LABMY CH54

Night slowly unfolded from the horizon as time passed, like a massive curtain covering the sky, plunging the world into darkness. 

People who had been busy all day sank into a deep sleep at night, while ghosts and spirits that should not exist in the world became increasingly restless at this hour. 

Jiang Tang sat in the room, holding a cat in his arms, staring at the phone in front of him, quietly waiting for it to ring. 

Outside, everything was silent without a single sound. The time on the phone gradually shifted from midnight to 1 a.m., yet there was still no unusual movement. 

Only the occasional “ding” sound from the elevator could be heard, but the sound of the elevator doors opening never followed. It seemed that the occasional “ding” came from the floors above or below, not this one. 

Jiang Tang sat right by the door, listening intently to every sound outside. His hand rested on the doorknob, ready to rush out at any moment. 

Even if, as Jian Yuanbai said, Wang Liye might not love his girlfriend as much as he claimed, Jiang Tang had already chosen to help and couldn’t let anything happen to Wang Liye before his eyes. 

Moreover, from Jiang Tang’s perspective, anyone willing to stay in a haunted house to help his girlfriend’s soul pass on after her death must at least be somewhat sincere and affectionate. 

The little black cat, which was actually Jian Yuanbai, lay on his shoulder. Its feline pupils reflected boredom as its eyelids drooped, struggling between wakefulness and sleep. 

Suddenly, the little black cat’s eyes snapped open as if it had seen something through the tightly closed aluminum door. 

At first, there was only a faint “woo…woo…” sound. The sound gradually grew louder and louder, turning into a piercing, sorrowful wail. 

“Woo…woo!” 

The cries echoed through the corridor, like the desperate sobbing of someone with a broken voice, full of agony. Listening to it for too long, one could even hear faint echoes. 

Jiang Tang suddenly understood why the previous tenants had all moved out. 

In the dead of night, hearing such a sound would send chills down anyone’s spine. The crying was so intense that even those who had fallen asleep would be jolted awake. 

What was even more terrifying was that the longer he listened, the more it felt like the crying was right next to his ear. 

It was that eerie sensation of being alone in the darkness of night, hearing a woman’s wailing, and when you slowly turn your head, you’d see a ghost with a swollen, bruised face and disheveled hair crying right beside your ear. 

Human imagination is often the scariest thing. Even without seeing the ghost, one could be driven to a nervous breakdown just from the crying. 

Jiang Tang repeatedly checked his phone, but no call came from Wang Liye, nor did he hear Wang Liye calling for him from outside. 

Wang Liye had said that simply hearing the crying was useless. If he rashly went out to search for the source, he would only hear the crying but never see the ghost. 

So, even though Jiang Tang was feeling anxious, he kept holding his phone and waiting. 

He waited for a full half hour, but there was still no movement outside, only the relentless, piercing wailing. 

Just as Jiang Tang was hesitating between going out or continuing to wait, he suddenly heard a clear voice: “Stop pretending to be a ghost.” 

No longer wasting time on a pointless wait, Jiang Tang immediately opened the door and rushed out. When he reached Wang Liye’s apartment door, the scene before him left him somewhat confused. 

A middle-aged man, dressed in a yellow Taoist robe with a Bagua symbol painted on the back, stood arrogantly in the living room, holding a whisk. 

Wang Liye looked anxious as if he was saying something to the middle-aged man. 

The man’s attire made Jiang Tang feel like he had walked onto a movie set. Though he could roughly guess this man was some sort of exorcist, seeing such a scene for the first time still left him a bit stunned. 

Hearing the sound of footsteps, both men turned to look at him. 

Jiang Tang said, “I’ve been waiting for half an hour. I heard some noise and got worried. Are you alright?” 

Wang Liye shook his head. “Thank you for your concern, Master Jiang. I’m fine.” 

Jiang Tang asked, “The female ghost… your girlfriend… where is she?”

“Master Jiang?”

Two voices rang out simultaneously. Jiang Tang looked toward the middle-aged man who spoke, curious and confused. “Who is this?”

The middle-aged man sneered, “Nowadays, any random cat or dog can be called a master. Ridiculous.”

He turned to Wang Liye, his eyes filled with obvious displeasure. “You hired me, yet you also brought in some pretentious fraud from who knows where. If you don’t trust me, you could’ve just said so.”

