Chapter 6: Sir, Please Do Not Follow Me
Jiang Louqi felt that it would have been better if he had received nothing at all. Every “gift” the Mingzhu provided was a pile of defective goods; he felt like a scavenger for the Underworld’s junk, with every low-quality knockoff product being shoved into his agency.
If those weren’t enough, he had even been sent a “prisoner gift pack” when he opened for business!
He cursed under his breath and headed downstairs to use a Memory Erasure Talisman on the couple in the rental house.
This talisman could wipe away a segment of unwanted memories from the brain, erasing the shadows cast by the fear of ghosts one by one, ensuring that their normal lives remained unaffected.
Once the task was finished, Jiang Louqi hopped onto his motorcycle and took a shortcut. Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, he might as well go watch Chu Zhixing catch some ghosts!
The narrow alley was tucked away among a vast sprawl of old houses, squeezed into a tiny sliver by high walls. It was so quiet it felt almost deathly.
At the end of the alley, the dim yellow streetlights flickered in a grotesque, mocking way, appearing exceptionally alluring and bewitching in the gloomy night.
The magnetic attraction of the Soul-Hooking Pen suddenly lost its connection. Xie Jiuchen came to a halt, and the fountain pen in his pocket saw its deep blue luminescence fade into nothingness.
The distant, sparse lights gradually flickered out, leaving only an endless, vast expanse of darkness.
He closed his eyes and then snapped them open. From the corners of his eyes, tiny, scattered sparks of deep blue flame flickered within his pupils.
The firelight was clean and transparent, drifting lazily. In an instant, the surrounding objects and the path beneath his feet became clearly visible.
There happened to be a crossroads ahead. Xie Jiuchen walked straight toward it, failing to notice the Kawasaki motorcycle that suddenly came roaring out in the next second!
The multicolored flashing lights were incredibly dazzling. A strong sense of discomfort forced him to raise his arm to shield himself from the arc of light. His figure flickered and vanished in a blur of speed, a movement too fast for a normal person to catch.
Poor Jiang Louqi hadn’t noticed at all that there would be someone out in this godforsaken alleyway!
Faced with the sudden accident, his right hand’s reflex to grip the front brake was faster than his brain. The motorcycle veered off course, scraping along the base of the wall.
The ear-piercing screech of the brakes came to a sudden stop. Due to the momentum, the front of the bike and his body lunged forward violently. He nearly flipped over, flirting with a total wreck and a sudden death!
Jiang Louqi didn’t even care that his precious bike had been scratched. He tossed his helmet onto the seat, his heart screaming that he was a million times screwed—had he just hit someone?
Being struck by a motorcycle so suddenly, the other person would be crippled if not dead. He vowed never to speed again!
Wait… strangely enough, why was there no sound at all? Where was the blood sprayed across the scene? Where was the victim on the ground?
By the light of the bike’s headlight, which he had switched to a bright white, Jiang Louqi immediately saw the man who had appeared behind him at some unknown moment. Moreover, the man was completely unharmed! There wasn’t a single drop of blood!
He was stunned. He looked back at the space in front of him in disbelief, then stared at Xie Jiuchen in utter confusion.
Furthermore, the protective jade talisman on his neck showed no signs of heating up, proving that the person before him was indeed a living human.
Jiang Louqi stepped forward a few paces and asked tentatively, “Sir? Are you alright? Did I hit you anywhere?”
The man by the corner also recovered from the incident and slowly looked up.
Fortunately, the light ahead wasn’t too blinding, and his eyes—which had been hidden in the deep Underworld for countless years—finally managed to adjust.
With that single glance back, a moment of startling beauty, Jiang Louqi was so pathetic that he had already thought of names for their future children…
That face, reflecting the glow of the lights, possessed the gentle warmth of the south—truly a refined gentleman, as gentle and warm as jade-green water.
He had seen many such beautiful, androgynous faces before. Some were male, some were female, but most were people he had hooked up with in places of debauchery.
Those people lived in a world of indulgence and luxury, which Jiang Louqi didn’t like.
In contrast, the person before him felt untainted, like a pool of clear spring water on a snow-capped mountain that had never been frozen.
Looking closer, every gesture the man made exuded a thick scholarly aura; he was the very picture of an elegant, fair-faced scholar.
If not for the modern suit and leather shoes, Jiang Louqi would have almost thought he was a beautiful man who had traveled through time from some ancient dynasty.
Xie Jiuchen felt a bit uncomfortable under his gaze. He politely pursed his lips and gave a slight nod before turning back toward the entrance he had just come from.
