Chapter 1: A Male Ghost from Antiquity in the Wardrobe

"Shennü Daren, I am willing to become the blade and sword in your hands, to sweep across the four seas and conquer the world for you, and I would not refuse even if I were to die ten thousand times!" — Xiao Moting

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"Ghost!"

A scream pierced the sky.

Bai Wei scrambled out of the wardrobe, terrified and pale as a sheet.

Just now, when she climbed into the wardrobe, she had actually seen a male ghost sitting inside, covered in blood and wearing silver War Armor!

Three months ago, her mother told her to return to her hometown, Qingshan Village, to inherit the small Farm left behind by her grandmother.

Bai Wei had been a corporate slave in the big city and had long grown tired of the fast-paced nine-to-five life; as soon as she received the call, she handed in her resignation and returned to her hometown the next day, preparing to open a farmhouse resort where guests could come to fish, pick fruit, and eat home-cooked meals.

Grandmother's small Farm was in the remote outskirts of Qingshan Village, covering only five mu of land, containing an orchard, a fish pond, and a small bungalow built of red brick.

But Bai Wei had discovered something strange.

There was an old-fashioned, two-meter-tall wardrobe in the bungalow; no matter what she put inside, as long as she closed the door and opened it again, the items she had placed inside would vanish without a trace.

Just now, in order to get to the bottom of it, she had gathered her courage and climbed into the wardrobe.

To her surprise, the moment she closed the door and looked up, she saw a male ghost appear before her!

In the dim light, she vaguely saw that the male ghost had long hair reaching his waist, tied up with a jade crown, and was dressed in silver armor, an ancient military attire; his handsome, stern face was stained with quite a bit of blood, his gaze was extremely sharp and cold, and as soon as he saw her, he didn't say a word and immediately swung his Long Sword at her!

Bai Wei was so scared she screamed on the spot and scrambled out of the wardrobe.

When she opened the wardrobe again, it was already empty, and the male ghost had vanished.

Bai Wei's scalp tingled, and she scrambled up from the floor, ready to run.

She couldn't stay here anymore!

She had seen plenty of horror movies about ghosts in wardrobes, and she didn't want to get dragged in!

Just as she stood up, Bai Wei froze.

What was going on?

There had been nothing in the wardrobe just a moment ago, but now, something had appeared out of thin air.

A jade-green Jade Thumb Ring was flashing with a moist, jade luster under the light.

Bai Wei was stunned!

This, this, this... was this something the ghost had conjured?

She didn't dare to take it!

Bai Wei still had lingering fears about the ghost encounter and turned to run.

Suddenly!

A middle-aged woman's loud, shrill shouting rang out from outside the shop.

"Bai Wei! You've already owed two months of land rent; if you can't come up with the money today, I'll smash your Farm to pieces!"

Bai Wei knit her brows.

This woman was her aunt, a fierce character known throughout the surrounding villages as a shrew.

She had inherited her grandmother's farmhouse resort, but her grandmother's family had started harboring ulterior motives; her aunt, in particular, had jumped three feet high, clamoring that a girl had no right to inherit property and that the resort should belong to her cousin, even bringing seven or eight men to the resort to block the door and prevent her from doing business.

Her mother had a weak personality and couldn't argue with her aunt, so she was forced to relent and say that Bai Wei would pay three thousand yuan in rent every month, which finally settled her aunt down.

Bai Wei had no choice; she and her mother were weak and isolated, so they could only temporarily appease her aunt and get the farmhouse resort running first.

But there were many farmhouse resorts in Qingshan County, and Bai Wei's newly opened one had no guests and was exceptionally desolate; the savings she had accumulated from working were already gone, and she had no money to pay the rent.

But if she didn't pay, her unreasonable aunt would definitely bring people to smash the door again; by then, she wouldn't be able to run the resort, and the tens of thousands of yuan she had spent on ingredients and supplies would all go down the drain.

Her aunt stood outside the bungalow door, hands on her hips, cursing at the top of her lungs.

"Bai Wei, if you have the ability to occupy your cousin's farmhouse resort, why don't you have the ability to open the door?"

"Don't hide inside and stay quiet; I know you're home!"

Bai Wei felt annoyed, but there was nothing she could do.

Her father had passed away early, and her mother was alone and powerless, constantly bullied by her two uncles both openly and secretly.

When she returned to the village to open the resort, her uncle had even schemed to marry her off to a local loafer and bachelor to use the bride price to buy a house for her cousin.

Seeing that her aunt wouldn't stop cursing, Bai Wei gritted her teeth, clutched the Jade Thumb Ring in her hand, and turned to open the door.

"Aunt, stop spewing filth; the toilet is next door! I'll pay the rent tomorrow."

After saying this, without waiting for her aunt to speak, she slammed the door shut with a "bang."

Her aunt hadn't even had a chance to speak before being shut out, and she screamed in anger.

"You dead girl, you think you're so great? So what if you went to a university of traditional Chinese medicine? You still ended up back in the village farming!"

"If you can't pay the rent tomorrow, I'll make you regret it!"

Bai Wei ignored her and clutched the Jade Thumb Ring to examine it closely.

The ring was jade-green and lustrous, feeling icy cool to the touch; she wondered if it could be exchanged for money.

Suddenly, someone walked in.

Bai Wei's anger flared up instantly, and she stood up with a "whoosh," "Aunt, I already said tomorrow..."

The words reached her lips, but she immediately swallowed them back.

The person who entered wasn't her aunt, but their neighbor, Chen Yeye.

