MLV Ch 42

Jiang Ye and Jin Feize rushed to the second floor and saw Li Miaomiao screaming as she dueled with the Ghost Bodhisattva, brandishing the saber. The idiot was wailing in fear, but the blade in her hands never paused for a moment—striking the face, thrusting at the throat, her footwork agile. The Ghost Bodhisattva was actually showing signs of being at a disadvantage. Jiang Ye relaxed slightly. Li Miaomiao’s kendo skills were nothing to scoff at. In her third year of middle school, to protect Liu Bei who had been cornered in an alley by delinquents, she had single-handedly taken on eight thugs, each six feet tall, and beaten them senseless with a large brick until they were crying for their mothers. In the end, even her own secret crush would tremble at the sight of her.

Seeing Jiang Ye from a distance, she let out a sigh of relief and yelled, “Brother!”

The moment she relaxed her stance, the Ghost Bodhisattva seized the opportunity, swiping its arms toward Li Miaomiao.

“Li Miaomiao!” Jiang Ye was horrified and shouted, “Focus!”

But with that moment of carelessness, it was too late for Li Miaomiao to react. Just then, Zhang Yi rushed out from the darkness and kicked Li Miaomiao toward Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye caught her as Zhang Yi spun around and pulled out a large, gold-lacquered opium pipe. The guy had been hiding in the dark, apparently filling his pipe with tobacco. He took a deep drag and blew a thick cloud of smoke at the three-eyed Ghost Bodhisattva. The smoke blinded the ghost, causing it to temporarily lose its bearings.

“Run!” Zhang Yi yelled.

With no time to think, Jiang Ye grabbed Li Miaomiao, turned, and ran, with Jin Feize and Zhang Yi following close behind. They reached the top of the stairs and were clattering down when the wall-mounted TV in the dark hall suddenly lit up, playing a video of a sinister ritual. Many figures in black robes and masks hid in the darkness. In the center, under a spotlight, a miserably weeping Liu Bei was tied up. A masked person raised a knife and cut off Liu Bei’s head. Everyone then knelt piously toward the center. The masked person held up the head, which, though severed from its body, was still crying mournfully, its bloody tears streaming down its face. The light from the TV illuminated the middle of the living room, where the entire Liu family stood grimly, staring expressionlessly at the group on the stairs.

Jiang Ye did a quick count. There seemed to be six ghosts there. One held a pair of shears, another wore an apron, and a third was in a suit—likely the Liu family’s maid, gardener, and driver. They probably lived with the family and met the same tragic fate. No wonder Li Miaomiao had said there were four people in the Liu family, yet they had found seven ghosts in the house. The sight of these specters, radiating a chilling aura, sent a shiver down their spines. At that moment, heavy footsteps echoed from behind them again. The four of them were now trapped on the staircase, unable to go up or down.

But where was the seventh ghost?

Zhang Yi lamented, “I can’t believe even my grandmaster’s bone-ash tobacco can’t stop that thing.”

“Bone-ash tobacco?” Li Miaomiao’s eyes widened. 

“Was that… bone ash you were just smoking?”

Jin Feize tilted his head and asked Jiang Ye, “If I go take care of it, will you sleep with me?”

Even at death’s door, this idiot was still thinking about that. Jiang Ye, at the end of his rope, snapped, “Stop being crazy.”

Zhang Yi looked shocked. 

“What, what? You two are going to sleep together?”

Jin Feize took the saber from Li Miaomiao’s hand and said, “Then it’s a deal. It’s settled.”

With that, he started to head back up to the second floor.

This guy could turn crazy on a dime. Jiang Ye grabbed his wrist. 

“You can’t go!”

Jin Feize grinned. 

“Are you worried about me?”

“Jin Feize,” Jiang Ye said, his expression cold, “can you just listen to me for once?”

Jin Feize replied, “If I die, remember to leave the door unlocked for me at night. I’ll come find you for some sleep paralysis.”

Jiang Ye: “…”

Shameless, depraved, insane, and malevolent. How could such a person exist in the world? Jiang Ye gripped his pale white wrist tightly. Jin Feize just smiled, removed Jiang Ye’s hand, and, holding the saber, disappeared into the darkness of the second floor. His figure was solitary, yet his steps were steady and ordinary, as if he had long grown accustomed to this unfathomable darkness.

“Alright, alright, instead of worrying about him, let’s worry about ourselves!” Zhang Yi pulled out several soft cloth dolls, bit his tongue, and spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto each doll’s face. The dolls seemed to come to life, standing up one by one.

Zhang Yi threw the dolls forcefully toward the ghostly figures. The ghosts vanished instantly, and numerous footprints appeared on the flour-dusted floor, all heading toward the running dolls.

“Holy crap, what kind of immortal magic is this!” Li Miaomiao was dumbfounded.

“They’re battery-powered!” Zhang Yi said. 

“With the scent of my blood on them, the ghosts will mistake them for us.” He handed each of them a Bagua mirror, instructing, “Run forward and don’t look back, no matter what you hear! If you see a fork in the road, use the mirror to check it. Any path that doesn’t appear in the mirror is a no-go!”

