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Ostentatious Zhao Yao - Chapter 53

Published at 13th of June 2020 12:01:54 PM


Chapter 53

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Ch 53.01

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I was drifting in a void, not knowing for how long I floated before the buzzing noise in my ear just stopped.

“… Qiong… Lu Qiong, Lu… Qiong!”

In my ears, a middle-aged man’s voice kept calling out my name. Accompanied by his voice, I only felt my body suddenly falling down. In the process of falling, my memories scattered into fragments all around me, then everything gathered back into my brain.

Suddenly, I opened my eyes.

Before me was the pale face of this little chubby ghost with a goatee: “Lu Qiong!” As he shouted out loud, I drifted backwards, feeling the familiar lightness of my body, and the pain from those body injuries receded. Once again, I had returned to the ghost market.

“Don’t call me Lu Qiong.”

It was extremely annoying to hear that word, qiong.

*qiong – poor

I rubbed my forehead, still feeling somewhat dizzy. I recalled the fight that had just happened before my eyes, then comparing it to the distinctly cold and peacefully calm ghost market, it was just like two different worlds…

Ah, it was originally two different worlds.

Right now, I was in this world, while Ugly LIttle Monster was in that other world, snivelling away right at this moment.

When I thought of the moment just before I disappeared, seeing Mo Qing’s panic-stricken and helpless appearance, my heart abruptly crumpled, and my throat slightly choked like there was a bitter and astringent taste.

However, carefully thinking about it, I still did not understand it. I used to treat him so badly. I only saved his life, then I abandoned him in the ruined temple on Chen Ji Mountain, and even dispatched him to guard the gate. For so many years, I had never given him any bit of concern or love, so why did he still like me so much?

Where did this deep love come from? That could hide in his heart for so many years… 

To wholeheartedly like a person, was he not afraid of… Getting broken-hearted himself? Did he not… Love himself?

I patted my heart and thought that as a ghost, I could still surprisingly feel my heart ache, especially when it should not be.

“Your soul returned, so it’s resolved. For quite a long time, you didn’t come back, I even thought that there was something wrong with our Soul Return Pill.” The little chubby ghost carried the abacus, standing in front of me calculating away: “Just a moment ago, you delayed a little bit of time, although it wasn’t for very long, but you still have to make up for the difference. So calculating, according to your social status, the total is thirteen thousand coins that you’re required to supplement.”

As soon as the money was calculated, all those emotional distresses in my heart were immediately tossed aside.

I turned my head, stared at Little Chubby, and reasoned with him: “The time that I delayed wasn’t even enough to change my clothes! Also, this Soul Return Pill of yours was purchased by me, so shouldn’t it already be mine? I took it, and was able to drag out the time due to my ability, but you still came to find me to make up the difference, does this make any sense? I’m not paying.”

I threw these words and bypassed Little Chubby to drift outside.

Little Chubby chased after me to block my path: “Not paying? If you don’t pay, then you’ll receive even less of the paper offerings burnt to you! Also, buying things will be more expensive! So are you paying or not?!”

I… I really…

Just a moment ago, I was outside demolishing mountains and splitting rocks. I killed the Golden Immortal, burnt the phoenix, and faced the battle of life and death. However, I was not as powerless as I was now, facing this debt-demanding ghost.

This group of demons and ghosts from the ghost market was simply a group of bandits, who were concerned with their own reasons regardless of whether other people state their arguments or not!

“I haven’t even begun to argue with all of you yet!” I angrily said, “I took the Soul Return Pill, at the moment of my death, why did my body turn into little dots of sparkling fire and swiftly faded away?! What was that whole thing about? All of you let the person who saw me die again, how would that person think?”

All of you let… How would Ugly Little Monster think?

I could not grab him nor respond to his calls. Could he think that due to his carelessness, I just crumbled away?

“Oh, yeah! You’re still unhappy. That’s the Soul Return Pill’s special effect that we’ve made. It’s for all of you, who have spent a large amount of money to buy the Soul Return. When you go back to find your acquaintances from your previous life, you can finally leave them with a gorgeous image!” Little Chubby said, “Our Soul Return Store has studied the results for a long time, but you still dislike it.”

“…”

So they let the dead return to life, and then the dead would rush to be before their loved ones. In the moment when the whole family was weeping bitter tears and chatting away, the dead would immediately explode in front of the living… Like watching fireworks?

 

Ch 53.02

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Yes, that image should be quite profound.

However, did they think that the living would be very happy?

The ideas of these ghosts were hard for me to comprehend.

