Chapter 37: Little Ghost 5

05

[Comment]: He got scared by a ghost! Even the look in his eyes changed!

Gu Chiming turned off the water a beat late, pulled out a paper towel, and wiped each finger clean one by one. When he looked up, the mirror reflected two figures.

The washroom light fell on the little ghost, making his face even paler.

The hem of his skirt hung just above the knees, revealing a pair of legs so pale they were almost dazzling.

In the corner of his vision, the little ghost drifted lazily in a circle behind him, floated over to peek at the hand soap, then stopped midair to zone out, long hair swaying gently behind him.

"Little ghost, why are you following me in here?" Gu Chiming took off his glasses and slowly wiped them.

No one answered.

"You followed Zhong Xian — what exactly do you want?"

Gu Chiming didn't mind the silence and continued his patient questioning.

[Comment]: In their circle, dating is all called "following." Gu Chiming's personality is a bit pretentious and stiff. You'll get used to it.

The system cackled with glee.

In the original novel, Gu Chiming never asked any of this.

"He's very good to me."

So Ji Yue pulled out the all-purpose excuse.

"You keep clinging to him."

"No, we're truly in love."

A lovesick fool.

Gu Chiming understood at once.

He took out his phone and sent Chen Zheqin a message.

After sending it, he turned the screen off — and immediately saw Ji Yue's reflection in the black screen, craning his neck to peek at the message.

Caught in the act, the little ghost looked away as if nothing had happened and floated out of the washroom like a cloud.

Gu Chiming didn't call him out. What he'd sent wasn't important anyway — just a reminder to Chen Zheqin that this little ghost was deeply devoted to Zhong Xian, and their plan might not work.

The two returned to the theater, one after the other.

Ji Yue suddenly leaned closer and asked, "Are you and Chen Zheqin really close?"

His face magnified in front of Gu Chiming — flawless skin, smooth and white like a porcelain doll's, long dense lashes fluttering, eyes as blue as the sea.

The movie's special-effects blood-red light spilled down, illuminating that face as beautiful and eerie at once.

Gu Chiming: "We're alright."

In that case, a shared nightmare for two could be arranged.

Before the showing ended, Ji Yue casually picked up his ticket stub.

Leaving the cinema, the rain had already lightened. Amid the crowd, Gu Chiming's figure vanished in the blink of an eye — no one knew where he'd gone.

On the way back, Ji Yue played with a straw-woven grasshopper he'd bought at a roadside stall. He quickly lost interest and left it in the bedroom.

Back in his own room, he lay down, thinking about the night's events.

From his experience in the previous world, characters had things to do beyond the plot in these little worlds, more complicated relationships — like Zhong Xian and the mysterious coffin shop, Zhong Xian's grudge with that gorgeous straight guy, and even the mysophobic ghost-hating Gu Chiming coming out to watch a horror film.

As a ghost, Ji Yue was indifferent to it all. He only needed to strike hard at the male lead's good friends and get sealed away by everyone at the end.

Even so, he was curious about some of the details.

He rolled back and forth on the bed, expressionless.

What was inside that coffin shop?

A demon?

A living corpse?

Prehistoric dinosaur bones?

[Comment]: What is the relationship between curiosity and cats? Tell me out loud!

'...'

Ji Yue reluctantly closed his eyes and simply fell asleep.

When he woke, it was already the middle of the night. He took the watch out of the cabinet and held it in his hand. The scene slowly shifted.

Tonight, he hadn't set up a new dream. He'd simply entered Chen Zheqin's dream. As the saying goes, what you think of by day, you dream of by night — perhaps he'd catch Chen Zheqin seeking a master to perform the sealing ritual.

Then he'd be able to leave this little world.

"Is this your girlfriend? So pretty... You should go buy a lottery ticket."

The moment he entered the dream, Ji Yue heard that sentence.

The tone was sour, like the shredded potatoes Zhong Xian cooked.

He opened his eyes and found himself in a classroom.

A ceiling fan hummed overhead. A few lines of English were written on the blackboard, alongside two crying faces. A handful of people sat scattered around the room, chattering about who knows what.

A boy leaned over from the row in front, wearing a teasing expression, and asked Chen Zheqin, "When did you two get together? You didn't even tell anyone?"

