This Ghost Is Under My Control

In the shadows deep within the corridor, the air seemed to freeze.

The talisman imprint on Lu Chenzhou's wrist bone was faintly burning, an暗红色微光 crawling along the lines of his skin before fading into stillness. Shen Zhixia huddled in the corner, her round eyes fixed intently on Lu Chenzhou's wrist before timidly lifting to look at his face.

She could sense an unprecedented pull emanating from him. It wasn't chains, yet harder to break free from than chains—like an invisible thread, one end tied to her soul core, the other held between Lu Chenzhou's fingertips.

What unsettled her most was that her soul body, cold for a decade, was now covered in a fine, warm illusion.

"Lu, Lu Chenzhou..." Shen Zhixia mumbled softly, her voice as tender as silk soaked in water, "What did you just do to me? I feel... a little warm?"

Lu Chenzhou lowered his eyes slightly, leisurely adjusting his wrinkled shirt cuffs. His eyes, which were always performing deep emotions in front of the camera, had now shed all their gentle pretense, as deep as the perennial thick fog outside an ancient castle.

"Just stamping you," he said flatly, as if discussing the weather, "So you don't run around and get swallowed as tonic by those unclean things."

Shen Zhixia's heart pounded with fear. Subconsciously, she moved half a step closer to him. This movement was almost instinctive—the residual warmth of the soul contract was like the only charcoal fire in winter to an earthbound spirit. Although she was afraid of him, she wanted to get closer to this warmth.

"Tonic?" She shrank her neck, her train of thought suddenly jumping to a strange direction, her expression tense. "So now that I'm sticking to you, am I... absorbing your yang energy?"

Lu Chenzhou raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

The more Shen Zhixia thought about it, the more possible it seemed. Isn't that how female ghosts always act in TV shows? Suck the essence out of a man, and then that man turns into a withered skeleton. Looking at Lu Chenzhou's handsome, almost sharp face, a sense of guilt rose in her heart.

"Maybe... you should stay away from me?" She bit her lower lip, her brows twisted in distress. "Although you have a sharp tongue, you're really good-looking. If I sucked you dry and turned you into a mummy, that would be such a waste..."

Lu Chenzhou let out a laugh of exasperation. He reached out, his slender fingers precisely passing through her illusory bangs in an imaginary flick.

"Shen Zhixia, in that heart of yours that's been stopped for ten years, can you store anything besides those trashy scripts?"

"I'm thinking of you!" Shen Zhixia puffed her cheeks in不服气, but shrank her neck at the cool aura brushed by his fingertips, defending herself in a small voice, "What if you collapse while filming tomorrow? The director will definitely blame me."

"Don't worry, you're not capable enough yet." Lu Chenzhou's smile faded, his gaze falling on the faint shadows at the edges of her form.

After the soul contract was established, he could clearly see every detail of her soul body. He gestured, his tone taking on an unquestionable authority: "Come here. Stand straight."

Although Shen Zhixia grumbled, her body obediently drifted in front of him.

Lu Chenzhou circled behind her, his fingertips tracing a few talismans, his eyes narrowing. In a Celestial Master's vision, Shen Zhixia's soul body was not intact. Especially from her back to the nape of her neck, the injuries from her fall presented an eerie, scorched sensation.

Normally, the soul body of someone who died from an accidental fall would have tear-like cracks, bearing the disheveled look of a life abruptly extinguished. But the edges of Shen Zhixia's wounds were as neat as if precisely cut by some sharp blade, and they even retained a faint, cold aura that didn't belong to her.

More importantly, the breaks in her memory were too clean.

"Do you remember what was on the balcony before you fell?" Lu Chenzhou's voice was unusually cold in the empty corridor.

Shen Zhixia tilted her head and thought for a long time, her eyes full of confusion. "There was... wind. A strong wind, and a fragrant smell. Something seemed to be glowing, I wanted to pick it up, and then I slipped..."

"A glowing object?"

"Yeah, shiny." She tried hard to recall, but it felt like a needle was pricking her brain, making her form waver in pain. "I can't remember. It hurts when I think about it."

Lu Chenzhou's fingers gently pressed on the shadow at the nape of her neck, a surge of gentle spiritual power instantly soothing her fluctuations. He stared at the "wound," his expression turning completely grim.

This was no accident.

That so-called "glowing object" was bait, and her soul body after the fall had clearly been tampered with. Someone, ten years ago, had tried to剥离 a certain memory from her, or rather... a specific "soul fragment."

"Best Actor Lu? Teacher Lu?"

A frantic call from the film crew came from afar, along with messy footsteps approaching. The crew had noticed Lu Chenzhou was missing and was searching for him in groups.

Startled, Shen Zhixia tried to dart toward the high window beam. "Someone's coming! I'll hide!"

"Stop." Lu Chenzhou ordered in a low voice.

He didn't move, just gently rotated the black sandalwood beads on his left wrist.

Shen Zhixia had just floated two meters away when she felt an irresistible pull from her wrist. Like a kite being reeled in, she fell back beside Lu Chenzhou with a "thud" (though soundless, the visual impact was striking).

