Translator: ChuRen/ YuQiChen
What’s the outcome when a group of big shots gang up on someone?
Just look at the Confession Ghost, all tied up in colourful bindings.
The Confession Ghost is a bound spirit, but one who hasn’t done much wrongdoing. His aura is very pure, except for a red glow flickering around his ankles—it looks like some kind of restriction.
Su Ling vaguely felt that this method of sealing looked somewhat familiar.
The Confession Ghost lay on the ground, looking a bit disheartened: “Are you going to kill me?”
Su Ling chuckled, “We’re not bad guys. Why would we kill you?”
The Confession Ghost showed little interest, weakly saying, “If you’re going to save me, it’s the same as killing me.”
Su Ling thought it over and didn’t continue explaining. Instead, he asked back, “Don’t you want to reincarnate?”
The Confession Ghost glanced at him and smiled bitterly, “If I wanted to, I would have already gone.”
— Bound spirits actually come in two types: some are forced, others are voluntary.
Some deceased are trapped by unresolved attachments from their past lives. After death, their grudges remain unsettled, but after the soul disperses, they forget their past entirely and get stuck in the same place.
Over time, these memory-lost spirits often disturb the normal order of the living world or endanger mortals’ lives. Tainted by karmic consequences, they cannot reincarnate—this is the forced type.
The other kind voluntarily remain behind. Bound spirits like this one, with a pure aura and little sin, can eventually move on once they’ve figured things out.
So if the Confession Ghost truly wants to move on, the restriction on his ankles will automatically release, and the Impermanence Enforcer will come to capture the soul and send it into the cycle of rebirth.
Su Ling gently sighed, moved a stone to use as a little stool, settled into a storytelling posture, and said, “Fate brought us together. Since you’re locked here with no other ghosts to play with, why don’t you tell us your story? Maybe we can help you release your attachment.”
The Confession Ghost lowered his eyelids, his aura fading, “It’s no use.”
Su Ling poked him, trying to encourage, “Don’t be so down. What if we can?”
The Confession Ghost took a deep breath and explained, “My attachment is to one person.”
Su Ling nodded, his eyes full of encouragement.
The Confession Ghost gave a warm smile, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes, “She has already been reincarnated.”
Su Ling: …Huh?
The Confession Ghost looked helpless and sad at once, “That’s why it’s no use. My attachment can’t be broken.”
Su Ling froze on the spot, unsure of what to say.
A hand rested on his shoulder. Following the strength, Su Ling turned around to see Sheng Ze lowering his head, giving him a glance that clearly meant—“I’ll ask.”
Su Ling quickly made way for him.
Sheng Ze was silent for a moment, then instead of bringing up the attachment, he pointed to the red glow around the Confession Ghost’s ankle and asked, “Who put this on you?”
The Confession Ghost visibly hesitated.
“It looks like it’s restraining you, but it’s also what gives you the energy to stay in the world,” Sheng Ze said calmly, holding his chin with one hand as he revealed the true purpose of the restriction.
The Confession Ghost looked at him, a bit nervous. “I asked a ghost friend for help with it.”
Sheng Ze hummed thoughtfully: “When was that?”
The Confession Ghost frowned carefully. “Seventy or eighty years ago.”
Sheng Ze raised an eyebrow and shot a subtle glance at Su Ling.
Su Ling looked completely puzzled.
Sheng Ze gave a strange smile. “Don’t you remember?”
Su Ling’s expression was blank. “No, I don’t.”
Sheng Ze narrowed his eyes slightly and hinted, “Look around you, think carefully.”
Su Ling looked around, fell into deep thought… then suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”
His exclamation immediately drew everyone’s attention.
After shouting, Su Ling stood there with a “WTF” look, eyes tangled as he looked at the Confession Ghost.
Meng Xiaoman couldn’t hold back and spoke up, “Boss, does this have anything to do with you?”
Recalling what was said earlier, this bound spirit was clearly held back by feelings…
Meng Xiaoman’s imagination ran wild, and finally, she felt a jolt in her heart, coming to a conclusion—could this be the boss’s ex or even ex-ex?
Su Ling’s mouth twitched as he sighed, “I put that restriction on him.”
The Confession Ghost was stunned.
Su Ling rubbed his forehead in frustration and said, “Seventy or eighty years ago, this amusement park wasn’t completely abandoned yet, so it was quite different from now. That’s why I didn’t recall it right away.”
He looked at the Confession Ghost with a complicated expression. “But I never thought, after all these years, you still haven’t let go.”
The Confession Ghost blinked in surprise and happily exclaimed, “Benefactor?!”
Su Ling twitched the corner of his mouth and quickly waved his hand, “Don’t call me that!”
Meng Xiaoman, curious about the tangled history between the two, stared intently at Su Ling, plainly expressing three words—please tell us.
Su Ling chuckled a bit, recalling the past as he said, “I recognise him. Back then, he was still a new ghost, and his soul wasn’t stable. I saw him drifting here every day without leaving, so I asked if he needed help.”
The Confession Ghost kept nodding gratefully, “You’re the most kind-hearted ghost I’ve ever met.”
Su Ling hesitated but decided to ignore the “benefactor” title, smiling bitterly: “No wonder the grudge this time involves a confession. Back then, he had a love interest… then he died.”
Meng Xiaoman looked a bit lost. “And then?”
Su Ling was equally puzzled. “That’s it. There’s no ‘and then’.”
