Song Yaoyao leaned on the sofa, hugging a pillow in his arms, and watched the cartoon playing on the TV with great interest.
It was at the part where SpongeBob SquarePants set up a little bubble-blowing stall. For two and a half cents a blow, he could blow bubbles into all sorts of shapes.
SpongeBob SquarePants blew a little butterfly bubble that danced gracefully through the ocean depths, and Song Yaoyao excitedly floated up and spun in a circle along with it.
Suddenly, the sound of a car pulling into the driveway came from outside. Song Yaoyao hurriedly floated over in a puff of smoke, turned off the TV, and tidied up the sofa and pillow he had just messed up.
A low-key luxury black sedan stopped in the courtyard. The driver got out, walked around to the right rear door, bowed slightly, and opened the door for the man inside. “President Xie, please.”
A pair of feet in custom-made leather shoes stepped out from the car, followed by long, slender legs and tall, straight shoulders wrapped in a suit jacket.
The man had a sharp, defined jawline and deep, cold features. At that moment, he was listening intently to a report through his earpiece with his head slightly lowered.
The driver closed the door behind him, then hurried ahead to open the villa door for him.
The moment the door opened, a faint cool breeze gently brushed past.
Song Yaoyao waited in advance at the entryway and floated right up to the man, circling him once before greeting crisply, “You’re back.”
“I understand. Send me the revised plan tomorrow.” The man did not break stride as his thin lips parted to speak into the earpiece.
After he finished, he ended the call, took off his suit jacket and draped it over his arm, loosened his tie with a lift of his hand, and walked straight past Song Yaoyao into the house.
Song Yaoyao received no response, but he was not angry because he knew the man could not see him or hear him speak.
Because he was a ghost.
A few days earlier, Song Yaoyao had saved a drowning child on his way home. After getting the child to the shore, he himself had been swept away by the current. He had only managed to grab a book that fell from the child’s backpack before losing consciousness.
Glug glug…
When he woke up, he found himself here, transformed into a little ghost soul.
He was dazed. He took a step forward and floated two meters away, his entire body like a drifting mist in the air.
Song Yaoyao: “!?”
Afterward, a system orb glowing with soft light appeared before Song Yaoyao.
【Plane world data loading… Loading complete.】
【Hello, System 7446972 at your service. You have now entered the world of the book Sinking and Floating. Detection shows that you had a close connection to this book before losing consciousness, so your soul has been drawn into it.】
From the explanation by this little orb calling itself the system, Song Yaoyao understood that Sinking and Floating was the book he had accidentally grabbed from the child’s backpack. Because he had clutched it tightly before dying, his soul had transmigrated into the book.
Song Yaoyao looked down and wiggled his now semi-transparent hands and feet. “Then can I still come back to life?”
【Your situation is quite special.】
【You currently exist in the book in soul form, which is unstable. Dissipation is only a matter of time.】
Before Song Yaoyao could show any disappointment, the system changed tack:
【However—every plane world has a protagonist, and every protagonist possesses powerful fortune. As long as you absorb enough fortune from the protagonist, you can restore your human body and live in this world just like a normal person.】
“Then how do I get fortune from the protagonist?” Song Yaoyao asked hurriedly.
He did not want to dissipate.
System: 【Methods include but are not limited to: staying near the protagonist, touching items the protagonist has touched, physical contact…】
Song Yaoyao nodded seriously as he listened.
The system continued: 【…But far more effective are kissing the protagonist, intercourse, and other intimate acts involving exchange of bodily fluids.】
“!” Song Yaoyao’s ear tips turned red at once.
Was this a proper system??
He asked hopefully, “A-Are there any other methods?”
【No.】
The emotionless mechanical voice replied.
“…”
With no other options, in order to turn back into a human, Song Yaoyao ultimately chose to follow the system’s advice.
Having a chance to live again was already fortunate enough. Fortunately, just staying near the protagonist or touching items he had touched could also absorb fortune… It did not have to be those intimate contacts, right?
