The ultimate master in the city

Chapter 52 Untitled

Ghost officials, also known as ghost messengers, are the officers in the underworld who capture wandering ghosts. Although they are ghosts themselves, they are a special and unique group. No matter how powerful a Taoist priest or high monk is in the human world, no one has ever heard of dealing with ghost messengers.

After listening to the middle-aged man's words, Zhou Fengchen said dryly, "Are you mistaken? You're not dead, how could you have offended the ghost messengers?"

The middle-aged man said, "I can't explain this either. I checked online, and that's what it says."

Zhou Fengchen shook his head. "Those people on the computer like to talk nonsense. Tell me what happened to you."

The middle-aged man sighed and said, "It's like this..."

The middle-aged man's name is Sun Zhenguo. He works for a company in the city and belongs to the working class. His biggest hobby is traveling and adventure. This summer, he took half a month off and invited three fellow travelers to go on an adventure in the Wuling Mountains.

The three travelers met online and had gone out with Sun Zhenguo a few times before. One of them was a woman named Zhou Hong, in her thirties, who was a middle school teacher. Another was a young man in his twenties named Zhang Yang, who worked as a fitness instructor at a club. The third was a middle-aged man in his forties named Li Mao, whose family owned a hotel.

Exploration, exploration, to put it bluntly, is about seeking thrills, going wherever there is danger, taking photos along the way, and writing down your thoughts in a diary.

The four of them planned to go to a small town called Hejiaji on the banks of the Wujiang River. Nearby was the Ten-Mile Devil Cliff, which locals feared. After passing the Devil Cliff, the ghost city of Fengdu was not far away.

After changing trains and buses, they rushed to reach Hejiaji. It was noon when they arrived. Since the roads were all mountainous and no vehicles could enter the town, they had no choice but to walk.

Halfway there, the sky darkened. The environment in the mountains was complex, and without the sun, the group was starting to lose their bearings since they hadn't brought a compass. Suddenly, they noticed a girl in her early twenties standing in the bushes ahead, holding a dark umbrella and staring intently at them.

Zhou Hong was delighted and stepped forward to greet her, "Excuse me, miss, how do I get to Hejiaji?"

The girl's voice was strange, hoarse and unpleasant, unlike what a girl would normally say. "What are you doing in Hejiaji?"

Zhou Hong said, "We're here on vacation. Do you know which direction we're in?"

The girl said, "I know, I'm from Hejiaji, come with me."

Sun Zhenguo and his friends followed behind the girl, but as they walked, they realized they couldn't keep up with her pace. The girl was holding an umbrella, and while she was climbing the slope, her body was straight, but she was running very fast.

After walking for half a day, the outline of a cluster of houses could be faintly seen in the distance. Suddenly, the girl in front stopped and said, "Hejiaji is just ahead."

The group expressed their gratitude, but the girl said, "Without my guidance, you definitely wouldn't be able to find your way. But don't thank me; please do me a favor."

Everyone found it strange, so Sun Zhenguo said, "Little sister, what's wrong? Tell us, and we'll help if we can."

The girl said, "My name is He Xiaohua. My dad is the town's Party Secretary. Tell him that I don't want to marry Ma Guaizi. He's a dirty man."

Sun Zhenguo and the others looked at each other, thinking to themselves, "We're outsiders, newcomers. How can we stop them from getting married? That's too abrupt!"

Zhou Hong said, "Girl, your dad might not listen to us, right?"

The girl said, "Yes, you just need to tell him that I said those words."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and left, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Sun Zhenguo and the others all believed that the girl was running away from her arranged marriage and didn't want to go home. They even discussed it for a while, saying that it was really too feudal for parents to still have arranged marriages nowadays.

As soon as they arrived in town, a torrential downpour began. The group checked into the town's only inn, ordered a table of local farm-style dishes, and chatted about this and that while they ate. After dinner, before it got dark, they took out their cameras and took some pictures of the mountain town in the rain, completely forgetting about what the girl had asked them to do.

The next morning, the rain stopped, and the group strolled around the town, taking many photos. After lunch, Sun Zhenguo and Li Mao went to find a boat to continue their journey in the afternoon, while Zhang Yang and Zhou Hong wandered around aimlessly.

Suddenly, the town became lively, with many people running into the streets, and in the distance, the suona horns were playing loudly, as a wedding procession was approaching.

Zhang Yang, young and always eager to join in the fun, ran up to ask whose wedding it was and whether the bride was pretty. He returned, his face ashen, and exclaimed to Zhou Hong, "We're doomed! We encountered a ghost yesterday!"

Zhou Hong spat, "What nonsense are you talking about? Where would a ghost come from in broad daylight?"

Zhang Yang said, "Guess who's getting married?"

Zhou Hong found it strange and said, "Who's getting married? It can't be someone we know, can it?"

Zhang Yang said, "It's that girl from yesterday, and it's a marriage of convenience. They have a custom here that if an unmarried adult man or woman dies unexpectedly, they have to find a partner of the opposite sex to marry. That girl has been dead for several years, and her father found her a scruffy, lame man. Look at that wedding procession over there!"

Zhou Hong broke out in a cold sweat. She stood on tiptoe and looked into the crowd, and sure enough, there was a lame man surrounded by people, dressed in red, holding a large color photograph in his arms.

She ran closer to look at the photo and immediately felt a chill run down her spine. The photo the lame man was holding showed the girl with the umbrella they had met yesterday.

Both men panicked and quickly ran back to the hotel. Just then, Sun Zhenguo and Li Mao returned after finding a boat. When they told them what had happened, Sun Zhenguo and Li Mao were also terrified.

Sun Zhenguo said at the time, "How could we forget about this! Let's hurry over and tell the Party Secretary, so we won't break our promise."

There was no need to inquire about the village secretary's family; they simply went to whose house was getting married. The four of them ran to the field and found that the ghost marriage had already ended, and the village secretary was hosting a banquet.

Sun Zhenguo squeezed in, pulled the Party Secretary aside, and got straight to the point: "We're from out of town. We met your daughter yesterday. She said she doesn't want to marry Ma Guaizi. You see..."

The village secretary, his face flushed from drinking, glanced sideways at the newcomer but didn't recognize him. He immediately started yelling, "Get lost, you bastard! My daughter has been dead for three years. How did you run into her? If you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you up, you hear me?"

Sun Zhenguo ran into a snag, so he had no choice but to run out and talk to the other three.

Li Mao said, "Forget it, let's just get going. This whole thing is too weird. Anyway, we've done what the girl asked us to do."

The four hurriedly packed their luggage and arrived at the dock, where the ship was already waiting.

Once aboard the boat, all four breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Yang joked, "Alright, local ghosts won't chase after outsiders."

Sun Zhenguo told him not to talk nonsense, saying it was too frightening to say.

After this incident, the four of them lost all interest in climbing Devil's Cliff and only wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible.

The boat wasn't moving fast, and not long after passing Devil's Cliff, it got dark. The boatman said, "Gentlemen, we're still about twenty li from the town ahead. It's dark and difficult to travel. Should we spend the night here?"

None of the four agreed, saying, "Just walk slowly with your lights on, and we'll pay you extra!"

The boatman muttered something to himself for a while, then continued sailing. He stopped again shortly afterward and said, "There's someone up ahead who wants a ride. Is that alright?"

The four men were so drowsy from the shaking that they were dozing off. Sun Zhenguo didn't think much of it and waved his hand, "Let's go, let's go."

The boat stopped at the shore, and a strange man boarded. He looked to be in his forties, wearing a long robe, with a bluish face, and carrying a book in his arms, looking quite out of place.