Chapter 21: Ghost Marriage (Part 4)
Lin Nan didn’t dare let out a single scream. He held his breath, muscles tense, attempting to prop his upper body up. But the moment he moved, he felt something wet and soft brush against his cheek. It left a sticky, watery trail and carried a pungent, fishy stench.
At that moment, Lin Nan wished he could just pass out. Unfortunately, being a grown man with a decent constitution meant that even after two days of torment, he wasn’t going to faint from fear that easily.
Gritting his teeth and holding his breath, he moved off the bed with slow, deliberate movements. His eyes were locked on the silhouette of the soft mass. Seizing the moment when the large snake flicked its tongue, unaware of the hand looming behind it, Lin Nan grabbed it, hurled it violently against the wall, and bolted.
He scrambled out of the room, slammed the door, locked it, and screamed for his mother. It was all done in one breathâswift, decisive, without a second of hesitation.
It wasn’t until the door was shut tight that the aftershock hit him. His legs turned to jelly, trembling so hard he could barely remain standing.
Hearing the commotion, Linâs father and mother rushed out, only to find their son half-slumped on the floor.
His eyes were wide with terror, his speech disjointed and frantic. “There was a snake… it crawled on me… on the bed… in the room.”
In the dead silence of the late night, Jiang Si was still hunched over his desk, battling through his work, with Hai Di standing beside him, observing and learning. Even through his headphones, Jiang Si could hear the disturbance outside. He took them off and opened his door to check the situation.
Outside, several firefighters in blue uniforms were present. One was holding a net and long tongs, aggressively searching every corner of the Lin home. Standing in the hallway, mirroring Jiang Si, was the Lin family of three. Lin Nan, whom he had seen just that evening, now looked as if his soul had been shattered; he stared blankly at his chaotic home, completely out of it.
Mr. and Mrs. Lin didn’t look much better; their expressions were clouded with unspeakable fear.
Jiang Si stood there for a moment, his gaze drifting to the Bagua mirror hanging above their door frame. The surface was smooth and dust-free, the edges intactâit showed no signs of spiritual impact.
“Did a snake get into the house?” Jiang Si couldn’t help but step forward and ask.
Seeing him, Mrs. Lin looked a bit embarrassed. “Yes, a snake from outside somehow got in. It’s nothing serious.”
“It’ll be fine once they find it,” Mr. Lin added. “Sorry, Little Jiang, did we disturb your rest?”
“It’s fine, as long as everyone is safe.” Jiang Si nodded. He glanced into the apartment; the firefighters were already searching the bedrooms. By the looks of it, this was going to take a while.
Knowing what was happening, Jiang Si turned to go back inside and finish his editing. But before he could leave, Lin Nan, seizing the moment when no one was watching, death-gripped Jiang Siâs arm. His voice was hoarse and desperate. “Brother Jiang, look at me… did I encounter a ghost? I definitely hit a ghost! Otherwise, I wouldn’t keep dreaming about her…”
“Xiao Nan,” Mr. Lin scolded disapprovingly. “What nonsense are you spouting? Where would a ghost come from?”
“Stop lying to me!” Lin Nan let out a low, explosive roar. He hung his head wretchedly, avoiding everyone’s gaze, and muttered to himself, “If you weren’t suspicious, why would you go beg for a Bagua mirror to hang up? How long are you going to keep lying to me? Don’t I know my own situation better than you?”
“Mom, Dad, I know you are intellectuals and don’t want to believe in these things. But just because you don’t want it to exist doesn’t mean it doesn’t! She wants to kill me! She almost strangled me to death today! How much longer are you going to pretend?”
“Xiao Nan!” Mrs. Lin buried her face in her hands and began to weep softly. “How could Mom and Dad not care about your well-being?”
The firefighters inside, hearing the argument, glanced over with awkward expressions, clearly wanting to say something but holding back. Mr. Lin, unable to bear the loss of face, opened his mouth to reprimand his son again.
Jiang Si interrupted just in time. “Your house is a mess right now, and it’s not suitable for resting. Why don’t you come sit at my place for a bit?”
Lin Nan snapped his head up, thinking Jiang Si believed him. Without a second word, he bolted into Jiang Siâs half-open apartment as if fearing someone would drag him back if he hesitated even a second.
“…Uncle Lin, Auntie Zhou, would you like to come rest too?”
Mr. Lin shook his head immediately. “I need to stay here and watch the situation. Little Jiang… please try to talk some sense into Xiao Nan. He’s probably just been watching too many movies lately and letting his imagination run wild.”
“I’ll do my best,” Jiang Si said, returning to his home.
As soon as he turned around, he saw Lin Nan staring at him with bloodshot eyes. “Brother Jiang, everything I said is true. I swear, if I’m lying, may I die a horrible death!”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Jiang Si frowned. “Why are you making random vows in the middle of the night? Sit down first.”
