C164 — [6.30 – Strange Tales of Fengjia Town]

The sky outside the church grew increasingly gloomy, and after a while, a drizzle began to fall. From within the church, one could vaguely see that the raindrops were a deep crimson, like blood.

If someone were to step outside, they would realize that this wasn’t rain at all—it was the blood seeping from the writhing masses of flesh entwining the church. Drop by drop, the thick liquid trickled down the stained-glass windows.

Inside the church, the pulsating flesh remained eerily silent.

In the grand hall of the church, Jiu Shu sat in one of the pews, dressed in a fitted black robe that accentuated his slender waist. A strong arm encircled him in an intimate embrace. He didn’t seem to mind the presence of the arm around his waist, his gaze resting quietly on the blood-streaked windows.

In the dim, blood-tinged light of the church, his striking features took on an almost decadent allure. His phoenix eyes held an unreadable expression.

Around them, the other believers had long since collapsed into a deep slumber, sprawled across their seats, completely unresponsive no matter how much noise was made.

In stark contrast to the silent congregation, Gu Yin, who sat beside Jiu Shu, was particularly lively. Pressed closely against him, Gu Yin spoke with excitement about the wedding arrangements.

“Once we head out, we can start preparing the wedding outfits! I picked out so many —red will definitely suit you, my dear!”

His eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Gu Yin had dreamed countless times of a blissful future with his beloved priest, and a wedding was at the heart of those dreams.

Having never received a normal human education, Gu Yin’s understanding of weddings came solely from Fengjia Town’s ancient, feudal traditions.

Growing up near the town, he had witnessed many weddings from afar, hiding in the mountain forests. From a distance, he saw the town decorated with brilliant red lanterns and fabric streamers. The bride and groom would wear exquisite red garments, their faces alight with joy as they greeted guests, creating an atmosphere of lively celebration.

From the memories he had absorbed from vengeful ghosts, Gu Yin knew that such grand ceremonies were rare in Fengjia Town. More often than not, a wedding consisted of nothing more than a red bridal veil—sometimes, the bride was even bound and thrown into the groom’s house, and that was considered a wedding.

Marriage was a privilege for the few.

It was also a symbol of happiness.

Gu Yin would ensure that his beloved had the happiest wedding imaginable.

He had even secretly watched television and flipped through tattered fairy tale books. From those glimpses, he learned that in the grand cities beyond this isolated town, Western-style weddings were the trend.

Unsure of which style to choose, Gu Yin leaned against his lover’s shoulder, seeking his opinion.

Lost in thought, his beloved took a moment to respond before his lips curved into a breathtaking smile.

“I don’t mind at all. As long as it’s with you, any kind of wedding is perfect.”

His lover always had a way of saying things that made Gu Yin’s heart race and his face flush.

Feeling a surge of happiness, Gu Yin grinned and nestled closer, rubbing against his beloved’s neck until a faint blush bloomed on his pale skin. Only then did he stop, feeling a bit embarrassed.

As much as he longed for greater intimacy, he knew he had to wait until after the wedding.

He wasn’t like that disgusting vengeful spirit—the one that had previously possessed his body and acted shamelessly toward the priest, taking advantage of him in his sleep.

No, Gu Yin was a devoted and considerate husband.

“Then let’s have both—a traditional Chinese wedding and a Western one!” he proposed cheerfully.

Just the thought of it filled him with delight. Two weddings meant double the happiness.

His lover, nestled in his arms, his skin pale as cold porcelain, smiled indulgently and agreed.

Gu Yin beamed with joy, gazing down at his beloved with eyes full of an overwhelming, drowning love.

After a while, Gu Yin glanced at the time, then at the window. Sensing something, his face suddenly lit up with joy.

“We can go back now!”

He could feel the vengeful ghost’s power weakening, its unstable state mirroring its previous episodes. This was the perfect chance to leave.

“Close your eyes, my dear. I have a surprise for you!” Gu Yin playfully covered Jiu Shu’s eyes, feigning mystery.

A few seconds later, he lifted his hands.

The church had returned to its original state.

The grotesque masses of flesh were gone, replaced by a sacred, spacious church hall. The once-unconscious believers were now awake, stirring from their slumber.

Without hesitation, they began preparing for the wedding in an orderly, almost ritualistic manner.

The once-dead town had suddenly come to life. Beyond Jiu Shu’s sight, people were bustling about, hanging lanterns and tying colorful silk ribbons.

Even though it was already deep into the night, their faces were all adorned with eerily identical smiles.