Jiang Tang glanced at the middle-aged man dressed in a yellow robe with a Bagua diagram on his back and holding a whisk. Then, he looked down at himself, dressed in a hoodie and jeans.

For a moment, he couldn’t tell who the “pretentious fraud” he was talking about was.

Wang Liye, flustered by the scolding, quickly explained, “No, Master Ding, this is my neighbor who just moved in. He offered to help me voluntarily.”

At that moment, a system notification that only Jian Yuanbai could hear rang in his mind:

**”Ding! Please have Long Aotian say the iconic line within the specified time: ‘Heh, one cannot judge a person by their appearance, nor measure the sea by a cup. You look down on me because of my appearance? How ignorant. Do you even know who you’re standing before? I am the one whose name will one day resound throughout the entire mystic world. Let me show you what a true Celestial Master is.'”**

**”Please note: The tone must be filled with emotion, with proper intonation and full expression.”**

After the system finished speaking, it added with schadenfreude, **”Now, let Jiang Tang say the line he’s destined to say.”**

**”Especially the ‘heh’ part. Make sure it’s loud and filled with mockery.”**

Jian Yuanbai remembered clearly. In the previous world, his little pillow (Jiang Tang) had seriously told him that he hated saying such lines. It made him feel utterly embarrassed.

Jian Yuanbai hesitated and asked, “Can we… skip this?”

System: **”Nope. If the task is incomplete, you won’t be able to leave this world.”**

It wasn’t that the system was deliberately making Jiang Tang say it, but rather that it had to follow the rules set by the original system fragment.

This entire conversation between Jian Yuanbai and the system only lasted a few seconds. Meanwhile, in reality, Wang Liye was still desperately apologizing to Master Ding and promising to increase his payment to keep him from leaving.

Jiang Tang stood to the side, quietly waiting for the two to finish negotiating, completely unaware that another disaster was about to befall him.

The little black cat on his shoulder glanced up at him. Its furry face somehow managed to show a complicated and sympathetic expression.

Jian Yuanbai let out a silent, sorrowful sigh. His wife was truly too pitiful.

As he thought this, he also began considering how to secretly record Jiang Tang’s expressions, actions, and tone.

In the past, he thought Jiang Tang’s former system enjoyed doing this kind of thing. But now that he knew the truth, Jian Yuanbai realized that one day, when his amnesiac wife regains his memories and sees these recordings…  

He would probably die of embarrassment, right?  

…So cute.  

While Jian Yuanbai was lost in thought, Master Ding had already been appeased by Wang Liye and arrogantly walked up to Jiang Tang.

“Voluntarily?”

“A neighbor who just moved in?”

Master Ding sneered, “I bet you’re just some rookie who couldn’t take any tasks from the Celestial Master System and came here hoping to get lucky.”

“The Celestial Master System has been getting worse with each upgrade these past years. Now, even random nobodies can see the mission locations.”

“I’ve already accepted this mission through the system. If you’re not planning to leave, you’d better just stand aside and watch how a real Celestial Master banishes a ghost.”

Listening to his words, filled with both boasting and disdain, Jiang Tang, with his good temper, simply nodded and caught the key information, “What is this ‘Celestial Master System’ you’re talking about?”

Master Ding froze for a moment. “You don’t know what the Celestial Master System is?”

Jiang Tang shook his head sincerely. “How do I access this system? Can I check information about ghosts in it?”

Master Ding rolled his eyes so hard he nearly flipped over and refused to speak to Jiang Tang any further. He turned to Wang Liye and said,  

“Waiting like this won’t work. We need to make her show herself.”  

Jiang Tang was completely ignored. Helpless, he scratched the tip of his nose and decided to find another opportunity to ask.  

After all, this concerned finding the murderer who killed his entire family. He wouldn’t give up just because of Master Ding’s arrogance.  

Keeping a respectful distance, Jiang Tang stood nearby, curious to see how Master Ding planned to lure the female ghost out.  

After all, he was still quite interested in these unknown supernatural matters.

Before Jiang Tang could listen for more than a couple of sentences, the little black cat on his shoulder suddenly jumped down and dashed out through the door that hadn’t been closed.

“Hey?!”

Jiang Tang panicked and turned to chase after it. His sudden movement also caught the attention of Master Ding and Wang Liye.

Wang Liye opened his mouth to call out to him, but Master Ding stopped him with one hand. “He’s scared. Just wait. Once I summon the ghost, he’ll come running back, begging me to save him.”

