Sick Beauty [Rebirth]

Chapter 80 Hairpin

After Yue Qiushuang agreed, the two fell in love, and Xie Jiuyou got closer to Yue Qiushuang. 

Only, the two had never done anything beyond their boundaries because of Yue Qiushuang’s inner misgivings and hard work day and night. 

Xie Jiuyou’s injury had almost healed, and he wanted to take Yue Qiushuang to escape from the ghost ship. However, Yue Qiushuang stopped him.

In the past three years, Yue Qiushuang acted carefully and hid Xie Jiuyou secretly. No one knew that Xie Jiuyou was still alive. As long as he found the chance, it wouldn’t be difficult for Xie Jiuyou to leave. 

But it’d be completely different if he brought him. 

If he disappeared, the ghosts would soon find out. When the time came, there wouldn’t be for the two of them to escape. 

… Besides, he hadn’t told Xie Jiuyou that the eternal life pill’s effects were unresolved on his body. Even if they were ashore, they wouldn’t live like a human in the end. 

He decided to let Xie Jiuyou escape alone, but Xie Jiuyou didn’t want to. 

In the middle of the night, Xie Jiuyou turned his back to Yue Qiushuang and said nothing. 

Yue Qiushuang got up to look but saw a face full of tears.

He didn’t see Xie Jiuyou shed a single tear even when the ghosts sliced into his flesh and bones. 

He didn’t expect to see him cry tonight like a very embarrassed little tabby cat. 

Yue Qiushuang was taken aback. He quickly got up to coax him, but Xie Jiuyou seemed to feel even more wronged. He slowly wrote in his palm while crying too hard: Ah Shuang, I only blame my cultivation base for being too low and unable to protect you. 

Yue Qiushuang: How could I blame you? I only hope you will cultivate well after you leave the ghost ship. You will come to the ghost ship to rescue me when your cultivation completes. You said you want to marry me, so I will wait here for you. I want to see you in your battle armor, sweeping down the ghosts. The person I like should be a majestic hero. Don’t cry anymore. 

Xie Jiuyou: Are the words Ah Shuang wrote true? Do you want me to be your hero? 

Yue Qiushuang rubbed his head and wrote: Naturally. 

Xie Jiuyou finally stopped violently opposing leaving. 

Only, he stuck closer to him and would often kiss and hug him. 

After the kiss and hugs were finished, he would take advantage of him and pretend to be well behaved, and then write something cheesy on his palm. 

Xie Jiuyou wrote: Ah Shuang, you are so soft. 

He also wrote: But you are just too thin and need more supplements. I heard Ah Niang say that being too thin will affect fertility. 

Yue Qiushuang blushed. He never thought about having a later generation when he got on the ghost ship. Besides, he was already with Xie Jiuyou now. So he wrote: Don’t mess around anymore. 

… 

Before leaving, the boy grabbed his hand and wrote: Ah Shuang, wait for me to come back.

Yue Qiushuang wrote: Okay. 

Xie Jiuyou raised his hand again to touch Yue Qiushuang’s face inch by inch. He closed his eyes and stroked it carefully as if to thoroughly remember his facial features’ outline. 

Yue Qiushuang bowed his head and kissed his lips in response to his childish behavior. 

He found an opportunity to put Xie Jiuyou into the corpse-handling bags on the ship, then threw the bag into the sea. 

No ghosts were aware of it. 

Xie Jiuyou put a bottle of blood essence in his room to keep his qi. 

During the second year after he left, a paper crane Xie Jiuyou folded followed this qi and flew to Yue Qiushuang’s hand. 

Yue Qiushuang held it in his hand for a long time before opening the paper crane. 

After the paper crane was spread out, there was a letter. 

“To my wife” was written on the letter. 

Yue Qiushuang blushed slightly and then read it line by line. 

