Wu Li lay quietly on the outer side of the bed, pretending to be asleep.
He was also curious as to what exactly this little ghost intended by coming to find Chai Xiaomi time and time again.
Although he admitted she did have some beauty, it shouldn't be enough to attract an infant ghost that couldn't even walk steadily. Moreover, it was a female infant, not one of those male ghosts that fed on yin energy.
The wind outside the window suddenly grew stronger, whipping the tree branches against the window lattice, sounding like someone knocking urgently from the outside.
This sound had scared her half to death last night, but as Chai Xiaomi huddled under the covers now, she no longer felt yesterday's terror.
Wu Li was lying right next to her; if she just reached out her hand, she could touch his robes.
Furthermore, Escort Leader Yan was clinging to the outside of the window. If that sound wasn't just tree branches but actually something else, he would definitely make a move.
Sensing a cold, eerie aura approaching, Jiang Zhiyu, who was lying on the roof, quietly moved a tile aside, a prepared soul-binding talisman already pinched between his fingertips.
He only waited for the little ghost to appear. Once Yaoyao entered through the door to draw its attention, he could take the opportunity to capture it with his talisman.
The wall seemed to soften, torn open by an invisible entity, as if something was struggling to break out from within.
Noticing the strange movements inside the room, Song Yueyao, who had been sitting on the floor, stood up agilely and peered through the crack in the door, holding her crescent blade at the ready. Spirits were ethereal and intangible, impossible for ordinary people to physically restrain, but her blade was specially coated with talisman water prepared by Jiang Zhiyu, capable of both wounding humans and slaying evil.
However, the wall only writhed a few times before returning to calm.
The faint crying of a baby seemed to echo from all directions, as if drifting up eerily from beneath the ground.
At this moment, the wardrobe door creaked open on its own.
Inside were only neatly folded clothes and empty shelves; there was nothing else.
It was like a malicious game of hide-and-seek.
The infant laughed with a "hee hee hee" as if it had succeeded. The laughter was extremely bizarre, sounding like some kind of bird call, and only upon careful listening could one tell it was a human voice.
Severely sleep-deprived from the night before, Chai Xiaomi grew increasingly drowsy as she nestled in the bedding.
With three max-level protagonists by her side, she felt exactly like she was playing in a four-player squad, being carried by pros all the way to the final circle.
The big shots were engaging in fierce gunfights up front, only instructing her, wearing a ghillie suit, to lie in the bushes and doze off.
But things are unpredictable; right next to one ghillie suit, there might just be another ghillie suit lying in wait.
Just as Chai Xiaomi's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, she vaguely saw two bright red things deep within the covers, right near her calves.
Blinking, blinking, like signal lights.
No, that didn't make sense. How could something like signal lights exist in this era?
She rubbed her eyes, thinking she was just seeing things from exhaustion.
She closed her tired eyes and opened them again.
Chai Xiaomi almost died on the spot.
She would rather drop a grenade and stand on it herself, just to end it all.
Those weren't signal lights at all; they were a pair of human eyes! Dripping with blood-red color!
It was crawling toward her, little by little, getting closer and closer...
"Xiaomi... Xiaomi..."
It called her name over and over, but the tone was extremely strange, like a babbling parrot clumsily trying to mimic human speech.
Chai Xiaomi almost screamed out loud, but suddenly remembering that she absolutely must not respond, she forced the sound back down her throat.
She wanted to raise her hand to signal Wu Li next to her, but was horrified to discover—she couldn't move her body at all.
Her limbs felt as if they no longer belonged to her, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back.
It had crawled right up to her.
In the pitch black, she couldn't make out its face or features; there was only that pair of scarlet eyes staring straight at her.
Cold sweat dripped down from her temples one by one. Chai Xiaomi braced herself, squeezed her eyes shut, and pretended she hadn't seen anything.
If she couldn't see it, it didn't exist.
She started silently reciting the core socialist values in her heart:
Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality...
When she recited up to the word "dedication," she suddenly heard the repeated calls of "Xiaomi" in front of her disappear.
