Ghost Bridegroom — Chapter 5

Chapter 5: “Remember, never touch a malicious ghost’s melon.”

He had finally captured a soldier who had been walking alone at night with such difficulty, but the man fainted from fright just like that……

Bi Qianren tried assessing the aura within the town. He discovered that the doors and windows of every house were tightly closed, and there wasn’t a single household with the light on inside. 

This kind of silence was truly abnormal. Frowning, Qianren asked, “You only have a single soldier patrolling here at night?”

“Having one soldier on patrol is already considered quite good. Here, every family and every household knows one another. If one family lost something, the entire town would know by the very next day. There’s never a need for people to investigate. And everyone here is equally poor, so there’s nothing for people to steal in the first place.”

In comparison to him, Zhuge Qingtian looked quite happy that the witness had fainted. However, the ghost was completely immersed in rejoicing and thus didn’t notice the trap within Bi Qianren’s question. His inattentiveness made him accidentally reveal that he had been born in the Zhu family.

When Qianren heard his reply, he calmly glanced at Zhuge Qingtian. While he didn’t pierce through the ghost’s façade, he took advantage of how Zhuge Qingtian still hadn’t noticed how he had misspoken to try and worm out more information. “Since this place is so inaccessible, how could there be a hotel at the entrance?”

“Oh, that had been bought by a foreign merchant. He wanted to export the fruits in the mountain to sell outside, so he opened a hotel there. He even brought over his wife and child.”

When all was said and done, they were the wild fruits that were used as a tribute in the previous dynasty. It made sense if one wanted to treat them as a funny souvenir and sell them to outsiders.

However, before Qianren arrived here, he never heard there was someone selling these fruits in other towns.

Zhuge Qingtian’s tone sounded very natural, and it didn’t seem like he was lying. After thinking about it, Bi Qianren realized there was something fishy about the hotel.

He firmly said, “Cover up your watermelon. Let’s go to the hotel and take a look.”

The performance of the soldier already proved how Zhuge Qingtian’s current appearance was a living terror to normal people. Although the ghost wasn’t willing to come in contact with the people of the Zhu family, Bi Qianren completely didn’t seem like he wanted to leave. Zhuge Qingtian could only fish out the red veil he had prepared for his wedding and cover his own head, before he followed Qianren to the hotel.

To tell the truth, Zhuge Qingtian also found it quite strange. In his memories, the stores in Zhu family usually closed quite early, but this hotel was always open until very late at night.

However, there surprisingly wasn’t even a single watchman on the streets right now. The place seemed much more bleak and desolate compared to his memories.

What was stranger was that when they knocked on the hotel’s door, despite Zhuge Qingtian clearly feeling that there was a living person’s aura on the other side, no one came to open the door.

The ghost thought, since he was already dead, he naturally didn’t need to eat or go to the washroom. However, at the very least, his wife should eat something. 

Thus, Zhuge Qingtian let his voice float into the hotel, “Boss Qi, we wish to live in the hotel. Please open the door ah.” 

In the past, Zhuge Qingtian always used evil wind to transmit messages when chatting with the ghosts from the burial mounds. Qianren also didn’t react at all when he used the same method to talk to him.

Thus, Zhuge Qingtian had forgotten that a ghost’s sorrowful, evil voice sounded terrifying to living people. 

The moment he spoke, they heard a frightened yell from the other side of the door. “Lord Ghost Saint, my family isn’t the one responsible for offering sacrifices this time. I beg you to let us off! Our daughter has already married someone ah!”

Offer sacrifices? Daughter? What the hell?

Bi Qianren hadn’t revealed his purpose for coming to the Zhu family. Thus, Zhuge Qingtian only felt completely baffled when he heard those words.

This voice was indeed the same as the foreign boss’ voice in his memories, but why couldn’t he understand anything?

When he thought of this, Zhuge Qingtian actually forgot he was trying to hide certain facts from Qianren. Instead, he asked in doubt, “Have you become silly in your old age? Who wants your daughter? She’s only ten years old, already married?”

Unlike the ghost, Bi Qianren immediately understood everything. It seemed like for the past ten years, the Zhu family hadn’t stopped offering sacrifices to the so-called ghost saint. 