“Then what about my body?” I asked him, “Did it explode just like that?”

Little Chubby appeared somewhat annoyed: “When you bought the medicine, didn’t I already tell you? When the Soul Return Pill’s time is up, regardless of where you are, your soul will automatically return. Your soul returns to its place, and your body returns to its place… Hey, so are you going to pay up or not?”

As it turned out… My body had returned to that frozen ice cave… 

I lowered my eyes in contemplation and casually threw a phrase at Little Chubby: “Née Zhou bought the medicine, all of you go find Née Zhou for compensation. I’m Née Zhou’s daughter-in-law, you can record it in her account.” As I said this, the little chubby ghost thought about it for a moment. At last, he bypassed me to record it into Née Zhou’s account.

I peered off to the side, and only saw that everything still looked the same inside the Soul Return Store, but Née Zhou and her stupid and cowardly son were both gone, “Where are they?”

“I don’t know.” As Little Chubby recorded something, he muttered: “Before leaving, they said that since you weren’t here, they wanted to take the opportunity to check your eight-character birthdate and go investigate your past.” Then he walked behind the counter.

I mulled it over, to investigate my past, they should have gone to the Da Yin Netherworld Bank. I was unsure that after they saw my past, would they be frightened and directly come to withdraw the marriage or not, but it was still better to withdraw. Originally, I only took them as a springboard to buy the Soul Return Pill. If they did not withdraw the marriage, then I would have to withdraw it myself. 

Luo Ming Xuan’s matter had been resolved, so I no longer needed the Soul Return Pill. The only thing I needed was to find my body, it was unknown where it was hidden, and it was unclear if my body was alive or dead…

At present, I should float back to Chen Ji Mountain to go find Zhi Yan and take possession of her body. Then I would go find Mo Qing to pacify and reassure him, after that I would have him go with me to find my body.

If this was not done well, then even without the Soul Return Pill from the ghost market in the future, I would still be a soul.

While I speculated where my body was in the end, I drifted out of the Soul Return Store. As soon as I floated onto the main street, I noticed that this street… Was a little bit different than usual.

The sky was going to be bright soon, but the ghost market was still bustling with noise and excitement. On the street, the ghosts were floating, bustling with activity. Even though there was not much noise, there were a lot more ghosts buying and selling than usual, so there were many new faces, too.

I thought it was strange, could there be countries going to war in the human world? I had only been away for such a short period of time, how could there be so many ghosts when I return?

I was still curious, but I saw a ghost drifting before me, blocking my path.

I looked up, it was actually Née Zhou. She glared at me angrily, full of hate. I was startled and thought, could it be that Née Zhou had quickly discovered that I had blamed that debt on her, so she came to find me to settle the account?

Then again, she should not be angered to this manner of conduct. As far as I was concerned, the thirteen thousand coins should still be a minuscule number to her?

“Mother… Mother…” Her cowardly son hurriedly chased after her from behind with the intention to take hold of Née Zhou. But upon seeing me, his deathly pale face abruptly stained with two blushing spots as he bashfully and dejectedly turned his head away, whispering: “For… Forget it…”

“Forget what!” Née Zhou flicked him away. She was old with a hunchbacked, but her imposing manner was not in the least ambiguous. She pointed at my nose, criticizing me with her sky-rocketing anger: “Explain! Why are you doing this?”

“There’s no need to be angry.” I said, “Give me your name, and later, I’ll go find someone to burn paper offerings for you. I’ll pay you back the money recorded in your account, just like that.”

“You even recorded some debt under my name?” Née Zhou got even angier.

I still felt confused: “You’re not talking about the bookkeeping thing?” I looked at her, “Then what are you angry about?”

With a “bang,” Née Zhou threw the mirror in her hand onto the ground. The quality of this mirror was rather good, that it did not crack. She was so livid that she was shaking: “Why did you want to deceive me! For so many years, this old body has been in this ghost market searching and looking! It’s precisely because I wanted to find a pure daughter-in-law for my son! But you deceived me with this kind of thing!”

I became even more confused. When I reached out my hand to pick up that mirror, a skinny, shriveled-up little ghost suddenly rushed over from the rear and even snatched that mirror away.  Immediately after, he rubbed it in his hands and blew against it, looking as if it was extremely precious.

“Old woman! Stealing something from my Da Yin Netherworld Bank! Do you know what the consequences are?”

