EDS Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – I’m an evil spirit

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When Mi Li woke up, it was already past 9pm.  She got up from bed, rubbed her face, and walked into the bathroom in a daze.

Her experiences in the “dream” were vague.  Mi Li only remembered that she had become a doorbell and chatted with a very masculine man for a while.

[What’s your name… How about I call you “Old Bai” from now on?]

Old Bai?

Mi Li tried to recall her memories repeatedly, but still couldn’t remember the person’s appearance.

How could she have such strange dreams?  Was she really dreaming?  Did she become someone else’s belonging while sleeping, twice in a row?

Mi Li took a shower and walked out of the bathroom refreshed.  She put on an apron, set up the camera, and started preparing for a cooking livestream.

“Today’s midnight snack is a bacon and egg crepe. The steps are simple and the flavor is delicious.”  Mi Li placed flour, butter, eggs, bacon, chives and salt on the table one by one.  She mixed the flour, milk, and eggs together, then wrapped it in plastic to refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Later, she seasoned the dough with onion and bacon grease to taste.

After spreading a layer of oil on the pan, she scooped in a spoonful of batter and spread it evenly.  Mi Li fried the batter until it was golden, added some sides, cracked an egg in the middle, and sprinkled everything with chives and cheese.

She folded the four sides of the pancake into a square, then heated it until the cheese melted and the egg became half-cooked, with the yolk round and golden.  Finally, she cut a few pieces of fruit and placed it in a corner for decoration.  A simple and delicious crepe was completed.

Mi Li picked up the freshly baked crepe. She gave the audience a closeup first, before taking a deep sniff and commented, “The fragrance of combining eggs and milk, mixed with cheese and bacon, makes the taste even richer.  The color is bright and it is both nutritious and healthy.  Try it if you have time at night.  Okay, I’m going to start eating now.”

[Ahhhhhhhh, just watching makes me hungry.  Why did I come for this abuse?]

[Losing weight is not possible.  It is impossible in this life.]

[I envy the anchor’s body.  She can eat anything without getting fat.]

[I just ordered takeout.  I am willing to drown myself in food.]

After eating the crepe, Mi Li’s gratified expression drew out a ripple of hostility, and the live broadcast ended with a wave of resentful rewards.

Mi Li cleaned up the kitchen, then slowly jogged on the treadmill for another 30 minutes.

After midnight, she went to bed on time.  No more than five minutes after closing her eyes, Mi Li fell asleep.  Her sleep quality had always been very good, but it had been abnormal in the last two days.  Sleep came with many bizarre dreams.

When her “consciousness” awakened, Mi Li found that she was in a gray and narrow space, and there was a faint noise outside.

Good, she seemed to have become something strange again.

It was unknown how much time had passed before she started moving up in the narrow space.  Following which, there was a bright shine above her head and her vision instantly widened.  Two fingers approached her, pinching her out of the narrow space.  With a “click”, a lighter was lit and a flickering flame wrapped around the end of a cigarette.

A wisp of smoke slowly fluttered, and Mi Li immediately realized that the lit cigarette was herself. What made her even more flustered was that the fingers holding her were directing her towards a pair of lips.

Seeing that she was about to be sucked, she couldn’t help shouting: [Stop! Don’t suck me!]

The smoking action paused.  The fingers moved her slightly away, and Mi Li finally saw the owner.  It was the handsome uncle named “Old Bai” that she had seen before.

[Old Bai, Old Bai, quickly put out the fire, I’m about to be burned to death! 】Mi Li strove to survive in the flames.

Xi Baichen pinched out the cigarette and played around with it, calling out suspiciously, “Little Mi?”

[That’s right, it’s me.]  The crisis averted, Mi Li’s mood brightened.

Xi Baichen leaned on the sofa, a half-opened shirt displaying his strong chest muscles.  With his two long legs overlapped, he looked lazily at the cigarette in his hand and asked faintly, “Didn’t you say you’re a sentient doorbell?”

[I have myriad transformations.  You can never guess what I will become in the next second.]

“Really?” If Xi Baichen believed that Xiaomi was a sentient doorbell a few hours ago, then after she turned into a cigarette, he had reason to suspect that she was actually a ghost that could possess any object.

But why did she appear here?  Xi Baichen was the first owner of this villa, and no outsiders had ever stayed here.  Logically speaking, it was impossible for the villa to be haunted.  If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t even have believed that there were ghosts in the world.

“What kind of thing are you?” Xi Baichen asked.

[I am not a thing!]

“Oh? You’re not a thing?”  Xi Baichen raised his eyebrow, “Then what are you?”

[I’m an evil spirit!]

Xi Baichen: “…” Ha ha.

Setting down the little Mi brand cigarette in his hand, Xi Baichen took out another one from the cigarette carton. He lit it with the lighter, and took a light drag.  These actions were indescribably smooth, unfettered, and handsome.  With slightly messy hair drooping on his forehead and eyes half lidded in the smoke, his whole body emanated a sense of seeing through the vicissitudes of life.

