Bringing My Rival Back to Life (Accidentally) - Chapter 3
The butler was sweating profusely, terrified by Zhu Xiao’s thug-like behavior. For the fifth time, he repeated, “Mr. Wu has already passed away.”
“I’m counting down.”
Zhu Xiao was serious; his shovel had already penetrated the soil by two centimeters, ready to dig at any moment.
“Ten.”
“Mr. Zhu, we truly haven’t deceived you.”
“Nine.”
“Mr. Zhu, it’s normal for you to have trouble accepting it right away, but Mr. Wu really has passed away.”
“Eight.”
“Mr. Zhu, Mr. Wu would be very… saddened if he knew you couldn’t let go of him. Please, take it easy!”
“Seven.”
“Mr. Zhu, I’m also very saddened by Mr. Wu’s death. Please don’t make it difficult for me…”
“I’m not making it difficult for you,” Zhu Xiao said, his purpose very clear, “Let Wu Jiu come out and talk to me.”
“Mr. Wu has already passed away…”
Zhu Xiao glanced at the butler, “Three.”
How did it get to three so quickly! The butler was on the verge of a breakdown. He had never met anyone as hard to deal with as Zhu Xiao. How did the master manage to provoke someone even more like the King of Yanluo than himself?
Zhu Xiao applied a bit more force, and the shovel went down another centimeter, “Two.”
In the blink of an eye, it was about to reach “one.” Desperately, the butler shouted, “Mr. Zhu! Mr. Wu really has passed away. Please let him rest in peace!”
“Mr. Zhu… Digging up a grave is unlucky. According to the customs of our hometown, restless spirits can’t reincarnate.”
Zhu Xiao’s fingers gripping the shovel turned pale from the effort, and the butler’s heart was in his throat. There was something buried under that grave, and Wu Jiu had specifically instructed not to dig it up.
“Mr. Zhu…?”
However, the “one” never came.
The shovel in front of the grave was moved away, and Zhu Xiao stopped. He didn’t continue digging.
The butler, who had been sweating with anxiety, finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Mr. Zhu, please take it easy… Mr. Wu really has passed away.”
Zhu Xiao pursed his lips, still silent.
The butler couldn’t fathom Zhu Xiao’s thoughts and cautiously said, “If you really miss Mr. Wu, you can burn something for him.”
The butler handed him a stack of notepaper and a pen, and brought over a metal incineration bucket, lighting a charcoal fire in front of Wu Jiu’s grave.
“Or if you have anything you want to say to Mr. Wu, you can write it down and burn it for him,” the butler added, “Mr. Wu’s spirit will surely receive it.”
“…”
Zhu Xiao held the paper and pen for a long time, but in the end, he stubbornly returned them.
His expression remained as cold as ever, “I don’t believe in this.”
After that day, Zhu Xiao took a few days off in a row.
Zhu Xiao seemed no different from usual; his daily routine was still the same, except that he no longer worked himself to the bone and rested on time.
Wu Jiu’s death seemed to have no impact on him.
“Hey, why are you here?”
Seeing Zhu Xiao in the bar again, Zhao Zirui was astonished. Zhu Xiao used to be a rare visitor, but recently he had been coming every few days, as if he had something to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
But what could he be sad about? Zhu Xiao had recently been promoted and inherited a fortune… He should be happy, right?
It took Zhu Xiao a while to come back to reality and realize Zhao Zirui was asking him, “Just came here out of boredom.”
Zhao Zirui felt something was off but couldn’t quite put his finger on it, “Are you okay?”
Zhu Xiao shook his head, “I’m fine.”
Zhao Zirui gestured towards the several bottles of alcohol on the table, “If you’re fine, why drink so much?”
After a while, Zhu Xiao said, “Wu Jiu might really be dead.”
“So you’re doing this because of him? Are you sad? But… isn’t that Wu Jiu?”
If it were Zhao Zirui who had died, Zhu Xiao’s behavior would have been understandable, but since Wu Jiu and Zhu Xiao had been archenemies since they met, it didn’t make sense for Zhu Xiao to be so downcast.
Zhao Zirui was puzzled; this didn’t seem like someone mourning a rival, but more like someone mourning a lover.
Zhu Xiao didn’t answer him and abruptly asked another question, “What exactly is sudden death?”
“Probably from too much stress, being too tired, and so on.”
Zhu Xiao responded indifferently, which was in line with what he had found online earlier.
Zhao Zirui seized the opportunity to lecture Zhu Xiao, “So remember, nothing is more important than life. You should really——Hey!”
Before he could finish, Zhu Xiao suddenly stood up and struck the bell on the table.
“Clang, clang,” the sound immediately silenced the entire bar.
In an instant, the music stopped, the dancing ceased, the chatter died down, and all eyes were on Zhu Xiao.
Under the spotlight, Zhu Xiao calmly raised his glass and clinked it towards the air.
The next second, the crowd erupted into excited and frenzied screams.
“Why did you do that? Are you drunk or something?” Zhao Zirui exclaimed in the noisy crowd, “Do you know how much that bell costs?”
It was a rule here that whoever rang the bell had to pay for everyone’s drinks.
“No idea.”
Zhao Zirui took a breath, “You don’t know and you still rang it?”
Zhu Xiao took out a card and said nonchalantly, “Wu Jiu’s money.”
The inheritance Wu Jiu had left him, he hadn’t touched a penny of it. But now he had changed his mind. Money that was just sitting there, unused, might as well be used, especially since Wu Jiu was dead.
“I’m not going to manage this money anyway.”
Did Wu Jiu think he wouldn’t dare to use it just because he left it to him?
After a while, the manager came over with the bill. Without even looking, Zhu Xiao casually swiped six figures.
