(two)
"I... I keep having the same dream lately," Ji Lin said after swallowing a sip of milk tea.
“You’ve already mentioned this on the website,” Zhou Ziqiu said slowly. “Why don’t you tell me how this dream is going now?”
"Okay." Ji Lin took a sip of tea and eagerly recounted his dream: "I dreamt about it a few days ago. Recently, my dreams have been like a series of connections. I got off my horse to help the bride who was getting out of the sedan chair, but the bride's hand turned out to be a skeleton!"
Ji Lin became more and more frightened as she spoke: "The dreams that followed were all continuations of the dreams from the previous day. I'm so scared, Master, what's wrong with me?"
Thus, Zhou Ziqiu understood even more what Ji Lin had encountered: "You encountered a ghost wedding."
Ji Lin was even more agitated upon hearing this: "Wh-what?! I've never even been in a relationship, how can I get married?"
Zhou Ziqiu shook his head: "Ghost wedding refers to the situation where a person who dies tragically in an accident during their wedding becomes a ghost and seeks someone to complete the unfinished wedding."
"Then why did you come to me?" Ji Lin was on the verge of tears.
"Then you'll have to ask yourself: did you accept a gift from a ghost?"
Ji Lin was even more confused: "A ghost's gift? What?"
"Money and food by the roadside."
Upon hearing this, Ji Lin understood: "I did find some money on the roadside when I was hiking a few days ago. My mom told me that finding money on the roadside means picking up bad luck that others don't want, and that I should spend it quickly, so I spent it right away."
Zhou Ziqiu sighed again: "There is indeed such a saying, but some money is not like that. It's left on the ground by ghosts, like in your case. You accepted the ghost's gift, took it home, and then spent it. In the ghost's eyes, it's like you accepted a betrothal gift, and the ghost wants you to complete the unfinished wedding." After saying that, he asked, "Where did your dream end up?"
"We're about to have the wedding ceremony! Master, what will happen to me after the ceremony? Will I have to go to the bridal chamber?" Ji Lin was so scared that she almost cried.
Zhou Ziqiu shook his head again: "You will die."
The atmosphere froze instantly.
Ji Lin was so frightened that he cried out, "Master, save me! Master, save me! I don't want to die!" He even knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zhou Ziqiu. No matter how Zhou Ziqiu pulled him up, it was no use, which attracted the attention of the surrounding people.
"Don't do this. I came here to save you. Get up first."
After much persuasion, Zhou Ziqiu finally managed to pull Ji Lin up from the ground.
"Give me your home address, and I'll come to your house at nine o'clock tonight."
Ji Lin quickly sent his address to Zhou Ziqiu.
After Ji Lin left, Zhou Ziqiu returned to the hotel and arrived at Ji Lin's house promptly at nine o'clock in the evening.
Upon hearing the knock, Ji Lin opened the door for Zhou Ziqiu, only to find the room covered with yellow paper talismans instead of modern decor.
Zhou Ziqiu chuckled, changed his shoes, walked to the wall, and casually picked up a paper talisman. The messy, indistinguishable strokes made it impossible for him to discern its purpose. He racked his brains but could only deduce that it meant "The Great General is here." Hence the saying: "Drawing talismans without knowing the trick will only invite laughter from ghosts and gods; drawing talismans with the trick will startle ghosts and gods." These talismans must have been drawn by a complete beginner; they were laughable to look at.
Ji Lin, unaware of Zhou Ziqiu's thoughts while holding the talisman, explained, "I went to Luoqi to find you, but you weren't there, so I went to the temple on Baiyu Mountain to get this. It costs a hundred yuan per talisman."
Zhou Ziqiu suddenly remembered that the owner of the snack shop next to Liaoyuan Pavilion had told him that Baiyushan Scenic Area sold these. He shook his head and looked at the paper talismans with the same drawing style all over the room, saying, "Tear them all up."
Ji Lin exclaimed in disbelief, "Huh? All of them?"
"Well, these talismans weren't drawn properly, they're useless." Zhou Ziqiu was too embarrassed to tell Ji Lin directly that he had been tricked, but Ji Lin should be able to guess what he meant.
Ji Lin understood what Zhou Ziqiu meant, but didn't say anything more: "Listen to the master, listen to the master."
As Ji Lin was about to tear it, Zhou Ziqiu stopped him: "Let me do it. You go to sleep normally, and I will enter your dreams."
"Okay, okay." Since Zhou Ziqiu said so, Ji Lin went back to the bedroom to prepare to fall asleep.
To resolve this type of situation, one must know where the ghost that is haunting the living comes from. However, the ghost's betrothal gifts sometimes appear in locations far from its original body. For other ghost hunters or Taoist priests, locating the ghost's location may require some methods, but for Zhou Ziqiu, it is possible to simply follow their dreams.
The ghost that haunts Ji Lin will slowly drain his yang energy during his sleep each night as the ritual progresses. As the ritual nears completion, his yang energy will be completely depleted, until, at the moment of completion, Ji Lin's soul will be taken away by the ghost. These images are all from the ritual itself. Since the living souls are connected, Ji Lin, in his sleep, will mistake these images for dreams. Zhou Ziqiu's claim of entering dreams relies on this connection to track down Ji Lin's soul. However, this method cannot be used once the ritual is complete, because the soul will be gone by then.
