Chapter 40: Little Ghost 8

08

Before he met Jiyue, Zhong Xian spent his days holed up in the library writing his thesis, barely going out with friends at all.

Life in the transit world was calm and uneventful—no instance monsters, no bizarre rules, no killing.

Zhong Xian and his close friends had all obtained permission to temporarily leave the instances, and every so often they would take a break and vacation in the transit world.

This vacation was a little different from the previous ones.

—He was being followed by a cold-faced girl.

A beautiful girl in dresses of various colors, with jet-black long hair, snow-white skin, and a face like frost, appeared in his field of vision almost every day. She sat in a seat near him, reading mystery thrillers, silently observing him in secret, and would even follow him all the way to the parking lot.

Zhong Xian had no idea that at that moment, chuunibyou slogans like "the fierce ghost is on the move, all human tracks are within my grasp" were flashing through Jiyue's mind. He simply wondered why this person was following him.

The stalker didn't come to the library every day; there was a certain pattern. Zhong Xian recorded the dates in his notes and discovered that the other party only showed up on cloudy and rainy days.

Today, Jiyue sat down across from him without a sound.

From the corner of his eye, he swept a glance over the computer, tablet, mouse, books, and pens on the table.

Then he raised his head and browsed Zhong Xian's outfit of the day from top to bottom—the white shirt and light jacket, the jewelry on his fingers.

Zhong Xian suddenly lifted his eyes, and his gaze met Jiyue's.

From Zhong Xian's perspective, even though he was already somewhat probing, this girl kept her cold face, merely shifting her gaze away to pretend to watch the birds outside the window, then continuing to look at him a moment later.

A brief ripple passed through Zhong Xian's heart.

Then something unexpected happened.

Zhong Xian got up to fetch a reference book from the shelves, and when he came back, the cold-faced girl was gone—and so was his fountain pen.

He felt a bit like laughing. He clearly hadn't done anything, yet the girl had suddenly run off.

He had assumed the other party wouldn't come back, but half an hour later, his thesis progress was rudely interrupted.

The missing fountain pen, held between fingers, was thrust horizontally in front of his screen, blocking the thesis data.

Zhong Xian looked up and saw a delicate, beautiful girl's face, utterly expressionless, brows lowered, lashes thick, holding the newly bought pen.

Seeing no reaction from him, Jiyue put the pen down, leaned in close to Zhong Xian's ear, and said: "I picked up your pen just now. Giving it back to you."

Talking and noise weren't allowed in the study room, so Jiyue could only bend down like this to speak.

As he bent over, his thick black hair spilled down, sliding across Zhong Xian's cheek.

Cool. Ticklish.

Like being scratched by a cat.

Zhong Xian's heartbeat skipped a beat.

After that, Zhong Xian lost his earphones and a notebook. He guessed who had taken them but didn't expose it, simply waiting for Jiyue to return them.

It was like some kind of library play that only the two of them understood.

A few days later, Jiyue arrived at the library and stood on tiptoe behind the bookshelves, trying to reach a ghost story on the very top shelf. Zhong Xian walked over, took it down for him, and asked, very naturally, "What's your name?"

Everything after that followed naturally—spending time together, ambiguity, going in and out of the library together every day, dating, kissing, moving in together.

Zhong Xian loved Jiyue very much. Friends naturally had to rank behind his girlfriend—the heavens and earth were big, but his girlfriend was the biggest. On this point there was no doubt.

Pulling out of his memories, he returned to reality—

The entryway light was on, and the smile vanished from Zhong Xian's face.

...The middle of the night, at home, his wife and his best bro were together in their home.

"What are you doing here?"

Zhong Xian asked coldly.

One look and he knew Jiyue had been waiting for him, innocent as river water.

Jiyue was draped in his jacket, his damp black hair not yet dry, his whole body steeped in humid vapor, looking like he'd just come out of the bathroom shower. He wore no expression, seemed a bit sleepy, lifted his eyelids, looked at him now, and said in his usual tone: "You're back."

Gu Chiming sat across from him, a freshly boiled kettle still steaming by his hand. He was setting a cup back on the coffee table, his movements utterly familiar. Seeing Zhong Xian appear, he merely glanced back.

