After Ghost Marriage with My Arch-Rival - Chapter 1

“My dear grandson, Grandma found your ghost marriage partner! Guess what?”

Liu Xiangyi gripped the steering wheel, his expression grim as he focused intensely on the road. He had no mental bandwidth to process what the voice on the phone was saying.

He was currently street racing.

Specifically, he was racing against his lifelong arch-rival, Zhong Qinhuai.

In the misty, drizzling night, a black Porsche and a yellow Bentley tore through the winding mountain highway. The two cars jostled for dominance, neither yielding an inch, each pushing the limits of speed.

Approaching a sharp curve, Liu Xiangyi spotted his opening. He jerked the steering wheel, and the yellow Bentley performed a flawless power slide, instantly widening the gap between him and the Porsche by several meters.

Beautiful!

Liu Xiangyi’s elegant, ink-black brows quirked upward. Now that he held a temporary lead, he finally allowed his mind to wander back to the phone call from his grandmother.

When he was a child, a Taoist priest had read his fortune: if he wanted to live past twenty-five, he had to be wed in a ghost marriage.

Even though it was the 21st century and he shouldn’t believe in such nonsense, the facts were hard to ignore. His father, his grandfather, and even his great-grandfather—stretching back generations had all died before reaching the age of twenty-five.

Whether he believed in the metaphysics of it was no longer relevant. What mattered was that his grandmother was a firm believer. Armed with the birth charts provided by the priest, she had spent over a decade searching for a “compatible” deceased partner for him.

Even in today’s torrential rain, the old lady had insisted on going out to continue her search.

Fine, Liu Xiangyi thought. If it sets Grandma’s mind at ease, I’ll go through the motions. A ghost marriage was nothing more than a superstitious ritual for psychological comfort. He wouldn’t take it seriously, and his dead spouse certainly wouldn’t either.

Liu Xiangyi smoothed his expression, his lips curving into a dutiful, “good boy” smile. His grandmother’s hearing wasn’t great, so he eased off the gas to make sure she could hear him clearly.

“So, who exactly is this ghost marriage partner?”

Grandma’s voice trembled with excitement on the other end. “Him? His name is—”

BOOM.

A sudden roar of an engine drowned out the crucial second half of her sentence.

Liu Xiangyi: “!”

The internal cursing in his head was just as loud as the noise outside. He shot a glance out the window: the racket was coming from the Porsche.

That brat caught up!

As the Porsche surged past him, a pale wrist draped casually over the window sill. The driver gave a taunting “come hither” flick of his fingers.

It was a small gesture, but the psychological damage to Liu Xiangyi was immense.

Too arrogant!

Liu Xiangyi didn’t care about the name of his ghost spouse anymore. He hung up the phone, slammed his foot on the accelerator, and gave chase!

To this day, he had no idea how he had offended Zhong Qinhuai. All he knew was that since elementary school, he had been targeted. Whatever he did, Zhong Qinhuai had to compete with him.

It started with grades and rankings. Then, if Liu Xiangyi went for a jog on the track, Zhong Qinhuai would sprint over to see who could finish first. If he ate in the cafeteria, the boy would bring his tray and sit directly opposite him to see who could finish their meal faster.

Even when Liu Xiangyi fed stray cats on the roadside, Zhong Qinhuai found a way to turn it into a contest, arguing over whose ham sausage the kittens liked more.

Liu Xiangyi: “…”

After getting into university, Liu Xiangyi thought he had finally escaped that hell. Yet, the moment he arrived at the campus gates, there was that boy, waiting for him.

“I arrived 53 minutes and 18 seconds earlier than you. Are you going to lose to me on the very first day of school?”

In an instant, Liu Xiangyi’s competitive fire was rekindled.

Fine! You want to grind? Let’s grind!

This war of “involution” had lasted from elementary school to the present day. Now, they were not only in the same profession but were each other’s strongest competitors in the industry.

Even this race had started out of nowhere. Liu Xiangyi had been minding his own business on the road when Zhong Qinhuai pulled up beside him, rolled down his window, draped his hand outside, and gave that same provocative finger-flick.

Liu Xiangyi’s blood pressure had skyrocketed. He gave chase, and it escalated into this.

I’m so over this guy.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He floored the pedal.

Got you!

Pulling parallel to the Porsche, Liu Xiangyi extended his own hand out the window. He gave a thumbs up then slowly rotated it downward.

It was pure, unadulterated defiance.

Unfortunately, there were no streetlights on the mountain road, so he couldn’t savor the look on the other man’s face. Liu Xiangyi felt a pang of regret.

He continued to accelerate. Once he had put a significant distance between himself and the Porsche, he didn’t keep going. Instead, he yanked the wheel, drifting into a wide turn that brought his car to a dead stop across the middle of the road—directly in the Porsche’s path.

Seconds later, the screech of tires against asphalt pierced the air. The Porsche was forced to a halt.

The roar of the super-engines died down. In the sudden silence of the night, only the pitter-patter of rain hitting the car roof remained.

The Porsche sat barely a meter away. Its lights were off, leaving only a blurry, dark silhouette visible inside. Even without seeing his face, Liu Xiangyi could feel the other man’s gaze fixed on him.

If Liu Xiangyi needed a reason to hate Zhong Qinhuai, the way the man looked at him was at the top of the list.

