The dorm matron had already vanished outside.
Jiang Luo stood up with a dark face, threw the bathrobe over himself, and tied it tight. The threat Chi You had just whispered in his ear echoed relentlessly in his mind:
“Satisfy my desire, or I’ll kill you.”
Chi You had only given him two choices.
Either sleep with him, or die.
But who the h*ll would listen to that b*stard?
Jiang Luo looked up and saw, just above the coffee table, the statue’s heart and a Yuan Tian Bead he had deliberately placed there.
Those two items were out in the open, obvious and blatant.
His mood soured even further.
He’d specially used them as bait, laying layers of traps around. As long as Chi You dared to go near, those traps would at least cost him half his life. And yet, those things were right in front of him—Chi You hadn’t even touched them?
Hadn’t even spared them a glance?
Jiang Luo’s heart sank to rock bottom.
Whether Chi You hadn’t seen them, or had seen them but didn’t care to take them—both possibilities pointed to one terrifying conclusion.
His desire for Jiang Luo had already grown so intense he could ignore everything else.
This was bad. Very bad.
The malicious ghost’s lust came swiftly, directly, and without compromise. It seemed that to him, fulfilling his desire was more important than his soul, even more important than his heart. Jiang Luo’s eyelids twitched. He seriously wanted to grab Chi You by the collar and beat the h*ll out of him again.
He’d tortured Chi You for a whole night, returning all eighteen of his past deaths one by one to this malevolent spirit. Jiang Luo had even gotten bored of it. He’d saved the most painful deaths for last, planning to deliver those as the final unforgettable revenge.
No one could’ve guessed that under such circumstances… Chi You would actually react to him like that.
Jiang Luo had noticed Chi You gradually regaining his senses. But in his original plan, Chi You would be lured by the statue’s heart and the Yuan Tian Bead, falling into the trap and reaping what he’d sown.
But in the end, the bait Chi You went for—turned out to be him.
A rush of rage and frustration welled up inside. Jiang Luo held it in for a long time, but still couldn’t help muttering a low, harsh curse: “F*ck.”
He covered up the items on the coffee table, face stormy, and headed into the bathroom, scrubbing away every single spot Chi You had touched on his body. But when he came out—
The room was packed with people.
Jiang Luo: “…”
They were all here.
Cyril and the others still looked like they’d just rolled out of bed, clad in pajamas with messy hair. On the sofa sat the headmaster and several other school teachers. Ye Xun’s group stood around the sofa. Over a dozen people had squeezed into the small apartment, making the space feel cramped and the air heavy with silent tension.
Dean Xu sat in the very center of the sofa, face stern, both hands resting on his cane. Neither he nor the others looked pleased—especially after seeing the wrecked state of the room.
Things were smashed all over the floor. Glass, broken porcelain, bloodstains scattered about… on the walls, on the floor—even a few drops near the bathroom mat.
It looked like a violent struggle had taken place.
Dean Xu had rushed over with his staff only to witness this chaotic scene. He was so furious he almost coughed up blood. It was only after the dorm matron told him Jiang Luo was more or less unharmed that his heart finally settled back into place.
The matron had been so flustered during her call that they’d thought Jiang Luo had attempted suicide again. But seeing the state of the room, Dean Xu immediately realized—this wasn’t a suicide.
Someone had broken in.
A suicide wouldn’t have wrecked the place like this.
Seeing Jiang Luo emerge from the bathroom like that, Dean Xu quickly understood: the intruder had to be Chi You.
He’d come in a rush, but everyone he brought along was someone who already knew about the situation between Jiang Luo and Chi You—and who’d all been sternly warned never to breathe a word of it.
It was precisely because of Dean Xu’s protection that rumors about Jiang Luo and Chi You had stayed confined to the school and hadn’t reached the ears of the six great families.
Besides the teachers, he had also brought Jiang Luo’s classmates, hoping they could help talk some sense into him.
There’s a saying—things shouldn’t happen more than three times—and to Dean Xu, Jiang Luo had already hit that mark. Matters between humans and ghosts only grew more complicated the deeper they entangled.