As calm as if he were Jiyue's dear husband, and Zhong Xian was a guest intruding on them.

Zhong Xian's face darkened at once.

He took off his jacket and walked into the living room.

"Why didn't you dry your hair?" He reached out and brushed aside the strand of wet hair behind Jiyue's ear, his fingertip intimately grazing the ear's curve—damp, soft.

Jiyue didn't dodge. His gaze moved from Zhong Xian to Gu Chiming, then back again. He said nothing.

Toward Jiyue, Zhong Xian was always gentle and patient, a far cry from his wild and arrogant manner inside the infinite-flow instances.

Gu Chiming sat across from them, watching the two's intimacy with no intention of leaving. For a moment, all three were under the same lamp.

Zhong Xian stood, his back to Jiyue, and asked: "What did you come over for tonight?"

Gu Chiming also stood: "I have something to discuss with you. Shall we find a place to talk? About what happened last night."

They had no intention of talking about gods and ghosts in front of Jiyue, so they walked from the living room out the door.

The instant the door closed, the last traces of gentleness on Zhong Xian's face vanished completely, leaving only a cold, hard expression.

"Don't tell me you came to my place just to find me."

Gu Chiming leaned against the wall, his posture relaxed, his tone the same: "That's only part of the reason. I also wanted to meet that injured little ghost girlfriend of yours. Don't overthink it—you know very well what kind of person I am."

"Then what were you doing meeting my girlfriend behind my back?"

Zhong Xian laughed.

"From what I know, a spell array was cast on Jiyue last night, demanding that he state his origins and cause of death. Don't you find that strange? If he were a living person, how could he be trapped by the array?"

The elevator was rising, not yet at their floor, the numbers ticking up one by one.

Silence spread through the entire corridor; neither of them continued speaking.

"Jiyue answered inside the array. He really is a ghost." Gu Chiming's voice was unhurried. "He may have killed the previous homeowner, and you'll be next. You're bewitched, Zhong Xian. With our friendship, I wouldn't hurt you. Fei He only wants to help you too."

Just then, both of them simultaneously sensed someone behind them.

The shadow in the corridor stretched long, slithering crookedly out from the doorframe, like a snail's probing feeler.

Jiyue poked his head out the door, gripping the frame, revealing only two blue eyes that stared at the pair suspiciously.

He looked exactly like a cat that had heard its owner leaving and had secretly come to take a peek.

Zhong Xian's heart softened at once. The bit of irritation from moments ago over his brother and wife sharing a room eased considerably under the gaze of those eyes.

Zhong Xian walked back and pinched Jiyue's cheek: "What are you doing here?"

He asked: "Where are you two going?"

"Just going outside for a smoke and a chat," Zhong Xian let go and lowered his voice. "You don't like the smell of smoke. Wait for me at home, okay? Go dry your hair and get to bed early."

"What are you planning to talk about?"

"Just some things about last night's kidnappers. You don't need to worry." Zhong Xian paused for a second, then suddenly bent down and kissed Jiyue on the cheek.

Expressionless, Jiyue covered half his face, retreated half a step, and silently watched the two men's backs.

Gu Chiming was also looking back at him. The eyes behind his glasses were very light in color, sharp and transparent under the elevator lights.

Jiyue withdrew his gaze and closed the door.

He stood behind the door, listening to the sound of the elevator, entirely unbothered.

He was a fierce ghost. He could float down—faster than either of them.

,

Ding—

The elevator reached the ground floor and its doors opened.

Both men stood at the entrance of the apartment building. Night wind rolled in like a stifling wave of heat, carrying a trace of earthy smell to their sides.

"You don't need to involve yourself in this matter anymore." Zhong Xian's tone was calm, without the slightest hesitation. "Let's leave it at that. From now on, when I'm not home, don't come up looking for me. Jiyue is an innocent girl. Stay away from him."

"You plan to spend your life with Jiyue? When you enter an instance, are you going to bring him along too?"

"If Jiyue's willing, I don't mind. I'm leaving."