Back in their student days—whether they were eating in the cafeteria, hanging out in the hallways, or when Liu Xiangyi woke up from a nap in class—if he turned around, he would always catch Zhong Qinhuai staring at him.

He stared like a predator watching its prey.

It had been that way since they were kids, and as they grew older, the sensation only became more unsettling. Like now: Zhong Qinhuai sat in the pitch-black car, saying nothing, just watching.

Liu Xiangyi’s brow furrowed. This guy is getting weirder by the day.

Finally, Zhong Qinhuai moved. He draped his wrist over the window frame. His fingers were long and well-defined, possessing a hidden strength, yet they were so pale they looked like art pieces carved from white porcelain.

Liu Xiangyi’s frown subconsciously relaxed. He was a “hand person”—he appreciated aesthetic hands, but he hated that such a perfect pair belonged to this guy.

It was infuriating.

Zhong Qinhuai’s hand remained on the window, his fingers tapping a slow, rhythmic beat. It was a nonchalant, casual gesture.

Liu Xiangyi was nearly laughed at the sheer gall of it. He knew what that meant: Zhong Qinhuai was waiting for him to walk over.

Why should I go to him? I refuse!

Liu Xiangyi sat stubbornly in his car, unable to stop his eyes from drifting toward those beautiful hands while he counted down the seconds in his head.

Three, two.

Before he reached “one,” his phone rang. He didn’t rush to answer. He let it ring for a while before finally picking up.

The next second, a lazy, amused chuckle drifted through the speaker.

“President Liu had the guts to cut me off, but not the guts to walk over? Are you scared?”

Liu Xiangyi gritted his teeth and smiled into the phone. “And may I ask why President Zhong hasn’t walked over himself? Do your legs not work?”

Even something as trivial as “who walks to who” was a battlefield for them.

It’s all Zhong Qinhuai’s fault!

Liu Xiangyi narrowed his eyes at the figure in the opposite car. If it weren’t for this guy constantly competing with him since childhood, he wouldn’t have developed this obsessive competitive streak.

He finally voiced the question he’d held in for years. “Tell me, President Zhong. I don’t believe I’ve ever offended you. Is it really polite to target me like this for so long?”

The voice on the other end was airy. “You really want to know, President Liu?”

Another unreadable chuckle followed.

“If you’re that curious, then beat me. If you win, I’ll tell you.”

That punchable tone!

Liu Xiangyi hung up, backed his car up until they were side-by-side, and rolled down his window. He didn’t say a word; he just looked over. In the unlit interior of the other car, Zhong Qinhuai was a shadow, but Liu Xiangyi could feel the man looking back at him at that exact moment.

The next second, both men slammed their feet onto their accelerators. The engines let out a deafening roar.

With perfect, unspoken timing, both cars surged forward into the night!

ROAR

ROAR

The sound was thunderous, drowning out everything else in Liu Xiangyi’s world. He pushed the pedal to the floor.

Suddenly, the navigation voice chimed in:

“Dangerous road conditions ahead.”

The cliff was just ahead.

Liu Xiangyi was bold, but he wasn’t reckless. As the finish line drew near, he began to decelerate, ensuring he wouldn’t carry too much momentum and fly off the edge.

He stole a glance at the rearview mirror. The Porsche was hot on his heels, but it remained a constant tire’s length behind him.

He was slowing down, and he calculated that Zhong Qinhuai wouldn’t dare to accelerate either—after all, the drop was right there. This victory was officially in the bag.

But the very second Liu Xiangyi tapped the brakes, the Porsche behind him seemed to seize the opening. It accelerated with a violent roar!

Whoosh.

The Porsche streaked past him like a bolt of lightning.

Liu Xiangyi: (Pupils dilating in shock) “!”

Is this kid insane?

Going that fast is going to—

Before the thought could even finish, Liu Xiangyi watched with wide eyes as the Porsche launched off the cliff. It traced a stark parabola against the night sky before plummeting into the void.

Seconds later, a thunderous BOOM echoed from the depths of the canyon, the shockwave finally snapping Liu Xiangyi out of his trance.

He slammed on the brakes.

A waning moon emerged from behind the dark clouds, casting a sliver of light onto the solitary yellow Bentley. Aside from that single splash of vivid color, the world was swallowed by the night.

The rain stopped.

The wind died down.

High on the cliffside, there wasn’t even the sound of a stray bird or insect. It was so silent that Liu Xiangyi felt a sudden, chilling illusion that he had been abandoned by the entire world.

Without the roar of the engines, when his grandmother’s phone call came through again, he could finally hear every word with haunting clarity.

“My dear grandson, why did you hang up just now?” Grandma asked, confused. Without waiting for his answer, she rushed back to the main topic with renewed excitement.

“That ghost marriage partner of yours, his name is Zhong Qinhuai. He was born on the exact same year, month, and day as you. Your birth charts are a match made in heaven!”

Liu Xiangyi: “?”

Grandma remained immersed in her joy. “A ghost marriage is usually for the dead, and I was worried you’d be a widower for life, but it turns out he’s not even dead yet.”

“He’s a living, breathing person!”

Liu Xiangyi: “…”

Grandma had celebrated too soon.

His ghost marriage partner had just died.

And that question he had just asked Zhong Qinhuai? He would likely never know the answer now.