JOS Chapter 123

Threat The shoe adhered eerily to the female ghost’s face. She tried to tear the shoe off, only to find her facial skin stretching taut with it, as if the shoe sole had fused with her face.

A female ghost who remained passionate about makeup even after death, now with such a thing stuck to her face, was on the verge of dying a second time. Especially with the hand gripping the shoe still suffering burning, stabbing pain.

The female ghost cried out in despair. “What is this thing of yours? What are you trying to do! Take this thing off quickly!”

Yama said, “Move again, and I’ll tear your face apart.”

The female ghost whimpered and sobbed. “Bullying a helpless woman like this.”

All three were at a loss for words.

Over there, Xiao Xia snapped back to reality and also screamed, quickly running to the bathroom to wash her face.

The makeup on her face had been applied for too long, layered upon layer, making her face bigger and thicker. After removing the outer layer of makeup, the skin underneath that was truly close to her face was red, swollen, and terribly damaged—already half-rotted.

Miumiu rushed in to take a look, then flew back out at lightning speed, leaving Xiao Xia alone in the bathroom crying while removing makeup and doing damage control.

Yama pointed toward the bathroom as an indication, then lifted his other shoe.

As soon as he picked it up, the female ghost finally had a chance to see clearly. A yellow talisman was stuck to the shoe sole—no wonder it could stick to her face and couldn’t be pulled off.

Chu Xuanliang asked, “Are you going for a matching pair?”

The female ghost pleaded pitifully. “Please don’t…”

Xiao Xia rushed out of the bathroom with soap bubbles still unwashed on her face. She was still clutching a toilet brush in her hand and roared with a do-or-die attitude. “Who! Which one! Whoever ruined my face, I’ll kill you!”

Miumiu shrank into a corner, saying, “She… she’s a ghost, already dead.”

Yama threatened while holding up the shoe. “You choose yourself. Either have another shoe added to your face, or voluntarily give up the contract and leave her.”

The female ghost complained aggrievedly. “But I didn’t do anything wrong. I just like makeup. She clearly agreed to it all—these were all things we had already settled on!”

Chu Xuanliang rolled up his sleeves and said, “I’ll hold her down, you use that thing in your hand to scrub her face. I’ll tell you where she is.”

Xiao Xia looked at the thing in her hand and felt it was still a bit too clean.

The female ghost thought they were serious and immediately shouted. “I… it was clearly you who agreed! Why?”

Chu Xuanliang said, “Explain clearly.”

The female ghost said, “It was them! It was they who made wishes to us, saying to give them a big enough appetite, give them exquisite makeup skills, to be different from others. I was helping them!”

Chu Xuanliang translated. “She says you made a wish to her.”

Xiao Xia said, “I didn’t! You can’t just assume I was begging you based on something I said casually. Can’t I talk to myself? Can’t I look forward to the future and pursue a beautiful new life? If this counts, then all those people making wishes to koi fish might as well just die!”

The female ghost defended herself. “Blood, you gave me your own blood. I’m legitimate!”

Chu Xuanliang frowned. “You formally signed a contract with them? You even gave them your own blood?”

Xiao Xia was stunned for a moment and said, “I didn’t! Am I sick to want my face to look like this? I helped with makeup and location selection, only taking ten percent of the profits… no wait, I didn’t get a single penny in the end, how could I possibly sacrifice my face?!”

Everyone was speechless.

It seemed the two sisters’ ridiculous operations were exactly the same.

Miumiu grabbed Xiao Xia’s collar, saying in disbelief, “You tricked me? It’s bad enough you cheated me out of money, but you also used my blood to worship ghosts?”

“I really didn’t know!” Xiao Xia struggled free from her grip. “Why would I harm you? Although there was indeed money to be made, I’m not that despicable, okay?”

“If not you, then isn’t it your boyfriend? Isn’t your boyfriend your person?”

“If I could find him, would I need to come back?!”

Jiang Feng held his forehead and sighed. “I really want to let Liu Shan devour them.”

Yama mused expansively. “Liu Shan would be quite suitable for food broadcasting. Might even become famous.”

Miumiu cried. “I absolutely don’t want to do food broadcasting again!”

Chu Xuanliang also said apprehensively, “Please don’t call for Liu Shan anymore. I’m afraid you’ll actually summon him out. These ghosts and spirits all have somewhat abnormal minds.”

They first pressed down on that female ghost, making her break the contract, at least solving one problem.

The biggest issue remained the hungry ghost.

It was much more cunning than this female ghost, especially after seeing its companion being forcibly pressed to give up, it stubbornly refused to come out, and now there wasn’t half a trace of it.

If they had to wait it out, who knew when they’d find an opportunity. Moreover, Miumiu was female and they were men—there were definitely many inconvenient aspects.

Jiang Feng asked, “Where are you ghosts from?”

“H Province.”

“Are there many ghosts in H Province?”

“Of course. Haven’t you heard of the Human Realm Underworld? It’s quite famous. I have some background too.” The female ghost stroked her hair and said, “Meeting me is lucky. If you encountered a powerful ghost instead, go ahead and try—they wouldn’t hesitate to fight to mutual destruction. So don’t cause trouble after you leave, or you’ll just bring bad luck to me for nothing.”

Yama asked seriously, “If it’s the Human Realm Underworld, then who is the King Yama?”

The female ghost asked in surprise, “What King Yama? You took it seriously when we were just calling ourselves that casually? Human Realm Underworld just means there are many ghosts. We also have Ghost Gate Pass, Yangguan Road, and Wangchuan River there. But we just call them that ourselves. How fun, how atmospheric?”