With that, the group dashed out of the villa and into the vast, pouring rain. The rain was torrential, accompanied by lightning and thunder. Zhang Yi ran at the front, as fast as a rabbit, and Jiang Ye lost sight of him in an instant. The raindrops were bigger than beans, pelting Jiang Ye so hard he couldn’t open his eyes. Li Miaomiao clung to his collar, and behind them, a chorus of slapping footsteps followed. Zhang Yi was ahead, Jin Feize was still in the villa, and only Li Miaomiao was behind him, yet the footsteps sounded like far more than just two people. Hearing the footsteps, Jiang Ye’s heart pounded like a drum, and he broke into a frantic sprint. But Li Miaomiao behind him was pulling on his clothes with a death grip, almost as if trying to drag him back.

He couldn’t turn around. Jiang Ye could only shout, “Li Miaomiao! Run faster!”

But Li Miaomiao couldn’t speed up. Jiang Ye had no choice but to piggyback her and keep running. The distance to the main gate, which should have been just a few steps, now seemed endless. Just as Jiang Ye was at his wit’s end, an unfamiliar fork in the road appeared ahead. This was too strange; Jiang Ye clearly remembered the path from the Liu family’s gate to the villa was a straight line. He looked down, wiped the mirror, and used it to look at the road before him. Two paths appeared in the mirror as well, but on the right-hand path stood a man. Jiang Ye looked up, but saw nothing but the pouring rain. He looked down again; there was definitely a person in the Bagua mirror.

Jiang Ye made a swift decision. He didn’t know what that person was, so it was better to take the empty path. He wiped his face and was about to run when the mirror in his hand tilted, suddenly reflecting what was behind him. A pale, grotesque face was leaning on his shoulder, staring straight at him. The person he had been carrying wasn’t Li Miaomiao. It was a ghost.

Jiang Ye: “…”

No wonder he had only counted six ghosts in the living room. The last one had been hiding on his back.

The grotesque face’s mouth opened wider and wider, almost large enough to swallow Jiang Ye whole. Jiang Ye dropped the Bagua mirror and was about to throw the ghost off when he saw the man in the mirror raise a pistol. Flames erupted from the muzzle, and in the empty space before him, Jiang Ye heard the sound of a gunshot. The bullet grazed past his ear. The malevolent ghost behind him let out a shriek and fell from his back, its head bleeding profusely.

Jiang Ye remembered Jin Feize saying that the Academy had a type of cinnabar bullet specifically for killing ghosts.

Who was that person?

Jiang Ye picked up the mirror and wiped it vigorously, but the right-hand path had vanished, and the person was gone, no longer visible no matter how he tried. Jiang Ye walked to the crossroads and saw a black pistol lying on the ground. He picked it up and saw a faded bloody handprint on the grip. It was the same Beretta he had found in the Gundam box.

Could that man just now have been Jiang Ran?

Invisible because he didn’t exist?

His mind filled with questions, Jiang Ye pocketed the pistol and ran down the left path. Outside the main gate, Zhang Yi and Li Miaomiao were waiting anxiously, both drenched to the bone. When Li Miaomiao saw Jiang Ye, she cried, “What took you so long? I thought you took the wrong path!”

Jiang Ye looked back at the villa in the heavy rain. It swayed in the wind and storm, haunted by flickering, ghostly shadows.

“What about Jin Feize?” Jiang Ye asked Zhang Yi.

Zhang Yi patted his shoulder. 

“I know you want to go back and save him, but I’m telling you straight: he might have a chance of survival in there alone, but if you go in, you will definitely die. Have you forgotten what I told you? Ah Zhe is not like you or me. Strictly speaking, the things inside are his own kind.”

Zhang Yi took back their Bagua mirrors. He noticed Jiang Ye’s mirror had turned completely black and couldn’t be wiped clean.

“Bro, what did you run into?” Zhang Yi asked suspiciously. 

“This thing is pretty potent, yet my Bagua mirror got trashed just by looking at it.”

Jiang Ye shook his head. 

“I don’t know either.”

“And what’s the deal with you and Jin Feize?” Zhang Yi asked, his face full of curiosity. 

“Did you, like, reform him with the power of love?”

Not wanting to get into the long and complicated history between him and Jin Feize, Jiang Ye brushed him off. 

“He was joking. You’re overthinking it.”

Zhang Yi made a few “tsk tsk” sounds but tactfully didn’t press the matter and headed back to the hotel by himself. Jiang Ye took Li Miaomiao home and waited anxiously all night, but he never heard the sound of the door across the hall opening. The next morning, Jiang Ye went back to the villa alone. The Ghost Bodhisattva had been chopped into pieces in Jin Feize’s signature dismemberment style. Beneath the gilded clay sculpture, the mangled remains of the Liu family were faintly visible. But Jin Feize was gone. Jiang Ye saw messy, bloody footprints on the floor. Judging by the size, they were likely Jin Feize’s. The prints varied in depth, indicating that the guy’s steps had been unsteady; he was probably injured.

