My Wife (1)
“Who is the main character of this book…?”
Xu Jiao felt more of a headache the more she looked at that gray book.
She pressed her forehead, trying to shake the image of the little blonde girl’s face from her mind, and even that black snake was swept into the corners of her memory.
After a long moment of silence, she reopened her eyes, her black pupils returning to their usual calm appearance. She composed herself and said to the system:
“Next book, please. What is the next world?”
The system was silent for a moment and then said to her, “There is something I think you need to know.”
Xu Jiao raised her chin and looked toward the ceiling above. Everything in this space was false, and the system’s voice came from above. She quietly responded with a “mm,” signaling the other party to speak directly.
“Currently, you have attempted to modify the endings of four books, succeeding in only one. The failure rate has reached 75%, and the only successful world had the help of a novice poverty-alleviation package. Although you have not triggered the punishment mechanism, your influence and control over the next world will decline to a certain degree.”
Xu Jiao narrowed her eyes: “What do you mean?”
The system found it somewhat difficult to explain, so it provided an example: “For instance, in the first and second books, even without special abilities, the world will be particularly friendly to you, allowing you to influence the protagonist or the storyline’s development relatively easily—”
“But in such situations, your success rate for modifying endings remains very low. This system judges that due to your special status and lack of empathy for the story in the books, you will lose some of the privileges of being the Creator in the next world.”
Xu Jiao pondered the system’s words.
She suddenly saw the cruel side of this harmonious system hidden beneath its cold task mechanism.
If she continued to be as passively slack as in the first world, she would eventually become ordinary in this repeated journey, much like the rigid, paper-like characters she wrote, losing the advantages of her status as the creator and the world’s affinity for her. She might even face terrifying unexpected events like ordinary people, and losing her life suddenly would be highly possible.
The longer Xu Jiao stayed in these books, the more dangers she would face.
The difficulty of modifying the endings would also increase.
But she could not lose herself in these difficulties to meet the system’s requirements. Let her see whether these books would make her lose herself faster, or if she would have the last laugh.
Xu Jiao slightly raised her lips and calmly replied, “I understand.”
She said, “Can the next book be arranged?”
The system was silent for a moment and then replied, “Okay.”
The girl’s gaze, sitting in the chair, roamed over the bookshelf. As she scanned the book titles, related settings and contents emerged in her mind one by one. Some were relatively distant from the present, but there were also vague memories and general impressions in her mind.
Just at that moment—
She saw a name.
《Building No. 18》.
Xu Jiao’s breath paused for a moment, and she instinctively turned her gaze away, thinking it shouldn’t be such a coincidence. After all, when this book was originally written, it was hastily finished with no inspiration, resulting in a bad ending.
Just as she was thinking this, within her line of sight, the book title suddenly lit up with a golden light.
Before her consciousness became blurry, Xu Jiao’s face suddenly turned somewhat unsightly.
Because this book…
It’s horror.
《Building No. 18》 was a work Xu Jiao wrote following the trend during the horror craze at that time. However, the websites she was on were all based on a romantic tone, and such themes of deep suffering and reflecting social reality weren’t liked by many people.
After all, life is already bitter enough; who wants to continue feeling miserable while watch? Seeing a millionaire CEO kneeling before you, begging you not to leave because he can’t live without you; seeing the neighbor, a handsome star adored by many in public, secretly pining for you, the little green plum next door… isn’t this kind of little sweet cookie appealing?
It’s not to say that serious drama themes have no path.
But this kind of theme requires very exquisite foreshadowing and conception, needing one to immerse themselves wholeheartedly in managing it. Xu Jiao was actually more skilled in writing with a feel-good routine, and when trying this new theme, she inevitably stumbled and found it quite unsmooth. Coupled with the fact that the early reader response to this book wasn’t very good, she simply turned it into a short story with a bad ending.
In her conception, 《Building No. 18》 is a story that takes place in a university dormitory building.
Between schools, there are common well-known stories, such as books suddenly flipping in the classroom at midnight, or the bus stop near the school that always has a night bus. If you board that bus late at night, you will find it full of people, yet everyone is quiet, creating a strange atmosphere…
As for things like the pen-spirit game or the thirteen-step staircases, they’ve already been talked about to the point of being cliché.
