Bai Lixin’s plan was simple.
He would find an excuse to get hospitalized, which would allow him to walk around the hospital freely at night. This way, he could test if he had improved over the past few days and, at the same time, capture some evil ghosts for his ghost husband to replenish his energy.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Of course, that was just his plan.
Bai Lixin shifted his stiff waist again and stared awkwardly at the other man in the room.
He thought Dr. Dijia’s promise to “come check on you later” was just a polite remark, but it turned out he meant it quite literally.
He had just completed his admission that afternoon and returned after familiarizing himself with the hospital layout when he found the doctor seated comfortably in his room.
Bai Lixin assumed the doctor would just drop by for a quick check, given that he was the attending physician. However, it was clear Dr. Dijia had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
The doctor sat with his legs crossed, his back straight as he hovered just on the
the sofa backrest, eyes focused on the phone in his hands.
The night outside was deepening, and time was slipping away; it was already 9 p.m.
The doctor’s long, slender fingers tapped on his phone screen, showing no sign of planning to leave.
“Doctor, it’s quite late… aren’t you going to rest?”
The man lifted his head, his eyes puzzled as he looked at Bai Lixin. “I’m resting right now.”
Bai Lixin: “Here? For the whole night?”
The doctor smiled, and behind him, an image of countless white lilies blossomed. “Is that alright?”
Bai Lixin nodded in a daze. “Y-yes, it’s fine.”
After a few seconds, he realized what he had agreed to and looked back at the doctor. The other party had already lowered his head and was seriously engrossed in his phone.
Bai Lixin opened his mouth to say something, then closed it with a sigh.
Shouldn’t he be urging Dr. Dijia to leave? So how had he ended up agreeing?
Beauty trap! This was definitely a beauty trap!
Even the way the man scrolled through his phone was captivating.
Has he lost his mind?!
The ghost husband clinging to him stirred restlessly, hovering around Bai Lixin’s waist, visibly resistant in the doctor’s presence.
Bai Lixin felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.
Just as he was about to find an excuse to slip out and practice on a few evil ghosts, a light voice suddenly came over, “Do you know about the tomb of Marquis Haitian?”
Bai Lixin had one leg halfway out of the bed when he froze. “The one they uncovered in S City?”
“It looks like you know,” the doctor’s gaze drifted over to Bai Lixin’s half-raised leg. “What do you think about the gossip surrounding Marquis Haitian and the Dayan emperor?”
‘What do I think?’
‘I just use my eyes to look.’
Bai Lixin: “A tragic love?”
The doctor chuckled softly, “That’s why they say history is written by the victors.”
“I know a different version of the gossip, though. Do you want to hear it?”
Bai Lixin quietly pulled his leg back in.
The doctor began, “According to gossip, Marquis Haitian was a young prodigy, undefeated across the land, which fostered an arrogant and disdainful nature. He feared neither the Emperor of Dayan nor even the King of Heaven himself.”
“After a string of victories, the emperor was pleased and invited him to the palace. Marquis Haitian drank too much at the banquet, and, mistaking the grandeur of the palace for his humble old home, staggered out to relieve himself near a rockery. When he looked up, he saw a sneaky figure lurking nearby. Thinking it was an assassin, he grabbed the person, only to find it was a young eunuch.”
“The eunuch was very good-looking,” the doctor paused here and glanced at Bai Lixin. “He was small and slim, crouching there with red-rimmed eyes and rosy cheeks, looking just like a soft, helpless little rabbit. Who knows if Marquis Haitian was drunk or just attracted to the beauty, but Marquis Haitian acted on impulse. He suddenly grabbed the eunuch’s chin and cornered him against the wall, insisting the eunuch call him ‘husband’.”
“The young eunuch must’ve been terrified, with huge tears rolling down from his eyes.”
“Marquis Haitian was startled too. He’d never seen someone so easily frightened, and he panicked for a moment.”
“But then, that seemingly timid eunuch revealed his fierce side. Taking advantage of the marquis’s surprise, he stomped on his foot and forced him to let go, and then slipped away.”
“Although the eunuch escaped, Marquis Haitian seemed enchanted. He was unable to forget the eunuch’s indignant, tear-streaked face and those pearl-like teardrops.”
Bai Lixin listened, completely engrossed. “And then? Did Marquis Haitian find the eunuch?”
“Who was Marquis Haitian? If he wanted to find someone, how could he not? He searched for months and finally spotted the eunuch three months later. The young eunuch was holding a bundle and acting sneaky, looking obviously guilty. Marquis Haitian wasted no time, he grabbed the eunuch and pulled him back behind the rockery…”
The doctor trailed off and lifted his chin to look at Bai Lixin.
The young man on the hospital bed looked back at him with shining eyes. “And then?”
