Chapter 9: The Bride of the Enigmatic King (9)

"Out. Close the door. Set it on fire."

Tang Mu decisively dragged Xue Fen out of the room.

She gestured for Joseph to hurry to the vending machine and buy gasoline.

That vending machine had all sorts of things, but they required ghost coins.

Joseph wore a helpless expression. "If I go buy gasoline, Miss Tang, would you be willing to love me just once?"

"Get lost," Tang Mu replied briskly.

Well, alright then. Joseph had fully accepted Tang Mu's attitude toward him, and even found himself enjoying it, in a masochistic way.

He went to the vending machine and brought back the gasoline.

But, "The things on this ghost ship are ridiculously expensive! Just this little bit cost fifty ghost coins. Miss Tang, I spent all my ghost coins for you—you should take responsibility for me."

Tang Mu ignored Joseph.

She took the gasoline without hesitation, opened the cap, and poured it along the crack of the door.

Then she looked at Joseph.

Joseph, startled by her attention, said, "What?"

"Lighter."

His surprise swiftly turned to resignation. "Here."

Tang Mu took the lighter, flicked it, and set the door ablaze. Flames leapt up, locking the room in fire.

As the tongues of fire licked the door, inside came the shrieks and curses of a woman, wild and furious.

"Open the door, open it! I'm Xiao He! You're murdering someone!"

Ha.

That's exactly what we're doing.

"Come on, let's head to the lower cargo hold."

"Didn't they say we shouldn't go to the lower cargo hold after 8 p.m.?"

"There’s no one in the second-floor cabins. Where did everyone go?" Tang Mu motioned for Joseph to hurry along, dragging his doll. "If you don't want to die, get downstairs now. As for the second floor… every so often, there’s probably a massacre here."

As the flames lit the walls, skull faces and skeletal traces appeared faintly in the shadows, along with brown bloodstains oxidized long ago.

Where did everyone go?

They were embedded in the walls.

These walls could swallow people.

And Tang Mu wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but the corridor on the second floor seemed to be growing narrower.

Cargo hold.

Several people huddled, trembling amidst piles of chaotic goods.

Decay and darkness permeated the space. Flies and rats scurried everywhere.

A rat brushed against a girl's foot, making her want to scream and curse even more.

"Hush, don’t yell! If you attract the ghost monsters, we’re both dead!"

---

"...But it's so filthy here," the girl whispered, shivering.

"We're all about to die, who cares about dirt? Just bear with it."

"Grumble, grumble."

This time, the girl didn’t scream, but the boy’s stomach did.

The atmosphere was awkward.

"Damn it, none of us had dinner. Who knows if we’ll even make it to morning."

Footsteps approached, steady and deliberate.

The girl quickly whispered to the boy, "Shh, someone’s coming."

The boy raised his axe.

To hell with it—whether it’s a person or a ghost, if it’s here, I’ll swing first and ask later!

"Bang!"

He missed.

He pulled, but the axe wouldn’t budge.

It was over—he was about to die!

As he stood there, terrified, Tang Mu frowned. "You don’t even check before you try to kill someone?"

A woman’s voice, mellow and clear.

Ke Yongfeng, seeing Tang Mu, blushed instantly, right down his neck.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..."

But then his face twisted in terror.

Zhou Qianqian screamed.

"Ah! You, you, you—"

Her scream drew another "Tang Mu." This "Tang Mu" held scissors, approaching slowly.

She scraped the scissors along the ship’s wooden boards, producing a constant "creak…creak" sound.

When she arrived, the two Tang Mus stared each other in the eye. The second "Tang Mu" froze.

At the same time, Tang Mu frowned.

She hadn't expected this—even ghost monsters would borrow her face to fool the players?

Xue Fen and Joseph were dumbfounded.

This ghost monster even tries seduction? Isn’t that a bit much?

Tang Mu was decisive. "Shine a light—if you see no insect shadow, splash water; if you see an insect shadow, burn."

Compared to Tang Mu’s calm, the other "Tang Mu" was flustered. She pleaded, "Sister, miss, please spare me! I’m just a working ghost monster…"

---

Tang Mu ignored the ghost monster, holding a cup of water in one hand and a lighter in the other.

"If you want to live, tell the truth."

"Yes, yes, I’ll tell the truth! But please, don’t hurt this face…"

Tang Mu’s eyes narrowed, her tone deepening. "Your face?"

"I—I changed it." It had spent a lot of ghost energy to become this beautiful; it couldn’t let the players destroy its disguise!

"I’ll think about it."

Tang Mu, wielding her two lethal tools, drew close to the ghost monster, indicating that if it lied, it could kiss its pretty face goodbye.

The ghost monster nodded eagerly, promising to reveal everything.

"What’s the real situation with this ship? Where can’t we go between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.?"

"Between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., you can’t appear in the second-floor corridor, but you can go to the top deck and lower cargo hold. Both places have a chance of encountering ghost monsters like me."

"There’s a difference?" Tang Mu narrowed her eyes.

"...Yes. In the second-floor corridor, E-ranked stone wall ghost monsters roam. You’re doomed unless it’s full—then you have ten to fifteen minutes to escape."

"But I’m an F-ranked ghost monster. Very low rank, very little ghost power. Unless I manage to kill someone, there’s only a small chance I can rank up…"

"Oh, so what about between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.?"

"In that time, the ghost granny didn’t lie. You must stay on the narrow bed, silent, to survive. But after 1 a.m., you must leave the bed, or you’ll die as well."

Ha.

So the ghost granny hadn’t told the whole truth.

"What’s the relationship between the ghost granny and the ghost old man? If they’re not married, why are they both on this ship?"

The ghost monster’s eyes widened, surprised Tang Mu knew this.

Tang Mu pressed the cup closer. "Hurry, no nonsense."

The ghost monster trembled and stammered, "The old man was picked up by the granny. He only obeys her."

"Does the granny have other relatives?"

"Yes, a granddaughter named Yaya. But she’s controlled by the ghost king in the ghost palace. The ghost king uses her as leverage, making the granny keep delivering brides for him."

"Why does the ghost king keep needing brides?"

"…I—I don’t know. Miss, I’ve told you everything I know, please don’t kill me…"

Before it finished speaking, Tang Mu mercilessly splashed it with water from the River of Forgetfulness.

Sizzle…

The sound of corrosion.

"Sorry, I dislike anyone parading around with my face, deceiving others. You’ll just have to die for now."

Xue Fen, "…"

Joseph, "…"

Ke Yongfeng and Zhou Qianqian, "…"