With regards to the personality of the disciples from the Profound Sect, it was impossible for them to not care if they encountered something like this. Thus, there was an eighty-percent chance that Fu Hongye’s situation was extremely bad. 

However, what kind of a devastating character from a place like this would be capable of killing a golden core cultivator?

The malicious ghost beside him? Or the so-called Lord Ghost Saint? 

But if it was a ghost making trouble, how could the Profound Sect disciples who came to investigate in the past not notice anything?

Frowning slightly, Bi Qianren realized that this matter wasn’t that simple. He didn’t want to waste time by letting Zhuge Qingtian dawdle more. Facing the big door, Qianren gave it a kick.

As wood shavings flew about, the dark hotel lobby finally appeared before their eyes.

This was the first time Zhuge Qingtian saw the door-opening method of demonic cultivators. He couldn’t help but hold the watermelon on his neck. 

Seeing the hotel door that had been kicked directly into the kitchen, the ghost couldn’t help but sigh.

It turns out his wife was already being gentle when he kicked him before……

Zhuge Qingtian thought the reason behind Bi Qianren’s violence must be because he was either hungry, or because he needed to use the washroom.

However, it was impossible for his cold and arrogant wife to need to use the washroom like ordinary people.

Thus, the ghost began recommending to him, “Wife, I used to love eating this hotel’s shredded pork with green peppers, you really need to try it……”

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly realized that no waiter came to welcome them. When he tried sensing the room, Zhuge Qingtian realized that the only two living people in the hotel were actually hiding under the counter, shivering.

The ghost couldn’t help but ask in confusion, “Huh? Why are they hiding from me?”

Although it was true that whether it was the fiendish Qianren or the long-dead Zhuge Qingtian, either of them was enough to frighten normal people into crying. However, these people shouldn’t know their identities.

Thus, Bi Qianren just kicked the counter flying. Following that, he lifted the chin of the hotel boss who had almost fainted from fright and said, “It’s better if you ask him personally yourself.”

The moment the red-robed Zhuge Qingtian appeared in front of the man and woman, the woman couldn’t help but tremble violently. 

She began to scream, “The insane scholar! Dad! It really is that insane scholar! The county magistrate didn’t lie to us, he really came back to take revenge!”

They appeared to be frightened terribly. However, Zhuge Qingtian didn’t really react that much. 

Instead, the ghost only slapped his veil-covered melon as he suddenly realized, “That’s right. I forgot I died ten years ago. This family’s little daughter has already grown up.”

The moment he said this, Bi Qianren’s expression changed. He silently sneered. 

Hah, this malicious ghost really didn’t tell the truth. 

He had said before that he didn’t remember how long it had been since he died. But didn’t he remember quite clearly just now?

“Lord Ghost Saint, the person who caused you to die wasn’t me. For every grievance, someone is responsible, don’t look for unrelated people like us ah! You…don’t come over here!”

Nobody noticed Bi Qianren’s expression, but the hotel boss became increasingly frightened. When he saw the ghost wanted to approach him, he immediately panicked.

Not taking care of anything else, he quickly threw out the protective amulet he was holding. 

Coincidentally, the amulet managed to hit the malicious ghost’s head spot-on.

Zhuge Qingtian hadn’t expected the boss to do this, and forgot to protect his melon. Thus, an even more horrifying scene appeared.

Everyone saw a round object covered in a blood-red veil fall onto the ground. The melon unexpectedly cracked open just like that, with ice-cold juice splattering all over the floor.

The head……head……head broke!

With widened eyes, the woman saw how the undefined liquid had spread to her own feet. Unable to persist any longer, the woman’s eyes rolled back into her head before she fainted.

The hotel boss was now so terrified, his entire body felt weak. He could only hug his unconscious daughter before kowtowing, “Lord Ghost Saint, we truly don’t know anything! If you want girls, go to the government office! All the young girls in the town are at the government office!”

However, how could the current Zhuge Qingtian have the mind to care about what he was talking about? 

