Chapter 15

Ke Xingzhou and An He Guang both stared at Ke Yuanbai.

This wasn’t the first time Ke Yuanbai had recklessly accused Ke Xingzhou without understanding the situation.

The previous two times, Ke Xingzhou hadn’t said anything, considering that he had held the position of the Ke family’s second young master for over twenty years. This time, he only frowned and turned his gaze away without expression.

He reminded An He Guang, "It's just a thousand. I’m not a loan shark, don’t make a big deal out of it."

An He Guang: "…"

Ke Yuanbai: "…"

An He Guang had originally wanted to question Ke Yuanbai about why he was meddling in other people's business, but with this remark from Ke Xingzhou, he had forgotten all about it. Dazed, he followed Ke Xingzhou’s words and completed the payment with a fingerprint scan.

Seeing this, Ke Yuanbai’s brows furrowed even more tightly.

Unable to stop An He Guang from being deceived, he could only target Ke Xingzhou, dissatisfied, "If you need money, you can tell me. You can't take this money. Return it."

Ke Xingzhou looked at the hand Ke Yuanbai had placed on his wrist, then suddenly raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Ke Yuanbai, already disapproving of Ke Xingzhou’s actions, furrowed his brows even more, "Do my words sound ridiculous to you?"

Ke Xingzhou shook his head and, instead of answering, countered with a question, "Did you sleep well last night? What did that male ghost do to you?"

Ke Yuanbai’s expression shifted slightly, and his gaze toward Ke Xingzhou suddenly became sharp.

Last night, it wasn’t just a simple case of him falling asleep by the roadside. After being chased by the ghost for a long time, a lot of things had happened before he finally passed out on a small road far from the dormitory and filming base.

If it weren’t for someone jogging around the entire base in the morning and happening to find him, he might have really frozen to death out there.

But the fact that he was found and taken to the medical room early in the morning was only known by the doctor, An He Guang, and the contestant who found him. No one else knew about it, let alone the experience he had the previous night.

As a once staunch atheist, he still couldn’t accept that he had actually encountered a ghost, and not just passed out from exhaustion and had a bad dream. Naturally, he couldn’t tell anyone such an embarrassing thing.

How did Ke Xingzhou know he encountered a ghost? And a male ghost at that?

It seemed like Ke Xingzhou didn’t notice his pale face and continued, "He should come find you again tonight. Are you sure you don’t want to sleep a bit during the lunch break? After all... he’s pretty clingy, isn’t he?"

When Ke Yuanbai heard this, his face turned even darker.

An He Guang glanced at Ke Xingzhou, then at Ke Yuanbai, his gaze slowly lowering.

There was no helping it, Ke Xingzhou's words were so intriguing that he couldn't help but let his mind wander.When Ke Yuanbai was sent to the medical room, his face was abnormally flushed, and he occasionally murmured in his sleep. Although An He Guang couldn’t make out what he was saying, it was clear that he was vehemently rejecting someone.

An He Guang originally thought that he had just suffered from frostbite and had a bad dream. Now, after hearing Ke Xingzhou’s words, he began to reconsider…

Ke Yuanbai: "…"

The usually righteous expression on his face cracked, and Ke Yuanbai couldn’t help but snap, "No! We didn’t do anything!"

"Oh—" An He Guang nodded in understanding, his expression becoming even more curious. "So you really did encounter a ghost?"

Ke Yuanbai: "………"

He really wanted to argue, but when his gaze met Ke Xingzhou’s black eyes, which seemed to see through everything, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

Although he didn’t want to believe that anything supernatural existed in this world, and would rather believe that Ke Xingzhou had used some high-tech means to do it, the information Ke Xingzhou had dropped earlier was just too overwhelming. He wasn’t sure how much Ke Xingzhou knew, and for a moment, he felt a little intimidated.

But Ke Xingzhou, who had been silent in front of him earlier, now answered An He Guang’s question for him, "That male ghost didn’t actually do anything too sinister. He approached him simply because he felt they had a lot in common."