Dean Xu had some ties with Chi You. He didn’t believe Chi You was a completely selfish person. And Jiang Luo was someone he had high hopes for. Naturally, he didn’t want to see the two sink further into this mess.
He pitied Chi You and sympathized with Jiang Luo. But everyone knew—no matter how deep the love or regret—humans and ghosts can never be together.
Dean Xu had long wanted to summon Chi You’s soul to have a proper conversation about this. But no matter what he tried, he could never reach him. Eventually, he gave up. He had thought that once Jiang Luo became Feng Li’s disciple, Chi You—now a ghost—would be afraid of the Heavenly Master’s name.
Who would’ve thought something like this would happen again?
What terrified Dean Xu the most was—
This happened on school grounds! How had a malicious ghost managed to get inside?!
“Come here,” Dean Xu said, calming his nerves. His voice was strong and firm.
Jiang Luo cursed Chi You several more times in his heart before obediently walking over and sitting across from Dean Xu in a single-seater armchair.
Dean Xu asked, “You saw Chi You again, didn’t you?”
Jiang Luo nodded honestly.
Dean Xu’s hands trembled. He rubbed his cane and exchanged looks with the teachers nearby.
After a moment of silence, he stowed away his shock and launched into a long-winded lecture aimed at Jiang Luo.
Seeing that Jiang Luo didn’t speak back, he sighed heavily and said in a deliberately stern tone, “You need to sit down and reflect seriously.”
Then he stood up, ready to take the teachers around the school to inspect the feng shui layout for any vulnerabilities.
Wenren Lian walked him to the door. Dean Xu, worried and heavy-hearted, said to Wenren Lian, “Keep an eye on him, talk to him more. That child is far too devoted. If Chi You were still around… we are, after all, the elders, and there are some things we can’t say. It’ll have to be you all who say them.”
A faint smile appeared on Wenren Lian’s otherwise grave face. “Don’t worry. Leave this to us.”
Dean Xu sighed again. “This still needs to be reported to that brat Feng Li…”
Wenren Lian replied, “Dean, you don’t need to inform Teacher Feng.”
The dean looked puzzled. “Why not?”
Wenren Lian lowered his voice. “You may not know this, but back during the talent show, Chi You and Jiang Luo met again. Teacher Feng was away and unaware of this. I’ve already contacted him. Teacher Feng told me he’d return early, likely within the next couple of days. It won’t be too late to tell him then.”
Dean Xu thought that sounded reasonable. Stroking his beard, he finally left with peace of mind.
Wenren Lian watched their backs, the smile on his lips fading as he suppressed his worry and turned back into the room.
To avoid Jiang Luo being blamed by Feng Li, he had deliberately said that it was Chi You who refused to let go of Jiang Luo. And now, looking at it, it seemed like his words had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Inside the room, Jiang Luo was surrounded by everyone.
The black-haired young man looked dazed as he leaned back on the sofa. The bathrobe he wore was securely fastened but clearly too large for him—obviously belonging to Chi You.
His black hair was half-dry, but more eye-catching were the wounds on his lips and ears—ambiguous and hard to ignore. Deep teeth marks marred his lips, leaving behind excessive traces.
Even more alarming than those marks was the ghostly handprint wrapped around Jiang Luo’s ankle.
On his skin, white and cool as jade, the bluish ghost handprint appeared eerie and chilling.
Wenren Lian stared at it for a while with a grim face before closing the door.
Cyril was so sleepy he nearly nodded off standing. Forcing his eyes open, he asked drowsily, “Jiang, why are you here?”
His green eyes slowly shifted to Jiang Luo. “Why did you bite your lips like that?”
Lu Youyi choked Cyril around the neck and said with deep frustration, “Look carefully. You think he did that to himself?!”
Wenren Lian had just begun to feel a bit relieved when Lu Youyi quickly added, “Obviously he accidentally fell and hit his lips with his teeth!”
Dead Ghost cast a look at Lu Youyi like he was an idiot. He clearly disagreed.
What was stranger was that he could smell his master’s scent on Jiang Luo again. But the scent was weaker than usual, a bit off.
