Ghost Messenger's Case - The Tale of a Soul Leaving the Body

Chapter 1

The Ghost Messenger's Case - The Tale of a Separated Soul, Chapter One: Chu Luyu

As soon as I got home from Niutou Village, I heard my parents shouting, "Son, where have you been? You left a note and you've been gone for so long!" I waved my hand without answering them, ran into the house, and went straight to sleep.

The next day I found Ahan and Ajie and asked them where Axi and Ajue were buried, but they told me that the two of them had already gone home.

I exclaimed in surprise, "What? Their souls go home to live?"

Ahan said, "I don't know the specifics either. You should ask them."

I used a summoning spell to summon them, but they didn't appear for a long time. Just as I was getting disappointed, I heard their voices say, "Ah Ming, are you looking for us?"

Ah-happy and Ah-Jue suddenly descended from the sky, and there was no ghostly aura about them. I asked curiously, "Weren't you dead? How come you don't have any ghostly aura?"

They looked at each other and laughed, saying, "Although we are dead, we will not go to hell or become ghosts. We will go back to where we were before."

"What place was the original place?"

"Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed. Ah Ming, you will know in due time."

"Oh, but you two went home, is that true?"

"Yes, we weren't supposed to return to the human world, but we were afraid of upsetting our families, so we begged and pleaded for six days off to return and reunite with them. Although our physical bodies have perished, we can still manifest as physical beings to be with our families."

I said, "But there are only six days. What should we do next?"

They both laughed and said, "Six days is enough for us, and our families will be satisfied too."

I understood somewhat and said, "So, your place is heaven..."

They both hurriedly shook their heads, saying, "Shh, the Buddha said: 'It cannot be spoken, it cannot be spoken.'"

I smiled and nodded, saying, "If that's the case, then I'm relieved."

They said, "We came here to tell you to cheer up and not to be sad for us."

I said, "I will."

They nodded and then disappeared. I said goodbye to Ahan and Ajie, returned home, and with my regrets resolved, I slept very soundly that night.

When I got up in the morning, I prepared myself for a scolding before going to work. Sure enough, as soon as the editor-in-chief saw me, he started yelling, "You're really something! You've been gone for half a month without even asking for leave. What do you think this magazine is? So disorganized and undisciplined!"

I explained, "I asked for leave. I had my dad call the company to ask for leave."

The editor-in-chief glared at me and said, "Does one phone call count as asking for leave? You can't even say how many days you'll need. Besides, are you really that busy? Why don't you call and ask for leave yourself? Why have your family ask for it for you?"

I pleaded, "Editor-in-chief, please don't scold me anymore."

The editor-in-chief shook his head and said, "If it were anyone else, I would have fired them long ago."

"Yes, yes, I know the editor-in-chief is the best to me."

He cursed, "Stop flattering me," then pulled out a stack of folders and said, "This is your work. Finish it in three days."

I stared at the pile of documents and said, "This is...too much."

"Then why don't you go to work?"

"But..."

"Do you think the workload isn't enough? There's more here."

"No, no," I hurriedly grabbed the documents and fled to my studio.

Just as I was working myself to the bone, the editor-in-chief brought in a pretty girl I'd never seen before and said, "Ah Ming, this is our magazine's new colleague, Ah Yu. I've decided to have her learn from you for a while." Then he said to the girl, "Ah Yu, this is Ah Ming, the editor of the magazine's fashion section. You'll be learning from him from now on."

Ah Yu smiled and extended her hand, saying, "Senior brother, hello. My name is Chu Luyu. You can just call me Ah Yu."

I quickly grasped her hand and said, "Hello, my name is Qu Ming, you can just call me A-Ming."

Ayu said, "That won't do. I have to call you senior brother no matter what."

I smiled and said, "Whatever you want." Then I said to the editor-in-chief, "Thank you so much, boss. You felt sorry for me because I was so busy, so you found me an assistant."

The editor-in-chief said, "Stop being so conceited. I don't care about you at all. Let me tell you, with one more person, the workload has increased by half."

I cried out, "No way, editor-in-chief, you wouldn't be so heartless, would you?"

The editor-in-chief smiled and said, "Let's get started." Then he left my studio.

I looked at Ayu and asked, "Are you majoring in aesthetics?"

Ayu said with a slightly strange expression, "Aesthetics...hehe...I don't really understand it."

I nodded to myself, thinking, "How modest." Then, without any hesitation, I handed her half of the documents on my desk, saying, "Look at these first, and then come up with a plan for each one."

She clicked her tongue in amazement: "So many!"

I waved my hand and said, "Half for each of us."

"But..."

"Hurry up, the director is a vampire, he won't stop until he's drained us dry."

Ah Yu smiled, then carefully looked at the document. After a while, I said, "Ah Yu, you stay here and look at it. I'm going to go for a walk outside."

Ayu said, "Oh."

I walked out happily, thinking to myself, "Great, someone's covering for me at work, so I can happily skip work."

As I walked into the garden in the city center, munching on ice cream, a ghostly figure suddenly flashed before my eyes and ran swiftly in front of me. I sighed and thought to myself, "Why are there ghosts out in broad daylight? I can't even find peace of mind."

I followed the scent left by the ghost to a dead end, when I suddenly heard a girl's angry voice say, "You dare to steal my things? Are you out of your mind?" A man begged for mercy, "I won't do it again, I won't do it again, please, miss, spare me."

I turned around and saw a girl beating up a male ghost. I coughed and they all looked up at me. When I saw the girl clearly, I was shocked and exclaimed, "Ayu, what are you doing here?"

