After the man’s low voice fell, the bedroom fell silent.
Song Yaoyao also stopped, maintaining his posture of tugging at the edge of the blanket, and looked suspiciously at the man on the bed.
After a moment of quiet, a light and soft youthful voice sounded in the bedroom, skeptical:
“Is there really such a rule?”
Xie Ningwan’s eyes were as black as obsidian in the dimness, fixing his gaze in the direction from which the voice came.
Xie Ningwan: “Mm.”
Song Yaoyao was somewhat bluffed, frowning as he thought carefully.
‘As if! Trying to fool a ghost?’
The System had never told him that, and he didn’t believe it.
…But he had a vague feeling that this rule did sound familiar somewhere—when there was a ghost in the house, hiding under the blanket was the safest.
Song Yaoyao gripped the corner of the blanket, a bit dazed, kneeling on the edge of the bed as he engaged in an internal struggle, agonizing over it for a long time.
Xie Ningwan, lying flat, had his lip corner curve slightly in the darkness. He stretched out his arm to press down the lifted corner of the blanket and continued, “This blanket is my barrier.”
The corner of the blanket was tugged from Song Yaoyao’s hand, but he didn’t chase after it to grab it back. He just lowered his head to look, still puzzled.
The previous times he had climbed into bed, the System hadn’t said anything about whether he could directly slip under the covers, and Xie Ningwan surprisingly wasn’t asleep today—he had even noticed him.
Song Yaoyao glanced at Xie Ningwan sleeping in the center of the bed, gave up on the blanket corner, and crawled to Xie Ningwan’s pillow, lowering his head to look at him.
In the dim light, Xie Ningwan’s deep brows and sharp jawline remained clear, even more pronounced under the faint light filtering through the curtains.
Song Yaoyao stretched his head right in front of him, facing him directly, scrutinizing his expression closely, not missing a single clue.
Xie Ningwan’s gaze was fixed on the ceiling, passing through him to land in the void.
Song Yaoyao lowered his head a bit more, almost bumping into his high nose bridge, staring wide-eyed at him.
Xie Ningwan showed no reaction.
Song Yaoyao didn’t detect any clues from his face either.
Although his intuition told him Xie Ningwan was definitely lying, to be safe, he would ask the System tomorrow.
Feeling depressed, Song Yaoyao stopped responding to Xie Ningwan, rolled over, and curled up on the edge of the bed just like before.
Sensing the faint rustling from beside him, Xie Ningwan closed his eyes, concealing the amusement hidden in their depths.
He pulled the thin blanket over his waist, turned on his side, and intentionally left a little space for Song Yaoyao.
·
Since Xie Ningwan was still recovering from his injuries to the outside world, he didn’t go to the company for the next few days. This was to mislead the behind-the-scenes black hand hiding in the shadows and to root out the disloyal elements within the company.
In the villa, the sunlight was excellent, streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room and warmly spilling onto one corner of the sofa.
Xie Ningwan sat on the single-seater sofa nearby, reviewing the emails and documents sent by Assistant Lei. Song Yaoyao, in his little ghost form, occupied the entire large sofa in the center, lying sprawled in the middle while an animated cartoon played on the TV in front of him.
The animated characters giggled and bounced lively on the screen, their noisy background sounds making Xie Ningwan lift his head from his laptop.
The company and the Xie Family were in chaos, investigations into his parents’ car accident and his own recent one were ongoing— the atmosphere should have been gloomy and oppressive, yet it had become lively and bright because of this little ghost.
Xie Ningwan set down his laptop, glanced at the sofa, lightly curved his lip, and silently picked up the remote control from the coffee table.
“Hahahahaha, SpongeBob SquarePants, you’re too funny!…” A character in the cartoon burst into laughter.
“Hahahahaha.” Song Yaoyao laughed along, rolling on the sofa.
“SpongeBob SquarePants, you—”
The sound of the cartoon cut off abruptly, switching to the news channel.
“?” Song Yaoyao climbed up from the sofa and looked up at Xie Ningwan.
Xie Ningwan’s gaze wasn’t on the sofa or the TV; he was still intently looking at his computer screen, with the TV remote placed not far from his hand.
Song Yaoyao got up and floated over, stepping on the remote control.
The cartoon sound resumed: “SpongeBob SquarePants! Ahahahaha…”
Song Yaoyao pounced back onto the sofa: “Hahahahaha!”
“SpongeBob SquarePants, you—”
It cut off again.
Song Yaoyao looked up: “?”
Xie Ningwan was still focused on the computer, his fingers tapping on the keyboard.
Song Yaoyao got up and floated over again, stepping on the remote once more.
Cartoon: “Hahahahahaha…”
Song Yaoyao: “Ha ha…”
“Ha—”
It cut off.
“?”
This time, Song Yaoyao whipped his head around quickly! Sure enough, he caught Xie Ningwan’s hand not yet retracted from the remote.
Song Yaoyao ground his teeth and flew over to snatch the remote away.
The TV remote floated in mid-air from the armrest of the single-seater sofa to the large sofa.
Xie Ningwan, who had been keeping his eyes down until now, finally let out a low chuckle. He pressed his fingers to his lips, leaned back against the sofa, shook his head, and sighed: “It’s haunted.”
Shouldn’t he be the haunted one! Song Yaoyao was extremely dissatisfied.
Ever since Xie Ningwan had discovered him, Xie Ningwan had been like this—not only unafraid of him at all, but often teasing him for fun.
At first, Song Yaoyao had felt embarrassed about needing to absorb Xie Ningwan’s fortune and have intimate contact with him to restore his adult form.
Now, that bit of embarrassment had vanished without a trace.
Xie Ningwan just wasn’t a good person.
Song Yaoyao switched the TV back to the cartoon, buried the remote under the sofa, then climbed onto Xie Ningwan’s back, wrapping his arms around Xie Ningwan’s neck.
See if you dare mess with it again.
Peeking down from Xie Ningwan’s shoulder, he spotted a new email arriving, so he reached out and poked the keyboard.
Xie Ningwan lowered his lashes, unsurprised by the little ghost sticking to him, and clicked to open the email.
There was progress on the car accident. They had recently confirmed issues with the driver, and tracing his bank transfers had quickly led to clues, exposing the person behind it.
And that person behind it was no stranger to Song Yaoyao—it was Xie Ningwan’s second uncle’s son, his cousin from last time—Xie Ninghong.
Last time, he had at least let his parents take the blame; this time, he couldn’t hold back and acted himself.
【President Xie, how should we handle this?】 Assistant Lei sent the investigation materials, seeking Xie Ningwan’s opinion.
Xie Ningwan: 【Strike hard.】
Since they wanted to cause a car accident to harm him, he wouldn’t show mercy.
Assistant Lei: 【Understood.】
Xie Ninghong’s methods were clearly not as sophisticated as those of his parents’ generation ten years ago; he was exposed immediately. Now it was time to see what play the family would put on and how they would wrap it up.
Strike hard! Song Yaoyao added an exclamation mark for Xie Ningwan.
Next time he saw those Xie Family people, he would punish them harshly too.
After replying, Xie Ningwan’s attention returned to the little ghost sprawled on his back.
He raised his hand and rubbed his shoulder, muttering to himself: “So heavy.”
Song Yaoyao, whose little spirit form had no weight at all: “?”
So heavy, huh?
Song Yaoyao climbed higher, from lying on Xie Ningwan’s back to directly riding on his neck, sprawling on top of his head, and even gave him two air punches.
