Chapter 34: The Little Ghost Turned Back into a Human!

“!”

Sensing something wrong, Song Yaoyao lifted his lashes, and his eyes suddenly widened. He nearly fell off Xie Ningwan’s body.

He was still pressed against Xie Ningwan’s lips. When he saw Xie Ningwan open his eyes, he got a fright, and his heart pounded wildly. His first reaction wasn’t to let go of Xie Ningwan and flee but, following the idea from last time, to grab Xie Ningwan’s pajama collar and kiss him forcefully!

“…” Before Xie Ningwan could make a sound, he was pinned down by the little ghost.

Song Yaoyao sat on his waist, blocking his lips. Since he’d been discovered, he went all out, and his tongue tip directly slipped into Xie Ningwan’s mouth.

“…”

A slightly cool, soft sensation came from his lips, light and feathery.

Like a small snowflake landing on them.

Although Song Yaoyao had probed into Xie Ningwan’s mouth, he had no idea what he was doing. His kiss was chaotic and unstructured. He bumped around randomly, and when he touched something wet, the fingers gripping Xie Ningwan’s collar tightened nervously, his lashes trembling.

Feeling like he’d managed to absorb some of Xie Ningwan’s bodily fluids, Song Yaoyao pulled back.

He climbed off Xie Ningwan’s body, wanting to float away quickly and escape, but Xie Ningwan sat up halfway and grabbed his ethereal figure.

“…Song Yaoyao.” Xie Ningwan’s expression was inscrutable as he held the back of his hand to the corner of his lips, his tone “calm.”

Song Yaoyao didn’t answer him. His heart was still racing, steam practically rising from his head. He tried to pry open Xie Ningwan’s hand or turn himself into a light mist and fly away.

Xie Ningwan had already sat up fully. He still couldn’t see Song Yaoyao’s figure, but he could accurately sense his presence now. His gaze fixed unerringly on the transparent little shadow in front of him as he spoke slowly, “Shouldn’t you give me an explanation?”

“…” Song Yaoyao was frantically trying to pry apart the hand gripping his waist, flustered and clumsy. One person and one ghost faced each other in a sitting position, with the little ghost on the person’s lap.

“Song Yaoyao.” Xie Ningwan called again, his tone darkening with danger. The hand holding Song Yaoyao tightened, with no intention of letting go.

Xie Ningwan: “Why did you sneak a kiss from me? You even peeked at me taking a shower before. Are you a pervert?”

Xie Ningwan: “Don’t tell me your real identity is actually a little lecherous ghost.”

The more anxious Song Yaoyao got, the more flustered he became. Seeing he couldn’t break free, he lost his composure. Hearing Xie Ningwan’s harsh tone with all those accusations and wild labels, he simply reverted to his old rogue ways.

“Fine, I’m a bad ghost!” Song Yaoyao yelled.

“…” Xie Ningwan fell silent.

Song Yaoyao gave up struggling: “I’m just a bad monster. I want to sneak kisses from you, suck your vital energy, turn back into a human, and live forever.”

Xie Ningwan: “…”

“That’s it.” Song Yaoyao stopped struggling altogether and just sprawled on Xie Ningwan’s thigh, lips pursed, looking like he dared Xie Ningwan to do something about it.

“Song Yaoyao,” Xie Ningwan finally spoke after a moment, his words slow, “What cartoon did you watch at home yesterday? Journey to the West, Great Sage Sun Wukong? Or Liaozhai?”

“…!” Song Yaoyao’s eyes widened, and his cheeks puffed out at those words.

“Suck the vital energy from my body?” Xie Ningwan suddenly couldn’t hold back a low chuckle. “Where did you learn that phrase?”

This guy was actually laughing at him. Song Yaoyao found it unbelievable. The embarrassment from the forceful kiss vanished, replaced entirely by anger.

“It’s exactly like that!” Song Yaoyao went full sour grapes, charging forward again in dissatisfaction to bite down hard on Xie Ningwan’s lips. He gnawed for a bit, then took advantage of Xie Ningwan wincing in pain and covering his mouth to dart away quickly and hide behind the curtains, wrapping himself up in them.

“Catch me if you can. You can’t see me, so you can’t grab me. I’m going to kiss you whenever I want.” Song Yaoyao threw down his “harsh words.”

Xie Ningwan was so exasperated he almost laughed. Dealing with such a heartless, shameless little ghost.

He threw off the covers and got out of bed, heading to pull the curtains, but Song Yaoyao zipped to the bedside table and flicked the warm yellow lamp switch on and off several times, creating a haunted effect.

As Xie Ningwan turned toward the bedside, he floated up to the ceiling.

Xie Ningwan stopped in place, closed his eyes briefly. He wanted to grab the little ghost and give him a proper scolding, but as the little ghost said, he still couldn’t see him with the naked eye and had no way to catch him.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm, and threatened, “Do you still want ice cream? Song Yaoyao.”

Song Yaoyao wasn’t afraid of him at all. Sitting on the ceiling chandelier, logically wrong but boldly defiant, he shouted down, “I want ice cream, I want cake, I want to eat your food, and I want to sneak kisses from you.”

Xie Ningwan was genuinely amused by his shamelessness this time. He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

One person and one ghost stared each other down for a while before Xie Ningwan looked away first.

He stopped looking at Song Yaoyao, lay back down on the bed as if giving up on communicating, pulled the covers over himself, and said, “Forget it, I won’t bother with you anymore.”

With that, he closed his eyes, as if he’d truly decided to ignore Song Yaoyao.

The bedroom fell quiet for a moment, only the soft sound of wind outside the window. Song Yaoyao held his breath, clinging to the chandelier, lowering his head to observe Xie Ningwan carefully.