【You are currently in soul form, quite weak, but as you gather more fortune, your power will gradually strengthen until you gain a physical body and “revive.”】
Song Yaoyao floated around, getting used to his new way of “walking,” and found it quite amazing.
And the man in front of him now was this book’s protagonist: Xie Ningwan.
In other words, Song Yaoyao’s target.
Sinking and Floating was an urban business war revenge novel.
In the original plot, Xie Ningwan, as the protagonist, was the sole heir of the Xie Family’s main branch. Because the main branch dominated, it drew the envy of his uncles and other relatives, who plotted to murder Xie Ningwan’s parents and relentlessly suppressed the young Xie Ningwan.
When Xie Ningwan took over the family business through his own abilities and began investigating the truth behind his parents’ deaths, they tried to murder him as well.
The main plot of the book followed Xie Ningwan’s struggle against his villainous uncles and cousins for control of the family empire. Amid relatives coveting the inheritance, after a series of business wars and life-threatening schemes, he uncovered the true cause of his parents’ deaths, sent everyone to prison, seized control of the Xie Family, and became a business titan…
After hanging up the phone, Xie Ningwan went straight upstairs. Song Yaoyao snapped back to attention and quietly floated after him like a little tail.
Xie Ningwan headed to the bedroom, apparently planning to take a shower and change clothes first.
Song Yaoyao sneaked and hid behind Xie Ningwan.
He watched as Xie Ningwan took out a change of clothes from the wardrobe and entered the bathroom, then began unbuttoning his shirt one by one.
Xie Ningwan had a habit of regular workouts, keeping his physique in perfect shape with distinct, sharp muscle lines.
Song Yaoyao clung to the bathroom door, gazing at the chest muscles that stretched the shirt taut, admiring them secretly while feeling envious.
Back in the real world, he had gone back and forth between school and home every day, buried under study tasks, left with only a frail, skinny body—a total weakling, nothing like Xie Ningwan.
He resolved that once he turned back into a human, he would work out properly too and become like Xie Ningwan.
Song Yaoyao watched Xie Ningwan’s tall, broad shoulders and chest without blinking. When Xie Ningwan removed his lower clothing, he gentlemanly turned away. No peeking where one shouldn’t.
Even though no one would know if the little ghost was looking.
Xie Ningwan casually tossed his changed clothes into the laundry basket and closed the shower glass door.
He did not notice that after he turned away, an invisible hand stealthily pulled out his shirt.
Song Yaoyao secretly picked up Xie Ningwan’s freshly changed shirt.
“I’ll just borrow it for a bit, okay.” Song Yaoyao whispered toward the glass door.
Then he paused in silence: …I sound like a pervert.
Whatever, never mind. Anyway, he was a ghost now!
Song Yaoyao first held Xie Ningwan’s shirt in his hands, unsure if that would absorb fortune. Then he hugged it to his chest, and finally tried draping it over his head.
In the end, he simply put the shirt on himself, rummaged in the laundry basket, and nestled inside like a bird building a nest.
This should work, right?
Ten minutes later, the sound of water in the bathroom stopped, and Xie Ningwan came out.
He was about to take the changed clothes for washing when he saw the clothes in the laundry basket seem to move slightly on their own.
The man, wrapped in a dark robe, closed his eyes briefly, thinking he must be seeing things from being too busy lately.
Xie Ningwan did not trust outsiders and disliked having others in his home, so he had no housekeeper or maid. He handled cleaning and maintenance periodically with professionals and did his own laundry and cooking.
After Xie Ningwan took the laundry basket, Song Yaoyao stood by pouting. The time had been so short; he felt like he had not rubbed off much fortune.
At this rate, when would he turn back into a human?
But if he tried the system’s other methods—hugging, kissing, or even more intimate acts…
“That would make me just like those seductive demons and ghosts in the strange tales who lure humans and secretly drain their essence!”
…Though he did seem to be a little ghost not much different from them now.
Song Yaoyao’s transparent ears turned pink.
In any case, at this stage, he only dared to sneakily touch things Xie Ningwan had used.