In this book, S University has a very old girls’ dormitory, far from the cafeteria and teaching buildings, located halfway up a mountain. On clear days, you can see very beautiful scenery.
But the dormitory’s location is very strange, and there were some accidents during its construction.
The schoolgirls living in this dormitory always seem to be unlucky. For example, during the graduate exam period, the number of people who can’t take it anymore and jump off the building is particularly high; incoming freshmen always seem to have personality clashes that lead to quarrels, sometimes even escalating into violent incidents… from small issues like a high rate of tardiness for final exams and toilets echoing with empty flushing sounds, to severe cases like a mentally ill student being admitted and suddenly stabbing innocent classmates during a disagreement at the graduation party.
For a period of time, S University turned this place into a boys’ dormitory. After several years, a new principal came and found that this dormitory building was close to the liberal arts teaching building, and since there were few liberal arts boys, having three per room in this building was more than enough. However, if they moved science or sports students here, the distance to the classes would be too far, and catching the school bus would be troublesome. After much deliberation, they turned this building back into a girls’ dormitory.
When Xu Jiao was writing this book, she specifically attempted a group portrait perspective—
That is to say.
This book is a unit story and was originally not meant to have a protagonist.
But because it ended poorly, only two or three small units were written, so if one had to choose… perhaps, there might be some ghost that is common, a cameo, that could be considered the main character?
As Xu Jiao was being transmitted into the book’s story by the system, she dizzily pondered and guessed.
Bright incandescent light covered Xu Jiao’s eyelids, making her perceive a heavy dark red before her eyes. After opening her eyes, she first raised her hand to block the light, gradually noticing through her fingers that she was very close to the ceiling’s light tube.
A long, most ordinary light tube, as if she could reach it by simply raising her hand.
At first, Xu Jiao didn’t quite understand how she ended up so close to the ceiling until she noticed the green hollow bed railing in her view. She held onto the railing, sat up cross-legged, and realized she was sleeping on the upper bunk.
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This was a bunk bed with an army cot structure, colored in the most ordinary green. A wooden board with a few layers of padding made it suitable for sleeping. On the small bed beneath her, there was only a thin layer of cotton quilt and a yellowing old bamboo mat.
The edges of the weave were all damaged, revealing strands of the mat surface.
The quilt had an extremely ugly red big flower pattern. Xu Jiao raised her hand to lift it, only to discover that she was wearing light blue pajamas, washed to the point of being somewhat faded, with a button-down round neck in a rustic style.
Luckily, there weren’t too many things on the bed, but a small mountain of books was piled at the bedside. At a glance, the one on top was 《50 Simulated Sets of Past Papers for the CET-6 English Exam》.
Xu Jiao: “…”
Hiss.
Didn’t she just go through a stack of these in Shen Yelan’s world?
She shifted her gaze to other parts of the room and saw a bed opposite that was exactly the same, except the upper bunk was piled high with many cosmetics. At first glance, it looked like a purchasing agent’s nest, with many products she recognized, as well as items like makeup sponges, eyelash curlers, and scissors.
Xu Jiao could hardly imagine what kind of creature would sleep in this nest.
On the lower bunk of that side, the wall was covered with posters in a beautiful art style. The bed also had a brand-new book on it, featuring an exquisite character drawing on the cover, with a slender waist and thin lips that looked handsome, suggesting… the owner of this bed was very likely a fujoshi.
Between the two facing beds was a large rectangular iron table, cluttered with several piles of books stacked like mountains, a potted cactus, a yellow plastic bowl with tableware, and so on… extremely messy.
Just at that moment.
A burst of clanging collision sounds came from the doorway, followed by a girl’s sharp voice:
“Holy sh*t, you’re standing here in the middle of the night without moving, trying to scare people to death?”
An innocent female voice responded: “?? I’m here sending a message, you know the signal in this building is bad, didn’t you see me?”
A third voice intervened: “Forget it, forget it, hey, don’t be so sensitive, it’s okay, it’s okay, classmate. We just watched some horror movies during the day and got scared, it’s fine, sorry.”