Zhao Zirui was left speechless, “I can’t… I can’t compete with you rich people.”
Zhu Xiao drained three shots of strong liquor from the table in one go, patted Zhao Zirui, and said, “I’m off.”
Zhao Zirui quickly called out to him, “Hey! Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine,” Zhu Xiao said, “Didn’t you just say, that’s Wu Jiu.”
If Wu Jiu wanted to die, let him. If he felt bad about the money, he should just jump out of his coffin.
He casually ordered a top-tier luxury car and a professional driver, not batting an eye at the exorbitant price.
…
The Rolls-Royce Phantom sped along the road, gradually moving away from the bustling city lights and disappearing into the sparsely populated outskirts.
Zhu Xiao arrived at the cemetery once again.
The night was cool, and there were few people around. It should have been a gloomy scene, but the atmosphere of the cemetery was consistent with its owner’s personality. A bright light shone directly on the comedic tombstone, so bright it was almost noisy.
Zhu Xiao walked up.
The paper and pen left by the butler were still there, as was the incinerator and the lighter.
Everything was just as he had left it the last time he was here. No one had touched it.
Wu Jiu really had it bad, Zhu Xiao thought. Dead and relying on an outsider to visit his grave.
“Where’s Zhu Xiao?”
In the Hall of Yanluo, Wu Jiu once again asked the butler about Zhu Xiao’s recent situation.
The butler reported honestly, “Mr. Zhu wanted to dig up your grave, but I persuaded him not to.”
“Would he dare dig up the King of Yanluo’s tomb?” Wu Jiu couldn’t believe it. Zhu Xiao was truly the first person in history to attempt such a thing.
But he soon came to his senses. When he was a child, he had also asked the old King of Yanluo if there was a grave in the human world that he could dig up, and he had been beaten on the spot by his father.
Recalling the pain of those beatings, Wu Jiu rubbed his arm. He thought that it was a good thing Zhu Xiao had dug up his grave and not someone else’s. Otherwise, with Zhu Xiao’s delicate skin, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand the beating, and crying would have been a real hassle.
Thinking this through, Wu Jiu felt relieved. “Forget it, I won’t hold it against him.”
“Mr. Zhu seems to have accepted your death now and has been visiting your grave these past few days.”
“How is he?” Wu Jiu was quite annoyed, twirling the pen in his hand so fast it almost spun out of control. He hadn’t intended to make anyone sad. He felt bad about leaving so abruptly and asked, “Did he… cry?”
The butler replied, “Mr. Zhu has never cried.”
Wu Jiu was puzzled, “Not even once?”
The butler nodded, “Not even once.”
“You mean,” Wu Jiu slowly repeated, “since I ‘died,’ he hasn’t shed a single tear?”
“Yes.”
Wu Jiu didn’t like seeing people cry, but the fact that Zhu Xiao hadn’t cried a single tear made him feel even more unbalanced.
After competing with Zhu Xiao for so many years, Zhu Xiao’s name had taken up two-thirds of his life in the human world. He believed he was just as important to Zhu Xiao. But now that he was “dead,” Zhu Xiao acted as if nothing had happened?
It was even more inconceivable than digging up the King of Yanluo’s tomb. Wu Jiu gritted his teeth and said, “We’ve been rivals for so many years, and he doesn’t shed a tear for my death?”
“…”
The butler thought to himself that they had been rivals for so many years, not partners. It wasn’t strange that Zhu Xiao didn’t cry.
Moreover, Wu Jiu had previously worried that Zhu Xiao would be too sad and had specifically made the funeral and tombstone very humorous—truth be told, it would be quite difficult to cry in front of a tombstone that was as dense as a dictionary.
Wu Jiu still wasn’t convinced and continued to ask, “What has he been doing lately?”
The butler thought for a moment and said, “Pretty much the same as usual. But maybe because you’re not around, Mr. Zhu has taken a few days off to rest.”
“Is that all?”
“Well… I heard that Mr. Zhu went to a bar and spent 130,000 yuan in one night. Does that count?”
“…”
“Good, good, good,” Wu Jiu was so angry that he said the word “good” three times in a row.
Not only did Zhu Xiao not cry, but he was also extremely carefree.
If it weren’t for that agreement, he probably wouldn’t even remember where his grave was, let alone his name.
… Looking at it this way, it was a good thing he had the foresight to make Zhu Xiao sign that agreement.
Other people didn’t matter, but Zhu Xiao would never forget him so easily.
The butler, sensing the tension, quickly made his exit: “If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave now.”
After the butler left, Wu Jiu took out the abstract drawing he had been working on for a long time.
He stared at the chaotic lines and said through gritted teeth, “Impressive.”
Just then, a wisp of smoke rose from Wu Jiu’s desk, and a letter slowly materialized.
Wu Jiu was stunned.
Someone from the human world was burning a letter for him?
The only person in the human world who knew he was dead was Zhu Xiao—Zhu Xiao?!
Wu Jiu quickly grabbed the letter and unfolded it with a flick of his fingers.
Having known each other for so many years, Wu Jiu recognized Zhu Xiao’s handwriting at a glance.
There was only a brief line of text.
He was very familiar with these words.
——【Wu Jiu, you’re an idiot.】
Wu Jiu: “…”
This was truly bizarre. The mighty King of Yanluo had received his first precious letter from the human world, and the content was simply “idiot.”
Wu Jiu was clearly shocked by this concise and straightforward message. For a moment, he didn’t know how to react.
When he came to his senses, Wu Jiu first sneered at the line, “So he still knows how to write my name.”
Then he grumbled, “He doesn’t even have a kind word… I’m dead!”
Finally, he folded the letter and put it in his jacket pocket, darkening his face as he said, “I’m going to the human world.”
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Hate that cliffhanger, don’t you?
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