Burying the Wrong Grave

A genuinely timid, secretly scheming thousand-year-old evil ghost VS a truly calculating, seemingly gentle, short-lived "ordinary person"

Xie Zhuo is an evil ghost who cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation because he lost an important memory. His soul has endured for a thousand years, all so he can discover the reason behind the heavenly punishment branded upon him.

For a thousand years, he had no family, no friends, and no one to make offerings to him. Then, unexpectedly, during this year's Ghost Festival, he received paper money from the living world.

The person who burned it for him had an extraordinary air about him. His cool, slightly upturned phoenix eyes gave Xie Zhuo a sense of familiarity he had never felt before.

Xie Zhuo's eyes lit up. Could this finally be a clue to the memories he'd lost a thousand years ago?

But the other man merely said, "You got the wrong grave."

Xie Zhuo: "I don't believe you."

~

Xie Zhuo had always thought that his pact with Shen Yichen was simply a matter of mutual need. Once he recovered his memories and learned the reason for the heavenly punishment, they could part ways and have nothing more to do with each other.

But who could have guessed that when the day his memories returned finally came, and heavenly retribution descended, he would ignore everything else and use a chain to bind the other's fading soul with all his might.

Xie Zhuo's eyes were bloodshot, his voice hoarse. "Shen Yichen, you are not leaving me again!"

As heaven and earth lost their color, Shen Yichen still smiled gently. "Be good. Let go."

[Scenarios] A bride has gone missing on a sealed-off highway. Ever since, a shrill cry rings out every night: "Run! Run, now!!"

In a foggy forest with no way out, they meet a young man who's just as lost. He calls himself a corpse driver, and every day he repeats the same line: "Cross this mountain and you'll be home."

A child who loves puppet shows at an inn, an old man who starts looking for his chickens before dawn, an ancient tomb where construction has yet to begin...

Every time they arrive somewhere and send a passerby on their way, they receive a red bead. Each bead contains a story from a thousand years ago.

[Bonus scene] In a haunted inn, Xie Zhuo opens a closet door, and a round object drops with a thud at his feet.

Xie Zhuo silently stares down at it for a long while, until he hears a muffled laugh by the door.

With a flick of his toe, Xie Zhuo kicks the head to Shen Yichen's feet without a word. "Why didn't you secure it properly?"

Shen Yichen smiles gently. "Even if I glued it on, it would still fall off."

"Why?" Xie Zhuo asks, puzzled.

Shen Yichen: "Because it likes scaring cowards."

Xie Zhuo: "..."

Note: This entire story is made up. Please don't take it too seriously~

Theme: The gods don't save people. People save themselves.