Jiang Ye called Shen Duo, deliberately omitting their nocturnal ghost hunt, and gave a rough account of the Liu family’s situation. Shen Duo said he would send people to investigate and told him to leave the scene as soon as possible. Jiang Ye rushed home and knocked on the opposite door for a long time, but there was no answer.

He hadn’t come back.

Li Miaomiao had a fever, so Jiang Ye took her to the hospital, then went home to buy groceries and cook. As he reached his apartment building, he suddenly noticed a trail of bloody handprints on the exterior wall, leading straight up to his balcony. Jiang Ye’s gaze froze. He called Zhang Yi. 

“I think a ghost got into my apartment.”

Zhang Yi said he would be right over. It was broad daylight; even a ghost shouldn’t be as fierce as the ones in the Liu family’s house. Jiang Ye took out Jiang Ran’s pistol. Although it had no bullets, it provided some psychological comfort. He carried his basket of groceries home. After unlocking the door, he found the apartment was quiet, with nothing seemingly out of place. Jiang Ye stepped into the entryway and saw a series of bloody footprints starting from the balcony and leading toward the bedroom. The bedroom door was closed, and he couldn’t hear any sound from within. Jiang Ye looked around and noticed a blood-stained saber lying on the sofa.

He suddenly realized who had broken into his home.

He called Zhang Yi and told him not to come, then opened the bedroom door. Jin Feize was leaning against the edge of the bed, the blood on his body having soaked through the sheets. His face was pale, almost like a paper doll. At first glance, he looked like a cold corpse. Jiang Ye’s heart sank for a moment, but then the guy slowly opened his eyes and said, “We had a deal for you to leave the door unlocked. You lied to me again.”

“Did you climb up the wall?”

Jin Feize closed his eyes and hummed a weak “mm.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Yeah, really badly. Almost died,” he said.

Jiang Ye’s brow furrowed instantly. He walked over to check his wounds. He was covered in so much blood it was hard to tell where the injuries were. If he was seriously hurt, he needed immediate first aid before going to the hospital. Jiang Ye told him to take off his clothes. He just whimpered, “No strength.”

Too lazy to scold him, Jiang Ye helped him out of his jacket. The t-shirt was harder to remove. The guy just sat there limply, refusing to lift his arms. Jiang Ye felt his cotton shirt; it was sticky and tacky, covered in dried blood. Growing impatient, Jiang Ye got a pair of scissors and the first-aid kit and simply cut his t-shirt off. After cutting for a while, Jiang Ye still couldn’t find any wounds. His clothes lay in tatters, revealing his bare torso under the light. His skin was as white as fine porcelain, seemingly glowing. The guy had a good physique—well-proportioned, a trim and powerful waist, subtle yet strong.

There were just no wounds.

“Where’s the injury?” Jiang Ye asked.

He pitifully held up his arm to show Jiang Ye a few thin scratches.

“It hurts so much.”

Jiang Ye: “…”

Such a serious injury, indeed. If he didn’t look now, the wound might heal on its own.

It seemed this guy wasn’t badly hurt; the blood wasn’t his. All of Jiang Ye’s previous worry now felt like a joke. He was so angry his head throbbed. Just as he was about to leave, Li Miaomiao’s voice came from outside. 

“Brother, I’m back from my shot. Is dinner ready?”

The bedroom door opened. Li Miaomiao stood at the doorway, dumbfounded, staring at the shredded clothes on the bed, the shirtless Jin Feize, and Jiang Ye pinning Jin Feize down. A dead silence fell over the room. Finally, Li Miaomiao spoke: “Hey guys, next time you’re getting intimate, could you maybe get a room? Brother, you should remember, Senior Jin is my idol. Can you understand how I feel seeing my idol become my sister-in-law?”

Jiang Ye pulled up the blanket to cover the shirtless Jin Feize.

“I can,” Jiang Ye said. 

“And even though you won’t believe me, I still have to say, we are not in that kind of relationship.”

Li Miaomiao slammed the door shut.

Jin Feize lay down, resting his head on Jiang Ye’s lap. Jiang Ye gave him a push. He shot Jiang Ye a resentful look and said pitiably, “Don’t push me. I’m so tired. I was going to ask you to sleep with me, but I have no energy left.”

Fatigue was written all over his features. He was like a begonia beaten by the rain—listless and weak, yet still beautiful. Although he hadn’t been seriously injured, last night must have been a fierce battle. Jiang Ye raised his hand, paused it mid-air, and ultimately didn’t push him away. He leaned against Jiang Ye’s chest and closed his eyes. His eyelashes were long, like tiny butterflies resting quietly beneath his brows. It was the first time he had been this quiet—not manic, not pretentious, just sleeping obediently.

His phone suddenly buzzed. Jiang Ye swiped the screen open.

Li Miaomiao: [Bought condoms. Left them at your door. You’re welcome.]

Jiang Ye: “…”