Seeing the swan he had just found about to fly away, Jiang Louqi wasn’t about to let him off so easily. Wagging an invisible, mischievous wolf tail, he directly tossed out some sweet talk: “Handsome, you’re so good-looking. It’s easy for someone to take advantage of you, walking all alone in a pitch-black alleyway… ~”
Hearing this, Xie Jiuchen was left speechless, having no desire to be entangled with the man.
Though he felt teased, he maintained a polite attitude, his voice slightly deep: “Sir, please do not follow me.”
“I must have hit you just now. No, my conscience won’t allow this. I have to take you to the hospital for a check-up.”
Jiang Louqi spoke with absolute certainty, his eyes quietly roaming over the man’s body. Although the man wasn’t the petite and exquisite type, he inexplicably inspired a desire to protect.
Xie Jiuchen stood still, placing his right hand over the back of his left. He refused once more with great solemnity. “There is no need. Thank you for your kindness, but I am fine.”
“Impossible. The alley is so small; there must be some scrapes or a minor fracture, right? How could you be fine? Unless you’re not an ordinary person.”
Jiang Louqi narrowed his eyes and leaned his face in without acting like a stranger, scrutinizing the man with an intense gaze.
Such close contact allowed them to feel each other’s warm breath. Xie Jiuchen’s heart skipped a beat, and he immediately stepped back. He suddenly remembered Cui Panguan’s warning that his identity must never be known, as it would easily invite unnecessary trouble.
He was forced to feign pain, knitting his elegant brows. “If I go to the… hospital with you, will you let me go?”
“Yes, yes. I am a responsible person. If I don’t get you checked out at the hospital, I’m afraid you’ll have complications in the future. In serious cases, you might even end up paralyzed. Careful, your future partner might not want you then.”
After saying this, Jiang Louqi pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and sent a message to Chu Zhixing.
He handed the spare helmet to Xie Jiuchen and carefully wiped the back seat. “Handsome, hurry and get on.”
What kind of strange things was he saying? Not only was he persistent, but he was also glib-tongued. It was truly bizarre.
Xie Jiuchen felt in his heart that the so-called “rogue” was this man himself…
Despite his reluctance, he complied and sat down. It was his first time seeing such a “wild horse” that could be driven without a whip, and he found it quite novel.
The cool breeze from their rapid movement brushed against his chest. For the first time in his life, Xie Jiuchen felt a sense of freedom and lack of restraint.
While Jiang Louqi was driving properly in front, Xie Jiuchen gripped his other arm. A cloud of black smoke swirled between his fingers as he gritted his teeth and forcefully snapped his own bone!
The clamor of the surrounding crowds and the honking of cars perfectly masked the sound of the bone cracking.
Xie Jiuchen’s eyelashes lowered in pain, his beautiful eyes appearing blurred and reflecting the roadside lights.
The agony in the depths of his eyes suddenly spread like ripples in a pond, but it was quickly suppressed and sank back down.
He didn’t make a sound, the slight tremor at the corners of his eyes hiding the darkness within his gaze.
While waiting at a red light, Jiang Louqi couldn’t keep still and started chatting with the man behind him. “By the way, did you know? I thought the first person to sit on my Kawasaki would be my girlfriend. I never expected it to be you first. It’s just too much of a coincidence, hahahaha.”
What kind of coincidence was that? Wasn’t it he himself who insisted the man get on…
“Sir, you are also a talented young man. Surely there are many girls pursuing you?”
Xie Jiuchen let his fractured arm hang, acting as if nothing was wrong. His gentle voice carried a hint of ethereal driftiness.
Such flowery, old-fashioned speech made Jiang Louqi laugh. It was exactly like those ghosts in the Underworld. If this man wasn’t a professor, he was a literary writer.
He tilted his helmet to check for cars, and his tone inadvertently took on a hint of seductive charm.
“Actually, I’ve never even been in a relationship once. Aside from being handsome, I have nothing to my name. No car, no savings. With both sleeves full of breeze, how could I lead a girl astray?”
Xie Jiuchen gripped the tail of the bike tightly, feeling dizzy from the sensation of being suspended off the ground.
Enduring the churning in his stomach, he let out a breath. “A warm-hearted, good person like you will have girls who like you in the future.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Sit tight; I’m speeding up.” Jiang Louqi twisted the throttle, and the Kawasaki’s engine roared.
To accommodate the “injured” person on the back, he reined in his usual recklessness. If he caused secondary injury to this handsome beauty, he would truly be a sinner for all time.
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