Chapter 34: The Little Ghost 2

02

The sound of water in the bathroom gradually weakened, then fell completely silent.

Ji Yue turned off his screen and pulled a mystery novel from the nightstand, flipping to the chapter where the case was solved, while wondering in his heart who exactly [Beautiful Hot Straight Man] was.

Zhong Xian walked out of the bathroom in a bathrobe, toweling the ends of his hair. He saw Ji Yue sprawled on the bed, wearing duck-print pajamas, the pant legs somehow rolled up to expose pale calves, his ankles very slender.

He was reading the mystery novel he'd bought last week, his gaze resting on one line of text, not turning the page for a long while.

He looked quite serious about it.

Zhong Xian picked up his own phone from the nightstand. The screen was still faintly warm.

The corner of his lips curled into a smile.

He didn't expose Ji Yue. He just sat down at the edge of the bed and struck up a conversation in a casual, chatty posture, the way he always did.

"You went out tonight?"

Zhong Xian found a topic.

"Mm."

Only then did Ji Yue finally turn a page.

"Where'd you go?"

"The arcade."

"I saw you bought bread?"

"I put it in the fridge. You can eat it."

The more Zhong Xian listened, the more he wanted to laugh. Taking my phone out to buy things for me?

Truly too cute.

Ji Yue closed the mystery novel, his face showing not a hint of guilt. He looked up at Zhong Xian with a cold expression and spoke in a commanding tone: "When are we going out together?"

As a ghost, he had no ID, no bank account, and no money. Going out alone at night, if he hadn't taken Zhong Xian's phone, he could only stand aside watching other people have fun, go swing on the free swings in the park, and then get treated to milk tea by blushing male college students out on their night runs from the nearby university town.

He didn't like that kind of life.

But according to the original novel's setting, the fierce ghost often wandered outside, appearing in all kinds of places—restaurants, arcades, malls... A playful ghost had once drawn the attention of the male lead's other friends.

Since that was the case, he could only go out together with the male lead.

[Easy to go from frugal to lavish, hard to go from lavish back to frugal!]

[But this money should rightfully be charged to the male lead. We're not wrong!]

Zhong Xian gently squeezed his shoulder. "Little Sister Yue, how about I give you a massage as an apology? Sorry, I've had a lot going on lately and can't keep you company often... How about I give you some cash? Oh right, I also have a phone here."

[Not bad. Showering gold coins is the male lead's greatest virtue!]

"When you go out from now on, remember to send me a message."

As he spoke, Zhong Xian took a brand-new phone from the cabinet and placed it by his hand.

[Just as expected! The male lead came prepared. Even under a ghost's spell, he's kept a shred of rationality! Controlling your whereabouts this way means he subconsciously considers you a suspicious little ghost!]

Ji Yue lit up the screen. A SIM card was already inserted, and the basic apps were downloaded.

There was an extra icon on the home screen—the latest mobile version of the game *Hack the Zombies' Heads Off*.

WeChat was registered too, with only one friend added, [The Pig Whose Ear Hurts from the Earphone Clip], set as pinned.

Zhong Xian had also deposited a sum of money into the account.

"Thank you."

Ji Yue thanked him with a cold face.

This grumpy-faced kitten...

Zhong Xian smiled. "You're welcome. But could you smile at me once?"

"No."

Ji Yue refused expressionlessly, clutching the phone in his hand and rolling over to get off the bed.

But Zhong Xian stopped him. "Has my friend looked for you again?"

[Time to drive a wedge between the male lead and his best bro! Sow discord like crazy, until Zhong Xian is stuck between his wifey and his bro, pleasing neither side, and his subconscious suspicion of the little ghost grows deeper!]

"Tonight, I ran into him." Ji Yue thought for a moment. "He walked me home. I don't want to see him again either. He seems... very fierce."

"Next time call me, or take a taxi back. It's nothing—he just thought I'd gone missing before."

Zhong Xian sighed.

Ji Yue mumbled an "mm," not really listening to the explanation, and quickly slipped away.

Today he was going to play the zombie game all day.

Back in his own room, he lay down comfortably on the bed, held up the phone, and logged into the game.

Zombies, here I come.

Just then, a friend request popped up on WeChat.

That wasn't right.

Only Zhong Xian knew this WeChat account, and Zhong Xian's account was already sitting in his friend list.

Puzzled, Ji Yue tapped it open.

