After discussing, Si Nan went downstairs to get some food for dinner. Following Si Xuanyang’s instructions, he grabbed a handful of various candies from the candy jar in the living room before returning to Yu Sen’s room.

After sweating a bit while sleeping, Yu Sen felt dry and parched. He carefully selected a cup of hot orange juice and took a small sip.

The rim of the cup was somewhat hot, warming his lips to a rosy glow, making them look particularly enticing.

Taking advantage of Si Nan and Luo Yu’s conversation and their lack of attention, Si Xuanyang sneakily kissed him.

As he pulled away, he smacked his lips and whispered, “So sweet, it tastes like orange.”

Yu Sen widened his eyes and glared at him, his face flushing slightly. He glanced at Si Nan and Luo Yu, who hadn’t noticed anything, feeling both stifled and frustrated. He hated that he couldn’t speak right now and, after struggling for a while, couldn’t utter a single word, resembling a maiden from ancient times who had been teased by a flirtatious young master.

Thinking of that image, even he couldn’t help but shiver. The orange juice in his cup swayed, almost spilling out.

“Why can’t you even hold a cup properly?” Si Xuanyang calmly took the cup from his hand and picked up a silver fork. “It’s so light, and you can’t even hold it? Are you doing it on purpose? Do you just want me to feed you? Tsk! So delicate… really, there’s nothing I can do with you. Come on, what do you want to eat? Just point.”

Yu Sen: “???”

Look at this shameless scoundrel, pretending to be innocent!

At this moment, Yu Sen felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his heart, kicking up a storm of dust that clouded his eyes, making everything appear blurry.

Oh, he was about to faint from anger!

“Eek—sigh!”

After Yu Sen angrily muttered, Si Nan, startled by the sound, finally turned his attention to them. “What’s going on, what’s going on? What was that noise? Are you summoning a spirit?”

Yu Sen: “…”

“Nothing,” Si Xuanyang calmly lifted the cup to indicate, “He’s acting cute, wanting me to feed him. You don’t need to worry.”

“Tsk tsk tsk… I’m full just watching this. Even if you’re dating, don’t spoil him too much. Yu Ge’s hands aren’t hurt, after all.” Si Nan and Luo Yu exchanged complicated glances, then turned away in unison.

Yu Sen: “…”

Amazing, Si Xuanyang! You can lie with your eyes wide open now!?

Yu Sen stared at him in disbelief, unable to comprehend that this person was actually slandering him when he couldn’t speak!

And the worst part is, that fool Si Nan actually believed him?

After all these years of knowing him, doesn’t Si Nan realize that being cute or asking to be fed are things he would never do!? Si Nan, could you at least be a bit suspicious?

As expected, the Si family members were all obstacles on his path to self-cultivation and serenity!

Yu Sen was forcefully fed dinner by Si Xuanyang, like a hostage. He ate the meal with no hope of escape, no way to resist, teary-eyed and unable to express his grievances…

After eating, there was no trace of daylight outside, and the streetlights cast a dim, eerie dark orange glow on the streets.

Snowflakes began to fall, swirling down slowly.

…

There was a faint noise in the hallway.

Si Xuanyang made a gesture, and the four of them instantly fell silent.

The room was completely quiet, and the sounds outside became more pronounced, like the irregular steps of someone wearing leather shoes, sometimes bouncing, sometimes tiptoeing lightly, playful yet erratic.

It sounded like the little ghosts asking for candy had arrived.

But contrary to their expectations, the child’s footsteps passed by their door without stopping and continued forward.

Soon after, there was a knock on the door a few rooms away.

Before they could relax, a similar sound suddenly echoed right outside their door.

Si Xuanyang was slightly startled, as it seemed he hadn’t heard any footsteps stop at their door.

He opened the door and looked down slightly.

Standing at the door was a small child, wearing a wizard’s pointed hat and a wizard’s robe, with a palm-sized black cat with mismatched eyes perched on his shoulder, its eyes unnervingly sinister.

The child’s face was heavily made up, seemingly covered in thick powder, appearing ghostly pale under the light. His face had a twisted grin that didn’t reach his eyes, revealing blood-red gums.

When the child looked up and saw Si Xuanyang, a hint of surprise flickered through his eerily dark eyes, and his mocking expression faded. He frowned, held out his hand, and spoke in a voice that was not at all like a child’s clear tone, but rather rough and hoarse with age.

“Even if you’re a demon, you still have to give candy today.”

It seemed that this demon costume really provided a lot of advantages. Si Xuanyang raised an eyebrow and took out a Halloween candy: “Is one enough?”

“… It’s usually not enough,” the child stared at the candy in his hand, looking reluctant, “but if it’s from a demon’s room, one will do.”