Amidst this lively scene, no one noticed that during the spatial shift, an invisible force had deepened the overlap between two dimensions.

Though the vengeful ghost’s power was fluctuating, it remained firmly entwined with this world like an unshakable parasite, binding the two spaces together. Even time itself had begun to distort.

If a mentally fragile outsider were to gaze at the town from afar, they would see its form flickering—one moment a nightmarish landscape of writhing flesh, the next a peaceful mountain town, shrouded in mist and glowing with red lanterns.

“Alright, my dear, open your eyes!”

Gu Yin beamed, holding Jiu Shu close as he eagerly led him toward the fitting room to try on wedding attire.

However, upon noticing the time, he hesitated.

It was already late at night. As a responsible and devoted husband, he couldn’t bear to let his beloved stay up too late.

“It’s alright. I just rested, so I’m not tired. You’ve worked so hard—I’m just trying on clothes, it’s nothing.”

Jiu Shu shook his head gently, his voice soft and reassuring. His red lips were so inviting that they were impossible to resist.

And so, Gu Yin didn’t resist at all.

He pressed his lips to Jiu Shu’s, indulging in their warmth and softness, feeling as though even his bones were turning to jelly.

His beloved was so gentle. So utterly lovable.

By the time the kiss ended, Jiu Shu’s pale face was tinged with an intoxicating flush.

His slightly parted lips revealed a glimpse of his reddened tongue, still not fully retracted. His phoenix eyes shimmered with moisture, carrying an irresistible allure that made one’s heart pound.

Gu Yin’s face burned. He fought the overwhelming urge to continue kissing him and instead led his beloved to the fitting room.

“Wait here for a moment while I get the outfits.”

Jiu Shu nodded, taking a seat on the sofa. As he waited, his gaze drifted once more to the window.

This time, there was no blood outside. Only a dark, overcast sky.

Retracting his gaze, he turned to the system panel beside him.

On it was the original novel The Strange Tales of Fengjia Town and its spin-off film Human Gu.

He had read through these countless times, yet he still revisited the details.

Propping his chin up, he leaned back against the sofa and tapped open the film.

In its ending, Gu Yin—who had ultimately lost himself to madness—succumbed to an endless cycle of slaughter, completely overtaken by instinct. By then, he had lost all capacity for rational thought.

All enemies were trapped in an endless nightmare, forced to relive their agonizing deaths over and over. Even humans who merely approached the town were ensnared in these terrifying, eternal dreams—neither alive nor truly dead, unable to escape.

The vengeful ghost wanted them all to experience the torment it once endured.

But even after its revenge was complete, there was no release. It remained bound to Fengjia Town, forever isolated, forever insane, with no one daring to approach.

Fengjia Town became a forbidden zone for humans.

Anyone who came near would be cursed, falling into a nightmare from which they would never awaken. Even distance was no protection—the curse continued to spread, an unrelenting manifestation of the vengeful spirit’s boundless hatred.

—

A dim, murky sunset bathed the desolate city streets. A tattered tabloid newspaper fluttered into a street corner.

Printed on it were pixelated images—barely obscuring broken corpses and a blood-soaked cooking pot.

Beside the pictures, the headline read: “Shocking News: Corporate CEO and Wife Found Brutally Murdered at Home.”

The article detailed how the CEO and his wife had fallen into violent conflict, descending into madness. They had hacked at each other with knives before cooking and consuming pieces of their own flesh. Ultimately, both succumbed to their injuries and died.

A gust of wind picked up, carrying the newspaper away.

In the distance, a massive screen atop a skyscraper interrupted its usual programming to broadcast an emergency news bulletin:

“A surge of violent homicides has plagued the city recently. Citizens are advised to limit outings and, if possible, remain alone even at home.”

A few pedestrians paused to watch, their faces uneasy.

A young man turned to his girlfriend, whispering:

“I heard most of the victims were couples or close friends. Some people are saying that if your feelings for each other aren’t deep enough, you’ll suddenly turn on one another and kill each other! Supposedly, it’s some kind of contagious mental illness.”

“No, I heard it all started when those missing college students were found. They supposedly stumbled into some town, unleashed an evil spirit, and brought back a curse. When they returned home, the curse spread!”

“Now that you mention it, I think I remember that too. Weren’t those students completely insane when they were found? They couldn’t even form coherent sentences—just kept mumbling that they were dreaming, that they had died. Some say their souls were incomplete, trapped by the vengeful ghost…”

“You’re scaring me! Are we just being superstitious?”

