IWBL: Chapter 48

The appearance of the embroidered shoes made Wu Tianyi and Yu Chao almost frightened to death. Yu Chao directly slipped to the ground, flipping over his chair and causing it to make a loud noise. In this empty kitchen, it even caused an echo.

The pair of embroidered shoes seemed to have senses as the direction of the pointed tip slightly adjusted and headed straight towards Yu Chao.

After adjusting the direction, the embroidered shoes squeezed through again, trying to enter the kitchen through the door crack. However, its upper part was too wide and it didn’t succeed for a while.

However, this didn’t make the reincarnators sigh with relief because the red embroidered shoes kept working hard. The fabric moved little by little inside and once it succeeded in entering the kitchen, they would die. Wu Tianyi and Yu Chao were reincarnators and knew they had to decide if they should escape or wait for death.

Compared to the senior reincarnators who were afraid but still had the strength to think, the couple were completely blank. After confirming that the shoes had no feet yet were moving on their own, the girl’s brain was blank as she stood in place with her mouth open.

The boy was also frightened and he gave a short, broken cry, “Ah! This… What is this? Hos is this possible? S-Save us!”

Wu Tianyi clung to the girl’s shoulder and dragged them back, leaning against the back wall. She repeated aloud to calm herself down, “Calm down, Wu Tianyi. You must calm down. It can’t enter, it can’t enter…”

However, her wish didn’t come true. The red embroidered shoes successfully squeezed in half of the shoes, only missing the last end. Under its efforts, the red embroidered shoes finally entered the kitchen.

After it entered, the two shoes didn’t move directly. It stood in place, heel aimed at the kitchen’s iron door. The white light of the kitchen hit the shoes and gave the illusion that it was lined with red blood. This wasn’t an embroidered red but a blood-stained red.

In the eyes of the four scared people, the red embroidered shoes moved. It took a few steps forward, like an invisible person wearing the red embroidered shoes was approaching them.

“W-What the hell is this? I… How can I encounter such a thing?” For the first time since the couple lost their senses, the boy trembled. Under the fear of the unknown, he pushed the girlfriend he had always been gentle to. “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t wanted to wander for a while, how could we catch this train? F*k, you are harming me!”

His strength was so great that the girl was pushed to the other side and she looked at him incredulously.

“What are you looking at?” The boy didn’t dare to look at the position of the embroidered shoes and simply vented his anger and fear on his girlfriend. “Am I wrong? You should’ve died alone instead of dragging me into it!”

“But… you also agreed. You were also curious.” The girl muttered. “I didn’t force you to come up.”

“Get lost, you’re killing me!”

The two of them were arguing. The boy once again scolded the girl but she didn’t answer. Instead, she touched her neck. It seemed that something cold had touched the back of her neck. Then she slowly raised her head and saw long hair, a red veil and a half-face.

The ghost bride licked her lips. “You… did you find my husband?”

“Ah—!” The girl screamed and stepped back, falling onto the ground.

Wu Tianyi bit her tongue and found her voice again from the pain. “N-Not yet. They are still looking. Please give us a bit more time…”

“No.” The ghost bride and embroidered shoes surrounded them as she said, “I’ll find him after I have eaten you.”

How terrible.

Wu Tianyi made up her mind as she took out a small fishnet bag. Then a transparent protective shield formed between them, isolating the ghost bride.

This was an item she had been saving. It was a life-saving item obtained in an extra draw. If this item was sold then it would be priceless. It was a very precious item that she had been reluctant to use. This time, she could only use it to save lives.

The moment the protective cover appeared, Wu Tianyi took the girl’s hand and immediately ran to the door. “Come with me, this won’t last long!”

Yu Chao immediately followed her and the boy didn’t need to be told.

Wu Tianyi opened the iron door and seemed to fly outside.

The couple followed closely. The boy was at the end due to having the latest departure time. As he passed by the iron door, he happened to slip. The next second, a cold touch fell on the back of his neck.

Now in his eyes, the ghost bride’s beautiful side had faded and became her original appearance. He sat frightened on the ground as he watched the ghost bride approaching him.

***

The passengers’ carriage.

Xiao Li walked in front and Tian Ji followed him with the string of spare keys in his hand, opening the first door. Before directly entering the room, they listened to Xiao Li’s proposal and first went to Deng Kang’s room to see the itinerary.

