Chapter 9: Fierce Ghost, Fierce Ghost, What Time Is It (Part 9)

◎ Sleeping Together With The Little Wildflower ◎

The rainy night continued.

Heavy footsteps sounded in the darkness.

Because of the rain, the slender ghost came back later than usual today.

Building 18 appeared especially quiet.

If he had raised a child, he might have known a rule. When a child is quiet, they must be up to mischief.

The slender ghost did not find Yu Qing’s figure in the hall.

Was she eaten by a resentful spirit?

The ghost hand lifted the miscellaneous items and rummaged around, finding a tied live chicken and a big iron pot.

But soon, he saw the writing on the wall.

Because one side of the wall was already full, Yu Qing switched to another side to write. Seeing the familiar “I beg you” as the beginning, the slender ghost instantly had a very ominous feeling.

Wait a minute, it seemed like his home had been broken into.

…

Having directly entered the ghost’s lair and moved into his base without realizing it, Yu Qing was completely unaware of what she had done. She did not fall asleep early. Instead, she wrung out her jacket and hung it by the window, nervously waiting for the ghost to return home.

She had already decided that if he got angry and did not allow her to stay next door, she would obediently return downstairs to stay.

Midnight arrived. Through a door, Yu Qing heard the familiar heavy footsteps approaching from the corridor and stopping aggressively at her door.

The slender ghost was coming to pick her up and throw her out.

Death was a long sleep. The slender ghost spent most of his time sleeping. Disturbing the sleep of the dead was very impolite. Because of his presence, no resentful spirit dared to step into that dense forest. Even birds and insects disappeared. The same applied to this Building 18. Allowing Yu Qing to live downstairs was already an exception.

He planned to pick up this overreaching living human and throw her out of Building 18.

But just as he was about to turn the doorknob, the slender ghost stopped.

Living humans are very fragile. A storm can make them die.

And if Yu Qing dies…

She will turn into a resentful spirit, staying in this haunted place forever and ever, haunting him.

Today, “I beg you”. Tomorrow, “pardon me for intruding.”

The slender ghost swiftly withdrew his hand.

He instinctively ignored the option of “eating her.”

However, tonight’s wind and rain were indeed too heavy, pattering against the windows, making the ghost restless and irritable.

Damn rain.

…

Yu Qing had been holding her breath, listening to the movements outside.

She heard the footsteps outside the door leaving, and the next-door room’s door opening.

She softly said, “Thank you for taking me in.”

There was no response from the next door.

But the ghost neighbor probably tacitly approved.

Yu Qing came to the window and touched her damp jacket. She certainly could not sleep with it tonight. Luckily, the room was still warm. Yu Qing gradually relaxed. Fatigue and drowsiness swept over her. She found a corner and sat down.

There was no light outside the window on this rainy night. She did not notice that a patch of black ghostly shadow was gradually appearing on the floor. Like flowing water, it spread throughout the entire 18th floor.

In order to make space for Yu Qing, when passing by her, the ghostly shadow had to curve in an “S” shape at her feet.

Luckily, Yu Qing was small and did not take up much space.

Yu Qing soon fell asleep. She slept well and made no noise all night to disturb the ghost neighbor next door.

But a living person’s breathing was the greatest disturbance.

When she breathed, it brought a slight airflow. The slender ghost had to slowly move away from the warm airflow she exhaled. But a living person’s breathing had sound, even, slight, but steady.

The slender ghost instinctively began to count her breaths.

Sleeping Yu Qing had no idea what a horrifying scene this was. She was almost surrounded by that patch of ghostly shadow. From a distance, it looked as if she was being held in the arms of a monster.

The rain outside the window kept falling.

Ten thousand one, ten thousand two…

Tomorrow, when the rain stops, I must throw her out.

The tenth day, it rained.

To thank the ghost neighbor for kindly taking her in, Yu Qing got up early and cleaned the 18th floor.

The ghost neighbor next door had already left. The door was tightly closed.

