Chapter 99

In fact, it is unreasonable to try to bring a dead person back to life; allowing someone who has died by suicide to continue to be entangled in the world is somewhat embarrassing for them. After all, they have truly ended their own lives, and they are full of disappointment in the world and long to escape.

And now, Lou Sheng was sitting in the car heading to Yu Gengshi’s hometown.

He was a ghost, unable even to peer out the window to admire the scenery. Lou Sheng's concerns were too numerous, and his existence was invisible to the world. Ying Zhisheng was lonely and misunderstood. He spent the entire day circling around Ying Zhisheng, only to meet him in his dreams at night. It might be okay for a while, but would such a life truly bring happiness after ten, twenty, fifty, or sixty years?

Ying Zhisheng was going to die, he couldn't even save people.

Ying Zhisheng was deeply involved in the rumors, and he was unable to say a word to support them.

It’s so hard to meet, so hard to kiss, and so hard to date.

A few days ago, Ying Zhisheng took Lou Sheng to a private theater for a movie. They were the only two in the huge theater. Ying Zhisheng starred in the film, a notoriously bad one widely panned online. Lou Sheng was genuinely distressed, but the actor beside him kept telling him anecdotes from the set, leaving him feeling somewhat unsatisfied even after the movie ended.

Later, someone leaked a video of Ying Zhisheng, looking energetic and talking to himself in the empty seat next to him. Everyone said that Ying Zhisheng's condition had worsened.

Is it getting worse? It's obvious that their relationship is getting closer and warmer.

Lou Sheng felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart. This bitterness was like densely packed roots growing vigorously, and even the ears, nose and throat were no exception. It was all bitter.

Reason told him that entering into a ghost marriage with Ying Zhisheng was not a wise choice and would only harm him. But reason also told him that if he left Ying Zhisheng, that person would die faster. It was the difference between dying early, dying late, dying quickly, and dying slowly.

As the car drove into the village, vast fields and piles of grass came into view. The river water was a complex, multi-layered color of green, yellow, and brown.

Yu Gengshi said, "Don't touch the paper figures my grandma made. They hold grudges."

Assistant Tao's face turned pale and he nodded repeatedly.

Tao Yuan was a strange and contradictory person. When Zhenzhen took the child out, he was terrified and cried out for his parents. When Lou Sheng kindly handed him the dead baby, he cried and vomited in disgust.

A day later, Tao Yuan seemed to have calmed down. The irony was that he'd actually paid a large sum of money to Yu Gengshi, asking him to temporarily open his Yin-Yang eyes, endure the piercing pain of being smashed in the head, and raise the dead baby, feeding it with flesh and blood just like Ying Zhisheng.

Fuquan was in a state of confusion. His boss and subordinates were both dealing with ghosts, and the situation was getting increasingly complicated. Fuquan had recently bought a shiny black dog and a large rooster at the market.

"Let's not talk to the villagers this time. Let's do it quietly and leave quietly. Don't let the news leak out." Fuquan is used to his own artists being on the hot search, but this matter is too big. If this ghost marriage is exposed, how will the public opinion be? No one can imagine.

"Go back to the crew directly after you're done. Don't go back to the house in the city center." This time, Dong Chi and I took three days off, which delayed the filming progress quite a bit, and Fuquan was embarrassed.

"Brother Sheng, this child is always crying. What is he crying for?" Assistant Tao couldn't hold the dead baby, so he had to look at Lou Sheng with pleading eyes, hoping that Lou Sheng would help him take care of the child.

Lou Sheng thought he was schizophrenic.

Ying Zhisheng didn't care about the dead baby. It wasn't Lou Sheng crying, so it didn't affect him too much. He just looked at the clear blue sky and white clouds outside. In his peripheral vision, he saw Lou Sheng quietly approaching. The corners of his mouth raised slightly in a smile.

Lou Sheng was puzzled: "Is Assistant Tao crazy? Doesn't he really hate ghosts?"

Ying Zhisheng looked over and said with a smile, "Maybe he has some problems with his brain. Let's ignore him."

Lou Sheng watched Assistant Tao frantically coaxing the child for a while. Thinking about how much care he had received during this period, and how Assistant Tao had even fed him blood, he hesitated before going over to coax the dead baby a few times.

Gao Xinhua didn't come with us this time because she had a lot of things to do. Otherwise, who knows what the situation would have been like.

The car stopped. The desolate village was deserted. On the other side of the river were tall trees and a series of eerie grave mounds.

Ying Zhisheng wore a mask and a baseball cap, casual clothes, and walked in the winding and narrow alleys with a black umbrella.

The appearance of a group of people in a backward village was extremely rare and attracted much attention. An old man, almost toothless, asked Yu Gengshi, "Yu boy, who are they?"

"Classmate," Yu Gengshi replied casually, then dismissed him with a random chat. As he reached a row of whitewashed, black-tiled houses on the riverbank, he could hear the sound of dogs barking.

Lou Sheng met Yu Gengshi's grandmother, whose surname was Zhu. She was the most gloomy and stern old lady he had ever seen. Her cloudy yellow eyes, bloodshot and glaring, looked at him like a snake about to strike. Her voice was harsh and low, and her back was sinister as she spoke.

There were paper figures in the yard, standing against the wall without eyes. A closer look revealed that they had no fingers or ears and their necks were too long, making it look like their heads were about to fall off at any moment.

Assistant Tao's little ghost cried non-stop, earning a stern look from Grandma Zhu. With just that one look, the little ghost, who had been crying all the way, finally calmed down.

The conversation took place in a cramped and dim woodshed. This group of sophisticated and picky city people brushed off the dust on the small benches and sat down with their legs bent.

Yu Gengshi gave a brief account of the situation, and then Lou Sheng felt the old lady's gaze on him. She looked so indifferent that he felt as if he were a pig or a cow waiting to be slaughtered, not a human being.

Grandma Zhu spoke with a local accent, her voice deep and powerful. Her general meaning was: "This boy has become a ghost. He will have a great future."

"You must have a great future," Lou Sheng had heard from childhood to adulthood, from birth to death. He groaned and waved his hands embarrassedly, "No, no."

Grandma Zhu pointed at Ying Zhisheng and said, "The things that were stolen from him can't be recovered. This young man won't live past the age of thirty-four."

At first, they wondered what was stolen from Ying Zhisheng, but when they heard that he would not live past the age of 34, the group of people inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately it's thirty-four and not twenty-four. Well, isn't thirty-four ten years from now?

"It's a lot of trouble to prepare things for a ghost marriage...Pray to the gods in the east and the ghosts in the west...Poor baby, hey, the paper figurine likes the boy baby, he's handsome..."

"Ghost marriage, burial... the living becomes dead in half a step. Do you have a coffin? This little box is no good, the person will be burned to ashes."

"There's no good ending to a ghost marriage."

Grandma Zhu was muttering to herself, walking slowly with small steps. Fragments of her words drifted into my ears. As I followed her into the dark west room, I felt like I was stepping into the abyss.

The old woman turned around and glanced at Assistant Tao, who was so frightened that he gulped madly. She said nothing, but she made people feel that she knew everything.

Ying Zhisheng was in a good mood, and even the paper figures seemed to please him. He hummed a song with a raised lip, unaware that his face was covered in dust.

Lou Sheng wanted to help him wipe off the dust, but he pursed his lips and pointed to his cheek to remind him.

Ying Zhisheng thought Lou Sheng wanted to kiss him, so he leaned forward and wanted to kiss him on the face.

With a thud, the paper figure next to him fell down and hit the ground with his face.

Grandma Zhu, who was leading the way, said slowly, "It's too much to bear."