It was the Ghost Month, and deep into the witching hour at that. Saying that a hundred ghosts walk the night wouldn’t be an exaggeration. The fear was that the speaker might be unintentional, but the listenersâthe spiritsâwould take it to heart. Jiang Si really dreaded these young people who spoke without any taboo or caution.
He poured a glass of warm water and handed it to Lin Nan, letting him calm his tightly wound nerves.
One of Lin Nanâs slippers had flown off somewhere, leaving one foot bare against the floor. He took the cup, tilted his head back, and gulped the entire thing down in one go.
After watching him for a moment, Jiang Si asked, “You said you encountered a snake tonight? Tell me exactly what happened.”
After the water, Lin Nan regained a semblance of sanityâat least he didn’t look as neurotic as before. After recounting his recent experiences, he looked at Jiang Si nervously.
Jiang Si kept a straight face. “You’ve provoked a Snake Immortal. No wonder the residential complex has so many snakes, and you keep dreaming of that wedding scene.”
“What is a Snake Immortal?” Lin Nan looked at Jiang Si with wide eyes full of curiosity.
Such clear, innocent eyesâtruly a college student.
Jiang Si felt a bit like a teacher. His tone softened as he explained, “A Snake Immortal is also called a Liu Xian (Willow Immortal). Legend has it that the ancient gods Fuxi and Nuwa both had human heads and snake bodies, so snakes are often regarded as highly spiritual animals. However, snakes are also very vindictive. If you provoke a snake that has gained sentienceâ’become a spirit’âthey will seek revenge at all costs. Just like your situation, coming in groups to settle the score. In the North, there are traditions of setting up altars for them, but it’s not common here in the South.”
“However, a Snake Immortal that is cultivating properly wouldn’t go so far as to kill someone. You probably provoked a ‘Wild Immortal’.”
That explained why he hadn’t detected any yin energy (ghostly energy) on Lin Nan; this wasn’t a ghost at all.
“So what do I do?” Lin Nan looked like he wanted to cry, feeling incredibly wronged. “I usually don’t even dare to look at a snake. If I see one, I stay ten feet away. How could I have provoked them?”
“When did you first start feeling that something was wrong?” Jiang Si continued to probe.
“It was after I came back from Yun City. I wanted to surprise my parents, but that day I hit a ‘Ghost Wall’âI kept walking in circles and couldn’t find my own home no matter how hard I tried.”
“That makes sense,” Jiang Si said. “Snake Immortals are experts at creating illusions.”
Knowing the cause made Lin Nan panic even more than being ignorant. “Then what should I do? Is it useful if I apologize?”
“You don’t even know how you offended it, so how can you apologize? And who would you apologize to?”
Jiang Si fell silent. He had only ever dealt with ghosts; this was his first time dealing with an animal spirit, and he had zero experience.
“If a Snake Immortal is tracking a human, there must be a mark. Look for a mark on him.” Xiao Feng Xian, who had just returned and floated through the wall to witness this, couldn’t help but chime in. She had died a long time ago and seen much of the world.
“A mark?”
“Just like a dog peeing to mark territory. Animals follow their instincts to leave a mark, and even spirits with intelligence are no exception. It’s definitely on him. Look for it.” Xiao Feng Xian pointed at the bewildered Lin Nan, gesturing as if she wanted to strip his clothes off herself to find it.
Jiang Si was astounded by her metaphor, but now wasn’t the time to discuss it. He turned to Lin Nan. “Take off your clothes.”
“?!!”
Hearing this sudden, context-free command, Lin Nanâs eyes widened instantly. He clutched his clothes tightly, looking at Jiang Si in disbelief. “Holy crap, Brother Jiang, have you been possessed?”
“Stop wasting time. Just do it.” Jiang Si was speechless.
“No, no, I have principles! I won’t sell my body!” Lin Nan looked at him with tragic indignation, as if looking at a beast. “Even if that Snake Immortal kills me, I won’t do that!”
“…” Jiang Si began to seriously doubt the current college entrance exam system. Had they lowered the difficulty so much that even idiots like this could get into university?
“I need to check your body for anomalies to decide what to do next,” Jiang Si explained patiently.
Finally, he couldn’t resist adding, “Please, with a face like mine, if I really wanted to do something to you, obviously I would be the one losing out, right?”
Lin Nan flushed red and stammered, “…You should have said so earlier. You scared me.”
“Less talking.” Jiang Si ordered him to take off his shirt first.
Summer pajamas were just a thin T-shirt, so Lin Nan stripped quickly. Jiang Si stood up and circled him, scrutinizing him from top to bottom.