He immediately squatted down to try and piece together the broken melon. When he realized it was impossible to fix it, he only stared blankly at the juice dripping off of his fingers.

There was only one thought in the ghost’s mind right now—

It has already been ten years since someone had given him anything. This was the first gift he had received after he died. He had always been carefully holding it because he wanted to preserve the melon until his wedding……

His melon fell and broke. For the sake of his melon, these people must pay with their lives!

As the malicious ghost’s mood began to fluctuate, the snow-white mourning garment underneath his red robes began turning red, thread by thread. The more it turned red, the stronger the evil aura on the ghost became.

It was as if there was something terrifying that was gradually trying to gush out, in an attempt to kill all the living things before the ghost’s eyes.

However, just before that watermelon triggered a massacre, Bi Qianren, who had been crossing his arms and watching, finally spoke.

“What’s the matter with the girls you were talking about?”

No, his wife was still there, Zhuge Qingtian couldn’t let himself become angry. The old Daoist priest told him before: if he didn’t control his temper, he wouldn’t be able to enter the reincarnation cycle.

Zhuge Qingtian had already found a wife, how could he waste all his previous efforts now?

He definitely wanted to be reincarnated into a new person!

Bi Qianren’s cold voice immediately awakened Zhuge Qingtian’s rationality. This also made him remember that finding girls before one’s wedding was a huge blunder.

The ghost quickly wiped his sticky hands on the hotel boss’ clothes before he pulled on Bi Qianren’s sleeve and explained, “Wife, don’t listen to his nonsense! I haven’t seen girls before! It’s already been ten years since I’ve seen a living woman!”

Zhuge Qianren’s actions once again frightened the hotel boss. He watched with wide eyes as his clothes got a few more watery hand prints. In his heart, he recalled how those hands had been playing with the broken head.

Heavens, ah! What were those little black beads…… 

Since the light wasn’t on in the hotel lobby, the watermelon seeds looked vague under the moonlight, but just this had already made the hotel boss extremely nauseated. 

He no longer cared who was standing before him. Violently shuddering, he pandered to Zhuge Qingtian’s words and said, “It’s this little one’s mistake! It’s this little one’s mistake! Lady Wife, there’s no girls. The town absolutely have no girls!”

Bi Qianren never would have expected that Zhuge Qingtian would be able to use a melon to scare someone until they lost two-thirds of their soul. He hadn’t even needed to make a move himself.

Although Qianren also felt a bit dumbfounded, he didn’t mind saving some manpower. He asked in a cold tone, “You better tell me everything that happened here. If you tell a single lie, you know the consequences yourself.”

Despite his voice sounding ice-cold, the hotel boss thought he was far more amiable than Zhuge Qingtian, the broken melon malicious ghost. As if he had grabbed onto his last hope, he immediately said, “Ghost Saint’s wife, please ask! This little one will definitely say everything without any reservations!”

“First tell me, who is the Lord Ghost Saint you keep talking about?”

In the past, when Bi Qianren did missions with other demonic cultivators, he always terrified both the enemies and his teammates together. Now that he suddenly became the one most welcomed, he actually felt somewhat not used to it.

But even if he felt a bit awkward, he decided to emphasize one point first, “Before that, whoever says the word ‘wife’ next, I’ll cut off their tongue.”

When he said this, he was practically gnashing his teeth. It scared both the hotel boss and Zhuge Qingtian into covering their mouths simultaneously. 

However, a certain ghost actually touched nothing. Only then did he sorrowfully realize that he no longer had a head.

No, he didn’t even have a melon anymore!

Wait, if he didn’t have a tongue right now, wasn’t it fine if he continued to call Bi Qianren his wife?

When he thought of this, Zhuge Qingtian actually thought this deal was pretty good. In the future, his wife would definitely give him other melons.

To be honest, he thought pumpkins were quite good too. They were rather stable and weren’t green¹……

Bi Qianren didn’t know what kind of a thought process this malicious ghost—who was suddenly pulling on his trousers now—went through for his mood to immediately improve.

However, his hitman’s intuition told him: it was better for him to not know.

1. This is probably referring to the saying of having a “green hat” in Chinese, which means your partner cheated on you.