Nickname: [Beautiful Hot Straight Man]

Verification message: [What is this alt account of yours for? Hooking up with people behind your girlfriend's back?]

[Ahhh, who IS this person? So malicious toward the male lead and so relentless!]

He pondered for a while.

*He thinks I'm the male lead. Maybe he knows what Zhong Xian has been up to lately?*

He had felt earlier that something was off about Zhong Xian's situation.

Zhong Xian used to stay home nearly every day, then suddenly disappeared for several days. Could it be that the male lead's true consciousness was fighting against the ghost's control?

Ji Yue tapped Accept and typed out a line.

—[Were you following me a few days ago?]

[Oh, you want to use the straight man to painlessly learn Zhong Xian's secrets!]

The system cackled with glee.

After a while, Beautiful Hot Straight Man replied.

[Image]

Ji Yue opened it.

—A photo of a coffin shop.

A mahogany-colored signboard with three black characters reading "Shou An Ju." Beside it stood a PVC sign, red characters on white: custom coffins, funeral services team.

Ji Yue frowned slightly and zoomed in on the photo. The lighting was gloomy and the image somewhat blurry, taken from a low angle as if snapped in a hurry, with half a moon visible at the edge. Judging by the surroundings, it was somewhere in the old part of the city.

If it was just for a funeral, there was no reason for Zhong Xian to hide it from him.

Even the straight man clearly believed Zhong Xian had another reason for visiting the coffin shop.

So, what was in the coffin shop?

[Painlessly learning so much, just like that!]

The system gave him a thumbs up.

Next, the straight man sent two more lines.

[You went to a coffin shop without telling anyone, so secretive—must be something you don't want others to know, right?]

[Big bro, does your girlfriend know?]

[Why does this person bring up other people's girlfriends every other sentence? What does he want?]

[Does he want to bang you?!!]

The system snapped to alert.

'...'

Not everyone wants to bang me.

[Oh right, we have a plot mission to complete today! Haunt the male lead's best bro in his dreams!]

Ji Yue put down the phone.

Thinking of Chen Zheqin's forceful, uninvited manner, he furrowed his brow and took a sip from his water glass.

He wanted to blast him with a cannon.

He sat at the edge of the bed and took a watch from the cabinet.

A black dial, crushed diamonds embedded along the rim—understated and expensive.

Chen Zheqin's watch.

Zhong Xian had borrowed it from him during the last instance, and it had sat in the cabinet ever since, forgotten by everyone—until a clever fierce ghost dug it out.

—A ghost's dream invasion, curses, and possession all required a personal belonging of the target.

Ji Yue closed the watch into his palm. The metal's chill seeped into his skin like a snake winding around him.

He remembered Chen Zheqin's cold, probing gaze, how it had finally settled on his face as if trying to stare a hole through him.

Too bad—I'm a fierce ghost, not an instance monster. I can never be killed.

[How should we mess with him?!] The system rubbed its hands together excitedly like a fly. [Endless nightmares, or sleep paralysis? Curse him to step on banana peels? Nails in his tires?]

Ji Yue gripped the watch tightly and closed his eyes.

Let Chen Zheqin be haunted by a fierce ghost in his dreams—the kind he can't shake off.

[Oh?! Cling to him hard, scare him! Make him break out in cold sweats of terror, unable to sleep at night!] The system couldn't help but laugh up at the sky.

--------

In his dream, Chen Zheqin entered a campus horror instance.

He opened his eyes and found himself standing in a corridor, his whole body hot. He took off his jacket; underneath was a black T-shirt.

In the blink of an eye the weather had turned to blazing summer. Waves of heat rolled down the corridor, the setting sun slanting in, mingled with the noisy clamor of classrooms like an irritating chorus of cicadas.

A university campus. The young men and women inside and outside the classrooms all glowed with youthful vitality, though a few trudged in and out looking dejected—no doubt being tormented by final exams.

Chen Zheqin glanced at his phone screen. The instance prompt was simple, just one line: "Campus ghost stories. Survive seven days."

The NPC classmates, playing their background roles perfectly, chatted about the campus legends going around lately.

"I heard the Deyu Building has been haunted at night!!"

"What?! How come I didn't know? Though I'm only here during the day."

"They say more than one person has seen a female ghost in the classrooms at night. Long hair, very pretty, walks around in a dress, then vanishes in the blink of an eye."