With that, Zhong Xian walked straight back into the building.

Gu Chiming stood where he was, watching that figure recede into the distance. As expected—he had long known this would be the outcome.

He stood there a while, then looked up at the twelfth floor, where a window sat with curtains drawn shut all day, now faintly letting through a bit of light.

Gu Chiming knew who sat behind that window—a ghost that could never see the sun.

The scene in the haunted house earlier slowly rose in his mind.

Damp black hair stuck strand by strand to that little ghost's face like dense, dark seaweed, setting off a face as white as paper. Sickly, lashes lowered, sitting there all alone, two fair legs showing beneath the hem of his clothes, ankles slender. On closer look, there were bruises and finger marks on his legs and arms, left over from being abducted the night before.

Jiyue had been born with a soft, cold face that always kept people a thousand miles away—but in truth, that wasn't the case.

What Jiyue wanted from Zhong Xian was nothing more than love, sex, and his life.

A ghost came to the mortal world, chose a man, clung to him day and night, and tossed him aside once his vital essence was drained dry.

Zhong Xian would end up like that previous homeowner—dead in a hospital one day.

...Only if Jiyue transferred his affections to someone else could Zhong Xian escape the sea of suffering.

That thought surfaced in Gu Chiming's mind once again.

He had also noticed that tonight, the little ghost had pretended to play games on his phone while actually paying attention to him the whole time.

Thinking of this, Gu Chiming faintly glimpsed a pale white ghostly figure.

Jiyue had just floated to the building's entrance and paused slightly.

The night wind lifted his long hair, scattering it behind him, turning it into a wisp of mist in the humid summer night.

"You didn't tattle to your boyfriend. I'm surprised. I just thought my brother has it hard, and I wanted to help take care of you."

Gu Chiming's voice drifted over from behind, his tone gentle.

"I don't need it."

"Do you like Zhong Xian a lot?"

"..."

"How much?"

"None of your business."

"Xiao Yue, next time we meet, you can come to my place. No one else to bother us."

[What the hell, isn't that something only a mistress would say?! Your bro is watching you in disappointment from above!]

[Also, this guy is kinda scheming. He WANTS you to tell Zhong Xian. He's pretending he got his friend's permission to come "take care" of you, to create a crack in your relationship.]

[Hehehe, so does he want to take advantage of the opening, or force you two to break up?]

[omg!! Both goals can be achieved at the same time. Tsk tsk, what a satisfying main-wife-vs-mistress battle!]

[No wonder everyone says: guard against fire, guard against theft, guard against your bro!] The system laughed up at the sky. [Zhong Xian really has too much karmic retribution coming! A gorgeous straight guy doesn't need to worry about his ending at all!]

Jiyue had no time to listen to the system's analysis. He twisted and wriggled his way upward, finally phasing through the wall into the bedroom just before Zhong Xian got through the door.

When Zhong Xian entered, he was picking up a hair dryer, pretending he was about to dry his hair.

"Need me to help?"

Zhong Xian leaned against the doorframe.

"No."

"Really?" Zhong Xian stepped forward and stroked his long hair, then added, "Whatever Gu Chiming said to you tonight, don't pay it any mind."

"Mm."

"Sleep early, Xiao Yue."

Jiyue heard the door close behind him.

Zhong Xian was already suspicious, wasn't he.

[It does feel that way! Look how he's been coming home less and less. Gu Chiming definitely said something to him just now! That's why he asked you how much you like Zhong Xian.]

'Why would he ask that?'

[Because this script's setup is that you, as a little ghost, fell in love with a human and forcibly bewitched him into being with you. He asked that mostly to remind you that forced human-ghost love is no good!]

'...'

One of a ghost's abilities was to control the other's mind, to make Zhong Xian fall in love with him.

But all of it was a facade. The moment the male lead awakened, all that love would turn into nothing but disgust.

[However, in the later plot, after the fierce ghost got his heart broken, he tried seducing other people—he just didn't succeed.]

Jiyue noticed a problem.

So the yin-peach-blossom bewitchment wasn't one hundred percent guaranteed?