“This isn’t superstition—it’s all over the internet! They say the vengeful ghost’s resentment is so strong that the curse keeps growing. And when those cursed people die, they turn into ghosts themselves and start killing others. But don’t worry, babe. I’m here to protect you…”

The couple embraced, seeking comfort in each other.

But before the man could finish his reassurance, a furious, gut-wrenching argument erupted from an apartment above them.

“Do you really love me? What about that bastard you’ve been seeing behind my back?!”

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Answer me!”

The shouting ended abruptly—only to be followed by the sickening thud of a body crashing down from above.

A woman’s corpse slammed onto the pavement. Blood splattered across the couple, drenching them in red.

They screamed in horror.

Shaking, they lifted their heads—just in time to see a man standing on the rooftop, at least ten stories high. His face was twisted with madness and terror.

Yet, within seconds, his terrified expression contorted into something else.

He started laughing.

His eyes still brimmed with fear, but his laughter was chilling—deranged, inhuman.

“It’s her fault! It’s all her fault!” the man cackled, screaming into the night.

The horrified couple turned pale as ghosts. Too scared to even call the police, they fled.

But just before the woman looked away, something compelled her to glance back at the rooftop one last time.

And then she saw it.

Not far from the deranged man, standing in the shadow of the rooftop’s edge—

There was another figure.

Silent. Motionless. Watching.

Long, pitch-black hair draped over the figure’s face, concealing its ghastly pale, inhuman features.

Only the exaggerated grin stretching across its lips was visible—wider, more delighted than the man’s beside it.

In the next second, its gaze locked onto the girlfriend’s. Empty pupils, yet filled with a terrifyingly suppressed madness.

She froze. Her boyfriend’s urging voice reached her ears, pulling her back from her trance. She withdrew her gaze and turned to look at him.

For some reason, he shivered slightly and asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

She shook her head, signaling that it was nothing. She had simply realized, all of a sudden, that her boyfriend would look much better without his skin. That way, he would never cheat on her again.

As the couple’s silhouettes faded into the distance, the sky grew darker. The sunset had already been swallowed whole, leaving behind only a lonely city, an increasingly silent street, and a faint mist drifting through the air.

The rooftop was empty—no sign of anyone left.

Only in the mountains not far from the city, in the mist-shrouded town, did a shadow with a human body and a serpent’s tail endlessly wander the abandoned streets.

Just as it had done for the past ten years, searching for the remains of its fragmented body, head lowered, shrouded in deathly stillness.

Only when someone approached the town, triggering the curse, would it finally lift its head, turn toward the intruders, and reveal its horrifying smile.

—

Jiu Shu stared at the ghost’s eyes, which had suddenly appeared in the final jump scare of the film, locking gazes with its cold, lifeless pupils for a long moment before finally closing the screen.

If this vengeful spirit had truly come from this timeline, then its past madness was completely understandable. But changing it would be an immense challenge.

The ghost didn’t know how to love—perhaps it didn’t even believe it was capable of being loved.

After being suppressed for so many years in death, then reconstructing itself from a mix of countless tragic women’s remains, it was only natural for the ghost to resist love.

In fact, considering the overwhelming resentment saturating its mind in the film, it was already abnormal that it hadn’t started a massacre the moment it arrived in this world.

It was only thanks to Gu Yin’s body suppressing the ghost’s madness that it was more rational than its movie counterpart, still holding back from killing.

But their states were gradually synchronizing.

Thinking about the previous rain of blood, Jiu Shu fell into deep thought, only snapping out of it when Gu Yin returned and pulled him into a tight embrace.

“What are you thinking about, my dear?”

Gu Yin set the clothes it had brought aside and held Jiu Shu tightly, as if afraid of losing its beloved priest with even the slightest looseness of its grip.

The moment it returned, it had seen its lover lost in thought, fingers absentmindedly tracing his lips. To Gu Yin, he looked impossibly enticing, breathtakingly beautiful.

He must be thinking about the wedding, right?

Should Gu Yin tell him the details?

But if he did, wouldn’t that ruin the surprise?

Then again, compared to surprises, its beloved was far more important.

Caught in this blissful dilemma, Gu Yin’s thoughts spiraled until Jiu Shu lazily leaned against its chest and spoke in an airy voice, instantly pulling him back to reality.

“I was thinking about the vengeful ghost.”

“……”

Gu Yin, who had been about to reveal the wedding arrangements, abruptly shut his mouth. His pupils shrank in shock, looking as if he had just been slapped with a betrayal as devastating as discovering his spouse had been unfaithful.