Chen Zheqin listened to their chatter and jotted down several key pieces of information in his notebook.

Night. Deyu Building. Female ghost.

He turned and entered another classroom to study. In two days, there would be a closed-book exam here.

Pushing open the classroom door, he was met with a rush of air conditioning mingled with the aroma of coffee.

Not long after he sat down, several students and a professor arrived.

At the lectern, the middle-aged, gray-haired professor launched straight into a lecture on a religious art and culture movement from a century ago. At the end, he closed his book and said, "Now, we begin the final assessment. Come up in the order arranged before."

Then, one after another, students went up to copy PPT files from a USB drive, whispering among themselves.

It was apparently the final assessment for some obscure art major, one part in presentation form—quite possibly an important clue for the ghost-story instance.

Chen Zheqin sat in the innermost seat of the back row, partly hidden from view by the curtain, no one caring that he was also in the classroom. He flipped through his major's textbook while listening to those strange, distant art-history terms.

Until the last student went up to present.

Chen Zheqin casually raised his head to look—and his pupils shrank abruptly.

—"Little Yue" was on stage giving a presentation.

Wearing big black-framed glasses and a denim-blue halter dress, long hair pinned up, exposing a pale neck and shoulders. Pearl-colored earrings were faintly visible, and when he turned around, his bare back was snow-white without a single flaw.

In this sweltering summer, "Little Yue" gave the impression of cold jade; in the dim light of the room, his whole person seemed sheathed in a cold white glow.

...Downright ghostly.

Chen Zheqin turned his head to look out the window. The sky outside had darkened at some point, the clamor in the corridor had vanished, and the entire floor was left with only this one classroom still lit.

"Little Yue" spoke quickly. Those awkward, unfamiliar words, coming from his mouth, were like light, distant pigeons, their sounds fluttering through the icy classroom.

Chen Zheqin also noticed that in the lower right corner of the PPT, a name was written.

—"Ji Yue."

Just then, the lightbulb in the classroom flickered abruptly.

Briefly—just like Chen Zheqin's heart at that moment, which gave a sudden jolt when his eyes met the little ghost's.

An ominous sign.

"And that concludes my coursework for this semester."

Ji Yue put down the textbook and silently raised a hand to push up his glasses.

Why did he have to give a presentation even inside an instance?

He didn't understand.

[Nightmares are formed jointly by the minds of ghost and human. Both of your subconscious minds contain this kind of assignment, which means you were both very well-behaved students!] the system laughed.

'Fine.'

Soon it was time for the professor's evaluation. He didn't listen carefully, his ice-blue eyes sweeping down over the audience, passing over a row of empty seats and stopping on Chen Zheqin in the back.

The man was tall and broad; even sitting in the corner of the back row, he couldn't be swallowed by the shadows there. Even in a nightmare like this, his demeanor remained steady and calm. The pen in his hand never stopped—he was continuously recording the information appearing in the instance.

Ji Yue knew this was Chen Zheqin's personal habit. In every infinite-flow instance, he wrote down everything he thought might be an instance clue: the layout of the classroom, the location of every church the professor mentioned, the time of the next class...

Chen Zheqin surely never guessed that the fierce ghost would appear in his dream!

Ji Yue discreetly adjusted his glasses.

He picked up his laptop and walked over, imagining the zombie game's line in his head.

I am coming...

There were more than ten empty seats in the back row, but he chose to sit on Chen Zheqin's left, two seats away—neither too far nor too close.

The light illuminated the furrow between Chen Zheqin's brows, and also made it possible to see Ji Yue's laptop wallpaper: a chibi Qing-dynasty zombie baring its fangs and claws.

Was this a hint that Ji Yue was the female ghost in the campus legend?

Chen Zheqin had seen no shortage of ghosts and monsters in infinite instances, but not one of them was like this.

Appearing out of nowhere, sitting down beside him, chin propped on his hand, expression cold, lashes lowered as he zoned out, occasionally typing a few keystrokes—no different from a college student waiting for class to end.

Chen Zheqin twirled his pen once.

He knew perfectly well this was a dream, so he made no unnecessary moves.

Only, ten minutes later, Ji Yue began observing him.

First he peeked at the cover of his book, then craned his neck to look at his phone screen, then held up a sheet of scratch paper to cover his face, revealing only a pair of eyes, and stared at Chen Zheqin's notes for a while.

Sneaky as a ghost.