Xie Ningwan lay flat with his eyes closed, his breathing steady and even, as if he’d really fallen asleep again.

But Xie Ningwan had a history of tricking him, so Song Yaoyao decided to wait another ten minutes before coming down.

After holding out for ten minutes, Xie Ningwan seemed truly asleep again. Song Yaoyao floated down from the chandelier.

He still wanted to sleep with Xie Ningwan tonight.

He insisted.

Song Yaoyao landed on the big bed, knelt beside Xie Ningwan, lifted his covers, slipped inside, and sprawled on top of him.

“Hmph.”

Song Yaoyao acted like he’d won, smugly using Xie Ningwan like a hug pillow from the living room sofa downstairs, pillowing his head on his chest.

He adjusted to a comfortable position and was about to fall asleep when, the next second, a strong, powerful arm locked around him.

“!” Song Yaoyao realized he’d fallen for it and struggled frantically. “Let me go.”

Xie Ningwan kept his eyes closed, pinned him down, and said in a deep voice, “Song Yaoyao—”

—Thump!

Suddenly, Xie Ningwan’s arms sank without warning.

“…!”

Xie Ningwan’s eyes snapped open. Looking down at his chest, there was now a soft-haired, completely naked young man in his embrace.

Their eyes met, both stunned in an instant.

“!!” Song Yaoyao lay naked under the covers, sprawled on Xie Ningwan, his round eyes wide as he lifted his own arm.

An arm!

A real, pale, fleshy arm that yielded when pinched.

Too excited to care about anything else, Song Yaoyao stared blankly for a while before erupting in wild joy. He threw off the covers to look at his body.

It was real. Song Yaoyao pinched his cheek, then his hand, then his leg.

He’d turned back into a human!

Xie Ningwan was also stunned for a moment. The young man’s soft, substantial limbs lay on him, the warm body heat seeping through his thin pajamas—everything felt so real and vivid.

With extreme self-control, he forced himself to calm down quickly, though his brain was still processing. Seeing Song Yaoyao throw off the covers to reveal his naked body, he first reached out to pull the quilt over and wrap him up.

Song Yaoyao’s mind was still reeling, his breathing quick and hot against Xie Ningwan’s neck, full of disbelief.

“Song Yaoyao?” Xie Ningwan’s throat bobbed involuntarily as he pulled the wrapped-up boy off himself, his voice low and husky. “What’s going on?”

Song Yaoyao was too thrilled, his head buzzing. “…I turned back into a human.”

Neither of them had expected this. Song Yaoyao sat up wrapped in the quilt, still dazed, and looked down at himself.

This really was his own body—there was even that small pencil mark on his palm from accidentally poking it while writing.

Xie Ningwan sat at the head of the bed, striving to stay calm as he carefully examined the little ghost’s human form.

It matched the fleeting glimpse he’d caught during the car accident and what he’d seen in that “dream” last time: a fair-skinned youth with red lips, white teeth, clear brows, and bright eyes.

He wondered if he was dreaming again, dreaming that the little ghost had turned human, and pinched the space between his brows.

Song Yaoyao was equally dazed by the huge surprise, wondering if this was like the previous two times and he was dreaming. He lifted his wrist and bit it.

Xie Ningwan: …It was real.

Song Yaoyao: It was real!

Realizing everything before him was incredibly vivid—even though Xie Ningwan had already accepted the little ghost’s existence and wasn’t a strict materialist, the impact still hit him hard.

He took a deep breath, got out of bed, and went to his walk-in closet first to grab a shirt and pants for Song Yaoyao.

Returning to the bedroom with the clothes, he found Song Yaoyao still sitting there wrapped in the quilt, dazed. The boy suddenly snapped fully awake, scooted to the edge of the bed, pounced onto Xie Ningwan, hugged his neck, and shared his excitement. “I really turned back into a human!”

“Mm,” Xie Ningwan handed him the shirt and pants. “Put some clothes on first.”

Song Yaoyao was still dizzy as he took the clothes. Having been human-free for so long and too excited, he fumbled with them, draping them haphazardly over himself after a few tries.

When he’d been the little ghost, he’d snuck into Xie Ningwan’s clothes, which were too big and hung loose; now as a human, they were still a bit oversized—the shirt reached his thighs, sleeves covering his hands, and the pants wouldn’t even go on properly.

But Song Yaoyao didn’t care right now. He threw on the clothes messily and kept inspecting himself nonstop.

“What’s going on?”

By now, Xie Ningwan had calmed down somewhat and even poured Song Yaoyao a cup of warm water, bringing it back to the bedroom.

“I just said it—I needed to suck your vital energy to turn back human,” Song Yaoyao blurted out, his mind still stuck on their earlier argument.

As soon as he said it, he realized he wasn’t a ghost anymore; he couldn’t float away or turn invisible to evade Xie Ningwan. So he looked up at Xie Ningwan, covered his mouth, and racked his brains for a better explanation that didn’t make him sound like a bad ghost.

“It’s not like that—I’m actually not a bad ghost…” He belatedly felt guilty and scooted back a little on the bed.

But he had a gut feeling he couldn’t tell Xie Ningwan about the System yet. Clutching the water cup Xie Ningwan handed him, he tried to think with his muddled brain while mentally shouting for the System.

Xie Ningwan calmly picked up his words instead, repeating them: “You’re actually a bad monster who sneaks kisses to suck my vital energy, and now you’ve turned human and will live forever? You’ve achieved it.”

“…” Song Yaoyao’s head steamed up as he buried it.

Xie Ningwan stood by the bed, looking at the boy’s soft hair, his own mind racing.

…The little ghost had really turned into a young man.