Subsequently, the dormitory door handle was turned open. The heavy security door, having been used for too many years, had somewhat rusty hinges, making a huge ‘creak’ sound as it opened.
Two girls with towels wrapped around their heads walked in, one wearing bear pajamas, the other a bathrobe, both styles much more normal than what Xu Jiao was wearing, resembling students living in the 21st century.
The two of them met the gaze of Xu Jiao from the upper bunk by the window. Captured by her calm black eyes, they were startled and stepped back together, then both patted their chests:
“Oh my gosh.”
“Xu Jiao, why are you suddenly looking at us like that? Scared us to death.”
Xu Jiao hadn’t yet told the system she wanted to receive the memories, so she didn’t quite recognize these two for the moment. She just pursed her lips and said, “Mm… heard your voices.”
The two girls, still shaken, stood firm and then closed the door behind them. Although they were talking and laughing, Xu Jiao could see their movements were somewhat stiff and tense, as if… they were afraid of something.
Before she could observe more, the two mentioned going downstairs to blow-dry their hair, and suddenly looked up to ask Xu Jiao: “Hey, Xiaoxu, aren’t you afraid?”
Xu Jiao: “Ah?”
Seeing her unresponsive appearance, the two roommates seemed to assume some fact, exchanged glances, and somewhat embarrassedly said to her: “Could you… accompany us downstairs to blow-dry our hair? It’s eleven o’clock now, cough cough, we just played that game during the day, so we’re a bit scared. Can you come with us? I feel safer with more people, haha.”
Xu Jiao’s eyes moved slightly, just about to agree while asking the system to transmit the original owner’s memory to her, when suddenly a burst of vibration came from her feet.
It was the sound of a phone ringing.
She pushed the quilt to the side and then saw a very old tablet phone with peeling paint on the edges. The protective film was scratched, and the corners were lifting. The screen had a densely packed spider web of cracks, making it unclear whether the glass was shattered or if it was the display beneath.
She pursed her lips and waved the phone at the two girls, showing a slightly troubled expression.
“Ah, is that your family calling? Go ahead and answer it; we can go by ourselves.”
Xu Jiao lowered her eyes to look at the incoming call display, seeing that it was simply labeled with the word “home.” After hesitating for a moment, she swiped to answer. The phone’s touchscreen wasn’t very responsive and only reacted after she swiped two or three times.
The connection was somewhat sluggish.
Then, there came a crackling electric sound, and just as Xu Jiao was suspecting whether this was some prank call, a very hoarse and loud voice finally came through:
“Smelly kid! Don’t let studying ruin your brain; you even hung up on your mother’s call during the day! Tell me, how much money can you earn from attending university? You’ll still have to go out and work!”
“I’ve already checked; your university isn’t some prestigious school. At best, you’ll earn a few thousand yuan a month. When will you be able to pay off the family’s debt? Don’t be stubborn with us! We’ve found a good family for you!”
“They offered us ten thousand yuan, so our family can replace the old house’s tiles and even build a new house. Doesn’t everyone have air conditioning in the city during summer? Our family can install one too, and also in your room, okay? Satisfied now? I tell you, don’t think hiding at school and not coming back will work. I’ve already sent things to you! The eight characters1 have also been sent out! Don’t think you can run!”
Xu Jiao was muddled by the thick rural accent in one ear, guessing and recognizing the content inside, her eyebrows furrowing unintentionally.
From beginning to end, she did not speak, discovering that the other side kept repeating things like “You should be sensible,” “You must obey, people can’t live so selfishly,” “You’re considered as earning money for the family early” … and other similarly meaningless content.
She moved the phone slightly away from her ear and said in her heart: “System—”
“Now transmit the original owner’s memory to me.”
The system’s cold voice sounded: “Transmitting for you.”
After a few seconds.
Xu Jiao opened her eyes again, just in time to hear the sound of the call being hung up: “beep…”
The phone screen returned to its original lock screen pattern.
But she now knew all the stories of the original owner. This girl was born in the countryside, and her family was very poor from a young age, with no money to support her education. While she scrimped and saved for school, at the age of ten, her parents spent a large sum of money to adopt a son from a relative’s family.
