I Picked Up a Ghost Husband in an Escape Room - Chapter 2

I looked down at the all-too-familiar number and fell silent.

It was my own phone number.

At this very moment, it had sent *me* a message.

**Human, I am ghost.**

It was so bizarre that I quietly saved the number under a new contact name before typing a reply.

Me: **I know.**

Me: **Were you the one who bowed with me at the wedding ceremony in the escape room?**

Xie Huai: **Mm.**

Me: **Completing that ceremony made us husband and wife?**

Xie Huai: **Mm.**

Xie Huai: **Wife.**

The message popped up before my eyes as if someone had truly called me that aloud.

I nearly flung my phone across the room.

Me: **Don’t call me that yet…**

Me: **Where are you right now?**

Xie Huai: **In front of you.**

A chill ran through me. I raised my eyes to the space ahead.

Nothing. The room was quiet and empty. Only the cold air stared silently back at me, without so much as a ghostly shadow.

Xie Huai: **I am waving at you.**

Xie Huai: **Human, we can consummate marriage now.**

My scalp prickled. Pretending I hadn’t seen that message, I kept questioning him.

The male ghost’s thoughts seemed muddled. It took him several halting attempts to explain.

Our wedding bows had formed some kind of contract between us. That made me the only living human he could find or follow.

Xie Huai: **Human, other than here, I have nowhere to go.**

I pressed my lips together. Somehow, he sounded a little pitiful.

But I couldn’t go soft. I continued my interrogation.

Me: **How do I know you’re not lying? In the human world, everyone says ghosts are evil.**

He sent me a pouting emoji.

He could barely string a sentence together, but he certainly knew his emojis.

Xie Huai: **Human look at wrist.**

I did as he said and looked down.

Sure enough, a faint line of bloodred had appeared beneath my skin. For one hazy instant, it seemed to break through the surface and stretch toward some unknown place.

I followed it with my eyes. It led to a spot not far ahead and slightly to my left.

Before I could see more clearly, the thread vanished.

Xie Huai: **Did not lie to you.**

Xie Huai: **Can consummate marriage now?**

The instant the message arrived, something damp and clammy coiled around my waist. A strange sensation nuzzled against my cheek.

“Don’t touch me yet!”

Cold crawled up my spine, and I shouted without thinking.

Only afterward did I realize he could hear anything I said. There was no need to type.

The clammy chill withdrew at once.

Another pouting emoji appeared.

Xie Huai: **Why.**

“I… I don’t feel well,” I lied on the spot. “And the wedding that day was too shabby. It doesn’t count. Wait until we’ve had a real wedding, then we can…”

My ears burned. I couldn’t bring myself to say the last two words.

He seemed taken aback.

Several seconds passed before another message appeared.

Xie Huai: **Okay.**

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Then I’ll… go back to sleep?”

Xie Huai: **Okay.**

Xie Huai: **Human, I will always watch you.**