After dinner, Chen Sheng once again volunteered to wash the dishes. After all, someone had specially invited a hotel chef to prepare a full table of lavish dishes. He could not tell how much was spent, but just the ingredients he could recognize—such as the giant lobster and black-gold abalone—were certainly not cheap. It was possible they cost as much as his monthly salary.

Of course, there was another important reason: there really were not many dishes left at home, and they could not withstand a certain clumsy person smashing them several more times.

After a flurry of activity, Chen Sheng collapsed into the sofa, propped his feet on the coffee table, picked up the box beside him, took out the gold-rimmed glasses inside, and put them on.

He was planning to play a while longer.

For some reason, at this very moment, he suddenly wanted to run wild without restraint!

...

The second page of three

As soon as Chen Sheng “logged in” to this healing game, he found the place suddenly bustling. Many people were gathered in front of him, as though watching something.

“What’s going on up ahead?” Chen Sheng could not help patting the shoulder of the person in front of him.

A chill immediately seeped into his hand.

At the same time, the person whose shoulder had been patted by Chen Sheng slowly turned his head a full three hundred and sixty degrees, twisting around like a rope being wrung, revealing a face from which blood flowed from all the orifices, as if it had been assembled at random.

Chen Sheng sucked in a cold breath, then asked in astonishment, “Brother, how did you die? How did you die in such a distinctive way? Even Picasso would not be able to resist painting your self-portrait!”

The blood-soaked ghost: “...”

After a moment, however, the ghost looked at Chen Sheng with a dark, hollow gaze and said in a low, icy voice, “There is a female ghost up ahead, and in her hands is a suppressed eerie item.”

As for the other question, the ghost simply refused to answer.

Chen Sheng did not mind. “So you’re all here to kill and loot? Ah, to kill ghosts and steal treasures.”

“No. That female ghost said that for one ghost coin, you can get a close-up sense of the eerie item. They’re all lining up inside to pay.”

Chen Sheng: “...”

For some reason, as he listened, he inexplicably felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

After a brief silence, Chen Sheng asked the ghost, “Then why aren’t you lining up too?”

“Because I have no money,” the blood-soaked ghost said in a faint, gloomy tone.

Chen Sheng: “...”

What a flawless reason.

“Don’t your family burn it to you?” Chen Sheng decided to tease this “passerby ghost NPC.”

The blood-soaked ghost immediately looked at Chen Sheng as if looking at an idiot. After a moment of speechlessness, however, it still answered, “Ghost coins are money that circulates in the world of the dead, and money accepted by all ghosts. They are completely different from ingots and incense candles, and cannot be made in the human world.”

“So ghost coins are precious?” Chen Sheng summed up.

“Yes!”

“How many ghost coins has that female ghost collected so far?” Chen Sheng asked suddenly.

“I don’t know, but it should be quite a lot. She has been here for several days already.”

The third page of three

“Then why don’t you all just rob her?” Chen Sheng asked in confusion.

The blood-soaked ghost could not help studying Chen Sheng carefully, then looked at itself. At that moment, it began to doubt the identities of the two of them.

Had their roles been reversed?

Was this living person the evil ghost?

But after a while of silence, the blood-soaked ghost still spoke, offering an explanation—though not entirely for Chen Sheng’s sake. He was worried that if the female ghost found out, she might come looking for trouble.

“That female ghost is a fierce ghost, and her malice is very strong. According to the human classification, she is at the second tier, the Blood-Glow level. Fierce ghosts are more vicious than newly born ghosts, so a second-tier fierce ghost’s level of malice can match that of a first-tier Great Malice newly born ghost. As for me, I am only at the third tier, the Misfortune level. Also, don’t let my miserable death fool you—I’m actually a newly born ghost.”

Chen Sheng knew that fierce ghosts were usually stronger than newly born ghosts, but this was the first time he had heard of classifications such as first-tier Great Malice, second-tier Blood-Glow, and third-tier Misfortune.

So Chen Sheng said, “Brother, I’m new here. Since fate has brought the two of us together, explain those three tiers to me in detail.”

But this time, the blood-soaked ghost was no longer willing to answer every question. Its eyes turned a ghastly green as it asked in that same eerie tone, “Do you know why I’m talking so much to you, a living person?”

“Surely it’s because you want me to trigger your condition for harming people?” Chen Sheng raised an eyebrow.

“You guessed right, but there’s no reward.” The blood-soaked ghost split its mouth into a grin, stretching impossibly far back toward its ears, like some kind of virtual female ghost from the real world with a split mouth.

Chen Sheng remained unmoved, and even said solemnly, “That line is wrong, because it damages your image too much! You should say: You guessed right, so I reward you by becoming one with me! See? Say it like that and doesn’t the whole thing instantly sound much more imposing?”

The blood-soaked ghost froze: “...”

This person seemed a little abnormal. If the vital essence were drained from such a person, would the abnormality be contagious, and would it make me abnormal too?

This question made the blood-soaked ghost hesitate greatly, because ever since it had died horribly and become a newly born ghost, this was the first time anyone had triggered its condition for harming people.

It had absolutely no experience in “eating people”!

This was not because the ghost was “kind,” but because its condition for harming people was this: someone, without fear, actively and willingly spoke with it for three minutes.

It was a condition that could drive any newly born ghost into self-isolation.