STD CH4

Chapter 4: Aura of Death

“F*ck!” Lu Wenxi shouted outright. Terrified, he tumbled backward off the bed and tried to scramble toward the door, only to get his feet tangled in the quilt.

At that exact moment, tears nearly burst from his eyes. If there had been a camera nearby, it definitely would have captured his nearly contorted face.

After struggling free from the quilt, he began muttering under his breath, “Talisman… talisman… it’s on the robot vacuum!”

Once switched on, the robot vacuum roamed around on its own. If you weren’t paying attention, it would wander off somewhere else. Whenever Lu Wenxi wanted to find it, it vanished without a trace; whenever he didn’t want to see it, it would hover right in front of him, either stuck in a corner or humping his slippers.

Right now… there was no telling where the damn thing was happily roaming off to.

What had he been thinking earlier? Why on earth did he stick it onto that thing? Wasn’t that just courting death?

Lu Wenxi scrambled frantically around the apartment searching for the robot vacuum. Glancing back, he saw the dark shadow had followed him out too. The instant he turned his head, it was leaning against the doorframe, staring straight in his direction.

Unable to find the robot vacuum, he patted his pockets and grew even more frustrated. In his panic earlier, he had left his phone on the bed. With the dark shadow blocking the bedroom doorway, his path back was cut off; he couldn’t even retrieve his phone to call for help.

He started weighing his options: should he brace himself and keep hunting for the robot vacuum, or just bolt out the front door and run for it?

While he hesitated, his hand slapped against the wall and flipped on the light switch. Looking back toward the shadow, he noticed it looked considerably fainter under the bright lights, though he could still make out a blurry silhouette.

He didn’t move, and the shadow didn’t move either. They stood in a mutual standoff, passing a harmonious ten seconds.

“Are you Deng Xuanhan?” Lu Wenxi finally managed to calm down a fraction. Letting out a breath, he spoke aloud while continuing to scan the room for the robot vacuum.

In truth, he had regained a bit of his wits. He figured he needed something to protect his life. If he bolted out blindly and the ghost caught up to him, he wouldn’t have anything to save himself with—what was he supposed to do, grab a random rock and throw it at a ghost?

So he decided to find that talisman and wipe this ghost out first. Even if it didn’t work, at least he wouldn’t die looking like a complete coward.

Furthermore, he recalled that the ghost had needed to ring the doorbell earlier, and it could only enter after he opened the door. From this, he deduced that these ghosts probably couldn’t pass through solid objects. If he had to stall for time later, he might be able to trap the ghost inside an enclosed space.

Just then, after bumping against the gym wall for a while, the robot vacuum slowly trundled out. Lu Wenxi immediately spotted the talisman still stuck on top of it.

He sprinted over and snatched the talisman. Looking up, he found the dark shadow had already closed in right in front of him, blowing up a gust of wind as if trying to sweep the talisman out of his grasp.

Lu Wenxi wasn’t about to let a mere gust of wind get the better of him again. He clamped his fist tightly around it. Seeing the shadow try to dodge, he thrust his hand straight forward, slapping it onto the shadow’s body. His hand passed right through the dark figure, but the talisman did not, sticking firmly onto the shadow’s form.

The moment the talisman attached, the shadow began thrashing violently, seemingly in immense agony. It staggered, collapsed, and rolled around on the floor.

Lu Wenxi watched as the talisman ignited upon contact with the shadow. The flames were an eerie shade of blue in the quiet apartment, burning steadily until the paper was reduced to ashes.

Not wasting a second, he backed away toward the front door. Checking his pockets, he realized his elevator keycard wasn’t in his pajamas—it was likely in his jacket, which he had casually tossed onto the sofa. There was no way he was walking past that dark shadow just to grab a keycard.

Snatching his keys from the entryway cabinet, Lu Wenxi bolted out the front door.

Standing in the hallway, he still couldn’t be sure whether he was safe. Just as he turned to head down the stairwell, he looked up and spotted another dark shadow lingering in the corridor.

A wolf in front, a tiger behind.

He felt his acting must truly be so atrocious that even ghosts couldn’t stand the sight of him, teaming up in squads just to torment him.

After hesitating for a split second, he unlocked his door and slipped back inside. The half-dead one inside his apartment would probably be easier to deal with.

Once back inside, he darted straight into the dining room and slid the glass door shut. Glancing left and right to ensure no other shadows were hiding inside, he finally let out a sigh of relief. Standing behind the glass door, he peered out at the shadow curled up in the living room, which looked to be at death’s door.

