Lu Changxue's mother immediately grabbed a duster and started swatting at her. "A good ghost should keep regular hours too! You say you can't take the sun? It must be all that late-night phone time!"
What kind of ghost logic was that?! Her spirit form couldn't handle sunlight – what did that have to do with staying up late?!
Lu Changxue shrieked and darted around the living room, dodging the flailing duster.
Finally, Yun Jianyue intervened: "Uncle, Auntie, although Ah Xue isn't technically gone gone, she is dead. Maybe we should consider her funeral?"
Mr. and Mrs. Lu saw the sense in this. They promptly began packing to return to their hometown for the funeral.
Before leaving, they didn't miss a last jab at Lu Changxue: "Try to be more like Little Yun! See how sensible she is? Up before dawn, asleep by ten!"
Only when the door clicked shut behind her parents' luggage did Lu Changxue whirl around. She flew at Yun Jianyue, hands clamping around her neck in a ghostly fury. "You hypocrite! Pretending to be some early bird?! Six AM and you're still awake! Stop lying to my parents, Yun Jianyue! You can't act this much!"
Yun Jianyue just grinned. "Just basic ops. No shock needed."
"Your 'basic ops' nearly got me nagged to a second death!" Lu Changxue howled. Her eyes darted irritably towards Yun Jianyue's buzzing phone. "Who's spamming you?"
Yun Jianyue checked. Zhou Benxin.
"Hey, isn't that the freshman from the debate team?" Lu Changxue peered over her shoulder, recognizing the name.
Both were students at A University, as was Zhou Benxin. Yun Jianyue, as the debate team's vice-captain, often mentored newcomers like Zhou Benxin. They got along well.
Yun Jianyue scanned the messages. A plea for help. Zhou's computer had inexplicably blacked out, forced a shutdown, and now stubbornly flashed a blue screen. The Computer Science junior was reaching out for rescue. Fixable at home? Or off to the shop?
Coincidentally, Zhou Benxin was from City Z and currently there.
When a junior asks, a responsible senior answers. Yun Jianyue typed back immediately: On my way to fix it.
Half an hour later...
"Senior Yun, come in, come in! Sorry for the mess. Please, don't mind." Zhou Benxin, dressed in sweatpants and looking flustered, ushered the petite beauty inside, awkwardly scrambling to make tea.
Yun Jianyue perched on the chaotic sofa and got straight to the point. "Let's see the laptop."
Zhou Benxin rushed off to his bedroom. Left alone, Yun Jianyue idly scanned his apartment. Standard three-bedroom layout. Oddly, though, beside the TV wall, a small door stood slightly ajar. From within pulsed a faint, deep crimson light.
Not garish neon. More like the eerie glow of candles flickering in utter darkness.
Just as curiosity pricked Yun Jianyue, Zhou Benxin returned with the laptop. "Senior, could you please take a look?"
The interruption scattered her thoughts. Yun Jianyue focused, tinkering with the laptop for the next half-hour. Finally, a successful reboot. She looked up to speak, but Zhou Benxin's phone rang.
"Senior, sorry, it's my mom." Zhou Benxin flashed an apologetic smile and hurried to the balcony, sliding the door half-closed.
From the sofa, Yun Jianyue could catch only muffled fragments against the apartment's decent soundproofing.
"What? Grandma passed?"
"Both you and Dad can't go back? Sis can't either? How important can your work be?"
"What do you mean we fought…"
Zhou Benxin's voice rose on the balcony, agitated. Yun Jianyue tried not to eavesdrop. Her gaze drifted back to the faint red glow seeping from the half-open door.
She considered asking Zhou Benxin about it, but a glance showed him still deep in his heated phone call. Curiosity was rude.
"Let it go. Can't snoop in other people's places," she muttered, forcing her eyes away.
Boom.
A sudden, blinding eruption of crimson light blasted from behind the door! The intense glare felt unnaturally cold – less like light, more like solidified blood radiating pure malice.
Instantly, the explosion vanished, retreating to its faint, pulsing baseline.
Yun Jianyue's heart hammered. What the hell was back there?
"Did you see that?" she whispered to the jade pendant.
"Saw it. Felt it too," Lu Changxue's voice hissed back. "Something… vile in there."
What exactly, she couldn't say. Being a new ghost didn't grant much expertise. Yun Jianyue glanced back. Zhou Benxin was still arguing fiercely on the balcony, oblivious.
Forget politeness.
She stood slowly, cautiously approaching the door. With each step, her own breathing seemed unnaturally loud. Fear wasn't her usual companion, but whatever lay beyond radiated a primal danger exceeding the wrath of Wang Hui's mother.
The doorknob was inches away. The red pulse still thrummed.
Time stretched. Yun Jianyue's hand lifted slowly.
Her fingers brushed the cold metal—
Tap.
A hand landed firmly on her shoulder.
"Senior Yun?" Zhou Benxin's voice was sharp, directly behind her. "What are you doing?"
Yun Jianyue froze mid-motion. Whirling around, she found Zhou Benxin looming behind her. His expression was shadowed. The phone clenched in his fist. His eyes… glaring. Red-rimmed. Burning with something cold and terrifying.
Like he was staring at a corpse.
A sudden icy paralysis gripped Yun Jianyue. She couldn't speak, couldn't move. Locked stiff.
"Senior Yun?" Zhou Benxin waved a hand slowly in front of her stunned face, confused.
The instant his hand moved away, the spell broke. "Ah! I'm… I'm okay!" Yun Jianyue stammered, her vision snapping back into focus.
No red glare in Zhou Benxin's eyes now. Just swollen and bloodshot from crying.
Facing the 6-foot-tall, muscular student now trembling with tears, Yun Jianyue summoned her most sympathetic voice. "Are you okay?"
Zhou Benxin wiped his eyes roughly. "Grandma passed. Nobody in the family can make it back. I have to drive home alone to handle… everything. Senior, I'm so sorry. You fixed my computer, and I can't even buy you a thank-you meal."
Yun Jianyue frowned deeply. A family elder's passing… entrusted to an unprepared college kid barely out of his teens? Could he really handle this alone?