Chapter 23: Flesh Lingzhi

Tan Xueci rubbed the red marks on his legs. The traces left by those ghostly hands seemed to have grown into his flesh; no matter how much he rubbed them, they wouldn’t disappear, and their shape remained unchanged.

He remembered the ghost that had grabbed his waist on the film set earlier—it must be the same one. Tears fell pitter-patter onto his own legs. In a frightened tone, he complained to He Xunye, “Hus… Husband, what should I do? I think I’m being haunted by a ghost. It keeps touching me.”

Even in death, it’s still thinking about being gay.

Tan Xueci’s small face slumped.

“Heh…” He Xunye held Tan Xueci. Initially, the corners of his lips only quirked up slightly, but in the end, he couldn’t hold back a low chuckle. Half of the evil spirit’s pale, gloomy face was hidden by the thick night outside; it was strange and eerie, and his shoulders trembled slightly from the laughter.

Tan Xueci was a bit startled. He looked at He Xunye helplessly, picking at his own fingers. “Hus… Husband, what are you laughing at?”

“It’s nothing,” He Xunye also reached out to help him rub the marks, rubbing the flesh of his legs until it turned red. With a seemingly worried tone, he said, “Since that ghost is so powerful, why doesn’t Xiao Xue try begging it?”

Tan Xueci was dazed. “How… how do I beg it?”

“Beg it to touch you more gently,” He Xunye’s pitch-black peach-blossom eyes curved. The evil spirit’s icy fingertips pressed against his red, soft lips as he told him, “Or perhaps Xiao Xue could take the initiative to let it touch you a few times, let it kiss you… maybe once it’s had its fill of touching, it won’t bully you anymore. Xiao Xue’s tongue is so soft; it would probably like it very much.”

Tan Xueci: “…”

Say something human, brother.

For a second, Tan Xueci’s expression almost crumbled.

He grabbed He Xunye’s arm and said pitifully, “Husband, you’re letting someone else kiss me.”

“Of course Husband is reluctant,” He Xunye said with regret, like an incompetent husband. “But it is a ghost after all. If it gets angry and eats Xiao Xue, what then? It’s better to let it kiss you. Licking your tongue is fine too; Husband won’t mind.”

Tan Xueci’s lips moved slightly. He still didn’t want to be kissed by a male ghost, but since he couldn’t think of any other way, he could only cling to He Xunye’s arm miserably and remain silent.

The butler had given him He Xunye’s card, but he hadn’t had the chance to swipe it yet because the butler had been delivering meals very frequently lately—not missing a single one. Tan Xueci’s stomach was bulging every day.

Although he was still thin, he had gained a few pounds compared to before.

When he lowered his eyelashes, his cheeks looked soft and puffy from the side.

“Baby,” He Xunye’s palm stroked his cheek, asking him, “Do you still want Husband to hold you while you sleep?”

It was as if he were asking: Do you still want to let a ghost pester you?

Tan Xueci said eagerly, “Yes… I do.”

Tan Xueci rubbed his legs a few more times, but it was useless. His legs were constantly marked with a man’s palm prints; it looked as if he had just come off a man’s bed after being forcefully pinched. Even his originally snow-white, long legs looked beautiful and wanton.

Feeling listless, he planned to continue his bath. Speaking of which, it was strange: when he was taken to the school by the ghost bus, he was wearing a school uniform. After leaving the school and getting back on the bus, he had changed back into his own clothes.

“You went into a Ghost Domain tonight,” He Xunye said.

Tan Xueci swallowed hard and asked fearfully, “If I encounter it again, how do I get out?”

What if He Xunye wasn’t there?

The Jiahe Private School grounds were very large. Ordinary ghosts didn’t have the ability to construct such a massive Ghost Domain. If the opponent simply wanted to kill, an ordinary person would have no hope of escaping once inside.

But such powerful ghosts also retained more of their sanity. They wouldn’t go through the trouble of building a Ghost Domain just to kill unless they were the type that enjoyed torturing humans. Most had other motives.