Ji Lin would need some time to fall asleep, so after Ji Lin left the living room, Zhou Ziqiu tore the paper talismans off the wall one by one. These talismans were poorly drawn, so poorly that they could not even harm him and were useless except as waste paper.
And so it was midnight, the time when most people fall asleep and enter deep sleep.
Zhou Ziqiu heard that there had been no sound coming from the bedroom for a long time, so he got up and pushed open Ji Lin's bedroom door. The young man on the bed was already asleep, but there was a dark aura around his forehead, which meant that the ghost had come to suck Ji Lin's soul.
That's fine.
Zhou Ziqiu walked to Ji Lin's bedside, pointed his finger at Ji Lin's forehead, and black mist began to emanate from Zhou Ziqiu's body. A moment later, Zhou Ziqiu closed his eyes and "fainted" on the ground.
After a moment of darkness, when he opened his eyes again, he saw the groom, Ji Lin, resisting the wedding ceremony, surrounded by ghost brides and ghost guests. Ji Lin paused in his struggles when he saw Zhou Ziqiu, and then continued to struggle.
Ji Lin: "Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh!!"
Zhou Ziqiu: ......
Ji Lin looked at Zhou Ziqiu with hope, like a drowning person grasping at a straw, but Zhou Ziqiu did not meet his gaze for long. He only glanced at him before looking away and looking around.
However, there were too many ghosts here, and Zhou Ziqiu did not see a figure that hurriedly flashed by. If he had seen it, he would have thought that person looked familiar.
Zhou Ziqiu's sudden appearance had not initially attracted the attention of the ghosts, but after Ji Lin's actions, all the ghosts present noticed him and turned their empty gazes toward him.
Zhou Ziqiu originally intended to blend into the group of ghosts to cast a spell to break their spell and save Ji Lin's soul, but plans can't keep up with changes. He could only quickly rescue Ji Lin from the ghosts' clutches before the ghost guests attacked him, and then quickly pulled him away from the scene.
Facing so many ghosts, Zhou Ziqiu will only suffer losses.
But as Zhou Ziqiu stepped out of the mansion, for some reason, he turned back and glanced at the ghost bride in the center of the hall.
The bride wore a red wedding dress, which was as intense as blood under the darkness of the night. The well-tailored dress accentuated her slender figure, and one could tell from her figure alone that she must have been a beautiful woman in life.
The reason Zhou Ziqiu turned around was not out of curiosity about the bride's beautiful face under the red veil, but because the ghost bride, who stood still, was so out of place among the ghost guests who rushed towards Zhou Ziqiu.
Suppressing his doubts, Zhou Ziqiu glanced at the scene before turning back and fleeing with Ji Lin.
He also failed to see that the ghost bride, standing motionless, was "watching" the direction they left in, or rather, he was.
Zhou Ziqiu led Ji Lin away and threw several talismans behind him. At the same time, he used his Yin energy to shield Ji Lin and shake off the group of ghosts. The two turned around to make sure they were not following before stopping. When Ji Lin looked at Zhou Ziqiu standing to the side, he remembered the question that had appeared in his mind when he first saw Zhou Ziqiu.
"Master, is this...cosplay?"
It's understandable that Ji Lin asked that question. He was just an ordinary person and thought Zhou Ziqiu was a human being like him. He never imagined that Zhou Ziqiu was actually a ghost with a "physical body".
Zhou Ziqiu paused for two seconds, then didn't tell Ji Lin the truth: "...Hmm."
Ji Lin breathed a sigh of relief, examined the fatal wound on Zhou Ziqiu's neck, and praised, "Master, you know what, you did a pretty good job."
Zhou Ziqiu didn't want to discuss his "disguise" with Ji Lin any further, so he laughed it off and changed the subject: "There's a wisp of your soul wandering outside your body right now." The ritual is almost complete, and the ghost will start sucking your soul away.
"What should we do? Where should we look?" Ji Lin's attention was indeed diverted by Zhou Ziqiu.
Zhou Ziqiu glanced at Ji Lin, who was that soul, and remembering that Ji Lin was still sleeping, he said, "I've found him. I'll take you back."
Previously, Ji Lin's soul was trapped by ghosts and could not return to his body. Now that he has freed the soul, he can be guided back to his body once the ghosts have left.
Wait? How long? Won't those ghosts catch up? Ji Lin was full of questions, his tone hesitant: "Then... is there any way to get him back now?"
Zhou Ziqiu shook his head.
Ji Lin collapsed to the ground, groaning repeatedly, "What should we do, Master? Are we really going to have to wait for him to go back on his own? What if they come looking for us?"
Zhou Ziqiu didn't say much, but simply straightened his body, his frail figure looking as if it would dissipate with a gust of wind: "It's okay, I will protect you."
Even if Ji Lin didn't believe Zhou Ziqiu's words, there was nothing he could do now except listen to Zhou Ziqiu.
“Let’s go, I’ll take you back.” Zhou Ziqiu said, walking forward along the only path in the woods. He could sense that there was still yin energy here, which was not suitable for him to help Ji Lin return to his senses.
"Hey, I'm here." Ji Lin got up from the ground and followed Zhou Ziqiu.
18:57:31
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