Lin Nan didn’t feel cold from the AC, but Jiang Siâs gazeâinspecting him like a piece of meat at a marketâmade his back feel chilly. He couldn’t help but ask, “B-Brother Jiang, find anything?”
“Shut up.” Jiang Si felt like he was at work, inspecting a man’s body in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.
While internally grumbling, he didn’t relax his gaze. After a full circle yielding nothing, just as he was about to tell him to take off his pants, he suddenly noticed a dark patch on the right side of Lin Nan’s neck, behind the ear. If one didn’t look closely, it would pass for a shadow.
“Found it.” Jiang Siâs expression tightened. He told Lin Nan to put his shirt back on and called Xiao Feng Xian over. Lin Nan instantly felt the surrounding temperature drop a few degrees, shivering all over.
“Is this it?” Jiang Si asked.
Xiao Feng Xian nodded, her red-nailed finger pointing through the air at the spot. Her crimson lips parted. “Look closely. Is there a curved black line? That’s the mark.”
Lin Nan thought Jiang Si was talking to him and blinked rapidly. “What? I don’t know!”
Jiang Si ignored him and leaned in for a closer look. Indeed, as Xiao Feng Xian said, there was a black line winding under Lin Nanâs skin, about the length of a finger joint, hidden behind the ear where it was very inconspicuous.
“Do we just cut it out?” Jiang Si asked again.
“That is one method.” Xiao Feng Xian was surprised; she hadn’t expected Jiang Si to propose something so drastic.
Jiang Si: “Is there no other way? I can’t bring myself to do that.”
“Then let the Snake Immortal undo it themselves,” Xiao Feng Xian smiled, glancing sideways at Lin Nan. “But you have to find the Snake Immortal first.”
After weighing the options seriously for a moment, Jiang Si asked, “Little Lin, if I said taking a knife to your neck would solve the problem, what would you say?”
“…” Lin Nanâs face turned even paler. He asked, trembling, “So, to avoid being killed by the Snake Immortal, you’re going to kill me first?”
Okay, that definitely wouldn’t work.
Jiang Si sighed. It would have to be the second method. He slapped Lin Nan on the back of the head. “I told you to study hard at school, but instead, you run around everywhere. Now look at the trouble you’re in.”
Lin Nan rubbed his head, watching as Jiang Si went to another room and brought back a large sheet of gold paper. “What is that for?”
“Saving your little life, for starters.” Jiang Si glanced at Lin Nan, then confidently cut a shape out of the paper with scissors. He used a pen to draw a face on it in detail, then asked, “Do you have something you carry with you at all times?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Lin Nan said hurriedly.
Jiang Si reached out his hand to receive it, only to feel a heavy, rectangular object dropped onto his palm. He looked downâit was the latest model of a certain brand of smartphone. He looked back up at Lin Nanâs incredibly sincere eyes.
Lin Nan even explained, “I just bought it. I take it everywhere I go; I never put it down.”
Xiao Feng Xian, watching from the side, laughed. “He really is a fool.”
“I can see that.” Jiang Si was so exasperated he laughed. “I need a personal item to attach to this paper doll. How am I supposed to attach a phone?” He gestured with the items; the phone was bigger than the paper doll itself.
“Oh, oh, like that.” Lin Nan sheepishly took back his phone and quickly fumbled for a string of red agate beads on his wrist. “Will this work? I’ve worn it for six months.”
“That works.” Jiang Si told him to remove one bead. Lin Nan immediately complied and handed it over.
Jiang Si twisted several strands of gold thread, tied the red agate bead to the paper doll, and handed it to Lin Nan. “Keep this with you. This is your substitute. As long as you have it, the Snake Immortal won’t harm you.”
“Is that it? How many times can it be used?”
“Once,” Jiang Si said. “But the next time the Snake Immortal comes, I’ll know, and I’ll come save you.”
Only then did Lin Nan relax. Jiang Si thought of something and added, “Go back and take down the Bagua mirror. That thing is useless against nature spirits. Hanging it is a waste of time.”
Lin Nan nodded repeatedly. The commotion outside had mostly died down, so he pushed the door open to leave.
Following him out, Jiang Si heard the firefighters talking to Mr. and Mrs. Lin. “We really didn’t find the snake you mentioned. We checked the doors and windows again; there are no signs of a snake crawling in. You most likely saw it wrong. Rest assured, it’s safe to stay.”
It would have been strange if they had found it, considering it wasn’t an ordinary snake. Clutching the item in his hand, Lin Nan felt much safer. He stepped forward, admitting he might have been dreaming and hadn’t seen clearly, allowing the firefighters to leave.
Jiang Si closed his door and returned to his bedroom. He threw himself onto the bed and commanded Hai Di, who was sitting at the computer doing his work for him, “Come give me a massage.”
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