In the letter, Xie Jiuyou said that he had returned to the shore smoothly and joined a dao Academy. Now he wasn’t far from breaking through Nascent Soul. He also said that he was fortunate enough that he had cured his deformity with the help of his seniors, so he could see things and listen to speech normally. 

Then he talked about getting a sea bead when he was diving in the sea before and planned to make jewelry by himself. He would bring it to him personally when he married him in the future. 

Yue Qiushuang read the letter three times before carefully folding the letter paper into a paper crane and hiding it in his wall cabinet. 

In the following years, he received many more paper cranes. 

The young man gradually grew up in places he couldn’t see. His pen strokes became sharper and sharper, and the world he saw and heard became vast.

Only, Yue Qiushuang’s cultivation base was completely abolished. 

Although he could receive letters, he could not reply. Even so, every time he received a paper crane, he still took out a piece of letter paper and carefully wrote a reply, then put it in his drawer. 

After years, the letters had stacked into thick piles. 

On the envelope, after Yue Qiushuang hesitated for a long time, he would blush and write on it: To my dear Xie Lang. 

Seventh year after Xie Jiuyou left. 

Yue Qiushuang came to the inner cabin to meet with his sister Yue Yudie and found that Yue Yu Die’s cheeks were haggard and sunken. Her whole person was thin and out of shape, and the shape was a bit terrifying, like a supporting skeleton. It looked like she didn’t have much time left.

Yue Qiushuang was shocked: “What did Li Fei do to you!” 

Yue Yudie lowered her head and said nothing. She did not touch the pen on the table. 

——Since she was frightened and lost her voice that year, she hadn’t spoken again. She could only communicate with Yue Qiushuang with pen and paper. 

“I didn’t do anything to her,” The ghost general Li Fei suddenly walked into the cabin, “Is she just overestimating herself? She was delusional, attempted to please me, and got affected by my ghost qi on me. Thus, she ended up like this.” 

“I haven’t even figured out how to punish her for the crime of trespassing this time.” 

Yue Qiushuang was startled, knelt down to the ground, and said: “General, my sister has made a mistake. This slave, as her brother, did not teach her well. If you want to punish her, please punish this slave.” 

Li Fei smiled, “Slave Shuang, you love your sister so much, just as in the past. How about this? I remember during the ghost festival, years in the past, you had drank and danced and it was very moving. This year you will again offer such a dance and cannot stop until 5-7am. ” 

Yue Qiu Shuang’s complexion turned pale, but he could only agree.

After hesitating for a while, he said: “Ghost qi contaminated my sister, and I am afraid that she will not have much time left. She will be powerless to serve the Lord. Can she be returned to this slave to take care of her?” 

Li Fei waved his hand, “You can do whatever.” 

Yue Qiu Shuang brought Yue Yudie back to his room. 

Yue Yudie hung her head. Her face was haggard, and her eyes were hollow. The question and reprimand that were about to come out stopped at Yue Qiushuang’s throat when he saw her looking like this. 

Coincidentally, there was another ghost summoning, so he had to go prepare. 

When he came back late at night, he found that Yue Yudie was sitting next to the bookcase where he usually wrote letters. 

The wall cabinets and desks showed signs of opening. Yue Qiushuang wondered whether his sister had seen his and Xie Jiuyou’s letters. He saw Yue Yudie holding a pen and writing on the paper: I really didn’t mean to offend him. 

I just want to live better. 

…Brother, I’m really…too scared. 

Yue Qiushuang looked at it, sighed, and stepped forward to hug his sister, feeling that he was only holding a skeleton. 

He said: “It’s all over. Don’t be afraid.” 

Yue Yudie: Will I die here? 

Yue Qiushuang said: “No. Yudie, do you believe in brother? Very soon, someone will come to rescue us, we will soon be able to go back to the world.” 

Yue Yudie: How long will it take? 

Yue Qiushuang recalled what Xie Jiuyou had written in the letter and smiled a little: “It’s not long, it’s… half a year at the latest.” 