Jiang Tang chased after the little black cat, running to the corner of the emergency stairwell. Anxious, he turned the corner and crashed headfirst into a firm chest.

From above came a low, amused male voice, “So worried about me?”

Upon hearing the voice, Jiang Tang blurted out without thinking, “Who are you?”

“I’m worried about the cat I raised. Did you see a little black cat run by?”

Jiang Tang emphasized, “Its name is Ghostie.”

Jian Yuanbai couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Jiang Tang looked up and saw the smile on his lips, which made him inexplicably press his own lips together and take a step back.

“Sorry, I didn’t see it.”

Jiang Tang waved his hand. “No problem.”

“I’ll keep looking.”

As he spoke, he turned to head back to where Wang Liye and Master Ding were. However, before he could move, a hand suddenly grabbed him.

Before Jiang Tang could turn around and ask what was going on, the person behind him leaned in, his warm chest almost pressing against Jiang Tang’s back.

Jian Yuanbai lowered his head and whispered with a smile, “Since you like raising cats, how about raising me too?”

The distance between them closed little by little, until Jian Yuanbai’s lips were almost brushing against Jiang Tang’s earlobe.

His voice was low and husky, and the warm breath he exhaled tickled Jiang Tang’s pale, delicate ear. “Meow~”

Jiang Tang’s body trembled violently. A flush of red quickly spread from the tips of his ears to his entire face, even reaching down to his neck. Startled, he stumbled two steps forward.

Turning around with a face as red as a tomato, he stammered, “Y-you-you…”

Blushing furiously, he couldn’t form a complete sentence. He wanted to turn and leave, but his feet seemed nailed to the ground. He stood there helplessly, his heart pounding uncontrollably.

Meanwhile, the system, watching from the sidelines, was utterly speechless. It didn’t know what kind of expression to make.

Fortunately, the system’s face was just a fluffy, golden, furry ball, so no one could see its twisted expression.

The amnesiac Jian Yuanbai… shouldn’t his personality be the same as before they started dating in the last world?

Why is he already flirting so naturally?!

It was baffling, truly baffling.

Originally, Jian Yuanbai had intended to get straight to the point, but when he saw Jiang Tang anxiously chasing after him, he couldn’t resist teasing his “wife” a little.

Now, looking at Jiang Tang’s flushed face, Jian Yuanbai casually said, “There’s something I need your help with.”

Jiang Tang’s face was still burning red like a sunset cloud. Hearing this, he set aside his embarrassment and became curious about what Jian Yuanbai needed from him.

“What is it?”

Jian Yuanbai carefully organized his words in his mind, trying to say it in a way that wasn’t too outrageous and that Jiang Tang could accept:

“I need you to say something in front of that Master Ding.”

Innocent and utterly unaware of any impending humiliation, Jiang Tang agreed without hesitation:

“That’s easy. What do you need me to say?”

Jian Yuanbai looked at Jiang Tang’s pure and innocent face, trying hard to suppress his laughter and conjure some guilt to stop himself from bursting out laughing.

“Just say this: ‘Hmph, never judge a book by its cover, nor the depth of the sea by its surface. How dare you look down on me because of my appearance? Do you even know who’s standing before you? I am the future legend whose name will echo throughout the entire mystical world. Let me show you what a true Heavenly Master is.’”

The words left his mouth, and the two of them stood there in complete silence.

If Jiang Tang’s eyes weren’t blinking, one might have thought he was standing there asleep with his eyes wide open.

Three minutes passed in dead silence before Jiang Tang finally forced out a reply, “Are you serious?”

Jian Yuanbai delivered his perfectly crafted excuse, “I’m a ghost that feeds on human emotions, especially anger, resentment, and the emotions triggered by being mocked and belittled.”

“Since I’m bound to you, I can only absorb the emotions of those around you. Someone like Master Ding, who is a genuine Heavenly Master, would provide me with the strongest emotions.”

Jian Yuanbai patted Jiang Tang’s shoulder gently, “This strategy is something I’ve perfected after being a ghost for so many years. It’ll definitely make him furious.”

The weight on Jiang Tang’s shoulder felt unbearable.

He opened his mouth, still trying to refuse, “Do I really have to say something like that? There must be other ways to anger him, right?”

Jian Yuanbai’s expression turned despondent and disappointed, “You… don’t trust me? Or do you just not want to help me?”