At present, it had already reached the second stop. However, the name of the third station hadn’t been released and it was still blank. Did it mean there wasn’t much time until the third station appeared or… did this train randomly stop?

Xiao Li touched his chin and left the room with the others to start looking for the ghost bride’s husband.

The first room they entered belonged to a woman. A dress was hung on the wall and cosmetics were placed on the dressing table.

Tian Ji stood at the door and didn’t intend to go in. He saw Xiao Li opening the drawers and cabinets one by one, seemingly looking for something. Tian Ji spoke helplessly, “Sherlock, we don’t have much time so don’t waste it.”

Xiao Li asked, “How is it a waste?”

“This is obviously a girl’s room. How can she be a husband?” Tian Ji thought that Xiao LI knowingly asked this and said, “I can be sure that her husband isn’t hidden in the bag of female passengers.”

Xiao Li turned to him and asked, “Did you just deprive the ghost bride of the right to be bisexual? Tian Ji, I didn’t think you were such a person.”

Tian Ji was questioned by him. Jiang Yishe followed behind Xiao Li, this person constantly observing Xiao Li. “Sherlock, what are you looking for?”

“One thing… I have to find it before I can confirm it.”Xiao Li closed the female passenger’s handbag and turned over the whole room. He even looked at the bottom of the bed before climbing up and flicking the dust off his body. “This room isn’t it. Let’s go.”

Tian Ji and Jiang Yishe turned to look at each other. They were reincarnators in the middle of the rankings but at this moment, they could see the confusion in each other’s eyes.

The teenager walked past them to the second door before turning back to signal to Tian Ji. The young man sighed and moved forward to unlock the door.

As someone who was usually the backbone of the team and the star, Tian Ji now felt that he had become Sherlock’s follower. He should feel unhappy that Sherlock snatched all his limelight. He didn’t know why but his heart was actually relaxed and comfortable. After all, he didn’t have to think hard about finding a way to live or shoulder the burden of himself and others. This feeling was really… too cool!

He faintly already had Sherlock at the bottom of his heart. If Sherlock was mature, steady and more normal then perhaps Tian Ji would worship him even more. However, the other person’s words and deeds were somewhat unexpected, such as now.

According to Tian Ji, apart from the rooms of the male passengers, they should be searching the special carriages that were enclosed. Maybe the ghost husband was secretly hiding there.

Xiao Li went to the secret room. This time, the passenger was a man. His body was lying at the bottom of the bed and his mouth was half-open. Tian Ji followed behind Xiao Li and walked in, observing the male body first in order to obtain clues from him.

Just like the first room, Xiao Li continued to rummage through the items. Tian Ji couldn’t help asking a few more words but Xiao Li never answered. He seemed to be thinking about something as he looked at the card in his hand and hesitated before putting it back.

They searched all the rooms along the way. As time passed by and they still gained nothing, Tian Ji jumped anxiously and even the patient Jiang Yishe started to become worried.

Xiao Li wasn’t too tense. Compared to the beginning, his brow had relaxed. Xiao Li opened the handbag hanging in a room and took out something with his fingers. He was just about to call to Tian Ji when he saw them staring at the door, their bodies tense as they stepped back.

The door of the room contained a pair of red embroidered shoes. The blood red colour was a sign of the arrival of the killing machine. The red embroidered shoes took one step forward and Tian Ji and Jiang Yishe stepped back until they were in the corner. The ghost… it was still coming?

Tian Ji and Jiang Yishe watched nervously while Xiao Li stuffed the item he was holding into Tian Ji’s hand. Tian Ji lifted it and saw that it was an ID card belonging to the owner of the room!

【 Xu Yin, Birthday: September 22nd, 1989. 】

Next to it was a photo of the man. What did Sherlock want to do with this ID? Tian Ji was curious.

Xiao Li went to the door, looked around the corridor and then crouched down, right hand on his thigh as he examined the red embroidered shoes. The red embroidered shoes took a step back.

“Sherlock, what are you looking at?” Xiao Li’s back was blocking his view and Tian Ji couldn’t see the shadow of the embroidered shoes. He raised his toes and stretched his head to look. Then he suddenly felt something cold on the back of his neck, as if something was touching him. The young man subconsciously bent down and suppressed the desire to turn back immediately, avoiding a head on killing. Instead, he rolled around the ground to the side before looking at where he had previously been standing.