The fifteenth day of the autumn month was also another year’s ghost festival.

Yue Qiushuang dressed in red with thick white powder and colorful makeup on his face. He danced in the sight of the ghosts. 

The ghost attendant fed him the sprinkled blood wine. He drunkenly laid down in the blood-colored wine pool and undressed. blue and fluorescent lines painted his snow-white body. The strange and weird beauty attracted many ghosts to the blood. 

A glass of wine spilled on him. The cold drink and the hot fire in his body mixed together. He twisted and stretched his limbs and danced, but his consciousness gradually began to blur. 

Suddenly, someone yelled: “Fire! The ship is on fire!” 

He opened his eyes blindly. 

The fire reflected in his pupils, and a group of daoist cultivators descended from the sky. 

The face of the leader was very handsome. He was wearing silver armor and holding a long sword with a sharp look. This is what Yue Qiu Shuang had imagined countless times in these years of what he looked like when he grew up. 

He opened his mouth, but he could only make a husky, sweet hum. He saw Xie Jiuyou’s gaze sweeping across the deck, sweeping across the ghosts like enemies, and him lying on the floor. 

He also looked at the musical actress in the stands, looked at it inch by inch, and frowned. 

The fire burned to the deck, and daoist cultivators and the ghosts kept fighting. 

Yue Qiushuang was confused when he saw the young man’s figure disappear into the cabin. 

He thought that it was probably because he put on too heavy makeup and looked too shamefully. He didn’t tell Xie Jiuyou in advance that besides singing on the ghost ship, he also had to dance. Therefore, Xie Jiuyou couldn’t recognize him for a while. 

It didn’t matter, he thought. 

Xie Jiuyou wouldn’t leave directly. He would go to the room to find him. As long as he followed, it would be fine… 

Then he used his strength to prop up his body and climb into the room.

He heard Xie Jiuyou yelling: “Ah Shuang? Ah Shuang?” 

Yue Qiushuang answered, “Xie Lang…” The sound of burning flames drowned The small voice. 

At almost the same time, he heard a beautiful female voice sounding like a lark in the room. It was a voice very similar to when he sang. 

——It was also the lost voice that had never spoken to him again. His sister’s voice. 

“Xie Lang, are you looking for me? I’m Ah Shuang.” 

“I’m so scared, hurry up…take me out of here.” 

He saw Xie Jiuyou hurrying out of the room while holding the skinny woman. He boarded his sword and flew to the sky. The burning wood hit his hand, and the tongue of fire licked his pale body. 

He felt that he was indeed drunk. Thus, he would dream such a ridiculous dream. 

Suddenly, someone picked him up. The other party’s black nails clasped his waist and abdomen. 

Li Fei said: “The ship is sinking, follow me.” 

The Eastern Continent’s ghost ship was destroyed. All the ghosts on it were destroyed. Only the ghost general Li Fei escaped. This became the first event in the history books for the human race to calm the ghost chaos. 

Li Fei took Yue Qiushuang to the Western Continent, where the ghosts were more chaotic. Li Fei established a ghost mansion in Qingming Mountain and still asked Yue Qiushuang to dance and sing for him. 

Yue Qiushuang still had extravagant thoughts, thinking that as long as Xie Jiuyou realized, he would definitely come back and rescue him. 

But after waiting for two months, he only found out the news of Xie Jiuyou’s marriage.

Li Fei: “Your sister’s life is really good. Although time was running out, you had protected her on the ghost ship. Then, she could return to the world with the so-called savior of mankind protecting her. Slave Shuang, you should feel rest assured since you heard the news. Peacefully serve me well. You have been absent-minded in the past few days, which made me very dissatisfied.” 

Yue Qiushuang was only silent. 

Xie Jiuyou and Yue Yudie married in February. The crowd celebrated with a thousand miles of red makeup. In another six months, Mrs. Xie passed away. In the same year, Xie Jiuyou went into closed-door training. 

