Just like many people learning to draw, after watching instructional videos a few times, Xia Leyang felt he had mastered the skill. However, when he actually put pen to paper, he managed to turn the ice cream taught by the teacher into a blob of mush.
Xia Leyang, after being possessed by a female ghost twice, thought he had completely mastered a certain skill. However, when he actually tried it, he couldn’t control the force properly. Not only did he accidentally graze Shang Tingzhi’s teeth several times, but he also bit off some hair in the process.
“You’re going to make me laugh.” The female ghost sat on the kitchen counter, watching Xia Leyang pitifully holding a banana. “Didn’t you see that you’ve bitten off a layer of the banana’s skin?”
“That’s why I need to practice.” Xia Leyang stuffed the banana into his mouth again, then took it out, sincerely asking the female ghost, “How about this time?”
“Are you inhaling?” The female ghost laughed heartily. “Why don’t you try it with an ice pop?”
“No ice pops at home.” Xia Leyang muttered. He chose the banana over ingredients like cucumbers and eggplants because the banana’s flesh was soft, allowing him to see clearly if his teeth touched or grazed it.
“This won’t work.” The female ghost lounged with her legs crossed. “Bananas won’t tell you how they feel.”
Xia Leyang hesitated, “Then…”
“Maybe you should let it sacrifice again,” the female ghost suggested. “Just practice directly using it.”
Xia Leyang immediately frowned at the suggestion. That would be too embarrassing.
Previously, Shang Tingzhi had also tried it for the first time, making him feel so comfortable. However, when it was his turn, his performance was subpar. He didn’t want to admit that Shang Tingzhi was better than him, especially after last night when he asked if Shang Tingzhi wanted to continue, and Shang Tingzhi, looking horrified, repeatedly said “no,” deeply undermining his confidence.
“Or how about this?” The female ghost suggested while twirling her hair with her index finger. “Let me possess you. I’ll demonstrate while teaching.”
“Hey, that’s a good idea.” Xia Leyang clapped his hands, thinking it was a good proposal. However, he immediately thought about Shang Tingzhi discovering it and furrowed his brows, “No, that won’t work. He’ll know that I’m consulting you.”
Xia Leyang hid in the kitchen to practice secretly because he didn’t want Shang Tingzhi to know.
However, the kitchen in the Gu’s mansion was an open one. When Shang Tingzhi passed the courtyard this morning, he had already noticed Xia Leyang in the kitchen talking to the air while eating a banana.
It wasn’t a big deal at first, especially since Xia Leyang had been hanging out with the female ghost every day recently. But when he saw Xia Leyang’s actions with the banana, he immediately understood what Xia Leyang was doing.
He thought it would be good for Xia Leyang to practice more. However, when he passed the courtyard the second time, he coincidentally saw Xia Leyang losing patience with his practice, biting off most of the banana in frustration.
He silently swallowed saliva, forcing himself not to overthink.
The next afternoon, when Xia Leyang woke up from his nap, he found an email in his mailbox from Wang Zuyu’s work email. He didn’t expect Wang Zuyu to reply, but the celebrity was surprisingly approachable.
Wang Zuyu wasn’t sure who Xia Leyang was talking about. If Xia Leyang could provide a photo, she might be able to help. However, based on Xia Leyang’s description alone, she couldn’t figure it out.
She did mention that during their era, many mainland businessmen went to Hong Kong for business, and some of them married people from the mainland.
Since Wang Zuyu was willing to help, Xia Leyang’s first thought was to ask Xu Zhiruo for photos.
When the female ghost committed suicide in the Gu mansion, there must be records. However, when Xia Leyang approached Xu Zhiruo, he learned that the archives from that era were not electronically stored. When they started digitizing files in the early 2000s, cases like suicides were not recorded. Handwritten files from nearly thirty years ago were likely lost.
Xu Zhiruo expressed it tactfully, and Xia Leyang initially wanted to ask him to search. However, Shang Tingzhi reminded Xia Leyang that Xu Zhiruo might find it troublesome and wouldn’t want to help.