Hadn’t his master gone to a place no one could find?
Dead Ghost was baffled.
Ge Zhu was already seated next to Jiang Luo, taking his pulse to check for internal damage.
If a human and ghost had intercourse, it would be a yin-yang fusion—the malicious ghost would siphon the living person’s yang energy.
“Huh?” But as soon as he felt Jiang Luo’s pulse, Ge Zhu noticed something odd. He muttered, “Strange, Jiang Luo’s body seems fine, no signs of depletion.”
“Could it be that Chi You was careful not to drain his yang energy?”
Zhuo Zhongqiu gave a cold laugh. With a squeeze of her hand, the TV remote she had picked up from the floor shattered into pieces. “If he really cared about that, he wouldn’t come looking for Jiang Luo again and again.”
Wenren Lian walked over and sat down in front of Jiang Luo. After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked, “Did you two do it?”
Wenren Lian had asked Jiang Luo this question once before.
Back then, Jiang Luo only replied that he and Chi You had done it in a dream. That was just a spring dream—a false experience. But now, with Chi You appearing again and again, it was clear they had become intimate in reality.
The moment that question was asked, the atmosphere in the room fell silent.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for Jiang Luo’s answer.
A faint flush appeared on Jiang Luo’s cheeks. On his stunningly beautiful face, it added a dreamlike hue. He softly said, “Not yet.”
The mood instantly eased.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang Luo glanced at the clock. It was only 7 a.m.
How was he supposed to ensure his own safety tonight?
“Chi You said he wanted to sleep with me tonight”—having just been threatened, Jiang Luo was still burning with fury. He couldn’t bring himself to say those words aloud.
Even if he was acting, he feared his face would twist in anger.
He was just about to find an excuse to have everyone stay the night with him when Wenren Lian, as if reading his mind, suddenly stood up and said, “Qi Ye told me earlier he was treating us to dinner tonight and planned for us to spend the night out. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a really fun Hundred Ghost Parade happening downtown these next couple of nights. We can go.”
He asked, not really leaving room for refusal, “Jiang Luo, come with us?”
Jiang Luo stifled the smile tugging at his lips. “Sure.”
Wenren Lian desperately wanted Jiang Luo to forget Chi You and was trying hard to pair him up with Qi Ye. He even wished Jiang Luo would fall for someone else the next second and completely cast aside that scheming malicious ghost.
Wasting no time, he picked up his phone and walked out to call Qi Ye.
Zhuo Zhongqiu and Ge Zhu exchanged a glance and helped Jiang Luo back to his dorm to pack.
Ye Xun and the others followed behind. Lu Youyi scratched his head and asked softly, “Ye Xun, were those bite marks on Jiang Luo’s lips from Chi You?”
Ye Xun shot him a glance. “You just realized?”
Lu Youyi couldn’t wrap his head around it. “I just don’t get why Chi You… he’s getting more and more outrageous.” What was he biting people on the lips for?
Ye Xun hugged Little Pink and said coolly, “I said it long ago—humans and ghosts are from different worlds. Zhongqiu was right. No matter how good a person was in life, once they become a vengeful ghost, they change. And Chi You doesn’t even go after the ones who killed him. Instead, he keeps harassing Jiang Luo again and again. Lu Youyi, I’ll be blunt—I think he wants to kill Jiang Luo.”
Lu Youyi was momentarily stunned.
Ye Xun stopped in his tracks and looked him straight in the eye. “He wants Jiang Luo to die, and then be with him as a pair of ghost lovers.”
***
After a while, Lu Youyi gave a bitter smile. “What you said makes sense.”
He clenched his fists and muttered, “I won’t let Chi You hurt Jiang Luo.”
At first, they protected Jiang Luo because they didn’t want Chi You to make a mistake.
But now, it was simply because they wanted Jiang Luo to live a carefree, happy life.
He had been working so hard, always trying to get stronger so he could uncover the truth behind Chi You’s death. What had he done wrong?
Ever since Chi You died, they hadn’t seen him appear even once in his form as a malicious ghost.