The moment he was caught and their eyes met, he turned his face away as if nothing had happened.

The Taoist priest's two warnings slowly surfaced in Chen Zheqin's mind.

—"The so-called ghost romance is when a man meets a ghost in his dreams and is bewitched into falling in love with her. In reality, it is an evil ghost that feeds on human spirit and vitality. The man grows weaker and weaker..."

—"You must be careful. Don't run into that little ghost in your dreams. The prettier the little ghost, the better it is at deceiving people."

The presentations for this class period ended, and the teacher and students for the next class filed into the room one after another.

Chen Zheqin packed up his notes and walked out.

Ji Yue followed quietly behind him.

His footsteps were light and bouncy, like a cat unafraid of people, trailing the human downstairs from a distance that was neither too far nor too near.

[Oho ho, let the male lead's best bro experience what it feels like to be chased by a ghost!]

[Huh, he's taking the subway home. Fierce ghost, let's chase after him!]

Ji Yue turned and entered the subway entrance too.

Since this was a nightmare anyway, naturally he couldn't let him off easily.

The subway here at seven or eight o'clock was a sardine can, easily flattening people. The male college students were covered in sweat, giving off a faintly unpleasant smell.

But Ji Yue was a very dedicated ghost. He followed close behind Chen Zheqin on the escalator without a single complaint.

Due to the sheer crowd, this time he couldn't maintain social distance and had to press almost right against Chen Zheqin's back. If he leaned forward even slightly, the tip of his nose would bump into Chen Zheqin's back; he could already smell the laundry detergent on him.

[You're acting like a total creep! Leaning in close to smell his clothes!]

[Too bad you can't see Chen Zheqin's expression right now. #restrained #cold #... He's probably imagining a horror movie like The Wicked Ghost of the Mountain Village by now!] The system cackled.

As a fierce ghost, Ji Yue was fully immersed in the role. Whenever the crowd pulled them apart, he would quietly shift back behind Chen Zheqin again, practically plastered to the man's back.

A ghost's spirit body was much colder than a normal person's temperature, and even its breath carried a chill.

Chen Zheqin seemed to sense the presence clinging to his back. He frowned slightly and took half a step forward, opening up some distance.

Luck was on their side—this car had quite a few empty seats. Ji Yue sat down next to Chen Zheqin, the hem of his dress settling softly at the edge of the seat.

"I'd like to sit here—I'm with her. Could you scoot over a bit?"

A girl called out to him.

Ji Yue glanced over in confusion. There was indeed some space beside him; scooting over would make room for one more person.

He didn't think much of it and shifted toward Chen Zheqin, freeing up a spot.

The price was that this row was now very cramped, but he didn't mind.

Today Ji Yue was wearing a denim dress, his legs pressed together, hands resting obediently on his thighs, exposing the pale skin above his knees.

The temperature inside the car was much higher than outside. His thigh pressed against the man's leg through the fabric, and the heat on that side flared up abruptly, as if scalded by something.

Ji Yue shifted slightly, expressionless. His legs were already pressed tight together, but it was still too crowded. He couldn't move toward the girl, so he had no choice but to stay pressed against Chen Zheqin. So be it.

Chen Zheqin glanced at him.

Fidgeting around—like a cat rubbing against his leg.

Ji Yue tilted his head up to look at the route map, and his earphones fell to the floor by his feet.

Bending down to pick them up, he raised his head and collided right into Chen Zheqin's gaze. Their eyes met.

Neither of them spoke, for several seconds.

Chen Zheqin's pupils were very dark, the color of deep black obsidian. Whether in instances or in real life, his personality came across as domineering—a glimpse of which could be seen in his eyes.

Presumably, being on the subway, it wasn't convenient to grab the fierce ghost with his hands, so he could only attack with his eyes.

The earphones slipped from his grasp and fell again. Ji Yue bent down to pick them up once more.

Chen Zheqin's gaze followed his movement downward, paused, and then, with a frown, he looked away.

[Oh my god! You may be a ghost, but you still need to mind what you're wearing! Mind your neckline! Don't just bend over to pick things up! There are tons of subway creeps!]

[Uhhh, Chen Zheqin even frowned. That feudal, old-fashioned type of man—seeing you dressed so skimpily, he probably can't take it!]

'?'

[That kind of man is the type to say "If you're a good girl, you should dress properly; if you're..." to you!]

