Peerless Bodyguard of a Stunning Beauty

When the Ghost-Hunting Instructor heard the Dean misunderstanding him, he immediately let go of Zhao Rong’s collar. ”Dean, you’ve misunderstood,” he said, aggrieved. ”This student attacked the other Ghost-Hunting Instructor first! I was just teaching him a lesson.”

Hearing this, the Dean glanced at the instructor lying on the ground, a brick discarded beside him. He shook his head. ”Regardless of who is right or wrong, fighting is forbidden on school grounds. It sets a poor example and is a stain on the reputation of our Ghost Hunting Academy.”

With that, the Dean instructed the nearby butler, ”Butler, take these five new students to their lodgings. Then, tomorrow morning at seven o’clock sharp, everyone is to assemble on the school grounds for the annual Great Ghost Purge.”

Upon hearing this, the butler led Zhao Rong and his group out of the basement and up to the ground level of the Ghost Hunting Academy, heading toward a villa not far away.

As Zhao Rong saw the other students being housed in the Academy’s basement while he and his group were being led to a villa, he couldn’t help but wonder. Did the Chairman pay the Dean a hefty tuition fee in advance? Otherwise, why would he be so kind as to put us up in a villa?

Soon, the butler had led them to the front of the building. He gestured to the villa and said, ”Alright, this will be your dormitory. You will live here during your studies at the Ghost Hunting Academy. We will notify you of anything important over the loudspeaker.”

After saying this, the butler left. As he walked away, he glanced back at the villa and sneered inwardly. This villa was the scene of a dismemberment case. No one has dared to live here since, because it’s haunted by vicious ghosts. Since you kids decided to offend one of our Ghost-Hunting Instructors, you can stay in this haunted hellhole tonight. It’ll scare you to death.

Zhao Rong stared at the antique-style villa, a strange sense of familiarity washing over him. He felt like he had seen it in a movie before. After thinking for a moment, it suddenly hit him: it looked just like the infamous haunted mansion, House No. 81. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. ”Damn,” he muttered, ”the Dean didn’t actually stick us in a haunted house, did he?”

While Zhao Rong was still feeling uneasy, the three young women and the assistant had already rushed inside excitedly. The villa was enormous, with three floors. The first floor contained various meeting rooms, a home cinema, and a reception hall. The second floor was the residential area, and the third floor was a restricted room with a sign that read, ’No Unauthorized Entry.’

When the five of them reached the second floor, they were surprised to find that each of them got their own room. Moreover, every room was impeccably clean, as if it were constantly occupied.

By now, it was almost dawn. However, having been on the run all night, everyone was completely exhausted. After settling into their respective rooms, they each locked their doors from the inside and went to sleep.

Upon entering his room, Zhao Rong felt a chill as he looked at the bizarre decor. A large, antique mirror was placed directly facing his bed, immediately drawing the eye. What unsettled him the most, however, were the mirrors installed on the ceiling. It made him feel as though his entire life was under surveillance.

Although the room was strange, Zhao Rong was simply too tired to give it much thought and quickly drifted off to sleep.

While Zhao Rong was fast asleep, a maid suddenly appeared at his bedside. Looking down at him, she said, ”Master, it’s time for breakfast. You should get up.”

Zhao Rong rubbed his eyes and stared at the peculiar-looking maid. ”Breakfast? So early?” he mumbled, struggling to keep his eyes open.

The maid smiled, revealing a row of rotten teeth. ”Yes, Master. Please, have your meal.” With that, she approached Zhao Rong, carrying a tray.

Zhao Rong rubbed his eyes hard, feeling as if they were glued shut. He squinted, managing to make out the contents of the tray: milk, bread, porridge, steamed buns... What a generous spread, but I’ll stick to porridge and a steamed bun. He reached out, taking a bun in his left hand and the bowl of porridge in his right.

The maid stood over him, urging him on. ”Breakfast is very important. Hurry up and eat.”

Zhao Rong nodded. ”Okay, thank you for making this.” He opened his mouth, ready to eat.

However, just as he was about to take a bite of the bun, he froze. Wait... I locked the door when I went to sleep. How did this maid get in?

As he was about to confront her, he suddenly jolted awake. He shot up in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Damn, was that all a dream?

But just as he was convincing himself it had been a dream, his eyes fell on a tray under his bed. Next to it lay a rock, a toad, a bowl of putrid sewer water, and a pouch of urine.