Mi Li turned her attention away from him and looked around.  There was a laptop on the table with the screen displaying a simple starry sky and the time 1:05 AM shown in the lower right corner.  Next to it was an ashtray with two cigarette butts as well as a cup of steaming coffee.

Computer, coffee, ashtray; standard items for late nights.

[Old Bai, it’s so late, why aren’t you going to sleep?]  Mi Li controlled her cigarette body, rolling from side to side.

“I still have work.”  Xi Baichen opened a blank document.  He stared at it indifferently but took no action.

[What are you doing?] Mi Li asked again.

“Writing a novel.”  Xi Baichen replied casually, putting out his cigarette in the ashtray.

[What have you written? Maybe I’ve read it.]

Xi Baichen glanced at her and asked lightly, “Do ‘evil spirits’ read novels?”

[Do you have some misunderstandings about evil spirits?]  Mi Li said righteously, [We evil spirits have many hobbies.  Our desire for both knowledge and survival is very strong. ]

Xi Baichen did not know how to retort.  He spread his long, thin fingers and they began flying over the black keyboard. His fast hand speed generated a string of characters on the screen. Rhythmic percussive sounds echoed in the silent room.

Mi Li quietly watched the increasing text on the screen, which slowly composed into a fascinating plot.

It seemed that Xi Baichen didn’t need to think at all, easily forming words and sentences. Within a few minutes, Mi Li knew that he was writing a novel full of mystery and suspense.

The protagonist had a withdrawn personality.  He was tricked into going to an abandoned apartment rumored to be haunted, but the protagonist was born lacking any fear. Facing a series of supernatural and strange phenomena, there was no turbulence in his heart. Instead, it was his companions who were all scared into pissing their pants.

The plot of the story was mediocre, but Xi Baichen’s writing skills were very profound and the atmosphere was set up very well.  When it made people nervous, at the same time, it also made people laugh. The complexity and changes of human nature were revealed through his pen.

A story consisting of tens of thousands of words was completed in little more than an hour. This kind of perverse hand speed could only be exhibited by a bachelor of more than 20 years.

[That scared me to death!]  Mi Li trembled, [Are there really ghosts in this world?]

Xi Baichen: “…”

[What’s the name of this novel? Has it been published?]

“Unnamed and unpublished.” Xi Baichen drew out another cigarette.

[Old Bai, smoke less.]  Seeing his black eye bags, Mi Li couldn’t help but remind him, [Go to sleep if you are done writing. Smoking late at night is not good for your health. I can see that you’re under 40, but if you don’t pay attention to your health then you’ll become an old man prematurely.]

Xi Baichen was silent for a long while, then said with a deadpan expression, “I’m 29.”

Mi Li: [shocked.jpg]

Although he couldn’t see her expression, Xi Baichen keenly perceived her disbelief.

When he’s working, he was slovenly in appearance, but did he really seem that old?

Xi Baichen dropped his cigarette, got up and walked into the bathroom.  Facing the mirror, he touched his stubbled chin and brushed back the hair that fell on his forehead. Although he did look “older” than usual, he definitely did not seem like a 40 year old middle aged man!

Xi Baichen washed his face, picked up the razor and shaved his stubble.  After taking a relaxing shower, he returned to the room refreshed.

Coming to the desk, he dried his hair with the towel, while using the computer. He glanced at the cigarette evil spirit intermittently as though waiting for her to re-evaluate his appearance.

However, the evil spirit didn’t say a word and had no reaction.

“Little Mi? Are you still there?” Xi Baichen couldn’t help but utter aloud.

The room was silent except for the occasional sound of cars passing by outside the window.

“Left again?” Xi Baichen folded up his laptop and threw the towel on the back of the chair.  He picked up the cigarette and lit the lighter but then paused.  In the end, he extinguished it, put down the lighter, and returned the cigarette to the carton.

After returning to her true body, Mi Li slept til dawn without any dreams.

The three bizarre dream experiences made Mi Li realize that something was wrong. Although she didn’t recall everything after waking up, the realism made it impossible for her to treat them as ordinary dreams.

In order to determine that it was not an aftereffect of the car accident, Mi Li went to different hospitals to check several times, but the results all showed that everything was normal.

Mi Li had doubts and decided to note down all her experiences in the “dream”, writing as much as she remembered.

First of all, every time she fell asleep, her soul would leave her body (for the time being, let’s count it as an out of body experience), and then possesses different objects.  She always appeared next to the same man, “Old Bai”, who was a supernatural mystery author.

At present, she had already become his night light, doorbell, and cigarette.  Who knows what she would turn into next time?

Based on the existing clues, Mi Li speculated that Old Bai should live in a high-end residential or mansion-filled neighborhood in a prosperous city. He was temporarily working as an author and was good at writing supernatural mysteries.

If this person really existed, then she would be able to find him someday and also find out just what was going on.

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