250|The Ghost King’s Bedtime Stories

Hwaseong is sick.

It’s just a minor illness, but it turns out that the Demon King can get sick too, which is really amazing.

Therefore, when Xie Ren returned to the Thousand Lanterns Guan and went to check Hua Cheng’s practiced calligraphy as usual, she was greatly worried when she saw him with a slightly reddened face.

After pressing Hua Cheng onto the god platform – not bad, the two of them rolled around on this spacious god platform all day long, and didn’t put any idols on it anyway, Xie Ren poked out a hand, tested his cheeks and forehead, and became more and more worried, “It’s so hot.”

Hua Cheng laughed, “It’s naturally hot when you see your brother. It gets even hotter when brother touches it again.”

Xie Ren was first stunned, and quickly tried to pretend that her face was red from his anger, saying, “After being sick, her mouth is still so dishonest.”

Flower City innocently said, “Did I say anything? I am very honest. Brother, don’t worry, it’s a small matter, nothing to worry about.”

But Xie Ren could hear that his voice was lower and hoarser than usual, and his brows were also slightly weary as he said, “Then get some rest, I’ll stay here with you for the next few days and wait for you to get better.”

After saying that, he took the ink, paper and inkstone for practicing calligraphy to the side of the God’s platform, Hua Cheng patted his side and said, “Won’t brother come up to the platform to accompany me?”

Once on the stage can still come down, these days do not want to rest, Xie Ren politely said: “No, my Sanlang is too much work.”

Hua Cheng laughed, “Where, if it’s your brother, how can Sanlang be afraid of drudgery?”

Xie Ren didn’t mess with him and concentrated on writing the word post. Hua Cheng rolled over, resting his cheeks on one hand and staring at his face.

No matter how many times, Xie Ren would be reddened by this kind of gaze from him, and said rather uncomfortably, “…… Sanlang, look at the word post, not at me.”

Hua Cheng sighed: “Brother, truth be told, I have a headache as soon as I see this stuff, but it is written by my brother and I can’t afford not to read it, this disease of mine might just be a result of reading too many word posters.”

Xie Ren said, “There is no such disease.”

Hua Cheng said cheekily, “Why don’t you look at your brother, your brother is much better looking than the word post, so maybe I’ll get better after a couple more looks.”

Xie Ren helpless and funny, shelved the pen, shook his head and said, “How do you now more and more love to talk nonsense …… mouth without a proper shape. Okay know, listen to you, do not read the post, then do what?”

Hua Cheng said, “Actually, you don’t need to do anything, if you stay with me like this, it won’t take long for me to get better.”

Xie Ren once again touched his forehead. Although this person had the face of a handsome man, he was now pampering himself like this, making him think of a small child nestled in a warm comforter in the winter, poking out his red cheeks, and his heart was very loving and compassionate. After thinking about it, he said, “In this way, as it happens, I received something today.”

He dug into his sleeve and pulled out something, saying, “This is an old book I collected today that people didn’t want, and I was just about to read it. Let me read the story to you.”

In his hand was a long ago pamphlet, tattered and torn, with yellowed pages and a strange bookish inkiness that must have been turned over countless times.

Flower City, however, said, “Not listening.”

Xie Ren wondered, “Why?”

Hua Cheng lazily said, “Anyway, it’s also the stories of the other Magi that are made up, I know exactly what’s going on with their little old shit, so what’s so good to listen to, and why should I have to labor for my brother to read it out to me specifically?”

It was also right. After all, Flower City was a man who had mastered the black history of many great powers in the Three Realms. Flower City said, “If brother really wants to read, why don’t you read something else. For example, your own story.”

Xie Ren laughed and said, “Is there anyone else who knows and sees more about me than you?”

Hua Cheng said, “Tell me more, I want to hear it. No amount of listening is enough.”

Xie Ren knew that he was serious in what he said, and carefully tidied the hair around his cheeks for him. Unintentionally sweeping another glance, she suddenly wondered, “Sanlang, it seems like you and I are really written in here.”

“Yeah?”

Xie Ren flipped through the booklet again and said, “Really. There’s so much written about the red-robed Great Ghost King and the Ragged Immortal. This is you and me, right?”

Hua Cheng also became interested and said, “Oh? What was written?”

Xie Ren was also curious about how the folk people would make up stories about him and Hua Cheng, so he opened the collection of stories and read them to Hua Cheng: “A long, long time ago, there was a great ghost king who loved to wear red. Although the Great Ghost King was extremely powerful and had several gold and silver mountains, he was very unhappy. Because he was very lonely and missed his wife ……”

“……”

Xie Ren “poof” laughed out loud, a little read no more, said: “Lonely ghost king empty nest to stay? …… hahahaha …… hahahahaha ……”

Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow and said, “It’s not wrong. I was lonely at that time when my brother was away.”