“So, how can I find a photo of Sister Ghost?” Xia Leyang fretted with his phone, unsure how to message Xu Zhiruo.
“Why don’t you give Wang Zuyu a rough description?” Shang Tingzhi looked around at the air. He had only heard Xia Leyang mention that the female ghost was beautiful but didn’t know what she looked like.
Xia Leyang pondered for a moment and suddenly had an idea. “I got it.”
The next day, the instant camera Xia Leyang ordered online arrived. He handed the camera to Shang Tingzhi, saying, “Ghost images in movies are captured with instant cameras. Help us take a photo.”
Shang Tingzhi frowned, “…”
Xia Leyang intentionally greeted the female ghost and him to sit on the living room sofa. They sat upright with their backs straight, hands neatly placed on their knees, like taking a family portrait. The female ghost even followed Xia Leyang’s suggestion to tuck her bangs behind her ears.
However, after Shang Tingzhi pressed the shutter button, the resulting photo only showed Xia Leyang’s figure.
The female ghost sneered, turned and floated upstairs. “I told you it’s useless.”
“Hey, don’t leave.” Xia Leyang looked at the photo in his hand. If he looked closely, he could see a very faint outline beside him. “Maybe because your magical power isn’t strong enough during the day. How about taking it at night?”
The female ghost ignored Xia Leyang and went back to rest in the bathtub.
Suddenly, Xia Leyang felt a bit heartbroken. Although the female ghost talked to him every day, and their interactions were so real, he couldn’t find any evidence of her existence.
Seeing Xia Leyang looking despondent, Shang Tingzhi rubbed his head and asked, “Do you really want to help her that much?”
“Yeah.” Xia Leyang slouched his shoulders. “She’s a good person.”
After thinking for a while, Shang Tingzhi asked, “How about I check which businessmen went to Hong Kong for business back then?”
“Huh?” Xia Leyang suddenly lifted his head to look at Shang Tingzhi. “Are you willing to help?”
Xia Leyang knew that Shang Tingzhi didn’t care at all about the female ghost, treating her as if she didn’t exist. Moreover, Shang Tingzhi himself was someone who didn’t like to meddle in others’ affairs, so Xia Leyang had never thought of asking for Shang Tingzhi’s help.
“Don’t you need any help?” Shang Tingzhi asked.
“No, no.” Xia Leyang grinned, “Thank you, oh, how about I help you tonight…”
Shang Tingzhi was taken aback and quickly waved his hand, “No, thanks.”
Xia Leyang made a disapproving sound, thinking that he was rarely kind, and this fraudster was still unwilling.
In the evening, Xia Leyang took Shang Tingzhi to the bathroom with the instant camera and called the female ghost out.
The female ghost lazily sat on the edge of the bathtub, asking with a lack of enthusiasm, “What now?”
Xia Leyang shook the instant camera in his hand and said to the female ghost, “Let’s see if the results are better at night.”
The female ghost rolled her eyes in disdain, “Just doing useless work.”
But she cooperated by lifting her bangs.
Xia Leyang came to the edge of the bathtub but found it too narrow and not comfortable to sit. So, he negotiated with the female ghost to sit inside the bathtub. The two sat facing each other, the female ghost leaning against the head of the bathtub, and Xia Leyang against the tail.
After setting up the pose, Xia Leyang made an OK gesture to Shang Tingzhi. Shang Tingzhi got the signal, picked up the instant camera, aimed at the two, and pressed the shutter.
With a crisp “click” sound, the bathroom light suddenly flickered. Xia Leyang instinctively looked up, and when he lowered his gaze, he saw that only he was sitting in the bathtub, and the female ghost had disappeared.
“Where is she?” Xia Leyang stepped out of the bathtub, looked around, but somehow, the female ghost had vanished. He walked over to Shang Tingzhi and asked, “How’s the photo?”
Shang Tingzhi, with a furrowed brow, looked at the photo in his hand and said in a low voice, “Take a look for yourself.”
The colors on the photo paper gradually became clear, and Xia Leyang stared at the photo, holding his breath in shock.