Earlier, he had spent a whole week bewitching Zhong Xian, and the entire process had gone very smoothly, without obstacles. Zhong Xian had quickly gone and bought this murder house.

[Maybe Zhong Xian was just repressed and couldn't hold out—one crook of your finger and that was it!]

At this point in the conversation, Jiyue realized he hadn't returned to the Underworld in quite a while.

Ghosts residing in the mortal world had to report back to the Underworld every so often, to confirm they hadn't been scattered into oblivion among the living.

Nowadays the Underworld's resident ghost population wasn't large; the vast majority of earlier ghosts had reincarnated. Of those who died in the twenty-first century, quite a few lingered in the new Underworld unwilling to reincarnate—with food delivery, express shipping, and housing, they just didn't want to leave.

The two realms flowed at different speeds; it was best to go back at night.

Right now it was deep in the quiet night. Jiyue lay pressed against the wall, ears pricked, listening to Zhong Xian's movements next door.

The patter of water came from over there—he was probably showering and getting ready for bed.

[After realizing you're a ghost, I bet he never showers and jerks off again!]

Jiyue packed up his things and closed his eyes.

In an instant, the scenery changed abruptly.

An enormous moon appeared in the sky, soft and bright, illuminating everything as clear as day. The village road was empty; only a distant cry came from afar: "Fried dough sticks for sale—"

The dough-stick ghost slowly pushed his cart along and glanced toward the village's only entrance. A ghostly figure was floating over from that direction.

It was a fashionable ghost.

A ragged, black-and-pink wide-striped knit sweater, loose-fitting, collarbones exposed, a short skirt, quite a lot of metal jewelry on his body, sleek glossy black hair hanging to his waist and swaying with each step, a small rolling suitcase at his side.

He wore a pink graffiti baseball cap with a wide brim that hid half his face.

The dough-stick ghost looked at his face and could only see a pointed chin, slightly pursed lips.

He recognized him at once. There weren't many resident ghosts in this village, and Jiyue was one of them. He was young and beautiful to an excessive degree; every appearance of his was eye-catching.

Dough-stick ghost: "Xiao Yue, you're back? How long are you staying this time?"

Jiyue: "Just one day."

The dough-stick ghost was surprised: "Just here to report in? What have you been busy with in the human world?"

Jiyue: "Dating."

The dough-stick ghost froze.

Jiyue floated all the way home, met two or three elderly folks along the way, and greeted them all.

There weren't many ghosts in the Underworld; the city seemed empty, a ghost town at a glance. Jiyue had simply moved to a nearby village—nice mountains, nice water, more comfortable to look at. There were very few young people in the village; besides him, only his neighbor Su Heng was about his age.

Jiyue had just arrived home when he heard an urgent knocking behind him. He guessed it was Su Heng and walked over to open the door.

"You haven't been back in so long."

Su Heng stood at the door, somewhat dazed.

The face under the cap was no different from before—pale, delicate, lashes fluttering twice like butterfly wings, blue eyes without a ripple.

Jiyue nodded at him with a cold face and went back to unpacking his suitcase.

Su Heng walked to his side and asked urgently: "What have you been doing in the human world all this time? I heard from Uncle Dough-Stick that you're dating over there?"

Jiyue didn't understand his confusion: "I told you before I left. I planned to go bewitch a human. That's why I haven't been back for so long."

Su Heng's expression changed instantly, his brow knotting, words on the tip of his tongue.

"You used the method I told you about to snag the human?!"

"Mm."

Su Heng sucked in a breath and pulled him down to sit: "Stop unpacking, Xiao Yue. First tell me how you snagged the human."

The system found this neighbor's attitude very strange: [Why does he look so guilty! Something's off!]

'Is there a problem with the method he mentioned? But Zhong Xian really is bewitched.'

The system scratched its head: [I remember you told me back then that you didn't know how to bewitch living people. I even complained that the Underworld didn't pass down this intangible cultural heritage to new ghosts—how outrageous!]

Jiyue sank into recollection.