Turning around, he grabbed an apple from the dining table, washed it clean, and began munching on it.

He was simply starving. Having eaten only a single apple all day, his burst of speed earlier had run purely on brute adrenaline. Sitting in the dining room eating his apple, it suddenly dawned on him that the overturned dining chairs from yesterday had probably been knocked over by this shadow.

If it could knock things over… could it open doors too? So during his livestream, had this shadow been the one to open the walk-in closet door?

At that thought, he got up, locked the sliding glass door as well, then sat back down to finish his apple.

Suddenly seeing a ghost crouching beside his bed had genuinely scared Lu Wenxi half to death. Now that he had caught his breath—and especially after realizing how weak the ghost actually was—he wasn’t nearly as frightened anymore.

As he ate his apple, he habitually crossed one leg over the other, resting an arm on the dining table while mulling over his next move.

This ghost had been staying in his house for two days and hadn’t seemed to cause him any actual harm. Did that mean it wasn’t aggressive?

Should he sneak back into the bedroom to grab his phone and call Yin Hanwei over?

Before he could settle on a plan, a knock sounded at the front door.

Lu Wenxi immediately realized it was probably that little Taoist priest from earlier. Still munching on his apple, he opened the sliding glass door, noted that the shadow lying in the living room hadn’t budged, checked the video intercom to confirm it was the young Taoist, and pulled the front door open.

Upon opening the door, he noticed the young Taoist was breathing a bit heavily. Well, that made sense—climbing twenty-two flights of stairs without getting winded would be bizarre.

“Over there, take it away,” Lu Wenxi said, pointing toward the living room. “There’s another one out in the hallway. Clear out all the ghosts in this area while you’re at it.”

Stepping inside, the youth paused at the entryway and looked at Lu Wenxi in puzzlement, his brows furrowing slightly. “You can see it?”

“You can’t?”

“Not without opening my Yin-Yang eyes.”

Lu Wenxi was taken aback as well. Pointing at the figure in the room, he said, “It’s that dark shadow right there. You really can’t see it?”

The youth looked into the living room, swept his gaze around, and turned back to look at Lu Wenxi once more.

Lu Wenxi stared back, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable under the youth’s scrutiny.

As the youth stepped further into the apartment, he murmured, “Forgive the intrusion.”

Holding up his Fengshui compass, he walked into the living room. Following the needle’s indication, he stopped less than a pace away from the dark shadow and asked Lu Wenxi, “Right here, correct?”

By now, Lu Wenxi sensed something was off. “You seriously can’t see it? Aren’t you a Taoist priest?”

In a completely unruffled tone, the youth explained, “The spiritual auras of humans and ghosts differ. Thus, humans see humans, and ghosts see ghosts. If a living person can see a ghost, it means they are not far from death.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“When I came by last time, I already noticed an aura of death radiating off you. By my reckoning, you likely do not have long to live. Now that you are actually able to see spirits, it proves the aura of death clinging to you is growing heavier.”

“Aura of death? What the hell is that?” Lu Wenxi pressed. Those words left a deeply unsettling taste in his mouth. Being abruptly told he didn’t have much time left to live was something he couldn’t accept under any circumstances.

The youth tucked his compass back into his backpack. The bag looked quite worn; the zipper was finicky, and the youth had to tug at it for a good while. Lu Wenxi noticed a stitched patch near the bottom of the bag—definitely not an intentional design feature.

Once the compass was stowed away, the youth brought his hands together and rapidly formed a series of intricate hand seals. His fingers moved with nimble fluidity through strange, continuous gestures that actually looked pretty cool.

“Naruto?” Lu Wenxi couldn’t help asking.

The youth ignored him. Finishing the hand seal, he swiped two fingers across his eyes and chanted, “Open.”

Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, Lu Wenxi watched the youth’s chuunibyou display. Right then, he heard the youth speak aloud: “Why are you crying?”

Crying?

Lu Wenxi wasn’t crying.

Could it be… the ghost was crying?

Whether he received an answer or not, the youth turned his head toward Lu Wenxi and asked, “What did you do to her?”

“What did I do to it?!” Lu Wenxi felt his entire worldview was being warped. A ghost had scared him out of his wits, yet now he was being interrogated as if he were the bully. Irritated, he snapped, “I woke up from a nap, saw this thing crouching beside my bed staring dead at me, so I flipped it off. It lunged at me, I ran out, and I slapped the talisman you gave me onto it.”