Chen Yeye's family grew greenhouse vegetables, ten mu of them, but the market was bad this year, and the vegetables were piling up unsold, leaving him so worried he couldn't sleep.

"Xiao Wei, I came to borrow a few eggs..." Chen Yeye didn't finish his sentence before his eyes landed on the Jade Thumb Ring in her hand, and he was immediately surprised, "Is this an antique jade?"

Bai Wei was taken aback; only then did she remember that Chen Yeye liked to dabble in antiques, so she quickly handed the Jade Thumb Ring over.

"Chen Yeye, could you help me take a look? Is this jade real? How much is it worth?"

"Alrighty."

Chen Yeye took the Jade Thumb Ring and pondered for a moment.

"This Jade Thumb Ring is indeed an antique, but as for which dynasty it belongs to, I cannot tell. However, if we go by the market, it is worth at least ten thousand yuan."

"Ten thousand yuan! It's actually worth that much money!" Bai Wei held her breath, her heart suddenly racing with excitement.

If she had ten thousand yuan, she wouldn't have to worry about the rent for the Farm!

She never expected that the ghost in the wardrobe could actually help her get rich!

Fearing that Aunt would discover the Jade Thumb Ring, Bai Wei immediately prepared to close the shop; she wanted to ride her bicycle to town and sell the Jade Thumb Ring.

Things given by a ghost are best sold sooner for peace of mind.

As she stepped out the door, a wave of peach fragrance drifted over.

There was a large peach orchard in the Farm, filled with bright red peaches, but it was a pity there were no customers, and the peaches could not be sold.

A flash of inspiration struck Bai Wei; she reached out and picked a few honey peaches from a peach tree, took a pack of nearly expired Ham Sausage, placed them into the wardrobe, and then, facing the cabinet door, pressed her palms together in a pious manner.

"Gui Dage, I am offering these to you, please, you must not crawl out of the wardrobe in the middle of the night to scare me."

"As long as you don't scare me, I will definitely give you more offerings in the future!"

After saying this, Bai Wei took the Jade Thumb Ring and turned to walk out the door.

……

Daliang Kingdom.

In the dilapidated village, there was no sign of human life, and smoke from the fighting filled the air everywhere.

In a dim dwelling, Xiao Moting was covered in blood, gasping for breath as he leaned against the adobe wall; his originally well-defined, handsome face was now ashen and exceptionally haggard.

Outside the door, footsteps could be heard.

Xiao Moting summoned his last bit of energy and gripped the hilt of his Long Sword tightly, his gaze like that of a trapped beast, filled with murderous intent.

"……It's been four or five days, and we still haven't found the Fourth Prince; he couldn't be dead, could he?"

"The Fourth Prince is the Northern Frontier War God, a fierce general who, at seventeen, charged into enemy lines alone and took on forty-eight enemy soldiers; how could he lose his life so easily?"

"In any case, the higher-ups have ordered: we must see the person if he is alive, or his corpse if he is dead."

The footsteps gradually faded away.

Xiao Moting leaned powerlessly against the corner of the wall, lowered his head, and used his teeth to tear off a piece of his robe to bandage his injured arm.

He was an unfavored prince; just because he was too intelligent in his youth, he became a thorn in the side of certain people, was pushed out of Shengjing, and sent to the bitter and cold Yan in Beijiang, with the title of Prince of Zhenbei, to gain experience with the army.

This time, when the barbarians invaded, he led his troops on an expedition but encountered extreme cold weather; the snow was deeper than his knees, and the troops and horses could not move forward at all. Xiao Moting had no choice but to retreat to the nearest Xuancheng, intending to let the army rest.

Unexpectedly, the Prefect of Xuancheng, having received instructions from De Guifei, closed the city gates and refused to let the army enter no matter what.

With barbarians pressing in from the front and unable to enter the city from the rear, the thirty thousand elite soldiers Xiao Moting led were stationed on the ice plains; countless soldiers and warhorses froze to death or suffered frostbite, and in just over ten days, more than two thousand men died—all of them personal guards he had raised himself.

Xiao Moting's eyes turned red with heartache.

In desperation, he could only lead his troops out to find provisions, but halfway there, he suddenly encountered a group of black-clad Death Squad members; he was separated from his personal guards and had been trapped in this desolate village for seven days.

Xiao Moting knew that these Death Squad members were mostly sent by De Guifei, who feared his military achievements were too high and would threaten the Second Prince in the future, so she wanted his life.

He was severely injured and trapped in a dwelling, unable to escape; the only reason he hadn't starved to death was that huge, broken cabinet in the corner of the room.

This wardrobe would occasionally produce some strange things; sometimes it was food, sometimes water, and more often than not, things he had never seen or heard of before.

The day before yesterday, a fruit appeared in the cabinet that was covered in spikes and smelled like a rotten egg that had been pickled for a year; he was so hungry he couldn't hold on any longer and had to pinch his nose to eat it, and as a result—

It was truly sweet!

He never expected that while this fruit smelled foul, it tasted extremely sweet and fragrant; even the best imperial chefs in the palace could not make pastries this sweet, fragrant, and smooth.

"Gurgle……"

His stomach let out another thunderous roar of hunger; Xiao Moting had waited expectantly for a whole day, but the deity had not manifested; he had not eaten any food for a day and a night, his mind was no longer clear, and just now he had even hallucinated, seeing a female ghost dressed in strange clothes.

To survive, Xiao Moting had to take the Jade Thumb Ring used for drawing his bow off his finger as an offering, hoping for the deity's grace.

His body was already extremely weak, his vision was going dark, and Xiao Moting, holding onto a final shred of hope, pulled open the cabinet door……