Chapter 3

He knelt on one knee and lowered his head as he offered me the whip.

“Big Sis, it’s for you to use.”

Huh?

I may enjoy watching weirdos, but you’re being a little too weird, aren’t you?

I raised a hand to stop him.

“I may have some unusual tastes, but those are for normal people, okay?”

The light in the ghost’s eyes gradually dimmed.

Seeing that I was no longer stopping him, I put on my bag, ready to leave.

“I still don’t know your name.”

“Shen Yanli.”

I nodded. It sounded like a listless name, quite fitting for a ghost.

As soon as I stepped outside, he grabbed my wrist from behind.

Shen Yanli’s eyes were deep.

“Big Sis, what if I became human? Would you accept me?”

My family had been Taoist priests for three generations. As far as I knew, ghosts who hadn’t committed any wrongs in life usually went straight to reincarnation after death.

Vagrant spirits like Shen Yanli, who wandered the human world, had mostly committed grave sins in a previous life and were barred from reincarnation.

Getting another chance to be reborn wasn’t easy.

I smiled evasively.

“Sure.”

8

At the hotel, I opened my laptop and buried myself in work without a moment’s rest.

I’d put my phone on airplane mode, so I naturally didn’t notice the pile of messages sent to my secondary account.

By the time I finished, it was midnight.

I lived in an old lane. Taxis only took me to the entrance.

The streetlights had been broken for ages, flickering on and off without anyone fixing them.

I turned on my phone’s flashlight and used its weak beam to watch the ground beneath my feet.

Suddenly, my back went icy cold, and ghostly winds rose in gusts.

I looked at the screen. It was exactly midnight—the hour when yin energy was strongest.

I reached into my pocket, only to realize I’d forgotten my talismans in my rush to leave.

Damn it, I was so unlucky.

Without time to think, I quickened my pace.

But the ghostly wind kept following me relentlessly.

I ran like crazy to the last alley. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. I just had to turn the corner up ahead to reach home.

But no matter how many times I turned, I somehow ended up back in the same place.

I stood still and swallowed.

This was bad. I’d run into a ghostly wall.

I thought I saw a figure beside me, so I turned to look.

A woman in red stood at the mouth of the alley.

The wind lifted the hem of her dress and her long hair.

Her face was as white as a wall, but her lips were bright red like blood. She walked toward me one slow step at a time.

That was terrifying.

Cold sweat broke out on my back, and goose bumps covered my body.

In the past, Dad and Grandpa had tried many times to teach me exorcism incantations. It was just my own fault for refusing to learn and insisting on this damn job instead.

The woman in red drew closer and closer. My legs went weak, and I fell right onto the ground.

“Miss, I can’t be reincarnated anymore. Could you lend me some of your fortune?”

I sucked in a cold breath and answered, trembling, “If I give it to you, won’t I die?”

She curled her lips into a smile.

“If you won’t give it to me… then I’ll have to take it.”

With a low, eerie laugh, she quietly placed a hand on my shoulder.

I covered my face and screamed.

“Brilliant yang energy, the sun rises in the east! By my command, this talisman sweeps away every ill omen!”

Shen Yanli’s voice suddenly rang out behind me.

I opened my eyes. The ghost in front of me let out a shriek of agony.

The red of her dress turned into blood that dripped onto the ground. Her figure began to twist and dissolve, then finally turned into a wisp of green smoke and vanished.

A yellowed talisman lay on the ground.

I turned around and met Shen Yanli’s anxious expression.

He rushed over to help me up.

“Big Sis, are you all right?”

I still hadn’t recovered. In a daze, I let him help me home.

“I sent you so many messages and you didn’t reply. I was afraid something had happened to you.”

I drank a glass of water, and only then did I feel a little better.

Thinking about what had just happened, I suddenly realized something was off.

“Wait. Aren’t you a ghost?”

“How could you touch a talisman?”

9

My face instantly went pale. I pulled him over and examined him from head to toe.

“Are you all right?”

Shen Yanli smiled gently. The beauty mark at the corner of his eye trembled slightly.

“Big Sis, are you worried about me?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

I asked seriously, “Why didn’t that talisman affect you?”

Shen Yanli came closer gently and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Big Sis, I’m human now~”

I was shaken.

“It’s hard enough for a wandering ghost to reincarnate. How did you go from a wandering spirit to a living body? What did you say to the King of Hell?”

He lowered his eyes.

“I made a deal with him.”

But Shen Yanli refused to tell me what the deal was, no matter what.

I patted his head.

“You’re so timid, and that female ghost looked terrifying. Weren’t you scared?”

He nodded.

“I was.”

“But I had to save you.”

Tsk, what a good boy. My letting him stay here hadn’t been in vain.

I opened my arms and gave him a tight hug.

By ghost-years, Shen Yanli was only about eighteen or nineteen. He was still a kid.

After a while, the person in my arms suddenly began breathing unevenly.

He hurriedly pushed me away, his face so red it looked like blood might drip from it.

I lowered my head. A short strand of hair was caught on the front of my shirt.

Hmm?

Only belatedly did I realize that the place where he’d buried his face just now…

Was my chest?

Oh, no. I’d forgotten that boys mature early.

Besides… he was an adult now…

Thinking about how red his face had been, I awkwardly coughed and glanced down without thinking.

Why did the bulge in his gray sweatpants seem larger than before?

10

Wait, wait, wait, wait!!

I immediately backed away to a safe distance.

Looking at him with utmost seriousness, I said, “That kind of thing can only be done with someone you like.”

“Don’t you like me, Big Sis?”

Huh?

His directness left me a little stunned.

“Uh… it’s not that.”

He took one step closer.

“So you do like me?”