Ji Yue raised his head in confusion. Chen Zheqin's girlfriend from his student days? Was this an important character outside the original novel?

He looked left and right, his head shaking like a rattle drum — he didn't see a single girl. All men.

Everyone's gazes were suggestive, and all of them were gathered on him.

Chen Zheqin's "girlfriend"... is me?

[Comment]: A bit crude. People who don't know better would think Chen Zheqin was your simp!

Ji Yue and Chen Zheqin sat in the very back row. A notebook lay open on the desk, Chen Zheqin's name written on the title page in firm handwriting.

Chen Zheqin wore a black T-shirt, a jade qilin showing at the collar, the pale jade resting against his collarbone. It swayed lightly as he lowered his head to spin his pen.

He spun the pen once around his fingers, neither responding to the teasing nor denying it, and chatted with the classmate in front about the recent provincial competition.

The bell rang. Students and teachers poured in through the front door. The professor stood at the podium and picked up the roster: "Roll call."

An uproar below: "Professor, you've never taken roll before!"

Complaints rose one after another. Unmoved, the professor called out the first name.

Ji Yue cautiously flipped through the notebook — neat formulas and derivations. He observed his surroundings: the windows were shut, and outside was pitch black.

This dream might be a trap.

"Ji Yue."

The professor called a name from the podium.

He called it again, sweeping a glance across the room: "Not here? Then that's a fail for finals."

Is he calling me?

Ji Yue came back to himself and found several people around him watching him.

It was only a dream — no need to answer — but he'd always liked human schools. Just as he was about to raise his hand and say "here," someone answered for him.

"Here."

Chen Zheqin leaned back in his chair and tilted his face up, answering on his behalf.

The classmates in back who knew them looked over and all smiled knowingly.

The professor looked down and made a mark in the roster, then called the next name: "Chen Zheqin."

Now every gaze around them pointed at Ji Yue.

The one being stared at — black hair, pale skin, blue eyes, seemingly a frail beauty — shut his mouth tight as a clam and stayed silent for a long while.

Chen Zheqin set down his pen, said nothing, and frowned slightly.

The professor waited a few seconds, and seeing no response, said "Chen Zheqin isn't here," made a mark in the roster, and added, "Points deducted. Make-up exam at the end of term."

Seeing this, everyone around understood at once — the lovebirds must be having a fight!

[Comment]: I get it now. In this dream, you're a campus couple? The system shook its head meaningfully. Chen Zheqin looks so serious, yet this is what he dreams about?

Today's class was university physics. The teacher filled the blackboard with formulas — integral signs, summation signs. Ji Yue studied the formulas from his seat while the people on either side bent over their calculations, pen tips scratching.

He was a bit puzzled himself. In essence, he ought to be some kind of computer program, yet he had no interest in math or physics at all — he much preferred appearing in art classrooms or studios.

[Comment]: Because baby, you're actually a lot like a human! Humans have their own preferences!

Ji Yue sat there spacing out for a while.

Chen Zheqin suddenly turned his face and met his eyes, pushing a sheet of paper toward him.

"Copy."

Blunt as could be.

[Comment]: This dream is currently human-led, so there's lots of content you don't like — math, copying, that sort of thing. Baby, you can also throw in some corn cannons, bang! Bang!

Ji Yue had no interest in copying out calculations. He shot to his feet and, like a deity, coldly pushed open the back door and left under everyone's astonished gazes.

Chen Zheqin raised his eyes and caught only a glimpse of a swishing tail of hair.

Outside was dense night, moonlight swimming like fish. The university night class ran until nine, and half the time remained. He wandered around the second floor of the Moral Education Building while one or two white cats brushed past his feet, leaving a few strands of fur on his skirt hem.

He looked down. In today's dream he wore a long black dress, the hem reaching all the way to his ankles.

When he'd entered the dream he'd been wearing pajamas. Someone had automatically replaced his outfit.

Ji Yue didn't like the dress — too hot, and inconvenient for ghostly floating. He snapped his fingers and swapped it in one click for a short skirt, paired with a skull T-shirt on top.

[Comment]: Very fitting for your identity as a fierce ghost!