The various hardships she endured to attend university aside, now, her parents, having somehow learned about a money-making opportunity, actually inquired in town about a type of work where they gave out her eight characters, specifically to lend to wealthy families’ deceased children for arranging ghost marriages.2
This is a bad habit passed down from old society.
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It is said that in the past, when someone who hadn’t yet been married died unexpectedly, their family worried they would have no companion in the afterlife, so they would hire people to arrange a ghost marriage for them. Initially, this kind of thing only occurred between families who had both lost sons, but later, because of the interests involved, some people with bad intentions began finding poor rural families to match with rich ones.
This time, the original owner’s parents “sold” Xu Jiao for a large sum.
But because she resisted fiercely, and it’s unclear how those two talked their way around it in their hometown, they actually made up a story about letting the two children first make contact, so they sent some items related to Xu Jiao’s ghost marriage partner over.
The box wrapped in a black courier bag was placed right by the dormitory door.
Xu Jiao’s gaze was fixed on it—
Suddenly, she remembered another thing.
In this dormitory she was in, there were only three girls, and the bed below hers was empty. During the day, her two other roommates—let’s call them Ai’ai and Xiaoli—somehow heard about a thrilling yet terrifying game and dragged her to play a round of “Invite the Pen Fairy.”3
Because when they were inviting, the pen held by the three of them didn’t move at all, Ai Ai and Xiao Li immediately scoffed, tossed the pen aside, and didn’t perform any subsequent sending-off spirit ceremony.
That is to say.
If the ceremony had succeeded at that time, and the courier box truly contained an important part of that “ghost marriage” partner, perhaps Xu Jiao would now be under the same roof with two otherworldly creatures?
She raised her eyebrows, ignoring the creaking sound of the door being blown by the wind, and didn’t pay attention to the goosebumps that inexplicably rose when she thought of these two things. She only asked the system in her heart:
“Can you tell me who the main character of this book is?”
System: “…When they appear, I will detect them.”
Xu Jiao then asked another question: “Alright, so in such a supernatural and terrifying story, could you tell me what direction leads to a happy ending?”
The system answered seriously: “When you exit this book, the content will automatically generate the most reasonable ending based on what you have done. At that point, we will determine from the content whether it is a happy ending.”
Xu Jiao: “…”
She incredulously asked, “So, you’re saying you start with just words, and the ending is all made up?”
The system still wanted to argue, but unfortunately, its content wasn’t very convincing, so it could only remain silent, allowing Xu Jiao to mock it as a third-rate system.
Xu Jiao was energetically scolding it when she suddenly heard a sentence:
“Detected that the female protagonist is about to face a bloody disaster, please save her in time.”
Xu Jiao: “…?”
Where is the female protagonist, you should say!
The dormitory door opened again, and Qian Ai, who was walking in front and loved makeup, kicked a black box with her foot, looked down in fright, and then smiled helplessly at Xu Jiao:
“When are you going to open this broken courier of yours? Leaving it here really blocks the way. What did you buy that’s so heavy?”
Zhou Qili smiled gently, bent down to help Xu Jiao put the courier box back in place, then walked to the lower bunk opposite Xu Jiao and sat down, resting her feet on the chair by the bed, and bent down to pick up her unfinished work.
Xu Jiao held onto the railing and stepped down from the bed on the hollow metal ladder, just about to say something when she suddenly felt a force pull her ankle. She lost her balance and fell from mid-air.
Her knee scraped against the edge of the drawer by the iron table, leaving a long red mark.
Her head and elbow were both hit, and she fell to the ground between the table and the bed, feeling pain all over her body. Qian Ai and Zhou Qili were both startled by her sudden slip and quickly came over.
“Are you okay?”
“What were you getting out of bed so urgently for in the middle of the night? Oh my, your foot is bleeding!”
In her dizzying pain, Xu Jiao raised her right hand to steady herself on the table leg, trying to get up. The two roommates wanted to help her but were hesitant to touch her, fearing she might have injured something important. They could only stand by and ask how she felt.
Xu Jiao licked her lower lip, her eyes somewhat dizzy from the dazzling white incandescent lamp above. She glanced at her lower bunk and found it empty, with only a dust-covered wooden board; the pole she had stepped on earlier was also smooth, with nothing extra on it.