“Maybe she wants you to do something for her,” He Xunye said. “If you agree, she will let you leave, but you must finish the task for her after you go out, or she will come back to kill you.”

Once a Ghost Domain is opened, it’s very difficult to find someone. He couldn’t be by Tan Xueci’s side every moment. Tonight, if he hadn’t seen Tan Xueci get on that ghost school bus, even he would have had to spend some time finding him.

Poor baby, always attracting dirty things.

Tan Xueci raised his small face and said in confusion, “But I didn’t run into any ghost that asked me to help it tonight.”

He Xunye smiled. “Then there’s no need to worry about it.”

Of course he wouldn’t run into one; Tan Xueci had an evil spirit following behind him—who would dare ask him for a favor?

Tan Xueci was completely bewildered but didn’t think much more about it. Anyway, it was all his hallucinations—why look for logic in his own hallucinations?

It was just that he had never seen so many ghosts at once before.

He didn’t even know if he had returned to the hotel. Had he fallen asleep in the car on the way back and had a nightmare? Or had he arrived at the hotel and then started having nightmares about the ghost school and He Xunye? Or had he never come back at all and was still wandering outside, thinking he had reached the hotel and was lying on the bed talking to his husband while actually standing on a pitch-black street talking to the air?

Who knows.

Tan Xueci hurried to take a shower. When he came out and saw He Xunye was still there, his small face turned a rosy pink with happiness. He knelt beside He Xunye and asked him, “Husband, are you going to take a shower?”

“Okay,” He Xunye said.

While He Xunye went to shower, Tan Xueci took out his medicine. He was used to taking a dose before sleeping because if he didn’t, he might be dragged into nightmares by ghosts all night. But tonight he hesitated; if he took the medicine, He Xunye would disappear, and he wanted to stay with his husband a little longer.

Oppar.

He wasn’t very punctual with his medicine; sometimes he’d suddenly take it, or take a lot at once.

Tan Xueci put the medicine back. Hearing the sound of water in the bathroom, he looked up and suddenly met the eyes of He Xunye’s memorial tablet.

Tan Xueci: “…”

I knew I forgot something.

He hadn’t lit any incense for his husband!

Tan Xueci quickly got out of bed to light a few sticks. He Wuling hadn’t told him exactly how to offer incense, just told him to do it.

At first, Tan Xueci lit three sticks because his mother believed in Buddhism and had a Buddhist hall at home; she went to offer incense every day, so he followed by lighting three. Then he searched online, and some said “three for gods, four for ghosts,” so he thought lighting four for a deceased husband might be okay. Finally, he saw someone say ghosts feed on incense fire, as if they were eating a meal.

Tan Xueci scratched his cheek in confusion. Now, he would just stick a large handful of incense in for He Xunye, otherwise, what if his husband went hungry?

But it was so strange—He Xunye was showering in the bathroom while he was outside offering incense to him.

Tan Xueci muttered to himself as he finished and went to wait on the bed. As soon as He Xunye came out, he saw that after three days, his little wife had finally remembered to offer him incense, though he had offered quite a lot.

Can’t have too high expectations.

Water was still dripping from the evil spirit’s hair, flowing down the contours of his cold, jade-like chest muscles and disappearing into his bathrobe. He walked to the bedside, lowered his head, and kissed Tan Xueci’s finger resting on his knee, saying, “Good baby.”

Tan Xueci couldn’t help but curl his finger, his ears turning red instantly. Why the sudden praise?

And he only just realized that he was going to sleep with a man tonight, and this man was his husband.

Would they… just sleep?

Would they do anything else…?

The night outside was dark and silent. Tan Xueci was still lost in thought and didn’t notice a human head slowly descending from the top of the window.

Here it comes again.

He Xunye’s lifeless eyes held no emotion. The cracking smile on that head grew wider, about to appear completely in Tan Xueci’s line of sight, but before it could react, it was strangled and crushed impatiently by a burst of black mist.