"Ouch!" she yelped, finding she couldn't move more than three steps away from him. "You... did you cast a immobilization spell on me?"

"It's the rule." Lu Chenzhou looked at the flickering figures at the corridor corner, his expression calm but his tone carrying absolute authority. "From now on, without my permission, you're not allowed to leave my sight. No matter who approaches, you can only stay in my shadow."

Shen Zhixia stared at him blankly. At this moment, Lu Chenzhou was far more imposing than the sharp-tongued Best Actor just now. It was a declaration of ownership by a superior over what belonged to them.

"But why..." she protested in a tiny voice.

"Because from now on, this ghost is under my control." Lu Chenzhou lowered his eyelids, concealing the murderous intent flashing in his eyes. "If you want to find out how you died, behave and listen."

When Shen Zhixia heard the words "how you died," she swallowed her retort. Looking at Lu Chenzhou's broad back, she suddenly felt that this seemingly ill-tempered Celestial Master might actually be protecting her.

This feeling of being "controlled" actually gave her, a lonely wandering ghost, a rare sense of stability.

The footsteps drew closer. The flashlight from the film crew member swept to the end of the corridor.

"Teacher Lu! What are you doing here? You scared us! We thought you got lost in the castle." The young crew member ran over, panting, his face filled with lingering fear.

Lu Chenzhou instantly switched back to his elegant and composed Best Actor mode, even wearing a perfectly apologetic smile on his lips. "Sorry, I saw the carvings here and found them very interesting. This castle's architectural style is indeed worth studying."

"Oh, if you want to see it, I'll have a local guide accompany you later. This place is really eerie. We should get back to the filming area." The crew member said, subconsciously shrinking his neck, feeling the corridor had grown even colder.

He didn't know that inside Lu Chenzhou's shadow, a porcelain-faced female ghost had poked half her head out, making a playful face at him.

Sensing the movement at his feet, Lu Chenzhou subtly shifted his position, completely covering the faint shadow.

"Let's go," he said flatly.

The crew member hurriedly led the way. Lu Chenzhou followed unhurriedly, while Shen Zhixia, like a little tail, was pulled by the soul contract, floating close to his back.

As they passed a narrow wooden spiral staircase, Shen Zhixia suddenly stopped.

She stopped fooling around, staring fixedly at the wooden door at the top of the staircase, sealed shut with heavy iron chains. That was the second floor of the castle, the "undeveloped area" the film crew was strictly forbidden to enter.

"Lu Chenzhou..." she called softly, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "There... it's so uncomfortable."

Lu Chenzhou stopped and turned around.

In Shen Zhixia's vision, a thick, ink-black mist was slowly seeping through the crack of the door. It wasn't ordinary resentment, but a lingering obsession carrying a decayed aura, slowly spreading down along the staircase railing.

What alerted him even more was that the "incisions" on Shen Zhixia's soul body were faintly resonating upon sensing the black mist, emitting an ominous dark purple glow.

Lu Chenzhou's pupils suddenly constricted.

That was the residual aura from ten years ago.

He had originally thought Shen Zhixia was just an unlucky victim, but now it seemed her connection to the secrets deep within this castle was deeper than he had anticipated. Those excised memories were probably hidden behind that door.

"Teacher Lu? What's wrong?" The crew member looked back in confusion when he stopped.

Lu Chenzhou ignored the crew member. His gaze locked onto the iron-chained door, then he looked down at Shen Zhixia. The little female ghost was tightly gripping his clothes, her translucent fingers trembling slightly from fear.

"Don't be afraid." He unexpectedly softened his tone for once, then turned to the crew member, his voice returning to its usual calm. "What's behind that door?"

The crew member glanced at it, his expression changing slightly. "Oh, that's the master bedroom area of the castle. The locals say something happened there ten years ago, so it's been locked ever since. After the Shen Group took over, they specifically instructed not to touch that area. Teacher Lu, let's not pry. The Shen family... aren't easy to deal with."

The Shen family again.

Lu Chenzhou rubbed the beads on his wrist, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

He could sense that what was behind that door was waking up. And Shen Zhixia's appearance seemed to be the key to unlocking that secret.

"I understand." He replied flatly, turning to continue walking.

But in his heart, he had already made a decision.

Tonight, he would take this foolish female ghost to explore that so-called restricted area.

Since this ghost was under his control, whether human or evil spirit, whatever was owed to her would have to be repaid in full.

Shen Zhixia didn't know what Lu Chenzhou was thinking. She only felt the soul contract on her back burning hotter, forcing her to cling even more tightly to Lu Chenzhou.

She didn't see that after they left, behind the locked wooden door, a withered finger was slowly digging into the shadow of the door crack, making a harsh scratching sound.

And outside the castle, Shen Mingheng, monitoring the film crew's movements through surveillance cameras, watched the screen showing Lu Chenzhou pausing at the spiral staircase. He slowly set down his coffee cup, his eyes sinister.

"Lu Chenzhou, you'd better just be an actor," he murmured softly to the empty room.

The black mist, unnoticed, had already crept into the camera lens.