After Swapping Identities With My Archenemy - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Ghost Under the Bed

Their rooms were separate, with a shared dining area in the middle.

After eating and drinking to her heart’s content, Jiang Huaiyi quickly lay down on the bed and took out her pager to look at the contact interface.

She found that the contact information for her shishu and shijie had disappeared. She was so familiar with those two numbers that she could recite them without a second thought.

Her heart was filled with bitterness. The only two people she had contact with had become friends with Shen Wensi.

She thought to herself that if the grandmaster wanted to punish her for having cultivation but no achievements, there was no need to use such a method.

It was too cruel. She couldn’t bear it.

As soon as she was alone, thinking about those things, she felt uncomfortable.

Without a call from her shijie and shishu before bed, Jiang Huaiyi felt like she was about to fall apart.

She curled up on the bed and felt a little lonely. She didn’t know if it was because the carved bed, which was the same as the one at home, gave her a sense of security.

She didn’t find it difficult to fall asleep. Holding the only item her master had left her, she fell asleep.

Her dream was hazy, and she felt like she was in the clouds.

After sleeping for a while, she was woken up by the noisy sound of gongs, drums, and crying. The light from outside faintly came through the glazed window. In a daze, she felt a figure standing not far from her bed.

Jiang Huaiyi rubbed her eyes and realized that she hadn’t seen wrong.

Because the dark figure seemed to have discovered her, it rushed forward in one stride. She only felt a cold hand cover her mouth.

Shen Wensi’s voice came from her ear: “Speak softly.”

Jiang Huaiyi saw her cold and determined face. Her expression was solemn. She nodded.

The other person slowly let go of her hand. Jiang Huaiyi whispered: “Why are you in my room?”

She hadn’t covered herself with the Ge family’s blanket. For some reason, it smelled musty. Now, with the window slightly ajar, she was so cold she was shaking.

Shen Wensi walked silently to the window like a ghost, pointed outside, and looked at her.

She got out of bed, tiptoeing and trying her best not to make a sound, and walked to the window.

She looked down through the crack in the window and first saw a long pole with paper-made white streamers on it.

There was paper stacked on top, which looked heavy. When the person walked, the streamers went to the back.

After seeing a group of people in mourning clothes come out from behind, Jiang Huaiyi was sure that the front was a banner for a funeral procession. The people following behind scattered the contents of their baskets.

Suddenly, paper money fluttered all over the sky. A suppressed sound of sobbing came from the ground, and all the people in the procession had their heads bowed.

Jiang Huaiyi saw a large red coffin being carried out. It was the same one she had seen in the main hall at night.

The Ge family was holding a funeral. Wasn’t that coffin for Master Ge?

Why didn’t anyone tell her that someone had died in the middle of the night?

They even started the funeral procession without a proper wake. Jiang Huaiyi felt a strange feeling in her heart and craned her neck to get a clearer look at the ancestral tablet being carried at the front.

But the window crack was too small, and her vision was limited to a small narrow gap.

She couldn’t look out any further.

The procession moved slowly. According to the length of the courtyard, the leader was probably just reaching the door now.

She didn’t know how long the line was. She suddenly thought that if she also wore mourning clothes and followed the procession, would she be able to leave the courtyard smoothly?

A piece of paper money suddenly floated in front of her, and it accurately flew into the window as if it had a mind of its own.

The people below stopped in their tracks and all turned their heads to look up at the building.

Although Shen Wensi closed the window quickly, Jiang Huaiyi still saw the people in mourning clothes below turn their necks ninety degrees to look at her.

Without exception, their faces all had a bright red circle, and their entire faces were as white as if they were covered in lime.

They looked eerily like paper figures. With just one glance, Jiang Huaiyi felt as if her mind had been polluted.

She had the illusion of being stared at, as if a strange gaze was firmly locked on her. It was unstoppable and unblockable, making her shudder.

The paper money that had floated in also disappeared. What kind of evil magic was this, with paper figures leading the way? Who was in that coffin? Could it be Miss Ge?

She shot up from the bed. She hadn’t opened her bag. Now she grabbed it and was about to walk to the door. Shen Wensi’s cold hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

“Are you going down now?”

Jiang Huaiyi: “I can’t stay in this ghostly place for a minute!”

Her throat was clogged, and she felt a little nauseous. This was her usual reaction when she was scared. The first time she did a job, she saw a female ghost at the main family’s house and threw up so much outside that she couldn’t continue.

So her shishu had sealed her heavenly eyes, but now this feeling was back.

Shen Wensi’s grip was tighter. She could even feel her distinct knuckles firmly gripping her wrist.

As if she wanted to break her wrist: “Daoist Jiang, it has its eyes on you. I think you should know that if you go out now, you’ll be inviting it in, right?”

Jiang Huaiyi shook off her hand. She naturally knew that the ghost below had noticed her: “A short pain is better than a long one. We’ll go down and perform a ritual now. We’ll tell Master Ge that the dead cannot be resurrected, and holding a ghost marriage for her is just a formality. If I don’t write the memorial, this matter can’t be completed.”