Black blood dripped down. Hearing the sound, Tan Xueci looked up blankly—was it raining?

He Xunye lowered his eyes, gazing at Tan Xueci’s beautiful, flushed face. His gaze gradually deepened and darkened; perhaps it would be better to just eat him up, it seemed more reassuring to keep him in his stomach.

I just praised him for being a good baby, and now he’s being bad again, attracting foul things.

How could Tan Xueci know what He Xunye was thinking? He was speechless and could only blush furiously.

He had been in a relationship with He Sui for a few months, but they had never slept together. Lu Qi was afraid he wouldn’t understand anything and had shown him some “films.” He hadn’t actually watched them closely—he didn’t really like them. Once he roughly understood what the people in the video were doing, he stopped watching. This was the first time he had seen a man’s abdominal muscles at such close range.

Why did he dream He Xunye’s abs were so hard?

Does he like them like this?

He Xunye gripped one of his shoulders. His whole body trembled at the touch. He lowered his head shyly. He didn’t notice the black shadow behind the evil spirit beginning to spread like black water, gathering behind him as if it wanted to swallow him whole.

Tan Xueci’s eyelashes trembled as he stole a glance at He Xunye.

He Xunye’s hands were very large, enough to wrap around his entire hand. His chest muscles were hidden by his bathrobe, but the firm contours were vaguely visible. Everything seemed bigger than his own, unlike his thin frame.

Speaking of big…

Tan Xueci’s heart beat rapidly. Suddenly remembering something, his snow-white face turned beet red. He was so nervous his fingers shook as he said to He Xunye, “Husband, can I… can I take a look first?”

What if… what if even that thing is also very… I won’t be able to bear it.

Anyway, it’s a dream.

Anything goes in a dream. What’s wrong with taking a look at my own husband in a dream!

He Xunye didn’t know what he wanted to see. The black mist had already shrouded Tan Xueci’s back; he was going to be swallowed soon anyway, so let him see whatever he wanted. Thus, he said, “Okay.”

Then, in the next second, the bathrobe’s sash was pulled loose with a whoosh.

The black mist froze.

For once, the expression on the evil spirit’s face vanished.

Tan Xueci lowered his head to take a look and his heart died. How can it be like this? Am I really this thirsty for a man’s body? To even dream of something this outrageous.

“…” He Xunye was silent for a moment. The evil spirit’s tone was inscrutable as he said, “Baby, what are you looking at?”

Tan Xueci looked up and was startled when his eyes met He Xunye’s. The man’s peach-blossom eyes were heavy and dark—pure black without any whites, with a ghostly red line traced from the inner to outer corners.

Tan Xueci’s brain suddenly buzzed. Cold sweat slid down his flushed cheek and dripped from his chin.

His vision seemed blurred. After a while, he felt the man grip his shoulder. His tone was very gentle as he whispered, “Why aren’t you talking, baby?”

When Tan Xueci looked up again, the man’s eyes were back to normal.

Did I see wrong?

Blushing, he hurriedly tied He Xunye’s bathrobe and murmured, “Husband, maybe we should sleep separately.”

He needed some time for psychological preparation.

“Let’s just sleep while holding each other,” He Xunye said, lying down and pulling him in.

Tan Xueci covered his bottom, turned around to face He Xunye, and asked eagerly, “Why?”

“I’m scared,” He Xunye said, pulling him into his arms. “I think there’s a ghost in this bedroom.”

Tan Xueci was startled and immediately shrunk into He Xunye’s chest, nervously looking around. He didn’t seem to see anything and asked tremblingly, “Husband, what kind of ghost?”

A little perverted ghost, He Xunye thought.

In the end, they slept while holding each other. He Xunye’s body was very cold, but Tan Xueci was surprisingly not uncomfortable because his quilt had been this cold almost every night recently.

He slept soundly next to He Xunye. When he woke up the next day, he was the only one left in bed.

Tan Xueci rubbed his eyes and sat for a while before heading to the film set. Today they were filming a cultural performance scene. Both the male lead and the second male lead participated in the performance and interacted with the female lead. The villain he played had no one asking him to perform, so he could only watch from below, consumed by dark jealousy.