As he spoke, Lu Wenxi even demonstrated by raising his middle finger at the youth. “This exact gesture.”

“Does this hand gesture carry some special meaning?” the youth asked with utmost seriousness, genuinely seeming unaware of what flipping someone off meant.

“Ah… it means… ‘I love you,'” Lu Wenxi answered after a brief hesitation, clearly joking. Who in their right mind would confess their love to a ghostly shadow?

To his surprise, the youth actually believed him.

“She was your former lover? Since the two of you shared mutual affection…”

“So the reason I haven’t found a partner all these years is because my sweetheart died young?” Lu Wenxi found the logic utterly absurd, though he quickly caught onto another detail. “It’s a female ghost? Is she Deng Xuanhan?”

“I do not know her.”

“You don’t even know Deng Xuanhan? The former Best Actress!”

“I do not.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“We crossed paths briefly yesterday.”

Lu Wenxi was now entirely certain this youth had no idea who he was, which gave him a faint sense of defeat.

At that moment, the youth glanced back at the dark shadow before asking Lu Wenxi, “Can you hear her speaking?”

“No.”

“Then the two of you may speak directly. She seems to recognize you.” Saying this, the youth walked over toward Lu Wenxi.

Standing face-to-face, Lu Wenxi realized they were roughly the same height and build, though their temperaments were worlds apart. If Lu Wenxi was a roguish delinquent, then this youth was a refined gentleman—one with an otherworldly, immortal-like grace.

While Lu Wenxi was sizing him up, the youth raised a hand and tapped the center of Lu Wenxi’s brow. The youth’s fingertip was cool to the touch, sending a sudden ripple through Lu Wenxi’s chest.

Immediately afterward, Lu Wenxi heard the sound of a young girl sobbing. Truth be told, looking at a featureless black shadow while hearing a girl’s weeping made for a rather bizarre scene.

“Can you hear her now?” the youth asked.

“Yeah,” he answered.

The youth stepped aside to give them space, allowing Lu Wenxi to converse with the ghost himself. “You only have one ke.”

“One ke is… fifteen minutes, right?”

“Yes.”

This was truly a brand-new experience. He was actually about to… chat with a ghost?

“You…” Lu Wenxi organized his thoughts, taking a long moment before continuing, “Are you Deng Xuanhan? Your voice doesn’t sound like hers.”

“No, I’m a Weixi… sob sob… Deng Xuanhan left this morning. I’m… I… Shout your name, keep your lips shaped in a smile…” the ghost answered between sobs.

The sheer volume of information was a bit overwhelming…

First, the blurry black shadow lying on his floor was one of his fans, and she had just recited his fandom’s favorite slogan. Second, Deng Xuanhan really had visited, though she left in the morning—meaning there had been two ghosts in his apartment yesterday. Third, he had bullied a ghost into crying.

“You’re a sasaeng ghost?” Lu Wenxi found the nickname quite amusing. All his earlier terror had evaporated; ghosts didn’t seem all that different from regular people.

“I just let a moment of obsession get the better of me… sob sob… I didn’t expect to scare you. When I realized you could see me, I panicked and lost control, wanting to tackle you… I didn’t know you could see me before. I was wrong… Boss Lu, please forgive me…”

“Come on, stop crying and talk properly.” Much calmer now, Lu Wenxi walked over to the coffee table and reached out, only to pause halfway and ask, “Do you even use tissues?”

“No need to hand them to me. My lingering obsession isn’t strong, so I can’t touch physical objects.”

Those words seemed to carry some underlying implication, though Lu Wenxi paid it no mind. He simply sat down on the sofa, patted the cushion beside him, and said, “Come sit.”

The dark shadow shifted slightly, then sat up and asked, “Is that okay?”

“Cut the nonsense and hurry up.”

“Mm!” The shadow nodded vigorously—and its head promptly fell off. It scrambled in a fluster to pick up its own head, pressed it back onto its shoulders, and then, looking thoroughly obedient and well-behaved, floated over to sit beside Lu Wenxi.

Lu Wenxi rested one hand against his forehead, momentarily stunned by what he had just witnessed, needing a second to recover.

“Seriously, stop crying. Tell me what’s going on,” Lu Wenxi said, feigning composure.

“Okay.” The girl ghost gradually stopped sniffling and began explaining properly. “I only started following you the day before yesterday. I waited outside your company, snuck into your nanny van, and followed you to this house. Last night, right after you were bothered by the doorbell, Deng Xuanhan came in. She seemed to carry heavy resentment and showed signs of turning into an evil spirit—she couldn’t really control herself.”