“I thought… with the bond we share, something this small wouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“I never expected that, even with our intimate, exclusive contract, you’d still draw such a clear line between us.”

These words… sounded oddly familiar.

Jiang Tang suddenly remembered — this was exactly what he said to Jian Yuanbai earlier in the afternoon when he asked him to help guide a lost soul, but Jian Yuanbai ignored the hint.

This was karma.

This was what it meant to dig your own grave and trip over your own words.

Jiang Tang looked at him and mumbled, “Would it be too late if I kissed you now to make up for it?”

I’ll pay your appearance fee. I’m willing to pay. Can you please take back those lines?

Jian Yuanbai turned his head, silently chuckled, then looked away as if he hadn’t heard.

“What did you say?”

Jiang Tang, too embarrassed to repeat himself, shook his head with a sorrowful expression, “Forget it. Let’s go find them.”

When they returned, Master Ding was extracting hair and blood from Wang Liye.

In a bowl filled with some dark, unidentifiable liquid, Wang Liye’s hand was cut, and his blood dripped into it, one drop at a time.

When Wang Liye saw Jiang Tang return, he was pleasantly surprised, “Master Jiang, where did you go?”

At this moment, Jian Yuanbai, who followed closely behind Jiang Tang, turned to him and said, “Go on, baby, say it.”

Jiang Tang: “I… just went to pick up my friend.”

He completely ignored Jian Yuanbai’s words.

Jian Yuanbai: “Baby? Tang Tang?”

Jiang Tang, gritting his teeth and speaking through clenched teeth: “Just wait a bit.”

“And stop calling me baby.”

What kind of person would make their “baby” say such humiliating lines? You don’t have a baby anymore.

Wang Liye glanced between the two of them, his expression confused.

What… was going on between these two? The atmosphere was… strange.

He hesitantly asked, “And this is…?”

Jian Yuanbai casually replied, “Tang Tang’s friend.”

At this moment, Master Ding lifted the bowl filled with Wang Liye’s blood and poured it onto the ground in a circle. Then he took out a bell and began shaking it.

Jiang Tang whispered, “What’s he doing?”

Wang Liye replied softly, “Master Ding says this is a soul summoning ritual to make my girlfriend Qiu Qiu appear.”

Jiang Tang, though clueless, nodded in awe as he watched Master Ding shake the bell.

“Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.”

The bell rang for a long time, but nothing happened.

Jiang Tang asked, “Why isn’t there any reaction?”

As soon as he said that, Master Ding put down the bell and sneered, “Outsiders shouldn’t make a fool of themselves here.”

“The success rate of soul summoning is low. What did you expect?”

He gave Jiang Tang a disdainful once-over, “Well, I guess not everyone can set up a soul summoning formation. Especially a fraud who doesn’t even understand the basics of summoning.”

At that moment, Jiang Tang’s mind went blank.

He… he mocked me!

This… this is the perfect timing to say those lines, right?

But when Jiang Tang tried to speak, he couldn’t get the words out. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again, but only ended up licking his lips nervously.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and forced out a shaky, awkward laugh: “Heh… heh… heh…”

Wang Liye looked at him with concern, “Master Jiang, are you… okay? Sore throat?”

Jiang Tang turned to him, and in that instant, Wang Liye somehow felt that this absurdly beautiful young man was about to cry.

Jian Yuanbai raised an eyebrow and glanced at Jiang Tang, “Hurry up and say it.”

Jiang Tang covered his face, took a deep breath, and with the courage of a man walking to his execution, he shouted:

“Hmph… Never judge a book by its cover, nor the depth of the sea by its surface! How dare you look down on me because of my appearance? Do you even know who’s standing before you? I am the future legend whose name will echo throughout the entire mystical world! Let me show you what a true Heavenly Master is!”

Everyone was stunned.

Master Ding’s face darkened as he gripped the bell tightly, while Wang Liye’s eyes lit up with hope, “So… does this mean you can summon my girlfriend’s ghost now?”

Jiang Tang’s hand remained over his face as he replied, his voice trembling with emotion, “I… I can’t.”

He regretted it.

This wasn’t the right time to speak.

A large hand pulled him into an embrace, shielding the humiliated Jiang Tang from the world.

Jian Yuanbai, with a calm and lazy tone, said, “He can.”

If Jiang Tang couldn’t do it, that was fine.

Because whatever Jiang Tang couldn’t do, Jian Yuanbai could.