Lu Youyi thought bitterly.
Why had Chi You turned out this way?
Or had they never really understood him at all?
***
Back in the dorm, Jiang Luo had barely sat down before Zhuo Zhongqiu and Ge Zhu quickly packed a bag for him.
They were afraid staying here would leave him distracted or unsettled, so they rushed him out of school and headed straight to the hotel.
On the way out, Wenren Lian specially gave Jiang Luo a face mask to cover his injured lips, to keep the wind from infecting them.
When they arrived at the hotel, Qi Ye was already waiting in the lobby.
No one knew what Wenren Lian had said to him, but Qi Ye was wearing a suit today. The suit was well-tailored and elegant, making the already tall young man appear even more refined and mature. But his handsome face held a faint, awkward flush, and his brows were slightly furrowed with discomfort—an aura of youthful self-consciousness radiated from him.
The moment Jiang Luo saw him, his steps subtly faltered.
Because Qi Ye’s entire look… clearly mirrored Chi You’s style.
D*mn it.
A perfectly good-looking guy—why copy that pervert’s fashion sense?
Wenren Lian, who didn’t miss a single one of Jiang Luo’s expressions, naturally caught that tiny slip. His eyes glinted with a knowing smile, and he nodded subtly, casting an approving glance at Qi Ye.
As expected, Jiang Luo liked this type.
Qi Ye walked toward them quickly, his gaze flicking briefly over Jiang Luo’s face. “You’re so slow.”
“There was some traffic,” Wenren Lian explained.
Qi Ye wasn’t really complaining—it was just his personality. He said no more, and instead reached out and decisively grabbed the bag from Jiang Luo’s hand, slinging it over his shoulder with one hand. Tilting his head, he said, “Let’s go, your rooms are ready.”
Zhuo Zhongqiu asked, “You paid? We’ll send you the money later.”
Qi Ye was just about to brush it off with a “forget it,” when the hotel manager came striding over, beaming at Lu Youyi with wrinkles spreading like a blooming chrysanthemum. “Young Master, why didn’t you let us know you were coming?”
Everyone turned silently to look at Lu Youyi.
Lu Youyi blinked and let out an “ah” as if just remembering something. Embarrassed, he said, “Oops, I forgot—this hotel is actually owned by my family.”
Qi Ye: “……”
Lu Youyi gave a sheepish laugh. “I’ll have them refund your payment.”
“No need,” Qi Ye replied stiffly.
Thanks to Lu Youyi, their originally booked rooms were upgraded on the spot. They were given the best suites in the hotel.
The manager personally escorted them to their rooms, providing warm and attentive service before reluctantly taking his leave.
Qi Ye walked at the back with Jiang Luo, looking sullen. Jiang Luo had no idea why he was upset. Any normal person who got a free upgrade to a luxury hotel would be thrilled, right?
In any case, Jiang Luo’s mood had improved because of it.
“Qi Ye,” Jiang Luo asked casually, “The Qi family still hasn’t found the Yuan Tian Bead?”
Qi Ye’s expression darkened. “Not yet.”
As of today, it had been four days since the bead went missing.
“Honestly, I don’t get it,” Qi Ye said, lowering his voice to complain to Jiang Luo. “It’s just a bead that’s useless to our family. If it’s gone, then it’s gone. My father wasn’t planning to let our own family use it anyway, so why is he so anxious?”
Jiang Luo replied idly, “The Qi family might not need it for your generation—you’ve got great talent. But your relatives’ kids, for instance, might not be so lucky.”
“No,” Qi Ye said, “By ‘our family,’ I mean everyone in the Qi clan. My father doesn’t intend for them to use the bead. He plans to gift it to an affiliated family that’s aligned with the Qi clan, or perhaps to some student or disciple who’s shown absolute loyalty.”
Huh?
Jiang Luo narrowed his eyes slightly. Now that’s interesting.
Was the Qi family really so selfless? Not using something that could enhance spiritual power for themselves, but instead giving it away?
He didn’t buy it. No way the Qi family was that noble.
