I Am the Gloomy Male Lead's Dead First Love - Chapter 2

Lu Xincheng: !!

“What on earth do you mean, ‘inherited’?”

Space warped in an instant.

The polished black leather boots made a sharp, rhythmic sound as they struck the floor tiles. A man wearing a black felt hat adjusted the brim, casting a shadow across a face covered in heavy scarring.

Lu Xincheng had just seen plenty of ghosts—spirits with severed limbs and distorted features. The man appearing out of thin air before him was, at most, a bit ugly; he did not look particularly horrific. Yet, Lu Xincheng felt an overwhelming sense of pressure.

It was the sensation of a domestic rabbit accidentally wandering into a wild forest and encountering a wolf king. Even without knowing exactly what the opponent was, he felt a natural, primal fear.

Lu Xincheng’s first instinct was to run. However, he could not move his feet at all, as if an invisible giant hand had clamped down on him completely.

“Lu Xincheng,” the man said, accurately calling out his name.

Lu Xincheng gasped inwardly, but his lips curled into a composed smile. “Sir, you must have the wrong person. The person you are looking for is over there.” He gestured with an open palm toward the direction of the corpse.

The man was tall and burly, and his shoulder width under the overcoat was imposing. As he leaned in close, Lu Xincheng immediately smelled a thick scent of dust.

“There is no mistake; you are the one I came to see,” the man said. His voice was unexpectedly mellow and pleasant. “Tell me, what wish do you want me to help you fulfill?”

With some quick thinking, Lu Xincheng guessed the man’s identity. The flat refusal at the tip of his tongue took a sharp turn.

“Is any wish possible?”

The man in the felt hat pulled a cigar from his breast pocket and snapped his fingers to light it. “Of course.”

“I want to leave this place and go back to my own world.”

Through the haze of smoke, the man’s deep gaze made all hidden desires transparent. The humans who had summoned him before included those who wailed like stray dogs, those with rage piercing the heavens, and those with insatiable, blatant ambition. He could sense every desire. In his eyes, desires formed gases that enveloped them; those humans and ghosts were wrapped in various thick colors.

However, the soul before him was pure white. It was very clean, even though a hint of craftiness flashed in Lu Xincheng’s eyes as he spoke.

This “Felt Hat” evil god had never appeared in the original book. Lu Xincheng figured he probably was not an all-powerful deity. Proposing this “unreasonable wish” was a roundabout way of rejecting the deal. After all, how could a god from a fictional world interfere with the real world?

“I can do that,” the man said, and the corners of his mouth curled slightly.

“What?” Lu Xincheng thought he had misheard.

“I said I can,” the man replied, taking a heavy drag of his cigar. “However, you must be willing to pay an equal price.”

Lu Xincheng ignored the second half of the sentence, staring in disbelief. “Do you even know what place I am talking about?”

“We both know how difficult your request is; therefore, the price you must pay is corresponding.” The man’s face was calm, not looking at all like he was lying.

Lu Xincheng twitched the corner of his mouth. Although the book described these evil gods as incredibly eerie, he did not believe they were truly that omnipotent. Thus, he saw the evil god’s response as a calculated scare tactic meant to make him change his wish.

“I can tell you the method to return to your body. That way, the price you need to pay will be smaller.”

Lu Xincheng knew perfectly well that the system had already told him the way to return to his world. Even if it was hard and required immense effort, it was surely much less risky than trading with an evil god. However, right now, he truly needed his body, if only to complete the system’s tasks. After all, the only one who could stop Wen Yaozhi from “darkening” was Lu Xincheng.

Specifically, a living Lu Xincheng.

The evil god had successfully targeted Lu Xincheng’s weakness.

But Lu Xincheng did not show much urgency. “And what is the price I have to pay?” Lu Xincheng asked leisurely. “Just for telling me the method, it should not be much of a price, right?”

“It is quite simple,” the man said as he adjusted his hat. “I need some emotions, such as joy, anger, sorrow, fear, worry, and desire.”

“Collecting emotions?” That did not sound like difficult work. Lu Xincheng asked suspiciously, “But how do I collect them?”

“Extract them from spirits. I will give you containers. Do you need time to consider?”

In the book Ghost Hunter, humans who made deals with evil spirits never came to a good end. But since he was not even a living person now, it seemed he had nothing left to lose. Still, Lu Xincheng thought deeper. “If it is such a simple task, why do you need someone else to do it for you?”

“I cannot stay in the human realm for long.” Felt Hat sensed Lu Xincheng was testing him. “Rest assured, I will not force you into a contract; you can take your time. However,” he glanced at the corpse on the bed and crushed his cigar against the wall, “you do not have much time.”

“I am willing.” Lu Xincheng knew the man was right. He had nothing left to lose in this world. In this gamble, there was nothing to lose.

“Good.” Based on the lines of the scars on the man’s face, Lu Xincheng judged that he was smiling. It was a terrifying smile. Lu Xincheng quickly looked away.

“Reach out your hand,” the man’s voice said lowly.

Unsure of what was happening, Lu Xincheng held out his hand. Felt Hat slowly extended his fist and opened his fingers. With a clatter of metallic clinking, several rings dropped into Lu Xincheng’s hand. He counted the plain black rings; there were exactly five. They felt hard and cold, made of an unknown material.