Ke Yuanbai was stunned again, staring blankly at Ke Xingzhou.

The phrase "a lot in common" might sound ambiguous to others, but to Ke Yuanbai, it was like a thunderclap. After the male ghost had exhausted him the night before, the first thing he said was exactly that.

As the male ghost had approached him last night, that cold, sticky feeling seemed to linger on his skin, and Ke Xingzhou’s tone when he spoke these words strangely resembled the male ghost’s. In a daze, it felt as if he was seeing the male ghost from last night in Ke Xingzhou.

The image of the man and the ghost, which should have been separate, gradually overlapped in his panicked vision.

Ke Yuanbai suddenly had a flash of realization, as if something clicked in his mind. "Ke Xingzhou! It’s you! That ghost from last night…"

He hadn’t finished speaking before his words came to an abrupt halt.

Because just as the male ghost’s face was about to touch Ke Xingzhou’s, the seemingly unaware Ke Xingzhou suddenly turned his head in the opposite direction. At the same time, he extended his hand and precisely grabbed the male ghost’s neck.

Male ghost: "?"

Ke Yuanbai: "??"

An He Guang froze for a moment, thinking that Ke Xingzhou was just playing around, but then he followed the direction of Ke Xingzhou’s arm and locked eyes with the male ghost, whose seven bleeding holes were clearly visible.

An He Guang: "…"

An He Guang’s scalp went numb. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ghost!!"

He instinctively tried to hide next to Ke Xingzhou, but as the male ghost’s face got closer and closer, he suddenly realized and immediately lunged in the opposite direction.

An He Guang gripped Ke Yuanbai’s shoulders tightly, hiding behind him and screaming desperately, "How can there be a ghost in broad daylight?!"

Ke Xingzhou furrowed his brows slightly and glanced at the male ghost with an expressionless face, applying more pressure with his fingertips.

The male ghost’s already bulging eyes popped out of their sockets, rolling forward and finally stopping, wobbling at An He Guang’s feet.

An He Guang jumped in shock, "Ah, ah, ah, he attacked me! He’s going to kill me!!"

Male ghost: "…"

Ke Yuanbai, who was forced to face the male ghost: "…"In the male ghost's hollow eye sockets, two blood tears silently flowed down: "Hey, buddy, why don’t you open your eyes and take a look?"

Who’s attacking whom here?!

An He Guang squeezed his eyes shut: "Ahhhhh, help!"

Male ghost: "…"

In the end, it was Ke Xingzhou who couldn’t stand it anymore and slapped An He Guang’s forehead: "Shut up. If you attract a few more, you’ll really be dead."

An He Guang almost bit his tongue, but he finally quieted down.

At this point, he no longer had his usual arrogant demeanor. His face was pale with fear, his lips still trembling. He only managed to suppress the urge to scream after hearing Ke Xingzhou say that more ghosts would come if he kept shouting.

He stared wide-eyed: "There are more?! Didn’t they say ghosts can’t be exposed to sunlight?"

Ke Xingzhou gave him a sideways glance: "Who told you that?"

An He Guang stammered: "…It’s what ghost movies say."

"That’s for evil spirits. If they’ve done wicked things, they fear the sun. Ordinary good ghosts aren’t affected. They can sunbathe as long as they like, and it won’t kill them again." After a pause, Ke Xingzhou pointed outside the window. "And who told you it’s sunny right now?"

An He Guang froze.

He instinctively looked toward the corridor window and indeed found that the bright, blinding light had darkened without him noticing.

Not only that, but the heating had also seemed inadequate since earlier. He had been feeling a chill creeping up his back.

An He Guang didn’t dare to think about it any further. He was afraid he would scare himself to death.

Although An He Guang had looked dignified earlier, he had already been terrified senseless by the ghost from yesterday that was only half a body. If it weren’t for the calming charm Ke Xingzhou had left him, he might have already been tortured into a nervous wreck by nightmares.

But even with the calming charm, the shock of encountering a ghost was still too overwhelming for him, a young master who hadn’t suffered much hardship.