Instead, it turned into "Idiot... Idiot..."
Chai Xiaomi: ???
Wait a minute.
What did that mean?
It was one thing for Wu Li to call her "idiot, idiot" all day long.
She let it slide because he was a little bitter gourd, allowing him the satisfaction of running his mouth without bothering to argue with him.
You're just a little brat ghost, and you're calling me that too?!
Chai Xiaomi seemed mild-mannered, but she didn't have a great temper either.
She was somewhat of a hypocrite normally; when people she cared about teased or made fun of her, she would turn a blind eye and let it go, figuring she could just find a chance to tease them back later and even the score.
But!
Who the hell do you think you are?!
A surge of anger rushed straight to her head. As the saying goes, "great effort works miracles," and the invisible shackles on her body suddenly loosened.
Chai Xiaomi threw off the covers, just about to open her mouth to call for people, but was startled to find her vision suddenly brighten.
She froze and turned her head, only to realize that the candles in the room had already been lit.
And while she had been hiding in the pitch-black covers, scared out of her wits, she hadn't noticed at all what was happening outside.
Song Yueyao looked serious, scolding Escort Leader Yan with a straight face: "Escort Leader Yan, didn't we agree that you only needed to guard outside the window to prevent that little ghost from escaping!"
"Why did you come in on your own? Fine that you came in, but you didn't even close the window! Now look, you let it slip away!" She angrily slammed her crescent blade onto the table. "If it's let out to harm the common people, tell me, what should we do!"
Escort Leader Yan looked miserable; he had indeed acted on impulse.
Thinking of how this little ghost had almost cost his wife her life, and seeing it play around with everyone in the room like it was playing hide-and-seek, the moment the ghost's shadow appeared, rage surged in his heart, and he vaulted through the window, swinging his blade at it.
Who would have thought that the blade would only slice through a phantom shadow, and the black figure darted out through the window.
Escort Leader Yan was full of regret. Over his wife's matters, he had been so worried these past few days that stubble had sprouted on his chin. Right now, he was as meek as a child who had done something wrong: "When I thought about how it might have teased Lady Yue the night before last, leading her to hang herself... I couldn't hold back. It's my fault."
This burly man, who was usually the one giving orders at the escort agency, was now full of helplessness.
"Yaoyao, we can't completely blame Escort Leader Yan for this." Jiang Zhiyu carefully examined the faint ghost footprints left on the floor, his expression softening. "The soul-locking array was originally just my speculation. Now that the little ghost has escaped through the window, it actually confirms that what's pressed under the landscaping stone downstairs is indeed a soul-locking array."
The few of them were gathered around the table engaged in serious conversation, not far from the bed, yet not a single one of them noticed that Xiaomi, who had been hiding under the covers, had crawled out.
Instead, it was Wu Li, leaning against the wall watching the show, who first noticed the movement on the bed. However, Escort Leader Yan's tall figure blocked most of his view, so he only caught a glimpse of a hand clutching the corner of the blanket, trembling slightly.
So, he tilted his head and immediately saw Chai Xiaomi's face.
But that small face was as pale as paper, completely drained of color, with a dark tinge on her forehead. She looked as if half her soul had been sucked away.
Wu Li's heart suddenly tightened. His previous casual demeanor vanished instantly, and for a moment, he panicked.
Panic seizing him, he closed the distance in a few quick strides and dropped onto the edge of the bed. He scooped her into his arms, quickly biting down on his own fingertip. Without a word of explanation, he pressed the bleeding digit to her lips, his voice tight and brokering no argument. Swallow it!
Chai Xiaomi stared at the round bead of blood, utterly bewildered.
What on earth was he doing?
It wasn't as if she were some parasitic Gu bug that needed to be kept alive with his blood.
The sudden commotion drew everyone's gaze. Jiang Zhiyu, noticing the unnatural pallor of Chai Xiaomi's face, felt his expression harden. Xiaomi, he asked, his voice laced with tension, did you just answer that little ghost?