“To return to that corpse, two necessary conditions must be met,” Felt Hat said as he rubbed his scarred fingers. “First, the corpse must be properly preserved; it cannot rot or be damaged. Second,” he looked up and swept a glance over Lu Xincheng, “I will tell you the second step once you have solved the first problem.”

Lu Xincheng was frustrated. Did the man think he did not know he needed to protect the body? Looking at the soul’s unfriendly expression, the man scratched his cheek and let out a low laugh. “I am not telling you yet because I am afraid of crushing your confidence.”

“The second condition that must be met is vitality transferred from the person closest to you.”

In the book, Lu Xincheng’s relatives were all gone. In this entire city, the closest and only person he had was that man: his best friend, Wen Yaozhi.

Felt Hat stared at Lu Xincheng, eagerly anticipating his reaction. Lu Xincheng froze for two seconds. Once he realized what this implied, his eyes went completely dim.

“Are you joking? That is fundamentally impossible.”

Setting aside whether Lu Xincheng himself was willing, Wen Yaozhi would never get close to a dead person. Even if Lu Xincheng was Wen Yaozhi’s “White Moonlight” while alive, the moment he died, he became a target to be hunted. Wen Yaozhi possessed a natural, deep-seated malice toward ghosts. This unshakable obsession was a core character trait in the book.

“Is this breath passed to the corpse or to me?” Lu Xincheng asked, his voice sounding distorted.

“It is you,” Felt Hat replied. “But while performing this action, both of you must be conscious and aware of what you are doing.”

Lu Xincheng opened his mouth in shock. “There is not a ‘closest person.’ Would someone relatively close, like a neighbor, work?”

Felt Hat sneered. “What do you think?”

“What, are you backing out?” Felt Hat asked, crossing his arms.

“Heh,” Lu Xincheng gave two cold laughs. “Those words are not in my dictionary.”

Wen Yaozhi loathed ghosts, but he did not love humans either. If one person held a place in his heart, it was Lu Xincheng. So, getting Wen Yaozhi to save the dead Lu Xincheng, though incredibly hard, might not be entirely impossible.

Felt Hat raised an eyebrow, observing Lu Xincheng with interest. A faint wisp of gas emerged from the soul’s body. It was a very clean desire. He does not want to give up? An interesting soul.

“In that case, I wish you success.” Felt Hat turned to leave.

“Wait, one last question,” Lu Xincheng called out. Felt Hat paused and turned back. “Is the original soul of this body still here?”

“My deal with him has ended. Unlike you, his only value to me was his soul.”

Felt Hat’s figure quickly warped and dissipated. Simultaneously, the black line on the wrist of Lu Xincheng’s corpse vanished.

The original book never explicitly stated what the original owner had asked of the evil god. Scattered fragments of memories appeared in Lu Xincheng’s mind. The original owner had been an actor who hovered between being a low-tier actor and an extra. He had an exceptionally deep obsession with becoming famous again. Even though his parents died because of an evil god, he still could not escape the drive of desire. He successfully paid for it with his life.

Lu Xincheng could feel the original owner’s deep regret. In a way, for the sake of his desires, the original owner had betrayed his brother and himself.

Because of the evil spirit’s appearance, the ghosts in the hallway had all disappeared. Lu Xincheng walked down the steps. Sure enough, the spirits had gathered on the floor below. Lu Xincheng noticed a change in their appearance. They were now shrouded in a layer of gray gas. He assumed the rings allowed him to see these things.

Felt Hat had said to collect emotions. Lu Xincheng did not know how to start, so he planned to find a ghost to test the process. He stopped at the door of the computer room, his gaze landing on a young male ghost standing inside. The gas around this ghost was flowing and swirling as if it had a life of its own.

A young security guard was asleep at the desk, snoring. The ghost stood behind him, staring at the back of his head. Then, a pale-green ghostly claw reached for the guard’s neck. The sleeping man shifted uneasily but did not wake up.

“Hey!” Lu Xincheng said in a gentle voice. The ghost jerked, its neck twisting backward mechanically. “Do you need any help?”

Lu Xincheng smiled and waved. The moment the ghost’s gaze focused on him, a burning sensation came from the ring on his pinky finger. A slight numbness surged through his hand. The ghost lunged toward him, the gas around it fluctuating violently.

The ghost’s face was distorted. It had an unnaturally high nose bridge and eye corners that were cut so wide they looked like they were bursting. It was truly hard to look at. Lu Xincheng instinctively raised his hand to block it.

Almost simultaneously, that face slammed into his palm. The ghost stopped moving. The gray mist flowed rapidly from the ghost into the ring on Lu Xincheng’s hand. Once the mist had entered, the word “Envy” flashed with a gold luster on the black ring before returning to darkness.

The ghost’s features became blank and hollow. It began to walk away, passing by the man it had intended to attack. Lu Xincheng watched it leave and then turned back to the desk. The security guard was still sound asleep.

“I can totally understand him envying me,” Lu Xincheng muttered. “As for you, this has to count as accidental damage.”

Lu Xincheng headed toward the first-floor main entrance. His top priority now was to protect his body. As the person closest to him, Wen Yaozhi held the power over the cremation schedule. He had to find Wen Yaozhi as soon as possible.

In the lobby, he encountered a middle-aged couple sobbing as staff pushed a gurney covered in a white sheet. It was a tragic scene, but Lu Xincheng bypassed them and headed for the doors.

Outside, it was drizzling. A little girl stood on the steps. She had long curly hair and wore a dirty, outdated white dress. She stood out strikingly against the dark night.

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