[Comment]: Looking at it this way, Chen Zheqin has a Pygmalion complex — he likes dressing up his girlfriend in dreams. Seems he really does prefer the conservative style.

Ji Yue paid it no mind. He sat down at the stairwell, pulled out a horror comic, and started reading, planning to go terrorize Chen Zheqin once class ended.

He'd just turned to the first page when the end-of-class bell rang.

[Comment]: For Chen Zheqin, in a world without you, time flows so much faster!

[Comment]: A dream is constructed from human and ghost minds, you know what I mean!

Ji Yue put the book away.

He sat on the lawn enjoying the breeze. In the distance hung an enormous moon above the teaching building's roof. He closed his eyes and imagined himself a blade of grass, swaying slowly in the night wind.

The gentle wind carried the scent of green grass — and a hint of toasted bread.

Bread?

Ji Yue opened his eyes. A hand holding a sandwich had stopped in front of him, tomato slices tucked between the bread, a bit of sauce dripping down.

"A late-night snack for you."

Chen Zheqin sat down beside him, tone perfectly ordinary, as if he really were a good boyfriend bringing his girlfriend bread after class.

At some point he'd changed clothes too — a jacket thrown over a black sleeveless tank, zipper undone, the open collar revealing prominent chest muscles.

[Comment]: Tsk tsk tsk, deliberately showing off that physique — I don't even need to say what that's for!

[Comment]: But how does he know you like tomatoes?

Ji Yue paid no attention to the clothes, only eyed the suspicious yet tempting sandwich. This was a human's dream — one bite and a yellow exorcism talisman might appear.

"Eating?"

Chen Zheqin asked again.

Ji Yue thought for a moment, then took the sandwich anyway.

[Comment]: If there's a problem, blast him with the coconut cannon!!

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ji Yue opened his mouth and took a bite.

The edges of the bread were toasted just right — crisp, slightly charred. The tomato was fresh and juicy, sauce wrapped between the slices. No talisman, no cinnabar. A perfectly normal sandwich.

Tomatoes really are delicious.

He licked the juice off his fingers.

The night wind lifted his long hair, strands brushing across Chen Zheqin's face. He glanced at Ji Yue's hand, caught his wrist, and wiped each finger clean with a wet wipe.

"Have you decided?"

Chen Zheqin suddenly asked.

"About what?"

"It's fine if you want to keep things as they are... Your boyfriend won't find out about us."

Chen Zheqin's tone was utterly natural, as if he were saying tonight's corn cannon would be swapped for a coconut cannon.

With that, he stood up and pulled Ji Yue up too, helping brush the grass bits off the lacy skirt.

Just then, his gaze dropped and caught the faint red marks pressed into the thighs beneath the hem by the grass roots.

Chen Zheqin's hand paused. He smoothed Ji Yue's skirt down, covering the marks.

He asked Ji Yue, "I need to go back and write my paper. Are you staying in the dorm tonight, or coming to a hotel with me?"

"..."

[Comment]: Is this what Chen Zheqin thinks about during the day?! I want to play him that Tiny Times audio clip: put some clothes on, aren't you disgusted with yourself?!

[Comment]: Wait? In the dream, you're already at the stage of getting hotel rooms together? This guy's fantasy is very detailed!

--------

Moral Education Building classroom.

Waves of summer heat rolled in, a thin sweat seeping from his back.

The classroom was empty, the ceiling fan humming overhead. At nine the AC shut off, and the place grew stuffy.

Chen Zheqin walked over near his earlier seat and took a notebook out of the desk.

The notebook Ji Yue had left behind.

He opened the first page, trying to find clues about the dungeon instance.

The campus ghost-story seven-day instance was still ongoing. It was now day two.

Chen Zheqin knew perfectly well this was a dream — one that blended many elements of reality. Ji Yue was the ghost of the campus ghost story, and also Zhong Xian's "girlfriend."

And at the same time, his girlfriend.

At the thought, Chen Zheqin frowned slightly.

The instance was simulating the idea Gu Chiming had proposed — find someone to seduce the female ghost, and Zhong Xian would be saved.

Suppose someone could replace Zhong Xian as Ji Yue's boyfriend; then Zhong Xian would be free.