Xie Ren’s face heated up as he continued to read.

A long, long time ago, there was a big ghost king who loved to wear red. Although the king was extremely powerful and had several mountains of gold and silver with endless money, he was very unhappy. Because he was very lonely and missed his wife.

But he waited for hundreds of years without waiting for his beloved, so he went to ask an old fairy who was a very good fortune-teller, where is my wife?

The old fairy told him, “You and the one you are waiting for will be reunited on a mountain. Your wife will come to marry you in a wedding garment and in a palanquin.”

Determined that he must find his wife, the Great Demon King went to that mountain and waited patiently.

And far, far away, there was another raggedy immortal.

The Ragged Immortal is a rag collector, so he is the poorest of the magi, poorer than many mortals.

But though he was poor, he was kind. One day, on his way back from collecting rags, the Immortal saw a girl crying by the side of the road and asked, “Girl, what is it that makes you so sad?”

The girl cried as she said, “I’m going to get married, but on the day of the wedding delivery, I have to go over a mountain, and there is a ghost groom living on the mountain, specializing in robbing brides passing by, and only a few of them have been rescued, and I’ll be robbed and killed!”

The Ragged Immortal was very sympathetic and determined to do the people a favor, so he decided to kill the monster instead of the girl getting married.

The Raggedy Fairy had two best friends, the Raggedy Fairy and the Petty Fairy respectively because one was grumpy and the other was petty. They beat each other up while telling him, “That ghost groom is a great ghost king, very bad-tempered and cunning, and hates fairies the most; if you go to catch him, you will surely be eaten!”

But the Immortal must go, so they made a sedan chair for the Immortal. On the day of her wedding, the Immortal wore a beautiful wedding dress borrowed from the Wind Master’s Maiden, pretended to be a bride in the sedan chair, and was carried up the mountain by two friends who had been beating each other up all the way.

In the dark night, the demon wind, the sedan chair carried to the mountain, no one, the immortal waited and waited, and finally waited to pick up his bridegroom.

Lifting the cover and taking a look, the immortal was surprised to find that the Great Demon King was an extremely handsome young man.

What surprised him even more was that this teenage groom was very polite and seemed to be well-bred, gentle and considerate. Neither did he shed his human skin to reveal his true colors of green face and fangs, nor did he force him to do anything bad, not at all like that legendary terrifying Great Ghost King.

The mountain was very large, and the Great Demon King took the Immortal to his cave and said to him, “From this moment on, I am your husband, and you are my beloved wife. This whole mountain is mine and yours, and you may look around as you please. But remember, there are two houses in the back of the mountain that you must not go to.”

The immortal then asked, “Why?”

The Demon King’s groom replied, “That’s my secret, you don’t need to know. However, even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to go, because there are barriers set up in front of both of those houses, and you must have something on me to get through that barrier.”

The immortal continued, “What is it?”

The King of Ghosts replied, “A house in which dirty waste is hidden can only be opened with something that I can touch on my body, and in abundance; a house in which powerful magic treasures are hidden can only be opened with something that I can’t touch on my body, but that is very hot.”

Of course the Immortal didn’t listen to him. Although he pretended to be well-behaved in front of the Great Ghost King, as soon as the Great Ghost King left, he flew off and quietly went to the back of the mountain. Sure enough, he heard horrible howls and cries for help coming from the house where the filthy waste was hidden.

The Immortal suspects that the missing brides are kept here, so he decides to steal the one thing that the Great Demon King has on him to open the mysterious house.

But what to steal?

The Great Ghost King had long, shiny black hair, sometimes worn loose, sometimes tied up crookedly. The first thing the fairy came up with was to steal a few strands of his hair every day, and asked, “Excuse me, can we live in the same room?”

His groom politely said, “Of course. We are husband and wife.”

In this way, they stayed in the same room. Though they slept in the same bed, the Immortal would not allow the groom to undress him, and the King of the Great Ghosts then had the decency not to touch him.

But the fairy soon realized that not a single hair fell out of his groom’s head. Every day, whether he got up in the morning to brush his hair or went to bed at night, not a single hair was to be seen on the pillow, in the bed, on the floor, or on the comb!