His cultivation met success, and he stepped into Void Tracing Realm in another one hundred and seventy years. He wanted to build an underworld and re-establish reincarnation. The world called him the Great Emperor Netherworld. 

Yue Qiushuang waited for Xie Jiuyou for one hundred and seventy years. 

After he sang a song on stage, he suddenly heard a roar in his ears. Xie Jiuyou’s voice then spread into the hearts of everyone in the world, including ghosts. 

“I, Xie Jiuyou, am now establishing the underworld. Acting on behalf of the heavens, the cycle will re-establish, and ghost chaos will stop from now on.” 

Yue Qiushuang listened in a daze. 

Li Fei held him and took him to a well. Li Fei smiled and said: “Slave Shuang, now our great power has passed. Now the underworld has been established. Why not become a ghost since you have been with this Lord for so many years? Come with me.”

“Yes,” Li Fei said again, “At the beginning when the Yin and Yang rebelled against chaos, those of us who escaped from the heavens and the earth were unforgivable ghosts. After we go to the underworld, we should be going to the eighteenth h*ll. Slave Shuang, after raising you for so many years, you have eaten so many living bones, you must be already full of sin. After you die, you should be well matched for me. At that time, I will save you from slavery. How about we get married in the underworld?”

Yue Qiushuang suddenly trembled when he heard the word “married.”

Li Fei pushed him into the well while he struggled endlessly. Then, his clear melodious voice screamed hoarse before he finally died. 

“You went to the underworld and saw him?” Ye Yunlan asked. 

The water ghost held the paper crane and nodded slowly. 

Ghosts come and go in the underworld, especially to the Palace of the King of H*ll. There were so many ghosts that waited to go up to the mirror platform that the square almost couldn’t fit them all. 

He heard those who worked as escorts in the ghost mansion sigh that he was busy with work. He didn’t know how the King of H*ll endured loneliness and judged people here every day. 

Someone said: “Since Mrs. Yudie died, there has been no one around that person.” 

Another person sighed: “That person has a deep love for his wife. It’s a pity, Mrs. Yudie’s life was not long. She was already like that when she was rescued. Even the emperor was unable to help.” 

One person said: “Speaking of, I remember that before Mrs. Yudie was rescued she had a nickname, he would mumble on his lips every day. Why doesn’t he say it now?”

Another said: “That’s Mrs. Yudie’s name. Afterward, Mrs. Yudie said that this title reminded her of all her experience on the ghost ship, so she had that person stop calling her that. Even we cannot say it. Hey, speaking of this, what is the nickname of that lady? Time has passed too long, I have forgotten a little.” 

“It seems to be, Ah Shuang…” 

“Ah Shuang?” Li Fei, who stood in front of him, repeated. He then turned to look at Yue Qiushuang, “I don’t know when your sister had such a nickname?” 

Even though he has become a ghost, Yue Qiushuang was still instinctively afraid of Li Fei. 

Li Fei’s tone became a little elusive when making the connection. 

“So, back then, what led Xie Jiuyou to destroy the Eastern Continent Ghost Ship was you who he wanted to save, not your sister?” 

Yue Qiushuang thought that Li Fei would be furious. 

Unexpectedly, Li Fei just looked at him faintly for a moment, then stroked his cheeks with his black nails, “Ah Shuang, you are really a disaster.” 

“It’s nothing. I will treat you after I go to the underworld.” 

They lined up for a long time. It was for about a hundred years. 

Li Fei entered the hall first, then Yue Qiushuang. 

The sin mirror showed that he was full of guilt. Yue Qiushuang didn’t care, he just raised his head to look up. 

The King of H*ll was wearing a heavy robe on the high seat, hidden by a huge shadow. He was not the same as the person he imagined. 

He said: “You are a human race, but you mingled with ghosts. Helping to be a tormentor, you ate your fellow clan. According to the law, you should go to h*ll and be sentenced for thousands of years.”

