Mu Bai excitedly pressed against the glass door of the bathroom, watching the towel-clad man push it open. He immediately banished thoughts of "how big" from his mind and scampered towards the bed.
However, today's new target was a bit different from yesterday's.
The man in the towel kept glancing up frequently, as if checking for something.
Mu Bai was completely unaware that he had become a little pervert, now eagerly blowing on the sleep-inducing aromatherapy diffuser on the bedside table.
Watching the little ghost crouched in front of the nightstand, puffing out his cheeks as he blew on the diffuser several times just like yesterday, looking somewhat obedient.
Yan He toweled his hair, frowning slightly as he thought about how the little ghost before him looked youthfully energetic, not very old at all.
That appearance made him seem even younger than his college graduate nephew. How could someone so young already be a perverted ghost?
Matters of the flesh didn't seem to suit such a small ghost either.
But the next second, Yan He watched wide-eyed as the little ghost cheerfully took off his shoes, rolled onto the bed, and turned to look at him with bright, expectant eyes.
Yan He: "..."
He even saw the little ghost pat the bed, as if eagerly waiting for him to get in and sleep together.
The man put down his towel, his expression rather complex.
Half an hour later.
The bedroom was pitch black. The man on the light gray bed slept in a neat posture, just like yesterday, with his hands on his stomach, breathing steadily, eyes closed in slumber.
Mu Bai happily climbed up, gently pressing down on top, content to be a little ghost weighing down the bed.
It had been several hundred years since he'd found a new target who went to bed and woke up early.
Afraid of crushing the person beneath him, he kept muttering, "I'll just press down a little..."
Perhaps because the feeling of being well-fed was so comfortable, before long, the satisfied Mu Bai dozily fell asleep again, completely unaware that he was sleeping as sweetly as last night.
Except tonight, Mu Bai was mindful not to crush the person, even mumbling in his sleep.
At 1 AM.
Yan He vaguely sensed someone muttering beside him.
He opened his eyes to find a little ghost pressing on top of him, softly mumbling "I'll just press down a little" in his sleep, like sleep-talking.
Yan He turned over, intending to turn on the light, but as he did so, the little ghost originally on top of him rolled off the bed.
In the dim moonlight from the window, he saw the fallen ghost immediately open his eyes wide, nervously scrambling up, looking around in confusion and wariness.
He had the appearance of someone not fully awake, hair slightly messy, nervously looking around, like a squirrel whose nuts had been stolen. Seeing no other ghosts, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Yan He: "..."
This little ghost didn't seem very formidable.
Perhaps finding a Taoist master wasn't really necessary.
The little ghost on the floor warily looked east and west for quite a while. Seeing no danger, he groggily climbed back onto the bed, nuzzled the blanket, and continued comfortably pressing down.
Looking at the little ghost soundly sleeping while pinning down a corner of his blanket, Yan He pressed his temple.
Forget it.
Better find a Taoist master after all.
In the evening, as the sunset glowed like rosy clouds.
In the office, the man leaning back in his chair held a pen while speaking on the phone: "Mm, after observing for a few days, that little ghost should be a perverted ghost."
The person on the other end of the phone asked curiously, "How did you determine that little ghost is a perverted one?"
Yan He's eyelid twitched, recalling the little ghost's exclamation that day.
Fortunately, the person on the other end didn't pursue the question further, but sighed and said, "I contacted Master yesterday. Master said he encountered an old friend's request during his travels this time, so it will probably take over three months to return."
"But from what you've described, if that little ghost is indeed a perverted one, it's not too tricky. You have prayer beads for protection, so him absorbing a bit of your essence won't affect you."
"During the day, you can scatter some mung beans inside the house. Ghosts of lust abhor this item, and will naturally avoid it over time."
At this point, Hong Hui on the other end paused, his voice lowering to a somber tone: "You must not take action yourself again."
All karmic retribution arises from one's actions.
Yan He already had an extremely yin constitution. Evil ghosts also belonged to the underworld's jurisdiction. The more evil ghosts he destroyed, the heavier the karmic debt on his body would become, making it easy to stray onto the wrong path.
The man leaning back in his chair with half-closed eyes said nothing, half his face hidden in shadow, the line of his jaw sharp, his expression showing a hint of coldness.
Hong Hui on the other end seemed to think of something, and added another worried reminder: "Although scattering mung beans can make that little ghost retreat, the King of Hell is easy to avoid, but little ghosts are hard to get rid of."
"These days you still need to pay close attention to that little ghost's actions, in case he tries any underhanded tricks."
Recalling the little ghost who could roll off the bed just from him turning over a few nights ago, Yan He fell silent.
What underhanded tricks could that little ghost have?
At most, he'd just climb onto the bed and steal the blanket.
Though thinking this, Yan He still carelessly agreed.
Around 8 PM.
A detached villa on Huanshan Road in downtown Jin City.
The little ghost in gray robes carefully floated up to the window sill, poked his head out, and very skillfully climbed through the window into the bedroom.
Mu Bai first wandered around the bedroom in a circle, satisfied to find no scent of other ghosts in the room besides himself. He then rolled up his sleeves and floated onto the light gray bed, beginning to make it vigorously.
After finishing everything, Mu Bai wandered to the bathroom, pressing against the glass door and poking his head out expectantly, only to find the bathroom empty.
Mu Bai was stunned. He craned his neck to search the entire bathroom, but couldn't find any trace of the man.
After searching inside and out, Mu Bai finally found his new target in the lit study.
The study was large but simply furnished. Wooden bookshelves were embedded in the walls. A man leaned against a heavy dark-colored chair, wearing loungewear, his skin very fair. He rested his chin on one hand, eyes slightly lowered, his expression unclear.
Several printed documents and a ballpoint pen were scattered on the desk. The open laptop screen was filled with dense text.