The system had assigned him a task: bewitch a human, make him fall in love with himself—in other words, make the male lead bewitched, entangled by a yin peach blossom. A bewitched living person would thereafter be devoted to the ghost unto death, and no one's persuasion would help.

Jiyue had finished reading the story synopsis, closed the book, and asked his first question: 'How do I bewitch the male lead? The novel doesn't say. Is entering his dreams enough, or are there other procedures?'

[No idea!]

He had no choice but to ask his neighbor Su Heng in the Underworld.

Su Heng's gaze was complicated: "You... would actually fall in love with someone? I thought you were born without feelings."

Jiyue: "What do I do to make a living person bewitched into loving me?"

Su Heng's gaze flickered, and only after a few seconds did he speak: "Take one of his personal belongings, bring it back to the Underworld, and burn it. If it doesn't work, give up."

So that was it.

Jiyue had an epiphany and thanked him expressionlessly.

Before going to the Underworld, he had already grasped Zhong Xian's whereabouts.

That day was overcast. Jiyue came to the library study room as usual, picked up a thriller, and sat down across from Zhong Xian.

Accustomed to him, Zhong Xian glanced at him, then got up and walked toward the bookshelves.

[Great opportunity!] the system bellowed. [A cat's speed is seven times a human's!]

Jiyue swept a pen off Zhong Xian's desk and slipped it into his sleeve—so fast no human could have seen clearly.

Downstairs, under the streetlight, he took the pen out and looked at it: a black fountain pen, engraved with a line of small characters and a logo.

He prepared to take the pen back to the Underworld and burn it.

[Bad news! I looked it up—this brand of pen costs over ten thousand yuan!]

'...'

[Uhhh, nobody cares if a gel pen goes missing in a library, but if something pricier disappears, Zhong Xian might check the security footage. Then the school will discover you phase through walls into the library every day—a campus supernatural incident!]

Jiyue hadn't expected it to be a valuable item.

In this world, he was a fierce ghost but also a poor ghost; he had no money to buy a new one to return to Zhong Xian.

Jiyue hurried up to the third floor, found a chance to put it back, and, while Zhong Xian was off guard, took an earphone instead.

[Bad news! These earphones are crazy expensive too!]

He hurriedly turned back once more and took a notebook.

This time, Jiyue flipped through the notebook first. There wasn't much in it, just a few dates recorded—virtually blank.

He finally brought Zhong Xian's belonging to the Underworld and burned the notebook together with some dry grass and leaves, the roaring flames illuminating a cold, expressionless face...

The following two days were bright and sunny. Jiyue didn't go out; he only entered Zhong Xian's dream and met him once.

In the dream, Zhong Xian was inside a slaughter instance, covered in bloodstains, wiping his face as he panted, asking why he was here.

"Because I wanted to see you."

Zhong Xian was helpless: "Is this the BOSS's trial, a Jiyue transformed from a monster NPC? ...Fine, I surrender. I give up."

"..."

Not some monster at all.

Jiyue turned and walked away.

On the third day it rained. He had just arrived at the library entrance, carrying a new notebook, planning to find a chance to repay Zhong Xian.

Turning his head, they ran right into each other.

"Can I have your WeChat?" Zhong Xian looked down at him and asked earnestly, "You didn't come these past two days. I was a little worried about you."

[Wow, this spell really works. He's been forcibly charmed by you!]

Jiyue: "I don't have a phone."

Zhong Xian was taken aback, thinking he'd been politely rejected. But on second thought, he had never once seen Jiyue holding a phone.

Ghosts had no ID documents and couldn't get phones. Jiyue made up some excuses to muddle through, including claiming he was allergic to UV rays and couldn't go out on sunny days.

Zhong Xian never pressed deeper.

The days went on like this, one after another, until now—Zhong Xian had probably already discovered he was a ghost.

Having heard the story of how the two met, Su Heng held his forehead and said: "Humans and ghosts can't last. The yin-peach-blossom spell... is actually temporary too."

"You're hiding something from me."

"I... I heard that spell secondhand before. I don't know if it actually works."

"..."

[What?! Then wasn't all our effort wasted?! This way, our task was never properly completed from the start!]