In reality, "Xiao Yue" was a devoted ghost, willing to be scattered to oblivion for Zhong Xian's sake.

"Xiao Yue" hadn't broken up with her current boyfriend — she'd become both Zhong Xian's and Chen Zheqin's girlfriend.

...The ghost-story instance was telling him this plan was feasible.

Chen Zheqin flipped to the notebook's second page.

Ji Yue had written only one sentence: I hate math class.

------

Ji Yue didn't follow Chen Zheqin to the dorm. He drifted around campus like a ghost.

He ate the sandwich as he walked and tossed the wrapper into a trash bin. The after-class crowd poured out of the teaching buildings, and he flowed along with them, pushed forward by the stream of people.

Amid the surging heads, he overheard some whispering among the student passersby.

"But if I remember right, that girl already has a boyfriend."

"What?! So she's two-timing?"

"Yeah, and I heard she and her boyfriend already live together. Who'd have thought Chen Zheqin would knowingly be the third wheel..."

[Comment]: Old Chen is not a simple man. By day he warns you not to set your sights on his brother, by night he fantasizes about being your secret lover? The system laughed up at the sky. He can't hide it anymore!

The exit was packed, the only way out, the crowd squeezing through like piped cream. Ji Yue didn't get the chance to hear a few more lines before being shoved along to the dorm area.

He found a deserted spot and floated upward, and on one floor caught sight of Chen Zheqin's back.

Quick as a flash, he phased through the wall into the dorm room.

A typical guys' dorm — a double room, both beds clean and tidy. The other roommate wasn't in.

The moment he entered, Ji Yue started poking around everywhere — rattling the bed frame, touching the book spines, flipping through the notebooks on the desk, sticking his head into the cabinet.

At the sound of footsteps, he hid inside the wardrobe, sitting quietly hugging his knees like a mushroom.

Tonight, the fierce ghost's punishment for Chen Zheqin was sleep paralysis.

[Comment]: Hahaha, nice. This Chen Zheqin looks like someone who exercises a lot and sleeps like a rock. Later, press him down until he can't breathe!

[Comment]: Though I was a bit scared I'd walk in on him jerking off to your photo, calling your name while doing it or something. After all, Chen Zheqin's dream seems old-fashioned and sexually repressed. The campus-couple AU is a bit dated — nobody would like it! The system couldn't help delivering its sharp review.

'...'

The door creaked open. Chen Zheqin entered, moonlight chasing in after him.

He took off his jacket and draped it over the chair back. Underneath was a black sleeveless tank, his exposed shoulders and arms firm with muscle — clearly someone who trained regularly. His hair had been cut shorter than before, making his profile look harder.

There was no one else in the dorm, and he didn't speak. He muted his phone, and for a while it was so quiet even the ticking of the standing clock sounded loud.

Chen Zheqin walked to the wardrobe and took a T-shirt off its hanger.

Ji Yue pressed close to the door crack and glimpsed his retreating back heading toward the bathroom.

The sound of rushing water began, and steam mingled with the scent of body wash filled the dorm. After who knows how long, Ji Yue heard footsteps come out of the bathroom, a chair being pulled out, keyboard tapping — Chen Zheqin writing his paper, pausing now and then to flip through a few pages of a book.

Ji Yue glanced at the watch. Nine forty.

He reached out, fingertips resting on the dial, and gave it a gentle turn.

Time magic—!

The hour hand jumped sharply to midnight.

Darkness instantly swallowed everything.

A ghost with long black hair floated out of the wardrobe and came to a soundless stop before the bed.

The ghost quietly watched the person on the bed. Chen Zheqin lay flat, breathing softly. The jade qilin had slipped from his collar and rested by the pillow, the pale jade glinting faintly in the moonlight.

Ji Yue tilted his head, studying Chen Zheqin's sleeping face, guessing the other was perhaps dreaming.

His own dreams contained only a flock of baa-ing electronic sheep, metal circuit boards under their fleece, occasionally getting shocked when sheared.

Human dreams, though, were endlessly strange.

[Comment]: This dream might also—

'?'

[Comment]: You know what I mean!