[Though, it's also possible things swing to the opposite extreme—too repressed, so it erupts, and he just gets a hard-on for you on the spot?~]

Ji Yue figured the system was overthinking. He thought about it and decided he'd change seats at the next stop.

"Excuse me, um..."

The female college student beside him called out to Ji Yue and asked him about a tourist spot.

Ji Yue was a ghost who had infiltrated the dream and didn't really know either. The two of them puzzled over the map together, pointing here and there, and by then three stops had already passed. The announcement broadcast their arrival at Tianguang Plaza.

Without any warning, Chen Zheqin rose from beside him and left.

[He ran!]

Getting off early to avoid being followed home by a ghost? Ji Yue straightened his skirt and followed him toward the exit.

As it turned out, Chen Zheqin had merely switched from sitting to standing, gripping a hand strap, looking at who knows what.

Ji Yue also silently stood next to him, one hand resting on the rail.

As soon as the doors opened, a flood of students surged in like a mudslide.

He got squeezed in among several male college students, like a boat pushed back and forth by waves, and sighed expressionlessly.

[Four more stops to go. Hang in there!]

'...'

Suddenly a force yanked him, dragging him out of the crowd like grabbing a cat, hauling him to another spot. The force was great, almost painful.

Only when he was standing steady did that hand let go. Because of the difference in their builds, the man nearly enveloped his entire body in shadow.

[It's actually Chen Zheqin?]

"Stand properly. Hold the rail tight." Chen Zheqin's voice was low. He lowered his head and checked the position of Ji Yue's hand on the rail. "Stop moving your hand around."

Ji Yue was like an expressionless doll, arranged into place by his owner, his arm set just so.

This spot wasn't as crowded as the back; he wouldn't be sandwiched and shoved between several people, and even the air was fresher.

But he wasn't happy. With a cold face, he used his free hand to push his glasses up.

'I don't like being dragged around.'

[I see. You can tell him that next time... wait, no, there shouldn't be a next time! Chen Zheqin spends all day thinking about saving the male lead; he'll never be nice to you!]

'I'm going to scare him in a bit.'

[So naughty! Baby is a bad ghost in this world!]

For the rest of the ride, Ji Yue and Chen Zheqin didn't say another word to each other. When they reached the terminal station, they exited the subway together.

Chen Zheqin lived in a large residential complex, full of elderly people out for strolls and young couples with children.

Passing a ragdoll cat, Ji Yue glanced at it a moment too long, and when he looked up again, Chen Zheqin was nowhere to be found.

That couldn't stump a clever ghost.

So thinking, his lenses glinted faintly.

He crouched down, petted the cat's head, and only then walked toward the apartment building.

In the end, he arrived home only five minutes later than Chen Zheqin.

A three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, one room converted into a study. He first drifted around the study, noticing quite a few supernatural horror novels on the bookshelf, then floated over to the master bedroom.

The pattering sound of a shower came from behind the bathroom door, and a figure could be vaguely seen through the glass.

Time to scare Chen Zheqin.

Ji Yue raised his head and looked at the round ceiling light in the room.

The bedroom light went out instantly.

Immediately after, the bathroom light lost its glow too.

Everything was shrouded in darkness, with only the pattering water in the bathroom still going.

[Heh heh heh, he never would've guessed the ghost followed him all the way home!]

The water stopped. He heard the bathroom door push open with a creak, the sound of a towel rubbing through hair, and that person walking toward the bed.

Ji Yue quietly listened to the approaching footsteps, preparing to see anger and helplessness at being haunted by a ghost appear on the man's face.

But nothing happened.

The light came on.

A little ghost had appeared in the bedroom out of nowhere.

Sitting on the bed, wearing a very thin denim dress, the legs exposed beneath pressed together from cold, squeezing out soft curves like cream.

"What are you looking at?"

His long black hair spilled loosely around his waist, sleek and glossy in the moonlight. His face was very small, no bigger than a palm, his lashes thick, fluttering lightly a few times. At this moment he was expressionless, his tone icy cold.

Chen Zheqin stood before him, wearing a bathrobe, the ends of his hair still dripping, looking down at him.

He didn't speak. He just looked down at him like that.

The heat and steam drifting from the bathroom, along with a waft of men's body wash, made the air between them wet and sticky, as if they were both actually deep inside the bathroom.

The atmosphere at this moment no longer seemed much like a suspenseful ghost movie.

[You know what I want to say!!] the system bellowed.