Zhou Qili and Qian Ai were also opposite her, making it impossible for them to have suddenly come over.
So…
What exactly was it that pulled her ankle just now?
She felt suspicious in her heart but didn’t show it on her face, only weakly curling her lips and telling her two roommates, “No problem, I’ll rest a bit and be fine, just wait a moment.”
After a while, Xu Jiao slowly got up from the ground and saw a red blood mark running all the way down from her calf to her ankle, which was extremely shocking.
The pain was also very obvious.
She let out a low breath, and Qian Ai immediately said, “I have iodine, don’t move quickly. Lili, help her sit properly, I’ll go find it! Hey, this is serious, do we need to go to the school clinic? For this kind of wound, isn’t a tetanus shot safer?”
Qian Ai spoke while searching for iodine in her bed, which was like a dog’s nest.
Zhou Qili helped Xu Jiao sit on a chair and checked her body for any other injuries. Xu Jiao lowered her eyes and suddenly heard the system say in her mind:
“Failed to help the female lead avoid the blood disaster, please try harder, host.”
Xu Jiao’s eyes suddenly turned sharp for a moment.
The female lead was also injured just now?
Wait, who is the female lead of this story…
Exactly who is it?
She asked the system: “What is the distance between me and the female lead?”
System: “Less than one meter.”
Xu Jiao: “!”
Within a one-meter range, isn’t it just her who is injured?
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“Thud.” The sound of a paper box colliding suddenly echoed.
Zhou Qili subconsciously glanced toward the door and found that the courier box she had originally placed beside the washbasin seemed to have moved a considerable distance into the room, unexpectedly ending up by Qian Ai’s foot.
The area around it was empty, with nothing there, and it was unclear what force had moved it.
The dormitory suddenly fell silent.
Qian Ai subconsciously exchanged glances with Zhou Qili, and as if they thought of something, their eyes gradually filled with panic—
Just then, Xu Jiao interrupted the terrifying atmosphere they had created.
“There is water on the ground, and my courier box might have gotten wet and slippery. How about I open it?”
At this moment, the person who steps forward to break the terrifying atmosphere will invisibly become the backbone for the timid.
Even though they were worried there might be something strange inside the box, Qian Ai and Zhou Qili couldn’t help but want to personally check out this crisis, so they nodded to Xu Jiao.
Xu Jiao hopped over on one foot, casually grabbed a pair of scissors from the table, and cut open the packaging. She lowered her head to open the somewhat long cardboard box. Just as she lifted a corner, she saw a piece of heavy wood edge exposed inside, along with some rough carved patterns.
Wood?
She tore open the seal of the cardboard box completely and casually reached inside, her fingertip touching the indentation in the middle of the wood.
At the same time—
The contents of the box were fully revealed under the light.
It was a piece of dark, long wood, with a string of elegant characters carved on it. At a glance, it read “Daughter of the Zheng family,” and without mentioning the other content, Xu Jiao was not unfamiliar with this item.
This is what often appears in TV dramas, used for offering incense to the deceased…
A memorial tablet.
Footnotes
- Eight characters (八字): Refers to the “Four Pillars of Destiny,” which is a concept used in Chinese astrology. It involves eight characters derived from a person’s birth date and time, which are used to create a horoscope. These characters are made up of four pairs, each pair representing the year, month, day, and hour of birth. Each pair consists of one “Heavenly Stem” and one “Earthly Branch.” This horoscope is often used to predict a person’s destiny, personality, and compatibility with others, and can play a significant role in traditional practices such as matchmaking and marriage arrangements.
- Ghost marriage: A traditional Chinese practice where a deceased person is married to another deceased individual or, in some cases, to a living person, in order to ensure that the deceased is not alone in the afterlife. This ritual is often arranged by the living family members and can involve using symbolic representations or actual remains in the ceremony.
- “Invite the Pen Fairy”: A supernatural game similar to a séance, where participants lightly hold a pen over paper and summon a spirit to answer questions by moving the pen. The game is considered eerie and is often played for thrills, with the belief that the spirit may actually respond through the pen’s movements. Similar to “Charlie Charlie” but not quite.