On his windowsill was an old vase. It looked aged and had a chipped edge. In the vase was a long-dead, blackened rose stem. No one knew how long it had been there. The petals had all fallen.

Cleaning was not tiring, but climbing down 18 floors almost cost Yu Qing half her life.

If only this building could have electricity, so the elevator could be used during the day.

Yu Qing thought about it and planned to get up before dawn tomorrow, so she could use the elevator to go down.

The rain stopped for a while in the morning. Yu Qing took the hungry chicken out for a walk.

Suddenly, under a big tree, she saw a cluster of small white wildflowers. As if they had sprung up overnight after the rain, they were still covered with fresh dew.

Yu Qing thought for a moment and picked a handful of small wildflowers.

At night, the rain grew heavier.

When the slender ghost came back, he again saw the familiar “I beg you” on the wall.

Taking her in for one night was already out of ghostly principle.

The slender ghost, who had not slept well all night, went upstairs aggressively.

Today he must throw her out.

The slender ghost stretched out his ghost hand, intending to open room 445’s door and drag Yu Qing out.

But suddenly, he saw on the windowsill that the withered rose stem had been replaced by a bunch of unknown small white wildflowers.

The small wildflowers swayed in the night wind.

“…”

The slender ghost leaned closer.

The black ghost hand stopped in front of the small wildflowers.

In the end, he only lightly stroked the shadow of the small wildflowers.

Forget it. The rain will stop soon.

But the slender ghost did not know that in the world of living humans, the outcome of kindly taking in a little stray kitten drenched in rain was very terrible. One would become a kind of willing, proactive servant.

Eleventh day, still raining.

Seeing that the rain would not stop anytime soon, the downstairs had already turned into a damp swamp. Going back to live downstairs was impossible.

Curled up in a corner, her limbs numb from sleep, Yu Qing woke up before dawn. She planned to go downstairs and move that temporary bed up, but because it had been left downstairs too long and soaked in water, green mushrooms had already grown on the bedboard.

Yu Qing remembered something. That day when she went up floor by floor, she had seen a small bed still in good condition on the second floor.

Before dawn, Yu Qing went to the second floor, dragged the small bed into the elevator, and returned to room 445.

Having a small room was much better than sleeping in the open air in the hall. Since going out would easily get her clothes wet, Yu Qing spent her days inside the building, boiling water, cooking meals, oand nly going out to walk the chicken when the rain stopped.

Yu Qing did not know that she slept with the ghost every night.

In her eyes, she was only temporarily living next door to the ghost.

No matter how rich her imagination, she could not imagine that every night a patch of ghostly shadow slept right beside her head.

Maybe because she had a bed now and her jacket was dry, as soon as it got dark, Yu Qing went to bed and slept very soundly.

…

The slender ghost came back.

A gloomy gaze swept from Yu Qing’s head to the foot of the bed.

Yu Qing alone was fine, but with an added bed, it took up a lot of space.

The slender ghost stared at her gloomily for a while. The ghost hand stretched out, claws bared, toward the sleeping Yu Qing, ready to lift her from the bed and throw this space-taking small bed out of the 18th floor.

In her sleep, Yu Qing vaguely seemed to hear something roaring darkly. Something above her head was waving its claws wildly.

Startled, Yu Qing drowsily climbed out of bed. Barefoot, she reached out in the darkness and groped around.

The slender ghost waving its claws above Yu Qing’s head swiftly retreated.

Yu Qing circled around the bed once, softly muttering, “What is this thing?”

However, it was too dark around. Yu Qing could not see anything. When Yu Qing was in university, a cat had once entered the dormitory at night. It also made such rustling sounds. It was probably here to hide from the rain.

She groped forward one step in the dark. The slender ghost retreated a little. Very soon, Yu Qing arrived at the corner where the sound came from. She leaned close to the slender ghost in the darkness and muttered, “Strange, the sound clearly came from here.”

In the darkness, the tall figure of the slender ghostly shadow was thus forced into the cramped corner, pressed against the wall.

Her face and breath were so close.