Ji Yue ignored it. With a twitch of his fingers, the air suddenly grew heavy, like an entire sheet of soaked canvas plummeting from the ceiling, slamming onto the bed and covering it whole.

Chen Zheqin's calm sleeping face gradually changed. His brow slowly knitted tight, his lips pressed into a line, his breathing labored.

In the dream, some heavy substance pressed down hard on his body, grinding against his ribs and chest, making it impossible to breathe.

Not only that — it was cold all around. Something from the underworld was materializing beside him, a deathly still cold seeping up from deep underground. His whole body felt wrong.

He wanted to open his eyes but couldn't, no matter how he tried.

Chen Zheqin vaguely saw a ghostly figure sitting by the bed — black short skirt, long hair, ghastly pale skin made even starker by the night. A pair of sea-blue eyes, pupils cold as inorganic matter, quietly looking down at him now without a trace of pity.

I'll kill you.

The ghost said softly.

Like a scene from a horror film, the little ghost's long hair slowly draped down, carried by the wind to slide weightlessly across his cheek — icy and soft, yet like a noose claiming his life, winding around Chen Zheqin's neck, tighter and tighter.

Sleep paralysis?!

Chen Zheqin's eyes flew open, only to find that what pressed on him was the ghost itself.

Ji Yue sat straddling him, both hands clamped around his neck, palms ice cold, long hair falling like mist.

Exquisitely beautiful — that small face like a porcelain doll in a shop window, a white porcelain base, blue-glaze eyes, long lashes drawn in black lacquer, and just as expressionless.

Where his hips straddled him, he was soft as two balls of freshly kneaded dough.

This body was very light, yet pressed down on him with a suffocating weight — the very weight of a ghost.

A pair of icy hands slowly tightened around his neck, catching at the critical point of breath. His Adam's apple bobbed once in those palms. Chen Zheqin gasped with difficulty, staring fixedly at the other's face.

The moment he met this ghost's eyes, his heartbeat inexplicably quickened like a war drum — in reality it was so, and in this dream instance too.

He knew this was a ghost's trick to bewitch humans. It was exactly how Zhong Xian's soul had been hooked away back then.

Creak—

The door suddenly opened from outside.

"Almost didn't make it back..." The roommate's voice turned into a short, sharp cry. "Holy shit?!"

There were two people in the room!

Moonlight squeezed inside, lighting up one corner.

On the inner single bed, two figures overlapped.

A long-black-haired figure straddled Chen Zheqin, face unseen, that hair pouring down like ink, spreading across the pillow.

A pair of white, flawless legs, parted in a straddle, like riding a horse.

The bed swayed gently with the motion, creaking, mingled with heavy panting.

"My eyes!" The boy immediately covered them. "Bro, I'll give you three minutes, okay?" And he fled.

[Comment]: Ugh, why is there a passerby walking in on the adultery even in a dream!

With a bang, the room fell silent again.

"Are you satisfied now, girlfriend?"

Chen Zheqin coughed a few times, clutching his neck as he sat up, his voice hoarse as if he'd swallowed sandpaper.

In the dark nothing could be seen clearly — only Ji Yue's face drawing a little closer.

Chen Zheqin breathed deeply and asked, "Why do you treat me like this?"

"Because I hate you."

The moment Ji Yue finished speaking, he vanished again, leaving only a trace of icy air.

Chen Zheqin was exhausted. Clutching his neck, he saw his own bruises in the mirror.

Closing his eyes, many images flashed past.

That delicate, cold face, like a window-display doll his little sister might buy, deep-blue eyes like diamonds full of fire.

The pair of tender white legs under layers of lacy black skirt.

Those soft, boneless hands.

Even with the dream instance's forced cheat rewriting the settings, making Ji Yue his girlfriend — he was still hated.

Ji Yue loved only Zhong Xian and accepted no one else.

The roommate shuffled back in from outside and coughed awkwardly. "Bro, you done? Was that your girlfriend just now? ...Holy shit, what happened to your neck? You guys play that rough?!"

"I was strangled by a ghost."

Chen Zheqin said coldly.

He could imagine what Gu Chiming would say to him after tomorrow.

—"Bro, a stubborn, devoted girl like that is beyond you. Let me handle it."