The man leaned back slightly in his chair, revealing handsome brows and eyes. His black pupils were long and narrow, his nose bridge high and straight, his gaze towards the laptop screen indifferent.
It was an extremely handsome face.
Through the soft fabric of his loungewear, one could vaguely glimpse the exceptionally long and sturdy body it wrapped. Whether shoulders or waist, the proportions were flawless.
Mu Bai sat on the doorframe of the open study door, swinging his legs as he waited for his new target to finish work and go to sleep.
At first, he waited very seriously, but after supporting himself on the doorframe with both hands and yawning several times, he still hadn't seen his new target in the chair move an inch.
His new target would either write something on paper or look at the silver box, but just wouldn't go to sleep.
Mu Bai jumped down from the doorframe. He leaned on the desk, tilting his head to poke at the scattered documents, muttering to himself, "So many..."
After a while, the little ghost secretly extended one finger, pressing down on a document, slowly dragging it to the edge of the desk.
The man was still looking down at the documents in his hands, not raising his head.
Mu Bai blinked mischievously, stealthily stuffing the document from the desk edge into his arms.
This continued repeatedly.
Like a squirrel stealing nuts to store in its tree hollow, after a while, the man at the desk finally noticed something amiss.
Several documents on the desktop had suddenly disappeared, as if vanishing into thin air.
Yan He, leaning back in his chair, paused in the act of reaching for a document. Looking up, he saw the little ghost's head poking out from the desk, only a pair of dark, sly eyes visible.
Yan He set aside the document in his hand and unhurriedly printed several new copies.
Sure enough, the little ghost who had just been as sly as a fox now stared blankly at the printer spitting out new documents endlessly.
He floated up, bringing his head close to the printer, not understanding why this big machine kept producing new documents.
A while later, the new documents lay quietly on the desk, neatly stapled together by the man with a stapler.
The desk was quiet for a period of time, but before long, a black ballpoint pen was secretly rolling under the push of two fingers.
The black pen was somewhat heavy. Under the push of two fingers, it rolled along until it disappeared.
The little ghost under the desk lowered his head to stuff the pen into his pocket, feeling very pleased.
Little did he know this scene was witnessed by the working man.
The little ghost sat on the edge of the desk swinging his legs, the stolen black pen stuffed in his pocket, looking slyly at him.
He watched as the man stared at the desk for a long time, slightly raising an eyebrow, his half-curved finger joints lightly tapping the desktop, as if deep in thought.
Was he going to bed?
Mu Bai tilted his head and licked his lips.
To his surprise, the man merely looked up and calmly opened a drawer.
Curious, Mu Bai peeked in and saw that the drawer was filled with neatly arranged black gel pens.
Mu Bai: "..."
He watched helplessly as Yan He took out a new black gel pen and continued to write and scribble on the documents, seemingly casually holding onto the pen without putting it down.
Finally, he even leisurely took out a stapler and began binding the scattered documents on the desk.
Mu Bai: "..."
He held his breath, circling the man twice, only to find that there was nothing left on the desk to steal.
Mu Bai jumped off the desk and dashed to the living room, pulling out his tamed mount - the robot vacuum cleaner he had befriended in the past couple of days.
For the past two nights, the robot vacuum had been cleaning up green beans scattered all over the house. Mu Bai had already tamed it and led it to conquer and patrol the entire house.
The robot vacuum was round-headed. Sitting atop it, Mu Bai imperiously tapped the buttons on its head a few times.
The robot vacuum emitted a soft hum, its lights turning on as it carried the little ghost, bravely heading towards the study.
Two minutes later.
Yan He, who was lowering his head to read some materials, furrowed his brows slightly.
He turned his head to look at the buzzing robot vacuum bumping around the study, now repeatedly hitting his slippers with its head.
It seemed to be expressing some sort of dissatisfaction.
The little ghost sat cross-legged on top of the vacuum, looking at him with a serious expression.
After a moment of silence, Yan He finally stood up—
Mu Bai's eyes lit up, only to see the man bend down to pick up the robot vacuum and carry it out of the study. He pressed the power button before returning to the study.
Carried out, Mu Bai sat cross-legged on his mount. He puffed up his cheeks and pressed the power button with a "pop". The round-headed robot vacuum lit up again, continuing its valiant march towards the study.
A minute later, the entire study was filled with the robot vacuum's wails.
—"Please clean the roller!"
—"Please clean the roller!"
Yan He looked at the robot vacuum that was running around despite being turned off, watching it yammer and crash about.
Mu Bai sat cross-legged on top of the robot vacuum, seriously tapping the buttons over and over. Each tap made the vacuum cry out once more.
Yan He closed his laptop.
The robot vacuum bouncing all over the room seemed to cheer up. It stopped its noisy cries and buzzed over to Yan He's slippers, gently bumping against them.
It looked quite well-behaved now, no longer malfunctioning.
But as soon as Yan He opened his laptop, the little ghost would seriously direct the robot vacuum to bump his slippers with its head.
It was quite lawless.
Yan He raised an eyebrow slightly, leisurely looking at the little ghost riding atop the robot vacuum.
Seeing the man close his laptop and stand up, Mu Bai jumped off his "mount" that had been carrying him on a rampage. He circled Yan He happily a couple of times, thinking that the man was finally going to take a shower and go to bed.
But the next second, he watched as the man bent down and dismantled his mount, not even sparing the back panel. With a calm expression, he even removed the battery from his mount's rear.
Mu Bai: "!!!"
Yan He even sorted the removed batteries, and after standing up, he leisurely threw them into the trash bin labeled as non-recyclable.
His mount!
The mount that had fought alongside him to conquer the entire house!
The little ghost haunting the bed was heartbroken. With a wail, he rushed towards his beloved mount.