When he arrived at the set, the little girl ghost on Zhai Fang’s back had swollen so much that her facial features were indistinguishable, and Zhai Fang’s waist was hunched over.

Zhai Fang was having a breakdown. Xu Zongdu was dead, his backing was gone, and for the past few nights, he had been having constant nightmares—dreaming of a little girl crying in his ear, the sobbing making his scalp tingle.

This morning when he woke up, his back hurt terribly. He turned to look in the mirror and found a small black handprint on his shoulder.

Zhai Fang was scared to death. He immediately contacted that friend of his and cursed, “What the hell kind of medicine did you recommend to me?! I told you I don’t mess with that occult shit!”

He hadn’t seen it before, but he had heard of it—celebrities wanting to get famous by inviting Kuman Thong, only for strange things to start happening at home.

“Why are you losing your temper with me?” the friend said impatiently. “What I recommended is just medicine. Didn’t it work for you? Don’t you know what Flesh Lingzhi is? It’s a rare item for longevity.”

Flesh Lingzhi?

Zhai Fang dazed for a moment. He seemed to have heard of it—Flesh Lingzhi, also called Taisui, shaped like a piece of white meat, extremely precious.

Supposedly, even the First Emperor of Qin sent people to find Flesh Lingzhi so he could achieve immortality.

The medicine he took did indeed have small pieces of what looked like white meat in a bowl of slimy black water.

He was in a daze all day during filming. The director’s face darkened; he was completely angry and stared at him gloomily.

The director’s surname was Bian, named Bian Sheng. It was a unique name. Supposedly, he grew up in a mountain area, and when his mother was in difficult labor, the midwife couldn’t deliver him. While the family was rushing her to the hospital, he was suddenly born by the riverside, so they gave him that name (Sheng meaning birth, Bian meaning side/riverbank).

He wasn’t an incredibly famous director, but he had won several awards and held some status in the industry; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to get Wen Yaochuan to be his male lead.

Now that Xu Zongdu was dead, his attitude toward Zhai Fang had changed. “Actors these days are just muddled, who knows what they’re thinking. A person still has to rely on their own acting skills; there aren’t that many shortcuts to take.”

Zhai Fang was angry but didn’t dare speak out.

When they finished filming and returned to the hotel at night, that little girl ghost had swollen to be larger than two Zhai Fangs. Tan Xueci felt her appearance was very similar to the female ghost at the school, but the age didn’t match up.

This time, even Wen Yaochuan and Meng Zhi noticed something was wrong. Meng Zhi pointed at Zhai Fang’s shadow on the floor and said to Tan Xueci and Wen Yaochuan with a tremble, “What… what’s going on…”

Although they couldn’t see the little girl ghost on Zhai Fang’s back, they could see that Zhai Fang’s shadow was exceptionally giant, looking like a monster with a gaping abyss for a mouth in the night.

Wen Yaochuan’s expression turned solemn. After staring at Zhai Fang for a while, his face suddenly fell and he shouted, “Run!”

Because Tan Xueci was there today, he and Meng Zhi weren’t alone, so he hadn’t had his manager follow them.

Meng Zhi’s assistant had gone to get something for her and wasn’t there either. Now there were only the three of them and Lu Qi downstairs.

Wen Yaochuan and Meng Zhi lived on the same floor. He pulled Meng Zhi upstairs and didn’t forget to warn Tan Xueci and Lu Qi, saying quickly, “He’s being suppressed by a ghost. When you get back to your rooms, lock the doors. No matter who knocks, don’t open them until dawn.”

Lu Qi shivered at the sight of that shadow. This thing was truly beyond common sense, but if one insisted it was just the lighting, that could work too.

In any case, running was the priority.

He and Tan Xueci also hurried into the elevator.

“Why are you leaving?” Zhai Fang’s body swayed, looking aged and decrepit. His expression was full of terror as he trembled and said, “Don’t go, don’t go… wait for me.”