Zhao Rong stared, horrified. Damn it! It wasn’t a dream! It was real! The milk and bread I saw were actually a rock and urine, and the porridge and steamed bun were a toad and sewer water! He knew then that this villa was definitely haunted, and he had just had an encounter with a ghost.

Suddenly, he thought of the assistant next door and the women in the other rooms. In a flash, Zhao Rong threw on his clothes and rushed out of his room, determined to rescue his companions.

At that moment, the assistant, who was staying in the room next to Zhao Rong’s, had just woken up to find a beautiful woman cleaning his room. At first, he felt a little awkward. But when the maid knelt to wipe the floor, her rear pointed directly at him, he lost all self-control.

Drool practically dripped from his mouth. ”Hey, gorgeous,” he purred, ”are you the maid here?”

Without turning around, the maid continued wiping the floor, her voice sickeningly sweet. ”Yes, Master.”

Her lovely voice emboldened him. ”Beautiful, why do you call me Master?”

”Because you are a guest in this villa,” the maid replied. ”Therefore, you are my master.”

Hearing her sweet voice, the assistant’s heart fluttered. ”Since I’m your master, if I ask you to come here, will you come?”

The maid started backing toward him. ”A maid will do whatever her master commands.”

Hearing her words and watching her posture, the assistant shamelessly said, ”In that case, I want to ride you. Will you let me?”

”It would be this maid’s honor to be ridden by the master,” she replied.

At that, the assistant lost what little composure he had left. Undoing his belt, he thought, Damn, I can’t believe staying at the Ghost Hunting Academy’s villa comes with perks like this! Quitting my job as the women’s dorm manager at Xijing University to learn ghost hunting here was absolutely the right call!

Just as the maid backed up to him and the assistant had his belt undone, the door was suddenly kicked open, and Zhao Rong burst in.

The assistant, about to pounce when his plans were thwarted, hastily pulled up his pants and cursed, ”Zhao Rong! Don’t you know a moment of a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold? Why the hell are you ruining my fun?”

Before the assistant could finish, Zhao Rong rushed forward and, without a word, stabbed the maid in the back with his Peach Wood Sword.

Struck by the blade, the maid let out a bloodcurdling shriek and collapsed, not a single drop of blood spilling from the wound.

When the assistant saw that Zhao Rong had not only ruined his fun but also killed his playmate, he flew into a rage. He stepped forward to confront him. ”Zhao Rong, I know I’ve ruined your fun before, but have I ever killed your playmate in the process? No, right? So how can you be so ruthless? You didn’t just ruin my fun, you killed my playmate!”

Before the assistant could finish his tirade, Zhao Rong pointed at the body on the floor. ”Look!”

The maid’s form suddenly dissolved into a wisp of white smoke, which drifted out the window and dissipated into the air.

The assistant’s eyes went wide. ”Zhao Rong, what spell did you put on my woman? How did you turn a perfectly good woman into a puff of smoke?”

”You idiot,” Zhao Rong shot back, ”you just met a ghost!”

The assistant shook his head in disbelief. ”Impossible! That maid was a total knockout. How could she be a ghost?”

Zhao Rong immediately presented his evidence. As it happened, the female ghost had kept her back to the assistant the entire time, so he had never seen her face. Zhao Rong, however, had gotten a clear look at the ghost’s horrifyingly ugly face as he burst in. What’s more, as he struck the ghost with his Peach Wood Sword, he had managed to snap a quick picture of her face with his phone.

He pulled the phone from his pocket and showed the photo to the assistant. ”If you don’t believe me, take a look at this.”

The assistant took the phone. When he saw the picture of the green-faced, fanged, blood-soaked, and toothless ghost, he glanced down at his own unbuckled belt. An overwhelming wave of nausea hit him. He rushed to the window, threw it open, and started to dry-heave.

After dealing with the immediate crisis, Zhao Rong grabbed his Peach Wood Sword and prepared to check on Miss Lili in the next room. But just as he was about to leave, the assistant stared out the window toward Wang Family Village, his voice filled with shock.

”What the hell? Last night... the places where I saw people dancing, playing basketball, and shopping... the community centers, all those bustling crowds... how are they all cemeteries now? Does that mean all those people we saw last night were ghosts? And all those wonderful places were just an illusion of the afterlife?”