The reason Ge Shihong had the two of them here was nothing more than this. The memorial went up to the heavens and down to the underworld. If she didn’t write it, the ceremony would not be complete.

What kind of feudal dross? Now, Daoist Jiang’s heart was only filled with materialism. If someone was dead, who was this marriage for? Miss Ge might not even be willing.

Shen Wensi put her hands in her pockets: “Don’t you want to switch your identities back?”

Jiang Huaiyi’s righteous indignation suddenly deflated. Of course, she did. This matter was also related to her life.

Seeing Jiang Huaiyi stop, the person behind her walked forward and said: “If I were you, I’d lie down on the bed immediately and pretend nothing happened.”

“This Ge family must have already asked Miss Ge’s opinion. There are more than just our two factions who are proficient in this. You just need to do your part. This way, you’ll have fewer problems, Daoist Jiang, what do you think?”

She stepped closer, forcing Jiang Huaiyi to the edge of the bed. She sat down dejectedly. It seemed that running was not an option.

Not to mention the Ge family, even Shen Wensi wouldn’t agree.

She put her backpack down again and saw Shen Wensi walk to the door. Her tall and slender figure was almost level with the wooden door.

Her slender fingers hooked the edge of the door, and the delicate eyebrows on her phoenix eyes slightly raised: “By the way, remember to close the door when you sleep.”

Jiang Huaiyi, who had just lain down, sat up again. She looked at the latch next to the door, scrambled up, closed the door, and carefully locked it.

After all this, she couldn’t sleep at all. When she closed her eyes, all she could see were the paper figures.

On weekdays, when she wasn’t at her shishu’s shop, she rarely saw these things.

Mainly, when she needed to burn paper figures, she would go directly to her shishu’s shop.

Seeing such lifelike paper figures that looked like real people, she was startled. Then she began to wonder which shop could have these things.

After thinking for a long time, she vaguely remembered a person. It was the skill of the Ghost Cultivator Mu Se, her shijie Chu Lianxue’s rival.

The distinct, fuzzy eyebrows were better than what some makeup artists in TV shows could do now if their family wasn’t in this business.

Her shijie and that ghost cultivator often fought. The paper figure shop business was almost split between the two families, and both had their basic clientele.

She was on the second floor, and the distance below was too far. She didn’t have time to look carefully. She should have asked Shen Wensi just now. Her fellow disciple should know more, right?

Jiang Huaiyi turned over on the bed. The old bed board made a “creaking” sound, which scared her and made her stop moving immediately.

Her back was to the door, and in front of her was a pitch-black area. The emptiness behind her made her feel especially insecure.

This old-fashioned carved wooden bed had given her the illusion that there was no difference from her old house, which was why she was so calm. Now, as she re-examined it, she started to feel a little belated fear.

Her eyes gradually adapted to the darkness. She always felt as if an invisible gaze was watching her from behind.

That feeling of being watched, “as if a thorn in her back,” made her scalp tingle. She could even feel her hair contracting. It was cold and slightly painful.

Her breathing also became a little rapid. The sound of the bed board didn’t stop. It was still “creaking” and “creaking.”

It was as if something was about to come out from underneath. This kind of bed, which was hollow above and below, would usually be filled with miscellaneous items. When she came in, she didn’t see anything underneath.

She only glanced at it. Below was a dark hole with nothing in it.

With just that one glance, she looked away and lay down on the bed.

But now, she couldn’t turn her body to see if there was anything underneath.

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but Jiang Huaiyi felt that her thick jacket was being pulled tight, slightly stretched. A cold wind blew in from behind.

It made her back, wet with a thin layer of sweat, feel chilly. Her neck suddenly felt a chill, which quickly spread to the back of her head.

Jiang Huaiyi maintained this stiff posture, with no intention of turning her head.

She didn’t know what was behind her. Maybe it was all her imagination. She even hoped that it was Shen Wensi who suddenly appeared, which would not make her so scared.

She had piled the moldy blanket at the foot of the bed. She regretted not covering herself with it just now.

After staying stiff for a while, the pulling force from behind her suddenly disappeared. Her neck also quickly heated up.

She took out her phone, which was hidden in her pants pocket, with the hand covered by her jacket.

She tried to use the small screen’s reflection to see what was behind her.

On the screen, there was only a blurry reflection of the firelight from the window. The crying outside didn’t stop, and it became distorted into a chilling wail.

Jiang Huaiyi also wanted to cry, but she held it back bravely.

She saw that there were no strange black dots on the screen. Her heart was pounding. She took a deep breath. The musty smell became more and more obvious.

She slowly relaxed her body and turned around amid the “creaking” sound from the bed.

She opened one eye, squinting it into a slit, and quietly looked to the right.

After scanning the entire room, it was empty, just as it was before. Jiang Huaiyi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The next second, she heard the bed board creak loudly as if it couldn’t bear the weight. She quickly propped herself up and cursed Ge Shihong for giving her such a lousy bed. What kind of hospitality was this?

The moment she got up, she saw a black hand grabbing her ankle, which was covered in a white sock.

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