The bathtub was still the same, but the surroundings were different from the current scene, clearly a past image. Xia Leyang sat in the bathtub, smiling brightly at the camera, but all around him was blood, and across from him…
The female ghost’s head rested on the edge of the bathtub, her face devoid of color, hollow eyes staring at the camera, her hair soaked with blood falling outside the bathtub. Below her hair was a small knife stained with blood.
“Is this the scene of her death?” Xia Leyang asked, terrified and stuttering.
“It seems so,” Shang Tingzhi lifted his gaze from the photo, calmly surveying the surroundings.
“Then where is she?”
Xia Leyang looked around, calling, “Sister Ghost?”
A low murmur came from the corner of the bathtub, and the figure of the female ghost gradually emerged. She looked at the bathtub absentmindedly, then looked up at Xia Leyang and said, “Did you get the shot?”
“Uh…” Xia Leyang glanced at the photo in Shang Tingzhi’s hand, but strangely, the figure of the female ghost disappeared from the photo. The scene remained the current one, with only him sitting in the bathtub.
Xia Leyang swallowed and said, “Still didn’t capture you.”
The female ghost sat in the bathtub, silent. Xia Leyang thought she felt disappointed and was about to say something comforting when the female ghost suddenly spoke slowly, “I remember something.”
Xia Leyang asked, “What is it?”
The female ghost said, “I don’t think I committed suicide.”
Xia Leyang was startled and stammered, “S-someone killed you?”
The female ghost nodded gloomily.
Xia Leyang asked again, “Do you remember who did it?”
This time, the female ghost shook her head.
Xia Leyang took a sharp breath and looked at Shang Tingzhi, asking, “What do we do?”
Shang Tingzhi couldn’t hear the female ghost’s voice, but from Xia Leyang’s words, he guessed most of their conversation. He said, “She was murdered?”
Xia Leyang nodded, trembling.
“Go see Xu Zhiruo tomorrow,” Shang Tingzhi suggested. “Does she remember who the murderer is?”
“I don’t remember,” Xia Leyang said.
Shang Tingzhi sighed and comforted the nervous Xia Leyang, saying, “Don’t worry, we can let the police investigate.”
It was the first time Xia Leyang had encountered such a situation, and even though Shang Tingzhi kept comforting him, he couldn’t calm down. He tossed and turned in bed until midnight.
Shang Tingzhi was disturbed by the movement beside him and pushed Xia Leyang into his arms. However, after a few minutes of compliance, Xia Leyang swiftly uncovered the blanket, got up, and turned on the bedside lamp.
“Yangyang?” Shang Tingzhi, squinting against the sudden brightness, looked at Xia Leyang who was opening an iPad.
Xia Leyang, with a serious expression, picked up a stylus and started writing and drawing on the iPad. “I can’t just wait like this.”
Shang Tingzhi sighed, “Let’s go to the police tomorrow.”
“We don’t know how long it will take to go through the archives.” Xia Leyang, staring at the screen, said, “I’ll draw the female ghost first, show it to Wang Zuyu, and maybe we can quickly identify her.”
The soft light from the bedside lamp enveloped Xia Leyang, who was earnestly drawing, like a shimmering golden thread.
Shang Tingzhi was touched by this golden thread, and the more he looked at Xia Leyang, the more adorable he seemed.
He acknowledged that he wasn’t a saint and didn’t possess the noble qualities of bravery and heroism. But Xia Leyang was different. Despite being a troublesome spirit most of the time, he had a kind heart and was willing to help others.
Thinking of this, Shang Tingzhi sat up and asked gently, “Do you still enjoy drawing?”
Xia Leyang’s stylus moved rapidly, and he slightly furrowed his brow, saying, “Anyone can draw.”
At this moment, Shang Tingzhi had already sat up, and his gaze fell on Xia Leyang’s screen.
Looking at the somewhat crude doodle on the screen, he pursed his lips, and with empty eyes, he lay back down.
Well, this little troublemaker wasn’t causing any more trouble for now, and that was something to be thankful for.
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