Chai Xiaomi had no choice but to bite the bullet, enduring the aching soreness in her arms that felt like they were about to break, and gritted her teeth to hold on.
She thought that finding a stool to sit on for a while might make her feel better.
Scanning the room, she saw an armchair by the folding screen. She walked over and was just about to sit down when a figure beside her beat her to it by a split second.
Taking the seat right before she could.
"..." Chai Xiaomi suspected this guy was doing it on purpose. "I saw it first."
Wu Li leaned sideways against the back of the chair, raising his eyebrows casually. "I sat down first."
"Let me sit for a bit, my arms are sore." Not knowing what tricks he was playing now, Chai Xiaomi had to soften her tone and negotiate with him.
"Your arms are sore? Why do you need a chair if your arms are sore?" Wu Li glanced at the ghost infant in her arms, his eyes darkening. "My legs are sore."
The ugly, wrinkled little face was currently buried against the young woman's chest, looking like it was sleeping soundly, but it kept squeezing inward from time to time, as if it wanted to drill right into her clothes.
Obviously, it was looking for food.
What could an infant this small possibly be looking to eat?
At this thought, the young man's eyes grew even darker, as he tried his best to restrain the restless Hongjiao in his sleeve.
He wished he could just let Hongjiao swallow it in one gulp.
But the current timing was not right for such a thing.
This ugly baby most likely thought Chai Xiaomi was its mother; otherwise, it wouldn't have demanded to be held by her the very first moment it was summoned back.
The more he looked at it, the more of an eyesore it became.
Wu Li felt very displeased. He lifted his eyelids, his gaze falling on her trembling arms. "If you can't hold it, give it back to its owner. Why are you trying to show off?"
This little ghost wasn't afraid of the dark anyway, so why did she have to fight to hold it?
The murderous intent in Wu Li's eyes was fleeting, but it was quickly caught by Chai Xiaomi.
She froze for a moment, initially thinking it was directed at her, but when she shifted her gaze, she realized it was aimed at the little ghost in her arms.
Chai Xiaomi closed her eyes in exasperation. This little ghost had an almost identical background to his, unloved by a father and unraised by a mother, another little bitter gourd.
When one bitter gourd meets another, shouldn't they be teary-eyed with sympathy?
Why was he acting like he had just seen an enemy?
She really didn't know how this little ghost had offended him.
Was this the twisted and dark psychology unique to villains? Anyone they found displeasing, they wished would just die off completely, right?
Intending to gross him out, Chai Xiaomi simply bent her waist and shoved the soundly sleeping little ghost right into his arms.
Wu Li had been lazily resting his arms on the armrests, sitting in a relaxed and uninhibited posture, looking just like an arrogant lord.
Seeing Chai Xiaomi suddenly and boldly place that little ghost on his lap.
That naked body pressed against his legs through the fabric, and he could almost feel that slippery and disgusting sensation, giving him goosebumps all over.
He already loathed being close to people and being touched by them.
Not to mention such a naked, ugly baby, and a female at that!
He still remembered a time when he went out to search for Gu insects and temporarily stayed at an inn in a bustling market in a foreign land.
It had grand architecture and carved jade railings, much more magnificent than this dilapidated inn, but it was the most disgusting inn he had ever stayed in his entire life.
Simply because when he went to sleep at night, a woman draped in thin, transparent gauze had actually sneaked into his room.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch his face, he woke up.
Her eyes were full of amorous feelings as she took off the only piece of light gauze on her body.
Although he looked away in time and didn't see clearly, that single glance made him feel so nauseous that he couldn't eat for three days.
He also used Gu insects to make that woman suffer terribly for three days, her skin covered in pustules that probably wouldn't heal for a couple of weeks.
Leaving the territory of the Wu Gu clan, no one knew his background, so it wasn't rare for him to encounter women throwing themselves at him.
Usually, girls' shyness meant they would stop at a certain point, pretending to trip and fall onto him while seemingly chatting with friends. Every time, he would coldly and swiftly dodge, letting the other party fall flat on their face, and then walk away with a cold expression.
It was the first time he had encountered someone so uninhibited and shameless.
Later, before he left, he found out that the inn was actually called a brothel.
From then on, he always avoided any inns named brothel.
At this moment, that long-lost feeling of nausea welled up again.
The young man's face almost turned green. He frowned as if facing a formidable enemy and threatened her viciously, "If you don't take it off me right now, I'll make it die without a burial place!"
"It's already dead." Chai Xiaomi squatted down, supporting the ghost infant's head with one hand to keep it asleep, and pulled down Wu Li's raised hand with the other. Sensing his resistance, she suddenly looked up in shock. "Lili, look, what is that?"
The young man froze and followed her gaze.
Chai Xiaomi took the opportunity to yank his hand over, making it support the ghost infant's bottom.
Before Wu Li could react, she steadily placed the ghost infant's head into the crook of his other arm.
"Hold it properly for me, or else—" Her fierce threat quickly followed, "I'll grope your chest right now! You swore an oath in front of everyone, you can't resist."
"Whether to keep holding it, or be touched by me right now, you choose."
The young man's eyes were piercingly cold, as if an arrow was hidden inside, taut on a bowstring, ready to fly out and pierce her throat in the next second.
But that arrow was ultimately never shot; instead, it dropped in place as he conceded defeat. "I will only hold it for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Once the time is up, take it away immediately."
He paused, a dark cloud covering his face, a cold, damp smile hanging on his lips. "If you don't take it away, I have ten thousand ways to make this little ghost crawl into your stomach. Since you love it so much, I'll give it to you as a child."
The young man sat stiffly, like a stone sculpture.
It formed a sharp contrast with his lazy and casual demeanor from a moment ago.
Smiles do not disappear; they only transfer.
At this moment, it transferred to Chai Xiaomi's gloating face.
"Okay, okay, I'll take it away after one incense stick burns." She smiled softly. "Thanks for your hard work, Lili."
Chai Xiaomi returned to the group's conversation circle to continue listening to Zhu Yu's story.
Her shoulder was gently patted. Song Yueyao leaned in, glanced at Wu Li who was sitting in the distance holding the ghost infant, and whispered to Xiaomi, "Good lad, he's already practicing how to be a father. He even knows to cover the child with a blanket. How attentive."
Chai Xiaomi looked back and saw that the cloth Wu Li had just used to wipe his hands was now lying on the ghost infant's stomach.
The wrinkles weren't even smoothed out. At a glance, it was obvious that it hadn't been carefully tucked in, but rather casually tossed on top.
The young man turned his face away, deliberately resting his gaze elsewhere, his eyes seemingly holding a hint of embarrassment.
Chai Xiaomi curled her lips into a smile.
He wasn't covering the child with a blanket at all; he just wanted to cover up its private parts.
He was quite strict when it came to a sense of shame.
In Zhu Yu's subsequent narration.
The group finally learned that the ghost infant was not created by her hands. Instead, the powerful resentment the child had accumulated over a long period allowed it to remain in this world, refusing to dissipate and unwilling to enter the cycle of reincarnation, ultimately turning it into a vengeful spirit.