Jiu Shu lifted his gaze to meet Gu Yin’s, his beautiful features calm yet unwavering.

“You two are the same soul, aren’t you?”

His tone was even, yet left no room for Gu Yin to deny it.

The initial look of shock on Gu Yin’s face stiffened. He avoided his piercing gaze, his expression turning slightly unnatural as he weakly denied, “Why would you think that, my dear? That’s impossible.”

“I don’t want to hear lies.”

“…”

Hearing his lover’s calm voice, Gu Yin fell into silence.

He seemed to be struggling internally. Eventually, he nodded.

Gu Yin hugged Jiu Shu tightly, trying to show a smile his lover liked, speaking in a coaxing tone.

“I never meant to deceive you, my dear. I just… I just didn’t want you to worry.”

“That vengeful ghost is terrifying! It will hurt you! All the horrible things before—those were done by it!”

Gu Yin looked at the beautiful face of the person in his arms, his eyes tinged red.

“I don’t want to see you hurt again.”

Because of his weakness, the vengeful ghost had taken over his body and harmed the priest, insulting and beating him mercilessly.

Gu Yin never wanted that to happen again.

That disgusting thing had no right to be near the priest. It was just a filthy wretch. Just because they were the same soul, why should it be forgiven?

The priest didn’t need to know any of this. As long as he devoured the vengeful ghost, everything would be fine.

But his lover was too perceptive. Before he could deal with the ghost, Jiu Shu had already uncovered the truth.

“I don’t want to see you two killing each other. To me, you are the same person—both my beloved.”

Hearing that, Gu Yin’s pale lips trembled. Its phoenix eyes widened, red-rimmed and filled with confusion, before he eventually lowered his gaze, utterly dispirited.

“I will find a way to merge you two. So, for now, don’t kill each other, okay?”

A soft hand cupped his cheek, radiating the warmth of the person he loved.

Gu Yin grasped that hand, silently nodding.

His lover was favoring that ghost.

He could see it.

…That damn ghost seduced him! That filthy creature!

—

At the same time, the sky began to lighten with the faint glow of dawn.

Outside Fengjia Town, hidden in the cracks of space, an unexpected guest arrived.

“Damn it, I actually got lost all night!”

A man in a police uniform cursed in frustration.

It was all the damn GPS’s fault—it had led him astray for an entire night. His car had even gotten stuck in a mountain ditch, and he had barely managed to get it out.

He was an officer dispatched from a nearby city’s police department. He had set out at noon yesterday, yet it was already the next morning by the time he finally arrived.

If it weren’t for the overwhelming number of missing person reports, he wouldn’t have wanted to come to this godforsaken place.

But he had no connections, so all the troublesome tasks got pushed onto him, and he couldn’t refuse. After all, it was tough getting a stable government job these days.

At least he had finally found the place.

Looking at the stone tablet inscribed with “Fengjia Town” in the distance, the officer let out a breath, adjusted his uniform, and forced himself to calm down.

He was about to get back into his car and enter the town.

He was here to investigate the missing persons case. Many people had reported online that numerous individuals had vanished in Fengjia Town without a trace.

For some reason, the town had gone viral on the internet lately, and public concern was growing. Since there was no way to reach the town by phone or online, authorities had no choice but to send someone to check in person.

From the outside, it didn’t seem like anything was wrong.

Sitting in his car, the officer glanced at the town, shrouded in a faint mist, and thought as much.

Just as he was about to start the engine, a hand suddenly reached through the window and yanked his car key out.

“Holy shit!”

The officer nearly jumped out of his seat. He whipped his head around and came face-to-face with a solemn-looking, muscular man.

“Who the hell are you?! How did you get here?”

Before the officer could even reprimand him for his rudeness, the muscular man coldly snapped,

“How did you get near a ghost domain? Don’t you know the rules here? No more than one person can enter at a time! Where’s the protective talisman you’re hiding?”

What the hell was this guy talking about?

The officer didn’t understand a single word.

But the muscular man didn’t care whether he understood. He was just about to interrogate him further when he suddenly froze, turning to look at Fengjia Town in the distance.

As the sky gradually brightened, the mist thinned almost to nothing—revealing the entire town decorated with red lanterns and colorful ribbons swaying in the morning breeze.

“This… how is this…?”

The muscular man stood frozen, disbelief written all over his face.

How could this be possible?

That ghost domain, which hadn’t changed in over a decade, had suddenly transformed into this?

Could it be… the Ghost King of the town was about to get married?!

 

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