Chapter 180: Ghost Assistant (XII)

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Chapter 180: Ghost Assistant (XII)

Shang Ke walked out of the venue under the bodyguards’ protection.

He had come today for two reasons: to ruin Mu Zhen’s plan and to send the malevolent ghost after him. Everything had gone smoothly. Compared with Mu Zhen’s attempt to win sympathy, the crowd trusted the police and the evidence. Shao Feidu’s popularity and reputation were even greater than Shang Ke had expected; with almost no explanation needed, people were already speaking up on his behalf.

“Please wait!” Several reporters caught up with him, but the bodyguards blocked them before they could get close.

One reporter called out, “Would you mind telling us your name? And what is your relationship with Mr. Shao?”

Shang Ke paused, then replied, “My name is Yun Kexu.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

The reporters did not dare chase after him too aggressively. Getting his name was already enough.

Just as they were preparing to leave, a sports car swept to a stop in front of Shang Ke. A tall man stepped out.

The reporters gasped softly. “It’s Shao Feidu!”

Seeing who it was, Shang Ke smiled and went forward to give him a hug. “Why are you here?”

“Missed you.” Shao Feidu rubbed his cheek affectionately against Shang Ke’s.

“Let’s go home.” Shang Ke held his hand.

“Mm.”

The reporters watched them leave in stunned silence. Only after the car vanished from sight did one of them suddenly cry, “I remember now!”

“What did you remember?”

“Yun Kexu!” the reporter exclaimed. “The Yun family’s third young master!”

“What? It’s him?”

“That can’t be right. Didn’t the Yun family’s third young master fall into a vegetative state after a car accident? I remember he was declared brain-dead. How can he be standing here perfectly fine?”

Someone had already begun searching on a laptop. A moment later, he pointed at a photograph on the screen. “Yes! It’s him!”

In the photograph, a handsome young man stood beside a bridge, smiling brilliantly.

“Someone can wake up… after being declared brain-dead?”

“I have a feeling this is going to be huge.”

“The Shao family’s withdrawn eldest young master and the Yun family’s formerly vegetative third young master…”

“The bullied King of Piano and the young master who miraculously came back to life!”

“Someone stop me. My imagination is getting out of control.”

“Sorry. Same here.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Move!”

The next day, the Mu Zhen scandal exploded worldwide and rapidly became one of the most closely followed stories in the news.

Reports described Shao Feidu as having been neglected by his family because of his psychological condition, then controlled with medication by his manager, Mu Zhen, who turned him into a money-making tool and exploited his talent without regard for his health. Public condemnation was overwhelming.

Several days later, Mu Zhen was sentenced. In addition to being ordered to return all misappropriated assets, he received forty-five years in prison. The other accomplices received sentences ranging from five to ten years.

Many people still thought the sentence was too light and called for life imprisonment. Shao Feidu’s fans even organized demonstrations.

Their attention, however, was soon diverted by several new headlines.

【A Miracle! Patient Declared Brain-Dead Awakens After Years in a Vegetative State】

【The King of Piano Has a Mysterious Lover?】

【Elite-Family Angst: The Untold Story of the Autistic Emperor and the Vegetative Prince】

Each headline was sensational enough on its own. Put together, however, they became irresistible. With Shao Feidu’s condition already in the news, who else could the articles be talking about? And who was this formerly vegetative young man? Were the two really lovers?

People opened the stories expecting tabloid nonsense and ended up staring at their screens in shock.

The patient was actually Yun Kexu, the Yun family’s third young master. Plenty of people remembered the accident. The reports were verified: he had fallen into a vegetative state, been declared brain-dead, and remained on life support ever since.

And yet only a few months earlier, the Yun family’s third young master—someone who had been virtually considered dead—had miraculously awakened.

More astonishing still, he was apparently Shao Feidu’s lover.

One had been withdrawn and socially impaired; the other had lain unconscious for two years. One had been drugged and exploited by his manager; the other had slept motionless in a hospital bed. How in the world had they met? Had Yun Kexu woken up and immediately helped Shao Feidu bring Mu Zhen down?

Life was more melodramatic than fiction. The public’s emotions surged, and everyone’s appetite for gossip burned brightly.

After that, information about Shao Feidu and Yun Kexu appeared one piece after another. They went running together in the mornings, traveled together, played music together, walked under the moon together… Reporters photographed every affectionate moment they could catch.

No one could seriously doubt their feelings after comparing Shao Feidu before and after.

The old Shao Feidu had been cold and wooden, his eyes dull and lifeless. Now he was energetic and bright-eyed. Around Yun Kexu, he smiled, grew annoyed, acted spoiled, initiated embraces, and kissed him tenderly. He seemed almost like a different person.

People could not help thinking: if Yun Kexu had come back to life for Shao Feidu, then Shao Feidu had also been reborn because of Yun Kexu.

The noise of the outside world did not disturb their life together. Once Mu Zhen’s case was settled, Shang Ke devoted himself to guiding Shao Feidu’s cultivation and organizing their talismans.

“Shao Feidu was remarkably gifted, and his progress advanced by leaps and bounds with every ‘day’—with the pun on ‘day’ very much intended.”