Yama and Jiang Feng breathed sighs of relief.

Because they had encountered several ghosts who wanted to overstep their bounds and replace the Underworld or even Yama, they thought this was another delusionally ambitious ghost when they heard this topic.

The female ghost continued. “They pray for their wishes in the Hall of Yama, and we help fulfill them. The place we call Hall of Yama is actually a former mass grave in the suburban outskirts. A barren wasteland. It’s been changed now—a statue with rules was erected in front, and when you make wishes before the statue, all the wandering ghosts around can hear.”

“Statue?” Chu Xuanliang said, “How could such a place exist? Who erected the statue?”

The female ghost said, “It has nothing to do with the statue. During those war years, when people died and no one knew who you were, they’d just throw your corpse up there. Plus that place has converging wind and gathering qi—ghosts who died there could quickly take form and have consciousness to wander around, so that entire area had particularly many vengeful spirits. When I first died, I was nearly scared senseless by that place. At night, it was all ghostly winds howling, adults and children all crying. These people died horrible deaths—burned to death, hacked to death, crushed to death—all kinds, each one uglier than the next. Some even walked around clutching their spilled intestines, looking for doctors to sew them up. Tsk, they didn’t even know they were already dead. Look how stupid they were?”

Jiang Feng asked, “It seems you’ve been in that place for a long time? Have you heard of a mountain god who went to H City?”

“Of course I’ve heard of him. Back then too many people died—first most died in war, then later a Taoist priest came and massacred the village, basically complete annihilation. So a bunch of ghosts crowded in one place, and among them were quite a few fierce ghosts transformed from wrongful deaths. They wanted to find people to kill everywhere, but ended up trapped by a Taoist priest’s spell and couldn’t get out. If they couldn’t kill people, they’d kill ghosts instead. The village was quite brutal with internal slaughter back then—I didn’t dare go out casually.” The female ghost said, “Later there was an earthquake, and the mountain terrain and feng shui of that village completely changed.”

Yama asked, “Changed in what way?”

“Anyway, it became more fierce. Living people who came would definitely die—that place basically became a ghost city with no human habitation.” The female ghost pursed her lips. “H Province was originally the ghosts’ domain. After maintaining this for a while, suddenly a mountain god came and helped guide all the ghosts out. Oh, the rules of this Human Realm Underworld might have originated from him. We didn’t have a Human Realm King Yama there, but we had a judge. Everyone compared him to a judge back then. Since I didn’t want to go to the Underworld, I never went to see him. I heard he was a very formidable fellow. He didn’t stay even two years before leaving, I heard. But the rules he established in H Province remained, and no ghost dared to cause trouble.”

Yama asked: “Where did he go?”

“How would I know? Maybe he went to save all sentient beings?” The female ghost said, “These past years H Province has been developed into a big metropolis with much heavier yang energy, making it unsuitable for ghosts to live long-term. Most of us ghosts are quite obedient—we just find places to stay by ourselves. As long as they don’t provoke us, why would we provoke them?”

Yama sneered. “I won’t hold you accountable, but don’t push your luck. Concealing someone’s true intentions to form contracts—do you really think you’re in the right? Playing dumb and trying to muddle through won’t work with me.”

“Why am I not in the right? Didn’t she deserve it?” The female ghost twisted her body and said, “I’m dead and still want to live, while they’re living well but want to court death. Doing that what’s-it-called…”

Chu Xuanliang supplied. “Food broadcasting.”

The female ghost said, “Right, food broadcasting. What are they thinking? With hands and feet, what can’t they do to earn money? Why ruin their bodies like this? If they’re seeking death, they deserve to die. Do I, a ghost, need to tell them to cherish life?”

Yama asked, “So you can just casually ruin their faces?”

The female ghost guiltily touched her face, not daring to say yes. She negotiated. “I’ve answered all your questions properly. Can you please take the shoe off my face?”

“There’s one more question,” Jiang Feng said. “The Taoist priest who massacred your village back then—who was he? What was his name, what background?”

The female ghost said, “I was already dead then and stayed in the mass grave. I don’t know what happened outside.”

Yama continued. “Also…”

The female ghost said urgently, “You just said one question!”

“He said it, not me.” Yama said, “Where is the person who helped them establish contact with you?”

The female ghost said, “In H Province, I suppose. I don’t know—didn’t I come back here following her?”

Xiao Xia finally finished washing her face after half an hour and came out after drying off.

Her skin condition was not optimistic—it had reached the point where she absolutely needed hospital treatment. But since she couldn’t see herself in a mirror right now, she didn’t feel so distressed.

She sat down hugging her legs and said, “I used to want to be a beauty blogger.”

Several people stared at her face for a while, feeling this dream was even more unrealistic than food broadcasting.

Xiao Xia said, “I just thought about it, and I’ll go learn painting instead.”

Chu Xuanliang was surprised. “How did you figure it out?”

“Don’t paint looking at my face—anything else is fine,” Xiao Xia said. “Since I’ve encountered ghosts again, maybe the things I paint could even sell for money.”

Chu Xuanliang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You want to encounter ghosts again?”

“I’m just talking casually. I’ve really made up my mind now,” Xiao Xia said. “How many years can internet celebrities last? I can’t even match a ghost at makeup—I’m not pursuing fame with this skill anymore. Painting will always get better the more you practice, right? At least I won’t starve to death, right? And I won’t be deceived by people and end up like this.”

She said, “I don’t want to become a pervert like that female ghost after I die, only knowing how to do makeup. Too scary.”

The female ghost: “??”