Si Xuanyang mentally whistled in delight and tossed the candy to him. “Don’t push yourself. Take it and go, there are plenty more rooms you can knock on.”

“No way! I can only knock on five doors, and I had the bad luck to run into you…”

The child caught the candy and put it in his basket, then turned and walked deeper into the hallway. His voice grew louder and more eerie, echoing through each room, chilling everyone to the bone.

“Trick or treat, trick or treat…”

Si Xuanyang slammed the door shut with a bang.

Turning around, he saw Yu Sen sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing the red and blue-lensed Western glasses, with a strange expression as he stared at the door.

“What’s wrong?” He quickly walked over, and after holding Yu Sen’s hand, he felt a layer of fine sweat and an icy chill seeping from the other’s palm.

“Feeling unwell?” Si Xuanyang’s brow furrowed.

Yu Sen squinted for a moment, then took off the glasses and shook his head as he handed them over.

Si Xuanyang was slightly stunned. Taking the glasses, he asked, “After putting these on, did the child’s figure you saw look different from what we saw?”

Yu Sen nodded lightly.

What he had just seen was not a child dressed as a wizard, but a tragic and horrifying ghost.

The ghost was rotting, with a corpse’s stench rising, flesh rotting off the bones. Where the eyes should have been were only two pitch-black holes. Gazing into those dark voids, his body couldn’t stop shivering with cold.

“But the people we saw on the street during the day were all the same,” Luo Yu said, puzzled. “Does it change only now?”

Si Nan took the glasses from Si Xuanyang and said, “Let me take a look.”

He put on the glasses, walked to the window, and after a few seconds, suddenly exclaimed in shock, stumbling back, hurriedly removing the glasses from his nose, and nervously patted his chest, “Damn, that scared me—!”

He threw the glasses to Si Xuanyang, “The place is full of kids, damn, it’s like a ghost parade…”

Si Xuanyang also put them on and looked. The street downstairs was indeed lively. From what he could see, there were two or three dozen oddly dressed kids wandering around, each carrying baskets of candy, and some even had pumpkin lanterns.

However, the difference was that without the glasses, they all looked like normal kids in various costumes. But with the glasses on, some remained unchanged, while others had turned into various kinds of ghosts seemingly crawling out of the eighteenth layer of hell.

They mingled among the normal children, behaving no differently. Without the glasses, it was impossible to distinguish them.

Si Xuanyang turned and asked, “Princess, was that child just now a ghost?”

Yu Sen gave him an annoyed look but nodded.

“That makes sense,” Sui Xuanyang smiled knowingly. “Normal children can be satisfied with regular candy, but for the ghosts and spirits, only Halloween candy will drive them away.”

“If someone finds out too late or forgets, and gives out Halloween candy to everyone, there might not be enough,” Luo Yu counted the number of children downstairs and felt that many people would have a hard time tonight.

And Si Xuanyang hadn’t forgotten the ghost’s words about ‘not enough’ for one piece of candy; these creatures had a big appetite, and if not satisfied, they’d cause trouble that most people couldn’t handle.

But they didn’t have to worry about that in their room.

Yu Sen touched the bandage around his neck and suddenly thought having a lucky boyfriend wasn’t so bad.

The next to knock on their door were a pair of ordinary twins dressed as Frankenstein. They initially acted fierce and intimidating but left sullenly after Si Xuanyang handed them a few milk candies.

When someone knocked again, Si Xuanyang, wearing the glasses, opened the door to find a real ghost with a blood-red mouth. The ghost, seeing him, respectfully greeted him and called him “Master Demon.”

Si Xuanyang partially closed the door, blocking Yu Sen’s view, and asked her, “Do I also need to give you a Halloween candy?”

The ghost hesitated and said, “Yes, it’s a rule today to give out candy. Others would certainly not give just one, but for you, one is sufficient.”

Si Xuanyang coldly smiled and softly said, “Then do me a favor, and I’ll give you four.”

The ghost looked at him in surprise.

Si Xuanyang paused and said, “Although he would die in this world even if I didn’t do anything, I still want to personally decide his fate.”

“Do you want me to help you kill someone?” The ghost smiled. “Though the temptation of four candies is not enough, I’m quite willing to serve you.”

Si Xuanyang took a step forward and whispered, “There’s a room on the first floor, inside…”

…

After hearing the door close, Yu Sen turned his curious gaze to his boyfriend: What did you talk about for so long…?

Si Xuanyang smiled lightly, gently touching Yu Sen’s neck bandage, and said softly, “Don’t worry, dealt with a tougher little ghost, haggled a bit, gave four candies.”

^[1]Author’s Note:

Four candies bought a life.