Carrying the massive little girl ghost, Zhai Fang walked very slowly. Logically, he shouldn’t have been able to keep up, but just as Lu Qi stepped out of the elevator and Tan Xueci was about to follow, someone suddenly grabbed his ankle.

The elevator had already descended, leaving only the pitch-black elevator shaft. His fingers gripped the elevator door tightly, his fingertips turning white from the strain, nearly being dragged down.

He turned around and met Zhai Fang’s deathly pale face.

Tears and snot were streaming down Zhai Fang’s face. He felt something biting him—biting from his feet upwards, a clear crunch, crunch of chewing. He said incoherently, “Save me, save me! Tan Xueci, pull me up quickly, something is biting me…”

Tan Xueci’s throat tightened; he also heard a clear chewing sound coming from the elevator shaft.

He suddenly remembered a story he had heard before. A person went camping and encountered a black bear; the bear didn’t kill him immediately but started eating him bit by bit from the legs. He could clearly feel himself being gnawed until he died of pain.

Tan Xueci could also feel the weight dragging him becoming lighter and lighter. Zhai Fang’s feet were eaten, then his calves… Zhai Fang’s face became increasingly pale. He was begging at first, but seeing that Tan Xueci had no intention of pulling him up, his eyes turned blood red. He yanked Tan Xueci hard and said in a hoarse, venomous voice, “Die with me!”

Why should he die while Tan Xueci got to live? Everything was fine before he met Tan Xueci.

It must be a ghost Tan Xueci attracted!

“Brother Lu?” Tan Xueci kicked hard a few times but couldn’t shake Zhai Fang’s grip. Lu Qi seemed to be missing too; they must have gotten separated when they stepped out of the elevator. Lu Qi hadn’t heard the commotion behind him.

Zhai Fang was determined to take Tan Xueci down with him. Even though the girl ghost had gnawed up to his waist, he wouldn’t let go of Tan Xueci.

Tan Xueci timidly called for his husband twice, but his husband wasn’t there either. He was truly about to be dragged down. Tan Xueci’s side profile was cold and pale as he painstakingly braced himself against the elevator door, turned around, and sat on the edge of the elevator, looking down at Zhai Fang’s face, which was distorted by pain.

Zhai Fang watched in terror as Tan Xueci finished calling for his manager and then his husband, not knowing who he was waiting for to appear. Once he was sure no one would see them, Tan Xueci’s face suddenly turned cold.

It’s over, Tan Xueci really is a psycho.

But psycho or not, as long as he could save him, it was fine.

“Don’t you just want this second male lead role?” Zhai Fang thought Tan Xueci had regretted it and wanted to save him. He only felt a lot of pain in his lower body but didn’t know how much of himself had been eaten. He said with ecstatic joy, “I can give it back to you, just pull me up…”

Tan Xueci’s long lashes lowered, casting a thick shadow over his eyes, making his face look somewhat gloomy. He interrupted Zhai Fang and said, “You were the one who scammed me out of my money before, right?”

He hadn’t wanted to mention it, but Zhai Fang looked like he was about to die; if he didn’t say it now, he wouldn’t get another chance.

Zhai Fang’s pupils dilated instantly.

Tan Xueci was naturally the cold and elegant type in terms of looks, but because he was usually timid and teary-eyed, he looked very soft. Only when his face turned cold did one realize that his facial lines were actually sharp and icy—not a face meant for crying.

He Sui had taken him to a nightclub where they met Zhai Fang and Xu Zongdu. Xu Zongdu had looked at him a few extra times, and Zhai Fang had hated him ever since.

Zhai Fang had heard that Tan Xueci was a fool. A fan who didn’t know Tan Xueci read his own DMs used him as a venting board, saying her parents were divorced, neither gave her money, and she had been hungry for days. Tan Xueci had transferred three thousand to her—he was stupid enough to believe anything. Zhai Fang wanted to play with him.

Who knew Tan Xueci would actually transfer money to him? He and his manager laughed themselves to death in private.