Yue Qiushuang stared at him, spoke softly, and said the only thing he wanted to say every day while waiting for the other for one hundred and seventy years. 

“Xie Lang, do you still recognize me? I’m… Ah Shuang.” 

There was a long silence on the high seat. 

Then, there was a suspicious whisper: “Ah Shuang?” 

The robes and shadows covering the upper part dispersed, and the pale and thin man who looked like a scholar walked down. 

His gaze was a little confused as if he wanted to come closer to see Yue Qiu Shuang on the sin mirror platform. But before he arrived, there was a bronze chain behind him, which bound him so he couldn’t move forward.  

Xie Jiuyou’s confused expression gradually became hollow and indifferent. 

He said: “I use my body to protect the netherworld, combined with the underworld, merging with the heavens. Now, the past has been forgotten, and the six emotions have no roots. I have sworn that there will be more ghost chaos, and the underworld will never be empty, so I will never be detached.” 

“I don’t know what you have to do with me. But as soon as you enter the underworld, you should abide by the underworld rules.” 

The sin mirror platform changed from real to virtual. 

Yue Qiushuang and Xie Jiuyou’s eyes crossed. 

He opened his mouth, trying to say something. But thinking about it carefully, what he wanted to say had actually been said in the sentence just now. 

He had nothing to say. 

Yue Qiushuang originally thought that he would fall into h*ll to be tortured, but he didn’t expect that after a long fall, there was a clean place with light, water, green grass, and blue sky in front of him when he opened his eyes again. 

There was no penalty and no bondage. 

There was a stone stele on the ground that recorded the origin of this space. 

This was the cornerstone of the underworld palace. It was also the place where Xie Jiuyou’s cultivation base had arrived at Void Tracing Realm, able to open up space. 

The stone tablet recorded that Xie Jiuyou built this place for the person in his heart. 

When the person he loved’s heart and soul died.

The soul was missing, unclear where it was floating. 

Xie Jiuyou decided to rebuild the netherworld and vowed to subdue the netherworld with his body. He would restore Yin and Yang and calm the ghost chaos to be able to escape from the Three Realms, and then become immortal to bring his sweetheart back to life. Xie Jiuyou didn’t know if this matter was successful, so he left a touch of thought in advance. If the soul of the person in his heart returned to the underworld and his mind perception recognized the person, they could be sent to this space without being controlled by the law of the underworld. 

Going around and around, recognized by Xie Jiuyou’s heart, the soul that had returned to this point was still Yue Qiushuang. 

“He wanted to become an immortal, and he swore a big oath, saying that ghost chaos will stop and that h*ll will not be empty, and he will never be detached. But becoming an immortal is not such an easy thing… But then I thought, why not wait for him again since I have already waited for him for so long.” 

The water ghost’s voice was already very calm as if he was not the one who was screaming and howling when he first got the paper crane. 

“Thinking about it carefully, he was actually not wrong.” 

“He just…he recognized the wrong person, and later, he forgot my original real name.” 

Shen Shu said: “What Great Emperor Netherworld, King of H*ll—— isn’t he just a glib thing, a blind idiot.” 

The water ghost didn’t lift his head up this time. He stared at him and muttered in a low voice: “Indeed.”

“But this paper crane is for me, you can’t take it back.” 

Shen Shu: “I know, I know.” 

Ye Yunlan suddenly said: “Since it is the letter he left for you, won’t you open it?” 

The water ghost was startled and looked towards the white paper crane in his hand. 

After he hesitated for a long time, he slowly unfolded the paper crane. 

The writer’s handwriting was the same as that of the past. It was brilliant and sharp. 

It was just the first line of the letter that left him in a daze. 

For a while, he didn’t know whether it was happiness or sorrow. 

——See the words as if it were one’s face, Ah Shuang. 

Recently, my mind has been in a trance, and I can’t remember your original name. I only remember the word “Ah Shuang”, which often lingers in my ears. I am also very familiar with it. Since I am in a hurry, I called it this way first, and I hope you don’t take offense. 