“So Deng Xuanhan really was here? Is she different from you?”

“Yes. Normally, after a person dies, their soul lingers in the mortal realm for three years. Some stay for a while, and some go straight to reincarnation. The longer a soul stays, the more unstable it becomes, making it easier to turn into an evil spirit. After three years, they become full-fledged evil spirits. I heard that ordinary souls who linger too long experience the sensation of their souls burning. Most can’t endure it and start suffering after two years, choosing reincarnation instead.”

“What about you?” Lu Wenxi asked, looking at the blurry silhouette.

“I’ve been dead for a little over a year. I figured I’d hang around a bit longer before reincarnating. I wanted to leave with no regrets, so I came to be your sasaeng ghost.”

Lu Wenxi reluctantly accepted this explanation and pressed on: “Last night, were you two behind the closet door opening and the dining chairs falling over?”

“Not me, it was Deng Xuanhan. Ordinary souls can brush against mortal objects, but we can’t move them—instead, we get trapped by them. For instance, when you shut a door, we get locked inside.”

“Wait… aren’t ghosts supposed to be able to walk through walls?”

“Think about it carefully. If we could pass through walls, could I be sitting on the 22nd floor right now? I would’ve fallen straight through to the ground floor ages ago! Besides, if ghosts were really that powerful, how could the mortal world stay so peaceful?”

“And Deng Xuanhan was different from you?”

“She must have died harboring deep hatred, so the moment she passed, she entered a half-evil spirit, half-soul state. Otherwise, that little Taoist priest wouldn’t have been hunting her down.”

At that moment, Lu Wenxi glanced over at the youth. He noticed the youth had been standing quietly off to the side waiting, his gaze fixed on the robot vacuum roaming around nearby.

Whether it was due to the youth’s uniquely striking aura or simply because he was handsome enough to look picturesque just standing still, Lu Wenxi couldn’t help sneaking a few extra glances.

Seemingly sensing Lu Wenxi’s gaze, the youth looked over. Lu Wenxi instinctively averted his eyes, yet even after he looked away, the youth’s gaze remained fixed on him, making him feel oddly self-conscious.

“Let’s continue,” Lu Wenxi said to the girl ghost. “About Deng Xuanhan last night…”

“It seemed like she was trying to lock herself away so she wouldn’t hurt anyone, which is why she tried to go into the walk-in closet. She didn’t end up going inside, though, and slipped into a dazed, confused state. Later, she thought about harming you, so I fought her off. In the dining room, she knocked over the chairs.”

“So you actually protected me?”

“It wasn’t worth mentioning, I’m a die-hard fan, hehe.” The girl ghost giggled shyly.

Lu Wenxi nodded, still baffled as to why Deng Xuanhan would seek him out. They weren’t acquainted, nor did they have any grudges or conflicting interests. He frowned slightly as he mulled it over.

“Boss, do you have a girlfriend?” the girl ghost suddenly asked, striking up casual conversation.

“No.”

“Then what type of girl do you like?”

“Quiet ones who ask very few questions.”

“Oh.”

“You peeped on me while I was showering, didn’t you?” Lu Wenxi had been dying to ask this question since earlier.

The girl ghost’s voice abruptly vanished, making Lu Wenxi suspect the fifteen minutes were up. After a long pause, the girl ghost finally mumbled, “If I didn’t look… wouldn’t this trip have been a total waste…”

“Quite the solid excuse you’ve got there. How come you didn’t get locked inside the bathroom by me?!” Lu Wenxi grew somewhat indignant.

Nobody would be in a good mood finding out they’d been peeped on in the shower. The fact that he hadn’t beaten up a ghost right now showed remarkable self-restraint.

“Boss, I was wrong!”

“So you do remember I’m your boss! Then you ought to know what kind of temper your boss has, right?”

“Boss, you don’t know this—other celebrities always have crowds of sasaeng ghosts following them around, only you barely have any. You used to carry an aura of Purple-Gold Qi; the moment we got close, our whole bodies would ache miserably, so none of us dared follow you. I only accidentally discovered that you suddenly became covered in an aura of death recently, so I plucked up the courage to tag along.”

Hearing the term “aura of death” once again, Lu Wenxi couldn’t help frowning and pressed, “Tell me about this aura of death.”

The youth, who had been staring intently at the robot vacuum all this time, finally looked up toward the man and the ghost in the living room.