“Then?” The doctor rose from the couch and slowly walked to the young man. He pressed a hand firmly on his shoulder, the other hand resting beside the pillow. “Then Marquis Haitian, overcome by lust, pinned the little eunuch against the rockery and said, ‘Little rabbit, you’ve made your husband search high and low for you’.”
Bai Lixin was forced onto the bed by the strength of the doctor’s hand, his head resting on the pillow. Right before his eyes was the doctor’s face.
He was so close he could even see the man’s thick, long eyelashes and the shimmering hues of his irises.
The doctor’s irises were not simply dark brown but a gradient of colors. Near the pupils, there was an inky black ring, blending into golden tones and then brown. That black ring was so deep and captivating that Bai Lixin felt as if he might be pulled into it.
His breathing suddenly grew heavier, and it felt like a small deer was leaping about in his chest.
“And… and then?” he stammered and averted his gaze, his ears growing warm.
The smile in the doctor’s eyes grew, gentle as a spring well that might overflow. “And then? Then you need to rest, Patient Bai Lixin. A good rest is the best defense against illness.”
Seeing the doctor return to the couch, Bai Lixin finally found his voice again. “Where did you hear this story? It’s nothing like what’s circulating online. According to your version, Marquis Haitian was infatuated with a little eunuch in the palace? The online version never mentioned a little eunuch.”
“Yes, the long river of history is vast and profound. The Dayan Emperor left a bold mark, and Marquis Haitian was recorded, but there was no record of a little eunuch.”
Bai Lixin, still curious about the rest of the story, pressed on.
The doctor merely smiled and refused to continue. “Perhaps this tale was just a bit of hearsay from me. Don’t think about it, go to sleep, and I’ll tell you more another time.”
The doctor turned off the light, and the room was plunged into darkness, with only a faint glow from the corridor seeping through the window.
Bai Lixin had a dream.
In the dream, he saw a general clad in light armor, dressed for battle, racing through a garden strewn with rockeries.
The man was covered in blood, he seemed anxious and kept searching for something.
He searched and searched, until he finally stopped at an ancient well with its lid sealed shut.
The man opened the lid, and whatever he saw inside made him scream in anguish.
Bai Lixin watched the dream from God’s perspective. In a trance, he recalled something the doctor had said.
—Who was Marquis Haitian? If he wanted to find someone, how could he not?
Suddenly, a knocking sound jolted him awake.
He sat up abruptly, his forehead damp with sweat.
The ward was still dim.
From the direction of the couch, he could hear the steady sound of breathing.
He reached out beside him, but the ever-clingy ghost husband was nowhere to be found.
At some point, the corridor lights outside the ward had gone out, leaving the area pitch black.
Knock, knock, knock!
The knocking resumed outside.
A shiver ran through Bai Lixin, and he pursed his lips tightly.
The night nurse would do rounds, and to prevent patients from locking themselves in, the ward doors were kept without locks.
The doctor on the couch showed no signs of waking at the sound of the knocking.
This door wouldn’t trap a person.
So, the only thing trapped… could only be a ghost.
After knocking for a while, the sound stopped, followed by a dragging noise on the other side of the ward door, as if the knocker had left.
Only when the dragging sound faded away did Bai Lixin let out a deep breath and lie back down.
The moment his head touched the pillow, he met a pair of blood-red eyes staring at him from above.
Veins like spiderwebs crisscrossed around the scarlet pupils, and he could vaguely make out a massive black figure swaying above.
Bai Lixin subconsciously took a sharp breath, closed his eyes calmly, and rolled over.
The calmer his expression, the more tense he felt inside.
His hand clenched tightly under the covers, and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to scream.
Cold sweat seeped from his forehead and back.
Soon, he felt his back soaked in sweat.
A rustling sound came from above, gradually moving down the wall.
The sliding sound crept closer and closer to Bai Lixin.
The intense sensation of being watched made his scalp tingle. Bai Lixin focused on controlling his breathing, trying to seem as if he was truly asleep.
He couldn’t tell whether he was still human or a soul lingering outside his body. All he could do was pretend to be alive.
The surroundings fell silent.
It was so quiet that he could clearly hear his own breathing and heartbeat.
He had no idea how much time had passed, but just as Bai Lixin began to wonder if the ghost had left, he heard a familiar raspy laugh.
It sounded like a snake slithering across sand, harsh and grating.
The sound was right next to his ear, almost brushing against his eardrum.
“Hehehe.”
“Finally, I’ve found you again.”
“Come play with me.”
It was Cao Lin!
Bai Lixin’s eyes flew open, and he saw a grotesquely elongated head pressed tightly against his cheek.
It stared at him with terrifying scarlet eyes, its mouth split open, revealing bony white teeth that stretched all the way to the back of its head.
A neck several meters long extended out through the crack in the ward door.
The ghost’s body couldn’t enter, but it had wedged its head through the crack.
Since it was an old acquaintance, Bai Lixin saw no need to keep pretending.