Behind him, the scholar promptly apologized to the skinny, shriveled-up little ghost: “My mother was momentarily angry, so this is given back to you, back to you…”

 

Ch 53.03

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The civilians chatting happened to hold up the most amount of time, even provoking people with jokes. The entire ghost market was peacefully quiet, only this place was noisy. Not long after, all of the ghosts were practically drifting to this side to watch an exciting show.

I coughed dryly. Originally, I wanted to take advantage of Née Zhou’s unhappiness, and quickly withdraw from this marriage, but I never thought that before I could speak, Née Zhou immediately said: “You will go with me to write the green document now!”

Huh?

The red document meant wedding and the green document meant divorce. Her suggestion was very in line with my thoughts. It was just that I had wanted to boot her son, but now she was the first to say these words, it appeared that her family wanted to break it off with me… I must demand a reason from her.

Off to the side, when the scholar heard these words, he was more anxious than me. He urgently grabbed Née Zhou’s hand: “Mother! No…”

“Why not?!” Née Zhou was furious, “My son has good fortune and virtue after his death. He naturally deserves the best lady in this world! There is no need to pick this… This…” In the end, she still did not say the words in her mouth. She only hated the iron for not becoming steel and pulled her son, grinding her teeth and saying softly, “For so many years, your mother has chosen for you! Why did you fall for this girl who has had a marital relationship with another!”

I was stunned.

Ha?

“Old woman, people who carelessly start rumors and say malicious words in front of me, Lu Zhao Yao, it is unknown how many times they have become fetuses. Even though you’re dead now, you should still pay attention to your words.”

“Pay attention to what?!” Née Zhou dragged the skinny, shriveled-up little ghost back, and snatched the mirror in his hand. Disregarding the noisy chatter and the desire to beat her up coming from the little ghost next to her, Née Zhou held the mirror up to show me, “Take a look yourself! What is written on this! Lu Zhao Yao! Which year and month, when and where, doing what with who! My old face is thin-skinned! I can’t read it out loud! Read it yourself!”

As she gave the mirror to me, I hurriedly accepted it. Accompanying that little ghost’s ear-piercing screech were the old woman’s laments to heaven and earth, and the scholar’s urges for peace from one side to the next, countless noises and voices along with the words in the mirror intruded into my mind.

I read these few lines of words as if I was illiterate. I narrowed my eyes, widened my eyes, looked at it from the left, and looked at it from the right. Looking back and forth, thinking about the information in this mirror, I actually could not comprehend it at all —

In the year of Xin Chou, on the third day of October, on Chen Ji Mountain, in front of Wan Lu Sect, under the memorial arch, Lu Zhao Yao forced the disciple, Li Chen Lan, to a night of sexual intercourse, conduct was crude, movements were barbaric, got a comfortable night, committed a rape crime.”

Ha?

What?

Me and who?

Li Chen Lan? Mo Qing?

What did I do all night? Even crude and barbaric? Comfortable? Who was comfortable? Me? What crime was that in the end?

What the hell!

As I held the mirror, my mind was a little puzzled and a little anxious. I asked Née Zhou: “What is this thing? If you guys charge me for the crimes of murder and arson, then I, Lu Zhao Yao, will admit to it, but what the hell is this? Isn’t it ridiculous?”

Me and Mo Qing? I raped him?

Ridiculous!

Who recorded this? Someone absolutely had to be playing with me, right?

The other three were happily creating a ruckus, so they did not pay attention to me. I just held onto the mirror and looked at it for a long time, so long that I almost saw through these words. In the end, all the ghost bailiffs that patrolled the ghost market rushed over. As the other three ghosts had finished causing a disturbance, the bailiffs captured Née Zhou and also detained the scholar.

The little ghost bounced up and snatched the mirror from within my hand.

Behind me, the bailiffs wanted to come arrest me, but their hands passed through my body. Finally, on my hand, they fastened a type of iron chain to catch me.

I just distractedly let them catch me. I did not feel like resisting at all. It was because… I was still in the midst of chaos.

The little ghost fiercely swept a glance past me along with Née Zhou and the scholar, pointing and scolding at each and every one of us: “You guys disturb official business! Arrest them all and put them in prison for me!” Finally, he fixed his attention on me, “You! You even sneaked a peek at the information about your life! You pay me back! Lu Zhao Yao! One hundred thousand coins! If you can’t pay me, then I’ll make you go straight to prison!”

I only felt that everything in front of me was so preposterous.

This world of ghosts was far different from the world of humans, making it difficult for me to comprehend.

Suddenly… I actually thought that the fight between life or death with Luo Ming Xuan compared to this kind of current situation had me feeling even more relaxed, less emotionally taxing…





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