After Marrying the Evil God - Chapter 1

Xie Chouzhuan drifted back to consciousness, only to find himself trapped in a narrow, cramped space. He was surrounded by total darkness, his nostrils filled with a pungent, decaying stench. Less than a meter above him sat a heavy wooden board.

“Where am I?”

He remembered clearly that he had traveled with a friend to his mother’s ancestral village to attend a wedding. How did he end up here?

Substinctively, he tried to move his limbs, but his hand brushed against something icy cold. Startled, he reached out again to feel it, only to touch an arm—cold, stiff, and hard as stone.

“Ah!!!”

Xie Chouzhuan panicked. He could feel the owner of that frozen arm beginning to stir. The cold hand suddenly clamped onto him, and a wave of foul odor washed over him.

It was only then that he realized he had been sealed inside a coffin. Beside him was a corpse that had begun to reanimate, slowly crawling toward him.

Terrified, Xie Chouzhuan pounded frantically on the lid of the coffin. However, it was not only nailed shut but buried deep underground; it wouldn’t budge. He gritted his teeth and clawed desperately at the seams of the wood. His fingertips burned from the friction and his nails began to crack, allowing a warm liquid to seep out and trickle down the lid. Yet, he couldn’t even register the piercing pain.

The oxygen inside the coffin grew thin. Xie Chouzhuan felt his breathing become labored. The rotting corpse leaned in closer, its face nearly touching his own.

In the next second, Xie Chouzhuan felt a sudden trance-like blur. It felt as though he had been transported elsewhere. Though it was still pitch black, the nauseating stench of decay had vanished. Instead, a faint scent of agarwood enveloped him as he was pulled into the embrace of a slightly cool arm.

Xie Chouzhuan reflexively tried to turn his head, but his jaw was immediately gripped, pinning him in place. A light chuckle came from behind him, and breath swept across the side of his neck, bringing a slight, ticklish sensation.

“Do you want to live?” the man behind him asked.

“I do,” Xie Chouzhuan replied, his voice trembling.

“Marry me, and you shall live…”

Xie Chouzhuan froze. “Get lost! Don’t even think about it!”

“Is that so?” The voice held an unreadable tone.

Xie Chouzhuan heard the snap of a finger, and those cool fingers forced his head up. When he saw the scene before him, his breath caught in his throat.

A cold corpse came into view it was the very coffin he had just been lying in! The creature’s face was as pale as paper, its lips a ghastly shade of purplish-blue. Within its wide-open eye sockets were fat, white maggots writhing incessantly. As the corpse moved, the maggots made a “squeaking” sound and tumbled into the coffin.

“Ah!!!”

At the thought that he had just been sharing a coffin with such a revolting thing, Xie Chouzhuan felt so sick he nearly threw up his last meal.

“You were tricked here by your friend to enter into a Ghost Marriage contract,” the man explained calmly. “Choose me, and you shall live!”

“I… I choose… you!” Xie Chouzhuan shook with fear, tears streaming down his face.

“Good boy,” the man said, a hint of pleasure in his voice. He reached up to brush Xie Chouzhuan’s cheek, wiping the tears away.

“I will come for you in one month.” The man placed a jade ring threaded with a red string around his neck, and a cool kiss landed on the side of his throat. “Remember, my name is Ji Sixian.”

“Ji Sixian?” Xie Chouzhuan repeated subconsciously.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed before his eyes. He was transported directly out of the grave. Standing before him was a tombstone, upon which were engraved his own life details alongside those of that “filthy thing.”

In the next moment, cracks suddenly appeared on the headstone.

Crank, crack—

The cracks multiplied until the tombstone shattered into pieces. Xie Chouzhuan could never have imagined that his best friend would trick him into this godforsaken place to enter a Ghost Marriage.

A few days ago, Xie Chouzhuan’s friend, Min Shuang, mentioned that his mother’s distant cousin was getting married and invited him along. Originally, Xie Chouzhuan didn’t want to go; although he was close with Min Shuang, he had no connection to this distant cousin.

However, Min Shuang said his mother’s village was quite remote and he would be bored alone, so he begged Xie Chouzhuan to accompany him, promising he wouldn’t even have to pay a gift-money fee. Since they had grown up together and their families were close and because Min Shuang was usually good to him, Xie Chouzhuan eventually agreed.

They set off from Huating City, flew to Jincheng, then took a train, followed by a bus, and finally a motor-tricycle. After traveling for several days, they finally arrived in the vicinity.

Xie Chouzhuan followed Min Shuang into the mountains. After a morning of hiking, they reached the ancestral home: Shenshui Village, named for the many deep waters surrounding it.

Everything was normal for the first few days. However, after a death occurred in the village, everything changed. On the second day of the cousin’s wedding, a thirty-something man named Li Sen died abruptly without cause.

It was the custom of Shenshui Village that the entire village attend the funeral of the deceased. Min Shuang took Xie Chouzhuan to Li Sen’s funeral. During the rite, a spirit medium held a bowl of clear water; every mourner had to reach out and dip their finger into it.

When it was Min Shuang’s turn, as soon as his hand touched the water, Xie Chouzhuan noticed the medium’s cloudy eyes suddenly brighten. Min Shuang began to shake violently, his face turning deathly pale. If Xie Chouzhuan hadn’t supported him in time, he likely would have collapsed.

Worried, Xie Chouzhuan offered to take him back, but Min Shuang adamantly refused, insisting on staying until the ceremony ended. When the medium held the water out to Xie Chouzhuan, he helplessly dipped his finger in. The medium’s hand suddenly jerked, and the entire bowl of water spilled out completely.

The ceremony was forced to a halt. Back at the cousin’s house, Xie Chouzhuan felt a sense of dread and urged Min Shuang to leave early. Min Shuang nodded in agreement, but the next morning as they were leaving, the Village Chief arrived with two bowls of chicken soup to see them off. Unable to refuse their hospitality, they both drank the soup.

Not long after, Xie Chouzhuan felt a wave of dizziness and collapsed.

In a half-dreaming, half-waking state, he heard a rustling sound followed by sobbing.

Min Shuang apologized through his tears: “Chouzhuan, I’m sorry. I had no choice. They chose me. It’s the village custom if a household loses someone who wasn’t married, they have to choose someone with a compatible horoscope for a Ghost Marriage. I am the only son of the Min family; I can’t die. If I die, the Min line ends. But you’re different. You have two older brothers. Even if you die, there are others to inherit the family estate. Don’t worry, once you’ve completed the marriage with Brother Sen, I’ll look after your parents as if they were my own. I’ll fulfill your filial duties for you. Chouzhuan, please don’t blame me.”

To those words, Xie Chouzhuan only wanted to scream: “Just because you’re an only son, I’m supposed to die for you? Go to hell!”

By the time he woke up, he was lying in that coffin with a reanimated corpse beside him.