He jumped out of bed, glared at the horrifying head, and hissed, “How are you still alive?”
Hadn’t his ghost husband killed him at school?
Why was this thing so hard to kill?
The doctor on the couch continued breathing steadily.
“Hehehe,” Cao Lin laughed, sounding like a twisted maniac, “I couldn’t bear to leave you. You’re such an interesting subject, I haven’t found one like you in years. Even if I’m torn into pieces, I have to crawl back to see you.”
“Heh!” Bai Lixin sneered.
The words sounded almost affectionate, but if a normal person had said them instead of this perverted ghost, he might have been a bit moved.
“That thing thought it could kill me? How could a broken thing like that kill me?” Cao Lin sneered arrogantly, his neck twisting in the air, his blood-red eyes fixated on Bai Lixin. “It’s still early. How about I tell you a story?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
Why did so many people want to tell him stories tonight?
Did he look that eager to listen to stories?
Apparently, it didn’t matter whether Bai Lixin wanted to hear it or not. This perverted Cao Lin had no intention of stopping.
He laughed, his jaw opening and closing as his white cheekbones moved up and down.
“It was over ten years ago when I was a university teacher.”
“One day after work, I was just about to leave when a student burst into my office with a blushing face.”
“She was as young as a flower, and skin was as soft and smooth as water. She stood there shyly and said, ‘Teacher, I love you more than anything.'”
“I sneered at such an unethical thing like a teacher-student affair. So I asked her, ‘How can you prove that you love me more than anything?'”
“She said she would do anything for me.”
“I had a sudden impulse to punish such a filthy-minded student, so I said, ‘Then go die. If you do, I’ll believe that you love me more than anything.'”
Cao Lin’s eyes grew wild.
“And guess what? Just because I said that, this little girl actually jumped to her death the next day.”
“She died right in front of me,” Cao Lin exaggerated his mouth movements, “Splat! She fell like a watermelon hitting the ground, and splattered me with blood.”
“She didn’t die immediately. Before her last breath, she looked at me and mouthed, ‘Teacher, I love you more than anything.'”
“Hahaha!” Cao Lin burst into laughter, savoring the memory. “It was just a passing remark, but she took it to heart and actually jumped.”
“She was crazy! She was definitely abnormal!”
“But I’m abnormal, too! Her death didn’t make me feel guilty; instead, I felt an unprecedented satisfaction and joy. In that moment, I felt the thrill of controlling someone’s fate.”
Bai Lixin pursed his lips. “So you went on to kill the rest of those students?”
Cao Lin: “They all claimed to love me. They were so obedient, each of them like blank canvases. Whatever I told them to do, they did.”
“But they weren’t as good as that little girl. They didn’t want to die.”
“I was obviously their teacher, yet they had these filthy thoughts about me. They claimed to love me but wouldn’t die for me. They deserved punishment; they deserved to die.”
Cao Lin paused, his gaze fixed on Bai Lixin. “And you deserve to die too.
“Look at what you’ve done to your teacher.”
Bai Lixin’s head buzzed, and he subconsciously looked toward the sofa.
The doctor turned over on the sofa, still sleeping.
Cao Lin: “You still know shame? When you had those filthy thoughts about your teacher, did you feel shame then? You are a bad student and I’m here to punish you.”
“Ha!” Bai Lixin spat in Cao Lin’s face. “Stop trying to PUA me. A bad student? After killing so many students, you’re still pretending to be some good teacher who eliminates evil and promotes good?”
“I never saw him as my teacher, he’s my attending doctor. What’s wrong with getting life-saving medicine from my doctor? He might even be glad he saved my life if he knew!”
Content Warning: Bai Lixin’s next words include mentions of suicide and language that might encourage self-harm. Please take care of yourself and decide if you’re in the right headspace to engage with this content. Otherwise, please go on to the next chapter!
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“But you… why did so many students confess to you? You are avoiding the main points. Isn’t it because you set them up? You deliberately seduced students and lured them in, and then turned around and accused them of being filthy and promiscuous. It is obviously to satisfy your perverted desires, but you have to give yourself a high-sounding reason. If you’re so eager to rid the world of evil, why didn’t you just kill yourself?”
“Oh, right, you did kill yourself. I heard you killed yourself by swallowing razor blades.”
“Tsk, tsk. No wonder you look so hideous as a ghost. I can’t see what’s so charming about your face that students would be so captivated by it. If it’s not your looks, then you must be good at groveling, right?”
“Heh, so our dear Teacher Cao Lin was just a big licking dog. Maybe you killed those students because you wanted them, and when they didn’t want you back, so you killed them out of anger?”
“You! You! You!” Cao Lin’s eyes became bloodshot and bulged with rage as he glared at Bai Lixin. “Shut up!”
“Damn it! I’m going to kill you!”
Thanks for the content warning!