Chapter 1: Erlang, It's Time for Your Medicine
“Erlang, it's time for your medicine.”
In a room adorned with ancient charm, a lovely young lady held a bowl of medicinal soup, spooning it gently into the mouth of a handsome young man. He leaned half his body against her, his gaze vacant and listless; even the medicine fed to him slipped from the corner of his lips.
“Erlang, why won't you take your medicine again? Are you disgusted by Man-niang?”
The young lady’s radiant smile suddenly turned cold as frost. With a sharp toss, she threw the spoon aside, grasped the young man's chin to force his mouth open, and poured the steaming medicine down his throat in one swift motion.
“That’s how you behave.”
After she had finished, she smiled sweetly once more, taking out a handkerchief to carefully wipe his lips.
“Someone, bring Erlang's chair over.”
Having done all this, she stood and turned to face the room.
“Yes,” a young maid replied, quickly turning to leave.
Just then, the young man lying motionless on the bed blinked rapidly, pain flickering in his eyes. But when the young lady glanced back at him, his gaze returned to its former emptiness, as though nothing had happened.
“Erlang, today is the fifteenth. It’s time to go to the ancestral hall in the rear courtyard for incense.”
As she spoke, she walked gracefully to the dressing table and sat, reaching for a comb as if to groom her hair.
“Man-niang has long heard that Erlang’s ancestor, Xu Jiugé, was once a disciple of the Sacred Ancestor, able to compose awe-inspiring poetry like ‘Song of Wine.’ His powerful righteous aura made us ghosts avoid him, and the number of ghost creatures slain by his hand is countless.”
At this, the young lady who had just picked up the comb turned and looked at the young man with grievance.
“My father was beaten to death by his ruler. I hid in my father’s eyes at the time—almost killed along with him.”
She finished speaking, then grinned at the young man.
Terrifyingly, as she smiled, her delicate face split open at the corners of her mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a tongue that flicked out like a serpent’s.
“Oh dear, did I frighten you?”
She bashfully cupped her face and turned away.
---
She faced the mirror and peeled off the upper half of her face along with the scalp, starting to comb it with the brush in her hand.
“What a fine skin. No wonder you loved her so much. But it doesn’t matter. Soon, this skin will grow onto my face piece by piece. When you see me, you’ll be seeing her.”
After finishing her hair, the ghostly creature greedily examined the beautiful skin held in its hands, its eyes dangling grotesquely from decaying cheeks.
Bang!
As the creature was about to reapply the skin, the door was suddenly thrown open.
A young girl, her face a bloody mess, burst in wielding a long sword.
“Die!”
She stabbed the ghost creature in the back with fury, then rushed to the young man’s bedside, her voice hoarse:
“Brother, I’ve come to save you. Let’s go, I’ll take you away!”
Before she could lift the young man, a skeletal hand pierced her abdomen, blood gushing forth.
“Brother…brother…”
Skinless, the girl still struggled to lift the young man from the bed, but soon her hands dropped powerless, her pupils growing dim.
“Your servant deserves punishment!”
Just then, a pretty maid rushed in, steps hurried. Though her face was delicate, a thick lizard-like tail protruded from beneath her skirt.
“I just cut off her skin for you to wear, but she feigned death and escaped when my guard was down.”
The maid knelt in terror, begging forgiveness.
“I’m in good spirits today—I’ll spare you. I’m going to change clothes. Take this girl to the cellar. Don’t kill her yet. Tonight, I want to enjoy her alive.”
Man-niang, her human skin newly affixed, glanced coldly at the girl on the floor, wiped her hands with a handkerchief, and walked out.
“Yes, Mistress!”
The maid replied quickly.
“Mmm…”
With Man-niang gone, the maid did not immediately deal with the girl, but instead split her lips to reveal sharp teeth, extending a long tongue greedily to lick the blood from the girl’s back.
---
The dying girl’s gaze met that of the young man on the bed.
Their eyes, so alike, seemed to communicate something.
“Qingpi, come down and help me find some clothes!”
Man-niang’s voice suddenly sounded from the next room.
“Yes, Mistress!”
The maid wiped her mouth, then dragged the girl’s legs quickly toward the door.
Bang!
The door closed.
The young man’s eyes blinked again, pain and fury flooding his expression.
“Little girl, I’m...sorry…”
He gazed at the bloodstain by the bed, speaking in a faint whisper.
“Fifteen days. I’ve been in this world for fifteen days. Today, it must end.”
His lips moved, murmuring softly.
Man-niang could never have guessed—the soul within this young man's body had not been Erlang for fifteen days, but a young man from Earth.
During these fifteen days, his consciousness remained clear, but each morning Man-niang forced him to drink the medicinal soup, leaving him paralyzed. Even when he managed to spit out some medicine lately, his body remained weak, helplessly witnessing the residents of this mansion—old and young—being devoured one after another by these monsters, their skins taken, making the mansion seem as though nothing had happened.
Yet he hadn’t done nothing these fifteen days. This patience allowed him to digest memories of the body's original owner, and he found the only way to resolve his predicament.
“Hold on. As long as I reach the ancestral hall and get the ruler, there’s a chance to escape, a chance to avenge this family—and that innocent girl.”
“I must get that ruler. In this world, only relics nurtured by scholars’ righteous aura can defeat ghosts.”
He calmed his emotions, silently encouraging himself.