The cold touch belonged to the ghost bride’s hair and veil. Tian Ji touched the back of his neck and found a few long hairs belonging to the female ghost. He hurriedly threw it to the ground and the hairs fell on the carpet.

The ghost bride stared straight at the people and hiccuped before hoarsely asking, “You… did you find my husband?”

This time, the ghost bride was no longer as elegant as before but revealed the ferocity of an evil spirit.

Jiang Yishe nervously folded his hands together and subconsciously looked at Sherlock. “Please give us some time. We temporarily—”

“We found him.” Xiao Li interrupted Jiang Yishe’s words as he picked up the shoes and walked towards the ghost bride.

“…When did we find it? Why didn’t I know?” Tian Ji hadn’t felt this feeling for a long time. He was clearly a big man in the hearts of other reincarnators and on the leaderboard but in front of Sherlock, he felt like an ignorant and helpless person. “In addition, why are you holding that pair of shoes! They are ghost shoes!”

The red embroidered shoes could be described as his childhood nightmare. Jiang Yishe silently agreed +1.

Xiao Li handed the red embroidered shoes in his hands to the ghost bride and pointed at the bare feet poking out. “Your shoes are gone.”

The ghost bride involuntarily looked down in the direction he was pointing. In sharp contrast to the ghost bride’s face, her feet were actually very beautiful. It was just that because it was continuously wrapped, it appeared deformed.

Xiao Li put on the shoes and raised two fingers. “In two minutes, I’ll help you find your husband.”

Tian Ji, “???”

In two minutes, was Sherlock going to sacrifice himself to be the husband? Xiao Li definitely wouldn’t do so. He didn’t wait for the reaction of the ghost bride but immediately crouched in front of the male corpse, extending a hand towards Tian Ji. “Scissors.”

“How could I carry such a thing with me?” Tian Ji touched his pockets and pulled out a small Swiss army knife. “I only have this. You use it carefully.”

Xiao Li held the handle of the Swiss army knife and stroked the man’s hair. He carefully cut off a small section and placed it in the palm of his hand.

He looked around, tore a page from the notepad beside the bed and wrote a row of words on it. It was the man’s birth date and death date. His birthday was on the ID card and his death was yesterday.

Xiao Li put the hair and paper together and then picking up the female ghost’s hair that Tian Ji had thrown away. He wrapped it together with the man’s hair and wrote on the paper, ‘Propose Marriage Sticker’. Then he pulled out a lighter.

The hair and paper were submerged in the flames and soon withered and turned to ashes.

The moment these things burned up, the marriage proposal sticker and tangled hair appeared in the ghost bride’s hand. The faint outline of a man also appeared by the ghost bride’s side. Her expression changed and became infinitely shy. She put the combined strand of hair into the wedding dress and slowly faded away.

“Why did that happen?” Once the crisis was lited, Tian Ji asked the question in his heart. “You gave the female ghost… a marriage? A yin marriage? Wait, let me sort things out. Previously you were looking for the ID cards?”

“It isn’t only the ID card, anything with a birth date was okay.” Xiao Li pointed to the man’s ID card in Tian Ji’s hand. “This person was born in the year of the Snake, the guiyou month (yin water and chicken) and yiyou day (yin wood and chicken). This is a special date.” (TL: A type of horoscope/fortune telling thing that shows he’ll have bad luck with marriage)

Tian Ji felt pain. “Speak clearly.”

“… It is commonly known as the yin month and yin day. His life is yin and the operation is relatively simple. The first few people, I either didn’t find an ID card or the yang was too heavy and it wasn’t suitable.”

“How did you think of a marriage? Most people would be thinking about looking for… the old husband?’

Xiao Li looked at Tian Ji with disbelief. “Isn’t it natural to think of this? The bride didn’t give us any clues and it was obviously impossible to accomplish. It was used as a smokescreen.”

“Oh, really good.”

He took out his phone and pressed on a calculator app. He extended a finger and pressed the number six, so that the mechanical sound filled the room and made an old-fashioned calculator sound: 6666666—return to zero, 66666— (TL: 66666 means very good because the pronunciation of 6 is the same as the character for ‘very good’)

Xiao Li, “………”

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