While he was mulling this over, Qi Ye suddenly lowered his voice, awkwardly asking, “By the way… what do you think of how I look today?”
Jiang Luo’s brow twitched. Against his conscience, he replied, “It’s okay.”
Qi Ye couldn’t help but smile, though he quickly tried to suppress it. He shoved the bag back into Jiang Luo’s hands, clenched his fist near his lips, and gave a couple of dry coughs as if his throat tickled. “Alright, go get some rest. Wenren Lian told me you probably didn’t sleep a wink last night… What the h*ll were you even doing, staying up all night?” he grumbled a bit. “Go take a nap. We’ll call you when it’s time for dinner.”
Up ahead, Zhuo Zhongqiu overheard them and turned back. “Let’s play a game too—cards, mahjong, whatever. Even going to a cyber café works. We’re pulling an all-nighter.”
They were clearly still worried—worried that Chi You would come for Jiang Luo again tonight.
Jiang Luo agreed with a smile, bumping fists with Zhuo Zhongqiu before heading back into the room, collapsing onto the bed to catch up on sleep.
But the nap was far from restful. In his dreams, he experienced a series of fragmented, strange, and unsettling nightmares. He finally woke up gasping for air, drenched in sweat, leaving a wet imprint on the bedding.
Jiang Luo laid there for a moment to collect himself. When he checked the time, it was already past six in the evening.
As autumn approached, the days were getting shorter, and the sky outside had already dimmed.
Not long after he woke up, there was a knock on the door from outside. “Jiang Luo, you awake? Time to eat.”
Jiang Luo got up, washed his face, put on a cap and a mask, and headed out. “Coming.”
They were going out for hot pot.
Ten people sat at two tables, separated slightly by hanging fabric curtains that created a semi-private space. The restaurant had pushed the two tables together, with two hot pots placed side by side—close enough to count as sharing a single table.
Jiang Luo came back with his dipping sauce and started cooking his food in the clear broth pot. But as the sky darkened and time ticked on, his attention began to drift.
Jiang Luo, unusually, was feeling a little restless.
It wasn’t fear of the ghost that was unsettling him—but rather a kind of unease, as if he were afraid the ghost’s threats might really come true.
Truth be told, even though Jiang Luo had felt a trace of dark satisfaction from Chi You’s desire for him, everything he had said to Chi You before had just been bluff. Did he really look like the type to sleep with a ghost?
If a ghost actually bit him, he might not even have any bones left.
Besides.
He thought with a bit of mean-spiritedness—
Could he even respond to Chi You?
Chi You’s rock-hard body—could he really find that attractive?
Jiang Luo ate slowly, bite after bite, clearly preoccupied. As the minutes passed, Qi Ye, who was sitting next to him, stole several glances his way before finally asking, “What are you thinking about?”
Jiang Luo came back to himself. “Hm?”
Qi Ye frowned. “You don’t have an appetite?”
He reached for a bottle of vinegar nearby. “Want some vinegar to whet it?”
As he spoke, Qi Ye glanced subtly toward Dead Ghost.
Why is that guy always staring at Jiang Luo?
Feeling uneasy, he lifted his arm slightly to block Dead Ghost’s line of sight.
Jiang Luo shook his head, just about to say something, when a low, amused voice sounded from outside “Good evening, everyone.”
Everyone froze and looked toward the door.
A pair of leather shoes came to a stop at the threshold. A pale hand lifted the curtain, revealing the ghost standing there. The ghost looked no different from a living person—elegant and refined. He wore a neat, tailored black suit, with a red gemstone on his cufflinks glinting faintly. His eyes were pitch black, sweeping over each person with a faint, unreadable smile. When he reached Qi Ye—who was dressed similarly—he paused for a few seconds before finally fixing his gaze on Jiang Luo.
“I’ve come for you,” the ghost said, stepping forward. The rose-shaped pin on his tie glinted with understated elegance. The words he spoke seemed to roll off his tongue with intentional ambiguity. “Jiang Luo.”
Author’s Note:
The ghost, suddenly enlightened: So your plan was to let me * you in front of your friends?
Jiang Luo: ……****.
