Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Ghostly Marriage

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“Ghost... ghost marriage?” Wang Zihao stammered, murmuring to himself. The story of a seductive female ghost falling for a man in the real world—it felt as if I were living inside the pages of “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.”

“Don’t worry, this isn’t a netherworld wedding, nor is the ghost out to harm you. Generally, these ghost marriages don’t take lives. But if you two are really destined to be together, pity your vital energy—you’ll need to take good care of your kidneys in the future,” Old Liao stroked the stubble on his chin, smiling teasingly.

“But I can’t possibly marry a female ghost, can I?”

“Hey, she’s no ordinary ghost. Didn’t you say you keep hearing a woman’s voice whispering things like, ‘Young master, let me help you change clothes’?”

“Yes, I’ve heard it every night for days now.”

“That’s your ghostly bride sending her maid to serve you,” Old Liao’s grin grew wider. The old rascal, at his age, still found romance and intrigue so amusing.

“Then... why does she disappear the next morning, only to reappear inside my mouth?”

“You must be the most oblivious man alive. The lady offered herself to you, sealed a marriage contract, and sent her own maid to serve you day and night. Too shy to appear before you, she projected her ghostly image into mirrors and cups, secretly watching you. And what did you do? Woke up and swallowed her without a second thought,” Old Liao pressed his forehead, utterly speechless.

I couldn’t help but laugh silently. This female ghost was certainly a creature of emotion—she pledged herself privately, and after being accidentally swallowed, threw a little tantrum to teach Wang Zihao a lesson. She hardly resembled a terrifying ghost at all.

“You mean the water I drank contained...”

“Your little bride, hahaha!” Old Liao finally burst into laughter. Such a scandalous affair of the underworld was a first for both of us. As for how to solve it, I honestly couldn’t think of a solution.

“Brother, wait a moment—I’ll look it up,” Old Liao said, then bent over his phone. I saw him clearly type into the search bar: “What should you do if you accidentally swallow a ghost?”

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I could sense the blazing fury inside Wang Zihao. Having learned the truth, he was at a loss, thinking how a single date had ended with him selling himself to a ghost.

Old Liao stopped joking, his smile fading as he grew solemn. He reached for Wang Zihao’s bleeding finger, touched it to his own brow, and chanted: “Heaven’s law is clear, earth’s law is spiritual, yin and yang combine, water spirit manifests, law obeys law, mirror of yin and yang, true form reveal, reveal true form now!” With that, he stuffed a talisman into Wang Zihao’s mouth. The talisman ignited spontaneously, shining with shimmering white light, but Wang Zihao felt no heat—he stared blankly at his reflection...

In an instant, shadows danced and cold winds rose. From Wang Zihao’s mouth whirled a foul gust, and a beautiful woman in red emerged, trailing a stench. Her long hair hung down, her face deathly pale, her eyes reduced to bloody holes. Before she could even stand, her slender fingers reached for Wang Zihao’s throat.

“Wait, I am a young priest from Baiyun Temple in Beijing. Could you spare Wang Zihao’s life?”

“Faithless wretch! You deserve to die!” The ghost woman, now restored to her human form, was stunningly beautiful, biting her silver teeth. She looked every bit the imperious lady come to demand justice. Ignoring Old Liao’s introduction, she lunged straight for Wang Zihao.

A sizzling sound rang out—she recoiled instantly. Old Liao had secretly placed talismans in Wang Zihao’s jacket. The ghost made no further move, merely floating to the side, her gaze full of sorrow as she watched us.

“Love is decreed by heaven, but you two belong to different worlds. Your meeting itself was a deception—he was unaware from the start. Why persist in this entanglement?” Old Liao drew a stack of black and red talismans from his backpack, his eyes growing sharp.

“Entanglement? The medium’s contract is sealed. If you refuse, you’ll vanish from this world!” With that, she plunged into the mirror and disappeared.

The three of us stared at one another. I quickly grabbed the parchment and had Wang Zihao check his mouth again—the ghost had indeed gone. Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

“Brother, your wife is quite fierce. Can you tame her?” Old Liao murmured, gazing at the mirror where the ghost vanished.

“Please, don’t tease me. What am I supposed to do now? I’m so young, I haven’t even married or had children—and now this,” Wang Zihao hung his head in despair.

“You can’t blame anyone else—who told you to foolishly sign the contract?” Old Liao frowned deeply and sighed.

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“What exactly is this medium’s contract?” I’d only half-understood when the ghost mentioned it earlier. Could Wang Zihao really be so foolish as to have sold himself?

“Well, the medium’s contract is, simply put, like a marriage agency for the underworld. Mediums actually belong to our trade among the people of the shadows, but this type of ritual is passed from woman to woman, not to men.

Their business is much broader than that. You know about netherworld weddings, right? In rural areas, people often use them to reverse bad luck. That’s when a medium is needed to match the pair, see if the living person’s and the corpse’s birth charts are compatible, and decide if the wedding can proceed.

Their other dealings are even more complicated. Weddings and funerals have always been of utmost importance for our people. Fate is hard to describe; with the tradition of medium rituals and the passage of time, absurd cases have emerged—fools marrying chickens, ducks, geese, dogs. Such human-animal marriages are a result of twisted rituals. They might bring luck for a while, but in the afterlife, even the King of Hell won’t accept you.”

Old Liao rattled off a great deal. Now, I truly felt that his arrival had opened a door to the world of the occult for me. All the bizarre stories I’d encountered were beginning to make sense. The laws of fate and the balance of yin and yang—ultimately, it’s best to walk upright in this world.

Old Liao took a deep drag from his cigarette. “But your case is different. Usually, medium-arranged unions between humans and ghosts take the form of netherworld weddings, with rituals far more elaborate than those for the living. Yours is a direct pairing, with a private pledge—very rare indeed.”

“Then we must find the medium quickly. Only then will the truth come out.” I slapped the table, urging.

“Exactly. Right now, that ghost clearly doesn’t want to take your life directly. Otherwise, my few talismans wouldn’t have been enough to hold her back. Think carefully—who did you meet in those days? What strange events occurred?” Old Liao sat beside Wang Zihao, probing.

“Now that you mention it, I think I did meet an old woman that night!” Wang Zihao suddenly understood, his face full of excitement.