This was a big headache. The Immortal took a sword and tried to secretly cut a strand of hair off the King’s head while he was sleeping. But the Great Demon King was very alert, and immediately opened his eyes as he approached. The Immortal was calm even when he was caught in the act. In order that the Great Demon King would not suspect him, he immediately cut off a strand of his own hair and gave it to him.

The Great Ghost King was happy to receive it.

Soon the witty immortal thought of something else. He said to the Great Ghost King, “Please, may I kiss you?”

His groom readily said, “Of course. We are husband and wife.”

So the fairy took the initiative and hugged the ghost groom, kissing him so hard for so long that he finally tasted a little bit of the ghost groom and hurriedly closed his mouth and ran to the back of the mountain.

But when he arrived, he realized that it still wouldn’t work. Because it takes much, much more, but he doesn’t get enough. He still couldn’t get in, he could only stick his head in the house, his body couldn’t get in anyway.

The Ragged Immortal was a bit frustrated. He had thought it would be easy to steal the one thing on the Ghost King’s body, but he hadn’t expected it to be so arduous.

Thinking of his good friend, the Wind Master Maiden, he visited the Feng Shui Temple and asked, “What more do I have to do to get the same thing that I touched, and a lot of it, from the Great Demon King?”

Wind Master Maiden said, “Tie! It’s too easy, just put on a female disguise and cavort with him!”

The Broken Immortal hurriedly shook his head. The Immortal Technique he practiced had a stipulation that once he broke his body, he would lose a lot of his mana, so how could this approach work?

At this time, Lord Sailor returned, just in time to hear this from the Niangniang, and shouted angrily, “Outrageous! How can you say such hurtful things!”

When Lord Sailor gets angry, he uses his money to smash people to death, and the Raggedy Immortal rushes off. As he ran, he thought of his other two best friends, the Grumpy Immortal and the Cheap Immortal, and went to them to ask what to do.

The Grumpy Immortal and the Petty Immortal were fighting each other again, and while they were fighting each other, they told him the great news: because too many people had been captured, the magi were about to attack this mountain and capture this great demon king!

The Immortal was taken aback and worried. Because after many days together, he now felt that this teenage ghost king wouldn’t do such a bad thing, maybe there was some misunderstanding, maybe it wasn’t those brides that were locked up in the back of the mountain, but something else.

However, because the ragged fairy was poor and had no status, no one listened to him. The Immortal was anxious that if he did not find out the truth, perhaps the Great Demon King would be besieged by the magi.

Having no choice, the Immortal had to run back and ask the Great Demon King, “Excuse me, can you cave in with me?”

His groom smiled and said, “Ah, of course. We’re husband and wife.”

And so, the Ragged Immortal caved with the Great Ghost King.

On the way, the immortal, fearing that the Great Demon King would not leave him many very important things, hugged him tightly and called out, “Can you give me all of them? Can you give me more?”

His groom tenderly and thoughtfully said, “If you want.”

The immortal replied, “I want ……”

So the witty immortal got what he had been looking for, as expected. The Great Ghost King touched and got, again, much, much more on his person.

The next day, the Immortal arrived at the house where the filthy waste had been hidden with what he had spent the night begging from the Great Demon King, and this time, finally went inside.

Upon opening the house, the Immortal found that there were many pudgy corpses thrown inside, some of which had been reduced to white bones!

The corpses are all dressed in wedding clothes and are feared to be the missing brides. Hopes dashed, the Immortal was shocked and saddened. As soon as he turned around, he suddenly realized that there was someone standing behind him at some point – the Great Demon King was actually standing there at some point!

The Immortal was alarmed. He recalled that the Grumpy Immortal and the Petty Immortal had told him that the Great Demon King was very cunning and hated immortals. Now that he had no mana left, could it be that the Great Demon King had actually seen through him a long time ago and had just been lying to him?

The immortal was angry and sad, and ran away, faster and faster. But he didn’t get out of the house. It turned out that he was running too fast, and the things that the king of the great ghosts had given him fell down, and were stopped by the barrier in front of the house.

The Great Demon King caught up and hugged the Immortal, finally telling the story.

It turned out that the Great Demon King did not capture and eat people, he was just waiting for his destined person here. One day, a procession of bridegrooms unintentionally bumped into him while he was walking in the mountains, and the groom in the procession was so scared that he fled by himself, leaving his crying bride sitting in the same place.

The big ghost king didn’t want any trouble, and when the bride said she didn’t want to marry a man like that anymore, she didn’t go back and left alone. Later on, the same thing happened a few more times, and the Demon King simply waited here while testing the new couple. If the groom dared to stand up in front of the demons and monsters to protect his bride, he would not make it difficult for them to go back. If a wicked groom pushed his bride into the mouth of the demons to buy time to escape, he would be captured and locked up in this house.