Two months later, Shao Feidu successfully condensed true qi. He sat cross-legged as mist seeped from his entire body. Mixed with the dark impurities coating his skin, it made him look like a miner who had just crawled out of a shaft.

At that moment, his eyes snapped open and a sharp light flashed through them, as though he could see straight through a person’s heart. Then he spotted Shang Ke. The sharpness vanished at once, his gaze returning to its usual calm—with even the faintest hint of a smile.

Shao Feidu felt his blood surging and his entire body overflowing with energy. He reached out for Shang Ke, intending to pull him close and calm the heat burning inside him.

However, Shang Ke took a step back and pointed at the bathroom, saying, “Take a shower first.”

Only then did Shao Feidu look down and realize his entire body was coated in sticky black impurities that smelled absolutely unbearable.

He jumped up and strode rapidly toward the bathroom.

A short while later, he came charging back out, hooked an arm around Shang Ke’s waist, and dragged him into the bathroom too.

Shang Ke screamed internally: No! I absolutely do not want to bathe with this man right now!

His protest went unanswered. He had entered the bathroom upright and eventually came back out carried horizontally…

By the end of the year, Shao Feidu had made some progress in cultivation and could already create several kinds of low-grade talismans. Shang Ke took him out to test them, and they worked well for both repelling ghosts and pacifying restless spirits. Talismans of this level had little effect on Shang Ke himself, but when he tried to activate one, it immediately burned up in his hand.

The talismans could detect his ghost energy. Even when he suppressed that aura as much as possible, he still could not use them properly.

Shao Feidu touched his head and comforted, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Shang Ke: I’m actually being comforted by a man who can’t even take care of himself…

“All right. Three days from now, we’ll have our first real battle! Target—the starvation ghost!” Shang Ke clenched a fist.

The starvation ghost had been a boy of about five. His parents had a terrible relationship. After one argument, both left the house and each assumed the child was with the other. By the time they returned, he had starved to death in front of the refrigerator.

There had still been plenty of food in the refrigerator. The boy starved because a hard object had become lodged in his throat, leaving him unable to swallow. In the end, he could only stare at a refrigerator full of food while slowly dying of hunger.

After death, the child became a starvation ghost. He liked hiding inside refrigerators, and whenever he saw someone waste food, resentment flared and he compelled that person to finish every last bite.

Shang Ke discovered that the little ghost loved chicken drumsticks most. If someone tossed a half-eaten drumstick into a trash bin within his territory, he would appear almost immediately. Once, Shang Ke had seen him force a man who casually threw food away to pick it back up from the ground and eat it even though it was covered in dirt.

Shang Ke thought the little starvation ghost was actually rather cute, aside from being slightly obsessive. He had died hungry, and even in death he still endured that hunger, wandering alone through the human world with the memory of starvation following him.

Late at night, a box of hot chicken drumsticks sat beside a secluded garden path. The night breeze passed, and a hazy figure slowly appeared, gradually condensing into the shape of a child.

He crouched beside the drumsticks and looked around furiously, resentment blazing in his eyes. Who had thrown away perfectly good food? Absolutely unforgivable!

A moment later, his gaze locked onto a corner of the garden as two slender figures emerged from the darkness—Shang Ke and Shao Feidu.

“Finish it!” the child shrieked. The burst of ghost energy made the surrounding trees rustle violently.

Shang Ke walked over, bent down, and said, “Doudou, these are for you.”

The child froze, then screamed even more fiercely, “Eat them! Eat them!”

Shang Ke glanced back at Shao Feidu. Shao Feidu immediately drew a talisman, ignited it with true qi, and scattered the ashes over the chicken drumsticks.

“Eat, Doudou. You’ve been hungry for too long.” Shang Ke crouched in front of him and spoke gently.

Doudou stared at Shang Ke, then at the drumsticks. Faintly, he seemed to smell their fragrance. Then the taste of chicken appeared in his mouth.

He chewed slowly. The familiar yet long-lost flavor filled him with aching nostalgia.

“Waaah…” Doudou’s mouth crumpled and he burst into tears. “Mom, I’m so hungry. I want chicken drumsticks…”

Shang Ke took out a porcelain vial and caught the child’s tears. Ghost tears were extraordinarily precious and almost impossible to obtain. Applied to a living person’s eyes, even a single drop could allow them to see the dead.

Doudou cried as he savored the chicken, the resentment on his face gradually giving way to contentment.

Once he had eaten his fill, Doudou rubbed his stomach and gave an exaggerated little burp, then beamed happily at Shang Ke and Shao Feidu. His figure slowly faded until, beneath their watching eyes, he disappeared into the night.

【Thank you.】

The poor, simple child had let go of his resentment over nothing more than a few chicken drumsticks. They had not even needed a spirit-release talisman.

Shao Feidu suddenly hugged Shang Ke and said gloomily, “Keke, let’s not have children in the future. They’re too hard to raise.”

Shang Ke: Who wants to have children with you?! And coming from someone who can barely take care of himself, do you really have the nerve to complain that children are hard to raise?

He had completely ruined the melancholy atmosphere!

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