[Huh, wait—in that case, why does Zhong Xian obey your every word? Did he really fall in love with you?!]

'Does this affect the plot in any way?'

[Hugely!] The system's tone turned serious. [If Zhong Xian's love for you is genuine, through fire and water, then even if he finds out you're a ghost, he might not leave you.]

[The original novel's ending must be that the male lead grows to loathe you and decides to seal you away together with his bros!]

[What if the male lead loves you too much?!]

'Why are you so certain the male lead will keep loving me?'

When it came to questions of feeling, Jiyue found them hard to truly understand. His thoughts were tying themselves in knots.

What is love?

[Suddenly getting philosophical!]

[Baby, right now you're a pure NPC-brain; not understanding this stuff is normal! But as you keep cosplaying a human, you'll gradually come to understand.]

'...'

In the blink of an eye, he was back from the Underworld in his own bedroom. Jiyue glanced at the time—2:30 a.m.

Deep in the night, the fierce ghost emerged...

Jiyue crouched down and took a wristwatch and a movie ticket stub out of the drawer—from Chen Zheqin and Gu Chiming respectively.

He made a plan for tonight—stitch the two men's dreams together into one blended nightmare.

[Ooh, how are we going to fix these two tonight?!] The system rubbed its fists. [Teach them a lesson!]

'First let's see what they're dreaming about.'

Jiyue pondered. As the male lead's good brothers, these two surely knew many details about Zhong Xian.

For instance, tonight—what had they discussed downstairs?

The surroundings abruptly went dark.

Not long after, the sound of flowing water drifted over.

Jiyue opened his eyes and found himself standing in a bathroom, the mist hazy, his back pressed against cold tiles. To his left were the shower curtain and bathtub, the white curtain half-drawn, revealing half a tub of hot water.

A hand was wrapped around his waist.

Before him stood a young man wearing glasses, in a dress shirt, his suit trousers sharply creased—utterly out of place in this humid, misty bathroom, more like someone who belonged in an office building.

Gu Chiming's eyes beneath his lenses were lowered, possessing a translucent quality under the light. This face always gave an impression of emotional detachment; his body was not like that. The fingertips of his left hand pressed against Jiyue's waist through the fabric of the skirt—hot.

"Don't worry. Your boyfriend won't be home for another two hours."

Gu Chiming lowered his head, his lips brushing his earlobe, murmuring softly.

"You like Zhong Xian, and you like me too, and behind my back you have another boyfriend at school that you're also hiding from him. Xiao Yue... can you handle that much?"

His other hand lifted the hem of Jiyue's skirt.

The man's hand rested on his thigh, slowly sliding upward along the inside of his knee.

The heat of his fingertips was so scalding it nearly made Jiyue shiver.

[No way, this guy is really doing this kind of sneaking-around-with-his-bro's-wife stuff in his dream?! In the bathroom of Zhong Xian's home, no less?! That's kinda something.]

[Jealousy play? Your character in this dream is a scummy bottom—Gu Chiming, deceived, came over specifically to demand an explanation, thinking he's the mistress, when he might actually be mistress number four?]

[Who's the school boyfriend, Chen Zheqin?]

Wherever he was touched felt like it was burning up. His face hot, heart pounding, the allergic-like reaction made Jiyue a bit slow—two seconds passed before he pushed that hand out from under the skirt.

Almost... almost got found out that he wasn't a girl.

His head was so dizzy.

Jiyue shoved Gu Chiming away and walked out of the bathroom. The floor was wet and slick; he stumbled and crashed into someone else's arms.

Chen Zheqin stood in the doorway, one hand steadying his shoulder, looking down at him.

Then a warm body pressed against his back, breath grazing his nape—Gu Chiming had followed.

One in front, one behind, two men—he was sandwiched between them.

[What's going on?!]

Dreams were constructed jointly by human and ghost, and Chen Zheqin's dream setup had been given an additional stroke earlier, making this nightmare all the more chaotic.

In this dream, Jiyue was simultaneously maintaining relationships with three men.

[omg... a sandwich?! Or taking turns?!]

The system trembled with excitement, its speech turning into a fierce electric buzz.