Earlier, there were more people around, and with the strong sunlight in the middle of the day, he was able to force himself to forget about those terrifying experiences.

But every time he passed those seemingly ordinary corners with dim lighting, he couldn’t help but shiver, feeling a chill down his back.

The journey to find Ke Xingzhou had taken a lot of mental preparation. Otherwise, how could a privileged young master like him, with powerful connections, have spent so long hesitating at the practice room door?

Caught off guard by another ghost encounter, An He Guang was completely shaken.

Even though the male ghost looked more scared after being grabbed by Ke Xingzhou, with blood tears almost dried up, its tone was filled with grievance: "Wuwuwu… I just heard you talking about me, so I came out to say hello. Why are you guys like this…"

At this moment, Ke Yuanbai finally pulled his collar free from An He Guang’s grip. He hadn’t even stabilized himself when he heard those words, and couldn’t help but look at the male ghost with an expression full of unspoken thoughts.

Say hello… and that’s it?

The male ghost’s crying was so miserable, and if you ignored the blood-soaked face, his actual face wasn’t bad-looking.

An He Guang noticed that the male ghost couldn’t break free from Ke Xingzhou’s grip. After forcing himself to calm down, he strangely didn’t feel as scared anymore.

He keenly picked up on the meaning in the male ghost’s words and elbowed Ke Yuanbai: "Is he the male lead in the spring dream you had last night?"Ke Yuanbai was furious: "He’s not... forget it."

He had just firmly stated that Ke Xingzhou was lying, but now, seeing this scene, his face was practically swollen. What else was there to say?

Spring dream, just a spring dream, he thought despairingly.

Anyway, his experience from yesterday, if he were to tell it, wouldn’t be any better than the version that An He Guang misunderstood.

But he didn’t expect An He Guang to be so nosy. Seeing that he couldn’t get anything from him, he turned to ask the male ghost: "Do male ghosts also need to absorb men’s yang energy?"

The male ghost looked even more terrified than when Ke Yuanbai had first encountered it. Wrapping his arms around his chest, he angrily retorted: "Absorb what yang energy?! We good ghosts can even sunbathe. There’s so much yang energy we can’t absorb, how could we possibly be interested in the tiny bit on you two?! Don’t slander me, okay?!"

An He Guang gasped and turned to Ke Yuanbai: "He’s rejecting you."

Ke Yuanbai: "…"

Ke Xingzhou clicked his tongue in annoyance: "Speak properly."

The male ghost, clearly afraid of him, softened its tone, tears of blood still in its eyes: "We good ghosts don’t absorb the yang energy of the living. Only evil ghosts do that kind of thing. Besides, your yang energy is so low that you’ve already attracted ghosts. If we absorb any more, you’ll meet the King of Hell. It’s better to just swallow your souls directly…"

An He Guang was now even more curious: "So what did you do to him yesterday when you kept bothering him?"

The male ghost, finally released by Ke Xingzhou, hurriedly put his eyeballs back in place. Upon hearing the question, he blinked twice and, in a silly and clear tone, replied: "I had him practice with me!"

"Practice?"

"Yeah, your theme song." The male ghost said with a longing look on his face, "Our leader ghost said that during the first episode’s performance, whoever dances the best can go on stage and show their face. I’ve been observing for a long time before choosing him! Who knew that as soon as he saw me, he ran away, wasting my time chasing him through the night."

Ke Yuanbai: "…"

An He Guang: "…"

Looking at Ke Yuanbai who had silently turned away, An He Guang curiously asked: "Leader ghost?"

What’s that?

Just as he was about to turn and ask Ke Xingzhou, he saw the latter staring emotionlessly at some spot in the void, his dark pupils flashing with a faint golden light.

The entire corridor sank into a deep silence.

An He Guang finally realized something was wrong—

He had just screamed like that, and no one from the staff had come to check on them. Now, after such a long time, not even the crew had come to remind them to continue filming?

Remembering similar scenes from horror movies, An He Guang suddenly shivered, and his face changed instantly.