After merging with the underworld, everything is not as good as I imagined. Although I have gained power beyond my own body, my five passions and six desires seem to be gradually fading. I don’t remember many things in my life. The memories that have the deepest impact with me is the time with you, spending those three years on a ghost ship with you. A ghost caught me and I went to the boat. When I was tortured, I heard your sweet singing. After I woke up in a coma, I couldn’t listen to it anymore. The singing is still in my heart…

Now that I think about it, if being tortured by meat and bones means I would be able to see you again, I would be willing to accept it.

Ah Shuang, I hope you don’t think I’m long-winded, I want to write down the things that I still remember before the memory fades away. 

Recently I am always scared and always thinking, if I become immortal, but forget you, then what should I do? Later, I thought about it and felt that even if I became an immortal, I would never forget you. If I had forgotten you, I would naturally not become an immortal. Thinking like this, I no longer worry about it. 

Yes, Ah Shuang, when I escaped from the ghost ship and found a sea bead while diving deep into the sea, I said that I would polish it into jewelry and wear it for you when I marry you. It’s just that when you were seriously ill, we hurriedly got married, and we forgot about it for a while. Later, I was alone in closed-door training and remembered that I had finished polishing it. 

I remember Ah Shuang told me that what you want most in your life is freedom. If your soul returns to the underworld, although there is a place I set up to live temporarily, you will still be a little cramped while coming. There is my mark on this hairpin, so you can walk through the underworld at will, share the authority of the underworld with me, and be the master of the underworld together. 

Although there is not much scenery in this mansion, there are all kinds of illusions my mind formed. It should be sufficient to entertain you… 

The handwriting on the letter suddenly began to mess up. It seemed like it was written by a person while half asleep. 

And the last line that could be faintly recognizable was: Ah Shuang, I miss you very much. 

A hairpin was already lying quietly on the water ghost’s hand when the paper crane unfolded. It was made of ebony, with a faint blue bead embedded in the front end, which gave off a moving light as the light flowed.

It seemed that others had often rubbed the hairpin. There was already a layer of oily and smooth coating on the surface that made it as beautiful as jade. 

“Why are you crying?” 

Ye Yunlan suddenly said. 

Water ghost: “I just suddenly knew that he was waiting for me.” 

Ye Yunlan: “His spirit has disappeared. Do you want to continue waiting?” 

Water ghost: “No longer.” 

“I’m going to find him myself.” 

Ye Yunlan: “Now that h*ll is empty, and reincarnation has been re-established, his spirit, though dissipated, has not yet broken from life. If you rush this time cycle, you might be able to see him.” 

The water ghost laughed, “Yes. I need to see him.” 

For a moment, he calmed his emotions and said to Ye Yunlan and Shen Shu: “Right, are you strangers who strayed into the underworld?” 

Ye Yunlan: “Yes. ” 

Water ghost: “Thank you for sending the paper crane and being willing to listen to me telling such a boring story. If you want to go out, I can send you a ride.” 

Ye Yunlan nodded, then said: “Then please send us to the third level of the Secret Realm.” 

The water ghost rubbed the hairpin in his hand and said: “Okay.” 

He raised his hand and pointed, then there was an illusion of a light door behind Ye Yunlan. 

Ye Yunlan and Shen Shumai stepped forward. Halfway through, Ye Yunlan turned around and saw an imaginary spot of light emerging from the water ghost. 

The other party slowly came ashore from the water. The bloody clothes on his body and the heavy makeup on his face fluttered with the light spots, and he could vaguely see his slender figure dressed in blue clothes. That ebony hairpin lifted up the other party’s black hair. His face was so beautiful that it was difficult to distinguish between genders. He had a pair of gentle eyes. 

Yue Qiushuang waved at them, and his figure became more and more transparent. 

“Goodbye.”