ITVCFITB CHAPTER 96

 Chapter 96 — Shen Mingyun Meets a “Ghost”

Luo Shuyu had no idea whether such a Daoist really existed but the rumor he wanted Shen Mingyun to hear had already been planted.

He wasn’t gambling with his own life. With a system lodged in Shen’s soul, a real master probably couldn’t “reap” it anyway; still, Shuyu wanted to see whether a Daoist might sense anything strange clinging to Shen.

Shen had worked with temples before, so abbots held no terror for him. Daoists, though, mysterious robes, yin-yang talk, ghost-catching bells, those still made Shen’s scalp prickle. And Shen was afraid of ghosts.

On the day of the “pilgrimage,” the Third Prince’s carriage and escort lined up as usual. Luo Shuyu, however, stayed home. An undercover guard of a similar build, dressed in Shuyu’s clothes, took his place. Qingwang and several matrons accompanied the party up the mountain. Shen swallowed the bait whole.

The Third Prince’s carriage had barely rolled out when shadows began to tail it.

Waiting at home with Li Mingjin, Luo Shuyu sipped tea and listened for updates. If an “accident” befell him inside his own manor, His Majesty would look straight at the Fourth Prince. But a slip on a mountain path? A fall from a cliff? That would be “one’s own misfortune.” Convenient.

Shuyu’s goal was simple: lure Shen out. If Shen feared ghosts, he’d want to test the Daoist’s “powers” himself and he wouldn’t tell the Fourth. Anything touching the system, Shen handled alone. Heroes, as he fancied himself, always ventured into danger solo.

So Shen set out with a small crew.

They trailed the palanquin into a nondescript mountain temple. “Luo Shuyu” was carried up the steps; Shen tried to keep up on foot for pride’s sake, nearly expired by mid-slope, then surrendered to a chair and four groaning bearers.

“Faster, faster!” he urged from the litter.

“Master, we likely won’t catch them now,” a bearer panted. “But they must rest inside; we’ll meet them at the temple.”

“Fine,” Shen said magnanimously while the men silently wished he’d kept walking.

At the gate he spotted the Third Prince’s insignia on liveries. Shen had disguised himself in plain cloth. The temple attendants barred him politely: a noble was at incense; outsiders were to wait.

Another day, he would have made a scene. Today, he kept to character. He sent his own men to snoop.

They returned quickly. “Third Prince Consort is meeting the abbot in private likely staying the night.”

“Staying?” Shen grimaced. “Then I’m staying too.”

“Guests are welcome in the west wing,” the attendants said amiably.

Shen even burned two very thick sticks of incense for show, then took a room opposite “Luo Shuyu” in the east wing and began plotting how to make his “cousin” unlucky.

Dinner knocked him out. Prideful climbing plus a full belly: he was snoring in minutes.

---

A midnight gust snapped him awake.

His door stood wide. The guards outside were gone. The wind moaned through the hinge.

Shen curled into himself. “Wh-what…? Someone! Hey!”

No answer. The courtyard was black, no lanterns, no footsteps.

He pinched his cheek. “Ow.” Not a dream.

Another gust slammed the door. Shen’s heart tried to escape his chest. “Where did everyone go? A-Da? A-Er? Don’t fool around!”

He retreated and barred the door, fumbled for his fire striker. The candle flared… and went out. He struck again. Out. A third time, pfft. As if someone exhaled beside his ear.

“System! System, help!”

Silence.

“Is this a haunting? In a temple?”

No answer. Perhaps the system “slept” at night too.

The shutter banged open. Cold air poured in and a white shape hovered at the window.

Shen dove under his quilt and wrapped himself like a dumpling. Nope. No, thank you. Absolutely not.

He kept calling the system in his head. Nothing. “Don’t tell me you’re scared too!”

He cracked the quilt open a sliver. A white figure drifted past.

Headless.

And speaking, voice warped and hollow:

“Re-turn… my… life…”

“Re-turn… my… head…”

“Re-turn… my… legs…”

Shen yanked the quilt over his face. The bed creaked under his trembling bulk.