Lips like fresh flowers were right in front.

The faceless slender ghost slowly shrank up to the ceiling.

Fortunately, Yu Qing remembered that next door lived a ghost neighbor who could not be disturbed. After touching the cold wall, she soon lightened her steps and returned to her small bed to sleep.

The slender ghost slowly crawled down from the wall.

After waiting for a long while to make sure Yu Qing made no movement and would not suddenly approach again, he turned back into a patch of ghostly shadow.

However, for the entire following night, no ghost tried to throw away Yu Qing’s small bed again.

In fact, the breathing sound of a living person was not that harsh. Instead, that kind of long and gentle rhythm would slowly bring a drowsy feeling.

One thousand one, one thousand two.

On this silent rainy night, there were no other sounds.

…

The twelfth day.

When going downstairs to walk the chicken, Yu Qing found an egg in the corner of the hall.

It was simply a historic egg, moving toward the great egg of ample food and warm clothing.

She excitedly ran to that wall and left a message.

“Thank you. I have some good news to share with you. The chicken I raised laid an egg today. The first egg is for you. You can make egg drop soup with it. It is very delicious. Thank you again for taking me in.”

Today there was no rain. When the slender ghost came back, his footsteps were light and eager.

Hehehe, he could throw her out.

But he soon noticed the miserable state in the hall, with water all over the floor. Obviously, a living person would die after sleeping here for one night. The happy slender ghost slowly put away his ferocious smile. Suddenly, he had an ominous feeling about continuing to cohabit with Yu Qing.

However, the fifteen days would soon be up.

Endure it. Just endure it.

The slender ghost walked with heavy steps to the side of that wall.

He saw Yu Qing’s message and looked at the egg on the ground.

This was a weak and fragile life.

The slender ghost stretched out a ghost hand.

Viciously shook the egg yolk up and down evenly.

A weak and fragile life thus perished.

…

The difference between a living person and a ghost was that the places they lived in would leave many traces.

Yu Qing tied a long rope to a nail on the window and hung clothes above the slender ghost’s head.

Every night when coming back, the slender ghost had to bend down.

Most of the time, it was that bright yellow jacket. Occasionally, it was one or two small, close-fitting garments.

Such small clothes, how could a living person wear them? So strange.

Moreover, each time when drying clothes, Yu Qing would sneak around and look left and right.

The slender ghost curiously looked at her.

The window was opened and Yu Qing poked her head out to see if the ghost neighbor was there.

The slender ghost immediately vanished.

Staying in such a place, it was hard to maintain an accurate sense of time. When it did not rain, sunrise and sunset could still distinguish between day and night. After the rain, the sky was always gray and even this boundary became blurred.

Occasionally, Yu Qing would forget how many days she had been in this haunted place. Twenty days? Fifteen days?

To prevent herself from forgetting the date, after moving to the 18th floor, Yu Qing began carving tally marks next to her door to record time.

But after she fell asleep, a slender ghost would come close.

Yu Qing suspiciously looked at the extra stroke added to the tally marks by the door.

Could it be that she was already imprisoned in this haunted place to the point of memory decline?

Yu Qing became suspicious of the ghost neighbor next door, but she had no evidence.

She changed to using Arabic numerals.

On the morning of the thirteenth day, Yu Qing got up and saw

There was a “1” added in front of the “4”.

Yu Qing: “…”

When getting up early, Yu Qing really liked to lean on the windowsill and watch the rain, watching the misty rain curtain in the morning.

If the slender ghost had not yet returned to the dense forest, he would come over to watch with her.

What was so interesting about watching the rain?

The slender ghost often wondered.

Clearly, they were two watching the rain together, but on the ground, there would often only be Yu Qing’s damp footprints.

Because the slender ghost usually hung down from the ceiling.

…

Thus, the rain kept falling.

The dull window of the slender ghost gradually became bright and clean. In this world symbolizing death, the bright yellow jacket swayed while drying. Below it, a small bunch of white wildflowers poked out, swaying in the wind.