To save the Taoist temple where he had grown up, now on the verge of closing, young Taoist Li Jianxi angrily entered the workforce to earn money and support it.
With the economy in decline and jobs hard to come by, after trying street vending, collecting recyclables, and editing videos for social media, he resolutely joined the ranks of food delivery riders.
First, the work gave him freedom to come and go, and ride his beloved little scooter. Second, he could take on some less-than-ordinary side jobs while making deliveries.
Under dim lights, someone was swinging on a playground swing. Take a closer look: where are your feet?
At the pitch-black entrance to an apartment stairwell, faint sobbing could be heard. His face felt itchy, so he scratched it and looked up. A woman with long, straight black hair was hanging upside down, smiling at him.
Riding along a deserted country road, he saw someone moving quickly in the beam of his headlight. He kindly offered them a ride, only to find the soles of their feet facing him.
He walked down the same alley seven or eight times and still couldn't find his way out. A potted plant beside him was whispering. Li Jianxi calmed himself and listened. It was telling him to be extra careful.
He immediately got off his scooter and pulled a copper bell from under the seat. As its clear ringing sounded, a mechanical electronic voice chimed in: "Ding! Spirit Realm System version Q11.3 is now online. Employee No. 668 of 'Ghost Catchers' thanks you for using our service. Have a good shift."
It wasn't that he was making a fuss. The times were changing. These days, catching ghosts for money required clocking in on-site, too.
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The surroundings were dark and silent. The front gate of the detached house before him stood half open. Dust covered the interior, and in the middle of the house, the light of his flashlight barely revealed a stone statue whose face was impossible to make out.
Li Jianxi stood at the entrance with a bag of spicy hot pot in his hand, not daring to go inside. He could catch ghosts, but that didn't mean he wasn't afraid.
There was nothing but concrete all around, not even a plant that could talk to him.
After looking around for a while, he unlocked his phone. Was he so tired from work that he was mixing up food delivery and ghost-catching?
A shadowy figure appeared behind him. Its face was impossible to see, and he couldn't sense its presence. Only sticky, heavy emotions lingered around it.
It slowly wrapped itself around Li Jianxi from behind. Its presence was cold, damp, and clinging. Lowering its head, it whispered into his ear: "...I've caught you."
Reduced from a ten-thousand-year-old great demon to an evil god and vengeful ghost, Lu Wu had finally found him.
His peach-blossom immortal, his little prince, his... obsession.
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Bonus scene:
After contacting the moderator of the Fengdu Gates forum, a customer who had ordered from "Ghost Catchers" waited anxiously at the entrance to his apartment complex.
He tried to imagine what the person coming to catch the ghost might look like:
For ghost-catching, the safest bet was surely the traditional Taoist priest from films, dressed in a bright yellow robe.
In modern society, with its standardized jobs, maybe the person would show up in a crisp suit.
It wasn't impossible that they might dress like an ordinary person, casually and for convenience.
But what was a food delivery rider doing stopping in front of him and giving him the last digits of his phone number? He hadn't ordered food.
Reader's guide:
1. Warm on the outside, cold on the inside Taoist priest gong x damp, obsessive vengeful ghost shou.
2. Chinese-style horror and folk customs. The gong has a pretty powerful golden finger.
3. The gong and shou are connected through their past and present lives. They didn't get together in either of their first two lives, but they do in this one.
4. To be continued.
Theme: Do good deeds, and don't worry about the future.