“I didn’t kill you! Don’t come for me!”

Long nails scraped the bed frame. The voice came closer, closer, breathing at his ear.

“Wrongs have owners,” Shen babbled. “I’m not yours! Tell me who did it, I’ll help you!”

The “ghost” paused, then keened, “Hooow… will… you… help… I… died… so… mis-er-a-bly…”

“I can really help! I- I’m the Fourth Prince Consort! Say who killed you and I’ll- I’ll see it done!”

“A mere consort,” the ghost sneered. “You’re household trash. My killer sits high at court. I don’t believe you.”

Shen blurted, desperate to prove himself: “I have a treasure! Something no one else has. If I want something done, it gets done!”

“Oh? Show me. Give it to me.”

“It’s in my body. No one else can use it.”

“Then I’ll kill you and make it mine.”

“N-no! It won’t work like that!”

The voice sharpened like a blade. “Then how. Speak, or I tear you apart.”

He nearly wet himself. “If- if it’s willing, it can… cooperate. I think.”

“Bring it out. Now.”

“I can’t! I called and it didn’t answer. Maybe it… sleeps at night. But I can make it help you!” He refused to mention points. Let the ancient ghost stay ignorant.

“Then I’ll follow you home tomorrow night,” the ghost hissed. “If I do not get it, I will destroy you.”

A wisp of white smoke curled into Shen’s face. He sagged, unconscious.

The “ghost” went to the window, cooed softly like a dove. Men stirred where they’d slumped, carried back to their posts one by one. Doors were latched. Candles set back in place.

At dawn, Shen woke with a start. The door was barred. The shutter locked. The fire striker exactly where he’d left it.

A dream?

Either way, he fled the mountain without even asking whether “Luo Shuyu” had left, and rode straight home to dig out an old amulet from a monk. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

---

Back at the Third Prince’s manor, breakfast had barely ended when news arrived. Shadow Nine’s deadpan account of Shen’s panic made Luo Shuyu’s mood soar.

So the system could shift its attention, at least enough to be sensed. Shadow Nine hadn’t pressed last night to avoid slips, but he would visit again and try a few careful questions.

“Perfect,” Shuyu said. “Quit while it’s sweet; we’ll probe more next time.”

What he craved were the system’s rules. The book he remembered never showed it leaving Shen, not even at the end. After the Fourth’s coronation, did it depart for a new world? Stay with Shen? What was their bond, hostage and parasite or contract partners?

If they were going to fight it, he needed to understand it.

---

Shen burst into the Fourth Prince’s study mid-morning and flung himself into an embrace, sobbing out the ghost story. The Fourth staggered under the impact and pried him off with effort.

“How could there be ghosts? In a temple?” he said, more annoyed than soothing.

“I asked the guards. They insist they never left their posts,” Shen muttered. “Maybe it was a dream. I was terrified.”

“You were exhausted from climbing and sleeping in a strange place,” the Fourth said, already impatient. “I have business today. Mind the child.”

“Okay, go,” Shen said dully. He didn’t think twice; the Fourth always had somewhere to be.

Today’s “business” was a private room at a tavern and a courier from Zhou. The Fourth accepted a sealed reply and an alarming tidbit.

The Zhou Empire’s Second Prince was coming to the capital.

Quietly.

---

Author’s Note

Third Prince: Darling, today I’m a rich, handsome, charming CEO. You’re the kid my family raised, and you’ve had a crush on me since forever. But I don’t like you. Yet here you are, sneaking into my bed, trying to claim me.

Luo Shuyu: Oh, but I’ve always known your dad killed my dad. Out of guilt, he raised me. Sure, I lust after you, but reclaiming my family’s legacy is also part of the plan. I won over your father’s trust, joined the company as your equal, while you only cared about romance. In the end, I took everything back, and you got kicked out. Of course, you decided to repay your father’s debt, so you let me keep you as my sugar baby. Honestly, I’m having the time of my life, whether you love me or not doesn’t matter.

Third Prince: …

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