He didn’t think that money was important to Tan Xueci; the Tan family was a small-scale wealthy family after all, they wouldn’t be lacking ten thousand yuan. Of course, even if he knew Tan Xueci had no money, he wouldn’t have cared—he would only have thought Tan Xueci was too poor to be worth scamming.

He forgot about it after the scam until he joined this production and was in the same set as Tan Xueci.

Tan Xueci’s suffering was just a game to him.

Zhai Fang’s face began to collapse bit by bit, like a melting candle. The fillers under his skin gradually dissolved, dragging his whole face downward and revealing blood-red eyelids. He was still clutching Tan Xueci’s ankle, seemingly unable to understand why Tan Xueci had suddenly become like this.

Tan Xueci curled his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes as he said, “You look much more agreeable like this.”

Having been dragged for so long, his face was also beginning to turn pale. Sweat fell from his trembling eyelashes. He bit his lip, raised his other leg, and kicked Zhai Fang right in the face without hesitation.

He didn’t say another word to Zhai Fang.

He wasn’t a villain who died because he talked too much.

Zhai Fang had no strength left to begin with and was caught off guard. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he was kicked down into the elevator shaft.

From the shaft came the sound of a little girl clapping and giggling—a hollow, eerie childish laughter that made one’s scalp tingle.

Tan Xueci turned and ran toward his room.

Would one ghost come for him next, or two? The girl ghost killed Zhai Fang, and Zhai Fang would become a ghost—maybe both would come for him, or maybe the girl ghost would eat Zhai Fang’s soul too, and only one would come.

Or maybe none would come.

Presumably, the girl ghost had gotten the food she wanted. The distorted corridor before his eyes gradually cleared up, and finally, he ran to his room door and saw Lu Qi.

Lu Qi breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I turned around and you were gone. I couldn’t find you, so I had to come here and wait for you.”

They couldn’t see the girl ghost on Zhai Fang’s back, but they could see Zhai Fang’s terrifying appearance.

“Holy shit,” Lu Qi still had goosebumps thinking about it. “How did he become like that? It’s like he was possessed.”

“Brother Lu,” Tan Xueci suddenly remembered something and asked Lu Qi, “When you went looking for me just now, did you pass the elevator? Did you see anything there?”

Lu Qi said, “There was nothing there, so I came straight to your door.”

Where were Zhai Fang and the little girl ghost?

Tan Xueci frowned, feeling a bit dazed.

Is it because I hate Zhai Fang so much that I imagined him being eaten by a girl ghost? I should have taken my medicine on time.

“He’s probably just sick,” Lu Qi couldn’t figure it out either, but it was just a shadow—maybe if they filmed an episode of Approaching Science, they’d find out the hotel lighting angles caused the shadow to swell. He put his arm around Tan Xueci’s shoulder and said, “Alright, go to sleep.”

Lu Qi left, and Tan Xueci was about to return to his room when he turned around and found He Xunye standing behind him, his skin deathly pale and his eyes pitch black. It was impossible to tell how long he had been there.

His heart leaped into his throat from the fright. All the ghosts he had met before combined didn’t seem as terrifying as this. His eyes grew wet from fear as he said, “Hus… Husband, when did you get here?”

He Xunye lowered his eyes, his gaze eerie. “When you and your Brother Lu were hugging and talking.”

Tan Xueci: “…”

He felt He Xunye’s tone was very strange.

“No,” he quickly explained. “We weren’t hugging.”

He Xunye reached out and wrapped his arms around him, saying, “Weren’t you hugging like this while talking?”

Tan Xueci was dumbfounded—how could he have been hugging that tightly? He shook his head and argued, “Not like this.”

He Xunye changed his posture, lazily embracing him, and said, “Then were you hugging like this?”

Tan Xueci felt wronged and said miserably, “No.”

“Really?” The corners of the evil spirit’s mouth seemed to lift slightly. “Then I must not have seen clearly. Can Baby demonstrate it for me?”