The girl looked at me with a delighted expression and said, "Ah Lang, I've finally found you."

I thought I had misheard and said, "What, Ah Lang?" At that moment, the male ghost tried to escape, but I reached out and grabbed him, saying, "How dare you! Walking in the mortal world in broad daylight!"

The male ghost said, "I will never dare to do it again, please spare my life, sir."

At this moment, Ayu said, "Let him go, anyway, I didn't lose anything."

I said to the male ghost, "Go quickly, don't let me see you in the human world again."

The male ghost hurriedly fled, and I walked towards Ayu and said, "Why did you come out too? If the studio is empty, the editor-in-chief will scold you to death."

Ayu said, "What did you say? What editor-in-chief?"

It was then that I noticed she looked quite different from before. Previously, her makeup was very light and fresh, but now she had drawn her eyebrows and eyes, with long, dark eyebrows, green eyeshadow, and purplish-red lips. She had even changed her clothes; before, she wore a light blue suit, but now her clothes were strange—a lake-green dress with long sleeves and a skirt that went past her feet. A silver-white silk ribbon was tied around her waist, making her look like an ancient, exotic beauty. I asked, "Are you going to a masquerade ball dressed like this?"

"A masquerade ball?" She seemed a little confused.

I said, "I think we should go back to avoid getting scolded."

She exclaimed in surprise, "What? You're willing to come back with me?"

“I’ll go back with you.” Although I found her words strange, I still said, “You could say that, since I have to go back to work anyway.”

"Then let's go to the wonton stall on Sixth Street."

"What Sixth Street wonton stall?"

"It's the passage back."

The more I listened, the less I understood. Just as I was about to ask again, I suddenly heard the sound of a flute. I was shocked and exclaimed, "The Flute-Playing Messenger!"

Chapter Two: Alang

Just then, a man in black appeared around the corner, holding a bamboo flute, looking at us with a cold smile. This time, I saw his face and almost cried out in horror. No, he wasn't scary at all; in fact, he was quite handsome. But I was very familiar with that face, extremely familiar, because I saw him every day. I would see him whenever I looked in the mirror. He… he looked exactly like me! I pointed at him, trembling, and stammered, "You… you…" but I couldn't speak because of the horror in my heart. Then I heard A-Yu say, "Night Demon, what are you doing in the human world?"

The flute-playing messenger said, "I have come to find you."

"Looking for me? What do you want? I came to the human world to find Ah Lang."

“You know very well that I am Ah Lang.”

“You’re talking nonsense… The real Alang should be him.” Ayu pointed at me.

I was completely baffled and said, "What are you talking about? I don't understand at all. What Ah Lang? I'm not Ah Lang."

The flute-playing messenger laughed after hearing this, "Well, how about that? You heard it clearly, didn't you? He admitted himself that he is not Cheng Lang."

Ah Yu said urgently, "No... he is Ah Lang. You must have used a trick to make him forget his identity."

He sneered, "He hasn't forgotten who he is." Then he turned to me and said, "Why don't you tell him who you are yourself?"

I looked at Ayu and said, "Ayu, didn't I tell you this morning that my name is Qu Ming? I'm not Alang. What's wrong?"

At this point, a thought struck me, and I said, "Your name is Chu Luyu, right? You don't have a twin sister, do you?"

After saying that, Ayu said happily, "That's right, you are Alang, you still know my name."

The flute player sneered, "Didn't you hear what he said earlier? His name is Qu Ming, not Cheng Lang."

“But he knows my name; he hasn’t forgotten me.”

At this moment, the chaotic thoughts in my mind gradually began to sort out, and I cautiously asked, "Ayu, did we meet this morning?"

"Good morning. No, if we had seen you, we would have already gone back."

My God, I finally understand. The A-Yu I met was not the A-Yu from the magazine at all. Not only did they look exactly alike, but they also shared the same name. Plus, there was a flute player who looked exactly like me. The whole thing seemed so unbelievable, but I just happened to run into it.

I touched my nose and said, "I'm sorry, miss, it seems you've mistaken me for someone else, and I've mistaken you for someone else too."

"No... I didn't mistake you... You are Cheng Lang."

The flute-playing messenger said, "I've told you, I am Cheng Lang, why are you still clinging to unrelated people?"

Ah Yu said urgently, "No...you're not." She then looked at me urgently and said, "Ah Lang, come back with me quickly."

I said helplessly, "Miss, he's right. You should talk to him more. You two can chat. I won't bother you anymore." After saying that, I turned and left. The atmosphere here felt extremely strange. I really wanted to fly away from here.

"Ah Lang, don't go... let go of me." Ah Yu's tone turned angry and ashamed, forcing me to turn around. I saw the flute player who looked exactly like me forcefully holding Ah Yu's hand. I was a little angry and said, "Hey... let go of her hand. The young lady doesn't want to go with you. Why are you forcing her?"

He sneered, "Mind your own business." With that, he flicked his bamboo flute and unleashed a burst of true energy at me. I quickly dodged to the side, about to curse him, when I looked again and they were nowhere to be seen. Ah Yu's voice came from afar, "Ah Lang... go to the wonton stall on Sixth Street."

I shook my head and walked out of the alley, deciding to treat what I had just seen as a hallucination and not tell anyone. I didn't want others to think I was crazy. On the way, I tried to hypnotize myself, telling myself that everything was a hallucination, not real, not real. Before I knew it, I walked to my workspace at the magazine office and saw A-Yu still looking at the manuscript seriously. When he saw me, he smiled and greeted me, "Senior brother, you're back."

"Hmm, did the editor-in-chief come by after I left?"