Meng Xiaoman asked, “…How did you two meet?”
Su Ling started counting on his fingers: “He had a love interest. He didn’t dare confess. Then he died. Then I met him. Then I put that restriction on him. This story is really complete.”
Meng Xiaoman stayed silent for a moment, then yanked the table in exaggerated frustration: “Boss, your storytelling skills are truly outrageous!”
Shi Kongzang nodded indignantly as well: “What about the process? The climax? All the twists and turns? Jumping straight from beginning to end is just insane.”
Su Ling: …
The Confession Ghost burst out laughing and consoled his benefactor, “Because I was shy and timid, even after having a love interest, I dared not confess. Finally, on the eve of Valentine’s Day, encouraged by a friend, I asked that girl out, and we got on the Ferris wheel here.”
“That day, the weather was nice. Looking at her profile, I thought, such a beautiful girl—I can’t miss this chance again. Just then, she looked at me and smiled…”
Meng Xiaoman, still a romantic at heart, quietly covered her cheeks and said enviously, “So romantic.”
The Confession Ghost continued, “Yes. Then, as my benefactor said, the Ferris wheel malfunctioned. Before I could open my mouth, I died.”
Meng Xiaoman sympathised, “That’s a bit tragic.”
The Confession Ghost lowered his head and gave a bitter smile. “Life is unpredictable.”
“So what about that girl?” Shi Kongzang’s mood inexplicably grew complicated. “You’re trapped here by your attachment, but she went on to reincarnate?”
The Confession Ghost hurriedly shook his head. “It’s not her fault! Besides my feelings for her, I’m mostly angry at myself for being too weak. I blame myself for not having the courage to confess, and for missing countless opportunities in life because of my timidity and weakness—as a result, accomplishing nothing…”
Su Ling nodded vigorously. “When I first met him, he was so dark and gloomy that he was almost like a malevolent spirit. After I talked to him, he decided to stay here and protect those who come after. I originally intended to take him to the underworld, but couldn’t bear to see him begging so desperately… and that’s how it ended.”
Sheng Ze, recalling how the students had been randomly confessing before, asked in return, “Protect those who come after?”
Su Ling coughed awkwardly twice and seriously criticised him, “Yeah, what nonsense is that? It’s one thing when consenting adults do it, but you’re not even sparing minors?”
The Confession Ghost hung his head, admitting fault. “No one’s come here for a long time. I got a little too excited and lost control.”
Su Ling sighed in sympathy and blamed himself, “It’s easy to fall into delusions when staying here too long. It’s partly my fault—I thought after some time you’d come around and reincarnate, so I didn’t come to check on you.”
Sheng Ze pinched Su Ling’s nape gently to comfort him. “It’s alright. No major chaos caused either way.”
Then he turned back to the Confession Ghost. “The underworld has its rules. Staying here isn’t ultimately a good thing.”
The Confession Ghost drooped his head dejectedly, remaining silent.
Sheng Ze considered for a moment, then added, “Do you know about the Matchmaking Platform in the underworld? It works much like a human wedding registration office. We currently lack someone to manage it—would you be willing to go there?”
The Confession Ghost brightened instantly and nodded eagerly. “I’d be glad to.”
Sheng Ze reached out and tapped the Confession Ghost’s forehead with his index finger. “Go ahead.”
With that, the red glow around the Confession Ghost’s ankle vanished instantly. His form became faint and ethereal. He deeply bowed three times toward Sheng Ze and Su Ling, then transformed into a light particle and entered the underworld.
Su Ling watched him depart, feeling full of emotion.
“By the way,” Su Ling tilted his head and looked at Sheng Ze, “how did you know it was me who put the restriction on him?”
Sheng Ze calmly began to gaze skywards. “The moonlight tonight is quite nice.”
Su Ling was not about to let it go and pressed on. “It seemed like you figured it out just by looking at the restriction itself. How did you do it?”
Sheng Ze replied with a totally unrelated comment, “The midnight snack last night was pretty good, too.”
Su Ling sneered, coldly glaring at him.
Sheng Ze let out a silent sigh. After Meng Xiaoman and the others had walked a bit further away, he lowered his voice and said, “That restriction… was it the Ghost King who taught you how to do it?”
Su Ling shuddered. “You figured it out?”
Sheng Ze tapped his forehead with a hint of helplessness that seemed to carry some fondness: “After all, he and I are colleagues. The Ghost King has been in seclusion for hundreds of years, so he surely didn’t cast that restriction himself. At that time, you were in the mortal world, so I guessed it must have been you.”
Su Ling tilted his head, feeling something was off. “How do you know the Ghost King only taught me and no one else?”
Sheng Ze replied, “…With his personality, who else besides you would dare come near him?”
Su Ling furrowed his brow. “Still doesn’t add up. I haven’t had many interactions with the Ghost King, and Meng Xiaoman and the others don’t know either. How do you know he even taught me?”
Sheng Ze said, “…I have some acquaintance with the Ghost King. I’ve heard him say so.”
Su Ling nodded, then asked again, “But didn’t you just say his personality is bad, so no one except me dares to approach him?”
Sheng Ze: …
He quickly strode ahead and called out to Meng Xiaoman, “Hey, Xiaoman, I’m a bit hungry. Why don’t you go back and fry some rice for me as a midnight snack?”
Xiaoman’s cooking as a midnight snack???
Su Ling looked at his retreating figure, squinting thoughtfully.
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