Because these people are all ill-intentioned, they tend to kill each other and end up as a white bone. It is their corpses that the immortals see. Their brides, on the other hand, have either returned home, or fled with their lovers to faraway places, wandering or settling down.

The Great Demon King said, “I have waited for you for hundreds of years, ah, brother, finally.”

The two then cleared up their misunderstanding and hugged. In order to leave the house, the Great Demon King gave the Immortal many, many more of his things. Who knows, suddenly, the sky rumbled. It turned out that the magi had been jealous of the Great Demon King for a long time, and seizing this opportunity, they finally began to attack him!

The Ragged Immortal rushed out for a round of |Storming, repelling a circle of magi. But the entire mountain was blown down by the magi, crushing the Great Demon King underneath.

The mountain was so high that the Immortal was afraid of crushing the Great Demon King and desperately tried to carry it on his shoulders. It was at this time that he suddenly remembered that there was still a mysterious house that had not been opened, a house that hid powerful magic treasures that could surely topple the great mountain, so he rushed into the cave. Once inside, he was pleasantly surprised to find the Great Demon King standing there intact and stronger!

The two broke out of the mountain and together they fought off the magi who came to make trouble. Finally, side by side, they sat on the top of the mountain watching the clouds and stars left behind by the magi as they fled.

The Immortal asked, “Didn’t you say that a house that hides dirty waste needs something you can touch on your body and a lot of it to open it, but a house that hides magic treasures needs something you can’t touch on your body but is very hot and scalding to open it?”

The Ghost King smiled and said, “Yeah. Didn’t brother get something like that a long time ago?”

The Immortal knew. Something like that was the passionate heart of the Demon King who loved him.

So the Ragged Immortal and the Great Ghost King went to the cave together again in high spirits, and they were never parted again.

“……”

“……”

After reading the story, Xie Ren was still confused and said, “What is all this writing? This story is made up too much, isn’t it? No, no, no, this ……”

What is this mess? Can you call this a story?

And Hua Cheng had already collapsed onto the couch laughing. Xie Ren was puzzled, “It’s completely wrong! What is the archetype of this story? That incident with Junshan? That thing is not like that… …… It’s completely twisted, isn’t it? Moreover, is it really okay to show this kind of story to children? It’s not appropriate. Who wrote it? And what’s with all these characters that look familiar but are a bit subtly wrong ……”

Taking a closer look, although the stories in this booklet all looked innocent at first glance, as if they were bedtime readings for children, they were very over the top on the inside, which was even more difficult to look at than just being hot and steamy. However, reading to the end, there is a kind of bizarre touching, another Xie Ren wondered if something was wrong with him.

Flower City said, “Hmm? It’s not completely twisted. At least a few points are correct. For example, I did call my brother ‘brother’, then for example, with Junshan it was indeed me who went to pick up my brother’s palanquin, then for example than, my brother did …… on the night of the cave-in.”

Xie Ren thought he had already cultivated a thick enough skin for so many years, who knows that in front of the flower city or often face rose to pink, said, “Is how even this kind of thing will know ah! …… And, and in addition to that, there is simply not one thing that is right ah ……”

Although he knew that many made-up folktales and prototypes are a hundred thousand miles away from each other, and it’s not surprising that they have been processed countless times to become what they are, but he was still shocked beyond words when he saw it with his own eyes. In the middle of a number of times he was so ashamed that he could not read on, but was forced by Huacheng to continue to read to him, really want to hit someone, but in favor of not hitting the hand. Flower city also face to see strange, said: “must be a knower missed a half a point out, was a person some arrangement, two points attached, again and again speculation into it.”

Xie Ren threw the collection of stories away and said, “Don’t read this kind of messy and idle books, get some rest.”

Hua Cheng, however, stroked his palm and demanded, ”Well written and talented. I feel a hundred times more energized after hearing brother read this story. Brother read another one.”

Categorically refused, “Don’t want it.”

“Brother, I have a headache.”

“This ……”

“Brother.”

“…… Okay.”

Hua Cheng also had a rare minor illness, Xie Ren usually obeyed him and responded to his requests, how could he still resist at this time?

Spare me the shame, but only had to press on, picking up the yellow booklet again, lying down next to Hua Cheng, being wrapped around his waist, and reading stiffly.

“Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a handsome young prince who was practicing in the deep mountains, and one night he met a mysterious guest ……”